Lecture 18 Non-Finite Forms of the Verb (Verbids)

Verbids are the forms of the verb intermediary in many of their lexico- grammatical features between the verb and the non-processual parts of speech. The mixed features of these forms are revealed in the principal spheres of the part-of-speech characterization, namely, in their meaning, structure, combinability, and syntactic functions.

The processual meaning is expressed by them in a substantive or adjectival-adverbial interpretation.

Goins in for sport useful for your health. —► This thing is useful for your health. (The gerund "going” expresses processual meaning in a substantive interpretation).

Entering the room he greeted everyone —* At that moment he greeted everyone. (The participle “entering” expresses processual meaning in an adverbial interpretation.)

Verbids are formed by special morphemic elements which do not express either grammatical time or mood and can be combined with finite verbs like non processual lexemes.

I m going fonvard to going abroad.

I m looking forward lo the holiday.

From the point of view of the syntactic functions there is strict differentiation between the finite verb and the verbids: while the finite forms serve in the sentence only one syntactic function, namely, that of 'he predicate, the non-fmite forms serve various syntactic functions.

The strict division of functions clearly shows that the opposition between the finite and non-finite forms of the verb creates a special grammatical category. The differential feature of the opposition is constituted by the expression of verbal time and mood: as different from the finite verb the verbids have no immediate means of expressing time-mood categorial semantics presenting the weak member of the opposition. The category expressed by this opposition can be called the category of “finitude". The syntactic со .,-iit of the category of finitude is the expression of predication.

Unable to express the predicative meanings of time and mood, the verbids still do express the so-called “potential" predication, forming syntactic complexes of semi-composite type.

I can't forget his betraying me. —* ! can 7 forget that he has betrayed me.

In other words, the opposition of the finite verbs and the verbids is based on the expression of the functions of full predication and semi-predication.

The English verbids include four forms: the infinitive, the gerund, the present participle, and the past participle.

The infinitive is the non-finite form of the verb, which combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun, serving as the verbal name of a process.

The infinitive is used in three fundamentally different types of functions:

• the notional, self-positional syntactic part of the sentence. This use of the infinitive is grammatically “free”, which means that it can perform the ;\..,ciions of all types of notional sentence-paris: the subject, the object, the predicative, the attributive, the adverbial modifier.

To meet the head of the administration and not to speak to him was mrwise.

The chief arranged to receive them in the afternoon.

Helen was too excited to listen to the audience

• the notional constituent of a complex verbal predicative both iruxH and aspect. This use of the infinitive is “half-free”.

Fie II be able to meet you at 4.

He continued scrutinizing her paying no attention to the surrounding.

• the notional constituent of the semi-predicative constructions of the complex object and complex subject.

We have never heard Charlie play his violin. —► Charlie has never been heard to play his violin.

If the infinitive in free use has its own subject, different from that of the governing construction, it is introduced by the preposition particle “for". The whole infinitive construction of this tvne is traditionally called the “for-to infinitive phrase”.

For him to argue so boldly it was impossible.

The English infinitive exists in two presentation forms: with the prepos^:f;onal marker “to” (“marked infinitive”) and without it ("bare infinitive”). The infinitive marker “to” is a word-morpheme, i.e. a special formal particle analogous to other auxiliary elements in the English grammatical structure. Its only function is to build up and identify the infinitive form as such. Like other analytical markers, it can also be separated from its notional part by a word or a phrase of adverbial nature, forming the so-called “split infinitive”.

My task is not to accuse; my task is to thoroughly investigate, to clearly defme, to consistency systematize the facts.

The use or non-use of the infinitive marker depends on the verbal environment of the infinitive. Namely, the unmarked infinitive is used, besides, the various analytical forms, with modal verbs of physical perception, with the verbs (let, bid, make, he!p, have), with a few verbal phrases of modal nature (had better, would rather), with the relative-inducive “why”.

The infinitive is a categorialiy changeable form. It distinguishes the three grammatical categories: the aspec'4e category of development, the aspective category of retrospective coordination, the category of voice. Consequently, the categorial paradigm of the infinitive of the objective verb includes eight forms: the indefinite active - to take; the continuous active - to be taking; the perfect active - to have taken; the perfect continuous active-to have been taking; the indefinite passive - to be taken; the continuous passive to be being taken; the perfect passive - to have been taken; the perfect continuous passive - to have been being.

The continuous and perfect continuous passive can only be used occasionally, with a strong stylistic coloring.

The Gerund is the non-finite form of the verb which, like the infinitive, combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun similar to the infinitive, the gerund serves as the verbal name of a process, but its substantive quality is more strongly pronounced. Namely, as different from the infinitive, the gerund can be modified by a noun in the possessive case or its pronominal equivalent, and it can be used with prepositions.

John s being rude like that was disgusting.

Will he ever excuse our having interfered?

The gerund can perform the functions of all the types of notional sentence- parts, i.e. the subject, the object, the predicative, the attribute, the adverbial modifier.

Repeating your accusations over and over doesn 'I make them more convincing.

Vo wonder he delayed breaking the news.

Luck is believing you 're lucky.

Fancy the pleasant prospect of listening to all the gossip. He could not push against the furniture without bringing the whole lot down.

