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Scenarios, modality, and verbal aspect in Modern Greek

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Brian Newton
Brian Newton*
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
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Abstract

One important function of the imperfective aspect in Modern Greek is to indicate indefinite repetition; but when a modal element such as ‘can’ or ‘must’ is present, the perfective may be selected instead. This apparent vacillation may be accounted for by making the assumption that indefinite repetition reflects what in the logical form of sentences is a structure ∀t (p at t ⊃ q at t)—where t stands for a variable ranging over the ‘occasions’ of events—and that the aspect of verbs, including those representing the modals, is determined by the relative scope of the universal temporal quantifier ∀t and the modal.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 1979, pp. 139 - 167
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 by Linguistic Society of America

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