Leu, Verbal Aspect

8/20/2019 Leu, Verbal Aspect

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ASPECT IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN

Coordonator: lect. univ.dr. PIOARIU RODICA Student: LEU CORNELIA

L!. ro"#n$% l!.en&le'$ an I( Univer)itatea *+ Dece"!rie +,+- Al!a Iulia

Resumée:

Romanian, unlike English verbs do not have specialised forms indicating the continuous or progressiveaspect of the action as opposed to its indefinite character. In Romanian this distinction results from thecontext. The Romanian learner has to choose between the two forms of each English tense he wants to use,which implies knowledge of the restrictions on their use according to the class of verbs emplo ed or to thecontext.

+.MEANING AND /ORM

According to many linguists aspect is defined as a grammatical category indicating the temporal poinview from which an event or a state is seen to take place. Aspect is a grammatical category that reflectsway in which the meaning of a verb is viewed with respect to time.

Geoffrey Leech distinguished between two contrasts of aspect namely betweenThe !rogressive aspect

“is working” indicating that the event is in progress, that it is seen from an ongoing point of view andThe !erfect or perfective aspect “has worked”-that indicates that the event is seen from a completed, retrospectiv point of view.

he term aspect may refer to the general semantic oppositions restricted to particular grammaticalioppositions based on semantic distinctions in individual languages. !ernard "omrie establishes that aspects adifferent ways of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a situation.

#n the fallowing sentence$ "ohn read the book esterda # while he was reading it, the postman came %inthe first clause , &ohn's reading is presented as a complete event, without further subdivision into temp phrases. #n the second clause, this event is opened up, so that the speaker is now in the middle of this situathat the event of the postman's arrival took place.

According to (. &oos, aspect and tense are best discussed together, not because they are essential

correlated )the perfect autonomy of all the si* categories is beyond +uestion but because the discussioeither would be rather uninteresting if the other were disregarded as the author has a theoretical right to!ernard "omrie rediscusses he himself a brief comparison with tense saying that a language may have grammatical category that e*presses time reference in which case we say the language has tense mlanguages lack tenses, they do not have grammaticalised time reference though probably all languages le*icalise time reference they have temporal adverbials that locate situations in time, such as English toda , the

ear before last, at five o$clock.#n treatments of aspect says "omrie there's no such uniformity of terminology, so that the term aspec

now used to refer to the general semantic oppositions possible, now restricted to particular grammaticalioppositions based on these semantic distinctions in individual languages.

&ust as some languages do not have grammaticalised time reference to give tenses, so some languagenot grammaticalised semantic aspectual distinctions to give aspect )we mentioned already omanian lackcategory of aspect, but the category is replaced by some concepts we will discuss on in our chapter.



Alice !/descu shows that aspect refers to the character of a verb that refers to the degree of completenessthe action. 0he makes the distinction between the aspect of the verb and the aspects of the verbal form

eferring to the aspect of the verb A. !/descu considers the fallowing$%erbs of momentaneous aspect )to begin, to end, to catch, to send, to start .%erbs of &urative aspect )to continue, to e*ist, to listen, to love, toown and%erbs of &ouble aspect in the case of which the conte*t is very important$ 'e stopped short %(omentaneous

'e stopped in the village for two da s %1urative.2hen referring to the aspect of the verbal forms Alice !/descu distinguishes between$

a he(ommon )spect which e*presses the action itself or the perfective aspect. b he(ontinuous )spect that shows the action in move.

o these two aspects correspond two forms of the verbal con3ugation, namely$a he 0imple "on3ugation when the action of the verb is perfective as in $ # go home and lie down when #'m tired 4# saw her come in. b he "ontinuous 5rogressive "on3ugation when the action of the verb is imperfective

in$6ow long have you been catching colds like this7 ) epetitive 40he has been sleeping f

an hour.

0. CLASSI/ICATION O/ ASPECT0.+. PER/ECTI(E AND IMPER/ECTI(E IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN

he concept !erfective denotes a situation which is viewed in its entirety, without regard to internatemporal contour. 5erfectivity indicates the view of a situation as a single whole, without distinction ofvarious separate phases that make up the situation.

#mperfectivity pays essential attention to the internal structure of the situation. 8ne could discuss imperfectivity as about viewing a situation from within.

