Structuring Events

Structuring Events presents a novel semantic theory of lexical aspect. The first chapter provides an introduction to aspectual classes and aspectual distinctions such as quantization and cumulativity, stages and changes, and telicity and atelicity. Two in-depth case studies of progressive achievements and resultative predication form the basis of a new account of the lexical semantics of accomplishments; this theory is then used in a new analysis of the telic/atelic distinction. Throughout, the emerging theory of aspect is extensively compared with alternative theories, and the book concludes with general reflections on the semantic structure of the lexical aspectual classes. Written accessibly, Structuring Events is an invaluable resource for semanticists or syntacticians interested in the study of verb meanings, as well as for people in the neighboring fields of pragmatics and philosophy of language.