The perfective aspect (abbreviatedPFV), sometimes called the aoristic aspect,[1] is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the imperfective aspect, which presents an event as having internal structure (such as ongoing, continuous, or habitual actions). The term perfective should be distinguished from perfect (see below).
The distinction between perfective and imperfective is more important in some languages than others. In Slavic languages, it is central to the verb system. In other languages such as German, the same form such as ich ging ("I went", "I was going") can be used perfectively or imperfectively without grammatical distinction.[2] In other languages such as Latin, the distinction between perfective and imperfective is made only in the past tense (e.g., Latin veni "I came" vs. veniebam "I was coming", "I used to come").[3] However, perfective should not be confused with tense—perfective aspect can apply to events in the past, present, or future.
The perfective is often thought of as for events of short duration (e.g., "John killed the wasp"). However, this is not necessarily true—a perfective verb is equally right for a long-lasting event, provided that it is a complete whole; e.g., Tarquinius Superbus regnavit annos quinque et viginti (Livy) "Tarquin the Proud reigned for 25 years."[4] It simply "presents an occurrence in summary, viewed as a whole from the outside, without regard for the internal make-up of the occurrence."[5]
The perfective is also sometimes described as referring to a "completed" action, but it would be more accurate to say that it refers to an action or situation that is seen as a complete whole; e.g., the Russian perfective future я убью тебя "I shall kill you" refers to an event that has not yet been completed.[6]
The essence of the perfective is an event seen as a whole. However, most languages that have a perfective use it for various similar semantic roles—such as momentary events and the onsets or completions of events, all of which are single points in time and thus have no internal structure. Other languages instead have separate momentane, inchoative, or cessative aspects for those roles, with or without a general perfective.
English has neither a simple perfective nor imperfective aspect; see imperfective for some basic English equivalents of this distinction.
When translating into English from a language that has these aspects, the translator sometimes uses separate English verbs. For example, in Spanish, the imperfective sabía can be translated "I knew" vs. the perfective supe "I found out", podía "I was able to" vs. pude "I succeeded", quería "I wanted to" vs. quise "I tried to", no quería "I did not want to" vs. no quise "I refused". The Polish perfective aspect is translated into English as a simple tense and the imperfective as a continuous; for example the imperfective "oglądałem" is translated into "I was watching", while the perfective "obejrzałem" is translated into "I watched". Such distinctions are often language-specific.
Marking
Languages may mark perfective aspect with morphology, syntactic construction, lexemes/particles, or other means.
Thai: the aspect marker ขึ้น/kʰɯ̂n/, grammaticalized from the word for "ascend," indicates a certain type of underconstrained perfective aspect when it follows a main verb[8]
Hindi: the perfective aspect is marked using the perfective aspect participle. The perfective participle is constructed as shown in the table below, the consonant -य्- (-y-) is added to the perfective suffix when the verb root ends in a vowel.[9]
Perfective Participle in Hindi
verb root ending
in a consonant
verb root ending
in a vowel
♂
♀
♂
♀
Singular
ा (-ā)
ी (-ī)
-या (-yā)
-यी (-yī)
Plural
े (-ē)
ीं (-ī̃)
-ये (-yē)
-यीं (-yī̃)
Perfective vs. perfect
The terms perfective and perfect should not be confused.
A perfect tense (abbreviated PERF or PRF) is a grammatical form used to describe a past event with present relevance, or a present state resulting from a past situation. For example, "I have put it on the table" implies both that I put the object on the table and that it is still there; "I have been to France" conveys that this is a part of my experience as of now; and "I have lost my wallet" implies that this loss is troublesome at the present moment. A perfect tense does not necessarily have to be perfective in aspect. For example, "I have been waiting here for an hour" and "I have been going to that doctor all my life" are perfect but also imperfective in aspect.
There are some languages, however, such as Modern Greek, in which the perfect tense is always perfective.[10]
Hindi-Urdu (aka Hindustani) has 3 grammatical aspectsː Habitual, Perfective and Progressive. Each aspect is constructed from its participle and a number of auxiliary verbs can be used with the aspectual participles such asː honā (to be, to happen), rêhnā (to stay, to remain), jānā (to go), ānā (to come), and karnā (to do). These verbs themselves can be made into aspectual participles and can be used with the default auxiliary verb honā (to be), hence forming sub-aspects that combine the nuance of two aspects.[11][12] The auxiliary rêhnā (to stay) gives a nuance of continuity of the perfective state, jānā (to go) is used to construct the passive voice (in its habitual subaspect)[13] and also shows that the action is completed (in its perfective subaspect), karnā (to do) gives the nuance that the perfective action is repeated habitually.
