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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
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2.5.2 Static
Static is unchanging situation for its duartion. It means that defines the situation just hold for certain times. It is against of dynamic. Static relates to
stative verbs.
a. Stative verbs
Leech, G 1972: 88 stative verbs have undefined duration. They denote states rather than actions. Example of stative verbs are: want, know, have when it
means possesion, think when it means opinion, like, love, hate, need, prefer, agree, sound, hear disagree, wish, look when it mean seem, smell, seem, include.
Examples :
15 I know the truth. It means that someone has possesion about the truth.
16 I like pizaa It means that someone has cognition that shehe likes to eat pizza.
17 It sounds like a great idea. The sentence means that seem like a great idea.
2.5.3 Dynamic Verbs Action Verbs
The opposite of stative is dynamic. Lyons, J 1977: 52 Dynamic verbs action verb is as opposed to a stative verb, a dynamic or action verb shows
continued or progressive action on the part of subject. Examples of dynamic verbs action verbs are: act, build, complete,
design, develop, draw, fix, gather, handle, held, help, improve, interview,
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introduce, justify, listen, lead, meassure, narrate, negotiate, orchestrate, originate, outline, perform, persuade, predict, regulate, record, save, shw, study
target, transform, travel, treat, uncover, use, validate, visualize, widen, write, zap, zoom.
These verbs can be used both in the simple and continous forms.
Examples :
18 Look at her She is acting foolishly. 19 She acts as a teacher in this movie.
20 The company is targeting young customers with this new product. 21 We targeted a new market with that product.
The above sentences means doing some action by using the physic like someone for sentence 18 and 19, and doing some action dynamically for the sentence
20 and 21.
2.5.4 Dynamic and stative
Some verbs can be both action verbs and dynamic verbs depending on their meaning:
1. Be It is usally used as a stative verb-stative.
Be = when it means behave or act, it can be used as an action verb in continuous form – dynamic.
Examples :
22 He is an excellent guitarist.
