Теоретическая грамматика английского языка 2 - учебное пособие

Марк Яковлевич Блох

Марк Яковлевич Блох — известный ученый-лингвист, доктор филологических наук, профессор. Заведует кафедрой грамматики и истории англий­ского языка Московского государственного педагогического университета. Ведет исследовательскую работу в области теории английского языка, обще­го, типологического и германского языкознания, теории перевода, лингводидактики. В рамках выдвинутых проф. М.Я.Блохом научных направлений успешно работают его многочисленные ученики-кандидаты и доктора филологических наук.

М.Я.Блох

Теоретическая грамматика

английского языка

Издание третье, исправленное

Рекомендовано

Министерством образования

Российской Федерации

в качестве учебника

для студентов институтов и факультетов иностранных языков

Москва «Высшая школа»

2000

УДК 802.0

ББК 81.2 Англ

Б 70

Рецензент:

кафедра грамматики и истории английского языка Московского государ­ственного лингвистического университета (зав. кафедрой проф.Т.С. Со­рокина)

ISBN 5-06-003669-3 © ГУП издательство «Высшая школа», 2000

Оригинал-макет данного издания является собственностью издательства «Высшая школа» и его репродуцирование (воспроизведение) любым способом без согласия издательства запрещается.

FOREWORD

The present theoretical outline of English grammar, 3rd edition, is intended as a manual for the departments of English in universities and teacher training colleges. Its purpose is to introduce the students into the problems of up-to-date grammatical study of English on a systemic basis, sustained by demonstrations of applying modern analytical techniques to various grammatical phenomena of living English speech.

The given description of the grammatical structure of English, naturally, is not to be regarded as exhaustive in any point of detail. The author's immediate aims were to supply the students with such information as will enable them to form judgements of their own on questions of diverse grammatical intricacies (the practical mastery of the elements of English grammar is supposed to have been gained by the students at the earlier stages of tuition); to bring forth in the students a steady habit of trying to see into the deeper implications underlying the outward appearances of lingual correlations bearing on grammar; to teach them to independently improve their linguistic qualifications through reading and critically appraising the available works on grammatical language study; to foster their competence in facing academic controversies concerning problems of grammar.

The emphasis laid on cultivating an active element in the student's approach to language and its grammar explains why the book gives prominence both to the technicalities of grammatical observations and to the general methodology of linguistic knowledge: the due application of the latter will lend the necessary demonstrative force to any serious consideration of the many special points of grammatical analysis. In this connection, the author has tried, throughout the whole of the book, to point out the progressive character of the development of modern grammatical theory. Indeed, one is to clearly understand that in the course of disputes and continued research in manifold particular fields, the grammatical section of the science of language arrives at an ever more adequate presentation of the structure of language in its integral descrip­tion.

This kind of outlining the foundations of the discipline in question is especially important at the present stage of the developing linguistic knowledge — the knowledge which has found itself in the midst of the radical advance of science characteristic of the last decades of the XX century.

In preparing the third edition of the book the author has been guided by the experience gained from its academic use since the first publication in 1983 and second publication in 1994. During this time a number of new ideas have been put forward both in general and English linguistics that should be presented to the students. It especially concerns the theory of units of language and levels of language and the linguistic study of continual text. The main additions and revisions made by the author mostly deal with these important fields of description.

Materials illustrating the analysed elements of English grammar have been mostly collected from the literary works of British and American authors. Some of the cited examples have been subjected to slight alterations aimed at giving the necessary prominence to the lingual phenomena under study. Source references for limited stretches of text are not supplied except in cases of special relevance (such as implications of individual style or involvement in contextual back­ground).

The author pays tribute to his friends and colleagues — teachers of the Moscow State Pedagogical University for encouragement and help they extended during the years of his work on the subject matter of the book.

The author wishes to express his gratitude to the staff of the Department of Grammar and History of English of the Moscow State Linguistic University, and in particular to the Head of the Department Prof. T.S. Sorokina, for the careful review of the book.

The author's sincere thanks are due to Prof. O.V. Alexandrova, Prof. N.A. Kobrina, Prof. A.T. Krivonosov, Prof. E.S. Kubryakova, Prof. F.A. Litvin, Prof. M.M. Makovsky, Prof. F.I. Mauler, Prof. S.M. Mezenin, Prof. L.L. Nyelubin, Prof. V.Y. Plotkin, Prof. G.G. Pocheptsov, Prof. S.G. Ter-Minasova, Prof. N.N. Semenyuk, Prof. Z.Y. Turayeva and all other specialists who shared with him their opinions and criticisms touching upon the matters presented. Their expert sugges­tions have been very helpful in bringing the text to its final shape.

M. Blokh

CHAPTER I GRAMMAR IN THE SYSTEMIC CONCEPTION OF LAn GUAGE

§ 1 . Language is a means of forming and storing ideas as re­flections of reality and exchanging them in the process of human intercourse. Language is social by nature; it is inseparably connected with the people who are its creators and users; it grows and devel­ops together with the development of society.

Language incorporates the three constituent parts ("sides"), each being inherent in it by virtue of its social nature. These parts are the phonological system, the lexical system, the grammatical system. Only the unity of these three elements forms a language; without any one of them there is no human language in the above sense.

The phonological system is the subfoundation of language; it determines the material (phonetical) appearance of its significative units. The lexical system is the whole set of naming means of lan­guage, that is, words and stable word-groups. The grammatical sys­tem is the whole set of regularities determining the combination of naming means in the formation of utterances as the embodiment of thinking process.

Each of the three constituent parts of language is studied by a particular linguistic discipline. These disciplines, presenting a series of approaches to their particular objects of analysis, give the corre­sponding "descriptions" of language consisting in ordered expositions of the constituent parts in question. Thus, the phonological description of language is effected by the science of phonology; the lexical description of language is effected by the science of lexicology, the grammatical description of language is effected by the science of grammar.

Any linguistic description may have a practical or theoretical pur­pose. A practical description is aimed at providing the student with a manual of practical mastery of the corresponding part of language (within the limits determined by various factors of educational desti­nation and scientific possibilities). Since the practice of lingual inter­course, however, can only be realized by employing language as a unity of all its constituent parts, practical linguistic manuals more often than not comprise the three types of description presented in a complex. As for theoretical linguistic descriptions, they pursue analyti­cal aims and therefore present the studied parts of language in rela­tive isolation, so as to gain insights into their inner structure and expose the intrinsic mechanisms of their functioning. Hence, the aim of theoretical grammar of a language is to present a theoretical de­scription of its grammatical system, i.e. to scientifically analyse and define its grammatical categories and study the mechanisms of grammatical formation of utterances out of words in the process of speech making.

§ 2 . In earlier periods of the development of linguistic knowl­edge, grammatical scholars believed that the only purpose of gram­mar was to give strict rules of writing and speaking correctly. The rigid regulations for the correct ways of expression, for want of the profound understanding of the social nature of language, were often based on purely subjective and arbitrary judgments of individual grammar compilers. The result of this "prescriptive" approach was that alongside quite essential and useful information, non-existent "rules" were formulated that stood in sheer contradiction with the existing language usage, i.e. lingual reality. Traces of this arbitrary prescriptive approach to the grammatical teaching may easily be found even in to-date's school practice.

To refer to some of the numerous examples of this kind, let us consider the well-known rule of the English article stating that the noun which denotes an object "already known" by the listener should be used with the definite article. Observe, however, English sentences taken from the works of distinguished authors directly contradicting this "rule".

"I've just read a book of yours about Spain and I wanted to ask you about it." - "It's not a very good book, I'm afraid" (S. Maugham). I feel a good deal of hesitation about telling you this story of my own. You see it is not a story like other stories I have been telling you: it is a true story (J.K. Jerome).

Or let us take the rule forbidding the use of the continuous tense-forms with the verb be as a link, as well as with verbs of perception. Here are examples to the contrary:

My holiday at Crome isn't being a disappointment (А. Huxley). For the first time, Bobby felt, he was really seeing the man (A. Christie).

The given examples of English articles and verb-forms, though not agreeing with the above "prescriptions", contain no grammar mistakes in them.

The said traditional view of the purpose of grammar has lately been re-stated by some modern trends in linguistics. In particular, scholars belonging to these trends pay much attention to artificially constructing and analysing incorrect utterances with the aim of a better formulation of the rules for the construction of correct ones. But their examples and deductions, too, are often at variance with real facts of lingual usage.

Worthy of note are the following two artificial utterances sug­gested as far back as 1956:

Colourless green ideas sleep furiously. Furiously sleep ideas green colourless.

According to the idea of their creator, the prominent American scholar N. Chomsky, the first of the utterances, although nonsensical logically, was to be classed as grammatically correct, while the sec­ond one, consisting of the same words placed in the reverse order, had to be analysed as a disconnected, "ungrammatical" enumeration, a "non-sentence". Thus, the examples, by way of contrast, were in­tensely demonstrative (so believed the scholar) of the fact that grammar as a whole amounted to a set of non-semantic rules of sentence formation.

However, a couple of years later this assessment of the lingual value of the given utterances was disputed in an experimental inves­tigation with informants - natural speakers of English, who could not come to a unanimous conclusion about the correctness or in­correctness of both of them. In particular, some of the informants classed the second utterance as "sounding like poetry".

To understand the contradictions between the bluntly formulated "rules" and reality, as well as to evaluate properly the results of informant tests like the one mentioned above, we must bear in mind that the true grammatical rules or regularities cannot be separated from the expression of meanings; on the contrary, they are them­selves meaningful. Namely, they are connected with the most general and abstract parts of content inherent in the elements of language. These parts of content, together with the formal means through which they are expressed, are treated by grammarians in terms of "grammatical categories". Such are, for instance, the categories of number or mood in morphology, the categories of communicative purpose or emphasis in syntax, etc. Since the grammatical forms and regularities are meaningful, it becomes clear that the rules of gram­mar must be stated semantically, or, more specifically, they must be worded functionally. For example, it would be fallacious to state without any further comment that the inverted word order in the English declarative sentence is grammatically incorrect. Word order as an element of grammatical form is laden with its own meaningful functions. It can express, in particular, the difference between the central idea of the utterance and the marginal idea, between emotive and unemotive modes of speech, between different types of style. Thus, if the inverted word order in a given sentence does express these functions, then its use should be considered as quite correct. E.g.:

In the centre of the room, under the chandelier, as became a host, stood the head of the family, old Jolyon himself (J. Galsworthy).

The word arrangement in the utterance expresses a narrative description, with the central informative element placed in the strongest semantic position in narration, i.e. at the end. Compare the same sort of arrangement accompanying a plainer presentation of subject matter:

Inside on a wooden bunk lay a young Indian woman (E. Hemingway).

Compare, further, the following:

And ever did his Soul tempt him with evil, and whisper of ter­rible things. Yet did it not prevail against him, so great was the power of his love (0. Wilde). (Here the inverted word order is em­ployed to render intense emphasis in a legend-stylised narration.) One thing and one thing only could she do for him (R. Kipling). (Inversion in this case is used to express emotional intensification of the central idea.)

Examples of this and similar kinds will be found in plenty in modern English literary texts of good style repute.

§ 3 . The nature of grammar as a constituent part of language is better understood in the light of explicitly discriminating the two planes of language, namely, the plane of content and the plane of expression.

The plane of content comprises the purely semantic elements contained in language, while the plane of expression comprises the material (formal) units of language taken by themselves, apart from the meanings rendered by them. The two planes are inseparably connected, so that no meaning can be realised without some material means of expression. Grammatical elements of language present a unity of content and expression (or, in somewhat more familiarterms, a unity of form and meaning). In this the grammatical ele­ments are similar to the lingual lexical elements, though the quality of grammatical meanings, as we have stated above, is different in principle from the quality of lexical meanings.

On the other hand, the correspondence between the planes of content and expression is very complex, and it is peculiar to each language. This complexity is clearly illustrated by the phenomena of polysemy, homonymy, and synonymy.

In cases of polysemy and homonymy, two or more units of the plane of content correspond to one unit of the plane of expression. For instance, the verbal form of the present indefinite (one unit in the plane of expression) polysemantically renders the grammatical meanings of habitual action, action at the present moment, action taken as a general truth (several units in the plane of content). E.g.:

I get up at half past six in the morning. I do see your point clearly now. As a rational being, I hate war.

The morphemic material element -s/-es (in pronunciation [-s, -z, -iz]), i.e. one unit in the plane of expression (in so far as the func­tional semantics of the elements is common to all of them indis­criminately), homonymically renders the grammatical meanings of the third person singular of the verbal present tense, the plural of the noun, the possessive form of the noun, i.e. several units of the plane of content. E.g.:

John trusts his friends. We have new desks in our classroom. The chief’s order came as a surprise.

In cases of synonymy, conversely, two or more units of the plane of expression correspond to one unit of the plane of content. For instance, the forms of the verbal future indefinite, future contin­uous, and present continuous (several units in the plane of expres­sion) can in certain contexts synonymically render the meaning of a future action (one unit in the plane of content). E.g.:

Will you come to the party, too? Will you be coming to the party, too? Are you coming to the party, too?

Taking into consideration the discrimination between the two planes, we may say that the purpose of grammar as a linguistic dis­cipline is, in the long run, to disclose and formulate the regularities of the correspondence between the plane of content and the plane of expression in the formation of utterances out of the stocks of words as part of the process of speech production.

§ 4 . Modern linguistics lays a special stress on the systemic character of language and all its constituent parts. It accentuates the idea that language is a system of signs (meaningful units) which are closely interconnected and interdependent. Units of immediate interdependencies (such as classes and subclasses of words, various sub­types of syntactic construction, etc.) form different microsystems (subsystems) within the framework of the global macrosystem (supersystem) of the whole of language.

Each system is a structured set of elements related to one an­other by a common function. The common function of all the lin­gual signs is to give expression to human thoughts.

The systemic nature of grammar is probably more evident than that of any other sphere of language, since grammar is responsible for the very organization of the informative content of utterances [Блох, 1986, 11]. Due to this fact, even the earliest grammatical treatises, within the cognitive limits of their times, disclosed some systemic features of the described material. But the scientifically sustained and consistent principles of systemic approach to language and its grammar were essentially developed in the linguistics of the twentieth century, namely, after the publication of the works by the Russian scholar Beaudoin de Courtenay and the Swiss scholar Ferdi­nand de Saussure. These two great men demonstrated the difference between lingual synchrony (coexistence of lingual elements) and diachrony (different time-periods in the development of lingual ele­ments as well as language as a whole) and defined language as a synchronic system of meaningful elements at any stage of its histori­cal evolution.

On the basis of discriminating synchrony and diachrony, the dif­ference between language proper and speech proper can be strictly defined, which is of crucial importance for the identification of the object of linguistic science.

Language in the narrow sense of the word is a system of means of expression, while speech in the same narrow sense should be un­derstood as the manifestation of the system of language in the pro­cess of intercourse.

The system of language includes, on the one hand, the body of material units - sounds, morphemes, words, word-groups; on the other hand, the regularities or "rules" of the use of these units. Speech comprises both the act of producing utterrances, and the utterances themselves, i.e. the text. Language and speech are insepara­ble, they form together an organic unity. As for grammar (the grammatical system), being an integral part of the lingual macrosystem it dynamically connects language with speech, because it categorially determines the lingual process of utterance production.

Thus, we have broad philosophical concept of language which is analysed by linguistics into two different aspects - the system of signs (language proper) and the use of signs (speech proper). The gener­alizing term "language" is also preserved in linguistics, showing the unity of these two aspects [Блох, 1986, 18].

The sign (meaningful unit) in the system of language has only a potential meaning. In speech, the potential meaning of the lingual sign is "actualized", i.e. made situationally significant as part of the grammatically organized text.

Lingual units stand to one another in two fundamental types of relations: syntagmatic and paradigmatic.

Syntagmatic relations are immediate linear relations between units in a segmental sequence (string). E.g.:

The spaceship was launched without the help of a booster rocket.

In this sentence syntagmatically connected are the words and word-groups "the spaceship", "was launched", "the spaceship was launched", "was launched without the help", "the help of a rocket", "a booster rocket".

Morphemes within the words are also connected syntagmatically. E.g.: space/ship; launch/ed; with/out; boost/er.

Phonemes are connected syntagmatically within morphemes and words, as well as at various juncture points (cf . the processes of as­similation and dissimilation).

The combination of two words or word-groups one of which is modified by the other forms a unit which is referred to as a syntac­tic "syntagma". There are four main types of notional syntagmas: predicative (the combination of a subject and a predicate), objective (the combination of a verb and its object), attributive (the combina­tion of a noun and its attribute), adverbial (the combination of a modified notional word, such as a verb, adjective, or adverb, with its adverbial modifier).

Since syntagmatic relations are actually observed in utterances, they are described by the Latin formula as relations "in praesentia" ("in the presence").

The other type of relations, opposed to syntagmatic and called "paradigmatic", are such as exist between elements of the syctem outside the strings where they co-occur. These intra-systemic relations and dependencies find their expression in the fact that each lingual unit is included in a set or series of connections based on different formal and functional properties.

In the sphere of phonology such series are built up by the cor­relations of phonemes on the basis of vocality or consonantism, voicedness or devoicedness, the factor of nazalization, the factor of length, etc. In the sphere of the vocabulary these series are founded on the correlations of synonymy and antonymy, on various topical connections, on different word-building dependencies. In the domain of grammar, series of related forms realize grammatical numbers and cases, persons and tenses, gradations of modalities, sets of sentence patterns of various functional nature, etc.

Unlike syntagmatic relations, paradigmatic relations cannot be di­rectly observed in utterances, that is why they are referred to as re­lations "in absentia" ("in the absence").

Paradigmatic relations coexist with syntagmatic relations in such a way that some sort of syntagmatic connection is necessary for the realization of any paradigmatic series. This is especially evident in a classical grammatical paradigm which presents a productive series of forms each consisting of a syntagmatic connection of two elements:

one common for the whole of the series (stem), the other specific for every individual form in the series (grammatical fea­ture-inflexion, suffix, auxiliary word). Grammatical paradigms ex­press various grammatical categories.

The minimal paradigm consists of two form-stages. This kind of paradigm we see, for instance, in the expression of the category of number: boy-boys. A more complex paradigm can be divided into component paradigmatic series, i.e. into the corresponding subparadigms (cf . numerous paradigmatic series constituting the system of the finite verb). In other words, with paradigms, the same as with any other systemically organized material, macro- and micro-series are to be discriminated.

§ 5 . Units of language are divided into segmental and suprasegmental. Segmental units consist of phonemes, they form phonemic strings of various status (syllables, morphemes, words, etc.). Supra-segmental units do not exist by themselves, but are realized together with segmental units and express different modificational meanings (functions) which are reflected on the strings of segmental units. To the supra-segmental units belong intonations (intonation contours), accents, pauses, patterns of word-order.

The segmental units of language form a hierarchy of levels. This hierarchy is of a kind that units of any higher level are analysable into (i.e. are formed of) units of the immediately lower level. Thus, morphemes are decomposed into phonemes, words are decomposed into morphemes, phrases are decomposed into words, etc.

But this hierarchical relation is by no means reduced to the me­chanical composition of larger units from smaller ones; units of each level are characterized by their own, specific functional features which provide for the very recognition of the corresponding levels of language.

The lowest level of lingual segments is phonemic: it is formed by phonemes as the material elements of the higher-level segments. The phoneme has no meaning, its function is purely differential: it differentiates morphemes and words as material bodies. Since the phoneme has no meaning, it is not a sign.

Phonemes are combined into syllables. The syllable, a rhythmic segmental group of phonemes, is not a sign, either; it has a purely formal significance. Due to this fact, it could hardly stand to reason to recognize in language a separate syllabic level; rather, the syllables should be considered in the light of the intra-level combinability properties of phonemes.

Phonemes are represented by letters in writing. Since the letter has a representative status, it is a sign, though different in principle .from the level-forming signs of language.

Units of all the higher levels of language are meaningful; they may be called "signemes" as opposed to "cortemes" (from Lat. cor­tex "bark, crust, shell"), i.e. non-meaningful units of different status, such as phonemes (and letters as phoneme representatives), syllables, and some others.

The level located above the phonemic one is the morphemic level. The morpheme is the elementary meaningful part of the word. It is built up by phonemes, so that the shortest morphemes include only one phoneme. E.g.: ros-y [-I]; a-fire [Ə-]; come-s [-z].

The morpheme expresses abstract, "significative" meanings which are used as constituents for the formation of more concrete, "nominative" meanings of words.

The third level in the segmental lingual hierarchy is the level of words, or lexemic level.

The word (lexeme), as different from the morpheme, is a directly naming (nominative) unit of language: it names things and their relations. Since words are built up by morphemes, the shortest words consist of one explicit morpheme only. Cf.: man; will; but;I; etc.

The next higher unit is the phrase (word-group), it is located at the phrasemic level. To level-forming phrase types belong combinations of two or more notional words. These combinations, like separate words, have a nominative function, but they represent the referent of nomination as a complicated phenomenon, be it a concrete thing, an action, a quality, or a whole situation. Cf., respectively: a picturesque village; to start with a jerk; extremely difficult; the unexpected arrival of the chief.

This kind of nomination can be called "polynomination", as different from "mononomination" effected by separate words.

Notional phrases may be of a stable type and of a free type. The stable phrases (phraseological units) form the phraseological part of the lexicon, and are studied by the phraseological division of lexicology. Free phrases are built up in the process of speech on the existing productive models, and are studied in the lower division of syntax. The grammatical description of phrases is sometimes called "minor syntax", in distinction to "major syntax" studying the sentence and its textual connections.

In order to better understand the nature of phrases as level-forming units we must take into consideration their status in the larger lingual units built up by them. These larger units are sentences. It is within the sentence that any phrase performs its level-determined function (being used as a notional part of the sentence). On the other hand, any notional word, not only a phrase, can be used in the role of a separate part of the sentence, such as subject, object, predicate, etc. We infer from this that in more exact terms the units located above the words in the segmental lingual hierarchy are notional parts of the sentence. These can be formed by phrases (word-groups), or by separate notional words. Since the function of these parts is denotative (they not only name, but also indicate, or denote, objects and phenomena involved in the situation expressed by the sentence), they may be called "denotemes" (in the previous editions of the book they were referred to as "nomemes"). The level at which denotemes are identified is then the denotemic level of language. In this connection, the phrasemic level should be presented as the upper sublevel of the denotemic level. The demonstrated approach marks the necessary development of the theory of levels of language emphasizing the strictly hierarchical principle of inter-level derivational relations of lingual units (see above).

Above the denotemic level, the level of sentences is located,or the proposemic level.

The peculiar character of the sentence ("proposeme") as a signemic unit of language consists in the fact that; naming a certain station, or situational event, it expresses predication, i.e. shows the relation of the denoted event to reality. Namely, it shows whether this event is real or unreal, desirable or obligator stated as a truth or asked about, etc. In this sense, as different from the word and the phrase, the sentence is a predicative unit. Cf: to receive-to receive a letter-Early in June I received a letter from Peter Melrose.

The sentence is produced by the speaker in the process of speech as a concrete, situationally bound utterance. At the same time it enters the system of language by its syntactic pattern which, as all the other lingual unit-types, has both syntagmatic and paradigmatic characteristics.

But the sentence is not the highest unit of language in the hier archy of levels. Above the proposemic level there is still another one whose units are formed by separate sentences united into topical groupings. These sentence-groups each distinguished by its micro-topic as part of a continual text are tentatively called "super-sentential constructions". For the sake of unified terminology, the level at which they are identified can be called "supra-proposemic".

In the printed text, the supra-sentential construction very often coincides with the paragraph (as in the example above).

The supra-sentential construction is a combination of separate sentences forming a textual unity. Such combinations are subject toregular lingual patterning making them into syntactic elements. The syntactic process by which sentences are connected into textual unities is analysed under the heading of "cumulation". Cumulation, the same as formation of composite sentences, can be both syndetic and asyndetic. Cf .:

He went on with his interrupted breakfast. Lisette did not speak and there was silence between them. But his appetite satisfied, his mood changed; he began to feel sorry for himself rather than angty with her, and with a strange ignorance of woman's heart he thought to arouse Lisette's remorse by exhibiting himself as an object of pity (S. Maugham).

In the printed text, the supra-sentential construction very often coincides with the paragraph (as in the example above). However, the constitutive unit of the level in question obeying the universal derivational regularity of segmental lingual hierarchy, should be reducible to one sentence only, the same as the sentence is reducibleto one denoteme (sentence-part), the same as the nomeme is reducible to one lexeme (word), etc. This regularity considered, we come to the conclusion that the generalized unit that is located above by sentence and is distinguished by its topical (micro-topical) function is not necessarily represented by a group of sentence, i.e. by a super-sentential construction; in general terms, tlus unit is formed either by a group of sentences a super-sentential construction shown above), or by one separate sentence which is placed in a semantically (topically) significant position in speech. In oral speech it is delimited by a long pause combined with the corresponding "concluding" tone of voice. We have called this generalized unit he "dicteme" (from "I speak") [Блох. 1986, 48]. In written (printed) text it is often represented by a sentence-paragraph, i.e. by a paragraph formed by a single independent sentence.

Thus, from the point of view of its constitutive units, the supra-sentential level may be called the dictemic level, the dicteme being defined as an elementary topical segmental unit of the continual text.

We have surveyed six levels of language, each identified by its own, functional type of segmental units. If now we carefully observe the functional status of the level-forming segments, we can distin­guish between them more self-sufficient and less self-sufficient types, the latter being defined only in relation to the functions of other level units. Indeed, the phonemic, lexemic and proposemic levels are most strictly and exhaustively identified from the functional point of view: the function of the phoneme is differential, the function of the word is nominative, the function of the sentence is predicative. As different from these, morphemes are identified only as significative components of words, denotemes present notional parts of sentences, and dictemes mark the transition from the sentence to the text.

Furthermore, bearing in mind that the phonemic level forms the subfoundation of language, i.e. the non-meaningful matter of mean­ingful expressive means, the two notions of grammatical description shall be pointed out as central even within the framework of the structural hierarchy of language: these are, first, the notion of the word and, second, the notion of the sentence. The first is analysed by morphology, which is the grammatical teaching of the word; the second is analysed by syntax, which is the grammatical teaching of the sentence.

CHAPTER II MORPHEMIC STRUCTURE OF THE WORD

§ 1 . The morphological system of language reveals its properties through the morphemic structure of words. It follows from this that morphology as part of grammatical theory faces the two segmental units: the morpheme and the word. But, as we have already pointed out, the morpheme is not identified otherwise than part of the word; the functions of the morpheme are effected only as the correspond­ing constituent functions of the word as a whole.

For instance, the form of the verbal past tense is built up by means of the dental grammatical suffix: train-ed [-d]; publish-ed [-t]; meditat-ed [-id].

However, the past tense as a definite type of grammatical meaning is expressed not by the dental morpheme in isolation, but by the verb (i.e. word) taken in the corresponding form (realized by its morphemic composition); the dental suffix is immediately related to the stem of the verb and together with the stem constitutes the temporal correlation in the paradigmatic system of verbal categories.

Thus, in studying the morpheme we actually study the wordinthe necessary details of its composition and functions.

§ 2 . It is very difficult to give a rigorous and at the same time universal definition to the word, i.e. such a definition as would un­ambiguously apply to all the different word-units of the lexicon. This difficulty is explained by the fact that the word is an extremely complex and many-sided phenomenon. Within the framework of dif­ferent linguistic trends and theories the word is defined as the minimal potential sentence, the minimal free linguistic form, the el­ementary component of the sentence, the articulate sound-symbol, the grammatically arranged combination of sound with meaning, the meaningfully integral and immediately identifiable lingual unit, the uninterrupted string of morphemes, etc., etc. None of these defini­tions, which can be divided into formal, functional, and mixed, has the power to precisely cover all the lexical segments of language without a residue remaining outside the field of definition.

The said difficulties compel some linguists to refrain from ac­cepting the word as the basic element of language. In particular, American scholars - representatives of Descriptive Linguistics founded by L. Bloomfield - recognized not the word and the sentence, but the phoneme and the morpheme as the basic categories of linguistic de­scription, because these units are the easiest to be isolated in the continual text due to their "physically" minimal, elementary segmen­tal character: the phoneme being the minimal formal segment of language, the morpheme, the minimal meaningful segment. Accord­ingly, only two segmental levels were originally identified in language by Descriptive scholars: the phonemic level and the morphemic level; later, a third one was added to these-the level of "constructions", i.e. the level of morphemic combinations.

In fact, if we take such notional words as, say, water, pass, yel­low and the like, as well their simple derivatives, e.g. watery, passer, yellowness, we shall easily see their definite nominative function and unambiguous segmental delimitation, making them beyond all doubt into "separate words of language". But if we compare with the given one-stem words the corresponding composite formations, such as waterman, password, yellowback, we shall immediately note that the identification of the latter as separate words is greatly complicated by the fact that they themselves are decomposable into separate words. One could point out that the peculiar property distinguishing com­posite words from phrases is their linear indivisibility, i.e. the impos­sibility for them to be divided by a third word. But this would-be rigorous criterion is quite irrelevant for analytical word-forms, e.g.: has met-has never met; is coming-is not by any circumstances coming.

As for the criterion according to which the word is identified as a minimal sign capable of functioning alone (the word understood as the "smallest free form", or interpreted as the "potential minimal sentence"), it is irrelevant for the bulk of functional words which cannot be used "independently" even in elliptical responses (to say nothing of the fact that the very notion of ellipsis is essentially the opposite of self-dependence).

In spite of the shown difficulties, however, there remains the unquestionable fact that each speaker has at his disposal a ready stock of naming units (more precisely, units standing to one another in nominative correlation) by which he can build up an infinite number of utterances reflecting the ever changing situations of real­ity.

This circumstance urges us to seek the identification of the word as a lingual unit-type on other lines than the "strictly operational definition". In fact, we do find the clarification of the problem in taking into consideration the difference between the two sets of lin­gual phenomena: on the one hand, "polar" phenomena; on the other hand, "intermediary" phenomena.

Within a complex system of interrelated elements, polar phenom­ena are the most dearly identifiable, they stand to one another in an utterly unambiguous opposition. Intermediary phenomena ate lo­cated in the system in between the polar phenomena, making up a gradation of transitions or the so-called "continuum". By some of their properties intermediary phenomena are similar or near to one of the corresponding poles, while by other properties they are similar to the other, opposing pole. Either of the two poles together with the intermediary elements connected with it on the principle of gra­dation, forms a "field". The polar elements of this field constitute its "centre", the non-polar elements, respectively, its "periphery".

The analysis of the intermediary phenomena from the point of view of their relation to the polar phenomena reveal their own sta­tus in the system. At the same time this kind of analysis helps evaluate the definitions of the polar phenomena between which a continuum is established.

In this connection, the notional one-stem word and the mor­pheme should be described as the opposing polar phenomena among the meaningful segments of language; it is these elements that can be defined by their formal and functional features most precisely and unambiguously. As for functional words, they occupy intermediary positions between these poles, and their very intermediary status is gradational. In particular, the variability of their status is expressed in the fact that some of them can be used in an isolated response po­sition (for instance, words of affirmation and negation, interrogative words, demonstrative words, etc.), while others cannot (such as prepositions or conjunctions).

The nature of the element of any system is revealed in the character of its function. The function of words is realized in their nominative correlation with one another. On the basis of this corre­lation a number of functional words are distinguished by the "negative delimitation" (i.e. delimitation as a residue after the identification of the co-positional textual elements),* e.g.: the/people; to/speak; by/way/of.

* See: Смирницкий А.И. К вопросу о слове (проблема «отдельности сло­ва»). // Вопросы теории и истории языка. М., 1955.

The "negative delimitation" immediately connects these functional words with the directly nominative, notional words in the system. Thus, the correlation in question (which is to be implied by the conventional term "nominative function") unites functional words with notional words, or "half-words" (word-morphemes) with "full words". On the other hand, nominative correlation reduces the mor­pheme as a type of segmental signeme to the role of an element in the composition of the word.

As we see, if the elementary character (indivisibility) of the mor­pheme (as a significative unit) is established in the structure of words, the elementary character of the word (as a nominative unit) is realized in the system of lexicon.

Summing up what has been said in this paragraph, we may point out some of the properties of the morpheme and the word which are fundamental from the point of view of their systemic status and therefore require detailed investigations and descriptions.

The morpheme is a meaningful segmental component of the word; the morpheme is formed by phonemes; as a meaningful com­ponent of the word it is elementary (i.e. indivisible into smaller segments as regards its significative function).

The word is a nominative unit of language; it is formed by mor­phemes; it enters the lexicon of language as its elementary compo­nent (i.e. a component indivisible into smaller segments as regards its nominative function); together with other nominative units the word is used for the formation of the sentence - a unit of informa­tion in the communication process.

§ 3 . In traditional grammar the study of the morphemic struc­ture of the word was conducted in the light of the two basic crite­ria: positional criterion (the location of the marginal morphemes in relation to the central ones) and semantic or functional criterion (the correlative contribution of the morphemes to the general meaning of the word). The combination of these two criteria in an integral de­scription has led to the rational classification of morphemes that is widely used both in research linguistic work and in practical lingual tuition.

In accord with the traditional classification, morphemes on the upper level are divided into root-morphemes (roots) and affixal mor­phemes (affixes). The roots express the concrete, "material" part of the meaning of the word, while the affixes express the specificational part of the meaning of the word, the specifications being of lexico-semantic and grammatico-semantic character.

The roots of notional words are classical lexical morphemes.

The affixal morphemes include prefixes, suffixes, and inflexions (in the tradition of the English school, grammatical inflexions are commonly referred to as "suffixes"). Of these, prefixes and lexical suffixes have word-building functions, together with the root they form the stem of the word; inflexions (grammatical suffixes) express different morphological categories.

The root, according to the positional content of the term (i.e. the border-area between prefixes and suffixes), is obligatory for any word, while affixes are not obligatory. Therefore one and the same morphemic segment of functional (i.e. non-notional) status, depending on various morphemic environments, can in principle be used now as an affix (mostly, a prefix), now as a root. Cf .:

out - a root-word (preposition, adverb, verbal postposition, adjec­tive, noun, verb);

throughout - a composite word, in which -out serves as one of the roots (the categorial status of the meaning of both morphemes is the same);

outing - a two-morpheme word, in which out- is a root, and -ing is a suffix;

outlook, outline, outrage, out-talk, etc. - words, in which out- serves as a prefix;

look-out, knock-out, shut-out, time-out, etc. - words (nouns), in which -out serves as a suffix.

The morphemic composition of modern English words has a wide range of varieties; in the lexicon of everyday speech the prefer­able morphemic types of stems are root stems (one-root stems or two-root stems) and one-affix stems. With grammatically changeable words, these stems take one grammatical suffix (two "open" gram­matical suffixes are used only with some plural nouns in the posses­sive case, cf:. the children's toys, the oxen's yokes).

Thus, the abstract complete morphemic model of the common English word is the following: prefix + root + lexical suffix + grammatical suffix.

The syntagmatic connections of the morphemes within the model form two types of hierarchical structure. The first is characterized by the original prefixal stem (e.g. prefabricated), the second is charac­terized by the original suffixal stem (e.g. inheritors). If we use the symbols St for stem, R for root, Pr for prefix, L for lexical suffix, Gr for grammatical suffix, and, besides, employ three graphical sym­bols of hierarchical grouping-braces, brackets, and parentheses, then the two morphemic word-structures can be presented as follows:

§ 4 . Further insights into the correlation between the formal and functional aspects of morphemes within the composition of the word may be gained in the light of the so-called "allo-emic" theory put forward by Descriptive Linguistics and broadly used in the cur­rent linguistic research.

In accord with this theory, lingual units are described by means of two types of terms: allo-terms and eme-terms. Eme-terms denote the generalized invariant units of language characterized by a certain functional status: phonemes, morphemes. Allo-terms denote the con­crete manifestations, or variants of the generalized units dependent on the regular co-location with other elements of language: allo-phones, allomorphs. A set of iso-functional allo-units identified in the text on the basis of their co-occurrence with other lingual units (distribution) is considered as the corresponding eme-unit with its fixed systemic status.

The allo-emic identification of lingual elements is achieved by means of the so-called "distributional analysis". The immediate aim of the distributional analysis is to fix and study the units of language in relation to their textual environments, i.e. the adjoining elements in the text.

The environment of a unit may be either "right" or "left", e.g.: un-pardon-able.

In this word the left environment of the root is the negative prefix un-, the right environment of the root is the qualitative suffix -able. Respectively, the root -pardon- is the right environment for the prefix, and the left environment for the suffix.

The distribution of a unit may be defined as the total of all its environments; in other words, the distribution of a unit is its envi­ronment in generalized terms of classes or categories.

In the distributional analysis at the morphemic level, phonemic distribution of morphemes and morphemic distribution of morphemes are discriminated. The study is conducted in two stages.

At the first stage, the analysed text (i.e. the collected lingual materials, or "corpus") is divided into recurrent segments consisting of phonemes. These segments are called "morphs", i.e. morphemic units distributionally uncharacterized, e.g.: the/boat/s/were/gain/ing/ speed.

At the second stage, the environmental features of the morphs are established and the corresponding identifications are effected.

Three main types of distribution are discriminated in the distributional analysis, namely, contrastive distribution, non-contrastive dis­tribution, and complementary distribution.

Contrastive and non-contrastive distributions concern identical environments of different morphs. The morphs are said to be in contrastive distribution if their meanings (functions) are different. Such morphs constitute different morphemes. Cf . the suffixes -(e)d and -ing in the verb-forms returned, returning. The morphs are said to be in non-contrastive distribution (or free alternation) if their meaning (function) is the same. Such morphs constitute "free alter-nants", or "free variants" of the same morpheme. Cf. the suffixes -(e)d and - t in the verb-forms learned, learnt.

As different from the above, complementary distribution concerns different environments of formally different morphs which are united by the same meaning (function). If two or more morphs have the same meaning and the difference in their form is explained by dif­ferent environments, these morphs are said to be in complementary distribution and considered the allomorphs of the same morpheme. Cf. the allomorphs of the plural morpheme /-s/, /-z/, /-iz / which stand in phonemic complementary distribution; the plural allomorph -en in oxen , children, which stands in morphemic complementary distribution with the other allomorphs of the plural morpheme.

As we see, for analytical purposes the notion of complementary distribution is the most important, because it helps establish the identity of outwardly altogether different elements of language, in particular, its grammatical elements.

§ 5 . As a result of the application of distributional analysis to the morphemic level, different types of morphemes have been dis­criminated which can be called the "distributional morpheme types". It must be stressed that the distributional classification of morphemes cannot abolish or in any way depreciate the traditional morpheme types. Rather, it supplements the traditional classification, showing some essential features of morphemes on the principles of environ­mental study.

We shall survey the distributional morpheme types arranging them in pairs of immediate correlation.

On the basis of the degree of self-dependence, "free" mor­phemes and "bound" morphemes are distinguished. Bound mor­phemes cannot form words by themselves, they are identified only as component segmental parts of words. As different from this, free morphemes can build up words by themselves, i.e. can be used "freely".

For instance, in the word handful the root hand is a free morpheme, while the suffix -ful is a bound morpheme.

There are very few productive bound morphemes in the mor­phological system of English. Being extremely narrow, the list of them is complicated by the relations of homonymy. These mor­phemes are the following:

1) the segments -(e)s [-z, -s, -iz]: the plural of nouns, the pos­sessive case of nouns, the third person singular present of verbs;

2) the segments -(e)d [-d, -t, -id]: the past and past participle of verbs;

3) the segments -ing: the gerund and present participle;

4) the segments -er, -est the comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives and adverbs.

The auxiliary word-morphemes of various standings shouldbeinterpreted in this connection as "semi-bound" morphemes, since, being used as separate elements of speech strings, they form categorial unities with their notional stem-words.

On the basis of formal presentation, "overt" morphemes and "covert" morphemes are distinguished. Overt morphemes are gen­uine, explicit morphemes building up words; the covert morpheme is identified as a contrastive absence of morpheme expressing a certain function. The notion of covert morpheme coincides with the notion of zero morpheme in the oppositional description of grammatical cat­egories (see further).

For instance, the word-form clocks consists of two overt mor­phemes: one lexical (root) and one grammatical expressing the plural. The outwardly one-morpheme word-form clock, since it expresses the singular, is also considered as consisting of two morphemes, i.e. of the overt root and the covert (implicit) grammatical suffix of the singular. The usual symbol for the covert morpheme employed by linguists is the sign of the empty set: Ø.

On the basis of segmental relation, "segmental" morphemes and "supra-segmental" morphemes are distinguished. Interpreted as supra-segmental morphemes in distributional terms are intonation contours, accents, pauses.

The said elements of language, as we have stated elsewhere, should beyond dispute be considered signemic units of language, since they are functionally bound. They form the secondary line of speech, accompanying its primary phonemic line (phonemic complexes). On the other hand, from what has been stated about the morpheme proper, it is not difficult to see that the morphemic in­terpretation of supra-segmental units can hardly stand to reason. In­deed, these units are functionally connected not with morphemes, but with larger elements of guage: words, word-groups, sentences, supra-sentential constructions.

On the basis of grammatical alternation, "additive" morphemes and "replacive" morphemes are distinguished. Interpreted as additive morphemes are outer grammatical suffixes, since, as a rule, they are opposed to the absence of morphemes in grammatical alternation. Cf . look + ed, small + er, etc. In distinction to these, the root phonemes of grammatical interchange are considered as replacive morphemes, since they replace one another in the paradigmatic forms. Cf . dr-i-ve - dr-o-ve - dr-i-ven; m-a-n - m-e-n; etc.

It should be remembered that the phonemic interchange is ut­terly unproductive in English as in all the Indo-European languages. If it were productive, it might rationally be interpreted as a sort of replacive "infixation" (correlated with "exfixation" of the additive type). As it stands, however, this type of grammatical means can be understood as a kind of suppletivity (i.e. partial suppletivity).

On the basis of linear characteristic, "continuous" (or "linear") morphemes and "discontinuous" morphemes are distinguished.

By the discontinuous morpheme, opposed to the common, i.e. uninterruptedly expressed, continuous morpheme, a two-element grammatical unit is meant which is identified in the analytical grammatical form comprising an auxiliary word and a grammatical suffix. These two elements, as it were, embed the notional stem; hence, they are symbolically represented as follows:

be ... ing - for the continuous verb forms (e.g. is going);

have ... en - for the perfect verb forms (e.g. has gone);

be ... en -for the passive verb forms (e.g. is taken).

It is easy to see that the notion of morpheme applied to the an­alytical form of the word violates the principle of the identification of morpheme as an elementary meaningful segment: the analytical "framing" consists of two meaningful segments, i.e. of two different morphemes. On the other hand, the general notion "discontinuous constituent", "discontinuous unit" is quite rational and can be help­fully used in linguistic description in its proper place.

CHAPTER III CATEGORIAL STRUCTURE OF THE WORD

§ 1 . Notional words, first of all verbs and nouns, possess some morphemic features expressing grammatical (morphological) meanings. These features determine the grammatical form of the word.

Grammatical meanings are very abstract, very general. Therefore the grammatical form is not confined to an individual word, but unites a whole class of words, so that each word of the class ex­presses the corresponding grammatical meaning together with its in­dividual, concrete semantics.

For instance, the meaning of the substantive plural is rendered by the regular plural suffix -(e)s, and in some cases by other, more specific means, such as phonemic interchange and a few lexemebound suffixes. Due to the generalized character of the plural, we say that different groups of nouns "take" this form with strictly de­fined variations in the mode of expression, the variations being of more systemic (phonological conditioning) and less systemic (etymological conditioning) nature. Cf .: faces, branches, matches, judges; books, rockets, boats, chiefs, proofs; dogs, beads, films, stones, hens; lives, wives, thieves, leaves; girls, stars, toys, heroes, pi­anos, cantos; oxen, children, brethren, kine; swine, sheep, deer; cod, trout, salmon, men, women, feet, teeth, geese, mice, lice; formulae, antennae; data, errata, strata, addenda, memoranda; radii, genii, nu­clei, alumni; crises, bases, analyses, axes; phenomena, criteria.

As we see, the grammatical form presents a division of the word on the principle of expressing a certain grammatical meaning.

