The category of correlation is closely connected with those of tense and aspect
• All the views on the essence of the perfect forms in English may be classified into:
Otto Gespersen and others treat the perfect forms as a tense category.
• Vorontsova Ilyish and others treat the perfect forms as an aspect category together with such forms as the continuous aspect and common aspect.
The category of correlation is characteristic of finites and non-finites of the indicative and the subjunctive mood (with the exception of the imperative mood, participle II and subjunctive I).
E.g. The plane is reported to have left (to leave). She speaks as if she had been there herself. His having taken the book is out of the question.
• Developing Smirnitsky’s views on the categorial semantics of perfect/ non-perfect forms, we can come to the conclusion that in English
There exist two aspective categories: the category of development (based on the opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms) and the category of retrospective coordination (based on the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms).
The perfect form has a mixed categorial meaning: it expresses both retrospective time coordination of the prossess and the connection of the prior action with a time-limit reflection 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 be neutralized and transponized.Besides in the category of development verbs which are usually not used in continuous forms can be subjected to the process of reverse transposition. Eg.: Were you still 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.
The verb. The category of voice.
The definition of the category.The correlation between the units of the syntactic and semantic levels of language.Transitivity/intransitivity of verbs and voice.Meanings rendered by the passive form in English.The active and passive forms compared.The compound nominal predicate and the passive voice.Actualizers of the passive meaning. Non-grammatical means of expressing the passive meaning in English. The functional-semantic field of passivity.
The verbal category of voice shows the direction of the process as regards the participants of the situation reflected in the syntactic construction.The form of the verb may show whether the agent expressed by the subject is the doer of the action or the recipient of the action (John broke the vase - the vase was broken). The objective relations between the action and the subject or object of the action find their expression in language as the grammatical category of voice. Therefore, the category of voice reflects the objective relations between the action itself and the subject or object of the action: The category of voice is realized through the opposition Active voice::Passive voice. The passive is marked both in meaning and in form and the active as unmarked both in meaning and in form. The realization of the voice category is restricted because of the implicit grammatical meaning of transitivity/intransitivity. In accordance with this meaning, all English verbs should fall into transitive and intransitive. However, the classification turns out to be more complex and comprises 6 groups:
|
|
|
1. Verbs used only transitively: to mark, to raise;
2. Verbs with the main transitive meaning: to see, to make, to build;
3. Verbs of intransitive meaning and secondary transitive meaning. A lot of intransitive verbs may develop a secondary transitive meaning: They laughed me into agreement; He danced the girl out of the room;
4. Verbs of a double nature, neither of the meanings are the leading one, the verbs can be used both transitively and intransitively: to drive home - to drive a car;
5. Verbs that are never used in the Passive Voice: to seem, to become;
6. Verbs that realize their passive meaning only in special contexts: to live, to sleep, to sit, to walk, to jump.
Three types of passive constructions can be differentiated: 1) direct primary passive; 2) indirect secondary passive; 3) prepositional tertiary passive. Some English verbs can admit only one object – the direct one: e.g. Mary saw him. When such an object becomes the subject of a passive construction, the latter is called direct primary passive: e.g. He was seen by Mary. There are many verbs in English that take two objects in the active construction (direct and indirect): e.g. I gave him a book. She told the story to her sister. These verbs admit of two passive constructions: a) A book was given to him. The story was told to her sister. (the direct primary passive) b)He was given a book. Her sister was told the story. (the indirect secondary passive) The indirect (secondary) passive is not infrequent in verb-phrases with the verb to give, such as: to give credit, to give command, to give a chance, to give a choice, to give an explanation, to give an opportunity, to give orders, to give shelter, and the like. e.g. He was given a good chance to argue. She is given an opportunity to go to the south in summer. Suppose, you are given a choice. What would you prefer? However, many verbs in English may take a direct and an indirect object in the active construction but admit only one passive construction — the direct passive, e.g.: to bring, to do, to play, to telegraph and many others. The list could be extended. Next come constructions with the so-called prepositional or tertiary passive. The subject of the passive construction corresponds to the prepositional object of the active construction. This “detached” preposition retains its place after the verb. e.g. Everything was taken care of. She could not bear being read to any longer. He was constantly being laughed at.
|
|
|
It should be noted that some scholars admit the existence of Middle, Reflexive and Reciprocal voices. "Middle Voice" - the verbs primarily transitive may develop an intransitive middle meaning: That adds a lot; The door opened; The book sells easily; The dress washes well. "Reflexive Voice": He dressed; He washed- the subject is both the agent and the recipient of the action at the same time. It is always possible to use a reflexive pronoun in this case: He washed himself. “Reciprocal voice”: They met; They kissed - it is always possible to use a reciprocal pronoun here: They kissed each other. We cannot, however, speak of different voices, because all these meanings are not expressed morphologically.
