Lecture 6

4

Lecture 6: Non-finite forms of the verb in English and Ukrainian

Contents

1. Non-finite forms of the verb: general characteristics.

2. Infinitive in English and Ukrainian.

3. The English Participle versus Ukrainian дієприкметник and дієприслівник.

4. The English Gerund.

1. The system of non-finite forms (verbals or verbids) of English and Ukrainian verbs differs. The only common verbal form is the Infinitive (the indefinite form of the verb). The English gerund has no counterpart in Ukrainian. English Participle corresponds to the Ukrainian дієприкметник and дієприслівник.

The verbids have certain features of their own distinguishing them from the finite verb:

(1) The lexico-grammatical meaning of dual nature. The verbal meaning of “action, process” is presented as some kind of “substance” (for gerunds, infinitives) or “quality” (for participles).

(2) Verbals have peculiar morphemes, e. g. in English: -ing (gerund, participle I), -ed, -en (participle II), to (infinitive); in Ukrainian: -ти (for infinitives) -ий (for participles).

(3) There is duality in verbids’ combinability. They form connections with adverbs, nouns, pronouns (denoting objects of action), like finite verbs, and with finite verbs like nouns or adverbs.

The gerund may be preceded by a preposition and a possessive pronoun, like a noun: One could see that without his even speaking. The participle is regularly connected with nouns, like adjectives, and with verbs, like adverbs: his smiling eyes, smiling slyly.

(4) The verbids rarely perform the syntactic functions of predicates, but they are used in almost any other function in the sentence.

One of the peculiarities of English verbids is their being used as secondary predicates: I saw them dancing. The phenomenon of “secondary predication” constructions is a peculiar feature of the English language not found in Ukrainian.

2. The infinitive is a verbid characterized by the following features:

(1) Its dual lexico-grammatical meaning of “action, process partially viewed as a substance”.

(2) Typical word-building elements of the infinitive differ greatly in both languages.

The English infinitive is characterized by the word-morpheme “to”. It is a group-morpheme of the infinitive, as “to” can represent the whole analytical word: Will you go? – I want to (go).

Similar to other word-morphemes, “to” can be separated from the rest of the analytical word by some other word or words. In this case linguists speak of the split infinitive: It is necessary to somehow arrange it.

The infinitive is used without its word-morpheme “to” after some verbs and verbal expressions, namely, a) after modal verbs (except ought, have); b) verbs of physical perception (to see, to hear, to observe, to perceive, to watch); c) to make, to let; d) had better, would rather, etc.

In Ukrainian the infinitive is characterized by the following typical stem-building morphemes: suffixes -ти (-ть); -ну, -ува (-юва), -а, -и, і (ї) + -ти: стукнути, мандрувати, гостювати, читати, бачити, уміти.

A very peculiar phenomenon of the Ukrainian language is the forms of the infinitive with the diminutive meaning, formed with the help of suffixes: спатоньки, спатусі.

(3) The grammatical categories of voice and aspect.

ASPECT	VOICE
	Active	Passive
non-perfect, non-continuous	to write	to be written
non-perfect, continuous	to be writing	---
perfect, non-continuous	to have written	to have been written
perfect, continuous	to have been writing	---

There are no passive forms of the English infinitive of the continuous aspect.

The paradigm of the Ukrainian infinitive is characterized by the general verb categories of transitiveness – intransitiveness, voice and aspect (стояти – стати, укривати – укрити, умивати – умитися, будувати – бути збудованим).

The peculiarity of the English infinitive is the fact that it has the category of tense which is expressed not absolutely but relatively. The tense of the infinitive is subordinated to the tense meaning of the finite verb form, performing the function of the predicate in the sentence. Thus the forms of the infinitive of the common and continuous aspects can render the action simultaneous with the action of the verb-predicate (I’m glad to see/ to be speaking to him). The perfect form of the infinitive points to the fact that the action denoted by it is prior to the action expressed by the verb-predicate (I’m glad to have seen him).

