Paper short abstract:

An aspectual analysis of psych verbs leads us to a better understanding of the Japanese aspect marker -te i-. The multiple interpretations of -te i- can be explained by means of the type of "boundary", i.e. beginning, beginning=ending or ending, that appears in the denotation of the predicate.

Paper long abstract:

Japanese aspect marker -te i- can yield progressive (e.g. Kare-wa aruiteiru 'He is walking') and perfect (resultative, existential) readings (e.g. Kare-wa shindeiru 'He is dead'). It has been argued that the progressive and the resultative interpretations are drawn from the durativity and the punctuality of the verb the marker is attached to, respectively (Kindaichi 1950). Namely, verbs that can appear in the -te i- form with a progressive interpretation are "durative verbs" (e.g. aruku 'to walk' and tateru 'to build'), which correspond to Vendler's (1967) "activities" and "accomplishments," and verbs that can appear in this form with a resultative reading are "instantaneous verbs" (e.g. tsuku 'to arrive' and shinu 'to die'), which roughly correspond to "achievements." However, this temporal account is often rejected because of the existence of counterexamples. In this talk I argue that the multiple interpretations of -te i- can be explained indeed from an event-semantic perspective, applying the fruits of an aspectual analysis on psych verbs.

Cross-linguistically, there are two classes of psych verbs, Experiencer-Subject verbs and Experiencer-Object verbs. In Japanese, there are two subclasses in the Experiencer-Subject class verbs, i.e. nikumu 'to hate' and yorokobu 'to be/become pleased,' and there are also Experiencer-Object causative counterparts of a subclass of Experiencer-Subject verbs (e.g. yorokobaseru 'to please'). Applying Piñón's (1997) descriptions of achievements as "boundary happenings" and Marín and McNally's (2011) study of Spanish reflexive psych verbs into two aspectually distinct classes, i.e. aburrirse 'to be/become bored' and enfadarse 'to become mad,' I propose that the divisions of psych verbs and the different interpretations of their -te i- forms can be ascribed to which types of boundary, i.e. beginning, beginning=ending or ending, the predicates have in their denotation.

References: Kindaichi, H. 1950. Kokugo doushi no ichi bunrui. Gengo kenkyu, 15, 48-63. Marín, R. and McNally, L. 2011. Inchoativity, change of state, and telicity: Evidence from Spanish reflexive psychological verbs. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 29:1, 1-36. Piñón, C. 1997. Achievements in an event semantics. SALT Vll, 276-293. Vendler, Z. 1967. Linguistics in philosophy.