Between accomplishments and activities

directed changes and the case of publishing verbs

Abstract

This work aims to analyze and aspectually classify the publishing verbs in English and Portuguese: to edit/editar or editorar, to copy edit/preparar, to proofread/revisar, to typeset/diagramar and to format/formatar. These verbs present themselves as an interesting object of analysis in terms of the lexical aspect because they have characteristics of both accomplishments and activities. This type of dubious behavior has been extensively studied in the aspect literature and is usually attributed to VP properties. In the case of publishing verbs, however, the variability of the aspectual classification seems not to be strictly linked to the type of complement, but to the incrementality of the action described by the verb. Thus, for the analysis of these verbs, we adopt the two-dimensional model of representation of the lexical aspect, in a cognitive-functional approach, proposing that these verbs have aspectual properties that are at the intersection between accomplishments and activities. Our results indicate that the publishing verbs specify a type of directed change. Thus, they have the potential to be (re)construed as telic (accomplishments) or atelic (activities) directed changes, depending on how the speaker intends to describe the publishing event.