!oth in 9nglish and omanian the category of the aspect develops through the oppositions between thetwo correlative terms %perfective and imperfective. !ernard "omrie points the fact that related to the concof perfectivity as indicating a short period of time is its characterisation as indicating a punctual or momensituation. A very fre+uent characterisation of perfectivity is that it indicates a completed action. he perfecdoes indeed denote a complete situation with beginning, middle and end. he use of completed puts too memphasis on the termination of the action.

#ndicating the end of a situation is at best only one of the possible meanings of a perfective forcertainly, not its defining feature. A perfective form often indicates a situation which has an end, the only nsemantic element introduced by the perfective is that of termination of the situation. 0imilar to the definitio

the perfective in terms of a completed action is its definition as being a resultative, indicating the succescompletion of a situation.:or the omanian language one could find an e*emplification in 1umitru #rimia's work*ramatica

limbii rom+ne. orfologie. -intax . According to him, the verbc+nt m develops the sense of the past throughthe rapport to the present of the communication, but once this temporality )of anteriority fi*ed, development of the action doesn't take place in the moment of speech anymore.

e.g. )nul trecut c+ntam la mare . )the action of the verb is imperfective it lacks the representation of itending .

6e considers that the opposition is best reali;ed at the 5ast ense #ndicative and he includes in th5erfective Aspect the perfect compus , the perfect simplu, the mai mult ca perfect and theimperfect. #n the#mperfective Aspect with the present tense the opposition perfective4imperfective becomes neutre o

grammatical level in omanian. #t only stays for a component which is implied in the semantic level ofverbs. 2ith the future, the opposition comes similar with the temporal opposition viitor < =imperfective, aviitor > =perfective .



#rimia even establishes other oppositions such as$ momentaneous4durative, iterative )fre+uantatincoative %continuative %terminative.

Going on the imperfectivity in 9nglish and omanian, we may state together with "omrie and few othlinguists that the general characterisation of imperfectivity is the e*plicite reference to the internal tempstructure of a situation, viewing a situation from within. "omrie makes a classification of the aspectuoppositions$

Per1ective I"2er1ective

Ha!itual Continuou)

Non 2ro&re))ive Pro&re))ive

6abituality is defined as the repetition of a situation, the successive occurence of several instances ogiven situation. #n 9nglish we find some particular situations$

/hen I visit "ohn, he$ll recite his latest poems./hen I visit "ohn, he$ll be reciting his latest poems.

#n )a the implication is that &ohn's recital will occur often my arrival at his house.#n )b the implication is that &ohn's recital will have started before my arrival and will continue f

least part of the time that #'m there %case in which the 5rogressive indicates a situation ) "ohn$s reciting the poem s, that frames another situation )my arrival while the non-progressive e*cludes that interpretation. # put these sentences into the habitual aspect, then precisely the same difference between progressive and ? progressive remains$when I visited "ohn, he used to recite his latest poems )indicating that on each occasionwe went to &ohn's and only then did the poetry recital start/hen I visited "ohn he used to be reciting hislatest poems )on each occasion # visited &ohn and he was already engaged in reciting his poems .

1efinition of progressiveness fails to bring out the difference between progressiveness animperfectivity. hus imperfectivity includes habituality and a situation can be viewed as habitual withou being viewed as progressive )the case of the 9nglish ?on-5rogressive habitual in "ohn used to write poems ,contrasting with the 5rogressive "ohn used to be writing poems . he progressive in 9nglish has a number of specific uses that do not seem to fit under the general definition of progressiveness, for instance in I$ve onlhad six whiskies and alread I$m seeing pink elephants )progressiveness of the verb to see in the sense that #am only imagining things, in fact there are no pink elephants for me to see or-he$s alwa s bu ing far morevegetables than the can possibl eat indicating that the function of the progressive seems to be to add greateremotive effect than would be achieved by-he alwa s bu s far more vegetables than the can possibl eat.

0.0. PUNCUAL AND DURATI(E IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN

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1urativity refers to the fact that a given situation lasts for a certain period of time. he opposite durativity is punctuality which means the +uality of situation that does not last in time, one that takes pmomentarily.5unctual verbs usually re+uire the combination of a punctual preposition and a punctual temporal no)at noon, before two o'clock . #f the specification of the verb is that of a repetition we have a repeoccurence on specific punctual occasione.g . father arrives home at thirt 0three . 5unctual prepositionsre+uire punctual verbs and punctual and durative temporal noun as in$The both arrived at noon .

