ASPECT IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN

Coordonator: lect. univ.dr. PIOARIU RODICA

Student: LEU CORNELIA,
Lb. romn- lb.englez, an IV
Universitatea 1 Decembrie 1918 Alba Iulia
Resume:
Romanian, unlike English verbs do not have specialised forms indicating the continuous or progressive
aspect of the action as opposed to its indefinite character. In Romanian this distinction results from the
context. 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 employed or to the
context.
1.MEANING AND FORM
According to many linguists aspect is defined as a grammatical category indicating the temporal point of
view from which an event or a state is seen to take place. Aspect is a grammatical category that reflects the
way in which the meaning of a verb is viewed with respect to time.
Geoffrey Leech distinguished between two contrasts of aspect namely between The Progressive aspect
is working indicating that the event is in progress, that it is seen from an ongoing point of view and The
Perfect or perfective aspect has worked-that indicates that the event is seen from a completed, retrospective
point of view.
The term aspect may refer to the general semantic oppositions restricted to particular grammaticalised
oppositions based on semantic distinctions in individual languages. Bernard Comrie establishes that aspects are
different ways of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a situation.
In the fallowing sentence: John read the book yesterday; while he was reading it, the postman came in
the first clause , Johns reading is presented as a complete event, without further subdivision into temporal
phrases. In the second clause, this event is opened up, so that the speaker is now in the middle of this situation
that the event of the postmans arrival took place.
According to M. Joos, aspect and tense are best discussed together, not because they are essentially
correlated (the perfect autonomy of all the six categories is beyond question) but because the discussion of
either would be rather uninteresting if the other were disregarded as the author has a theoretical right to do.
Bernard Comrie rediscusses he himself a brief comparison with tense saying that a language may have a
grammatical category that expresses time reference in which case we say the language has tense; many
languages lack tenses, they do not have grammaticalised time reference though probably all languages can
lexicalise time reference they have temporal adverbials that locate situations in time, such as English today, the
year before last, at five oclock.
In treatments of aspect says Comrie theres no such uniformity of terminology, so that the term aspect is
now used to refer to the general semantic oppositions possible, now restricted to particular grammaticalised
oppositions based on these semantic distinctions in individual languages.
Just as some languages do not have grammaticalised time reference to give tenses, so some languages do
not grammaticalised semantic aspectual distinctions to give aspect (we mentioned already Romanian lack the
category of aspect, but the category is replaced by some concepts we will discuss on in our chapter.

Alice Bdescu shows that aspect refers to the character of a verb that refers to the degree of completeness of
the action. She makes the distinction between the aspect of the verb and the aspects of the verbal forms.
Referring to the aspect of the verb A. Bdescu considers the fallowing: Verbs of momentaneous aspect (to
begin, to end, to catch, to send, to start). Verbs of Durative aspect (to continue, to exist, to listen, to love, to
own) and Verbs of Double aspect in the case of which the context is very important:
He stopped short Momentaneous
He stopped in the village for two days Durative.
When referring to the aspect of the verbal forms Alice Bdescu distinguishes between:
a)The Common Aspect which expresses the action itself or the perfective aspect.
b)The Continuous Aspect that shows the action in move.
To these two aspects correspond two forms of the verbal conjugation, namely:
a)The Simple Conjugation when the action of the verb is perfective as in :
I go home and lie down when Im tired /I saw her come in.
b)The Continuous Progressive Conjugation when the action of the verb is imperfective as
in:
How long have you been catching colds like this? (Repetitive) /She has been sleeping for
an hour.
2. CLASSIFICATION OF ASPECT
2.1. PERFECTIVE AND IMPERFECTIVE IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN
The concept Perfective denotes a situation which is viewed in its entirety, without regard to internal
temporal contour. Perfectivity indicates the view of a situation as a single whole, without distinction of the
various separate phases that make up the situation.
Imperfectivity pays essential attention to the internal structure of the situation. One could discuss on
imperfectivity as about viewing a situation from within.
Both in English and Romanian the category of the aspect develops through the oppositions between these
two correlative terms perfective and imperfective. Bernard Comrie points the fact that related to the concept
of perfectivity as indicating a short period of time is its characterisation as indicating a punctual or momentary
situation. A very frequent characterisation of perfectivity is that it indicates a completed action. The perfective
does indeed denote a complete situation with beginning, middle and end. The use of completed puts too much
emphasis on the termination of the action.
Indicating the end of a situation is at best only one of the possible meanings of a perfective form,
certainly, not its defining feature. A perfective form often indicates a situation which has an end, the only new
semantic element introduced by the perfective is that of termination of the situation. Similar to the definition of
the perfective in terms of a completed action is its definition as being a resultative, indicating the successful
completion of a situation.
For the Romanian language one could find an exemplification in Dumitru Irimias work Gramatica
limbii romne. Morfologie. Sintax. According to him, the verb cntm develops the sense of the past through
the rapport to the present of the communication, but once this temporality (of anteriority) fixed, the
development of the action doesnt take place in the moment of speech anymore.
e.g. Anul trecut cntam la mare. (the action of the verb is imperfective; it lacks the representation of its
ending).
He considers that the opposition is best realized at the Past Tense Indicative and he includes in the
Perfective Aspect the perfect compus, the perfect simplu, the mai mult ca perfect and the imperfect. In the
Imperfective Aspect with the present tense the opposition perfective/imperfective becomes neutre on a
grammatical level in Romanian. It only stays for a component which is implied in the semantic level of the
verbs. With the future, the opposition comes similar with the temporal opposition viitor 1 =imperfective, and
viitor 2 =perfective .

