An Aspectual comparison of Present Tense Sentence in Korean and English: With Regard to a Pragmatic Principle

Abstract

Oh, Yoonja. 2003. An Aspectual Comparison of Present Tense Sentences in Korean and English: With Regard to a Pragmatic Principle. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 28-4, 651-669. The purpose of this paper is to show the aspectual similarities and differences of present tense sentences in Korean and English in fulfilling the pragmatic principle requiring the exclusion of the endpoints of the situations to which they refer. Stative present sentences conform to the pragmatic principle in nature by the temporal schema for states in both languages. Eventive present sentences are divided into two types. One is the present sentences with the progressive and the general imperfective viewpoint aspect marker in English and Korean, respectively. The relevant markers satisfy the pragmatic principle by the temporal schemata of imperfective viewpoint aspect. The other type of eventive present sentences shows an obvious difference in conforming to the principle. In Korean, they take a present imperfective viewpoint marker -nun-. On the other hand, in English they rely on the limitation of the interval of the present time without any outstanding markers, i.e., the interval of the present time may not be bounded by two other times. (Kwangju Women's University)