The Aspectual Classification of Verbs in English

Abstract

Aspectuality is an important field of linguistics and linguists usually make a distinction between grammatical and lexical aspect. While grammatical aspect reflects the speaker’s viewpoint on a given situation, lexical aspect is an inherent property of a situation and determined by the lexical meaning of verbs and verb phrases. In my thesis, I would like to discuss lexical aspect that organizes Vendler’s system as well. In his typology four major classes can be distinguished such as states, activities, achievements and accomplishments according to the stage and telic features of verbs.