Английского

CHAPTER XV
VERB: ASPECT 
§ 1. The aspective meaning of the verb, as different from its tempo-
ral meaning, reflects the inherent mode of the realisation of the 
process irrespective of its timing. 
As we have already seen, the aspective meaning can be in-built in 
the semantic structure of the verb, forming an invariable, derivative 
category. In English, the various lexical aspective meanings have 
been generalised by the verb in its subclass division into limitive 
and unlimitive sets. On the whole, this division is loose, the demar-
cation line between the sets is easily trespassed both ways. In spite 
of their want of rigour, however, the aspective verbal subclasses 
are grammatically relevant in so far as they are not indifferent to 
the choice of the aspective grammatical forms of the verb. In Rus-
sian, the aspective division of verbs into perfective and imperfec-
tive is, on the contrary, very strict. Although the Russian category 
of aspect is derivative, it presents one of the most typical features 
of the grammatical structure of the verb, governing its tense system 
both formally and semantically. 
On the other hand, the aspective meaning can also be represented 
in variable grammatical categories. Aspective grammatical change 
is wholly alien to the Russian language, but it forms one of the ba-
sic features of the categorial structure of the English verb. 
Two systems of verbal forms, in the past grammatical tradition 
analysed under the indiscriminate heading of the "temporal inflex-
ion", i. e. synthetic inflexion proper and analytical composition as 
its equivalent, should be evaluated in this light: the continuous 
forms and the perfect forms. 
The aspective or non-aspective identification of the forms in ques-
tion will, in the long run, be dependent on whether or not they ex-
press the direct, immediate time of the action denoted by the verb, 
since a general connection between the 

---

156
aspective and temporal verbal semantics is indisputable. 
The continuous verbal forms analysed on the principles of opposi-
tional approach admit of only one interpretation, and that is aspec-
tive. The continuous forms are aspective because, reflecting the in-
herent character of the process performed by the verb, they do not, 
and cannot, denote the timing of the process. The opposition con-
stituting the corresponding category is effected between the con-
tinuous and the non-continuous (indefinite) verbal forms. The 
categorial meaning discloses the nature of development of the ver-
bal action, on which ground the suggested name for the category as 
a whole will be "development". As is the case with the other cate-
gories, its expression is combined with other categorial expressions 
in one and the same verb-form, involving also the category that 
features the perfect. Thus, to be consistent in our judgments, we 
must identify, within the framework of the manifestations of the 
category of development, not only the perfect continuous forms, 
but also the perfect indefinite forms (i.e. non-continuous). 
The perfect, as different from the continuous, does reflect a kind of 
timing, though in a purely relative way. Namely, it coordinates two 
times, locating one of them in retrospect towards the other. Should 
the grammatical meaning of the perfect have been exhausted by 
this function, it ought to have been placed into one and the same 
categorial system with the future, forming the integral category of 
time coordination (correspondingly, prospective and retrospective). 
In reality, though, it cannot be done, because the perfect expresses 
not only time in relative retrospect, but also the very connection of 
a prior process with a time-limit reflected in a subsequent event. 
Thus, the perfect forms of the verb display a mixed, intermediary 
character, which places them apart both from the relative posterior 
tense and the aspective development. The true nature of the perfect 
is temporal aspect reflected in its own opposition, which cannot be 
reduced to any other opposition of the otherwise recognised verbal 
categories. The suggested name for this category will be "retro-
spective coordination", or, contractedly, "retrospect". The cate-
gorial member opposed to the perfect, for the sake of terminologi-
cal consistency, will be named "imperfect" (non-perfect). As an in-
dependent category, the retrospective coordination is manifested in 
the integral verb-form together with the manifestations of other 
categories, among them the 

---

157
aspective category of development. Thus, alongside of the forms of 
perfect continuous and perfect indefinite, the verb distinguishes 
also the forms of imperfect continuous and imperfect indefinite.