The Category of Aspect

The category of aspect is concerned with the internal character of the process denoted by the verb: the process can be durative (i.e. considered as continuing or as being in progress) or non-durative (i.e. considered as non-continuing, or completed). Consider: John wrote letters yesterday; John wrote two letters yesterday. As can be seen, the form wrote in the two sentences denotes two types of process: durative and non-durative. This is a case of the lexical aspect since wrote has no morphological, or grammatical markers that would signal one or the other aspect. Thanks to the peculiarities of meaning, write depends on the context. It can denote either a process seen as developing or a process seen as accomplished.

Theoretical grammar is naturally concerned with grammaticalized aspective forms. Unfortunately, English can express duration only grammatically (completion is expressed lexically). However, duration expressed by the so-called progressive forms differs from the duration expressed lexically. To see the difference, compare the following sentences:

John wrote letters yesterday, vs. John was writing a letter when his wife returned.

Here the durative process of wrote is not tied to a specific moment, i.e. the duration of the process is not specific in this case. But the process of was writing concerns a specific moment - when his wife returned. Specific duration is a relatively short duration, i.e. the process is viewed as temporary. Cf. He walks to work every morning, vs. He is walking to work now/this week. The moment the progressive form is connected with may denote a short or a relatively long period (now vs. this week, this year) treated as a specific point of time. As the process denoted by the progressive form is specific, the present, past and future forms can be referred to as the real present, the real past and the real future compared to the corresponding non-progressive forms which generally denote habitual situations (e.g. John walks to work).

The phases of the process can be explicitly expressed only in true context. Consider:

1. Mother was just boiling water when the telephone rang (the beginning phase).

2. Between 10 and 12 I was working in the library (the beginning, the middle and the terminal phases).

Being confined to a particular moment, dynamic durative situations are of relatively limited duration, the limit being established by appropriate temporal circumstances (now, today, this week, this month, this year, this century, this millennium, etc.). As for non-specific (i.e. habitual) durative situations, their duration is not restricted in this way: they are typically restricted by circumstances denoting the frequency of the process, e.g. John works in the library every day, where every day indicates that we are dealing with a multiple situation rather than a singular situation. Such circumstantial elements as this week, this month may be said to express a

multiple situation as well: this week = seven weekdays.

The category of aspect, then, consists of two members: progressive and non-progressive. The progressive form is marked and the non-progressive is unmarked. Outside a context, the unmarked form, denotes non-specific duration or non-duration, or completion. Consider:

Mother was reading old letters yesterday (specific duration).

Mother read old letters yesterday (non-specific duration).

Mother read two old letters yesterday (non-duration).