Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Aspect
We experience events and situations from various points of view
and these points of view are often incorporated into our description
of the events and situations. We look back on events and situations
we have experienced and look forward to events and situations that
may exist in the future. Some things that are true seem to be always
so, others true just temporarily. We see some events just beginning
and situations just coming into existence and other events and situations
coming to an end. Some events are viewed as over and done with at
• 10.1 Generic and specific predications 199 some particular time, others as still continuing, and the continuity
may be a matter of constant status or constant change. The expression
• 10.2 Stative predicates and dynamic
of all these viewpoints is called aspect. Aspect is both grammatical
predicates 200
and lexical; it is expressed in predicates, especially in verb inflections
• 10.3 Durative and punctual 202 and collocations of verbs; cf. It’s beginning to break, it’s breaking,
it broke, it’s broken. However, the expression of aspect may also
• 10.4 Telic and atelic 206 appear in certain temporal adverbs and in the choice of referring
expressions. He is not here yet and He is no longer here both communicate
• 10.5 Ingressive, continuative, egressive that he is not here but they incorporate different viewpoints. Diane
aspect 209 arrived tells of a single event; People arrived may relate one event
or a number of events.
• 10.6 Prospective and retrospective 219
Along with the viewpoint that we express, aspect also depends
• 10.7 Some grammatical expressions of on the nature of the predicate used, a lexical matter: differences of
aspect 220 aspect are communicated in the semantic features of different predicates;
cf. She learned it vs. She knew it. She learned it communicates the
change from one status to another, from not-knowing to knowing,
presented as a simple event, though of course the process of learning
may go on over a period of time and consist of various parts. She
knew it describes a situation or state without commenting on its boundaries
although ‘knowing’ must have a beginning. Or compare He threw
the ball and He bounced the ball; the latter is likely to be a repetitive
action, the former may be a single event or may not. There is no
good English name to designate all the intrinsic temporal features
of different predicates. The German word Aktionsart ‘kind of action’
is widely used in semantics. At any rate, we cannot divorce the nature

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of predicates from a discussion of kinds of aspect and how they are these sentences, 2a, make it affirmative and negative, and add the
expressed in English. As we shall see, one predicate may have more four modifications to it.
than one way of contributing to the aspect that is expressed.
Gregory is here.
Gregory is already here.
10.1 Generic and specific predications Gregory is still here.
Gregory isn’t here.
Reference and aspect are similar in some ways. Referring expressions Gregory isn’t here yet./…is still not here
are noun phrases, as we saw in Chapter 7, and aspect is expressed Gregory isn’t here any more./…is no longer here.
primarily in the predicates of sentences, but there are certain similarities.
Just as we distinguish between generic and non-generic reference, The modifiers already and not yet call attention to the beginning of a
we can distinguish generic and non-generic aspect. Compare sentences state, Gregory’s being here: already indicates that the state has begun;
1a–d with 2a–d below. there has been a change from Gregory’s not being here to being here; not
yet (or still not) indicates that the state has not begun. Still and not any
1a Two and two make four. more call attention to the end of this state but with a reversal of polarity:
1b Rabbits are rodents. still informs us that the state—‘being here’—has not ended, and not any
1c The Atlantic Ocean separates Africa and South America. more (or no longer) says that the state of ‘being here’ has ended. To summarize:
1d A stitch in time saves nine.
2a Gregory is here.
2b I have a headache.
2c The company manufactures silicon chips.
2d Stella seems happy.
Because these aspectual modifiers express something about change
Sentences 1a–d are ‘eternal truths,’ statements about things that we
from one state to another, they may carry some implication or nuance
do not expect to change. They report unbounded situations, or states.
about a speaker’s expectation. “Gregory is already here” may suggest
Sentences 2a–d, on the other hand, are about temporary states; they
that the speaker did not expect Gregory so soon and “Gregory is
are bounded. There is nothing in the two groups of sentences, as
still here” that the speaker thought Gregory might have left. The
they are, that indicates this difference, but the difference shows up
questions “Is Gregory here already?” and “Is Gregory still here?”
in the fact that we can add certain aspectual modifiers, affirmative
request the same information about Gregory’s presence but differ in
and negative, to the second group which would seem out of place in
the questioner’s attitude or expectation.
sentences 1a–d.

2a 1
2b 1
Gregory is already here.
I still have a headache.
10.2 Stative predicates and dynamic
2c 1 The company does not yet manufacture silicon chips. predicates
2d 1 Stella doesn’t seem happy any more./…no longer seems happy.
The sentences in 1a–d and 2a–d describe states that exist, whether
Sentences 2a–d state that certain situations exist at the present time. permanent or temporary in nature. The predicates in these sentences
Sentences 2a 1–d 1 contain the same information but the aspectual are stative predicates. Other sentences report activities and have
modifiers call attention to boundaries, the beginning or the end of dynamic predicates. The change from one state to another is a dynamic
these states, changes from one state to another. Let’s take one of event. The following report such changes.

