Pronoun.

• Semantic aspect.

Pronoun as a part of speech - point out objects, qualities, etc.

Dactic property of a word (words don’t denote anything).

• Formal characteristics

- personal pronoun – nominative & objective case

- defining, negative, indefinite (NB: not all of them) common and possessive case

- gender – personal, possessive, reflexive pronouns (3 person Sg)

- number – reflexive, possessive, personal, demonstrative

- person – personal, possessive, reflexive

These are characteristic of small groups of pronouns can’t be regarded for the whole class of pronouns as part of speech.

• Syntactical functions

- subject

- object

- attribute

- predicative

- the traditional classification of pronouns is based on semantic aspect.

- Another classification divides pronouns into two groups: (based on functional principle)^

- 1^st group – pronouns which possess the meaning close to nouns

e.g. personal, something, somebody, etc.

- 2^nd group – adjectival pronouns

e.g. possessive, demonstrative, no, any, etc.

Pronoun – ‘instead of noun’

Verb.

Questions:

1. General characteristics of the verb as a part of speech.

2. The category of person and number

3. The category of tense

4. The category of voice

5. The category of aspect.

6. The category of mood.

7. Non-finite forms of the verb.

Q-n1. General characteristics.

Verb – words denoting action or state, possessing the grammatical categories of voice, person, number, mood, aspect and tense.

Functions:

• predicate

• subject

• object

• attribute

• adverbial modifier

Verbs possess two different types of form: - finite; - non-finite.

The two forms function differently: - finite = predicate; - non-finite can only be a part of predicate; subject, object, attribute and adverbial modifier.

• Groups of verbs:

- Formal division:

a) Regular b) Irregular c) Mixed d) Suppletive

- Morphological structure

a) Simple

b) Derivative

c) Phrasal Verbs

d) Compound # to blackmail

There exist verbs which are simple according to morphological structure but appeared as a result of conversión.

# to hand

There are verbs derived from nouns which don’t add any suffixes but change the stress position:

# to object – object

Phrasal Verbs are subdivided into two main types:

- 1^st group – two elements – 1^st element – verb; 2^nd element – adverbial particle # get up

- 2^nd group – combinations denoting momentaneous action = verb + noun; the combination has a corresponding verb; e.g. give a smile.

• Functional classification

1. Notional – full lexical meaning

2. Link – partial lexical meaning – a) being and remaining; b) becoming;

3. Auxiliary – no lexical meaning; expresses grammatical meaning;

4. Modals (sometimes viewed upon as a separate group) – special meaning (attitude of a speaker).

Phase verbs – denote different stages of a cycle:

To start, to begin; to keep on; to go on; to finish…

Special verbs which denote repetition of an action: # redo, etc.

Verbs are divided into groups basing on presence/ absence of some limit in the meaning:

- limitive/ terminative (предельные) # to find

- non-limitive/ non-terminative # to look for

Transitive & intransitive: basing on their ability to have a direct object after them.

Q-n2. The category of person and number.

The categories of person and number are closely connected with each other.

Forms used to express number:

• 3p Sg expressed in all verbs in the present tense except for “to be”; -s  3p Sg meanings;

• ‘to be’ in the past tense (only number);

• In the present tense ‘to be’ – am – 1p Sg; - is – 3p Sg; are – 2, 3 p Sg + Pl.

• In the future (only person) – will, shall.

The categories are regarded as limited ones because they don’t possess regular means to express their grammatical meanings opposed in these two categories.

There are forms which express both person and number. The English language reveals the tendency to limit the categories: # shall, will = I’ll, you’ll; ain’t = aren’t, isn’t.

The category of tense is traditionally regarded as an opposition of three grammatical meanings: present, past and future. The last member of the opposition is the subject of discussion in linguistics – its existence is often denied by different linguists, e.g. Otto Jespersen.

His arguments are:

- from diachronic points of view - in Old English there were only two tenses – past and present; so the combinations ‘will/shall’ still preserve their modal meaning but aren’t auxiliaries.

The form ‘future in the past’ can’t be categorized. Blokh introduced the idea which explains its position in the category of tense: there’s not only 1 category of tense but there’s a combination of two temporal categories: - the category of primary time; - the category of prospect.

There are two stages for building verbs: - we divide tense forms into two types:

- past-tense forms (marked member);

- non-past tense forms (unmarked member)

These forms are subdivided into: - future tense forms (marked); - non-future (non-marked).

Q-n 5. The category of aspect.

There are two sets of forms in the English verb which are opposed on the principle of use or non-use of the form: ‘be + PI’.

The basic characteristic of forms containing Ving is that they denote an action proceeding continuously at a definite period of time.

This meaning of a continuous action can be expressed lexically – by the lexical meaning of the verb.

# The earth goes round the Sun.

Aspective/ temporal meanings of the verb are different.

Aspective one reflects the mode/ character of realization of some process irrespective of its timing.

The process may take place at different periods of time.

Two sets of forms are used to express two aspects of meaning which are called common and continuous.

Aspective forms of the verb may affect the meaning of the verb and may not:

# young man sat in the corner of the room.

Young man was sitting in the corner of the room.

He brought her some flowers.

He was brining her some flowers.

The meanings of the sentences are different because of different aspective meanings of the verbs.

Q-n 4. The category of voice.

Binary opposition: active and passive – showing the direction of the action.

‘be+PII’ – marked member

There’s no strict correspondence between the grammatical meaning and means of expression.

# I opened the door.

The door opened.

