- •4И(Англ.) к69
- •Preface to the second edition
- •General notions the verb
- •Actions and states
- •Qualitative characteristics of processes
- •Verbal modes of action
- •General and variant lexical meanings of verbs
- •Part I grammatical content of the finite forms grammatical categories of the english verb
- •Verbal aspect
- •Finite and non-finite verbal forms
- •Time and aspect relations denoted by the english verbal forms
- •Time content of the finite verb forms
- •Logical Time
- •Processes of the Objective World and Time Relationships
- •Irrelevancy of the Meaning of Simultaneousness for the Grammatical Content of the Dynamic Tenses
- •Aspectual content of tenses
- •Present, past, and future tenses (absolute tenses)
- •PastStatic a n d p a s t d у n a m і с
- •Future Static and Future Dynamic
- •Present Static and Present Dynamic
- •Model II
- •Present Static and Present Dynamic
- •Past Static and Past Dynamic
- •Future Static and Future Dynamic
- •Model III
- •Present Static and Present Dynamic
- •Past Static and Past Dynamic
- •Future Static and Future Dynamic
- •Model IV
- •The Beforefuture Static Tense1
- •Irrelevancy of the Meaning Concrete Process for the Grammatical Content of the Dynamic Tenses
- •Irrelevancy of the Meanings Resultative Connections, Current Relevance, and Completeness for the Grammatical Content of the Anterior Tenses
- •The system of the english tenses
- •Part II the use of the tenses relative frequency of the tenses
- •Table III frequency of use of anterior dynamic, beforefuture static, and future dynamic tenses
- •Table IV the use of tenses in technical literature1
- •In different kinds of text
- •In the passive voice
- •Table VII
- •Factors influencing the choice of the tenses in speech
- •Factors Conditioned Mainly by the Peculiarities of the English Verb System
- •The Historical Factor
- •Harmony Between Tense-sequence Meaning and Speech Information
- •Factors Permitting the Speaker to Choose From Two or More Tenses
- •Economy of Speech Efforts
- •Direction of Speech Intentionality
- •Stylistic Considerations
- •The use of absolute static tenses
- •The present static
- •Processes Objectively Belonging to Present Time
- •Processes Objectively Belonging to Past Time
- •Adverbials of Time Used with the Present Static
- •The past static
- •The use of the past static to refer to sequent processes
- •The use of the past static to refer to simultaneous processes
- •The Past Static in Sentences Where Resultative Connections with the Present are Expressed
- •The Past Static in Sentences with Ever, Never, Always, Before
- •The Use of the Past Static after the Beforepresent Static in the Same or Different Sentences
- •Parallel uses of the past and the beforepast static
- •The past static and definiteness of verbal processes in time
- •Adverbs and Adverbial Phrases of Time Frequently Combined with the Past Static
- •Miscellaneous
- •The future static
- •Miscellaneous
- •The use of absolute dynamic tenses
- •The present dynamic
- •Processes Objectively Belonging to Present Time
- •Processes Objectively Belonging to Future Time
- •Processes Objectively Belonging to Past Time
- •The present dynamic to refer to simultaneous processes
- •The present dynamic to refer to sequent processes
- •Adverbs and adverbial phrases of time combined with the present dynamic
- •Verbs used in the present dynamic
- •Miscellaneous
- •The past dynamic
- •Examples of Verbal Processes of Increasing Length
- •The past dynamic to refer to simultaneous processes
- •Synchronous Processes:
- •Sentences with a While-Clause (see Table XIV).
- •The past dynamic to refer to processes begun or terminated when another process represented in its limits took place
- •The past dynamic to refer to processes correlated with a situation existing or a process occurring at the moment of speaking
- •Parallel uses of the past dynamic and anterior tenses
- •The past dynamic to refer to processes future relative to some moment in the past
- •Adverbs and adverbial phrases of time combined with the past dynamic
- •Verbs used in the past dynamic2
- •Miscellaneous
- •The future dynamic
- •Examples of Verbal Processes of Increasing Length
- •The future dynamic to refer to simultaneous processes
- •The future dynamic to refer to sequent processes
- •Adverbials of time combined with the future dynamic
- •Verbs used in the future dynamic3
- •Verbs used in the beforefuture static
- •Inclusive and Exclusive Processes
- •Verbs used in the beforepresent dynamic
- •Independent Clauses
- •Included Clauses
- •Verbs used in the beforepast dynamic
Preface to the second edition
In the period since it first appeared in 1969 the book has been widely used as, primarily, a manual of instruction for students attending courses of lectures and seminars on the grammatical content and use of the English tense-aspect forms, working at their term-papers and graduation theses, or preparing their papers for scientific circles and conferences. It has also served successfully for other students and teachers as a reference book that provides all kinds of scientifically well-grounded statistical information about the use of the tenses in different patterns, both syntactic and semantic, with different verbs and adverbials.
