death

[Björn Wiemer]

Dear Dr. Shewmon,
the aspectual properties of "death" words have been investigated in quite a 
variety of languages, especially those distinguishing imperfective : 
perfective aspect. To Frans Plank's comment concerning language comparison 
I would like to add the following publications:

Breu, W.(1996): Komponentenmodell der Interaktion von Lexik und Aspekt. In: 
Girke, W. (Hg.): Slavistische Linguistik 1995. München: Sagner, 37-74. 
(Slavistische Beiträge 342.)
         --> p. 45, on Russian and Romance, in particular Italian

Ikegami, Y. (1981): "Activity"-"Accomplishment"-"Achievement"- A Language 
That Can't Say "I burned it, but it didn't Burn" and One That Can. 
L.A.U.T., Series A, No. 87. Trier.
         --> particularly on Japanese

Lazinski, M., Wiemer, B. (1996): Terminatywnosc jako kategoria 
stopniowalna. Prace Filologiczne 50, 99-126.
         --> for a list (with discussion) of pertinent Polish verbs

Wiemer, B. (2000): Presuppozicii i implikatury v tolkovanijach predelnych 
sobytij i sootnosimych s nimi processov. Nauchno-technicheskaja 
informacija, serija 2, 2000-1, 31-43.
         --> for a more elaborate semantic-pragmatic analysis of relevant 
Russian verbs

Probably you'll find some data also in

Dahl, Ö. (1981): On the definition of the telic-atelic (bounded-unbounded) 
distinction. In: Tedeschi, P.J., Zaenen, A. (eds.): Syntax and Semantics, 
vol. 14: Tense and Aspect. New York etc.: Academic Press, 79-90.

Good luck!

Bjoern Wiemer


At 09:30 07.07.2003 +0200, you wrote:
>Dear Dr. Shewmon,
>
>I have no direct answer to your query about 'death' words, but I'd like to
>draw your attention to a paper forthcoming in LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGY 7-2
>(2003), to come out later this month, which suggests that the event in
>question can be conceptualized differently in different languages/cultures:
>
>Robert Botne
>'To die' across languages: Toward a typology of achievement verbs
>
>
>Abstract
>
>This paper constitutes an essay in comparative lexical semantics and
>typology, comparing DIE verbs in eighteen languages. Crosslinguistically,
>DIE verbs, although referring to the same human event, differ in their
>inherent temporal (i.e., aspectual) phase structure. Primary DIE verbs,
>representative of Vendler's class of achievement verbs, provide not only an
>instructive case study of a single lexical verb, but also an excellent
>exemplar of the class type. It is proposed that the four types of DIE verbs
>identified - acute achievement, inceptive, resultative, and transitional -
>also constitute the potential range of all achievement verbs.
>
>
>Here is Dr. Botne's correspondence address:
>Department of Linguistics, Indiana University, Memorial Hall 322, 1021 E.
>3rd Street, Bloomington, IN 47405; e-mail: botner at indiana.edu
>
>sincerely
>Frans Plank

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Bjoern Wiemer
Universitaet Konstanz
FB Sprachwissenschaft / Slavistik
Postfach 55 60, D 179
D- 78457 Konstanz

tel.: ++49 / 7531 / 88 -2582
fax: ++49 / 7531 / 88 -4007
e-mail: Bjoern.Wiemer at uni-konstanz.de
http://www.uni-konstanz.de/FuF/Philo/Sprachwiss/slavistik/wiemer/index.htm