Irimia even establishes other oppositions such as: momentaneous/durative, iterative (frequantative),
incoative continuative terminative.
Going on the imperfectivity in English and Romanian, we may state together with Comrie and few other
linguists that the general characterisation of imperfectivity is the explicite reference to the internal temporal
structure of a situation, viewing a situation from within. Comrie makes a classification of the aspectual
oppositions:

Perfective

Imperfective
Habitual

Continuous
Non progressive

Progressive

Habituality is defined as the repetition of a situation, the successive occurence of several instances of a
given situation. In English we find some particular situations:
When I visit John, hell recite his latest poems.
When I visit John, hell be reciting his latest poems.
In (a) the implication is that Johns recital will occur often my arrival at his house.
In (b) the implication is that Johns recital will have started before my arrival and will continue for at
least part of the time that Im there case in which the Progressive indicates a situation (Johns reciting the
poems, that frames another situation (my arrival) while the non-progressive excludes that interpretation. If we
put these sentences into the habitual aspect, then precisely the same difference between progressive and Nonprogressive remains: when I visited John, he used to recite his latest poems (indicating that on each occasion
we went to Johns and only then did the poetry recital start); When I visited John he used to be reciting his
latest poems (on each occasion I visited John and he was already engaged in reciting his poems).
Definition of progressiveness fails to bring out the difference between progressiveness and
imperfectivity. Thus imperfectivity includes habituality and a situation can be viewed as habitual without its
being viewed as progressive (the case of the English Non-Progressive habitual in John used to write poems,
contrasting with the Progressive John used to be writing poems). The progressive in English has a number of
specific uses that do not seem to fit under the general definition of progressiveness, for instance in Ive only
had six whiskies and already Im seeing pink elephants (progressiveness of the verb to see in the sense that I
am only imagining things, in fact there are no pink elephants for me to see) or Shes always buying far more
vegetables than they can possibly eat indicating that the function of the progressive seems to be to add greater
emotive effect than would be achieved by She always buys far more vegetables than they can possibly eat.

