1. ASPECT PRELIMINARIES: The verb paradigm
The set of inflectional forms of a variable lexeme (together with their grammatical labels) is called its paradigm. In some languages the verb paradigms are extremely complex, but in English they are fairly simple. The great majority of verbs in English have paradigms consisting of six inflectional forms (Huddleston and Pullum 30):

2. The Verb Paradigm Primary forms Preterite talked
PARADIGM
EXAMPLE
Primary forms
Preterite talked
3d singular present talks
Plain present talk
Secondary forms
Plain form talk
Gerund-participle talking
Past participle talked

3. ASPECT Compare: Tom reads books. . Tom is reading a book TENSE?

4. TENSE and ASPECT
TENSE
Tense: describes the time of the event in the sentence relative to the moment of speaking. (WHEN)
ASPECT
Aspect: refers to how the speaker envisages an the internal temporal constituency of a situation (HOW), informs about the temporal contour of an event, the flow of an event.

5. He was reading (we can divide this into stages)
Aspect is a composite between grammatical morphemes and the lexical meaning of a verb phrase.
He was reading (we can divide this into stages)
He read (unanalysable whole).

6. Viewpoint aspect - grammatical morphemes, Perfective/imperfective
We can speak of two types concerning aspect. Both types of refer to -beginning, end, duration  
Viewpoint aspect - grammatical morphemes, Perfective/imperfective
Situation type
(looks at the lexical meaning of the VP) – the properties of a situation as denoted by the predicate.  

7. PERFECTIVE vs IMPERFECTIVE SIMPLE vs CONTINUOUS
John was painting his house last year. (NOT ACCOMPLISHED)
Perfective
John painted his house last year. (ACCOMPLISHED)

8. Food for thought b. This morning at 5.00, Mary was singing a song.
Discuss the difference between the sentences where the event expressed took place in the past and is presented as accomplished and the sentences where the event expressed is seen as taking place in the past but does not have an end-point. Try to translate these sentences into
Romanian. Does translation reflect the differences of meaning you previously identified?
a. Mary sang a song about a little lamb.
b. This morning at 5.00, Mary was singing a song.
c. Musette visited Paris.
d. This time last year we were visiting Paris.
e. Oh my God! They killed Kenny!
f. Last month he was killing cockroaches in his kitchen.

9. PERFECTIVE vs IMPERFECTIVE
She wrote a novel.
She spent last summer with her parents.
Imperfective
She is writing a novel.
She still lived with her parents.

10. PERFECTIVE vs IMPERFECTIVE
When a clause describes a situation in a way that considers it as a whole, in its totality, without reference to any internal temporal structure or subdivision it might have, we say that the clause has a perfective interpretation.
Imperfective
When a clause describes a situation in a way that makes reference to its internal temporal structure or subdivisions, we say that the clause has an imperfective interpretation (Huddleston and Pullum 42). .

11. PERFECTIVE vs IMPERFECTIVE
When a clause describes a situation in a way that considers it as a whole, in its totality, without reference to any internal temporal structure or subdivision it might have, we say that the clause has a perfective interpretation.
Imperfective
When a clause describes a situation in a way that makes reference to its internal temporal structure or subdivisions, we say that the clause has an imperfective interpretation (Huddleston and Pullum 42). .

12. !PERFECTIVE IS NOT THE SAME WITH PERFECT
Perfect is the name of a grammatical category, a type of past tense;
Perfective applies, as far as English is concerned, to a kind of semantic interpretation.

13. !PERFECTIVE IS NOT THE SAME WITH PERFECT
I have broken my glasses.
I have been a teacher for several years.

14. !FOOD FOR THOUGHT PERFECTIVE, IMPERFECTIVE, HABITUAL
He went to his mother on Saturday.
He went to see his mother every Saturday.

