sign in sign up
<<
Home , Grammatical aspect, Habitual aspect

17832 Osman Mohammadi et al./ Elixir Ling. & Trans. 62 (2013) 17832-17837

Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal) Linguistics and Translation

Elixir Ling. & Trans. 62 (2013) 17832-17837

A comparative study of in English, Kurdish, and Persian Osman Mohammadi 1 and Fateh Ahmadi 2,* 1Linguistics, Girls's vocational faculty of Sanandaj, Technical / Vocational University, Sanandaj, Iran. 2Computer Engineering, Girl's vocational faculty of Sanandaj, Technical / Vocational University, Sanandaj, Iran.

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: English, Kurdish, and Persian belong to Indo-European and they have the same Received: 12 July 2013; proto form so they are called related (family) languages. As these languages have the same Received in revised form: common ancestor, it is clear that they have some similar linguistic items regarding , 25 August 2013; semantics, , pragmatics, etc. But as they are spoken in different distinct areas, Accepted: 11 September 2013; they may have some differences regarding these items. One of these linguistic items is grammatical aspect. This study was conducted to define and describe the concept and Keywords function of grammatical aspect in languages like English, Kurdish, and Persian to find if Aspect, there were any similarities and differences among them. To do this, first the notions of , aspect , tense , and time and also the difference between grammatical and lexical aspect were Grammatical aspect, defined clearly. Then grammatical aspect was defined and described in each by Tense, and time. drawing separate tables. At the other part of the article, I compared grammatical aspect in three languages and found that there were some similarities and differences among these languages concerning grammatical aspect. Finally, the article concluded with making some conclusions and recommendation for those want to learn these languages as second or foreign language. I hope this study can help the learners and teachers in facilitating the process of teaching/learning, and so do for translators and researchers to do their work better. © 2013 Elixir All rights reserved

Introduction convey such distinctions by the use of adverbials, serial The purpose of this article is at first to define the meaning constructions or other means. It is clear that not all languages and function of aspect as a linguistic item and then grammatical have or special words to mark aspect but most aspect in English, Kurdish, and Persian and determine the languages can express the meanings which are embedded in the similarity and differences among these three languages. This aspectual categories. study is useful for Iranian learners, teachers, researchers, and There are different views on aspect by different translators. In Iran, Persian is the formal language, but it is the grammarians, among them, for example, is Hartmann and second language for Kurd people who live in the West and the Stork’s view, who define aspect as a of South-West of Iran and speak Kurdish as their native language. the verb marked by , suffixes or internal vowel changes English is a foreign language for all people in Iran. Kurd indicating not so much its location in the tense but the duration students learn Persian at primary school and English at high and type of the action expressed (1972:20). school. If the teachers and learners know something about the Comrie (1976:3) states that aspects are different ways of similarities and differences among these languages, the process viewing the internal temporal consistency of a situation. While of teaching and learning will be rather easy and facilitated. Smith (1976:61) has an interesting view on aspect in his camera- Teachers, by comparing these languages, find out that similar metaphor, he mentions that aspectual viewpoints function like items in native languages usually facilitate the process of the lens of a camera, making objects visible to the receiver. learning those items in second or foreign languages (positive Situations are the objects on which viewpoints lenses are transfer) and different items make it difficult for learners to learn trained. Quirk et al. (1985:188) and Greenbrae and Quirk second/foreign languages and need to be paid much more (1990:51) view aspect as a grammatical category which reflects attention (negative transfer). If translators are familiar with the way in which the verb is regarded or experienced with similarities and differences among these languages, they can respect to time. Crystal defines aspect as a category used in the easily translate from one language into another and know where grammatical analysis of (along with tense and mood) the difficulties may happen in finding the best equivalence. referring