Parts of speech and different principles of their classification.

The general definition of a part of speech: it is a lexical-grammatical word class which is characterized by a general abstract grammatical meaning, expressed in certain grammatical markers. Within a part of speech similar grammatical features are common to all words belonging to this class.

A part of speech is a mixed lexical-grammatical phenomenon, because:

1) Words are characterized by individual lexical meanings. 2) Each generalized class of words (noun/verb/adj., etc) has a unifying abstract gram. meaning, for ex.: noun – substance, verb – process, adjective – quality of substance, adverb – quality of process. 3) Some parts of speech are capable of representing gram. meaning in a set of formal exponents; for ex.: the plural of nouns is expressed with suffix –s (this feature is not universal in all languages).

PS are distinguished from one another by the number of wds in each class. The greatest number of wds is found in the noun & verb. The N& V correspond to the subj.& pred. of the sent., they’re usually the center of predication.

Modern classification of parts of speech is traced back to ancient Greek. Later this classification was applied to Latin and thus it found its way in modern languages. The present day classification of parts of speech is severely criticized, when it’s applied to languages the structure of which is different to the structure of the Latin language. So the criticism is easily justified. On the other hand the traditional division of words into parts of speech seems quiet natural and easy to understand & remember from the logical point of view. So it’s not the classification itself that is wrong but it must be the principles of classification that should be criticized and reviewed.

Classifying a lang. from the view point of PS, there are the following principles:

1) Semantic: the general mean-g of a PS doesn’t coincide with a lex. or gram.mean-g of every individual word, but it’s closely connected with it. Thus the gen. mean-g of a PS is neither lex. nor gram., but it’s to be called lexical-grammatical. Ex. nouns are characterized by substantivity, verbs- actions & states, which together mean processes, adj-s- attributes of substances, etc.

2) Morphological: it has 2 aspects: a) deals with morphol. categories (each PS possesses certain morphol. cat-s which are not found in other PS): ex. nouns- case & number, adj.- comparison, verbs- 7 categories. This aspect is more important.b) the use of form-build. affixes (deriv. affixes sometimes can be found within this or that PS only): ex. nouns- -ment, -ion, -ness. But deriv. affixes may be highly confusing: ex. –ly: friendly(adj), daily(noun), kindly(adv.), possibly (modal wd)

3) Syntactic: a) the role of a wd in a sent. (dif. synt. Functions are typical of dif. PS); b) the combinability of wds/ the syntactical distribution (распределение): ex. noun can combine with prepositions, articles, adj-s, other nouns, verbs.

4) Functional: PS- a field that has a core & a periphery.

 

 

4) The verb and its classification.

The verb is a notional part of speech expressing actions, processes presented dynamically. The grammatical meaning of the verb also includes different types of relations attitudes, states, etc. it is the most complicated part of speech from the view point of its morphological features since it has a very complicated system of grammatical categories, those of person, number, tense, aspect and mood. The finite verb performs the primary predicative function in the sentence, establishing the connection between the proposeme (described situation) and objective reality. Non-finite forms o the verb perform the secondary predicative functions in the sentence. From the syntactic view point the verb combines with nouns, other verbs, postpositions, adjectives, etc, but the most characteristic syntactic partner of the verb is the adverb. The finite verb performs the syntactic function of the predicate in the sentence but the non-finite forms of the verb perform syntactic functions characteristic of non-processional parts of speech such as the noun, adjective and adverb. The verb is classified into certain types according to different principles and approaches taken by grammarians:

1. According to the category of finitude that is the ability to express the primary predication in the sentence verbs fall into finite and non-finite ones (infinitive, gerund)

2. According to the verb-form derivation verbs fall into regular and irregular ones. ( work-worked-worked-regular, go-went-gone-irregular)

3. According to outward structures they fall into a. simple, (go, write), b. expanded (with affixes built up – to enlarge, to predicate, undergo), c. composite verbs ( of two words – blackmail, whitewash), d. phrasal verbs ( eat up, go off, put up, have a smoke, make a move)

According to the presence or absence of lexical meanings verbs undergo the semantic classification and fall into a. full nominative verbs (notional), b. partially nominative verbs (semi notional) include modal verbs, phrasal verbs (begin, start), link verbs ( be, becoming, remaining, being – be, become, appear, turn, go), auxiliary (be, have, will, should, would, вспомогательные глаголы). This verbs (phrasal link and auxiliary) can function as either notional verbs or semi-notional ones. He is in the house, he is clever. Bloch call them grammatical homonyms.