§ 2 . The most general notions reflecting the most general prop­erties of phenomena are referred to in logic as "categorial notions", or "categories". The most general meanings rendered by language and expressed by systemic correlations of word-forms are interpreted in linguistics as categorial grammatical meanings. The forms them­selves are identified within definite paradigmatic series.

The categorial meaning (e.g. the grammatical number) unites the individual meanings of the correlated paradigmatic forms (e.g. singu­lar - plural) and is exposed through them; hence, the meaning of the grammatical category and the meaning of the grammatical form are related to each other on the principle of the logical relation between the categorial and generic notions.

As for the grammatical category itself, it presents the same as the grammatical "form", a unity of form (i.e. material factor) and meaning (i.e. ideal factor) and constitutes a certain signemic system.

More specifically, the grammatical category is a system of ex­pressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of paradig­matic correlation of grammatical forms.

The ordered set of grammatical forms expressing a categorial function constitutes a paradigm.

The paradigmatic correlations of grammatical forms in a category are exposed by the so-called "grammatical oppositions".

The opposition (in the linguistic sense) may be defined as a generalized correlation of lingual forms by means of which a certain function is expressed. The correlated elements (members) of the op­position must possess two types of features: common features and differential features. Common features serve as the basis of contrast, while differential features immediately express the function in ques­tion.

The oppositional theory was originally formulated as a phonologi­cal theory. Three main qualitative types of oppositions were estab­lished in phonology: "privative", "gradual", and "equipollent". By the number of members contrasted, oppositions were divided into binary (two members) and more than binary (ternary, quaternary, etc.).

The most important type of opposition is the binary privative opposition; the other types of oppositions are reducible to the binary privative opposition.

The binary privative opposition is formed by a contrastive pair of members in which one member is characterized by the presence of a certain differential feature ("mark"), while the other member is characterized by the absence of this feature. The member in which the feature is present is called the "marked", or "strong", or "positive" member, and is commonly designated by the symbol + (plus); the member in which the feature is absent is called the "unmarked", or "weak", or "negative" member, and is commonly designated by the symbol - (minus).

For instance, the voiced and devoiced consonants form a privative opposition [b, d, g-p, t, k]. The differential feature of the opposi­tion is "voice". This feature is present in the voiced consonants, so their set forms the marked member of the opposition. The devoiced consonants, lacking the feature, form the unmarked member of the opposition. To stress the marking quality of "voice" for the opposi­tion in questions, the devoiced consonants may be referred to as "non-voiced".

The gradual opposition is formed by a contrastive group of members which are distinguished not by the presence or absence of a feature, but by the degree of it.

For instance, the front vowels [i; -1 - e - ae] form a quarternary gradual opposition, since they are differentiated by the degree of their openness (their length, as is known, is also relevant, as well as some other individualizing properties, but these factors do not spoil the gradual opposition as such).

The equipollent opposition is formed by a contrastive pair or group in which fhe members are distinguished by different positive features.

For instance, the phonemes [m] and [b], both bilabial consonants, form an equipollent opposition, [m] being sonorous nazalized, [b] being plosive.

We have noted above that any opposition can be reformulated in privative terms. Indeed, any positive feature distinguishing an oppositionally characterized lingual element is absent in the oppositionally correlated element, so that considered from the point of view of this feature alone, the opposition, by definition, becomes privative. This reformulation is especially helpful on an advanced stage of oppositional study of a given microsystem, because it enables us to char­acterize the elements of the system by the corresponding strings ("bundles") of values of their oppositional featuring ("bundles of differential features"), each feature being represented by the values + or-.

For instance, [p] is distinguished from [b] as voiceless (voice-), from [t] as bilabial (labialization +), from [m] as non-nazalized (nasalization-), etc. The descriptive advantages of this kind of char­acterization are self-evident.

Unlike phonemes which are monolateral lingual elements, words as units of morphology are bilateral; therefore morphological opposi­tions must reflect both the plane of expression (form) and the plane of content (meaning).

The most important type of opposition in morphology, the same as in phonology, is the binary privative opposition.

The privative morphological opposition is based on a morphologi­cal differential feature which is present in its strong (marked) mem­ber and absent in its weak (unmarked) member. In another kind of wording, this differential feature may be said to mark one of the members of the opposition positively (the strong member), and the other one negatively (the weak member). The featuring in question serves as the immediate means of expressing a grammatical meaning.

For instance, the expression of the verbal present and past tenses is based on a privative opposition the differential feature of which is the dental suffix -(e)d. This suffix, rendering the meaning of the past tense, marks the past form of the verb positively (we worked), and the present form negatively (we work).

The meanings differentiated by the oppositions of signemic units (signemic oppositions) are referred to as "semantic features", or "semes".

For instance, the nounal form cats expresses the seme of plural­ity, as opposed to the form cat which expresses, by contrast, the seme of singularity. The two forms constitute a privative opposition in which the plural is the marked member. In order to stress the negative marking of the singular, it can be referred to as "non-plu­ral".

It should be noted that the designation of the weak members of privative morphological oppositions by the "non-" terms is significant not only from the point of view of the plane of expression, but also from the point of view of the plane of content. It is connected with the fact that the meaning of the weak member of the privative op­position is more general and abstract as compared with the meaning of the strong member, which is, respectively, more particular and concrete. Due to this difference in meaning, the weak member is used in a wider range of contexts than the strong member. For in­stance, the present tense form of the verb, as different from the past tense, is used to render meanings much broader than those directly implied by the corresponding time-plane as such. Cf:

The sun rises in the East. To err is human. They don't speak French in this part of the country. Etc.

Equipollent oppositions in the system of English morphology con­stitute a minor type and are mostly confined to formal relations only. An example of such an opposition can be seen in the correla­tion of the person forms of the verb be: am - are - is.

Gradual oppositions in morphology are not generally recognized; in principle, they can be identified as a minor type at the semantic level only. An example of the gradual morphological opposition can be seen in the category of comparison: strong-stronger-strongest.

A grammatical category must be expressed by at least one oppo­sition of forms. These forms are ordered in a paradigm in gram­matical descriptions.

Both equipollent and gradual oppositions in morphology, the same as in phonology, can be reduced to privative oppositions within the framework of an oppositional presentation of some categorial system as a whole. Thus, a word-form, like a phoneme, can be rep­resented by a bundle of values of differential features, graphically ex­posing its categorial structure. For instance, the verb-form listens is marked negatively as the present tense (tense-), negatively as the indicative mood (mood-), negatively as the passive voice (voice-), positively as the third person (person +), etc. This principle of pre­sentation, making a morphological description more compact, at the same time has the advantage of precision and helps penetrate deeper into the inner mechanisms of grammatical categories.

§ 3 . In various contextual conditions, one member of an oppo­sition can be used in the position of the other, counter-member. This phenomenon should be treated under the headingof"oppositional reduction" or "oppositional substitution". The first ver­sion of the term ("reduction") points out the fact that the opposition in this case is contracted, losing its formal distinctive force. The sec­ond version of the term ("substitution") shows the very processbywhich the opposition is reduced, namely, the use of one member in­stead of the other.

By way of example, let us consider the following case of the singular noun-subject: Man conquers nature.

The noun man in the quoted sentence is used in the singular, but it is quite clear that it stands not for an individual person, but for people in general, for the idea of "mankind". In other words, the noun is used generically, it implies the class of denoted objects as a whole. Thus, in the oppositional light, here the weak member of the categorial opposition of number has replaced the strong mem­ber.

Consider another example: Tonight we start for London.

The verb in this sentence takes the form of the present, while its meaning in the context is the future. It means that the opposition "present - future" has been reduced, the weak member (present) re­placing the strong one (future).

The oppositional reduction shown in the two cited cases is stylis­tically indifferent, the demonstrated use of the forms does not transgress the expressive conventions of ordinary speech. This kind of oppositional reduction is referred to as "neutralization" of opposi­tions. The position of neutralization is, as a rule, filled in by the weak member of the opposition due to its more general semantics.

Alongside the neutralizing reduction of oppositions there exists another kind of reduction, by which one of the members of the op­position is placed in contextual conditions uncommon for it; in other words, the said reductional use of the form is stylistically marked. E.g.: That man is constantly complaining of something.

The form of the verbal present continuous in the cited sentence stands in sharp contradiction with its regular grammatical meaning "action in progress at the present time". The contradiction is, of course, purposeful: by exaggeration, it intensifies the implied disap­proval of the man's behaviour.

This kind of oppositional reduction should be considered under the heading of "transposition". Transposition is based on the contrast between the members of the opposition, it may be defined as a contrastive use of the counter-member of the opposition. As a rule (but not exclusively) transpositionally employed is the strong member of the opposition, which is explained by its comparatively limited regular functions.

§ 4. The means employed for building up member-forms of categorial oppositions are traditionally divided into synthetical and analytical; accordingly, the grammatical forms themselves are classed into synthetical and analytical, too.

Synthetical grammatical forms are realized by the inner mor­phemic composition of the word, while analytical grammatical forms are built up by a combination of at least two words, one of which is a grammatical auxiliary (word-morpheme), and the other, a word of "substantial" meaning.

Synthetical grammatical forms are based on inner inflexion, outer inflexion, and suppletivity; hence, the forms are referred to as inner-inflexional, outer-inflexional, and suppletive.

Inner inflexion, or phonemic (vowel) interchange, is not produc­tive in modern Indo-European languages, but it is peculiarly em­ployed in some of their basic, most ancient lexemic elements.Bythis feature, the whole family of Indo-European languages is identi­fied in linguistics as typologically "inflexional".

Inner inflexion (grammatical "imixation", see above) is used in English in irregular verbs (the bulk of them belong to the Germanic strong verbs) for the formation of the past indefinite and past par­ticiple; besides, it is used in a few nouns for the formation of the plural. Since the corresponding oppositions of forms are based on yhonemic interchange, the initial paradigmatic form of each lexeme in question should also be considered as inflexional. Cf .: take - took - taken, drive - drove - driven, keep - kept - kept, etc.; man - men, brother - brethren, etc.

Suppletivity, like inner inflexion, is not productive as a purely morphological type of form. It is based on the correlation of differ­ent roots as a means of paradigmatic differentiation. In other words, it consists in the grammatical interchange of word roots, and this, as we pointed out in the foregoing chapter, unites it in principle with inner inflexion (or, rather, makes the latter into a specific variety of the former).

Suppletivity is used in the forms of the verbs be and go, in the irregular forms of the degrees of comparison, in some forms of per­sonal pronouns. Cf:. be - am - are - is - was - were; go - went;good - better; bad - worse; much - more; little - less; I - me; we - us; she - her.

In a broader morphological interpretation, suppletivity can be recognized in paradigmatic correlations of some modal verbs, some indefinite pronouns, as well as certain nouns of peculiar categorial properties (lexemic suppletivity - see Ch. IV, § 8). Cf:. can - be able; must - have (to), be obliged (to); may - be allowed (to); one - some; man - people; news - items of news; information - pieces of information; etc.

The shown unproductive synthetical means of English morphology are outbalanced by the productive means of affixation (outer inflex­ion), which amount to grammatical suffixation (grammatical prefixation could only be observed in the Old English verbal system).

In the previous chapter we enumerated the few grammatical suf­fixes possessed by the English language. These are used to build up the number and case forms of the noun; the person-number, tense, participial and gerundial forms of the verb; the comparison forms of the adjective and adverb. In the oppositional correlations of all these forms, the initial paradigmatic form of each opposition is distin­guished by a zero suffix. Cf:. boy+ Ø -boys; go+ Ø -goes; work + Ø - worked; small + Ø - smaller; etc.

Taking this into account, and considering also the fact that each grammatical form paradigmatically correlates with at least one other grammatical form on the basis of the category expressed (e.g. the form of the singular with the form of the plural), we come to the conclusion that the total number of synthetical forms in English morphology, though certainly not very large, at the same time is not so small as it is commonly believed. Scarce in English are not the synthetical forms as such, but the actual affixal segments on which the paradigmatic differentiation of forms is based.

As for analytical forms which are so typical of modem English that they have long made this language into the "canonized" repre­sentative of lingual analytism, they deserve some special comment on their substance.

The traditional view of the analytical morphological form recog­nizes two lexemic parts in it, stating that it presents a combination of an auxiliary word with a basic word. However, there is a ten­dency with some linguists to recognize as analytical not all such grammatically significant combinations, but only those of them that are "grammatically idiomatic", i.e. whose relevant grammatical meaning is not immediately dependent on the meanings of their component elements taken apart. Considered in this light, the form of the verbal perfect where the auxiliary have has utterly lost its original meaning of possession, is interpreted as the most standard and indisputable analytical form in English morphology. Its opposite is seen in the analytical degrees of comparison which, according to the cited interpretation, come very near to free combinations of words by their lack of "idiomatism" in the above sense [Смирницкий, 1959, 68 ff.; Бархударов, 1975, 67 if.].*

* Cf . Аналитические конструкции в языках различных типов: Сб. ст./Отв. ред. Жирмунский В.М. и Суник О.П. М.-Л., 1965.

The scientific achievement of the study of "idiomatic" analytism in different languages is essential and indisputable. On the other hand, the demand that "grammatical idiomatism" should be regarded as the basis of "grammatical analytism" seems, logically, too strong. The analytical means underlying the forms in question consist in the discontinuity of the corresponding lexemic constituents. Proceeding from this fundamental principle, it can hardly stand to reason to ex­clude "unidiomatic" grammatical combinations (i.e. combinations of oppositional-categorial significance) from the system of analytical ex­pression as such. Rather, they should be regarded as an integral part of this system, in which, the provision granted, a gradation of id­iomatism is to be recognized. In this case, alongside the classical analytical forms of verbal perfect or continuous, such analytical forms should also be discriminated as the analytical infinitive (go - to go), the analytical verbal person (verb plus personal pronoun), the analytical degrees of comparison of both positive and negative varieties (more important - less important), as well as some other, still more unconventional form-types.

Moreover, alongside the standard analytical forms characterized by the unequal ranks of their components (auxiliary element - basic el­ement), as a marginal analytical form-type grammatical repetition should be recognized, which is used to express specific categorial semantics of processual intensity with the verb, of indefinitely high degree of quality with the adjective and the adverb, of indefinitely large quantity with the noun. Cf .:

He knocked and knocked and knocked without reply (Gr. Greene). Oh, I feel I've got such boundless, boundless love to give to somebody (K. Mansfield). Two white-haired severe women were in charge of shelves and shelves of knitting materials of every de­scription (A. Christie).

§ 5. The grammatical categories which are realized by the de­scribed types of forms organized in functional paradigmatic opposi­tions, can either be innate for a given class of words, or only be expressed on the surface of it, serving as a sign of correlation with some other class.

For instance, the category of number is organically connected with the functional nature of the noun: it directly exposes the num­ber of the referent substance, e.g. one ship - several ships. The cate­gory of number in the verb, however, by no means gives a natural meaningful characteristic to the denoted process: the process is de­void of numerical features such as are expressed by the grammatical number. Indeed, what is rendered by the verbal number is not a quantitative characterization of the process, but a numerical featuring of the subject-referent. Cf .:

The girl is smiling.-The girls are smiling. The ship is in the harbour. - The ships are in the harbour.

Thus, from the point of view of referent relation, grammatical categories should be divided into "immanent" categories, i.e. cate­gories innate for a given lexemic class, and "reflective" categories, i.e. categories of a secondary, derivative semantic value. Categorial forms based on subordinative grammatical agreement (such as the verbal person, the verbal number) are reflective, while categorial forms stipulating grammatical agreement in lexemes of a contiguous word-class (such as the substantive-pronominal person, the substan-live number) are immanent. Immanent are also such categories and their forms as are confined within a word-class, i.e. do not transgress its borders; to these belong the tense of the verb, the comparison of the adjective and adverb, etc.

Another essential division of grammatical categories is based on the changeability factor of the exposed feature. Namely, the feature of the referent expressed by the category can be either constant (unchangeable, "derivational"), or variable (changeable, "demutative").

An example of constant feature category can be seen in the cat­egory of gender, which divides the class of English nouns into non-human names, human male names, human female names, and hu­man common gender names. This division is represented by the system of the third person pronouns serving as gender-indices (see further). Cf .:

It (non-human): mountain, city, forest, cat, bee, etc.

He (male human): man, father, husband, uncle, etc.

She (female human): woman, lady, mother, girl, etc.

He or she (common human): person, parent, child, cousin, etc.

Variable feature categories can be exemplified by the substantive number (singular - plural) or the degrees of comparison (positive - comparative - superlative).

Constant feature categories reflect the static classifications of phenomena, while variable feature categories expose various connec­tions between phenomena. Some marginal categorial forms may ac­quire intermediary status, being located in-between the corresponding categorial poles. For instance, the nouns singularia tantum and pluralia tantum present a case of hybrid variable-constant formations, since their variable feature of number has become "rigid",or"lexicalized". Cf:. news, advice, progress; people, police; bellows, tongs; colours, letters; etc.

In distinction to these, the gender word-building pairs should be considered as a clear example of hybrid constant-variable formations, since their constant feature of gender has acquired some changeabil­ity properties, i.e. has become to a certain extent "grammaticalized". Cf.: actor - actress, author - authoress, lion - lioness, etc.

§ 6 . In the light of the exposed characteristics of the cate­gories, we may specify the status of grammatical paradigms of changeable forms.

Grammatical change has been interpreted in traditional terms of declension and conjugation. By declension the nominal change is im­plied (first of all, the case system), while by conjugation the verbal change is implied (the verbal forms of person, number, tense, etc.). However, the division of categories into immanent and reflective in­vites a division of forms on a somewhat more consistent basis.

Since the immanent feature is expressed by essentially indepen­dent grammatical forms, and the reflective feature, correspondingly, by essentially dependent grammatical forms, all the forms of the first order (immanent) should be classed as "declensional", while all the forms of the second order (reflective) should be classed as "conjugational".

In accord with this principle, the noun in such synthetical lan­guages as Russian or Latin is declined by the forms of gender, number, and case, while the adjective is conjugated by the same forms. As for the English verb, it is conjugated by the reflective forms of person and number, but declined by the immanent forms of tense, aspect, voice, and mood.

CHAPTER IV GRAMMATICAL CLASSES OF WORDS

§ 1 . The words of language, depending on various formal and semantic features, are divided into grammatically relevant sets or classes. The traditional grammatical classes of words are called "parts of speech". Since the word is distinguished not only by grammatical, but also by semantico-lexemic properties, some scholars refer to parts of speech as "lexico-grammatical" series of words, or as "lexico-grammatical categories" [Смирницкий, 1957, 33; 1959, 100].

- It should be noted that the term "part of speech" is purely tra­ditional and conventional, it cannot be taken as in any way defining or explanatory. This name was introduced in the grammatical teach­ing of Ancient Greece, where the concept of the sentence was not yet explicitly identified in distinction to the general idea of speech, and where, consequently, no strict differentiation was drawn between the word as a vocabulary unit and the word as a functional element of the sentence.

In modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of the three criteria: "semantic", "formal", and "functional". The semantic criterion presupposes the evaluation of the generalized meaning, which is characteristic of all the subsets of words consti­tuting a given part of speech. This meaning is understood as the "categorial meaning of the part of speech". The formal criterion provides for the exposition of the specific inflexional and derivational (word-building) features of all the lexemic subsets of a part of speech. The functional criterion concerns the syntactic role words in the sentence typical of a part of speech. The said three factors of categorial characterization of words are conventionally referred to as, respectively, "meaning", "form", and "function".

§ 2. In accord with the described criteria, words on the upper level of classification are divided into notional and functional, which reflects their division in the earlier grammatical tradition into changeable and unchangeable.

To the notional parts of speech of the English language belong the noun, the adjective, the numeral, the pronoun, the verb, the ad­verb.

The features of the noun within the identificational triad "meaning - form - function" are, correspondingly, the following: 1) the categorial meaning of substance ("thingness"); 2) the changeable forms of number and case; the specific suffixal forms of derivation (prefixes in English do not discriminate parts of speech as such); 3) the substantive functions in the sentence (subject, object, substantival predicative); prepositional connections; modification by an adjective.

The features of the adjective: 1) the categorial meaning of prop­erty (qualitative and relative); 2) the forms of the degrees of com­parison (for qualitative adjectives); the specific suffixal forms of derivation; 3) adjectival functions in the sentence (attribute to a noun, adjectival predicative).

The features of the numeral: 1) the categorial meaning of num­ber (cardinal and ordinal); 2) the narrow set of simple numerals; the specific forms of composition for compound numerals; the specific suffixal forms of derivation for ordinal numerals; 3) the functions of numerical attribute and numerical substantive.

The features of the pronoun: 1) the categorial meaning of indi­cation (deixis); 2) the narrow sets of various status with the corre­sponding formal properties of categorial changeability and word-building; 3) the substantival and adjectival functions for different sets.

The features of the verb: 1) the categorial meaning of process (presented in the two upper series of forms, respectively, as finite process and non-finite process); 2) the forms of the verbal categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, mood; the opposition of the finite and non-finite forms; 3) the function of the finite predicate for the finite verb; the mixed verbal - other than verbal functions for the non-finite verb.

The features of the adverb: 1) the categorial meaning of the secondary property, i.e. the property of process or another property; 2) the forms of the degrees of comparison for qualitative adverbs; the specific suffixal forms of derivation; 3) the functions of various adverbial modifiers.

We have surveyed the identifying properties of the notional parts of speech that unite the words of complete nominative meaning characterized by self-dependent functions in the sentence.

Contrasted against the notional parts of speech are words of in­complete nominative meaning and non-self-dependent, mediatory functions in the sentence. These are functional parts of speech.

On the principle of "generalized form" only unchangeable words are traditionally treated under the heading of functional parts of speech. As for their individual forms as such, they are simply pre­sented by the list, since the number of these words is limited, so that they needn't be identified on any general, operational scheme.

To the basic functional series of words in English belong the ar­ticle, the preposition, the conjunction, the particle, the modal word, the interjection.

The article expresses the specific limitation of the substantive functions.

The preposition expresses the dependencies and interdependencies of substantive referents.

The conjunction expresses connections of phenomena.

The particle unites the functional words of specifying and limiting meaning. To this series, alongside other specifying words, should be referred verbal postpositions as functional modifiers of verbs, etc.

The modal word, occupying in the sentence a more pronounced or less pronounced detached position, expresses the attitude of the speaker to the reflected situation and its parts. Here belong the functional words of probability (probably, perhaps, etc.), of qualitative evaluation (fortunately, unfortunately, luckily, etc.), and also of af­firmation and negation.

The interjection, occupying a detached position in the sentence, is a signal of emotions.

§ 3 . Each part of speech after its identification is further sub­divided into subseries in accord with various particular semantico-functional and formal features of the constituent words. This subdivi­sion is sometimes called "subcategorization" of parts of speech.

Thus, nouns are subcategorized into proper and common, animate and inanimate, countable and uncountable, concrete and abstract, etc Cf .:

Mary, Robinson, London, the Mississippi, Lake Eric-girl, person, city, river, lake;

man, scholar, leopard, butterfly-earth, field, rose, machine;

coin/coins, floor/floors, kind/kinds-news, growth, water, funi, ture;

stone, grain, mist, leaf-honesty, love, slavery, darkness.

Verbs are subcategorized into fully predicative and partially pred­icative, transitive and intransitive, actional and statal, purely nomina­tive and evaluative, etc. Cf .:

walk, sail, prepare, shine, blow-can, may, shall, be, become;

take, put, speak, listen, see, give-live, float, stay, ache, ripen rain;

write, play, strike, boil, receive, ride-exist, sleep, rest, thrive revel, suffer;

roll, tire, begin, ensnare, build, tremble-consider, approve, mind, desire, hate, incline.

Adjectives are subcategorized into qualitative and relative, of con­stant feature and temporary feature (the latter are referred to as "statives" and identified by some scholars as a separate part of speech under the heading of "category of state"), factual and evalua­tive, etc. Cf .:

long, red, lovely, noble, comfortable-wooden, rural, daily, subte - ranean, orthographical;

healthy, sickly, joyful, grievous, wry, blazing-well, ill, glad, sorry, awry, ablaze;

tall, heavy, smooth, mental, native-kind, brave, wonderful, wise, stupid.

The adverb, the numeral, the pronoun are also subject to the corresponding subcategorizations.

§ 4 . We have drawn a general outline of the division of the lexicon into part of speech classes developed by modern linguists on the lines of traditional morphology.

It is known that the distribution of words between different parts of speech may to a certain extent differ with different authors. This fact gives cause to some linguists for calling in question the rational character of the part of speech classification as a whole, gives them cause for accusing it of being subjective or "prescientific" in essence. Such nihilistic criticism, however, should be rejected as utterly un­grounded.

Indeed, considering the part of speech classification on its merits, one must clearly realize that what is above all important about it is the fundamental principles of word-class identification, and not occa­sional enlargements or diminutions of the established groups, or re­distributions of individual words due to re-considerations of their subcategorial features. The very idea of subcategorization as the obli­gatory second stage of the undertaken classification testifies to the objective nature of this kind of analysis.

For instance, prepositions and conjunctions can be combined into one united series of "connectives", since the function of both is just to connect notional components of the sentence. In this case, on the second stage of classification, the enlarged word-class of connectives will be subdivided into two main subclasses, namely, prepositional connectives and conjunctional connectives. Likewise, the articles can be included as a subset into the more general set of particles-speci­fiers. As is known, nouns and adjectives, as well as numerals, are treated in due contexts of description under one common class-term "names": originally, in the Ancient Greek grammatical teaching they were not differentiated because they had the same forms of morpho­logical change (declension). On the other hand, in various descrip­tions of English grammar such narrow lexemic sets as the two words yes and no, the pronominal determiners of nouns, even the one anticipating pronoun it are given a separate class-item sta­tus - though in no way challenging or distorting the functional char­acter of the treated units.

It should be remembered that modern principles of part of speech identification have been formulated as a result of painstaking research conducted on the vast materials of numerous languages. The three celebrated names are especially notable for the elaboration of these criteria, namely, V.V. Vinogradov in connection with his study of Russian grammar, A.I. Smirnitsky and BA. Ilyish in connection with their study of English grammar.

§ 5 . Alongside the three-criteria principle of dividing the words into grammatical (lexico-grammatical) classes modern linguistics has developed another, narrower principle of word-class identification based on syntactic featuring of words only.

The fact is that the three-criteria principle faces a special diffi­culty in determining the part of speech status of such lexemes as have morphological characteristics of notional words, but are essen­tially distinguished from notional words by their playing the role of grammatical mediators in phrases and sentences. Here belong, for in­stance, modal verbs together with their equivalents - suppletive fillers, auxiliary verbs, aspective verbs, intensifying adverbs, determiner pro­nouns. This difficulty, consisting in the intersection of heterogeneous properties in the established word-classes, can evidently be overcome by recognizing only one criterion of the three as decisive.

Worthy of note is that in the original Ancient Greek grammatical teaching which put forward the first outline of the part of speech theory, the division of words into grammatical classes was also based on one determining criterion only, namely, on the formal-morphologi­cal featuring. It means that any given word under analysis was turned into a classified lexeme on the principle of its relation to grammatical change. In conditions of the primary acquisition of lin­guistic knowledge, and in connection with the study of a highly in­flexional language this characteristic proved quite efficient.

Still, at the present stage of the development of linguistic science, syntactic characterization of words that has been made possible after the exposition of their fundamental morphological properties, is far more important and universal from the point of view of the general classificational requirements.

This characterization is more important, because it shows the distribution of words between different sets in accord with their functional specialization. The role of morphology by this presentation is not underrated, rather it is further clarified from the point of view of exposing connections between the categorial composition of the word and its sentence-forming relevance.

This characterization is more universal, because it is not specially destined for the inflexional aspect of language and hence is equally applicable to languages of various morphological types.

On the material of Russian, the principles of syntactic approach to the classification of word stock were outlined in the works of A.M. Peshkovsky. The principles of syntactic (syntactico-distributional) classification of English words were worked out by L. Bloomfield and his followers Z. Harris and especially Ch. Fries.

§ 6. The syntactico-distributional classification of words is based on the study of their combinability by means of substitution testing. The testing results in developing the standard model of four main "positions" of notional words in the English sentence: those of the noun (N), verb (V), adjective (A), adverb (D). Pronouns are in­cluded into the corresponding positional classes as their substitutes. Words standing outside the "positions" in the sentence are treated as function words of various syntactic values.

Here is how Ch. Fries presents his scheme of English word-classes [Fries].

For his materials he chooses tape-recorded spontaneous conversa­tions comprising about 250,000 word entries (50 hours of talk). The words isolated from this corpus are tested on the three typical sen­tences (that are isolated from the records, too), and used as substi­tution test-frames:

Frame A. The concert was good (always).

Frame B. The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly).

Frame C. The team went there.

The parenthesised positions are optional from the point of view of the structural completion of sentences.

As a result of successive substitution tests on the cited "frames" the following lists of positional words ("form-words", or "parts of speech") are established:

Class 1. (A) concert, coffee, taste, container, difference, etc. (B) clerk, husband, supervisor, etc.; tax, food, coffee, etc. (C) team, hus­band, woman, etc.

Class 2. (A) was, seemed, became, etc. (B) remembered, wanted, saw, suggested, etc. (C) went, came, ran,... lived, worked, etc.

Class 3. (A) good, large, necessary, foreign, new, empty, etc.

Class 4. (A) there, here, always, then, sometimes, etc. (B) clearly, sufficiently, especially, repeatedly, soon, etc. (C) there, back, out, etc.; rapidly, eagerly, confidently, etc.

All these words can fill in the positions of the frames without affecting their general structural meaning (such as "thing and its quality at a given time" - the first frame; "actor - action - thing acted upon - characteristic of the action"-the second frame; "actor-action-direction of the action "-the third frame). Repeated interchanges in the substitutions of the primarily identified positional (i.e. notional) words in different collocations determine their mor­phological characteristics, i.e. characteristics referring them to various subclasses of the identified lexemic classes.

Functional words (function words) are exposed in the cited pro­cess of testing as being unable to fill in the positions of the frames without destroying their structural meaning. These words form lim­ited groups totalling 154 units.

The identified groups of functional words can be distributed among the three main sets. The words of the first set are used as specifiers of notional words. Here belong determiners of nouns, modal verbs serving as specifiers of notional verbs, functional modi­fiers and intensifiers of adjectives and adverbs. The words of the second set play the role of interpositional elements, determining the relations of notional words to one another. Here belong prepositions and conjunctions. The words of the third set refer to the sentence as a whole. Such are question-words (what, how, etc.), inducement-words (lets, please, etc.), attention-getting words, words of affirma­tion and negation, sentence introducers (it, there) and some others.

§ 7. Comparing the syntactico-distributional classification of words with the traditional part of speech division of words, one can­not but see the similarity of the general schemes of the two: the opposition of notional and functional words, the four absolutely cardinal classes of notional words (since numerals and pronouns have no positional functions of their own and serve as pro-nounal and pro-adjectival elements), the interpretation of functional words as syntactic mediators and their formal representation by the list.

However, under these unquestionable traits of similarity are dis­tinctly revealed essential features of difference, the proper evaluation of which allows us to make some important generalizations about the structure of the lexemic system of language.

§ 8 . One of the major truths as regards the linguistic mecha­nism arising from the comparison of the two classifications is the explicit and unconditional division of the lexicon into the notional and functional parts. The open character of the notional part of the lexicon and the closed character of the functional part of it (not ex­cluding the intermediary field between the two) receives the strict status of a formal grammatical feature.

The unity of notional lexemes finds its essential demonstration in an inter-class system of derivation that can be presented as a formal four-stage series permeating the lexicon and reflected in regular phrase correlations. Cf .:

a recognizing note-a notable recognition-to note recogniz-ingly - to recognize notably, silent disapproval - disapproving si­lence - to disapprove silently - to silence disapprovingly, etc.

This series can symbolically be designated by the formula St (n.v.a.d.) where St represents the morphemic stem of the series, while the small letters in parentheses stand for the derivational fea­tures of the notional word-classes (parts of speech). Each stage of the series can in principle be filled in by a number of lexemes of the same stem with possible hierarchical relations between them. The primary presentation of the series, however, may be realized in a four-unit version as follows:

strength - to strengthen - strong - strongly peace - to appease - peaceful - peacefully nation - to nationalize - national - nationally friend - to befriend - friendly - friendly, etc.

This derivational series that unites the notional word-classes can be named the "lexical paradigm of nomination". The general order of classes in the series evidently corresponds to the logic of mental perception of reality, by which a person discriminates, first, objects and their actions, then the properties of the former and the latter. Still, as the actual initial form of a particular nomination paradigm within the general paradigmatic scheme of nomination can prove a lexeme of any word-class, we are enabled to speak about the con­crete "derivational perspective" of this or that series, i.e. to identify nomination paradigms with a nounal (N→), verbal (V→), adjectival (A→), and adverbial (D→), derivational perspectives. Cf.:

N→power - to empower - powerful - powerfully

V→to suppose - supposition - supposed - supposedly

A→clear - clarity - to clarify - clearly

D→out - outing - to out - outer

The nomination paradigm with the identical form of the stem for all the four stages is not represented on the whole of the lexicon; in this sense it is possible to speak of lexemes with a complete paradigm of nomination and lexemes with an incomplete paradigm of nomination. Some words may even stand apart from this paradigm, i.e. be nominatively isolated (here belong, for instance, some simple adverbs).

On the other hand, the universal character of the nomination paradigm is sustained by suppletive completion, both lexemic and phrasemic. Cf:.

an end - to end - final - finally

good - goodness - well - to better

evidence - evident - evidently - to make evident

wise - wisely - wisdom - to grow wise, etc.

The role of suppletivity within the framework of the lexical paradigm of nomination (hence, within the lexicon as a whole) is extremely important, indeed. It is this type of suppletivity, i.e. lex-emic suppletivity, that serves as an essential factor of the open char­acter of the notional lexicon of language.

§ 9. Functional words re-interpreted by syntactic approach also reveal some important traits that remained undiscovered in earlier descriptions.

The essence of their paradigmatic status in the light of syntactic interpretation consists in the fact that the lists of functional words may be regarded as paradigmatic series themselves - which, in their turn, are grammatical constituents of higher paradigmatic series at the level of phrases and especially sentences.

As a matter of fact, functional words, considered by their role in the structure of the sentence, are proved to be exposers of various syntactic categories, i.e. they render structural meanings referring to phrases and sentences in constructional forms similar to derivational (word-building) and relational (grammatical) morphemes in the com­position of separate words. Cf:.

The words were obscure, but she understood the uneasiness that produced them. → The words were obscure, weren't they? How then could she understand the uneasiness that produced them? → Or per­haps the words were not too obscure, after all? Or, conversely, she didn't understand the uneasiness that produced them? → But the words were obscure. Haw obscure they were! Still she did under­stand the uneasiness that produced them. Etc.

This role of functional words which are identified not by their morphemic composition, but by their semantico-syntactic features in reference to the embedding constructions, is exposed on a broad lin­guistic basis within the framework of the theory of paradigmatic syntax (see further).

§ 10. Pronouns considered in the light of the syntactic princi­ples receive a special systemic status that characteristically stamps the general presentation of the structure of the lexicon as a whole.

Pronouns are traditionally recognized on the basis of indicatory (deictic) and substitutional semantic functions. The two types of meanings form a unity, in which the deictic semantics is primary. As a matter of fact, indication is the semantic foundation of substitution.

As for the syntactic principle of the word stock division, while recognizing the deictic aspect of pronouns, it lays a special stress on their substitutive features. Indeed, it is the substitutional function that immediately isolates all the heterogeneous groups of pronouns into a special set of the lexicon.

The generalizing substitutional function of pronouns makes them into syntactic representatives of all the notional classes of words, so that a pronominal positional part of the sentence serves as a categorial projection of the corresponding notional subclass identified as the filler set of the position in question. It should be clearly understood that even personal pronouns of the first and second persons play the cited representative role, which is unambiguously exposed by exam­ples with direct addresses and appositions. Cf.:

I, Little Foot, go away making noises and tramplings. Are you happy, Lil

Included into the system of pronouns are pronominal adverbs and verb-substitutes, in due accord with their substitutional functions. Besides, notional words of broad meaning are identified as forming 'an intermediary layer between the pronouns and notional words proper. Broad meaning words adjoin the pronouns by their substitu­tional function. Cf:.

I wish at her age she'd leam to sit quiet and not do things. Flora's suggestion is making sense. I will therefore briefly set down the circumstances which led to my being connected with the affair. Etc.

As a result of these generalizations, the lexical paradigm of nomination receives a complete substitutive representation. Cf:. one, it, they...-do, make, act...-such, similar, same... - thus, so, there...

Symbolically the correlation of the nominal and pronominal paradigmatic schemes is stated as follows:

N-V-A-D- Npro - Vpro - Apro - Dpro.

§ 11 . As a result of the undertaken analysis we have obtained a foundation for dividing the whole of the lexicon on the upper level of classification into three unequal parts.

The first part of the lexicon forming an open set includes an in­definitely large number of notional words which have a complete nominative function. In accord with the said function, these words can be referred to as "names": nouns as substance names, verbs as process names, adjectives as primary property names and adverbs as secondary property names. The whole notional set is represented by the four-stage derivational paradigm of nomination.

The second part of the lexicon forming a closed set includes substitutes of names (pro-names). Here belong pronouns, and also broad-meaning notional words which constitute various marginal sub­sets.

The third part of the lexicon also forming a closed set includes specifiers of names. These are function-categorial words of various servo-status.

Substitutes of names (pro-names) and specifiers of names, while standing with the names in nominative correlation as elements of the lexicon, at the same time serve as connecting links between the names within the lexicon and their actual uses in the sentences of living speech.

CHAPTER V

NOUN: GENERAL

§ 1 . The noun as a part of speech has the categorial meaning of "substance" or "thingness". It follows from this that the noun is the main nominative part of speech, effecting nomination of the fullest value within the framework of the notional division of the lexicon.

The noun has the power, by way of nomination, to isolate dif­ferent properties of substances (i.e. direct and oblique qualities, and also actions and states as processual characteristics of substantive phenomena) and present them as corresponding self-dependent sub­stances. E.g.:

Her words were unexpectedly bitter. - We were struck by the unexpected bitterness of her words. At that time he was down in his career, but we knew well that very soon he would be up again. - His career had its ups and downs. The cable arrived when John was preoccupied with the arrangements for the party. - The ar­rival of the cable interrupted his preoccupation with the arrange­ments for the party.

This natural and practically unlimited substantivization force establishes the noun as the central nominative lexemic unit of lan­guage.

§ 2 . The categorial functional properties of the noun are deter­mined by its semantic properties.

The most characteristic substantive function of the noun is that of the subject in tbc sentence, since the referent of the subject is the person or thing immediately named. The function of the object in the sentence is also typical of the noun as the substance word. Other syntactic functions, i.e. attributive, adverbial, and even predica­tive, although performed by the noun with equal ease, are not im­mediately characteristic of its substantive quality as such. It should be noted that, while performing these non-substantive functions, the noun essentially differs from the other parts of speech used in simi­lar sentence positions. This may be clearly shown by transformations shifting the noun from various non-subject syntactic positions into subject syntactic positions of the same general semantic value, which is impossible with other parts of speech. E.g.:

Mary is a flower-girl. → The flower-girl (you are speaking of) is Mary. He lives in Glasgow. → Glasgow is his place of residence. This happened three years ago. → Three years have elapsed since it hap­pened.

Apart from the cited sentence-part functions, the noun is charac­terized by some special types of combinability.

In particular, typical of the noun is the prepositional combinabil­ity with another noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb. E.g.: an en­trance to the house; to turn round the corner; red in the face; far from its destination.

The casal (possessive) combinability characterizes the noun along­side its prepositional combinability with another noun. E.g.: the speech of the President - the President's speech; the cover of the book - the book's cover.

English nouns can also easily combine with one another by sheer contact, unmediated by any special lexemic or morphemic means. In the contact group the noun in pre-position plays the role of a se­mantic qualifier to the noun in post-position. E.g.: a cannon ball; a log cabin; a sports event; film festivals.

The lexico-grammatical status of such combinations has presented a big problem for many scholars, who were uncertain as to the lin­guistic heading under which to treat them: either as one separate word, or a word-group.* In the history of linguistics the controversy about the lexico-grammatical status of the constructions in question has received the half-facetious name "The cannon ball problem".

* See: Смирницкий А.И. Лексикология английского языка. М„ 1956, § 133; Жигадло В.Н., Иванова И.П., Иофuк Л.Л., § 255.

Taking into account the results of the comprehensive analysis undertaken in this field up to now, we may define the combination as a specific word-group with intermediary features. Crucial for this decision is the isolability test (separation shift of the qualifying noun) which is performed for the contact noun combinations by an easy, productive type of transformation. Cf:. a cannon ball → a ball for cannon; the court regulation → the regulation of the court; progress report → report about progress; the funds distribution → the distri­bution of the funds.

The corresponding compound nouns (formed from substantive stems), as a rule, cannot undergo the isolability test with an equal ease. The transformations with the nounal compounds are in fact re­duced to sheer explanations of their etymological motivation. The comparatively closer connection between the stems in compound nouns is reflected by the spelling (contact or hyphenated presenta­tion). E.g.: fireplace → place where fire is made; starlight → light coming from stars; story-teller → teller (writer, composer) of stories;

theatre-goer → a person who goes to (frequents) theatres.

Contact noun attributes forming a string of several words are very characteristic of professional language. E.g.:

A number of Space Shuttle trajectory optimization problems were simulated in the development of the algorithm, including three ascent problems and a re-entry problem (From a scientific paper on spacecraft). The accuracy of offshore tanker unloading operations is becoming more important as the cost of petroleum products in­creases (From a scientific paper on control systems).

§ 3 . As a part of speech, the noun is also characterized by a set of formal features determining its specific status in the lexical paradigm of nomination. It has its word-building distinctions, includ­ing typical suffixes, compound stem models, conversion patterns. It discriminates the grammatical categories of gender, number, case, ar­ticle determination, which will be analysed below.

The cited formal features taken together are relevant for the di­vision of nouns into several subclasses, which are identified by means of explicit classificational criteria. The most general and rigor­ously delimited subclasses of nouns are grouped into four opposi-tional pairs.

The first nounal subclass opposition differentiates proper and common nouns. The foundation of this division is "type of nomina­tion". The second subclass opposition differentiates animate and inanimate nouns on the basis of "form of existence". The third sub­class opposition differentiates human and non-human nouns on the basis of "personal quality". The fourth subclass opposition differenti­ates countable and uncountable nouns on the basis of "quantitative structure".

Somewhat less explicitly and rigorously distinguished is the divi­sion of English nouns into concrete and abstract.

The order in which the subclasses are presented is chosen by convention, not by categorially relevant features: each subclass corre­lation is reflected in the whole of the noun system; this means that the given set of eight subclasses cannot be structured hierarchically in any linguistically consistent sense (some sort of hierarchical rela­tions can be observed only between animate - inanimate and hu­man - non-human groupings). Consider the following examples:

There were three Marys in our company. The cattle have been driven out into the pastures.

The noun Mary used in the first of the above sentences is at one and the same time "proper" (first subclass division), "animate" (second subclass division), "human" (third subclass division), "countable" (fourth subclass division). The noun cattle used in the second sentence is at one and the same time "common" (first sub­class division), "animate" (second subclass division), "non-human" (third subclass division), "uncountable" (fourth subclass division).

The subclass differentiation of nouns constitutes a foundation for their selectional syntagmatic combinability both among themselves and with other parts of speech. In the selectional aspect of combin­ability, the subclass features form the corresponding selectional bases.

In particular, the inanimate selectional base of combinability can be pointed out between the noun subject and the verb predicate in the following sentence: The sandstone was crumbling. (Not: 'The horse was crumbling.)

The animate selectional base is revealed between the noun sub­ject and the verb in the following sentence: The poor creature was laming. (Not: The tree was laming.)

The human selectional base underlies the connection between the nouns in the following combination:John's love of music (not: 'the cat's love of music).

The phenomenon of subclass selection is intensely analysed as part of current linguistic research work.

CHAPTER V I

NOUN: GENDER

§ 1 . There is a peculiarly regular contradiction between the presentation of gender in English by theoretical treatises and practical manuals. Whereas theoretical treatises define the gender subcatego-rization of English nouns as purely lexical or "semantic", practical manuals of English grammar do invariably include the description of the English gender in their subject matter of immediate instruction.