primarily to the way the grammar marks the duration Finally, if the researchers know the similarities and differences or type of temporal activity denoted by the verb. (1991: 27). in case of grammatical aspect, they can easily do their research While Gramely and Patzold (1992:146) explain that aspect and reconstruct language family. is not concerned with relating the time of the situation to any Aspect is a grammatical category along with tense and other time point, but rather with the internal temporal mood. It is a formal property of language which differs from one consistency of the situation. Richards et al (1992:22) identify language to another in a way a language distinguishes a large aspect as that grammatical category which deals with how the number of formal aspects, while others distinguish none at all. event described by a verb is viewed such as it is in progress, Even languages that do not mark aspect formally, however, can habitual, repeated, momentary, etc. He also mentions that aspect

Tele: E-mail addresses: [email protected] © 2013 Elixir All rights reserved 17833 Osman Mohammadi et al./ Elixir Ling. & Trans. 62 (2013) 17832-17837

may be indicated by prefixes, suffixes or other categories of the of the action. Tense and aspect are two interrelated elements that verb. Trask (1993:21) describes aspect as a grammatical can't be studied separately. Dahl (1985:24) regards tense as category which relates to the internal temporal structure of a deictic categories which relate time points to the moment of situation. speech while aspect is as non-deictic category, that is, it relates The above definitions emphasize the relationship between time points to the moment of event. aspect and the duration of the action denoted by the verb. Lexical vs. Grammatical Aspect: Among all these definitions, the definition by Comrie is the Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999:40) state that most comprehensive. It draws a clear distinction between aspect verbs have lexical as well as grammatical aspects. It is important and tense. One can realize the difference between situation- to distinguish between two types of aspects: lexical and internal time (aspect) and situation-external time (tense). From grammatical. Lexical aspect refers to the inherent property of these, it can be concluded that aspect refers to the internal verbs which is not marked formally in most languages. As far as temporal consistency of an event or the manner in which the this type of aspect is concerned, Vendler (1967:97) divides action of the verb is distributed through the time-space verbs into four categories: activities (e.g. study), achievements continuum. Tense, on the other hand, refers to the location of an (e.g. find), accomplishments (e.g. write); and states (e.g. have). event in the continuum. However, only Hartmann and Stork Lexical or situational aspect is sometimes called action art (1972:20) pay attention to the form or the structural aspect of which is regarded it as pertaining to the lexicon, while aspects. They explain that verbs change their forms by receiving grammatical aspect is related to a formal distinction between the prefixes, suffixes or internal vowel changes so as to denote the verb forms which are represented in the grammar of a language duration of an action. (Dahl 1985: 27). The present study is devoted to grammatical Research Questions aspect. 1. What does grammatical aspect mean and how it differs from Grammatical Aspect in English: tense and time? Grammatical aspect is represented differently in different 2. Are there any similarities and differences among English, languages. For instance, in some languages, it is realized by Kurdish, and Persian regarding grammatical aspect? prefixes, suffixes or other categories of the verb. There are The Notion of Time, Tense, and Aspect: different views concerning the number of the type of It can be noticed that aspect does not occur alone but it grammatical aspect in English. Some grammarians distinguished always occurs with tense. It relates the happening described by two main types of aspect, for example, Comrie (1976: 16) the verb to time in the past, present, or future (Leech and classifies grammatical aspect into two main types: perfective Svartvik 1994:65) . Aspect is a difficult concept to grasp because and imperfective; the former indicates the situations of short it tends to conflate with the concept of tense. The term tense is duration while the latter indicates the situations of long duration. related to the linguistic expression of time relations which are While others draw a distinction between four types of realized by verb forms. While time is an independent concept of grammatical aspect, these are: simple, , progressive, and language and it is common to all languages, it is viewed by