Under aspect scholars understand a mode (a phase) of an action that is continuity,

progressiveness, completion or resultativity or instantaneousness. The following

problems are open to discussion here:
the existence of aspect
the character of the category
the number of aspects
the interrelations between tenses and aspects
the paradigmatic meaning of the continuous form

1) Existence of the category: Some scholars don't recognize aspect as

a#morphological category. Some scholars hold that aspectual relations of
completeness - incompleteness, continuity are expressed contextually by lexico-
grammatical means; the continuous forms are treated as tenses.
2) The character. Those who recognize it find it either to be logical category or a
grammatical category.

3) the number: Scholars who treat aspect as a logical category distinguish 5

aspects:
ingressive (denotes an initial phase) He awoke early. He often gets sick.
durative (continuing action) He is gating.
effective (final point) She's done it
terminative (action as a finished whole) It hit the target
iterative (repeated action) He would come here. He pooh-poohs at everything

Doichby, Kennedy, Kruisinga shared the same point of view:

the imperfect aspect (He was doing that)
the perfect aspect (He has done it)
the indefinite aspect
Barkhudarov, Smirnitsky, Ilyish, Khlebnikova distinguish 2 aspects:
the common
the continuous
This category is based on the binary privative (�����., �������. �-�) opposition of
forms:
Reads - is reading
Has read - has been reading

4) Interrelations between tense and aspect: The category of aspect penetrates

other#verbal categories. The categories of tense and aspect are blended; they are
inseparable and#should be treated conjointly. Vorontsova, Ivanova advanced this
view. Tense#and aspect are two distinct categories, tense showing the time of an
action and aspect#showing the development of an action (Barkhudarov, Smirnitsky,
Ilyish).

5) Paradigmatic meaning of continuous form is interpreted as duration or

limited#duration (Jespersen), simultaneity (Vorontsova), continuity within certain
time limits#(Ilyish).
Blokh distinguished the aspectual category of development, which is based on the
opposition of the continuous and incontinuous forms. The distinction between
continuous and incontinuous forms can be neutralised:
You are always complaining - you always complain.
The continuous forms are redundant (����������, ������������). The semantic content
of continuous forms comes to be rather complex. We can distinguish the paradigmatic
invariant seme of continuity and syntagmatic semes of permanence, timelessness,
futurity, emotiveness, intensiveness, expressiveness, and evaluation.

There are some factors in modern English, which occasion the frequent usage of
continuous forms:
artistic considerations as continuous forms are more emphatic;
psychological tendencies which prove the impulsiveness and aggressiveness of the
British people; British are not so reserved;
continuous forms are more frequent in the speech of females as they are more
emotional.
As the result of the semantic disagreement between the non-dynamic meaning of the
verb and dynamic meaning of the continuous form a grammatical metaphor is being
born which makes discourse more dynamic, emotive, evaluatory.
I'm not listening, I'm not seeing, I'm not feeling.
I'm falling in love with you again.