Hearer’s Real-Time Aspect Recognition in English as a Compositional-Aspect Language vis-à-vis Aspect Recognition in Verbal-Aspect Languages

Abstract

This paper deals with the way the hearer recognizes in real-time speech the aspect of a sentence or clause in English as perfective or imperfective. Due to the compositional effectuation of aspect in English, the aspect (perfective/ imperfective) of an English sentence is explicated through an elaborate interplay between referents of situation-participant NPs and the referent of the verb, plus a possible impact from adverbials. This interplay involves the need for the hearer to wait until the end of a sentence or clause in compositional-aspect languages to identify the aspect of the situation and forms a stark contrast with verbal-aspect languages, where the aspect value of the verb can be clear even from the very beginning of a sentence.