In particular, a whole ten pages of A.I. Smirnitsky's theoretical "Morphology of English" are devoted to proving the non-existence of gender in English either in the grammatical, or even in the strictly lexico-grammatical sense [Смирницкии, 1959, 139-148]. On the other hand, the well-known practical "English grammar" by MA. Ganshina and N.M. Vasilevskaya, after denying the existence of grammatical gender in English by way of an introduction to the topic, still pre­sents a pretty comprehensive description of the would-be non-existent gender distinctions of the English noun as a part of speech [Ganshina, Vasilevskaya, 40 ff.].

That the gender division of nouns in English is expressed not as variable forms of words, but as nounal classification (which is not in the least different from the expression of substantive gender ia other languages, including Russian), admits of no argument. However, the question remains, whether this classification has any serious grammatical relevance. Closer observation of the corresponding lin­gual data cannot but show that the English gender does have such a relevance.

§ 2. The category of gender is expressed in English by the obligatory correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the third person. These serve as specific gender classifiers of nouns, be­ing potentially reflected on each entry of the noun in speech.

The category of gender is strictly oppositional. It is formed by two oppositions related to each other on a hierarchical basis.

One opposition functions in the whole set of nouns, dividing them into person (human) nouns and non-person (non-human) nouns. The other opposition functions in the subset of person nouns only, dividing them into masculine nouns and feminine nouns. Thus, the first, general opposition can be referred to as the upper opposi­tion in the category of gender, while the second, partial opposition can be referred to as the lower opposition in this category.

As a result of the double oppositional correlation, a specific sys­tem of three genders arises, which is somewhat misleadingly repre­sented by the traditional terminology: the neuter (i.e. non-person) gender, the masculine (i.e. masculine person) gender, the feminine (i.e. feminine person) gender.

The strong member of the upper opposition is the human sub­class of nouns, its sememic mark being "person", or "personality". The weak member of the opposition comprises both inanimate and animate non-person nouns. Here belong such nouns as tree, moun­tain, love, etc.; cat, swallow, ant, etc.; society, crowd, association, etc.; bull and cow, cock and hen, horse and mare, etc.

In cases of oppositional reduction, non-person nouns and their substitute (it) are naturally used in the position of neutralization. E.g.:

Suddenly something moved in the darkness ahead of us. Could it be a man, in this desolate place, at this time of night? The object of her maternal affection was nowhere to be found. It had disap­peared, leaving the mother and nurse desperate.

The strong member of the lower opposition is the feminine sub­class of person nouns, its sememic mark being "female sex". Here , belong such nouns as woman, girl, mother, bride, etc. The masculine subclass of person nouns comprising such words as man, boy, fa­ther, bridegroom, etc. makes up the weak member of the opposition.

The oppositional structure of the category of gender can be shown schematically on the following diagramme (see Fig. 1).

A great many person nouns in English are capable of expressing both feminine and masculine person genders by way of the pronominal correlation in question. These are referred to as nouns of the "common gender". Here belong such words as person, parent, friend, cousin, doctor, president, etc. E.g.:

The President of our Medical Society isn't going to be happy about the suggested way of cure. In general she insists on quite an­other kind of treatment in cases like that.

The capability of expressing both genders makes the gender dis­tinctions in the nouns of the common gender into a variable cate­gory. On the other hand, when there is no special need to indicate the sex of the person referents of these nouns, they are used neu­trally as masculine, i.e. they correlate with the masculine third per­son pronoun.

In the plural, all the gender distinctions are neutralized in 'the immediate explicit expression, though they are rendered obliquely through the correlation with the singular.

§ 3 . Alongside the demonstrated grammatical (or lexico-grammatical, for that matter) gender distinctions, English nouns can show the sex of their referents lexically, either by means of being combined with certain notional words used as sex indicators, or else by suffixal derivation. Cf:. boy-friend, girl-friend; man-producer, woman-producer; washer-man, washer-woman; landlord, landlady, bull-calf, cow-calf; cock-sparrow, hen-sparrow; he-bear, she-bear; master, mistress; actor, actress; executor, executrix; lion, lioness; sul­tan, sultana; etc.

One might think that this kind of the expression of sex runs contrary to the presented gender system of nouns, since the sex dis­tinctions inherent in the cited pairs of words refer not only to hu­man beings (persons), but also to all the other animate beings. On closer observation, however, we see that this is not at all so. In fact, the referents of such nouns as jenny-ass, or pea-hen, or the like will in the common use quite naturally be represented as it, the same as the referents of the corresponding masculine nouns jack­ass, pea-cock, and the like. This kind of representation is different in principle from the corresponding representation of such nounal pairs as woman - man, sister - brother, etc.

On the other hand, when the pronominal relation of the non-person animate nouns is turned, respectively, into he and she, we can speak of a grammatical personifying transposition, very typical of English. This kind of transposition affects not only animate nouns, but also a wide range of inanimate nouns, being regulated in every­day language by cultural-historical traditions. Compare the reference of she with the names of countries, vehicles, weaker animals, etc.; the reference of he with the names of stronger animals, the names of phenomena suggesting crude strength and fierceness, etc.

§ 4 . As we see, the category of gender in English is inher­ently semantic, i.e. meaningful in so far as it reflects the actual fea­tures of the named objects. But the semantic nature of the category does not in the least make it into "non-grammatical", which follows from the whole content of what has been said in the present work.

In Russian, German, and many other languages characterized by the gender division of nouns, the gender has purely formal features that may even "run contrary" to semantics. Suffice it to compare such Russian words as стакан - он , чашка - она , блюдце - оно , as well as their German correspondences das Glas-es, die Tasse-sie, der Teller-er, etc. But this phenomenon is rather an exception than the rule in terms of grammatical categories in general.

Moreover, alongside the "formal" gender, there exists in Russian, German and other "formal gender" languages a meaningful gender, featuring, within the respective idiomatic systems, the natural sex distinctions of the noun referents.

In particular, the Russian gender differs idiomatically from the English gender in so far as it divides the nouns by the higher oppo­sition not into "person-non-person" ("human-non-human"), but into "animate - inanimate", discriminating within the former (the animate nounal set) between masculine, feminine, and a limited number of neuter nouns. Thus, the Russian category of gender es­sentially divides the nouns into the inanimate set having no mean­ingful gender, and the animate set having a meaningful gender. In distinction to this, the English category of gender is only meaningful, and as such it is represented in the nounal system as a whole.

c h a p t e r v I I

NOUN: NUMBER

§ 1 . The category of number is expressed by the opposition of the plural form of the noun to the singular form of the noun. The strong member of this binary opposition is the plural, its productive formal mark being the suffix -(e)s [-z, -s, -iz] as presented in the forms dog-dogs, clock-clocks, box-boxes. The productive formal

mark correlates with the absence of the number suffix in the singu­lar form of the noun. The semantic content of the unmarked form, as has been shown above, enables the grammarians to speak of the zero-suffix of the singular in English.

The other, non-productive ways of expressing the number opposi­tion are vowel interchange in several relict forms (man - men, woman-women, tooth-teeth, etc.), the archaic suffix -(e)n supported by phonemic interchange in a couple of other relict forms(ox-oxen, child-children, cow-kine, brother-brethren), the corre­lation of individual singular and plural suffixes in a limited number of borrowed nouns (formula - formulae, phenomenon - phenomena, alumnus-alumni, etc.). In some cases the plural form of the noun is homonymous with the singular form (sheep, deer, fish, etc.).

§ 2. The semantic nature of the difference between singular and plural may present some difficulties of interpretation.

On the surface of semantic relations, the meaning of the singular will be understood as simply "one", as opposed to the meaning of the plural "many" in the sense of "more than one". This is appar­ently obvious for such correlations as book - books, lake - lakes and the like. However, alongside these semantically unequivocal correla­tions, there exist plurals and singulars that cannot be fully accounted for by the above ready-made approach. This becomes clear when we take for comparison such forms as tear (one drop falling from the eye) and tears (treacles on the cheeks as tokens of grief or joy), potato (one item of the vegetables) and potatoes (food), paper (material) and papers (notes or documents), sky (the vault of heaven) and skies (the same sky taken as a direct or figurative background), etc. As a result of the comparison we conclude that the broader sememic mark of the plural, or "plurality" in the gram­matical sense, should be described as the potentially dismembering reflection of the structure of the referent, while the sememic mark of the singular will be understood as the non-dismembering reflection of the structure of the referent, i.e. the presentation of the referent in its indivisible entireness.

It is sometimes stated that the plural form indiscriminately pre­sents both multiplicity of separate objects ("discrete" plural, e.g. three houses) and multiplicity of units of measure for an indivisible object ("plural of measure", e.g. three hours) [Ilyish, 36 ff.]. However, the difference here lies not in the content of the plural as such, but in the quality of the objects themselves. Actually, the singulars of the respective nouns differ from one another exactly on the same lines as the plurals do (cf . one house - one hour).

On the other hand, there are semantic varieties of the plural forms that differ from one another in their plural quality as such. Some distinctions of this kind were shown above. Some further dis­tinctions may be seen in a variety of other cases. Here belong, for example, cases where the plural form expresses a definite set of ob­jects (eyes of the face, wheels of the vehicle, etc.), various types of the referent (wines, tees, steels), intensity of the presentation of the idea (years and years, thousands upon thousands), picturesqueness (sands, waters, snows). The extreme point of this semantic scale is marked by the lexicalization of the plural form, i.e. by its serving as a means of rendering not specificational, but purely notional differ­ence in meaning. Cf. colours as a "flag", attentions as "wooing", pains as "effort", quarters as "abode", etc.

The scope of the semantic differences of the plural forms might pose before the observer a question whether the category of number is a variable grammatical category at all.

The answer to the question, though, does not leave space for any uncertainty: the category of number is one of the regular vari­able categories in the grammatical system of the English language. The variability of the category is simply given in its form, i.e. in the forms of the bulk of English nouns which do distinguish it by means of the described binary paradigm. As for the differences in meaning, these arise from the interaction between the underlying oppositional sememic marks of the category and the more concrete lexical differences in the semantics of individual words.

§ 3 . The most general quantitative characteristics of individual words constitute the lexico-grammatical base for dividing the nounal vocabulary as a whole into countable nouns and uncountable nouns. The constant categorial feature "quantitative structure" (see Ch. V, § 3) is directly connected with the variable feature "number", since uncountable nouns are treated grammatically as either singular or plural. Namely, the singular uncountable nouns are modified by the non-discrete quantifiers much or little, and they take the finite verb in the singular, while the plural uncountable nouns take the finite verb in the plural.

The two subclasses of uncountable nouns are usually referred to, respectively, as singularia tantum (only singular) and pluralia tantum (only plural). In terms of oppositions we may say that in the for­mation of the two subclasses of uncountable nouns the number op­position is "constantly" (lexically) reduced either to the weak mem­ber (singularia tantum) or to the strong member (pluralia tantum).

Since the grammatical form of the uncountable nouns of the sin­gularia tantum subclass is not excluded from the category of number, it stands to reason to speak of it as the "absolute" singular, as different from the "correlative" or "common" singular of the count­able nouns. The absolute singular excludes the use of the modifying numeral one, as well as the indefinite article.

The absolute singular is characteristic of the names of abstract notions (peace, love, joy, courage, friendship, etc.), the names of the branches of professional activity (chemistry, architecture, mathe­matics, linguistics, etc.), the names of mass materials (water, snow, steel, hair, etc.), the names of collective inanimate objects (foliage, fruit, furniture, machinery, etc.). Some of these words can be used in the form of the common singular with the common plural coun­terpart, but in this case they come to mean either different sorts of materials, or separate concrete manifestations of the qualities denoted by abstract nouns, or concrete objects exhibiting the respective quali­ties. Cf .:

Joy is absolutely necessary for normal human life.-It was a joy to see her among us. Helmets for motor-cycling are nowadays made of plastics instead of steel. - Using different modifications of the de­scribed method, super-strong steels are produced for various pur­poses. Etc.

The lexicalizing effect of the correlative number forms (both sin­gular and plural) in such cases is evident, since the categorial com­ponent of the referential meaning in each of them is changed from uncountability to countability. Thus, the oppositional reduction is here nullified in a peculiarly lexicalizing way, and the full oppositional force of the category of number is rehabilitated.

Common number with uncountable singular nouns can also be expressed by means of combining them with words showing dis­creteness, such as bit, piece, item, sort. Cf.:

The last two items of news were quite sensational. Now I'd like to add one more bit of information. You might as well dispense with one or two pieces of furniture in the hall.

This kind of rendering the grammatical meaning of common number with uncountable nouns is, in due siluational conditions, so regular that it can be regarded as special suppletivity in the catego­rial system of number (see Ch. III, § 4).

On the other hand, the absolute singular, by way of functional oppositional reduction, can be used with countable nouns. In such cases the nouns are taken to express either the corresponding ab­stract ideas, or else, the meaning of some mass material correlated with its countable referent. Cf.:

Waltz is a lovely dance. There was dead desert all around them. The refugees needed shelter. Have we got chicken for the second course?

Under this heading (namely, the first of the above two sub-points) comes also the generic use of the singular. Cf.:

Man's immortality lies in his deeds. Wild elephant in the Jungle can be very dangerous.

In the sphere of the plural, likewise, we must recognize the common plural form as the regular feature of countability, and the absolute plural form peculiar to the uncountable subclass of pluralia tantum nouns. The absolute plural, as different from the common plural, cannot directly combine with numerals, and only occasionally does it combine with discrete quantifiers (many, few, etc.).

The absolute plural is characteristic of the uncountable nouns which denote objects consisting of two halves (trousers, scissors, tongs, spectacles, etc.), the nouns expressing some sort of collective meaning, i.e. rendering the idea of indefinite plurality, both concrete and abstract (supplies, outskirts, clothes, parings; tidings, earnings, contents, politics; police, cattle, poultry, etc.), the nouns denoting some diseases as well as some abnormal states of the body and mind (measles, rickets, mumps, creeps, hysterics, etc.). As is seen from the examples, from the point of view of number as such, the absolute plural forms can be divided into set absolute plural (objects of two halves) and non-set absolute plural (the rest).

The set plural can also be distinguished among the common plu­ral forms, namely, with nouns denoting fixed sets of objects, such as eyes of the face, legs of the body, legs of the table, wheels of the vehicle, funnels of the steamboat, windows of the room, etc.

The necessity of expressing definite numbers in cases of uncount­able pluralia tantum nouns, as well as in cases of countable nouns denoting objects in fixed sets, has brought about different suppletive combinations specific to the plural form of the noun, which exist alongside the suppletive combinations specific to the singular form of the noun shown above. Here belong collocations with such words as pair, set, group, bunch and some others. Cf:. a pair of pincers; three pairs of bathing trunks; a few groups of police; two sets of dice; several cases of measles; etc.

The absolute plural, by way of functional oppositional reduction, can be represented in countable nouns having the form of the sin­gular, in uncountable nouns having the form of the plural, and also in countable nouns having the form of the plural.

The first type of reduction, consisting in the use of the absolute plural with countable nouns in the singular form, concerns collective nouns, which are thereby changed into "nouns of multitude". Cf:.

The family were gathered round the table. The government are unanimous in disapproving the move of the opposition.

This form of the absolute plural may be called "multitude plu­ral".

The second type of the described oppositional reduction, consist­ing in the use of the absolute plural with uncountable nouns in the plural form, concerns cases of stylistical marking of nouns. Thus, the oppositional reduction results in expressive transposition. Cf:. the sands of the desert; the snows of the Arctic; the waters of the ocean; the fruits of the toil; etc.

This variety of the absolute plural may be called "descriptive un­countable plural".

The third type of oppositional reduction concerns common count­able nouns used in repetition groups. The acquired implication is in­definitely large quantity intensely presented. The nouns in repetition groups may themselves be used either in the plural ("featured" form) or in the singular ("unfeatured" form). Cf:.

There were trees and trees all around us. I lit cigarette after cigarette.

This variety of the absolute plural may be called "repetition plu­ral". It can be considered as a peculiar analytical form in the marginal sphere of the category of number (see Ch. III, § 4).

C H A P T E R VIII

NOUN: CASE

§ 1 . Case is the immanent morphological category of the noun manifested in the forms of noun declension and showing the rela­tions of the nounal referent to other objects and phenomena. Thus, the case form of the noun, or contractedly its "case" (in the narrow sense of the word), is a morphological-declensional form.

This category is expressed in English by the opposition of the form in -'s [-z, -s, -iz], usually called the "possessive" case, or more traditionally, the "genitive" case (to which term we will stick in the following presentation*), to the unfeatured form of the noun, usually called the "common" case. The apostrophized -s serves to distinguish in writing the singular noun in the genitive case from the plural noun in the common case. E.g.: the man's duty, the President's deci­sion, Max's letter; the boy's ball, the clerk's promotion, the Em­press's jewels.

* The traditional term "genitive case" seems preferable on the ground that not all the meanings of the genitive case are "possessive".

The genitive of the bulk of plural nouns remains phonetically unexpressed: the few exceptions concern only some of the irregular plurals. Thereby the apostrophe as the graphic sign of the genitive acquires the force of a sort of grammatical hieroglyph. Cf:. the car­penters' tools, the mates' skates, the actresses' dresses.

Functionally, the forms of the English nouns designated as "case forms" relate to one another in an extremely peculiar way. The pe­culiarity is that the common form is absolutely indefinite from the semantic point of view, whereas the genitive form in its productive uses is restricted to the functions which have a parallel expression by prepositional constructions. Thus, the common form, as appears from the presentation, is also capable of rendering the genitive se­mantics (namely, in contact and prepositional collocation), which makes the whole of the genitive case into a kind of subsidiary ele­ment in the grammatical system of the English noun. This feature stamps the English noun declension as something utterly different from every conceivable declension in principle. In fact, the inflexional oblique case forms as normally and imperatively expressing the im­mediate syntactic parts of the ordinary sentence in "noun-declensional" languages do not exist in English at all. Suffice it to compare a German sentence taken at random with its English rendering:

Erhebung der Anklage gegen die Witwe Capet scheint wun-schenswert aus Rucksicht auf die Stimmung der Stadt Paris (L. Feuchtwanger). Eng:. (The bringing of) the accusation against the Widow Capet appears desirable, taking into consideration the mood of the City of Paris.

As we see, the five entries of nounal oblique cases in the Ger­man utterance (rendered through article inflexion), of which two are genitives, all correspond to one and the same indiscriminate common case form of nouns in the English version of the text. By way of further comparison, we may also observe the Russian translation of the same sentence with its four genitive entries: Выдвижениеобви­ненияпротиввдовыКапеткажетсяжелательным, еслиучестьнастроениегородаПарижа.

Under the described circumstances of fact, there is no wonder that in the course of linguistic investigation the category of case in English has become one of the vexed problems of theoretical discus­sion.

§ 2 . Four special views advanced at various times by different scholars should be considered as successive stages in the analysis of this problem.

The first view may be called the "theory of positional cases". This theory is directly connected with the old grammatical tradition, and its traces can be seen in many contemporary text-books for school in the English-speaking countries. Linguistic formulations of the theory, with various individual variations (the number of cases recognized, the terms used, the reasoning cited), may be found in the works of J.C. Nesfield, M. Deutschbein, M. Bryant and other scholars.

In accord with the theory of positional cases, the unchangeable forms of the noun are differentiated as different cases by virtue of the functional positions occupied by the noun in the sentence. Thus, the English noun, on the analogy of classical Latin grammar, would distinguish, besides the inflexional genitive case, also the non-inflex­ional, i.e. purely positional cases: nominative, vocative, dative, and ac­cusative. The uninflexional cases of the noun are taken to be sup­ported by the parallel inflexional cases of the personal pronouns. The would-be cases in question can be exemplified as follows.*

* The examples are taken from the book: Nesfield J.C. Manual of English Grammar and Composition. Ldn., 1942, p. 24.

The nominative case (subject to a verb): Rain falls. The vocative case (address): Are you coming, my friend? The dative case (indirect object to a verb): I gave John a penny. The accusative case (direct object, and also object to a preposition): The man killed a rat. The earth is moistened by rain.

In the light of all that has been stated in this book in connec­tion with the general notions of morphology, the fallacy of the posi­tional case theory is quite obvious. The cardinal blunder of this view is, that it substitutes the functional characteristics of the part of the sentence for the morphological features of the word class, since the case form, by definition, is the variable morphological form of the noun. In reality, the case forms as such serve as means of express­ing the functions of the noun in the sentence, and not vice versa. Thus, what the described view does do on the positive lines is that, within the confused conceptions of form and meaning, it still rightly illustrates the fact that the functional meanings rendered by cases can be expressed in language by other grammatical means, in partic­ular, by word-order.

The second view may be called the "theory of prepositional cases". Like the theory of positional cases, it is also connected with the old school grammar teaching, and was advanced as a logical supplement to the positional view of the case.

In accord with the prepositional theory, combinations of nouns with prepositions in certain object and attributive collocations should be understood as morphological case forms. To these belong first of all the "dative" case (to + Noun, for + Noun) and the "genitive" case (of + Noun). These prepositions, according to G. Curme, are "inflexional prepositions", i.e. grammatical elements equivalent to case-forms. The would-be prepositional cases are generally taken (by the scholars who recognize them) as coexisting with positional cases, together with the classical inflexional genitive completing the case system of the English noun.

The prepositional theory, though somewhat better grounded than the positional theory, nevertheless can hardly pass a serious linguistic trial. As is well known from noun-declensional languages, all their prepositions, and not only some of them, do require definite cases of nouns (prepositional case-government); this fact, together with a mere semantic observation of the role of prepositions in the phrase, shows that any preposition by virtue of its functional nature stands in es­sentially the same general grammatical relations to nouns. It should follow from this that not only the of -, to-, and for-phrases, but also all the other prepositional phrases in English must be regarded as "analytical cases." As a result of such an approach illogical redun­dancy in terminology would arise: each prepositional phrase would bear then another, additional name of "prepositional case", the total number of the said "cases" running into dozens upon dozens with­out any gain either to theory or practice [Ilyish, 42].

The third view of the English noun case recognizes a limited in­flexional system of two cases in English, one ot them featured and the other one unfeatured. This view may be called the "limited case theory".

The limited case theory is at present most broadly accepted among linguists both in this country and abroad. It was formulated by such scholars as H. Sweet, O. Jespersen, and has since been radically developed by A.I. Smirnitsky, L.S. Barkhudarov and others.

The limited case theory in its modern presentation is based on the explicit oppositional approach to the recognition of grammatical categories. In the system of the English case the functional mark is defined, which differentiates the two case forms: the possessive or genitive form as the strong member of the categorial opposition and the common, or "non-genitive" form as the weak member of the categorial opposition. The opposition is shown as being effected in full with animate nouns, though a restricted use with inanimate nouns is also taken into account. The detailed functions of the geni­tive are specified with the help of semantic transformational correla­tions [Бархударов, 1975, 89 ff.].

§ 3 . We have considered the three theories which, if at basically different angles, proceed from the assumption that the English noun does distinguish the grammatical case in its functional structure. However, another view of the problem of the English noun cases has been put forward which sharply counters the theories hitherto observed. This view approaches the English noun as having com­pletely lost the category of case in the course of its historical devel­opment. All the nounal cases, including the much spoken of genitive, are considered as extinct, and the lingual unit that is named the "genitive case" by force of tradition, would be in reality a combina­tion of a noun with a postposition (i.e. a relational postpositional word with preposition-like functions). This view, advanced in an ex­plicit form by G.N. Vorontsova [Воронцова, 168 ff.] may be called the "theory of the possessive postposition" ("postpositional theory"). Cf:. [Ilyish, 44 ff.; Бархударов, Штелинг, 42 ff.].

Of the various reasons substantiating the postpositional theory the following two should be considered as the main ones.

First, the postpositional element -'s is but loosely connected with the noun, which finds the clearest expression in its use not only with single nouns, but also with whole word-groups of various status. Compare some examples cited by G.N. Vorontsova in her work: somebody else's daughter; another stage-struck girl's stage finish; the man who had hauled him out to dinner's head.

Second, there is an indisputable parallelism of functions between the possessive postpositional constructions and the prepositional con­structions, resulting in the optional use of the former. This can be shown by transformational reshuffles of the above examples: ... → the daughter of somebody else; ... → the stage finish of another stage-struck girl; ... → the head of the man who had hauled him out to dinner.

One cannot but acknowledge the rational character of the cited reasoning. Its strong point consists in the fact that it is based on a careful observation of the lingual data. For all that, however, the theory of the possessive postposition fails to take into due account the consistent insight into the nature of the noun form in -'s achieved by the limited case theory. The latter has demonstrated be­yond any doubt that the noun form in -'s is systemically, i.e. on a strictly structural-functional basis, contrasted against the unfeatured form of the noun, which does make the whole correlation of the nounal forms into a grammatical category of case-like order, however specific it might be.

As the basic arguments for the recognition of the noun form in -'s in the capacity of grammatical case, besides the oppositional na­ture of the general functional correlation of the featured and unfea­tured forms of the noun, we will name the following two.

First, the broader phrasal uses of the postpositional -'s like those shown on the above examples, display a clearly expressed stylistic colouring; they are, as linguists put it, stylistically marked, which fact proves their transpositional nature. In this connection we may for­mulate the following regularity: the more self-dependent the con­struction covered by the case-sign -'s, the stronger the stylistic mark (colouring) of the resulting genitive phrase. This functional analysis is corroborated by the statistical observation of the forms in question in the living English texts. According to the data obtained by B.S. Khaimovich and B.I. Rogovskaya, the -'s sign is attached to individ­ual nouns in as many as 96 per cent of its total textual occurrences [Khaimovich, Rogovskaya. 64]. Thus, the immediate casal relations are realized by individual nouns, the phrasal, as well as some non-nounal uses of the -'s sign, being on the whole of a secondary grammatical order.

Second, the -'s sign from the point of view of its segmental sta­tus in language differs from ordinary functional words. It is mor­pheme-like by its phonetical properties; it is strictly postpositional unlike the prepositions; it is semantically by far a more bound ele­ment than a preposition, which, among other things, has hitherto prevented it from being entered into dictionaries as a separate word.

As for the fact that the "possessive postpositional construction" is correlated with a parallel prepositional construction, it only shows the functional peculiarity of the form, but cannot disprove its case-like nature, since cases of nouns in general render much the same func­tional semantics as prepositional phrases (reflecting a wide range of situational relations of noun referents).

§ 4 . The solution of the problem, then, is to be sought on the ground of a critical synthesis of the positive statements of the two theories: the limited case theory and the possessive postposition the­ory.

A two-case declension of nouns should be recognized in English, with its common case as a "direct" case, and its genitive case as the only oblique case. But, unlike the case system in ordinary noun-declensional languages based on inflexional word change, the case system in English is founded on a particle expression. The particle nature of -'s is evident from the fact that it is added in post-position both to individual nouns and to nounal word-groups of various sta­tus, rendering the same essential semantics of appurtenance in the broad sense of the term. Thus, within the expression of the genitive in English, two subtypes are to be recognized: the first (principal) is the word genitive; the second (of a minor order) is the phrase geni­tive. Both of them are hot inflexional, but particle case-forms.

The described particle expression of case may to a certain extent be likened to the particle expression of the subjunctive mood in Russian (Иртеньева, 40]. As is known, the Russian subjunctive par­ticle бы not only can be distanced from the verb it refers to, but it can also relate to a lexical unit of non-verb-like nature without los­ing its basic subjunctive-functional quality. Cf :. Если бы не он. Мне бы такая возможность. Как бы не так.

From the functional point of view the English genitive case, on the whole, may be regarded as subsidiary to the syntactic system of prepositional phrases. However, it still displays some differential points in its functional meaning, which, though neutralized in isolated use, are revealed in broader syntagmatic collocations with preposi­tional phrases.

One of such differential points may be defined as "animate ap­purtenance" against "inanimate appurtenance" rendered by a preposi­tional phrase in contrastive use. Cf.:

The people's voices drowned in the roar of the started engines. The tiger's leap proved quicker than the click of the rifle.

Another differential point expressed in cases of textual co-occur­rence of the units compared consists in the subjective use of the genitive noun (subject of action) against the objective use of the prepositional noun (object of action). Cf.: My Lord's choice of the butler; the partisans' rescue of the prisoners; the treaty's denunciation of mutual threats.

Furthermore, the genitive is used in combination with the of- phrase on a complementary basis expressing the functional semantics which may roughly be called "appurtenance rank gradation": a dif­ference in construction (i.e. the use of the genitive against the use of the of -phrase) signals a difference in correlated ranks of semantic domination. Cf:. the country's strain of wartime (lower rank: the strain of wartime; higher rank: the country's strain); the sight of Satispy’s face (higher rank: the sight of the face; lower rank: Satispy's face).

It is certainly these and other differential points and comple­mentary uses that sustain the particle genitive as part of the sys­temic expression of nounal relations in spite of the disintegration of the inflexional case in the course of historical development of En­glish.

§ 5 . Within the general functional semantics of appurtenance, the English genitive expresses a wide range of relational meanings specified in the regular interaction of the semantics of the subordinating and subordinated elements in the genitive phrase. Summarizing the results of extensive investigations in this field, the following basic semantic types of the genitive can be pointed out.

First, the form which can be called the "genitive of possessor" (Lat. "genetivus possessori"). Its constructional meaning will be de­fined as "inorganic" possession, i.e. possessional relation (in the broad sense) of the genitive referent to the object denoted by the head-noun. E.g.: Christine's living-room; the assistant manager's desk; Dad's earnings; Kate and Jerry's grandparents; the Steel Corporation's hired slaves.

The diagnostic test for the genitive of possessor is its transfor­mation into a construction that explicitly expresses the idea of pos­session (belonging) inherent in the form. Cf:. Christine's living-room → the living-room belongs to Christine; the Steel Corporation's hired slaves → the Steel Corporation possesses hired slaves.*

* We avoid the use of the verb have in diagnostic constructions, because have itself, due to its polyscmantism, wants diagnostic contextual specifications.

Second, the form which can be called the "genitive of integer" (Lat. "genetivus integri"). Its constructional meaning will be defined as "organic possession", i.e. a broad possessional relation of a whole to its part. E.g.: Jane's busy hands; Patrick's voice; the patient's health; the hotel's lobby.

Diagnostic test: ... → the busy hands as part of Jane's person; ... → the health as part of the patient's state; ... → the lobby as a component part of the hotel, etc.

A subtype of the integer genitive expresses a qualification received by the genitive referent through the head-word. E.g.: Mr. Dodson's vanity; the computer's reliability.

This subtype of the genitive can be called the "genitive of re­ceived qualification" (Lat. "genetivus qualificationis receptae").

Third, the "genitive of agent" (Lat. "genetivus agentis"). The more traditional name of this genitive is "subjective" (Lat. "genetivus subjectivus"). The latter term seems inadequate because of its unjus­tified narrow application: nearly all the genitive types stand in subjective relation to the referents of the head-nouns. The general meaning of the genitive of agent is explained in its name: this form renders an activity or some broader processual relation with the ref­erent of the genitive as its subject. E.g.: the great man's arrival; Petor's insistence; the councillor's attitude; Campbell Clark's gaze; the hotel's competitive position.

Diagnostic test: ... → the great man arrives; ... → Peter insists; ... → the hotel occupies a competitive position, etc.

A subtype of the agent genitive expresses the author, or, more broadly considered, the producer of the referent of the head-noun. Hence, it receives the name of the "genitive of author" (Lat. "genetivus auctori"). E.g.: Beethoven's sonatas; John Galsworthy's "A Man of Property"; the committee's progress report.

Diagnostic test: ... → Beethoven composed (is the author of) the sonatas; ... → the committee has compiled (is the compiler of) the progress report, etc.

Fourth, the "genitive of patient" (Lat. "genetivus patientis"). This type of genitive, in contrast to the above, expresses the recipient of the action or process denoted by the head-noun. E.g.: the champion's sensational defeat; Erick's final expulsion; the meeting's chairman; the St Gregory's proprietor; the city's business leaders; the Titanic's tragedy.

Diagnostic test: ... → the champion is defeated (i.e. his opponent defeated him); ... → Erick is expelled; ... → the meeting is chaired by its chairman; ... → the St Gregory is owned by its proprietor, etc.

Fifth, the "genitive of destination" (Lat. "genetivus destinationis"). This form denotes the destination, or function of the referent of the head-noun. E.g.: women's footwear; children's verses; a fishers' tent.

Diagnostic test: ... → footwear for women; ... → a tent for tish­ers, etc.

Sixth, the "genitive of dispensed qualification" (Lat. "genetivus qualificationis dispensatae"). The meaning of this genitive type, as different from the subtype "genitive of received qualification", is some characteristic or qualification, not received, but given by the genitive noun to the referent of the head-noun. E.g.: a girl's voice; a book-keeper's statistics; Curtis O'Keefe's kind (of hotels - M.B.).

Diagnostic test: ... → a voice characteristic of a girl; ... → statis­tics peculiar to a book-keeper's report; ... → the kind (of hotels) characteristic of those owned by Curtis O'Keefe.

Under the heading of this general type comes a verv important subtype of the genitive which expresses a comparison. The compari­son, as different from a general qualification, is supposed to be of a vivid, descriptive nature. The subtype is called the "genitive of com­parison" (Lat. "genetivus comparationis"). This term has been used to cover the whole class. E.g.: the cock's self-confidence of the man; his perky sparrow's smile.

Diagnostic test: ... → the self-confidence like that of a cock; ... → the smile making the man resemble a perky sparrow.

Seventh, the "genitive of adverbial" (Lat. "genetivus adverbii"). The form denotes adverbial factors relating to the referent of the head-noun, mostly the time and place of the event. Strictly speaking, this genitive may be considered as another subtype of the genitive of dispensed qualification. Due to its adverbial meaning, this type of genitive can be used with adverbialized substantives. E.g:. the evening's newspaper; yesterday's encounter; Moscow's talks.

Diagnostic test: ... → the newspaper issued in the evening; ... → the encounter which took place yesterday; ... → the talks that were held in Moscow.

Eighth, the "genitive of quantity" (Lat. "genetivus quantitatis"). This type of genitive denotes the measure or quantity relating to the referent of the head-noun. For the most part, the quantitative meaning expressed concerns units of distance measure, time measure, weight measure. E.g.: three miles' distance; an hour's delay, two months' time; a hundred tons' load.

Diagnostic test: ... → a distance the measure of which is three miles; ... → a time lasting two months; ... → a load weighing a hundred tons.

The given survey of the semantic types of the genitive is by no means exhaustive in any analytical sense. The identified types are open both to subtype specifications, and inter-type generalizations (for instance, on the principle of the differentiation between sub­ject - object relations), and the very set of primary types may be ex­panded.

However, what does emerge out of the survey is the evidence of a wide functional range of the English particle genitive, making it into a helpful and flexible, if subsidiary, means of expressing rela­tional semantics in the sphere of the noun.

§ 6 . We have considered theoretical aspects of the problem of case of the English noun, and have also observed the relevant lin­gual data instrumental in substantiating the suggested interpretations. As a result of the analysis, we have come to the conclusion that the inflexional case of nouns in English has ceased to exist. In its place a new, peculiar two-case system has developed based on the particle expression of the genitive falling into two segmental types: the word-genitive and the phrase-genitive.

The undertaken study of the case in the domain of the noun, as the next step, calls upon the observer to re-formulate the accepted interpretation of the form-types of the English personal pronouns.

The personal pronouns are commonly interpreted as having a case system of their own, differing in principle from the case system of the noun. The two cases traditionally recognized here are the nominative case (I , you, he, etc.) and the objective case (me, you, him, etc.). To these forms the two series of forms of the possessive pronouns are added - respectively, the conjoint series (my, your, his, etc.) and the absolute series (mine, yours, his, etc.). A question now arises, if it is rational at all to recognize the type of case in the words of substitutional nature which is absolutely incompatible with the type of case in the correlated notional words?

Attempts have been made in linguistics to transfer the accepted view of pronominal cases to the unchangeable forms of the nouns (by way of the logical procedure of back substitution), thereby sup­porting the positional theory of case (M. Bryant). In the light of the present study, however, it is clear that these attempts lack an ade­quate linguistic foundation.

As a matter of fact, the categories of the substitute have to re­flect the categories of the antecedent, not vice versa. As an example we may refer to the category of gender (see Ch. VI): the English gender is expressed through the correlation of nouns with their pronominal substitutes by no other means than the reflection of the corresponding semantics of the antecedent in the' substitute. But the proclaimed correlation between the case forms of the noun and the would-be case forms of the personal pronouns is of quite another nature: the nominative "case" of the pronoun has no antecedent case in the noun; nor has the objective "case" of the pronoun any an­tecedent case in the noun. On the other hand, the only oblique case of the English noun, the genitive, does have its substitutive reflection in the pronoun, though not in the case form, but in the lexical form of possession (possessive pronouns). And this latter relation of the antecedent to its substitute gives us a clue to the whole problem of pronominal "case": the inevitable conclusion is that there is at pre­sent no case in the English personal pronouns; the personal pronominal system of cases has completely disintegrated, and in its place the four individual word-types of pronouns have appeared: the nominative form, the objective form, and the possessive form in its two versions, conjoint and absolute.

An analysis of the pronouns based on more formal considerations can only corroborate the suggested approach proceeding from the principle of functional evaluation. In fact, what is traditionally ac­cepted as case-forms of the pronouns are not the regular forms of productive morphological change implied by the very idea of case declension, but individual forms sustained by suppletivity and given to the speaker as a ready-made set. The set is naturally completed by the possessive forms of pronouns, so that actually we are faced with a lexical paradigmatic series of four subsets of personal pro­nouns, to which the relative who is also added: I - me - my - mine, you - you - your - yours, ... who - whom - whose – whose. Whichever of the former case correlations are still traceable in this system (as, for example, in the subseries he - him - his), they exist as mere re­licts, i.e. as a putrified evidence of the old productive system that has long ceased to function in the morphology of English.

Thus, what should finally be meant by the suggested terminological name "particle case" in English, is that the former system of the English inflexional declension has completely and irrevocably disinte­grated, both in the sphere of nouns and their substitute pronouns; in its place a new, limited case system has arisen based on a particle oppositional feature and subsidiary to the prepositional expression of the syntactic relations of the noun.

C H A P T E R IX

NOUN: ARTICLE DETERMINATION

§ 1 . Article is a determining unit of specific nature accompanying the noun in communicative collocation. Its special character is clearly seen against the background of determining words of half-notional semantics. Whereas the function of the determiners such as this, any, some is to explicitly interpret the referent of the noun in rela­tion to other objects or phenomena of a like kind, the semantic purpose of the article is to specify the nounal referent, as it were, altogether unostentatiously, to define it in the most general way, without any explicitly expressed contrasts.

This becomes obvious when we take the simplest examples ready at hand. Cf:.

Will you give me this pen, Willy? (I.e. the pen that I am point­ing out, not one of your choice.) -Will you give me the pen, please? (I.e. simply the pen from the desk, you understand which.) Any blade will do, I only want it for scratching out the wrong word from the type-script. (I.e. any blade of the stock, however blunt it may be.) - Have you got something sharp? I need a penknife or a blade. (I.e. simply a blade, if not a knife, without additional implica­tions.) Some woman called in your absence, she didn't give her name. (I.e. a woman strange to me.) - A woman called while you were out, she left a message. (I.e. simply a woman, without a fur­ther connotation.)

Another peculiarity of the article, as different from the determin­ers in question, is that, in the absence of a determiner, the use of the article with the noun is quite obligatory, in so far as the cases of non-use of the article are subject to no less definite rules than the use of it.

Taking into consideration these peculiar features of the article, the linguist is called upon to make a sound statement about its segmental status in the system of morphology. Namely, his task is to decide whether the article is a purely auxiliary element of a special grammatical form of the noun which functions as a component of a definite morphological category, or it is a separate word, i.e. a lexical unit in the determiner word set, if of a more abstract meaning than other determiners.

The problem is a vexed one; it has inspired intensive research activity in the field, as well as animated discussion with various pros and cons affirmed, refuted and re-affirmed.* In the course of these investigations, however, many positive facts about articles have been established, which at present enables an observer, proceeding from the systemic principle in its paradigmatic interpretation, to expose the status of the article with an attempt at demonstrative conviction.

* Different aspects of the discussion about the English articleare very well shown by В A Ilyish in the cited book (p 49 ff.).

To arrive at a definite decision, we propose to consider the properties of the English articles at four successive stages, beginning with their semantic evaluation as such, then adding to the obtained data a situational estimation of their uses, thereafter analysing their categorial features in the light of the oppositional theory, and finally concluding the investigation by a paradigmatic generalization.

§ 2 . A mere semantic observation of the articles in English, i.e. the definite article the and the indefinite article a/an, at once dis­closes not two but three meaningful characterizations of the nounal referent achieved by their correlative functioning, namely: one rendered by the definite article, one rendered by the indefinite article, and one rendered by the absence (or non-use) of the article. Let us examine them separately.

The definite article expresses the identification or individualization of the referent of the noun: the use of this article shows that the object denoted is taken in its concrete, individual quality. This meaning can be brought to explicit exposition by a substitution test. The test consists in replacing the article used in a construction by a demonstrative word, e.g. a demonstrative determiner, without causing a principal change in the general implication of the construction. Of course, such an "equivalent" substitution should be understood in fact as nothing else but analogy: the difference in meaning between a determiner and an article admits of no argument, and we pointed it out in the above passages. Still, the replacements of words as a special diagnostic procedure, which is applied with the necessary reservations and according to a planned scheme of research, is quite permissible. In our case it undoubtedly shows a direct relationship in the meanings of the determiner and the article, the relationship in which the determiner is semantically the more explicit element of the two. Cf .:

But look at the apple-tree! → But look at this apple-tree! The town lay still in the Indian summer sun. → That town lay still in the Indian summer sun. The water is horribly hot. → This water is horribly hot. It's the girls who are to blame. → It's those girls who are to blame.

The justification of the applied substitution, as well as its ex­planatory character, may be proved by a counter-test, namely, bythechange of the definite article into the indefinite article, or by omit­ting the article altogether. The replacement either produces a radical, i.e. "non-equivalent" shift in the meaning of the construction, or else results in a grammatically unacceptable construction. Cf.: ... → Look at an apple-tree! → 'Look at apple-tree! ... → 'A water is horribly hot. → 'Water is horribly hot.

The indefinite article, as different from the definite article, is commonly interpreted as referring the object denoted by the noun to a certain class of similar objects; in other words, the indefinite arti­cle expresses a classifying generalization of the nounal referent, or lakes it in a relatively general sense. To prove its relatively general­izing functional meaning, we may use the diagnostic insertions of specifying-classilying phrases into the construction in question; we may also employ the transformation of implicit comparative construc­tions with the indefinite article into the corresponding explicit com­parative constructions. Cf.:

We passed a water-mill. → We passed a certain water-mill. It is a very young country, isn't it? → It is a very young kind of coun­try, isn't it? What an arrangement! → What sort of arrangement! This child is a positive nightmare. → This child is positively like a nightmare.

The procedure of a classifying contrast employed in practical text­books exposes the generalizing nature of the indefinite article most clearly in many cases of its use. E.g.:

A door opened in the wall. → A door (not a window) opened in the wall. We saw a flower under the bush. → We saw a flower (not a strawberry) under the bush.

As for the various uses of nouns without an article, from the semantic point of view they all should be divided into two types. In the first place, there are uses where the articles are deliberately omitted out of stylistical considerations. We see such uses, for in­stance, in telegraphic speech, in titles and headlines, in various no­tices. E.g.:

Telegram received room reserved for week-end. (The text of a telegram.) Conference adjourned until further notice. (The text of an announcement.) Big red bus rushes food to strikers. (The title of a newspaper article.)

The purposeful elliptical omission of the article in cases like that is quite obvious, and the omitted articles may easily be restored in the constructions in the simplest "back-directed" refilling procedures. Cf.:

... → The telegram is received, a room is reserved for the week­end. ... → The conference is adjourned until further notice. ... → A big red bus rushes food to the strikers.

