4. Grammatical categories

The verb in its finite forms possesses the morphological categories of person, number, tense, aspect, perfect, voice and mood. Its syntactical function is that of the predicate.

A. The categories of person and number

The categories of person and number are closely connected with each other. Their connection is conditioned by the two factors:

• by their situational semantics referring the process denoted by the verb to the subject of the sentence;

• by their direct and immediate relation to the syntactic unit expressing the subject as the functional part of the sentences.

The category of number

It shows where the action if performed by one or more than one persons or non-persons. There are two numbers in English: singular and plural:

He writes – They write.

The category of number exists in Present Simple Tense, in the 3^rd person Sg where the ending -s is added to the verb.

The only exception is the verb “to be”. It has its own forms in all tenses: am/is/are; was/were.

The category of person

It shows the relation of the speaker and doer. There are 3 persons in English: 1^st I, We; 2^nd you, 3^rd he, she, it, and they.

The expression of the category of person is essentially confined to the singular form of the verb in the Present Tense of the Indicative Mood. As for the Past Tense, the person is alien to it.

In the Present Tense the expression of the category of person is divided into 3:

1) The modal verbs have no personal inflexions: can, may, must, shall, will, ought, need, dare. The category of person is left unexpressed.

2) The unique verbal lexeme “to be”: am/is/are.

3) The expression of the 3^rd person by the ending -s.

The category of Tense

The notion of time: Present, Past and Future is universal, independent of every particular language.

Tense is a linguistic device vary from language to language. The forms are used to express certain time-relation: I speak – a case of present tense.

The category of tense can be defined as a verbal category which reflects the objective category of time and expresses the relations between the time of the action and the time of the utterance. There are 3 tenses: Present, Past and Future. Some linguists distinguish one more tense – Future in the Past:

Present – Past

Future – Future in the Past.

O. Jesperson expresses some doubt about the existing of the Future Tense: shall/will + inf.

The verbs “shall/will” preserve their original meaning: “shall” – obligation, “will” – volition. And he said: “English has no way of expressing pure futurity”. It can be expressed also with the help of Present Tense (continuous aspect): He is coming.

The three main divisions of time are represented in the English verbal system by the three tenses. Each of them may appear in the common or in the continuous aspect:

Tense	Aspect Correlation	Non-perfect	Perfect
Present	Common Continuous	takes is taking	has taken has been taken
Past	Common Continuous	took was taking	had taken had been taking
Future	Common Continuous	will take will be taking	will have taken will have been taking
Future in the Past	Common Continuous	would take would be taking	would have taken would have been talking

The category of aspect

The category of aspect shows the way or manner in which the action is preserved: perfective, momentary or durative. It is a system of 2-memebr opposition such as “works – is working”, “has worked – has been working” showing the character of the action whether the action is taken in its process or it is simple stayed.

A.G. Kennedy gave 5 aspects:

1. Terminate aspect – the action as a whole: He went to town.

2. Ingressive aspect (showing the beginning of the action): He began to walk.

3. Effective aspect (showing the conclusion of the action): He ceased speaking.

4. Durative aspect (continuous): He is walking.

5. Iterative (repeating): He walks every day for 15 minutes.

The category of correlation

It shows time-relations between certain actions whether the action belongs to this moment or precedes it.

It has two-member opposition: perfect – non-perfect and is expressed by the perfect form of the verb: have + participle II.

The perfect form denotes the preceding event as prior to another event; the non-perfect denotes the action in the moment of speaking.

The category of mood

Mood is 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.

Academician V. Vinogradov: “Mood expresses the relation of the action to reality, as stated by the speaker.”

There is no unity of opinion concerning the category of mood in English.

As Prof. Ilyish wrote in his book: there are only 3 moods in English: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive.

Хлебникова suggests the following opposition: the indicative mood as an unmarked member is opposed to the imperative mood on the one hand and to the subjunctive mood on the other.

The division of moods into the one which represents an action as real, i.e. as actually taking place (the indicative) as against that or those which represents it as non-real, i.e. as merely imaginary, conditional.

The Indicative Mood. It is a grammatical category of the verb reflects the relation of the action denoted by the verb to reality from the speaker’s point of view. It is a fact mood. It serves the present of the action as a fact of reality.

The Imperative Mood. It is represented by one form only (Come!) without any suffix or ending. It has no person, number, tense or aspect distinctions. It is limited in its use to one type of sentences only, imperative sentences. Usually a verb in the imperative has no pronoun acting as subject. It represents the action as a command, request.

The Subjunctive Mood (conditional).

The category of voice

There are two main views.

1. It expresses the relation between the subject and the action.

2. It expresses the relations between the subject and the object of the action: (1) He invited his friends and (2) He was invited by his friends.

(1) He performs the action, and may be said to be the doer;

(2) He does not act and is not the doer but the object of the action.

The obvious opposition within the category of voice is that between active and passive:

Invites – is invited, is inviting – is being invited, invited – was invited, has invited – has been invited, should invite – should be invited.

The passive voice is the marked member of the opposition: its characteristic is the pattern “be + participle II”, whereas the active voice is unmarked: its characteristic is the absence of that pattern.

The following three voices have been suggested in addition to the two mentioned:

1. the reflexive: He dressed himself;

2. the reciprocal: they greeted each other;

3. the middle voice: the door opened.

Other morphological categories

Negative forms. To express the notion that an action did not take place, the English verb does not always simply add a negative particle to the verb form: has come – has not come. In many cases a special auxiliary verb, namely the verb do, is used if the negative idea is expressed.

Interrogative forms. It is well known that the auxiliary do is used here in the same way as in the negative forms and that interrogative negative forms exist, in which the auxiliary do is used on the same principle: does … take, does … not take.

Emphatic do-forms. Another question arises concerning the so-called emphatic do-forms, such as he does know, she did go meaning more or less the same as he really knows, she really went.

The verbals

The verbals are the infinitive, the gerund, the participle.

Lecture 6.

The adverb