Telicity and quantity Characteristics of Identifying Situation Type

13 Examples : 13 Instanteneous : We reached the summit. It means that they got the summit by doing the action to reach it. 14 culmination phase : We found a solution It means that they find the solution of the problem and have no conceivable time. Achievements rarely combine with the pogressive aspect, as they designate very short, instantaneous situations, which do not allow a continuous interpretation.

2.5 Characteristics of Identifying Situation Type

We can find some criteria of determining situation type according to Novakov 2005:26-27, they are as follows :

2.5.1 Telicity and quantity

In linguistics, the aspectual property of a verb phrase 0r of the sentence as a whole which indicates that an action or event has a clear endpoint. Also known as telicity or aspectual boundedness. Dahl, O 1985: 97 states that telicity is the distinction between telic and atelic. Telic is a word from Greek, telos that means goal. It means that telic refers to those processes which are seen as having a natural completion. Telic verbs are also sometimes called resultative, processes which are viewed as having a final point of completion or our attention is directed to this end of the process or Telic verb or ver phrase is a verb that presents a complete action. Atelic refers to those precesses which is no having the completion. 14 Telic and atelic – these refers to situations which have an internal structure consisting of a process leading up to the terminal point and the terminal point telic, versus situations which do not have an inherent endpoint atelic. In this semantic distinction, it is particularly clear that situations are not described by verbs alone, but rather by the verb with its arguments subject and objects, and it is in fact difficult to find sentences that are unambiguously telic or atelic. The telic nature of a situation can often be tested os follows Comrie 1976 : 44-45: “if a sentence referring to this situation in a form with imperfective meaning such as the English Progressive implies the sentence reffering to the same situation in a form with perfective meaning such as the English Perfect, then the situation is atelic; otherwise it is telic. Thus from John is singing one can deduce John has sing, but from John is making a chair one can not deduce John has made a chair. Thus a telic situation is one that invilves a process that leads up to a awell-defined terminal point, beyond which the process cannot continue. Quantity is the spesific goal of making a process. atelic + quantified telic to draw a circle atelic + unquantified atelic to drink beer telic + quantified telic to splint trunks telic + unquantified atelic to splint wood 15

2.5.2 Static