Nevertheless, numerous letters from all over the Ukraine and other Republics as well as personal talks with students, teachers and postgraduates have revealed a necessity for certain additions and explanations to the material of the first edition.
Though about 70% of the text-book is dedicated to the description .of the practical use of the tenses, it is certain theoretical aspects that have been found to be wanting additional elucidation, the most important of them being: a summarizing representation of the English tense-aspect system that includes now all Future-in-the-Past and Beforefu-ture-in-the-Past tenses (pages 45—,50); a section treating of the interrelation between the lexical meaning of the verb and their use in Dynamic forms (pp. 198—200); the Passive Voice frequency of use data.
Since the times of Roman grammarians attempts have been made to represent the time-relationships denoted by different English tenses graphically by dividing the line of time into such blocks as past and future, beforepast and beforefuture, afterpast, afterfuture, and so on. Such attempts have proved to be futile and been duly criticize1.
The book presents a completely new approach to the problem. Since tenses are special verb forms referring to certain time relationships and verbs are references to processes, the study of time content of the tenses must be, as it is in this book, based upon the time relations of processes to: (a) the moment of speaking (present-, past-, and future-time processes) and (b) one another (simultaneous, anterior, and posterior processes). The analysis given in the book shows that the time relationships of the first kind are the base for the three absolute tenses (the Present, the Past, and the Future of both Aspects); anteriority and posteriority for the relative tenses (anterior: the Beforepresent, Before-past, Beforefuture, and the Beforefuture-in-the-Past; and posterior: the Future-in-the-Past). All temporal forms, except the Beforefuture tenses, are used in speech in either of the two aspects — the Static or the Dynamic. An essential addition is a Table representing the tense-aspect system of the English verb (p. 50).
The author extends his deep gratitude to Prof. N. Rayevskaya and Prof. Y. Zhluktenko who reviewed the manuscript, to Prof. Zadorozhny and Assoc. Prof. S. Gursky of the University of Lvov, as well as to many others who gave their evaluation of the book and made valuable suggestions in personal talks with the author and in their letters to him.
CONTENTS
General Notions
The Verb 9
Actions and States . 9
Qualitative Characteristics of Processes 9
Verbal Modes of Action , 10
General and Variant Lexical'Meanings of Verbs . . , . 10
Terminative and Non-terminative Verbal Processes ... 10
Verbal Aspect .11
Finite and Non-finite Verbal Forms 11
Part I. Grammatical Content of the Finite Forms
Grammatical Categories of the English Verb 12
Time and Aspect Relations Denoted By the English Verbal
Forms і 12
Time Content of the Finite Verb Forms 13
Time Content of Present, Past, and Future Tenses (Absolute
Tenses) 14
Time Content of Anterior Tenses . 16
Irrelevancy of the Meaning of Simultaneousness for the
Grammatical Content of the Dynamic Tenses ..... 19
Aspectual Content of Tenses 21
Present, Past and Future Tenses (Absolute Tenses) ... 21 Beforepresent, Beforepast, and Beforefuture Tenses (Ante- rior Tenses) 35
Irrelevancy of the Meaning Concrete Process for the Gram- matical Content of the Dynamic Tenses 41
Irrelevancy of the Meanings Resultative Connections, Cur- rent Relevance, and Completeness for the Grammatical Con- tent of the Anterior Tenses 42
The System of the English Tenses • . . 45
Part II. The Use of the Tenses
Relative Frequency of the Tenses 51
Factors Influencing the Choice of the Tenses in Speech , . 55
The Use of Absolute Static Tenses 60
The Present Static 60
The Past Static 69
The Future Static 88
The Use of Absolute Dynamic Tenses 93
The Present Dynamic 93
The Past Dynamic . 108
The Future Dynamic ............. 126
The Use of Anterior Static Tenses 133
The Beforepresent Static 133
The Beforepast Static 153
The Beforefuture Static 165
The Use of Anterior Dynamic Tenses 168
The Beforepresent Dynamic 168
The Beforepast Dynamic 184
The Beforefuture Dynamic 198
Lexical Content of Verbs and Dynamic Tenses ...... 198
Part III. The Sequence of Tenses 201
Part IV. Exercises 208