Inchoative aspect
Script error: No such module "For". Inchoative aspect (abbreviated Template:Ifsubst or Template:Ifsubst), also known as inceptive, is a grammatical aspect, referring to the beginning of a state.[1][2] It can be found in conservative Indo-European languages such as Latin and Lithuanian, and also in Finnic languages or European derived languages with high percentage of Latin-based words like Esperanto. It should not be confused with the prospective,[3] which denotes actions that are about to start. The English language can approximate the inchoative aspect through the verbs "to become" or "to get" combined with an adjective.
Since inchoative is a grammatical aspect and not a tense, it can be combined with tenses to form past inchoative, frequentative past inchoative and future inchoative, all used in Lithuanian.
In Russian, inchoatives are regularly derived from unidirectional imperfective verbs of motion by adding the prefix Script error: No such module "Lang". Template:Transliteration, e.g. Script error: No such module "Lang". Template:Transliteration, Script error: No such module "Lang". Template:Transliteration: "to run", "to start running". Also compare Script error: No such module "Lang". Template:Transliteration (normal past tense plural of Script error: No such module "Lang". Template:Transliteration, "to go") with Script error: No such module "Lang". Template:Transliteration meaning approximately "Let's get going!". Certain other verbs can be marked for the inchoative aspect with the prefix Script error: No such module "Lang". Template:Transliteration (e.g. Script error: No such module "Lang". Template:Transliteration, "he started laughing", Script error: No such module "Lang". Template:Transliteration "he started crying"). Similar behavior is observed in Ukrainian, and in other Slavic languages.
In Latin, the inchoative aspect was marked with the infix Script error: No such module "Lang".:
- Script error: No such module "Lang"., I love; Script error: No such module "Lang"., I'm starting to love, I'm falling in love
- Script error: No such module "Lang"., to flower, Script error: No such module "Lang"., to start flowering
In Esperanto, any verb is made inchoative by the prefix Script error: No such module "Lang".:
- Script error: No such module "Lang"., Script error: No such module "Lang".: "to dance", "to start dancing"
The term inchoative verb is used by generative grammarians to refer to a class of verbs that reflect a change of state; e. g., "John aged" or "The fog cleared". This usage bears little or no relationship to the aspectual usage described above.