The Phylogenesis of Aspect in English

Table of Contents:

1. Definition of ‘Aspect’ and ‘Phylogenesis’ 03

2. ‘Aspect’ in Old English (OE) 03

2.1. Distributive Habitual 03

2.2. Progressive 04

2.3. Perfect 05

3. ‘Aspect’ in Middle (ME) and Early Modern English (EME) 06

3.1. Distributive Habitual 06

3.2. Progressive 06

3.3. Perfect 08

4. ‘Aspect’ in Modern English (ModE) 09

4.1. Progressive 09

4.2. Perfect 09

4.3. ‘Aspectual Oppositions’ on a Semantic Level in ModE 10

5. Frequency Table 11

6. Conclusion: Process of the Evolution of ‘Verbal Aspect’ 12

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Introduction: Starting with a definition of ‘aspect’ and ‘phylogenesis’ in this term paper I will try to give an overview of the development of the grammatical category of ‘aspect’ throughout the history of the English language.

1. Definition of ‘Aspect’ and ‘Phylogenesis’:

According to Comrie, ‘aspect’ can be defined as follows: “As the general definition of aspect, we may take the formulation that ‘aspects are different ways of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a situation’.” In contrast to ‘tense’, which is a deictic category, ‘aspect is not concerned with relating the time of the situation to any other time-point [...]?” ¹ WordNet, a lexical database for the English language, defines ‘phylogenesis’ as follows: “Phylogenesis: ((biology) the sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms)” ² Therefore, in connection with linguistic purposes and ‘aspect’ the term ‘phylogenesis’, usually used in biological and evolutionary terminology, can be understood as the diachronic development of the grammatical category of aspect from Old English (OE) to Modern English (ModE).

2. ‘Aspect’ in Old English (OE):

2.1. Distributive Habitual:

Just like in ModE, habitual activities normally have no special overt verbal form such as an auxiliary:

Or. 20.16 7 se cyning 7 þa ricostan men drincað myran meolc.

If the preposition involves a main be verb and habitual aspect, then beo- is preferred over wes- or weorþ:

Or. 20.19 þær is (always) mid Estum ðeaw, þonne þær bið (whenever there is) man

¹ Bernard Comrie. Aspect. An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related Problems.

^{(Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics.). (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 3ff.} 2

http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=phylogenesis&sub=Search+WordNet&o2=&o0=1&o7

=&o5=&o1=1&o6=&o4=&o3=&h=.

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2.2. Progressive: Typically the progressive also has no overt form in OE. As a consequence, there may be ambiguities between habitual and progressive aspect. However, usually the context makes the aspect clear. If progressive has an overt form, it is a be verb (beo-, wes-, weorþ-) requiring –ende as the PrP on the main verb, as in: Or. 19.33 þæt scip wæs ealne weg yrnende under segle.

“The BE-verbs beon, wesan and sometimes weorþan are used with V-ende in what is often called ‘the expanded form’ of the verb to indicate that an action is ongoing, or to provide the frame of reference for some other activity.” ³ In addition, it can be said that wes- is favored over beo- as the expression of nonpast progressive, except in predictions, when beo- is favored. “In Old English the progressive appeared only in the past and the non-past and after modals.” ⁴ In his detailed study of the progressive in Germanic, Mossé (1938) found out that in translations the progressive is most commonly found with verbs denoting movement. This is why it seems that right from the start the progressive has been primarily associated with action verbs: Or. 8.14 of Danai þære ie, seo is irnende of norþdæle.

Or. 12.35

In ModE we would prefer the simple nonpast since a generality that always holds true is being described in the first instance and distributive habitual in the second. It must be mentioned that “there is disagreement among modern scholars as to the precise function(s) and meaning(s) of the OE progressive. Some examples correspond well to modern usage, but often the progressive is used in OE where it could not now be used, and conversely.” ⁵ The progressive was often used in OE to translate perfect deponent verbs in Latin texts. This is why the progressive has often been considered as a Latin-influenced construction: ⁶ Bede 1 4.32.7 and hraðe þa gefremednesse ðære arfæstan bene wæs fylgende

³ Elizabeth Closs Traugott. In: Hogg R.M. (Ed.) The Cambridge History of the English Language.The

Beginnings to 1066. (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P.Vol. 1., 1992), 187.

⁴ Traugott. In: Hogg (Ed.), 1992, 255.

⁵ David Denison. English Historical Syntax: Verbal Constructions. ^{(London: Longman, 1993), 381. 6} Cf. Denison, 1993, 382.

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