Verbal aspect

Aspect is a translation into English of the Russian word вид which is a well-known grammatical category of Slavonic languages.

In the oppositions петь — запеть, играть — заиграть, сиять — засиять the first element represents a process in its middle stage, while the second emphasizes its ingressive limit. Such oppositions, however, do not constitute the category of the Russian aspect because they cover not the whole class of verbs but only relatively few of them. For in­stance, ingression is not expressed by the second element of the following pairs: лететь — залететь, писать — записать, чистить—зачистить.

Consider now the following oppositions: Он запел — Он запевал, Он подбежал — Он подбегал, Он достал платок — Он доставал пла­ток. In запел emphasis is laid on the ingressive, in подбежал on the egressive limit, in достал on both, because достал means neither начал доставать nor кончил доставать but represents the verbal process as a whole. The second element of the three pairs represents the process in its middle stage. This is true of the whole class of Russian verbs. Representation of processes with or without any emphasis laid on their qualitative limits constitutes, therefore, the grammatical category of aspect of the Russian language.

Broadly, aspect can be defined as a system of oppositions of different verbal forms referring to different modes of action.

The base of the Russian aspect is the qualitative limit, that of the English aspect, as it will be shown, is the speed of the development of processes in time. Some languages, such as German, have no category of aspect whatever.

Finite and non-finite verbal forms

In accordance with its origin (L. finitus limited), a finite verbal form is one limited by person, number, time relations, voice, mood, and aspect. Finite forms are opposed to non-finite: the participle, the infinitive, and the gerund. Since, however, the non-finite forms are also limited by some of these categories, the terms Predicate Verbal Forms and Non-predicate Verbal Forms should be preferred, or else the term finite form should be understood as a verbal form used in the function of the simple predicate or the first verbal part of any other kind of predicate.

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Part I grammatical content of the finite forms grammatical categories of the english verb

The English verb has different forms to refer:

1. To the speaker or the one addressed (first and second person) or anyone or anything else (third person), e. g.: I (you) write — He writes.

2. To one or more than one person or thing, e. g.: He writes — They write.

3. To different time relations, e. g.: I write — I wrote — I shall write; I have written — I had written — I shall have written.

4. To different mood relations, e. g.: If he was here now— If he were here now.

5. To different qualitative features of verbal processes, e. g.: He breathed now very quickly, now so slowly that one began to wonder whether he was breathing at all (A. Huxley).

6. To different relations between the subject and the predicate, e. g.: We asked him — He was asked.

Verbal forms denoting different time relations are referred to as tenses (ME tens from L. tempus). In present-day grammar books, how­ever, the term tense also covers aspectual meanings of the verbal forms (Cf., e. g.: The Future Indefinite Tense and The Future Continuous Tense).

Since the six kinds of oppositions of verbal forms listed above are systematic, they constitute the six grammatical categories of the Eng­lish verb, namely, the categories of person, number, time relations, mood, aspect, and voice.