Full nominative (notional) verbs fall into the following subclasses:

1.  According to the manner of action they fall into inchoative verbs (начинательные глаголы) – to start, commence, initiate, begin, etc.

2. Durative verbs ( to continue, go on, keep on, proceed)

3. Terminative verbs (завершительные) – to stop, finish, end, graduate, kill, terminate.

4. Iterative verbs ( действие состоит из отдельный частей ) verbs expressing the a succession of like acts. Walk, chew, breathe, haw-law, tap-tap, gingle-gingle.

5. Super completed verbs – to overdo, overestimate, overcome, surpass, exceed, etc.

6. Under completed verbs – underdo, underestimate.

7. Momentary verbs – glance, clap, jump.

8. According to the aspective characters verbs fall into limitive verbs, unlmitive ones. And verbs of double aspective nature which can be either limitive or unlimitive due to certain lexico-syntactic contexts. Limitive verbs express actions which can not be continued after a certain boarder line which can be actualized by the meaning of the verb and the context – to breake, come, stop, kill, etc. Unlimitive verbs have no meaning of a boarder line in their semantic structures. For example – to continue, live, love, hate, etc. the verbs of double aspective nature such as to see, feel, bear, etc, can be limitive or unlimitive due to the context. For example – after a days work I felt tired – unlimitive; I felt somebody approaching me – unlimitive. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my side.

9. According to the relation of a subject of the action to the denoted process verbs fall into actionall and statal ones – actional- play, write, read, which can be used in the conti nious from. Static verbs – sit, lie, which can be used in the finite forms.

10. According to the combining power of verbs based on syntactic valency. According to this feature verbs fall into

   A. COMPLEMENTIVE (требуют после себя дополнительных слов) which falls into:

Non-objective:

A. predicative (become a teacher, tired, to be, turn red)

B. adverbial types ( to leave, stay, go, act)

2. objective:

a. monocomplemantive (buy, take, forget, look at, cost, belong)

b. bicomplementive (pay, hand, show, to teach, excuse)

B. UNCOMPLEMENTIVE ( холостяк)which fall into:

  1. personal ( He is sleeping - есть лицо кто совершает действие)

       2. impersonal ones ( rain, snow, drizzle)

The words which are obligatory after complementive verbs are called complements, and words which are optional are called supplements. Both may be of three types (supplements and complement) – objective, predicative and adverbial types. For example –

objective complement – I bought a new BOOK.

Objective supplement – I bought a book FOR YOU.

Predicative complement – she may be a good TEACHER. It became DARK.

Predicative supplement – The night air DARK and DREARY.

Adverbial supplement – I see a house IN THE DISTANCE.

Adverbial complement – she is behaving like a child. He went to London.

Among the objective complementive verbs they distinguish two classes of verbs: transitive (переходные) and intransitive ones. Transitive verbs take non-prepositional objects – for example to see a house, to read a book, etc. Intransitive verbs take prepositional objects – to think of smth, to listen to smth, insist on smth, surprised at, busy with/in.

Non-finite forms of the verb also have the same features as the finite ones and can be complementive, uncomplementive and so on.

 

5) The finite forms of the verb make up a very complex and intricate system; its intricacy is caused by the fact that they are directly connected with the structure of the sentence, the finite verb functioning as its predication center.

The morphological study of the English finite verb includes the study of its categories, those of person, number, aspect, voice and mood.

Person and number are treated by scholars as closely related categories. In their treatment two approaches are contrasted: traditional and modern.

In accord with traditional approach to these two categories, scholars point out to the existence in English of three persons and two numbers.

In modern linguistic works on the problem it is also stressed that the categories of person and nmber are closely interwoven in English and should be considered together, At the same time it is particularly emphasized that these categories are specific because they don’t convey the inherently “verbal” semantics. It means that the categories of person and number have a “reflective” character: the personal and numerical semantics in the finite verb is the reflection in the verb lexeme of the personal and numerical semantics of the subject referent.

The semantic and formal analysis of the person-number forms of the verb shows that in the strictly categorical sense one should speak of personal pronouns set consisting of six different forms of blended person-number nature – three in the singular and three in the plural.

The intermixed character of the numerical and personal forms of the finite forms of the verb finds its expression both at the formal and functional levels of analysis in different subsystems of verbs. The peculiarity of expressing person-number distinctions in the English verb lies in the deficiency of the finite regular verb for there exists the only positive person number mark of the finite regular verb – the morpheme of the third person singular. The deficient system cannot and does not exist in the language by itself: in fact, the verbal person-number system only backs up the person-number system of the subject. Due to it the combination and strict correlation of the English finite verb with the subject is obligatory not only syntactically but also categorically.

