ASPECT

Introduction

Aspect vs. Tense. Like Tense, Aspect is a functional category which characterizes the same
lexical category – the Verb. While Tense and Aspect are related not only semantically, in the sense that
they both pertain to the domain of Time since they characterize situations which unfold or are placed in
time, but also morpho-syntactically, in so far as both are lexicalized by auxiliaries (do for tense, be and
have for aspect) and verb inflections (-s, -ed for tense, -ing and -en for aspect), they nevertheless
convey distinct information about the temporal properties of a situation. Consider the examples below:

a. Max wrote a review.

b. Max was writing a review when the lights went out / at 7 o'clock last night.

In both sentences, the situation 'Max write a review' is described using a past tense. Where the
two sentences differ is not in terms of Tense, as both express situations which occur in the past, but in
terms of Aspect, although traditional grammars do distinguish between the two sentences with respect
to tense (Simple Past Tense (wrote) vs. Past Continuous (was writing)). Thus, the first sentence views
the situation as a whole / as completed or closed, whereas the second sentence focuses only on some
internal stage in the unfolding of the situation, without providing information either about its beginning
or its end. Specifically, we do not know when Max began writing the review or whether he finished
writing it, we only know that his writing the review was in progress when the lights went out / at 7
o'clock last night.
The examples above indicate that Aspect and Tense differ in so far as they provide different
information about the temporal properties of a situation:
→ Tense – represents the chronological order of events in time as perceived by the speaker at
the moment of speaking; it locates the time of the event in the sentence relative to NOW
→ Aspect – describes the internal temporal structure of events, i.e., it gives information about
the contour of the event as viewed by the speaker at a given moment in time

In traditional grammars, aspect is used to characterize the perfective – imperfective opposition,

referring to different ways of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a situation:
The perfective – provides a holistic view upon the event, looking at the situation from outside
 The imperfective – is concerned with the internal phases of the situation, it looks at the situation
from inside
In current approaches, aspect covers two perspectives. It is still used to refer to the presentation
of events through grammaticized viewpoints such as the perfective and the imperfective (viewpoint /
grammatical aspect). In addition, the term also refers to the inherent temporal structuring of the
situations themselves, internal event structure or Aktionsart (situation/eventuality-type aspect/lexical
aspect). Situation/eventuality type aspect refers to the classification of verbal expressions into states,
activities, achievements, accomplishments and semelfactives (how we conceive of situations or states
of affairs).

Both viewpoint aspect and situation type aspect convey information about temporal factors such
as the beginning, end and duration of a state of affairs/situation. However, we need to draw a clear line
between them, as situation types and viewpoint aspect are realized differently in the grammar of
language, i.e., they differ in their linguistic expression:
- viewpoint aspect (perfective vs imperfective) is signaled by a grammatical morpheme in
English (be+ing); it is an overt category. The perfective - imperfective opposition is not fully
grammaticized, but the opposition progressive-non-progressive partially covers it, i.e., the
imperfective viewpoint is marked by be+ing. The perfective viewpoint is conveyed by the
simple temporal form of the verb with no distinct morphological marking.
- situation type aspect is signaled by a constellation of lexical morphemes. Situation types are
distinguished at the level of the verb constellation (i.e., the verb and its arguments (subjects and
objects) and the sentence (adverbials)). Situation types lack explicit morphological markers.
Situation type aspect exemplifies the notion of a covert category.

The two components of the aspectual system of a language interact with each other in all
languages, although crosslinguistically, aspectual systems vary considerably, particularly the
viewpoint subsystem. Situation types can be distinguished as covert categories in all languages.

Since Aspect is defined as the interaction of the lexical meaning of the verb, the nature of its
arguments (subjects and objects) and grammatical inflection, aspectual meaning holds for sentences
rather than for individual verbs or verb phrases. However, the verb is the aspectual centre of a
sentence. Verbs have an intrinsic aspectual value, established based on their aspectual contribution
to a maximally simple sentence. A maximally simple sentence is either intransitive [subject +
 intransitive verb (He walked.)] or has a quantized direct object [subject + verb + direct object (He
read a book.)] (basic level VP constellations).
Sentences concomitantly present aspectual information about both situation type and viewpoint.
Although they co-occur, the two types of information are independent. The reason why aspect is
viewed as covering these two dimensions is that, as we will see later, viewpoint and other elements
in a given sentence may trigger a change in the aspectual class of a predicate, i.e., in its situation
type (this phenomenon is called 'the recategorization of aspectual classes'). Consider the examples
below:

