VERB: ASPECT

VERB: ASPECT

1. The aspective meaning of the verb, as different from its temporal meaning, reflects the inherent mode of the realisation of the process irrespective of its timing.

As we have already seen, the aspective meaning can be in-built in the semantic structure of the verb, forming an invariable, derivative category. In English, the various lexical aspective meanings have been generalised by the verb in its subclass division into limitive and unlimitive sets. On the whole, this division is loose, the demarcation line between the sets is easily trespassed both ways. In spite of their want of rigour, however, the aspective verbal subclasses are grammatically relevant in so far as they are not indifferent to the choice of the aspective grammatical forms of the verb. In Russian, the aspective division of verbs into perfective and imperfective is, on the contrary, very strict. Although the Russian category of aspect is derivative, it presents one of the most typical features of the grammatical structure of the verb, governing its tense system both formally and semantically.

On the other hand, the aspective meaning can also be represented in variable grammatical categories. Aspective grammatical change is wholly alien to the Russian language, but it forms one of the basic features of the categorial structure of the English verb.

Two systems of verbal forms, in the past grammatical tradition analysed under the indiscriminate heading of the 'temporal inflexion', i. e. synthetic inflexion proper and analytical composition as its equivalent, should be evaluated in this light: the continuous forms and the perfect forms.

The aspective or non-aspective identification of the forms in question will, in the long run, be dependent on whether or not they express the direct, immediate time of the action denoted by the verb, since a general connection between the

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aspective and temporal verbal semantics is indisputable.

The continuous verbal forms analysed on the principles of oppositional approach admit of only one interpretation, and that is aspective. The continuous forms are aspective because, reflecting the inherent character of the process performed by the verb, they do not, and cannot, denote the timing of the process. The opposition constituting the corresponding category is effected between the continuous and the non-continuous (indefinite) verbal forms. The categorial meaning discloses the nature of development of the verbal action, on which ground the suggested name for the category as a whole will be 'development'. As is the case with the other categories, its expression is combined with other categorial expressions in one and the same verb-form, involving also the category that features the perfect. Thus, to be consistent in our judgments, we must identify, within the framework of the manifestations of the category of development, not only the perfect continuous forms, but also the perfect indefinite forms (i.e. non-continuous).

The perfect, as different from the continuous, does reflect a kind of timing, though in a purely relative way. Namely, it coordinates two times, locating one of them in retrospect towards the other. Should the grammatical meaning of the perfect have been exhausted by this function, it ought to have been placed into one and the same categorial system with the future, forming the integral category of time coordination (correspondingly, prospective and retrospective). In reality, though, it cannot be done, because the perfect expresses not only time in relative retrospect, but also the very connection of a prior process with a time-limit reflected in a subsequent event. Thus, the perfect forms of the verb display a mixed, intermediary character, which places them apart both from the relative posterior tense and the aspective development. The true nature of the perfect is temporal aspect reflected in its own opposition, which cannot be reduced to any other opposition of the otherwise recognised verbal categories. The suggested name for this category will be 'retrospective coordination', or, contractedly, 'retrospect'. The categorial member opposed to the perfect, for the sake of terminological consistency, will be named 'imperfect' (non-perfect). As an independent category, the retrospective coordination is manifested in the integral verb-form together with the manifestations of other categories, among them the

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aspective category of development. Thus, alongside of the forms of perfect continuous and perfect indefinite, the verb distinguishes also the forms of imperfect continuous and imperfect indefinite.

2. At this point of our considerations, we should like once again to call the reader's attention to the difference between the categorial terminology and the definitions of categories.

A category, in normal use, cannot be represented twice in one and the same word-form. It follows from this that the integral verb-form cannot display at once more than one expression of each of the recognised verbal categories, though it does give a representative expression to all the verbal categories taken together through the corresponding obligatory featuring (which can be, as we know, either positive or negative). And this fact provides us with a safe criterion of categorial identification for cases where the forms under analysis display related semantic functions.

We have recognised in the verbal system of English two temporal categories (plus one 'minor' category of futurity option) and two aspective categories. But does this mean that the English verb is 'doubly' (or 'triply', for that matter) inflected by the 'grammatical category' of tense and the 'grammatical category' of aspect? In no wise.

