Person and number

Traditionally, the category of number is treated as the correlation of the plural and the singular, and the category of person as the correlation of three deictic functions, reflecting the relations of the referents to the participants of speech communication: the first person – the speaker, the second person – the person spoken to, and the third person – the person or thing spoken about. But in the system of the verb in English these two categories are so closely interconnected, both semantically and formally, that they are often referred to as one single category: the category of person and number.

First, the semantics of both person and number categories is not inherently “verbal”, these two categories are reflective: the verbal form reflects the person and number characteristics of the subject, denoted by the noun (or pronoun) with which the verb is combined in the sentence. And in the meaning of the subject the expression of number semantics is blended with the expression of person semantics; for example, in the paradigm of personal pronouns the following six members are distinguished by person and number characteristics combined: first person singular - I, first person plural - we, second person singular – you (or, archaic thou), second person plural - you, third person singular - he/she/it, third person plural - they. Second, formally, the categories of person and number are also fused, being expressed by one and the same verbal form, e.g.: he speaks; this fact supports the unity of the two categories in the system of the verb.

TENSE

The verbal category of tense in the most general sense expresses the time characteristics of the process denoted by the verb.

It is necessary to distinguish between time as a general category and time as a linguistic category. Time in the general philosophical presentation along with space is the form of existence of matter; it is independent of human perception and is constantly changing. Time is reflected by human beings through their perception and intellect and finds its expression in language, in the meaning of various lexical and grammatical lingual units. Linguistic expression of time may be either oriented toward the moment of speech, “present-oriented”, “absolutive”, or it may be “non-present-oriented”, “non-absolutive”. The “absolutive time” denotation embraces three spheres: the past, the present and the future. The sphere of the present includes the moment of speech and can be expressed lexically by such words and word-combinations as this moment, today, this week, etc. The sphere of the past precedes the sphere of the present by way of retrospect and can be expressed lexically by such words and word-combinations as last week, yesterday, many years ago, etc. The sphere of the future follows the sphere of the present by way of prospect and can be expressed lexically by such words and word-combinations as soon, in two days, next week, etc. The “non-present-oriented” time denotation may be either “relative” or “factual”. The “relative time” denotation shows the correlation of two or more events and embraces the priority (the relative past), the simultaneity (the relative present) and the posteriority (the relative future) of one event in relation to another. Relative time is lexically expressed by such words and word-combinations as after that, before that, at the same time with, some time later, soon after, etc. The factual expression of time denotes real astronomical time or historical landmarks unrelated with either the moment of speech or any other time center; it can be expressed lexically by such words and word-combinations as in the morning, during World War II, etc.

The tense category in English differs a lot from the verbal categories of tense in other languages, In English there are four verbal tense forms: the present (study), the past (studied), the future (shall/will study), and the future-in-the-past (should/would study). The two future tense forms of the verb express the future in two separate ways: as an after-event in relation to the present, e.g.: He will study tomorrow (not right not), and as an after-event in relation to the past, e.g.: He said he would study the next day. The future forms of the verb in English express relative time – posteriority in relation to either the present or the past. The present and the past forms of the verb render absolutive time semantics, referring the events to either the plane of the present or to the plane of the past; this involves all the finite verb forms, including the perfect, the continuous, and the future forms.

Thus, there is not just one verbal category of tense in English but two interconnected tense categories. The first verbal tense category, which can be called “primary time”, “absolutive time”, or “retrospective time”, is expressed by the opposition of the past and the present forms. The suffix “-ed” of the regular verbs is the formal feature which marks the past as the strong member of the opposition. Besides this productive form, there are some unproductive past forms of verbs, such as suppletive forms (e.g.: eat – ate), or past forms homonymous with the present (cut – cut).

The second verbal tense category, which may be called “prospective”, or “relative”, is formed by the opposition of the future and the non-future separately in relation to the present or to the past. The strong member of the opposition is the future, marked by the auxiliary verbs shall/will (the future in relation to the present) or should/would (the future in relation to the past). It is used to denote posterior actions, after-actions in relation to some other actions or to a certain point of time in the present or in the past.

