Professional Documents
Culture Documents
LV/UB
Graciela Palacio
2012 (revised 2015)
LESSON 7:
STATES VS EVENTS
A state is a situation that holds or exists, without change, for some time. States lack stages
or phases and they are durative. Examples of states are be happy, own a house, have green
eyes, etc. This information can be expressed by means of features, semantic features in this
case, e.g.:
Own a house: [- stages], [+ durative]1
States can also be represented graphically by means of an unbroken line, e.g.:
Events, on the other hand, are dynamic situations. They happen, occur or take place at a
certain time and in a certain place. They dont exist as concrete objects do. They involve
participants. Examples of events are a party, a demonstration, a meeting, a lesson, an
invasion, etc.
WHICH VERBS TEND TO DENOTE STATES?
1. The verb be:
The whale is a mammal. (permanent characteristic) (cf. Spanish: ser)
I am tired. (temporary state) (cf. in Spanish: estar)
2. Verbs of perception such as see, hear, smell, taste, feel when they refer to a situation
which involves no energy or will. Consider the following examples:
I can see somebody at the door.
From here, I can hear the noise of the traffic.
Can you smell something burning?
I can taste the garlic in this stew.
I feel sad.
3. Verbs that express emotions such as like, love, dislike, hate, loathe, detest, hope, want,
etc. These verbs are called modality verbs and they express what is technically called
volition:
I like chocolate.
I want to go to the cinema.
1 Durative is a feature, the + or sign placed before the feature is a value for that feature.
The [+] value indicates that the feature is present, the [] value indicates that the feature is
absent.
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4. Verbs that express knowledge or lack of knowledge such as know, believe, think, expect,
seem, find, etc. These verbs are another type of modality verbs and they express
cognition:
I believe that he is a liar.
Sue thinks that the film is excellent.
She seems happy.
She looks happy.
WHICH VERBS TEND TO DENOTE EVENTS?
1. Verbs which denote activities. Activities are situations such as walk in the park, work,
which are durative but which do not culminate2, e.g.:
John is working.
Ann is playing in her room.
When these verbs combine with be + ing they express what is known as imperfective
aspect, i.e. they present a situation as on-going, in progress, without including the
culmination point.
2. Momentary verbs such as hiccough, hit, jump, kick, knock, nod, sneeze, tap wink, etc.
These are verbs that denote events that have little duration, that being the reason why they
are called momentary. When they are used in the imperfective aspect, they denote a
series of events, rather than a single event. Compare:
He nodded. (a single event)
He was nodding. (a series of events, a repeated movement)
He jumped clear of the car. (a single event)
He was jumping for joy. (a series of events, a repeated movement)
3. Transitional-event verbs such as die, arrive, leave, fall, land, stop, etc. These verbs
resemble momentary verbs in that they also denote events that have little duration.
However, when used in the imperfective aspect, they express that the entity is
approaching a transition into a new state (i.e. a change into a new state) rather than the
transition itself.
The man was dying.
The helicopter was landing.
The bus is stopping.
4. Verbs of attention, which contrast with verbs of perception, such as look, listen, smell,
taste, and feel, e.g.:
Im looking at some photos.
Listen to me.
Smell this perfume to see if you like it.
2 A situation that culminates is said to be telic. A situation that does not culminate is called
atelic. See lesson 43 (Inflectional Categories of the Verb).
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Note 3:
Sometimes a verb is [- durative] and cannot combine with the imperfective aspect but as long
as there is a change of state, the situation can be regarded as an event and it is therefore [+
dynamic], e.g.:
Ive found the keys. (change of state: now I know where they are)
*Im finding the keys.
TESTS TO TELL DYNAMIC VERBS FROM STATIVE VERBS:
1. Dynamic verbs can be combined with ing to express what is technically called
imperfective aspect. Stative verbs cannot:
He is persuading her to come.
*He is believing that I came.
2. Dynamic verbs can be used in the imperative. Stative verbs cannot:
Persuade him to come.
Buy a TV.
*Believe that he came.
*Like grammar.
3. Dynamic verbs accept manner adverbials such as carefully, attentively, conscientiously,
painstakingly3, etc. Stative verbs dont:
He painstakingly persuaded me to come.
*He painstakingly believed that I came.
John carefully washed his car.
*John carefully knew Greek.
4. Dynamic verbs accept the negation of permission. Stative verbs dont:
He may not go to the cinema. (may has to be unstressed, the stress falls on not)
*He may not believe that I came. (= he has no permission to believe)
He may not believe that I came. (this is possible because if may is stressed it
expresses possibility: = It may be the case/ it is possible that he doesnt believe that I
came)
5. Dynamic verbs can be pronominalized by do so. Stative verbs cannot:
John persuaded me to come but Mary didnt do so.
*John believed that I came but Mary didnt do so.
6. Dynamic verbs can become the focus of pseudo-cleft sentences (i.e. emphatic sentences
which contain a -wh clause). Stative verbs cannot:
3 Painstaking: adj. [usually before noun] needing a lot of care, effort and attention to detail:
The event had been planned with painstaking attention to detail. Painstakingly: adv.
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Proposition: dynamic
5. John put the book on the table.
Semantic analysis:
Predicator: put (three-place verb)
Arguments: John, the book, on the table (three)
Argument Structure of put: <1, 2, 3>
Proposition: dynamic
6. John is tall.
Semantic analysis:
Predicator: tall (one-place adjective)
Arguments: John (only one)
Argument Structure of tall: <1>
Proposition: stative
7. John is fond of Mary.
Semantic analysis:
Predicator: fond (two-place adjective)
Arguments: John, Mary
Argument Structure of fond: <1, 2>
Proposition: stative
8. John is a doctor.
Semantic analysis:
Predicator: a doctor (one-argument predicative determiner phrase)
Arguments: John
Argument Structure of a doctor: <1 >
Proposition: stative
Now how can you justify your analysis? Here you have some help:
Possible justifications for stative propositions:
1. I know the truth.
The proposition is stative because know is a modality verb expressing cognition or
2. I love chocolate.
The propositon is stative because love is a modality verb expressing volition or
3. I am aware that he is dishonest.
The main proposition is stative because aware is a modality adjective expressing
cognition.
4. I am glad that you can come to my party.
The main proposition is stative because glad is a modality adjective expressing
volition.
5. The tiger in that cage is dangerous.
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