The course of our deductions has been quite the contrary. It is just because the verb, in its one and the same, at each time uniquely given integral form of use, manifests not one, but two expressions of time (for instance, past and future); it is because it manifests not one, but two expressions of aspect (for instance, continuous and perfect), that we have to recognise these expressions as categorially different. In other words, such universal grammatical notions as 'time', 'tense', 'aspect', 'mood' and others, taken by themselves, do not automatically presuppose any unique categorial systems. It is only the actual correlation of the corresponding grammatical forms in a concrete, separate language that makes up a grammatical category. In particular, when certain forms that come under the same meaningful grammatical heading are mutually exclusive, it means that they together make up a grammatical category. This is the case with the three Russian verbal tenses. Indeed, the Russian verbal form of the future cannot syntagmatically coexist with the present or past forms  these forms are mutually exclusive, thereby constituting

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one unified category of time (tense), existing in the three categorial forms: the present, the past, the future. In English, on the contrary, the future form of the verb can freely re-occur with the strongly marked past form, thereby making up a category radically different from the category manifested by the system of 'present  past' discrimination. And it is the same case with the forms of the continuous and the perfect. Just because they can freely coexist in one and the same syntagmatic manifestation of the verb, we have to infer that they enter (in the capacity of oppositional markers) essentially different categories, though related to each other by their general aspective character.

3. The aspective category of development is constituted by the opposition of the continuous forms of the verb to the non-continuous, or indefinite forms of the verb. The marked member of the opposition is the continuous, which is built up by the auxiliary be plus the present participle of the conjugated verb. In symbolic notation it is represented by the formula being. The categorial meaning of the continuous is 'action in progress'; the unmarked member of the opposition, the indefinite, leaves this meaning unspecified, i.e. expresses the non-continuous.

The evolution of views in connection with the interpretation of the continuous forms has undergone three stages.

The traditional analysis placed them among the tense-forms of the verb, defining them as expressing an action going on simultaneously with some other action. This temporal interpretation of the continuous was most consistently developed in the works of H. Sweet and O. Jespersen. In point of fact, the continuous usually goes with a verb which expresses a simultaneous action, but, as we have stated before, the timing of the action is not expressed by the continuous as such  rather, the immediate time-meaning is conveyed by the syntactic constructions, as well as the broader semantic context in which the form is used, since action in progress, by definition, implies that it is developing at a certain time point.

The correlation of the continuous with contextual indications of time is well illustrated on examples of complex sentences with while-clauses. Four combinations of the continuous and the indefinite are possible in principle in these constructions (for two verbs are used here, one in the principal clause and one in the subordinate clause, each capable

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of taking both forms in question), and all the four possibilities are realised in contexts of Modern English. Cf.:

While I was typing, Mary and Tom were chatting in the

adjoining room.------- While I typed, Mary and Tom were

chatting in the adjoining room.----------- While I was typing,

they chatted in the adjoining room.-------- While I typed, they

chatted in the adjoining room.

Clearly, the difference in meaning between the verb-entries in the cited examples cannot lie in their time denotations, either absolutive, or relative. The time is shown by their tense-signals of the past (the past form of the auxiliary be in the continuous, or the suffix -{e)d in the indefinite). The meaningful difference consists exactly in the categorial semantics of the indefinite and continuous: while the latter shows the action in the very process of its realisation, the former points it out as a mere fact.

On the other hand, by virtue of its categorial semantics of action in progress (of necessity, at a definite point of time), the continuous is usually employed in descriptions of scenes correlating a number of actions going on simultaneously  since all of them are actually shown in progress, at the time implied by the narration. Cf.:

Standing on the chair, I could see in through the barred window into the hall of the Ayuntamiento and in there it was as it had been before. The priest was standing, and those who were left were kneeling in a half circle around him and they were all praying. Pablo was sitting on the big table in front of the Mayor's chair with his shotgun slung over his back. His legs were hanging down from the table and he was rolling a cigarette. Cuatro Dedos was sitting in the Mayor's chair with his feet on the table and he was smoking a cigarette. All the guards were sitting in different chairs of the administration, holding their guns. The key to the big door was on the table beside Pablo (E. Hemingway).

But if the actions are not progressive by themselves (i.e. if they are not shown as progressive), the description, naturally, will go without the continuous forms of the corresponding verbs. E. g.:

Inland, the prospect alters. There is an oval Maidan, and a long sallow hospital. Houses belonging to Eurasians stand on the high ground by the railway station. Beyond the railway  which runs parallel to the river  the land sinks,

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then rises again rather steeply. On the second rise is laid out the little civil station, and viewed hence Chandrapore appears to be a totally different place (E. M. Forster ).

A further demonstration of the essentially non-temporal meaning of the continuous is its regular use in combination with the perfect, i.e. its use in the verb-form perfect continuous. Surely, the very idea of perfect is alien to simultaneity, so the continuous combined with the perfect in one and the same manifestation of the verb can only be understood as expressing aspectuality, i.e. action in progress.

Thus, the consideration of the temporal element in the continuous shows that its referring an action to a definite time-point, or its expressing simultaneity irrespective of absolutive time, is in itself an aspective, not a temporal factor.

At the second stage of the interpretation of the continuous, the form was understood as rendering a blend of temporal and aspective meanings  the same as the other forms of the verb obliquely connected with the factor of time, i.e. the indefinite and the perfect. This view was developed by I. P. Ivanova.

