9. Verb: semantic classes of the verb.

Semantic classifications of the verb may be undertaken from different standpoints.

Grammatically important is the devision of verbs into the following classes:

Actional verbs, which denote actions proper (do, make, go, read, etc.) and statal verbs, which denote state (be, exist, lie, sit, know, etc.) or relations (fit, belong, have, match, cost, etc.). The difference in their categorical meaning affects their morphological paradigm: statal and relational verbs have no passive voice (though some have forms coinciding with the passive voice as in The curtainsand the carpet were matched). Also statal and relational verbs generally are not used in the continuous and perfect continuous tenses. Their occasional use in these tenses is always exceptional and results in the change of meaning.

From the syntactic standpoint verbs may be subdivided into transivite (переходные) andintransitive (непереходные) ones.

Without the object the meaning of the transitive verb is incomplete or entirely different. Transitive verbs may be followed:

a) by one direct object (monotransitive verbs);

Jane is helping her sister.

b) by a direct and an indirect objects (ditransitive verbs);

Jane gave her sister an apple.

c) by a prepositional object (prepositional transitive verbs):

Jane looks after her sister.

Intransitive verbs do not require any object for the completion of their meaning:

The sun is rising.

There are many verbs in English that can function as both transitive and intransitive.

Tom is writing a letter. (transitive)

Tom writes clearly. (intransitive)

Who has broken the cup? (transitive)

Glass breaks easily. (intransitive)

Jane stood near the piano. (intransitive)

Jane stood the vase on the piano. (transitive)

The division of verbs into terminative and non-terminative depends on the aspectual characteristic in the lexical meaning of the verb which influences the use of aspect forms.

Terminative verbs (предельные глаголы) besides their specific meaning contain the idea that the action must be fulfilled and come to an end, reaching some point where it has logically to stop. These are such verbs as sit down, come, fall, stop, begin, open, close, shut, die, bring, find, etc.

Non-terminative, or durative verbs(непредельные глаголы) imply that actions or states expressed by these verbs may go on indefinitely without reaching any logically necessary final point. These are such verbs as carry, run, walk, sleep, stand, sit, live, know, suppose, talk, speak, etc.

The end, which is simply an interruption of these actions, may be shown only by means of some adverbial modifier:

He slept till nine in the morning.

The last subclass comprises verbs that can function as both termi­native and non-terminative (verbs of double aspectual meaning). The difference is clear from the context:

Can you see well? (non-terminative)

I see nothing there. (terminative)

10. The category of Tense. The stylistic functioning of tense forms.

GENERAL DEFINITION OF TENSE

The category of tense may be defined as a verbal category which reflects the objective category of time and expresses on this background the relations between the time of the action and the time of the utterance.

ENGLISH TENSES

In English there are the three tenses (past, present and future) represented by the forms wrote, writes, will write, or lived, lives, will live.

Strangely enough, some doubts have been expressed about the existence of a future tense in English. O. Jespersen discussed this question more than once. ¹ The reason why Jespersen denied the existence of a future tense in English was that the English future is expressed by the phrase "shall/will + infinitive", and the verbs shall and will which make part of the phrase preserve, according to Jespersen, some of their original meaning (shall an element of obligation, and will an element of volition). Thus, in Jespersen's view, English has no way of expressing "pure futurity" free from modal shades of meaning, i. e. it has no form standing on the same grammatical level as the forms of the past and present tenses. However, this reasoning is not convincing. Though the verbs shall and will may in some contexts preserve or indeed revive their original meaning of obligation or volition respectively, as a rule they are free from these shades of meaning and express mere futurity. This is especially clear in sentences where the verb will is used as an auxiliary of the future tense and where, at the same time, the meaning of volition is excluded by the context. E. g. I am so sorry, I am afraid I will have to go back to the hotel — (R. WEST) Since the verb will cannot possibly be said to preserve even the slightest shade of the meaning of volition here, it can have only one meaning — that of grammatical futurity. Of course numerous other examples might be given to illustrate this point.

