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.

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 дієприкметник).

(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.

(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.

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.

The grammatical categories of the Infinitive

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).

(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.

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 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.