The combined temporal-aspective interpretation of the continuous, in general, should be appraised as an essential step forward, because, first, it introduced on an explicit, comprehensively grounded basis the idea of aspective meanings in the grammatical system of English; second, it demonstrated the actual connection of time and aspect in the integral categorial semantics of the verb. In fact, it presented a thesis that proved to be crucial for the subsequent demonstration, at the next stage of analysis, of the essence of the form on a strictly oppositional foundation.

This latter phase of study, initiated in the works of A. I.Smirnitsky, V. N. Yartseva and B. A. Ilyish, was developed further by B. S. Khaimovich and B. I. Rogovskaya and exposed in its most comprehensive form by L. S. Barkhudarov.

Probably the final touch contributing to the presentation of the category of development at this third stage of study should be still more explicit demonstration of its opposition working beyond the correlation of the continuous non-perfect form with the indefinite non-perfect form. In the expositions hitherto advanced the two series of forms  continuous and perfect  have been shown, as it were, too emphatically in the light of their mutual contrast against the

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primitive indefinite, the perfect continuous form, which has been placed somewhat separately, being rather interpreted as a 'peculiarly modified' perfect than a 'peculiarly modified'' continuous. In reality, though, the perfect continuous is equally both perfect and continuous, the respective markings belonging to different, though related, categorial characteristics.

4. The category of development, unlike the categories of person, number, and time, has a verbid representation, namely, it is represented in the infinitive. This fact, for its part, testifies to another than temporal nature of the continuous.

With the infinitive, the category of development, naturally, expresses the same meaningful contrast between action in progress and action not in progress as with the finite forms of the verb. Cf.:

Kezia and her grandmother were taking their siesta together. It was but natural for Kezia and her grandmother

to be taking their siesta together. What are you complaining about?Is there really anything for you to be complaining about?

But in addition to this purely categorial distinction, the form of the continuous infinitive has a tendency to acquire quite a special meaning in combination with modal verbs, namely that of probability. This meaning is aspectual in a broader sense than the 'inner character' of action: the aspectuality amounts here to an outer appraisal of the denoted process. Cf.:

Paul must wait for you, you needn't be in a hurry. Paul must be waiting for us, so let's hurry up.

The first of the two sentences expresses Paul's obligation to wait, whereas the second sentence renders the speaker's supposition of the fact.

The general meaning of probability is varied by different additional shades depending on the semantic type of the modal verb and the corresponding contextual conditions, such as uncertainty, incredulity, surprise, etc. Cf.:

But can she be taking Moyra's words so personally? If the flight went smoothly, they may be approaching the West Coast. You must be losing money over this job.

The action of the continuous infinitive of probability,

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in accord with the type of the modal verb and the context, may refer not only to the plane of the present, but also to the plane of the future. Cf.: Ann must be coming soon, you'd better have things put in order.

The gerund and the participle do not distinguish the category of development as such, but the traces of progressive meaning are inherent in these forms, especially in the present participle, which itself is one of the markers of the category (in combination with the categorial auxiliary). In particular, these traces are easily disclosed in various syntactic participial complexes. Cf.:

The girl looked straight into my face, smiling enigmatically. → The girl was smiling enigmatically as she looked straight into my face. We heard the leaves above our heads rustling in the wind. → We heard how the leaves above our heads were rustling in the wind.

However, it should be noted, that the said traces of meaning are still traces, and they are more often than not subdued and neutralised.

5. The opposition of the category of development undergoes various reductions, in keeping with the general regularities of the grammatical forms functioning in speech, as well as of their paradigmatic combinability.

The easiest and most regular neutralisational relations in the sphere continuous  indefinite are observed in connection with the subclass division of verbs into limitive and unlimitive, and within the unlimitive into actional and statal.

Namely, the unlimitive verbs are very easily neutralised in cases where the continuity of action is rendered by means other than aspective. Cf.:

The night is wonderfully silent. The stars shine with a fierce brilliancy, the Southern Cross and Canopus; there is not a breath of wind. The Duke's face seemed flushed, and more lined than some of his recent photographs showed. He held a glass in his hand.

As to the statal verbs, their development neutralisation amounts to a grammatical rule. It is under this heading that the 'never-used-in-the-continuous' verbs go, i. e. the uniques be and have, verbs of possession other than have, verbs of relation, of physical perceptions, of mental perceptions. The opposition of development is also neutralised easily with

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verbs in the passive voice, as well as with the infinitive, the only explicit verbid exposer of the category.

Worthy of note is the regular neutralisation of the development opposition with the introductory verb supporting the participial construction of parallel action. E. g.: The man stood smoking a pipe. (Not normally: The man was standing smoking a pipe.)