From the whole system of forms only two forms of the active and passive state of the common aspect have their correspondences in Ukrainian: to ask – питати, to be asked – бути запитаним. Other forms of the infinitive do not have their correspondences in Ukrainian and are mainly rendered with the help of subordinate clauses (They want to be invited their. – Вони хочуть, щоб їх туди запросили).

(4) The combinability of the infinitive resembles that of the verb (to speak fluently; We expected you to bring the book), and partially that of the noun (To land seemed impossible; I promised to come).

(5) The infinitive performs the syntactic functions of subject, object, attribute, adverbial modifier in English. In Ukrainian the infinitive can function usually as a part of both simple and compound verbal predicates: Семінар буде проходити у травні. Лікар пропонував відмовитись від операції.

One more peculiar feature of the infinitive in both contrasted languages is its ability to build analytical forms like shall bring, will bring, should bring, would bring, буду писати, etc.

The English infinitive can enter a number of syntactic constructions (Complex Subject, Complex Object) in the function of the secondary predicate.

3. Participle as the English verbal form combines both the features of adjective and adverb. Being used in the attributive meaning, it corresponds to the Ukrainian дієприкметник, but when it is used in the circumstantial meaning, it corresponds to the Ukrainian дієприслівник.

The English Participle. The English Participle is characterized by a rather complex system of forms, in particular: Participle I or Present Participle in active and passive states (finishing, being finished), Participle II or Past Participle (finished) and Perfect Participle in active and passive states (having finished, having been finished).

The active Participle I (swimming) can correspond to the Ukrainian дієприкметник of the present tense (плаваючий) or to the verbal descriptive attributive construction (той, хто плаває) or to дієприслівник (плаваючи).

The passive Participle I (being asked) corresponds usually to the Ukrainian verbal descriptive construction (коли мене запитали), more seldom to the Ukrainian дієприслівник.

The Participle II mainly corresponds to the Ukrainian passive дієприкметник (finished – закінчений, закінчуваний).

The Perfect Participle mainly corresponds to the Ukrainian дієприслівник of the past tense, or the verbal descriptive construction: having finished – закінчивши/ після того, як я закінчив; having been finished – після того, як його закінчили.

Having the present and perfect forms, the English participle expresses the category of tense. Participle I mainly stresses the simultaneous character of the action denoted by it with the action denoted by the predicate, whereas the Perfect Participle shows the action which was prior to the action of the predicate and was finished till the beginning of another action.

The category of aspect is revealed by the English participle inconsistently and in a limited way (непослідовно й обмежено). The aspect meaning of its forms is usually subordinated to their tense meaning and is not always expressed clearly. Participle I in the attributive function has mainly the aspect processual meaning (the man smoking – людина, яка зараз курить). Past and Perfect Participles have the aspect meaning of the action completeness (done, having done – зроблений, зробивши).

The English Participle can enter as a constituent part specific English syntactic constructions (Absolute Participial Construction, Complex Object with the Participle, etc.).

Ukrainian дієприкметник. Since the Ukrainian дієприкметник bears the meaning of two parts of speech – the verb and the adjective, it has some categories of verbal as well as attributive character.

In modern Ukrainian active participles of the present tense with suffixes -уч- (-юч-), -ач- (-яч-) (ростучий, виконуючий, правлячий) are used rather rarely. In corresponding cases more often the attributive construction of the type той (який), що росте/ виконує/ править is used. Compare with the English Participle I: growing, fulfilling, ruling.

Active participles of the past tense of the perfective aspect are formed with the help of the suffix -л- (осиротілий, зітлілий, пожовклий). Compare with the English descriptive constructions of the type who became thin, who wrote (was writing, has written). Compare with the English Participle I of the passive state (being discussed, being used), or with the English Participle IІ (discussed, used).

Passive participles of the present tense are not formed in modern Ukrainian.

Passive participles of the past tense are formed with the help of the suffixes -т-, -н-, -ен- (-єн-) from the verbs of the perfective aspect: написаний, згаданий, вжитий. Compare with the English Participle IІ: written, mentioned, used.

Similarly to normal adjectives of the hard group, the Ukrainian дієприкметник is declined according to gender, number, and case.

