4. The category of aspect

The category of aspect is a system of two member opposemes m the English language such as works - is working, has worked - has been working, to work - to be working showing the character of the action, that is whether the action is taken in its progress, in its development {continuous aspect) or it is simply stated, its nature being unspecified (non-continuous aspect).

In Ukrainian it is also a system of two member opposemes represented by the verbs of perfective and imperfective aspects. Verbs having similar lexical meanings often create aspect pairs (видов! пари: писати - надписати, читати - прочитати).

In the English grammar the problem of aspect is a controversial one. There is but little consensus of opinion about this category in Modern English.

One meets different approaches to the English aspect, which can be briefly summarized as follows:

1. Aspect is interpreted as a category of semantics rather than that of grammar.

2. Aspect is not recognized at all as a category of Modern English grammar.

3. Aspect is blended with tense and regarded as a part of the tense-aspect system.

4. Aspect and tense are recognized as two distinct grammatical categories.

According to the opinion of B. Khaimovich and B. Rogovskaya [24; 135-136] the category expressed by the opposition of the

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continuous and the non-continuous forms is not that of tense, for example, the forms wrote - was writing are opposed not as tense forms. Both of them express the same tense - the past.

Likewise it would be correct to disagree that aspect as a grammatical category cannot be separated from tense. As we know, in actual speech all the grammatical meanings of a word always go together in a bunch. Thus in tells we find a) present tense, b) active voice, c) indicative mood, d) singular number, etc.

It does not follow however, that we are unable to separate the category of mood from the category of tense or the category of voice from that of aspect. By opposing tells to told and will tell we single out the category of tense; by contrasting tells with is telling we bring to light the category of aspect. Thus aspect is as closely connected with tense, as it is with voice, mood, person, number, etc.

The categories of tense and aspect characterize an action from different points of view. The tense of a verb shows the time of action, while the aspect of a verb deals with the development of action.

With regard to the category of aspect verbs are divided into those that have aspect opposites and those that have not. The latter are united by the oblique or lexico-grammatical, or potential meaning of "non-continuous aspect". As usual, the neutralization of "aspect" opposemes depends on the lexical meanings of the corresponding verbs.

Here is a brief enumeration of some groups of verbs usually having no aspect opposites in English:

1. Verbs presenting diverse relations as actions - belong, contain, consist, date, possess, resemble, result, etc.

2. Certain link-verbs (mostly those of "seeming") such as appear, look, prove, seem, turn out, etc.

3. Verbs of "physical perception" (see, hear, feel, smell), denoting constant properties viewed as actions.

4. Verbs of "mental perceptions" (believe, dislike, distrust, hate, hope, know, like, trust, understand, etc.) which are likewise, verbs of weak dynamic force.

5. "Point-action" verbs, denoting instantaneous acts of very short duration, unless such acts are repeated (burst, jump, drop, pick up, etc.).

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origin these gender forms are by themselves the forms of short participles that entered the structure of ancient analytical forms of the past tense (еемь писалъ).

Verbal gender forms express the person, denoted by the personal pronoun or noun that fulfills the function of the subject. So, the verbal gender forms are the forms of coordination of the verb with the subject and that is why to a large extent they have the formal meaning (but of course there is no any difference in the character of the action performed, dependent on this or that person) [5; 73].