Ways of Expressing Morphological Categories

The finite verb in the contrasted languages has six common morphological

categories which are realized partly with the help of synthetic means (inflexions)

and partly through different analytical means. An illustrative presentation of the

ways of realization of each morphological category is given in the table 6.

Table 6. REALIZATION OF MORPHOLOGICAL CATEGORIES

Morphological Means of realization

Category

In English in Ukrainian

Person I know: He knows Я знаю: Він знає

Number He reads: They read Він читає: Вона читає

Tenses

1. Absolute

use

2. Relative use

I work: I worked

He works: He will work

He said he had been seen

when he comes

she will ask – when he came

when he will come

Я працюю. Я працював

Він знає: Він знатиме

Він буде знати

Він прокинувся був, а потім

знов заснув

де він живе

я запитаю – де він жив

де він житиме

Aspect He works: He is working

(common/continuous)

Він читав: Він прочитав це

Вона зараз тренується

(доконаний/недоконаний)

Voice The house is/was built

The house is being built

It will be/have been built

Хата збудована/була, буде

збудована. Хата ставиться.

Хід зроблено.

Mood

Indicative: We love our parents.

Imperative: Don’t speak so loud!

Subjunctive: Come what may!

Ми любимо своїх батьків.

Не розмовляйте так голосно!

Хай буде, що буде!

The tabulated examples above testify to the existence of both isomorphic and allomorphic features in the nomenclature and means of expressing some morphological categories of the verb in the contrasted languages.

Absolute isomorphism is observed in the means of realization of the following morphological categories in the contrasted languages.

1. Person and number (with the help of synthetic means, i.e., inflexions only). Cf. He is - they are; I was – they were. Я пиш у – ви пиш ете. Я пис ав – ви писа ли.

2. The imperative mood form with no reference to a definite person, as in the following sentences: Stop talking! Sit still! Не розмовляти! Сидіти тихо!

3. The affirmative and some interrogative forms of the indefinite group of tenses and of the pluperfect (давноминулий) tense: I work. I work ed. I shall work. He had left before I arrived. Я прац юю. Я працю вав. Я буду працювати. Він приходив був, але мене не застав.

4. Isomorphism also exists a) In the correlation with the time of actions expressed: He says she lives in Kyiv. He said she lived in Kyiv. He will say they will live in Kyiv. I thought that she came/would come, had come. Similarly in Ukrainian: Він каже, що вона прийшла; він скаже, що вона прийде; він

казав, що вона приходила/приходила була; b) In the existence of tenses not correlating with the time of actions expressed in the main clause, eg: He will say that he knows/knew, had known it. Він скаже, що вона прийшла/приходила,

приходила була; c) In the existence of some identical forms expressing those same subjunctive mood meanings in English and Ukrainian. Cf. If I knew that before… Якби я знав це раніше… If I had known that before… Якби я був знав це раніше… Had I known that before… Знав би я був це раніше… Were she here then… Була б вона в той час тут…

d) In the existence of identical passive voice forms in the past and future Indefinite tense: He was invited. She will/will not be invited. Він був запрошений. Вона буде/не буде запрошена.

Allomorphic features find their expression in the ways of realization of some morphological categories in English and Ukrainian. These ways are as follows:

1. The use of analytical paradigms in English to express tense, aspect and

voice forms, and negative/interrogative forms, like He is reading now. Is he

reading now? Does/did he speak English? The passage is being translated. 2. The

absence in Ukrainian of the continuous aspect, whose durative meaning can be

expressed by the transitive verb stems with the suffixes –cь, -ся and a

corresponding adverb/adverbial phrase identifying the moment/period of the

action. Cf. Петренко зараз/ще, вже, давно будується.

3. The expression of the category of person in Ukrainian imperative mood

forms: Пиш и! Ти пиш и! Пиш іть! Ви пиш іть! Іди! Будьмо/будьте здорові!

Встань! Встань! Не вір!

Similarly, analytical imperative mood forms have corresponding personal

pronouns in English (Let me say. Let him/us say) and in Ukrainian – the particle нум or нумо (for singular or plural forms respectively) and person and number inflexions of the notional verb. Cf. Нум я запитаю. Нумо заспівайте!