perfect progressive aspect . For instance, Celce-Murcia and many people as being divided into past, present, and future time. Larsen-Freeman (1999:112-118) distinguish four types of Tense systems are language-specific and vary from one grammatical aspect in English as: language to another in a way that each language has different A. Simple aspect : it refers to events that are viewed as complete number of tenses to reflect temporal reference ( Dewing and wholes. Locke 2002:353). (3 ) a . Jane helps her mother. The main difference between tense and aspect is that the b. Jane helped her mother. former is concerned with relating a situation to a time-point, that B. Perfect aspect : the core meaning of this type of aspect is prior is, situation-external time. While the latter deals with the which is used in relation to some other points in time, for internal temporal consistency of a situation, that is, situation- example: internal time (Comrie1976:5). It is worth mentioning that time (4) a . Jane has helped her mother. refers to the possibility for relating situations to the time line in b. Jane had helped her mother when the guest arrived. discussing the internal temporal contour of a situation; for C. Progressive aspect : the core meaning of this type of aspect is instance, in discussing whether it is possible to be represented as imperfective which represents an event in such a way that a point or as a stretch on the time line. The internal temporal allows for it to be incomplete or somehow limited. contour of a situation refers to the conceptual basis for the (5) a . Jane is helping her mother. notion of aspect which indicates the grammaticality of b. Jane was helping her mother. expression of internal temporal constituency (Comrie1985:7) . D. Perfect progressive aspect : the term suggests that this aspect Thus, the difference between: combines the sense of prior perfect with the meaning of (1) a. John was singing. incompleteness inherent in the progressive aspect. b. John is singing. (6) a. Jane has been helping her mother for two hours. In English is one of tense which distinguishes a location b. Jane had been helping her mother that year. before the present moment and a location including the present It is necessary to mention that each of these pairs is moment; while the difference between: identical in aspect but different in tense. In English, two main (2) a. John was singing types of aspects can be realized: marked and unmarked. There b. John sang are three grammatically marked aspects in English which is one of aspect because both sentences are in the , indicate those aspects that are realized by inflectional but they indicate different aspects: (2a) is in the progressive that are determined by perfect and progressive and aspect, it shows the non-completion of the act of singing; while perfect progressive aspects, for example: (2b) is in the which determines the completion 17834 Osman Mohammadi et al./ Elixir Ling. & Trans. 62 (2013) 17832-17837

(7) a . He is playing well. (14) a. da xom . (I eat). b . He has played well. b. da m xwârd . (I was sleeping). c. He has been playing for two hours. C. Perfect Aspect : It is used with past perfect and In (7a), the aspect is marked by (be + -ing), while in (7b) it tenses: is marked by (have + PP) and in (7c) by (have + been + ing) the past perfect aspect is marked by bu : (15) ewa xwtu bu: n. which is a combination of the perfect and progressive aspects. (You had slept). So it can be considered as a marked aspect as well. It is worth the present perfect is expressed by ua (16) nânim xwârd wua . mentioning that the third type of marked aspect is not regarded (I have eaten food). as a marked aspect because it is a combination of perfect and Table 1.2 Amin’s classification of Kurdish aspectual system progressive aspects; whereas the unmarked aspect refers to those (2004:71) types of aspect which are not realized by any markers and Tense Aspect Rules Examples determined by simple aspect, for example: Past stem + personal xwârd mân ( We (8) a . He plays tennis well. Continuous pronouns ate). b. He played tennis well. Perfect da + past stem + damân xwârd ( We Table 1.1 English aspect system Conditional personal pronouns were eating ). past stem + bu: + xwârd bu: mân ( Aspect Meaning Examples personal pronouns We had eaten ). Simple Perfective Past Simple: played personal pronouns + bimân xwârd âya ( Imperfective Present simple: play(s) âya If we ate ). Perfect Perfective Past perfect: had played Imperfective Present perfect: have played Present Simple da + future stem + daxwei:n ( We eat ) Progressive Imperfective Past continuous: was playing Perfect personal pronouns xwârdu: mâna ( We Present continuous: is playing Past stem + u: + have eaten ) Perfect Perfective Past Perfect Progressive: had been personal