Like the infinitive, the gerund is a categorial ly changeable form; it distinguishes the two grammatical categories: the aspeetive category of retrospective coordination and the category of voice. Consequently, the categorial paradigm of the gerund of the objective verb includes four forms:

the simple active - taking;

the perfect active - having taken;

the simple passive -- being taken:

the perfect passive - having been taken.

The perfect forms of the gerund are used only in semantically strong positions, laying special emphasis on the meaningful categorial content of the form.

The Present Participle is the non-fini.c form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective and adverb, serving as the qualifying-processual name. In its outer form the present participle is wholly homonymous with the gerund and distinguishes the same grammatical categories of retrospective coordination and voice.

Like all the verbids, the present participle ’ras no catcgoriai time distinctions, and the attribute “present” in its conventional name is far from being explanatory.

The present participle is characterized bv the verb-type combinabiiity (with nouns expressing the object and the subject of the action, with modifying adverbs), the adjective-type combinabiiity (association with the modified nouns), (he adverb-tvpe combinabiiity (association with the modified verb).

The self-positional present participle can perform the functions of the predicative, the attribute, the adverbial modifier of various types.

The question became more and more irritating.

But instead she cried at the crying baby.

She went up the steps, swinging her hips and tossing her fur.

The present participle, similar to the infinitive, can build i:p semi­predicative complexes of objective and subjective types.

Nobody noticed the enemy approaching (approach).

The telephone was heard buzzing (to buzz) in the study.

A peculiar use of the present participle is seen in the absolute participial constructions of various types, forming semi-composite constructions.

The messenger waiting in the hall, we had only a couple of minutes to make a decision.

He sal at his desk, with an electric fire glowing warmly.

The Past Participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines .be properties of the verb with those of the adjective, serving as the qualifying- processual name. The past participle is the only verbid having no paradigm of its own though implicitly conveying the categorial meaning of the perfect the passive. The main self-positional functions of the past participle in the sentence ;ire those of the attribute and the predicative.

Her softened look gcr\'e him a new hope.

The light is bright and inconveniently placed for reading.

Like the present participle, the past participle is capable of making up semi-predicative constructions of complex object, complex subject, as well as of absolute complex.

/ want the documents prepared for singing by 4 p.m.

A shot or two could be heard firedfrom the field.

The preliminary task completed, it became possible to concentrate on the central point on the agenda.

The consideration of tiie English verbids in their mutual comparison puts forward some points of structure and function worthy of special notice.

1. The analysis of the infinitive-gerund correlation shows that both forms are substance-processual and the natural question arises whether the two do not repeat each other by their informative destination and employment. Observations of the actual uses of the gerund and the infinitive show the clear-cut semantic difference between the cited forms: while the gerund expresses more abstract meaning, the infinitive expresses dynamic processes.

Seeing and talking to people made him tired .(As characteristic of a period of one’s life; as a general feature of one’s disposition)

It made him tired to see and talk to so many people (All at a time, on that particular occasion).

2. Within the gerund-participle correlation, the central point of our analysis will be connected with the homonymous outer structure of these forms. The question is whether the verbid form in “-ing” presents one and the same form with somewhat broader range of functions or constitutes two different verbids. In this connection, the reasoning of those who support the idea of the integral V-ing form can be roughly presented in the following way: if the two cases of V-ing are functionally identical, there’s no point in discriminating the “participle” V-ing and the "gerund” V-ing.

On the other hand, the analysis of different uses of V-ing forms can’t fail to show their distinct categorial differentiation: one range of uses is definitely noun­related, definitely of proeess-substance signification; the other range of uses is definitely adjective-adverb related, definitely of process-qualify signification. This differentiation can easily be illustrated by the following testing:

He insisted on giving us some money. —>

What did he insist on? —>

He insisted on our acceptance of the gift.

CThe noun substitution procedure signifies the gerund.)

He was in a terrifying condition. —>

In what kind of condition w^!as he? —>

He was in an awful condition.

(The adjective substitution procedure signifies the participle.)

Thus, the ing-forms in question are shown as possessing categorially, differential properties establishing them as two different verbids in the system of the English verb.

Supplementary Exersises

Part II

Morphological Oppositions in Grammar

1. Define the types of the oppositions and interpret the categorial properties of their members in privative terms.

MODEL: play -played

The words “play - played” make up a binary privative opposition. Tiie strong member is “played”; its differential feature is the denotation of a past action. The marker of this categorial meaning is the grammatical suffix “-cd".

1. к - g, m - w, s - n, a: - a - i:

2. he - she, he - they, he - it, we - they;

3. intelligent - more intelligent - the most intelligent;

4. 1 understand - I am understood;

5. tooth - teeth, pincers - a pair of pincers;

6. am - is;

7. he listens - he is listening;

8. mother - room.

