The non-universality of linguistic categories: evidence from pluractional constructions

This paper aims at giving a typological overview of pluractionality in order to show how grammatical categories, in cross-linguistic perspective, cannot be considered as universally valid entities. After having defined the phenomenon, I will present the main functions and some formal characteristics that pluractional markers have in the languages of the world. Then, I will describe the diachronic sources from which pluractional markers probably come from. Finally, I will discuss the grammatical status that pluractionality has in cross-linguistic perspective in the light of the broad variety it shows in the languages of the world and also taking into consideration data from specific languages.