Classifying Situations

– Three important dimensions to the task of classifying a situation in order

to talk about it:
– 1.Situation type, a semantic label for the typology of situations, e.g., to
describe a situation as static or dynamic (involving change).
– This distinction between static and dynamic situations is reflected in the
choice of lexical items. In English, for example, adjectives are typically
used for states and verbs for dynamic situations.
– There are, however, a number of stative verbs like be, have, remain,
know, love that can be used to describe states.
– We will say that adjectives and stative verbs are inherently static, that is,
it is part of their lexical semantics to portray a static situation type.
– Some writers distinguish two types of state: stage-level predicates (SLPs),
which are predicates that hold of temporal stages of an individual, and
individual-level predicates (ILPs), which simply hold of individuals. The
idea is that SLPs are tied to specific intervals of time while ILPS are
atemporal. Such a distinction would distinguish between the states in
Mary is tired and Mary is intelligent.
Verbs and situation types
– Stative verbs like be, have, know, resemble and love allow the speaker to
view a situation as a steady state, with no internal phases or changes. The
speaker does not overtly focus on the beginning or end of the state.
– Dynamic verbs like learn, grow allow the speaker to describe a process
which has a beginning and a conclusion.
– In English progressive forms can be used of dynamic situations. The
progressive aspect, marked by -ing, has connotations of dynamism and
change which suits an activity like learn but is incompatible with a stative
verb like know.
– The distinction between state and dynamic situations is not always as
clear-cut. Some verbs may be more strongly stative than others; remain
for example. Other verbs may have a range of meanings, some of which
may be more stative than others. We can contrast the stative and non-
stative uses of have, for example.
– Dynamic verbs can be classified into a number of types, based on the
semantic distinctions durative/punctual and telic/atelic.
– Durative is applied to verbs that describe a situation or process which
lasts for a period of time, e.g., sleep.
– Punctual describes an event that seems so instantaneous that it involves
virtually no time, e.g., cough, flash, shoot, knock, sneeze and blink (also
called semelfactive).
– In English a clash between a semelfactive verb and a durative adverbial
can trigger an iterative interpretation, that is, the event is assumed to be
repeated for the period described, e.g., Paco coughed all night.
– Telic refers to those processes that are seen as having a natural
completion, e.g.; Paco was writing a poem.Verbs, like paint, draw, and
build, are inherently telic.
– Atelic refers to those processes that can continue indefinitely, e.g., Paco
was walking the dog. Talk, sleep, and walk are atelic.
– Alternative terms are bounded for telic and unbounded for atelic.
– Examples: Paco was taking the final exam (telic: the exam lasts 2 hours)
Paco was running (atelic: he could be running indefinitely for hours)
Paco was running in the Valencia Marathon (telic)
A system of situation types
– a. States desire, want, love, hate, know, believe
– b. Activities (unbounded processes) run, walk, swim, push a cart, drive a
car
– c. Accomplishments (bounded processes) run a mile, draw a circle, walk
to school, paint a picture, grow up, deliver a sermon, recover from illness
– d. Achievements instantaneous changes of states, with an outcome of a
new state (point events) recognize, find, stop, start, reach the top, win the
race, spot someone.
– e. Semelfactives are instantaneous atelic events, for example knock,
cough.
1. The state of affairs expressed in the sentence “I despise politicians” constitutes a(n):
a) Activity
b) Accomplishment
c) State
d) Achievement

2. The state of affairs expressed by the sentence “John thought about the problem” constitutes a(n):
a) activity
b) accomplishment
c) state
d) achievement

3.The state of affairs expressed by the sentence “She hates her teachers” constitutes a(n):
a) activity
b) accomplishment
c) state
d) achievement

4. The state of affairs expressed by the sentence “The train arrived at Picadilly” constitutes a(n):
a) activity
b) accomplishment
c) state
d) achievement
 5. Semelfactives are:
a) instantaneous telic events
b) instantaneous changes of states, with an outcome of a new state
c) instantaneous atelic events
d) static and durative events

6. One of the following situations is an accomplishment. Which one?

a) Mary Coughed semelfactive
b) John translates English tales activity
c) Helen was taking a picture achievement
d) The general inspected the troops

7. Which of the following defining parameters associated to verbs might be linked to the situation type known
as achievement?
a) static, non telic, non punctual
b) non static, non telic, non punctual
c) non static, telic, punctual
d) non static, telic, non punctual

8. What differentiates the sentences “Mary was running” and” Mary was running the Brussels marathon” is:
a) a telic/ atelic distinction
b) a static / non static disctinction
c) a durative / punctual distinction
d) an inchoactive / resultative distinction

9. The situation type expressed in the sentence “She watched him kill the rabbit” is an example of:
a) activity
b) accomplishment
c) achievement
d) state
10. The situation type expressed in the sentence “The young politician gave his first speech yesterday” is an
example of:
a) activity
b) accomplishment
c) achievement
d) state

11) In the sentence “He knew immediately what to do/ to say” the verb knew is:
a) dynamic
b) stative
c) processes
d) semelfactive

12) The verb believe in “His friend strongly believes in his religion’s holy book is:
a) an state
b) an activity
c) an accomplishment
d) an achievement

13) The state of affairs expressed by the sentence “The postman always knocks twice” constitutes a(n):
a) activity
b) accomplishment
c) semelfactive
d) achievement
14) The situation type expressed in the sentence “My friend has now recovered from her illness” is an example
of:
a) activity
b) accomplishment
c) achievement
d) state
15. In the sentence “She shot the gun twice” the verb shoot, describes a situation type that can be defined as:
a) achievement
b) semelfactive
c) activity
d) accomplishment

16. Which of the following defining parameters associated to verbs might be linked to the situation type known
as activity?
a) static, non telic, non punctual
b) non static, non telic, non punctual
c) non static, non telic, punctual
d) non static, telic, non punctual

17.The difference between the sentences: Mary painted my portrait and Mary has painted my portrait, has to do
with the concept of:
a) stateness
b) Telicity
c) duration
d) agentivity

18. The situation type described in the sentence “Mary loves watching scary film” is:
a) an activity
b) an achievement
c) an state
d) an accomplishment

19. The situation type expressed by the verb walk in the sentence “They walked to the restaurant”:
a) activity
b) accomplishment
c) achievement
d) state

20. The first verb in the sentence “The poles melted and changed the global weather” represents:
a) an activity
b) an accomplishment
c) an achievement
d) a state

21. The verb learn in “Her grandmother learned this computer programme very fast” expresses the situation
type of a(n):
a) state
b) activity
c) accomplishment
d) achievement

22. The state of affairs expressed by the sentence “I hate people in general” constitutes a (n):
a) state
b) activity
c) accomplishment
d) achievement