2. Build up the oppositions of the categorial forms and define the types of the oppositions:

efficient, have defined, they, information, he, more efficient, vessel, we, define, the most e fficient, are defined. I, vessels, will define, hits of information, defined, less e fficient, a most efficient

3. Point out in the given situations the reduced grammatical forms, state the type of the oppositional reduction.

MODEL: You must remember that your son will be a what-von-call-him in this sentence we observe a transponized use of the phrase (the opposition is “word - phrase") accompanied by a stylistic effcct: “a what-you-caii-him” conveys a connotation of contempt and belongs to a colloquial register.

a)

I (Morning! Brilliant sun pouring into the patio, on i.ne hibiscus flowers and the fluttering yellow and green rags of the banana-trees. (Lawrence)

2. Did you ever see such a thing in your lives? (C’oppard)

3. Women are Scheherazades by birth, predilection, instinct, and arrange ment of the vocal cords. (O.Henry)

4. “On the left of me was something that talked like a banker, and on my right was a young fellow who said he was a newspaper artist.” (O.Henry)

5. The glow remained in him, the fire burned, his heart was fierce iike a sun. (Lawrence)

6. She had been brought out of her simple yeses and noes and had grown used to fulsome explanations. (Forster)

7. One of these was a remarkably well-made man of five-and-thirty, with a face as English as that of the old gentleman I have just sketched was something else; a noticeably handsome face, fresh-coloured, fair and frank, with firm, straight features, a lively grey eye, and the rich adom ment of a chestnut beard. (James)

8. It was a beautiful sunny day for the wedding, a muddy earth but a bright sky. (Lawrence)

b)

1. She is too good, too kind, too clever, too learned, too accomplished, too every thing. (James)

2. That evening at knocking-off time she sends for me to come up to her

apartment. I expected to have to typewrite about 2,000 words of notes-

of-hand, liens, and contracts, with a ten-cent tip in sight; but I went.

(O.Henry)

3. She reminisced about Henrietta's squeezes, her impromptu dances where she loved to do the polka and it was Wilson who could pick up the “do- you-remembers” and add onto them with memories of her own. (Forster).

4. It was a wild, coid, unreasonable night of March, with a pale moon, lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her. (Stevenson)

5. And now, lo, the whole world could be divested of its garment, the gar

ment could lie there shed away intact, and one could stand in a new

world, a new earth, naked in a new naked universe. (Lawrence)

5. “So you have come! And you have walked, walked all the way? Oh, imagine walking in so much sun and dust!” (Lawrence)

6. Tn the distance, Peconic Bay shimmered beneath a cloudless pale-blue sky that was backlit in gold. (Stone)

7. She was different - there was a breach between them, They were hostile worlds. (Lawrence)

c)

1. Tw'enty dollars a week doesn’t go far. (O.Henry)

2. Many a happy hour she had spent plarming for something nice for him. (O. Henry)

3. Outside it was getting dark. The street-light came on outside the win dow. The two men at the counter read the menu. From the other end of the counter Nick Adams watched them. (Hemingway)

4. The aim of the aeroplanes was becoming more precise minute by minute, and only two of the anti-aircraft guns were still retaliating. (Fitzgerald)

5. The waters leaped up at him for an instant, but after the first shock it was all warm and friendly ... (Fitzgerald)

6. ... for weeks they had drunk cocktails before meals like Americans, wines and brandies like Frenchmen, beer like Germans, whisky-and- soda like the English ... (Fitzgerald)

7. “I'm giving a cocktail party tonight for a few old friends and of course you’ve got to come.” (Saroyan)

8. But she would remember it. “Where's the what's-its-name?” she would ask. “Don't tell me you forgot the what's-its-name?” (Tiiurber)

d)

1. He just stood there for a minute, looking at Myra with a peculiar little smile on his face; and then says to her, slowly, and kind of hoiding on to his words with his teeth: “Oh, I don't know. Maybe 1 could if I tried!" (O. Henry)

2. ... it was not Italian she was speaking, it was a bastard language of a little Spanish and a little something that Clementina had never heard before. (Cheever)

,()The most pathetic sight in New York - cxcept the manners of the rush- hour crowds - is the dreary march of the hopeless army of Mediocrity. Here Art is no benignant goddess, but a Circe who turns her wooers into niewing Toms and Tabbies who linger about the doorstep of her abode, unmindful of the flying brickbats and boot-jacks of the critics. (O. Henry)

4. When the planes had made certain that the beleaguered possessed no further resources, they would land and the dark and glittering reign of the Washingtons would be over. (Fitzgerald)

5. "So they draws up open-air resolutions and has them O.K.'d by the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Comstock and tiie Viiiage Improvement Mosquito Exterminating Society of South Orange, N.J.” (O.He^ry)

6. “But I hadn't much faith in looks, so 1 was certainly surprised when she pulls out a document with the great seal of the United States on it, and "William Henry Humble” in a fine, big hano on the bae.v." (О'enry)

7. Riding to work in the morning, Francis saw the girl walk down the aisle of the coach. He was surprised; he hadn't reaiized th;u .he school she went to was in the city, but she was carrying books, she seemed to be going to school. (Cheever)

X)He would find him to-morrow and ask for the position. He would be somebody in the world. (O.Henry)

Lexico-grammatical Classes of Words

1. Build up the lexical paradigm of nomination.

MODEL: high: high - height - heighten - highly (high)

I )fool, to criticize, slow, fast;

2. new, work, to fraud, out;

3. to cut, sleep, brief, hard;

4. down, beauty, to deceive, bright.

П. Define part-of-speech characteristics of the underlined words. Analyze them according to O. Jespersen's theory of three ranks. Give your reasons.

