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Aspect
Aspect is a term that has been used in linguistics to refer to (at least) two distinct
domains of study. We can refer to these two domains respectively as
a- inner and outer aspect (Travis 1991: 7),
b- situation and viewpoint aspect (Smith 1991: 3), or
c- lexical and grammatical aspect. (MacDonald (2008)
The perfective/imperfective distinction in Romance as well as the progressive/perfect
distinction in English are examples of outer aspect. This aspect has also been referred to as
Aktionsart (Tenny & Pustejovsky 2000: 6). Syntactically speaking, the properties of inner
aspect are manifested only inside the verb phrase. This is not the case for outer aspect. English
outer aspect has morphological manifestations that inner aspect does not have. Outer aspect is
not affected by the nature of the internal argument, inner aspect is.
Aristotelian aspect
So called because Aristotle (in On the Soul) was the first to have distinguished among
three classes of verbs: States, activities, achievements and accomplishements. His distinction
is said to be of the lexical type.Both syntacticians and semanticists have come up with field
specific categorizations of verbs. Semanticists, starting with the pioneering work of Vendler
(1987) and Dowty (1987), have come up with Semanticists verb classes.
Semanticists verb classes
States
Activities
Achievements
Accomplishments
know
run
recognize
paint a picture
believe
walk
spot/notice
make a chair
have
swim
find/lose
deliver a sermon
desire
push a cart
reach
draw a circle
love
drive a car
die
recover from an illness
understand
build a house
be happy
states are non-dynamic; while, activities are open-ended processes. achievements are nearinstantaneous events which are over as soon as they have begun. accomplishments are
processes which have a natural endpoint
Prof. Afkinich
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