pronouns + Progressive Imperfective playing -a with intransitive Present Perfect Progressive: have verbs been playing Both Ahmad (2008:98) and Amin (2004:71) agree that there Grammatical Aspect in Kurdish: are four types of aspect: simple, perfect, progressive and This section is devoted to analysis and identification of the conditional. These aspects occur with the past and the present grammatical aspect of Kurdish. Though this area of study has tenses. Kurdish does not have the perfect progressive aspect but not been investigated clearly because most traditional Kurdish instead it has the conditional aspect. grammarians assume that the verbal system is based on tense to Table 1.3 Ahmad’s classification of Kurdish aspectual which they have devoted most of their investigations, therefore, system (2004:270) they ignore the explanation of Kurdish aspect system. Another Aspect Meaning Examples reason is that traditional Kurdish grammarians have adopted an Perfective a. In the past, it is marked by / t, d, hât (came), bird grammatical model which is based on two tenses. Ahmad i, a, u / (took), nu:si: (2004:193) explains that in Kurdish, grammatical aspect has its b. In the non-past, it is restricted (wrote) own properties. One of these is that in Kurdish the aspectual to subordinate classes henâ ( brought), distinction perfective /imperfective is morphologically marked with subjunctive bi- ču: (went) by means of prefixes and suffixes. For instance: Imperfective It is marked by the combination of da xom (I eat). (9) aw nân daxwât. (He eats food). the imperfective marker da - with da rwi:n (We The da - indicates the non-completion of the act of both past and non-past stems. go). xwârden (eating). Progressive It is not restricted to one tense, damân xwârd although it is clearer in present (We were (10) aw nânakay xwârØd . (He ate the food). tense than others. eating). The symbol -Ø- which is not realized indicates the datân nu:si: completion of the act of xwârden (eating). (You were Fattah (1997:144) states that the aspectual markers are writing). purely inflectional. It marks a distinction between continuous As far as the first type is concerned, he mentions that both (progressive or imperfective) and perfective. He explains that past and non-past perfective forms describe the situation as a the continuous aspect is signaled by da -; it is prefixed to present single- complete whole. They differ in that the former has past and past stems to yield present indicative (continuous) and past time reference and context independent while the latter has imperfective (continuous) respectively: future time reference and context dependent, whereas the (11) da rom. (I am going). Present indicative aspect. (go + pr has continuous, no completion and habitual 1ps). interpretation. He mentions that progressivity is classified under (12) dam bird. (I was taking). Past indicative aspect. (1ps take + imperfectivity but they are two different notions because p). imperfectivity always expresses unlimited habituality whereas According to Amin (1979:45) there are three types of aspects in progressivity may express limited habituality. The progressive Kurdish: aspect explains a situation which is in progress. A. Perfective Aspect: It is not expressed by grammatical From the above discussion, one can conclude that Kurdish element, for instance: has two main aspect types: marked and unmarked . Kurdish (13) xwârdem . (I ate). The verb xwârd (eat + p) is in the past and marked aspects are those aspects which are realized by it has the perfective aspect. inflectional morphemes, it is marked by perfect (bu: ) and B. Imperfective Aspect: It is marked by da , and it is used with progressive aspects (da -): both past and present. (20) a. hât bu :n (They had come). 17835 Osman Mohammadi et al./ Elixir Ling. & Trans. 62 (2013) 17832-17837

b. da mân xwind (We were reading). : /mi: ravam/ (I go). While the unmarked aspect refers to those types of aspect Simple past: /raftam/ (I went). which are not realized by any markers, it is determined by Present continuous: /mi: ravam/ (I am going). simple aspect. Here are the Kurdish aspects: Past continuous: /mi: raftam/ (I was going). 