Teaching aspect via english

kent lee k-lee7 at students.uiuc.edu
Tue Dec 10 13:12:49 EST 2002



   Aspect, like argument structure, is a murky area. A fairly good intro
is Bernard Comrie's book, _Aspect_. The problem is that verbs have their
own inherent aspect, which then maps onto the grammatical/morphological
aspect (e.g., English simple present often represents habitual aspect,
progressive represents continuative/progressive/continual aspect --
linguists don't necessarily use uniform terminology here).
   Take for example the verb 'hit'. It's inherently a punctiliar aspect
verb -- it inherently denotes one-time action. In simple present, it
denotes usually habitual/customary action: 'Hillary hits Bill with a
baguette', implying regular action, say, every evening. In the
progressive, it denotes iterative aspect - repeated action: 'Hillary was
hitting Bill (repeatedly) with a baguette'.
   On the other hand, many verbs like 'sleep' are inherently durative --
an on-going rather than punctiliar activity. In simple present it's again
habitual: 'Bill sleeps on the couch (every night)'. In progressive, it
denotes continual aspect -- one on-going activity: 'Bill was sleeping on
the couch (last night)'.
   As seen above, semantics doesn't map onto morphology so neatly. Another
example is the 'do' auxiliary in English, used not for aspect but for
other things like negatives (doesn't go), questions (do you..?), and
emphatic expressions: 'He does go jogging'.

kent lee
Univ. of Illinois




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