This paper seeks to show that Activities do not form a natural class with neither Actions nor States. We suggest that these categories are not objective situation classes, but different (subjective) ways of conceptualizing the dynamics and the discreteness of a given situation. Having been a situation conceptualized as an Action, an Activity or a State (non-discrete o discrete), the discourse chunk which represents it is organized according to a particular mode or textual type which reflects the speaker perspective: a narrative, an exposition of activities, an exposition of states, or a description. Provided that Activities determine one particular way of organizing the discourse structure, it does not make sense to include them into neither of the other two classes. A comparison of English texts with Catalan texts contributes, in this paper, to make more obvious the need for an independent treatment of Activities.
Published on 31/03/01
Accepted on 31/03/01
Submitted on 31/03/01
Volume 16, Issue 1, 2001
DOI: 10.7203/caplletra.30.4960
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA license
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