Integrating tense , aspect and genericity

This paper proposes an integrated theory of tense, aspect and genericity building on the work of Moens (1987) for tense and aspect in English. I start by motivating the treatment of tense and genericity at the same level, by showing that (1) it is the same linguistic system that is at work in both cases; (2) there are some facts of language that only receive an adequate explanation if the two phenomena are dealt together, namely, the "stative paradox" and the somehow strange behavior of activities. To handle these two facts, I propose the existence of two kinds of states. I then discuss briefly two different proposals to handle habituality in the camp of tense and aspect, and motivate the use of Moens (1987)’. I proceed by overviewing in some detail Moens’ framework and propose some revisions motivated by the work of Sandström (1993), Kent (1992) and Santos (1991). The rest of the paper is then dedicated to give an analysis of several ingredients of the English and Portuguese tense and aspect systems, namely the import of several tenses, of the progressive, and of some temporal adverbials.