Aspect Flashcards
What information does aspect give?
semantic/pragmatic info about the situation described by the verb
What questions can aspect answer?
changing or static event? instantaneous or spread over time? single unique event or repeated? definite end point or open ended?
What are the two types of aspect?
Perfective and Imperfective (habitual and progressive)
When is the perfective aspect used?
refers to events that occur over a short period of time but can also apply to those occuring over a long time (reign)
refers to a situation as a single whole
doesn’t always mean the completion of an event
When are the two imperfective aspects used?
habitual - events that characteristically occur or extend over a certain period of time (USED TO work)
progressive - any habitual imperfective aspect (WAS doING)
Do all languages differentiate between habitual and progressive?
Spanish can ambiguiously encode both
leía = used to read + was reading
What information does the imperfective give?
Explicit reference to internal temporal structure
Doesn’t express end points
More associated with continuing actions
What are the perfective and imperfective examples of?
morphological aspect
the choice of which to use depends on the speaker
What is lexical aspect?
a component of basic meaning of predicates and type of arguments
depends on semantics of the verb
