CHAPTER 3. THE VERB AND ITS GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES 6 страница
On the other hand, there are sentences with the verb in the Passive voice in the language that do not have active correlates, e.g. He is rumored to be in love. He was born in India. He is reputed to be an honest man.
In fact, transitivity in English appears to be a more fluid feature than in other languages. There are, of course, verbs that are strictly transitive (to build, to read etc.) and verbs which are strictly intransitive (to arrive, to come etc.). But since many verbs in English are polysemantic they may be transitive in one meaning and intransitive in another, e.g. He ran for his life. This is how a good society is run (M.Thatcher). He cried bitterly. I cried two solitary tears (E. O'Brien).
Of special interest are the verbs which take a prepositional object and passivize, e.g. He was made fun of. This book is often referred to. He can be relied on. Analyzing the specificity of such verbs, R.M. W.Dixon introduces the notion of 'verbs with inherent prepositions', i.e. verbs which are not used without prepositions. It is such verbs with inherent prepositions that can passivize like verbs with non-prepositional direct objects. Therefore he suggests that verbs with inherent prepositions should be treated as transitive [Dixon 1991, 270]. There seems to be a good deal of reason in this opinion. Even if we suppose that the preposition belongs more to the noun than to the verb and compare the non-prepositional and prepositional objects like They made fun of him and They ridiculed him we still see that the difference between these two types of objects appears to be strictly formal, and semantically they do not differ. Both the non-prepositional and the prepositional syntactic objects are semantically equivalent - they denote the semantic object of the action and both the sentences passivize easily: He was ridiculed. He was made fun of.
The recognition of verbs with inherent prepositions and the inclusion of such verbs into the subclass of transitive verbs make it necessary to reconsider the traditional statement made by grammarians about the possibility of prepositional objects to be used as subjects in passive constructions. There are a lot of prepositional objects that never become the subjects of passive constructions, e.g. / did it for you. It's only inherent prepositions that allow verbs to passivize easily.
Another statement of the traditional grammar that requires reconsideration is that sometimes an adverbial modifier of place can become the subject of a passive construction, e.g. The house is not lived in. The bed was not slept in. Actually, the list of such adverbial modifiers as well as the list of the verbs that can passivize with such adverbial modifiers is very limited: live, sleep, lie and sit. Thus we can say: 'This bed has been slept in by several generations', but "The bed has been died in by several generations' is hardly possible. Like in the previous case, it is worthwhile to look at the semantics of such sentences, because passivization involves, as we have already mentioned, not only the verb but also the subject and the object. A closer look at such sentences reveals that the verbs used in passive constructions undergo a considerable modification of their meanings and become similar to the verb 'use', i.e. they become close in their semantics to transitive verbs. Correspondingly the nouns bed, house etc., formally used in the syntactic position of adverbial modifiers also undergo a change of their semantics: they denote not so much places of action as the objects affected or not affected by the action [Jacobs 1995, 163], It is noteworthy that the verb sleep can be used as a transitive verb in the form of the active voice, e.g. Henry Metelsky was born on the Low East of New York on May 18 th, 1909 in a small room that already slept four children (J. Archer). So we may conclude that it is not so much the ability of an adverbial modifier to become the subject of a passive construction as the ability of verbs to modify their meanings and become close to transitive verbs which makes their passivization possible.
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The special feature of the English language in the sphere of passivization lies in the fact that not only a direct object, but an indirect object can become the subject of a passive construction which results in the possibility of two passive transforms of one verb, e.g. He was given a present. A present was given to him. The choice of the passive construction is determined by the actual division of the sentence, i.e. the ,choice of an argument for the theme and the rheme in the utterance.
The passive transforms and their active correlates are usually said to have the same, propositional contents, i.e. they reflect the same situation of reality. In fact voice is a category which makes it possible to view the events presented in the sentence in two ways. Sentences in the Active and the Passive Voice usually name the same situation of reality but present a different viewing of this situation - in the sentence with the Passive Voice the focus is on the object subjected to an action rather than the agent of the action. (For some sentences however the assumption about the same propositional contents is not true. The much quoted example is the following pair of sentences: Beavers build dams. Dams are built by beavers. The two sentences reveal essential difference in their meanings).
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There is also an essential difference between active-passive pairs containing negation and a modal verb, e.g. Celia will not meet John at the airport. John will not be met by Celia. In the first sentences the unwillingness to meet John is ascribed to Celia, and in the second sentence - to John. This difference between the meanings of the two sentences is probably explained by the fact that the modal verb 'wiW is semantically related not to the semantic object, which is the case with the verb 'meet' but to the syntactic subject of the sentence.
The passive forms have a much lower frequency of use as compared to the active forms. According to the statistics given by T. Givon, the average frequency of passive forms in English is between 4% (for a less educated register) up to 18% for a highly intellectual text [Givon 1979,58]). Though the passive sentences are not very frequent they are indispensable for the language and the speakers of the language always have a good reason for preferring a passive construction to active. Though the passive and active sentences usually reflect the same situation of reality they present different ways of viewing this situation. The process of passivization is never automatic or random but is always dictated by certain structural, semantic and pragmatic considerations. The switch from the active construction to a passive often signals the switch of attention from the agent of the action to the object affected by the action. Most of the passive sentences (between 80% and 85% ) are agentless [Berk 1999, 12]). There are several reasons for using an agentless passive.
