Aspect in Ancient Greek - Nijmegen Centre for Semantics

4.7 Imperfective and coercion: the habitual interpretation 103In (127) the topic time is the time that Leon and Hegesicles were kings inSparta. The imperfective states that the time of an eventuality that satisfiesthe predicate includes the topic time, but the time of suffering a defeat (orliterally, bumping into someone) is typically shorter than the rule of kings.This mismatch is solved by the habitual coercion operator, since the timeassociated with the habit of suffering defeats can include the rule of kings.An advantage of this account over that of de Swart (1998) in which ahabitual reinterpretation was triggered by a mismatch in aspectual class (seesection 3.2.3), is that it predicts correctly that the habitual interpretation ofthe imperfective occurs with bounded as well as unbounded predicates. In(129) (=(82)), we even have an example with a stative predicate:(129) ν δεξιen dexiaiδdein right.dat andππέωνhippeōnhorsemen.genκαkaiinνenleft.datπελταστα̋peltastaistargeteers.datριστερaristeraihim.genχώραchōraplace.nomατοautouprtτε καte kaiandτνtōnthe.gen νēn.be.pst.IPFV.3sg“To the right and left of him (= Cyrus) and the cavalry was the(usual) place for the targeteers.” X. Cyr. 8.5.10In (129) the topic time is the time during which Cyrus waged wars, whichis in the order of years, and hence longer than the time of targeteers beingin a specific position. With the habitual operator an impending violationof the Duration Principle can be avoided, because this operator considerablylengthens the typical duration of the predicate.The same explanation is available for the French sentence in (130) (=(78)):(130) QuandWhenj’Iétais petit, je ne d o r m a i s pasbe.pst.ipfv.1sg young I not sleep.pst.IPFV.1sg notbien.well“When I was young I didn’t sleep well.”The duration of sleeping uneasily is shorter than the duration of adolescence,but the duration of the habit of sleeping uneasily need not be. In both (129)and (130) the predicate is unbounded, so the habitual interpretation cannotbe attributed to coercion triggered by a selectional restriction of imperfectiveaspect for unbounded predicates. It can, however, be attributed to coerciontriggered by the Duration Principle.Especially telling is (131), where it is clear that the habitual interpretationreally emerges from a mismatch in duration.