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linguists who consider that the category of aspect is rather a category of semantics
than a grammatical category.
On the other hand, the category of aspect in Russian is absolutely different
from the category of aspect in English. Aspect in Russian is rendered through the
verb, which has two sets of verb forms to express its meaning. The category of aspect
in Russian is considered by many linguists (M.V. Panov, N.S. Avilova) as a
derivational relationship between two verbs, a perfective-imperfective opposition.
In order to make a study on this topic it was necessary to do the following:
- to consult the material regarding definitions, features and
categorization of aspect in both languages.
- to analyze the system of the verb in both languages;
The main tasks were achieved due to the following methods:
- comparison method;
- critical analyses of the material for the investigation;
- analysis, synthesis, generalization.
This paper consists of three chapters: the first chapter contains the theoretical
material on the interpretation of the category of aspect in English, its grammatical
and lexical classification. The second chapter is dedicated to the study of the main
types of aspect and their classification. In the third chapter I make an attempt to
compare the category of aspect in English and in Russian, presenting general
information about the category of aspect in Russian and offering examples of how
aspect is used in these two languages. After I have compared some of the point of
views of modern linguists, I expressed my own point of view.
In conclusion I make some generalizations based on my analysis.
I suppose the analysis will be of some help for those who study English as a
foreign language and after reading this paper they will have a better understanding of
the category of aspect in English.
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CHAPTER I
THE CATEGORY OF ASPECT WITHIN THE SYSTEM
OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
This chapter will be dedicated to the study of the features of the category of
aspect. We will try to distinguish the meaning and the place of the category of aspect
within the system of the English language. It would be very appropriate to mention
straight from the very beginning that there is no unanimous opinion about the
classification and division of the forms of the category of aspect in English. The forms
and classifications suggested by many linguists differ very much and sometimes are
quite contrary to each other.
Some of the main questions, which will arise in this paper, will be: What is the
category of aspect? – Which are the main forms of this category? – Is the category of
aspect an independent category or is it a component of the category of tense?
The aim of this chapter is to present an as clearly as possible interpretation, of the
various opinions of linguists and the characterization of the category of aspect from the
grammatical and lexical points of view; to present a clear picture about the usage of
the aspectual forms by non-native speakers.
During the investigation, both the semantic and the functional analyses will be
used. From the very beginning I will comment on the definitions of the notion of the
category of aspect, the following step will be the theoretical description of the topic
under study which will have a great importance for the comprehension of the problem
in question.
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1.1 The Interpretation of the Category of Aspect in English
Verbs exhibit various changes in human languages; some languages use
inflections for the verbs to indicate tense (past, present, future); in some languages
verbs indicate the person and number of the subject and/or object; some have special
forms to indicate "moods" such as commands (imperatives), conditional or
hypothetical statements, and so forth. An element of verb mechanics that seems to be
neglected by many language designers is aspect.
Aspect is very often interpreted as a category referring to the internal temporal
constituency of an event, or the manner in which a verb's action is distributed through
the time-space continuum (Bryant).
Aspect is interpreted as an inflectional or syntactic category of verbs which
marks the internal temporal structure of the action. It reflects the way in which the
action of a verb is viewed with respect to time, answering questions such as: ‘Is the
event or state completed or still in progress?’
Some more definitions found in dictionaries say: a: “the aspect represents the
nature of the action of a verb as to its beginning, duration, completion, or repetition
and without reference to its position in time b : a set of inflected verb forms that
indicate aspect.”; the form of a verb which shows how the meaning of a verb is
considered in relation to time, typically expressing whether an action is complete,
habitual or continuous (from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary); A category
of the verb designating primarily the relation of the action to the passage of time,
especially in reference to completion, duration, or repetition;
a. a category or interrelated set of categories for which the verb is inflected in some
languages, typically to indicate the duration, repetition, completion, or quality of the
action or state denoted by the verb.
b. a category or interrelated set of categories for which the verb is inflected in some
languages, typically to indicate the duration, repetition, completion, or quality of the
action or state denoted by the verb.
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According to some other linguists (Glasbey, Smith, Tenny) aspect has to do
with the way the internal temporal structure of situations or events is presented
whether they happen at once or go on over an extended period of time. Aspect in
English is not so strictly grammaticized as tense. The extent that is expressed
grammatically is rendered via analytical constructions involving the auxiliaries be
and have, “I am eating”, “I have eaten”.
Not all languages have inflections or special words to mark aspect, but most
languages have ways to express the meanings which are embedded in the aspectual
categories. When explicit inflections or particles are not available to indicate aspect,
languages will use other methods in order to indicate it, as for example involving
idiomatic set phrases.
Aspect is considered a formal features of a language. There are languages
which posses a variety of aspects. There are some which have no aspect at all. In
most modern Indo-European languages, aspect has become almost entirely merged
with the tense system, with time.
The variation in meaning of the verbs is due to the fact that they are different in
lexical meaning and due to the meaning of the other words in the phrase. Analyzing
the following two sentences “The earth turns round the sun” and “The sun rises in
the East” we understand that the situation described here is different and the
meanings are different. The action described in the first sentence is an on-going one,
it has no interruptions and we know that it is a physically related fact that the earth
turns round the sun. The second sentence has practically the same situation but the
lexical meaning is different. It is an on-going action but with interruptions, the sun
does not shine in the night and the context indicates clearly that it rises in the East,
this means that if it rises it goes down. Although the grammatical form is the same,
the lexical meaning changes the process completely. The essential difference between
the two sentences is that one is continuous through a certain or uncertain period of
time, and another though also continuous is limited by some time parameters, and the
form of the verb does not mention this limitation.
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It is widely assumed that aspect is compositional in English (Verkuyl, Tenny
Smith, and others). In other words, aspect depends not only on the verb itself but also
on a number of components such as objects or adverbials. Let us take sentences with
a transitive verb as examples and show how aspect is compositional.
With a transitive verb, a sentence generally expresses the completion of an
activity and it is temporarily bounded when an object is modified and bounded while
it expresses an incomplete activity and is atelic it is temporarily unbounded when an
object is not modified and unbounded.
a. John ate an orange/oranges/the oranges.
(countable noun, bounded/unbounded/bounded)
b. John drank a glass of water/water/the water.
(mass noun, bounded/unbounded/bounded)
When the countable noun orange is modified by the indefinite article a and is
bounded, the sentence expresses a natural endpoint and it is bounded, in a). However,
when the countable noun orange is plural (that is, oranges) and is unbounded, the
sentence does not describe a natural endpoint and is not bounded. When the plural
noun is modified by the definite article the and is bounded, the sentence expresses a
natural endpoint and becomes unbounded again. Likewise, in b), the sentence
expresses a natural endpoint and is bounded when the uncountable/mass noun water
is modified by a glass of and bounded.
However, when the noun water is not modified and unbounded, the sentence
does not describe an endpoint and is unbounded. The sentence denotes a natural
endpoint and becomes bounded again when the noun is modified by the definite
article the and bounded. However, with some verbs, a sentence is unbounded even
with an object noun modified and bounded.