ASPECT

The general meaning of the category of aspect is the inherent mode of realization of the process. Aspect is closely connected with time semantics, showing, as A. M. Peshkovsky puts it, “the distribution of the action in time”, or the “temporal structure” of the action.

Aspect can be expressed both by lexical and grammatical means. In English the aspective meaning is manifested in the lexical subdivision of verbs into limitive and unlimitive, e.g.: to go – to come, to sit – sit down, etc. But most verbs in English migrate easily from one subclass to the other and their aspective meaning is primarily rendered by grammatical means through special variable verbal forms.

The expression of aspective semantics in English verbal forms is interconnected with the expression of temporal semantics.

The category of Aspect a system of two categories: the first category is realized through the paradigmatic opposition of the continuous (progressive) forms and the non-continuous (indefinite, simple) forms of the verb; this category can be called the category of development. The marked member of the opposition, the continuous, is formed by means of the auxiliary verb to be and participle I of the notional verb, e.g.: I am working. The grammatical meaning of the continuous has been treated traditionally as denoting a process going on simultaneously with another process; this temporal interpretation of the continuous was developed by H. Sweet, O. Jespersen and others. The majority of linguists today support the point of view developed by A. I. Smirnitsky, B. A. Ilyish, L. S. Barkhudarov, and others, that the meaning of the continuous is purely aspective - “action in progress, developing action”.

The category of development can be reduced and in most cases the contextual reduction is dependent on the lexico-semantic aspective characteristics of the verbs. The neutralization of the category regularly takes place with unlimitive verbs, especially statal verbs like to be, to have, verbs of sense perception, relation, etc., e.g.: I have a problem; I love you. Their indefinite forms are used instead of the continuous for semantic reasons: statal verbs denote developing processes by their own meaning.

The second aspective category is formed by the opposition of the perfect and the non-perfect forms of the verb; this category can be called “the category of retrospective coordination”. The strong member of the opposition, the perfect, is formed with the help of the auxiliary verb to have and participle II of the notional verb, e.g.: I have done this work.

M. Deutchbein, G. N. Vorontsova and other linguists consider the perfect to be a purely aspective form, laying the main emphasis on the fact that the perfect forms denote some result, some transmission of the pre-event to the post-event. A. I. Smirnitsky was the first to put forward the idea that the perfect forms its own category, which is neither a tense category, nor an aspect category; he suggested the name “the category of time correlation”. The main argument which led to the interpretation of the perfect outside the aspect system of the verb was the combination of the meaning of the perfect with the meaning of development in the perfect continuous forms, which is logically impossible within the same category.

Thus, we can characterize the opposition of the perfect and the non-perfect as a separate verbal category, semantically intermediate between aspective and temporal. The perfect forms denote a preceding action successively, or transmissively connected with a certain time limit or another action; the following situation is included in the sphere of influence of the preceding situation. So, the two semantic components constituting the hybrid semantics of the perfect are as follows: priority (relative time) and coordination, transmission, or result (aspective meaning).

VOICE

The verbal category of voice shows the direction of the process as regards the participants of the situation reflected in the syntactic structure of the sentence. Voice does not reflect the actual properties of the process denoted, but the speaker’s appraisal of it; the speaker chooses which of the participants in the situation – the agent (the subject, the doer of the action) or the patient (the object, the receiver of the action, the experiencer) – should be presented as the subject of the syntactic construction. Second, though it is expressed through the morphological forms of the verb, voice is closely connected with the structural organization of the syntactic construction: the use of passive or active forms of the verb involves the use of the passive or active syntactic construction.

The category of voice is expressed by the opposition of the passive and active forms of the verb; the active form of the verb is the unmarked, weak member of the opposition, and the passive is the strong member marked by the combination of the auxiliary verb to be (or the verbs to get, to become in colloquial speech) and participle II of the notional verb. It denotes the action received or a state experienced by the referent of the subject of the syntactic construction; in other words, the syntactic subject of the sentence denotes the patient, the receiver of the action in the situation described, while the syntactic object, if any, denotes the doer, or the agent of the action, e.g.: The cup was broken by his daughter. In the active syntactic construction the subject and the object both in the situation described and in the syntactic structure of the sentence coincide, cf.: His daughter broke the cup.

