Activity predicates in the linguistic literature: concepts, problems, solutions

Svetlozara Leseva, Hristina Kukova, Valentina Stefanova, Maria Todorova
Institute for Bulgarian Language “Prof. Lyubоmir Andreychin”, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria

Abstract
The study presents various postulations of activity predicates, as presented in both foreign and Bulgarian linguistics with a view to outlining activities as an aspectual class and outlining their main properties in comparison with the other classes. A critical analysis of the similarities and differences within various authors and the resulting entailments on the theory of aspectual classes are presented. The aim of the study is not only to state the main conceptions and to point out the problems in the interpretation of the aspectual classes with a focus on the activity predicates, but also on the basis of the analysis, to highlight those authors and theories that offer successful solutions of the issues presented with regard to the Bulgarian language and possibly to other Slavic and non-Slavic languages.

Key words: activity predicates, semantic typology, classifications