The category of correlation.

It`s expressed by the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms. The position of the perfect forms in the system of the English verb is a problem which has given rise to a lot of contradicting theories. In the first half of the last century the perfect was treated as a peculiar tense category.

e.g. Oto Yesperson, Sweet, Curme and some other linguists consider that the perfect should be classed in the same least as the present and past. The similar view is expressed in the book English Grammar by Ганшина и Василевская published in 1953.

Other linguist treated the perfect as an aspect category. This view was held by the number of grammarians incheoling professor Воронцова. Those who consider the perfect to be the part of the aspect system, have expressed different opinions about the meaning of the perfect forms.

The aspect expressed by the perfect forms has been defined as retrospective or resultative. The solution of the problem of the perfect forms was found by the prominent Russian linguist Smirnitsky whose contribution to the theory of the English verb is great indeed, Смирницкий paid attention to the peculiar structure of the perfect continuous forms in which the perfect form which expresses priority co-exists with the continuous form which denotes simultaneous action. The gist of his reasoning was that the perfect can`t be either aspect or a temporal category because 2 expressions of one and the same category are impossible in one and the same form. So professor Smirnitsky came to the conclusion that the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms constitutes a special grammatical category. He called this new category –the category of time correlation or tense-relativity.(временной соотнесенности) Later other terms for this category were suggested. Pr.Ильиш called this category –the category of correlation. In the book across the Eng.grammar by Хаймович, Половская this category is called the category of order or the cat.of time correlation.

Some foreign linguists use the term “phase”

e.g. Trager and Smith in the book “an outline of English structure” and prof.Бархударов «Очерки по морфологии современного англ.яз.» also uses this term phase in book. This category is called the category of retrospective.

The category of voice.

It shows the relation between the subject and the action.

e.g. He invited his friend.

He was invited by his friend.

The relation between the subject he and the action invite are different:

In the first sentence “he” performs the action.

It is the doer of the action

In the second sentence the subject “he” doesn`t action. It is not the doer of the action but the object of the action.

The category of voice is expressed by the opposition of the active and passive forms.

The passive voice is the marked member of the opposition. It is marked in meaning, because the passive voice has quite a definite meaning. It denotes that a subject is represented as acted upon. It`s marked in form (-ed)

And the active voice is the unmarked member of the opposition. It isn`t marked in form and meaning of the meaning of the act. It is less definite.

Active voice has several meaning.

1)the active meaning.

e.g. He asked a question. The subject he denotes the doer of the action.

2)medium meaning

The door opened. The book sells well.

Here the subject doesn`t denote either the doer or the object of the action. The verb in such sentences can`t be followed by the object with the preposition by.

3)reflexive

He washed and shaved.

The subject in such sentences denotes both the doer and the object of the action.

We may say: John dressed himself.

4)reciprocal (взаимные)

They met in the street. The subject in the plural form. It denotes the persone who acted and who were affected by the action.

Not all the verbs have the category of voice. With regard to the category of voice verbs may be divided into 2 subclasses: the verbs which form the Passive and the verbs which cannot form the Passive. The verbs which form the passive are transitive verbs. They include:

1)V-give

He gave me an apple. An apple was given to me. I was given an apple.

2)V-take.

He took an apple. An apple was taken by him.

3)V-look at which take prepositional objects.

They looked at him.

4)V-put

He put the stick in the corner of the room.

The category of mood.

Mood is the grammar category of the verb which serves to express modality.

That is the relation of the action, denoted by the verb to reality from the speaker`s point of view.

Modality may be expressed in different ways:

1)grammatically by means of the category of mood.

It`s autumn now –indicative mood

I wish it were autumn now-subj.2

2)lexico-grammatically by means of modal verbs. In modal verbs modality can be expressed twice: It is expressed lexically by the modal lexical meaning of these verbs and besides it is expressed grammatically by the form of the mood in which modal verbs are used.

I could help them-indicative mood.

I wish I could help them-subj.2

3)It may be expressed lexically by means of modal verbs and the verbs with a modal meaning.

Perhaps, maybe, certainly, to want, to wish, to know.

Maybe, he will come on time.

I want to call him up.

4)The phonetical expression of modality is by means of intonation. It`s possible to express insurance or doubt.

He is clever. I really think that he is clever.

 

He is clever. I don`t think so.