There are also the so-called “medial” voice types, whose status is problematic: semantically, they are neither strictly passive nor active, though the verb used is formally active. There are three “medial” voice types distinguished in English: “reflexive”, “reciprocal”, and “middle”. In reflexive constructions the action performed by the referent of the subject is not passed to any outer object, but to the referent itself, i.e. the subject of the action is the object of the action at the same time, e.g.: He dressed quickly. This meaning can be rendered explicitly by the reflexive “-self” pronouns, e.g.: He dressed himself; He washed himself; etc. In reciprocal constructions the subject denotes a group of doers whose actions are directed towards each other; again, the subject of the action is its object at the same time, e.g.: They struggled; They quarreled; etc. This meaning can be rendered explicitly with the help of the reciprocal pronouns one another, each other, with one another, e.g.: They quarreled with each other. In middle constructions the subject combined with the otherwise transitive verb is neither the doer of the action nor its immediate object, the action is as if of its own accord, e.g.: The door opened; The concert began; The book reads easily; The book sells like hot cakes.

Exercise 1. A ) Define the person and the number of the verbal forms in the sentences, comment on their usage:

1) There is a girl and two boys in the room. 2) Where’s those records I gave you? 3) The great majority is helpless. 4) The majority were determined to press their victory.

B) Fill in gaps with the necessary person form and the number form of the verbs. Comment on your choice.

1) The police ... on his track (to be). 2) The fish ... plentiful there (to be). 3) There ... a lot of people in the hall (to be). 4) Thou ... not kill (shall). 5) The army … (to be retreating). 6) A series of windows … (to look) out into the garden.

Exercise 2. Comment on cases of person and number neutralization in conversational style.

1) “She says there’s too many men in this burg, and somebody has to do something to take the pressure off” (McDonald). 2) “Alfred ain’t reliable lately” (Chandler). 3) “You ain’t looking for nobody” (Chandler). 4) “I told you he had two years medical.” – “Doctor have a name?” (Chandler) 5) “I’m old enough to know better, aren’t I?” (Parsons)

Exercise 3. Account for the indication of aspect distinctions in the following sentences. Point out the devices which express:

a) the ingressive character of the action;

b) the durative character of the action;

c) the terminative character of the action;

d) actions of single occurence;

e) frequentative character of the action.

1. Harry Fisher had always had an affection for his more quiet and ec­centric brother and was now coming to have a respect for him. (G. Chesterton) 2. "I told 'em about you and they're dying to have a look at you", said Lutkins joyfully. (S. Lewis) 3. Stung by that retort, Soames moved towards the piano and back to the hearth, to and fro, as he had been wont in the old days in the drawing room. (J. Galsworthy) 4. Little by little I came to know why he was so dignified and had no need to complain about anything. (W. Saroyan) 5. He fell to thinking, and Steger got up and strolled about leisurely. He was thinking too. (Dreiser) 6. ... he had been in the habit of borrowing money from the city treasury at a low rate of interest. (Dreiser) 7. All the next day Kitty thought of the Convent. (S. Maugham) 8. I mean she took to disliking me before I took to disliking her. (E. Caldwell) 9. He soon got to know the wisdom of being patient. (J. London) 10. And Jolyon would wonder what she would look like coated with such age. (J. Galsworthy) 11. He then set to work and lovingly composed a lobster salad. (Cronin) 12. One of the men gave a choked cry and stumbled back into the wall. (W.Falkner)

Exercise 4. Record the following verbs in groups in accordance with their aspective character: terminative verbs, non-terminative verbs and verbs of double aspective character.

to enjoy to jump to mean to pass

to finish to jump up to read to sit down

to enter to laugh to show to set

to go to look to exist to lie

to carry to look for to sleep to lay

to bring to find to work to have dinner

to throw to fall to work out to give a push

Exercise 5. Give all possible interpretations of the voice phenomena illustrated in following sentences:

