iterative aspect

{{short description|Grammatical aspect expressing the repetition of an event on a single occasion}}

In linguistics, the iterative aspect (abbreviated {{sc|iter}}), also called "semelfactive",Smith, C. S. (1991). The parameter of aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer, p28. "event-internal pluractionality",Bertinetto, Pier Marco, and Alessandro Lenci. 2012. "Habituality, Pluractionality, and Imperfectivity." In The Oxford Handbook of Tense and Aspect, edited by Robert I. Binnick, 852–880. Oxford: Oxford University Press. or "multiplicative",Tatevosov, Sergej. 2002. "The parameter of actionality." Linguistic Typology 6: pp317-401. is a grammatical aspect described by some authors as expressing the repetition of an event observable on one single occasion, as in 'he knocked on the door', 'he coughed', 'she is drumming', etc.Bhat, D.N.S. 1999. The prominence of tense, aspect and mood. Benjamins. pp53ffp160 in Bybee, J., R. Perkins, & W. Pagliuca, The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. It is not to be confused with frequentative aspect and habitual aspect, both of which signal repetition over more than one occasion.{{huh|date=August 2023|reason=the description is clear, but the article needs an example hof this aspect is expressed *grammatically*, see talk.}}

Other authorsp236 in S.C. Dik. 1997. The Theory of Functional Grammar, part I The Structure of the Clause. Berlin: Mouton. have reserved the term "semelfactive" for this mono-occasional repetition, and defined iterative aspect as denoting 'several' repetitions over more than one occasion, as opposed to the 'frequent' repetitions conveyed by frequentative aspect.