 

6). The category of tense in ME

While the existence of the aspect category in English is a disputed matter, the tense category is universally recognized. This category denotes the relation of the action either to the moment of speaking or to some definite moment in the past or future (it expresses the relations between the time of the action and the time of the utterance). So the three main divisions of time are represented in the English verbal system by the three tenses. Each of them may appear in the common and in the continuous aspect. Thus we get 6 tense-aspect forms. Besides these 6, however, there are 2 more, namely, the future-in-the-past and the future-contin.-in-the-past. These forms are used chiefly in the subordinate clauses depending on the main clause having its predicate verb in one of the past tenses: ex. It meant for him that even death wouldn’t part them.

The time of the action can be expressed lexically with the help of such wds and combinations as yesterday, next week, a year ago, at half past seven, on the fifth of May, in 1980, etc. All grammarians believe that the English lang. has the present tense (it denotes actions taken place at the moment of speaking. It may denote very prolong & timeless actions: ex. I hear a noise. I’m writing a lecture. The Earth moves round the Sun.; it may be used for past actions- historical or dramatic present- ex. Yesterday I entered the room and who do you think I see? It can express future actions (planned): ex. The train leaves at 5 tomorrow.; in complex sent-s the present tense is bound or structurally dependent: a) adv. clauses of time, condition, concession… when, if, whenever; b) certain types of object clauses after the expressions to see to smth, to take care, to make sure: ex. I’ll make sure he comes on time.) The mean-g of the past tense (by Barhudarov): “it denotes an action, which is prior to the moment of speaking & that is not correlated with the moment of speaking. Non-past tense denotes actions which are outside the past tense sphere. The present & past tense forms create an opposition: take- took- is/was taking. Within this opposition the past tense form is the marker member. It’s marked by the suffixes in reg. verbs & in speech the suffix is represented by a number of allomorphs [t, d, id]. In irregular verbs it’s represented by dif. morphologically conditioned allomorphs – sing/sang.” The future tense (pr. Smirnitskiy, Ilyish) this tense form is analytical. It’s made up by the auxiliary verb shall/will & the inf. Which is the lex. part. Many grammarians even now believe that English has 2 tenses only- the present & the past (Jesperson, Shtelling, Barhudarov), and shall/will+ inf. Should be treated as a modal combination. However it doesn’t mean that the future actions can’t be expressed at all (it can be expressed by a number of other lex., gram. & contextual means).

 

6а) THE CATEGORY OF TENSE.

The category of tense is a verbal category which expresses the relation of the action expressed by the form of the verb to the moment of speech. This category reflects the philosophic (objective) category of time. Tense is a grammatical category and time is a philosophic one. They usually distinguish three tenses in English:

- The Past

- The Present

- The Future

The present tense is the unmarked member of the opposition. The past tense in marked by the inflection –ED. The future tense is expressed analytically with the help of auxiliary verbs SHALL, WILL in combination with the vary infinitive. But in modern English especially in American English there is a tendency to use WILL in all the persons. But the existence of the future tense presents a disputable in linguistics. The well-known Danish linguist Otto Jespersen treats the verbs SHALL and WILL in the forms of the future tense as modal verbs and consequently they build up compound verbal\nominal modal predicates, but not the analytical form of the future tense. Some Russian linguists also support this view point, for ex: Prof. Slusareva treats the forms of the future tense as the forms of the futurative mood. Professor Barchudarov gives the following arguments against treating the combination SHALL, WILL +infinitive as the form of the future tense:

1. SHALL and WILL are included into the class of modal verbs together with the verbs CAN, MUST, OUGHT.

2. The verbs SHALL and WILL don’t always convey the meaning of future actions. And on the other hand future actions can be expressed by some other constructions. For ex: this will be my friend – это и есть мой друг. Мама уже наверно пришла домой –mother will have come home already. Мой брат все время дерзит мне – My brother will always talk against me. У меня ручка никак не пишет – pen won’t write.

3. The combination SHALL WILL +infinitive is not an analytical form because it is not built up by the discontinuous morpheme. For ex: BE writING, WILL write0

4. Since SHALL and WILL are used in the form of the past tense SHOULD and WOULD to express future in the past, they can’t possibly express future actions because one and the same form can’t express two tenses at once: the past and the future.

But in spite of these arguments we can’t altogether deny the existence of the future tense.

1. In modern English WILL is used in all the persons and in oral speech it is contracted to the form –‘LL, which completely lacks any modal meaning. 

