Semantic maps and typological hierarchies: Evidence for the Actionality Hierarchy

Abstract

Although semantic maps and typological hierarchies are different analytical tools and make different predictions, there is, arguably, a particular kind of a semantic map that shares certain features with typological hierarchies, in particular, the property of directionality. First, we briefly illustrate that such maps are based on the notion of local markedness and are designed to model the interaction between grammatical categories. We then explore the Actionality Hierarchy, formulated in terms of Vendlerian classes, which models the interaction between actionality and grammatical aspect. On the one hand, it will be shown that the Actionality Hierarchy can be reconstructed as a semantic map, based on common semantic features shared selectively between individual Vendlerian classes. Notably, it is directional and can be used to capture relations of local markedness between actionality and aspect. On the other hand, we will provide first systematic, quantitative evidence for the Actionality Map, using cross-linguistic parallel corpus data of four languages.

Keywords

• aspect
• actionality
• semantic map
• typological hierarchy
• parallel corpus