Noun. Article Determination.

The question is whether the article is a separate part of speech (i.e. a word)

or a word-morpheme. If we treat the article as a word, we shall have to admit that

English has only two articles - the and a/an. But if we treat the article as a wordmorpheme, we shall have three articles - the, a/an, ø.

B.Ilyish (1971:57) thinks that the choice between the two alternatives

remains a matter of opinion. The scholar gives a slight preference to the view that

the article is a word, but argues that “we cannot for the time being at least prove

that it is the only correct view of the English article”. M.Blokh (op. cit., 85)

regards the article as a special type ofgrammatical auxiliary. Linguists are only

agreed on the function of the article: the article is a determiner, or a restricter. The

linguistic status of the article reminds us of the status of shall/willin I shall/will go.

Both of the structures are still felt to besemantically related to their ‘parent’

structures: the numeral oneand the demonstrative that(O.E. se) and the modals

shalland will, respectively.

The articles, according to some linguists, do not form a grammatical

category. The articles, they argue, do not belong to the same lexeme, and they do

not have meaning common to them: a/an has the meaning of oneness, not found in

the, which has a demonstrative meaning.

If we treat the article as a morpheme, then we shall have to set up a

grammatical category in the noun, the category of determination. This category

will have to have all the characteristic features of a grammatical category: common

meaning + distinctive meaning.So what is common to a room and the room? Both

nouns are restricted in meaning, i.e. they refer to an individual member of the class

‘room’. What makes them distinct is that a room has the feature [-Definite], while

the room has the feature [+Definite]. In this opposition the definite article is the

strong member and the indefinitearticle is the weak member.

The same analysis can be extended to abstract and concrete countable nouns,

e.g. courage: a courage vs. the courage.

Consider: He has a courage equaled by few of his contemporaries.

vs. She would never have the courage to defy him.

In contrast to countables, restricted uncountables are used with two

indefinite articles: a/an and zero. The role of the indefinite article is to individuate

a subamount of the entity which is presented here as an aspect (type, sort) of the

entity.

Consider also: Jim has a good knowledge of Greek, where adenotes a

subamount of knowledge, Jim’s knowledge of Greek.

A certain difficulty arises when we analyze such sentences as The horse is

an animaland I see a horse. Do these nouns also form the opposemes of the

category of determination? We think that they do not: the horse is a subclass of the

animal class; a horse is also restricted - it denotes an individual member of the

horse subclass.

Cf. The horse is an animal. vs. A horse is an animal.

Unlike the nouns in the above examples, the nouns here exhibit

determination at the same level: both the horse and a horse express a subclass of

the animal class.

 

Verb: Person and Number.

 

As it can be seen, in Russian person isfully grammaticalized in the present

tense; grammatically, the personal pronouns are redundant: they merely reduplicate

the person information contained in the verb form.

In English, only the third person present tense singular form expresses

person grammatically; therefore, the verb forms are obligatorily associated with

personal pronouns. Special mention should be made of the modal verbs and the

verb be. Modal verbs, with the exception of shall/shouldand will/would, do not

show person grammatically.

The verb beis more grammaticalized in thisrespect: it takes an exception to

the other verbs.

As can be seen, it has two grammaticalized persons in the singular – first and third

person – and no grammaticalized persons in the plural. In the past tense, the verb

bedoes not distinguish person – withouta personal pronoun we cannot say which

person the form expresses.

To sum up, the category of person isrepresented in English by the twomember opposition: third person singular vs. non-third person singular. The

marked member of the opposition is third person; the unmarked member is nonthird person (it includes the remaining forms – first person, second person forms –

singular and plural). The opposition is privative both in the plane of content and in

the plane of expression.

The category of number shows whether the process is associated with one

doer or with more than one doer, e.g. He eats three times a day. The sentence

indicates a single eater; the verb is in the singular despitethe fact than more than

one process is meant.

The category of number is a two-memberopposition: singular and plural. An

interesting feature of this category is the fact that it is blended with person: number

and person make use of the same morpheme. As person is a feature of the present

tense, number is also restricted to the present tense.

Some verbs – modals – do not distinguish number at all. Still others are only

used in the plural because the meaning of ‘oneness’ is hardly compatible with their

lexical:

The boys crowded round him. vs.

*The boy crowded round him.

The soldiers regrouped and opened fire. vs.

*The soldier regrouped and opened fire.

The analysis of the examples demonstrates the weakness of the English verb

as concerns the expression of person and number and its heavy reliance on the

subject: it is the subject that is generally responsible for the expression of person

and number in English.

The forms of the type livest, takest, livedst, tookeststand outside the

grammatical system. They are associated with the personal pronoun thouand are

only used in religious and occasionally inpoetical texts and among Quakers. With

these forms the category of number appears within the category of the 2nd person

and the whole system of person and number(including the past tense) must be

presented in a different shape.

 

Verb. tense

Time is an unlimited duration in which things are considered as happening

in the past, present or future. Time stands for a concept with which all mankind is

familiar. Time is independentof language. Tense stands for a verb form used to

express a time relation. Time is the sameto all mankind while tenses vary in

different languages. Time can be expressed in languagein two basic ways: 1)

lexically; 2) grammatically.