 

The category of mood in Modern English is a very complicated category and it has given rise to a lot of discussion and a lot of contracting opinions.

In the book “The structure of English” professor Ильиш writes that only 2 things are clear with regard to the category of mood: the first one-this category exists in the Eng.language. Point 2-there are at least 2 moods at this category and one of these moods is the indicative mood.

Professor Смирницкий considers that there are 6 moods:

1)The indicative mood

2)the imperative mood

3)Subjunctive 2

4) subjunctive 1

5)the suppositional mood

6) the conditional mood

Prof. Бархударов and Shtelling «Грамматика англ.яз» write that there are 5 moods:

1)indicative

2)imperative

3)subj. 1(but for him I wouldn`t have done it)

4)subj.2

5)conjunctive mood (I suggest you should do it at once. It`s impostant that you do it)

In the book by Кобрина, Корнеева, Осовская “English grammar”we find 3 moods:

1)the indicative

2)the imperative

3)the subjunctive

Professor Bloh in his book “a course of theoretical Eng. grammar”writes about 4 moods:

1)he points to the opposition of the direct mood

Indicative mood which represents an action as a real fact and oblique moods which represent action denoted by a verb as unreal. The indicative mood is the marked member of the opposition. They don`t characterize the action as a real fact and have a number of meanings:

1)The spective mood-спективное-he called it subjunctive.

It represents an action as desired or hypothetical action. Besides the meaning of desire includes supposition, suggestion, recommendation, inducement, command, order. It is equal to the imperative mood, subj.1 and the suppositional mood according to prof. Смирницкий.

2)the stipulative mood or subj.2

It denotes an unreal action on which other unreal actions depend. It is equal to subj.2 by Смирницкий

3)The consective mood or subj.3.

It is equal to the conditional mood by Смирницкий. It expresses an unreal action which depends on another unreal stipulative action.

If he were here he would help us.(к пункту 2)

The category of mood is so difficult because in this category there is no strict correlation between the form and the meaning. In other gram.categories it`s clear.

)in many cases the forms that sound alike express different modal meaning.

I knew( indicative) he would come. (future in the past)

If I knew (subj.2) that he would come (future in the past) I would come (the conditional mood) too.

2)in some cases different forms are used to express the same modal meaning.

I suggest that you do it(sub.1)-I suggest that you should do it.(the supl)

3)It`s not always easy to draw the line between the grammatical and lexico-gramm. expressions of modality.

e.g. Sometimes it`s difficult to say whether the verb “should” is a modal verb with the meaning “следует” or whether it`s an auxiliary verb, devoid of any meaning and used to form one of the oblique moods.

e.g. I suggest he should do it.

It`s annoying that the child should be naughty.

(it`s clear that it`s auxiliary verb)

In the Russian language subjunctive mood has only 1 form, the form which is homonymous with the past tense and the particle “бы”.

e.g. 1)Если бы он был здесь сейчас, он помог бы нам.

2)Если бы он был здесь вчера, он помог бы нам.

3)Я настаиваю, чтобы он помог нам.

4)If he were (subj.2) here he would help us.

5) If he had been here (sub.2) he would have helped us.(the conditional mood)

6)I insist that he should help us.(the supp.mood)

7)I insist that he help us.(subj.1)

To one form of the Russian subjunctive mood there are 4 different forms of English category of mood.

The conjunction.

The criteria:

1)in meaning conjunctions denote connection between things and phenomena.

2)in form conjunctions are unchangeable.

3)in function they can never be a separate past of the sentence. They are used to connect words, phrases, clauses and sentences.

According to the nature of connection which conj.express they are usually divided into coordinating(tive) and subordinating(tive)

Coordinating conjunctions.

C.conj.connect syntactical units which are equal in rank.

They are used in simple sentences, in compound sentences and some c.conj.are also used to connect independent sentences.

According to their meaning c.conj.are traditionally classified into the following 4 groups:

1)copulative conj-соединительные. And, as well as.

2) adversative –противительные but, still

3) disjunctive (either…or; neither…nor)

4)causative - resultative причинно-следственные so, therefore, for)

But the latest investigation show that the most typical conj.-and и but are polysemantic and have a number of meanings:

1)copulative

Peter and Vick went to school.

2)causative – resultative

It was raining and we decided not to go to the country.

3)the relations of contrast

My husband is handsome and her husband is ugly.

