Occurrence

Definitions

1. An actual instance when a situation occurs; an event or happening.
2. The lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs or predicates that change in or over time.

Equivalents

Examples

“Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become⟳ an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke⟳ that, carried by the wind, can cover⟳ hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.”

“The time interval of an occurrence—a temporal instantiation—is a single occasion. However, a series of such occasions can fall⟳ within a certain time interval; in this case we may represent⟳ the occurrence as a single situation (cf. I ran off and on for an hour, I ran and ran for an hour, I would run⟳ and then run⟳ some more).”

“The most basic Aktionsart distinction is between states and occurrences. […]Based on consideration of inherent differences between the events involved, Vendler distinguished three different types of occurrence, achievements, activities, and accomplishments.”

CEFR level