Lexical aspect in English

The six verbs BEGIN/START, CONTINUE/KEEP and STOP/FINISH are among J. R. Firth's (1968 : 122) 'verbs of aspect' and can be described in terms of three aspectual features (Lyons (1977: 707): Inception (begin, start), Progressivity (continue, keep ) and Termination (stop, finish). The difference between begin and start is subtle, but a study of a number of features indicates that begin suggests initiation only, while start suggests initiation with progressivity. Both continue and keep indicate progressivity, but continue suggests progressivity with resumption (of a situation already in progress), while keep suggests progressivity with iteration. Similarly, stop and finish both indicate termination , but stop suggests termination at any point in a situation, while finish relates to termination with completion (of the situation). There is a brief consideration of three more marginal verbs: commence, cease and quit