15. ROMANIAN TRANSLATION OF THE PERFECTIVE/IMPERFECTIVE CONTRAST
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON ENGLISH GRAMMAR (74 -76)

16. SITUATION TYPE ASPECT
Situation type aspect- verbs are names for extralinguistic entities- states, events, processes

17. Conceptual features of situation types
STATES
ACTIVITIES
ACCOMPLISMENTS
ACHIEVEMENTS
SEMELFACTIVES
+stative
-stative
+durative
-durative
-telic
+telic

18. STATES UNBOUNDED ABSTRACT TEMPORAL QUALITY
PREDICATE A QUALITY/PROPERTY over an individual
Can’t be used in the imperative

19. STATES BASIC-LEVEL STATES Individual-level predicates (PERMANENT)
DERIVED STATES (Recategorized)
Individual-level predicates (PERMANENT)
Know, desire, be tall
Stage-level predicates
(TEMPORARY)
be available, be drunk, be in the garden
Individual-level/Stage-level
sit, lie, sprawl, stand perch
GENERIC states
Cats have claws.
Tigers eat meat.
DERIVED states
My cat eats only fish.
This tiger hunts every week.

20. ACTIVITIES (PROCESSES)
HUMAN AGENCY/NON-HUMAN AGENCY
DO NOT HAVE NATURAL ENDPOINTS (GOALS)
FOR x time
Often appear in the progressive
I stopped running in the park.
? I finished running in the park.
I finished running my laps/the race.

21. ACTIVITIES Atelic verb (+ complements) Push a cart Play the piano
Atelic verb+ cumulative/unaccountable N’s
Push a cart
Play the piano
Sleep
Think about
Walk in the park
Run along the beach
Eat cherries Write letters Drink wine Read books Find pebbles on the beach all afternoon

22. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Change of states Complex events
Prepared by some activity
The change: the completion of the process
E1 (process) causes e2 (change of state)
drink a glass of wine, build a house, throw sthg away/down/up/aside/in

23. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Atelic, durative verbs + countable objects
They ate a hearty dinner.
Atelic, durative verbs + directional complements
They went to her house
Atelic, durative verbs + certain prepositions
The boy ran out.
Atelic verbs+ resultative phrase
The alarm clock ticked the baby awake.

24. ACHIEVEMENTS Instantaneous Single stage events
Result in a change of state
Leave out the causing activity
Die, reach the top, find, lose, notice, win a race

25. SEMELFACTIVES
cough, knock, hit, flap a wing, hiccup, slam/bang the door, kick the ball

26. SEMELFACTIVES
Semelfactive verbs, also called momentary verbs or punctual verbs, are verbs whose event occurs once (in context) and last a short period of time, so short that the present progressive aspect cannot be used. By the time the event has occurred it is over and the past tense is necessary:
*Someone is knocking once on the door.
Someone just knocked once on the door.
Someone is knocking on the door

27. THE ASPECTAL RECATEGORIZATION OF VERB PHRASES = predicates shifting from their prototypical class

28. 1. subject Indefinite plurals:
The tourists discovered this beautiful castle.
Tourists discovered that beautiful castle for years.

29. 2. Direct object Bare plural NP He wrote the essay.
He wrote essays for hours.

30. 3. Adverbials Adverbials of extent He walked in the woods for an hour.
He walked to the building in ten minutes.

31. 4. Tense Habitual sentences (present simple)
He played chess for two hours.
He plays chess.

32. 5. The progressive aspect
Activities / ACTIVITIES
Semelfactives > ACTIVITIES
Her lips were trembling.
He was knocking on the door.
Accomplishments and achievements > ACTIVITES
They built a house.
They were building a house.
They won the race.
They were winning a race.

33. The progressive aspect
STATES > ACTIVITIES
1. To be + property designating adjectives
He is tall.
? He is being tall.
He is rude
He is being rude.

34. The progressive aspect
STATES > ACTIVITIES
2. Mental cognition verb phrases
Know, believe, hope, trust, think
I think he is wrong.
I am thinking of giving up smoking.

35. The progressive aspect
STATES > ACTIVITIES
3. Physical cognition verb phrases
See, hear, smell, taste, feel
You smell nice.
I’m smelling your perfume to find out what it is.

36. The progressive aspect
STATES > ACTIVITIES
4. Emotive verb phrases
love, hate, love, dislike, want, miss
I love her.
I’m loving this.

37. The progressive aspect
STATES > temporary states
5. Other property designating verbs
belong, contain, consist, weigh, measure
I belong here.
Are you belonging to the local library.

38. The progressive aspect
STATES > temporary states
6. Locative verb phrases
stand, sit, lie, rest, remain
Romania lies in Europe.
My socks are lying on the floor.