Simple
Aspect
Perfective Aspect
(infinitive forms)
honā
(to happen)
huā honā
(to have happened)
huā rêhnā
(to have happened)
*huā jānā
(x)
huā karnā
(to happen)
karnā
(to do)
kiyā honā
(to have done)
kiyā rêhnā
(to have done)
kiyā jānā
(to be done)
kiyā karnā
(to do)
marnā
(to die)
marā honā
(to have died)
marā rêhnā
(to have died)
marā jānā
(to die)
marā karnā
(to die)
1 The auxiliary jānā (to go) can only be used with the perfective aspect participle if the verb is transitive or intransitive but volitional. So, *huā jānā is not valid construction. marnā (to die) is intransitive but it's a volitional action and hence "marā jānā" is a valid construction.
Noteː Most nuances generated by the auxiliaries are not uniquely expressed in English and hence many verbs above have the same translation in English but don't have the same nuances in Hindi-Urdu.
Conjugating the auxiliary verbs which are in the infinitive form above into their aspectual forms using the auxiliary honā (to be) gives the following subaspectual forms of the perfective aspect in their infinitive formː[14]
Perfective Aspect
rêhnā
jānā
karnā
Habitual
subaspect
Perfective
subaspect
Habitual
subaspect1
Perfective
subaspect1
Progressive
subaspect2
Habitual
subaspect
huā rêhtā honā
(to stay happened)
huā rahā honā
(to have stayed happened)
*huā jātā honā
(x)
*huā gāyā honā
(x)
huā jā rahā honā
(to keep happening continuously)
huā kartā honā
(to happen perfectively and habitually)
kiyā rêhtā honā
(to stay done)
kiyā rahā honā
(to have stayed done)
kiyā jātā honā
(to be done)
kiyā gayā honā
(to have been done)
kiyā jā rahā honā
(to have been doing continuously)
kiyā kartā honā
(to do perfectively and habitually)
marā rêhtā honā
(to stay dead)
marā rahā honā
(to have stayed dead)
marā jātā honā
(to be dead)
marā gayā honā
(to have killed oneself)
marā jā rahā honā
(to have been dying continuously)
marā kartā honā
(to die perfectively and habitually)3
1 When the auxiliary jānā (to go) is used, only transitive and volitional intransitive verbs can be put into the habitual and perfective subaspect. So, *huā jātā honā and *huā gāyā honā are not valid constructions.
2 The construction "huā jā rahā honā" somehow is a valid construction but it means the same (but more emphasised) as "hotā jā rahā honā" which is the progressive subaspect of the habitual aspect using the auxiliary jānā (to go).
3 This usage of this verb is limited to contexts such as "dying in a videogame"
^Todd B. Krause and Jonathan Slocum, "Gothic Online, Lesson 8."
^Koenig, J.-P., & Muansuwan, N. (2000). How to End Without Ever Finishing: Thai Semi-Perfectivity. JOURNAL OF SEMANTICS. 17, 147-184.
^VAN OLPHEN, HERMAN (1975). "Aspect, Tense, and Mood in the Hindi Verb". Indo-Iranian Journal. 16 (4): 284–301. doi:10.1163/000000075791615397. ISSN 0019-7246. JSTOR 24651488.
^Shapiro, Michael C. (1989). A Primer of Modern Standard Hindi. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 216–246. ISBN81-208-0475-9.
^VAN OLPHEN, HERMAN (1975). "ASPECT, TENSE, AND MOOD IN THE HINDI VERB". Indo-Iranian Journal. 16 (4): 284–301. ISSN 0019-7246.
^"(PDF) Passives in South Asian Languages". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
^Caabredo Hofherr, Patricia; Laca, Brenda (2010). Layers of aspectː Tense and Aspect in Urdu. Stanford, California: Stanford (Calif.) : CSLI, 2010. pp. 43–62. ISBN9781575865973.
