durationalstative

Durational stative is a term in linguistics describing a class of stative predicates whose truth conditions are defined over time intervals and express states that persist for a duration. In semantics, durational statives denote properties or relations that hold continuously during an interval, rather than reaching an endpoint at a single instant. Examples include possession, knowledge, and long-standing affiliations. They contrast with punctual or instantaneous statives, which are evaluated at a single moment.

These predicates typically interact with aspect and temporal modifiers. They are often considered atelic, allowing a duration to be specified by adverbials or perfective constructions, and many languages restrict their appearance with progressive aspect. In English, durational statives commonly appear with perfect aspect to indicate duration, as in “John has owned a car for ten years” or “She has known French since university.” Simple present readings like “John owns a car” or “Mary knows the answer” can also be understood as durational, in that the state persists, though typical progressive forms are unconventional or marked differently in many languages.

Cross-linguistically, languages vary in how durational statives are encoded: some use dedicated aspect markers or verbs that mark continuity; others rely on context and adverbials to convey duration. Durational statives help distinguish states that endure through time from events that unfold or terminate, contributing to the finer-grained classification of verb meanings in lexical- and aspectual-verb studies.