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1) The agent is unknown. Such cases are common for thrillers and police reports and are called 'Sinister Passive' by English grammarians. E.g. Entry was made through the door. No objects appear to have been removed. He had been killed in his sleep (S.Maugham).
2) The agent is known but not relevant. It is usually the case in scientific style where the attention is focused on the object rather than the agent. E.g. Many attempts have been- made to find central or basic meanings for each modal that can explain their common and effortless use (F.Catamba).
3) When the speaker does not want to reveal the identity of the agent and deliberately avoids mentioning the agent. The Watergate scandal in the USA produced the weak admission from the administration that 'Mistakes -were made'. Let's analyze one more example: For a moment I consider the tool with which I am working. A Watchamacallit. The Watchamacallit is a piece of black iron, a kind of cross between a hammer's claw and a crowbar. You can use it for anything. On the night of April 1, it was used to kill Carolyn Polthemus (S.Turow). The man who is considering the tool realizes with horror that the person who committed the crime is his own wife but he dreads to admit it even to himself, so the agentless passive becomes an important syntactic device which allows the speaker to avoid mentioning the agent of the action.
Very often the agent of the action is not mentioned deliberately for reasons for politeness. The phenomenon of politeness finds numerous manifestations in the English language and the use of the agentless passive is just of them. E.g. Could we possibly have the TV switched off? (Instead of: Could you switch off the TV?
4) The agent of the action is not mentioned when it is a general person. This use occurs in general statements expressing universal truths. E.g. Hungry people are easily led (K.Mansfield). Sometimes the speakers deliberately resort to passive constructions to make their own opinions sound like universal truths,
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e.g. Such a behaviour is not considered appropriate (Instead of: I do noi consider your behaviour appropriate)
5) The speaker deliberately focuses his/her attention on the object, thus making the object more important than the agent. E.g. "Are you being helped/served? " My wife was promoted last week. Instead, all commerce is transacted in thus staircase. Dope is sold, wine is drunk, love is made (S. Turow).
On the other hand, when the speaker wishes to accentuate the attention on the agent, the passive construction is also a very convenient tool for accentuating the agent by placing it at the end of the sentence, e.g. When the Black Madonna was installed in the church of the Sacred Heart the Bishop himself came to consecrate it. The Black Madonna had been given to the church by a recent convert (M.Spark). The use of the Passive voice in such sentences is necessitated by the needs of the actual division to make the rheme of the sentence prominent.
The Passive construction is also preferred when there are several agents. This phenomenon is known as 'the end weight'. 'Heavy' subjects are usually shifted to the end of the sentence. E.g. He was accompanied to the station by his wife Judith, his son John, his daughter Clara and his dog Rover. This use of the Passive constructions is dictated by the syntactic norms of the English sentence. Another syntactic rule of English which sometimes determines the choice of a passive construction consists in retaining the same syntactic subject within a composite or a semicomposite sentence or two adjoining sentences. But if this subject denotes the .agent of action in one sentence (or one part of the sentence) and the object in the other, it usually requires the use of Passive. E.g. He came into the room and the next moment he was greeted warmly by everyone. The public was being lied to and knew it (D.Bolinger). A small quantity of a dark liquid remained in the saucepan, and an empty cup that had been drunk of stood near it (A.Christie). This rule is also related to the actual division of the sentence. The Passive construction is a handy means of retaining the theme of the sentence and in this way it helps to organize discourse. Another rule of discourse arrangement is that the rheme of the previous sentence usually becomes the theme of the following sentence and the Passive voice is again indispensable in such cases. E.g. When the Australian national team defeated the English national team in a test series in August of 1882, it was the first time England had been defeated on her own soil. In reaction to the loss, the Sporting Times ran a mock obituary in which the paper declared that English cricket "died at the Oval on 29th August 1882. The obituary was followed by a note informing readers that "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia (E. George)
Thus we can see that the Passive voice carries out an important discursive function as it helps to organize discourse in ah orderly manner and also participates in the discourse progress.
Besides the grammatical means of expressing voice, voice-like distinctions may also be expressed by units of other lingual levels. There are nouns that form oppositions on the basis of voice distinctions; an employer — an employee, an examiner — an examinee etc.On analogy with existing oppositions authors often coin new words, e.g. Rennie was an expert on boredom, having done a piece on it for Pandora's "Relationships" column in •which she claimed that there were two people involved in boredom: the borer and the boree (M.Atwood).
Voice-like distinctions are also observed in the opposition of such verbs as give and get. Give is associated with the agent of an action and get - with the object of an action, e.g. give instructions is semantically equivalent to instruct and get instructions — to be instructed.