At various times the following three voices have been suggested in addition to the two already mentioned:

- middle # the cat killed

- reflexive # she dressed herself

- reciprocal # they greeted one another

The traditional point of view.

Grammatical meaning of the category could be expressed by the lexical meaning of the verb

# to suffer

The category is considered to be directly connected with the division of verbs into transitive and intransitive.

Only transitive verbs have the passive voice because of the direct object after them which in passive construction takes the position of the subject.

This division isn’t strict.

# his bed has not been slept on.

Passive construction: - the doer isn’t important; - scientific style; - impersonal s-ces.

‘be + PII’ is homonymous to the passive construction.

# the window’s broken --- denotes the state

In the English language there are groups of verbs which contain a verb and a reflexive pronoun and are sometimes considered to be a reflexive voice form.

# she dresses herself.

• syntactical construction – he doer and the recipient of the action are formally distinguished.

• Semantic construction – the doer and the recipient coincide.

Reflexive pronouns should be regarded as means of forming the reflexive voice.

‘V + reflexive pronoun’ may have different meanings.

The reflexive pronouns not only serve to express the reflexive voice but can also function as an object of the action.

# He hurt himself badly. – can be substituted by other pronouns.

In such constructions reflexive pronouns are parts of verbs.

Middle voice.

The problem arises in connection with the possibility of double use of a number of verbs:

# I open the door – the door opened.

Verbs in such sentences denote an action performed by the doer of the action on some object so that a change is brought.

In the sentences of the second type (the door opened). The process is stated which is going on in the subject itself.

In the 1^st case the verb is transitive (direct object). In the second case – intransitive.

If we regard these verbs as different ones, the problem is shifted into the sphere of lexicology.

Another interpretation of the problem is that in both cases the verb is the same and the difference between these two sentences is the difference of voice- 1^st – active; 2^nd – middle voice denoting a process going on within the subject without affecting any object.

The difference between these two voices isn’t expressed with the help of morphological means but syntactical constructions they are used are different:

1^st case – S – P – O

2^nd case – S – P

As for traditional interpretation accepted by most linguists – the verb in both sentences is the same, the voice is also the same. Difference in meaning and syntactical construction isn’t sufficient enough to establish a difference of voice.

Q-n 6. The category of mood.

Quote: by professor Ilyish:

“The category of mood in the present English verb has given rise to so many discussions and has been treated in so many different ways that it seems hardly possible to arrive at any more or less convincing and universally acceptable conclusion concerning it.”

- The category expressing the certain modality of the utterance, speaker’s understanding the relation between utterance and reality. The number of moods is disputable (from 2 to 16).

Traditionally, there are three moods: - indicative, - imperative; - subjunctive.

Indicative – meaning – action which really takes or took place which is referred to a definite period of time.

Imperative – meaning – the person’s will aiming at making the recipient act.

- expressed: a) infinitive without the particle ‘to’ # Be careful!

Some say that it’s a finite form which is explained by the omitted subject ‘you’ which is always meants.

Subjunctive – meaning – speaker’s attitude (desirable, not real, etc.)

- a great variety of forms;

- no straightforward relation between the form and meaning

a) be (archaic and stylistically limited)

b) were (no stylistic limitations, sometimes ‘was’ is used)

c) Present Simple (except for the 3p Sg) # I suggest that he go.

d) Past Simple/ Past Perfect of the indicative mood

e) analytical forms with should/ would + Inf (sometimes can be substituted by modal verbs – could or might).

Some linguists put forward the idea by Smirnitskyi – classified the forms basing on the meaning:

• Subjunctive 1 – utterances which don’t contradict the reality;

• Subjunctive 2 – utterances expressing unreal actions;

• Suppositional mood - # Should you meet him…;

• Conditional mood

Another classification by Ilyish – basing on both form and meaning: 6 groups with the subjunctive mood basing on the meaning:

1^st – Present Simple - # come – meaning: inducement

2^nd - # He come – meaning: possibility

3^rd - # Came, had come – unreal condition

4^th - # Should come – for all persons – unlikely condition

5^th - # Should come – for the 1^st person – consequence of unreal condition

6^th - # Would come – 2, 3 person – wish or purpose

Classification by Blokh.

Analyzing such forms as ‘be what may’, ‘long live the Queen’, he makes a conclusion that semantic observation of these constructions shows that within the general meaning of hypothetical action it signifies different attitudes towards the process denoted by the verb and the situation denoted by the construction built up around it.

Namely, supposition, suggestion, recommendation, inducement of various degrees of insistence.

He thinks that the analyzed form type under study presents the mood of attitudes or spective mood.

It corresponds to traditional subjunctive one.

So, forms, known as the forms of the imperative mood are also included into spective mood by him (basing on their morphological and semantic coincidence).

He also claims that the imperative form displays every form of attitude which can easily be shown by means of transformation.

e.g. D

o as I ask you – the imperative ‘do’ expresses inducement which can be transformed.

I insist that you do as I ask you.

Except for pure spective he also distinguishes the modal spective mood but the forms of expression are different.

He subdivides it into 3 subtypes:

• forms consisting of modals (might, may) + infinitive

meaning – hope, wish, desire.

• forms ‘should + Infinitive’

e.g. whatever they should say of the project it must be considered serious.

Meaning – recommendation, suggestion.

• ‘let + obj substantive + infinitive’

e.g. Let him repeat it.

Meaning – inducement, an appeal to commit an action.

Except for these two types – Past Subjunctive:

- past simple ‘to be’ (plural)

- past perfect

- would + infinitive

Blokh divides these sentences into:

- sentences expressing unreal condition and unreal consequence.