The definition of the category



The category of aspect shows the manner in which the action is presented. The general meaning of the category of aspect is the inherent mode of realization of the process. Aspect is closely connected with time semantics, showing, as A. M. Peshkovsky puts it, “the distribution of the action in time”, or the “temporal structure” of the action.

Different approaches to the number and kinds of aspects. Aspect and the manner of action. (Aktionsart).The problem of differentiating between grammatical and semantic categories.

Aspect and the aspective character of the verb.The problem of differentiating between grammatical and lexico-grammatical categories.The essence of the category of aspect.The number of aspects in English.The problem of the perfect forms in English (different approaches).

The term “aspect” came to Germanic lang-s from Slavonic ones. It presents a disputable problem in modern English grammar. Old Russian grammarians used to distinguish the foll. aspects in Rus.:начинательный вид;завершительный вид;вид ограниченного протекания действия (погулять);прерывчатый вид (переглядываться);моментальный вид (вздрогнуть, вскочить).By the cat-ry of aspect they understood diff. manners in which actions develop in time and consequently they took into consideration the lexical and lexico-gr-al meanings of w-s which are usu. ex-ed in Rus. by affixation, i.e. by means of prefixes, infixes and suffixes. But later on this v.p. was rejected by many grammarians because all those affixes were treated as word-building mor-mes but not word-forming ones. The cat-ry of aspect expresses the way the action takes place or the manner of the action. This definition takes into consideration only the m-ngs of verbs ignoring gr-al forms. That’s why in modern Rus. grammar books they dist-sh only 2 aspects: совершенный (terminative) and несовершенный (interminative) aspects. Curme used to dist-sh the foll. aspects:1.The durative aspect (remain, keep on, go on, continue+doing smth, sit, love, hate). 2.The point-action aspects. They call attention not to an act as a whole but to only one point, either the beginning or the final point.:-the ingressive aspect (He awoke early. -the effective (resultative) aspect is ex-ed with such resultative verbs as to build, to write, to eat up, etc. He knocked him out in the fourth round.3. The terminative aspect is ex-ed by such terminative verbs which ex-s actions which begin and terminate within a limited period: to hit, to hand, to shoot, to pierce, to stumble, to kill, to flash.4. The iterative aspect expresses the indefinitely prolonged succession of like acts: He pooh-poohs at everything. He threw his head back and haw-hawed. to tap-tap.Сигурт Агрель He suggested calling all those m-ngs ex-ed by verbs the semantic cat-ry of the manner of action, since they are not ex-ed gr-ly.There was one more attempt to dist-sh 2 aspects in Eng.: the terminative and interminative aspects on the analogy of the Rus. aspects. All unlimitive verbs such as live, hate, sit, stand were included into the interminative aspect and all the limitive verbs such as break, kill, come were treated as the verbs belonging to the terminative aspect. Deutschbein suggested calling this semantic cat-ry of terminateness and interminateness as the lexico-gr-al cat-ry of the aspective character of the verb.That’s why they dist-ed the Indefinite and the Continuous aspects in Eng. The Indef. form is the unmarked member and the Contin. form is the marked member of the opposition which is ex-ed analytically with the help of the auxiliary verb be+Part.I.There are 2 more gr-al forms in Eng.: the Perfect and the Perfect-Continuous forms, which aroused a lot of disputes among grammarians. There are the foll. app-ches to them:1.They are treated as the forms of the c-ry of tense (Otto Jesperso) 2. It is a special c-ry belonging neither to tense nor aspect cat-s.3.Acc. to Deutschbein, Sonnenschein, West and Vorontsova the Perfect forms are the forms of the c-ry of aspect and they term the Perf. forms the transmissive aspect, 4. This was the reason why prof. Akhmanova termed this c-ry ex-ed by the Perf. forms as the c-ry of taxis (Greek “order”). The Am. ling-st Bloomfield calls it the c-ry of order. 5. Some grammarians such as Кошевая, treat the Perf. forms as the forms of the c-ry of contact, i.e. they ex-s a contact bet-n the actions in the past and in the present. Like time, aspect can be expressed both by lexical and grammatical means. This is one more grammatical domain in which English differs dramatically from Russian: in Russian, aspect is rendered by lexical means only, through the subdivision of verbs into perfective and imperfective, делать – сделать; видеть – увидеть; etc. In Russian the aspective classification of verbs is constant and very strict; it presents one of the most typical characteristics of the grammatical system of the verb and governs its tense system formally and semantically. In English, as shown in Unit 10, the aspective meaning is manifested in the lexical subdivision of verbs into limitive and unlimitive, e.g.: to go – to come, to sit – sit down, etc. But most verbs in English migrate easily from one subclass to the other and their aspective meaning is primarily rendered by grammatical means through special variable verbal forms.

The members of the aspect opposition are the Indefinite and the Continuous forms. The Indefinite form presents an action as a mere fact. That's why it is used to denote habitual, recurrent actions, well-known facts, succession of events, etc.

 The Continuous form presents an action as a developing process. It is used to denote an action going on at a given moment or period of time.

• Professor Smirnitsky was the first to prove that aspect is inherent to the English verb and that it is expressed in a two - member opposeme: writes - is writing, the marked member of which is the Continuous aspect, the unmarked one is the common aspect.

• The Continuous aspect may stress the development of the action or its temporary character: Are you feeling cold?

• The Common aspect has a very broad meaning; it can express even a continuous action if it is one of many in a succession (I worked in the garden for 2 hours, then I had a rest for an hour and after that I went for a walk).

• As the main function of the common aspect is naming facts, it is used in stage directions: He covers his face. She runs to the door.

• Many scholars (Smirnitsky) are of the opinion that the English perfect – non-perfect forms represent a special grammatical category – the category of correlation which is expressed in the system of two-member opposemes: writes – has written; wrote – had written; writing – having written; to be written – to have been written, etc.

 showing whether the action is viewed as prior to (perfect forms) or irrespective of other actions or situations (non-perfect forms) (Smirnitsky, Barkhudarov).


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