2.2. PUNCUAL AND DURATIVE IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN

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Durativity refers to the fact that a given situation lasts for a certain period of time. The opposite of
durativity is punctuality which means the quality of situation that does not last in time, one that takes place
momentarily.
Punctual verbs usually require the combination of a punctual preposition and a punctual temporal noun
(at noon, before two oclock ). If the specification of the verb is that of a repetition we have a repeated
occurence on specific punctual occasion e.g. My father arrives home at thirty-three. Punctual prepositions
require punctual verbs and punctual and durative temporal noun as in: They both arrived at noon.
Sweet distinguishes between long tenses ( durative ) from short point tenses ( punctual ). The long tenses
can be either continuous or recurrent: He often goes there. The short tenses are instantaneous as in Greeves
passes the ball to Best who heads it straight into the goal. The durative element of meaning is seen in contrast
of I raise my arm or The house falls down with I am raising my arm or The house is falling down.
For the Romanian language Dumitru Irimia makes the following statements thus, the aspect appears:
A. on the expression level, through:
1. prefixes
2. semi-auxiliaries
B. on the lexical and syntactical level, through:
1. verbs of aspect
2. adverbs
The semi-auxiliaries or the verbs of modality in Romanian there is the possibility to render the modality
and the aspect through some verbs. Dumitru Irimia appreciates that through the semi-auxiliaries one can
express the imminent factor: a sta (Ioana st s plng), a vrea (Vrea s plou), a avea (Am de scris ceva, Are
sa-i spun multe lucruri), a da (Da s-i spun ceva), a fii (Ce era s fac n situaia aceasta?), a putea (Poate s
vina), a veni (i vine sa plng), a vrea (Vrea s citeasc), a trebui (Lucrurile trebuie rezolvate).
In Romanian the prefixes mark the opposition singularity / plurality and one could remark the use of the
prefixe re to express the frequentative, iterative meaning: a vedea a revedea, a calcula a recalcula, a veni a
reveni.
The verbs of aspect express aspectual meaning, values related to the moments of the action expressed by
the verb: the beginning ( a ncepe, a se pune, a se porni, a se apuca El ncepe s scrie, se pornete s plou, el
se pune pe scris); the continuation (a continua, a persista El continu s scrie, El persist n a citi), the end (a
termina, a nceta, a isprvi Ea sfrete de scris, Tu ncetezi s vorbeti).
Dumitru Irimia considers that the adverbs express different aspectual meaning as modifiers:
e.g. tot: i tot cnta
mai: Nu mai cnta
iar: Iar cnta
or as lexical units having a syntactical functions such as:
din nou: A venit din nou
mereu: Vine mereu
According to its semantic meaning Irimia classifies the adverb as it follows: qualificative adverbs,
circumstantial adverbs or adverbs of modality.
He considers the circumstantial adverbs from the semantic point of view and he even classify them as
such: adverbs of time (azi, poimine, asear, tot timpul, adineaori), and aspectual adverbs (durative: mereu,
intr-una; iterative: iar, iari, din nou).
Gramatica Academiei gives us examples of adverbs that show the continuity (mereu, necontenit, mai),
the duration (iar, iari, din nou) or the frequency (adesea, de zece ori).
C. Poghirc and Gh. Nedioglu classify the aspects existing in Romanian in durative verbs (a lucra) and
momentaneous verbs (a tresri). Their studies are very similar, they both make a classification of the Romanian
aspect, after establishing the existence and the great importance this grammatical category has for our
language.
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They both classify the aspects existing in Romanian according to the criterion of duration and we find
durative verbs (verbs with linear action a lucra) and momentaneous verbs (verbs with point action a tresri).
According to the criterion of completeness the two authors exemplify the existence of perfective verbs.
The perfective verbs express an action indicting the obtaining of the purpose and the temporal limitation of the
action by showing its ending point (e.g. a tresri, a-i da ca un junghi prin inim, which contain the beginning
as well as the end of the process). The imperfective Romanian verbs show that the process expressed by the