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3a Gregory arrived here. Verbs that express other mental states: believe, doubt, expect, intend,
3b I recovered from my headache. interest, know, suppose, suspect, think, understand.
3c The company started manufacturing silicon chips. Verbs that express a relation between two entities: belong, consist,
3d Stella lost her tired look. contain, cost, deserve, equal, fit, include, involve, keep, lack, matter,
mean, need, owe, own, remain, require, resemble.
A stative predicate, according to Comrie (1976:49), reports a state Verbs that express a physical stance or position: kneel, lean, lie, sit,
that requires no expenditure of energy and that continues until energy stand.
is expended to change that state; a dynamic predicate reports a situation Verbs that express non-action: remain, stay, wait.
that will only continue if there is a continual input of energy, but it Dynamic verbs include those that express some form of physical
ceases when energy is no longer expended. Thus the following sentences movement: come, drift, float, go, hop, jump, pound, rotate, run, swim,
are stative and have stative predicates:
turn, vibrate, walk.
4a We waited. Verbs of communication: argue, complain, discuss, explain, invite,
4b The children were hungry. question, report, say, shout, talk, translate, whisper, write.
4c Snow lay on the ground. Verbs of perception that involve doing something: feel, listen, look
4d Ellen needed a dictionary. at, look for, smell, sniff, taste, watch.
Consider these sentences:
The following are activity sentences and have dynamic predicates.
6a Fred and Ethel argue from morning till night.
5a Something moved. 6b The basketball team practiced from September till November.
5b The sun came up.
5c The boat drifted along. Does Sentence 6a tell us that Fred and Ethel argue at every moment
5d They discussed the plan. from morning till night? In Sentence 6b, if it is true that the basketball
team practiced from September till November, does that mean that
A stative predicate is typically durative in aspect. For each of the
sentences 4a–d we can ask ‘How long?’, ‘How long did we wait?’ the sentence “The basketball team is practicing” was true at every
‘How long were the children hungry?,’ and so on. And we can add moment from the first of September until the end of November? Certainly
expressions that tell the length of time: for an hour, all day, from not. ‘Duration’ is not the same for an activity as for a state. Action
Christmas till New Year’s Day, all during the parade, as long as she is constant but not necessarily continuous.
was studying. Some dynamic verbs designate a change occurring over a period
A stative predication relates a situation that does not change of time:
during the time when the predication is valid. Thus, if the sentence
Jesse had a headache all morning is true, then at every instant during change deteriorate dwindle improve worsen
that morning the sentence Jesse has a headache was true. To say
this in another way, a stative predication relates a situation that consists In Grandmother’s health deteriorated during the next few months,
of homogeneous parts. the verb indicates a constant change but not necessarily a continuous
Here are other such stative verbs. They suggest a continuing change nor a constant rate of change.
and unchanging state—but some of them, as we will see, can express
change of state—can be activity predicates in certain contexts.
10.3 Durative and punctual
Verbs that express feeling: abhor, adore, desire, enjoy, envy, fear,
hate, like, long for, mind, prefer, regret, want, wish. 7 Albert kicked a ball and the ball struck a post.

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This sentence contains two verbs that have a punctual aspect. Kicking But while the verbs in sentences 9–11 are one-argument predicates,
and striking normally designate actions that are momentary. Some remind is a two-argument predicate. Here Harry causes me to remember
other verbs that suggest a momentary action are: the appointment. The verb remind in 12a is causative, and Harry
names the agent that causes the new state.
flash hit jump kick leap In English a verb in the past tense can have a punctual or a
durative interpretation. “They sat in the last row” can be the equivalent
These actions have essentially no duration. A sentence like Albert
kicked a ball for ten minutes has a repetitive, or iterative, meaning. of what is more precisely expressed as They sat down in the last
Other punctual verbs, such as arrive, tell of a change from one row (punctual) or of They were sitting in the last row (durative). It
status to another, not likely to be repetitive when only one person is can also have a distributed sense, as in They sat in the last row
involved, as in Diane arrived at the office a few minutes after nine. every time they went to the theatre. This sentence expresses habitual
A number of punctual verbs of this type can be used in the present aspect, customary occurrence distributed over various occasions.
tense to express an event planned for a future time. However, a simple past tense verb can only express habitual aspect
if there is some expression of frequency, that is, some expression
8a They leave/arrive tomorrow. of how the event is distributed in time (every time…, every Saturday,
8b The plane lands at 8:40. twice a month, seldom, often, etc.). English has a more specific
8c The shop opens next week. way of expressing habitual aspect, one which is used only for customary
8d Mr Edwards retires in May. events in the past: They used to sit in the last row. With used to the
predication is specified as ‘habitual’ whether there is an expression
But unplanned acts cannot be expressed this way. of frequency or not.
Habitual aspect in the present can be expressed with the simple
*He falls tomorrow. *She dies next week. *It vanishes soon.
present tense form of a verb.
A number of verbs, sometimes referred to as verbs of mental activity,
13 He smokes cigarillos, drinks tea, sleeps eight hours every night, and
occur in both punctual and durative uses:
curses like a trooper.
9a I (suddenly) remembered that I had an appointment at two.
9b I remembered (all along) what she had told me. PRACTICE 10.1
10a He felt a sharp pain in the shoulder.
10b He felt miserable about what he had seen,
11a Suddenly she knew just what she had to do. The previous paragraphs have shown verbs of several aspectual
11b She knew the answer yesterday but today she can’t think of it. types:

The ‘a’ sentences express an event, the act of coming into a state of durative, unchanging state (e.g. need)
durative, continuing activity (e.g. argue)
remembering, feeling, knowing. The ‘b’ sentences tell of a state in
durative, changing activity (e.g. improve)
existence. The ‘a’ sentences express ingressive aspect (also called
punctual, momentary act (e.g. flash)
inchoative or inceptive aspect), the action of entering into a state.
punctual, change of state (e.g. arrive)
12a Harry reminded me of the appointment. How do the following verbs fit these five categories? Are there
12b Harry reminded me so much of a fellow I used to know. overlaps or ambiguities?
This pair of sentences also contrasts a single event that initiates a die, fall, float, hope, jump, knock, mature, possess, wonder
state (12a) and a state that can continue over a period of time (12b).