1. The poor fellow gets punished almost every day. 2. She raised herself suddenly in the tall chair. 3. Arnie opened the rumble seat and helped Savina to get in. The door opened and a man and a woman entered. 4. Erik and Savina walked in silence for a while. He walked Andrew eight miles that first day. 5. The apparatus ran itself and observed itself. 6. "Doеs anyone know we are here?" Davy was asking him when he was getting himself into the water again. 7. It is so dynamically produced and acted that I found myself enjoying it. 8. Labour MPs got disturbed at the arrogant attitude of Downing Street. 9. One feels half disembodied sitting like a shadow at the door. 10. The knitting becomes frenzied at times. 11. Let us drink champagne when we meet again. 12. I must end the letter. 13. The day ended, tranquil and bluish.

Exercise 6. Analyse the following sentences for different kind of modality expressed in each case (indicative modality, oblique modality, certainty, uncertainty, supposition, unreal condition, unreal consequence, etc). Comment whether the verbs "would" or "should" are used as modal verbs (in their original meaning) or as pure auxiliaries:

1. There was dust everywhere, the room could not have been cleaned for weeks. (J. Galsworthy) 2. His father might be dead. He looked and saw the quick breaths that came not very often. (J. Aldridge) 3. DearBlanche! Ithought I should never have said it I believe I should have stood shuttering here all day if you hadn't helped me cut with it. (B. Shaw) 4. "It's not like Jolyon to be late!" he said to Irene, with uncontrollable vexation. "I suppose it will be June keeping him". (J. Galsworthy) 5. He examined her meticulously ... His examination was an illumination to Andrew, quiet, silent, absolutely precise. When it was over, he said nothing to Mary but took Andrew beyond the door. "Pneumothorax," he said, "There's no question. That lung should have been collapsed weeks ago.". (Cronin) 6. "She shall go off tomorrow, the little artful creature", said Mrs. Sadly, with great energy. (W. Thackery) 7. She was resentful of her father's attitude. He might have seen what the point was. (Dreiser) 8. It must be she who silenced his protest. "It could not be otherwise". (J. London) 9. His manner might have been called severe, though really it was more cultivated than austere. (Dreiser) 10. To think that Cowper wood should have taken her to such a place. (Dreiser) 11. If he should have a numerous family, for instance, it would be a very convenient addition. "To be sure it would". (J. Austen) 12. "It was my father's last request to me,' replied her husband, "that I should assist his widow and daughters". (J. Austen) 13. It was in his power to make her happy. Denied of happiness himself, why should he deny happiness to her. He could marry her and take her down with him to dwell in the grass-walled castle in the Marquises. (J. London) 14. Would you kindly pass me the salt cellar? 15. If it be possible for a heavy and healthy man to look haggard, he looked haggard. (Chesterton).

Adverb

Adverb is a notional part of speech denoting non-substantive properties: in most cases the properties of actions (to walk quickly), or the properties of other properties (very quick), or the properties of the situations in which the processes occur (to walk again). The adverb can be defined as a qualifying word of the secondary qualifying order, while the adjective is a primary qualifying word.

The adverb is the least numerous and the least independent of all the notional parts of speech; it has a great number of semantically weakened words intermediary between notional and functional words; this is why its notional part of speech status was doubted for a long time: the first grammarians listed adverbs among the particles.

Adverbs are characterized by their combinability with verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, which they modify. They perform the functions of various adverbial modifiers: of time (yesterday), place (there), of manner (secretly), etc. The adverbs which refer to whole situations are defined as situation-“determinants”, e.g.: They quarreled again.

There are certain contexts in which adverbs combine with nouns and perform a peculiar function of mixed adverbial-attributive character, e.g.: the trip abroad, his return home, the then President of the US, etc. This is the result of the nominalization of syntactic constructions.

