cross the bridge

Question

Is there a difference between 'be crossing the border/the finish line' and 'be crossing the bridge'?

According to a grammar book, 'cross' is classified as an achievement verb. It says 'cross ' shows a change of state.
'cross the finish line' is suggested as an example.
In this case, cross in progressive aspect means iterative action.

But, 'cross the bridge' is a different case, I think.
A bridge is wide enough to be considered as a place in which action of crossing has a long enough duration.
So it should be an accomplishment verb.
And this example in another grammar book seems to back my opinion up;
'You'll see my house on the right as you are crossing the
bridge'
It is obvious to see that 'be crossing' here is not an iterative action.

So to say, does the verb cross have a different lexical aspect depending on the argument that it takes?

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

cho7712In this case, cross in progressive aspect means iterative action.

That is not correct.

The verb cross is not iterative (repeated action). It means to go across or traverse something. The "something" can be a line, a boundary, a river, a street, a room, a country, a solar system, or even a galaxy. The time it takes to cross something can be from microseconds to millions of years.

Achievement and accomplishment are synonyms.

Fivejedjon · Answer

The progressive aspect with cross + border/line etc does not suggest iterative action.

If he takes this step, the president will be crossing the thin line between passively knowing and actively condoning.
We are now crossing the border into Bulgaria.

The act of crossing a line or border is almost always of shorter duration than that of crossing a bridge or river, that's all. There is a qualitative difference between crossing a line and crossing a road or bridge. In the former actions, the agent moves over the thing from one side to another. In crossing a bridge or road, the agent moves along the surface from one end/side of the thing to the other. This difference is similar to the difference between crossing a river by means of a bridge and crossing it by swimming.

Cho7712 · Answer

Thank you all for the answer.

AS: It means to go across or traverse something. The "something" can be a line, a boundary, a river, a street, a room, a country, a solar system, or even a galaxy.

fivejedjonThe act of crossing a line or border is almost always of shorter duration than that of crossing a bridge or river, that's all.

I, too hastily, overgeneralize what appears on the list of 'achievement verbs'.

CalifJim · Answer

AlpheccaStarsAchievement and accomplishment are synonyms.

Not for Vendler and his disciples. According to his classification system there are four types of verbs (or predicates, some say).

These are stative verbs, activity verbs, accomplishment verbs, and achievement verbs.

These concepts explain a lot about our use of the aspects of verbs, but sadly, few people know much about the theory or are interested in the practice. Maybe that's because it's so difficult in some cases to say which of the four classes a predicate belongs to. It may depend on the exact shade of meaning intended by the speaker, and we don't always know that if we are given only an isolated sentence.
___________

to cross a finish line (i.e., to win) is considered an achievement because it takes place in virtually no time, and the progressive form suggests "is about to". Thus, He's winning the race means He is about to win the race. Likewise for cross the finish line.

There are various tests like this, most of which I forget, that are used to identify the categories.

to cross a bridge, it seems to me, can be taken either as an accomplishment or an achievement because we can think of it as the entire process or as the final point when the end is reached.

CJ

AlpheccaStars · Answer

CalifJimThese concepts explain a lot about our use of the aspects of verbs, but sadly, few people know much about the theory or are interested in the practice.

I missed the reference to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno_Vendler! I now recall the long thread with a certain Russian who thoroughly reviled Vendler for ruining the English language by his classification of stative verbs.

Perhaps the textbooks used by speakers of Slavic (and other languages) refer to him much more than our own English texts.

The verb cross would be in the accomplishments category; verbs which have an endpoint and are incremental or gradual ("paint a picture," "build a house")
A horse or runner crossing the finish line in a race takes a few hundredths or thousandths of a second to cross it from head to tail or front to back.

CalifJim · Answer

AlpheccaStarsa certain Russian who thoroughly reviled Vendler

Yes! Exactly!

As I said, the theory seems to have been revised to refer not to verbs, but to predicates, so it's a matter of classifying "cross the finish line" and "cross the bridge", not simply a matter of classifying "cross".

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

cho7712According to a grammar book, 'cross' is classified as an achievement verb. It says 'cross ' shows a change of state.'cross the finish line' is suggested as an example.In this case, cross in progressive aspect means iterative action.

I've never heard that the progressive aspect of an achievement predicate suggests iterative action, though I suppose it could. Usually it suggests "about to" as I mentioned earlier in this thread.

CJ

Cho7712 · Answer

It's more than I expect. Thank you all for the answers.
As looking into the answers by far, I should consider the whole predicate as well as the surrounding context.
According to CalifJim's first answer,
'cross the bridge' can be seen as belonging to two event types.

In contrast, AS insists that even 'cross the finish line' be considered as having a duration, which is an accomplishment verb.

I personally want to ask two of you whether 'cross the bridge' does really have a duration. Does it so? I would like to be confirmed in this matter.

As to CJ's doubt in his last answer, I can think of the following verbs; strike, bounce, hit, blink...
But this type of verb is slightly different from the achievement verbs, though some books treat them the same.

Fivejedjon · Answer

cho7712I personally want to ask two of you whether 'cross the bridge' does really have a duration. Does it so? I would like to be confirmed in this matter.

Unless you are a magician who can instantaneously transport himself from one end of a bridge to the other, the crossing of any bridge takes a certain amount of time.

CalifJim · Answer

cho7712whether 'cross the bridge' does really have a duration.

All actions have a duration, even if minimal (Winning is "instantaneous"), but the scientific measurement of duration is not always particularly relevant to Vendler's theory of aspect.

The theory is complicated, and I don't have the expertise to tell you with any certainty whether "cross the bridge" is an accomplishment or an achievement, or whatever it may be within that theory.

cho7712verbs; strike, bounce, hit, blink...

A fifth classification was added later, called semelfactives. Semelfactives are verbs such as kick, jump, wink, blink, hop, and skip.

If you have the stamina for long, theoretical articles, you may want to read these.

http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~rothss/ROTHSTEIN%20telicity%20june%202007.pdf
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/bpl_images/content_store/sample_chapter/1405106670/rothstein_001.pdf

And of course you can just Google "Vendler classification of verbs" or something similar to find more information on this thorny topic.

CJ

cross the bridge

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