Topic 3

Verbal categories denoting time and character of the action

The category of Representation

The verb system falls into two major subsystems:

Finite forms (conjugated):

• used in the function of the predicate (predicative forms);

• express the crucial categories of predication: mood, tense, person.

Non-finite forms (non-conjugated) / verbals, verbids:

• cannot be used as predicates – perform any other syntactic function;

• have no predicative categories.

The category of Representation (A.I.Smirnitsky) / Finitude (L.S.Barkhudarov, Ya.Blokh).

FINITE FORMS vs NON-FINITE FORMS

Pure process nominalized process (process as substance or quality)

Verbal representation Nominal representation

Substantival Adjectival

Gerund Infinitive Participle I & II

The category of TENSE

• Time and Tense

• Grammatical and lexical expression of Time

• Absolute and relative grammatical expression of Time

universal TIME

lexical means grammatical means

what ? what ?

how? how?

absolutely relatively

it means ‘in relation to . . ./ with regard to . . .’

• Tense forms opposition in English

• The problem of the future tense forms

• Grammatical status of shall and will forms:

• shall/will forms retain their modal meaning  no analytical form 

no future tense form  2 tenses

(O.Jespersen, the successors of Descriptive Linguistics)

but 

• I will have to go there – no modal meaning  analytical form (l.S.Barkhudarov) but

Is it a tense form?

• future events are not facts as they have not yet happened;

they are modalized rather than factual predication 

mood forms (e.g. A.Downing, Ph.Lock)  or some special category?

The opposition of gram.forms having diff.gram.meanings  gram.category

ask ^– ÷ will ask ⁺ or asked ^– ÷ would ask ⁺

non-future ÷ future no-prospect ÷ prospect

the category of POSTERIORITY / PROSPECT

will ask – absolute prospect

would ask – relative prospect

ask ^– ÷ asked ⁺ the c. of tense

ask ^– ÷ will ask ⁺ the c. of prospect (absolute)

asked ^– ÷ would ask ⁺ the c. of prospect (relative)

category of ORDER

ORDER – Б.С.Хаймович, Б.И.Роговская

TIME CORRELATION – А.И.Смирницкий, Б.И.Ильиш

PHASE – Smith, Fransis

RETROSPECTIVE COORDINATION / RETROSPECT – М.Я.Блох

TAXIS

PERFECT

Opposition of forms – inflectional binary privative: e.g. … … …

Meaning of the category, meanings of the members

Prevailing approaches:

«Tense view» – H.Sweet, Curm, Irtenieva

«Aspect view» - G.N.Vorontsova

«Tense-aspect blend view» - I.P.Ivanova

NB ! – 2 meanings of one category cannot be expressed in one categorial form!

A.I.Smirnitsky: TENSE vs ASPECT vs ORDER

Perfect forms and the lexical character of the verb (durative and terminative).

Perfect forms and the context (inclusive and exclusive perfect).