Mary walked in the park. (perfective, no goal; the event was simply terminated)
Mary walked to the park. (perfective, goal / natural endpoint)
Mary walked towards the park. (perfective, potential goal / natural endpoint)
Mary was walking to/towards the park. (imperfective – be+ing, potential goal)

SITUATION-TYPE/LEXICAL ASPECT
Conceptual features of situation types

Situation types are semantic categories of language, classes of idealized situations with
distinctive temporal features. (C. Smith 1997)
There are three sets of semantic features that help us distinguish among situation types: [+/-
stative], [+/- telic] and [+/- durative]. They function as shorthand for the clusters of properties that
distinguish them.

[+/- STATIVE] covers the distinction between ‘stasis’ and ‘motion’ and separates situation types into
the classes of states and events (activities, accomplishments, achievements and semelfactives). States
are the simplest of situation types, consisting of undifferentiated moments. States are said to ‘hold’
whereas events occur, happen, take place or culminate. Events are doings; they are [+ dynamic] or [-
stative], involving causation (which includes both agentive and non-agentive subjects), activity and
change. Events consist of stages/phases rather than undifferentiated moments.

[+/- TELIC] separates situation types into telic and atelic. Telic situation types are directed towards a
goal/outcome, that is, they have a culmination point. The goal may be intrinsic to the event, in this case
constituting its natural endpoint, as it is with accomplishments and achievements. In other cases, the
endpoint is arbitrary, as it is for activities and semelfactives, which can be stopped or terminated at any
time.

N.B. The existence of telicity does not necessarily imply the presence of an internal argument (a
syntactic object) and, conversely, the existence of an internal argument does not automatically imply
telicity:

a) John stood up in a second. (telicity given by the particle ‘up’; the verb is intransitive/atelic)
b) John pushed the cart for hours. (+ Direct Object/internal argument, yet the situation is an
activity)

N.B. Telic events are not limited to events that are under the control of an agent. In The rock fell to the
ground., there is a final point given by the expression ‘to the ground’, but the subject is not an agent.

[+/- DURATIVE] distinguishes between situation types that take time (activities, states,
accomplishments) and instantaneous events (achievements and semelfactives). Duration is
grammaticized overtly or covertly. In English duration is explicitly indicated by adverbials (for
phrases) and main verbs (keep, continue). The imperfective viewpoint (be+ing) is also related to
duration, since the imperfective focuses on the internal stages of durative situations. With instantaneous
events, which lack an interval, the imperfective may focus on preliminary or iterated/repeated stages:

She was jumping up and down. (repeated activity from a semelfactive)

The plane was landing. (preliminary stage from an achievement)

+/- stative +/- durative +/- telic

States Stative Durative Atelic
Activities Dynamic Durative Atelic
Accomplishments Dynamic Durative Telic
Achievements Dynamic Instantaneous Telic
Semelfactives Dynamic Instantaneous Atelic
STATES

States are stable situations. Typical, basic states are: know the answer, be tall, desire, want.
States are characterized by the features [+ stative] and [+ durative]. The feature [+/- telic] is not
relevant for states because they are unbounded and have an abstract atemporal quality. Intuitively, they
predicate a quality or property of an individual (possession, location, belief and other mental states,
dispositions, etc.).
There are different types of states: basic-level states and derived stative predicates.

Basic-level states
According to the type of referent they apply to, basic states separate into predicates that apply to
individuals (kinds of objects or objects) or to stages of individuals. Thus, English syntactically
distinguishes between:
a) Individual level predicates: permanent, non-temporary states (know, desire, be tall, be
widespread), which describe relatively stable, non-transitory inherent properties that apply to
individuals (objects or kinds)
b) Stage level predicates: temporary states (be available, be in the garden, be drunk, be angry),
which denote transitory properties and apply to stages of individuals. They are compatible with
expressions of simple duration and punctuality: He was angry for an instant. She was hungry at
noon.
c) Individual / stage level predicates: with interval statives, that is, with verb constellations of
position and location (sit, lie, perch, sprawl, stand). They may appear in the progressive,
although they involve no agency or change.
The socks are lying on the bed. (stage level predicate)
London lies on the Thames. (individual level predicate)
*London is lying on the Thames.
Here, the progressive has a stative interpretation (the sentence denotes a temporary state),
whereas, usually, the progressive is associated with an active interpretation. The progressive is
acceptable with these predicates only if the subject denotes a moveable object, hence the
ungrammaticality of the third sentence in which London does not qualify as a moveable object.

