The Verb: The Category of Tense and Mood
The Category of Tense
The category of tense is a system of three-member opposemes such as writes – wrote – will write, is writing – was writing – will be writing showing the relation of the time of the action denoted by the verb to the moment of speech.
The time of an action or event can be expressed lexically with the help of such words and combinations of words as yesterday, next week, now, a year ago, etc. It can also be shown grammatically by means of the category of tense.
The correlation of time and tense is connected with the problem of the absolute and relative use of tense grammemes.
We say that some tense is absolute if it shows the time of the action in relation to the present moment (the moment of speech).
This is the case in the Russian sentences:
Он работает на заводе.
Он работал на заводе.
Он будет работать на заводе.
The same in English:
He works at a factory.
He worked at a factory.
He will work at a factory.
But very often tense reflects the time of an action not with regard to the moment of speech but to some other moment in the past or in the future, indicated by the tense of another verb.
| Он сказал, что | он работает на заводе. |
| он работал на заводе. | |
| он будет работать на заводе. |
Here the tense of the principle clauses сказал is used absolutely, while all the tenses of the subordinate clauses are used relatively. The present tense работает does not refer to the present time but to the time of the action сказал. The future tense of будет работать does not indicate the time following the present moment, but the time following the moment of the action сказал. The same holds true with regard to the past tense of работал.
In English such relative use of tenses is also possible with regard to some future moment.
| He will say that | he works at a factory |
| he worked at a factory | |
| he will work at a factory |
But as a rule, this is impossible with regard to a moment in the past:
| He said that | he worked at a factory |
| he had worked at a factory | |
| he would work at a factory |
The tenses of works, worked, will work cannot be used relatively with regard to the past moment indicated by the verb said. In English they are, as a rule, used absolutely, i.e. with regard to the moment of speech.
|
|
|
Therefore a ‘present tense’ verb may be used here only if the time of the action it expresses includes the moment of speech, which occurs, for instance, in clauses expressing general statements (He said that London is the capital of Great Britain). In case of future tense – if the action it expresses refers to some time following the moment of speech (Yesterday I heard some remarks about the plan we shall discuss tomorrow).
In the sentence ‘He said that he worked at a factory’ the past tense of worked also shows the past time not with regard to the time of the action of saying but with regard to the moment of speech.
Since English has special forms of the verb to express ‘precedence’ or ‘priority’ – the perfect forms – the past perfect is used to indicate that an action preceded some other action (or event) in the past. He said he had worked at a factory. But both in the principle and in the subordinate clause the tense of the verb is the same – the past tense used absolutely.
The Category of Mood
Mood is the grammatical category of the verb reflecting the relation of the action denoted by the verb to reality from the speaker’s point of view.
In the sentences ‘He listens attentively’, ‘Listen attentively!’, ‘You would have listened attentively if you had been interested’ we deal with the same action of listening but in the first sentence the speaker presents the action as taking place in reality, whereas in the second sentence the speaker urges the listener to perform the action, and in the third sentence the speaker presents the action as imaginary.
These different relations of the action to reality are expressed by different mood-forms of the verb: listens, listen. would have listened.
There is no unity of opinion concerning the category of mood in English. This Smirnitsky, Akhmanova, Ganshina and N. Vasilevskaya find six moods in ME (indicative, imperative, subjunctive I, subjunctive II, conditional and suppositional). Ilyish, Vinokurova, Zhigaldo, Ivanova, Iofik find only three moods – indicative, imperative and subjunctive. The latter, according to Ilyish appears in two forms – the conditional and the subjunctive. Barkhudarov and Shteling distinguish only the indicative and the subjunctive mood. The latter is subdivided into subjunctive I and subjunctive II. The imperative and the conjunctive are treated as forms outside the category of mood.
|
|
|
In general the number of English moods in different theories varies from 2 to 17.
Haimovich considers the indicative, imperative and subjunctive moods.
The difficulty of distinguishing other moods from the indicative in English is connected with the fact that, barring be, they do not contain a single form which is not used in the indicative mood. At the same time the indicative mood contains many forms not used in other moods. The subjunctive mood is richer in forms than the imperative mood.
So the meaning of the three moods are distinguished in the language structure not so much by the opposition of individual forms (as is the case in the opposemes of other categories), as by the opposition of the system of forms each mood possesses. Here is the comparison of the synthetic forms of the lexeme have in the three moods:
| Indicative | Subjunctive | Imperative |
| have, has, had | have, had | have |
This is why it is difficult to represent the category of mood in opposemes, like other categories.
In speech, the meaning of the three moods are distinguished not so much by the forms of the verb, as by their distribution.
The indicative mood is the basic mood of the verb. Morphologically it is the most developed system including all the categories of the verb.
Semantically it is a fact mood. It serves to present an action as a fact of reality. It conveys minimum personal attitude to the fact.
The system of the subjunctive mood in ME has been and still is in a state of development. There are many elements in it which are rapidly falling into disuse and there are new elements coming unto use.
The authors describing the subjunctive mood often make no distinction between language and speech, system and usage. The opposition of the three moods as system is mixed up with detailed description of the various shades of meaning certain forms express in different environments.
|
|
|
The imperative mood represents an action as a command, urging, request, exhortation addressed to one’s interlocutor(s). It is a direct expression of one’s will. therefore it is much more subjective than the indicative mood. Its modal meaning is very strong and distinct.
