nondurative

Nondurative is an adjective used primarily in linguistics and semantics to describe events or states that do not have duration or extension in time. In this sense, nondurative events are understood as instantaneous or point-like, occurring at a single moment rather than unfolding over a period.

In linguistic analysis, nondurative (often equated with the term punctual or instantaneous) contrasts with durative or progressive events, which are described as lasting for a span of time. Examples typically cited as nondurative include actions like "the bell rang," "the light flashed," or "she blinked." In contrast, durative descriptions would be like "the wind was blowing" or "she slept for hours," where the event has an extended temporal duration. Many languages encode durativity through aspect, tense, or mood markers, while nondurativity serves as a descriptive label for certain event types rather than a standalone tense category.

Usage notes: The term appears more frequently in typological or theoretical discussions than in everyday grammar, and some authors prefer synonyms such as punctual, instantaneous, or non-extended to avoid ambiguity. Outside linguistics, nondurative can occasionally describe phenomena lacking time extension, but its primary association remains with how languages express time and event structure.

See also: punctuality, aspect, durativity, instantaneous events.