aspect question

[Stephanie Briggs]

"I watched him jump off the cliff."

OK, we could deal with this a number of ways (forgive me for being somewhat
fascinated by the macabre subject!):

It could mean:

1) I watched him jump off the cliff but I didn't necessarily stick around
to hear him scream all the way to the bottom. (perfective, short duration,
no emphasis on result)

2) I watched him jump off the cliff, then went to the edge and continued to
watch as he screamed his way to the bottom. (imperfective: prolonged period
of watching)


3) I watched him jump off the cliff, specifically with the intent of going
to the edge and relishing watching him hit the bottom and go splat.
(perfective? because the watcher is most interested in the result)

Then if you want to change things to "was watching 1, 2,  or 3, then we
could go there, in which case, the aspect could be leaning more towards
imperfective in all the examples.

(I'm not nuts, really!)

~Stephanie

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