The conceptual motivation of aspect

Aspect expresses information about how events unfold in time. In English, imperfective aspect is known to widen the temporal scope of the event described, but little is known about how such imperfective descriptions are processed or what motivates their use. This chapter investigates the conceptual impact of aspect, especially imperfective descriptions of past events, and argues that it shapes our understanding of events, and that its use and function is motivated by our everyday experience of perceiving and simulating events.