Alongside free elliptical constructions, there are cases of the se­mantically unspecified non-use of the article in various combinations of fixed type, such as prepositional phrases (on fire, at hand, in debt, etc.), fixed verbal collocations (take place, make use, cast an­chor, etc.), descriptive coordinative groups and repetition groups (man and wife, dog and gun, day by day, etc.), and the like. These cases of traditionally fixed absence of the article are quite similar to the cases of traditionally fixed uses of both indefinite and definite articles (cf .: in a hurry, at a loss, have a look, give a start, etc.; in the main, out of the question, on the look-out, etc.).

Outside the elliptical constructions and fixed uses, however, we know a really semantic absence of the article with the noun. It is this semantic absence of the article that stands in immediate mean­ingful correlation with the definite and indefinite articles as such.

As is widely acknowledged, the meaningful non-uses of the article are not homogeneous; nevertheless, they admit of a very explicit classification founded on the countability characteristics of the noun. Why countability characteristics? For the two reasons. The first rea­son is inherent in the nature of the noun itself: the abstract gener­alization reflected through the meaningful non-use of the article is connected with the suppression of the idea of the number in the noun. The second reason is inherent in the nature of the article: the .indefinite article which plays the crucial role in the semantic correla­tion in question reveals the meaning of oneness within its semantic base, having originated from the indefinite pronoun one, and that is why the abstract use of the noun naturally goes with the absence of the article.

The essential points of the said classification are three in num­ber.

First. The meaningful absence of the article before the countable noun in the singular signifies that the noun is taken in an abstract sense, expressing the most general idea of the object denoted. This meaning, which may be called the meaning of "absolute generaliza­tion", can be demonstrated by inserting in the tested construction a chosen generalizing modifier (such as in general, in the abstract, in the broadest sense). Cf:.

Law (in general) begins with the beginning of human society. Steam-engine (in general) introduced for locomotion a couple of centuries ago has now become obsolete.

Second. The absence of the article before the uncountable noun corresponds to the two kinds of generalization: both relative and ab­solute. To decide which of the two meanings is realized in any par­ticular case, the described tests should be carried out alternately. Cf.:

John laughed with great bitterness (that sort of bitterness-relative generalization). The subject of health (in gen­eral - absolute generalization) was carefully avoided by everybody. Coffee (a kind of beverage served at the table-relative generaliza­tion) or tea, please? Coffee (in general-absolute generalization) stimulates the function of the heart.

Third. The absence of the article before the countable noun in the plural, likewise, corresponds to both kinds of generalization, and the exposition of the meaning in each case can be achieved by the same semantic tests. Cf:.

Stars, planets and comets (these kinds of objects: relative gener­alization) are different celestial bodies (not terrestrial bodies: relative generalization). Wars (in general: absolute generalization) should be eliminated as means of deciding international disputes.

To distinguish the demonstrated semantic functions of the nonuses of the article by definition, we may say that the absence of the article with uncountable nouns, as well as with countable nouns in the plural, renders the meaning of "uncharacterized generalization", as different from the meaning of "absolute generalization", achieved by the absence of the article with countable nouns in the singular.

So much for the semantic evaluation of the articles as the first stage of our study.

§ 3 . Passing to the situational assessment of the article uses, we must point out that the basic principle of their differentiation here is not a direct consideration of their meanings, but disclosing the in­formational characteristics that the article conveys to its noun in con­crete contextual conditions. Examined from this angle, the definite article serves as an indicator of the type of nounal information which is presented as the "facts already known", i.e. as the starting point of the communication. In contrast to this, the indefinite article or the meaningful absence of the article introduces the central com­municative nounal part of the sentence, i.e. the part rendering the immediate informative data to be conveyed from the speaker to the listener. In the situational study of syntax (see Ch. XXII) the start­ing point of the communication is called its "theme", while the cen­tral informative part is called its "rheme".

In accord with the said situational functions, the typical syntactic position of the noun modified by the definite article is the "thematic" subject, while the typical syntactic position of the noun modified by the indefinite article or by the meaningful absence of the article is the "rhematic" predicative. Cf.:

The day (subject) was drawing to a close, the busy noises of the city (subject) were dying down. How to handle the situation was a big question (predicative). The sky was pure gold (predicative) above the setting sun.

It should be noted that in many other cases of syntactic use, i.e. non-subjective or non-predicative, the articles reflect the same situational functions. This can be probed by reducing the constructions in question on re-arrangement lines to the logically "canonized" link-type constructions. Cf:.

If you would care to verfy the incident (object), pray do so. → If you would care the incident (subject) to be verified, pray have it verified. I am going to make a rather strange request (object) to you. → What I am going to make is a rather strange request (predicative) to you. You are talking nonsense (object), lad. → What you are talking, lad, is nonsense (predicative).

Another essential contextual-situational characteristic of the articles is their immediate connection with the two types of attributes to the noun. The first type is a "limiting" attribute, which requires the definite article before the noun; the second type. is a "descriptive" attribute, which requires the indefinite article or the meaningful ab­sence of the article before the noun. Cf:.

The events chronicled in this narrative took place some four years ago. (A limiting attribute) She was a person of strong will and iron self-control. (A descriptive attribute) He listened to her story with grave and kindly attention. (A descriptive attribute)

The role of descriptive attributes in the situational aspect of arti­cles is particularly worthy of note in the constructions of syntactic "convergencies", i.e. chained attributive-repetitional phrases modifying the same referent from different angles. Cf:.

My longing for a house, a fine and beautiful house, such a house I could never hope to have, flowered into life again.

§ 4 . We have now come to the third stage of the undertaken analysis of the English articles, namely to their consideration in the light of the oppositional theory. The oppositional examination of any grammatically relevant set of lingual objects is of especial importance from the point of view of the systemic conception of language, since oppositions constitute the basis of the structure of grammatical paradigms.

Bearing in mind the facts established at the two previous stages of observation, it is easy to see that oppositionally, the article deter­mination of the noun should be divided into two binary correlations connected with each other hierarchically.

The opposition of the higher level operates in the whole system of articles. It contrasts the definite article with the noun against the two other forms of article determination of the noun, i.e. the indefi­nite article and the meaningful absence of the article. In this opposi­tion the definite article should be interpreted as the strong member by virtue of its identifying and individualizing function, while the other forms of article determination should be interpreted as the weak member, i.e. the member that leaves the feature in question ("identification") unmarked.

The opposition of the lower level operates within the article sub­system that forms the weak member of the upper opposition. This opposition contrasts the two types of generalization, i.e. the relative generalization distinguishing its strong member (the indefinite article plus the meaningful absence of the article as its analogue with un­countable nouns and nouns in the plural) and the absolute, or "abstract" generalization distinguishing the weak member of the opposition (the meaningful absence of the article).

The described oppositional system can be shown on the following diagram (see Fig. 2).

It is the oppositional description of the English articles that in­volves the inteipretation of the article non-use as the zero form of the article, since the opposition of the positive exponent of the fea­ture to the negative exponent of the feature (i.e. its absence) realizes an important part of the integral article determination semantics. As for the heterogeneity of functions displayed by the absence of the article, it by no means can be taken as a ground for denying the relevance or expediency of introducing the notion of zero in the arti­cle system. As a matter of fact, each of the two essential meanings of this dialectically complex form is clearly revealed in its special oppositional correlation and, consequently, corresponds to the really existing lingual facts irrespective of the name given to the form by the observer.

The best way of demonstrating the actual oppositional value of the articles on the immediate textual material is to contrast them in syntactically equivalent conditions in pairs. Cf . the examples given below.

Identical nounal positions for the pair "the definite article-the indefinite article": The train hooted (that train). -A train hooted (some train).

Correlative nounal positions for the pair "the definite article-the absence of the article": I'm afraid the oxygen is out (our supply of oxygen). - Oxygen is necessary for life (oxygen in general, life in general).

Correlative nounal positions for the pair "the indefinite arti­cle - the absence of the article": Be careful, there is a puddle under your feet (a kind of puddle).-Be careful, there is mud on the ground (as different from clean space).

Finally, correlative nounal positions for the easily neutralized pair "the zero article of relative generalization - the zero article of abso­lute generalization": New information should be gathered on this subject (some information). - Scientific information should be gath­ered systematically in all fields of human knowledge (information in general).

On the basis of the oppositional definition of the article it be­comes possible to explicate the semantic function of the article de­termination of nouns for cases where the inherent value of the arti­cle is contrasted against the contrary semantic value of the noun or the nounal collocation.

In particular, the indefinite article may occasionally be used with a nounal collocation of normally individualizing meaning, e.g.:

Rodney Harrington laughed out loud as he caught a last glimpse of Allison Mackenzie and Norman Page in his rear-vision mirror (Gr. Metalious). After all, you've got a best side and a worst side ,of yourself and it's no good showing the worst side and harpingonit (A. Christie).

Conversely, the definite article may occasionally be used with a nounal collocation of normally descriptive meaning, e.g.:

Ethel still went in the evenings to bathe in the silent pool (S. Maugham).

The indefinite article may occasionally be used with a unique referent noun, e.g.:

Ted Latimer from beyond her murmured: "The sun here isn't a real sun" (A. Christie).

The zero article may occasionally be used with an ordinary con­crete noun the semantic nature of which stands, as it were, in sharp contradiction to the idea of uncountable generalization, e.g.:

The glasses had a habit of slipping down her button nose which did not have enough bridge to hold them up (S.M. Disney). He went up a well-kept drive to a modern house with a square roof and a good deal of window (A. Christie).

In all these and similar cases, by virtue of being correlated with semantic elements of contrary nature, the inherent categorial mean­ings of the articles appear, as it were, in their original, pure quality. Having no environmental support, the articles become intensely self-dependent in the expression of their categorial semantics, and, against the alien contextual background, traces of transposition can be seen in their use.

§ 5. Having established the functional value of articles in opposi­tional assessment, we can now, in broader systemic contraposition, probe the correlation of the meanings of articles with the meanings of functional determiners. As a result of this observation, within the system of the determiners two separate subsets can be defined, one of which is centred around the definite article with its individualizing semantics (this-these, that-those, my, our, your, his, her, its, their), and the other one around the indefinite article with its gener­alizing semantics (another, some, any, every, no). The type of the division is such as to show the integration of the article meanings into the total semantic volume of the determiners. In other words, the observation inevitably leads us to the conclusion that the article determination of the noun as a specific grammatical category remains

valid also in such cases when the noun is modified not by the arti­cle itself, but by a semi-notional determiner. This is clearly seen in equivalency confrontations such as the following:

But unhappily the -wife wasn't listening. - But unhappily his wife wasn't listening.

The whispering voices caught the attention of the guards. - Those whispering voices caught their attention.

What could a woman do in a situation like that? -What could-any woman do in that sort of situation?

At least I saw interest in her eyes.-At least I saw some interest in her eyes.

Not a word had been pronounced about the terms of the docu­ment. No word had been pronounced about those terms.

The demonstration of the organic connection between the articles and semi-notional determiners, in its turn, makes it possible to dis­close the true function of the grammatical use of articles with proper nouns. E.g.

This," said Froelich, "is the James Walker who wrote 'The Last of the Old Lords'" (M. Bradbury). Cf:. This is the same James Walker.

I came out to Iraq with a Mrs. Kelsey (A. Christie). Cf .: The woman was a certain Mrs. Kelsey.

It was like seeing a Vesuvius at the height of its eruption. Cf:. The sight looked to us like another Vesuvius.

"I prophesy a wet August," said Old Moore Abinger (M. Dick­ens). Cf.: Next August will be a wet month, unlike some other Au­gusts in retrospect.

In the exemplified grammatical uses transpositional features are revealed similar to those the article acquires when used with a noun characterized by a contrary semantic base. On the other hand, the analysis of these cases clearly stamps the traditional proper name combinations with embedded articles, both of the onomastic set (Alexander the Great, etc.) and the toponymic set (The Hague, etc.) as lexicalizcd collocations that only come into contact with the pe­riphery of grammar.

§ 6 . The essential grammatical features of the articles exposed in the above considerations and tests leave no room for misinterpreta­tion at the final, generalizing stage of analysis.

The data obtained show that the English noun, besides the vari­able categories of number and case, distinguishes also the category of determination expressed by the article paradigm of three grammatical . forms: the definite, the indefinite, the zero. The paradigm is general­ized for the whole system of the common nouns, being transpositionally outstretched also into the system of proper nouns. Various cases of asymmetry in the realization of this paradigm (such as the article determination of certain nouns of the types singularia tantum and pluralia tantum), similar to, and in connection with the expres­sion of the category of number, are balanced by suppletive colloca­tions. Cf:. ø progress - a kind of progress, some progress - the progress; ø news - an item of news - the news, etc.

The semi-notional determiners used with nouns in the absence of articles, expose the essential article meanings as in-built in their se­mantic structure.

Thus, the status of the combination of the article with the noun should be defined as basically analytical, the article construction as such being localized by its segmental properties between the free syntactic combination of words (the upper bordering level) and the combination of a grammatical affix with a notional stem in the mor­phological composition of an indivisible word (the lower bordering level). The article itself is a special type of grammatical auxiliary.

C H A P T E R X

VERB: GENERAL

§ 1. Grammatically the verb is "the most complex part of speech. This is due to the central role it performs in the expression of the predicative functions of the sentence, i.e. the functions establishing the connection between the situation (situational event) named in the utterance and reality. The complexity of the verb is inherent not only in the intricate structure of its grammatical categories, but also in its various subclass divisions, as well as in its falling into two sets of forms profoundly different from each other: the finite set and the non-finite set.

The complicated character of the grammatical and lexico-grammatical structure of the verb has given rise to much dispute and controversy. However, the application of the principles of systemic linguistic analysis to the study of this interesting sphere of language helps overcome many essential difficulties in its theoretical descrip­tion, and also a number of terminological disagreements among the scholars. This refers in particular to the fundamental relations be­tween the categories of tense and aspect, which have aroused of late very heated disputes.

§ 2 . The general categorial meaning of the verb is process pre­sented dynamically, i.e. developing in time. This general processual meaning is embedded in the semantics of all the verbs, including those that denote states, forms of existence, types of attitude, evalu­ations, etc., rather than actions. Cf:.

Edgar's room led out of the wall without a door. She had her­self a liking for richness and excess. It was all over the morning pa­pers. That's what I'm afraid of. I do love you, really I do.

And this holds true not only about the finite verb, but also about the non-finite verb. The processual semantic character of the verbal lexeme even in the non-finite form is proved by the fact that in all its forms it is modified by the adverb and, with the transitive verb, it takes a direct object. Cf.:

Mr. Brown received the visitor Instantly, which was un­usual. - Mr. Brown's receiving the visitor instantly was unusual. - It was unusual for Mr. Brown to receive the visitor Instantly. But: An instant reception of the visitor was unusual for Mr. Brown.

The processual categorial meaning of the notional verb deter­mines its characteristic combination with a noun expressing both the doer of the action (its subject) and, in cases of the objective verb, the recipient of the action (its object); it also determines its combi­nation with an adverb as the modifier of the action.

In the sentence the finite verb invariably performs the function of the verb-predicate, expressing the processual categorial features of predication, i.e. time, aspect, voice, and mood.

The non-finite verb performs different functions according to its intermediary nature (those of the syntactic subject, object, adverbial modifier, attribute), but its non-processual functions are always actu­alized in close combination with its processual semantic features. This is especially evident in demonstrative correlations of the "sentence - phrase" type. Cf.:

His rejecting the proposal surprised us.-That he had rejected the proposal surprised us. Taking this into consideration, her atti­tude can be understood. - If one takes this into consideration, her attitude can be understood.

In other words, the non-finite forms of the verb in self-depen­dent use (i.e. if they are used not as parts of the analytical verb-forms) perform a potentially predicative function, constituting sec­ondary predicative centres in the sentence. In each case of such use they refer to some subject which is expressed either explicitly or im­plicitly. Cf:.

Roddy cared enough about his mother to want to make amends for Arabella. → Roddy wanted to make amends... → Roddy will make amends... Changing gear, the taxi turned the sharp corner. → The taxi changed gear and turned the corner. Acting as mate is of­ten more difficult than acting as captain. → One acts as mate; one acts as captain.

§ 3 . From the point of view of their outward structure, verbs are characterized by specific forms of word-building, as well as by the formal features expressing the corresponding grammatical cate­gories.

The verb stems may be simple, sound-replacive, stress-repladve, expanded, composite, and phrasal.

The original simple verb stems are not numerous. Cf . such verbs as go, take, read, etc. But conversion (zero-suffixation) as means of derivation, especially conversion of the "noun - verb" type, greatly enlarges the simple stem set of verbs, since it is one of the most productive ways of forming verb lexemes in modern English. Cf.: a cloud-to cloud;' a house-to house; a man-to man; a park-to park, etc.

The sound-replacive type of derivation and the stress-replacive type of derivation are unproductive. Cf:. food - to feed, blood - to bleed; 'import - to im'port, 'transport - to trans’port.

The typical suffixes expanding the stem of the verb are: -ate (cultivate), -en (broaden), -ify (clarify), -ize (normalize). The verb-deriving prefixes of the inter-class type are: be- (belittle, befriend, bemoan) and en-/em- (engulf, embed). Some other characteristic verbal prefixes are: re- (remake), under- (undergo), over-(overestfmate), sub- (submerge), mis- (misunderstand), un- (undo), etc.

The composite (compound) verb stems correspond to the com­posite non-verb stems from which they are etymologically derived. Here belong the compounds of the conversion type (blackmail n. - blackmail v.) and of the reduction type (proof-reader п . - proof­read v.).

The phrasal verb stems occupy an intermediary position between analytical forms of the verb and syntactic word combinations. Among such stems two specific constructions should be mentioned. The first is a combination of the head-verb have, give, take, and occasionally some others with a noun; the combination has as its equivalent an ordinary verb. Cf .: to have a smoke-to smoke; to give a smile-to smile; to take a stroll - to stroll.

The second is a combination of . head-verb with a verbal post­position that has a specificational value. Cf:. stand up, go on, give in, be off, get along, etc.

§ 4. The grammatical categories which find formal expression in the outward structure of the verb and which will be analysed further are, first, the category of finitude dividing the verb into finite and non-finite forms (the corresponding contracted names are "finites" and "verbids";* this category has a lexico-grammatical force); second, the categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, and mood, whose complete set is revealed in every word-form of the notional finite verb.

* The term "verbids" for the non-finite forms of the verb was introduced by O. Jespersen. Its merit lies in the fact that, unlike the more traditional term "verbals", it is devoid of dubious connotations as well as homonymic correlations.

Each of the identified categories constitutes a whole system of its own presenting its manifold problems to the scholar. However, the comparative analysis of the categorial properties of all the forms of the verb, including the properties of verbids, shows the unquestion­able unity of the class, in spite of some inter-class features of ver­bids.

Among the various forms of the verb the infinitive occupies a unique position. Its status is that of the principal representative of the verb-lexeme as a whole. This head-form status of the infinitive is determined by the two factors. The first factor consists in the verbal-nominative nature of the infinitive, i.e. in its function of giving the most general dynamic name to the process which is denoted by all the other forms of the verb-lexeme in a more specific way, condi­tioned by their respective semantico-grammatical specializations. The second factor determining the representative status of the infinitive consists in the infinitive serving as the actual derivative base for all the other regular forms of the verb.

§ 5 . The class of verbs falls into a number of subclasses distin­guished by different semantic and lexico-grammatical features.

On the upper level of division two unequal sets are identified: the set of verbs of full nominative value (notional verbs), and the set of verbs of partial nominative value (semi-notional and functional verbs). The first set is derivationally open, it includes the bulk of the verbal lexicon. The second set is derivationally closed, it includes limited subsets of verbs characterized by individual relational proper­ties.

§ 6. Semi-notional and functional verbs serve as markers of predication in the proper sense, since they show the connection be­tween the nominative content of the sentence and reality in a strictly specialized way. These "predicators" include auxiliary verbs, modal verbs, semi-notional verbid introducer verbs, and link-verbs.

Auxiliary verbs constitute grammatical elements of the categorial forms of the verb. These are the verbs be, have, do, shall, will, should, would, may, might.

Modal verbs are used with the infinitive as predicative markers expressing relational meanings of the subject attitude type, i.e. ability, obligation, permission, advisability, etc. By way of extension of meaning, they also express relational probability, serving as probabil­ity predicators. These two types of functional semantics can be tested by means of correlating pure modal verb collocations with the corre­sponding two sets of stative collocations of equivalent functions: on the one hand, the groups be obliged, be permitted, etc.; on the other hand, the groups be likely, be probable, etc. Cf.:

Tom may stay for the teleview if he will.→ Tom is permitted to stay. The storm may come any minute, you had better leave the deck.→ The storm is likely to come any minute.

The modal verbs can, may, must, shall, will, ought, need, used (to), dare are defective in forms, and are suppletively supplemented by stative groups similar to those shown above (cf. Ch. Ill, §4). The supplementation is effected both for the lacking finite forms and the lacking non-finite forms. Cf.:

The boys can prepare the play-ground themselves. → The boys will be able to prepare the play-ground themselves. → The boys' being able to prepare the play-ground themselves.

The verbs be and have in the modal meanings "be planned", "be obliged" and the like are considered by many modern grammarians as modal verbs and by right are included in the gen­eral modal verb list.

Semi-notional verbid introducer verbs are distributed among the verbal sets of discriminatory relational semantics (seem, happen, turn out, etc.), of subject-action relational semantics (try, fail, manage, etc.), of phasal semantics (begin, continue, stop, etc.). The predicator verbs should be strictly distinguished from their grammatical homonyms in the subclasses of notional verbs. As a matter of fact, there is a fundamental grammatical difference between the verbal constituents in such sentences as, say, "They began to fight" and "They began the fight". Whereas the verb in the first sentence is a semi-notional predicator, the verb in the second sentence is a no­tional transitive verb normally related to its direct object. The phasal predicator begin (the first sentence) is grammatically inseparable from the infinitive of the notional verb fight, the two lexemes making one verbal-part unit in the sentence. The transitive verb begin (the sec­ond sentence), on the contrary, is self-dependent in the lexico-grammatical sense, it forms the predicate of the sentence by itself and as such can be used in the passive voice, the whole construction of the sentence in this case being presented as the regular passive counter­part of its active version. CF .:

They began the fight. →The fight was begun (by them).

They began to fight. → (*)* To fight was begun (by them).

* The transformation is unacceptable.

Link-verbs introduce the nominal part of the predicate (the predi­cative) which is commonly expressed by a noun, an adjective, or a phrase of a similar semantico-grammatical character. It should be noted that link-verbs, although they are named so, are not devoid of meaningful content. Performing their function of connecting ("linking") the subject and the predicative of the sentence, they ex­press the actual semantics of this connection, i.e. expose the rela­tional aspect of the characteristics ascribed by the predicative to the subject.

The linking predicator function in the purest form is effected by the verb be; therefore be as a link-verb can be referred to as the "pure link-verb". It is clear from the above that even this pure link-verb has its own relational semantics, which can be identified as "linking predicative ascription". All the link-verbs other than the pure link be express some specification of this general predicative-linking semantics, so that they should be referred to as "specifying" link-verbs. The common specifying link-verbs fall into two main groups: those that express perceptions and those that express non-percep­tional, or "factual" link-verb connection. The main perceptional link-verbs are seem, appear, look feel, taste-, the main factual link-verbs are become, get, grow, remain, keep.

As is to be seen from the comparison of the specifying link-verbs with the verbid introducer predicators described above, the re­spective functions of these two verbal subsets are cognate, though not altogether identical. The difference lies in the fact that the spec­ifying link-verbs combine the pure linking function with the predica­tor function. Furthermore, separate functions of the two types of predicators are evident from the fact that specifying link-verbs, the same as the pure link, can be used in the text in combination with verbid introducer predicators. E.g.:

The letter seemed to have remained unnoticed. I began to feel better. You shouldn't try to look cleverer than you are.

Cf . the use of verbid introducer predicators with the pure link-verb:

The news has proved to be true. The girl's look ceased to be friendly. The address shown to us seemed to be just the one we needed.

Besides the link-verbs proper hitherto presented, there are some notional verbs in language that have the power to perform the func­tion of link-verbs without losing their lexical nominative value. In other words, they perform two functions simultaneously, combining the role of a full notional verb with that of a link-verb. Cf:.

Fred lay awake all through the night. Robbie ran in out of breath. The moon rose red.

Notional link-verb function is mostly performed by intransitive verbs of motion and position. Due to the double syntactic character of the notional link-verb, the whole predicate formed by it is re­ferred to as a "double predicate" (see Ch. XXIX).

§ 7. Notional verbs undergo the three main grammatically rele­vant categorizations. The first is based on the relation of the subject of the verb to the process denoted by the verb. The second is based on the aspective characteristics of the process denoted by the verb, i.e. on the inner properties of the process as reflected in the verbal meaning. The third is based on the combining power of the verb in relation to other notional words in the utterance.

§ 8 . On the basis of the subject-process relation, all the notional verbs can be divided into actional and statal.

Actional verbs express the action performed by the subject, i.e. they present the subject as an active doer (in the broadest sense of the word). To this subclass belong such verbs as do, act, perform, make, go, read, learn, discover, etc. Statal verbs, unlike their sub­class counterparts, denote the state of their subject. That is, they ei­ther give the subject the characteristic of the inactive recipient of some outward activity, or else express the mode of its existence. To this subclass belong such verbs as be, live, survive, worry, suffer, rejoice, stand, see, know, etc.

Alongside the two verbal sets, a third one could be distinguished which is made up of verbs expressing neither actions, nor states, but "processes". As representatives of the "purely processual" subclass one might point out the verbs thaw, ripen, deteriorate, consider, ne­glect, support, display, and the like. On closer observation, however, it becomes clear that the units of this medial subclass are subject to the same division into actional and statal sets as were established at the primary stage of classification. For instance, the "purely proces­sual" verb thaw referring to an inactive substance should be defined, more precisely, as "processual-statal", whereas the "processual" verb consider relating to an active doer should be looked upon, more precisely, as "processual-actional". This can be shown by transforma­tional tests:

The snow is thawing. → The snow is in the state of thawing.

The designer is considering another possibility. → The action of the designer is that he is considering another possibility.

Thus, the primary binary division of the verbs upon the basis of the subject-process relation is sustained.

Similar criteria apply to some more specific subsets of verbs permitting the binary actional-statal distribution. Among these of a special significance are the verbal sets of mental processes and sen­sual processes. Within the first of them we recognize the correlation between the verbs of mental perception and mental activity. E.g.: know - think; understand - construe; notice - note; admire - assess; forget - reject; etc.

Within the second set we recognize the correlation between the verbs of physical perception as such and physical perceptional activ­ity. E.g.: see - look; hear - listen; feel (inactive) - feel (active) - touch; taste (inactive) - taste (active); smell (inactive) - smell (active); etc.

The initial member of each correlation pair given above presents a case of a statal verb, while the succeeding member, respectively, of an actional verb. Cf. the corresponding transformational tests:

The explorers knew only one answer to the dilemma. → The mental state of the explorers was such that they knew only one an­swer to the dilemma.

I am thinking about the future of the village. → My mental activity consists in thinking about the future of the village. Etc.

The grammatical relevance of the classification in question, apart from its reflecting the syntactically generalized relation of the subject of the verb to the process denoted by it, is disclosed in the differ­ence between the two subclasses in their aspectual behaviour. While the actional verbs take the form of the continuous aspect quite freely, i.e. according to the general rules of its use, the statal verbs, in the same contextual conditions, are mainly used in the indefinite form. The continuous with statal verbs, which can be characterized as a more or less occasional occurrence, will normally express some sort of intensity or emphasis (see further).

§ 9 . Aspective verbal semantics exposes the inner character of the process denoted by the verb. It represents the process as dura-tive (continual), iterative (repeated), terminate (concluded), intermi-nate (not concluded), instantaneous (momentary), ingressive (starting), overcompleted (developed to the extent of superfluity), undercom-pleted (not developed to its full extent), and the like.

Some of these aspectual meanings are inherent in the basic se­mantics of certain subsets of English verbs. Compare, for instance, verbs of ingression (begin, start, resume, set out, get down), verbs of instantaneity (burst, click, knock, bang, jump, drop), verbs of termination (terminate, finish, end, conclude, close, solve, resolve, sum up, stop), verbs of duration (continue, prolong, last, linger, live, exist). The aspectual meanings of overcompletion, undercomple-tion, repetition, and the like can be rendered by means of lexical derivation, in particular, prefixation (oversimplify, outdo, underesti­mate, reconsider). Such aspectual meanings as ingression, duration, termination, and iteration are regularly expressed by aspective verbal collocations, in particular, by combinations of aspective predicators with verbids (begin, start, continue, finish, used to, would, etc., plus the corresponding verbid component).

In terms of the most general subclass division related to the grammatical structure of language, two aspective subclasses of verbs should be recognized in English. These will comprise numerous mi­nor aspective groups of the types shown above as their microcompo-nent sets.

The basis of this division is constituted by the relation of the verbal semantics to the idea of a processual limit, i.e., some border point beyond which the process expressed by the verb or implied in its semantics is discontinued or simply does not exist. For instance, the verb arrive expresses an action which evidently can only develop up to the point of arriving; on reaching this limit, the action ceases. The verb start denotes a transition from some preliminary state to some kind of subsequent activity, thereby implying a border point between the two. As different from these cases, the verb move ex­presses a process that in itself is alien to any idea of a limit, either terminal or initial.

The verbs of the first order, presenting a process as potentially limited, can be called "limitive". In the published courses of English grammar where they are mentioned, these verbs are called "tenninative",* but the latter term seems inadequate. As a matter of fact, the word suggests the idea of a completed action, i.e. of a limit attained, not only the implication of a potential limit existing as such. To the subclass of limitive belong such verbs as arrive, come, leave, find, start, stop, conclude, aim, drop, catch, etc. Here also belong phrasal verbs with limitive postpositions, e.g. stand up, sit down, get out, be off, etc.

* See the cited books on English grammar by M.A. Ganshina andN.M. Vasilevskaya, RA. Ilyish, B.S. Khaimovich and B.I. Rogovskaya.

The verbs of the second order presenting a process as not lim­ited by any border point, should be called, correspondingly, "unlimitive" (in the existing grammar books they are called either "non-terminative" or else "durative", or "cursive"). To this subclass belong such verbs as move, continue, live, sleep, work, behave, hope, stand, etc.

Alongside the two aspective subclasses of verbs, some authors recognize also a third subclass, namely, verbs of double aspective nature (of "double", or "mixed" lexical character). These, according to the said authors, are capable of expressing either a "tenninative" or "non-terminative" ("durative") meaning depending on the context.

However, applying the principle of oppositions, these cases can be interpreted as natural and easy reductions (mostly neutralizations) of the lexical aspective opposition. Cf:.

Mary and Robert walked through the park pausing at variegated flower-beds. (Unlimitive use, basic function). In the scorching heat, the party walked the whole way to the ravine bareheaded. (Limitive use, neutralization). He turned the comer and found himself among a busy crowd of people. (Limitive use, basic function). It took not only endless scientific effort, but also an enormous courage to prove that the earth turns round the sun. (Unlimitive use, neutralization).

Observing the given examples, we must admit that the demarca­tion line between the two aspective verbal subclasses is not rigidly fixed, the actual differentiation between them being in fact rather loose. Still, the opposition between limitive and unlimitive verbal sets does exist in English, however indefinitely determined it may be. Moreover, the described subclass division has an unquestionable grammatical relevance, which is expressed, among other things, in its peculiar correlation with the categorial aspective forms of the verbs (indefinite, continuous, perfect); this correlation is to be treated fur­ther (see Ch. XV).

§ 10. From the given description of the aspective subclass divi­sion of English verbs, it is evident that the English lexical aspect differs radically from the Russian aspect. In terms of semantic prop­erties, the English lexical aspect expresses a potentially limited or unlimited process, whereas the Russian aspect expresses the actual conclusion (the perfective, or tenninative aspect) or non-conclusion (the imperfective, or non-terminative aspect) of the process in ques­tion. In terms of systemic properties, the two English lexical aspect varieties, unlike their Russian absolutely rigid counterparts, are but loosely distinguished and easily reducible.

In accord with these characteristics, both the English limitive verbs and unlimitive verbs may correspond alternately either to the Russian perfective verbs or imperfective verbs, depending on the contextual uses.

For instance, the limitive verb arrive expressing an instantaneous action that took place in the past will be translated by its perfective Russian equivalent:

The exploratory party arrived at the foot of the mountain. Russ :. Экспедиция прибыла к подножию горы.

But if the same verb expresses a habitual, intenninately repeated action, the imperfective Russian equivalent is to be chosen for its translation:

In those years trains seldom arrived on time. Russ .: В те годы поезда редко приходили вовремя.

Cf. the two possible versions of the Russian translation of the following sentence:

The liner takes off tomorrow at ten. Russ:. Самолетвылетит завтравдесять (the flight in question is looked upon as an indi­vidual occurrence). Самолетвылетает завтравдесять (the flight is considered as part of the traffic schedule, or some other kind of general plan).

Conversely, the English unlimitive verb gaze when expressing a continual action will be translated into Russian by its imperfective equivalent:

The children gazed at the animals holding their breaths. Russ.: Дети глядели на животных, затаив дыхание.

But when the same verb renders the idea of an aspectually lim­ited, e.g. started action, its perfective Russian equivalent should be used in the translation:

The boy turned his head and gazed at the horseman with wide-open eyes. Russ :. Мальчик повернул голову и уставился на всадника широко открытыми глазами.

Naturally, the unlimitive English verbs in strictly unlimitive con­textual use correspond, by defmition, only to the imperfective verbs in Russian.

§ 11. The inner qualities of any signemic lingual unit are mani­fested not only in its immediate informative significance in an utter­ance, but also in its combinability with other units, in particular with units of the same segmental order. These syntagmatic properties are of especial importance for verbs, which is due to the unique role performed by the verb in the sentence. As a matter of fact, the fi­nite verb, being the centre of predication, organizes all the other sentence constituents. Thus, the organizational function of the verb, immediately exposed in its syntagmatic combinability, is inseparable from (and dependent on) its semantic value. The morphological rele­vance of the combining power of the verb is seen from the fact that directly dependent on this power are the categorial voice distinctions.

The combining power of words in relation to other words in syntactically subordinate positions (the positions of "adjuncts" - see Ch. XX) is called their syntactic "valency". The valency of a word is said to be "realized" when the word in question is actually com­bined in an utterance with its corresponding valency partner, i.e. its valency adjunct. If, on the other hand, the word is used without its valency adjunct, the valency conditioning the position of this adjunct (or "directed" to it) is said to be "not realized".

The syntactic valency falls into two cardinal types: obligatory and optional.

The obligatory valency is such as must necessarily be realized for the sake of the grammatical completion of the syntactic construction. For instance, the subject and the direct object are obligatory parts of the sentence, and, from the point of view of sentence structure, they are obligatory valency partners of the verb. Consequently, we say that the subjective and the direct objective valencies of the verb are obligatory. E.g.: We saw a house in the distance.

This sentence presents a case of a complete English syntactic construction. If we eliminate its subject or object, the remaining part of the construction will be structurally incomplete, i.e. it will be structurally "gaping". Cf:. *We saw in the distance. *Saw a house in the distance.

The optional valency, as different from the obligatory valency, is such as is not necessarily realized in grammatically complete con­structions: this type of valency may or may not be realized depend­ing on the concrete information to be conveyed by the utterance. Most of the adverbial modifiers are optional parts of the sentence, so in terms of valency we say that the adverbial valency of the verb is mostly optional. For instance, the adverbial part in the above sentence may be freely eliminated without causing the remainder of the sentence to be structurally incomplete: We saw a house (in the distance).

Link-verbs, although their classical representatives are only half-notional, should also be included into the general valency characteri­zation of verbs. This is due to their syntactically essential position in the sentence. The predicative valency of the link-verbs proper is obli­gatory. Cf:.

The reporters seemed pleased with the results of the press con­ference. That young scapegrace made a good husband, after all.

The obligatory adjuncts of the verb, with the exception of the subject (whose connection with the verb cannot be likened to the other valency partners), may be called its "complements"; the op­tional adjuncts of the verb, its "supplements". The distinction be­tween the two valency types of adjuncts is highly essential, since not all the objects or predicatives are obligatory, while, conversely, not all the adverbial modifiers are optional. Thus, we may have both objective complements and objective supplements; both predicative complements and predicative supplements; both adverbial supplements and adverbial complements.

Namely, the object of addressee, i.e. a person or thing for whom or which the action is performed, may sometimes be optional, as in the following example: We did it for you.

The predicative to a notional link-verb is mostly optional, asinthe example: The night came dark and stormy.

The adverbials of place, time, and manner (quality) may some­times be obligatory, as in the examples below:

Mr. Torrence was staying in the Astoria Hotel. The described events took place at the beginning of the century. The patient is doing fine.

Thus, according as they have or have not the power to take complements, the notional verbs should be classed as "complementive" or "uncomplementive", with further subcategorizations onthe semantico-syntagmatic principles.

In connection with this upper division, the notions of verbal tran­sitivity and objectivity should be considered.

Verbal transitivity, as one of the specific qualities of the general "completivity", is the ability of the verb to take a direct object, i.e. an object which is immediately affected by the denoted process. The direct object is joined to the verb "directly", without a preposition. Verbal objectivity is the ability of the verb to take any object, be it direct, or oblique (prepositional), or that of addressee. Transitive verbs are opposed to intransitive verbs; objective verbs are opposed to non-objective verbs (the latter are commonly called "subjective" verbs, but the term contradicts the underlying syntactic notion, since all the English finite verbs refer to their textual subjects).

As is known, the general division of verbs into transitive and in­transitive is morphologically more relevant for Russian than English, because the verbal passive form is confined in Russian to transitive verbs only. The general division of verbs into objective and non-ob­jective, being of relatively minor significance for the morphology of Russian, is highly relevant for English morphology, since in English all the three fundamental types of objects can be made into the subjects of the corresponding passive constructions.

On the other hand, the term "transitive" is freely used in En­glish grammatical treatises in relation to all the objective verbs, not only to those that take a direct object. This use is due to the close association of the notion of transitivity not only with the type of verbal object as such, but also with the ability of the verb to be used in the passive voice. We do not propose to call for the termi­nological corrective in this domain; rather, we wish to draw the at­tention of the reader to the accepted linguistic usage in order to avoid unfortunate misunderstandings based on the differences in ter­minology.

Uncomplementive verbs fall into two unequal subclasses of "per­sonal" and "impersonal" verbs.

The personal uncomplementive verbs, i.e. uncomplementive verbs normally referring to the real subject of the denoted process (which subject may be either an actual human being, or a non-human be­ing, or else an inanimate substance or an abstract notion), form a large set of lexemes of various semantic properties. Here are some of them: work, start, pause, hesitate, act, function, materialize, laugh, cough, grow, scatter, etc.

The subclass of impersonal verbs is small and strictly limited. Here belong verbs mostly expressing natural phenomena of the self-processual type, i.e. natural processes going on without a reference to a real subject. Cf.: rain, snow, freeze, drizzle, thaw, etc.

Complementive verbs, as follows from the above, are divided into the predicative, objective and adverbial sets.

The predicative complementive verbs, i.e. link-verbs, have been discussed- as part of the predicator verbs. The main link-verb subsets are, first, the pure link be; second, the specifying links become, grow, seem, appear, look, taste, etc.; third, the notional links.

The objective complementive verbs are divided into several im­portant subclasses, depending on the kinds of complements they combine with. At the upper level of division they fall into mono-complementive verbs (taking one object-complement) and bicomple-mecntive verbs (taking two complements).

The monocomplementive objective verbs fall into five main sub­classes. The first subclass is the possession objective verb have forming different semantic varieties of constructions. This verb is normally not passivized. The second subclass includes direct objective verbs, e.g. take, grasp, forget, enjoy, like. The third subclass is formed by the prepositional objective verbs, e.g. look at, point to, send for, approve of, think about. The fourth subclass includes non-passivized direct objective verbs, e.g. cost, weigh, fail, become, suit. The fifth subclass includes non-passivized prepositional objective verbs, e.g. belong to, relate to, merge with, confer with, abound in.

The bicomplementive objective verbs fall into five main sub­classes. The first subclass is formed by addressee-direct objective verbs, i.e. verbs taking a direct object and an addressee object, e.g. a) give, bring, pay, hand, show (the addressee object with these verbs may be both non-prepositional and prepositional); b) explain, introduce, mention, say, devote (the addressee object with these verbs is only prepositional). The second subclass includes double di­rect objective verbs, i.e. verbs taking two direct objects, e.g. teach, ask, excuse, forgive, envy, fine. The third subclass includes double prepositional objective verbs, i.e. verbs taking two prepositional ob­jects, e.g. argue, consult, cooperate, agree. The fourth subclass is formed by addressee prepositional objective verbs, i.e. verbs taking a prepositional object and an addressee object, e.g. remind of, tell about, apologize for, write of, pay for. The fifth subclass includes adverbial objective verbs, i.e. verbs taking an object and an adverbial modifier (of place or of time), e.g. put, place, lay, bring, send, keep.

Adverbial complementive verbs include two main subclasses. The first is formed by verbs taking an adverbial complement of place or of time, e.g. be, live, stay, go, ride, arrive. The second is formed by verbs taking an adverbial complement of manner, e.g. act, do, keep, behave, get on.

§ 12. Observing the syntagmatic subclasses of verbs, we see that the same verb lexeme, or lexico-phonemic unit (phonetical word), can enter more than one of the outlined classification sets. Teis phenomenon of the "subclass migration" of verbs is not confined to cognate lexemic subsets of the larger subclasses, but, as is widely known, affects the principal distinctions between the English com­plementive and uncomplementive verbs, between the English objective and non-objective verbs. Suffice it to give a couple of examples taken at random:

Who runs faster, John or Nick? (run - uncomplementive). The man ran after the bus. (run - adverbial complementive, non-ob­jective). I ran my eyes over the uneven lines, (run - adverbial objec­tive, transitive). And is the fellow still running the show? (run - monocomplementive, transitive).

The railings felt cold. (feel - link-verb, predicative complemen­tive). We felt fine after the swim. (feel - adverbial complementive, non-objective). You shouldn't feel your own pulse like that. (feel - monocomplementive, transitive).

The problem arises how to interpret these different subclass en­tries - as cases of grammatical or lexico-grammatical homonymy, or some kind of functional variation, or merely variation in usage. The problem is vexed, since each of the interpretations has its strong points.

To reach a convincing decision, one should take into considera­tion the actual differences between various cases of the "subclass migration" in question. Namely, one must carefully analyse the com­parative characteristics of the corresponding subclasses as such, as well as the regularity factor for an individual lexeme subclass occur­rence.

In the domain of notional subclasses proper, with regular inter-class occurrences of the analysed lexemes, probably the most plausi­ble solution will be to interpret the "migration forms" as cases of specific syntactic variation, i.e. to consider the different subclass en­tries of migrating units as syntactic variants of the same lexemes [Почепцов, 1976, 87 ff.]. In the light of this interpretation, the very formula of "lexemic subclass migration" will be vindicated and sub­stantiated.

On the other hand, for more cardinally differing lexemic sets, as, for instance, functional versus notional, the syntactic variation princi­ple is hardly acceptable. This kind of differentiation should be anal­ysed as lexico-grammatical homonymy, since it underlies the expres-sion of categorially different grammatical functions.

C H A P T E R XI

NON-FINITE VERBS (VERBIDS)

§ 1 . Verbids are the forms of the verb intermediary in many of their lexico-grammatical features between the verb and the non-pro-cessual parts of speech. The mixed features of these forms are re­vealed in the principal spheres of the part-of-speech characterization, i.e. in their meaning, structural marking, combinability, and syntactic functions.

The processual meaning is exposed by them in a substantive or adjectival-adverbial interpretation: they render processes as peculiar kinds of substances and properties. They are formed by special mor­phemic elements which do not express either grammatical time or mood (the most specific finite verb categories). They can be combined with verbs like non-processual lexemes (performing non-verbal functions in the sentence), and they can be combined with non-pro­cessual lexemes like verbs (performing verbal functions in the sen­tence).

From these characteristics, one might call in question the very justification of including the verbids in the system of the verb. As a matter of fact, one can ask oneself whether it wouldn't stand to rea­son to consider the verbids as a special lexemic class, a separate part of speech, rather than an inherent component of the class of verbs.