The category of tense is considered tobe an immanent grammatical category

which means that the finite verb form always expresses time distinctions. The

category of tense finds different interpretations with different scholars.

According to one view, there are only two tenses in English: past and

present. Most British scholars do not recognize the existence of future. It is

considered to be a combination of the modal verb and an infinitive used to refer to

future actions. The modal verbs “shall”and “will”preserve their lexical meaning

of “wish, volition”. In that case combinations ofthe modal verbs with notional

verbs should be regarded as free syntactical constructions, not as analytical

structures. However, there are some examples in which the notion of volition

cannot be implied:

eg. He will die in a week.

I shall be twenty next Friday.

Provided that the situation is realistic, in these contexts lexical meanings of

“shall” and “will” are not present. These elements render only grammatical

meanings, therefore they serve as auxiliaries and such combinations must be

regarded as analytical structures. So wehave to recognize the existence of pure

futurity in English.

In traditional linguistics grammatical time is often represented as a threeform category consisting of the “linear” past, present and future forms. The

meaning of the category of tense is the relation of the action expressed by a finite

verb to the moment of speaking. Present denotes coincidence, past denotes a prior

action, future denotes a posterior action which follows the moment of speaking.

The future-in-the-past does not find its place in the scheme based on the linear

principle since it does not show any relation to the moment of speaking, hence this

system is considered to be deficient, not covering all lingual data. Those who deny

the existence of simple future in English consider future-in-the-past one of the

mood forms. Those who recognize the existence of simple future argue that it is

used in the same situation when simple future is used, in subordinate clauses when

the principal clause contains a past form. So, this form is different only in one

respect – it is dependent on the syntactic structure.

According to the concept worked out by Prof. Blokh, there exist two tense

categories in English. The first one – the category of primary time – expresses a

direct retrospective evaluation of the time of the process denoted. It is based upon

the opposition of past vs. present, the past tense being its strong member. The

second one – the category of “prospective time” – is based onthe opposition of

“after-action” and “non-after-action”, the marked member being the future tense.

 

Verb. Aspect

The category of aspect is a linguistic representation of the objective category

of manner of action. It is realizedthrough the opposition Continuous::NonContinuous (Progressive::Non-Progressive). The opposition is privative both in the

plane of content and in the plane of expression. It is easily neutralized, i. e. noncontinuous forms substitute continuous forms when the notion of duration is

expressed by other means (eg. lexical).

The realization of the category of aspectis closely connected with the lexical

meaning of verbs. There are some verbs inEnglish that do not normally occur with

progressive aspect, even in those contexts in which the majority of verbs

necessarily take the progressive form. Among the so-called ‘non-progressive’

verbs are think, understand, know, hate, love,see, taste, feel, possess, own, etc. The

most striking characteristic that they have in common is the fact that they are

‘stative’ - they refer to a state of affairs, rather than to an action, event or process.

It should be observed, however, that all the ‘non-progressive' verbs take the

progressive aspect under particular circumstances. As the result of internal

transposition verbs of non-progressive nature can be found in the Continuous form:

Now I'm knowing you.Generally speaking the Continuous form has at least two

semantic features - duration (the action is always in progress) and definiteness (the

action is always limited to a definite pointor period of time). In other words, the

purpose of the Continuous form is to serve as a frame which makes the process of

the action more concrete and isolated.

A distinction should be made betweengrammatical aspect and semantic

aspectuality. English has an aspect systemmarked by the presence or absence of

the auxiliary becontrasting progressive and non-progressive. The major

aspectuality contrast is between perfective and imperfective. With perfective

aspectuality the situation described in a clause is presented in its totality, as a

whole, viewed, as it were, from the outside. With imperfective aspectuality the

situation is not presented in its totality, but viewed from within, with focus on the

internal temporal structure or on some subinterval of time within the whole. The

main use of progressive forms is to express a particular subtype of imperfective

aspectuality.

As for the Russian verb, it has two aspects, the perfective and the

imperfective. It is obvious at once that there is no direct correspondence between

English and Russian aspects; for instance, the English continuous aspect is not

identical with the Russian imperfective. The relation between the two systems is

not so simple as all that. On the onehand, the English common aspect may

correspond not only to the Russian perfective but also to the Russian imperfective

aspect; thus, he wrote may correspond both to написалand to писал. On the other

hand, the Russian imperfective aspect may correspond not only to the continuous

but also to the common aspect in English; thus, писалmay correspond both to was

writing and to wrote.

Verb. Voice.

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 realizedthrough the opposition Active

voice::Passive voice. The passive is markedboth in meaning and in form and the

active as unmarked both in meaning and in form.

The realization of the voice category isrestricted because of the implicit

grammatical meaning of transitivity/intransitivity. In accordance with this

meaning, all English verbs should fall intotransitive and intransitive. However, the

classification turns out to be morecomplex and comprises 6 groups:

1. Verbs used only transitively: to mark, to raise;

2. Verbs with the maintransitive 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 passiveconstructions 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 to 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 onepassive construction — the direct

passive, e.g.: to bring, to do, toplay, 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 sametime. 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 differentvoices, because all these meanings

are not expressed morphologically.