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PRACTICE 10.2
10.4 Telic and atelic
The actions and events that are designated by dynamic predicates
The sentence ‘She kept staring out the window’ tells of a durative
may occur within a brief instant or may stretch out over a longer
act; ‘She kept glancing out the window’ is about a repetitive
period of time, and the difference may be due to external circumstances
act; ‘She kept looking out the window’ can be interpreted
or to the nature of the action itself; a single act of hitting or falling
either way. What is the aspectual feature of each of these
cannot take long but talking and walking are apt to continue for at
three verbs?
least several minutes. Some acts such as breaking and arriving may
All the following sentences describe a distributed action
take a certain amount of time but the act does not ‘happen’ until it
that, depending on the verb, is repetitive or durative. Label
is complete.
each sentence Repetitive or Durative. Can any of them be
Vendler (1967) proposed a four-way classification of predicates
interpreted both ways?
as stative, activity, achievement and accomplishment predicates—
(a) The tooth kept aching. a classification that derives essentially from Aristotle. Stative and
(b) The wound kept bleeding. activity predicates are atelic, and achievement predicates are telic.
(c) She kept apologizing. Later research by Dowty (1977), Dahl (1981), Brinton (1988), Shi
(d) He kept asking for more. (1990), Binnick (1991) and Smith (1991), among others, suggests
(e) The audience kept applauding. that these terms should be applied to whole sentences because what
(f) The audience continued to clap. a sentence expresses depends on more than the predicate alone.
(g) Rudy and Ruby kept on arguing. Now, what do the terms ‘atelic’ and ‘telic’ mean? Examine these
(h) He kept blowing the horn. sentences.
(i) She kept borrowing money from her parents.
(j) She kept bouncing the ball. 14a George was waiting. Sandra was holding the baby.
(k) Her health continued to deteriorate. 14b Sandra was swimming. George was running.
(l) The cloth kept shrinking. 14c George was leaving. Sandra was dying.
(m) The band kept playing and the crowd kept on dancing. 14d Sandra was writing a letter. George was cutting the rope.
(n) Watson kept on digging in the cabbage patch.
(o) Watson kept diving into the pool. The sentences in 14a are stative and those in 14b are activities. If it
(p) Alice kept falling and falling. is true that George was waiting and Sandra was swimming, for example,
(q) Alice kept falling in love. then we can report that George waited and Sandra swam. The predicates
(r) We kept hoping things would get better. do not have an end or a goal; they are atelic.
(s) Ruby kept hugging Rudy. In contrast, 14c contains achievement sentences and the sentences
(t) Rudy kept kissing Ruby. in 14d are accomplishments. If George was leaving, he did not necessarily
(u) He kept hitting the horse. leave; Sandra might be dying for months and yet not die. These sentences
(v) He kept beating the horse. do not report events, happenings, but processes moving towards events.
George left, Sandra died report events that occur instantly, however
Why are these sentences unlikely—if not impossible? long the process of moving toward that event may be. Since the events
?? She kept (on) owning a television set. are instantaneous, we can ask “When did George leave?” or “When did
?? The television set kept belonging to her. Sandra die?” but not “How long did George leave or Sandra die?”
The sentences in 14d are also about processes moving toward
completion. If Sandra was writing a letter but stopped, it would be

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true that Sandra wrote (an activity) but not that she wrote a letter 16 Lucy wrote a letter in half an hour.
(an accomplishment). Similarly, the fact that George was cutting a
rope does not necessarily lead to the fact that he cut it. Sentence 15 is indefinite about what Lucy wrote and sentence 16 is
Accomplishments (14d) are like achievements (14c) in having specific. Note that sentence 17 is indefinite like 15 and the sentences
an end result, in being telic. Accomplishments differ from achievements in 18 are specific like 16.
in not having an instantaneous result. We can ask “How long does/
17 Lucy wrote letters for an hour/all afternoon.
did it take Sandra to write a letter?” and we can say, for example, “It
18 Lucy wrote the letter/several letters/three letters in an hour.
took George several minutes to cut the rope.”
To summarize: If a sentence tells of an unbounded activity, either because the verb
has no object, as in sentence 15, or because the object is itself an
States are non-dynamic, durative and atelic.
unbounded noun phrase, as in 17, the activity takes place throughout
Activities are dynamic, durative and atelic.
a measurable duration. When the object of a verb is a definite referring
Achievements are dynamic, instantaneous and telic.
expression (the letter, the letters) or a quantified referring expression
Accomplishments are dynamic, durative and telic.
(several letters, three letters, for example), the sentence is an
(Obviously, the terms ‘achievement’ and ‘accomplishment’ are used accomplishment and we can express how long it takes for this to
with a sense somewhat different from their everyday meanings.) be accomplished.
All telic events—achievements and accomplishments—are specific.
In the following paired sentences note how a specific event (in the
PRACTICE 10.3 ‘a’ sentences) can be changed to a non-specific activity (the ‘b’ sentences).