On closer consideration, however, we can't but see that such an approach would be utterly ungrounded. The verbids do betray inter­mediary features. Still, their fundamental grammatical meaning is proccssual (though modified in accord with the nature of the inter-class reference of each verbid). Their essential syntactic functions, di­rected by this relational semantics, unquestionably reveal the property which may be called, in a manner of explanation, "verbality", and the statement of which is corroborated by the peculiar combinability character of verbid collocations, namely, by the ability of verbids to take adjuncts expressing the immediate recepients, attendants, and addressees of the process inherently conveyed by each verbid deno­tation.

One might likewise ask oneself, granted the verbids are part of the system of the verb, whether they do not constitute within this system a special subsystem of purely lexemic nature, i.e. form some sort of a specific verbal subclass. This counter-approach, though, would evidently be devoid of any substantiality, since a subclass of a lexemic class, by definition, should share the essential categorial structure, as well as primary syntactic functions with other sub­classes, and in case of verbids the situation is altogether different. In fact, it is every verb stem (except a few defective verbs) that by means of morphemic change takes both finite and non-finite forms, the functions of the two sets being strictly differentiated: while the finite forms serve in the sentence only one syntactic function, namely, that of the finite predicate, the non-finite forms serve vari­ous syntactic functions other than that of the finite predicate.

The strict, unintersecting division of functions (the functions themselves being of a fundamental nature in terms of the grammati­cal structure of language as a whole) clearly shows that the opposi­tion between the finite and non-finite forms of the verb creates a special grammatical category. The differential feature of the opposition is constituted by the expression of verbal time and mood: while the time-mood grammatical signification characterizes the finite verb in a way that it underlies its finite predicative function, the verbid has no immediate means of expressing time-mood categorial seman­tics and therefore presents the weak member of the opposition. The category expressed by this opposition can be called the category of "finitude" [Strang, 143; Бархударов, 1975, 106]. The syntactic content of the category of finitude is the expression of predication (more precisely, the expression of verbal predication).

As is known, the verbids, unable to express the predicative meanings of time and mood, still do express the so-called "secondary" or "potential" predication, forming syntactic complexes directly related to certain types of subordinate clauses. Cf:.

Have you ever had anything caught in your head? - -Have you ever had anything that was caught In your head? He said it half under his breath for the others not to hear it. - - He said it half under his breath, so that the others couldn't hear it.

The verbid complexes anything caught in your head, or for the others not to hear it, or the like, while expressing secondary predi­cation, are not self-dependent in a predicative sense. They normally exist only as part of sentences built up by genuine, primary predica­tive constructions that have a finite verb as their core. And it is through the reference to the finite verb-predicate that these com­plexes set up the situations denoted by them in the corresponding time and mood perspective.

In other words, we may say that the opposition of the finite verbs and the verbids is based on the expression of the functions of full predication and semi-predication. While the finite verbs express predication in its genuine and complete form, the function of the verbids is to express semi-predication, building up semi-predicative complexes within different sentence constructions.

The English verbids include four forms distinctly differing from one another within the general verbid system: the infinitive, the gerund, the present participle, and the past participle. In compliance with this difference, the verbid semi-predicative complexes are distin­guished by the corresponding differential properties both in form and in syntactic-contextual function.

§ 2. The infinitive is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun, serving as the verbal name of a process. By virtue of its general process naming function, the infinitive should be considered as the head-form of the whole paradigm of the verb. In this quality it can be likened to the nominative case of the noun in languages having a normally developed noun declension, as, for instance, Russian. It is not by chance that A.A. Shakhmatov called the infinitive the "verbal nomi­native". With the English infinitive, its role of the verbal paradig­matic head-form is supported by the fact that, as has been stated before, it represents the actual derivation base for all the forms of regular verbs.

The infinitive is used in three fundamentally different types of functions: first, as a notional, self-positional syntactic part of the sentence; second, as the notional constituent of a complex verbal predicate built up around a predicator verb; third, as the notional constituent of a finite conjugation form of the verb. The first use is grammatically "free", the second is grammatically "half-free", the third is grammatically "bound".

The dual verbal-nominal meaning of the infinitive is expressed in full measure in its free, independent use. It is in this use that the infinitive denotes the corresponding process in an abstract, substance-like presentation. This can easily be tested by question-transforma­tions. Cf:.

Do you really mean to go away and leave me here alone? → What do you really mean? It made her proud sometimes to toy with the idea. → What made her proud sometimes?

The combinability of the infinitive also reflects its dual semantic nature, in accord with which we distinguish between its verb-type and noun-type connections. The verb-type combinability of the infini­tive is displayed in its combining, first, with nouns expressing the object of the action; second, with nouns expressing the subject of the action; third, with modifying adverbs; fourth, with predicator verbs of semi-functional nature forming a verbal predicate; fifth, with auxiliary finite verbs (word-morphemes) in the analytical forms of the verb. The noun-type combinability of the infinitive is displayed in its com­bining, first, with finite notional verbs as the object of the action; second, with finite notional verbs as the subject of the action.

The self-positional infinitive, in due syntactic arrangements, per­forms the functions of all types of notional sentence-parts, i.e. the subject, the object, the predicative, the attribute, the adverbial modi­fier. Cf.:

To meet the head of the administration and not to speak to him about your predicament was unwise, to say the least of it. (Infinitive subject position). The chief arranged to receive the foreign delegation in the afternoon. (Infinitive object position). The parents' wish had always been to see their eldest son the continuator of their joint scientific work. (Infinitive predicative position). Here again we are faced with a plot to overthrow the legitimately elected government of the republic. (Infinitive attributive position). Helen was far too wor­ried to listen to the remonstrances. (Infinitive adverbial position).

If the infinitive in free use has its own subject, different from that of the governing construction, it is introduced by the preposi­tion-particle for. The whole infinitive construction of this type is tra­ditionally called the "for-to infinitive phrase". Cf.:

For that shy-looking young man to have stated his purpose so boldly - incredible!

The prepositional introduction of the inner subject in the English infinitive phrase is analogous to the prepositional-casal introduction of the same in the Russian infinitive phrase (i.e. either with the help of the genitive-governing preposition для , or with the help of the dative case of the noun). Cf .: Для нас очень важно понять природу подобных соответствий.

With some transitive verbs (of physical perceptions, mental activ­ity, declaration, compulsion, permission, etc.) the infinitive is used in the semi-predicative constructions of the complex object and complex subject, the latter being the passive counterparts of the former. Cf.:

We have never heard Charlie play his violin. → Charlie has never been heard to play his violin. The members of the committee expected him to speak against the suggested resolution. → He was expected by the members of the committee to speak against the suggested resolution.

Due to the intersecting character of joining with the governing predicative construction, the subject of the infinitive in such com­plexes, naturally, has no introductory preposition-particle.

The English infinitive exists in two presentation forms. One of them, characteristic of the free uses of the infinitive, is distinguished by the pre-positional marker to . This form is called traditionally the "to-infinitive", or in more recent linguistic works, the "marked in­finitive". The other form, characteristic of the bound uses of the in­finitive, does not employ the marker to , thereby presenting the infinitive in the shape of the pure verb stem, which in modern inter­pretation is understood as the zero-suffixed form. This form is called traditionally the "bare infinitive", or in more recent linguistic works, respectively, the "unmarked infinitive".

The infinitive marker to is a word-morpheme, i.e. a special for­mal particle analogous, mutatis mutandis, to other auxiliary elements in the English grammatical structure. Its only function is to build up and identify the infinitive form as such. As is the case with the other analytical markers, the particle to can be used in an isolated position to represent the whole corresponding construction syntag-matically zeroed in the text. Cf:.

You are welcome to acquaint yourself with any of the documents if you want to .

Like other analytical markers, it can also be separated from its notional, i.e. infinitive part by a word or a phrase, usually of adver­bial nature, forming the so-called "split infinitive". Cf:.

My task is not to accuse or acquit; my task it to thoroughly in­vestigate, to clearly define, and to consistently systematize the facts.

Thus, the marked infinitive presents just another case of an ana­lytical grammatical form. The use or non-use of the infinitive marker depends on the verbal environment of the infinitive. Namely, the unmarked infinitive is used, besides the various analytical forms, with modal verbs (except the modals ought and used), with verbs of physical perceptions, with the verbs let, bid, make, help (with the latter - optionally), with the verb know in the sense of "experience", with a few verbal phrases of modal nature (had better, would rather, would have, etc.), with the relative-inducive why. All these uses are detailed in practical grammar books.

The infinitive is a categorially changeable form. It distinguishes the three grammatical categories sharing them with the finite verb, namely, the aspective category of development (continuous in opposi­tion), the aspective category of retrospective coordination (perfect in opposition), the category of voice (passive in opposition). Conse­quently, the categorial paradigm of the infinitive of the objective verb includes eight forms: the indefinite active, the continuous active, the perfect active, the perfect continuous active; the indefinite passive, the continuous passive, the perfect passive, the perfect continuous passive, E.g.: to take-to be taking-to have taken-to have been taking; to be taken-to be being taken-to have been taken-to have been being taken.

The infinitive paradigm of the non-objective verb, correspondingly, includes four forms. E.g.: to go - to be going - to have gone - to have been going.

The continuous and perfect continuous passive can only be used occasionally, with a strong stylistic colouring. But they underlie the corresponding finite verb forms. It is the indefinite infinitive that constitutes the head-form of the verbal paradigm.

§ 3 . The gerund is the non-finite form of the verb which, like the infinitive, combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun. Similar to the infinitive, the gerund serves as the verbal name of a process, but its substantive quality is more strongy pronounced than that of the infinitive. Namely, as different from the infinitive, and similar to the noun, the gerund can be modified by a noun in the possessive case or its pronominal equivalents (expressing the subject of the verbal process), and it can be used with prepositions.

Since the gerund, like the infinitive, is an abstract name of the process denoted by the verbal lexeme, a question might arise, why the infinitive, and not the gerund is taken as the head-form of the verbal lexeme as a whole, its accepted representative in the lexicon.

As a matter of fact, the gerund cannot perform the function of the paradigmatic verbal head-form for a number of reasons. In the first place, it is more detached from the finite verb than the infini­tive semantically, tending to be a far more substantival unit categori­ally. Then, as different from the infinitive, it does not join in the conjugation of the finite verb. Unlike the infinitive, it is a suffixal form, which makes it less generalized than the infinitive in terms of the formal properties of the verbal lexeme (although it is more ab­stract in the purely semantic sense). Finally, it is less definite than the infinitive from the lexico-grammatical point of view, being subject to easy neutralizations in its opposition with the verbal noun in -ing, as well as with the present participle. Hence, the gerund is no rival of the infinitive in the paradigmatic head-form function.

The general combinability of the gerund, like that of the infini­tive, is dual, sharing some features with the verb, and some features with the noun. The verb-type combinability of the gerund is dis­played in its combining, first, with nouns expressing the object of the action; second, with modifying adverbs; third, with certain semi-func­tional predicator verbs, but other than modal. Of the noun-type is the combinability of the gerund, first, with finite notional verbs as the object of the action; second, with finite notional verbs as the prepositional adjunct of various functions; third, with finite notional verbs as the subject of the action; fourth, with nouns as the prepo­sitional adjunct of various functions.

The gerund, in the corresponding positional patterns, performs the functions of all the types of notional sentence-parts, i.e. the sub­ject, the object, the predicative, the attribute, the adverbial modifier. Cf.:

Repeating your accusations over and over again doesn't make them more convincing. (Gerund subject position). No wonder he de­layed breaking the news to Uncle Jim. (Gerund direct object posi­tion). She could not give her mind to pressing wild flowers in Pauline's botany book. (Gerund addressee object position). Joe felt annoyed at being shied by his room-mates. (Gerund prepositional object position). You know what luck is? Luck is believing you're lucky. (Gerund predicative position). Fancy the pleasant prospect of listening to all the gossip they've in store for you! (Gerund attribu­tive position). He could not push against the furniture without bringing the whole lot down. (Gerund adverbial of manner position),

One of the specific gerund patterns is its combination with the noun in the possessive case or its possessive pronominal equivalent expressing the subject of the action. This gerundial construction is used in cases when the subject of the gerundial process differs from the subject of the governing sentence-situation, i.e. when the gerun­dial sentence-part has its own, separate subject. E.g.:

Powell’s being rude like that was disgusting. How can she know about the Mortons' being connected with this unaccountable affair? Will he ever excuse our having interfered?

The possessive with the gerund displays one of the distinctive categorial properties of the gerund as such, establishing it in the En­glish lexemic system as the form of the verb with nouoal character­istics. As a matter of fact, from the point of view of the inner se­mantic relations, this combination is of a verbal type, while from the point of view of the formal categorial features, this combination is of a nounal type. It can be clearly demonstrated by the appropriate transformations, i.e. verb-related and noun-related re-constructions. Cf.:

I can't stand his criticizing artistic works that are beyond his competence. (T-verbal → He is criticizing artistic works. T-nounal → His criticism of artistic works.)

Besides combining with the possessive noun-subject, the verbal ing- form can also combine with the noun-subject in the common case or its objective pronominal equivalent. E.g.:

I read in yesterday's paper about the hostages having been re­leased.

This gerundial use as presenting very peculiar features of catego­rial mediality will be discussed after the treatment of the participle.

The formal sign of the gerund is wholly homonymous with that of the present participle: it is the suffix -ing added to its grammati­cally (categorially) leading element.

Like the infinitive, the gerund is a categorially changeable (variable, demutative) form; it distinguishes the two grammatical cat­egories, sharing them with the finite verb and the present participle, namely, the aspective category of retrospective coordination (perfect in opposition), and the category of voice (passive in opposition). Consequently, the categorial paradigm of the gerund of the objective verb includes four forms: the simple active, the perfect active; the simple passive, the perfect passive. E.g.: taking - having taken - being taken - having been taken.

The gerundial paradigm of the non-objective verb, correspond­ingly, includes two forms. E.g.: going - having gone.

The perfect forms of the gerund are used, as a rule, only in semantically strong positions, laying special emphasis on the mean­ingful categorial content of the form.

§ 4 . The present participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjec­tive and adverb, serving as the qualifying-processual name. In its outer form the present participle is wholly homonymous with the gerund, ending in the suffix -ing and distinguishing the same gram­matical categories of retrospective coordination and voice.

Like all the verbids, the present participle has no categorial time distinctions, and the attribute "present" in its conventional name is not immediately explanatory, it is used in this book from force of tradition. Still, both terms "present participle" and "past participle" are not altogether devoid of eluddative signification, if not in the categorial sense, then in the derivational-etymological sense, and are none the worse in their quality than their doublet-substitutes "participle I" and "participle II".

The present participle has its own place in the general paradigm of the verb, different from that of the past participle, being distin­guished by the corresponding set of characterization features.

Since it possesses some traits both of adjective and adverb, the present participle is not only dual, but triple by its lexico-grammatical properties, which is displayed in its combinability, as well as in its syntactic functions.

The verb-type combinability of the present participle is revealed, first, in its being combined, in various uses, with nouns expressing the object of the action; second, with nouns expressing the subject of the action (in semi-predicative complexes); third, with modifying ad­verbs; fourth, with auxiliary finite verbs (word-morphemes) in the analytical forms of the verb. The adjective-type combinability of the present participle is revealed in its association with the modified nouns, as well as with some modifying adverbs, such as adverbs of degree. The adverb-type combinability of the present participle is re­vealed in its association with the modified verbs.

The self-positional present participle, in the proper syntactic ar­rangements, performs the functions of the predicative (occasional use, and not with the pure link be), the attribute, the adverbial modifier of various types. Cf:.

The questions became more and more irritating (Present partici­ple predicative position). She had thrust the crucifix on to the sur­viving baby (Present participle attributive front-position). Norman stood on the pavement like a man watching his loved one go aboard an ocean liner (Present participle attributive back-position). He was no longer the cocky, pugnacious boy, always squaring up for a fight (Present participle attributive back-position, detached). She went up the steps, swinging her hips and tossing her fur with bravado (Present participle manner adverbial back-position). And having read in the, papers about truth drugs, of course Gladys would believe it absolutely (Present participle cause adverbial front-position).

The present participle, similar to the infinitive, can build up semi-predicative complexes of objective and subjective types. The two groups of complexes, i.e. infinitival and present participial, may exist in parallel (e.g. when used with some verbs of physical perceptions), the difference between them lying in the aspectivc presentation of the process. Cf.:

Nobody noticed the scouts approach the enemy trench . - Nobody noticed the scouts approaching the enemy trench with stow, cautious, expertly calculated movements . Suddenly a telephone was heard to buiz , breaking the spell. - The telephone was heard vainly bussing in the study.

A peculiar use of the present participle is seen in the absolute participial constructions of various types, forming complexes of de­tached semi-predication. Cf.:

The messenger watting in the hall, we had only a couple of minutes to make a decision. The dean sat at his desk, with an elec­tric fire glowing warmly behind the fender at the opposite wall.

These complexes of descriptive and narrative stylistic nature seem to be gaining ground in present-day English.

§ 5 . The past participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective, serving as the qualifying-proccssual name. The past participle is a single form, having no paradigm of its own. By way of the paradig­matic correlation with the present participle, it conveys implicitly the categorial meaning of the perfect and the passive. As different from the present participle, it has no distinct combinability features or syntactic function features specially characteristic of the adverb. Thus, the main self-positional functions of the past participle in the sen­tence are those of the attribute and the predicative. Cf.:

Moyra's softened look gave him a new hope (Past participle at­tributive front-position). The cleverly chosen timing of the attack de­termined the outcome of the battle (Past participle attributive front-position). It is a face devastated by passion (Past participle attribu­tive back-position). His was a victory gained against all rules and predictions (Past participle attributive back-position). Looked upon in this light, the wording of the will didn't appear so odious (Past par­ticiple attributive detached position). The light is bright and inconve­niently placed for reading (Past participle predicative position).

The past participle is included in the structural formation of the present participle (perfect, passive), which, together with the other differential properties, vindicates the treatment of this form as a sep­arate verbid.

In the attributive use, the past participial meanings of the perfect and the passive are expressed in dynamic correlation with the aspective lexico-grammatical character of the verb. As a result of this cor­relation, the attributive past participle of limitive verbs in a neutral context expresses priority, while the past participle of unlimitive verbs expresses simultaneity. E.g.:

A tree broken by the storm blocked the narrow passage between the cliffs and the water. (Priority in the passive; the implication is "a tree that had been broken by the storm"). I saw that the picture admired by the general public hardly had a fair chance with the judges. (Simultaneity in the passive; the implication is "the picture which was being admired by the public").

Like the present participle, the past participle is capable of mak­ing up semi-predicative constructions of complex object, complex subject, as well as of absolute complex.

The past participial complex object is specifically characteristic with verbs of wish and oblique causality (have, get). Cf:.

I want the document prepared for signing by 4 p.m. Will you have my coat brushed up, please?

Compare the use of the past participial complex object and the complex subject as its passive transform with a perception verb:

We could hear a shot or two fired from a field mortar. → A shot or two could be heard fired from a field mortar.

The complex subject of this type, whose participle is included in the double predicate of the sentence, is used but occasionally. A more common type of the participial complex subject can be seen with notional links of motion and position. Cf:.

We sank down and for a while lay there stretched out and ex­hausted.

The absolute past participial complex as a rule expresses priority in the correlation of two events. Cf:.

The preliminary talks completed, it became possible to concen­trate on the central point of the agenda.

The past participles of non-objective verbs are rarely used in in­dependent sentence-part positions; they are mostly included in phraseological or cliche combinations like faded photographs, fallen leaves, a retired officer, a withered flower, dream come true, etc. In these and similar cases the idea of pure quality rather than that of processual quality is expressed, the modifying participles showing the features of adjectivization.

As is known, the past participle is traditionally interpreted as being capable of adverbial-related use (like the present participle), notably in detached syntactical positions, after the introductory subor-dinative conjunctions. Cf:.

Called up by the conservative minority, the convention failed to pass a satisfactory resolution. Though welcomed heartily by his host, Frederick felt at once that something was wrong.

Approached from the paradigmatic point of view in the construc­tional sense, this interpretation is to be re-considered. As a matter of fact, past participial constructions of the type in question display clear cases of syntactic compression. The true categorial nature of the participial forms employed by them is exposed by the corre­sponding transformational correlations ("back transformations") as being not of adverbial, but of definitely adjectival relation. Cf:.

... → The convention, which was called up by the conservative minority, failed to pass a satisfactory resolution. ... -» Though he was welcomed heartily by his host, Frederick felt at once that something was wrong.

Cf. a more radical diagnostic transformational change of the lat­ter construction:

... → Frederick, who was welcomed heartily by his host, never­theless felt at once that something was wrong.

As is seen from the analysis, the adjectival relation of the past participle in the quoted examples is proved by the near-predicative function of the participle in the derived transforms, be it even within the composition of the finite passive verb form. The adverbial uses of the present participle react to similar tests in a different way. Cf.:

Passing on to the library, he found Mabel entertaining her guests. → As he passed on to the library, he found Mabel enter­taining her guests.

The adverbial force of the present participle in constructions like that is shown simply, as resulting from the absence of obligatory mediation of be between the participle and its subject (in the deriva-tionally underlying units).

As an additional proof of our point, we may take an adjectival construction for a similar diagnostic testing. Cf:.

Though red in the face, the boy kept denying his guilt. → Though he was red in the face, the boy kept denying his guilt.

As we see, the word red, being used in the diagnostic concessive clause of complete composition, does not change its adjectival quality for an adverbial quality. Being red in the face would again present another categorial case. Being, as a present participial form, is in the observed syntactic conditions neither solely adjectival-related, nor solely adverbial-related; it is by nature adjectival-adverbial, the whole composite unity in question automatically belonging to the same cat­egorial class, i.e. the class of present participial constructions of dif­ferent subtypes.

§ 6 . The consideration of the English verbids in their mutual comparison, supported and supplemented by comparing them with their non-verbal counterparts, puts forward some points of structure and function worthy of special notice.

In this connection, the infinitive-gerund correlation should first be brought under observation.

Both forms are substance-processual, and the natural question that one has to ask about them is, whether the two do not repeat each other by their informative destination and employment. This question was partly answered in the paragraph devoted to the gen­eral outline of the gerund. Observations of the actual uses of the gerund and the infinitive in texts do show the clear-cut semantic difference between the forms, which consists in the gerund being, on the one hand, of a more substantive nature than the infinitive, i.e. of a nature nearer to the thingness-signification type; on the other hand, of a more abstract nature in the logical sense proper. Hence, the forms do not repeat, but complement each other, being both of them inalienable components of the English verbal system.

The difference between the forms in question may be demon­strated by the following examples:

Seeing and talking to people made him tired. (As characteristic of a period of his life; as a general feature of his disposition) - -It made him tired to see and talk to so many people. (All at a time, on that particular occasion); Spending an afternoon in the company of that gentle soul was always a wonderful pleasure. (Repeated action, general characteristic) - - To spend an afternoon on the grass - lovely! (A response utterance of enthusiastic agree­ment); Who doesn't like singing? (In a general reference) - Who doesn't like to sing? (In reference to the subject).

Comparing examples like these, we easily notice the more dy­namic, more actional character of the infinitive as well as of the whole collocations built up around it, and the less dynamic character of the corresponding gerundial collocations. Furthermore, beyond the boundaries of the verb, but within the boundaries of the same inter-class paradigmatic derivation (see above, Ch. IV, §8), we find the cognate verbal noun which is devoid of processual dynamics alto­gether, though it denotes, from a different angle, the same referential process, situation, event. Cf:.

For them to have arrived so early! Such a surprise! - Their having arrived so early was indeed a great surprise.- - Their early arrival was a great surprise, really.

The triple correlation, being of an indisputably systemic nature and covering a vast proportion of the lexicon, enables us to interpret it in terms of a special lexico-grammatical category of processual representation. The ti ее stages of this category represent the refer­ential processual entity of the lexemic series, respectively, as dynamic (the infinitive and its phrase), semi-dynamic (the gerund and its phrase), and static (the verbal noun and its phrase). The category of processual representation underlies the predicative differences between various' situation-naming constructions in the sphere of syntactic nominalization (see further, Ch. XXV).

Another category specifically identified within the framework of substantival verbids and relevant for syntactic analysis is the category of modal representation. This category, pointed out by L.S. Barkhudarov [Бархударов, 1975, 151 -152], marks the infinitive in contrast to the gerund, and it is revealed in the infinitive having a modal force, in particular, in its attributive uses, but also elsewhere. Cf:.

This is a kind of peace to be desired by all. (A kind of peace that should be desired). Is there any hope for us to meet this great violinist in our town? (A hope that we may meet this violinist). It was arranged for the mountaineers to have a rest in tents before climbing the peak. (It was arranged so that they could have a rest in tents).

When speaking about the functional difference between lingual forms, we must bear in mind that this difference might become subject to neutralization in various systemic or contextual conditions. But however vast the corresponding field of neutralization might be, the rational basis of correlations of the forms in question still lies in their difference, not in neutralizing equivalence. Indeed, the difference is linguistically so valuable that one well-established occurrence of a differential correlation of meaningful forms outweighs by its significance dozens of their textual neutralizations. Why so? For the simple reason that language is a means of forming and exchanging ideas - that is, ideas differing from one another, not coinciding with one another. And this simple truth should thoroughly be taken into consideration when tackling certain cases of infinitive-gerund equiva­lence in syntactic constructions - as, for instance, the freely alternat­ing gerunds and infinitives with some phasal predicators (begin, start, continue, cease, etc.). The functional equivalence of the infinitive and the gerund in the composition of the phasal predicate by no means can be held as testifying to their functional equivalence in other spheres of expression.

As for the preferable or exclusive use of the gerund with a set of transitive verbs (e.g. avoid, delay, deny, forgive, mind, postpone) and especially prepositional-complementive verbs and word-groups (e.g. accuse of, agree to, depend on, prevent from, think of, suc­ceed in, thank for; be aware of, be busy in, be Indignant at, be sure of), we clearly see here the tendency of mutual differentiation and complementation of the substantive verbid forms based on the demonstrated category of processual representation. In fact, it is the-gerund, not the infinitive, that denotes the processual referent of the lexeme not in a dynamic, but in a half-dynamic representation, which is more appropriate to be associated with a substantive-related part of the sentence.

§ 7 . Within the gerund-participle correlation, the central point of our analysis will be the very lexico-grammatical identification of the two verbid forms in -ing in their reference to each other. Do they constitute two different verbids, or do they present one and the same form with a somewhat broader range of functions than either of the two taken separately?

The ground for raising this problem is quite substantial, since the outer structure of the two elements of the verbal system is abso­lutely identical: they are outwardly the same when viewed in isola­tion. It is not by chance that in the American linguistic tradition which can be traced back to the school of Descriptive Linguistics the two forms are recognized as one integral V-ing.

In treating the ing-forms as constituting one integral verbid en­tity, opposed, on the one hand, to the infinitive (V-to ), on the other hand, to the past participle (V-en), appeal is naturally made to the alternating use of the possessive and the common-objective nounal element in the role of the subject of the ing- form (mostly observed in various object positions of the sentence). Cf.

I felt annoyed at his failing to see my point at once. ↔ I felt annoyed at him failing to see my point at once. He was not, how­ever, averse to Elaine Fortescue's entertaining the hypothesis. ↔ He was not, however, averse to Elaine Fortescue entertaining the hy­pothesis.

This use presents a case known in linguistics as "half-gerund". So, in terms of the general ing- form problem, we have to choose between the two possible interpretations of the half-gerund: either as an actually intermediary form with double features, whose linguistic semi-status is truly reflected in its conventional name, or as an ele­ment of a non-existent categorial specification, i.e. just another vari­ant of the same indiscriminate V-ing.

In this connection, the reasoning of those who support the idea of the integral V-ing form can roughly be presented thus: if the two uses of V-ing are functionally identical, and if the "half-gerund" V-ing occurs with approximately the same frequency as the "full-gerund" V-ing, both forms presenting an ordinary feature of an ordinary En­glish text, then there is no point in discriminating the "participle" V-ing and the "gerund" V-ing.

In compliance with the general principle of approach to any set of elements forming a categorial or functional continuum, let us first consider the correlation between the polar elements of the contin­uum, i.e. the correlation between the pure present participle and the pure gerund, setting aside the half-gerund for a further discussion.

The comparative evaluations of the actually different uses of the ing- forms cannot fail to show their distinct categorial differentiation: one range of uses is definitely noun-related, definitely of process-sub­stance signification; the other range of uses is definitely adjective-ad­verb-related, definitely of process-quality signification. This differenti­ation can easily be illustrated by specialized gerund-testing and par­ticiple-testing, as well as by careful textual observations of the forms.

The gerund-testing, partly employed while giving a general outline of the gerund, includes the noun-substitution procedure backed by the question-procedure. Cf:.

My chance of getting, or achieving, anything that I long for will always be gravely reduced by the interminable existence of that block. → My chance of what? → My chance of success.

He insisted on giving us some coconuts. → What did he insist on ? → He insisted on our acceptance of the gift.

All his relatives somehow disapproved of his writing poetry. →What did all his relatives disapprove of →His relatives disapproved of his poetical work.

The other no less convincing evidence of the nounal featuring of the form in question is its natural occurrence in coordinative con­nections with the noun. Cf:.

I didn't stop to think of an answer; it came immediately off my tongue without any pause or planning. Your husband isn't ill, no. What he does need is relaxation and simply cheering a bit, if you know what I mean. He carried out rigorously all the precepts con­cerning food, bathing, meditation and so on of the orthodox Hindu.

The participle-testing, for its part, includes the adjective-adverb substitution procedure backed by the corresponding question-proce­dure, as well as some other analogies. Cf.:

He was in a terrifying condition. → In what kind of condition was he? → He was in an awful condition. (Adjective substitution procedure). Pursuing this course of free association, I suddenly re­membered a dinner date I once had with a distinguished colleague. → When did I suddenly remember a dinner date? → Then I sud­denly remembered a dinner date. (Adverb-substitution procedure). She sits up gasping and staring wild-eyed about her. → How does she sit up? → She sits up so . (Adverb-substitution procedure).

The participle also enters into easy coordinative and parallel as­sociations with qualitative and stative adjectives. Cf.:

That was a false, but convincing show of affection. The ears are large, protruding, with the heavy lobes of the sensualist. On the great bed are two figures, a sleeping woman, and a young man awake.

Very important in this respect will be analogies between the pre­sent participle qualitative function and the past participle qualitative function, since the separate categorial standing of the past participle remains unchallenged. Cf..

an unmailed letter - a coming letter; the fallen monarchy - the falling monarchy; thinned hair - thinning hair.

Of especial significance for the differential verbid identification purposes are the two different types of conversion the compared forms are subject to, namely, the nounal conversion of the gerund and, correspondingly, the adjectival conversion of the participle.

Compare the gerund-noun convcrsional pairs:

your airing the room - - to take an airing before going to bed; his breeding his son to the profession - - a person of unim­peachable breeding; their calling him a liar - - the youth's choice of a calling in life.

Compare the participle-adjective conversional pairs:

animals living in the jungle - - living languages; a man never daring an open argument - - a daring inventor; a car passing by - - a passing passion.

Having recourse to the evidence of the analogy type, as a counter-thesis against the attempted demonstration, one might point out cases of categorial ambiguity, where the category of the qualify­ing element remains open to either interpretation, such as the typing instructor, the boiling kettle, or the like. However, cases like these present a trivial homonymy which, being resolved, can itself be taken as evidence in favour of, not against, the two ing- forms differing from each other on the categorial lines. Cf.:

the typing instructor →the instructor of typing; the instructor who is typing; the boiling kettle →the kettle for boiling; the kettle that is boiling

At this point, the analysis of the cases presenting the dear-cut gerund versus present participle difference can be considered as ful­filled. The two ing- forms in question are shown as possessing categorially differential properties establishing them as two different ver­bids in the system of the English verb.

And this casts a light on the categorial nature of the half-gerund, since it is essentially based on the positional verbid neutralization.As a matter of fact, let us examine the following examples:

You may count on my doing all that is necessary on such occa­sions. - - You may count on me doing all that is necessary on such occasions.

The possessive subject of the ing- form in the first of the two sentences is clearly disclosed as a structural adjunct of a nounal collocation. But the objective subject of the ing- form in the second sentence, by virtue of its morphological constitution, cannot be asso­ciated with a noun: this would contradict the established regularities of the categorial compatibility. The casal-type government (direct, or representative-pronominal) in the collocation being lost (or, more precisely, being non-existent), the ing- formof the collocation can, only be understood as a participle. This interpretation is strongly supported by comparing half-gerund constructions with clear-cut par­ticipial constructions governed by perception verbs:

To think of him turning sides! - - To see him turning sides! I don't like Mrs. Tomson complaining of her loneliness. - - I can't listen to Mrs. Tomson complaining of her loneliness. Did you ever hear of a girl playing a trombone? - - Did you ever hear a girl playing a trombone?

On the other hand, the position of the participle in the colloca­tion is syntactically peculiar, since semantic accent in such construc­tions is made on the fact or event described, i.e. on the situational content of it, with the processual substance as its core. This can be demonstrated by question-tests:

(The first half-gerund construction in the above series) ↔ To think of what in connection with him? (The second half-gerund con­struction) ↔ What don't you like about Mrs. Tomson? (The third half-gerund construction) ↔ Which accomplishment of a girl presents a surprise for the speaker?

Hence, the verbid under examination is rather to be interpreted as a transferred participle, or a gerundial participle, the latter term seeming to relevantly disclose the essence of the nature of this form; though the existing name "half-gerund" is as good as any other, provided the true character of the denoted element of the system is understood.

Our final remark in connection with the undertaken observation will be addressed to linguists who, while recognizing the categorial difference between the gerund and the present participle, will be in­clined to analyse the half-gerund (the gerundial participle) on exactly the same basis as the full gerund, refusing to draw a demarcation line between the latter two forms and simply ascribing the occur­rence of the common case subject in this construction to the limited use of the possessive case in modern English in general. As regards this interpretation, we should like to say that an appeal to the lim­ited sphere of the English noun possessive in an attempt to prove the wholly gerundial character of the intermediary construction in question can hardly be considered of any serious consequence. True, a vast proportion of English nouns do not admit of the possessive case form, or, if they do, their possessive in the construction would create contextual ambiguity, or else some sort of stylistic ineptitude. Cf.:

The headlines bore a flaring announcement of the strike being called off by the Amalgamated Union. (No normal possessive with the noun strike), I can't fancy their daughter entering a University college. (Ambiguity in the oral possessive: daughters-daughters'); They were surprised at the head of the family rejecting the services of the old servant. (Evading the undesirable shift of the possessive particle -'s from the head-noun to its adjunct); The notion of this woman who had had the world at her feet paying a man half a dollar to dance with her filled me with shame. (Semantic and stylis­tic incongruity of the clause possessive with the statement).

However, these facts are but facts in themselves, since they only present instances when a complete gerundial construction for this or that reason either cannot exist at all, or else should be avoided on diverse reasons of usage. So, the quoted instances of gerundial par­ticiple phrases are not more demonstrative of the thesis in question than, say, the attributive uses of nouns in the common form (e.g. the inquisitor judgement, the Shakespeare Fund, a Thompson way of refusing, etc.) would be demonstrative of the possessive case "tendency" to coincide with the bare stem of the noun: the absence of the possessive nounal form as such cannot be taken to testify that the "possessive case" may exist without its feature sign.

CHAPTER XII

FINITE VERB: INTRODUCTION

§ 1 . The finite forms of the verb express the processual rela­tions of substances and phenomena making up the situation reflected in the sentence. These forms are associated with one another in an extremely complex and intricate system. The peculiar aspect of the complexity of this system lies in the fact that, as we have stated before, the finite verb is directly connected with the structure of the sentence as a whole. Indeed, the finite verb, through the working of its categories, is immediately related to such sentence-constitutive factors as morphological forms of predication, communication pur­poses, subjective modality, subject-object relation, gradation of proba­bilities, and quite a few other factors of no lesser importance.

As has been mentioned elsewhere, the complicated character of the system in question has given rise to a lot of controversies about the structural formation of the finite verb categories, as well as the bases of their functional semantics. It would be not an exaggeration to say that each fundamental type of grammatical expression capable of being approached in terms of generalized categories in the domain of the finite verb has created a subject for a scholarly dispute. For instance, taking as an example the sphere of the categorial person and number of the verb, we are faced with the argument among grammarians about the existence or non-existence of the verbal-pronominal forms of these categories. In connection with the study of the verbal expression of time and aspect, the great controversy is going on as to the temporal or aspective nature of the verbal forms of the indefinite, continuous, perfect, and perfect-continuous series. Grammatical expression of the future tense in English is stated by some scholars as a matter-of-fact truth, while other linguists are eagerly negating any possibility of its existence as an element of grammar. The verbal voice invites its investigators to exchange mu­tually opposing views regarding both the content and the number of its forms. The problem of the subjunctive mood may justly be called one of the most vexed in the theory of grammar: the exposition of its structural properties, its inner divisions, as well as its correlation with the indicative mood vary literally from one linguistic author to another.

On the face of it, one might get an impression that the mor­phological study of the English finite verb has amounted to inter­minable aimless exchange of arguments, ceaseless advances of op­posing "points of view", the actual aim of which has nothing to do with the practical application of linguistic theory to life. However, the fallacy of such an impression should be brought to light immediately and uncompromisingly.

As a matter of fact, it is the verb system that, of all the spheres of morphology, has come under the most intensive and fruitful anal­ysis undertaken by contemporary linguistics. In the course of these studies the oppositional nature of the categorial structure of the verb was disclosed and explicitly formulated; the paradigmatic system of the expression of verbal functional semantics was described compe­tently, though in varying technical terms, and the correlation of form and meaning in the composition of functionally relevant parts of this system was demonstrated explicitly on the copious material gathered.

Theoretical discussions have not ceased, nor subsided. On the contrary, they continue and develop, though on an ever more solid scientific foundation; and the cumulative descriptions of the English verb provide now an integral picture of its nature which the gram­matical theory has never possessed before. Indeed, it is due to this advanced types of study that the structural and semantic patterning of verbal constructions successfully applied to teaching practices on all the stages of tuition has achieved so wide a scope.

§ 2 . The following presentation of the categorial system of the English verb is based on oppositional criteria worked out in the course of grammatical studies of language by scholars of different countries. We do not propose to develop a description in which the many points of discussion would receive an exposition in terms of anything like detailed analysis. Our aim will rather be only to demonstrate some general principles of approach - such principles as would stimulate the student's desire to see into the inner meaningful workings of any grammatical construction which are more often than not hidden under the outer connections of its textual elements; such principles as would develop the student's ability to rely on his own resources when coming across concrete dubious cases of grammatical structure and use; such principles as, finally, would provide the stu­dent with a competence enabling him to bring his personal efforts of grammatical understanding to relevant correlation with the recognized theories, steering open-eyed among the differences of expert opinion.

The categorial spheres to be considered in this book are known from every topical description of English grammar. They include the systems of expressing verbal person, number, time, aspect, voice, and mood. But the identification and the distribution of the actual gram­matical categories of the verb recognized in our survey will not nec­essarily coincide with the given enumeration, which will be exposed and defended with the presentation of each particular category that is to come under study.

CHAPTER XIII

VERB: PERSON AND NUMBER

§ 1 . The categories of person and number are closely connected with each other. Their ediate connection is conditioned by the two factors: first, by them situational semantics, referring the process denoted by the verb to the subject of the situation, i.e. to its central substance (which exists in inseparable unity of "quality" reflected in the personal denotation, and "quantity" reflected in the numerical denotation); second, by their direct and immediate relation to the syntactic unit expressing the subject as the functional part of the sentence.

Both categories are different in principle from the other cate­gories of the finite verb, in so far as they do not convey any inher­ently "verbal" semantics, any constituents of meaning realized and confined strictly within the boundaries of the verbal lexeme. The nature of both of them is purely "reflective" (see Ch. Ill, § 5).

Indeed, the process itself, by its inner quality and logical status, cannot be "person-setting" in any consistent sense, the same as it cannot be either "singular" or "plural"; and this stands in contrast with the other properties of the process, such as its development in time, its being momentary or repeated, its being completed or in-completed, etc. Thus, both the personal and numerical semantics, though categorially expressed by the verb, cannot be characterized as process-relational, similar to the other aspects of the verbal categorial semantics. These aspects of semantics are to be understood only as substance-relational, reflected in the verb from the interpretation and grammatical featuring of the subject.

§ 2 . Approached from the strictly morphemic angle, the analysis of the verbal person and number leads the grammarian to the statement of the following converging and diverging features of their forms.

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.

In the present tense the expression of the category of person is divided into three peculiar subsystems.

The first subsystem includes the modal verbs that have no per­sonal inflexions: can, may, must, shall, will, ought, need, dare. So, in the formal sense, the category of person is wholly neutralized with these verbs, or, in plainer words, it is left unexpressed.

The second subsystem is made up by the unique verbal lexeme be. The expression of person by this lexeme is the direct opposite to its expression by modal verbs: if the latter do not convey the indi­cation of person in any morphemic sense at all, the verb be has three different suppletive personal forms, namely: am for the first person singular, is for the third person singular, and are as a feature marking the finite form negatively: neither the first, nor the third person singular. It cannot be taken for the specific positive mark of the second person for the simple reason that it coincides with the plural all-person (equal to none-person) marking.

The third subsystem presents just the regular, normal expression of person with the remaining multitude of the English verbs, with each morphemic variety of them. From the formal point of view, this subsystem occupies the medial position between the first two: if the verb be is at least two-personal, the normal personal type of the verb conjugation is one-personal. Indeed, the personal mark is con­fined here to the third person singular -(e)s (-z, -s, -iz], the other two persons (the first and the second) remaining unmarked, e.g. comes- come, blows - blow, stops - stop, chooses - choose.

As is known, alongside this universal system of three sets of personal verb forms, modern English possesses another system of 'person-conjugation characterizing elevated modes of speech (solemn addresses, sermons, poetry, etc.) and stamped with a flavour of archaism. The archaic person-conjugation has one extra feature in comparison with the common conjugation, namely, a special inflexion .for the second person singular. The three described subsystems of the personal verb forms receive the following featuring:

The modal person-conjugation is distinguished by one morphemic mark, namely, the second person: canst, may(e)st, wilt, shalt, shouldst, wouldst, ought(e)st, need(e)st, durst.

The personal be -conjugation is complete in three explicitly marked forms, having a separate suppletive presentation for each separate person: am, art, is.

The archaic person-conjugation of the rest of the verbs, though richer than the common system of person forms, still occupies the medial position between the modal and bе -conjugation. Two of the three of its forms, the third and second persons, are positively marked, while the first person remains unmarked, e.g. comes -comest - come, blows - blowest - blow, stops - stoppest -stop, chooses - choosest - choose.

As regards the future tense, the person finds here quite another mode of expression. The features distinguishing it from the present-tense person conjugation are, first, that it marks not the third, but the first person in distinction to the remaining two; and second, that it includes in its sphere also the plural. The very principle of the person featuring is again very peculiar in the future tense as com­pared with the present tense, consisting not in morphemic inflexion, nor even in the simple choice of person-identifying auxiliaries, but in the oppositional use of shall-will specifically marking the first per­son (expressing, respectively, voluntary and non-voluntary future), which is contrasted against the oppositional use of will-shall specifi­cally marking the second and third persons together (expressing, re­spectively, mere future and modal future). These distinctions, which will be described at more length further on, are characteristic only ofBritish English.

A trace of person distinction is presented in the past tense with the archaic form of the second person singular. The form is used but very occasionally, still it goes with the pronoun thou, being obli­gatory with it. Here is an example of its individualizing occurrence taken from E. Hemingway:

Thyself and thy horses. Until thou hadst horses thou wert with us. Now thou art another capitalist more.

Thus, the peculiarity of the archaic past tense person-conjugation is that its only marked form is not the third person as in the pre­sent tense, nor the first person as in the British future tense, but the second person. This is what might be called "little whims of grammar"!