1. Simple Aspect : It indicates the completion or the non- Present perfect: /rafte ?am/ (I have gone). completion of the action. This aspect is unmarked for the past Past perfect: /rafte bu: dam/ ( I had gone). and present simple tenses. For instance: In Persian, simple present and present continuous have the (21) a. Perfectiveness: aw nâmaka Ǿy nu:si: (He wrote the same form unless we use them with adverbial expression of time letter). such as /har ru:z/ (everyday) and /hâlâ/ (now). b. Imperfectiveness: aw nâma danu:set ( He writes a letter ). Golfam (2006, 73) says that as far as grammatical aspect is The symbol /Ø/ indicates the past simple aspect which concerned, Persian has perfect and aspects. In perfect determines the totality of the action; here, the past verb does not aspect the occurrence of verb is based on the time of the action, carry any markers. but in imperfect aspect it is a continuous process and it is not 2. Progressive Aspect : It can be realized by “-da ” which limited to a particular point of time. indicates the duration and the non- completion of the action. For 1. Perfect aspect: /Ali Parviz râ zad/ (Ali hit Parviz). The instance: action was completed. (22) Perfectiveness: aw nâmay da nu:si: ka zang léyda (He was 2. Imperfect aspect: /Ali Parviz râ mi: zad/ (Ali was hitting writing a letter when the bell rang). Parviz). The action is not completed. 3. Perfect Aspect : It can be realized by (bu:) (had done) and In addition to the above two aspects, Golfam believes that (u/wa) (have + PP); it is a situation which combines past with from the semantic point of view there are two other aspects: present time reference. momentary and continuous . He adds that the more a verb has the (23) a. Perfectivness: men nâmakam nu:si: bu : (I had written characteristics of momentary, the more it is perfect and the more the letter) it has continuous characteristics, the more it is imperfective. b. Imperfectiveness: men nâmakam nu:si:wa (I have written the Mahootian (2000) says that based on grammatical area verb letter ). in Persian has perfective and continuous aspects and based on Actually /-t/ and /-d/ are not aspect markers but they are semantic area it has different aspects such as perfective, past tense markers which are equivalent to the suffix past imperfective, habitual, continuous, progressive, non-progressive marker /-ed / in English. The following table summarizes the and beginning. Kurdish aspect markers. As we know if we look at the aspect from grammatical Table 1.4 Kurdish Aspect Systems point of view, Persian has two grammatical aspects: perfect and Aspect Meaning examples imperfect . In Persian syntactic-morphological category identifies Simple Perfective Past simple: xwârdØm (I ate). the meaning of continuous or imperfect aspect. Persian has a Imperfective Present simple: daxom (I eat). system for time differentiation that is nearly similar to the perfect Perfective Past perfect: xwârd bu:m (I had system of European and French languages. For example, Imperfective eaten). although, /mi:/ is the sign of imperfective aspect, it can also Present perfect: xwârdu: ma (I represent habitual, beginning, and continuous actions in present, have eaten). past and future. Progressive Imperfective Past continuous: dam xwârd (I was eating). 1. Present: /hâlâ kâr mi: konam/ (I am working now). Present continuous: daxwom (I 2. Past: /di:ru:z kâr mi: kardam/ (I was working yesterday). am eating). 3. Future: / fardâ: kâr mi: konam/ (I will work tomorrow). The above table shows the following: Classification of present and past verbs based on (1) If the prefix ( da-) is not regarded as an aspect marker, the grammatical aspect in Persian aspectual distinctions are expressed by lexical elements; in this 1. Verbs with imperfective aspect: case it is a . a. indicative for simple present, present continuous and future: (2) If the prefix ( da-) is regarded as an aspect marker, then all /mi: ravam/ (I go), (I am going), (I will go) with time present verb stems are classified under progressive aspects. In expression in present, progressive and future. this case the present tense morpheme is within the verb stem b. past continuous: /mi: ravam/ (I was going). itself. c. present perfect continuous: /mi: rafte ?am/ (I have been Grammatical Aspect in Persian going). Comrie (1987) believes that Persian has two grammatical d. subjunctive: /be ravam/ (I may go). aspects: perfect and imperfect. He says that verbal forms are 2. Verbs with perfective aspect: based on three stems namely present, past and perfect. The a. simple past: /raftam/ (I went). perfect forms are marked by adding the suffix /-e/ to the simple b. narrative perfect: / rafte ?am/ (I have gone). past. According to Comrie, the prefix /mi:/ represents c. past perfect: /rafte bu:dam/ (I had gone). imperfective and continuous actions and the suffix /-e/ d. past subjunctive: /rafte bâŠam/ ( I might have gone). represents perfective actions. 3. Verbs with : For example: Simple imperfective: /mi: ravam/ ( I go). This aspect is made by adding the prefix /mi:/ to verb stem Progressive imperfective: /mi: ravam/ (I am going). to indicate the habitual actions in past and present. For example: Simple perfective: /raft/ (He went). a. present: /mâ har ru:z kâr mi: konim/ (We work every day). Present perfective: /rafte/ (He has gone). b. past: /mâ pârsâl kâr mi: kardim/ (We worked last year). Mashkatod Dini (1981,77-78) believes that verb in Persian It is necessary to use adverbial of time with this aspect to has three aspects: simple, continuous, and perfect. show its natural habituality. So it is clear that in Persian formal 17836 Osman Mohammadi et al./ Elixir Ling. & Trans. 62 (2013) 17832-17837