Another regular means of expressing voice-like meanings is the subclass of adjectives with the suffix - abl-e/ible - readable, walkable, doable etc. These adjectives are characterized by a mixed categorial semantics. Derived from verbs, they denote a potential ability of an object to be acted upon: readable - can be read, walkable - can be walked etc. These adjectives are regularly used to express passive meanings and they are referred to as ''curious implicit passive' [Bolinger 1980, 87]. Their proximity to the grammatical forms of the Passive voice becomes rnost evident when they are followed by a 'by-phrase' introducing the agent of the potential action or form a voice-like opposition with the verb in the Active voice E.g. / am afraid, I am not too easily persuadable by your stepson, Aunt Nan (Ch. Lamb).I'll arrange it if it is_ arrangeable (H. Wouk).
These adjectives also serve as a convenient means to avoid mentioning the doer of the action and they are often chosen for pragmatic purposes when the speaker deliberately tries not to mention the doer of the action, e.g. Cohn wanted some changes; if I agreed the film would be doable, he said (A. Miller).
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.
CHAPTER 4. THE ADJECTIVE
1. The position of adjective in the system of parts of speech.
2. The prototypical structure of the class of adjectives. Subclasses of adjectives.
3. The interaction of the adjective with the other parts of speech.
1. Though the adjective is traditionally referred to as one of the four cardinal parts of speech, its position differs considerably from that of the noun and the verb which form two opposite poles and which are considered by some linguists to be the only two really universal parts of speech [Sapir 1949, 119]. The noun represents the concept of substance (thingness), the verb represents the dynamic property of substance (actions, states, processes) and the adjective represents the static, or permanent property of substance (quality or its relation to another substance). However, as we shall later see the degree of permanence in different adjectives can vary considerably. Considered from the point of view of their communicative function the adjective and the verb constitute a class of the so called predicative words which are opposed to the so called identifying words (pronouns, proper names. Common nouns are bifunctional and can function as both identifying and predicative words).The communicative, or discursive function of the identifying words is to name substance represented by various objects and phenomena of the world and also to name objects of our inner world whereas the discursive function of the predicative words is to name properties that we attribute to substance and the objects of our inner world which is performed in the act of predication, e.g. The Earth rotates round the Sun. The Earth is round. As it was aptly put by N.D. Arutyunova, identifying words represent what exists in the world and the predicative words - what we think of the world [ApynoHOBa 1976, 343]. So, as both the parts of speech -the adjective and the verb denote property of substance, they differ considerably across languages. One and the same property can be presented in one language by a verb and in another.- by an adjective (compare: Russian - epycmumb, dojiemb and English - be sad, be ill). The criterion of dynamics vs statics is also very flexible: is state dynamic or static? One and the same state can be represented by both a verbal and an adjectival form, e.g. to know - to be aware, to rejoice - to be glad, to sleep - to be asleep. In fact the criterion 'dynamic vs. static property' applies only to prototypical verbs and adjectives (e.g. to do - big ), but it does not apply to all the units of the verbal and adjectival class, as there are'static verbs (to be, to have, to belong) as well as dynamic adjectives (busy, ready, nervous, weary etc.) which denote properties or states limited in time. It is mainly for this reason that many scholars stress the functional proximity of the adjective and the verb and therefore refer them to one and the same 'deep category' [Jlafions 1978, 345].
On* the other hand, the adjective displays proximity to the class of nouns too. Adjectives are close to nouns genetically because in most languages adjectives as a class of words present a later formation. The emergence of adjectives became possible when the human mind developed the ability to conceptualize quality separately from substance and present it as a separate word (see: [IloTeSHH 1968, 59]). Historically and in the present-day English many adjectives are derived from nouns. In highly inflectional languages such as Russian and German" nouns and adjectives share the morphological categories of case, number and gender with the only difference that in nouns these categories are conceptual, or immanent and in adjectives they are formal, or reflective, conditioned by the grammatical rules of the language according to which in the structure of a noun phrase an adjective must agree with the noun in case, number and gender. Adjectives and nouns display conceptual proximity - one and the same concept may be represented both by an adjective and by a noun, e.g. a wealthy man - a man of wealth. This conceptual proximity results in the existence of numerous cases of functional synonymy (for detailed analysis see: [CopoKHna 1995]).
This specificity of adjectives and the fact that the verbal representation of property varies across languages has brought many scholars to a conclusion that adjectives do not constitute a universal part of speech The well-known specialist in typology Talmy Givon characterizes the class of adjectives as 'a notorious swing category' [Givon 1979, 14] which occupies an intermediate position between the two polar classes - the noun and the verb. He introduces the notion of time-stability scale, on which the noun and the verb occupy the opposite poles of the scale: nouns denote substance and are characterized by the utmost degree of stability and verbs denote action and are characterized by the utmost degree of dynamism. The adjective occupies an intermediate position mediating across languages and in one and the same language and thus possesing more 'nouniness' or more 'verbiness' [Wetzer 1995]. Schematically it may be presented like this:
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