19a Bert arrived at noon and left at 3 o’clock.

The following are telic. Which are achievements and which are 19b People arrived and left throughout the afternoon.
accomplishments? 20a Tim watched a wrestling match.
20b Tim watched wrestling matches.
(a) He awoke. 21a Sally baked bread last Saturday.
(b) I ran a race. 21b Sally baked bread every Saturday.
(c) We arrived at home.
(d) The child grew up. The (a) sentences have a punctual interpretation and the (b) sentences
(e) The child stood up. have a distributed sense. The distributed sense may be due to a
plural indefinite subject (19b) or object (20b)—that is, a noun
phrase which is unbounded—or to an adverbial phrase that expresses
Activities and accomplishments are both dynamic and durative, and distribution, here by means of the proposition throughout (19b)
duration means the passage of a period of time. But there is a difference: or the specifier every (21b). But note that a plural subject or a
activities occur throughout a period of time, in English most commonly plural object does not necessarily express distribution of what the
introduced by the preposition for. predicate expresses:
15 Lucy wrote for half an hour/all afternoon. 22 People arrived at noon and left at three o’clock.
23 Tim enjoys wrestling matches.
Accomplishments require expenditure of effort during a period leading
to the result accomplished. The period is most often introduced by One final note about atelic and telic predicates: a verb that is
the preposition in. atelic by itself may become telic with the addition of a particle

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such as up, down, or out. Compare The papers burned and The In these sentences on, in and at are two-argument predicates. Other
papers burned up. locative prepositions such as above, beside, near, next-to, and under
are also two-argument predicates. (Between requires three arguments,
PRACTICE 10.4 of course.) They are all locative predicates.
When the subject noun phrase is an animate being like Donald,
there are punctual verbs to express the beginning or ingressive aspect
Read each sentence below and decide if it expresses a single
(25a), durative verbs that express the continuative aspect (25b),
act or a repeated activity, or can it be interpreted either way?
and punctual verbs which express the the end or egressive aspect
If it can express a repeated act, it is ‘distributed.’ What shows
(25c) of being in a location:
that it is—or may be—distributed?
25a Donald gets to/arrives at/reaches the door.
(a) He accepted the order gracefully. 25b “ stays at/remains at “
(b) He accepted the orders gracefully. 25c “ leaves/departs from “
(c) He accepted orders gracefully.
(d) I acknowledged my mistake. Aspect differs but thematic structure is the same:
(e) I always acknowledged my mistakes.
(f) She generally agreed with our decisions.
(g) She agreed with our decision.
(h) Rupert didn’t allow anybody to see his butterfly collection.
(i) Rupert showed people his butterfly collection.
(j) Rupert gave away his butterfly collection. Corresponding to these are causative verbs, expressing the action
of an agent in causing some entity to be or not be in a place. Causative
locative verbs have a valency of three.
26a Someone puts/places the lamp on the table.
10.5 Ingressive, continuative, egressive 26b “ leaves/keeps “ “ “
aspect 26c “ removes/takes “ from “

Verbs like these have the meaning ‘cause something to be, to remain,
Some predicates express simple states; others express the beginning, or not to be, in a place.’
the continuance or the ending of states. Some predicates have
causative sense: they bring about, or maintain, or put an end to
states that exist. We now examine such predicates in groups of
common meaning.

10.5.1 Predicates of location

10.5.2 Predicates of possession
24a The lamp is on the table.
24b Some oranges are in that basket. Similar to locative expressions are expressions of possession.
24c Donald is at the door.
27 Eleanor has/owns a car.

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We express the ingressive, continuative, and egressive aspects of Finally, we summarize some of these facts about locative, possessive
the possessing with the verbs illustrated in the next group of sentences. and cognitive verbs. The paradigm below shows a few holes in the
pattern.
27a Eleanor gets/acquires a car. [inception]
27b Eleanor keeps the car. [duration] TABLE 10.1 Locative, possessive, and cognitive predicates
27c Eleanor loses/gives up the car. [termination]

Some 3-argument predicates express a change of possession.

28a Someone gives/presents/awards/sells a car to Eleanor.
28b Someone takes/receives/buys the car from Eleanor.

The verbs in 28a have the meaning ‘cause something to be in the

possession of someone,’ and those in 28b express ‘cause something
not to be in someone’s possession.’ There are no verbs equivalent to
‘cause something to remain in someone’s possession.’
Note the similarity of verbs that have to do with location and
those that relate to possession: an agent causes something to be or
not be in a place; an agent causes another person to have or not have
some object. Some verbs are used both ways: We send something
somewhere or to someone; we throw something to a place or to a
person; we take something from a place or from a person.

10.5.3 Predicates of cognition

A third group of stative verbs expresses various aspects of knowing. The basic predicates be-at, have, own, know, be-aware-of are stative—
They are cognition predicates. at least in the uses illustrated—and the corresponding durative predicates
29 Jeffrey knows/is-aware-of the answer.
are also stative. They indicate some state of affairs going on over a
period of time. In contrast the ingressive and terminative verbs are
Again there are ways of telling the beginning, middle and end of dynamic: they designate some kind of change—moving into or out
this situation. of a situation or condition.
29a Jeffrey learns/finds/gets the answer.
29b Jeffrey remembers the answer. 10.5.4 Event predicates
29c Jeffrey forgets the answer.
Just as concrete entities have location in space, events are located in
And there are verbs that express the causing of Jeffrey’s knowing. time, as the next sentences illustrate.
30a Someone tells/teaches/shows the answer to Jeffrey. 31a The meeting is at 2:00.
or, with a slightly different arrangement. 31b The game was on Sunday.
31c Our party is on Friday.
30b Someone informs Jeffrey of the answer. 31d The ceremony takes place this afternoon.

