Differentiating between generic and actualized eventualities in Alashkert Armenian

Mariam Asatryan

Keywords: imperfective aspect, Armenian, habitual, disposition, state, progressive, generic, endangered dialect

TL;DR: This paper investigates two structures of imperfective aspect in Alashkert Armenian, where ongoing and habitual events are distinguished from states and dispositions (generic habituals)

Abstract: Alashkert Armenian (AA) exhibits two imperfective structures. An aux-containing k-imperfective can describe an ongoing habitual event and an ongoing event, while an aux-less k-imperfective describes states and dispositions (generic habituals that do not need to be actualized). We analyze this distinction as stemming from two different modalities associated with the imperfective aspect: progressive and generic. For the semantics of the k-imperfective, we propose that it is a stative aspect that maps predicates of states to a time interval. This proposal is motivated by the fact that the k-imperfective cannot directly combine with an eventive predicate without the intersession of an aux. In the case of the aux structure k-imperfective scopes over a PROG operator that is a stativizer and quantifies over an event variable in its scope. To capture the property of habitual and ongoing events necessarily being actualized, the PROG operator binds an event variable in its scope. We distinguish between an ongoing event and an actualized habitual event through verbal plurality, i.e., ongoing events are descriptions of single events and habitual events are descriptions of plural events. The k-imperfective scopes over a generic operator Ø: [k-IMPRF[Ø VP]] for aux-less structure. Ø operator introduces a generic property, a state, that is not restricted by time and location.

Submission Number: 50