The Verb: Verbids
Besides the features common to the English verb as a whole (see § 188) the verbids have certain features of their own distinguishing them from the finite verb.
1. Their lexico-grammatical meaning is of dual nature. The verbal meaning of 'action, process' is presented as some kind of 'substance' (gerund, infinitive) or 'quality' (participle).
2. They have peculiar morphemes: -ing (gerund and participle I), -(e)d, -(e)n (participle II), to (infinitive).
3. There is duality in their combinability. They form connections with adverbs, nouns, pronouns (denoting objects of action) like finite verbs, and with finite verbs, like nouns or adverbs. There are also other combinative models typical of verbids.
4. Their syntactical functions are quite different from those of the finite verb. They are very rarely used as predicates (except secondary ones), but they are used in almost any other function in the sentence.
The lexico-grammatical meaning of the verbids, though essentially that of the verb (they denote actions), has something of the lexico-grammatical meanings of other parts of speech. The gerund, for instance, denotes an action partially treated as a substance. Thus, in the sentence Going there put an end to her anxiety the gerund going, though denoting an action, presents it at the same time as a substance which produced the act of putting an end to something.
The verbids have special morphemes distinguishing them from the finite verb. They are: the suffix -ing of the gerund, the suffixes -ing, -en, -ed, etc. of the participle and the word-morpheme to of the infinitive, 'these morphemes are very peculiar. They are not lexical or lexico-grammatical morphemes because they do not characterize all the words of the verb lexeme. Compare, for instance, the suffixes -ize, and -ing in realizes, has realized, to realize, realizing, being realized. The suffix -ize is found in every word of the lexeme, the suffix -ing only in some words.
|
|
|
The -ing morpheme differs from grammatical morphemes as well. Grammatical morphemes are used to form grammatical opposemes. asks — asked — will ask. The suffix -ing of the gerund is not used to form any grammatical opposemes. It serves to oppose all the gerunds to all the non-gerunds. Thus it is a peculiar grоup-suffix within the verb lexeme.
The same could be said about the homonymous -ing suffix of the participle. But two additional remarks are necessary.
1. The participial -ing morpheme does not unite all the system of the participle. The so-called participle II (written, asked) has different suffixes.
2. Since participle I is used to form analytical 'continuous aspect' grammemes, the -ing suffix of the participle has become a grammatical morpheme of the finite verb as well. The suffixes of participle II are not group-suffixes because participle II is a one-word system. In all other respects they resemble the participial -ing suffix. They are used as grammatical morphemes participating in the formation of 'passive voice' and 'perfect order' grammemes.
Of great interest is the to word-morpheme of the infinitive. It is a word-morpheme because it has only the form of a separate word, but not the content, and it functions as part of a word. It is a group-morpheme (like -ing), but unlike the participial -ing it is not used as a grammatical morpheme. shall come, not *shall to come.
Unlike other group-morphemes, the word-morpheme to is not used in certain surroundings.
The Paradigm of the Infinitive
| Order and aspect | Voice | |
| Active Active | Passive | |
| non-perfect, non-continuous | to write | to be written |
| non-perfect, continuous | to be writing | to be being written ' |
| perfect, non-continuous | to have written | 1 to have been written |
| perfect, continuous | to have been writing | to have been being written |
The Paradigm of the Gerund
| Order | Voice | |
| Active Active | Passive | |
| non-perfect | writing | being written |
| perfect | having written | having been written |
The Paradigm of the Participle
| Participle I | Participle II | ||
| Order | Voice
| ||
| Active Active | Passive | ||
| non-perfect | writing | being written | written |
| perfect | having written | having been written | |
The combinability of the verbids is of mixed nature. Partly, as we have seen, it resembles that of a finite verb. But some models of combinability are akin to those of other parts of speech.
The gerund may be preceded by a preposition and a possessive pronoun, like a noun.
E. g. One could see that without his even speaking.
The participle is regularly connected with nouns, like an adjective, and with verbs, like an adverb.
The functions of the verbids in the sentence are different from those of the finite verb. The latter regularly functions as the predicate of the sentence. The verbids are, as a rule, not used in this function. But they are used in most other functions.
To gо to Fleur was what he would like to do. (To go is a subject.)
He promised not to tell her about the offer. (To tell is used as an objective complement.)
In the sentence They looked up at the sky to see if it was flying weather the infinitive is an adverbial complement of purpose and the gerund is an attribute. In She is a spoiled child not t о be trusted both the participle spoiled and the infinitive to be trusted are attributes.
One of the peculiarities of the verbids is their being used as secondary predicates. In the sentence I saw them dancing two actions are named as well as the doers of those actions. But there is a great difference between I saw and them dancing. I saw is more or less independent. It makes a predication, the backbone of a sentence, or the sentence itself. Them dancing can exist only in a sentence where there is a predication. The tense and mood relations of the finite verb are then reflected in the verbid and it becomes a secondary predicate, and combinations like them dancing become secondary predications, often called complexes or nexuses.
Дата добавления: 2019-09-13; просмотров: 657; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!