§ 3 . Passing on to the expression of grammatical number by the English finite verb, we are faced with the interesting fact that, from the formally morphemic point of view, it 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. But even with this verb the featuring cannot be called quite explicit, since the opposition of the category consists in the un­marked plural form for all the persons being contrasted against the marked singular form for each separate person, each singular person thereby being distinguished by its own, specific form. It means that the expressions of person and number by the archaic conjugation of be in terms of the lexeme as a whole are formally not strictly sepa­rated from each other, each singular mark conveying at once a dou­ble grammatical sense, both of person and number. Cf:. am-are; art - are; was (the first and the third persons, i.e. non-second per­son)-were; wast (second person)-were.

In the common conjugation of be, the blending of the person and number forms is more profound, since the suppletive are, the same as its past tense counterpart were, not being confined to the plural sphere, penetrate the singular sphere, namely, the expression of the second person (which actually becomes non-expression because of the formal coincidence).

As for the rest of the verbs, the blending of the morphemic ex­pression of the two categories is complete, for the only explicit mor­phemic opposition in the integral categorial sphere of person and number is reduced with these verbs to the third person singular (present tense, indicative mood) being contrasted against the un­marked finite form of the verb.

§ 4 . The treatment of the analysed categories on a formal basis, though fairly consistent in the technical sense, is, however, lacking an explicit functional appraisal. To fill the gap, we must take into due account not only the meaningful aspect of the described verbal forms in terms of their reference to the person-number forms of the sub­ject, but also the functional content of the subject-substantival cate­gories of person and number themselves.

The semantic core of the substantival (or pronominal, for that matter) category of person is understood nowadays in terms of deic­tic, or indicative signification.

The deictic function of lingual units, which has come under careful linguistic investigation of late, consists not in their expressing self-dependent and self-sufficient elements of meaning, but in pointing out entities of reality in their spatial and temporal relation to the participants of speech communication. In this light, the semantic content of the first person is the indication of the person who is speaking, but such an indication as is effected by no other individual than himself. This self-indicative role is performed lexically by the personal pronoun. The semantic content of the second person is the indication of the individual who is listening to the first person speaking - but again such an indication as viewed and effected by the speaker. This listener-indicative function is performed by the personal pronoun you. Now, the semantic content of the third person is quite different from that of either the first or second person. Whereas the latter two express the immediate participants of the communication, the third person indicates all the other entities of reality, i.e. beings, things, and phenomena not immediately included in the communica­tive situation, though also as viewed by the speaker, at the moment of speech. This latter kind of indication may be effected in the two alternative ways. The first is a direct one, by using words of a full-meaning function, either proper, or common, with the corresponding specifications achieved with the help of indicators-determiners (articles and pronominal words of diverse linguistic standings). The second is an oblique one, by using the personal pronouns he, she, or it, de­pending on the gender properties of the referents. It is the second way, i.e. the personal pronominal indication of the third person ref-erent, that immediately answers the essence .of the grammatical cate­gory of person as such, i.e. the three-stage location of the referent in relation to the speaker: first, the speaker himself; second, his lis­tener; third, the non-participant of the communication, be it a human non-participant or otherwise.

As we see, the category of person taken as a whole is, as it were, inherently linguistic, the significative purpose of it being con­fined to indications centering around the production of speech.

Let us now appraise the category of number represented in the forms of personal pronouns, i.e. the lexemic units of language spe­cially destined to serve the speaker-listener lingual relation.

One does not have to make great exploratory efforts in order to realize that the grammatical number of the personal pronouns is ex­tremely peculiar, in no wise resembling the number of ordinary sub­stantive words. As a matter of fact, the number of a substantive normally expresses either the singularity or plurality of its referent ("one - more than one", or, in oppositional appraisal, "plural - non-plural"), the quality of the referents, as a rule, not being re-inter­preted with the change of the number (the many exceptions to this rule lie beyond the purpose of our present discussion). For instance, when speaking about a few powder-compacts, I have in mind just several pieces of them of absolutely the same nature. Or when re­ferring to a team of eleven football-players, I mean exactly so many members of this sporting group. With the personal pronouns, though, it is different, and the cardinal feature of the difference is the het­erogeneity of the plural personal pronominal meaning.

Indeed, the first person plural does not indicate the plurality of the "ego", it cannot mean several I’s. What it denotes in fact, is the speaker plus some other person or persons belonging, from the point of view of the utterance content, to the same background. The sec­ond person plural is essentially different from the first person plural in so far as it does not necessarily express, but is only capable of expressing similar semantics. Thus, it denotes either more than one listener (and this is the ordinary, general meaning of the plural as such, not represented in the first person); or, similar to the first person, one actual listener plus some other person or persons be­longing to the same background in the speaker's situational estima­tion; or, again specifically different from the first person, more than one actual listener plus some other person or persons of the corre­sponding interpretation. Turning to the third person plural, one might feel inclined to think that it would wholly coincide with the plural of an ordinary substantive name. On closer observation, however, we note a fundamental difference here also. Indeed, the plural of the third person is not the substantive plural proper, but the deictic, in­dicative, pronominal plural; it is expressed through the intermediary reference to the direct name of the denoted entity, and so may ei­ther be related to the singular he- pronoun, or the she- pronom, or the it - pronoun, or to any possible combination of them according to the nature of the plural object of denotation.

The only inference that can be made from the given description is that in the personal pronouns the expression of the plural is very much blended with the expression of the person, and what is taken to be three persons in the singular and plural, essentially presents a set of six different forms of blended person-number nature, each distinguished by its own individuality. Therefore, in the strictly cate-gorial light, we have here a system not of three, but of six persons.

Returning now to the analysed personal and numerical forms of the finite verb, the first conclusion to be drawn on the ground of the undertaken analysis is that their intermixed character, determined on the formal basis, answers in general the mixed character of the expression of person and number by the pronominal subject name of the predicative construction. The second conclusion to be drawn, however, is that the described formal person-number system of the finite verb is extremely and very singularly deficient. In fact, what in this connection the regular verb-form does express morphemically, is only the oppositionsal identification of the third person singular (to leave alone the particular British English mode of expressing the person in the future).

A question naturally arises: What is the actual relevance of this deficient system in terms of the English language? Can one point out any functional, rational significance of it, if taken by itself?

The answer to this question can evidently be only in the nega­tive: in no wise. There cannot be any functional relevance in such a system, if taken by itself. But in language it does not exist by itself.

§ 5. As soon as we take into consideration the functional side of the analysed forms, we discover at once that these forms exist in unity with the personal-numerical forms of the subject. This unity is of such a nature that the universal and true indicator of person and number of the subject of the verb will be the subject itself, however trivial this statement may sound. Essentially, though, there is not a trace of triviality in the formula, bearing in mind, on the one hand, the substantive character of the expressed categorial meanings, and on the other, the analytical basis of the English grammatical struc­ture. The combination pf the English finite verb with the subject is obligatory not only in the general syntactic sense, but also in the categorial sense of expressing the subject-person of the process.

An objection to this thesis can be made on the ground that in the text the actual occurrence of the subject with the finite verb is not always observed. Moreover, the absence of the subject in con­structions of living colloquial English is, in general, not an unusual feature. Observing textual materials, we may come across cases of subject-wanting predicative units used not only singly, as part of curt question-response exchange, but also in a continual chain of speech. Here is an example of a chain of this type taken from E. Heming­way:

"No one shot from cars," said Wilson coldly.

"I mean chase them from cars."

"Wouldn't ordinarily," Wilson said. "Seemed sporting enough to me though while we were doing it. Taking more chance driving that way across the plain full of holes and one thing and another than hunting on foot. Buffalo could have charged us each time we shot if he liked. Gave him every chance. Wouldn't mention it to any one though. It's illegal if that's what you mean."

However, examples like this cannot be taken for a disproof of the obligatory connection between the verb and its subject, because the corresponding subject-nouns, possibly together with some other accompanying words, are zeroed on certain syntactico-stylistical prin­ciples (brevity of expression in familiar style, concentration on the main informative parts of the communication, individual speech habits, etc.). Thus, the distinct zero-representation of the subject does give expression to the verbal person-number category even in condi­tions of an outwardly gaping void in place of the subject in this or that concrete syntactic construction used in the text. Due to the said zero-representation, we can easily reconstruct the implied person in­dications in the cited passage: "I wouldn't ordinarily"; "It seemed sporting enough"; "It was taking more chance driving that way"; "We gave him every chance"; "I wouldn't mention it to any one".

Quite naturally, the non-use of the subject in an actual utterance may occasionally lead to a referential misunderstanding or lack of understanding, and such situations are reflected in literary works by writers - observers of human speech as well as of human nature. A vivid illustration of this type of speech informative deficiency can be seen in one of K. Mansfield's stories:

"Fried or boiled?" asked the bold voice.

Fried or boiled? Josephine and Constantia were quite bewildered for the moment. They could hardly take it in.

"Fried or boiled what, Kate?" asked Josephine, trying to begin to concentrate.

Kate gave a loud sniff. "Fish."

"Well, why didn't you say so immediately?" Josephine re­proached her gently. "How could you expect us to understand, Kate? There are a great many things in this world, you know, which are fried or boiled."

The referential gap in Kate's utterance gave cause to her bewil­dered listener for a just reproach. But such lack of positive informa­tion in an utterance is not to be confused with the non-expression of a grammatical category. In this connection, the textual zeroing of the subject-pronoun may be likened to the textual zeroing of differ­ent constituents of classical analytical verb-forms, such as the contin­uous, the perfect, and others: no zeroing can deprive these formsoftheir grammatical, categorial status.

Now, it would be too strong to state that the combination of the subject-pronoun with the finite verb in English has become an ana­lytical person-number form in the full sense of this notion. The En­glish subject-pronoun, unlike the French conjoint subject-pronoun (e.g. Je vous remercie - "I thank you"; but: mon mari et moi - "my hus­band and I "), still retains its self-positional syntactic character, and the personal pronominal words, without a change of their nominative form, are used in various notional functions in sentences, building up different positional sentence-parts both in the role of head-word and in the role of adjunct-word. What we do see in this combination is, probably, a very specific semi-analytical expression of a reflective grammatical category through an obligatory syntagmatic relation of the two lexemes: the lexeme-reflector of the category and the lex­eme-originator of the category. This mode of grammatical expression can be called "junctional". Its opposite, i.e. the expression of the categorial content by means of a normal morphemic or word-mor­phemic procedure, can be, by way of contrast, tentatively called "native". Thus, from the point of view of the expression of a cate­gory either through the actual morphemic composition of a word, or through its being obligatorily referred to another word in a syntag­matic string, the corresponding grammatical forms will be classed into native and junctional. About the person-numerical forms of the finite verb in question we shall say that in the ordinary case of the third person singular present indicative, the person and number of the verb are expressed natively, while in most of the other paradig­matic locations they are expressed junctionally, through the obligatory reference of the verb-form to its subject.

This truth, not incapable of inviting an objection on the part of the learned, noteworthily has been exposed from time immemorial in practical grammar books, where the actual conjugation of the verb is commonly given in the form of pronoun-verb combinations: I read, you read, he reads, we read, you read, they read.

In point of fact, the English finite verb presented without its per­son-subject is grammatically almost meaningless. The presence of the two you's in practical tables of examples like the one above, in our opinion, is also justified by the inner structure of language. Indeed, since you is part of the person-number system, and not only of the person system, it should be but natural to take it in the two different, though mutually complementing interpretations - one for each of the two series of pronouns in question, i.e. the singular series and the plural series. In the light of this approach, the archaic form thou plus the verb should be understood as a specific variant of the sec­ond person singular with its respective stylistic connotations.

§ 6. The exposition of the verbal categories of person and num­ber presented here helps conveniently explain some special cases of the subject-verb categorial relations. The bulk of these cases have been treated by traditional grammar in terms of "agreement in sense", or "notional concord". We refer to the grammatical agree­ment of the verb not with the categorial form of the subject ex­pressed morphemically, but with the actual personal-numerical inter­pretation of the denoted referent.

Here belong, in the first place, combinations of the finite verb with collective nouns. According as they are meant by the speaker either to reflect the plural composition of the subject, or, on the contrary, to render its integral, single-unit quality, the verb is used either in the plural, or in the singular. E.g.:

The government were definitely against the bill introduced by the opposing liberal party. - - The newly appointed government has gathered for its first session.

In the second place, we see here predicative constructions whose subject is made imperatively plural by a numeral attribute. Still, the corresponding verb-form is used to treat it both ways: either as an ordinary plural which fulfils its function in immediate keeping with its factual plural referent, or as an integrating name, whose plural grammatical form and constituent composition give only a measure to the subject-matter of denotation. Cf .:

Three years have elapsed since we saw him last.- -Three years is a long time to wait.

In the third place, under the considered bearding come construc­tions whose subject is expressed by a coordinative group of nouns, the verb being given an option of treating it either as a plural or as a singular. E.g.:

My heart and soul belongs to this small nation in its desperate struggle for survival. - -My emotional self and rational self have been at variance about the attitude adopted by Jane.

The same rule of "agreement in sense" is operative in relative clauses, where the finite verb directly reflects the categories of the nounal antecedent of the clause-introductory relative pronoun-subject. Cf.:

I who am practically unacquainted with the formal theory of games can hardly suggest an alternative solution. - - Your words show the courage and the truth that I have always felt was in your heart

On the face of it, the cited examples might seem to testify to the analysed verbal categories being altogether self-sufficient, capable, as it were, even of "bossing" the subject as to its referential content. However, the inner regularities underlying the outer arrangement of grammatical connections are necessarily of a contrary nature: it is the subject that induces the verb, through its inflexion, however scanty it may be, to help express the substantival meaning not rep­resented in the immediate substantival form. That this is so and not otherwise, can be seen on examples where the subject seeks the needed formal assistance from other quarters than the verbal, in particular, having recourse to determiners. Cf .:

A full thirty miles was covered in less than half an hour; the car could be safely relied on.

Thus, the role of the verb in such and like cases comes at most to that of a grammatical intermediary.

From the functional point of view, the direct opposite to the shown categorial connections is represented by instances of dialectal and colloquial person-number neutralization. Cf:.

"Ah! It's a pity you never was trained to use your reason, miss" (B. Shaw). "He's been in his room all day," the landlady said downstairs. "I guess he don't feel well" (E. Hemingway). "What are they going to do to me?" Johnny said. - "Nothing," I said. "They ain't going to do nothing to you" (W. Saroyan).

Such and similar oppositional neutralizations of the surviving ver­bal person-number indicators, on their part, clearly emphasize the significance of the junctional aspect of the two inter-connected cate­gories reflected in the verbal lexeme from the substantival subject.

C H A P T E R XIV

VERB: TENSE

§ 1 . The immediate expression of grammatical time, or "tense" (Lat. tempus), is one of the typical functions of the finite verb. It is typical because the meaning of process, inherently embedded in the verbal lexeme, finds its complete realization only if presented in cer­tain time conditions. That is why the expression or non-expression of grammatical time, together with the expression or non-expression of grammatical mood in person-form presentation, constitutes the basis of the verbal category of finitude, i.e. the basis of the division of all the forms of the verb into finite and non-finite.

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.

The philosophical notion of time exposes it as the universal form of the continual consecutive change of phenomena. Time, as well as space are the basic forms of the existence of matter, they both are inalienable properties of reality and as such are absolutely indepen­dent of human perception. On the other hand, like other objective factors of the universe, time is reflected by man through his percep­tions and intellect, and finds its expression in his language.

It is but natural that time as the universal form of consecutive change of things should be appraised by the individual in reference to the moment of his immediate perception of the outward reality. This moment of immediate perception, or "present moment", which is continually shifting in time, and the linguistic content of which is the "moment of speech", serves as the demarcation line between the past and the future. All the lexical expressions of time, according as they refer or do not refer the denoted points or periods of time, di­rectly or obliquely, to this moment, are divided into "present-ori­ented", or "absolutive" expressions of time, and "non-present-ori­ented", "non-absolutive" expressions of time.

The absolutive time denotation, in compliance with the experience gained by man in the course of his cognitive activity, 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.

Thus, words and phrases like now, last week, in our century, in the past, in the years to come, very soon, yesterday, in a couple of days, giving a temporal characteristic to an event from the point of view of its orientation in reference to the present, moment, are absolutive names of time.

The non-absolutive time denotation does not characterize an event in terms of orientation forwards 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. Here belong such words and phrases as after that, before that, at one and the same time with, some time later, at an interval of a day or two, at different limes, etc.

The factual expression of time either directly states the astro­nomical time of an event, or else conveys this meaning in terms of historical landmarks. Under this heading should be listed such words and phrases as in the year 1066, during the time of the First World War, at the epoch of Napoleon, at the early period of civi­lization, etc.

In the context of real speech the above types of time naming are used in combination with one another, so that the denoted event receives many-sided and very exact characterization regarding its temporal status.

Of all the temporal meanings conveyed by such detailing lexical denotation of time, the finite verb generalizes in its categorial forms only the most abstract significations, taking them as dynamic charac­teristics of the reflected process. The fundamental divisions both of absolutive time and of non-absolutive relative time find in the verb a specific presentation, idiomatically different from one language to an­other. The form of this presentation is dependent, the same as with the expression of other grammatical meanings, on the concrete se­mantic features chosen by a language as a basis for the functional differentiation within the verb lexeme. And it is the verbal expression of abstract, grammatical time that forms the necessary background for the adverbial contextual time denotation in an utterance; without the verbal background serving as a universal temporal "polarizer" and "leader", this marking of time would be utterly inadequate.

Indeed, what informative content should the following passage convey with all its lexical indications of time (in the morning, in the afternoon, as usual, never, ever), if it were deprived of the general indications of time achieved through the forms of the verb - the unit of the lexicon which the German grammarians very significantly call "Zeitwort" - the "time-word":

My own birthday passed without ceremony. I worked as usual in the morning and in the afternoon, went for a walk in the solitary woods behind my house. I have never been able to discover what it is that gives these woods their mysterious attractiveness. They are like no woods I have ever known (S. Maugham).

In Modern English, the grammatical expression of verbal time, i.e. tense, is effected in two correlated stages. At the first stage, the process receives an absolutive time characteristic by means of op­posing the past tense to the present tense. The marked member of this opposition is the past form. At the second stage, the process re­ceives a non-absolutive relative time characteristic by means of op­posing the forms of the future tense to the forms of no future marking, Since the two stages of the verbal time denotation are ex­pressed separately, by their own oppositional forms, and, besides, have essentially different orientation characteristics (the first stage being absolutive, the second stage, relative), it stands to reason to recognize in the system of the English verb not one, but two tempo­ral categories. Both of them answer the question: "What is the tim­ing of the process?" But the first category, having the past tense as its strong member, expresses a direct retrospective evaluation of the time of the process, fixing the process either in the past or not in the past; the second category, whose strong member is the future tense, gives the timing of the process a prospective evaluation, fixing it either in the future (i.e. in the prospective posterior), or not in the future. As a result of the combined working of the two cate­gories, the time of the event reflected in the utterance finds its ade­quate location in the temporal context, showing all the distinctive properties of the lingual presentation of time mentioned above.

According to the oppositional marking of the two temporal cate­gories under analysis, we shall call the first of them the category of "primary time", and the second, the category of "prospective time", or, contractedly, "prospect".

§ 2 . The category of primary time, as has just been stated, pro­vides for the absolutive expression of the time of the process de­noted by the verb, i.e. such an expression of it as gives its evalua­tion, in the long run, in reference to the moment of speech. The formal sign of the opposition constituting this category is, with regu­lar verbs, the dental suffix -(e)d [-d, -t, -id], and with irregular verbs, phonemic interchanges of more or less individual specifications. The suffix marks the verbal form of the past time (the past tense), leaving the opposite form unmarked. Thus, the opposition is to be rendered by the formula "the past tense-the present tense", the latter member representing the non-past tense, according to the ac­cepted oppositional interpretation

The specific feature of the category of primary time is that it di­vides all the tense forms of the English verb into two temporal planes: the plane of the present and the plane of the past, which affects also the future forms. Very important in this respect is the structural nature of the expression of the category: the category of primary time is the only verbal category of immanent order which is expressed by inflexional forms. These inflexional forms of the past and present coexist in the same verb-entry of speech with the other, analytical modes of various categorial expression, including the future. Hence, the English verb acquires the two futures: on the one hand, the future of the present, i.e. as prospected from the present; on the other hand, the future of the past, i.e. as prospected from the past. The following example will be illustrative of the whole four-member correlation:

Jill returns from her driving class at five o'clock.- -At five Jill returned from her driving class. I know that Jill will return from her driving class at five o'clock. - -1 knew that at five Jill would return from her driving class.

An additional reason for identifying the verbal past-present time system as a separate grammatical category is provided by the fact that this system is specifically marked by the do -forms of the indefi­nite aspect with their various, but inherently correlated functions. These forms, found in the interrogative constructions (Does he be­lieve the whole story?), in the negative constructions (He doesn't be­lieve the story), in the elliptical response constructions and elsewhere, are confined only to the category of primary time, i.e. the verbal past and present, not coming into contact with the expression of the future.

§ 3 . The fact that the present tense is the unmarked member of the opposition explains a very wide range of its meanings exceeding by far the indication of the "moment of speech" chosen for the identification of primary temporality. Indeed, the present time may be understood as literally the moment of speaking, .the zero-point of all subjective estimation of time made by the speaker. The meaning of the present with this connotation will be conveyed by such phrases as at this very moment, or this instant, or exactly now, or some other phrase like that. But an utterance like "now while I am speaking" breaks the notion of the zero time proper, since the speaking process is not a momentary, but a durative event. Further­more, the present will still be the present if we relate it to such vast periods of time as this month, this year, in our epoch, in the present millennium, etc. The denoted stretch of time may be pro­longed by a collocation like that beyond any definite limit. Still fur­thermore, in utterances of general truths as, for instance, "Two plus two makes four", or "The sun is a star", or "Handsome is that handsome does", the idea of time as such is almost suppressed, the implication of constancy, unchangeability of the truth at all times being made prominent. The present tense as the verbal form of gen­eralized meaning covers all these denotations, showing the present time in relation to the process as inclusive of the moment of speech, incorporating this moment within its definite or indefinite stretch and opposed to the past time.

Thus, if we say, "Two plus two makes four", the linguistic im­plication of it is "always, and so at the moment of speech". If we say, "I never take his advice", we mean linguistically "at no time in terms of the current state of my attitude towards him, and so at the present moment". If we say, "In our millennium social formations change quicker than in the previous periods of man's history", the linguistic temporal content of it is "in our millennium, that is, in the millennium including the moment of speech". This meaning is the invariant of the present, developed from its categorial opposition to the past, and it penetrates the uses of the finite verb in all its forms, including the perfect, the future, the continuous.

Indeed, if the radio carries the news, "The two suspected ter­rorists have been taken into custody by the police", the implication of the moment of speech refers to the direct influence or after-ef­fects of the event announced. Similarly, the statement "You will be informed about the decision later in the day" describes the event, which, although it has not yet happened, is prospected into the fu­ture from the present, i.e. the prospection itself incorporates the moment of speech. As for the present continuous, its relevance for the present moment is self-evident.

Thus, the analysed meaning of the verbal present arises as a re­sult of its immediate contrast with the past form which shows the exclusion of the action from the plane of the present and so the ac­tion itself as capable of being perceived only in temporal retrospect. Again, this latter meaning of the disconnection from the present penetrates all the verbal forms of the past, including the perfect, the future, the continuous. Due to the marked character of the past ver­bal form, the said quality of its meaning does not require special demonstration.

Worthy of note, however, are, utterances where the meaning of' the past tense stands in contrast with the meaning of some adverbial phrase referring the event to the present moment. Cf.:

Today again I spoke to Mr. Jones on the matter, and again he failed to see the urgency of it.

The seeming linguistic paradox of such cases consists exactly in the fact that their two-type indications of time, one verbal-grammati­cal, and one adverbial-lexical, approach the same event from two op­posite angles. But there is nothing irrational here. As a matter of fact, the utterances present instances of two-plane temporal evalua­tion of the event described: the verb-form shows the process as past and gone, i.e. physically disconnected from the present; as, for the adverbial modifier, it presents the past event as a particular'happen­ing, belonging to a more general time situation which is stretched out up to the present moment inclusive, and possibly past the pre­sent moment into the future.

A case directly opposite to the one shown above is seen in the transpositional use of the present tense of the verb with the past adverbials, either included in the utterance as such, or else expressed in its contextual environment. E.g.:

Then he turned the corner, and what do you think happens next? He faces nobody eke 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.

§ 4. The combinations of the verbs shall and will with the infinitive have of late become subject of renewed discussion. The controversial point about them is whether these combinations really constitute, together with the forms of the past and present, the categorial expression of verbal tense, or are just modal phrases, whose expression of the future time does not differ in essence from the general future orientation of other combinations of modal verbs with the infinitive. The view that shall and will retain their modal mean­ings in all their uses was defended by such a recognized authority on English grammar of the older generation of the twentieth century linguists as O. Jespersen. In our times, quite a few scholars, among them the successors of Descriptive Linguistics, consider these verbs as part of the general set of modal verbs, "modal auxiliaries", ex­pressing the meanings of capability, probability, permission, obligation, and the like.

A well-grounded objection against the inclusion of the construc­tion shall/will + Infinitive in the tense system of the verb on the same basis as the forms of the present and past has been advanced by L. S. Barkhudarov [Бархударов, 1975, 126 ff.j. His objection con­sists in the demonstration of the double marking of this would-be tense form by one and the same category: the combinations in question can express at once both the future time and the past time (the form "future-in-the-past"), which hardly makes any sense in terms of a grammatical category. Indeed, the principle of the identifi­cation of any grammatical category demands that the forms of the category in normal use should be mutually exclusive. The category is constituted by the opposition of its forms, not by their co-position!

However, reconsidering the status of the construction shall/will + Infinitive in the light of oppositional approach, we see that far from comparing with the past-present verbal forms as the third member-form of the category of primary time it marks its own grammatical category, namely, that of prospective time (prospect). The meaningful contrast underlying the category of prospective time is between an after-action and a non-after-action. The after-action, or the "future", having its shall/will- feature, constitutes the marked member of the opposition.

The category of prospect is also temporal, in so far as it is im­mediately connected with the expression of processual time, like the category of primary time. But the semantic basis of the category of prospect is different in principle from that of the category of primary time: while the primary time is absolutive, i.e. present-oriented, the prospective time is purely relative; it means that the future form of the verb only shows that the denoted process is prospected as an after-action relative to some other action or state or event, the tim­ing of which marks the zero-level for it. The two times are pre­sented, as it were, in prospective coordination: one is shown as prospected for the future, the future being relative to the primary time, either present or past. As a result, the expression of the future receives the two mutually complementary manifestations: one mani­festation for the present time-plane of the verb, the other manifesta­tion for the past time-plane of the verb. In other words, the process of the verb is characterized by the category of prospect irrespective of its primary time characteristic, or rather, as an addition to this characteristic, and this is quite similar to all the other categories ca­pable of entering the sphere of verbal time, e.g. the category of de­velopment (continuous in opposition), the category of retrospective coordination (perfect in opposition), the category of voice (passive in opposition): the respective forms of all these categories also have the past and present versions, to which, in due course, are added the future and non-future versions. Consider the following examples:

(1) I was making a road and all the coolies struck. (2) None of us doubted in the least that Aunt Emma would soon be marvelling again at Eustace's challenging success. (3) Тhе next thing she wrote she sent to a magazine, and for many weeks worried about what would happen to it. (4) She did not protest, for she had given up the struggle. (5) Felix knew that they would have settled the dispute by the time he could be ready to have his say. (6) He was being watched, shadowed, chased by that despicable gang of hirelings. (7) But would little Johnny be 'being looked after properly? The nurse was so young and inexperienced!

The oppositional content of the exemplified cases of finite verb-forms will, in the chosen order of sequence, be presented as follows: the past non-future continuous non-perfect non-passive (1); the past future continuous non-perfect non-passive (2); the past future non-continuous non-perfect non-passive (3); the past non-future non-con­tinuous perfect non-passive (4); the past future non-continuous per­fect non-passive (5); the past non-future continuous non-perfect pas­sive (6); the past future continuous non-perfect passive (7)-the lat­ter form, not in practical use.

As we have already stated before, the future tenses reject the do -forms of the indefinite aspect, which are confined to the expres­sion of the present and past verbal times only. This fact serves as a supplementary ground for the identification of the expression of prospect as a separate grammatical category.

Of course, it would be an ill turn to grammar if one tried to introduce the above circumstantial terminology with all its pedantic strings of "non's" into the elementary teaching of language. The stringed categorial "non "-terms are apparently too redundant to be recommended for ordinary use even at an advanced level of linguis­tic training. What is achieved by this kind of terminology, however, is a comprehensive indication of the categorial status of verb-forms under analysis in a compact, terse presentation. Thus, whenever a presentation like that is called for, the terms will be quite in their place.

§ 5 . In analysing the English future tenses, the modal factor, naturally, should be thoroughly taken into consideration. A certain modal colouring of the meaning of the English future cannot be de­nied, especially in the verbal form of the first person. But then, as is widely known, the expression of the future in other languages is not disconnected from modal semantics either; and this is condi­tioned by the mere fact that the future action, as different from the present or past action, cannot be looked upon as a genuine feature of reality. Indeed, it is only foreseen, or anticipated, or planned, or desired, or otherwise prospected for the time to come. In this qual­ity, the Russian future tense does not differ in principle from the verbal future of other languages, including English. Suffice it to give a couple of examples chosen at random:

Я буду рассказывать тебе интересные истории. Расскажу о страшных кометах, о битве воздушных кораблей, о гибели прекрасной страны по ту сторону гор. Тебе не будет скучно любить меня (А. Толстой). Немедленно на берег. Найдешь ге­нерала Иолшина, скажешь: путь свободен. Пусть строит дорогу для артиллерии (Б. Васильев).

The future forms of the verbs in the first of the above Russian examples ciearly express promise (i.e. a future action conveyed as a promise); those in the second example render a command.

Moreover, in the system of the Russian tenses there is a spe­cialized modal form of analytical future expressing intention (the combination of the verb стать with the imperfective infinitive). E . g .: Что же вы теперь хотите делать?-Тебя это не касается, что я стану делать. Я план обдумываю (А. Толстой).

Within the framework of the universal meaningful features of the verbal future, the future of the English verb is highly specific in so far as its auxiliaries in their very immediate etymology are words of obligation and volition, and the survival of the respective connota­tions in them is backed by the inherent quality of the future as such. Still, on the whole, the English categorial future differs dis­tinctly from the modal constructions with the same predicator verbs.

§ 6 . In the clear-cut modal uses of the verbs shall and will the idea of the future either is not expressed at all, or else is only rendered by way of textual connotation, the central semantic accent be­ing laid on the expression of obligation, necessity, inevitability, promise, intention, desire. These meanings may be easily seen both on the examples of ready phraseological citation, and in genuine ev­eryday conversation exchanges. Cf .:

He who does not work neither shall he eat (phraseological cita­tion). "I want a nice hot curry, do you hear?" - "All right, Mr. Crackcnthorpe» you shall have it" (everyday speech). None are so deaf as those who will not hear (phraseological citation). Nobody's allowed to touch a thing-I won't have a woman near the place (everyday speech).

The modal nature of the shall/will + Infinitive combinations in the cited examples can be shown by means of equivalent substitu­tions:

... → He who does not work must not eat, either. ... → All right, Mr. Crackenthorpe, I promise to have it cooked. ... → None are so deaf as those who do not want to hear. ... → I intend not to allow a woman to come near the place.

Accounting for the modal meanings of the combinations under analysis, traditional grammar gives the following rules: shall + In­finitive with the first person, will + Infinitive with the second and third persons express pure future; the reverse combinations express modal meanings, the most typical of which are intention or desire for I will and promise or command on the part of the speaker for you shall, he shall. Both rules apply to refined British English. In American English will is described as expressing pure future with all the persons, shall as expressing modality.

However, the cited description, though distinguished by elegant simplicity, cannot be taken as fully agreeing with the existing lingual practice. The main feature of this description contradicted by practice is the British use of will with the first person without distinctly pro­nounced modal connotations (making due allowance for the general connection of the future tense with modality, of which we have spo­ken before). Cf .:

I will call for you and your young man at seven o'clock (J. Galsworthy). When we wake I will take him up and carry him back (R. Kipling). I will let you know on Wednesday what expenses have been necessary (A. Christie). If you wait there on Thursday evening between seven and eight I will come if I can (H.C. Merriman).

That the combinations of will with the infinitive in the above ex­amples do express the future time, admits of no dispute. Further­more, these combinations, seemingly, are charged with modal conno­tations in no higher degree than the corresponding combinations of shall with the infinitive. Cf:.

Haven't time; I shall miss my train (A. Bennett). I shall be happy to carry it to the House of Lords, if necessary (J. Galswor­thy). You never know what may happen. I shan't have a minute's peace (M. Dickens).

Granted our semantic intuitions about the exemplified uses are true, the question then arises: what is the real difference, if any, between the two British first person expressions of the future, one with shall, the other one with will Or are they actually just se­mantic doublets, i.e. units of complete synonymy, bound by the paradigmatic relation of free alternation?

A solution to this problem is to be found on the basis of syn­tactic distributional and transformational analysis backed by a consid­eration of the original meanings of both auxiliaries.

§ 7. Observing combinations with will in stylistically neutral collocations, as the first step of our study we note the adverbials of time used with this construction. The environmental expressions, as well as implications, of future time do testify that from this point of view there is no difference between will and shall, both of them equally conveying the idea of the future action expressed by the ad­joining infinitive.

As our next step of inferences, noting the types of the infinitive- environmental semantics of will in contrast to the contextual back­ground of shall, we state that the first person will- future expresses an action which is to be performed by the speaker for choice, of his own accord. But this meaning of free option does not at all imply that the speaker actually wishes to perform the action, or else that he is determined to perform it, possibly in defiance of some contrary force. The exposition of the action shows it as being not bound by any extraneous circumstances or by any special influence except the speaker's option; this is its exhaustive characteristic. In keeping with this, the form of the will -future in question may be tentatively called the "voluntary future".

On the other hand, comparing the environmental characteristics of shall with the corresponding environmental background of will, it is easy to see that, as different from will, the first person shall expresses a future process that will be realized without the will of the speaker, irrespective of his choice. In accordance with the exposed meaning, the shall- tormof the first person future should be referred to as the "non-voluntary", i.e. as the weak member of the corre-sponding opposition.

Further observations of the relevant textual data show that some verbs constituting a typical environment of the non-voluntary shall- future (i.e. verbs inherently alien to the expression of voluntary ac­tions) occur also with the voluntary will, but in a different meaning, namely, in the meaning of an active action the performance of which is freely chosen by the speaker. Cf.:

Your arrival cannot have been announced to his Majesty. I will see about it (B. Shaw).

In the given example the verb see has the active meaning of en­suring something, of intentionally arranging matters connected with something, etc.

Likewise, a number of verbs of the voluntary will -environmental features (i.e. verbs presupposing the actor's free will in performing the action) combine also with the non-voluntary shall, but in the meaning of an action that will take place irrespective of the will of the speaker. Cf.:

I'm very sorry, madam, but I'm going to faint. I shall go off, madam, if I don't have something (K. Mansfield).

Thus, the would-be same verbs are in fact either homonyms, or else lexico-semantic variants of the corresponding lexemes of the maximally differing characteristics.

At the final stage of our study the disclosed characteristics of the two first-person futures are checked on the lines of transformational analysis. The method will consist not in free structural manipulations with the analysed constructions, but in the textual search for the re­spective changes of the auxiliaries depending on the changes in the infinitival environments.

Applying these procedures to the texts, we note that when the construction of the voluntary will -future is expanded (complicated) by a syntactic part re-modelling the whole collocation into one express­ing an involuntary action, the auxiliary will is automatically replaced by shall. In particular, it happens when the expanding elements con­vey the meaning of supposition or uncertainty. Cf.:

Give me a goddess's work to do; and I will do it (B. Shaw). → I don't know what I shall do with Barbara (B. Shaw). Oh, very well, very well: I will write another prescription (B. Shaw). → I shall perhaps write to your mother (K. Mansfield).

Thus, we conclude that within the system of the English future tense a peculiar minor category is expressed which affects only the forms of the first person. The category is constituted by the opposi­tion of the forms will + Infinitive and shall + Infinitive expressing, respectively, the voluntary future and the non-voluntary future. Ac­cordingly, this category may tentatively be called the "category of futurity option".

The future in the second and third persons, formed by the indis­criminate auxiliary will, does not express this category, which is de­pendent on the semantics of the persons: normally it would be irrel­evant to indicate in an obligatory way the aspect of futurity option otherwise than with the first person, i.e. the person of self.

This category is neutralized in the contracted form -'II, which is of necessity indifferent to the expression of futurity option. As is known, the traditional analysis of the contracted future states that -'II stands for will, not for shall. However, this view is not supported by textual data. Indeed, bearing in mind the results of our study, it is easy to demonstrate that the contracted forms of the future may be traced both to will and to shall. Cf.:

I'll marry you then, Archie, if you really want it (M. Dickens). → I will marry you. I'll have to think about it (M. Dickens). → I shall have to think about it.

From the evidence afforded by the historical studies of the lan­guage we know that the English contracted form of the future -'ll has actually originated from the auxiliary will. So, in Modern English an interesting process of redistribution of the future forms has taken place, based apparently on the cbntamination will → 'll ← shall. As a result, the form -'ll in the first person expresses not the same "pure" future as is expressed by the indiscriminate will in the sec­ond and third persons.

The described system of the British future is by far more com­plicated than the expression of the future tense in the other national variants of English, in particular, in American English, where the future form of the first person is functionally equal with the other persons. In British English a possible tendency to a similar levelled expression of the future is actively counteracted by the two structural factors. The first is the existence of the two functionally differing contractions of the future auxiliaries in the negative form, i.e. shan't and won't, which imperatively support the survival of shall in the first person against the levelled positive (affirmative) contraction -'ll. The second is the use of the future tense in interrogative sentences, where with the first person only shall is normally used. Indeed, it is quite natural that a genuine question directed by the speaker to himself, i.e. a question showing doubt or speculation, is to be asked about an action of non-willful involuntary order, and not otherwise.Cf.

What shall we be shown next? Shall I be able to master short­hand professionally? The question was, should I see Beatrice again before her departure?

The semantics of the first person futurity question is such that even the infinitives of essentially volition-governed actions are trans­ferred here to the plane of non-volition, subordinating themselves to the general implication of doubt, hesitation, uncertainty. Cf.:

What shall I answer to an offer like that? How shall we tackle the matter if we are left to rely on our own judgment?

Thus, the vitality of the discriminate shall/win future, characteris­tic of careful English speech, is supported by logically vindicated intra-lingual factors. Moreover, the whole system of Modem British future with its mobile inter-action of the two auxiliaries is a product of recent language development, not a relict of the older periods of its history. It is this subtly regulated and still unfinished system that gave cause to H.W. Fowler for his significant statement: "... of the English of the English shall and will are the shibboleth."*

* Fowler H.W. A Dictionary of Modem English Usage. Ldn., 1941, p. 729.

§ 8. Apart from shall/will + Infinitive construction, there is an­other construction in English which has a potent appeal for being analysed within the framework of the general problem of the future tense. This is the combination of the predicator be going with the infinitive. Indeed, the high frequency occurrence of this construction in contexts conveying the idea of an immediate future action cannot but draw a very dose attention on the part of a linguistic observer.

The combination may denote a sheer intention (either the speaker's or some other person's) to perform the action expressed by the infinitive, thus entering into the vast set of "classical" modal constructions. E.g:.

I am going to ask you a few more questions about the mysteri­ous disappearance of the document, Mr. Gregg. He looked across at my desk and I thought for a moment he was going to give me the treatment, too.

But these simple modal uses of be going are countered by cases where the direct meaning of intention rendered by the predicator stands in contradiction with its environmental implications and is subdued by them. Cf.:

You are trying to frighten me. But you are not going to frighten me any more (L. Hellman). I did not know how I was going to get out of the room. (D. du Maurier).

Moreover, the construction, despite its primary meaning of inten­tion, presupposing a human subject, is not infrequently used with non-human subjects and even in impersonal sentences. Cf.:

She knew what she was doing, and she was sure it was going to be worth doing (W. Saroyan). There's going to be a contest over Ezra Grolley’s estate (E. Gardner).

Because of these properties it would appear tempting to class the construction in question as a specific tense form, namely, the tense form of "immediate future", analogous to the French futur immediat (e.g. Le spectacle va commencer- The show is going to begin).

Still, on closer consideration, we notice that the non-intention uses of the predicator be going are not indifferent stylistically. Far from being neutral, they more often than not display emotional colouring mixed with semantic connotations of oblique modality.

For instance, when the girl from the first of the above examples appreciates something as "going to be worth doing", she is express­ing her assurance of its being so. When one labels the rain as "never going to stop", one clearly expresses one's annoyance at the bad state of the weather. When a future event is introduced by the formula "there to be going to be", as is the case in the second of the cited examples, the speaker clearly implies his foresight of it, or his anticipation of it, or, possibly, a warning to beware of it, or else some other modal connotation of a like nature. Thus, on the whole, the non-intention uses of the construction be going + Infinitive can­not be rationally divided into modal and non-modal, on the analogy of the construction shall/will + Infinitive. Its broader combinability is based on semantic transposition and can be likened to broader uses of the modal collocation be about, also of basically intention seman­tics.

§ 9 . The oppositional basis of the category of prospective time is neutralized in certain uses, in keeping with the general regularities of oppositional reductions. The process of neutralization is connected with the shifting of the forms of primary time (present and past) from the sphere of absolute tenses into the sphere of relative tenses.

One of the typical cases of the neutralization in question consists in using a non-future temporal form to express a future action which is to take place according to some plan or arrangement. Cf:.

The government meets in emergency session today over the question of continued violations of the cease-fire. I hear your sister is soon arriving from Paris? Naturally I would like to know when he's coming. Etc.

This case of oppositional reduction is optional, the equivalent re­construction of the correlated member of the opposition is nearly al­ways possible (with the respective changes of connotations and style). Cf.:

... → The government will meet in emergency session. ... → Your sister will soon arrive from Paris? ... → When will he be coming?

Another type of neutralization of the prospective time opposition is observed in modal verbs and modal word combinations. The basic peculiarity of these units bearing on the expression of time is, that the prospective implication is inherently in-built in their semantics, which reflects not the action as such, but the attitude towards the action expressed by the infinitive. For that reason, the present verb-form of these units actually renders the idea of the future (and, re­spectively, the past verb-form, the idea of the future-in-the-past). Cf:.

There's no saying what may happen next. At any rate, the woman was sure to come later in the day. But you have to present the report before Sunday, there's no alternative.

Sometimes the explicit expression of the future is necessary even with modal collocations. To make up for the lacking catcgorial forms, special modal substitutes have been developed in language, some of which have received the status of suppletive units (see above, Ch. III). Cf:.

But do not make plans with David. You will not be able to carry them out. Things will have to go one way or the other.

Alongside the above and very different from them, there is still another typical case of neutralization of the analysed categorial oppo­sition, which is strictly obligatory. It occurs in clauses of time and condition whose verb-predicate expresses a future action. Cf:.

If things turn out as has been arranged, the triumph will be all ours. I repeated my request to notify me at once whenever the messenger arrived.

The latter type of neutralization is syntactically conditioned. In point of fact, the neutralization consists here in the primary tenses shifting from the sphere of absolutive time into the sphere of rela­tive time, since they become dependent not on their immediate ori­entation towards the moment of speech, but on the relation to an­other time level, namely, the time level presented in the governing clause of the corresponding complex sentence.

This kind of neutralizing relative use of absolutive tense forms occupies a restricted position in the integral tense system of English. In Russian, the syntactic relative use of tenses is, on the contrary, widely spread. In particular, this refers to the presentation of re­ported speech in the plane of the past, where the Russian present tense is changed into the tense of simultaneity, the past tense is changed into the tense of priority, and the future tense is changed into the tense of prospected posteriority. Cf :.

(1) Он сказал, что изучает немецкий язык. (2) Он сказал, что изучал немецкий язык. (3) Он сказал, что будет изучать немецкий язык.

In English, the primary tenses in similar syntactic conditions re­tain their absolutive nature and are used in keeping with their direct, unchangeable meanings. Compare the respective translations of the examples cited above:

(1) He said that he was learning German (then). (2) He said that he had learned German (before). (3) He said that he would learn German (in the time to come).

