Category of Aspect
The category of aspect shows the manner in which the action is presented. The members of the aspect opposition are the Indefinite and the Continuous forms. The Indefinite form presents an action as a mere fact. That's why it is used to denote habitual, recurrent actions, well-known facts, succession of events, etc. The Continuous form presents an action as a developing process. It is used to denote an action going on at a given moment or period of time.
Professor Smirnitsky was the first to prove that aspect is inherent to the English verb and that it is expressed in a two - member opposeme: writes - is writing, the marked member of which is the Continuous aspect, the unmarked one is the common aspect.
The Continuous aspect may stress the development of the action or its temporary character: Are you feeling cold? You are not seeing him to advantage now. Some of the English verbs, which usually have no aspect opposites, can be used in the Continuous form to stress one of the above meanings.
verbs of objective relation: belong, possess, resemble, contain;
link-verbs: appear, prove, seem, turn out;
verbs of perception: see, hear, feel, smell, believe, dislike, hate, hope, know;
verbs of point-action: burst, jump, drop, pick up, etc.
Besides, the Common aspect has a very broad meaning; it can express even a continuous action if it is one of many in a succession (I worked in the garden for 2 hours, then I had a rest for an hour and after that I went for a walk).
As the main function of the common aspect is naming facts, it is used in stage directions: He covers his face. She runs to the door.
On the contrary the Continuous aspect gives an action a descriptive character or emphasis on the action itself: e.g. But I’m hoping she’ll come soon. The Continuous form may denote emotion: (irony, disapproval). E.g. somebody has been eating from my plate.
In general the use of aspect forms in M.E. is often connected with the lexical character of the verb: durative verbs are generally not used in the Continuous form, while terminative verbs in the continuous express a repeated action or an action which hasn’t come to an end.
E.g. He was bringing flowers (repeated action). He was stopping and leaning over gates.
Various aspective meanings of the verb can be expressed in M.E. lexically.
E.g. He used to bathe. He would gaze at the sea. She fell in love at first sight.
The category of aspect has for a long time been a problem because it has been treated with the same approach towards different languages. The category of aspect in Russian is based on a different principle, as the main meaning of the perfective aspect is the completion of the action. There is no correspondence between the meaning of the members of the aspect opposition in English and Russian.
E.g. ел – съел; but he ate – he was eating.
Some foreign grammarians consider the aspect to be a semantic category some others do not recognize the existence of this category in M.E. at all (Sweet, Gespersen). Still others do not separate it from the category of tense. A V. Plotkin point out that category of aspect includes the opposition 1) perfect vs. non-perfect and 2) continuous vs. non – continuous. The existence of the aspect category in English is still a disputed matter.
18. Grammatical category of time correlation – GC which marks the anteriority of the action to the temporal axis of orientation (present, past, etc.), as opposed to simultaneity of the action with the temporal axis.
Time Correlation interprets the concept of time from the asp of temporal asp of actions. The gr cat-ry of Time is constituted by the oppos-ion of Perf/Nonperf forms. There are diffr opinions on the oppos-ion. We share the view of Smirnitskij who treats the oppos as a separate gr cat-ry "The c-ry of Time correlation".
The marked memberis built with the help of the discontinious form "Have+ed". The meaning of the Perf form includes 2 interrelated components: priority, correlation to another act or point of time in the Pres, Past, Futur.
This cat-ry is Antropological: it reflects the speaker's interpretation of the relations b/w the actions. In certain context the General meaning of priority can be modefied & presented by several syntagmatic meanings:
Resultit is found with terminative verbs & appears to be the result of the gr meaning of priority & the aspective char-re of the verb.
Experience is the most evident manifestation of the anthropological char-re of the cat-ry. Pr Perf denotes a past act which has a pres time relevance for the speaker.
Continuation of the past act in the pres is found with durative V. Ex: I've been here for months.
An unfulfield actis found after the modal verbs: be might, ought, should & after the verbs of hope, intention, expectation used in the past tense.the Perf form showes that the expected act wasn't realized.
Intensity- absolute complition of the act. This use of Perf forms is very expressive. The Past Perf interrupts the line of a sucsession of past actions. Ex: He walked & whistled & suddenly he had stopped.
In the text the Perf form forms a retrospective to understand the causitive-consequitive relations b/w the act-s.
The weak memberof the oppos has a very wide & general meaning. The oppos Perf/Nonperf may be neutralized when the meaning of priority is expressed by other elements of context (on, upon, after+Ger).
The cat-ry needs spec attention in teaching because priority & correlation don't have gr expression in R.