In accordance with their form, adverbs are divided into simple and derived. There are few simple adverbs, most of them are of a functional or semi-functional character, e.g.: more, very, there, then, here, etc. The characteristic adverbial word-building affixes are the following: simply, clockwise, backward, ahead, etc. The most productive derivational model of adverbs is the one with the suffix ‘-ly’. It is so highly productive that practically every adjective has its adverbial counterpart, e.g.: simple - simply, soft – softly, etc.; some linguists, for example, A. I. Smirnitsky, consider them to be not adverbs but specific forms of adjectives.

The other structural types are compound adverbs, e.g.: sometimes, downstairs, etc., and stable adverbial phrases or composite phrasal adverbs, e.g.: upside down, at least, a great deal of, from time to time, etc.

Traditionally, adverbs are divided on the basis of their general semantics into qualitative, quantitative, and circumstantial. The qualitative adverbs denote the inherent qualities of actions and other qualities; most of them are derived from qualitative adjectives, e.g.: bitterly, hard, beautifully, well, etc. The quantitative adverbs show quantity measure; genuine quantitative adverbs are usually derived from numerals, e.g.: twice, three times, tenfold, manifold, etc. The circumstantial adverbs denote mainly the circumstances of time and place (they can also be defined as “orientative”), e.g.: today, here, when, far, ashore, abroad, often, etc.

The whole class of adverbs can be divided, first, into nominal and pronominal, then the nominal adverbs can be subdivided into qualitative and orientative, the former including genuine qualitative adverbs and degree adverbs, the latter divided into temporal and local adverbs, with further possible subdivisions of each group.

Adverbs are also subdivided functionally into evaluative and specificative. When used in their evaluative function, adverbs (qualitative adverbs, predominantly) distinguish the category of comparison and have five morphological forms: one positive, two comparative (direct and reverse) and two superlative (direct and reverse), e.g.: bitterly – more bitterly, less bitterly – most bitterly, least bitterly. Their superlative degree form can also be used either in the absolute sense (to denote absolute superiority) or in the elative sense, denoting a high degree of the property, e.g.: The youngest kid cried most bitterly of all. – The kid cried most bitterly. When used in the specificative function, adverbs are unchangeable, e.g.: We meet today; We came ashore.

Exercise 1. Define whether the following words are adverbs or adjectives, or they can be used as adjectives and homonymous adverbs.

e.g.: kindly - a kindly smile (adjective); to smile kindly (adverb).

Daily, lively, timely, worldly, womanly, quickly.

Exercise 2. State the classification features of the adverbs used in the given sentences.

MODEL: "I found myself weary and yet wakeful, tossing restlessly from side to side..."

"restlessly" - an evaluative qualitative adverb.

1. Rosemary Fell was not exactly beautiful. Pretty? Well, if you took her to pieces... But why be so cruel as to take anyone to pieces? She was young, brilliant, extremely modern, exquisitely dressed, amazingly wellread in the newest of the new books, and her parties were the most delicious mixture of the really important people and... artists – quaint creatures, discoveries of hers, some of them too terrifying for words, but others quite presentable and amusing (Mansfield). 2. He was in a great quiet room with ebony walls and a dull illumination that was too faint, too subtle, to be called a light (Fitzgerald). 3. Medley had already risen hurriedly to his feet. The look in his eyes said he was going straight to his telephone to tell Doctor Llewellyn apologetially that he, Llewellyn, was a superb doctor and he, Medley, could hear him perfectly. Oxborrow was on his heels. In two minutes the room was clear of all but Con, Andrew, and the remainder of the beer (Cronin). 4. Dr. Trench. I will be plain with you. I know that Blanche has a quick temper. It is part of her strong character and her physical courage, which is greater than that of most men, I can assure you. You must be prepared for that. If this quarrel is only Blanche's temper, you may take my word for it that it will be over before to-morrow (Shaw).

Exercise 3. Divide the following adverbs into three groups a) qualitative, b) quantitative, and c) circumstantial.

Where, abroad, too, tenfold, nowadays, inside, quickly, underneath, once, homeward, seldom, nowhere, heartily, afoot, headlong, twice, beyond, then, eastward, otherwise, upstairs, rarely, late, outside, ahead, forever, so, beneath, forward, fast, scarcely, inquiringly, sometimes, good-naturedly, near.