construction of a verb cannot alone show the perfect aspect of it, 2. English has three grammatically marked aspects which are but the context can also both formal and semantic determined by: construction of the verb a. perfect (have/had + pp) Table 1.5 Persian aspect system b. progressive (be + -ing) Aspect Meaning Examples c. perfect progressive (have/had + been + - ing). Simple Perfective a. simple past: /raftam/ (I went) (26) a. John has read the novel. (perfect) Imperfective b. simple present (indicative) : /mi: ravam/ b. John is reading the novel. (progressive) (I go), (I am going) c. John has been reading the novel. (perfect progressive) Perfect Perfective a. present perfective: /rafte ?am (I have While the unmarked aspect is determined by simple aspect: gone). (27) a. John reads the novel. b. past perfective: /rafte bu:dam/ (I had gone). b. John read the novel. Imperfective c. past subjunctive: /rafte bâŠam/ (I Kurdish has two grammatically marked aspects: perfect and would/might have gone). progressive. (28) a. Ahmad mozi xwârd bu: (Ahmad had eaten the banana). a. past continuous: /mi: raftam/ (I was b. Ahmad mozi daxwârd (Ahmad was eating the banana). going). Whereas, the unmarked aspect is realized by simple aspect: b. indicative: for present continuous: /hâlâ (29) Ahmad mozi xwârd (Ahmad ate the banana). mi: ravam/ (I am 3. In Kurdish, two types of the prefix (da-) can be realized: going now). For future: /fardâ mi: a. (da-) which precedes the present verb stems which is a present ravam/ (I will go tomorrow) c. present subjunctive: /Šâyad bervam/ (I tense morpheme and it is not regarded as an aspect marker; in may go). that case aspect is realized by lexical elements such as Habitual Imperfective a. present: /mâ har ru:z kâr mi: konim/ of time. (we work every day). b. (da-) which precedes the verb stem is an aspect marker which b. past: /mâ pârsâl kâr mi: kardim/ (we determines the duration or non-completion of the action; in this worked last year). case all present verb stems are classified under progressive aspect and the present verb morpheme is within the verb stem Points of similarities and differences itself. This section is devoted to discussion and identification the 4. In Kurdish and Persian, simple present, present continuous, points of similarities and differences in the aspectual systems and are the same unless we use time expression like among the three languages. /hâlâ/ (now), /har ru:z/ (everyday), and /suzi:/ (tomorrow) but in Similarities : English they are structurally different. For example: 1. In all three languages both aspect and tense are related to the a. Persian: /mâ har ru:z be madresa mi: ravi:m/. (We go to time references. Time is a semantic notion while aspect and school every day). tense are grammatical notions. They are grammaticality of time. /mâ hâlâ be madresa mi: ravi:m/. (We are going to school Tense refers to the absolute location of an event or action in now). time while aspect refers to how an event or action is to be /mâ fardâ be madrasa mi: ravi:m/. (We will go to school viewed with respect to time, rather than to its actual location in tomorrow). time. b. Kurdish: /ema har ru:ž da či:n bu: madresa/. (We go to 2. In all three languages, the term aspect refers to the way of school every day). viewing an internal temporal constituency of a situation. It /ema alân da či:n bu: madresa/. (We are going to school now). shows the completion or non-completion of the action which is /ema suzi: da či:n bu: madrasa/. (We will go to school described by the verb form. tomorrow). 3. In all three languages, two main types of aspect can be 5. In Persian, narrative aspect is not the same as present perfect distinguished: marked or unmarked. in English since narrative aspect is perfective but present perfect 4. In English and Kurdish, simple, perfect and progressive is imperfective. aspects are distinguished. 6. In Persian, there are some aspects like habitual, indicative and For instance: subjunctive which are not appeared in English and Kurdish. (24) a. John eats/ate the apple. Conclusions and Recommendations b. John is/was eating the apple. 1. In all three languages the terms time, tense and aspect are c. John has/had eaten the apple. closely interrelated. Time is a semantic notion; aspect and tense d. John has/had been eating the apple. are grammatical notions. Tense refers to the time of situation (25) a. Jon sew daxwât. (Johan eats the apple). while aspect indicates the duration and non-duration of the b. Jon sewi xwâr-Ø-d. (John ate the apple). action. c. Jon sewi xwârd bu:. (John had eaten the apple). 