A present tense form may also be used when the action belongs to the future. This also applies to the present continuous, as in the following example: "Maroo is coming, my lad," he said, "she is coming tomorrow, and what, tell me what, do we make of that?" (BUECHNER) The adverbial modifier of time, tomorrow, makes it clear that the action expressed by the verb come in the present continuous tense actually belongs to the future. So it might also have been expressed by the future tense: Maroo will come, my lad, she will come tomorrow. But the use of the present continuous adds another shade of meaning, which would be lost if it were replaced by the future tense: Maroo's arrival tomorrow is part of a plan already fixed at the present. Thus the future arrival is presented as a natural outcome of actions already under way, not as something that will, as it were, only begin to happen in the future.

So the three main divisions of time are represented in the English verbal system by the three tenses. Each of them may appear in the common and in the continuous aspect. Thus we get six tense-aspect forms.

there are two more, namely, the future-in-the-past and the future-continuous-in-the-past. It is common knowledge that these forms are used chiefly in subordinate clauses depending on a main clause having its predicate verb in one of the past tenses, e. g., This did not mean that she was content to live. It meant simply that even death, if it came to her here, would seem stale. (R. WEST) They can be found in independent clauses as well.

The future-in-the-past and future-continuous-in-the-past do not easily fit into a system of tenses represented by a straight line running out of the past into the future. They are a deviation from this straight line: their starting point is not the present, from which the past and the future are reckoned, but the past itself. With reference to these tenses ² it may be said that the past is a new centre of the system. The idea of temporal centres propounded by Prof. I. Ivanova as an essential element of the English tense system seems therefore fully justified in analysing the "future-in-the-past" tenses. It should be noted that in many sentences of this kind the relation between the action denoted by the verb form and the time of the utterance remains uncertain: the action may or may not have taken place already. What is certain is that it was future from the point of view of the time when the action denoted by the verb form took place.

A different view of the English tense system has been put forward by Prof. N. Irtenyeva. According to this view, the system is divided into two halves: that of tenses centring in the present, and that of tenses centring in the past. The former would comprise the present, present perfect, future, present continuous, and present perfect continuous, whereas the latter would comprise the past, past perfect, future-in-the-past, past continuous, and past perfect continuous. The latter half is characterised by specific features: the root vowel (e.g. sang as against sing), and the suffix -d (or -t), e.g. looked, had sung, would sing, had been singing.⁴ This view has much to recommend it. It has the advantage of reducing the usual threefold division of tenses (past, present, and future) to a twofold division (past and present) with each of the two future tenses (future and future-in-the-past) included into the past or the present system, respectively. However, the cancellation of the future as a tense in its own right would seem to require a more detailed justification.

A new theory of English tenses has been put forward by A. Korsakov. ¹ He establishes a system of absolute and anterior tenses, and of static and dynamic tenses. By dynamic tenses he means what we call tenses of the continuous aspect, and by anterior tenses what we call tenses of the perfect correlation. It is the author's great merit to have collected numerous examples, including such as do not well fit into formulas generally found in grammars. The evaluation of this system in its relation to other views has yet to be worked out.

Stylistic functioning of tense forms

(инфы жутко мало, так что, вот самое нормальное)

Use of the correct verb tense allows you to express clearly the time relationships among your ideas. When deciding which verb tense to use, aim for consistency, simplicity, and clarity. Whenever possible, keep verbs in the same tense (consistency), and use either the simple present or the past tense (simplicity). Above all, choose the verb tense that most clearly expresses the idea you want to convey (clarity). In general, use the present tense to describe actions and states of being that are still true in the present; use the past tense to describe actions or states of being that occurred exclusively in the past.  Present Tense

Use the present tense to make generalizations about your topic or the views of scholars:

• The two Indus artifacts provide insight into ancient Hindu culture.

• Marxist historians argue that class conflict shapes political affairs.

• At the end of the chorus, the sopranos repeat the main theme.

Use the present tense to cite an author or another source (except in science writing, where past tense is used; see below).