1. don't know why it should be, i am sure: but the sight of another man asleep in bed when I am up., maddens me. (Jerome)

2. He did not Madame anybody, even good customers like Mrs. Moore. (Jerome)

3. То out-Herod Herod. (Jerome)

4. If ifs and ans were pots and pans there'd be no need of tinkers. (Jerome)

5. Poor dears, they were always worrying about examinations... (Christie)

6. “After all, J married you for better or for worse and Aunt Ada is decid edly the worse.” (Christie)

7. Good thing, too. He'd have gone to the bad if he’d lived. (Christie)

8. “I believe,” said Tommy thoughtfully, “she used to get rather lots of fun out of saving to old friends of hers when they came to see her “I’ve left you a little something in my win, dear” or “This brooch that you're so fond of I’ve left you in my will.” (Christie)

9. When I’m dead and buried and you’ve suitably mourned me and taken щ> your residence in a home for the aged. I expect you’ll be thinking you are Mrs. Blenkinsop half of the time. (Christie)

10. The little work-table dispossessed the whatnot - which was relegated to a dark comer of the ha". (Christie)

11. “But...” Tuppence broke in upon his “but”. (Christie)

12. “Look here, Tuppence, this whole thing is all somethings and some- ones ” (Christie)

13. Tornmy came back to say a breathless goodbye. (Christie)

14. Although it was dim, there was a faded but beautiful carpet on the floor, a deep saae-green in colour. (Christie)

1. thought it was something wrong when his wife suddenly up, and left him. (Christie)

Morphological Features of the Noun

1. Account for the article determination of the given casal phrases:

1. a soldier's bag, a ten miles' forest, the Prime Minister's speech;

2. Travolta's first role, expensive teenagers' T-shirts, the man who was run over yesterday's daughter;

3. week's work, a new men's deodorant, a hundred miles' run;

4. within a stone's throw, a child's dream, Christ's Church.

I [. Define the casal semantics of the modifying component in the under'^:-ed phrases and account for their determination:

a)

1. Two Negroes, dressed in glittering livery such as one sees in picturcs_of roval processions in London, were standing at attention beside the car and as the two young men dismounted from the buggy they were greeted in some language which the guest could not understand, but which sees wed to be an extreme form of the Southern Negro's dialect. (Fitzgerald)

2. Home was a fine high-ceiling apartment hewn from the palace of a Re naissance cardinal in the Rue Monsieur - the sort of thing Henry could not have afforded in America. (Fitzgerald)

3. Wherefore it is better to be a guest of the law, which, though conducted by rules, does not meddle unduly with a gentleman's private affairs. (O.Henry)

4. The two vivid years of his love for Caroline moved back around him like years in Einstein's physics. (Fir/f’eraid)

5. “Isn’t Ida’s head a dead ringer for the lady's head on the silver dollar?” (O.Henry)

6. He had been away from New York for more than eight months and most of the dance music was unfamiliar to him, but at ir.c bars of the “Painted Doll”, to which he and Caroline had moved through so much happiness and despair the previous summer, he crossed to Caro line's table and asked her to dance. (Fitzgerald)

b)

1. And then followed the big city's biggest shame, its most ancient and rotten surviving canker... handed down from a long-ago cenU.rv of the basest barbarity - the Hue and Cry. (O.Henry)

2. Fie mentioned what he had said to the aspiring young actress who had stopped him in front of Sardi’s and asked quite bluntly if she should per sist in her ambition to go on the stage or give up and go home. (Saroyan)

3. The policeman’s mind refused to accept Soapy even as a clue. Men who smash windows do not remain to parley with the levy's minions. (().Henry)

4. I’ve heard you’re very fat these days, but 1 ivnow it's nothing serious, and anyhow 1 don’t care what happens to people's bodies, just so the rest of them is O.K. (Saroyan).

5. “1 dropped them flowers in a craeker-barrel, and let the news trickle in my ears and down toward my upper left-hand shirt pocket until it got to my feet.” (O.Henry)

6. She turned and smiled at him unhappily in the dim dashboard light. (Cheever) с)

1. Andy agreed with me, but after we talked the scheme over with the hotel clerk we gave that plan up. He told us that there was only one way to get an appointment in Washington, and that was through a lady

lobbyist. (O.Henry)

2. Nobody lived in the old Parker mansion, and the driveway was used as a [overs’ jane. (Cheever)

3. His eyes were the same blue shade as the china dog’s in the right-hand corner of your Aunt L'ien's mamclpiece. (O.Henry)

4. Pandemonium broke loose in the courtroom. A woman’s scream rose above the bedlam and suddenly a lovely, dark-haired girl was in Walter Mi try’s arms. (Thurber)

5. “A man?” said Sue, with a iew’s-harp twantz in her voice. (O.Henry)

6. Then he would spring nnto the terrace, lift the steak lightly off the fire, and run away with the Goslins’ dinner. Jupiter's days were numbered. The Wrighisons’ German gardener or the Farouarsons’ cook would soon poison him. (Cheever)

3. Open the brackets and account for the choice of the casal form of the noun:

a)

1. Vivian Schnlitzer-Murphy had rubies as big as (hen t eggs), and sapphires that were like globes with lights inside them. (Fitzgerald)