It does not follow from this that the rule of sequence of tenses in English complex sentences formulated by traditional grammar should be rejected as false. Sequence of tenses is an important fea­ture of all narration, for, depending on the continual consecutive course of actual events in reality, they are presented in the text in definite successions ordered against a common general background. However, what should be stressed here is that the tense-shift in­volved in the translation of the present-plane direct information into the past-plane reported information is not a formal, but essentially a meaningful procedure.

C H A P T E R XV

VERB: ASPECT

§ 1 . The aspective meaning of the verb, as different from its temporal meaning, reflects the inherent mode of the realization of the process irrespective of its timing.

As we have already seen, the aspective meaning can be in-built in the semantic structure of the verb, forming an invariable, deriva­tive category. In English, the various lexical aspective meanings have been generalized by the verb in its subclass division into limitive and unlimitive sets. On the whole, this division is loose, the demarcation line between the sets is easily trespassed both ways. In spite of their want of rigour, however, the aspective verbal subclasses are gram­matically relevant in so far as they are not indifferent to the choice of the aspective grammatical forms of the verb. In Russian, the as­pective division of verbs into perfective and imperfective is, on the contrary, very strict. Although the Russian category of aspect is derivative, it presents one of the most typical features of the gram­matical structure of the verb, governing its tense system both for­mally and semantically.

On the other hand, the aspective meaning can also be repre­sented in variable grammatical categories. Aspective grammatical change is wholly alien to the Russian language, but it forms one of the basic features of the categorial structure of the English verb.

Two systems of verbal forms, in the past grammatical tradition analysed under the indiscriminate heading of the "temporal inflex­ion", i.e. synthetic inflexion proper and analytical composition as its equivalent, should be evaluated in this light; the continuous forms and the perfect forms.

The aspective or non-aspective identification of the forms in question will, in the long run, be dependent on whether or not they express the direct, immediate time of the action denoted by the verb, since a general connection between the aspective and temporal verbal semantics is indisputable.

The continuous verbal forms analysed on the principles of oppo-sitional approach admit of only one interpretation, and that is aspec­tive. The continuous forms are aspective because, reflecting the in­herent character of the process named by the verb, they do not, and cannot, denote the timing of the process. The opposition constituting the corresponding category is effected between the continuous and the non-continuous, (indefinite) verbal forms. The categorial meaning discloses the nature of development of the verbal action, on which ground the suggested name for the category as a whole will be "development". As is the case with the other categories, its expres­sion is combined with other categorial expressions in one and the same verb-form, involving also the category that features the perfect. Thus, to be consistent in our judgments, we must identify, within the framework of the manifestations of the category of development, not only the perfect continuous forms, but also the perfect indefinite forms (i.e. non-continuous).

The perfect, as different from the continuous, does reflect a kind of timing, though in a purely relative way. Namely, it coordinates two times, locating one of them in retrospect forwards the other. Should the grammatical meaning of the perfect have been exhausted by this function, it ought to have been placed into one and the same categorial system with the future, forming the integral category of time coordination (correspondingly, prospective and retrospective). In reality, though, it cannot be done, because the perfect expresses not only time in relative retrospect, but also the very connection of a prior process with a time-limit reflected in a subsequent event. Thus, the perfect forms of the verb display a mixed, intermediary character, which places them apart both from the relative posterior tense and the aspective development. The true nature of the perfect is temporal aspect reflected in its own opposition, which cannot be reduced to any other opposition of the otherwise recognized verbal categories. The suggested name for this category will be "retrospective coordination", or, contractedly, "retrospect". The categorial member opposed to the perfect, for the sake of termino­logical consistency, will be named "imperfect" (non-perfect). As an independent category, the retrospective coordination is manifested in the integral verb-form together with the manifestations of other cate­gories, among them the aspective category of development. Thus, alongside the forms of perfect continuous and perfect indefinite, the verb distinguishes also the forms of imperfect continuous and im­perfect indefinite.

§ 2 . At this point of our considerations, we should like once again to call the reader's attention to the difference between the categorial terminology and the definitions of categories.

A category, in normal use, cannot be represented twice in one and the same word-form. It follows from this that the integral verb-form cannot display at once more than one expression of each of the recognized verbal categories, though it does give a representative expression to all the verbal categories taken together through the corresponding obligatory featuring (which can be, as we know, either positive or negative). And this fact provides us with a safe criterion of categorial identification for cases where the forms under analysis display related semantic functions.

We have recognized in the verbal system of English two tempo­ral categories (plus one "minor" category of futurity option) and two aspective categories. But does this mean that the English verb is "doubly" (or "triply", for that matter) inflected by the "grammatical category" of tense and the "grammatical category" of aspect? In no wise.

The course of our deductions has been quite the contrary. It is just because the verb, in its one and the same, at each time uniquely given integral form of use, manifests not one, but two ex­pressions of time (for instance, past and future); it is because it manifests not one, but two expressions of aspect (for instance, con­tinuous and perfect), that we have to recognize these expressions as categorially different. In other words, such universal grammatical no­tions as "time", "tense", "aspect", "mood" and others, taken by themselves, do not automatically presuppose any unique categorial systems. It is only the actual correlation of the corresponding gram­matical forms in a concrete, separate language that makes up a grammatical category. In particular, when certain forms that come under the same meaningful grammatical heading are mutually exclu­sive, it means that they together make up a grammatical category. This is the case with the three Russian verbal tenses. Indeed, the Russian verbal form of the future cannot syntagmatically coexist with the present or past forms - these forms are mutually exclusive, thereby constituting one unified category of time (tense), existing in the three categorial forms: the present, the past, the future. In En­glish, on the contrary, the future form of the verb can freely co-oc­cur with the strongly marked past form, thereby making up a category radically different from the category manifested by the system of "present-past" discrimination. And it is the same case with the forms of the continuous and the perfect. Just because they can freely coexist in one and the same syntagmatic manifestation of the verb, we have to infer that they enter (in the capacity of oppositional markers) essentially different categories, though related to each other by their general aspective character.

§ 3. The aspective category of development is constituted by the opposition of the continuous forms of the verb to the non-continu­ous, or indefinite forms of the verb. The marked member of the opposition is the continuous, which is built up by the auxiliary be plus the present participle of the conjugated verb. In symbolic nota­tion it is represented by the formula be.i.ng. The categorial meaning of the continuous is "action in progress"; the unmarked member of the opposition, the indefinite, leaves this meaning unspecified, i.e. expresses the non-continuous.

The evolution of views in connection with the interpretation of the continuous forms has undergone three stages.

The traditional analysis placed them among the tense-forms of the verb, defining them as expressing an action going on simultane­ously with some other action. This temporal interpretation of the continuous was most consistently developed in the works of H. Sweet and 0. Jespersen. In point of fact, the continuous usually goes with a verb which expresses a simultaneous action, but, as we have stated before, the timing of the action is not expressed by the con­tinuous as such - rather, the immediate time-meaning is conveyed by the syntactic constructions, as well as the broader semantic context in which the form is used, since action in progress, by definition, implies that it is developing at a certain time point.

The correlation of the continuous with contextual indications of time is well illustrated on examples of complex sentences with while- clauses. Four combinations of the continuous and the indefinite are possible in principle in these constructions (for two verbs are used here, one in the principal clause and one in the subordinate clause, each capable of taking both forms in question), and all the four pos­sibilities are realized in contexts of Modern English. Cf:.

While I was typing, Mary and Tom were chatting in the adjoin­ing room. - While I typed, Mary and Tom were chatting in the adjoining room. - While I was typing, they chatted in the adjoining room. - While I typed, they chatted in the adjoining room.

Clearly, the difference in meaning between the verb-entries in the cited examples cannot lie in their time denotations, either absolutive, or relative. The time is shown by their tense-signals of the past (the past form of the auxiliary be in the continuous, or the suffix -(e)d in the indefinite). The meaningful difference consists exactly in the categorial semantics of the indefinite and continuous: while the latter shows the action in the very process of its realization, the former points it out as a mere fact.

On the other hand, by virtue of its categorial semantics of action in progress (of necessity, at a definite point of time), the continuous is usually employed in descriptions of scenes correlating a number of actions going on simultaneously - since all of them are actualy shown in progress, at the time implied by the narration. Cf .:

Standing on the chair, I could see in through the barred window into the hall of the Ayuntamiento and in there it was as it had been before. The priest was standing, and those who were left were kneeling in a half circle around him and they were all praying. Pablo was sitting on the big table in front of the Mayor's chair with his shotgun slung over his back. His legs were hanging down from the table and he was rolling a cigarette. Cuatro Dedos was sitting in the Mayor's chair with his feet on the table and he was smoking a cigarette. All the guards were sitting in different chairs of the ad­ministration, holding their guns. The key to the big door was on the table beside Pablo (E. Hemingway).

But if the actions are not progressive by themselves (i.e. if they are not shown as progressive), the description, naturally, will go without the continuous forms of the corresponding verbs. E.g.:

Inland, the prospect alters. There is an oval Maidan, and a long sallow hospital. Houses belonging to Eurasians stand on the high ground by the railway station. Beyond the railway - which runs par­allel to the river-the land sinks, then rises again rather steeply. On the second rise is laid out the little civil station, and viewed hence Chandrapore appears to be a totally different place (E.M. Forster).

A further demonstration of the essentially non-temporal meaning of the continuous is its regular use in combination with the perfect, i.e. its use in the verb-form perfect continuous. Surely, the very idea of perfect is alien to simultaneity, so the continuous combined with the perfect in one and the same manifestation of the verb can only be understood as expressing aspectuality, i.e. action in progress.

Thus, the consideration of the temporal element in the continu­ous shows that its referring an action to a definite time-point, or its expressing simultaneity irrespective of absolutive time, is in itself an aspective, not a temporal factor.

At the second stage of the interpretation of the continuous, the form was understood as rendering a blend of temporal and aspective meanings - the same as the other forms of the verb obliquely con­nected with the factor of time, i.e. the indefinite and the perfect. This view was developed by I.P. Ivanova.

The combined temporal-aspective interpretation of the continuous, in general, should be appraised as an essential step forward, because, first, it introduced on an explicit, comprehensively grounded basis the idea of aspective meanings in the grammatical system of English; second, it demonstrated the actual connection of time and aspect in the integral categorial semantics of the verb. In fact, it presented a thesis that proved to be crucial for the subsequent demonstration, at the next stage of analysis, of the essence of the form on a strictly oppositional foundation.

This latter phase of study, initiated in the works of A.I. Smirnit-sky, V.N. Yartseva and B.A. Ilyish, was developed further by B.S. Khaimovich and B.I. Rogovskaya and exposed in its most compre­hensive form by L.S. Barkhudarov.

Probably the final touch contributing to the presentation of the category of development at this third stage of study should be still more explicit demonstration of its opposition working beyond the correlation of the continuous non-perfect form with the indefinite non-perfect form. In the expositions hitherto advanced the two series of forms - continuous and perfect - have been shown, as it were, too emphatically in the light of their mutual contrast against the primi­tive indefinite, the perfect continuous form, which has been placed somewhat separately, being rather interpreted as a "peculiarly modi­fied" perfect than a "peculiarly modified" continuous. In reality, though, the perfect continuous is equally both perfect and continuous, the respective markings belonging to different, though related, catego­rial characteristics.

§ 4 . The category .of development, unlike the categories of per­son, number, and time, has a verbid representation, namely, it is represented in the infinitive. This fact, for its part, testifies to an­other than temporal nature of the continuous.

With the infinitive, the category of development, naturally, ex­presses the same meaningful contrast between action in progress and action not in progress as with the finite forms of the verb. Cf:.

Kezia and her grandmother were taking their siesta together. - - It was but natural for Kezia and her grandmother to be taking their siesta together. What are you complaining about? - - Is there really anything for you to be complaining about?

But in addition to this purely categorial distinction, the form of the continuous infinitive has a tendency to acquire quite a special meaning in combination with modal verbs, namely that of probability. This meaning is aspectual in a broader sense than the "inner char­acter" of action: the aspectuality amounts here to an outer appraisal of the denoted process. Cf:.

Paul must watt for you, you needn't be in a hurry. Paul must be waiting for us, so let's hurry up.

The first of the two sentences expresses Paul's obligation to wait, whereas the second sentence renders the speaker's supposition of the fact.

The general meaning of probability is varied by different addi­tional shades depending on the semantic type of the modal verb and the corresponding contextual conditions, such as uncertainty, incre­dulity, surprise, etc. Cf.:

But can she be taking Moyra's words so personally? If the flight went smoothly, they may be approaching the West Coast. You must be losing money over this job.

The action of the continuous infinitive of probability, in accord with the type of the modal verb and the context, may refer not only to the plane of the present, but also to the plane of the future. Cf.:

Ann must be coming soon, you'd better have things put in order.

The gerund and the participle do not distinguish the category of development as such, but the traces of progressive meaning are in­herent in these forms, especially in the present participle, which itself is one of the markers of the category (in combination with the cate­gorial auxiliary). In particular, these traces are easily disclosed in various syntactic participial complexes. Cf.:

The girl looked straight into my face, smiling enigmatically. → The girl was smiling enigmatically as she looked straight into my face. We heard the leaves above our heads rustling in the wind. → We heard how the leaves above our heads were rustling in the wind.

However, it should be noted that the said traces of meaning are still traces, and they are more often than not subdued and neutral­ized.

§ 5. The opposition of the category of development undergoes various reductions, in keeping with the general regularities of the grammatical forms functioning in speech, as well as of their paradigmatic combinability.

The easiest and most regular neutralizational relations in the sphere continuous - indefinite are observed in connection with the subclass division of verbs into limitive and unlimitive, and within the unlimitive into actional and statal.

Namely, the unlimitive verbs are very easily neutralized in cases where the continuity of action is rendered by means other than aspective. Cf:.

The night is wonderfully silent. The stars shine with a fierce brilliancy, the Southern Cross and Canopus; there is not a breath of wind. The Duke's face seemed flushed, and more lined than some of his recent photographs showed. He held a glass in his hand.

As to the statal verbs, their development neutralization amounts to a grammatical rule. It is under this heading that the "never-used-in-the-continuous" verbs go, i.e. the uniques be and have, verbs of possession other than have, verbs of relation, of physical perceptions, of mental perceptions. The opposition of development is also neu­tralized easily with verbs in the passive voice, as well as with the infinitive, the only explicit verbid exposer of the category.

Worthy of note is the regular neutralization of the development opposition with the introductory verb supporting the participial con­struction of parallel action. E.g.:

The man stood smoking a pipe. (Not normally: The man was standing smoking a pipe.)

On the other hand, the continuous can be used transpositionally to denote habitual, recurrent actions in emphatic collocations. Cf.:

Miss Tillings said you were always talking as if there had been some funny business about me (M. Dickens).

In this connection, special note should be made of the broaden­ing use of the continuous with unlimitive verbs, including verbs of statal existence. Here are some very typical examples:

I only heard a rumour that a certain member here present has been seeing the prisoner this afternoon (E.M. Forster). I had a hor­rid feeling she was seeing right through me and knowing all about me (A. Christie). What matters is, you're being damn fools, both of you (A. Hailey).

Compare similar transpositions in the expressions of anticipated future:

Dr Aarons will be seeing the patient this morning, and I wish to be ready for him (A. Hailey). Soon we shall be hearing the news about the docking of the spaceships having gone through.

The linguistic implication of these uses of the continuous is in­deed very peculiar. Technically it amounts to de-neutralizing the usu­ally neutralized continuous. However, since the neutralization of the continuous with these verbs is quite regular, we have here essentially the phenomenon of reverse transposition - an emphatic reduction of the second order, serving the purpose of speech expressiveness.

We have considered the relation of unlimitive verbs to the con­tinuous form in the light of reductional processes.

As for the limitive verbs, their standing with the category of de­velopment and its oppositional reductions is quite the reverse. Due to the very aspective quality of limitiveness, these verbs, first, are not often used in the continuous form in general, finding no fre­quent cause for it; but second, in cases when the informative pur­pose does demand the expression of an action in progress, the con­tinuous with these verbs is quite obligatory and normally cannot un­dergo reduction under any conditions. It cannot be reduced, for oth­erwise the limitive meaning of the verb would prevail,, and the in­formative purpose would not be realized. Cf .:

The plane was just touching down when we arrived at the air­field. The patient was sitting up in his bed, his eyes riveted on the trees beyond the window.

The linguistic paradox of these uses is that the continuous aspect with limitive verbs neutralizes the expression of their lexical aspect, turning them for the nonce into unlimitive verbs. And this is one of the many manifestations of grammatical relevance of lexemic cate­gories.

§ 6 . In connection with the problem of the aspective category of development, we must consider the forms of the verb built up with the help of the auxiliary do. These forms, entering the verbal system of the indefinite, have been described under different headings.

Namely, the auxiliary do, first, is presented in grammars as a means of building up interrogative constructions when the verb is used in the indefinite aspect. Second, the auxiliary do is described as a means of building up negative constructions with the indefinite form of the verb. Third, it is shown as a means of forming em­phatic constructions of both affirmative declarative and affirmative imperative communicative types, with the indefinite form of the verb. Fourth, it is interpreted as a means of forming elliptical constructions with the indefinite form of the verb.

L.S. Barkhudarov was the first scholar who paid attention to the lack of accuracy, and probably linguistic adequacy, in these defini­tions. Indeed, the misinterpretation of the defined phenomena con­sists here in the fact that the do -forms are presented immediately as parts of the corresponding syntactic constructions, whereas actually they are parts of the corresponding verb-forms of the indefinite as­pect. Let us compare the following sentences in pairs:

Fred pulled her hand to his heart. - -Did Fred pull her hand to his heart? You want me to hold a smile. - - You don't want me to hold a smile. In dreams people change into somebody else. - - In dreams people do change into somebody else. Ask him into the drawing-room. - - Do ask him into the drawing-room. Mike liked the show immensely, and Kitty liked it too. - - Mike liked the show immensely, and so did Kitty.

On the face of the comparison, we see only the construction-forming function of the analysed auxiliary, the cited formulations be­ing seemingly vindicated both by the structural and the functional difference between the sentences: the right-hand constituent utter­ances in each of the given pairs has its respective do -addition. How­ever, let us relate these right-hand utterances to another kind of categorial counterparts:

Did Fred pull her hand to his heart? - - Will Fred pull her hand to his heart? You don't want me to hold a smile. - - You won't want me to hold a smile. In dreams people do change into somebody else.- -In dreams people will change into somebody else. Mike liked the show immensely, and so did Kitty.- -Mike will like the show immensely, and so will Kitty.

Observing the structure of the latter series of constructional pairs, we see at once that their constituent sentences are built up on one and the same syntactic principle of a special treatment of the mor­phological auxiliary element. And here lies the necessary correction of the interpretation of do -forms. As a matter of fact, do -fonns should be first of all described as the variant analytical indefinite forms of the verb that are effected to share the various construc­tional functions with the other analytical forms of the verb placing their respective auxiliaries in accented and otherwise individualized positions. This presentation, while meeting the demands of adequate description, at the same time is very convenient for explaining the formation of the syntactic constructional categories on the unified ba­sis of the role of analytical forms of the verb. Namely, the forma­tion of interrogative constructions will be explained simply as a uni­versal word-order procedure of partial inversion (placing the auxiliary before the subject for all the categorial forms of the verb); the for­mation of the corresponding negative will be described as the use of the negative particle with the analytical auxiliary for all the catego­rial forms of the verb; the formation of the corresponding emphatic constructions will be described as the accent of the analytical auxil­iaries, including the indefinite auxiliary; the formation of the corre­sponding reduced constructions will be explained on the lines of the representative use of the auxiliaries in general (which won't mar the substitute role of do).

For the sake of terminological consistency the analytical form in question might be called the "marked indefinite", on the analogy of the term "marked infinitive". Thus, the indefinite forms of the non-perfect order will be divided into the pure, or unmarked present and past indefinite, and the marked present and past indefinite. As we have pointed out above, the existence of the specifically marked pre­sent and past indefinite serves as one of the grounds for identifying the verbal primary time and the verbal prospect as different gram­matical categories.

§ 7. The category of retrospective coordination (retrospect) is constituted by the opposition of the perfect forms of the verb to the non-perfect, or imperfect forms. 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. In symbolic notation it is expressed by the formula have ... en.

The functional meaning of the category has been interpretedinlinguistic literature in four different ways, each contributing to the evolution of the general theory of retrospective coordination.

The first comprehensively represented grammatical exposition of the perfect verbal form was the "tense view": by this view the per­fect is approached as a peculiar tense form. The tense view of the perfect is presented in the works of H. Sweet, G. Curme, M. Bryant and J.R. Aiken, and some other foreign scholars. In Russian linguis­tic literature this view was consistently developed by N.F. Irtenyeva. The tense interpretation of the perfect was also endorsed by the well-known course of English Grammar by M.A. Ganshina and N.M. Vasilevskaya.

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. Namely, 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 idea of the perfect conveying a secondary time characteristic of the action is quite a sound one, because it shows that the perfect, in fact, coexists with the other, primary expression of time. What else, if not a secondary time meaning of priority, is rendered by the perfect forms in the following example:

Grandfather has taken his morning stroll and now is having a rest on the veranda.

The situation is easily translated into the past with the time cor­relation intact: → Grandfather had taken his morning stroll and was having a rest on the veranda.

With the future, the correlations is not so clearly pronounced. However, the reason for it lies not in the deficiency of the perfect as a secondary tense, but in the nature of the future time plane, which exists only as a prospective plane, thereby to a degree level­ling the expression of differing timings of actions. Making allowance for the unavoidable prospective temporal neutralizations, the perfective priority expressed in the given situation can be clearly conveyed even in its future translations, extended by the exposition of the cor­responding connotations:

→ By the time he is having a rest on the veranda. Grandfather will surely have taken his morning stroll. → Grandfather will have a rest on the veranda only after he has taken his morning stroll.

Laying emphasis on the temporal function of the perfect, the "tense view", though, fails to expose with the necessary distinctness its aspective function, by which the action is shown as successively or "transmissively" connected with a certain time limit. Besides, the purely oppositional nature of the form is not disclosed by this ap­proach either, thus leaving the categorial status of the perfect unde­fined.

The second grammatical interpretation of the perfect was the "aspect view": according to this interpretation the perfect is ap­proached as an aspective form of the verb. The aspect view is pre­sented in the works of M. Deutschbein, E.A. Sonnenschein, A.S. West, and other foreign scholars. In Russian linguistic literature the aspective interpretation of the perfect was comprehensively developed by G.N. Vorontsova. This subtle observer of intricate interdependen-cies of language profoundly demonstrated the idea of the successive connection of two events expressed by the perfect, prominence given by the form to the transference or "transmission" of the accessories of a pre-situation to a post-situation. 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.

At the same time, the plain resultative semantics quite evidently appears as a particular variety of the general transmissive meaning, by which a posterior event is treated as a successor of an anterior event on very broad lines of connection.

Recognizing all the merits of the aspect approach in question, however, we clearly see its two serious drawbacks. The first of them is that, while emphasizing the aspective side of the function of the perfect, it underestimates its temporal side, convincingly demonstrated by the tense view of the perfect described above. The second draw­back, though, is just the one characteristic of the tense view, re­peated on the respectively different material: the described aspective interpretation of the perfect fails to strictly formulate its oppositional nature, the categorial status of the perfect being left undefined.

The third grammatical interpretation of the perfect was the "tense-aspect blend view": in accord with this interpretation the perfect is recognized as a form of double temporal-aspective charac­ter, similar to the continuous. The tense-aspect interpretation of the perfect was developed in the works of I.P. 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 neutralized aspective properties.

The achievement of the tense-aspect view of the perfect is the fact that it demonstrates the actual double nature of the analysed verbal form, its inherent connection with both temporal and aspective spheres of verbal semantics. Thus, as far as the perfect is concerned, the tense-aspect view overcomes the one-sided approach to it peculiar both to the first and the second of the noted conceptions.

Indeed, the temporal meaning of the perfect is quite apparent in constructions like the following:

I have lived in this city long enough, I haven't met Charlie for years.

The actual time expressed 'by the perfect verbal forms used in the examples can be made explicit by time-test questions:

How long have you lived in this city? For how long haven't you met Charlie?

Now, the purely aspective semantic component of the perfect form will immediately be made prominent if the sentences were continued like that:

I have lived in this city long enough to show you all that is worth seeing here. I haven't met Charlie for years, and can hardly recognize him in a crowd.

The aspective function of the perfect verbal forms in both sen­tences, in its turn, can easily be revealed by aspect-test questions:

What can you do as a result of your having lived in this city for years? What is the consequence of your not having met Charlie for years?

However, comprehensively exposing the two different sides of the integral semantics of the perfect, the tense-aspect conception loses sight of its categorial nature altogether, since it leaves undisclosed how the grammatical function of the perfect is effected in contrast to the continuous or indefinite, as well as how the "categorial blend" of the perfect-continuous is contrasted against its three counterparts, i.e. the perfect, the continuous, the indefinite.

As we see, the three described interpretations of the perfect, ac­tually complementing one another, have given in combination a broad and profound picture of the semantical content of the perfect verbal forms, though all of them have failed to explicitly explain the grammatical category within the structure of which the perfect is en­abled to fulfil its distinctive function.

The categorial individuality of the perfect was shown as a result of study conducted by A.I. Smirnitsky. His conception of the perfect, the fourth in our enumeration, may be called the "time correlation view", to use the explanatory name he gave to the identified cate­gory. What was achieved by this' brilliant thinker, is an explicit demonstration of the fact that the perfect form, by means of its oppositional mark, builds up its own category, different from both the "tense" (present - past - future) and the "aspect" (continu­ous-indefinite), and not reducible to either of them. The functional content of the category of "time correlation" («временнаяотнесен-ность») was defined as priority expressed by the perfect forms in the present, past or future contrasted against the non-expression of priority by the non-perfect forms. The immediate factor that gave cause to A.I. Smirnitsky to advance the new interpretation of the perfect was the peculiar structure of the perfect continuous form in which the perfect, the form of precedence, i.e. the form giving prominence to the idea of two times brought in contrast, coexists syntagmatically with the continuous, the form of simultaneity, i.e. the form expressing one time for two events, according to the "tense view" conception of it. The gist of reasoning here is that, since the two expressions of the same categorial semantics are impossible in one and the same verbal form, the perfect cannot be either an as­pective form, granted the continuous expresses the category of aspect, or a temporal form, granted the continuous expresses the category of tense. The inference is that the category in question, the determining part of which is embodied in the perfect, is different from both the tense and the aspect, this difference being fixed by the special cate­gorial term "time correlation".

The analysis undertaken by A.I. Smirnitsky is of outstanding sig­nificance not only for identifying the categorial status of the perfect, but also for specifying further the general notion of, a grammatical category. It develops the very technique of this kind of identification.

Still, the "time correlation view" is not devoid of certain limita­tions. First, it somehow underestimates the aspective plane of the categorial semantics of the perfect, very convincingly demonstrated by G.N. Vorontsova in the context of the "aspect view" of the perfect, as well as by I.P. Ivanova in the context of the "tense-aspect blend view" of the perfect. Second, and this is far more important, the reasoning by which the category is identified, is not altogether com­plete in so far as it confuses the general grammatical notions of time and aspect with the categorial status of concrete word-forms in each particular language conveying the corresponding meanings. Some languages may canvey temporal or aspective meanings within the functioning of one integral category for each (as, for instance, the Russian language), while other languages may convey the same or similar kind of meanings in two or even more categories for each (as, for instance, the English language). The only true criterion of this is the character of the representation of the respective categorial forms in the actual speech manifestation of a lexeme. If a lexeme normally displays the syntagmatic coexistence of several forms dis­tinctly identifiable by their own peculiar marks, as, for example, the forms of person, number, time, etc., it means that these forms in the system of language make up different grammatical categories. The integral grammatical meaning of any word-form (the concrete speech entry of a lexeme) is determined by the whole combination ("bunch") of the categories peculiar to the part of speech the lexeme belongs to. For instance, the verb-form has been speaking inthe sentence "The Red Chief has just been speaking" expresses, in terms of immediately (positively) presented grammatical forms, the third person of the category of person, the singular of the category of number, the present of the category of time, the continuous of the category of development, the perfect of the category under analy­sis. As for the character of the determining meaning of any category, it may either be related to the meaning of some adjoining category, or may not - it depends on the actual categorial correlations that have shaped in a language in the course of its historical develop­ment. In particular, in Modern English, in accord with our knowl­edge of its structure, two major purely temporal categories are to be identified, i.e. primary time and prospective time, as well as two major aspective categories. One of the latter is the category of de­velopment. The other, as has been decided above, is the category of retrospective coordination featuring the perfect as the marked com­ponent form and the. imperfect as its unmarked counterpart. We have considered it advisable to re-name the indicated category in or­der, first, to stress its actual retrospective property (in fact, what is strongly expressed in the temporal plane of the category, is priority of action, not any other relative time signification), and second, to reservp such a general term as "correlation" for more unrestricted, free manipulations in non-specified uses connected with grammatical analysis.

§ 8 . Thus, we have arrived at the "strict categorial view" of the perfect, disclosing it as the marking form of a separate verbal cate­gory, semantically intermediate between aspective and temporal, but quite self-dependent in the general categorial system of the English verb. It is this interpretation of the perfect that gives a natural ex­planation to the "enigmatic" verbal form of the perfect continuous, showing that each categorial marker - both perfect and continu­ous-being separately expressed in the speech entry of the verbal lexeme, conveys its own part in the integral grammatical meaning of the entry. Namely, the perfect interprets the action in the light of priority and aspective transmission, while the continuous presents the same action as progressive. As a result, far from displaying any kind of semantic contradiction or discrepancy, the grammatical characteri­zation of the action gains both in precision and vividness. The latter quality explains why this verbal form is gaining more and more ground in present-day colloquial English.

As a matter of fact, the specific semantic features of the perfect and the continuous in each integrating use can be distinctly exposed by separate diagnostic tests. Cf:.

A week or two ago someone related an incident to me with the suggestion that I should write a story on it, and since then I have been thinking it over (S. Maugham).

Testing for the perfect giving prominence to the expression of priority in retrospective coordination will be represented as fol­lows: → I have been thinking over the suggestion for a week or two now.

Testing for the perfect giving prominence to the expression of succession in retrospective coordination will be made thus: → Since the time the suggestion was made I have been thinking it over.

Finally, testing for the continuous giving prominence to the ex­pression of action in progress will include expansion: → Since the suggestion was made I have been thinking it over continually.

Naturally, both perfect indefinite and perfect continuous, being categorially characterized by their respective features, in normal use are not strictly dependent on a favourable contextual environment and can express their semantics in isolation from adverbial time indi­cators. Cf:.

Surprisingly, she did not protest, for she had given up the strug­gle (M. Dickens). "What have you been doing down there?" Miss Peel asked him. "I've been looking for you all over the play-ground" (M. Dickens).

The exception is the future perfect that practically always requires a contextual indicator of time due to the prospective character of posteriority, of which we have already spoken.

It should be noted that with the past perfect the priority princi­ple is more distinct than with the present perfect, which again is ex­plained semantically. In many cases the past perfect goes with the lexical indicators of time introducing the past plane as such in the microcontext. On the other hand, the transmissive semantics of the perfect can so radically take an upper hand over its priority seman­tics even in the past plane that the form is placed in a peculiar ex­pressive contradiction with a lexical introduction of priority. In par­ticular, it concerns constructions introduced by the subordinative conjunction before. Cf:.

It was his habit to find a girl who suited him and live with her as long as he was ashore. But he had forgotten her before the an­chor had come dripping out of the water and been made fast. The sea was his home (J. Tey).

§ 9 . In keeping with the general tendency, the category of retro­spective coordination can be contextually neutralized, the imperfect as the weak member of the opposition filling in the position of neu­tralization. Cf:.

"I feel exactly like you," she said, "only different, because after all I didn't produce him; but. Mother, darling, it's all right..." (J. Galsworthy). Christine nibbled on Oyster Bienville. "I always thought it was because they spawned in summer" (A. Hailey).

In this connection, the treatment of the lexemic aspective division of verbs by the perfect is, correspondingly, the reverse, if less dis­tinctly pronounced, of their treatment by the continuous. Namely, the expression of retrospective coordination is neutralized most naturally and freely with limitive verbs. As for the unlimitive verbs, these, bу being used in the perfect, are rather turned into "limitive for the nonce". Cf;.

"I'm no beaten rug. I don't need to feel like one. I’ve been a teacher all my life, with plenty to show for it" (A. Hailey).

Very peculiar neutralizations take place between the forms of the present perfect-imperfect. Essentially these neutralizations signal in­stantaneous subclass migrations of the verb from a limitive to an unlimitive one. Cf:.

Where do you come from? (i.e. What is the place of your ori­gin?) I put all my investment in London, (i.e. I keep all my money there.)

Characteristic colloquial neutralizations affect also some verbs of physical and mental perceptions. Cf:.

I forget what you've told me about Nick. I hear the management has softened their stand after all the hurly-burly!

The perfect formsin these contexts are always possible, being the appropriate ones for a mode of expression devoid of tinges of colloquialism.

§ 10. The categorial opposition "perfect versus imperfect" is broadly represented in verbids. The verbid representation of the op­position, though, is governed by a distinct restrictive regularity which may be formulated as follows: the perfect is used with verbids onty in semantically strong positions, i.e. when its categorial meaning is made prominent. Otherwise the opposition is neutralized, the imper­fect being used in the position of neutralization. Quite evidently this regularity is brought about by the intermediary lexico-grammatical features of verbids, since the category of retrospective coordination is utterly alien to the non-verbal parts of speech. The structural neu­tralization of the opposition is especially distinct with the present participle of the limitive verbs, its indefinite form very naturally ex­pressing priority in the perfective sense. Cf.:

She came to Victoria to see Joy off, and Freddy Rigby came too, bringing a crowd of the kind of young people Rodney did not care for (M. Dickens).

But the rule of the strong position is valid here also. Cf.

Her Auntie Phyll had too many children. Having brought up six in a messy, undisciplined way, she had started all over again with another baby late in life (M. Dickens).

With the gerund introduced by a preposition of time the perfect is more often than not neutralized. E.g.:

He was at Cambridge and after taking his degree decided to be a planter (S. Maugham).

Cf. the perfect gerund in a strong position:

The memory of having met the famous writer in his young days made him feel proud even now.

Less liable to neutralization is the infinitive. The category of ret­rospective coordination is for the most part consistently represented in its independent constructions, used as concise semi-predicative equivalents of syntactic units of full predication. Cf:.

It was utterly unbelievable for the man to have no competence whatsoever (simultaneity expressed by the imperfect).- -It was ut­terly unbelievable for the man to have had no competence whatso­ever (priority expressed by the perfect).

The perfect infinitive of notional verbs used with modal predica-tors, similar to the continuous, performs the two types of functions. First, it expresses priority and transmission in retrospective coordina­tion, in keeping with its categorial destination. Second, dependent on the concrete function of each modal verb and its equivalent, it helps convey gradations of probabilities in suppositions. E.g.:

He may have warned Christine, or again, he may not have warned her. Who can tell? Things must have been easier fifty years ago. You needn't worry, Miss Nickolson. The children are sure to have been following our instructions, it can't have been otherwise.

In addition, as its third type of function, also dependent on the individual character of different modal verbs, the perfect can render the idea of non-compliance with certain rule, advice, recommenda­tion, etc. The modal verbs in these cases serve as signals of remon­strance (mostly the verbs ought to and should). Cf:.

Mary ought to have thought of the possible consequences. Now the situation can't be mended, I'm afraid.

The modal will used with a perfect in a specific collocation ren­ders a polite, but officially worded statement of the presupposed hearer's knowledge of an indicated fact. Cf.:

"You will no doubt have heard. Admiral Morgan, that Lord Vaughan is going to replace Sir Thomas Lynch as Governor of Ja­maica," Charles said, and cast a glance of secret amusement at the strong countenance of his most famous sailor (J. Tey). It will not have escaped your attention. Inspector, that the visit of the nuns was the same day that poisoned wedding cake found its way into that cottage (A. Christie).

Evident relation between the perfect and the continuous in their specific modal functions (i.e. in the use under modal government) can be pointed out as a testimony to the category of retrospective coordination being related to the category of development on the broad semantic basis of aspectuality.

C H A P T E R XVI

VERB; VOICE

§ 1 . The verbal category of voice shows the direction of the process as regards the participants of the situation reflected in the syntactic construction.

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. The sign marking, the passive form is the combination of the auxiliary be with the past participle of the conjugated verb (in symbolic notation: be ... en -see Ch. II, §5). The passive form as the strong member of the opposition expresses reception of the action by the subject of the syntactic construction (i.e. the "passive" subject, denoting the object of the action); the active form as the weak member of the opposition leaves this meaning unspecified, i.e. it expresses "non-pas­sivity".

In colloquial speech the role of the passive auxiliary can occa­sionally be performed by the verb get and, probably, become. Cf.:*

* For discussion see: Khaimwich, Rogovskaya, 128-129.

Sam got licked for a good reason, though not by me. The young violinist became admired by all.

The category of voice has a much broader representation in the system of the English verb than in the system of the Russian verb, since in English not only transitive, but also intransitive objective verbs including prepositional ones can be used in the passive (the preposition being retained in the absolutive location). Besides, verbs taking not one, but two objects, as a rule, can feature both of them in the position of the passive subject. E.g.:

I've just been rung up by the police. The diplomat was refused transit facilities through London. She was undisturbed by the frown on his face. Have you ever been told that you're very good-look­ing? He was said to have been very wild in his youth. The dress has never been tried on. The child will be looked after all right. I won't be talked to like this. Etc.

Still, not all the verbs capable of taking an object are actually used in the passive. In particular, the passive form is alien to many verbs of the statal subclass (displaying a weak dynamic force), such as have (direct possessive meaning), belong, cost, resemble, fall, misgive, etc. Thus, in accord with their relation to the passive voice, all the verbs can be divided into two large sets: the set of passivized verbs and the set of non-passivized verbs.

A question then should be posed whether the category of voice is a full-representative verbal category, i.e. represented in the system of the verb as a whole, or a partial-representative category, confined only to the passivized verbal set. Considerations of both form and function tend to interpret voice rather as a full-representative category, the same as person, number, tense, and aspect. Three reasons can be given to back this appraisal.

First, the integral categorial presentation of non-passivized verbs fully coincides with that of passivized verbs used in the active voice (cf . takes-goes. is taking-is going, has token-has gone, etc.). Second, the active voice as the weak member of the categorial oppo­sition is characterized in general not by the "active" meaning as such (i.e. necessarily featuring the subject as the doer of the action), but by the extensive non-passive meaning of a very wide range of actual significations, some of them approaching by their process-di­rection characteristics those of non-passivized verbs (cf. The door opens inside the room; The magazine doesn't sell well). Third, the demarcation line between the passivized and non-passivized sets is by no means rigid, and the verbs of the non-passivized order may mi­grate into the passivized order in various contextual conditions (cf. The bed has not been slept in; The house seems not to have been lived in for a long time).

Thus, the category of voice should be interpreted as being re­flected in the whole system of verbs, the non-passivized verbs, pre­senting the active voice form if not directly, then indirectly.

As a regular categorial form of the verb, the passive voice is combined in the same lexeme with other oppositionally strong forms of the verbal categories of the tense-aspect system, i.e. the past, the future, the continuous, the perfect. But it has a neutralizing effect on the category of development in the forms where the auxiliary be must be doubly employed as a verbid (the infinitive, the present participle, the past participle), so that the future continuous passive, as well as the perfect continuous passive are practically not used in speech. As a result, the future continuous active has as its regular counterpart by the voice opposition the future indefinite passive; the perfect continuous active in all the tense-forms has as its regular counterpart the perfect indefinite passive. Cf:.

The police will be keeping an army of reporters at bay. → An army of reporters will be kept at bay by the police. We have been expecting the decision for a long time. → The decision has been ex­pected for a long time.

§ 2 . The category of voice differs radically from all the other hitherto considered categories from the point of view of its referen­tial qualities. Indeed, all the previously described categories reflect various characteristics of processes, both direct and oblique, as cer­tain facts of reality exiting irrespective of the speaker's perception. For instance, the verbal category of person expresses the personal relation of the process. The verbal number, together with person, expresses its person-numerical relation. The verbal primary time de­notes the absolutive timing of the process, i.e. its timing in reference to the moment of speech. The category of prospect expresses the timing of the process from the point of view of its relation to the plane of posteriority. Finally, the analysed aspects characterize the re­spective inner qualities of the process. So, each of these categories does disclose some actual property of the process denoted by the verb, adding more and more particulars to the depicted processual situation. But we cannot say the same about the category of voice.

As a matter of fact; the situation reflected by the passive con­struction does not differ in the least from the situation reflected by the active construction - the nature of the process is preserved intact, the situational participants remain in their places in their unchanged quality. What is changed, then, with the transition from the active voice to the passive voice, is the subjective appraisal of the situation by the speaker, the plane of his presentation of it. It is clearly seen when comparing any pair of constructions one of which is the pas­sive counterpart of the other. Cf.:

The guards dispersed the crowd in front of the Presidential Palace,—The crowd in front of the Presidential Palace was dispersed by the guards.

In the two constructions, the guards as the doer of the action, the crowd as the recepient of the action are the same; the same also is the place of action, i.e. the space in front of the Palace. The presentation planes, though, are quite different with the respective constructions, they are in fact mutually reverse. Namely, the first sentence, by its functional destination, features the act of the guards, whereas the second sentence, in accord with its meaningful purpose, features the experience of the crowd.

This property of the category of voice shows its immediate con­nection with syntax, which finds expression in direct transformational relations between the active and passive constructions.

The said fundamental meaningful difference between the two forms of the verb and the corresponding constructions that are built around them goes with all the concrete connotations specifically ex­pressed by the active and passive presentation of the same event in various situational contexts. In particular, we find the object-experi-ence-featuring achieved by the passive in its typical uses in cases when the subject is unknown or is not to be mentioned for certain reasons, or when the attention of the speaker is centred on the action as such. Cf. respectively:

Another act of terrorism has been committed in Argentina. Dinner was announced, and our conversation stopped. The defeat of the champion was very much regretted.

All the functional distinctions of the passive, both categorial and contextual-connotative, are sustained in its use with verbids.

For instance, in the following passive infinitive phrase the catego­rial object-experience-featuring is accompanied by the logical accent of the process characterizing the quality of its situational object (expressed by the subject of the passive construction):

This is an event never to be forgotten.

Cf. the corresponding sentence-transform: This event will never be forgotten.

The gerundial phrase that is given below, conveying the principal categorial meaning of the passive, suppresses the exposition of the indefinite subject of the process:

After being wrongly delivered, the letter found its addressee at last.

Cf. the time-clause transformational equivalent of the gerundial phrase: After the letter had been wrongly delivered, it found its ad­dressee at last.

The following passive participial construction in an absolutive po­sition accentuates the resultative process:

The enemy batteries having been put out of action, our troops continued to push on the offensive.

Cf. the clausal equivalent of the construction: When the enemy batteries had been put out of action, our troops continued to push on the offensive.

The past participle of the objective verb is passive in meaning, and phrases built up by it display all the cited characteristics. E.g.:

Seen from the valley, the castle on the cliff presented a phantastic sight.

Cf. the clausal equivalent of the past participial phrase: When it was seen from the valley, the castle on the cliff presented a phantastic sight.

§ 3 . The big problem in connection with the voice identification in English is the problem of "medial" voices, i.e. the functioning of the voice forms in other than the passive or active meanings. All the medial voice uses are effected within the functional range of the unmarked member of the voice opposition. Let us consider the fol­lowing examples:

I will shave and wash, and be ready for breakfast in half an hour. I'm afraid Mary hasn't dressed up yet. Now I see your son is thoroughly preparing for the entrance examinations.

The indicated verbs in the given sentences are objective, transitive, used absolutively, in the form of the active voice. But the real voice meaning rendered by the verb-entries is not active, since the actions expressed are not passed from the subject to any outer ob­ject; on the contrary, these actions are confined to no other partici­pant of the situation than the subject, the latter constituting its own object of the action performance. This kind of verbal meaning of the action performed by the subject upon itself is classed as "reflexive". The same meaning can be rendered explicit by combining the verb with the reflexive "self"-pronoun:

I will shave myself, wash myself; Mary hasn't dressed herself up yet; your son is thoroughly preparing himself.