2. English, Kurdish, and Persian are all Indo-European d. Jon sewi xwârduwa. (John has eaten the apple). languages. They have some similar and different linguistic e. Jon sewi daxwârd ka zangaka leida. (John was eating items, specially grammatical aspect. the apple when the phone rang). 3. As Lado (1959) said "In leaning a second or foreign language, 5. Each type of aspect in all three languages can be marked as similar items are easy for the learners to learn and different perfective or imperfective which are realized by different tenses. items are somehow difficult for them to understand." By Differences: comparing these languages the learners can understand which 1. In English, unlike Kurdish and Persian, another type of aspect item they learn easily and where their difficulties arise and need is realized which is called perfect progressive aspect, for to be paid attention more. instance: (25) John has been reading for two hours . 17837 Osman Mohammadi et al./ Elixir Ling. & Trans. 62 (2013) 17832-17837

4. Iranian teachers should be familiar with these similarities and 6. Crystal, D.(1991). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. differences in teaching Persian and English to Kurd students so Oxford: Basil Blackwell. as to facilitate the process of teaching/learning. 7. Dahl,O. (1985). Tense and Aspect Systems. Oxford: 5. If teachers know where the difficulty happens during Blackwell. teaching/learning process, they pay much more attention to 8. Dewing, Angela and Philip Locke (2002). A University those areas to help the learners overcome their difficulties. Course in . London: Rutledge. 6. By comparing and contrasting these three languages, teachers 9. Fattah, M. M. (1997). A Generative Grammar of Kurdish. can predict which items the students learn easily and which Unpublished Ph. D. Dissertation. University of Amsterdam. items are difficult for them to learn. 10. Golfam, A. (2006). Apect in Persian. Unpublished Ph.D. 7. If Persian speakers know the similarity and difference Article. between Persian and Kurdish, they understand that Kurdish is 11. Gramely, S. and K. M. Pätzold, (1992). A Survey of Modern one of the old Iranian languages, not a dialect of Persian. English. London: Rutledge. 8. By comparing these languages, linguistics can elicit the 12. Greenbaum, S. and R.Quirk (1990). A Student's Grammar of common ancestor of them and describe the changes that the . London: Longman. happened in linguistic items during the time. They can also find 13. Hartmann, R. R.; F.C.Stork, (1972). A Dictionary of linguistic relations (language family) between these three Language and Linguistics. London: Applied Science publisher. languages. 14. Keshavarz, M. H. (2012). Contrastive/Error Analysis. 9. This article only compared grammatical aspect in three Rahnama Publication. languages. I hope further studies in future can compare other 15. Lado, R. (1959). Linguistics Across Culture. Michigan linguistic items including case and case markers, semantic University press. items, pragmatics, etc. 16. Leech, G. and J. Svartvik, (1994). A Communicative 10. As I was in shortage of time and sufficient written Grammar of English, (2 nd edition), London: Longman. information specially in Kurdish, this work was not very 17. Mohootian, SH. (2000). Linguistic Description of Persian. complete but somehow could briefly describe the grammatical Rahnema Publication. aspect in these three languages. I hope further studies in future 18. Meshkatod Dini, M. (1986). Persian Transformational can compensate this shortage and present a very complete work syntax. Ferdowsi University Press. in this regard. 19. Qadir, A. O. (2003). A Morpho-syntactic in References Kurdish and Persian, unpublished PhD. Dissertation. University 1. Ahmed, M. F. (2004). The Tense and Aspect System in of Sulaimany. Kurdish. Unpublished ph D. Dissertation. University of London. 20. Quirk, R. S.Greenbaum, G. Leech, and J. Svartvik, (1985). 2. Ahmad, Zh. O. (2008). Tense- Aspect System in English and A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Kurdish. Unpublished MA Thesis, University of Sulaimany. Longman. 3. Amin, W.O (2004) . A New Horizon of Linguistics. Arbil: 21. Richards, J. C.; J. Platt; H. Platt (1992). Longman Dictionary Aras Press. of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. England: 4. Celce-Murcia, M. and D. Larsen. Freeman (1999). The Longman Group UK Limited Grammar Book: An ESL/ EFL Teachers course Second edition 22. Trask, R. L. (1993). A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Stamford, CT: Heinle and Heinle. Linguistics. London: Rutledge Vendler, Z. (1976). Linguistics 5. Comrie, B. (1985). Tense. Cambridge: Cambridge University in Philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Press.