Categories of the verb Categories of Person and Number
Person and number are treated by scholars as closely related categories. In their treatment two approaches are contrasted: traditional and modern.
In accord with the traditional approach, scholars point out to the existence in English of three persons and two numbers.
The category of person expresses the relation of the action and its doer to the speaker, showing whether the action is performed by the speaker (the 1st person), someone addressed by the speaker (the 2nd person) or someone/something other than the speaker or the person addressed (the 3rd person).
The category of number shows whether the action is performed by one or more than one persons or non-persons.
In modern linguistic works on the problem it is also stressed that the categories of person and number are closely interwoven in English and should be considered together. At the same time it is particularly emphasized that these categories are spccific because they don't convey the inherently “verbal” semantics. It means that the categories of person and number have a “reflective” character: the personal and numerical semantics in the finite verb is the reflection in the verb lexeme of the personal and numerical semantics of the subject referent. Due to it the combination and strict correlation of the English finite verb with the subject is obligatory not only syntactically but also categorially.
The expression of the category of person is essentially confined to the singular form of the verb in the present tense of the indicative mood and, besides, is very singularly presented in the future tense. As for the past tense, the person is alien to it, except for a trace of personal distinction in the archaic conjugation (Fig. 57).
Category of Person
Present tense
The verb
to
be; the
third person singular of the verb
Past tense
The
person is alien to it
Future tense
The
use of
will
– shall
Fig. 57
From the formally morphemic point of view, the category of number is hardly featured at all.
As a matter of fact, the more or less distinct morphemic featuring of the category of number can be seen only with the archaic forms of the unique be, both in the present tense and in the past tense (Fig. 58).
Category
of Number
Present and Past tense
the verb
to
be
Future tense
The number
is alien to it
Fig. 58
A more regular way of expressing the categories of person and number is the use of personal pronouns. They are indispensable when the finite verb forms in the indicative as well as the subjunctive moods have no markers of person or number distinctions.
Category of Tense
The category of tense is considered to be an immanent (неотъемлемый, постоянный) grammatical category which means that the finite verb form always expresses time distinctions. The category of tense in English (as well as in Russian) expresses the relationship between the time of the action and the time of speaking. It reflects the objective category of time. The essential characteristic of the category of tense is that it relates the time of the action, event or state of affairs referred to in the sentence to the time of the utterance.
When speaking of the expression of time by the verb, it is necessary to strictly distinguish between the general notion of time, the lexical denotation of time, and the grammatical time proper, or grammatical temporality (Fig. 59).
Fig. 59
All the lexical expressions of time are divided into “present-oriented”, or “absolutive” expressions of time, and “non-present-oriented”, “non-absolutive” expressions of time (Fig. 60).
The absolutive time denotation distributes the intellective perception of time among three spheres: the sphere of the present, with the present moment included within its framework; the sphere of the past, which precedes the sphere of the present by way of retrospect; the sphere of the future, which follows the sphere of the present by way of prospect.
The non-absolutive time denotation does not characterise an event in terms of orientation towards the present. This kind of denotation may be either “relative” or “factual”.
The relative expression of time correlates two or more events showing some of them either as preceding the others, or following the others, or happening at one and the same time with them.
The factual expression of time either directly states the astronomical time of an event, or else conveys this meaning in terms of historical landmarks.
Fig. 60
The category of tense (grammatical tense proper) finds different interpretations with different scholars. In traditional linguistics grammatical time is often represented as a three-form category consisting of the “linear” past, present, and future forms (Fig. 61).
The time of speaking is designated as present time and is the starting point for the whole scale of time measuring. The time that follows the time of speaking is designated as future time; the time that precedes the time of speaking is designated as past time. Accordingly there are three tenses in English – the present tense, the future tense and the past tense which refer actions to present, future or past time.
The future-in-the-past does not find its place in the scheme based on the linear principle, hence, this system is considered to be deficient, not covering all lingual data.
Fig. 61
At the same time linguists build up new systems of tenses in order to find a suitable place in them for future-in-the past. They express the idea that in English there exist two tense categories (Fig. 62).
The first category – the category of primary time – expresses a direct retrospective evaluation of the time of the process denoted, due to which the process receives an absolutive time characteristic. This category is based upon the opposition of “the past tense” and “the present tense”, the present moment being the main temporal plane of verbal actions.
The second tense category is the category of “prospective time”. It is based upon the opposition of “after-action” and “non-after-action”. The category of Prospect is relative by nature. It characterizes the action from the point of view of its correlation with some other action. As the future verbal form may be relative either to the present time, or to the past time included in non-future, the English verb acquires two different future forms: the future of the present and the future of the past.
Fig. 62