13. The category of aspect

Aspect is a verbal grammatical category showing the way in which the action develops. It is concerned with the internal character of the event

Inflectional binary opposition:

Ask⁻ – is asking⁺

Members of the opposition are not opposed as tenses (tense is the same)/ They show different character of an action, the manner or way in which the action is experienced or regarded : as a mere fact or as taken in progress.

It is the opposition

Non-continuous – continuous

Common- continuous

Tense and aspect

Are closely connected but they are different categories revealed through different oppositions

The infinitive has the category of aspect:

To ask – to be asking But it has no category of tense => one more proof they are different.

Aspect is a language specific grammatical category.

Aspect. In English – a special morphological category revealed through the opposition of 2 gram. forms of one lex. Unit. In Rus. – the opposition of pairs of different lex. Units делать-сделать which are mainly formed by means of word-building suffixes.

The category of aspect is closely related to the lexical meaning ( Quirk, Downing, Ilyish)

Peculiarities: aspect and lexical meaning of the verb

1. Dynamic ( cont. forms) VS stative (relations, perception, cognition, affectivity)

Dynamic: durative(walk read, write) (or unlimitive) vs limitive (close, break)

Dynamic verbs:

• Activity verbs (write, do)

• Process (grow, change, widen)

• Bodily sensation (feel, hurt, ache)

• Transitional event ( arrive, die, come)

• Momentary ( hit, nod, jump)

With each of the subgroups the meaning of cont. forms changes and may become different from the categorical meaning of the form.

E.G. activity and process verbs in Cont. denote incomplete action;

Momentary verbs – repetition

He kicked the ball – He was kicking the ball.

14. The category of voice

Voice is a category of the verb that indicates the relationship between the subject and the predicate verb of the sentence. The voice of the English verb is expressed by the opposition of the passive form of the verb to the active form of the verb. (binary opposition)

Active – passive

Asks⁻ – is asked⁺

Meaning of the category of voice – what changes is the subj. appraisal of the situation by the speaker, the plane of his presentation of it. Voice shows the relation of the action towards its subject and object (doer and recipient)

The active voice: action issuing from the object

The passive voice: action directed towards its object

• So the category of voice denotes the direction of an action as viewed by the speaker.

Voice is a morphological category but it has a distinct syntactic significance.

The active voice has obligatory connection with the doer of the action.

The syntactical subject and the semantic subject coincide.

The passive voice has obligatory connection with the object of the action.

The category of voice is observed both within finite and non-finite forms of the verb:

The Inf: to ask – to be asked

The gerund/ Part I: asking – being asked

NB!

• Only Part I has the opposition of the forms

• Part II has no morphological category as it has only one form => no opposition of forms

• Part II can be passive/ perfect in meaning

Voice is a language specific category. In English it is a property of the lex. –sem. Variants of 1 verbal passive constructions. More frequent in English than in Russian.

Relations denoted by passive voice in English are often expressed by cases in Russian: We were met.. –Нас встретили

In English not only transitive but also some intransitive verbs

The problems of the category of voice:

1. The number of voices in English

2. The nature of “to be + Part II”

3. The nature of “get/become + Part II” structure

1. The number of voices in English?

1. Phil hurt Mary S/agent -> O

Mary was hurt by Phil O <- S/agent

*1)He hurt himself ??? – 1 - Reflexive

2. Tom greeted Bob S/agent -> O

Bob was greeted by Tom O <- S/agent

*2)They greeted each other ??? – 2 - Reciprocal

3. I opened the door S/agent -> O

The door was opened by me. O <- S/agent

*3)The door opened ???- 3 – Middle

BUT!!!!!!! + (recall the features of an analytical form in ques. 4)

*1) And *2) are not analytical forms. Reflexive and reciprocal meanings are expressed by correspondent pronouns which have their own syntactic function of the direct object (the most striking feature of pronouns is that they can be used both as notional and as auxiliary elements – each other, himself)

In *3) . Some say it is passive. Morphologically, it is not passive because it lacks the pattern “be + Part II”

Semantically, it is different from the passive construction too: in the passive construction the subject is acted upon but here the subject is neither the agent not the object of the action. Barchudarov: the subject here indicates the thing inside which the action is going on.

Syntactically, it is not identical with the passive construction either. It doesn’t allow the introduction of an agent:

The door was opened by a girl – The door opened

? to be + Part II = always Passive voice?

1. The cup was broken by the cat

2. The cup was broken - ???

1. Passive – Barkhudarov

2. But there is no action, it denotes a state as a result of the previous action

Passive constructions must have corresponding active constructions

Smirnitskiy

The table is made of wood. – has no parallel active construction => denotes a state.

The majority of linguists think that we deal with two different constructions here. When the combination “be + Part II” indicates an action it should be treated as the passive voice, when it renders the meaning of state it should be qualified as a compound nominal predicate with the verb in the active voice.

“Be + Part II” constitutes the passive voice in the following cases:

• A by-phrase denoting the doer of the action ( was broken by the cat)

• Act.- modifying adverbials (were made quickly)

• Some categorical (strong, marked) forms of verbs – fut.cont. perf. – has been made

• Modal verbs (not always) – can be broken

• Corresponding active constr.

All these indicate action, differentiating it from state