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.

15. 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 objective 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.