2. If the verb WILL wear a modal verb with the meaning WANT, then the following sentences would sound absurd. For ex : Peter. You will be punished for your behavior – Петя, ты хочешь быть наказанным. I’ve lost my key. I will have to go to my father’s working place and have his key – я хочу быть вынужденным пойти к отцу ….. мне придется …

3. The verb WILL as many other auxiliary verbs used to be a modal verb with its lexical meaning WANT. It can be even more lexicalized when it is used with marked infinitives. For ex: I myself will to do it – я хочу сделать это. You must have will to loose her – ты наверняка пожелал потерять ее. It is also used in the meaning –передать в наследство – for ex: He willed most of his property to his son- он завещал …. Thus all the auxiliary words used to be notional words. For ex: the definite article THE used to be THIS, article A – ONE.

The presence of the future in the past made some grammarians namely professor Irten’eva divide the system of tenses into two subsystems:

- tenses centering in the past (past perfect, past perfect continuous, simple past, future in the past)

- tenses centering in the present ( present perfect, present perfect continuous, simple present and the future);

As we see the forms of perfect and perfect continuous aspects are treated as tense forms. Old British grammarians also treated the perfect, continuous, perfect continuous as tense forms. For ex: the British grammarian Henry Sweet divided the system of tenses into two subsystems:

1. the indefinite tense, expressed by the indefinite forms.

2. the definite tense, which include continuous, perfect and perfect continuous forms.

Haymovich and Ragovskaya treat the forms of future as the forms of the category of posteriority. And some linguists treat the forms of the future in the past as the form of the category of taxis, which establishes the order of events within a certain period of time presented in a sentence\utterance. Bloch distinguishes absolutive time characteristics and non-absolutive (relative) time characteristics of actions. Absolutive time includes the past and the present time which are given in language as the past tense and the present tense. The non-absolute time includes the future of the past and the future of the present, which are expressed accordingly by the forms of the future tense. So, he distinguishes two categories, opposed to each other – the category of the primary time, which is the absolutive expression of time; and the category of prospective time, which is purely relative and that is why it expresses the non-absolutive time.

The category of the primary time which is the absolutive expression of time, is expressed by the two tense forms those of the past and present tenses. But the future actions can be expressed not only grammatically but also by the forms of absolutive tenses. All of them build up a certain system which can be presented in the form of a functional semantic feature.

 

THE FUNCTIONAL SEMANTIC FIELD OF FUTURITY.

 

 

Otto Jespersen.

1. Before past time – past perfect, past perfect continuous.

2. past time -

3. after past time – future in the past, continuous

 

1. Before present time

2. Present time

3. After present time.

 

1. Before the future time

2. Future time

3. After future time – he will going to do smth

 

7) The category of voice

The category of voice (which is found both with finite and non-finite forms) is one of the most formal grammatical categories, because this category doesn’t refer to any fragment of reality, doesn’t reflect any fragment of reality – it’s a way of describing a certain fragment of reality. The category of voice deals with the participants of a happening (doer, action, object) and how they are represented in the sentence (subject, predicate, object). The Active Voice shows that the grammatical subject of the sentence or the subjectival is the doer of the action, denoted by the verb, the Passive Voice shows that the subject or the subjectival is an object of the action. The frequency of occurrence of the English Passive Voice is very great, greater than in Russian. One of the reasons is that the number of verbs capable of forming the Passive Voice is greater in English than in Russian. In many languages: PV – transitive verbs, in English: PV – any object verb. In some cases the lex. character of the verb the subj. of the active construction can’t be regarded as the doer of the action. These cases are: ex. He lost his father in the war.; he broke his leg. Disagreement btw the gram. form of the verb and the lex. mean-g of the verb. Due to the lex. mean-g of the V the semantics of the construction becomes passive. In fact the subj. is not the doer, but the sufferer. Some grammarians treat these constructions as active due to the gram. form.

Opposition: active – passive. Passive – marked -> pattern “be + II participle”, active –unmarked

Forms of Fut.Cont, Present Perf.Cont, Past Perf.Cont, Future Perf.Cont – no parallel forms in passive.

Any other voices??? -> doubts and controversy

- the reflexive voice (eq.He dressed himself) – the agent and the object of the action simultaneously;

- the reciprocal voice (They greeted each other) – not 1 person; action aimed at the other member of the same group;

- the middle voice (The door opened) – the form of the v is act, but the meaning is passive.

The active voice has a number of mean-gs: active, passive, middle, reflective, reciprocal.

Pr. Ilyish “ Eng. Has several voices. The classif-n is based on mean-g only.

