Influence
Vendler's 1957 Philosophical Review article "Verbs and times" first introduced a four-way distinction between verbs based on their aspectual features, a distinction which has had a major influence on theories of lexical aspect or aktionsart.
Under Vendler's model, events may be classified into one of four aspectual classes:
- states, which are static and do not have an endpoint ("know," "love");
- activities, which are dynamic and do not have an endpoint ("run," "drive");
- accomplishments, which have an endpoint and are incremental or gradual ("paint a picture," "build a house"); and
- achievements, which have an endpoint and occur instantaneously ("recognize," "notice").
Vendler also popularized the use of the progressive aspect as a diagnostic for distinguishing between these lexical classes; for example, activities and accomplishments are able to appear in the progressive (He is running, He is painting a picture), whereas states and achievements are not (*He is knowing French, *He is recognizing his friend). Vendler's categories are still widely used in current research in areas such as syntax, semantics, and second language acquisition. Linguist S.-Y. Kuroda has said that Vendler's terms achievement and accomplishment "have since become basic technical vocabulary in modern linguistics," and have been used to develop numerous theories and allow for "sophisticated and highly technical" research in a variety of areas.
Vendler's 1967 book Linguistics in Philosophy, a collection of some of his earlier articles, had a large influence on the field of linguistic philosophy, which attempts to use the study of language and linguistic structures to inform philosophical theory. The book has been described as an attempt to "reconcile the empirical basis of linguistic science with the a priori nature of philosophical reasoning." His 1972 Res Cogitans also dealt with the relationship between language and philosophy.
Overall, Vendler published over 30 widely cited journal articles and four monographs.
Read more about this topic: Zeno Vendler
Famous quotes containing the word influence:
“Nature has taken more care than the fondest parent for the education and refinement of her children. Consider the silent influence which flowers exert, no less upon the ditcher in the meadow than the lady in the bower. When I walk in the woods, I am reminded that a wise purveyor has been there before me; my most delicate experience is typified there.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The Spirit of Place [does not] exert its full influence upon a newcomer until the old inhabitant is dead or absorbed. So America.... The moment the last nuclei of Red [Indian] life break up in America, then the white men will have to reckon with the full force of the demon of the continent.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“If morality had naturally no influence on human passions and actions, it were in vain to take such pains to inculcate it; and nothing would be more fruitless than that multitude of rules and precepts with which all moralists abound.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)