Patterns signify: Re-considering some proposals of Zeno Vendler's "verbs and times"

Abstract

After a succinct characterization of Vendler’s proposed program in "Verbs and Times" (e.g. to formulate a typology based on a description of use of several VERBS), I raise the central problem of this note: if Vendler uses tests of compatibility between VERBS and tenses, aiming to assign the former ones to one or another typological category, then the author’s stance, according to which temporal schemas (equivalent to the relevant types) are denoted by VERBS, must be justified. My proposal is that cases of (in)compatibility between VERBS and tenses really point at the fact that temporal schemas are also denoted by grammatical components, like tenses. Most of the developments of this note show how such a proposal can be coherently articulated.