Pr. Barhudarov calls the active voice non-passive.

The idea of the Passive voice is expressed not only by means of “to be + P2”, but by means of “get”, “come”, “go” + P2 and “get” + passive infinitive (ingressive meaning - He got involved; He got to be respected).

The existence of various means of expressing voice distinctions makes it possible to consider voice as a functional-semantic category with the grammatical category of voice as its center and other means of expressing voice as a periphery.

 

7а) THE CATEGORY OF VOICE.

The category of voice is a complicated phenomena and that is why we can find a different definitions of this category such as:

1. It expresses the relations between the subject of the action and the action itself.

2. It expresses the relation between the subject and the object of the action.

3. It shows whether the subject characterized by the verb is the doer of the action or its object.

4. It expresses the centrifugality (центробежность) of the centrypitality (центростремительность)of the action expressed by the verb.

The most acceptable modern definition is that by professor Cholodovych. It arouses the following:

-the category of voice is a regular expression by the form of the verb of the correlation between the units of syntactic and semantic levels. Example:

 

The category of voice is often treated is a model category since the speaker chooses between the semantic subject or the semantic object to characterize them by the same action. When he chooses for his description the semantic subject he puts it him as the subject of the sentence as the theme and semantic object is given as the syntactic object of the sentence and as the rheme. In this case he uses the active form of the verb, but when the speaker would like to describe the semantic object from the view point of the same action he puts it\him as the syntactic subject and the semantic subject is put as the syntactic object of the sentence. But in this case he changes the form of the verb into a passive one to avoid the ambiguity of the sentence.

 

 

 

Thus there are two generally accepted voices in English. The active voice is the unmarked member of the opposition and the passive voice is the marked member. It is expressed by the analytical construction BE+Participle II. The passive voice can be used only to transitive words in Russian. In transitive ones can’t be used in the passive voice. (in Russian) –example – студент думает об экзаменах-студентом думается о экзаменах. But in English intransitive verbs can also be used in the form of a passive voice. For ex: it is thought much of. Even non-complementive non-objective verbs can be used in the passive voice. Ex: the bird hasn’t been slept in. To sleep – isn’t complementative verb. My hat has been sat on – на мою шляпу сели. В комнате долго не жили – the room hasn’t been lived in for many months.

 The auxiliary verb BE can be substituted for by the verb GET to avoid the ambiguity of the construction BE+Participle II. Ex: to get wounded, to get broken. BE + Participle II can express not only passive meaning but it is also treated as the form of the compound nominal predicate. For ex: To be seated, to be mistaken, the chair is broken. When my wound is healed, I will get to the front again. The passive voice expresses actions but compound nominal predicates express states after actions. In German they have two forms of the passive voice. The passive of the action built up by the form – Werden+Partizip II – Ich wurde geborn. And the passive of the state built up by auxiliary verb SEIN + Partizip II. By the analogy of the german language some English grammarians suggest treating the form of the compound nominal predicate as the form of the passive of the state by conjunction. There are verbs in English which can’t be passivized – to have, to belong, to cost, etc. I have a house – the house is had by me. There are special language means which help us to distinguish the passive voice from the compound nominal predicate:

1. The preposition BY indicating the doer of the action

2. Adverbial modifiers of time and place

3. The forms of the continuous and perfect aspects.

Example: The snow was piled high by the wind. – the snow was piled high by the door. The chair was broken – the chair was broken last week. The form BE+ Participle II can express one more categorical meaning that of the perfect aspect. Ex: He is come. The boy is returned. The man is gone. I’m just finished.

Strange as it may seen, not all the active forms of the verb express active meanings. Example: He received a letter. He has a tooth ache. He took a severe painting. The book sells well. Besides the active and passive voices some linguists used to distinguish the following voices in English:

1. The reflexive voice – He dressed himself.

2. The reciprocal voice – The greeted each other. They hasted each other.

3. The middle voice – neither active nor passive- The door opened. The food eat well.

But not all the grammarians agree with this view point. And they bring the following arguments against treating the reflexive and reciprocal constructions as analytical forms of the category of voice:

1. In cases like “He washed himself” it is not the verb that is reflexive, but the pronoun himself used as a direct object.

2. The words ‘washed’ and ‘himself’ - are words belonging to different lexemes which have different lexical and grammatical meanings and which have different syntactical functions those of the predicate and the object of a sentence.

3. If such a construction is an analytical word form it is necessary to admit that a verb has categories of gender, of person, non-person and the categories of number and person are expressed twice. Example: he washed himself – of gender. The categories of person – He washes himself. We wash ourselves. But one and the same category is never expressed twice in grammatical forms.