Following is the contrastive analysis of the English Participle and the Ukrainian дієприкметник:

(1) The dual lexico-grammatical meaning of “qualifying action”.

(2) Typical stem-building elements. Special suffixes -ing (Participle I), -ed, -t, -en (Participle II) in English. Suffixes -уч- (-юч-), -ач- (-яч-) for active дієприкметникs and -т-, -н-, -ен- (-єн-) for passive дієприкметникs in Ukrainian.

(3) The grammatical category of voice in English, and the grammatical categories of tense, aspect, and voice as well as gender, number, and case in Ukrainian.

Participle I		Participle II
VOICE		written
Active	Passive
writing	having written
having written	having been written

(4) Its peculiar combinability partly resembling that of the verb (with adverbs, nouns, pronouns denoting objects of action), and partly that of the adjective (it modifies nouns) and of the adverb (it modifies verbs).

(5) Its most characteristic functions of attribute, adverbial modifier, etc.

Ukrainian дієприслівник. Дієприслівник is the peculiar Ukrainian verbid combining the features of the verb and the adverb. It points towards some additional action and explains the main one, expressed by the finite verb. Thus, it is characterized by the following features:

(1) Its lexico-grammatical meaning of the “character or quality of some action”.

(2) Its typical stem-building elements depend upon the type of дієприслівник.

Дієприслівникs of the imperfective aspect (of the present tense) are formed from the base of the present tense of verbs of the imperfective aspect with the help of the suffixes -учи(сь)-, -ючи(сь)-, -ачи(сь)-, -ячи(сь)-: пишучи, співаючи, стоячи. Compare with the English Participle I of the active voice: writing, singing.

Дієприслівникs of the perfective aspect (of the past tense) are formed directly from the form of the masculine gender singular of the past tense of the perfective aspect with the help of the suffixes -ши(сь), -вши: приніс – принісши, умився – умившись. Compare with: a) the English Perfect Participle of the active state: Закінчивши роботу, ми пішли додому. – Having finished our work, we went home; b) the English Participle I of the active voice: Він стояв, прихилившись до стіни. – He stood leaning against the wall; с) the English Gerund with the preposition: Виконавши завдання, він повернувся додому. – After fulfilling the task he returned home.

(3) Дієприслівник is the indeclinable form of the word similar to adverb. It has common with the verb grammatical categories of tense, aspect, and voice.

Aspect characteristics are expressed very distinctly, where дієприслівникs of the imperfective aspect correlate with verb forms of the present tense: друкують – друкуючи, сміються – сміючись, and the forms of the perfective aspect correlate with verb forms of the past tense: відмовив – відмовивши, приїхав – приїхавши.

Some дієприслівникs can undergo the process of adverbialization: Чайка скиглить літаючи, мов за дітьми плаче (Т. Шевченко).

4. The gerund as a verbid is characterized by the following features:

(1) Its dual lexico-grammatical meaning of “an action partially viewed as a substance”.

(2) The typical group morpheme -ing.

(3) The grammatical category of:

1. voice: active (writing, having written) and passive (being written, having been written);

2. tense: the present (simultaneous action) and the perfect forms (prior action);

3. aspect: It is connected with the category of tense and is subordinated to this category.

(4) The combinability resembling that of the verb (with adverbs, nouns or pronouns, denoting the object of the action) and that of the noun (with prepositions, possessive pronouns, nouns in the possessive case denoting the subject of the action expressed by the gerund).

(5) Typical syntactic functions of the subject, object, attribute, adverbial modifier.

Together with its subject and other dependent on it words the gerund can form the so called gerundial constructions. In their connections with other parts of the sentence they are treated as one whole.

Being used as in the sentence as a separate word, the gerund fulfills syntactic functions typical of the noun – those of the subject, object, attribute, predicative: Seeing is believing.

The English Gerund have the following correspondences in Ukrainian: a) the infinitive (I like reading. – Я люблю читати); b) the subordinate sentence with the verb predicate (There is no hope of our seeing him this year. – Немає надії, що ми побачимося з ним у цьому році).