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 reflects the idealism of the Second World War.

• The historian Donna Harsch states that "Social Democrats tried to prevent the triumph of Nazism in order to save the republic and democracy" (3).

(n.b.: whether or not the author is still living is not relevant to selection of tense.)  

Past Tense

Use the past tense to describe actions or states of being that occurred exclusively in the past:

• Hemingway drew on his experiences in World War I in constructing the character of Jake Barnes.

• We completed the interviews in January, 2001.  

Present and Past Tense Together

At times you will use both present and past tense to show shifts between time relationships. Use present tense for those ideas/observations that are considered timeless and past tense for actions occurring in the past:

• The Padshahnama is an ancient manuscript owned by the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. This manuscript details the history of Shah-Jahan, the Muslim ruler who commissioned the building of the Taj Mahal (Webb et al. 134).

• Flynn (1999) concluded that high school students are more likely to smoke cigarettes if they have a parent who smokes.

• Simon (2000) observed that neutered cats spend less time stalking their prey.  

Writing About Literature

Use the present tense to describe fictional events that occur in the text: (This use of present tense is referred to as "the historical present.")

• In Milton's Paradise Lost, Satan tempts Eve in the form of a serpent.

• Voltaire's Candide encounters numerous misfortunes throughout his travels.

Also use the present tense to report your interpretations and the interpretations of other sources:

• Odysseus represents the archetypal epic hero.

• Flanagan suggests that Satan is the protagonist of Paradise Lost.

Use the past tense to explain historical context or elements of the author's life that occurred exclusively in the past:

• Hemingway drew on his experiences in World War I in constructing the character of Jake Barnes.

When writing about literature, use both present and past tense when combining observations about fictional events from the text (present tense) with factual information (past tense):

• James Joyce, who grew up in the Catholic faith, draws on church doctrine to illuminate the roots of Stephen Dedalus' guilt.

• In Les Belles Images, Simone de Beauvoir accurately portrays the complexities of a marriage even though she never married in her lifetime.

Use the present perfect tense to describe an event that occurs in the text previous to the principal event you are describing:

• The governess questions the two children because she believes they have seen the ghosts.

• Convinced that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him, Othello strangles her.

Use the past tense when referring to an event occurring before the story begins:

• In the opening scenes of Hamlet, the men are visited by the ghost of Hamlet's father, whom Claudius murdered.  

Writing for Science

Most of the time, use past tense when writing for science. Use past tense to discuss completed studies and experiments:

• We extracted tannins from the leaves by bringing them to a boil in 50% methanol.

• We hypothesized that adults would remember more items than children.

Use past tense when referring to information from outside sources:

• Paine (1966) argued that predators and parasites are more abundant in the tropics than elsewhere.

• Kerr (1993) related the frequency of web-decorating behavior with the presence of birds on different Pacific islands.

(N.B.: a common mistake in science writing is the use of present tense when referring to what other authors have written.) As in writing for other disciplines, use present tense in science writing when describing an idea or fact that is still true in the present:

• Genetic information is encoded in the sequence of nucleotides on DNA.

• Previous research showed that children confuse the source of their memories more often than adults (Lindsey et al. 1991).

Also use present tense in science writing when the idea is the subject of the sentence and the citation remains fully in parentheses:

• Sexual dimorphism in body size is common among butterflies (Singer 1982).

Contrast the above sentence to the following, also correct, construction:

• Singer (1982) stated that sexual dimorphism in body size is common among butterflies.

The logic and practice of the discipline for which you write determine verb tense. If you have questions about tense or other writing concerns, check with your professor.  

• Плюс пара кусков из учебника

Then he turned the corner, and what do you think happens next? He faces nobody else than Mr. Greggs accompanied by his private secretary!

The stylistic purpose of this transposition, known under the name of the "historic present" (Lat. praesens historicum) is to create a vivid picture of the event reflected in the utterance. This is achieved in strict accord with the functional meaning of the verbal present, sharply contrasted against the general background of the past plane of the utterance content.