Many scholars (Smirnitsky) are of the opinion that the English perfect – non-perfect forms represent a special grammatical category – the category of correlation which is expressed in the system of two-member opposemes: writes – has written; wrote – had written; writing – having written; to be written – to have been written, etc. showing whether the action is viewed as prior to (perfect forms) or irrespective of other actions or situations (non-perfect forms) (Smirnitsky, Barkhudarov).
The category of correlation is closely connected with those of tense and aspect. All the views on the essence of the perfect forms in English may be classified into:
Otto Gespersen and others treat the perfect forms as a tense category.
Vorontsova Ilyish and others treat the perfect forms as an aspect category together with such forms as the continuous aspect and common aspect.
The category of correlation is characteristic of finites and non-finites of the indicative and the subjunctive mood (with the exception of the imperative mood, participle II and subjunctive I).
E.g. The plane is reported to have left (to leave). She speaks as if she had been there herself. His having taken the book is out of the question.
Many scholars find two perfect meanings: inclusive and exclusive. E.g. How long have u been here? (inclusive). Where have u been (exclusive).
Gordon and Krylova distinguish 3 uses of the present perfect.
Present Perfect I shows that the action took part in the past without mentioning any definite circumstances under which it occurred: He is very sensitive. I have discovered that…
It is used to open up conversations, to introduce a new topic, to sum up a situation:
E.g. What is it they have done? So you have done nothing?
The attention is concentrated on the action itself.
Present Perfect II expresses an action, which began before the moment of speaking and continues into it or up to it.
E.g. I have known him since childhood.
Present Perfect III is used to express a future action.
E.g. When you have had your tea we’ll see about it. The main sphere of Present Perfect is direct speech.
The Past Perfect has the same meanings but is used mainly in narration, referring to the past: E.g. She was no fool. She had read much and with good sense.
The Future Perfect is used in two cases 1) to express a completed action before a given future moment and 2) an action which begins before a given moment in the future and continues into it or up to it; the later is rather seldom. E.g. I suppose we shall have made up our minds whom we going to elect.
19. Grammatical category of mood – GC which expresses the relation of the action to reality as stated by the speaker, any supposition, non-fact (unreal moods – subjunctive (I/II) & conditional), as opposed to the expression of fact (indicative) & command (imperative).
The gr categ of Mood expresses the relation of the act to reality as stated by the speaker. So, M is the only morph category which includes the speaker in its definition. It is the most speaker oriented cat-ry (antropologikal).
The number of M-s in E varies from 2 to 16 because of the complexity of the c-ry & of the problem of border-line b/w homonimy & polisemy.
Thus the system of M presented by Max Deutschbein includes 4 Moods: cogitativus, optativus, volentativus, expectativus, with 4 submoods in each.
20. We follow the Smirnitskij's classif-ion. It is the most constant & meaning oriented. His system includes 6 M-s:
_______Real_______________Hypothetical_____________Unreal___
(Indicative) (Imperative,subj1,Suppos) (Subj2,Condition)
The Indicative M presents the act as real from the speaker's point of v. It is the most frequently used. It has the gratest number of forms. It is used in 2 communic types of sent: Declarative & Interrogative.
The Imperative M is used to expr inducement to act which means that the speaker considers the act as desirable, necessary. Yet, the act is not real. The enducement refferes to the future event if this futur is a moment away from the pres moment. The forms of the Imper M is the INF without 'to', the neg forms are built with the aux 'Do'.
Subj 2 is used in the following types of sent:
- in simple sent to expr unreal wish or desire(If only he were free.).
in subj clauses after the Principle clause "it's time"
in pred clause introduced by the conj which serves as the signal of turning from the real state of things into unreal.(You look as if...).
in Obj clauses after "to wish" in the princ clause.
Such sent-s expr a wish contrary to reality, smth that cannot fulfiled.
in addverbial clauses of comparison, concession & condition. Ex: He looked at me as if he were embarrassed.
The Conditional Mis built with the help of "should/would"+Inf of the notional verb. It is used to present an act which is the consequence of an unreal condition.
The other 2 M-s Subj 1 & Suppositional are diffr in form but very similar in meaning & context of use.
The forms of Subj 1 are homonimous to the Inf without 'to'.
The Suppos M is built with the help of 'should' for all persons + Inf.
Both the M-s present the act as possible, hypothetical, necessary. Both are used in the same type of clauses: Subj & Obj (after suggest, propose, demand, command);Adv Cl of purpose,concession, condition.
The only diffr b/w them is that only Subj 1 is used in simple sent. Ex: Long live friendship.
Now Subj 1 is common in AmE but it is rearely used in BrE.