1 Catherine CHAUVIN Université de Lorraine (Nancy) – EA2338
[email protected] Journée Agrégation ‘Aspect’, Bordeaux, 7.2.2020 Situation aspect combined with grammatical aspect: some examples, and a few questions. ‘It is generally accepted [...] that any discussion of aspect from a semantic point of view must also take account of what we are referring to as the character of particular verbs.’ (Lyons 1977: 706) Abstract : This paper, aimed at Agrégation students, is a presentation of what can happen in English when situation aspect is combined with grammatical aspect. A few known examples are analysed, and some questions are brought to the reader’s attention. The main focus is on BE + V-ING, although some remarks on HAVE + V-EN and the combination of HAVE + V-EN and BE + V-ING have been included. The chapter is organised around three main poles which can be dealt with separately as more elements are combined: 1) situation aspect and its characteristics/ definition(s), 2) the combination of situation aspect (as discussed) and grammatical aspect, and 3) the analysis of a few contextualised examples, in which the elements discussed before are applied and the role of ‘context’ is taken into account. The aim of these few pages is to examine the interaction between situation, or ‘lexical’, aspect, and grammatical aspect: we will go over some definitions, discuss some of the issues raised and pore over a few examples. The ‘nature’ of the verb, or of the situation depicted, has an influence on the compatibility with other forms and/ or the interpretation of the combination of a given verb, or verb phrase, and grammatical aspect: what type of influence, how, and when? To what extent can a list of cases be drawn, and what are they? What are the recurrent patterns, or to what extent are they truly recurrent, and why? To answer some of these questions, we will first briefly recall the opposition that is traditionally made between ‘situation’ (and/or ‘lexical’ aspect, Aktionsart ) and ‘grammatical’ aspect.