From theAncient Greekτελῐκός(telĭkós,“final”), fromτέλος(télos,“end”).
telic (comparativemoretelic,superlativemosttelic)
- Tending or directed towards a goal or specific end.
1993, Brent D. Slife,Time and Psychological Explanation[1], page226:Several theorists of the previous chapters are supportive of this moretelic view of human nature.
2001, Michael Argyle,The Psychology of Happiness, 2nd edition,page129:They were asked to rate the 36 activities for how purposeful they were.[…]Comparing the 10 mosttelic and the 10 most paratelic we found that the paratelic leisure activities were thought to involve less skill or challenge; they were also judged to satisfy social needs more, and to be more enjoyable.
2002, John Kerr,Counselling Athletes: Applying Reversal Theory[2], page62:I have certainly become moretelic as I strive to achieve my goals set, but I am not really enjoying any of it.
- Antonym:paratelic
- (grammar) That expresses an end or purpose.
- 1995, Michela Cennamo,Patterns of 'Active' Syntax in Late Latin Pleonastic Reflexives, John Charles Smith, Delia Bentley (editors),Historical Linguistics 1995: Selected Papers from the 12th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Volume 1: General Issues and Non-Germanic Languages,page 39,
- In this framework, verbs denoting directed change of location, such as Italianandare 'go', instantiate Core Unaccusativity, in that they have a Theme subject and are the mosttelic, concrete, dynamic.
2000, Niko Besnier,Tuvaluan: A Polynesian Language of the Central Pacific, published2002,page495:Similarly, verb forms that can govern either transitive or middle-case marking (cf. 2.1.3.1.2(c)) are moretelic in their transitive manifestations.
2015, Pierre-Don Giancarli, “Auxiliary selection with intransitive and reflexive verbs: the limits of gradience and scalarity, followed by a proposal”, in Rolf Kailuweit, Malte Rosemeyer, editors,Auxiliary Selection Revisited: Gradience and Gradualness,page82:Moreover, let us remember that some verbs can betelic and agentive at the same time: if one looks at the ASH category n°1 (change of location), i.e. the verbs considered the mosttelic, like FFarriver (arrive),partir (leave),venir (come),revenir (come back) (Sorace 2000:256), old Spanishhuir (run away) andescapar (escape) (Legendre 2007), do they not bear an agentive component?
- Antonym:atelic
- (linguistics) That expresses theperfective aspect.