Another problem posed by the category of voice and connected with neutralisations concerns the relation between the morphological form of the passive voice and syntactical form of the corresponding complex nominal predicate with the pure link be. As a matter of fact, the outer structure of the two combinations is much the same. Cf.:
|
|
|
You may consider me a coward, but there you are mistaken. They were all seised in their homes.
The first of the two examples presents a case of a nominal predicate, the second, a case of a passive voice form. Though the constructions are outwardly alike, there is no doubt as to their different grammatical status. The question is, why?
As is known, the demarcation between the construction types in question is commonly sought on the lines of the semantic character of the constructions. Namely, if the construction expresses an action, it is taken to refer to the passive voice form; if it expresses a state, it is interpreted as a nominal predicate. Cf. another pair of examples:
The door was closed by the butler as softly as could be. The door on the left was closed.
The predicate of the first sentence displays the "passive of action", i.e. it is expressed by a verb used in the passive voice; the predicate of the second sentence, in accord with the cited semantic interpretation, is understood as displaying the "passive of state", i.e. as consisting of a link-verb and a nominal part expressed by a past participle.
Of course, the factor of semantics as the criterion of the dynamic force of the construction is quite in its place, since the dynamic force itself is a meaningful factor of language.
But the "technically" grammatical quality of the construction is determined not by the meaning in isolation; it is determined by the categorial and functional properties of its constituents, first and foremost, its participial part. Thus, if this part, in principle, expresses processual verbality, however statal it may be in its semantic core, then the whole construction should be understood as a case of the finite passive in the categorial sense. E.g.: The young practitioner was highly esteemed in his district.
If, on the other hand, the participial part of the construction doesn't convey the idea of processual verbality, in other words, if it has ceased to be a participle and is turned into an adjective, then the whole construction is to be taken for a nominal predicate. But in the latter case it is not categorially passive at all.
|
|
|
Proceeding from this criterion, we see that the predicate in the construction "You are mistaken" (the first example in the present paragraph) is nominal simply by virtue of its notional part being an adjective, not a participle. The corresponding non-adjectival participle would be used in quite another type of constructions. Cf.: I was often mistaken for my friend Otto, though I never could tell why.
On the other hand, this very criterion shows us that the categorial status of the predicate in the sentence "The door was closed" is wholly neutralised in so far as it is categorially latent, and only a living context may de-neutralise it both ways. In particular, the context including the by-phrase of the doer (e.g. by the butler) de-neutralises it into the passive form of the verb; but the context in the following example de-neutralises it into the adjectival nominal collocation: The door on the left was closed, and the door on the right was open.
Thus, with the construction in question the context may have both voice-suppressing, "statalising" effect, and voice-stimulating, "processualising" effect. It is very interesting to note that the role of processualising stimulators of the passive can be performed, alongside of action-modifying adverbials, also by some categorial forms of the verb itself, namely, by the future, the continuous, and the perfect — i.e. by the forms of the time-aspect order other than the indefinite imperfect past and present. The said contextual stimulators are especially important for limitive verbs, since their past participles combine the semantics of processual passive with that of resultative perfect. Cf.:
The fence is painted. — The fence is painted light green. — The fence is to be painted. — The fence will be painted. - The fence has just been painted. —The fence is just being painted.
The fact that the indefinite imperfect past and present are left indifferent to this gradation of dynamism in passive constructions bears one more evidence that the past and present of the English verb constitute a separate grammatical category distinctly different from the expression of the future.
The concept of voice includes the variety of means used to render it on different levels of linguistics, i.e. the grammatical and lexical ones and the combination of both.
The grammatical means of expressing voice in English is the passive form of the verb “to be+Participle II”; in the active voice the verb is not grammatically marked. The other voices, i. e. reflexive and reciprocal ones, do not possess a verb in a special form either.
