Different aspectual markers are found for different types of aspect: continuative and durative, habitual, iterative, and perfect. Some of these aspectual markers are related to lexical verbs and some other to adverbials, as we will see in the next paragraphs.
Continuative and durative aspect is mainly marked by changes in the verb [MORPHOLOGY 3.3.1.2]. However, it can also be expressed by means of manual signs: duration, for_a_long_time-1, for_a_long_time-2, still, continue, non_stop, amongst others.
a) hospital ix1 wait for_a_long_time-2.
‘I've been waiting in the hospital for a long time.’
b) ix(poss)1 friend sick still.
‘My friend is still sick.’
c) ix1 university study continue++.
‘I'm still studying at the university.’
Habitual aspect is frequently indicated by means of manual signs entailing meaning, such as normally, many^times, now_and_then, always, fixed or always_the_same.
a) ix3 come always++ late++.
‘She always arrives late.’
b) date thursday seminar fixed.
‘Seminar sessions are always held on Thursdays.’
c) today morning ix1 wake_up time eight always_the_same.
‘Today I woke up at 8, as always.’
These signs expressing habituality can also be modulated through verbal inflection, namely, through repetition of the sign [MORPHOLOGY 3.3.1.1].
Iterative aspect is mainly marked by verbal inflection, namely repetition of the sign [MORPHOLOGY 3.3.2.1]. However, it can be reinforced by means of modifiers such as two_times, loads_of_times and repeat_and_repeat.
a) ix movie ix1 watch loads_of_times.
‘I have watched this movie a thousand times!’
b) ix3 life until_now mistakes++ repeat_and_repeat.
‘He has been repeating the same mistakes all his life’
Perfect aspect is marked with the sign already, which is signed after the verbal form.
ix1 eat already.
‘I ate already.’
This aspect, though, does not always refer to actions in the past. Have a look at the following example:
ix3 dress already, ix3pl go park.
‘As soon as you get dressed, we will go to the park.’
This meaning can be expressed sometimes by the verb followed by the signs finish or end.
a) ix1 work finish.
‘I ended working.’
b) ix1 work end.
‘I ended working.
Lastly, in LSC the sign already can be found in the same sentence along with finish or end without being redundant.
student study university already finish title_get.
‘Once the student finishes university he gets a degree.’
(based on Ribera, 2015: 319)
The perfect marker also has a negative counterpart no_res ‘not yet’ [MORPHOLOGY 3.5].