Categories of Person and Number
Person and number are treated by scholars as closely related categories. In their treatment two approaches are contrasted: traditional and modern.
In accord with the traditional approach, scholars point out to the existence in English of three persons and two numbers.
The category of person expresses the relation of the action and its doer to the speaker, showing whether the action is performed by the speaker (the 1st person), someone addressed by the speaker (the 2nd person) or someone/something other than the speaker or the person addressed (the 3rd person).
The category of number shows whether the action is performed by one or more than one persons or non-persons.
In modern linguistic works on the problem it is also stressed that the categories of person and number are closely interwoven in English and should be considered together. At the same time it is particularly emphasized that these categories are spccific because they don't convey the inherently “verbal” semantics. It means that the categories of person and number have a “reflective” character: the personal and numerical semantics in the finite verb is the reflection in the verb lexeme of the personal and numerical semantics of the subject referent. Due to it the combination and strict correlation of the English finite verb with the subject is obligatory not only syntactically but also categorially.
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 (Fig. 57).
Category of Person
Fig. 57
From the formally morphemic point of view, the category of number 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 (Fig. 58).
Fig. 58
A more regular way of expressing the categories of person and number is the use of personal pronouns. They are indispensable when the finite verb forms in the indicative as well as the subjunctive moods have no markers of person or number distinctions.
Category of Tense
The category of tense is considered to be an immanent (неотъемлемый, постоянный) grammatical category which means that the finite verb form always expresses time distinctions. The category of tense in English (as well as in Russian) expresses the relationship between the time of the action and the time of speaking. It reflects the objective category of time. The essential characteristic of the category of tense is that it relates the time of the action, event or state of affairs referred to in the sentence to the time of the utterance.
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 (Fig. 59).
Fig. 59
All the lexical expressions of time are divided into “present-oriented”, or “absolutive” expressions of time, and “non-present-oriented”, “non-absolutive” expressions of time (Fig. 60).
The absolutive time denotation 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.
The non-absolutive time denotation does not characterise an event in terms of orientation towards 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.
The factual expression of time either directly states the astronomical time of an event, or else conveys this meaning in terms of historical landmarks.
Fig. 60
The category of tense (grammatical tense proper) finds different interpretations with different scholars. In traditional linguistics grammatical time is often represented as a three-form category consisting of the “linear” past, present, and future forms (Fig. 61).
The time of speaking is designated as present time and is the starting point for the whole scale of time measuring. The time that follows the time of speaking is designated as future time; the time that precedes the time of speaking is designated as past time. Accordingly there are three tenses in English – the present tense, the future tense and the past tense which refer actions to present, future or past time.
The future-in-the-past does not find its place in the scheme based on the linear principle, hence, this system is considered to be deficient, not covering all lingual data.
Fig. 61
At the same time linguists build up new systems of tenses in order to find a suitable place in them for future-in-the past. They express the idea that in English there exist two tense categories (Fig. 62).
The first category – the category of primary time – expresses a direct retrospective evaluation of the time of the process denoted, due to which the process receives an absolutive time characteristic. This category is based upon the opposition of “the past tense” and “the present tense”, the present moment being the main temporal plane of verbal actions.
The second tense category is the category of “prospective time”. It is based upon the opposition of “after-action” and “non-after-action”. The category of Prospect is relative by nature. It characterizes the action from the point of view of its correlation with some other action. As the future verbal form may be relative either to the present time, or to the past time included in non-future, the English verb acquires two different future forms: the future of the present and the future of the past.
Fig. 62
Category of Aspect
The category of aspect is a linguistic representation of the objective category of Manner of Action. Grammatical aspective meanings form a variable grammatical category which is traditionally associated with the opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms of the verb. The realization of the category of aspect is closely connected with the lexical meaning of verbs (Fig. 63).
Fig. 63
A great divergence of opinions can be found on the problem of the English aspect (Table 5).
Table 5
Evolution of Views
| The “tense view” | H. Sweet, O. Espersen |
| The “tense-aspect blend view” | I.P. Ivanova |
| The “aspect view” | A.I. Smirnitsky, V.N. Yartseva, B.A. Ilyish, L.S. Barchudarov |
The main difference lies in the interpretation of the categorial semantics of the oppositional members continuous and indefinite forms: the categorial meaning of the continuous form is usually defined as the meaning of duration, while the interpretation of the categorial semantics of the indefinite form causes controversy: the indefinite form may be interpreted as
Ø having a temporal meaning (H. Sweet, O. Espersen),
Ø having no aspective meaning (I.P. Ivanova),
Ø as a form having a vague content (N. Voronlsova),
Ø as a form stressing the fact of the performance of the action (A.I. Smirnitsky). In Modern Linguistics A.I. Smirnitsky’s interpretation of the categorial semantics of the indefinite form is widely accepted.
Category of Retrospect
The category of retrospect or the category of perfect is as fundamental to the English verb as the categories of tense and aspect, whereas it is quite alien to the Russian verb. The category of perfect is constituted by the opposition of the perfect to the non-perfect (Fig. 64).
Fig. 64
The perfect forms denote action preceding certain moments of time in the present, past or future. The non-perfect forms denote actions belonging to certain moments of time in the present, past or future.
In theoretical grammar the interpretation of perfect / non-perfect verb-forms refers to disputable questions (Table 6).
Table 6
Evolution of Views
| The “tense view” | H. Sweet, G. Curme, M. Bryant, J.R. Aiken, N.F. Irtenyeva, M.A. Ganshina |
| The “aspect view” | M. Deutschbein, E.A. Sonnenschein, A.S. West, G.N. Vorontsova |
| The “tense-aspect blend view” | I.P. Ivanova |
| The “time correlation view” | A.I. Smirnitsky |
| The “retrospective coordination view” | M.Y. Bloch |
Some linguists interpret the opposition of perfect / non-perfect forms as aspective (0. Jespersen, I.P. Ivanova, G.N. Vorontsova), others as the opposition of tense forms (H. Sweet, G.O. Curme, A. Korsakov).
