Transcript perfective aspect

Aspect
Lecture 11
What is the meaning of aspect?
 Aspect concerns the manner in which the
verbal action is experienced or regarded.
 The grammatical category of Aspect is
indicated in the morphology of the verbs
but it characterizes the whole sentence.
 Aspect refers to how an event or action is
to be viewed with respect to time, rather
than to its actual location in time.
We can illustrate this using the
following examples:
 [1] David fell in love on his eighteenth
birthday.
in the past, especially on his 18th birthday
 [2] David has fallen in love.
in the past, but quite recently; PERFECTIVE ASPECT
 [3] David is falling in love.
still in progress; PROGRESSIVE ASPECT
Therefore, this category is based on three
functional oppositions of forms:
perfect
progressive
habitual
↔ non-perfect
↔ non-progressive
↔ non-habitual
The semantic field of aspectuality can be
classified as follows (Comrie 1976):
Aspectuality
Perfect
Non-perfect
Perfective Imperfective
Habitual
Continuous
Non-progressive
Progressive
 Three of these aspectual meanings are
expressed by means of the marked forms:
perfect, progressive, habitual. The rest of the
meanings are expressed by means of the
unmarked form.
 The aspectual meanings involve the semantic
features of
state/non-state,
durative/non-durative,
limitive/non-limitive.
The aspectual meanings can be defined in
the following way:
1.1. Perfect → it makes an explicit
reference to the relation between an
implied resultant situation and a previous
situation that brought about it.
1.2. Non-perfect → it locates the situation in
time without referring to its relation to
another situation.
The aspectual meanings can be defined in
the following way:
1.2.1. Perfective → it presents a situation
as a single whole without distinction of
the separate phases that make up the
situation:
He scored several goals last month.
1.2.2. Imperfective → it denotes a durative
situation of non-state, referring to its
internal temporal structure, i.e. the
successive phases of which the situation
consists.
1.2.2. Imperfective
1.2.2.1. Habitual → a semantic subtype of the
Imperfective, representing a situation as a
characteristic feature of a whole period of
time; with verbs of non-state it implies the
successive occurrence of instances of the
situation:
He used to be a teacher in his youth.
He used to send me postcards but not letters.
He used to wear a moustache.
1.2.2.2. Continuous → a semantic subtype of the
Imperfective; it represents a durative situation
as non-habitual.
1.2.2.2. Continuous
1.2.2.2.1. Non-progressive → a subtype of the
Continuous; it represents a permanent
situation of durative non-limitive nature:
He is silly.
He lives at 10 Vitosha St.
1.2.2.2.2. Progressive → a subtype of the
Continuous; it represents a temporary situation
of non-state as consisting of successive phases:
He is decorating the room.
Aspect always includes tense
 In [2] David has fallen in love and [3] David
is falling in love above, the aspectual
auxiliaries are in the present tense, but
they could also be in the past tense:
David had fallen in love -- Perfective Aspect, Past
Tense
David was falling in love -- Progressive Aspect,
Past Tense
The perfective auxiliary + verb + -ed,
the progressive auxiliary + verb + -ing
Perfective
Aspect
Present Tense has fallen
Progressive
Aspect
is falling
Past Tense
was falling
had fallen
 While aspect always includes tense, tense can occur
without aspect (David falls in love, David fell in love).
Aspectual verbs
 Aspect can describe different properties of an action: its
beginning, its incompletion and continuation, its
repetitiveness, its incompletion, its termination, etc.
 Apart from the 2 aspects grammaticalized in English,
progressive aspect (incomplete, ongoing action) and
perfective aspect (completed action in the past with
present relevance)
 Other aspects can be expressed by catenative verbs:
- repeated action (He kept coming back),
- the beginning of an action (She started writing / They
began to eat / We should really get going),
- or the end of an action (She stopped writing).