The English verb, its basic categories.

The verb form identifies the type of connection between the situation named in the utterance and the reality.

Verb forms make up two distinct classes: finites and non-finites, also called verbals, verbids. Finites serve to express a primary predication, i.e. they ‘tie’ the situation described by a proposition to the context. Non-finites serve to express a secondary predication. The non-finite forms of the verb combine the characteristics of the verb with the characteristics of other parts of speech. The English verbids include four forms: the infinitive, the gerund, the present participle and the past participle.

The general categorial meaning of the verb is process presented dynamically i.e. developed in time. The main syntactical functions and combinability differ with the finite and non- finite verbs. Finite forms perform the function of the predicate, non-finite forms alongside this function can perform the function of the adverbial modifier, the object, the subject and even the attribute

Traditionally we speak about the following grammatical categories of verbs.

1. The Category of Person. Only the third person present tense singular form expresses person grammatically; therefore, the verb forms are obligatorily associated with personal pronouns. Modal verbs, with the exception of shall/should and will/would, do not show person grammatically. The verb be is more grammaticalized: it has two grammaticalized persons in the singular – first and third person – and no grammaticalized persons in the plural. In the past tense, the verb be does not distinguish person. To sum up, the category of person is represented in English by the two member opposition: third person singular vs. non-third person singular.

1. The Category of Number shows whether the process is associated with one doer or with more than one doer. The category of number is a two-member opposition: singular and plural. The categories of person and number are heavily relied on the subject: it is the subject that is generally responsible for the expression of person and number in English.

2. The meaning of the category of Tense is the relation of the action expressed by a finite verb to the moment of speaking. In traditional linguistics grammatical time is often represented as a three-form category consisting of the “linear” past, present and future forms. Present denotes coincidence, past denotes a prior action, future denotes a posterior action which follows the moment of speaking.

3. The Category of Aspect is traditionally treated as represented by the opposition of continuous durative, progressive aspect and non-continuous indefinite, non-durative, recurrant aspect. Some linguists refer to the category of aspect the category of time correlation alongside the category of development. The realization of the category of aspect is closely connected with the lexical meaning of verbs. There are some verbs in English that do not normally occur with progressive aspect, even in those contexts in which the majority of verbs necessarily take the progressive form. Among the so-called ‘non-progressive’ verbs are think, understand, know, hate, love, see, taste, feel, possess, own, etc.

4. The Category of Time denotes correlation of the action expressed by the finite verb to some moment in the past, present or future. This category is based on the opposition “perfect vs. non-perfect”. Perfect forms denote priority to the moment in the past, present or future. Non-perfect forms denote simultaneity with a moment in the past, present of future.

5. The Category of Mood expresses the relation of nominative content of the sentence towards reality. The category of mood is represented by two oppositions: the indicative mood and the oblique mood. The indicative mood is the basic mood of the verb. Morphologically it is the most developed system. Semantically, it is a fact mood; it is the least subjective of all the moods. The oblique mood, which includes the traditional imperative and the subjunctive mood, represents a process as a non-fact, i.e. as something imaginary, desirable, problematic, contrary to reality. The imperative variety of the oblique mood is morphologically the least developed mood: it is only expressed by the bare infinitive form.

6. The Category of Voice reflects the objective relations between the action itself and the subject or object of the action: The category of voice is realized through the opposition Active voice :: Passive voice. Three types of passive constructions can be differentiated: 1) direct primary passive; 2) indirect secondary passive; 3) prepositional tertiary passive. The realization of the voice category is restricted because of the implicit grammatical meaning of transitivity/intransitivity. In accordance with this meaning, all English verbs should fall into transitive and intransitive.

The verb is the most complex part of speech due to the role it performs in the expression of the predicative function of the sentence.

Intonation: its definition, linguistic functions, components; approaches to the problems of intonation

Intonation is defined as a complex, a whole, formed by significant variations of pitch, loudness and tempo (the rate of speech and pausation) closely related.

The syllable is widely recognized to be the smallest prosodic unit. It has no meaning of its own, but it is significant for constituting hierarchically higher prosodic units.

The succession of syllables forms a rhythmic unit - either one stressed syllable or a stressed syllable with a number of unstressed ones grouped around it.

In the intonation group not only stresses, but pitch and duration (i.e. intonation in the broad sense) play a role. Structurally the intonation group has some obligatory formal characteristics. These are the nuclear stress on the semantically most important word and the terminal tone.

The utterance is the main communicative unit. It is characterized by semantic entity which is expressed by all the language means: lexical, grammatical and prosodic. The prosodic structure of an utterance is a meaningful unit that contributes to the total meaning of the utterance.

The supraphaphrasal unity is a totality of information groups or utterances, united by general subtopic and common intonation key.

Each component of intonation can be described as a system.

Pitch is described as a system of tones (Fall, Rise, Fall-Rise and so on), pitch levels (keys), which can be high, medium and low, and pitch ranges (wide, medium and narrow).

Loudness is described as normal, increased (forte) or low (piano).

Tempo includes rate of speech and pausation. The rate of speech can be normal, slow and fast. Pauses are classified according to their length, their position in the utterance (final – nonfinal) and their function (syntactic, emphatic and hesitation pauses).

Speech rhythm is defined as a regular occurrence of stressed syllables in a speech continuum. English is a stress-timed language. In such languages rhythm is based on a larger unit than syllable, the rhythmic group. The stressed syllables in the rhythmic group form peaks of prominence. Speech rhythm is regulated by the style of speech. Maximum rhythmicality is observed in poetry. Rhythm performs the functions of delimitation and integration, aesthetic and pragmatic functions.

The intonation pattern is the basic unit of intonation. It serves to actualize syntagmas into intonation groups. The nuclear tone is the most important part of the intonation pattern. The nuclear tone may be followed by the tail. The two other components of the intonation pattern, the head and the prehead form its pre-nuclear part.

Intonation is a powerful means of communication. The communicative function of intonation embraces all its numerous uses, which can be grouped into the following functions: distinctive or phonological; organizing; pragmatic; rhetorical; social; stylistic.

Performing its distinctive function intonation can differentiate the syntactic (communicative) types of sentences, attitudinal meanings, the actual meaning of sentences.

Intonation serves to structure the text. On the one hand, it delimitates the text into smaller units, on the other hand, it ties together smaller units into bigger ones.

Intonation conveys the information content of an utterance. It highlights the most important information in an utterance and helps to distinguish which information is new (the rheme) and which information is known to the listener (the theme).

There are two main approaches to the problem of intonation in Great Britain.

A contour analysis is traditional and widely used. According to this approach the smallest unit to which linguistic meaning can be attached is a tone-group (sense-group). This theory is based on the assumption that intonation consists of basic functional "blocks". Much attention is paid to these "blocks" but not to the way they are connected.

According to the grammatical approach to the study of intonation the main unit of intonation is a clause. Intonation is a complex of three systemic variables: tonality, tonicity and tone, which are connected with grammatical categories. Tonality marks the beginning and the end of a tone-group. Tonicity marks the focal point of each tone-group. Tones can be primary and secondary. They convey the attitude of the speaker.