On the other hand, the continuous can be used transpositionally to denote habitual, recurrent actions in emphatic collocations. Cf.: Miss Tillings said you were always talking as if there had been some funny business about me (M. Dickens).

In this connection, special note should be made of the broadening use of the continuous with unlimitive verbs, including verbs of statal existence. Here are some very typical examples:

I only heard a rumour that a certain member here present has been seeing the prisoner this afternoon (E. M. Forster). I had a horrid feeling she was seeing right through me and knowing all about me (A. Christie). What matters is, you're being damn fools, both of you (A. Hailey).

Compare similar transpositions in the expressions of anticipated future:

Dr Aarons will be seeing the patient this morning, and I wish to be ready for him (A. Hailey). Soon we shall be hearing the news about the docking of the spaceships having gone through.

The linguistic implication of these uses of the continuous is indeed very peculiar. Technically it amounts to de-neutralising the usually neutralised continuous. However, since the neutralisation of the continuous with these verbs is quite regular, we have here essentially the phenomenon of reverse transposition  an emphatic reduction of the second order, serving the purpose of speech expressiveness.

We have considered the relation of unlimitive verbs to the continuous form in the light of reductional processes.

As for the limitive verbs, their standing with the category of development and its oppositional reductions is quite the reverse. Due to the very aspective quality of limitiveness, these verbs, first, are not often used in the continuous form

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in general, finding no frequent cause for it; but second, in cases when the informative purpose does demand the expression of an action in progress, the continuous with these verbs is quite obligatory and normally cannot undergo reduction under any conditions. It cannot be reduced, for otherwise the limitive meaning of the verb would prevail, and the informative purpose would not be realised. Cf.:

The plane was just touching down when we arrived at the airfield. The patient was sitting up in his bed, his eyes riveted on the trees beyond the window.

The linguistic paradox of these uses is that the continuous aspect with limitive verbs neutralises the expression of their lexical aspect, turning them for the nonce into unlimitive verbs. And this is one of the many manifestations of grammatical relevance of lexemic categories.

6. In connection with the problem of the aspective category of development, we must consider the forms of the verb built up with the help of the auxiliary do. These forms, entering the verbal system of the indefinite, have been described under different headings.

Namely, the auxiliary do, first, is presented in grammars as a means of building up interrogative constructions when the verb is used in the indefinite aspect. Second, the auxiliary do is described as a means of building up negative constructions with the indefinite form of the verb. Third, it is shown as a means of forming emphatic constructions of both affirmative declarative and affirmative imperative communicative types, with the indefinite form of the verb. Fourth, it is interpreted as a means of forming elliptical constructions with the indefinite form of the verb.

L. S. Barkhudarov was the first scholar who paid attention to the lack of accuracy, and probably linguistic adequacy, in these definitions. Indeed, the misinterpretation of the defined phenomena consists here in the fact that the do-forms are presented immediately as parts of the corresponding syntactic constructions, whereas actually they are parts of the corresponding verb-forms of the indefinite aspect. Let us compare the following sentences in pairs:

Fred pulled her hand to his heart.-------- Did Fred pull her

hand to his heart? You want me to hold a smile.------------- You

don't want me to hold a smile. In dreams people change

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into somebody else. ------- In dreams people do change into

somebody else. Ask him into the drawing-room. -------------- Do

ask him into the drawing-room. Mike liked the show immensely, and Kitty liked it too. Mike liked the show immensely, and so did Kitty.

On the face of the comparison, we see only the construction-forming function of the analysed auxiliary, the cited formulations being seemingly vindicated both by the structural and the functional difference between the sentences: the right-hand constituent utterances in each of the given pairs has its respective do-addition. However, let us relate these right-hand utterances to another kind of categorial counterparts:

Did Fred pull her hand to his heart? -------- Will Fred pull

her hand to his heart? You don't want me to hold a smile.

You won't want me to hold a smile. In dreams people do

change into somebody else. ---- In dreams people will change

into somebody else. Mike liked the show immensely, and

so did Kitty. ------ Mike will like the show immensely, and

so will Kitty.

Observing the structure of the latter series of constructional pairs, we see at once that their constituent sentences are built up on one and the same syntactic principle of a special treatment of the morphological auxiliary element. And here lies the necessary correction of the interpretation of Jo-forms. As a matter of fact, do-forms should be first of all described as the variant analytical indefinite forms of the verb that are effected to share the various constructional functions with the other analytical forms of the verb placing their respective auxiliaries in accented and otherwise individualised positions. This presentation, while meeting the demands of adequate description, at the same time is very convenient for explaining the formation of the syntactic constructional categories on the unified basis of the role of analytical forms of the verb. Namely, the formation of interrogative constructions will be explained simply as a universal word-order procedure of partial inversion (placing the auxiliary before the subject for all the categorial forms of the verb); the formation of the corresponding negative will be described as the use of the negative particle with the analytical auxiliary for all the categorial forms of the verb; the formation of the corresponding emphatic constructions will be described as the accent of the analytical auxiliaries,

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including the indefinite auxiliary; the formation of the corresponding reduced constructions will be explained on the lines of the representative use of the auxiliaries in general (which won't mar the substitute role of do).

