A Cognitive Study Of The English Aspect

Aspect is originally a verbal category of Slavic language, so for a long time, the study of aspect was restricted to Slavic language. After the idea that the English verb also has aspect category gets common recognition, various discussions and studies have been held on the aspect of the English verb. On the basis of the analysis and assessments of the previous study, this paper proposes our viewpoints on ASPECT, CHARACTER and the relation between them.ASPECT is a verbal grammatical category, which studies aspect from the combination of form and meaning. We hold that the subcategories of ASPECT of the English verb are the progressive and the non-progressive. Langacker, a cognitive grammarian, takes the progressive as a stativizer, for the participle V-ing has the effect of profile restriction and homogenisation. On the basis of his analysis, we point out that V-ing does not have the effect of homogenisation, and it can only restrict the scope of profile. So we assume that the essence of the progressive is dynamic changes in process. Then we follow Langacker's way of describing the progressive by cognitive schema to extend the schema of the progressive.CHARACTER is the verbal semantic category, which studies aspect from the lexical meaning of verbs or verb phrases. This paper gives three pairs of situation types on the basis of the temporal features: boundedness, dynamism and duration. The distinction of boundedness and telicity is made in this part. We also take boundedness as a very important feature in Langacker's classification of CHARACTER, which is perfective/imperfective.ASPECT and CHARACTER study one topic from different perspectives. So on the underlying level, they are the same; on the surface level, they interact. ASPECT and CHARACTER should be studied as a continuity, and not as two completely independent systems.In sum, by carrying on other researchers' reasonable points and abandoning their inadequacies, this dissertation has discussed the aspect of the English verb, esp. ASPECT, in the frame of cognitive grammar, which is a new attempt in the field.