verb is developed without having the indication whether the action is completed or not (e.g. a lucra, a te ine un
junghi, presenting the process in development.
Together with these classes of aspect there are in Romanian a series of other classes of aspect having the
role to increase the expressive power of the verbs. Thus, the Ingressive aspect is a momentaneous aspect
showing an action that begins and stops completely in the same moment ( a arunca o piatr, a aluneca, a lua, a
pleca, a porni, a prinde, a trimite). The Incoative aspect shows us the beginning of the action, shows us that it
is only its beginning not the action itself that stopped (e.g.: un tremur o cuprinde n tot trupul in this sentence
the incoative suggests the state of trembling as well as the fact that this trembling lasts).
The idea of continuation of the process appears in the case of the Incoative of development verbs that
show both the initial moment of the action as well as its ending, adding the meaning of the progressive
development that transforms the beings:
e.g. a se nsera = a ncepe s se fac seara+
a se nsera din ce n ce mai mult
Examples of such incoative verbs of development are numerous: a adnci, a mbtrni, a se mprimvra,
a ncruni, a crete, a se acri, a scdea, a spori, a.s.o.
The Romanian aspect may modify, moulding itself upon the verbal construction. Thus the ingressive verb
in Apuc un b becomes incoative in M apuc durerea de cap express the beginning and the continuation of
the headache. The ingressive becomes incoative when related to a verb that show the continuation of the action
which is a result of that action (a adormi a dormi).
The transformation of the ingressive in an incoative verb can be made at the level of a phrase as well as
at the level of a sentence. La citirea acestei povestiri omulo sfeclete, nglbenete, l apuc fiori de moarte,
tremur ca varga (Ion Ghica).
The ingressive verb a o sfecli meaning a-i pierde cumptul becomes incoative because of the verbs in
the next sentence.
The ingressive verb nglbenete becomes an incoative verb of development.
The ingressive verb l apuc fiori de moarte becomes an incoative continuative verb.
The imperfective verb tremur expressing the increase of the state of fear started by the verb a o sfecli
changes the ingressive nature of this verb, giving it an incoative aspect. The ingressive aspect of the verb is
transformed in incoative by the verbs in the next sentences.
Atta i trebuie uncheaului s auz ca s-i dea un cuit ascuit prin inim. El, vezi, nu se
mpca cu ceea ce zisese ursitoarea de-a doua. O grij mare l cuprinse. Pn una alta, copilaul cretea,
citea, citea mereuCnd se fcu de nou ani, tia cte n lun i n soare. El nsui ajunsese s fie o carte.
Uncheaul se bucura i nu se bucura de fiul su, dar baba tiu c nu mai putea de bucurieuncheaul, vezi,
era cu cuiul la inim. Biatul, de ce cretea, d-aia se fcea mai frumos i mai nvat. Tot satul l cinstea iar
uncheaul de ce trecea timpul, d-aia se ntrista. Cnd era aproape de a mplini biatul doisprezece ani, nu mai
putu uncheaul s ie (taina), trebui s rsufle. (Petre Ispirescu)
The verbal phrase a-i da cuiva un cuit prin inim (ingresive aspect) becomes incoative because it shows
the beginning of the state of worry of the man, expressed in its development through era cu cuiul la inim, se
ntrista, nu mai putu s ie, trebui s rsufle.
Poghirc speaks even of resultative verbs (showing the final moment of the action) or about iterative verbs
(which indicate a repetitive action).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1.Bdescu, Alice, Gramatica limbii engleze, Bucureti, Ed. tiinific, 1963.
2.Bejan, Dumitru, Gramatica limbii romne, Ed. Echinociu, 1996.
3.Budai, Laszlo, English Grammar. Theory and practice, Bucureti, Ed. Teora, 1997.
4.Comrie, Bernard, Aspect. An introduction to the study of verbal aspect and related problems,
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1976.
5.Irimia, Dumitru, Gramatica limbii romne. Morfologie. Sintax, Iai, Ed. Polirom, 1997.
6. Joos, Martin, The English verb. Form and meaning, The University of Wisconsin Press,
Madison, Mikwaukee, London, 1968.
7.Lawler, John, Studies in English generics, Unpublished Ph. D. Dissertation, The University of
Michigan, Department of Linguistics, Ann Arbour, 1973.
8.Nedioglu, Gheorghe, Aspectul verbal, CV, IV, 1952, nr.4.
9. Poghirc, Constantin, Cu privire la aspectul verbal n limba romn, LR II, 1953, nr.6.
10.Zdrenghea, Mihai, Study of the tense systems in English and Romanian, Cluj, University of
Cluj Press, 1981.