The Progressive and the Imperfective Paradox [pdf]

Lascarides, A. [1991] The Progressive and the Imperfective Paradox, Synthese , 87(6), pp401-447, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Holland.

Formal semantics constitutes the framework of the research presented here, and the aim is to provide a solution to the imperfective paradox; i.e. explain why ``Max was running'' entails ``Max ran'', but ``Max was running home'' does not entail ``Max ran home''. This paper is divided into two parts. In Part I we evaluate what I will call the {\em Eventual Outcome Strategy} for solving the imperfective paradox. This strategy is commonly used (Dowty 1979, Hinrichs 1983, Cooper 1985), and is highly intuitively motivated. I will show, however, that the formulations of the intuitions give rise to conflicts and tensions when it comes to explaining the natural language data. In Part II we offer a new approach to tackle the imperfective paradox that overcomes the problems with the Eventual Outcome Strategy.


@article{lascarides:1991,
author = {Alex Lascarides},
year = {1991},
title = {The Progressive and the Imperfective Paradox},
journal = {Synthese},
volume = {87},
number = {6},
pages = {401--447},
publisher = {Kluwer Academic Publishers}
}