2. But as Soapy set foot inside the (restaurant + door) the (head + waiter + eye) fell upon his frayed trousers and decadent shoes. (O.Henry)

3. A miserable cat wanders into the garden, sunk in spiritual and physical discomfort. Tied to its head is a small (straw + hat) - a (doll + hat) -and it is securely buttoned into a (doll + dress), from the skirts of which protrudes its long, hairy tail. (Cheever)

4. Soapy straightened the (lady t- missionary + ready-made + tie), dragged his shrinking cuffs i'^,fo the open, set his hat at a killing cant and sidled towards the young woman. (O.Henry )

5. “I'm afraid I won't be able to,” he said, after a (moment + hesitation). (Fitzgerald)

b)

1. Of women there were five in Yellowhammer. The (assayer + wife), the (proprietress + the Lucky Strike Hotel), and a laundress whose wash-tub panned out an (ounce + dust) a day. (0.1 lenry)

2. “The face,” said Reineman, “is the (face + one + God + own angels).” (O.Henry)

3. The people who had come in were rich and at home in their richness with one another - a dark lovely girl with a hysterical little laugh he had

met before; two confident men whose jokes referred invariably to last

(night + scandal) and (tonight + potentialities)... (Fitzgerald)

4. His face was a sickly white, covered almost to the eyes with a stubbie the (shade + a red Irish setter + coat). (O.Henry)

5. During the first intermission he suddenly remembered that he had

not had a seat removed from the theatre and placed in his dressing room, so he called the (stage + manager) and told him to see that

such a seat was instantly found somewhere and placed in his dress

ing room. (Saroyan)

c)

1. His eyes were full of hopeless, tricky defiance like that seen in a (cur) that is cornered by his tormentors. (0.1 lenry)

2. The scene for his miserere mei Pens was, like (ihe waiting room + so

many doctors +• offices), a crude (token + gesture) toward the sweets of domestic bliss: a place arranged-with antiques, (coffcc + tables), potted plants, and (etchings + snow-covered bridges and geese in fight), ai

though there were no children, no (marriage + bed), no stove, even, in

this (travesty + a house), w'here no one had ever spent the night and

where the curtained windows looked straight onto a dark (air + shaft).

(Cheever)

3. Their eyes brushed past (each other), and the look he knew so well was staring out at him from hers. (Fitzgerald)

4. “Hello, Mitty,” he said. “We're having the (devil + own time) with McMillan, the millionaire banker and close personal fiend of Roosevelt.” (Thurber)

5. “You know? Clayton, that (boy + hers), doesn’t seem to get a job...” (Cheever)

d)

1. He noticed that the (face + the + taxi + driver) in the photograph inside the cab resembled, in many ways, the (painter + face). (Saroyan)

2. Here he was, proudly resigned to the loneliness which is (man + lot), reac’v and able to write, and to say yes, with no strings attached. (Saroyan)

3. He was tired from the (day + work) and tired with ionging. and sitting on the (edge t- the bed) had the effect of deepening his weariness. (Cheever)

4. The (voice + childhood) had never gladdened its flimsy structures; the (patter + restless little feet) had never consecrated the one nigged high way between the two (rows + tents t rough buildings). (O.Henry)

5. But now Yellowhammer was but a (mountain * camp), and nowhere in it were the roguish, expectant eyes, opening wide at (dawn i ti.c en chanting day); the eager, small hands to reach for (Santa + bewildering hoard); the elated, childish voicings of the (season + joy), such as the (coming good things + the warmhearted Cherokee) deserved. (O.Henry)

3. Comment oil the oppositional reduction of the categorial nounal forms:

1. the category of number

1. Yet, every dim little star revolving around her, from her maid to the manager of the Italian Opera, knows her weaknesses, prejudices, fol lies, haughtinesses, and caprices... (Dickens)

2. There's many a poor respectable mother who doesn’t get half the fuss ing and attention which is lavished on some of these girls! (James)

3. But Hamilton drinks too much and all this crowd of young people drink too much. (Fitzgerald)

4. He won’t be retiring for another eighteen months. (Christie)

5. In her grace, at once exquisite and hardy, she was that perfect type of American girl that makes one wonder if the male is not being sacrificed to it, much as, in the last century, the lower strata in England w'ere sacrificed to produce the governing class. (Fitzgerald)

6. Michael saw Mrs. Dandy, not quite over her illness, rise to go and be come caught in polite group after group. (Fitzgerald)

7. While it grew dark they drank and just before it was dark and there was no longer enough light to shoot, a hyena crossed the open on his way round the hill. “That bastard crosses there every night,” the man said. “Every night for two weeks.” “He’s the one makes the noise at night. I don’t mind it. They are a filthy animal though.” (Hemingway)

8. He opened a second window and got into bed to shut his eyes on that night, but as soon as they were shut - as soon as he had dropped off to sleep - the girl entered his mind, moving with perfect freedom through its shut doors and filling chamber after chamber with her light, her per fume, and the music of her voice. (Cheever)

9. “Man has a right to expect living passion and beauty in a woman.” (Anderson)

10. What does a man risk his life day after day for? (O.Henry)

2. the category of case

1. The car speed was so slow that it seemed to be crawling. (Cheever)

2. Music's voice went to his heart. (O.Henry)

3. The hearth was swept, the roses on the piano were reflected in the pol ish of the broad top, and there was an album of Schubert waltzes on the rack. (Cheever)

4. He remembered reading - in a John D. MacDonald novel, he thought - that every modern motel room in America seems filled with mirrors.

