The primacy of aspect hypothesis and telicity: a double case study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-4301.2019.2.32465Keywords:
Aspect. Telicity. Primacy of aspect hypothesis. Aspectual compositionality. Language acquisition.Abstract
This paper debates the linguistic representation of aspect based on a double language acquisition study case with data on the association of lexical
and grammatical aspect. Its main objective is to evaluate the primacy of aspect hypothesis, according to which tense-aspect markers are limited to
some lexical aspect classes of verbs. In order to do so, it tests the hypothesis that, in the language acquisition process, the association between lexical
and grammatical aspect is anchored on the relationship between telicity and perfectivity. Based on data analysis, the primacy of aspect hypothesis
could not be completely refuted. However, considering different theoretical proposals on the semantic properties of the VP, we refute the hypothesis
that primacy of aspect is anchored in the relationship between telicity and perfectivity, considering different proposals of semantic aspectual
classification. We also demonstrate through data analysis the appropriateness of the proposal of telicity as being concerned with the internal syntax
of the VP. Finally, we argue that there would be no compositional reading of aspect in the initial stages of language acquisition.
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