4)temporal relations

He went up to the table and she gave him a cup of tea.

5)the relations of condition

Take this medicine and you`ll feel better.

6)The relations of concession(уступки)

It was raining and (однако) you took the child out for a walk.

Subordinating conjunctions.

S.conj.are used to show the dependence of 1 syntactical unit or some others. They unite clauses which are not equal in rank. They are used in complex sentences to connect the subordinate clause with the principal clause.

Some sub.conj. may introduce a word or a phrase within a simple sentence.

e.g.If necessary, I`ll help him.

From the point of view of their structure the s.conj.are divided into:

1)simple conj. (that,if,when)

2)derived (because, supposing, provided)

3)correlative –соотнесенные (as….as..,not so…as)

4)conj.equivalents (союзные эквиваленты) (as soon as, for tear, in case, on condition, by the time, the way)

Many conj.equivalents are synonymous to simple or derived conj.and may be substituted by them.

e.g.In case (if) I`m late, ask him to wait for me.

Derived conj.are conj.equivalents appeared in Modern English their number is increasing. They are widely used both in written and spoken speech, especially in American English.

Investigation shows that the conj. “the way” is used more often than the conj.”how”. “By the time”is used more often than “before”.

According to their meaning and function s.conj.are usually classified into 2 main groups.

1)conj.which introduce subject, object, attribute and predicative clauses

e.g.That he is clever is known to everybody.

2)conj.which introduce different types of adverbal clauses.

They are subdivided into:

-conj.of time(after)

-conj.of place (where)

-of cause (since)

-of condition (if, in case)

The preposition.

1)meaning –“prepos.” denote relations between things and phenomena.

2)forms-prepos.are unchangeable.

3)function:prep.are never a separate part of the sentence.

They enter into phrases in which they are preceded by a noun, an adj., a numeral, a stative, a verb or an adverb, and are followed by nouns, adj, numerals, pronouns and gerunds.

The investigations show that perp.may be used as a part of a conj.equivalent to differentiate the relations between the main and the subordinate clause.

e.g. He smiled in spite of the fact that he was exhausted.

From the point of view of their structure prep.can be:

1)simple or primary (at, in, by)

2)compound (inside, within)

3)derived –производные (along, considering, during)

4)prep.equivalents (instead of, in front of, with the help of)

Many prep.equiv.are synonymous to prepositions.

In front of-before

On top of-on

The gram.meaning of prep.is expressed in the following way: prep.denote relations between things and phenomena, but besides each prep.has a lexical meaning of its own. It is clear from the following example: They went to (from, into, out of, through) the forest.

This sentence with different prepositions has diff.lexical meaning of prep.in them.

The lexical meaning of preposition is usually very general and abstract. The degree of abstraction depends on the structure of prep.

Simple prep.(in,at) have a very abstract lexical meaning and the meaning of prep.phrases with them depends on the meaning of the nouns which follow the preposition. If nouns which follow the prep.have a temporal meaning, the prep.phrase will have a temporal meaning too and answer the question “when?”

e.g.in the evening, at night, by January, on Monday.

If a noun following such a prep.has a local meaning that is connected with the idea of place, phrases with such prep.will answer the question “where?”

e.g.by the window, in that house, on the table.

The meaning of compound and derived prep.and prep.equivalents is less abstract.

e.g.the meaning of the prep.”because of”is so strong that it determines the meaning of prep.phrases irrespective of the meanings of the nouns in them.

e.g.Because of John, because of that place, because of that time, because of his love.

All these phrases answer the question why? And have a causal meaning due to the causal meaning of the prep.”because of”.

Combinability of prepositions:

Prepositions have bilateral (двустороннюю) combinability, that is they are combined with the verb or some other part of speech on the left hand and with a noun or a noun equivalents on the right hand.

e.g.Proud of John, afraid of going there

But there are cases when the left hand or the right hand connections are lost.

e.g.In my opinion he`ll come soon.

He hated to be laughed at.

The write hand connection of the prep.is omitted in the following cases:

1)with the verb in the passive voice

He was sent for.

2)in interrogative sentences which begin with “what, which, who”

Who are you waiting for?

3)in attribute clauses introduced by relative pronouns or without them

Here is the book which you have been looking for.

4)in subject clauses, introduced by Who?What?Which?

I wonder who this lecture is written for.