Includes articles that represent a range of approaches to studying the role of verbal aspect in grammatical variation. This title addresses issues that include: defining the variable context; operationalizing aspectual distinctions as factors conditioning linguistic variation; and, the appropriate number of aspectual distinctions and levels.

1. Chapter 1. Introduction (by Walker, James A.); 2. Chapter 2. Grammaticalization paths as variable contexts in weak complementarity in Spanish (by Schwenter, Scott A.); 3. Chapter 3. Aspectual periphrases and syntactic variation in Brazilian Portuguese (by Mendes, Ronald Beline); 4. Chapter 4. Aspect and the English Present Perfect: What can be coded? (by Herk, Gerard Van); 5. Chapter 5. Coding compositional aspect in French (by LeBlanc, Carmen); 6. Chapter 6. Breaking old habits: Syntactic constraints underlying habitual effects in Newfoundland English (by Childs, Becky); 7. Chapter 7. Affairs of state: Defining and coding stativity in English and English-based Creole (by Walker, James A.); 8. Chapter 8. A new methodology for the study of aspect in contact: Past and progressive in Indian English (by Sharma, Devyani); 9. Chapter 9. Expressing tense and aspect: The case of adult Chinese-Spanish speakers in Ecuador (by Biehl, Hsiao-Ping); 10. Index