The aim of the present book is to provide an introduction to verbal aspect and related concepts. First, i am going to talk about aspect rather than tense. The aim of comries book is to provide an introduction to verbal aspect and related concepts p. An introduction to the general linguistic study of aspect. The world atlas of language structures martin haspelmath. It is located on the rugged far side of the moon relative to the earth, beyond the western limb. Jun 15, 2006 bernard comrie defines tense as the grammaticalisation of location in time. In this respect it agrees with the traditional approach of e. Bernard comrie is chair of the department of linguistics at the university of southern california. Development of aspect and tense in semitic languages. Polarizing the futurethe development of an aspectual. Comrie crater 440 words exact match in snippet view article comrie is a lunar impact crater. Selected papers from the 1st international conference on maltese linguistics, bremen, 1820 october, 2007.
The used to infinitive construction always refers to the habitual aspect when the infinitive is a nonstative verb. Languages of the world department of computer science. A modern fullfledged grammar of malayalam was however, not attempted until 1997 when asher and kumari. Bernard comrie aspect an introduction to the study of verbal aspect and related problems cambridge textbooks in linguistics free ebook download as pdf file. A careful consideration of its historical development, its uses in discourse, and the crosslinguistic pattern of developing the tense and aspect system indicates that the semantic and grammatical. Finereader worldwide perspectives on arabic linguistics iii papers from the third annual symposium on arabic linguistics bernard comrie mushira eid home worldcat home about worldcat help search search for library items search. This site is like a library, use search box in the widget to get ebook that you want.
In 1977, larsgunnar andersson and i applied for financial support for a largescale project on universal grammar and language typology, with tensemood aspect as one of the fields of research. Why they should be kept apart get access to full text the. Bernard comrie aspect an introduction to the study of verbal. This is the first study of aspect, considered as a general linguistic phenomenon. Supplying such temporal information is one of the roles of aspect. Vintage international vintage books a division of random house, inc. When i started working on incomplete acquisition about ten years ago, bernard was one of the few people who was always willing to hear about the unseemly quirks of heritage languages. Tense bernard comrie, professor of linguistics bernard. His publications include aspect 1976, the russian language since the revolution with gerald stone, 1978, language universais and linguistic typology 1981, languages of the soviet union 1981 and tense 1985. Bernard comrie this was the first book ive ever read thoroughly on verbal aspect, and its crystal clear definitions are very easy to follow. Bernard comrie the overall structure of this book is very similar to aspect. Online shopping from a great selection at books store.
The idea of semelfactive as a category of lexical aspect was first posited by bernard comrie in addition to the more commonly known categories such as verbs of activity, accomplishment, achievement, and state. This book has been quite influential as a standard reference work. Article animacy shifts and resolution of semantic conflicts. The aim of the present book is to provide an introduction to verb al aspect and related concepts.
Topics covered include the relation of tense and aspect, the morphology and the semantics of aspect, and structuralist and philosophical approaches. Some reflections on perfect and passive published on 20 dec 1981 by brill. Free download program bernard comrie aspect lovelyfilecloud. As for his own theoretical premises, he is rather eclectic, freely reinterpreting suggestions by bernard comrie and as far as the actional,i. It differs from most other books on aspect in that it is not concerned with any one particular language, nor with a comparison of various. The world atlas of language structures is a book and cd combination displaying the structural properties of the worlds languages. Tense and aspect in eight languages of cameroon author. Cambridge university press, published 1998, isbn, section 1. Comrie is a specialist in linguistic typology and linguistic universals, and on caucasian languages.
An introduction to the study of verbal aspect and related problems cambridge textbooks in linguistics, by the same author, and thats exactly why i think it is a great textbook. General papers the tense aspect systems of european languages in a typological perspective viewpoint operators in european languages aspect vs. New york bernhard schlink t r a n s l a t e d f r o m t h e g e r m a n. It differs from most other books on aspect in that it is not concerned with any one particular language, nor with a comparison of various individual languages, but rather presents aspect as a part of general linguistic theory. He also provides a sketchy discussion of other works relating to bantu languages p. We here use this term in a fairly narrow sense to refer to the temporal composition, or the completion, of an event see comrie 1976. It is intended for students of individual languages as well as for students of linguistics.