For the sake of terminological consistency the analytical form in question might be called the 'marked indefinite', on the analogy of the term 'marked infinitive'. Thus, the indefinite forms of the non-perfect order will be divided into the pure, or unmarked present and past indefinite, and the marked present and past indefinite. As we have pointed out above, the existence of the specifically marked present and past indefinite serves as one of the grounds for identifying the verbal primary time and the verbal prospect as different grammatical categories.

7. The category of retrospective coordination (retrospect) is constituted by the opposition of the perfect forms of the verb to the non-perfect, or imperfect forms. The marked member of the opposition is the perfect, which is built up by the auxiliary have in combination with the past participle of the conjugated verb. In symbolic notation it is expressed by the formula have en.

The functional meaning of the category has been interpreted in linguistic literature in four different ways, each contributing to the evolution of the general theory of retrospective coordination.

The first comprehensively represented grammatical exposition of the perfect verbal form was the 'tense view': by this view the perfect is approached as a peculiar tense form. The tense view of the perfect is presented in the works of H. Sweet, G. Curme, M. Bryant and J. R. Aiken, and some other foreign scholars. In the Soviet linguistic literature this view was consistently developed by N. F. Irtenyeva. The tense interpretation of the perfect was also endorsed by the well-known course of English Grammar by M. A. Ganshina and N. M. Vasilevskaya.

The difference between the perfect and non-perfect forms of the verb, according to the tense interpretation of the perfect, consists in the fact that the perfect denotes a secondary temporal characteristic of the action. Namely, it shows that the denoted action precedes some other action or situation in the present, past, or future. This secondary tense quality of the perfect, in the context of the 'tense view', is naturally contrasted against the secondary tense quality of the

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cantinuous, which latter, according to N. F. Irtenyeva, intensely expresses simultaneity of the denoted action with some other action in the present, past, or future.

The idea of the perfect conveying a secondary time characteristic of the action is quite a sound one, because it shows that the perfect, in fact, coexists with the other, primary expression of time. What else, if not a secondary time meaning of priority, is rendered by the perfect forms in the following example: Grandfather has taken his morning stroll and now is having a rest on the veranda.

The situation is easily translated into the past with the time correlation intact: → Grandfather had taken his morning stroll and was having a rest on the veranda.

With the future, the correlation is not so clearly pronounced. However, the reason for it lies not in the deficiency of the perfect as a secondary tense, but in the nature of the future time plane, which exists only as a prospective plane, thereby to a degree levelling the expression of differing timings of actions. Making allowance for the unavoidable prospective temporal neutralisations, the perfective priority expressed in the given situation can be clearly conveyed even in its future translations, extended by the exposition of the corresponding connotations:

→ By the time he will be having a rest on the veranda, Grandfather will surely have taken his morning stroll. → Grandfather will have a rest on the veranda only after he has taken his morning stroll.

Laying emphasis on the temporal function of the perfect, the 'tense view', though, fails to expose with the necessary distinctness its aspective function, by which the action is shown as successively or 'transmissively' connected with a certain time limit. Besides, the purely oppositional nature of the form is not disclosed by this approach either, thus leaving the categorial status of the perfect undefined.

The second grammatical interpretation of the perfect was the 'aspect view': according to this interpretation the perfect is approached as an aspective form of the verb. The aspect view is presented in the works of M. Deutschbein, E.A. Sonnenschein, A. S. West, and other foreign scholars. In the Soviet linguistic literature the aspective interpretation of the perfect was comprehensively developed by G. N. Vorontsova. This subtle observer of intricate interdependencies of language masterly demonstrated the idea of the

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successive connection of two events expressed by the perfect, prominence given by the form to the transference or 'transmission' of the accessories of a pre-situation to a post-situation. The great merit of G. N. Vorontsova's explanation of the aspective nature of the perfect lies in the fact that the resultative meaning ascribed by some scholars to the perfect as its determining grammatical function is understood in her conception within a more general destination of this form, namely as a particular manifestation of its transmissive functional semantics.

Indeed, if we compare the two following verbal situations, we shall easily notice that the first of them expresses result, while the second presents a connection of a past event with a later one in a broad sense, the general inclusion of the posterior situation in the sphere of influence of the anterior situation:

The wind has dropped, and the sun burns more fiercely than ever.

