Лекции по теоретической грамматике английского языка для студентов

 
6. The 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 

---

40
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.