From: Brian M. Scott
Message: 46770
Date: 2006-12-26
> Piotr Gasiorowski:'I shall read through it until I get bored and abandon it.'
>> On 2006-12-25 01:14, Patrick Ryan wrote:
>>> I have tried hard to think of a sentence in which I
>>> would consider "I shall read" as punctual.
>>> I repeat my request that you do so with the situational
>>> context that you believe justifies that interpretation.
>> English does not distinguish between READ meaning 'read
>> something from the beginning to the end' (when the whole
>> action is viewed as complete and the speaker expresses no
>> interest in its internal structure or details such as
>> duration) and other aktionsart interpretations of the
>> same verb (durative, habitual, iterative). Russian
>> <c^itaju> is durative (reading in progress) or habitual,
>> while <proc^itaju> is punctual (a complete act of
>> reading)
> With all due respect, that is incorrect. It is precisely
> by adding 'through' that English does distinguish between
> otherwise permissible interpretations of 'read' as
> perfective or imperfective.
> "I read it through." or "I read through it."
>> READ can be regarded as punctual in such sentences as:Hardly.
>> I'll read your paper and return it with comments.
>> I'll read the book twice to get the most of it.
>> I'll read only the last paragraph of each chapter.
>> Note that the punctual interpretation doesn't mean that
>> the act itself takes very little time. It only means that
>> the duration doesn't matter.
> The three examples you offer do not, to me, convey
> perfectivity.
> So the question of whether they are legitimate
> translations of <proc^itaju> is moot.
> I see in them nothing which would make me conclude thatOnly if you have a tin ear; the differences are at least as
> any of the readings were punctual. On the contrary, one
> could substitute 'be reading' for 'read' in any of the
> three without any change of meaning, proving that they are
> not contextually punctual.