What is “aspect”?
In Linguistics, “aspect” is the term we use to describe the “state” or “condition” of the action expressed by a verb in a specific phrase, clause, or sentence.
Some examples of the “states” of verbs’ actions include the “progressive” or “continuous” state (ongoing actions) and the “perfect” state (completed actions).
In other words, “progressive” and “perfect” are two examples of types of verbal “aspect.”
Like tense, the “aspect” of verbs is a concept that can be applied universally to all languages, as all languages can--obviously--express actions in different states.
However, as different languages have different grammars, they also have different strategies for showing the aspects of verbs, just like they do for showing tense and other grammatical information.
Which specific aspects a language shows, and how these aspects are shown, depend on the individual grammars of languages.
For example, in English, four different aspects can be differentiated in verbs through different verb forms:
He does it.
(The verb form of the finite verb “does” shows the “simple” aspect, which usually expresses habitual actions.)
He is doing it.
(The verb form of the finite verb “is doing” shows the “progressive” aspect, which expresses ongoing actions.)
He has done it.
(The verb form of the finite verb “has done” shows the “perfect” aspect, which expresses completed actions.)
He has been doing it.
(The verb form of “has been doing” shows the “perfect progressive” aspect, which expresses ongoing actions that began at a past time.)
This means that English grammar uses specific verb forms to differentiate these four specific aspects in verbs.
English uses word form changes (called “inflections” in Linguistics) to show different grammatical information because it is called a “synthetic” language. Therefore, it makes sense that English uses word form changes to show the “aspect” of verbs as well.
(Note: As this post is only about the Linguistics concept of aspect and not about how aspect is shown in English verbs specifically, we would not go into detail about the English verb forms listed above. We discuss English verb forms in the “Characteristics of English” section and in our online course.)
Even though other “synthetic” languages, like English, also use word form changes to show aspect, they might do so in different ways--for example, they might have differentiated forms for a different “set” or “combination” of aspects (that is, not exactly these four in English).
For example, German is a language that is closely related English and is also a “synthetic” language. This means it also uses word form changes to show grammatical information, including aspect.
However, while German uses word form changes to show aspects including “perfect” and “simple” like in English, it does not have a differentiated word form for the “progressive” aspect (for ongoing actions) like in English.
In other words, in German, there is no equivalent way of showing the progressive aspect in “is doing” mentioned above just through word form changes. If German speakers intend to express an ongoing action with a verb, they would need to use other ways to indicate this. Most commonly, adverbs like “right now” would be added to indicate the ongoing nature of the action.
Languages that are not “synthetic” (called “analytic” languages), of which Chinese languages (including Cantonese) are typical examples, do not use word form changes to show grammatical information. This means that “analytic” languages use other means to show aspect.
For example, Chinese languages use additional particles after verbs to show aspect. In Cantonese, the particle “咗" indicates the "perfect" aspect, e.g. “我已經食咗" (a complete action), and the particle “緊” indicates the “progressive” aspect, e.g. “我而家食緊" (an ongoing action).
If we have a basic understanding of the scientific concept of “aspect,” we can learn the strategies that our target language uses for it much more effectively. For example, if we are Cantonese speakers learning English, we should be cognizant of the fact that English, unlike Cantonese, which uses additional particles to indicate aspect, uses word form changes to express the same meanings instead.
「體貌」（aspect）是甚麼?
「aspect」（體貌）是語言學中的術語，用作描述一個動詞表達的動作的「狀態」。
我們常聽到用以表達正在進行的動作的「進行式」（”progressive”/”continuous”），或是表達已做完的動作的「完成式」（”perfect”）等，都屬於動詞動作的「狀態」。
換言之，「進行式」和「完成式」就是動詞「aspect」（「體貌」）的其中兩個例子。
和「tense」（時態）一樣，動詞的「aspect」（體貌）是個可以普遍應用於所有語言的概念，因為所有語言當然都能夠表達在不同狀態下的動作。
不過，由於不同語言受到不同的文法所約束，它們顯示動詞「aspect」的方式都會不一樣。
至於每個語言會顯示哪些特定的「aspect」，以及如何顯示，便取決於不同語言的文法規則 。
以英文為例，動詞是會通過轉變字形來顯示四種不同的「aspect」:
He does it.
（這裡的限定動詞字形「does」顯示出「簡單式 （simple）」的體貌，表達習慣性的動作。）
He is doing it.
（這裡的限定動詞字形「is doing」顯示出「進行式（progressive）」的體貌，表達正在進行中的動作。）
He has done it.
（這裡的限定動詞字形「has done」顯示出「完成式（perfect）」的體貌，表達已完成的動作。）
He has been doing it.
（這裡的限定動詞字形「has been doing」顯示出「完成進行式（perfect progrossive）」的體貌，表達在過去開始但仍在進行中的動作。）
也就是說，英文文法是以轉變動詞字形的方式來區分四種不同的「aspect」的。
英語是「synthetic language」（「綜合語」）的一種，因為它會通過字形變化（語言學稱為「inflections （字形屈折）」）來表示不同的文法信息，所以，在英文中，動詞「aspect」也是通過轉變字形的方式來顯示的。
（請留意：本文旨在介紹「aspect」的語言學概念，而非具體討論英文動詞如何顯示「aspect」，因此我們不會詳細講解以上所列出的各種英文動詞字形。我們會在「英文的特徵」系列及網上課程中討論英文動詞字形。）
其他「synthetic languages」雖然也依靠改變字形來顯示「aspect」，但具體方式也可以有所不同。例如它們可能會顯示另一些體貌的「組合」，分界不一定與英文所顯示的四種一樣。
好像德文也是「synthetic language」，又與英文的關係密切，所以它同樣是通過改變字形來顯示「aspect」等的文法信息。
德文會像英文般改變字形以顯示「完成式」及「簡單式」的「aspect」，但不同的是，它沒有專門呈現「進行式」（正在進行的動作）的字形變化。
也就是說，德文並不能只靠改變字形來顯示上述英文例句中「is doing」顯示的進行式體貌。如果想用德文表達動詞動作正在發生，我們便須要用其他方法。最普遍的做法是加入像「right now」之類的副詞來呈現動作的進行狀態。
至於非「synthetic language」的語言 （稱為「analytic languages （分析語）」）並不會改變字形，而是採用其他方式來顯示文法信息。中文（包括廣東話）便是典型的例子。
中文會在動詞後面加入額外的助詞顯示文法信息，包括「aspect」。廣東話中的「咗」便是用以顯示「完成式」體貌 ，例如「我已經食咗」，顯示動作已完成；「緊」呈現的是「進行式」體貌，例如「我而家食緊」，顯示動作正在進行中。
假如對「aspect」的科學性概念有基本認識，將有助我們了解不同語言顯示「aspect」的文法方式，然後更有效地學習外語。像廣東話母語人士要學英文，就應該要清楚英文不會像中文一樣加入助語詞來顯示「aspect」，而是通過轉變字形來表達相同意思的。