Dr comrie draws his examples particularly from english and the slavonic and romance languages, but also from arabic, chinese, welsh, greek and a variety of. His own work on aspect has been a major inspiration for this study. Download pdf tense free online new books in politics. In this textbook he introduces readers to the range of variation found in tense systems across the languages of the world, bringing together a rich collection of illustrative material that student and specialist alike will find invaluable. Approaches to the typology of word classes edited by petra m. Bernard comrie, university of california, santa barbara. Publication date 1990 topics swahili grammar, swh publisher. An introduction to the study of verbal aspect and related problems. Pdf perspectives on arabic linguistics comrie bernard eid mushira robert ludlum ltd file id f3612bb creator. Summer institute of linguistics and the university of texas at arlington publications in linguistics, 99. Adopting an approach to the subject pioneered by greenberg and others, bernard comrie. A survey of pertinent literature reveals that many studies of aspect in semitic languages do not pay a due attention to the crucial theoretical distinction of perfect and perfectivity. For this reason, relatively limited attention will be paid to explaining basic concepts and surveying earlier work. Anyone who feels dissatisfied with this is referred to bernard comrie s excellent books in the cambridge textbooks in linguistics series see the bibliography.
Dr comrie draws his examples particularly from english and the slavonic and romance languages, but also from arabic, chinese, welsh, greek and a variety of others. A grammar of malayalam 3 from the 1960s researchers in modern linguistics have published in many journals pertinent analyses on various aspects of malayalam grammar. There is frequently a twoterm system of perfective the event is regarded as a whole, without regard for its temporal composition and imperfective focussing on the temporal composition of the event. Pertaining to the nature of aspect in greek the thesis regards the primary aspectual opposition as binary, distinguishing between perfective and imperfective meanings by means of aor and pres forms. Bernard comrie department of linguistics uc santa barbara. Bernard comrie defines tense as the grammaticalisation of location in time. Second edition, revised and expanded, of bernard comrie and gerald stone. An overview aspect is concerned with the way events relate to time. Cambridge textbooks in linguistics, cambridge university press, cambridre etc.
Bernard comrie, stephen anderson tense and aspect in eight languages of. Perspectives on arabic linguistics comrie bernard eid mushira. A professor of law at the university of berlin and a practicing judge, he is also the author of several prizewinning crime novels. Part of the preparation of this book was carried out while i was a research fellow at kings college, cambridge. Tense is aspect in telugu according to comrie 1976, in the languages of the world, time is expressed with tense that relates events, situations with moments of speaking, whereas aspect represents the ways of viewing internal chronological constituency of a situation. He is the author of many publications including aspect and tense, and is editor of studies in language. Bernard comrie, cambridge university press, cambridge.
Tense by bernard comrie cambridge university press. Wolfgang klein a timerelational analysis of russian aspect1 the meaning of the russian perfectiveimperfective opposition is usually characterised in terms such as the situation is seen in its totality vs not in its totality, with a boundary vs. Yucatec maya is a language that has an ergativeabsolutive crossreferencing system that is split on the basis of aspect, but the language as a whole displays mostly nominativeaccusative syntax. Bernard comrie curriculum vitae max planck society.
Animacy shifts and resolution of semantic conflicts. Here i must acknowledge my dependence on and debt to bernard comrie s book on aspect, the standard work on the subject. Comrie is a specialist in linguistic typology and linguistic universals, and. Click download or read online button to get aspect book now. C6 415 7544577 isbn 0521211093 hardback isbn 0 521 290457 paperback transferred to digital reprinting 2001 printed in the united states of america. Department of linguistics university of california, santa barbara santa barbara, ca 931063100, usa. If the inline pdf is not rendering correctly, you can download the pdf file here. Bernard comrie, ray fabri, elizabeth hume, manwel mifsud, thomas stolz, martine vanhove introducing maltese linguistics.
Max planck institute for evolutionary anthropology deutscher platz 6 d04103 leipzig, germany. I am honored to be included in the celebration of bernard comrie s distinguished career. Comrie bernard 1976 aspect an introduction to the study of. Comrie bernard 1976 aspect an introduction to the study of verbal aspect and from business 101 at northern virginia community college. It carefully talks about the meaning of aspect, the perfectiveimperfective distinction, and pretty much everything you might want to know about this topic such as related morphology and combined tense. An introduction to the study of verbal aspect and related problems reprinted with corrections 1978, 1981 cambridge textbooks in linguistics.
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