The Category of Aspect PPT

Anca Sevcenco / pitar_mosh@yahoo.co.uk

Introduction:
Morphology is a term based on the Greek words morphe (=form/structure) and logie (=account/study).
The term can apply to any domain of human activity that studies the structure or form of something.
In linguistics, morphology is the sub-discipline that accounts for the internal structure of words.
Word-structure is complex due to two reasons:

the presence of derivational elements

the presences of inflectional elements

Both types of elements add more to what is known as the base of the word.
Derivation refers to word formation processes such as affixation
a: compounding
b: conversion.
Derivational processes typically induce a change in the lexical category of the item they operate on and
even introduce new meanings (-er adds the meaning of agent/instrument, i.e. work - worker).
Inflection contains the grammatical categories/markers for number, gender, case, person, tense, aspect,
mood and comparison.
It is defined as a change in the form of a word to express its relation to other words in the sentence.
Inflectional operations do not change the category they operate on (goes or grammars are just variants of
one and the same word go and grammar)
Inflections are formal markers (semantically they are empty, abstract)
Inflections help us delimit the lexical category of the word to which they attach. In other words, each
lexical category (major part of speech) is characterized by specific inflectional markers.
Case, number, gender, and determination characterize nouns.
Tense, aspect, mood, number and person characterize verbs.
Person, number and in some cases gender characterize pronouns.
Adjectives and adverbs are characterized by comparison.
Introduction
Functional vs Lexical Categories
Lexical categories: Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb
Functional categories: Determiner, Tense/Inflection, Degree of comparison, Complementizer
Lexical categories = an open class

Functional categories = a closed class

Lexical categories = classes with descriptive/semantic content (N, V, A, Adv) containing indefinitely
many items and which allow conscious coining, borrowing etc
Functional categories include free morphemes: determiners, quantifiers, pronouns, auxiliary verbs,
complementizers etc. and bound morphemes/inflectional affixes: inflections for tense, aspect,
agreement/number
Introduction
Functional Categories

closed class

never occur alone

have an unique complement

lack descriptive semantic content

open class

may occur alone

dont need a unique complement

have descriptive semantic content

What is Tense?
Tense

represents the chronological order of events in time as perceived by the speaker at the moment of
speech

locates the time of the event in the sentence as related to NOW (the moment of speech)
PAST -------- NOW -------- FUTURE

functional category associated with the lexical category Verb

The Tenses of English
Present
Present Simple

(1) Mr. Jourdain suffers day and night.

Present Continuous/Progressive
(2)

PRES BE + VING

(3)

Mr. Jourdain is dying of love.

They are dying of love.
Present Perfect Simple

(4)

PRES HAVE + VPAST PARTICIPLE

(5) John has finished his book. You can read the manuscript now.

(6) John has broken up with Mary. He thinks he hates her now.
(7) John has been an MP for 20 years. He is very happy about it now.
Present Perfect Continuous/Progressive
(8)

PRES HAVE + BEEN + VING

(9) They have been drinking all day. They are blind drunk now.
(10)

Martin has been working on that novel for 3 years. Its not ready yet.
The Tenses of English
Past
Past Simple

(11)

M. Jourdain died of love an hour ago. He is not among us anymore now.

Past Continuous/Progressive

(12)

PAST BE + VING

(13)

M. Jourdain was dying of love when I last met him. Now he is just gone!
Past Perfect Simple

(14)

PAST HAVE + VPAST PARTICIPLE

(15) John had already died of love when Mary decided to marry him after all. She missed her chance to
find out how wonderful a man he was.
(16)

He had been there for an hour when she finally showed up.
Past Perfect Continuous/Progressive

(17)

PAST HAVE + BEEN + VING

(18)
John had been dying of love for Mary when he first met Susan. In the end he hooked up
with Susan.
The Tenses of English
Future
Future Simple
(19)

John will cheat on Mary soon enough.

Future Continuous/Progressive

(20)

WILL + BE + VING

(21)

By that time, he will be cheating on her.

Future Perfect

(22)

WILL + HAVE + VPAST PARTICIPLE

(23)

The Bartons will have had dinner by the time

Future Perfect Continuous/Progressive

Alice calls on them.

(24)
(25)

WILL + HAVE + BEEN VING

I will have been a student for 10 years by

December 4th

Future in the Past Simple

(26)

WOULD + VINF

(27)

He promised he would meet the deadline.

Future in the Past Continuous/Progressive

(28)

WOULD + BE + VING

(29)

By that time he would be cheating on her.

