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Geometrical concepts at the interface of formal and cognitive verbs: Aktionsart, aspect, and the English progressive.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/05/2007
<mark>Journal</mark>Pragmatics and Cognition
Issue number1
Volume15
Number of pages24
Pages (from-to)91-114
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

The paper has two related aims. One is to outline a proposal for a spatially motivated model of discourse, called Discourse Space Theory. The other is to use this framework to explore, in a relatively formalised way, the spatial basis of the conceptual complexities arising in the uses of the English progressive verb form (be+-ing). The theory utilises an abstract space in three dimensions (time, space and modality). Verb stems are associated with Aktionsart schemas; aspectual forms like the progressive are viewed as operations on these schemas. The proposal is that geometric concepts, specifically coordinate systems and vectors, can provide a motivated formalism for investigating conceptual structures generated by a human discourse processor.

Bibliographic note

RAE_import_type : Journal article RAE_uoa_type : Linguistics