Aspect and the lexical character of the verb

• dynamic verbs (normally used in the Continuous):

1. activity and process verbs (ask, drink, eat, change, throw) often indicate incomplete actions in progress;

2. verbs of bodily sensation (ache, feel, hurt) can have common or continuous aspect with little difference in meaning;

3. transitional event verbs (arrive, leave, die, fall) in the Continuous form, only imply the approach to the transition;

4. momentary / point action verbs (hit, jump, knock, nod) express repetition.

• Stative verbs (normally disallow continuous forms):

1. verbs of mental perception and cognition (astonish, believe, doubt, know, love, prefer, wish) admit of the continuous forms only when they change their meaning:

I think you're right. – I'm thinking of you all the time;

(Stative) (dynamic)

2. relational verbs (be, belong, consist, have, seem, need). However:

I'm sorry I'm being clumsy.

He's always having to check his emotions.

You're wishing I hadn't done it.

(stylistic transposition of the marked form)

Aspect with terminative and durative verbs

Durative verbs

the difference between Common and Continuous forms is purely grammatical and can be neutralized: He is working on some kind of invention. -- He works on some kind of invention.

Terminative verbs

Common and Continuous forms are not interchangeable because of the important semantic difference: He broke three cups. — He was breaking cups. The bus stopped. — The bus was stopping.

 

 

The category of Voice

• Morphological expression of the relations between the action, its subject and object.

• grammatical Subject and Object (подлежащее и дополнение);

• semantic subject and object (субъект и объект);

• The form of the verb shows what semantic roles the grammatical Subject and Object perform in the sentence.

ACTIVE -The action issues from the grammatical Subject coinciding with the semantic subject – the doer of the action): He wrote the letter.

S_gr/sem O_gr/sem

PASSIVE -The action is experienced by the grammatical Subject (the semantic object), the Subject is acted upon: The letter was written (by him)

S_gr= O_sem O_gr= S_sem

VOICE opposition

• Covers both finite and non-finite forms of the verb: writes^-- – is written⁺ to write^-- – to be written⁺ writing^-- – being written⁺

• The Passive form (marked / strong member of the opposition) — analytical: to be + Participle II

• discontinuous morpheme: be…en

• meaning of the marked member: the grammatical Subject is acted upon, it receives the action from the outside.

ACTIVE (weak member)

• presents the action as originating in the grammatical Subject, the Subject is not acted upon:

Lexically active (Kill, beat, break, etc.) and passive (suffer, see, hear, etc) (lexically passive in the active voice) verbs

The Middle / Neuter Voice?

The door opened; The paper burned; The water boiled.

• the form of the verb is active;

• the grammatical meaning: the process is going on in the Subject Є the grammatical meaning of the Active Voice: the Subject is NOT acted upon from the outside.

• Lexically passive verbs in the active voice.

Reflexive and Reciprocal Voices?

Verbs in the active form + reflexive pronouns – myself, yourself, ourselves, etc. or reciprocal pronouns – each other, one another —

free phrases and not analytical forms of the reflexive or reciprocal voices:

• the pronouns preserve their respective lexical meanings;

• can function as separate parts of the sentence:

She washed herself and her child (homogeneous objects).

Voice and Syntactic Structure

The Active construction

• for objective transitive verbs) – three obligatory elements: Subject, Predicate, Object: They cooked a slap-up supper.

• for subjective intransitive verbs – Subject, Predicate (no Object): He smiled. The door opened.

The Passive construction

• Essentially two-member: has only two obligatory members – the Subject ( Semantic object) and the Predicate (the Object = the semantic subject – is optional) – short Passive: I was much interviewed and much photographed.

• the semantic subject may be expressed by the grammatical prepositional object (by-object) – long Passive: He was surrounded [by a ring of men].

Verbs used in the Passive Voice

• Most transitive verbs (except have, resemble, lack, become, suit, fail, cost, etc.);

• objective verbs: He did not attend to the sick man. – The sick man was not attended to.

• some intransitive verbs: Her bed this morning has not been slept in. The house has not been long lived in.

Peculiarities of English Passive Constructions

• Verbs admitting of two objects can have two passive constructions (give, buy, bring, ask, promise, show, teach, tell, etc.). He gave the girl (O_i) a doll (O_d). — (1) A doll was given (to the girl). (2) The girl was given a doll.

• a verb in the Passive Voice can be followed by a direct Object: They are denied their civil rights.

 

 

MOOD and MODALITY

• Mood – grammatical category of the verb expressing modality (a morphological expression of modality);

• Modality – a broad linguistic conceptual category denoting the speaker's evaluation of reality.

• Means of expressing modality:

- phonetic (intonation, prosody);

- lexical (modal verbs, modal words, words with a modal meaning);

- grammatical (moods).

Modality

• Linguistic o bjective modality – the relation of the action to reality as stated by the speaker (the speaker presents the action as a real or imaginary, problematic fact).

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

• expressed morphologically by the category of Mood.

• Linguistic subjective (secondary) modality – the subjective evaluation of the event by the speaker or the doer of the action.

• expressed lexically:

(a) modal verbs or verbs with a modal meaning: I must apologize to you. He wanted to leave;

(b) modal words: Unfortunately, he fell ill.

Category of Mood

• the grammatical category of the verb reflecting the relation of the action denoted by the verb to reality from the speaker's point of view.

• Mood is characteristic only of finite forms of the verb: a predicative category.

Mood meanings

• the Indicative (читаю – читал – буду читать), represents an action as a real fact in the present, past or future;

• the Imperative (читай – читайте), represents an action as a direct urge in the form of a command, request, etc.;

• the Subjunctive (читал бы), represents an action as a non-fact – imaginary, problematic, contrary to reality.

The category of Mood in English (established facts):

• There IS a category of Mood in English;

• There are at least two Moods in English;

• There is the Indicative Mood in English.

disputable number of moods in English:

• 2 moods: indicative and imperative ( L.S.Barkhudarov);

• 3 moods: indicative, imperative, subjunctive (B.A.Ilyish, I.P.Ivanova –the tradit. point of view);

• 6 moods: indicative, imperative and 4 oblique (A.I.Smirnitsky);

• 7 moods: indicative, optative (imperative, desiderative), speculative (G.N. Vorontsova);

• 15-16 moods (M. Deutschbein, E. Nida)

• V.Ya. Plotkin denies the existence of the category of Mood in English altogether.

Subjunctive Mood forms

• be/go – subordinate nominal and adverbial clauses of purpose and concession He suggested that he come for her.

• were/went – object clauses after the verb to wish, after it's high time, in adverbial clauses with the conjunctions if, as if, even if: He looked at me as if he were enjoying a good joke at my expense.

A. I. Smirnitsky’s classification

• Based on the unity of form and meaning: each form is characterized by its peculiar modal meaning and its peculiar distribution.

• The Suppositional Mood is parallel to the synthetic form of Subjunctive I and is interchangeable with it. Both the forms are in non-contrastive distribution (same meaning in the same position). Should + Infinitive is a free (modal) phrase and NOT an analytical mood from.

Subjunctive II and Conditional

• the same modal meaning (hypothetical actions, contrary to reality).

• should/would + Infinitive and were/asked are in complementary distribution (same meaning in different positions).

• L.S. Barkhudarov and D.A. Shteling consider were/asked and should/would be/ask as the synthetic and analytical varieties of the same Subjunctive Mood.