(King)

5. And I expect the whole place is bugged, and everybody knows every body else's most secret conversations. (Christie)

3. the category of gender

1. The old man was soon asleep and dreamed of the ocean and his golden beaches. (Hemingway)

2. The moon was rising, blood-red. The boy was looking at her thinking that he had never seen so red a moon, (Galsworthy)

3. She shuddered. The child, his own child, was oniy an if’ to him.

(Lawrence)

4. When Alice was speaking to the Mouse, she noticed that he was trem bling all over with fright. (Carroll)

1. herded sheep for five days on the Rancho Chiquito; and then the wool entered my soul. That getting next to Nature certainly got next to me. I was ionesomer than Crusoe’s goat. (O.Henry )

6. In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pr.eu monia, stalked about the colony, touching one here and there with his icy fingers. (O.Henry)

1. the category of article determination

1. She never told him they (letters) were from a husband. (James)

2. And if you do well on “Emergency" there are the first-class thrill shows, like “Hazard” and “Linderwater Perils", with their nation wide coverage and enormous prizes. And then comes the really big time. (Sheckley)

3. He closed his eyes again and remembered, with m'M astonishment, a time when he had been in the trouble. (Sheckley)

4. The breakers leaped at him, staggering him, while the boys with

ecstasy; the returning water curled threateningly around his feet as it hurried back to sea. (Fitzgerald)

5. It was a white world on which dark trees and tree masses stood under a sky keen with frost. (Lawrence)

6. Meanwhile he heard the ringing crow of a cockerel in the distance, he saw the pale shell of the moon effaced on a blue sky. (Lawrence)

7. Gowing came a little later and brought, without asking permission, a fat and, I think, very vulgar-looking man named Padge, who appeared to be all moustache. (Grossmith)

8. The next day she loved and rejoiced on the day he crossed the floor, he was sun, moon and stars in one. (Lawrence)

9. Old Jolyon was too much of a Forsyte to praise anything freely (Galsworthy).

10. “Has he any relatives in England?” “Two aunts. A Mrs. Everard, who lives at Hampstead, and a Miss Daniels, w'ho lives near Ascot.” (Christie)

3. Analyze the categorial features of the underlined wordforms:

The bov was devouring cakes, while the anxious-looking aunt tried to convince the Grahams that her sister's only son could do no mischief.

MODEL: We bad just finished the cocktails when the door was flung open and

the Morstens's sjiri came in, followed by a boy.

the cocktails - the nounal form is marked by the expression of the categorial meanings of plurality and identification and is unmarked in the categories of gender and case;

the door - the nounal form is marked by the expression of the categorial meaning of identification of the referent, and is unmarked in the expression of the

categories of case, number, and gender;

the Moistens 's - the nounal form is marked by the expression of the categorial meanings of plurality, of identification of the referent, of appurtenance, and of animateness (the strong member of the upper opposition of the category of gender);

the girl - the nounal form is marked by the expression of the categorial meanings of identification of the referent, and of the feminine gender, At the same time it is the unmarked member of the oppositions in the categories of case and number; a boy - the nounal form is marked by the expression of the categorial meaning of the masculine gender, and is the unmarked member of the oppositions in the categories of.case, number, and article determination.

Morphological Features of the Adjective and the Adverb

9. State the classification features of the adjectives and adverbs used in the given sentences.

MODEL: “ / found myself weary and vet wakeful, tossing restlessly from side to side..."

“weary” - a qualitative evaluative adjective; “wakeful” - a qualitative speculative adjective; “restlessly” - an evaluative qualitative adverb.

1. Rosemary Fell was not exactly beautiful. Pretty? Well, if you took her to pieces... But why be so cruel as to take anyone to pieces? She was young, brilliant, extremely modem, exquisitely dressed, amazingly well-read in the newest of the new books, and her parties were the most delicious mixture of the really important people and... artists - quaint creatures, discoveries of hers, some of them too terrifying for words, but others quite presentable and amusing. (Mansfield)

2. He was in a great quiet room with ebony walls and a dull illumination that was too faint, too subtle, to be called a light. (Fitzgerald)

3. “There!” cried Rosemary again, as they reached her beautiful big bed room with the curtains drawn, the fire leaping on the wonderful lacquer furniture, her gold cushions and the primroses and blue rags. (Mansfield)

4. Medley had already risen hurriedly to his feet. The look in his eyes said he was going straight to his telephone to tell Doctor Llewellyn apologet ically that he, Llewellyn, was a superb doctor and he. Medley, could hear him perfectly. Oxborrow was on his heels. In two minutes the room was clear of all but Con, Andrew, and the remainder of the beer. (Cronin)

5. She was helpful, pervasive, honest, hungry, and loyal. (Cheever)

6. Dr. Trench. I will be plain with you. i know that Blanche has a quick temper. It is part of her strong character and her physical courage, which is greater than that of most men, I can assure you. You nv:^ct be pre pared for that. If this quarrel is only Blanche’s temper, you may take my word for it that it will be over before to-morrow. (Shaw)

7. The elder man was about forty with a proud vacuous face, inte!n_trc,'.t eyes, and a robust figure. (Fitzgerald)

8. He was tall and homely, wore horn-rimmed glasses, and spoke in a deep voice. (Cheever)

2. Comment on the use of the forms of superlative degree of the adjective and on the use of the words “more” and “most” in the following sentences.