Aspect
Aspect

describes the internal temporal structure of events (see above: simple, perfect,
continuous/progressive)

functional category associated with the lexical category Verb and realized by auxiliary verbs and
inflections

Aspect (2)
Introduction
Traditional grammars
Aspect is used for the perfective imperfective opposition, referring to different ways of viewing the
internal temporal constituency of a situation
The perfective provides a holistic view upon the event, looking at the situation from outside.
The imperfective is concerned with the internal phases of the situation, it looks at the situation from
inside.
Current approaches
Aspect covers two perspectives.
It is still used to refer to the presentation of events through grammaticized viewpoints such as the
perfective and the imperfective (viewpoint / grammatical aspect).
In addition, the term also refers to the inherent temporal structuring of the situations themselves, internal
event structure or Aktionsart (situation/eventuality-type aspect).
Situation/eventuality type aspect refers to the classification of verbal expressions into states, activities,
achievements, accomplishments and semelfactives (how we conceive of situations or states of affairs).
Both viewpoint aspect and situation type aspect convey info about temporal factors such as the beginning,
end and duration of a state of affairs/situation.
However, we need to draw a clear line between them as situation types and viewpoint aspect are realized
differently in the grammar of language, i.e. they differ in their linguistic expression.

viewpoint aspect (perfective vs imperfective) is marked by a grammatical morpheme in English

(be-ing). It is an overt category.

situation type aspect is marked by a constellation of lexical morphemes. Situation types are
distinguished at the level of the verb constellation (i.e. the verb and its arguments (subjects and
objects) and the sentence (adverbials)). Situation types lack explicit morphological markers.
Situation type aspect exemplifies the notion of a covert category.

(1)

She ate an apple.

(2)

She was eating an apple.

(3)

She walked to the park.

(4)

She was walking to the park.

Since Aspect can be assumed to be defined as the interaction of the lexical meaning of the verb,
the nature of its arguments (subjects and objects) and grammatical inflection, aspectual meaning
holds for sentences rather than for individual verbs or verb phrases.

Sentences present aspectual info about situation type and viewpoint. Although they co-occur, the
two types of info are independent.
Consider:

(5)

Mary walked to school.

(perfective past tense, goal / natural endpoint)

(6)

(imperfective be-ing, goal not reached)

(7)

(perfective, no goal; the event was simply terminated)

Mary was walking to school.

Mary walked in the park.

Interim Conclusions
Aspectual info is given by the linguistic forms of the sentences: situation type is signaled by the verb and
its arguments, while viewpoint is signaled by a grammatical morpheme, usually part of the verb or verb
phrase.
The perfective viewpoint gives info about endpoints (beginning and end).
The imperfective gives info about internal or other stages or phases.
The domain of aspect offers choices within a closed system to the speakers of a language. There is a
small, fixed set of viewpoints and situation/eventuality types. One of each must be chosen whenever a
sentence is framed.
In other words, speakers choices in presenting actual situations are limited by conventional
categorization, conventions of use and the constraints of truth.
The domain of aspect offers choices within a closed system to the speakers of a language. There is a
small, fixed set of viewpoints and situation/eventuality types. One of each must be chosen whenever a
sentence is framed.
In other words, speakers choices in presenting actual situations are limited by conventional
categorization, conventions of use and the constraints of truth.

Features of the situation types

There are three semantic features that help us distinguish among situation types:
[+/- stative]
[+/- telic]
[+/- durative]
They function as shorthand for the cluster of properties that distinguishes them.
[+/- STATIVE] covers the distinction between stasis and motion and separates situation types into the
classes of states and events

activities

accomplishments

achievements

semelfactives

States are the simplest of situation types, consisting of undifferentiated moments.

States are said to hold whereas events occur, happen, take place or culminate.

Events are doings; they are [+ dynamic] or [- stative], involving causation (which includes both
agentive and non-agentive subjects), activity and change.

Events consist of stages/phases rather than undifferentiated moments.

[+/- TELIC] separates situation types into telic and atelic.

Telic situation types are directed towards a goal/outcome, that is, they have a culmination point.
The goal may be intrinsic to the event, in this case constituting its natural endpoint, as it is with
accomplishments and achievements (e.g. break). In other cases, the endpoint is arbitrary, as it is
for activities and semelfactives, which can be stopped or terminated at any time.

The existence of telicity does not necessarily imply the presence of an internal argument (a
syntactic object) and conversely the existence of an internal argument does not imply telicity.

(8)

(telicity given by the particle up; the verb is intransitive/atelic)

(9)

(the verb has a direct object/internal argument, yet the situation is an activity)

Telic events are not limited to events that are under the control of an agent.

(10)

In (10), there is a final point given by the expression to the ground, but the subject is not an
agent.

[+/- DURATIVE] distinguishes between situation types that take time (activities, states,
accomplishments) and instantaneous events (achievements and semelfactives).

Duration is grammaticized overtly or covertly.

John stood up in a second.

John pushed the cart for hours.

The rock fell to the ground.

In English duration is explicitly indicated by adverbials (for phrases) and main verbs (keep,
continue).

The imperfective viewpoint (be ing) is also related to duration, since imperfective focuses on the
internal stages of durative situations. With instantaneous events, which lack an interval, the imperfective
may focus on preliminary or iterated/repeated stages:
(11)

She was jumping up and down.

(repeated activity from a semelfactive)

(12)

The plane was landing.