4. A number of verbs can express the reflexive and reciprocal meanings without the corresponding pronouns. – example – he washed and dressed before breakfast.

 

The similar arguments can be given against the reciprocal voice. As for the middle voice there are no grounds for distinguishing it as a grammatical category since it hasn’t got any forms of its expressions. Example – книга хорошо читается –the book reads well. The shirt washes well –рубашка хорошо стирается. 

 

The meaning of the passive voice can be expressed not only by the form of the passive voice, but by some other non-grammatical means. All of them build up a system which can be represented as the functional semantic field of passivity. The nucleus of the field includes the form BE+Participle II. Then the lexico-grammatical periphery includes such constructions as to get wounded, take a painting, receive a blow, get a scolding. The nthe lexico-syntactic periphery includes such free word-combinations as to win recognition, to fall under suspicion, to be under observation, undergo examination, suffer a defeat etc. The lexical periphery includes the following verbs – to have in the meaning to get, to receive, to see, to bear, to hear, for ex: to have one’s leg wounded. To have a trouble. To have somebody searching one’s pocket.

 The usage of the passive form is more frequent in English than in Russian since English has got a developed system of cases. In Russian –дом строится, дом строят, книга читается, книгу читают. – it should be noted that Englishmen don’t always use the grammatical form of the passive voice. The often resort to non-grammatical, that is peripheral means of expressing the passive meaning. Ex: его вдруг заподозрили в краже – He fell under suspicion. ( he began to be suspected - не то)

 

 

8) The category of ASPECT in modern English

Aspect – a gram.category which characterizes the way in which the action expressed by the verb is carries out.

In Russian – 2 aspects: imperfective (несов.), perfective (сов.)

Imperfective expresses an action or a state without indicating a limit beyond which this act/state can not continue - eq. я читал; Perfective denotes actions that have a limit beyond which this action can’t continue: eq. я прочитал книгу. In Russian aspect is a gram.cat. As each aspect has a certain meaning and form to express this meaning. There are certain markers of each aspect – eq. делать-сделать.

As the Eng.language grammarians of the past didn’t find aspective distinction of the v., instead they spoke about 4 groups of tenses: indefinite, continuous, perfect, perfect-continuous

The majority of grammarians believe the Eng.verb has aspect. They admit that this gram.category may be expressed:

lexically aspect is expressed by the lex.character of the v. The verb falls into 2 groups:

terminative: apply a limit beyond which the action can’t continue (to break, to open);

non-terminative: the action may go on indefinitely (to love, to sit).

Most English verbs are polysemantic and may be terminative in one meaning and non-terminative in another. It’s never shown formally. There is no marker of belonging to this aspect. The meaning is clear from the context.

grammatically an opposition of corresponding forms (take – be taken)

common – the form of the common aspect isn’t marked;

continuous – is marked by the discont.morpheme be + ing.

The terms used to describe aspect are not stable (progressive - perfective; generic – temporally)

The difference bw the aspect forms isn’t temporal. The tense is the same with both forms.

The cont.aspect has a specific meaning – it’s used for incomplete actions that are in progress at the moment under consideration or at a certain period: eq He was studying at 5 o’clock.

The common aspect shows the action in a general way, may denote a complete/incomplete action but the form doesn’t state it.

Prof.Barhudarov: common aspect = non-continuous.

Common aspect may denote:

1)a momentary action (eq she dropped the plate)

2)a recurrent/repeated action (eq.I get up at 7 o’clock every day)

3)an action occupying a long period of time (eq.he lived in St.-Pb from 1940 to 1965)

4)an action of unlimited duration (eq.The Volga flows into the Caspian Sea)

 

 

8а) Aspect – a gram.category which characterizes the way in which the action expressed by the verb is carries out.

 

Grammatical aspective meanings form a variable grammatical category which is traditionally associated with the opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms of the verb. Yet, one can find a great divergence of opinions on the problem of the English aspect. The difference lies in the interpretation of the categorical semantics of the oppositional members – continuous and indefinite forms: the categorical meaning of the continuous form if usually defined as the meaning if duration, while the interpretation of the categorical semantics of the indefinite forms causes controversy,

(as ivanove thinks the indefinite form may be interpreted as having no aspective meaning )(vorontsova) as a form having a vague content (smirnitsky) as a form stressing the fact of the performance of the action. In modern linguistics smirnitsky’s interpretation of the categorical semantics of the indefinite firm is widely accepted.

