The rise and resolution of viewpoint aspectual ambiguity in Transeurasian reconstruction

In this paper, I deal with the coincidence of intraterminal and postterminal readings in certain converb constructions across the Transeurasian languages and suggest that some of these may be given a diachronic explanation by reconstructing an ancestral stage, whereby the viewpoint-aspectual reading of the converb marker was determined by the actional interpretation of the base verb. To this end, I use Johanson’s terminology both in referring to the so-called “Transeurasian” languages and in conceptualizing dimensions of aspectual terminality. Johanson & Robbeets (2009: 1–2) coined the term “Transeurasian” to refer to a grouping of about 50 geographically adjacent, typologically similar an