(preliminary stage from an achievement)

States
States
[+stative]
[+durative]
[+atelic]
States are stable situations.
Typical, basic states are: know the answer, be tall, desire, want.
States are characterized by the features [+ stative] and [+ durative].
The feature [+ telic] is not relevant for states because they are unbounded and have an abstract atemporal
quality. Intuitively, they predicate a quality or property of an individual (possession, location, belief and
other mental states, dispositions, etc).
States
Basic level states
A.

Individual level predicates: permanent, non-temporary states (know, desire, be tall, be

widespread), which describe relatively stable, non-transitory inherent properties that apply to
individuals (objects or kinds)

(13) Daniel knows all about poker.

B.
Stage level predicates: temporary states (be available, be in the garden, be drunk, be angry),
which denote transitory properties and apply to stages of individuals. They are compatible with
expressions of simple duration and punctuality:
(14)

He was angry for an instant.

(15)

She was hungry at noon.

C.
Individual / stage level predicates: with interval statives, that is, with verb constellations of
position and location (sit, lie, perch, sprawl, stand).
They may appear in the progressive, although they involve no agency or change.
(16)
(stage level predicate)

The socks are lying on the bed.

(17)

London lies on the Thames.

(individual level predicate)

(18)

*London is lying on the Thames.

Here, the progressive has a stative interpretation (they denote temporary states), whereas usually the
progressive is associated with an active interpretation. The progressive is acceptable with these predicates
only if the subject denotes a moveable object.
States
Derived states
A.

Generic sentences
B.

Habitual sentences

Events can be recategorized into states, changing into individual level predicates, if used in the simple
present or past. They are semantically stative precisely because they denote properties that hold over
individuals or patterns/generalizations over events rather than specific situations.
(19)

Tigers eat meat. (generic)

My cat eats carrots. (habitual)
He writes novels. (habitual)
Activities / Processes
Activities

[- stative]
[+durative]
[-telic]
The term process is favored over activity because, while activity is associated with human agency,
process encompasses both activities associated with human subjects (external causation) (he
swam/slept/strolled in the park) and activities that are not cases of human agency (the ball rolled/moved,
it rained for hours, the jewels glittered).
Processes are atelic, durative, dynamic events. An activity does not have a goal or natural endpoint. Its
termination is merely cessation of activity, that is, an activity has an arbitrary endpoint, which is why they
simply stop or terminate, but never finish.
(i)

an atelic verb and compatible complements (if any): push a cart, play chess/the piano, laugh,
sleep, think about, dream, walk in the park. etc.

(ii)

an atelic durative verb with a complement that is cumulative or uncountable. These qualify as
multiple-event processes: eat cherries, write letters, drink wine, etc. Multiple events also include
iterations, repetitions of instantaneous events, such as achievements and semelfactives: cough for
five minutes, find pebbles on the beach, etc.

(iii)

(iii) in English, there are other means of changing the telicity of a constellation, for instance
using a particular preposition: read a book (acc.) vs. read at a book (activ.), paint the fence (acc.)
vs. paint away at the fence (activ.)
Accomplishments

Accomplishments
[-stative]
[+durative]
[+telic]
Accomplishments describe change-of-states prepared (brought about/caused) by some activity/process,
the change being the completion of the process: build a bridge, repair a car, drink a glass of wine.
Accomplishments are conceptualized as durative events, consisting of a process and an outcome / change
of state and having successive stages in which the process advances to its conclusion. Thus,
accomplishments are complex events because they have other event types as their components.
Lexical causative verbs are accomplishments (break a window, cook a pie, cool the soup, shelve the
books, poison your roommate).
Resultative constructions (which lexicalize both the causing activity and the resulting state) qualify as
accomplishments:
(20)

a.

The wind shaped the hills into cones.

b.

The maid swept the floor clean.

Verbs plus particle constructions also read as accomplishments: throw something away/down/up/aside/in.
In a nutshell, accomplishment constructions consist of constellations that have:
(i)

Atelic, durative verbs and countable arguments: (21)

(ii)

Atelic, durative verbs and directional complements:

(22)

They drank a glass of beer and left.

The kid walked to school.

(iii) Atelic, durative verbs and certain prepositions:

(23)

The boy ran out.

(iv) Atelic verbs and resultative phrase:

(24)

The alarm clock ticked the baby awake.

Achievements
Achievements

[-stative]
[-durative]
[+telic]
Achievements are instantaneous, single stage events that result in a change of state.
Achievements focus mainly on the change of state, simply leaving out or backgrounding the causing
activity and causing factor.
Stereotypic achievements are: die, reach the top, win the race, arrive, leave, recognize, notice, find a
penny, miss the target, lose the watch, remember, etc.
Semelfactives

Semelfactives
[-stative]
[-durative]
[-telic]
Semelfactives are atelic, instantaneous events: cough, knock, hit, flap a wing, hiccup, slam/bang the door,
kick the ball.
Semelfactives do not have preliminary stages, nor resultant stages.
When they occur with period adverbials and the progressive, they are interpreted as derived durative
processes/activities consisting of a series of repeated, iterated semelfactive events. The predicates are
reinterpreted as multiple-event activities:
(25)

a.

John was kicking the ball when I saw him.

b.

John kicked the ball for five minutes and

then left.