Habitual aspect

The habitual aspect is an aspect that characterizes a situation as occurring regularly or habitually.

Habituality is either linguistically represented by verbal expressions like used to and would or it is indirectly implied in situations “in which the adverb usually is possible in English.” (Dahl 1985: 97)

Categorization

The habitual aspect is a subcategory of the imperfect aspect and must be distinguished from the iterative aspect. While habituals "describe a situation which is characteristic of an extended period of time" (Comrie 1976: 27-28), iteratives focus on a mere repetition of the same situations such as giving a sequence of coughs which could be understood as a single situation. (Comrie 1976: 27)

Examples

• My parents used to travel to Rostock at the Baltic Sea every summer.
• A friend of my mine would swim in the ocean every day.
• We usually play table tennis after dinner.
• I like to go to the matches of my favourite football club.
• When I’m hungry my husband calls the pizza service.

Synonyms

• Habitualis

References

• Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect: An Introduction to Verbal Aspect and Related Problems. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University. 26-32. ISBN 0-521-21109-3
• Dahl, Östen. 1985. Tense and Aspect Systems. New York: Basil Blackwell. 95-102. ISBN 0-631-14114-6
• Hartmann, R.R.K., and F.C. Stork. 1972. Dictionary of language and linguistics. London: Applied Science. 21. ISBN 0-853-34534-1
• Crystal, David. 1987. The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University. 422. ISBN 0-521-26438-3

External Links

• Google Book Search: Bernard Comrie’s Aspect: An Introduction to Verbal Aspect and Related Problems
• Full text of Östen Dahl’s Tense and Aspect Systems on his official homepage

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