We apply Smith's theory of aspect (1991) to German - a language without any aspectual markers. In particular, we try to shed more light on the effects aspect can have on discourse structure and show how English and German behave differently in this respect. We furthermore describe how Smith's notion of a neutral viewpoint can be helpful for the analysis of discourse in German. It turned out that proposals claiming that the German Preterite covers the progressive as well as the simple aspect can not sufficiently explain the data presented in this paper (Bauerle, 1988). Finally we give a situation-theoretic approach to formalize Smith's intuitions following Glasbey (1994) incorporating Allen's interval-calculus (Allen, 1984).
['Frank Schilder']
Aspect and Discourse Structure: Is a Neutral Viewpoint Required?