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These sentences have the structure Event+Locative Predicate+ Time. 10.5.5 Nouns and adjectives as predicates
A time phrase can be added to almost any sentence, including most
of those cited in the last chapter to illustrate valency. A time phrase A predication may consist of be and a noun phrase or adjective phrase,
is an argument in sentences like 31a–d. The noun in the subject is indicating some role, condition or status.
quite restricted; it must be an event noun. An event noun is one that
refers to an activity, something that occupies time just as the referent 34a Phyllis is a physicist.
of a concrete noun occupies space. The verb connecting the event 34b We were awfully tired.
argument with the time argument is a form of be or happen, occur
There are lexical verbs that express the initiation and the continuance
or take place.
of such statuses, but none that express the termination.
Sentences 31a–d are stative: each one simply locates an event
in time. But an event must have a beginning, a middle and an end, as 35a Phyllis became a physicist. [ingressive]
the next sentences illustrate. 35b We got awfully tired. “
35c Uncle Rufus remained a bachelor. [continuative]
32a The conference begins at 2.
35d The vase stayed intact. “
32b Our party went on for hours.
32c The game ended on time. Causative verbs followed by noun phrases or adjective phrases are
illustrated next.
Sentences 31a–c, which are stative, have a valency of two, and so
do the dynamic sentences 32a, b and c. In the next group each verb 36a Czar Peter made St Petersburg his capital.
has a valency of three. 36b We elected Albert the chairman.
36c Your decision makes me very, very happy.
33a The chairman began the lecture at 8 sharp.
36d You are driving us crazy.
33b The orchestra continued the performance until eleven.
33c We ended the show on time. Table 10.3 sets out the principal aspectual verbs that occur with adjectives
and nouns.
These sentences are causative; 33a, for example, means essentially,
“The chairman caused the lecture to begin at 8 sharp.” TABLE 10.3 Adjectives and Nouns as Predicates
The principal verbs that occur with event arguments are listed
in Table 10.2.

TABLE 10.2 Event predicates

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(Instead of saying The towels became dry or The towels got dry, we or:
can say The towels dried. And rather than I made the knife sharp(er), Subject Predicate
we are likely to say I sharpened the knife. English has ingressive The orchestra’s performance continued
verbs and causative verbs derived from adjectives. An ingressive verb, The orchestra’s playing continued
like dry above, expresses the inception or attainment of the quality The boy’s looking for the money kept on
denoted by the adjective. A causative verb such as sharpen is about
the same as ‘cause to become [sharp].’) There is more about causative/ What is the relation of the verb keep on (or continue or start or
inchoative verbs derived from adjectives in Chapter 13. stop) to the rest of the sentence? Is it something the orchestra or the
boy does, or something that their activities do?
10.5.6 Aspectual verbs Considering our sentence structures, we find the group as a
whole occurring in four structures; the clause complement may be
The four previous sections have dealt with predicates that express an infinitive clause with overt or tacit subject or a gerund clause
the initiation, continuance and termination of states. In English there with overt or tacit subject, but not all of the aspectual verbs appear
are no predicates that express the beginning, maintenance or end of in all four structures. The distribution is:
activities. Instead there are aspectual verbs (called aspectualizers
by some scholars) which express some aspect of an event. An event,
by definition, has duration.

begin cease commence continue end finish go-on leave-off keep(-on)

start stop

When an aspectual verb occurs in a sentence, the subject may be an

event noun, in which case there is no other argument, though there
is likely to be some expression of time:

The meeting is beginning now. Note that stop to [eat] is quite different from stop [eat]ing. The
The game went on for hours. latter is an aspectual verb; the former is not. On the contrary, start
The dance ended promptly at midnight. to [eat] and start [eat]ing are virtually equivalent. The chart shows
that start, keep and stop are two-complement verbs as well as one-
Or the subject may refer to a person or persons, in which case the complement verbs. Note that there is a difference between keep, which
object of the verb is an event noun or a reduced clause. is an aspectual verb, and keep from, which is not. There is a big
difference between keep the flag flying and keep the flag from flying.
37a The orchestra continued the performance.
37b The orchestra continued to play until eleven.
We have now discussed beginning, continuation and end of various
37c The boy kept on looking for the money he had lost. states and happenings:

Sometimes it is possible to consider sentences like the last ones in location in space
two ways, either: possession
knowing
Subject Verb Object location in time
The orchestra continued the performance qualities expressed by adjective phrases
The orchestra continued to play roles expressed by noun phrases
The boy kept on looking for the money actions expressed by verb phrases.