Let us take examples of another kind:

The friends will be meeting tomorrow. Unfortunately, Nellie and Christopher divorced two years after their magnificent marriage. Are Phil and Glen quarrelling again over their toy cruiser?

The actions expressed by the verbs in the above sentences are also confined to the subject, the same as in the first series of exam­ples, but, as different from them, these actions are performed by the subject constituents reciprocally: the friends will be meeting one an­other; Nellie divorced Christopher, and Christopher, in his turn, di­vorced Nellie; Phil is quarrelling with Glen, and Glen, in his turn, is quarrelling with Phil. This verbal meaning of the action performed by the subjects in the subject group on one another is called "reciprocal". As is the case with the reflexive meaning, the reciprocal meaning can be rendered explicit by combining the verbs with spe­cial pronouns, namely, the reciprocal pronouns: the friends will be meeting one another; Nellie and Christopher divorced each other; the children are quarrelling with each other.

The cited reflexive and reciprocal uses of verbs are open to consideration as special grammatical voices, called, respectively, "reflexive" and "reciprocal". The reflexive and reciprocal pronouns within the framework of the hypothetical voice identification of the uses in question should be looked upon as the voice auxiliaries.

That the verb-forms in the given collocations do render the idea of the direction of situational action is indisputable, and in this sense the considered verbal meanings are those of voice. On the other hand, the uses in question evidently lack a generalizing force neces­sary for any lingual unit type or combination type to be classed as grammatical. The reflexive and reciprocal pronouns, for their part, are still positional members of the sentence, though phrasemically bound with their notional kernel elements. The inference is that the forms are not grammatical-categorial; they are phrasal-derivative, though grammatically relevant.

The verbs in reflexive and reciprocal uses in combination with the reflexive and reciprocal pronouns may be called, respectively, "reflexivized" and "reciprocalized". Used absolutively, they are just reflexive and reciprocal variants of their lexemes.

Subject to reflexivization and reciprocalization may be not only natively reflexive and reciprocal lexemic variants, but other verbs as well Cf .:

The professor was arguing with himself, as usual. The parties have been accusing one another vehemently.

To distinguish between the two cases of the considered phrasal-derivative process, the former can be classed as "organic", the latter as "inorganic" reflexivization and reciprocalization.

The derivative, i.e. lexemic expression of voice meanings may be likened, with due alteration of details, to the lexemic expression of aspective meanings. In the domain of aspectuality we also find derivative aspects, having a set of lexical markers (verbal post-posi­tions) and generalized as limitive and non-limitive.

Alongside the considered two, there is still a third use of the verb in English directly connected with the grammatical voice dis­tinctions. This use can be shown by the following examples:

The new paper-backs are selling excellently. The suggested pro­cedure will hardly apply to all the instances. Large native cigarettes smoked easily and coolly. Perhaps the loin chop will eat better than it looks.

The actions expressed by the otherwise transitive verbs in the cited examples are confined to the subject, though not in a way of active self-transitive subject performance, but as if going on of their own accord. The presentation of the verbal action of this type comes under the heading of the "middle" voice.

However, lacking both regularity and an outer form of expres­sion, it is natural to understand the "middle" voice uses of verbs as cases of neutralizing reduction of the voice opposition. The peculiarity of the voice neutralization of this kind is, that the weak member of opposition used in the position of neutralization does not fully coin­cide in function with the strong member, but rather is located somewhere in between the two functional borders. Hence,its"middle" quality is truly reflected in its name. Compare the shown middle type neutralization of voice in the infinitive:

She was delightful to look at, witty to talk to - altogether the most charming of companions. You have explained so fully every­thing there is to explain that there is no need for me to ask ques­tions.

§ 4 . Another problem posed by the category of voice and con­nected with neutralizations concerns the relation between the mor­phological form of the passive voice and syntactical form of the cor­responding complex nominal predicate with the pure link be. As a matter of fact, the outer structure of the two combinations is much the same. Cf:.

You may consider me a coward, but there you are mistaken. They were all seized in their homes.

The first of the two examples presents a case of a nominal predicate, the second, a case of a passive voice form. Though the constructions are outwardly alike, there is no doubt as to their dif­ferent grammatical status. The question is, why?

As is known, the demarcation between the construction types in qupstion is commonly sought on the lines of the semantic character of the constructions. Namely, if the construction expresses an action, it is taken to refer to the passive voice form; if it expresses a state, it is interpreted as a nominal predicate. Cf. another pair of exam­ples:

The door was closed by the butler as softly as could be. The door on the left was closed.

The predicate of the first sentence displays the "passive of ac­tion", i.e. it is expressed by a verb used in the passive voice; the predicate of the second sentence, in accord with the cited semantic interpretation, is understood as displaying the "passive of state", i.e. as consisting of a link-verb and a nominal part expressed by a past participle.

Of course, the factor of semantics as the criterion of the dy­namic force of the construction is quite in its place, since the dy­namic force itself is a meaningful factor of language. But the "technically" grammatical quality of the construction is determined not by the meaning in isolation; it is determined by the categorial and functional properties of its constituents, first and foremost, its participial part. Thus, if this part, in principle, expresses processual verbality, however statal it may be in its semantic core, then the whole construction should be understood as a case of the finite pas­sive in the categorial sense. E.g.:

The young practitioner was highly esteemed in his district.

If, on the other hand, the participial part of the construction doesn't convey the idea of processual verbality, in other words, if it has ceased to be a participle and is turned into an adjective, then the whole construction is to be taken for a nominal predicate. But in the latter case it is not categorially passive at all.

Proceeding from this criterion, we see that the predicate in the construction "You are mistaken" (the first example in the presentparagraph) is nominal simply by virtue of its notional part being an adjective, not a participle. The corresponding non-adjectival participle would be used in quite another type of constructions. Cf:.

I was often mistaken for my friend Otto, though I never could tell why.

On the other hand, this very criterion shows us that the catego­rial status of the predicate in the sentence "The door was closed" is wholly neutralized in so far as it is categorially latent, and only a living context may de-neutralize it both ways. In particular, the con­text including the by- phraseof the doer (e.g. by the butler) de-neu­tralizes it into the passive form of the verb; but the context in the following example de-neutralizes it into the adjectival nominal collo­cation:

The door on the left was closed, and the door on the right was open.

Thus, with the construction in question the context may have both voice-suppressing, "statalizing" effect, and voice-stimulating, "processualizing" effect. It is very interesting to note that the role of processualizing stimulators of the passive can be performed, alongside action-modifying adverbials, also by some categorial forms of the verb itself, namely, by the future, the continuous, and the per­fect-i.e. by the forms of the time-aspect order other than the in­definite imperfect past and present. The said contextual stimulators are especially important for limitive verbs, since their past participles combine the semantics of processual passive with that of resultativc perfect. Cf.:

The fence is painted.- The fence is painted light green.-The fence is to be painted.- The fence will be painted. - The fence has just been painted. - The fence is just being painted.

The fact that the indefinite imperfect past and present are left indifferent to this gradation of dynamism in passive constructions bears one more evidence that the past and present of the English verb constitute a separate grammatical category distinctly different from the expression of the future (see Ch. XIV).

C H A P T E R XVII

VERB: MOOD

§ 1 . The category of mood, undoubtedly, is the most controver­sial category of the verb. On the face of it, the principles of its analysis, the nomenclature, the relation to other categories, in partic­ular, to tenses, all this has received and is receiving different pre­sentations and appraisals with different authors. Very significant in connection with the theoretical standing of the category are the fol­lowing words by BA. 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" (Ilyish, 99].

Needless to say, the only and true cause of the multiplicity of opinion in question lies in the complexity of the category as such, made especially peculiar by the contrast of its meaningful intricacy against the scarcity of the English word inflexion. But, stressing the disputability of so many theoretical points connected with the English mood, the scholars are sometimes apt to forget the positive results already achieved in this domain during scores of years of both tex­tual researches and the controversies accompanying them.

We must always remember that the knowledge of verbal struc­ture, the understanding of its working in the construction of speech utterances have been tellingly deepened by the studies of the mood system within the general framework of modern grammatical theo­ries, especially by the extensive investigations undertaken by scholars in the past three decades. The main contributions made in this field concern the more and more precise statement of the significance of the functional plane of any category; the exposition of the subtle paradigmatic correlations that, working on the same unchangeable verbal basis, acquire the status of changeable forms; the demonstra­tion of the sentence-constructional value of the verb and its mood, the meaningful destination of it being realized at the level of the syntactic predicative unit as a whole. Among the scholars we are indebted to for this knowledge and understanding, to be named in the first place is A.I. Smirnitsky, whose theories revolutionized the pre­sentation of English verbal grammar; then В.A. Ilyish, a linguist who skilfully demonstrated the strong and weak points of the possible ap­proaches to the general problem of mood; then G.N. Vorontsova, L.S. Barkhudarov, I.B. Khlebnikova, and a number of others, whose keen observations and theoretical generalizations, throwing a new light on the analysed phenomena and discussed problems, at the same time serve as an incentive to further investigations in this in­teresting sphere of language study. It is due to the materials gath­ered and results obtained by these scholars that we venture the pre­sent, of necessity schematic, outline of the category under analysis.

§ 2. The category of mood expresses the character of connection between the process denoted by the verb and the actual reality, ei­ther presenting the process as a fact that really happened, happens or will happen, or treating it as an imaginary phenomenon, i.e. the subject of a hypothesis, speculation, desire. It follows from this that the functional opposition underlying the category as a whole is con­stituted by the forms of oblique mood meaning, i.e. those of unreal­ity, contrasted against the forms of direct mood meaning, i.e. those of reality, the former making up the strong member, the latter, the weak member of the opposition. What is, though, the formal sign of this categorial opposition? What kind of morphological change makes up the material basis of the functional semantics of the oppositional contrast of forms? The answer to this question, evidently, can be obtained as a result of an observation of the relevant language data in the light of the two correlated presentations of the category, namely, a formal presentation and a functional presentation.

But before going into details of fact, we must emphasize, that the most general principle of the interpretation of the category of mood within the framework of the two approaches is essentially the same; it is the statement of the semantic content of the category as determining the reality factor of the verbal action, i.e. showing whether the denoted action is real or unreal

In this respect, it should be clear that the category of mood, like the category of voice, differs in principle from the immanent verbal categories of time, prospect, development, and retrospective coordina­tion. Indeed, while the enumerated categories characterize the action from the point of view of its various inherent properties, the cate­gory of mood expresses the outer interpretation of the action as a whole, namely, the speaker's introduction of it as actual or imagi­nary. Together with the category of voice, this category, not recon­structing the process by way of reflecting its constituent qualities, gives an integrating appraisal of the process and establishes its lin­gual representation in a syntactic context.

§ 3 . The formal description of the category has its source in the traditional school grammar. It is through the observation of immedi­ate differences in changeable forms that the mood distinctions of the verb were indicated by the forefathers of modern sophisticated de­scriptions of the English grammatical structure. These differences, similar to the categorial forms of person, number, and time, are most clearly pronounced with the unique verb be.

Namely, it is first and foremost with the verb be that the pure infinitive stem in the construction of the verbal form of desired or hypothetical action is made prominent. "Be it as you wish", "So be it", "Be what may", "The powers that be", "The insistence that the accused be present"- such and like constructions, though character­ized by a certain bookish flavour, bear indisputable testimony to the fact that the verb be has a special finite oblique mood form, differ­ent from the direct indicative. Together with the isolated, notional be, as well as the linking be, in the capacity of the same mood form come also the passive manifestations of verbs with be in a morpho-logically bound position, Cf .:

The stipulation that the deal be made without delay, the demand that the matter be examined carefully, etc,

By way of correlation with the oblique be, the infinitive stem of the other verbs is clearly seen as constituting the same form of the considered verbal mood. Not only constructions featuring the third person singular without its categorial mark -(e)s, but also construc­tions of other personal forms of the verb are ordered under this heading. Thus,we distinguish the indicated mood form of the verb in sentences like "Happen what may", "God forgive us", " Long live our friendship", " It is important that he arrive here as soon as pos­sible", and also "The agreement stipulates that the goods pass cus­toms free", "It is recommended that the elections start on Monday", "My orders are that the guards draw up", etc.

Semantical observation of the constructions with the analysed verbal form shows that within the general meaning of desired or 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, besides desire, also supposition, specula­tion, suggestion, recommendation, inducement of various degrees of insistence including commands.

Thus, the analysed form-type presents the mood of attitudes. Traditionally it is called "subjunctive", or in more modern termino­logical nomination, "subjunctive one". Since the term "subjunctive" is also used to cover the oblique mood system as a whole, some sort of terminological specification is to be introduced that would give a semantic alternative to the purely formal "subjunctive one" designa­tion. Taking into account the semantics of the form-type in question, we suggest that it should be named the "spective" mood, employing just the Latin base for the notion of "attitudes". So, what we are describing now, is the spective form of the subjunctive mood, or, in keeping with the usual working linguistic parlance, simply the spec-tive mood, in its pure, classical manifestation.

Going on with our analysis, we must consider now the impera­tive form of the verd, traditionally referred to as a separate, impera­tive mood.

In accord with the formal principles of analysis, it is easy to see that the verbal imperative morphemically coincides with the spective mood, since it presents the same infinitive stem, though in relation to the second person only. Turning to the semantics of the impera­tive, we note here as constitutive the meaning of attitudes of the general spective description. This concerns the forms both of be and the other verbs, cf:. Be on your guard! Be off ! Do be careful with the papers! Don't be blue! Do as I ask you! Put down the address, will you? About turm!

As is known, the imperative mood is analysed in certain gram­matical treatises as semantically direct mood, in this sense being likened to the indicative [Ganshina, Vasilevskaya, 200]. This kind of interpretation, though, is hardly convincing. The imperative form dis­plays every property of a form of attitudes, which can easily be shown by means of equivalent transformations. Cf:.

Be off! → I demand that you be off. Do be careful with the pa­pers! → My request is that you do be careful with the papers. Do as I ask you! → I insist that you do as I ask you. About turn! → Icommand that you turn about.

Let us take it for demonstrated, then, that the imperative verbal forms may be looked upon as a variety of the spective, i.e. its par­ticular, if very important, manifestation.*

* Cf. L.S. Barkhudarov's consideration of both varieties of forms under the same heading of "imperative".

At this stage of study we must pay attention to how time is ex­pressed with the analysed form. In doing so we should have in mind that, since the expression of verbal time is categorial, a consid­eration of it does not necessarily break off with the formal principle of observation. In this connection, first, we note that the infinitive stem taken for the building up of the spective is just the present-tense stem of the integral conjugation of the verb. The spective be, the irregular (suppletive) formation, is the only exception from this correlation (though, as we have seen, it does give the general pattern for the mood identification in cases other than the third person sin­gular). Second, we observe that constructions with the spective, though expressed by the present-stem of the verb, can be transferred into the past plane context. Cf:.

It was recommended that the elections start on Monday. My or­ders were that the guards draw up. The agreement stipulated that the goods pass customs free.

This phenomenon marks something entirely new from the point of view of the categorial status of the verbal time in the indicative. Indeed, in the indicative the category of time is essentially absolutive, while in the sphere of the subjunctive (in our case, spective) the present stem, as we see, is used relatively, denoting the past in the context of the past.

Here out" purely formal, i.e. morphemic consideration of the pre­sent stem of the subjunctive comes to an end. Moreover, remaining on the strictly formal ground in the strictly morphemic sense, we would have to state that the demonstrated system of the spective mood exhausts, or nearly exhausts, the entire English oblique mood morphology. See: (Бархударов, 1975, 129]. However, turning to functional considerations of the expression of the oblique mood se­mantics, we see that the system of the subjunctive, far from being exhausted, rather begins at this point.

§ 4 . Observations of the materials undertaken on the compara­tive functional basis have led linguists to the identification of a num­ber of construction types rendering the same semantics as is ex­pressed by the spective mood forms demonstrated above. These gen­eralized expressions of attitudes may be classed into the following three groups.

The first construction type of attitude series is formed by the combination may/might + Infinitive. It is used to express wish, de­sire, hope in the contextual syntactic conditions similar to those of the morphemic (native) spective forms. Cf .:

May it be as you wish! May it all happen as you desire! May success attend you. I hope that he may be safe. Let's pray that ev­erything might still turn to the good, after all. May our friendship live long.

The second construction type of attitude series is formed by the combination should + Infinitive. It is used in various subordinate predicative units to express supposition, speculation, suggestion, rec­ommendation, inducements of different kinds and degrees of inten­sity. Cf .:

Whatever they should say of the project, it must be considered seriously. It has been arranged that the delegation should be received by the President of the Federation. Orders were given that the searching group should start out at once.

The third construction type of the same series is formed by the combination let + Objective Substantive + Infinitive. It is used to express inducement (i.e. an appeal to commit an action) in relation to all the persons, but preferably to the first person plural and third person both numbers. The notional homonym let, naturally, is not taken into account. Cf .:

Let’s agree to end this wait-and-see policy. Now don't let’s be hearing any more of this. Let him repeat the accusation in Tim's presence. Let our military forces be capable and ready. Let me try to convince them myself.

All the three types of constructions are characterized by a high frequency occurrence, by uniformity of structure, by regularity of cor­respondence to the "pure", native morphemic spective form of the verb. For that matter, taken as a whole, they are more universal stylistically than the pure spective form, in so far as they are less bound by conventions of usage and have a wider range of expressive connotations of various kinds. These qualities show that the de­scribed constructions may safely be identified as functional equiva­lents of the pure spective mood. Since they specialize, within the general spective mood meaning, in semantic destination, the special­ization being determined by the semantic type of their modal mark­ers, we propose to unite them under the tentative heading of the "modal" spective mood forms, or, by way of the usual working contraction, the modal spective mood, as contrasted against the "pure" spective expressed by native morphemic means (morphemic zeroing).

The functional varieties of the modal spective, i.e. its specialized forms, as is evident from the given examples, should be classed as, first, the "desiderative" series (may -spective, the form of desire); second, the "considerative" series (should -spective, the form of con­siderations); third, the "imperative" series (let -spective, the form of commands).

We must stress that by terming the spective constructional forms "modal" we don't mean to bring down their grammatical value. Modality is part and parcel of predication, and the modern paradig­matic interpretation of syntactic constructions has demonstrated that all the combinations of modal verbs as such constitute grammatical means of sentence-forming. On the other hand, the relevance of me­dial morpho-syntactic factor in the structure of the forms in question cannot be altogether excluded from the final estimation of their sta­tus. The whole system of the English subjunctive mood is far from stabilized, it is just in the making, and all that we can say about the analysed spective forms in this connection is that they tend to quickly develop into rigidly "formalized" features of morphology.

Very important for confirming the categorial nature of the modal spective forms is the way they express the timing of the process. The verbal time proper is neutralized with these forms and, consid­ering their relation to the present-order pure spective, they can also be classed as "present" in this sense. As to the actual expression of time, it is rendered relatively, by means of the aspective category of retrospective coordination: the imperfect denotes the relative present (simultaneity and posteriority), while the perfect denotes the relative past (priority in the present and the past). This regularity, common for all the system of the subjunctive mood, is not always clearly seen in the constructions of the spective taken by themselves (i.e. without a comparison with the subjunctive of the past order, which is to be considered further) due to the functional destination of this mood.

The perfect is hardly ever used with the pure spective non-im­perative. As far as the imperative is concerned, the natural time-as­pect plane is here the present-oriented imperfect strictly relative to the moment of speech, since, by definition, the imperative is ad­dressed to the listener. The occasional perfect with the imperative gives accent to the idea of some time-limit being transgressed, or stresses an urge to fulfil the action in its entirety. Cf .:

Try and have done, it's not so difficult as it seems. Lets have finished with the whole affair!

Still, when it is justified by the context, the regularity of ex­pressing time through aspect is displayed by the specialized modal spective with the proper distinctness. Cf .:

I wish her plans might succeed (the present simultane­ity - posteriority). - -1 wished her plans might succeed (the past si­multaneity - posteriority). I wish her plans might have succeeded (failure in the present priority). - - I wished her plans might have succeeded (failure in the past priority). Whatever the outcome of the conference should be, stalemate cannot be tolerated (the present si­multaneity - posteriority). - - The commentator emphasized that, whatever the outcome of the conference should be, stalemate could not be tolerated (the past simultaneity - posteriority). Whatever the outcome of the conference should have been, stalemate cannot be tolerated (the present priority, the outcome of the conference is un­known). - - The commentator emphasized that, whatever the out­come of the conference should have been, stalemate could not be tolerated (the past priority, the outcome of the conference was un­known).

The perfect of the modal spective makes up for the deficiency of the pure spective which lacks the perfect forms. Cf .:

Be it so or otherwise, I see no purpose in our argument (simultaneity in the present).- - Should it have been otherwise, there might have been some purpose in our argument (priority in the present).

§ 5. As the next step of the investigation, we are to consider the forms of the subjunctive referring to the past order of the verb. The approach based on the purely morphemic principles leads us here also to the identification of the specific form of the conjugated be as the only native manifestation of the categorial expression of unreal process. E.g.:

Oh, that he were together with us now! If I were in your place, I'd only be happy. If it were in my power, I wouldn't hesitate to interfere.

As is the case with be in the present subjunctive (spective), the sphere of its past subjunctive use is not confined to its notional and linking functions, but is automatically extended to the broad imper­fect system of the passive voice, as well as the imperfect system of the present continuous. Cf .:

If he were given the same advice by an outsider, he would no doubt profit by it; with the relatives it might be the other way about, I'm afraid. I'd repeat that you were right from the start, even though Jim himself were putting down each word I say against him.

Unfortunately, the cited case types practically exhaust the native past subjunctive distinctions of be, since with the past subjunctive, unlike the present, it is only the first and third persons singular that have the suppletive marking feature were. The rest of the forms co­incide with the past indicative. Moreover, the discriminate personal finite was more and more penetrates into the subjunctive, thus liqui­dating the scarce remnants of differences between the subjunctive and the indicative of the past order as a whole. Cf .:

If he was as open-hearted as you are, it would make all the difference.

Thus, from here on we have to go beyond the morphemic prin­ciple of analysis and look for other discriminative marks of the sub­junctive elsewhere. Luckily, we don't have to wander very far in search of them, but discover them in the explicitly distinctive, strikingly significant correlation of the aspcctivc forms of retrospective coordination. These are clearly taken to signify the time of the imaginary process, namely, imperfect for the absolute and relative present, perfect for the absolute and relative past. Thereby, in union with the past verbal forms as such, the perfect-imperfect retrospective coordination system is made to mark the past subjunctive in univer­sal contradistinction to the past and present indicative. This feature is all the more important, since it is employed not only in the struc­tures patterned by the subjunctive were and those used in similar environmental conditions, but also in the further would - should- structures, in which the feature of the past is complicated by the feature of the posteriority, also reformed semantically. Cf:.

I'm sure if she tried, she would manage to master riding not later than by the autumn, for all her unsporting habits (simultaneity - posteriority in the present). - -I was sure if she tried, she would manage it by the next autumn (simultaneity-posteriority in the past). How much embarrassment should I have been spared if only I. had known the truth before! (priority of the two events in the present). - -I couldn't keep from saying that I should have been spared much embarrassment if only I had known the truth before (priority of the two events in the past).

The sought-for universal mark of the subjunctive, the "unknown quantity" which we have undertaken to find, is, then, the tense-ret­rospect shift noted in a preliminary way above, while handling the forms of the present (i.e. spective) subjunctive. The differential mark is unmistakable, both delimiting the present and past subjunctive in their different functional spheres (the present and the past verbal forms as such), and distinguishing the subjunctive as a whole from the indicative as a whole (the tense-retrospect shift taken in its en­tirety). The mark is explicit not by virtue of the grammatical system being just so many ready-made, immovable sets of units and forms; it is explicit due to something very important existing in addition to the static correlations and interdependencies making up the base of the system. What renders it not only distinct, but absolutely essen­tial, is the paradigmatic relations in dynamics of language functioning. It is this dynamic life of paradigmatic connections in the course of speech production and perception that turns the latent structural dif­ferences, if small and insignificant in themselves, into regular and ac­curate means of expression. The tense-retrospect shift analysed within the framework of the latent system is almost imperceptible, almost entirely hidden under the cover of morphemic identity. But this identity proves ephemeral the very moment the process of speech begins. The paradigmatic connections all come into life as if by magic; the different treatments of absolutive and relative tenses sharply contrast one against the other; the imperfect and perfect in­dicative antagonize those of the subjunctive; the tense-retrospect shift manifests its working in explicit structural formations of contexts and environments, not allowing grammatical misunderstandings between the participants of lingual communication.

Thus, having abandoned the exhausted formal approach in the traditional sense in order to seek the subjunctive distinctions on the functional lines, we return to formality all the same, though existing on a broader, dynamic, but none the less real basis.

As for the functional side of it, not yet looked into with the past subjunctive, it evidently differs considerably from that which we have seen in the system of the present subjunctive. The present subjunc­tive is a system of verbal forms expressing a hypothetical action ap­praised in various attitudes, namely, as an object of desire, wish, consideration, etc. The two parallel sets of manifestations of the pre­sent subjunctive, i.e. the pure spective and the modal spective, stand in variant functional inter-relations, conveying essentially identical ba­sic semantics and partially complementing each other on the conno-tative and structural lines. As different from this, the past subjunctive is not a mood of attitudes. Rather, it is a mood of reasoning by the rule of contraries, the contraries being situations of reality opposed to the corresponding situations of unreality, i.e. opposed to the re­flections of the same situations placed by an effort of thinking in different, imaginary connections with one another. Furthermore, the past subjunctive, unlike the present subjunctive, is not a system of two variant sets of forms, though, incidentally, it does present two sets of forms constituting a system. The difference is, that the sys­temic sets of the past subjunctive are functional invariants, semanti­cally complementing each other in the construction of complex sen­tences reflecting the causal-conditional relations of events.

The most characteristic construction in which the two form-types occur in such a way that one constitutes the environment of the other is the complex sentence with a clause of unreal condition. The subjunctive form-type used in the conditional clause is the past un-posterior; the subjunctive form-type used in the principal clause is the past posterior. By referring the verbal forms to the past, as well as to the posterior, we don't imply any actual significations effected by the forms either of the past, or of the posterior: the terms are purely technical, describing the outer structure, or morphemic deriva­tion, of the verbal forms in question. The method by which both forms actualize the denotation of the timing of the process has been described above.

The subjunctive past unposterior is called by some grammarians "subjunctive two". Since we have reserved the term "subjunctive" for denoting the mood of unreality as a whole, another functional name should be chosen for this particular form-type of the subjunc­tive. "Spective" can't be used here for the simple reason that the analysed mood form differs in principle from the spective in so far as its main functions, with the exception of a few construction-types, do not express attitudes. So, to find an appropriate functional name for the mood form in question, we must consider the actual seman­tic role served by it in syntactic constructions.

We have already stated that the most typical use of the past un­posterior subjunctive is connected with the expression of unreal ac­tions in conditional clauses (see examples cited above). Further ob­servations of texts show that, in principle, in all the other cases of its use the idea of unreal condition is, if not directly expressed, then implied by way of "subtext". These are constructions of concession and comparison, expressions of urgency, expressions of wish intro­duced independently and in object clauses. Let us examine them separately.

The syntactic clause featuring the analysed form in the context nearest to the clause of condition is the clause of concession. E.g.:

Even if he had been a commanding officer himself, he wouldn't have received a more solemn welcome in the mess. Even thoughitwere raining, we'll go boating on the lake.

It is easy to see, that the so-called "concession" in the cited complex sentences presents a variety of condition. Namely, it is un­real or hypothetical condition which is either overcome or neglected. And it is expressed intensely. Thus, the transformational exposition of the respective implications will be the following:

... → In spite of the fact that he was not a commanding officer, he was given the most solemn welcome of the sort commanding of­ficers were given. ...→ We don't know whether it will be raining or not, but even in case it is raining we will go boating.

Comparisons with the subjunctive are expressed in adverbial clauses and in predicative clauses. In both cases condition is implied by way of contracted implication. Cf. an adverbial comparative clause:

She was talking to Bennie as if he were a grown person.

The inherent condition is exposed by re-constructing the logicofthe imaginary situation; → She was talking to Bennie as she would be talking to him if he were a grown person.

A similar transformation applies to the predicative comparative clause:

It looks as if it had been snowing all the week.-»It looks as it would look if it had been snowing all the week.

In the subjunctive expression of urgency (temporal limit) the im­plied urgent condition can be exposed by indicating a possible pre­supposed consequence. Cf:.

It is high time the right key to the problem were found. _* → ^* The finding of the right key to the problem is a condition that has long been necessary to realize; those interested would be satisfied in this case.

* The symbol _* → denotes approximate transformation.

In clauses and sentences of wish featuring the subjunctive, the implied condition is dependent on the expressed desire of a situation contrary to reality, and on the regret referring to the existing stage of things. This can also be exposed by indicating a possible presup­posed consequence. Cf. a complex sentence with an object clause of wish-subjunctive:

I wish my brain weren't in such a whirl all the time. _* → My brain not being in such a whirl all the time is a condition for my attending to matters more efficiently.

The wish-subjunctive in independent sentences has the same im­plication:

Oh, that the distress signals had only been heard when we could be in time to rescue the crew! _* → Our hearing the distress signals was a condition for the possibility of our being in time to rescue the crew. We are in despair that it was not so.

As is indicated in grammars, modal verbs used in similar con­structions display the functional features of the subjunctive, including the verb would which implies some effort of wilful activity. Cf:.

I wish he could have come! (The implication is that, unfortu­nately, he had no such possibility.) I wish he would have come ! (The implication is that he had not come of his own free will.)

As we see, the subjunctive form under analysis in its various uses does express the unreality of an action which constitutes a con­dition for the corresponding consequence. Provided our observation is true, and the considered subjunctive uses are essentially those of stipulation, the appropriate explanatory term for this form of the subjunctive would be "stipulative". Thus, the subjunctive form-type which is referred to on the structural basis as the past unposterior, on the functional basis will be referred to as stipulative.

Now let us consider the form-type of the subjunctive which structurally presents the past posterior. As we have stated before, its most characteristic use is connected with the principal clause of the complex sentence expressing a situation of unreal condition: the prin­cipal clause conveys the idea of its imaginary consequence, thereby also relating to unreal state of events. Cf.:

If the peace-keeping force had not been on the alert, the civil war in that area would have resumed anew.

The consequential situation of fact is dependent on the condi­tional situation of fact as a necessity; and this factual correlation is preserved in reference to the corresponding imaginary situations. This can be shown by a transformation: → For the civil war in that area not to have resumed anew, the peace-keeping force had to be on the alert.

Cf. another example:

If two people were found with a great bodily resemblance, the experiment would succeed .→ For the experiment to succeed, it is necessary to find two people with a great bodily resemblance.

In keeping with its functional meaning, this kind of consequence may be named a "consequence of necessity".

A consequence dependent on a "concessive" condition shown above has another implication. Two semantic varieties of clauses of consequence should be pointed out as connected with the said con­cessive condition and featuring the subjunctive mood. The first vari­ety presents a would-be effected action in consequence of a would-be overcome unfavourable condition as a sort of challenge. E.g.:

I know Sam. Even if they had tried to cajole him into accep­tance, he would have flatly refused to cooperate.

The second variety of concessive-conditional consequence featuring the subjunctive, as different from the "consequence of challenge", expresses neglect of a hypothetical situation. Cf.:

Even though weather-conditions were altogether forbidding, the reconnaissance flight would start as scheduled.

Apart from complex sentences, the past posterior form of the subjunctive can be used in independent sentences. It is easy to see, though, that these sentences are based on the presupposition of some condition, the consequence of which they express. It means that from the point of view of the analysed functions they practically do not differ from the. constructions of consequence shown above. Cf:.

He would be here by now: he may have missed his train. → He may have missed his train, otherwise (i.e. if he hadn't missed it) he would be here by now.

As we see, the subjunctive form-type in question in the bulk of its uses essentially expresses an unreal consequential action depen­dent on an unreal stipulating action. In grammars which accept the idea of this form being a variety of the verbal mood of unreality, it is commonly called "conditional". However, the cited material tends to show that the term in this use is evidently inadequate and mis­leading. In keeping with the demonstrated functional nature of the analysed verbal form it would be appropriate, relying on the Latin etymology, to name it "consective". "Consective" in function, "past posterior" in structure - the two names will go together similar to the previously advanced pair "stipulative" - "past unposterior" for the related form of the subjunctive.

Thus, the functions of the two past form-types of the subjunctive are really different from each other on the semantic lines. On the other hand, this difference is of such a kind that the forms comple­ment each other within one embedding syntactic construction, at the same time being manifestations of the basic integral mood of unre­ality. This allows us to unite both analysed form-types under one heading, opposed not only structurally, but also functionally to the heading of the speclive mood. And the appropriate term for this united system of the past-tense subjunctive will be "conditional",Indeed, the name had to be rejected as the designation of the conse­quential (consective) form of the subjunctive taken separately, but it will be very helpful in showing the actual unity of the forms not only on the ground of their structure (i.e. the past tense order), but also from the point of view of their semantico-syntactic destination.

The conditional system of the subjunctive having received its characterization in functional terms, the simplified "numbering" ter­minology may also be of use for practical teaching purposes. Since the purely formal name for the stipulative mood-form, now in more or less common use, is "subjunctive two", it would stand to reason to introduce the term "subjunctive three" for the consective form of the subjunctive. For the sake of observing consistency and symmetry in terms, "modal subjunctive" will then receive the name "subjunctive four".

§ 6 . We have surveyed the structure of the category of mood, trying to expose the correlation of its formal and semantic features, and also attempting to choose the appropriate terms of linguistic de­notation for this correlation. The system is not a simple one, though its bask scheme is not so cumbersome as it would appear in the estimation of certain academic opinion. The dynamic scheme of the category has been much clarified of late in the diverse researches carried out by modern linguists.

One of the drawbacks of the descriptions of the category of mood in the existing, manuals is the confusion of the functional (semantic) terms of analysis with the formal (categorial) terms of analysis.

To begin with, hardly convenient in this respect would appear the shifted nomination of the "oblique" tenses broadly used in grammars, i.e. the renaming of the past imperfect into the "present" and the past perfect into the simple "past". By this shift in terms the authors, naturally, meant to indicate the tense-shift of the "oblique moods", i.e. the functional difference of the tenses in the subjunctive mood from their counterparts in the indicative mood. But the term "tense" is clearly a categorial name which ought to be consistent with the formal structure of the category common for the whole of the verb. As a result of the terminological shift, the tense-structure of the verb receives a hindering reflection, the confusion being aggravated by the additional difficulty of contrasting the "present" tense of one system of the oblique moods (which is for­mally past) against the "present" tense of another system of the oblique moods (which is formally present).

Hardly consistent with adequacy would appear the division of the general mood system into several moods at the upper level of pre­sentation. "Imperative", "subjunctive one", "subjunctive two", "conditional", "suppositional" - these are in fact shown in separate contrasts to the indicative, which hinders the observation of the common basis underlying the analysed category.

The notions "synthetical" moods and "analytical" moods, being formal, hardly meet the requirements of clarity in correlation, since, on the one hand, the "synthetical" formation in the English subjunc­tive is of a purely negative nature (no inflexion), and, on the other hand, the "analytical" oblique formations ("conditional", "supposition­al") and the "synthetical" oblique formations ("subjunctive one", "subjunctive two") are asymmetrically related to the analytical and synthetical features of the temporal-aspective forms of the verb ("subjunctive one" plus part of "subjunctive two" against the "analy­tical moods" plus the other part of "subjunctive two").

Apparently inconsistent with the function of the referent form is the accepted name "conditional" by which the form-type of conse­quence is designated in contrast to the actual form-type of condition ("subjunctive two").

The attempted survey of the system of the English mood based on the recent extensive study of it and featuring oppositional inter­pretations, has been aimed at bringing in appropriate correlation the formal and the functional presentations of its structure.

We have emphasized that underlying the unity of the whole sys­tem is the one integral form of the subjunctive standing in opposi­tion to the one integral form of the indicative. The formal mark of the opposition is the tense-retrospect shift in the subjunctive, the latter being the strong member of the opposition. The shift consists in the perfect aspect being opposed to the imperfect aspect, both turned into the relative substitutes for the absolutive past and pre­sent tenses of the indicative. The shift has been brought about his­torically, as has been rightly demonstrated by scholars, due to the semantic nature of the subjunctive, since, from the point of view of semantics, it is rather a mood of meditation and imagination.

The term "subjunctive" itself cannot be called a very lucky one: its actual motivation by the referent phenomena has long been lost so that at present it is neither formal, nor functional. The mood system of unreality designated by the name "subjunctive" might as well be called "conjunctive", another meaningless term, but stressing the unity of English with other Germanic languages. We have cho­sen the name "subjunctive", though, as a tribute to the purely En­glish grammatical tradition. As for its unmotivated character, with a name of the most general order it might be considered as its asset, after all.

The subjunctive, the integral mood of unreality, presents the two sets of forms according to the structural division of verbal tenses into the present and the past. These form-sets constitute the two corresponding functional subsystems of the subjunctive, namely, the spective, the mood of attitudes, and the conditional, the mood of ap­praising causal-conditional relations of processes. Each of these, in its turn, falls into two systemic sub-sets, so that at the immediately working level of presentation we have the four subjunctive form-types identified on the basis of the strict correlation between their structure and their function: the pure spective, the modal spective, the stipulative conditional, the consective conditional.

For the sake of simplifying the working terminology and bearing in mind the existing practice, the described forms of the subjunctive can be called, respectively, subjunctive one (pure spective), subjunc­tive two (stipulative), subjunctive three (consective), subjunctive four (modal spective, or modal subjunctive). The functional correlation of these forms can be shown on a diagram (See Fig 3).

FORMS OF THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD

The described system is not finished in terms of the historical development of language; on the contrary, it is in the state of making and change. Its actual manifestations are complicated by neutralizations of formal contrasts (such as, for instance, between the past indicative and the past subjunctive in reported speech); by neutraliza­tions of semantic contrasts (such as, for instance, between the con-siderative modal spective and the desiderative modal spective); by fluctuating uses of the auxiliaries (would - should); by fluctuating uses of the finite be in the singular (were - was); etc. Our task in the objective study of language, as well as in language teaching, is to accurately register these phenomena, to explain their mechanism and systemic implications, to show the relevant tendencies of usage in terms of varying syntactic environments, topical contexts, stylistic preferences.

As we see, the category of mood, for all the positive linguistic work performed upon it, continues to be a tremendously interesting field of analytical observation. There is no doubt that its numerous particular properties, as well as its fundamental qualities as a whole, will be further exposed, clarified, and paradigmatically ordered in the course of continued linguistic research.

C H A P T E R XVIII

ADJECTIVE

§ 1. The adjective expresses the categorial semantics of property of a substance. It means that each adjective used in the text presup­poses relation to some noun the property of whose referent it de­notes, such as its material, colour, dimensions, position, state, and other characteristics both permanent and temporary. It follows from this that, unlike nouns, adjectives do not possess a full nominative value. Indeed, words like long, hospitable, fragrant cannot effect any self-dependent nominations; as units of informative sequences they exist only in collocations showing what is long, who is hospitable, what is fragrant.

The semantically bound character of the adjective is emphasized in English by the use of the prop-substitute one in the absence of the notional head-noun of the phrase. E.g.:

I don't want a yellow balloon, let me have the green one over there.

On the other hand, if the adjective is placed in a nominatively self-dependent position, this leads to its substantivization. E.g.:

Outside it was a beautiful day, and the sun tinged the snow with red.

Cf.: The sun tinged the snow with the red colour.

Adjectives are distinguished by a specific combinability with nouns, which they modify, if not accompanied by adjuncts, usually in pre-position, and occasionally in post-position; by a combinability with link-verbs, both functional and notional; by a combinability with modifying adverbs.

In the sentence the adjective performs the functions of an at­tribute and a predicative. Of the two, the more specific function of the adjective is that of an attribute, since the function of a predica­tive can be performed by the noun as well. There is, though, a profound difference between the predicative uses of the adjective and the noun which is determined by their native categorial features. Namely, the predicative adjective expresses some attributive property of its noun-referent, whereas the predicative noun expresses various substantival characteristics of its referent, such as its identification or classification of different types. This can be shown on examples analysed by definitional and transformational procedures. Cf:.

You talk to people as if they were a group.→You talk to people as if they formed a group. Quite obviously, he was a frtend.→His behaviour was like that of a friend.

Cf., as against the above:

I will be silent as a grave. → I will be like a silent grave. Walker felt healthy .→ Walker felt a healthy man. It was sensational. → That fact was a sensational fact.

When used as predicatives or post-positional attributes, a consid­erable number of adjectives, in addition to the general combinability characteristics of the whole class, are distinguished by a complemen-tive combinability with nouns. The complement-expansions of adjec­tives are effected by means of prepositions. E.g.: fond of, jealous of, curious of, suspicious of; angry with, sick with; serious about, certain about; happy about; grateful to, thankful to, etc. Many such adjectival collocations render essentially verbal meanings and some of them have direct or indirect parallels among verbs. Cf.: be fond of - love, like; be envious of - envy; be angry with - resent; be mad for, about - covet; be thankful to - thank.

Alongside other complementive relations expressed with the help of prepositions and corresponding to direct and prepositional object-relations of verbs, some of these adjectives may render relations of addressee. Cf.: grateful to, Indebted to, partial to, useful for.

To the derivational features of adjectives belong a number of suffixes and prefixes of which the most important are: -ful (hopeful), less (flawless), -ish (bluish), -ous (famous), -ive (decorative), -ic (basic); un- (unprecedented), in- (inaccurate), pre- (premature). Among the adjectival affixes should also be named the prefix a -, constitutive for the stative subclass which is to be discussed below.

As for the variable (demutative) morphological features, the En­glish adjective, having lost in the course of the history of English all its forms of grammatical agreement with the noun, is distinguished only by the hybrid category of comparison, which will form a special subject of our study.

§ 2 . All the adjectives are traditionally divided into two large subclasses: qualitative and relative.

Relative adjectives express such properties of a substance as are determined by the direct relation of the substance to some other substance. E.g.: wood - a wooden hut; mathematics - mathematical precision; history - a historical event; table - tabular presentation; colour - coloured postcards; surgery - surgical treatment; the Middle Ages - mediaeval rites.

The nature of this "relationship" in adjectives is best revealed by definitional correlations. Cf.: a wooden hut - a hut made of wood; a historical event - an event referring to a certain period of history, surgical treatment - treatment consisting in the implementation of surgery; etc.

Qualitative adjectives, as different from relative ones, denote vari­ous qualities of substances which admit of a quantitative estimation, i.e of establishing their correlative quantitative measure. The measure of a quality can be estimated as high or low, adequate or inade­quate, sufficient or insufficient, optimal or excessive. Cf.: an awkward situation - a very awkward situation; a difficult task - too difficult a task; an enthusiastic reception - rather an enthusiastic reception; a hearty welcome - not a very hearty welcome; etc.

In this connection, the ability of an adjective to form degrees of comparison is usually taken as a formal sign of its qualitative char­acter, in opposition to a relative adjective which is understood as in­capable of forming degrees of comparison by definition. Cf.: a pretty girl - a prettier girl; a quick look - a quicker look; a hearty wel­come - the heartiest of welcomes; a bombastic speech - the most bombastic speech.

However, in actual speech the described principle of distinction is not at all strictly observed, which is noted in the very grammar treatises putting it forward. Two typical cases of contradiction should be pointed out here.

In the first place, substances can possess such qualities as are in­compatible with the idea of degrees of comparison. Accordingly, ad­jectives denoting these qualities, while belonging to the qualitative subclass, are in the ordinary use incapable of forming degrees of comparison. Here refer adjectives like extinct, immobile, deaf, final, fixed, etc.

In the second place, many adjectives considered under the head­ing of relative still can form degrees of comparison, thereby, as it were, transforming the denoted relative property of a substance into such as can be graded quantitatively. Cf:. a mediaeval ap­proach - rather a mediaeval approach - a far more mediaeval ap­proach; of a military design - of a less military design - of a more military design; a grammatical topic - a purely grammatical