Verb Aspect and Prototype Theory

Verb aspect is a phenomenon of widespread occurrence and considerable variability in the world's languages.... What makes these grammatical features aspectual is the fact that they make a particular kind of contribution to the meanings of the sentences in which they occur.... Perototype theory stems largely from the work of Eleanor Rosch.... We shall use prototype theory as a framework within which to systematize the phenomena of aspect in English. We have demonstrated that, both for the progressive and for the perfect in English, there exists a family of senses that can be regarded as variations on a prototypical meaning as applied to prototypical situations.