20.4: Grammatical Aspect (= “viewpoint aspect”)
- Last updated
- Save as PDF
- Page ID
- 138740
Situation type (Aktionsart) is an inherent property of the situation itself. Grammatical aspect is a feature of the speaker’s description of the situation, i.e., a part of the claim that is being made about the situation under discussion. Grammatical aspect is sometimes referred to as viewpoint aspect, reflecting the intuition that grammatical aspect markers indicate something about the way the speaker chooses to view or describe the situation, rather than some property of the situation itself.
This intuition is reflected in some widely cited definitions of aspect. Comrie (1976: 3), for example, says: “Aspects are different ways of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a situation.” C. Smith (1997: 2–3) states: “Aspectual viewpoints present situations with a particular perspective or focus, rather like the focus of a camera lens. Viewpoint gives a full or partial view of the situation talked about.” Using Smith’s metaphor of the camera lens, we could describe perfective aspect as a wide angle view: the situation fits inside the time frame of the speaker’s perspective. The imperfective is like a zoom or close-up view, focusing on just a part of the situation being described, with the situation as a whole extending beyond the boundaries of the speaker’s perspective.
Both of these definitions are helpful, but they may tend to obscure a very important point about the nature of grammatical aspect, namely that grammatical aspect markers contribute to the truth conditions of the sentence. For example, sentences (14a–b) differ only in their aspect. Both are marked for past tense, but (14b) is marked for imperfective aspect while (14a) involves perfective aspect. If spoken in the year 2010, (14b) would (reportedly) be true while (14a) would be false, due to the intervention of a neighboring country. So different aspect markers represent different claims about the world.
(14) a. The Syrians built a nuclear weapon with North Korean technology.
b. The Syrians were building a nuclear weapon with North Korean technology.
Klein’s definition of aspect, which was mentioned in the previous section, reflects this insight by relating the time structure of the situation not to the speaker’s perspective, but to the time about which a claim is being asserted (Topic Time): aspect indicates a temporal relation between TT and TSit. As a first approximation, we can define perfective aspect as indicating that the situation time fits inside Topic Time (TSit ⊆ TT); and imperfective aspect as indicating that Topic Time fits completely inside situation time (TT ⊂ TSit). These are objective claims about the relationship between two time intervals, which can be evaluated as being true or false in a particular situation.
To take another example, the temporal adverbial clause in (15a–b) establishes the topic time for the main clause in each sentence. The imperfective form of the main clause in (15a) indicates that the topic time is completely contained within the situation time. In other words, the boundaries (and in particular the end point) of TSit, the “digging a tunnel” event, extend beyond the boundaries of TT, the time during which the guards were at the Christmas party. For this reason, the imperfective description of the event in (15a) may be true even if the tunnel was never completed. In contrast, the perfective form of the main clause in (15b) indicates that the situation time is contained within the topic time. This means that the entire “digging a tunnel” event took place within the time span of the guards attending the party.
(15) a. While the guards were at the Christmas party, the prisoners were digging a tunnel under the fence (but they never finished it).
b. While the guards were at the Christmas party, the prisoners dug a tunnel under the fence (#but they never finished it).
Digging a tunnel is a telic situation, specifically an accomplishment; so its endpoint, or culmination, is an integral part of the event. For this reason, the perfective description of the event in (15b) would not be true if the tunnel was not completed. This example illustrates how an imperfective description of an event may be true in a situation in which a perfective description of that same event would be false. The diagrams in (16) represent the relative locations of the Time of Utterance, Topic Time (time during which the guards were at the party), and Situation Time (prisoners digging a tunnel) for examples (15a–b).
(16) a. 
b. 
20.4.1 Typology of grammatical aspect
Comrie (1976) classifies the most commonly marked aspectual categories in the following hierarchy, which starts with the contrast between perfective vs. imperfective.
(17) 
In many languages, including English, perfective is the default or unmarked way of describing an event in the past. It simply asserts that the event happened. Notice that we illustrated the perfective in examples (14–15) using the simple past tense; the lack of overt aspect marking indicates perfective aspect. However, aspect is distinct from tense. Many languages distinguish perfective vs. imperfective in the future (e.g. will eat vs. will be eating) as well as the past.
Different kinds of imperfective meaning are grammatically distinguished in some languages. Habitual aspect describes a recurring event or on-going state which is a characteristic property of a certain period of time.13 Imperfective aspect which is not habitual is typically called either continuous or progressive. The difference between these two categories lies in their selectional restrictions, rather than in their entailments. The term progressive is generally applied to non-habitual imperfective markers that are used only for describing events, and not for states. Comrie uses the term continuous for non-habitual imperfective aspect markers that are not restricted in this way, but can be used for both states and events. In some languages, however, the term continuous is applied to aspect markers that are used primarily for states.
English does not have a general imperfective aspect marker. The be + V-ing form illustrated in (18a) is specifically progressive in meaning. Habitual meaning can be expressed using the simple present tense as in (18b), or (for habituals in the past) with the auxiliary used to as in (18c).
(18) a. Mary is playing tennis.
b. Mary plays tennis.
c. Mary used to play tennis.
