| Abstract: | This paper examines variation in the expression of aspect both from a language-internal and a cross-linguistic perspective. We make the following proposals: (i) the morpheme 'already' encodes the meaning of two contrasting phases; (ii) several types of event structures, including that of the Perfect, also encode a similar meaning of contrasting phases, but with particular orderings of phases specified. If in addition we assume Optimality Theory with partial ordering, we derive a range of expressions of a given aspectual meaning that is cross-linguistically supported, and show that 'already' emerges as an unmarked aspectual operator in Colloquial Singapore English. |