Other means of expressing the category of voice as lexical ones are the parts of speech derived from the verb. They denote the meanings of active, passive, reflexive and reciprocal voices depending on the meaning and valency of the verb they are formed from. These are the adjective, the adverb and the noun. The meaning of voice rendered by them differs from that expressed by the verb because the adjective, the adverb and the noun contain other categorial meaningful semes that refer to them as belonging to a certain part of speech besides those of voice. This fact does not permit us to include them into the center of the functional-semantic field of voice. The adverb can denote only active, passive and reciprocal voices in comparison with the noun and adjective.
No minor part is played by the context which has a decisive role in determining the meaning of the noun, because one and the same noun can be both active and passive outside it. The preposition is different from the other parts of speech concerning voice because it can only intensify the passive (beyond doubt) or reciprocal (agreement between) meaning of a noun or an adjective and emphasizes the passive meaning of Participle II in an elliptical passive sentence.
The verb is the main means of expressing voice in a language because it renders the category under discussion grammatically. There is a group of verbs called ergative that copy the “classical” way of transforming the active voice sentence into a passive one by changing the object of the active sentence into the subject of the middle voice sentence, the “form” of the verb remaining active and bearing a passive meaning. These verbs give the English (a Nominative-Accusative language) a shadow of ergativity, which implies no differences between the case of the subject and that of the object.
Thus the verbal category of voice can be expressed not only morphologically and syntactically but also lexically. The cat. of voice is closely connected with the actual division of the sent. which deals with the theme-rheme structure of the sent. When the speaker ch-s the sem. subject “the doer of the action” as the subject of the sent. & it’s theme he uses the active form of the v. But when the sem. object is put as the subject of a sent. & it’s theme the speaker has to change the form of the verb into a passive one to avoid misunderstanding of the meaning of the sent.: The boy (sem.sub.) is drawing a picture (sem.obj.) → The picture (sem.sub.) is being drawn by the boy (sem.obj.). The Passive form is usu. built of transitive verbs. This rule is very strict in the Rus. lang. But in Eng. this rule is not that strict, since intransitive verbs taking prepos. objects and even adv. mod. of place can take the form of the Pas. Voice: The picture is being looked at. The bed hasn’t been slept in. My hat has been sat on. The rrom hasn’t been lived in for many years.But the form be+part2 doesn’t always express the meaning of the pas.v.: to be drowned, to be seated, to be mistaken. Such costr-s are treated in Eng as compound nominal pred.: When my wound is healed I’ll get to the front again.When be+part2 express a dynamic action it is treated as the form of the p.v.: the cup has been broken. When it expresses a state after an action it’s treated as a comp.n.pred. Some grammarians suggest considering nominal const-ons to be the forms of the Pas.Voice like in German. There are special lang. means which can help us to dist-sh the Pas.V. from nominal con-ons. They are:the prepos-on “by” indicating the doer of the action;adv. mod.-s of time and place;the usage of the passive form in the Cont. and Perf. aspect forms.Sometimes be+Part.II conveys the m-ng of the Perfect form, i.e. instead of the auxiliary verb “have” the British and Americans esp. use the auxiliary “be”: He is come. He is gone. I’m finished. The boy is returned.Not all the active forms of the verb express the active meaning. They are active in form but passive in meaning (he took a severe beating). Besides the active and passive voice some gr-s dist. 3 more v.: reflexive (he dressed himself), reciprocal (they greeted each other), middle (the shirt washes well)., Раговская bring the foll.arguments against treating reflexive & reciprocal constructions as analytical forms of v.: 1)in cases like “he washes himself” it’s not the v. that is reflexive but the pronoun himself which is used as a direct object. As we know auxiliary verbs never perfom any synt-al fun-ons; 2)the w-s “washed”&“himself” are w-s belonging to diff. lexemes and having diff. lexical & gram. meanings & diff. synt-l function; 3)in such costr-s the v. has the cat-s of gender, person, number which are expressed twice & that runs counter to the law of economy in L.; 4)a number of verbs can ex-s the reciprocal and reflexive m-ngs without the corresponding pronouns: In the morning he washed, shaved and had breakfast.
THE SIMPLE SENTENCE.
Дата добавления: 2018-04-04; просмотров: 1535; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!