 

Verb. Mood.

A great divergence of opinions on the category of mood is caused by the fact

that identical mood forms can express different meanings and different forms can

express similar meanings.

The category of mood expresses the relation of nominative content of the

sentence towards reality. Hence there are two moods – one presenting the action as

real and the other presenting the action asunreal. Real actions are expressed by the

indicative mood and unreal are expressed by the oblique mood.

I go to university. vs. He suggests I (should) go to university.

I am a student again. vs. I wish I were a student again.

As for the imperative mood, traditionally ithas been referred to as a separate

mood. However, Prof. Blokh thinks thatthe imperative is a variety of the

subjunctive. This can be shown by means of equivalent transformations:

Be off! _ I demand thatyou (should) be off.

Do be careful with the papers. _ My request is that you (should) be careful

with the papers.

Do as I ask you! _ I insist that you (should) do as I ask you.

As it can be seen, the meaning of the imperative does not much differ from

the meaning of the subjunctive. It expresses a directive which may or may not be

translated into a fact. Thusif we agree with M. Blokh, we shall have only two

moods – the indicative and the non-indicative, or spective.

Speaking of the system of oblique moods, linguists distinguish various

semantic varieties: Subjunctive I, Subjunctive II, Conditional, Suppositional.

Subjunctive I So be it. Long live the Queen.

Subjunctive II If I had / had had time

Conditional I would go / would have gone there

Suppositional I demand that he should be present

These moods are distinguished on the basis of meaning which is coloured by

the linguistic environment of the forms, i.e. these are ‘modal’ varieties of the

subjunctive mood.

Subjunctive II and Conditional are used in a conditional period. They have

two forms – either homonymous to Past Indefinite and Future-in-the-Past, or to

Past Perfect and Future-Perfect-in-the-Past.

Prof. Khlebnikova analyzed the morphological system of the English verb

on the basis of oppositions. She paid proper attention to the fact that all these forms

are united by one meaning – that of unreality. Since the meaning is one, but forms

are different, she made the conclusion that there is only one oblique mood

presented by two subtypes.

Subjunctive II and Conditional are more important than the other two

because they are indispensable and sufficient in the system, that is, one cannot do

without them, but can easily do withoutthe other two. Subjunctive II and

Conditional express the same meaning and don’t exist independently, so they can

be united into one mood. Prof. Khlebnikova called this mood Conjunctive.

Subjunctive I and Suppositional are on the periphery of the system. The

former is a remnant of history. It has fallen out of the system and is used in

restricted contexts, such as religious hymns, slogans, etc. The latter is a new

formation that has not entered into the system yet. It is used in specific syntactic

structures, eg., after verbs ‘demand’, ‘suggest’, etc. Another indication that

Subjunctive I and Suppositional are on the periphery of the system is that they are

synonymous and interchangeable in the structure.

To sum up, the category of mood is represented by two oppositions: the

indicative mood and the spective mood. The indicative mood is the basic mood of

the verb. Morphologically it is the most developed system. Semantically, it is a fact

mood; it is the least subjective of all the moods. The spective mood, which

includes the traditional imperative and the subjunctive mood, represents a process

as a non-fact, i.e. as something imaginary, desirable,problematic, contrary to

reality. The imperative variety of the spective mood is morphologically the least

developed mood: it is only expressed by the bare infinitive form.

 

Analytical Forms

An analytic language is a language that conveys grammatical relationships without using inflectional morphemes. Analytical forms are combinations of the auxiliary element (a word morpheme) and the notional element: is writing. In the analytical form is writing the auxiliary verb be is lexically empty. It expresses the, grammatical meaning. The notional element expresses both the lexical and the grammatical meaning. So the grammatical meaning is expressed by the two components of the analytical form: the auxiliary verb be and the affix ing. The word-morpheme be and the inflexion -ing constitute a discontinuous morpheme. Analytical forms are mostly proper to verbs. An analytical verb-form consists of one or more form words, which have no lexical meaning and only express one or more of the grammatical categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, mood, and one notional word, generally an infinitive or a participle: e. g. He has come, I am reading. Some verb phrases, as the Perfect forms have been completely grammatized, – the first components have completely lost their lexical meanings and became pure auxiliaries. Some of them have not been fully grammatized to this day and are not regarded as ideal analytical forms (for instance, the Future tenses). The analytical way of form-building was a new device, which developed in Late OE and ME. Analytical forms developed from free word groups (phrases, syntactical constructions). The first component of these phrases turned into a grammatical marker, while the second component retained its lexical meaning and acquired a new grammatical value in the compound form.. A true analyt.form is idiomatic in character, the overall meaning of the form is not immediately dependent on the individual meaning of its constituents. It's NOT a sum of meanings of its components. An analyt.form also functions as a gramm. form of a single word. such phrases «as most interesting» are not an analytical form, because it is not idiomatic enough.