ASPECT, TENSE & MODALITY

(Sergio F. Rodríguez – 2020)

ASPECT
'Aspect' is a non-deictic1 (grammatical and lexical) category that allows us to portray the
internal temporal shape of an event (e.g. completed, ongoing, dynamic, punctual, etc.).

“Aspect specifies the internal temporal structure of a situation.” (Smith 1991: 135)

“As the general definition of aspect, we may take the formulation that 'aspects are different
ways of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a situation'.” (Comrie 1976: 3)

“Aspects have to do, not with the location of an event in time, but with its temporal
distribution or contour.” (Hockett 1958: 237)

(Kroeger 2018: 400)

We will be considering a two-tiered theory of aspect:

 Aktionsart (also called 'situation aspect', 'lexical aspect', 'inner aspect', mode d´action)
 'Viewpoint aspect' (also called 'grammatical aspect', 'outer aspect')

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Deictic systems are those in which a speaker relates the here-and-now of the situation of utterance to its
extralinguistic context (time, place, person, etc.). “A system which relates entities to a reference point is
termed a deictic system, and we can therefore say that tense is deictic.” (Comrie 1985: 14) Aspect,
however, is non-deictic, i.e. it is not related to a 'deictic centre'' (Comrie 1985), 'orientation point' (Smith
1997) or 'anchoring point' (Saeed 2009).
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 EXERCISES

 A) Fill in the blanks in this grid with [+] or [-].

SITUATION TYPE [stative] [durative] [telic] EXAMPLE TRANSLATION
State Be tired Estado
Activity Play Actividad
Accomplishment Make a cake Efectuación /
Realización
Semelfactive Sneeze Semelfactivo
Achievement Arrive Logro

 B) In each of the following groups, spot one situation type which is different from the other
three and explain why.
1) Speak German / recognize someone / die / land in Japan
2) Walk to school / write three novels / swim in the river / smoke a cigar
3) Know the answer / build a bridge / be in the kitchen / own a house
4) Sneeze / tap / nod / eat
5) Run in the park / push the cart for three hours / push the cart to the shed / play tennis

 C) How do the following compare?

1) Es feliz. / Está feliz.
2) Escribió un ensayo. / Escribía un ensayo.
3) What do you think will happen? / What are you thinking about? / What are you thinking of
doing?
4) I see John is making progress. / I am seeing John tomorrow.
5) The soup tastes good. / I´m tasting the soup.

ASPECTUAL SENSITIVITY AND COERCION EFFECTS

(Kroeger 2018: 397)

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 EXERCISE: What coercion effects do the following examples manifest?

1.

2.

3.

4. a. He hung the picture on the wall.

b. The picture is hanging on the wall.
c. Many of his finest pictures hang/are hung in the National Gallery.
d. Hang the pheasant/Let the pheasant hang for a few days for the flavour to
improve before you cook it.

5. a. He won the race.

b. He was winning the race.

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 TENSE
EXERCISES

 A) How do the following compare?

1.

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 2. a. Tense
b. Aspect

 B) Are the following true or false? Why?

1. The term 'tense' refers to the continuous passage of existence in which events pass from
a state of potentiality in the future through the present to a state of finality in the past.
2. Relative tenses/forms have no deictic centre.
3. Tense is a functional category.
4. Some languages are tenseless.
5. Tense and aspect are deictic categories.
6. There may be no correspondence between time and tense.
7. The terms 'Aktionsart' and 'viewpoint' are synonymous.
8. The word 'telic' comes from the Greek word telos, which means 'culmination'.
9. Many linguists use the terms 'telic' and 'bounded' as synonyms.
10. In Carlota Smith´s theory of aspect, aspectual meaning results from the interaction of
two independent subcomponents: situation type and viewpoint.
11. Aspect has to do, not with the location of an event in time, but with its temporal
distribution or contour.
12. The terms 'situation type' and 'inner aspect' are synonymous.
13. The word 'semelfactive' comes from the Latin word semel, which means 'once'.
14. The terms 'event' and 'eventuality' are synonymous.
15. Untensed verbs may express aspectual differences.
16. The terms 'perfect' and 'perfective' are synonymous.

MODALITY

 EXERCISE: Let´s discuss the grammaticality/acceptability of the following 2.

2
Based on Kroeger 2018 (pp. 297-310)
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