Aspect : an introduction to the study of verbal aspect and related problems

An introduction to the general linguistic study of aspect. Topics covered include the relation of tense and aspect, the morphology and the semantics of aspect, and structuralist and philosophical approaches. Dr Comrie draws his examples particularly from English and the Slavonic and Romance languages, but also from Arabic, Chinese, Welsh, Greek and a variety of others. This is the first study of aspect, considered as a general linguistic phenomenon. It is intended for students of individual languages as well as for students of linguistics.

• Preface p. vii
• Abbreviations p. ix
• Introduction p. 1
• 0.1 Definition of aspect p. 1
• 0.2 Meaning and form p. 6
• 0.3 Terminology p. 11
• 0.4 Structure of the book p. 13
• 0.5 General reading p. 14
• 1 Perfective and imperfective p. 16
• 1.1 Perfective p. 16
• 1.1.1 Definition of perfectivity p. 16
• 1.1.2 Perfectivity and other aspectual values p. 21
• 1.2 Imperfective p. 24
• 1.2.1 Habitual p. 26
• 1.2.1.1 Habitual and other aspectual values p. 30
• 1.2.2 Progressive p. 32
• 2 Aspect and inherent meaning p. 41
• 2.1 Punctual and durative p. 41
• 2.2 Telic and atelic p. 44
• 2.3 State and dynamic situation p. 48
• 3 Perfect p. 52
• 3.1 Types of perfect p. 56
• 3.1.1 Perfect of result p. 56
• 3.1.2 Experiential perfect p. 58
• 3.1.3 Perfect of persistent situation p. 60
• 3.1.4 Perfect of recent past p. 60
• 3.2 Perfect and other aspects p. 61
• 3.3 Prospective aspect p. 64
• 4 Aspect and tense p. 66
• 4.1 Perfective, present, and future p. 66
• 4.2 Aspectual distinctions restricted to certain tenses p. 71
• 4.3 Narrative Present p. 73
• 4.4 Combined tense/aspect oppositions p. 78
• 4.5 Aspect and time reference in tenseless languages p. 82
• 4.6 Aspect and voice p. 84
• 5 Formal expression of aspectual oppositions p. 87
• 5.1 Morphology of aspect p. 87
• 5.1.1 Prefixing in Balto-Slavonic, Georgian, and Hungarian p. 88
• 5.1.2 Combined tense/aspect morphology p. 94
• 5.2 Syntactic expressions of aspectual oppositions p. 98
• 5.2.1 Locative expressions of aspectual oppositions p. 98
• 5.2.1.1 Progressive and imperfective aspect p. 98
• 5.2.1.2 Contingent state p. 103
• 5.2.1.3 Direction and aspect p. 106
• 5.2.2 Perfect as present plus past p. 106
• 5.2.2.1 Perfect and inferential p. 108
• 6 Markedness p. 111
• 6.1 Markedness and semantics p. 112
• 6.2 Markedness and morphology p. 114
• 6.3 Neutralisation p. 116
• 6.4 Markedness and frequency p. 116
• 6.5 Markedness and context p. 118
• 6.6 Degree of markedness p. 122
• Appendix A Language guide p. 123
• A.1 Genetic classification of languages cited p. 123
• A.2 Aspectual systems of individual languages p. 124
• A.2.1 English p. 124
• A.2.2 Slavonic (Russian, Bulgarian, Old Church Slavonic) p. 125
• A.2.3 Romance (French, Spanish) p. 126
• A.2.4 Greek (Ancient Greek, Modern Greek) p. 127
• A.2.5 Chinese (Mandarin) p. 128
• A.2.6 Other languages (Turkish, ChiBemba) p. 128
• Appendix B Recent approaches to aspect p. 129
• B.1 Localist theory of aspect p. 129
• B.2 Feature analysis p. 130
• B.3 Model-theoretic semantics p. 132
• References p. 134
• Index p. 139