MODEL: “It was a most unpleasant telephone call," This is a case of the dative “most-construction”. The morphological form “a most unpleasant" is not a superlative degree of the adjective but an elative form expressing a high degree of the quality in question.

a)

1. She who had been most upset and terrified at the morning's discovery now seemed to regard the whole thing as a personal insult. (James)

2. The Fifth Symphony by Beethoven is a pbst beautiful piece of music,

1. have been with good people, far better than you. (Ch. Bronte)

4. Sure, it’s difficult to do about in the wrongest way possible. (Wilson)

5. The more we go into the thing, the more complex the matter becomes. (Wilson)

1. When Sister Cecilia entered, he rose and gave her his most distinguished how. (Cronin)

2. And he thought how much more advanced and oroad-inindSd the young or generation was. (Bennett)

.1 She was the least experienced of all. (Bennett)

1. She is best when she is not trying to show off. (Bennett)

S. He was none the wiser for that answer, but he did not try to analyse it.

i \ Id ridge I

С)

1. You're the most complete man I've ever known. (Hemingway)

2. Now in Hades - as you know if you ever had been there the names of the more fashionable preparatory schools and colleges mean very little. (Fitzgerald)

3. As they came closer, John saw that it was the tail-light of an immense automobile, larger and more magnificent than any he had ever seen. (Fitzgerald)

4. It was a most unhappy day for me when 1 discovered how ignorant I am. (Saroyan)

5. “Have you got a dollar?” asked Tripp, with his most fawning look and his dog-like eyes that blinked in the narrow space between his high- growing matted beard and his low-growing matted hair. (O.Henry)

d)

1. She had, however, great hopes of Mrs. Copleigh, and felt that once thoroughly rested herself, she wouid be able to lead the conversation to the most fruitful subjects possible. (Christie)

2. "Still on your quest? A sad task and so unlikely to meet with success. I

really think it was a most unreasonable request to make.” (Christie)

3. “I know. I know. I'm often the same. I say things and I don't really know what I mean by them. Most vexing.” (Christie)

4. “Then it is he whom you suspect?” “I dare not go so far as that. But of

the three he is perhaps the least unlikely.” (Doyle)

5. In the first place, your Grace, I am bound to tell you that you have placed yourself in a most serious position in the eyes of the law. (Doyle)

3. Give the forms of degrees of comparison and state whether they are formed in a synthetic, analytical or suppletive way.

1. wet, merry, real, far;

2. kind-hearted, shy, little, friendly;

3. certain, comical, severe, well-off;

4. sophisticated, clumsy, old-fashioned, good-looking.

4. Give the Russian equivalents for the English word combinations:

1. iron rations, iron foundry (ironworks), iron industry, ironware (iron mongery), ferrous metal, ferrous oxide;

2. celestial map, sky-force, celestial food, sky-line, skyway, celestial navi gation;

3. sea-boy, sea-water, naval base, “sea dog”, Admiralty, Admiralty mile, sea-cock, dog-fish, echinus;

4. sea-hedgehog, starfish, sea-horse, sea-dye, grass-wrack, sea kale, "old salt”, sea-cliff, sea-cow, sea-lane.

5. Account for the peculiarity of the underlined word-forms:

1. I am the more bad because I realize where my badness lies. (O.Henry)

3. Wimbledon will be yet more hot tomorrow. (O.Henry)

4. The economies are such more vulnerable, such more weak.

5. Certainly, Ann was doing nothing to prevent Pride's finally coming out of the everything into the here. (O.Henry)

6. He turned out to be even more odd than 1 had expected. (O.Henry)

7. That's the way among that class. They up. and give the oid woman a friendly clap, just as you or me would swear at the missus. (O.Henry)

8. "You see, by this time we was on the peacefulest of terms.’’ (0.1 ienry)

9. "Well, you never could be fly," says Myra with her special laugh, which was the provokingest sound I ever heard except the rattle of an empty canteen against my saddle-horn. (O.Henry )

Morphological Features of the Verb

1. Dwell upon the categorial features of the verbs in the following sentences:

a)

1. “Well, I am an honest man, though not a very rich one. I only gave 15 shillings for the bust, and I think you ought to know that before I take 18 pounds from you.” (Doyle)

2. ! thought you might be interested to meet Mr. Anstrutiier. tie knows something of Belgium. He has lately been hearing news of your convent. (Christie)

3. “0h, she, as thou art great be merciful, for 1 am now ns ever thy servant to obey.’’ (Haggard)

4. “What is it?” she said confusedly. “What have 1 been saying?" “It is nothing,” said Rose. “You arc tired. You want to resi. We will ieavc you.” (Christie)

5.In one of my previously published narratives 1 mentioned that Sherlock Holmes had acquired his violin from a pawnbroker in the ToUenhamCourt Road, for the sum of 55 shillings. To those who know the value of a Stradivarius, it will be obvious that I was being less than candid about the matter. (Hardwick)

