Abstract
It is argued that two different types of concept are often intermingled in discussions of Aktionsart. The most common type of classification is one of situation types, relating to the potential actualisation of a situation, although some of the definitions have to do with the actual realization of the situation. This distinction, adequately captured by the notions (a)telicity and (un)boundedness (Declerck 1989), is explored and it is shown how NPs, PPs and tense influence a sentence's classification as (un)bounded.
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I wish to thank Prof. Ö. Dahl, Prof. R. Declerck H. Devolder, Prof. J. Lindstedt, R. Vandekerckhove and Prof. E. Vorlat and the two anonymous referees for their comments on an earlier version of this paper.
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Depraetere, I. On the necessity of distinguishing between (un)boundedness and (a)telicity. Linguist Philos 18, 1–19 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00984959
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00984959