Formation of verb categories

ГРАММАТИКА АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

Морфология. Синтаксис

СОЮЗ

С.-ПЕТЕРБУРГ

ББК 81.2 Англ.

К 85

Н. А. Кобрина, Е. А. Корнеева, М. И. Оссовская, К. А. Гузеева

Пособие представляет собой второе дополненное и переработанное издание ранее изданного курса практической грамматики в двух частях - Морфология (М., Просвещение, 1985) и Синтаксис (М., Просвещение, 1986).

Пособие было допущено Министерством просвещения СССР в качестве учебного пособия для студентов педагогических институтов по специальности №2103 "Иностранные языки".

Рецензенты:

Кафедра грамматики английского языка Минского ГПИИЯ;

профессор М. Я. Блох (МГПИ им. В. И. Ленина)

Авторы уделяют особое внимание тем грамматическим явлениям, которые не имеют аналогов в русском языке.

Новелла Александровна Кобрина, Елена Александровна Корнеева,

Мария Ильинична Оссовская , Ксения Александровна Гузеева

ГРАММАТИКА АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

Морфология. Синтаксис

Учебное пособие

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ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

Настоящее пособие дает достаточно полное и систематическое описание строя современного английского языка, подробно излагая разделы грамматики, предусмотренные Программой Министерства просвещения СССР для студентов I-III курсов факультетов и отделений английского языка педагогических институтов. Задача пособия состоит в том, чтобы дать студентам практическое знание грамматического строя английского языка, необходимое для владения языком.

Основной материал учебника излагается с позиций современной английской литературной грамматической нормы, однако фиксируются и американские варианты, а также коллоквиализмы и архаические формы, используемые в поэзии.

Каждой новой теме предпосылаются краткие сведения, дающие общую характеристику описываемого явления.

Пройденный материал рекомендуется закреплять сериями упраж­нений, среди которых значительное место должны занимать упражне­ния коммуникативного типа.

Для удобства пользования весь материал учебника разделен на параграфы, имеющие сквозную нумерацию.

Основной иллюстративный материал почерпнут из англо-амери­канской литературы последних десятилетий.

Пособие было апробировано в течение нескольких лет на ан­глийском отделении факультета иностранных языков РГПУ им. А. И. Герцена.

Авторы

INTRODUCTION

The grammatical system of English, like that of any other language, possesses its own peculiar features.

The English language has comparatively few grammatical inflections. They are the plural and the Genitive case endings of some nouns, the com­parative degree endings of some adjectives and adverbs; personal inflections of verbs are confined to the third person singular and the opposition of the forms was - were. What is most characteristic of these inflections in com­parison with Russian is that they are more unified. Thus the plural ending -s in nouns is used with the majority of count nouns. The few exceptions (such as tooth - teeth, goose - geese, child - children, ox - oxen) are regarded as obsolete forms.

In the sphere of the verb, however, many complications arise, as there is no such regularity among the past tense and participle II forms. Some of them are formed with the inflection -ed (help - helped – helped), others by means of root vowel change (bring - brought - brought, come - came - come). The latter are considered as irregular verbs.

Alongside synthetic forms, the verb has an elaborate system of analytical forms (most of the tense, aspect and perfect forms, the passive voice forms, most of the subjunctive mood forms). The analytical forms, include an auxiliary verb, as the bearer of the grammatical meaning, and a notional part: has gone, was sent, would like, to be posted, being done, having been done, etc.

Many words are not inflected at all: most adjectives and adverbs, modal words, statives, non-count nouns, conjunctions, prepositions, particles and interjections. Moreover, most words are devoid of any word-forming (derivational) morphemes which would show that they belong to a certain class. This lack of morphological distinctions between the classes accounts for the fact that a great number of words (both notional and functional words) may easily pass from one class to another, their status being determined mainly syntactically, by their function in the sentence. The prevailing role of syntax over morphology is also revealed in the fact that words, phrases and clauses may be used in the same functions.

The order of elements in the English sentence is fixed to a greater degree than in inflected languages (as the Russian language). The order subject - predicate - object is most characteristic of statements, and any modi­fication of it is always justified by either stylistic or communicative conside­rations. Attributes may precede or follow head-word, the first pattern be­ing more usual. The most mobile element in the sentence is the adverbial, but that can be explained by its reference to different parts of the sentence.

A most peculiar feature of English is a special set of words employed as structural substitutes for a certain part of speech: noun substitutes (one, that), the verb substitute (do), the adverbs and adjective substitute (so).

Morphology

PARTS OF SPEECH

§ 1. All the words of the English language are grouped into different types of classes. This classification is based on three main principles:

1) their grammatical meaning;

2) their form and

3) their syntactical characteristics.

By the first we understand the meaning common to all the words of the class, such as thingness for the noun or either process or state for the verb.

By the second we mean the morphological characteristics of the class meant, such as the number of the noun or the voice of the verb.

By the third - the combinability and the syntactical functions of a type of word.

We distinguish between notional and functional parts of speech: the former denoting extralinguistic phenomena such as things, actions, qualities, emotions and the latter - relations and connections between notional words or sentences. Thus there are 9 notional parts of speech and 3 functional ones.

THE VERB

§ 2. Most verbs denote action or state. However, there are some verbs which have other meanings. They are modal verbs, causative verbs,someimpersonal verbs, relationaland link-verbs. They present a system of finite and non-finite forms, except for modal verbs, which have no non-finite forms.

The verb in its finite forms possesses the morphological categories of person, number, tense, aspect, perfect, voice and mood. Its syntactical function is that of the predicate.

The non-finite forms (or verbals) are four in number, they are: the infinitive, the gerund, participle I and participle II.

Non-finite verb forms possess the verbal categories of perfect, voice and to a certain extent aspect. Owing to the richness of its morphological catego­ries, the flexibility of its syntactical functioning and wide combinability, the verb is of the greatest importance in the structure of the sentence.

The morphological categories of the verb are interrelated, that is every verb form expresses all these categories simultaneously.

Formation of verb categories

§ 3. English morphological categories are formed in two ways, synthetically and analytically.

Synthetic or simple forms are those the formal elements of which are to be found within one word from which they are inseparable. These are the present and the past indefinite affirmative (sing, sings, sang); the non-perfect common aspect forms of the infinitive, participle I, the gerund, participle II (sing, singing, sung); the imperative mood (sing!).

Analytical or compound verb forms consist of at least two verbal elements, an auxiliary verb and a notional verb; the latter is presented by participle I, participle II, or the infinitive.

An auxiliary verb is devoid of its lexical meaning, its role is purely grammatical. It may be finite or non-finite, thus showing whether the whole verb form is finite or non-finite as in:

Jane is singing.

Someone seems to be singing in the next room.

The auxiliary verbs in English are not numerous, they are seven: to do, to be, to have, shall, will, should, would.

The notional verb of a compound verb form is always non-finite, it carries the lexical meaning of the whole verb form.

The analytical verb forms are the forms of the continuous aspect, the perfect forms, the passive forms, the future forms, the future in the past forms, some forms of the subjunctive mood, the interrogative, negative and emphatic forms of the present and past indefinite.

The meaning of the analytical form as a whole is the result of the complete fusion of the auxiliary and the non-finite form.

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