'Have you really never been to a ball before, Leila? But, my child, how too weird ' cried the Sheridan girls.

The resultative implication of the perfect in the first of the above examples can be graphically shown by the diagnostic transformation, which is not applicable to the second example: → The sun burns more fiercely than ever as a result of the wind having dropped.

At the same time, the plain resultative semantics quite evidently appears as a particular variety of the general transmissive meaning, by which a posterior event is treated as a successor of an anterior event on very broad lines of connection.

Recognising all the merits of the aspect approach in question, however, we clearly see its two serious drawbacks. The first of them is that, while emphasising the aspective side of the function of the perfect, it underestimates its temporal side, convincingly demonstrated by the tense view of the perfect described above. The second drawback, though, is just the one characteristic of the tense view, repeated on the respectively different material: the described aspective interpretation of the perfect fails to strictly formulate its oppositional nature, the categorial status of the perfect being left undefined.

The third grammatical interpretation of the perfect was the 'tense-aspect blend view'; in accord with this

interpretation the perfect is recognised as a form of double temporal-aspective character, similar to the continuous. The tense-aspect interpretation of the perfect was developed in the works of I. P. Ivanova. According to I. P. Ivanova, the two verbal forms expressing temporal and aspective functions in a blend are contrasted against the indefinite form as their common counterpart of neutralised aspective properties.

The achievement of the tense-aspect view of the perfect is the fact that it demonstrates the actual double nature of the analysed verbal form, its inherent connection with both temporal and aspective spheres of verbal semantics. Thus, as far as the perfect is concerned, the tense-aspect view overcomes the one-sided approach to it peculiar both to the first and the second of the noted conceptions.

Indeed, the temporal meaning of the perfect is quite apparent in constructions like the following: I have lived in this city long enough. I haven't met Charlie for years.

The actual time expressed by the perfect verbal forms used in the examples can be made explicit by time-test questions: How long have you lived in this city? For how long haven't you met Charlie?

Now, the purely aspective semantic component of the perfect form will immediately be made prominent if the sentences were continued like that: I have lived in this city long enough to show you all that is worth seeing here. I haven't met Charlie for years, and can hardly recognise him in a crowd.

The aspective function of the perfect verbal forms in both sentences, in its turn, can easily be revealed by aspect-test questions: What can you do as a result of your having lived in this city for years? What is the consequence of your not having met Charlie for years?

However, comprehensively exposing the two different sides of the integral semantics of the perfect, the tense-aspect conception loses sight of its categorial nature altogether, since it leaves undisclosed how the grammatical function of the perfect is effected in contrast with the continuous or indefinite, as well as how the 'categorial blend' of the perfect-continuous is contrasted against its three counterparts, i.e. the perfect, the continuous, the indefinite.

As we see, the three described interpretations of the perfect, actually complementing one another, have given in combination a broad and profound picture of the semantical

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content of the perfect verbal forms, though all of them have failed to explicitly explain the grammatical category within the structure of which the perfect is enabled to fulfil its distinctive function.

The categorial individuality of the perfect was shown as a result of study conducted by the eminent Soviet linguist A. I. Smirnitsky. His conception of the perfect, the fourth in our enumeration, may be called the 'time correlation view', to use the explanatory name he gave to the identified category. What was achieved by this brilliant thinker, is an explicit demonstration of the fact that the perfect form, by means of its oppositional mark, builds up its own category, different from both the 'tense' (present  past  future) and the 'aspect' (continuous  indefinite), and not reducible to either of them. The functional content of the category of 'time correlation' (временная отнесенность) was defined as priority expressed by the perfect forms in the present, past or future contrasted against the non-expression of priority by the non-perfect forms. The immediate factor that gave cause to A. I. Smirnitsky to advance the new interpretation of the perfect was the peculiar structure of the perfect continuous form in which the perfect, the form of precedence, i.e. the form giving prominence to the idea of two times brought in contrast, coexists syntagmatically with the continuous, the form of simultaneity, i.e. the form expressing one time for two events, according to the 'tense view' conception of it. The gist of reasoning here is that, since the two expressions of the same categorial semantics are impossible in one and the same verbal form, the perfect cannot be either an aspective form, granted the continuous expresses the category of aspect, or a temporal form, granted the continuous expresses the category of tense. The inference is that the category in question, the determining part of which is embodied in the perfect, is different from both the tense and the aspect, this difference being fixed by the special categorial term 'time correlation'.

The analysis undertaken by A. I. Smirnitsky is of outstanding significance not only for identifying the categorial status of the perfect, but also for specifying further the general notion of a grammatical category. It develops the very technique of this kind of identification.

