Sunday 26 May 2013

Hypotactic Verbal Group Complex: Perfective Vs Imperfective

Halliday & Matthiessen (2004: 498):
The general principle is that the perfective is ‘unreal’ and the imperfective is ‘real’; they may be opposed in any one of a number of contrasts, as future to present, appearance to reality, starting off to going on, goal to means, intention to action, or proposal to proposition; and sometimes the difference between them is minimal.