ABSTRACT
The study of aspect, and of English aspect in particular, requires one to confront a number of problems of categorization. Since aspectual distinctions are not part of verbal inflection in languages like English, it is not clear that English can be compared to those languages in which aspect receives reliable coding in the verbal syntagm. Zandvoort in fact doubts whether aspect is relevant at all for the analysis of English:
The attempt to transfer the category of “aspect” from Slavonic to Germanic, and from there to Modern English grammar, strikes one as an instance of misdirected ingenuity.