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What do ingression, continuation, and egression mean? What they carries a presupposition about the situation before and an implication
mean—and what everybody knows—can be described in terms of about the following situation. Affirmative and negative have the
change or non-change from one state to another. Table 10.4 presents same presupposition, as the chart indicates (Kevin kept whistling
a summary. Explanation and discussion follow. and Kevin didn’t keep whistling, for example) and have opposite
implications.
TABLE 10.4 The meaning of initiation, continuation and termination Some very common two-argument verbs that have to do with
acquiring some object, or giving up the object, can be analyzed
semantically in terms of possession previous and subsequent to the
event of the verb, and whether the effect of the verb is intentional
or not. The first two lines are completed. You can fill in the other
three lines of the table:

A positive sentence that expresses initiation or ingression (“Alfred

arrived at home,” “I put the kettle on the stove,” “The water froze,”
“Sally started sewing”) tells us that a negative state existed before
the time of this report (Alfred wasn’t at home, the kettle was not on
the stove, the water hadn’t frozen, Sally wasn’t sewing) but changed
to a positive state (Alfred was at home, etc.). A statement of continuation
tells us that there was no change (Alfred stayed at home, The general
remained in charge, Sally kept sewing).
And a statement of terminative or egressive aspect (Alfred left
home, I took the kettle off the stove, Sally stopped sewing) indicates PRACTICE 10.5
that what existed before did not exist afterward.
Negative sentences often contain ambiguity. For instance, the
sentences Alfred didn’t arrive home when we expected or Sally didn’t Any sentence that expresses iteration or a change in a state or
start sewing at seven are ambiguous because the little word not may activity carries a presupposition; for example, Uncle Gustav
negate the whole sentence or only the expression of time: it wasn’t left his office at five p.m. presupposes that Uncle Gustav was
at seven (but at some other time) that Sally started sewing. If we in his office before five p.m. What is presupposed by each of
ignore the second interpretation just now, we see that the sentence the following sentences?
about Alfred implies that he was not at home before or after the
time he was expected and Sally was not sewing either before or after (a) Nancy has resigned her position on the Benevolence Fund
the time mentioned. Similarly, Kevin didn’t keep whittling implies Committee.
that the whittling was going on before, but not after, whatever time (b) My watch no longer keeps accurate time.
is involved. And the negative of termination (I didn’t take the cover (c) Tommy wants another piece of cake.
off the book, Kevin didn’t stop whittling) speaks of a situation existing (d) The ice is melting.
before and after what is reported. (e) Alexa closed the window.
So the chart shows what anyone knows—that to continue doing (f) We’re going to the market again.
something is the same as not to stop doing it, and to stop is not to (g) The three little kittens have lost their mittens,
continue. To state all of this in another way, any aspectual predicate (h) Desmond has recovered from his illness.

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10.6 Prospective and retrospective Mr Hawkins excused Jerry for missing the meeting (or for having
missed the meeting) necessarily reports an excuse being issued by
38a Fred figured his friends had already started the trip. Mr Hawkins after Jerry missed the meeting, whereas Mr Hawkins
38b Fred figured his friends were starting the trip just then. excused Jerry from attending the meeting is prospective, telling us
38c Fred figured his friends would soon be starting the trip. that the excuse precedes Jerry’s (probable) non-attendance at the
meeting.
When a predicate such as figure is followed by a full clause, the Not all verbs are prospective or retrospective. Some verbs indicate
verb in the full clause can have the complete range of tense and an action that goes on at the same time as whatever is reported in
aspect modification. Consequently the clause can report an event the following clause. The verb help, occurring with an infinitive clause,
that is prior to the time of the main clause verb (38a), or simultaneous is seen, for example, in the following sentence:
with it (38b), or subsequent to it (38c). In these three sentences the
friends’ starting has different aspects in relation to Fred’s figuring. 41 I helped Josie (to) bring in the groceries.
However, when a predicate is associated with a reduced clause, the
verb of that reduced clause is more limited in the range of times it The helping and the bringing-in must be simultaneous.
can express. It may express an event that is simultaneous with the
main clause verb, or one that is earlier or later. That depends on 10.7 Some grammatical expressions
what predicate is in the main clause.
Let’s start with these two sentences:
of aspect
39a We asked Ronald to drive slower. If an aspectual meaning can be expressed with all—or a significant
39b Jessica is thinking of visiting her grandmother. number—of the predicates of a language, the expression is grammatical.
To be sure, that aspectual meaning may be somewhat different with
In sentence 39a our asking has to do with Ronald’s subsequent behavior. different predicates, depending on their intrinsic semantic nature.
In sentence 39b Jessica’s thinking obviously concerns something In this section we examine three aspects that are incorporated into
she may do later. We call such verbs as ask and think-of prospective the grammatical system of English, prospective, perfect (or perfective),
verbs; they are oriented toward later happenings. Note that it is the and progressive.
orientation that is important; whether Ronald actually slows down
or Jessica visits her grandmother is irrelevant.
Now consider these sentences: 10.7.1 The prospective
40a Edgar apologized for missing the meeting. Sentences 7a–c illustrate a prospective form.
(or,…for having missed the meeting)
40b We denied seeing the report. 42a They are to leave.
(or,…having seen the report) 42b You are not to worry
42c Are we to wait here?
In both sentences the clause is about something that did or did not
precede the apologizing and denying. Verbs like apologize and deny This form, be+to+verb expresses a ‘looking forward’; it is not about
are retrospective verbs. The previous action to which the verb refers the future but about present intentions regarding the future. There
is expressed in a following clause, always a gerund clause, and the are other prospective forms—be about to [leave], be going to [leave],
previousness can be emphasized by the use of the retrospective (or which are not discussed here. (And the simple present can be used
‘perfect’) form of the gerund, having [missed]. If there is a preposition, in a prospective sense, e.g. They leave next Wednesday. See above,
it is most often for. Note the difference a preposition can make: Section 9.3.)

