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that the tense-shift involved in the translation of the present-plane direct information into the past-plane
reported information is not a formal, but essentially a meaningful procedure.
C H A P T E R XV
VERB: ASPECT
§ 1. The aspective meaning of the verb, as different from its temporal meaning, reflects the inherent mode
of the realization 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
generalized 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 aspective and temporal verbal semantics is indisputable.
The continuous verbal forms analysed on the principles of oppo-sitional approach admit of only one
interpretation, and that is aspective. The continuous forms are aspective because, reflecting the inherent
character of the process named 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 forwards 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
recognized 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 aspective category of development. Thus, alongside 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 recognized verbal