The English verb. The category of aspect.

The grammatical category of aspect is closely connected with lexical classification of verbs into durative (or cursive) and terminative.

Durative verbs do not have the final aim (e. g. to sit, to live, etc.). Terminative verbs have the final aim (e. g. to bring 'to have something brought'). The difference between them lies in the following: with durative verbs the difference between the common and continuous forms can be neutralized whereas with terminative verbs the substitution of the form of the common aspect for the continuous form is impossible.

Verbs that normally do not have aspect oppositions are:

1) verbs denoting relations:

e. g. to belong, to contain, to possess, etc.;

2) link-verbs of the seem -type:

e. g. to appear, to look, to prove, to turn out, etc.;

3) verbs of physical perception and mental activity:

e. g. to believe, to dislike, to hate, to know, to like, etc.;

4) the so-called 'point-action' verbs denoting actions of very short duration: e. g. to burst, to drop, to pick up (if the action is not repeated).

According to A.I. Smirnitsky, the category of aspect is most vividly seen in Slavonic languages. In Russian the category of aspect is expressed by the opposition the perfective aspect – the imperfective aspect. It should be stated that there is no direct correspondence(соответствия) between the Russian and English aspects.

Comparing the Russian and the English grammatical category of aspect one can state that grammatical category forms have the following meanings:

1) the Russian imperfective aspect denotes the duration of an action, its development in the course of time;

2) the Russian perfective aspect denotes the degree of completeness of an action;

3) the English common aspect states the fact of the performance of an action;

4) the English continuous aspect denotes the duration and development of an action.

Some linguists claim that there are five aspects in modern English. A.G. Kennedy distinguishes the following aspect forms on the basis of the semantic factor.

1) the terminative aspect – that which represents the action as a whole:

e. g. He went home

2) the ingressive aspect – that which points at the beginning of an action:

e. g. He began to work;

3) the effective aspect – that which shows the conclusion of an action:

e. g. She stoped speaking;

4) the durative aspect – that which presents an action as continuous:

e. g. He is walking along the street;

5) the iterative aspect – that which presents an action as repeated:

e. g. Each night the old man would walk to town.

Some scholars do not differentiate between tense and aspect. O. Jespersen calls continuous forms tenses, or progressive tenses. H. Sweet called them definite tenses. N.F. Irtenyeva claims that aspect forms are used to show that one action is simultaneous with another.I.P. Ivanova admits the existence of the continuous aspect but denies the existence of the common aspect, and this makes it impossible to establish the category of aspect at all. But oppositions like wrote – was writing do not reveal the category of tense (both members indicate the past tense). The same thing is traced in oppositions like plays – will play. So the categories of tense and aspect characterize the action from different points of view. The tense shows the time of an action, the aspect reveals the development of an action.