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The past tense form of be+to combined with a verb makes the The difference between past events which are relevant to the present
past prospective, They were to leave, expressing a looking forward moment and past events which lack such relevance is not a clear
from some point in the past. distinction, so in some cases there is divided usage among speakers
of English. For events just accomplished, especially when the word
just is used, British English (and the English of Australia, New
10.7.2 The perfect or retrogressive Zealand, and South Africa) generally prefers the present retrospective,
while North Americans often use the simple past. Thus coming
They have left illustrates a verb structure which is traditionally called upon the scene of an accident, an Englishman will ask “What’s
‘present perfect.’ A better term might be present retrospective form. happened?,” an American “What happened?” Similarly, in telling
Whatever the name, for any verb it consists of two parts, a form of about the accident later the Englishman is apt to say “I’ve just
have and the past participle of the verb. The present perfect, or present seen the most amazing sight” and the American “I just saw the
retrospective, form, in affirmative statements, refers to events that most amazing sight.”
occurred in the past and situations that began in the past and which The past retrospective, as in They had left, presents a backward
are seen as relevant ‘now,’ at the present time. Negative statements, look from a time in the past. We can illustrate its uses by making
of course, deny such events and situations; interrogative sentences changes in the sentences above: In 1985 the house had been empty
question them. for a long time. I had been there three times in the previous
There are two uses for the present retrospective. One is the month.
description of present situations when we want to measure their duration
from some point in the past. In the following paired sentences compare
the simple present (a) and the present retrospective (b). The simple 10.7.3 The progressive
present sentences are about states (43a, 44a) or habitual activity (45a),
which is a kind of state. The present retrospective sentences tell or The syntactic form illustrated in 49a–b might appropriately be called
ask about the duration of these states. the bounded aspect.
43a The house is empty now. 49a We’re watching television.
43b It has been empty for over a year. 49b Jack is smoking.
44a Do you know the Robinsons?
44b Have you known them for long? Sentences 49a–b illustrate a verb form composed of the present of
45a Jenkins works in the First City Bank. be and the present participle, or -ing form, of the verb. It is called
45b He has worked there since 1985. the present progressive, or the ‘continuous’ or ‘durative’ or ‘ongoing.’
A more appropriate name would be the temporary or bounded form.
Second, the present retrospective is used for past events or states Sentences 49a and 49b have atelic predicates. The simple present
which are presented as relevant to the present. This time we want to tense form of these verbs (We watch television, Jack smokes) is
compare the past tense (a) with the present retrospective (b). unbounded, general; it includes more than the ‘right now’ and
implies nothing about the beginning or end of the activity, watching
46a I was here last Tuesday, last Friday and yesterday.
television or smoking. The present bounded form, on the other hand,
46b I have been here three times this month.
as in 49a–b, is specific. It is also about the present moment but
47a The Blakes lived in Singapore from 1980 to 1986.
calls attention to the fact that the activity is in process now and
47b The Blakes have lived in Singapore, but they don’t live there now.
implies that the activity will end. The present bounded is part of
48a What did you see when you went to New York?
the simple present, not vice versa. Thus we have
48b What have you seen since you came here?

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means, “Is anyone sitting in this seat at some moments within a period
of time that includes the present?”
One kind of distribution is a sequence of successive states which
We cannot say differ from one another by some small increments.

55 Jason is resembling his father more and more.

Achievement predicates cannot be distributed over time.

Thus is smoking a pipe expresses a situation with certain implied 56 Our guests are leaving.
boundaries whereas smokes a pipe implies no time boundaries at 57 The plane is landing
all; it is habitual or generic. In the following paired sentences, also
with atelic predicates, the two members of each pair may make the Leave and land, as in 56 and 57, are achievement verbs. The act of
same kind of report about things; the difference is in aspect: the leaving or of landing is momentary, and a momentary act cannot be
progressive form suggests boundaries; the phenomenon has not always in progress. So long as the guests are leaving, they have not yet left;
been so and/or it may not continue to be so. if the plane is landing, it still has not landed. Thus the progressive
or bounded aspect, with such verbs, emphasizes the incompleteness
50a My watch is working very well now. of the act. Furthermore, just as events planned for the future can be
50b My watch works very well now. stated in the simple present (They arrive tomorrow, The shop opens
51a They’re living in Richmond. next week, Mr Edwards retires in May), they can also be put into the
51b They live in Richmond. progressive form: They’re arriving tomorrow, The shop is opening
next week, Mr Edwards is retiring in May. Here, too, the difference
Since the simple present can express a general truth, something that
is not in the propositions communicated but in the dramatic nature
is always or typically so, and the present progressive is used for
of what is communicated.
what is temporarily true, temporariness can seem more dramatic,
The progressive can be used with atelic predicates to make a
more interesting. Compare these sentences with stative verbs:
more dramatic statement of what is slated to happen in the near
52a We admire the way you’ve arranged the furniture here. future. For instance, a tour guide leading a group of tourists on a
52b We’re admiring the way you’ve arranged the furniture here. walk around some historic monument might start with an announcement
53a I wonder why the committee can’t make a sensible decision. like this:
53b I’m wondering why the committee can’t make a sensible decision.
58 We’ll be walking through several rooms and I’ll be pointing out the
54a The doctor hopes that the new medicine will be effective.
interesting details and telling you the historic facts associated with
54b The doctor is hoping that the new medicine will be effective.
them. You’ll be seeing some valuable art objects and you’ll be learning
The ‘a’ and ‘b’ sentences do not differ in what is predicated but in why the building has the form it has…
the intensity with which the predication is expressed.
Omission of every be…-ing in this speech would have no effect on
The progressive form indicates that the activity predicated is
the content.
distributed over a period of time with an implied endpoint, but it
need not be distributed continuously over that time. Vlach (1981:279)
points out that one can stand beside an empty theater seat and ask,
“Is anyone sitting here?” If the verb form is applied strictly to the
time of asking, it would be nonsensical. The question more accurately

