16. Adjective.Degrees of comparison

The adjective expresses the categorial semantics of property of a substance, each adjective used in text presupposes relation to some noun. Unlike nouns, adjectives do not possess a full nominative value.

All adjectives are traditionally divided into 2 large subclasses: qualitative and relative.

Relative adjectives are determined by the direct relation of the substance to some other substance (e.g. wood – a wooden hut, history – a historical event). Qualitative adjectives denote various qualities of substances which admit of a quantitative estimation, i.e. of establishing their correlative quantitative measure. (e.g. a difficult task – a very difficult task).

The adjective functions may be grammatically divided into ‘evaluative’ and ‘specificative’. One and the same adjective can be used either in one or the other function.

e.g. good is basically qualitative, but used as a grading term in teaching it acquires the specificative value (bad, satisfactory, good, excellent).

On the whole, the number of adjectives which can be recog¬nized as such by their suffix seems to be insignificant as compared with the mass of English adjectives.

The degrees of comparison

The categ. of degrees of comparison is a system of oppositions showing quantitative distinctions of qualities.

We speak of 3 degrees of comparison:

Positive – comparative – superlative.

The positive degree is not marked. We may speak of a zero morpheme. The comparative and superlative degrees are built up either synthetically (by affixation or suppletivity) or analytically (with the help of word-morphemes more and most).

Some authors treat more beautiful and the most beautiful not as analytical forms, but as free syntactical combinations of adverbs and adjectives. One of the arguments is that less and least form combinations with adjectives similar to those with more and most: e.g. more beautiful – less beautiful, the most beautiful – the least beautiful.

One must not forget that more and most are not only word-morphemes of comparison. They can be notional words. They are polysemantic and polyfunctional words. One of the meanings of most is ‘very, exceedingly’ (a most interesting book).

The notional word more in the meaning ‘to greater extent’ can also be used to modify adjectives, e.x. It’s more grey than brown. More grey here is a combination of words.

The positive degree does not convey the idea of comparison. Its meaning is absolute.

17. The Verb. Tense

The category of tense – a verbal category, which reflects objective category of time and expresses on this background the relations b/n the time of the action and the time of the utterance. In Engl. 3 tenses (past, pr., fut.). Doubts about the existence of a future tense (Jespersen): Engl. has no way of expressing “pure futurity”, i.e it has no f-m standing on the same gram. level as the forms of the past and pr. A pr. tense may be used when the action belongs to the fut. (pr. cont.:- she is going). So 3 main divisions of time are represented in the verbal sys-m by 3 tenses. Each of them may appear in the common and in the contin. aspect- 3 tense aspect forms. Besides, there are 2 more: the fut-in-the-past and the fut-cont-in-the-past. These forms are used chiefly in subordinate clauses depending on a main clause having its predicative v-bin one of the past tenses. However they can be found in independent clauses as well. In many sent-s of this kind the relation b/n the action denoted by the verb form and the time of the utterance remains uncertain: the action may or may not have taken place already. N. Irtenyeva: the sys-m is divided into 2halves: 1) tenses centering in the pres; 2) t-s centering in the past. 1- comprises pres., pr.perfect., fut., pr. cont., pr. perf. cont; 2- past, past perf., fut-in-the-past, past cont., past perf. cont. Two fut. tenses are included into the past and the pres. A. Korsakov: the sys-m of absolute and anterior tenses and of static and dynamic tenses. Dynamic- tensess of the contin. aspect; anterior- tenses of the perfect correlation. The sys-m has yet to be worked out

18. The Verb. Voice. The verbal category of voice shows the direction of the process as regards the participants of the situation reflected in the syntactic construction. The category of voice presents its own batch of difficulties. Thus, for instance, in the sentence I opened the door and in the sentence the door opened the meaning is obviously different, whereas the form of the verb is the same in both cases. To give another example: in the sentence he shaved the customer and in the sentence he shaved and went out the meaning is different (the second sentence means that he shaved himself), but no difference is to be found in the form of the verb.

As to the definition of the category of voice, there are two main views. According to one of them this category expresses the relation between the subject and the action. According to the other view, the category of voice expresses the relations between the subject and the object of the action.

Before we start on our investigation, however, we ought to define more precisely what is meant by the expression "relation between subject and action". Let us take two simple examples: He invited his friends and He was invited by his friends. The relations between the subject (he) and the action (invite) in the two sentences are different since in the sentence He invited his friends he performs the action, and may be said to be the doer, whereas in the sentence He was invited by his friends he does not act and is not the doer but the object of the action. There may also be other kinds of relations, which we shall mention in due course.

The category of voice is realized through the opposition Active voice: Passive voice. From the point of view of form the passive voice is the marked member of the opposition: its characteristic is the pattern "be + second participle", whereas the active voice is unmarked: its characteristic is the absence of that pattern.

It should be noted that some forms of the active voice find no parallel in the passive, viz. the forms of the future continuous, present perfect continuous, past perfect continuous, and future perfect continuous.

It is evident that the problem of voice is very intimately connected with that of transitive and intransitive verbs. It is far from clear whether transitivity is a grammatical notion, or a characteristic of the lexical meaning of the verb.

In view of such constructions as he was spoken of, he was taken care of, the bed had not been slept in, etc., we should perhaps say that the vital point is the objective character of the verb, rather than its transitivity: the formation of a passive voice is possible if the verb denotes an action relating to some object.

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 same time. 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.