| aspect |
| Definition: A way of classifying verb forms that focuses on duration, repetition, and completion. |
| Example:
There are two types of aspect: (1) the progressive aspect (We are doing homework.) (2) the perfect aspect (We have eaten lunch.) Note: Aspect seems to be a sub-category of tense: the latter pertains to the time an action occurred (e.g., the past tense), but it also overlaps aspect by dealing with completion (e.g., the imperfect tense). |
| Etymology: The word entered English (circa 1386) as an astronomical term denoting the "relative position of the planets as they appear." It derives from the Latin aspectus, seeing or appearance (from ad, to + specare, to look). |
| OED: The term's first OED citation in its grammatical sense is from 1853: "The aspects have not all the same number of tenses; the imperfect aspect is used in all the three tenses; the perfect is employed in the preterit and future, while the iterative is met with only in the preterit." Note: The term was originally used to describe Slavonic languages. (C. P. Reiff Eng.-Russ. Gram. i. 86) |