Still, the 'time correlation view' is not devoid of certain limitations. First, it somehow underestimates the aspective plane of the categorial semantics of the perfect, very

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convincingly demonstrated by G. N. Vorontsova in the context of the 'aspect view' of the perfect, as well as by I. P. Ivanova in the context of the 'tense-aspect blend view' of the perfect. Second, and this is far more important, the reasoning by which the category is identified, is not altogether complete in so far as it confuses the general grammatical notions of time and aspect with the categorial status of concrete word-forms in each particular language conveying the corresponding meanings. Some languages may convey temporal or aspective meanings within the functioning of one integral category for each (as, for instance, the Russian language), while other languages may convey the same or similar kind of meanings in two or even more categories for each (as, for instance, the English language). The only true criterion of this is the character of the representation of the respective categorial forms in the actual speech manifestation of a lexeme. If a lexeme normally displays the syntagmatic coexistence of several forms distinctly identifiable by their own peculiar marks, as, for example, the forms of person, number, time, etc., it means that these forms in the system of language make up different grammatical categories. The integral grammatical meaning of any word-form (the concrete speech entry of a lexeme) is determined by the whole combination ('bunch') of the categories peculiar to the part of speech the lexeme belongs to. For instance, the verb-form 'has been speaking' in the sentence 'The Red Chief has just been speaking' expresses, in terms of immediately (positively) presented grammatical forms, the third person of the category of person, the singular of the category of number, the present of the category of time, the continuous of the category of development, the perfect of the category under analysis. As for the character of the determining meaning of any category, it may either be related to the meaning of some adjoining category, or may not  it depends on the actual categorial correlations that have shaped in a language in the course of its historical development. In particular, in Modern English, in accord with our knowledge of its structure, two major purely temporal categories are to be identified, i.e. primary time and prospective time, as well as two major aspective categories. One of the latter is the category of development. The other, as has been decided above, is the category of retrospective coordination featuring the perfect as the marked component form and the imperfect as its unmarked counterpart. We have considered it advisable

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to re-name the indicated category in order, first, to stress its actual retrospective property (in fact, what is strongly expressed in the temporal plane of the category, is priority of action, not any other relative time signification), and second, to reserve such a general term as 'correlation' for more unrestricted, free manipulations in non-specified uses connected with grammatical analysis.

8. Thus, we have arrived at the 'strict categorial view' of the perfect, disclosing it as the marking form of a separate verbal category, semantically intermediate between aspective and temporal, but quite self-dependent in the general categorial system of the English verb. It is this interpretation of the perfect that gives a natural explanation to the 'enigmatic' verbal form of the perfect continuous, showing that each categorial marker  both perfect and continuous  being separately expressed in the speech entry of the verbal lexeme, conveys its own part in the integral grammatical meaning of the entry. Namely, the perfect interprets the action in the light of priority and aspective transmission, while the continuous presents the same action as progressive. As a result, far from displaying any kind of semantic contradiction or discrepancy, the grammatical characterisation of the action gains both in precision and vividness. The latter quality explains why this verbal form is gaining more and more ground in present-day colloquial English.

As a matter of fact, the specific semantic features of the perfect and the continuous in each integrating use can be distinctly exposed by separate diagnostic tests. Cf.: A week or two ago someone related an incident to me with the suggestion that I should write a story on it, and since then I have been thinking it over (S. Maugham).

Testing for the perfect giving prominence to the expression of priority in retrospective coordination will be represented as follows: → I have been thinking over the suggestion for a week or two now.

Testing for the perfect giving prominence to the expression of succession in retrospective coordination will be made thus: → Since the time the suggestion was made I have been thinking it over.

Finally, testing for the continuous giving prominence to the expression of action in progress will include expansion: → Since the suggestion was made I have been thinking it over continually,

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Naturally, both perfect indefinite and perfect continuous, being categorially characterised by their respective features, in normal use are not strictly dependent on a favourable contextual environment and can express their semantics in isolation from adverbial time indicators. Cf.:

Surprisingly, she did not protest, for she had given up the struggle (M. Dickens). 'What have you been doing down there?' Miss Peel asked him. 'I've been looking for you all over the play-ground' (M. Dickens).

The exception is the future perfect that practically always requires a contextual indicator of time due to the prospective character of posteriority, of which we have already spoken.

It should be noted that with the past perfect the priority principle is more distinct than with the present perfect, which again is explained semantically. In many cases the past perfect goes with the lexical indicators of time introducing the past plane as such in the microcontext. On the other hand, the transmissive semantics of the perfect can so radically take an upper hand over its priority semantics even in the past plane that the form is placed in a peculiar expressive contradiction with a lexical introduction of priority. In particular, it concerns constructions introduced by the subordinative conjunction before. Cf.:

It was his habit to find a girl who suited him and live with her as long as he was ashore. But he had forgotten her before the anchor had come dripping out of the water and been made fast. The sea was his home (J. Tey).