A.I. Smirnitsky was the first to prove that perfect and non-perfect make up a special, self-sufficient, category which he called the “category of time correlation”. This viewpoint is shared now by a vast majority of linguists.
Developing A.I. Smirnilsky’s views on the categorial semantics of perfect / non-perfect forms, M.Y. Bloch comes to the conclusion that in English there exist two aspective categories: the category of development (based on the opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms) and the category of retrospective coordination (based on the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms).
Category of Voice
The category of voice occupies a peculiar place in the system of verbal categories because it reflects the direction of the process as regards the participants in the situation denoted by a syntactic construction. 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. The objective relations between the action and the subject or object of the action find their expression in language as the grammatical category of voice. Therefore, the category of voice reflects the objective relations between the action itself and the subject or object of the action.
The category of voice is realized through the opposition active and passive voice.
The active form has the meaning of “non-passivity”. It indicates that the action is directed from the subject or issues from the subject, thus the subject denotes the doer (agent) of the action.
The passive form expresses the reception of the action by the subject of the syntactic construction. It indicates that the action is directed towards the subject. Here the subject expresses a person or non-person who or which is the receiver of the action. It does not act, but is acted upon and therefore affected by the action of the verb.
In comparison with Russian, the category of voice in English has a much broader representation as not only transitive but also intransitive objective verbs can be used in the passive voice. Another peculiarity of voice distinctions of English verbs consists in the fact that active forms often convey passive meanings.
The realization of the voice category is restricted because of the implicit grammatical meaning of transitivity/intransitivity. In accordance with this meaning, all English verbs should fall into transitive and intransitive. However, the classification turns out to be more complex and comprises six groups:
Ø Verbs used only transitively: to mark, to raise;
Ø Verbs with the main transitive meaning: to see, to make, to build;
Ø Verbs of intransitive meaning and secondary transitive meaning. A lot of intransitive verbs may develop a secondary transitive meaning: They laughed me into agreement; He danced the girl out of the room;
Ø Verbs of a double nature, neither of the meanings are the leading one, the verbs can be used both transitively and intransitively: to drive home - to drive a car;
Ø Verbs that are never used in the Passive Voice: to seem, to become;
Ø Verbs that realize their passive meaning only in special contexts: to live, to sleep, to sit, to walk, to jump.
There exist a 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. Some scholars admit the existence of Middle, Reflexive and Reciprocal voices (Fig. 65).
Fig. 65
The verbal meaning of the action performed by the subject upon itself is classed as “reflexive” (the subject is both the agent and the recipient of the action at the same time). It is always possible to use a reflexive pronoun in this case.
The verbal meaning of the action performed by the subjects in the subject group on one another is called “reciprocal”. It is always possible to use a reciprocal pronoun here.
When the verbs primarily transitive develop an intransitive middle meaning they are used in the so called “Middle Voice”.
However, it should be noted that all these meanings are not expressed morphologically.
Category of Mood
The meaning of this category is the attitude of the speaker or writer towards the content of the sentence, whether the speaker considers the action real, unreal, desirable, necessary, etc. It is expressed in the form of the verb.
There are three moods in English – the indicative mood, the imperative mood and the oblique mood (Fig. 66).
The indicative mood form shows that what is said must be regarded as a fact, as something which has occurred or is occurring at the moment of speaking or will occur in the future. It may denote actions with different time-reference and different aspective characteristics. Therefore the indicative mood has a wide variety of tense and aspect forms in the active and passive voice.
The imperative mood expresses a command or a request to perform an action addressed to somebody, but not the action itself. As it does not actually denote an action as a real act, it has no tense category. The unfulfilled action always refers to the future. Aspect distinctions and voice distinctions are not characteristic of the imperative mood, although forms such as, be writing, be warned sometimes occur. This form is always addressed to the second person.
The oblique mood expresses non-facts: unreal or hypothetical actions or states. A hypothetical action or state may be viewed upon as desired, necessary, possible, supposed, imaginary, or contradicting reality.
In Old English the oblique mood was expressed by a special system of forms with a special set of inflections, different from those of the indicative. In the course of time most of the inflections were lost, and the difference between the forms of the oblique nd those of the indicative has almost disappeared. In Modern English there remain only two synthetic forms of the old regular system of the subjunctive, which differ from the forms of the indicative.
Subjunctive I coincides with the plain verb stem for all persons in both the singular and the plural. It denotes a hypothetical action referring to the present or future. Of these surviving forms only be is always distinct from the indicative forms and is therefore rather current.
Subjunctive II refers the hypothetical action to the present, future or past and shows that it contradicts reality. The non-factual past indefinite and past continuous are used to denote hypothetical actions in the present or future. The non-factual past perfect and past perfect continuous denote hypothetical actions in the past.
Most of the later formations are analytical, built by means of the auxiliaries which developed from the modal verbs should and would,plus any form of the infinitive.
According to their use and function analytic oblique forms may be divided into two groups.
Fig. 66
The Conditional Mood is formed by means of would+infinitivefor all persons, both singular and plural. This form denotes an unreal action the unreality of which is due to the absence of necessary conditions. It may be used both in simple and complex sentences.
The Suppositional Mood is formed by means of should+infinitivefor all persons, both singular and plural. This mood represents the action as problematic, but not contradicting reality. This form expresses necessity, suggestion, advice, supposition.