The category of temporal correlation

Verb

NOUN

Semantic features. The noun possesses the grammatical meaning of thingness, substance.

Morphological features of the noun. In accordance with the morphological structure of the stems all nouns can be classified into simple, derived, compound and composite. The noun has morphological categories of number and case.

The number category is realized through the opposition of two form-classes: the plural form:: the singular form. Formally it is the opposition of zero exponent vs. plural-building morpheme s/es [z,s,iz] inflexion. There are also non-productive ways of expressing number: inner inflexion, or sound alternation: man/men, woman/women, suffix –(e)n, as well as suffixes of borrowed nouns.

There is no universal point of view as to the case system in English. Different scholars stick to a different number of cases – from 6 to no cases at all.

As to gender, according to some language analysts (B.Ilyish, F.Palmer, and E.Morokhovskaya), nouns have no category of gender in Modern English. The difference between such nouns as actor and actress is a purely lexical one.

Syntactic features of the noun. The noun can be used in the sentence in all syntacticfunctions but predicate. These are substantive functions in the sentence (subject, object, substantival predicative); prepositional connections; modification by an adjective.

Nouns are subcategorised into proper and common, animate and inanimate, countable and uncountable, concrete and abstract, etc.

Semantic features of the verb. The verb possesses the grammatical meaning of verbiality - the ability to denote a process developing in time.

Syntactic features. The most universal syntactic feature of verbs is their ability to be modified by adverbs. The second syntactic criterion is the ability of the verb to perform the syntactic function of the predicate. However, this criterion is not absolute as only finite forms can perform this function.

Morphological features of the verb. The verb possesses the following grammatical categories: tense, aspect, voice, mood, person, number, finitude and temporal correlation. The common categories for finite and non-finite forms are voice, aspect, temporal correlation and finitude. The grammatical categories of the English verb find their expression in both synthetical and analytical forms.

The Category of Person is represented in English by the two member opposition: third person singular vs. non-third person singular. The marked member of the opposition is third person; the unmarked member is nonthird person (it includes the remaining forms – first person, second person forms – singular and plural).

The Category of Number shows whether the process is associated with one doer or with more than one doer. The category of number is a two-member opposition: singular and plural. An interesting feature of this category is the fact that it is blended with person: number and person make use of the same morpheme. As person is a feature of the present tense, number is also restricted to the present tense. Some verbs – modals – do not distinguish number at all.

The category of tense Time can be expressed in language in two basic ways: 1) lexically; 2) grammatically. The category of tense finds different interpretations with different scholars. According to one view, there are only two tenses in English: past and present. Most British scholars do not recognize the existence of future. It is considered to be a combination of the modal verb and an infinitive used to refer to future actions. The modal verbs “shall” and “will” preserve their lexical meaning of “wish, volition”.

The category of aspect is a linguistic representation of the objective category of manner of action. It is realized through the opposition Continuous::Non-Continuous. It is easily neutralized, i. e. noncontinuous forms substitute continuous forms when the notion of duration is expressed by other means (eg. lexical).

The position of the perfect forms in the system of the English verb is a problem which has been treated in many different ways and has raised much controversy. There are three major approaches to defining the essence of perfective forms in English:

- The category of perfect is a peculiar tense category. This view was held, for example, by O. Jespersen.

- The category of perfect is a peculiar aspect category, i. e. one which should be given a place in the list comprising "common aspect" and "continuous aspect" (including Prof. G. Vorontsova)

- The category of perfect is a specific category different from both (prof. A. Smirnitsky). This category is based on the opposition “perfect vs. non-perfect”.

The category of voice The form of the verb may show whether the agent expressed by the subject is the doer of the action or the recipient of the action (John broke the vase – the vase was broken). The category of voice reflects the objective relations between the action and the subject or object of the action.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-06