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ACTION AND ASPECT IN ENGLISH VERB EXPRESSIONS
Author(s) -
King Harold V.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1970.tb00041.x
Subject(s) - linguistics , categorization , verb , action (physics) , feature (linguistics) , subject (documents) , event (particle physics) , computer science , modal verb , psychology , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , library science
It is well known that some English verbs and expansions thereof name states rather than events or processes. It is also known that linked to the inherent durative aspect of stative verbs there is another, nonaspectual, feature: such verbs are not used with an active (agential) subject. However, we must not conclude from this that nonstative verbs necessarily name activities. It is easy to find examples of events and processes which are not activities. The co‐occurrence restrictions which define aspectual categories such as event or process are quite distinct from those which lead to the activity‐nonactivity categorization. The system must include both dimensions.