Derived statives
a) generic sentences
 b) habitual sentences
Events can be recategorized into states, changing into individual level predicates, if used in the
simple present or the simple past. They are semantically stative precisely because they denote
properties that hold over individuals or patterns/generalizations over events rather than specific
situations.

Tigers eat meat. (generic)

My cat eats carrots. (habitual) / Her brother wrote novels. (habitual)

N.B. Perception verbs (see), verbs of feeling (like, love) and some verbs of mental states (know,
understand), which are stative at the basic level of classification, may also have an achievement
interpretation in the context of adverbs like ‘suddenly’ or with completive adverbials (IN-phrases).
Compare:

I saw the city hall from my window. (state)

Suddenly, I saw a star. (achievement)
I like music. (state)
I liked him in a second. (achievement)

ACTIVITIES (PROCESSES)

The term ‘process’ is favored over ‘activity’ because, while ‘activity’ is associated with human
agency, “process” encompasses both activities associated with human subjects (he swam/slept/strolled
in the park) and activities that are not cases of human agency (the ball rolled/moved, it rained for
hours, the jewels glittered).
Processes are atelic, durative, dynamic events. An activity does not have a goal or natural
endpoint. Its termination is merely cessation of activity, that is, an activity has an arbitrary endpoint,
which is why they simply ‘stop’ or ‘terminate’, but never ‘finish’.
Activities have the subinterval property, i.e., any part of the process is of the same nature as the
whole. [If α is a process, then if α is true at I, then α is true at all subintervals of I which are longer than
a moment.] This is why the imperfective process sentence entails the perfective sentence: x is V-ing
entails x has V-ed (he is running → he has run).
Activities can combine with FOR-phrases, they are complements of stop, spend an α amount of
time V-ing and may co-occur with volitional adverbs (Agent-oriented modifiers) – carefully,
deliberately, studiously, attentively.

Process sentences are based on verb constellations that may consist of:
a) an atelic verb and compatible complements (if any): push a cart, play chess/the piano, laugh,
sleep, think about, dream, walk (in the park), run (along the beach), enjoy, etc.
b) an atelic durative verb with a complement that is cumulative or uncountable. These qualify as
multiple-event processes: eat cherries, write letters, drink wine, etc. Multiple events also
include repetitions of instantaneous events, such as achievements and semelfactives: cough for
five minutes, find pebbles on the beach all afternoon, etc.
c) in English, there are other means of changing the telicity of a constellation, for instance using a
particular preposition: read a book (accomplishment) vs. read at a book (activity), paint the
fence (accomplishment) vs. paint away at the fence (activity).

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Accomplishments describe change-of-state/location situations prepared (brought about/caused)

by some activity/process, the change being the completion of the process: build a bridge, repair a car,
drink a glass of wine, eat an apple, draw a circle, bottle the wine, corral the horses (they are typically
transitive verbs with a quantized direct object). Accomplishments are conceptualized as durative
events, consisting of a process and an outcome/change of state/location and having successive stages in
which the process advances to its conclusion. Thus, accomplishments are complex events because they
have other event types as their components.
An accomplishment is a causal structure of the type “e1 causes e2” where e1 is the causing
activity/process and e2 is the resulting (change of) state/location.

Mary bottled the wine.

to bottle (the wine): ((x ACT) CAUSE (y COME TO BE/BECOME in bottle))
↓ ↓
Mary (Agent) activity (e1) the wine (Theme) achievement (e2) [e1 CAUSE e2]
The complex internal structure of accomplishments accounts for their compatibility with both
FOR-phrases / spend α time V-ing / stop and IN-phrases / take α time to V / finish. For the same reason
they are ambiguous with the adverb almost, which may modify either e1 or e2 (it may refer to either the
initial or the final endpoint):

John almost opened the door.

a. He didn't quite get to the door.
b. He didn't quite get the door open.