External links
Greek tenses
January 26, 2023
perfective, aspect, confused, with, perfect, tense, aspect, combination, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sour. Not to be confused with the perfect tense aspect combination This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Perfective aspect news newspapers books scholar JSTOR April 2010 Learn how and when to remove this template message The perfective aspect abbreviated PFV sometimes called the aoristic aspect 1 is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole i e a unit without interior composition The perfective aspect is distinguished from the imperfective aspect which presents an event as having internal structure such as ongoing continuous or habitual actions The term perfective should be distinguished from perfect see below The distinction between perfective and imperfective is more important in some languages than others In Slavic languages it is central to the verb system In other languages such as German the same form such as ich ging I went I was going can be used perfectively or imperfectively without grammatical distinction 2 In other languages such as Latin the distinction between perfective and imperfective is made only in the past tense e g Latin veni I came vs veniebam I was coming I used to come 3 However perfective should not be confused with tense perfective aspect can apply to events in the past present or future The perfective is often thought of as for events of short duration e g John killed the wasp However this is not necessarily true a perfective verb is equally right for a long lasting event provided that it is a complete whole e g Tarquinius Superbus regnavit annos quinque et viginti Livy Tarquin the Proud reigned for 25 years 4 It simply presents an occurrence in summary viewed as a whole from the outside without regard for the internal make up of the occurrence 5 The perfective is also sometimes described as referring to a completed action but it would be more accurate to say that it refers to an action or situation that is seen as a complete whole e g the Russian perfective future ya ubyu tebya I shall kill you refers to an event that has not yet been completed 6 The essence of the perfective is an event seen as a whole However most languages that have a perfective use it for various similar semantic roles such as momentary events and the onsets or completions of events all of which are single points in time and thus have no internal structure Other languages instead have separate momentane inchoative or cessative aspects for those roles with or without a general perfective Contents 1 Equivalents in English 2 Marking 3 Perfective vs perfect 4 Examples 4 1 Hindi Urdu 5 See also 6 Notes 7 External linksEquivalents in English EditEnglish has neither a simple perfective nor imperfective aspect see imperfective for some basic English equivalents of this distinction When translating into English from a language that has these aspects the translator sometimes uses separate English verbs For example in Spanish the imperfective sabia can be translated I knew vs the perfective supe I found out podia I was able to vs pude I succeeded queria I wanted to vs quise I tried to no queria I did not want to vs no quise I refused The Polish perfective aspect is translated into English as a simple tense and the imperfective as a continuous for example the imperfective ogladalem is translated into I was watching while the perfective obejrzalem is translated into I watched Such distinctions are often language specific Marking EditLanguages may mark perfective aspect with morphology syntactic construction lexemes particles or other means Older Germanic languages the aspect prefixes ge in Old English gi in Old Saxon and Old High German and ga in Gothic indicate perfective aspects of verbs 7 Thai the aspect marker khun kʰɯ n grammaticalized from the word for ascend indicates a certain type of underconstrained perfective aspect when it follows a main verb 8 Hindi the perfective aspect is marked using the perfective aspect participle The perfective participle is constructed as shown in the table below the consonant य y is added to the perfective suffix when the verb root ends in a vowel 9 Perfective Participle in Hindi verb root ending in a consonant verb root ending in a vowel Singular a i य ya य yi Plural e i य ye य yi Perfective vs perfect EditThe terms perfective and perfect should not be confused A perfect tense abbreviated PERF or PRF is a grammatical form used to describe a past event with present relevance or a present state resulting from a past situation For example I have put it on the table implies both that I put the object on the table and that it is still there I have been to France conveys that this is a part of my experience as of now and I have lost my wallet implies that this loss is troublesome at the present