In theoretical grammar the interpretation of perfect\ non-perfect verb forms also refers to disputable question. Some linguists interpret the opposition of perfect\non-perfect forms as aspective – jespresen, ivanova, vorontsove; others as the opposition of tense forms – sweet, curme, Korsakov. Smirnitsky was the first to prove that perfect and non-perfect make up a special, self-sufficient, category which ha called the category of time correlation; this viewpoint is shared now by a vast majority of linguists.

Developing smirnitsky’s views on the categorical semantics of perfect\non-perfect forms, we can come to the conclusion that in English there exist two aspective categories: the category of development, which is based on the opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms, and the category of retrospective coordination which is based on the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms.

The perfect form has a mixed categorical meaning: it expresses both retrospective time coordination of the process and the connection of the prior action with a time-limit reflected in a subsequent event. The recognition of the two aspect categories also enables one to give a sound interpretation to the perfect continuous forms: they must be treated as forms having marks in both the aspect categories.

 The opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms can neutralized. Besides, in the category of development verbs which are usually not used in continuous forms can be subjected to the process of reverse transposition: were you wanting my help?

As for the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms, it can undergo only the process of neutralization, transposition being alien to it.

 

8б) Verbal categories.

1.The Category of aspect

This category used to raise a lot of disputes among grammarians. This term came into Germanic languages from Slavonic ones where they distinguish the category of aspect represented by the opposition of the interminative (несовершенный) and terminative (совершенный) aspects. According to the old definition the category of aspect expresses the way the action takes place or the aspects of the action. Old Russian grammarians used to distinguish a lot of aspects such as

- начинательный вид –побежать.

-завершительный вид, т.е. -прибежать

-одноразовый вид – подпрыгнуть

-ограничительный вид – послать погулять

- дуративный вид – спать, лежать, стоять.

-дистрибутивный вид – захаживать, почитывать

All this aspects are expressed by means of affixation. This affixes are treated by the majority of grammarians as derivational morphemes, word-building ones. And they have nothing to do, they said, with grammar. By the analogy of Russian language old British grammarians, George Curme, Henry Poutsma, Otto Gesperson, distinguish the following aspects in English:

In the inchoative aspect (начинательный вид) expressed by such verbs as to begin, to start, to commence, to initiate;

Durative aspect – (дуративный вид) – expressed by to continue, proceed, keep on doing smth, to be doing smth etc.;

The terminative aspect – (терминативный) – expressed to cease, finish, end, terminate, graduate,;

Momentary aspect – expressed by to glance, to jump, to give a shudder, to give a cry etc.

As we see both in Russian and in English they mentioned about the aspective meanings are mostly expressed lexically and by meanings of word-building affixes. But a grammatical category must be expressed by grammatical forms, that is by means of abstract synthetic and analytical morphemes. This was one of the reasons why the Swedish linguist Segued Agreel suggested separating semantic categories from grammatical ones. And he suggested calling all those meanings expressed by verbs and with the help of word-building affixes the semantic category of the manner of action. Later on by the analogy of the Russian aspects that is совершенный и несовершенный виды, British grammarians made an attempt two aspects in English – the interminative, and terminative. This opposition was built by two classes of verbs, those of unlimitive and limitive ones. BUT the meanings of limitevens and unlimitiveness are included in the semantic structures of verbs, they are not expressed grammatically, -example – to live, spend, love, hate, have, etc.

Limitive verbs have a meaning of a boarderline beyond which the action can not be continued. – to come, break, fall – if we say – he came home late. The action expressed by the verb COME is finished as soon as the person approaches the house. This was one of the reasons why the german linguist Max Deutschbein suggested calling this category built up on the opposition of the classes of limitive and unlimitive verbs, the lexico-grammatical category of the aspective character of the verb.

Among Russian grammarian there is no a unanimous approach to the category of (совершенный и несовершенный вид). Melaslavsky, for one, considers that the category of aspect in Russian is not a grammatical one either, since the meanings of terminative and inteminative aspects are included in the semantic structures of verbs or they are expressed with the help of word-building affixes. Modern British and Russian grammarians distinguish two indisputable aspects in English – the indefinite aspect (the unmarked member of the opposition), and the continuous aspect (the marked member of the opposition) which is expressed analytically with the help of a discontinuous morpheme be+ing, but the aspective states of the indefinite form is not clearly expressed. According to professor Ivanova it is very difficult to find out whether the indefinite forms belong to aspect or tense forms. There are two more forms in the system of English verbs – the perfect and the perfect continuous forms. There are different approaches to them among grammarians:

