Actions and the Progressive

コウイ ト シンコウケイ ヒョウゲン

カシワバタ, タツヤ

Kashiwabata, Tatsuya

オオサカ ダイガク ニンゲン カガクブ シャカイガク ニンゲンガク ジンルイガク ケンキュウシツ

英語

進行形

殺害の時間

未完了形のパラドックス

actions

the progressive

the time of a killing

imperfective paradox

The following idea is apparently acceptable: whether or not a given temporal moment falls within the temporal period of an action can be decided by the applicability of the verb describing the action in the progressive form to that moment. This idea is, however, too simple and incorrect. The semantic relations between actions and the progressive is much more complicated than is suggested by this idea. In this paper, regarding implication relations and logical forms, I distinguish three uses of the progressive form of verbs, which are indistinguishable on the surface level .They are: (i) disposition use, which presupposes the existence of a dispositional state of an agent at the time of application; (ii) transitive and accomplishment use, which presupposes the continuance of a specific type of action; (iii) project use, which presupposes the continuance of a rather unspecified type of action. This distinction will give an insight into several important topics in action theory and semantics, including "the time of a killing" and "imperfective paradox”.

英語