12. The category of order/correlation/ phase/priority..

The category of order is constituted by the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms.

Asks⁻ – has asked⁺ inflexional binary privative opposition

Asked⁻ – had asked⁺

Non-perfect – perfect

The marked member of the opposition is the perfect, which is built up by the auxiliary have in combination with the past participle of the conjugated verb.

BUT!

The meaning of the marked member and the meaning of the category are still being discussed

Prevailing approaches:

• The "tense view": by this view the perfect is approached as a peculiar tense form. (Sweet, Curme, Bryant, Irtenyeva)

The difference between the perfect and non-perfect forms of the verb, according to the tense interpretation of the perfect, consists in the fact that the perfect denotes a secondary temporal characteristic of the action. It shows that the denoted action precedes some other action or situation in the present, past, or future. This secondary tense quality of the perfect, in the context of the "tense view", is naturally contrasted against the secondary tense quality of the continuous, which latter, according to N. F. Irtenyeva, intensely expresses simultaneity of the denoted action with some other action in the present, past, or future.

• The "aspect view": according to this interpretation the perfect is approached as an aspective form of the verb. (Vorontsova)

The great merit of G. N. Vorontsova's explanation of the aspective nature of the perfect lies in the fact that the resultative meaning ascribed by some scholars to the perfect as its determining grammatical function is understood in her conception within a more general destination of this form, namely as a particular manifestation of its transmissive functional semantics.

Indeed, if we compare the two following verbal situations, we shall easily notice that the first of them expresses result, while the second presents a connection of a past event with a later one in a broad sense, the general inclusion of the posterior situation in the sphere of influence of the anterior situation:

The wind has dropped, and the sun burns more fiercely than ever.

"Have you really never been to a ball before, Leila? But, my child, how too weird —" cried the Sheridan girls.

The resultative implication of the perfect in the first of the above examples can be graphically shown by the diagnostic transformation, which is not applicable to the second example: → The sun burns more fiercely than ever as a result of the wind having dropped.

• The "tense-aspect blend view"; in accord with this interpretation the perfect is recognised as a form of double temporal-aspective character, similar to the continuous. (Ivanova)

According to I. P. Ivanova, the two verbal forms expressing temporal and aspective functions in a blend are contrasted against the indefinite form as their common counterpart of neutralised aspective properties.

NB!

2 meanings of one category cannot be expressed in one categorical form!

Smirnitsky showed the categorical nature of perfect and proved that it is the category different from both tense and aspect.

Tense, aspect – the same was asking – had been asking

The meaning does not denote the time of action but shows relative priority . Unlike non-perfect forms it correlates the action with the indicated moment or event in its result.

Smirnitsky: TENSE vs ASPECT vs ORDER

The meaning of Perfect forms is constituted by 2 semantic components: temporal (priority) and aspective (result)

The meaning of Perfect can be influenced by the lexical meaning of the V, tense form, context.

Perfect forms and the lexical character of the verb (durative and terminative)

Perfect forms and the context (inclusive and exclusive perfect)

(Verbals have the category of order but no category of tense => different category)

Summing up:

1)Temporal relations in ME are expressed by 3 categories:

TENSE – present- past –absolutely - only with finite forms -> a predicative category (proper to finite verbs)

PROSPECT – non-future – future (after-actions) – absolutely or relatively

ORDER – non—perfect – perfect (prior actions) – relatively

2) The character of action in ME is expressed by 2 categories:

- aspect – non- cont. – cont

- order – non-perf. – perf.

In Russian temporal relations are expressed by 1 category (that of tense which denoted time both absolutely and relatively)