Teaching the inceptive aspect to Ss whose L1 is Japanese, Korean, Arabic, etc.

Question

Inception of a verb can be expressed in English with constructions like, “to start verb-ing” or “to begin verbing.”

However, some verbs in English have an inceptive aspect built into the meaning of the word, i.e. some verbs have a lexical inceptive aspect.

Examples:

INCEPTION RESULTING STATE

put on (a shirt) wear a shirt

join (a club) be in a club

get on (a train) ride a train

mount (a horse) ride a horse

go somewhere be somewhere

find something out know something

This distinction becomes especially important when teaching learners whose native language is (for example) Japanese, Korean, or Arabic, which have fewer verbs which refer exclusively to the inception of an action. Examples: rukubun is Arabic for both mount (a horse) and ride (a horse); "kiru" is Jap. for both "to put on (clothing)" and "to wear (clothing)."

This results in errors such as:

?Haven’t you worn your shirt yet? Hurry up!

(Where the intended meaning is, “Haven’t you put your shirt on?” i.e. “Are you wearing your shirt?)

?You have been putting that shirt on for 36 hours. It’s starting to smell a little funky.

(Where the intended meaning is, “You haven’t changed your shirt in 36 hours.”)

Note: This distinction is also marginally relevant for Indo-European languages as well; for example, the Italian verb “sapere” can be used to mean either “to find something out” or “ to know something.”

Comments?

MrPedantic · Accepted Answer

Thank you for that, Shawn. It's an interesting point.

Best wishes,

MrP

Anonymous · Answer

This is interesting, I wonder if there is a list of words that contain "duration" build in the meaning.
this might clear up the present perfect and present perfect progressive distinction.
for example:
"I have been working here for 6 months" vs. "I have worked here for six months."
the only difference between the two verb forms is in the meaning of the verb used. if i choose the verb "SIT" instead we see a difference:
"I have been sitting here for 3 hours, and my **** hurts!" vs. * "I have sit here for 3 hours!"
I'm just curious if there are more words that contain "duration" in their meaning. I'm not sure if i have anything here, I'm still learning the rules and all.
so, is "sit" an inceptive verb? maybe i can make a rule: "any non-inceptive verb opts for the progressive aspect."

Shawn Fitzpatrick · Answer

Anonymous,

First, let me compliment you on the following 2 things.

1) You are trying to create your own rules

2) You are testing out those rules

I think you will learn English grammar very quickly if you continue using this method.

>> Maybe i can make a rule: "any non-inceptive verb opts for the progressive aspect."

This is not quite right. For example, “wear a shirt” describes the state that occurs after you “put on a shirt.” In other words, “wear” is not inceptive. Nevertheless, “wear” sometimes occurs WITHOUT the progressive aspect (although the meaning is different). For example, all of the following are grammatical:

I wear a shirt (every day).
Every day, I wear a different shirt.

I’m wearing a shirt now.

I was wearing a shirt yesterday.

1: >> "I have been sitting here for 3 hours, and my **** hurts!" vs.

2: >> * "I have sat here for 3 hours!"

These are the sentences you were trying to find a rule for. Specifically, you were wondering why the second sentence is incorrect. It is because “have sat” is not compatible with the duration “3 hours.” However, in an office you might hear this…

3: “I have sat here for 3 years! I don’t want to move.”

This person is complaining, because someone has asked them to move to a different desk.

Notice that sentence 2 is describing one continuous state of sitting, while sentence 3 is describing a routine. The reason that sentence 2 is grammatically incorrect is that “I have sat” implies that the sitting is finished and that the person is now standing up. On the other hand, “for 3 hours” means that the sitting is NOT complete. When you combine these 2 parts, it sounds strange, because the meanings contradict each other.

The following rule will help you with these kinds of sentences...

For certain verbs, (have + past participle) implies that the action/state is finished.

(That was a lot of information to digest, so I won’t explain “certain verbs” right now. In the mean time, please try to collect several example sentences that seem to correspond to this rule.)

Teaching the inceptive aspect to Ss whose L1 is Japanese, Korean, Arabic, etc.

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