9. In keeping with the general tendency, the category of retrospective coordination can be contextually neutralised, the imperfect as the weak member of the opposition filling in the position of neutralisation. Cf.:

'I feel exactly like you,' she said, 'only different, because after all I didn't produce him; but, Mother, darling, it's all right' (J. Galsworthy). Christine nibbled on Oyster Bienville. 'I always thought it was because they spawned in summer' (A. Hailey).

In this connection, the treatment of the lexemic aspective division of verbs by the perfect is, correspondingly, the reverse, if less distinctly pronounced, of their treatment by the continuous. Namely, the expression of retrospective

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coordination is neutralised most naturally and freely with limitive verbs. As for the unlimitive verbs, these, by being used in the perfect, are rather turned into 'limitive for the nonce'. Cf.:

'I'm no beaten rug. I don't need to feel like one. I've been a teacher all my life, with plenty to show for it' (A. Hailey).

Very peculiar neutralisations take place between the forms of the present perfect  imperfect. Essentially these neutralisations signal instantaneous subclass migrations of the verb from a limitive to an unlimitive one. Cf.:

Where do you come from? (I.e. What is the place of your origin?) I put all my investment in London. (I.e. I keep all my money there).

Characteristic colloquial neutralisations affect also some verbs of physical and mental perceptions. Cf.:

I forget what you've told me about Nick. I hear the management has softened their stand after all the hurly-burly!

The perfect forms in these contexts are always possible, being the appropriate ones for a mode of expression devoid of tinges of colloquialism.

10 The categorial opposition 'perfect versus imperfect' is broadly represented in verbids. The verbid representation of the opposition, though, is governed by a distinct restrictive regularity which may be formulated as follows: the perfect is used with verbids only in semantically strong positions, i.e. when its categorial meaning is made prominent. Otherwise the opposition is neutralised, the imperfect being used in the position of neutralisation. Quite evidently this regularity is brought about by the intermediary lexico-grammatical features of verbids, since the category of retrospective coordination is utterly alien to the non-verbal parts of speech. The structural neutralisation of the opposition is especially distinct with the present participle of the limitive verbs, its indefinite form very naturally expressing priority in the perfective sense. Cf.: She came to Victoria to see Joy off, and Freddy Rigby came too, bringing a crowd of the kind of young people Rodney did not care for (M. Dickens).

But the rule of the strong position is valid here also. Cf.: Her Auntie Phyll had too many children. Having

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brought up six in a messy, undisciplined way, she had started all over again with another baby late in life (M. Dickens).

With the gerund introduced by a preposition of time the perfect is more often than not neutralised. E.g.: He was at Cambridge and after taking his degree decided to be a planter (S. Maugham).

Cf. the perfect gerund in a strong position: The memory of having met the famous writer in his young days made him feel proud even now.

Less liable to neutralisation is the infinitive. The category of retrospective coordination is for the most part consistently represented in its independent constructions, used as concise semi-predicative equivalents of syntactic units of full predication. Cf.:

It was utterly unbelievable for the man to have no competence whatsoever (simultaneity expressed by the imperfect).  It was utterly unbelievable for the man to have had no competence whatsoever (priority expressed by the perfect).

The perfect infinitive of notional verbs used with modal predicators, similar to the continuous, performs the two types of functions. First, it expresses priority and transmission in retrospective coordination, in keeping with its categorial destination. Second, dependent on the concrete function of each modal verb and its equivalent, it helps convey gradations of probabilities in suppositions. E.g.:

He may have warned Christine, or again, he may not have warned her. Who can tell? Things must have been easier fifty years ago. You needn't worry, Miss Nickolson. The children are sure to have been following our instructions, it can't have been otherwise.

In addition, as its third type of function, also dependent on the individual character of different modal verbs, the perfect can render the idea of non-compliance with certain rule, advice, recommendation, etc. The modal verbs in these cases serve as signals of remonstrance (mostly the verbs ought to and should). Cf.: Mary ought to have thought of the possible consequences. Now the situation can't be mended, I'm afraid.

The modal will used with a perfect in a specific collocation renders a polite, but officially worded statement of the presupposed hearer's knowledge of an indicated fact. Cf.:

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'You will no doubt have heard, Admiral Morgan, that Lord Vaughan is going to replace Sir Thomas Lynch as Governor of Jamaica,' Charles said, and cast a glance of secret amusement at the strong countenance of his most famous sailor (J. Tey). It will not have escaped your attention, Inspector, that the visit of the nuns was the same day that poisoned wedding cake found its way into that cottage (A. Christie).

Evident relation between the perfect and the continuous in their specific modal functions (i.e. in the use under modal government) can be pointed out as a testimony to the category of retrospective coordination being related to the category of development on the broad semantic basis of aspectuality.