0weet distinguishes between long tenses ) durative from short point tenses ) punctual . he long tecan be either continuous or recurrent$ 6e often goes there. he short tenses are instantaneous as in*reeves

passes the ball to 1est who heads it straight into the goal . he durative element of meaning is seen in contrastof I raise m arm or The house falls down with I am raising m arm or The house is falling down .

:or the omanian language 1umitru #rimia makes the following statements %thus, the aspect appears$A. on the e*pression level, through$

<. prefi*es>. semi-au*iliaries

!. on the le*ical and syntactical level, through$<. verbs of aspect>. adverbs

he semi-au*iliaries or the verbs of modality %in omanian there is the possibility to render the modand the aspect through some verbs. 1umitru #rimia appreciates that through the semi-au*iliaries one e*press the imminent factor$ a sta )#oana st/ s/ pl ng/ , a vrea )Brea s/ plou/ , a avea )Am de scris ceva, sa-Ci spun/ multe lucruri , a da )1a s/-Ci spun/ ceva , a fii )"e era s/ fac/ Dn situaCia aceasta7 , a putea )5vina , a veni )Ei vine sa pl ng/ , a vrea )Brea s/ citeasc/ , a trebui )Lucrurile trebuie re;olvate .

#n omanian the prefi*es mark the opposition singularity 4 plurality and one could remark the use of prefi*e re to e*press the fre+uentative, iterative meaning$ a vedea %a revedea, a calcula %a recalcula, a vreveni.

he verbs of aspect e*press aspectual meaning, values related to the moments of the action e*pressedthe verb$ the beginning ) a Dncepe, a se pune, a se porni, a se apuca %9l Dncepe s/ scrie, se porneFte s/ plse pune pe scris the continuation )a continua, a persista %9l continu/ s/ scrie, 9l persist/ Dn a citi , the termina, a Dnceta, a ispr/vi %9a sf rFeFte de scris, u Dncete;i s/ vorbeFti .

1umitru #rimia considers that the adverbs e*press different aspectual meaning as modifiers$e.g. tot$ i tot c nta mai$ ?u mai c nta

iar$ #ar c nta

or as le*ical units having a syntactical functions such as$din nou$ A venit din nou mereu$ Bine mereu

According to its semantic meaning #rimia classifies the adverb as it follows$ +ualificative advecircumstantial adverbs or adverbs of modality.

6e considers the circumstantial adverbs from the semantic point of view and he even classify themsuch$ adverbs of time )a;i, poim ine, asear/, tot timpul, adineaori , and aspectual adverbs )durative$ mintr-una iterative$ iar, iar/Fi, din nou .

Gramatica Academiei gives us e*amples of adverbs that show the continuity )mereu, necontenit, mthe duration )iar, iar/Fi, din nou or the fre+uency )adesea, de ;ece ori .

". 5oghirc and Gh. ?edioglu classify the aspects e*isting in omanian in durative verbs )a lucra a

momentaneous verbs )a tres/ri . heir studies are very similar, they both make a classification of the omaaspect, after establishing the e*istence and the great importance this grammatical category has for language.

H



hey both classify the aspects e*isting in omanian according to the criterion of duration and we fdurative verbs )verbs with linear action %a lucra and momentaneous verbs )verbs with point action %a tre

According to the criterion of completeness the two authors e*emplify the e*istence of perfective verhe perfective verbs e*press an action indicting the obtaining of the purpose and the temporal limitation o

action by showing its ending point )e.g. a tres/ri, a-Ci da ca un 3unghi prin inim/, which contain the beginas well as the end of the process . he imperfective omanian verbs show that the process e*pressed byverb is developed without having the indication whether the action is completed or not )e.g. a lucra, a te Ci 3unghi, presenting the process in development.

ogether with these classes of aspect there are in omanian a series of other classes of aspect having role to increase the e*pressive power of the verbs. hus, the #ngressive aspect is a momentaneous asshowing an action that begins and stops completely in the same moment ) a arunca o piatr/, a aluneca, a lu pleca, a porni, a prinde, a trimite . he #ncoative aspect shows us the beginning of the action, shows us tis only its beginning not the action itself that stopped )e.g.: un tremur o cuprinde 2n tot trupul %in this sentencethe incoative suggests the state of trembling as well as the fact that this trembling lasts .