6. Perhaps she wasn't an actress at all. Perhaps the police were looking for her. (Christie)

b)

1. “I think, Mr. Holmes, it is time that we were leaving for Euston.” “I will order a four-wheeler. In a quarter of an hour we shall be at your service.” (Doyle)

2. "What he will divulge 1 cannot tell, but I have no doubt that your Grace could make him understand that it is to his interest to be silent. From the police point of view he will have kidnapped the boy for the purpose of ransom.” (Doyle)

3. “Hast thou aught to ask me before thou goest, oh Holly?” she said, after a few moments’ reflection. (Haggard)

4. “Mr. Holmes!” cried Mrs. Hudson indignantly. “How many times have I said that 1 won’t tolerate your indoor shooting?” (Hardwick)

5. By the way, I shall be grateful if you will replace this needle. It is getting rather blunt. (Hardwick)

6.She wondered if any Warrenders lived here still. They’d left off being buried here apparently. (Christie)

О

1. My future is settled. I am seeing my lawyer tomorrow as it is necessary that 1 should make some provision for Mervyn if 1 should pre-decease him which is, of course, the natural course of events. (Christie)

2. “Yes, it was old Mrs. Carraway. She's always swallowing things.” (Christie)

3. “Wouldn’t you like something? Some tea or some coffee perhaps?...” “No, no, not even that. We shan’t be stopping very much longer.” (Christie)

4. “Oh! It’s lovely. It’s too good for me, though. You'll be wanting it your self-” (Christie)

5. "Somebody was being poisoned last time we were here, 1 remember,” said Tuppence. (Christie)

6. A lot of signposts are broken, you know, and the council don’t repair them as they should. (Christie)

d)

1. “A year and a half-” She paused. “But I’m leaving next month.” (Christie)

2. “Well, you see, Mrs. Beresford, one needs a change - ” “But you’ll be doing the same kind of work?” (Christie)

3. She picked up the fur stole. “I’m thanking you again very much - and I’m glad, too, to have something to remember Miss Fanshawe by.” (Christie)

1. wish you were coming with me. (Christie)

5. Will you be wanting some sandwiches? (Christie)

6. It was a funny way to partition it (the house), I should have thought. I'd have thought it would have been easier to do it the other way. (Christie)

If. Comment upon the reduced verbal forms:

a)

1. “Holmes, we have never had a case such as this. A woman comes to us - is brought to us - with a problem of some sort... We don’t know who she is, nor what her problem may be. Isn't that the kind of challenge you're aiways praying will come your way?" (Hardwick)

2. “1 seem to fee! that what you’ve been saying from the beginning is that a human being doesn't live, but is lived.” (Saroyan)

3»It went down very well in the States. They were liking that kind of thing just then. (Christie)

4. “Yes, a lift,” said Dr Meynell, trying to think of something else even more dashing - and failing. “Then we shall avoid ail undue exertion. Daily exercise on the level on a fine day, but avoid walking up hills." (Christie)

b)

5. “You would like some hot water, wouldn't you?" said Miss Jeiivby, looking round for a jug with a handle to it, but looking in vain. “If it is not being troublesome," said we. “Oh, it's not the trouble,” returned Miss Je'.iyby; “the question is, if there is any.” (Dickens)

2. “Might one ask,’’ inquired Holmes, “where you propose going?^-’ (Hardwick)

3. ‘Tm going with you,” she said. “Nonsense, my dear; I go straight into the city. 1 can't have you racketing about!” (James)

4. “It's not like Jolyon to be late!” he said to Irene, with uncontrollable vexation. “I suppose it'll be June keeping him.” (Galsworihy)

c)

1. And you can't talk about such things to men you meet in hotels they're looking just for such openings. (O.Henry)

2. The thousand and one stories are being told every day by hundreds of thousands of viziers’ daughters to their respective suitans. (O.Henry)

3. The next morning at 11 o’clock when 1 was sitting there alone, an Uncie

Tom shuffles into the hotel and asks for the doctor to come and see

Judge Banks, who, it seems was the mayor and a mighty sick man.

(O.Henry)

4. In an adjoining room a woman was cooking supper. Odors from strong

bacon and boiling coffee contended against the cut-piug fumes from the vespertine pipe. Outside was one of those crowded streets of the

east side, in which, as twilight falls, Satan sets up his recruiting office. A mighty host of children danced and ran and played in the street. Some in rags, some in clean white and beribboned, some wild and restiess as

young hawks, some gentle-faced and shrinking, some shrieking rude and sinful words, some listening, awed, but soon, grown familiar, to embrace - here were the children playing in the corridors of the House of Sin. Above the playground forever hovered a great bird. (O.Henry)

d)

50. She then said, ‘i’m not going to bother to introduce anybody to you just because Luther’s going along to catch a train for Boston in a little while...” (Saroyan)

2. “If you will get her to ask one question about the new winter styles in cloak sleeves I will promise you a one-in-five chance for her, instead of one in ten." (O.Henry)

3. "Mayor’s color and pulse was fine. 1 gave him another treatment, and he said the last of the pain left him.” (O.Henry)

4. Mr. Hubber was coming at seven to take their photograph for the Christ

mas card. (Cheever)

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