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Summary consisting of be plus the present participle. The progressive expresses

a temporary, or bounded, activity. With achievement predicates it
Aspect is the cover name for different ways in which the proposition expresses a process moving toward an occurrence. With stative predicates
contained in a sentence is viewed. Different aspects are fairly easy the progressive often adds intensity to what is said.
to recognize and understand, but any one aspect may be expressed
in various ways. The semantic nature of a predicate often has something
Suggested reading
to do with the aspect it expresses, but it is also a fact that some
predicates may occur in sentences with different aspects.
Comrie (1976) is the best general account of aspect in a vast number
This chapter has drawn a distinction between states and activities,
of languages. Frawley (1992), Chapter 7, offers a more cogent overview
the former containing stative predicates and the latter dynamic predicates.
of the same. Leech (1987) makes an Aktionsart classification of English
Some states express generic propositions, essentially unchanging,
verbs, which also appears in Quirk et al. (1984).
and others express non-generic propositions which have come about
For more extensive study the following should be mentioned:
through change and may change again. Relations between a present
Vendler (1967) is a milestone in modern investigation of this subject.
state and a previous one can be indicated with the aspectual modifiers
Tedeschi and Zaenen (1981) is a collection of articles on aspect,
already, still, no longer and not yet. States and activities are durative.
including the Dahl and Vlach works mentioned in Section 10.3. Smith
They are also atelic, not expressing any definite endpoint.
(1991) seeks to develop a unified theory of aspect within Universal
Achievements and accomplishments are telic; the former are
Grammar based on an explication of the quite different aspectual
punctual, with the endpoint of the activity occurring instantaneously,
systems of five languages. Binnick (1991) surveys ancient and modern
whereas it takes some period of time for an accomplishment to reach
theories of tense and aspect and makes his own contribution. Brinton
its endpoint. Achievements and accomplishments are specific and
(1988) traces the historic development of the aspectual system of
require specific noun phrases as arguments.
modern English.
Some predicates express the beginning (ingressive aspect), the
continuation (continuative aspect), or the end (egressive aspect) of
states. Some causative predicates express what happens when an agent Notes on the text
brings a state into existence, maintains it, or ends it. Uneven matrixes
of such predicates have been illustrated for the areas of physical • A rather large number of terms have been used in this chapter
location, possession, cognition, temporal location and sentences with to account for different kinds of aspect, but two terms commonly
adjectives and nouns as predicates. used in discussions of aspect have been omitted: perfective
Certain verbs followed by an infinitive clause are prospective: and imperfective. These seem unnecessary for the purpose here
they express a meaning that is necessarily previous to the proposition and their introduction might lead to confusion in a treatment
in the infinitive clause. Other verbs, followed by a gerund clause, of English. Whereas Slavic languages maintain a clear lexical
are retrospective and express a ‘looking back’ at the content of the distinction in two kinds of verbs, those that express what is
gerund clause. English also has grammatical means of indicating prospective done, completed, accomplished (perfective) and what is in progress,
aspect. The most common form is composed of be plus the infinitive. incomplete (imperfective), and Romance languages have such
The grammatical means of expressing retrospection has the traditional a distinction grammatically in past tenses, the ‘preterite’ (or
name ‘perfect’ and consists of forms of have plus the past participle. ‘past definite’) versus the ‘imperfect,’ there is little need for
This grammatical form is used in telling the duration of states up to drawing such a distinction in English. Telic predicates—achievements
a present or past moment and in recounting events that are seen as and accomplishments—are perfective, stative predicates are
relevant to such a moment. Finally, English has a progressive form imperfective, but activities can be either. The English present

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ASPECT

perfect expresses imperfective aspect when it is applied to present

states measured from a time in the past (“We have been here
for an hour”) and perfective aspect when predicating past events
(“We have seen the reports”)—but the past tense (“We saw
the reports”) is also perfective.
• Grammarians and semanticists describing the English language
often insist, a priori, that the progressive aspect is incompatible
with stative predicates—and then go on to classify the ‘exceptions.’
However, there would seem to be little reason for expecting
correlation between aspects and their expression in a specific
language. This viewpoint leads to a mis-classification of verbs
like remain and wait, which can be progressive but which express
no action, and fails to account for the difference between, for
instance, to wonder and to be wondering. The verbs stand, sit,
kneel and lie express bodily stance (stative) or the assumption
of such a stance (dynamic), the latter often accompanied by a
particle (up with stand, down with the others). In the absence
of a particle the progressive forms (He is standing, They were
sitting, etc.) are more likely to be interpreted as stative than as
dynamic.

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