Spanish does have a general imperfective form as well as a more specific progressive. The imperfective form is ambiguous between habitual vs. continuous meaning, as illustrated in (19b).14
(19) a. Juan llegó. ‘Juan arrived.’ [perfective]
b. Juan llegaba. ‘Juan was arriving/used to arrive.’ [imperfective]
c. Juan estaba llegando. ‘Juan was arriving.’ [progressive]
20.4.2 Imperfective aspect in Mandarin Chinese
The Mandarin imperfective aspect markers zài ‘progressive’ and –zhe ‘continuous’ are often cited as a paradigm example of Comrie’s distinction between continuous and progressive aspects. The most important difference between the two morphemes lies in the types of situations that each one can modify. Zài occurs only with events (20a); it cannot be used to mark states (20b). In main clauses, - zhe is used primarily for states (21a–b), and is generally unacceptable with events (21c), though there appears to be some dialect variation in this regard.15
(20) a. Zhāngsān zài tiào.
Zhangsan prog jump
‘Zhangsan is jumping.’
b. *Wo zài xǐhuān Měiguó.
1sg prog like America
(intended: ‘I am liking America.’)16
(21) a. Chēzi zài wàimian tíng-zhe.
car at outside remain-cont
‘The car is parked outside.’
b. Tā zài chuáng-shàng tǎng-zhe.
3sg at bed-on lie-cont
‘He is lying on the bed.’
c. *Zhāngsān tiào-zhe.
Zhangsan jump-cont
(intended: ‘Zhangsan is jumping.’)
Some verbs allow both a stative and an eventive sense. For example, chuān can mean either ‘wear’ or ‘put on’; ná can mean either ‘hold’ or ‘pick up’. In such cases, zài selects the eventive reading and –zhe the stative.
(22) a. Tā zài chuān pí-xié.
3sg prog wear leather-shoe
‘He is putting on leather shoes.’
b. Tā chuān-zhe pí-xié.
3sg wear-cont leather-shoe
‘He is wearing leather shoes.’
(23) a. Tā zài ná bàozhǐ.
3sg prog hold newspaper
‘He is picking up a/the newspaper.’
b. Tā ná-zhe bàozhǐ.
3sg hold-cont newspaper
‘He is holding a/the newspaper.’
Yeh (1993) and a number of subsequent authors have noted that only individuallevel (temporary) states can be marked with –zhe; it is generally incompatible with stage-level (permanent) states.17
(24) *Tā cōnghuì-zhe.
3sg intelligent-cont
(for: ‘He is intelligent.’)
Although these examples have all been translated in the present tense, present time reference is not part of the meaning of either marker, as illustrated by the past time reference in (25).
(25) Nǐ dāngshí mí-zhe Mǎkèsī, Ēngésī Lièníng.
2sg then fascinate-cont Marx Engels Lenin
‘At that time you were fascinated by Marx, Engels and Lenin.’
So far we have considered only main clause uses of these markers. In adverbial clauses like those in (26), –zhe occurs freely with both stative and eventive predicates.18 As C. Smith (1997: 275) notes, -zhe is grammatically obligatory in this context; it cannot be replaced by zai. This illustrates an important general point: the function of a tense or aspect marker in subordinate clauses may be quite different from its function in main clauses. When we are trying to determine the semantic properties of a morpheme, it may be necessary to treat these two uses separately.
(26) a. Tā kū-zhe pǎo huí jiā qù le.
3sg cry-cont run return house go cos
‘He ran home crying.’
b. Xiǎo gǒu yáo-zhe wěiba pǎo le.
small dog shake-cont tail run cos
‘The little dog ran away wagging its tail.’
20.4.3 Perfect and prospective aspects
Using Klein’s terminology, we can define perfect (or retrospective) aspect as indicating that the situation time is prior to Topic Time (TSit < TT); and prospective aspect as indicating that the situation time is later than Topic Time (TT < TSit). The perfect in English is marked by the auxiliary have + past participle, e.g. has eaten, has arrived, etc. Comrie (1976: 64) suggests that the going to V construction (e.g., the ship is going to sail) is a way of expressing the prospective aspect in English. Other ways to express this meaning include the ship is about to sail and the ship is on the point of sailing.
The terms perfect and perfective are often confused, even by some linguists, but it is important to be clear about the distinction. We will discuss the perfect in some detail in Chapter 22.
20.4.4 Minor aspect categories
A number of languages have aspect markers which refer to the “phase” of the situation being described. For example, some languages have an inceptive aspect, which indicates that the beginning of the situation falls within the topic time. Such markers often get translated as begin to X. (The term inchoative is sometimes used for this meaning, but more commonly this term is restricted to changes of state or entering a state, e.g. to become fat, get old, get rich, etc.) Some languages have a terminative or completive aspect, which indicates that the end of the situation falls within the topic time. continuative aspect would mean continue to X, or keep on X-ing.
Iterative (or repetitive) aspect is used to refer to events which occur repeatedly. Such forms are often translated into English using phrases like over and over, more and more, here and there, etc. Distributive aspect might be considered a sub-type of iterative; it indicates that an action is done by or to members of a group, one after another.19
13 Comrie (1976: 27–28).
14 Comrie 1976: 25.
15 See for example Klein et al. (2000: 738), ex. 10. Also, Li & Thompson (1981) state that the combination of –zhe plus final particle ne has a distinct sense and can be used with events. Unless otherwise indicated, the examples in (20)-(23) come from Li & Thompson (1981: 220– 222).
16 Sun (2008: 90).
17 The examples in (24)-(25) come from C. Smith (1997: 274). In addition to non-occurrence with with stage-level states, there also seem to be a number of idiosyncratic lexical restrictions concerning which stative predicates can combine with –zhe
18 The examples in (26) come from Li & Thompson (1981: 223).