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Theperfective aspect (abbreviatedPFV), sometimes called theaoristic aspect,[1] is agrammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole, i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from theimperfective aspect, which presents an event as having internal structure (such as ongoing, continuous, or habitual actions). The termperfective should be distinguished fromperfect (seebelow).
The distinction between perfective and imperfective is more important in some languages than others. InSlavic languages, it is central to the verb system. In other languages such asGerman, the same form such asich ging ("I went", "I was going") can be used perfectively or imperfectively without grammatical distinction.[2] In other languages such asLatin, the distinction between perfective and imperfective is made only in the past tense (e.g., Latinveni "I came" vs.veniebam "I was coming", "I used to come").[3] However, perfective should not be confused withtense—perfective aspect can apply to events in the past, present, or future.
The perfective is often thought of as for events of short duration (e.g., "John killed the wasp"). However, this is not necessarily true—a perfective verb is equally right for a long-lasting event, provided that it is a complete whole; e.g.,Tarquinius Superbus regnavit annos quinque et viginti (Livy) "Tarquin the Proud reigned for 25 years."[4] It simply "presents an occurrence in summary, viewed as a whole from the outside, without regard for the internal make-up of the occurrence."[5]
The perfective is also sometimes described as referring to a "completed" action, but it would be more accurate to say that it refers to an action or situation that is seen as a complete whole; e.g., theRussian perfective futureя убью тебя "I shall kill you" refers to an event that has not yet been completed.[6]
The essence of the perfective is an event seen as a whole. However, most languages that have a perfective use it for various similarsemantic roles—such as momentary events and the onsets or completions of events, all of which are single points in time and thus have no internal structure. Other languages instead have separatemomentane,inchoative, orcessative aspects for those roles, with or without a general perfective.
English has neither a simple perfective nor imperfective aspect; seeimperfective for some basic English equivalents of this distinction.
When translating into English from a language that has these aspects, the translator sometimes uses separate English verbs. For example, inSpanish, the imperfectivesabía can be translated "I knew" vs. the perfectivesupe "I found out",podía "I was able to" vs.pude "I succeeded",quería "I wanted to" vs.quise "I tried to",no quería "I did not want to" vs.no quise "I refused". The Polish perfective aspect is translated into English as a simple tense and the imperfective as a continuous; for example the imperfectiveoglądałem is translated into "I was watching", while the perfectiveobejrzałem is translated into "I watched". Such distinctions are often language-specific.
Languages may mark perfective aspect with morphology, syntactic construction, lexemes/particles, or other means.
| verb root ending in a consonant | verb root ending in a vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ♂ | ♀ | ♂ | ♀ | |
| Singular | ा -ā | ी -ī | -या -yā | -यी -yī |
| Plural | े -ē | ीं -ī̃ | -ये -yē | -यीं -yī̃ |
The termsperfective andperfect should not be confused.
Aperfect tense (abbreviatedPERF orPRF) is a grammatical form used to describe a past event with present relevance, or a present state resulting from a past situation. For example, "I have put it on the table" implies both that I put the object on the table and that it is still there; "I have been to France" conveys that this is a part of my experience as of now; and "I have lost my wallet" implies that this loss is troublesome at the present moment. A perfect tense does not necessarily have to be perfective in aspect. For example, "I have been waiting here for an hour" and "I have been going to that doctor all my life" are perfect but also imperfective in aspect.
There are some languages, however, such as Modern Greek, in which the perfect tense is always perfective.[10]
Hindustani (akaHindi-Urdu) has 3 grammatical aspects:Habitual,Perfective andProgressive. Each aspect is constructed from its participle and a number of auxiliary verbs can be used with the aspectual participles such as:honā (to be, to happen),rêhnā (to stay, to remain),jānā (to go),ānā (to come), andkarnā (to do). These verbs themselves can be made into aspectual participles and can be used with the default auxiliary verbhonā (to be), hence forming sub-aspects that combine the nuance of two aspects.[11][12] The auxiliaryrêhnā (to stay) gives a nuance of continuity of the perfective state,jānā (to go) is used to construct the passive voice (in its habitual subaspect)[13] and also shows that the action is completed (in its perfective subaspect),karnā (to do) gives the nuance that the perfective action is repeated habitually.
| Simple Aspect | Perfective Aspect (infinitive forms) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| honā to happen | huā honā to have happened | huā rêhnā to have happened | *huā jānā x | huā karnā to happen |
| karnā to do | kiyā honā to have done | kiyā rêhnā to have done | kiyā jānā to be done | kiyā karnā to do |
| marnā to die | marā honā to have died | marā rêhnā to have died | marā jānā to die | marā karnā to die |
Conjugating the auxiliary verbs which are in the infinitive form above into their aspectual forms using the auxiliaryhonā (to be) gives the following subaspectual forms of the perfective aspect in their infinitive form:[14]
| rêhnā | jānā | karnā | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Habitual | Perfective | Habitual[a] | Perfective[a] | Progressive[b] | Habitual |
| huā rêhtā honā to stay happened | huā rahā honā to have stayed happened | *huā jātā honā x | *huā gāyā honā x | huā jā rahā honā to keep happening continuously | huā kartā honā to happen perfectively and habitually |
| kiyā rêhtā honā to stay done | kiyā rahā honā to have stayed done | kiyā jātā honā to be done | kiyā gayā honā to have been done | kiyā jā rahā honā to have been doing continuously | kiyā kartā honā to do perfectively and habitually |
| marā rêhtā honā to stay dead | marā rahā honā to have stayed dead | marā jātā honā to be dead | marā gayā honā to have killed oneself | marā jā rahā honā to have been dying continuously | marā kartā honā to die perfectively and habitually[c] |