Accomplishments (as well as achievements) do not have the subinterval property. [If α is an
event, then if α is true at I, then α is false at all subintervals of I.] As a result, x is V-ing does not entail x
has V-ed (he is eating an apple does not entail he has eaten an apple).

Lexical causative verbs are accomplishments (derived by suffixation (N/A +ize, +ify, +en),
prefixation (en + N/A, be + N) or conversion from N/A): crystallize, solidify, blacken,
endanger/enrich, behead, shelve the books, poison your roommate, dry the clothes, clean the room.
(verb + countable arguments)
Also, resultative constructions (which lexicalize both the causing process and the resulting
state) and Goal of Motion constructions (atelic verbs and directional PP complements) qualify as
accomplishments:

The gardener watered the plants flat/to the ground.

The athlete ran his sneakers threadbare.
He sang himself hoarse.
He slammed the door open. / The door slammed open.
The people were taxed into poverty.

The kid walked to school.

John swam across the river.
The kid jumped onto the chair.
The truck rumbled through the tunnel.
Arrows buzzed/whined/whizzed across the river.

ACHIEVEMENTS
 Achievements are instantaneous, single stage events that result in a change of state/location
(die, reach the top, win the race, arrive, leave, recognize, notice, find a penny, miss the target, lose the
watch, remember, etc.).
Achievements focus mainly on the change of state/location, simply leaving out or
backgrounding the causing activity and causing factor, so their event structure does not consist of
e1→e2, instead, there is only e2 (the BECOME event). They describe events that are punctual, i.e., they
describe the moment at which there is a transition to a result state/location. Thus, they are like
accomplishments in being defined by a result state/location. Unlike accomplishments, the verb itself
does not lexicalize an accompanying process, though with some verbs, such as arrive, some
unspecified accompanying process is presupposed; with others, such as notice, none is.

Carey broke the window.

The gas main exploded.
The train arrived at the station.
The appraiser noticed the flaw in the glass.

Even if some achievements may be preceded by some preparatory activity (land, die, arrive,
reach the top, win the race), this instantaneous type does not conceptualize it. But bear in mind that we
can focus on the preliminary stage and turn the achievement into an activity if we employ the
progressive:

The plane landed. (achievement)

The plane was landing. (activity – preliminary stage)
vs. I've been finding mushrooms all morning. (repeated activity)

The predicates that do not presuppose a preparatory activity are known as ‘lucky achievements’:
find, recognize, discover, notice, lose, remember, etc.

Achievements cannot be complements of either stop or finish, as these verbs require that their
complements have duration (*He stopped/finished arriving home.). They are incompatible with FOR-
phrases, but they combine with IN-phrases. However, IN-phrases actually have an ‘after’ interpretation
with achievements, rather than a duration of the event interpretation as they do with accomplishments.
 Smith climbed the mountain in six hours. (event took six hours)
Smith reached the summit in six hours. (‘reached after six hours’)

The achievements that can combine with IN-phrases are only those that have an associated
process. Lucky achievements are odd with IN-phrases (*Dale won the lottery in two days).

SEMELFACTIVES (< Latin semel = once, single time, factum = event)

Semelfactives are atelic, instantaneous events: cough, knock, hit, flap a wing, hiccup, slam/bang
the door, kick the ball, hop, wink, blink. Semelfactives do not have preliminary stages, nor resultant
stages (there is no inherent endpoint specified).
Semelfactives cannot be complements of finish, since finish requires that its complement
describe an event that involves both a process and a culmination (*Kelly finished blinking.) Similarly,
they cannot be complements of stop (which requires [+durative] complements), unless the combination
receives an iterated/repeated interpretation (She stopped hitting him. - multiple-event process/repeated
activity).
Semelfactives are compatible with both FOR- and IN-phrases, but are attributed special
readings. When they occur with period adverbials (FOR-phrases), as well as with the progressive, they
are interpreted as derived durative processes/activities consisting of a series of repeated, iterated
semelfactive events.

He slammed the door for two minutes.

John kicked the ball for five minutes and then left.
John was kicking the ball when I saw him.

When they occur with IN-phrases, the IN-phrases receive an 'after' interpretation, just like in the
case of achievements (i.e., the IN-phrase describes an interval at the end of which the event occurs):

John knocked on the door in five minutes.

After five minutes passed, John knocked on the door.