Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective grammar Of or relating to the semelfactive aspect.
  • noun grammar The semelfactive aspect.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From New Latin semelfactivus, equivalent to Latin semel ("once, a single time"), from Proto-Indo-European *sḗm (“one, together”); plus factive, from Latin factum ("event, occurrence"), from facere ("to do"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, to do”); plus the Latin adjectival suffix -ivus.

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Examples

  • It is true that there are the traditional terms "semelfactive" and "iterative" referring, respectively, to one and more than one instantiation of an event.

    languagehat.com: PLEXITY. 2005

  • This is what happens in the case of the Text: it can be itself only in its difference (which does not mean its "individuality"); its reading is semelfactive (which renders all inductive-deductive sciences of texts illusory - there is no "grammar" of the text) and yet completely woven with quotations, references, and echoes.

    Language Log 2009

  • : il ne peut être lui que dans sa différence (ce qui ne veut pas dire son, individualité); sa lecture semelfactive (ce qui rend illusoire toute science inductive-déductive des textes: pas de "grammaire" du texte), et cependant entièrement tissés de citations, de références, d'échos: langages culturels (quel langage ne le serait pas?), antécédents ou contemporains, qui le traversent de part en part dans une vaste stéréophonie.

    Language Log 2009

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