L’intégration de la catégorie d’aspect dans la description grammaticale

This contribution examines the integration of the notion of aspect in the grammar of European languages, especially in Spanish grammar writing. The hesitant integration of compound verb forms into the description of the conjugation of Romance verbs and the peculiar naming of these verb forms appear to be due to two causes until the 18th century. On the one hand, the authors of the grammars transposed Latin grammar and its terms to the vernacular languages. On the other hand, the authors considered the terms only from a semasiological perspective, deriving the functions of the verb forms from the meaning of the terms.