4. The expression of the passive voice in Ukrainian, not only with the help of analytical forms (лист був/буде відісланий), but also with help of some

synthetic means: a) inflexions of the past participle; b) suffixes –сь, -ся of the

notional verb and c) with the help of the verbal forms in - но, -то: Стаття

написана.. Жито скошене. Фрески відновлені. Хата будується/будувалась. Музей зачинено.

A peculiar feature of passive constructions in English is their much more frequent use than in Ukrainian.

 

Isomorphism and allomorphism in the system of verbals of the contrasted languages.

The nomenclature of verbals in the contrasted languages includes some

common and some divergent forms. Common are the infinitive and the two

participles; divergent are the gerund in English and the diyepryslivnyk in

Ukrainian. Verbals from transitive verbs have the following categorical

distinctions in these two languages.

Table 7. CATEGORIAL DISTINCTIONS OF VERBALS

Infinitive active: to ask passive: to be asked активний: запитувати. пасивний: бути запитаним

Non-progressive active perfect: to have asked passive perfect:to have been asked

недоконаного виду: лить, цвісти, їсти

доконаного виду:

змити, зацвісти, поспати

Progressive infinitive active: to be asking perfect: to have been asking

Gerund active: asking passiv e: being asked active perfect: having asked passive perfect: having been asked

Дієприслівник

Активний теперішнього часу:йдучи, маючи, знаючи активний минулого часу:

йшовши, мавши, знавши

Participle I present active: asking present passive: being asked

perfect active: having asked perfect passive:having been asked

Дієприкметник активний теперішнього часу:читаючий, -а, -е, мигаю-чий, -а, -е

активний минулого часу:перемігший, здолавший

Participle II passive past: asked, made пасивний минулого часу: запрошений, пройдений

The tabulated forms of verbals testify to the existence of allomorphisms in

their structural forms and in their categorical meanings. Thus, the English infinitive

is always distinguished by its determiner “ to ” (to come, to be asked, to be doing),

whereas the Ukrainian infinitive is characterized by the suffixes – ти, -ть, -тись, -

тися. Allomorphism is observed in the categorical meanings of the infinitive and

the participle. The infinitive in Ukrainian has no perfect passive form, no

continuous aspect form, no perfect active and perfect passive of Participle I

pertaining to English.

The gerund and the diyepryslivnyk present allomorphic verbals and they

can not be contrasted in any way. The gerund has both verbals and noun

characteristics, the former being of those of tense and voice (asking – being asked,

having asked – having been asked). The noun characteristics of the gerund find

their expression in the functions in the sentence as subject, object, predicative, and

as an adverbial modifier of manner, eg: The rain poured down without ceasing

(Mugham).

Ukrainian diyepryslivnyk as an indeclinable verbal may be a) nonperfective

or present (несучи, працюючи) and b) perfective or past (донісши,привізши, здолавши, побачивши).

 

Characteristics of English vs. Ukrainian statives, ways of their formation and combinability

Statives in English and Ukrainian are invariable notional words whose

logico-grammatical function is to denote the physical state of persons, things or

phenomena, the psychological state of persons, state in motion, etc. English statives have a characteristic prefix a-: afire, aflame, alike, afloat, atremble, ashudder, etc. “The lamps were still alight…”. (Galsworthy) “I woke at six the next morning and found George awake ”. (J. K. Jerome) “He had been ashamed and afraid “. (Abrahams)

Ukrainian statives, on the other hand, are formed with the help of the

following suffixes: -о: Романові стало і прикро і якось соромно (Минко); -а: Треба хазяїну на хутір… Шкода журитись, молодичко! (М. Вовчок); -е: Добре Чіпці у діда підпасичем. (Мирний)

The category of state may be expressed by means of nouns (in English by

prepositional nouns only). Cf. “She seemed on fire ”. (Glasworthy) “You keep

me in the know”. (Ibid.) Сором слів, що ллються від безсилля. (Л. Українка)

Не раз він був у відчаї. (Стельмах)

Statives in the contrasted languages rarely correlate lexically. Thus, English

statives have mostly predicative verbs, adverbs or adjectives for their equivalents in Ukrainian. Cf. “ I lay awake a long time “. Ядовго не міг заснути. (Galsworthy). “ Ruth was aghast “. (London) Рут була приголомшена.

Among other isomorphic features one more should be pointed out: some

statives may have grading. Cf. He is more dead than alive. She was more

ashamed than anybody else. Йому стало краще. Нам тут гірше. Їй там було найкраще.