moment A perfect tense does not necessarily have to be perfective in aspect For example I have been waiting here for an hour and I have been going to that doctor all my life are perfect but also imperfective in aspect There are some languages however such as Modern Greek in which the perfect tense is always perfective 10 Examples EditHindi Urdu Edit Main article Hindi verbs Copulas amp Subaspects Hindi Urdu aka Hindustani has 3 grammatical aspectsː Habitual Perfective and Progressive Each aspect is constructed from its participle and a number of auxiliary verbs can be used with the aspectual participles such asː hona to be to happen rehna to stay to remain jana to go ana to come and karna to do These verbs themselves can be made into aspectual participles and can be used with the default auxiliary verb hona to be hence forming sub aspects that combine the nuance of two aspects 11 12 The auxiliary rehna to stay gives a nuance of continuity of the perfective state jana to go is used to construct the passive voice in its habitual subaspect 13 and also shows that the action is completed in its perfective subaspect karna to do gives the nuance that the perfective action is repeated habitually Simple Aspect Perfective Aspect infinitive forms hona to happen hua hona to have happened hua rehna to have happened hua jana x hua karna to happen karna to do kiya hona to have done kiya rehna to have done kiya jana to be done kiya karna to do marna to die mara hona to have died mara rehna to have died mara jana to die mara karna to die 1 The auxiliary jana to go can only be used with the perfective aspect participle if the verb is transitive or intransitive but volitional So hua jana is not valid construction marna to die is intransitive but it s a volitional action and hence mara jana is a valid construction Noteː Most nuances generated by the auxiliaries are not uniquely expressed in English and hence many verbs above have the same translation in English but don t have the same nuances in Hindi Urdu Conjugating the auxiliary verbs which are in the infinitive form above into their aspectual forms using the auxiliary hona to be gives the following subaspectual forms of the perfective aspect in their infinitive formː 14 Perfective Aspectrehna jana karnaHabitual subaspect Perfective subaspect Habitual subaspect1 Perfective subaspect1 Progressive subaspect2 Habitual subaspecthua rehta hona to stay happened hua raha hona to have stayed happened hua jata hona x hua gaya hona x hua ja raha hona to keep happening continuously hua karta hona to happen perfectively and habitually kiya rehta hona to stay done kiya raha hona to have stayed done kiya jata hona to be done kiya gaya hona to have been done kiya ja raha hona to have been doing continuously kiya karta hona to do perfectively and habitually mara rehta hona to stay dead mara raha hona to have stayed dead mara jata hona to be dead mara gaya hona to have killed oneself mara ja raha hona to have been dying continuously mara karta hona to die perfectively and habitually 31 When the auxiliary jana to go is used only transitive and volitional intransitive verbs can be put into the habitual and perfective subaspect So hua jata hona and hua gaya hona are not valid constructions 2 The construction hua ja raha hona somehow is a valid construction but it means the same but more emphasised as hota ja raha hona which is the progressive subaspect of the habitual aspect using the auxiliary jana to go 3 This usage of this verb is limited to contexts such as dying in a videogame See also EditAncient Greek verbs Meanings of the tenses Chinese grammar Aspects Grammatical aspect in Slavic languagesNotes Edit Bernard Comrie 1976 Aspect p 12 Comrie Aspect 1976 p 8 Comrie Aspect 1976 p 71 Comrie Aspect 1976 pp 16ff Fanning B M Verbal Aspect in New Testament Greek at 97 Oxford Clarendon 1990 Comrie Aspect 1976 p 18 Todd B Krause and Jonathan Slocum Gothic Online Lesson 8 Koenig J P amp Muansuwan N 2000 How to End Without Ever Finishing Thai Semi Perfectivity JOURNAL OF SEMANTICS 17 147 184 VAN OLPHEN HERMAN 1975 Aspect Tense and Mood in the Hindi Verb Indo Iranian Journal 16 4 284 301 doi 10 1163 000000075791615397 ISSN 0019 7246 JSTOR 24651488 Comrie Aspect 1976 pp 61ff Shapiro Michael C 1989 A Primer of Modern Standard Hindi New Delhi Motilal Banarsidass pp 216 246 ISBN 81 208 0475 9 VAN OLPHEN HERMAN 1975 ASPECT TENSE AND MOOD IN THE HINDI VERB Indo Iranian Journal 16 4 284 301 ISSN 0019 7246 PDF Passives in South Asian Languages ResearchGate Retrieved 2021 02 01 Caabredo Hofherr Patricia Laca Brenda 2010 Layers of aspectː Tense and Aspect in Urdu Stanford California Stanford Calif CSLI 2010 pp 43 62 ISBN 9781575865973 External links EditGreek tenses Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Perfective aspect amp oldid 1094800068, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