he idea of continuation of the process appears in the case of the #ncoative of development verbs show both the initial moment of the action as well as its ending, adding the meaning of the progressdevelopment that transforms the beings$

e.g. a se Dnsera = a Dncepe s/ se fac/ searaI a se Dnsera din ce Dn ce mai mult

9*amples of such incoative verbs of development are numerous$ a adDnci, a Dmb/tr ni, a se Dmprima Dnc/runCi, a creFte, a se acri, a sc/dea, a spori, a.s.o.

he omanian aspect may modify, moulding itself upon the verbal construction. hus the ingressive vin )puc un b 3 becomes incoative in apuc durerea de cap → e*press the beginning and the continuation of the headache. he ingressive becomes incoative when related to a verb that show the continuation of the acwhich is a result of that action )a adormi %a dormi .

he transformation of the ingressive in an incoative verb can be made at the level of a phrase as welat the level of a sentence. “La citirea acestei povestiri omulJo sfecleFte, Dng/lbeneFte, Dl apuc/ fiori de motremur/ ca varga” )#on Ghica .

he ingressive verba o sfecli meaninga04i pierde cump tul becomes incoative because of the verbs inthe ne*t sentence.

he ingressive verb2ng lbene4te becomes an incoative verb of development.he ingressive verb2l apuc fiori de moarte becomes an incoative continuative verb.he imperfective verbtremur e*pressing the increase of the state of fear started by the verba o sfecli

changes the ingressive nature of this verb, giving it an incoative aspect. he ingressive aspect of the vertransformed in incoative by the verbs in the ne*t sentences.

5)t+ta 2i trebuie unchea4ului s au6 ca s 0i dea un cu3it ascu3it prin inim . El, ve6i, nu se

2mp ca cu ceea ce 6isese ursitoarea de0a doua. 7 gri8 mare 2l cuprinse. !+n una alta, copila4ul cre4tea,citea, citea mereu9(+nd se f cu de nou ani, 4tia c+te 2n lun 4i 2n soare. El 2nsu4i a8unsese s fie o carte.nchea4ul se bucura 4i nu se bucura de fiul s u, dar baba 4tiu c nu mai putea de bucurie9unchea4ul, ve6i,

era cu cuiul la inim . 1 iatul, de ce cre4tea, d0aia se f cea mai frumos 4i mai 2nv 3at. Tot satul 2l cinstea iarunchea4ul de ce trecea timpul, d0aia se 2ntrista. (+nd era aproape de a 2mplini b iatul doispre6ece ani, nu mai

putu unchea4ul s 3ie ;taina<, trebui s r sufle.= )5etre #spirescuhe verbal phrasea0i da cuiva un cu3it prin inim )ingresive aspect becomes incoative because it shows

the beginning of the state of worry of the man, e*pressed in its development through era cu cuiul la inim/Dntrista, nu mai putu s/ Cie, trebui s/ r/sufle.

5oghirc speaks even of resultative verbs )showing the final moment of the action or about iterative v)which indicate a repetitive action .

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3I3LIOGRAPH4:

<.!/descu, Alice,*ramatica limbii engle6e , !ucureFti, 9d. tiinCific/, < M@.>.!e3an, 1umitru,*ramatica limbii rom+ne, 9d. 9chinocCiu, < M.@.!udai, Las;lo, English *rammar. Theor and practice , !ucureFti, 9d. eora, < N.H."omrie, !ernard, )spect. )n introduction to the stud of verbal aspect and related problems ,

"ambridge, "ambridge Oniversity 5ress, < NM.K.#rimia, 1umitru,*ramatica limbii rom+ne. orfologie. -intax , #aFi, 9d. 5olirom, < N.M. &oos, (artin,The English verb. >orm and meaning, he Oniversity of 2isconsin 5ress, (adison, (ikwaukee, London, < MP.N.Lawler, &ohn,-tudies in English generics, Onpublished 5h. 1. 1issertation, he Oniversity of

(ichigan, 1epartment of Linguistics, Ann Arbour, < [email protected].?edioglu, Gheorghe, )spectul verbal, "B, #B, < K>, nr.H.

. 5oghirc, "onstantin,(u privire la aspectul verbal 2n limba rom+n , L ##, < K@, nr.M.<Q.Rdrenghea, (ihai,-tud of the tense ?s stems in English and Romanian, "lu3, Oniversity of

"lu3 5ress, < P<.

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Leu, Verbal Aspect

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