Basic Clause Patternsand (c) forms in (59) and between (60a) and (60b):
(59) When we arrived,
a. he made sandwiches.
b. he was making sandwiches.
c. he had made sandwiches.
(60) a. He cycled to work.
b. He used to cycle to work.The clause in (59a) has a simple past tense form, but is not marked for
aspect. The bolded elements in (59b) (a form of the verb be followed by a
verb ending in {-ing}) mark the progressive aspect. Sentences like (59c) are
said to be in the perfect aspect, characterized by a form of have followed by a
past participle (Ven) (bolded). Sentence (60b) illustrates the habitual aspect,
indicated by the expression used to followed by an uninflected verb (bolded).
The auxiliaries be and have of the progressive and perfect aspects can be either
past or present tense. These aspects can occur together in sentences:
(61) a. He has been making sandwiches for over an hour.
b. He used to be writing a book.
Sentence (61a) combines perfect and progressive; (61b) combines habitual
and progressive.
Tenses and modals can also combine with the progressive and perfect as-
pects. Had in (62) indicates both past tense and perfect aspect; been making
indicates the progressive. (63) combines the present tense modal, may, with
the perfect, have, and the progressive, been making.
(62) He had been making sandwiches for hours by the time we ar-
rived.
(63) He may have been making bombs, for all we know.While tense links the situation represented by a sentence to the time at
which the sentence is uttered, aspect represents features of the temporal struc-
ture of the situation the sentence describes. The progressive aspect character-
izes an event as (a) enduring for a period of time, (b) temporary, and (c) not
necessarily complete.
The perfect indicates that a situation that obtained in the past is still rel-
evant at some later time. If the sentence is a present perfect (e.g., I have lived
here for seven years), the relevant later time is the time of utterance. If the sen-