C) Category of aspect

The category of aspect is a linguistic representation of the objective category of manner of action. It is realized through the opposition Continuous::Non-Continuous (Progressive::Non-Progressive). The opposition is privative both in the plane of content and in the plane of expression. It is easily neutralized, i. e. non- continuous forms substitute continuous forms when the notion of duration is expressed by other means (eg. lexical). The realization of the category of aspect is closely connected with the lexical meaning of verbs. There are some verbs in English that do not normally occur with progressive aspect, even in those contexts in which the majority of verbs necessarily take the progressive form. Among the so-called ‘non-progressive’ verbs are think, understand, know, hate, love, see, taste, feel, possess, own, etc. The most striking characteristic that they have in common is the fact that they are ‘stative’ - they refer to a state of affairs, rather than to an action, event or process. It should be observed, however, that all the ‘non-progressive' verbs take the progressive aspect under particular circumstances. As the result of internal transposition verbs of non-progressive nature can be found in the Continuous form:

Now I'm knowing you. Generally speaking the Continuous form has at least two semantic features - duration (the action is always in progress) and definiteness (the action is always limited to a definite point or period of time). In other words, the purpose of the Continuous form is to serve as a frame which makes the process of the action more concrete and isolated.

A distinction should be made between grammatical aspect and semantic aspectuality. English has an aspect system marked by the presence or absence of the auxiliary be contrasting progressive and non-progressive. The major aspectuality contrast is between perfective and imperfective. With perfective aspectuality the situation described in a clause is presented in its totality, as a whole, viewed, as it were, from the outside. With imperfective aspectuality the situation is not presented in its totality, but viewed from within, with focus on the internal temporal structure or on some subinterval of time within the whole. The main use of progressive forms is to express a particular subtype of imperfective aspectuality.

As for the Russian verb, it has two aspects, the perfective and the imperfective. It is obvious at once that there is no direct correspondence between English and Russian aspects; for instance, the English continuous aspect is not identical with the Russian imperfective. The relation between the two systems is not so simple as all that. On the one hand, the English common aspect may correspond not only to the Russian perfective but also to the Russian imperfective aspect; thus, he wrote may correspond both to написал and to писал. On the other hand, the Russian imperfective aspect may correspond not only to the continuous but also to the common aspect in English; thus, писал may correspond both to was writing and to wrote.

Category of aspect

There are several typical cases of oppositional reduction of the category of aspect. One is related to the division of verbs into limitive and unlimitive.

e.g. The sun shone brightly.

The example presents a case of neutralization of the opposition “continuous vs. non-continuous” (a process is implied). Neutralization is optional since the paradigmatically required form “was shining” can still be used. The neutralizer is the lexical meaning of the verb.

As for transposition, continuous forms can be used transpositionally to denote habitual, recurrent actions in emphatic collocations. (e.g. He is always borrowing my pen).

· (Non)finite verbs.

Verb forms make up two distinct classes: finites and non-finites, also called verbals, verbids. Finites serve to express a primary predication, i.e. they ‘tie’ the situation described by a proposition to the context. Non-finites serve to express a secondary predication.

The non-finite forms of the verb combine the characteristics of the verb with the characteristics of other parts of speech. Their mixed features are revealed in their semantics, morphemic structural marking, combinability, and syntactic functions.

The strict division of functions clearly shows that the opposition between the finite and non-finite forms of the verb creates a special grammatical category. The differential feature of the opposition is constituted by the expression of verbal time and mood: the non-finite forms have no immediate means of expressing time- mood categorial semantics and therefore present the weak member of the opposition. The category expressed by this opposition is called the category of finitude. The syntactic content of the category of finitude is the expression of predication (more precisely, the expression of verbal predication). In other words, the opposition of the finite verbs and the verbids is based on the expression of the functions of full predication and semi-predication. While the finite verbs express predication in its genuine and complete form, the function of the verbids is to express semi-predication, building up semi-predicative complexes within different sentence constructions. The English verbids include four forms: the infinitive, the gerund, the present participle and the past participle.

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