The perfect forms are aspect forms. This view point is supported by professor Voronzova, Zonanshine, Deutschbein. Voronzova calls this aspect the transmissive aspect (преемственный). Since they express the effects of actions which have taken place before the moment of speech or certain moments in the past and future. Smirnitzky, the famous soviet linguist, treated the perfect forms as neither tense, nor aspect forms. He called this category the category of time relation. But later on this term was changed into the category of time correlation. This view point is still supported by many grammarians in our country namely by Bloch but he calls it the category of retrospective coordination. According to him Smirnitzky underestimated the aspective nature of perfect forms. Old grammarians such as Henry Sweet, Otto Gesperson and many others used to treat the perfect forms as tense forms. H.Sweet included them into the class of definite tenses. The well-known and famous linguist Achmanova and her followers Alexandrova, Komova, treat the perfect forms as the forms of the category of taxes, that is the category which establishes the order of events within a certain period of time, that is the proceedings of actions to some other actions. Especially in sense the past perfect forms. Some grammarians Joose treat the perfect forms as the forms of the category of phase. But in the majority of modern British and American books perfect forms are treated as aspect forms, thus the generic category of aspect in English is represented by the opposition of four specific categories, those of the indefinite, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous ones. Thus the term aspect is applied in English to pure grammatical forms and is treated as a grammatical one, but the term aspectuality includes both the grammatical category of aspect, the lexico-grammatical category of the aspective character of the verb, which is build up by the classes of unlimitive and limitive verbs, and at last it includes the semantic category of the manner of action, which is represented by the lexico-semantic groupings of inchoative, durative, momentary, terminative etc. verbs. This system can be presented as a kind of a system called the functional-semantic field of aspectivity.

                         

 

 

We can altogether deny that the perfect forms perform two functions in English. They express the category of aspect, showing the consequences and the results actions expressed by perfect forms. They also express the category of taxes showing that one of the actions in the past or the future proceeds another action. For example –taxes - he approached to the house where he had been brought up ten years before.

Aspective meaning – he told me he had divorced his wife and was homeless now.

Besides the aspect forms express one more category - the category of evidentuality, which divides the aspective forms into two opposed classes and forms, those of expressing indefinite actions, (expressed by the indefinite form), and those expressing definite actions ( expressed by continuous, perfect and perfect continuous forms.)

THE CATEGORY OF MOOD

The category of mood in the present English verb has given rise to so many discussions and has been treated in so many ways, that it seems hardly possible to arrive at any more or less acceptable conclusion. The only points in the sphere of mood which haven’t been disputed are the following: 1) there is a category of mood in Modern English ( Mood- is the grammatical category of the verb, which expresses the relation of the action denoted by the verb to reality from the speaker’s point of view); 2) there are at least 2 moods in the modern English verb, one of which is the indicative. (The indicative mood is the basic mood of the verb. Morphologically it’s the most developed system including all the categories of the verb. Semantically it’s a fact mood. It serves to present an action as a fact of reality. It’s the most objective of all the moods. It conveys minimum personal attitude to the fact: Ex. Water consists of oxygen.)

2 groups of Moods (generally):

the real or fact Moods

the unreal, non-fact, oblique Moods.

The Indicative Mood is the only real mood in the English language. It represents an action as a real fact. The forms of the Ind. Mood are the tense-aspect forms of the verb.

There are 2 non-fact Moods in English: the Imperative Mood (represents an action as a command, urging, request. It’s a direct expression of one’s will. It’s much more ‘subjective’ than the ind. Mood. It’s modal mean-g is very strong & distinct: ex. Someone make an offer and quick! ) and the Subjunctive Mood (it represents an action as a non-fact, as smth imaginary, desirable, problematic, contrary to reality: ex. I wish he were here now.)The hypothetic desirable in the form of advice, request, recommendation, order and so on. There is another point of view on the imperative Mood: (we don’t mark the action as real or unreal! ) – Stelling (Штелинг) considers the Imperative form Mood the grammatical idiom.

The Subjunctive Mood represents an action as unreal: 2 degrees of reality: not quite real (Present, Future), quite unreal (for the Past).

Some linguists think that the past indefinite and the Past Perfect used to denote an unreal action are not mood forms at all, but tense forms.

The classification system of moods presented by A.I.Smirnitsky. It appears to be the most consistent because it is meaning-oriented and it also takes into consideration the difference between an analytical form and a free syntactic combination. His system of moods includes six moods: the Indicative, the Imperative, Subjunctive I, Subjunctive II, the Conditional Mood and the Suppositional mood.

 

 

11) The Gerund

 THE PLAN:

general characteristics of the g.;

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