3. The Verb. The categories of Tense and Aspect.

The verb

The verb is a part of speech which expresses a process or an action. The verb is characterized by a developed system of morphological categories. They are:

1. Tense

2. Aspect

3. Voice (залог)

4. Mood (наклонение)

5. Correlation (временной соотнесённости)

6. Posteriority (последующих обстоятельств)

7. Person

8. Number

Verbs are connected:

• With a preceded and following noun,

• With adverbs,

• Occasionally with adjectives

Morphologically a verb may be in a finite form (личная форма) or non –finite (verbals): gerund, infinitive, participle.

(-ate, -en, -ise – глагольные суффиксы)

The category of tense

The notion of absolute time with its division into past, present and future may not correspond to the grammatical tense. Tense shows the temporal (временные) relationship between the action in question and the moment of speaking.

The past form shows that the time of the action belongs to the time sphere prior to the moment of speaking. The future form shows that the time of the action is included in the time sphere following the moment of speaking. The present form shows that the time of the action and of the moment of speech belong to one and the same time sphere.

According to the traditional grammar, tense is a system of three member opposeme (write – wrote – will write) showing the time of the action in relation to the moment of speech.

These 3 tenses may appear in aspect or correlation categories.

Traditionally it tenses are distinguished in modern English: 4 indefinite, 4 continuous, 4 perfect and 4 perfect continuous. Most of them are made analytically. Some scholars find only 3 genuine (истинных) tenses and these tenses are indefinite (Smernitsky). As to the other tense groups they have the same time reference.

I have cut my finger.

She has got many Oscars.

The perfect forms express priority with regard to the moment of speaking and they are treated as relative tenses the future in the past is also a relative tenses (относительное). Smirnitskiy was of the opinion that future in the past is a mood form. Rogovskaya pointed out that it belongs to a special grammatical category of posteriority (позднейшее обстоятельство) which is expressed by a system of 2 member opposition (will come – would come), the former has meaning of absolute posteriority, the latter – relative posteriority. This category shows whether the action is posterior as to the moment of speech or some moment in the past.

! Barhudarov denies the future tense in modern English and treats will+infinitive as a modal phrase. Thus the English verb has 2 tenses (present and past indefinite) category of correlation (perfect – non-perfect), the category of aspect (continuous – non-cont.) and category of posteriority (absolute future – relative future).

The category of aspect

- shows the manner in which the action is presented. The members of the aspect opposition are the indefinite and continuous forms (speak – is speaking). The indefinite form presents an action as a mere fact. That’s why it is used to denote habitual, recurrent (повторяющиеся), well-known facts.

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.

The continuous aspect may stress the development of the action or its temporary character some of English verbs which usually have no aspect forms to stress one of the above meaning (She is rude. She is being rude)

These verbs are:

1. Link verbs (be, appear, prove, seem)

2. Verbs of perception

3. Verbs of point-action (run, jump, burst, drop)

4. Verbs of relation (belong, process contain)

Common aspect has a very broad meaning. It can express even a continuous action if it is of many in succession (последовательность)

(I worked in the garden for 2 hours. Than I had a rest and want for a walk.)

The main function of common aspect is naming facts (she works in hospital)

On the contrary the continuous aspect gives an action a descriptive character (I hope I will pass successfully. But I am hoping I will pass successfully – emphasis)

The common aspect cannot denote emotion (irony, disapproval, irritation,…). (They are also quarrelling who has been using my spoon!) In general they use of aspect terms in modern English is often connected with the lexical character of the verb. Various aspective meanings can be expressed lexically (He used to do homework. He fell in love at first sight)

Some foreign scholars consider the category of aspect semantic category, some others do not recognize this category at all, and some do not separate this category from the category of tense.

Plotkin points out that this category includes 2 oppositions: perfect vs non-perfect, continuous vs non-continuous.

So the existence of the category is still a disputed matter.