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U19, Stative verbs: be, feel, know, like, prefer, have, believe, seem,…
U19
3. ASPECT
a) PERFECTIVE ASPECT
The perfective merely defines an
anterior time
zone within which the action of the V takes place. The time of orientation is
not defined
/fixed: "I have already met your sister"
Present perfect
It means
past time "with current relevance"
. It differs from the simple past in relating a past event/state to a present time orientation. In situations where both can be used, the action in the PP is more directly
related to the present time
Meanings
indefinite Event(s)
"Have you (ever) been to Florence?"
"All our children have had rubeola"
"It is possible that I have left (/left) the keys at the office (last night)" If a time/position adv is added (like last night), then the verb has to be past
in a period leading up to the present
Habits
"Mr Terry has sung in their choir ever since he was a boy."
"The province has suffered from disastrous floods for centuries"
recurrent events
in a period leading up to the present
State
"That house has been empty for ages."
"Have you known my sister for long?"
continues (at least) up to the present
Simple past
: "Where did you put my wallet?" (asks to remember a past action)
Present perfect
: "Where have you put my wallet?" (concentrates on the present location)
Past perfect
It means “
past-in-the-past
” (a past
stretching before a definite point of orientation in the past
,) & can be regarded as an anterior version of the Pres P or Simple P. The three meanings of “state, event & habit” can all occur. By using PP for the earlier event and SP for the one that followed
"When the police arrived, the thieves had run away"
Past S & Present P, and Past S & Past P share territory
b) PROGRESSIVE ASPECT
Activities/events
in progress
at a particular time, usually "temporarily" (have limited duration & are not necessarily complete:
temporary & incomplete
) On the other hand, the non-progresive implies "permanence"
Present progressive
events that 1) are currently in progress, or 2) events that are going to take place in the future, perceived by the speaker to be quite certain because they have been arranged in advance
Simple present
: "John sings well" (competence as a singer) (same tense, diff aspects)
Present progressive
: "John is singing well" (performance in a particular occasion)
Meanings
State progressive
Stative verbs do not normally occur in the progressive, but if they occur, they adopt
dynamic meanings
(a temporary activity): "I’m having to take my exam soon", "I'm liking it"
Event progressive
(dymanic Vbs) It conveys the idea that an event
has duration
& is
not completed
: "The train was approaching"
1 more item...
Habitual progressive
(dymanic Vbs) It refers to events that
repeatedly occur over a limited period
: "At that time she was having regular singing lessons"
1) "What’s she doing?"
2) "I’m going with him next week."
Past progressive
events that were in progress at an earlier time
Simple past
: "John sang well" (the event as a whole)
Past progressive
: "John was singing well" (an activity in process)
c) PERFECT PROGRESSIVE
Temporary situation (in progress) leading up to the present/past/future. An ongoing action (progressive) completed at a later point in time (perfect)
Present perfect
: "We have lived in Europe all our lives" (completeness)
"I have cleaned the windows" (completeness/resultative meaning: the windows are clean)
Present perfect continuous
: "We have been living in Europe all our lives" (temporary)
"I have been cleaning the windows" (possible incompleteness)
Additionally, it can be used to refer to
temporary habit up to the present
: "Martin has been scoring plenty of goals (this season)"
Combined meanings: "temporariness" + "anterior time related to the present time"
How the action/verb is experienced
with respect to time. It is
not deictic
: not relative to the moment of the utterance. Perfective & Progressive aspects can be seen as realizing a basic contrast between
the speaker's perspective on whether the action is complete/permanent or incomplete/ongoing/temporary
(simplified view)
(realized
syntactically
)
(the speaker's perspective)
2. TENSE
Time is universal, extralinguistic & not grammatical.
Tense is represented by
verb forms
. It is used by all languages (varying from one to another) to express a time relation. There are only two verbal forms in English: present & past tense (restricting this term to those time-expressions which take the form of an
inflexional verbal suffix
)
b) SIMPLE PAST TENSE
With reference to
past time
1) The event/state must have taken place in the
past
, with a gap btw its completion & the present moment
2) The speaker must have in mind a
definite
time at which the event/state took place
Situational use
used in relation to an
immediate
situation: "Did you lock the front door?"
Anaphoric & Cataphoric use
Anaphoric
: when the time reference in the past is already indicated by a previous use of the past tense/an adverbial of time
Cataphoric
: when the time reference in the past follows the verb
"Last Friday, we went to a concert"
"We went to a concert last Friday"
Event
, State & Habit
Event
past: refers to a
single definite event
in the past
State
past: refers to a past state/condition (ongoing)
Habitual
past: refers to a past
sequence of events
"The American Civil War provoked many casualties"
"Archery was a popular sport for the Victorians"
"In Ancient times, the Olympic Games were held in Greece"
( - )
(----------)
(- - - - - -)
meanings
With reference to
present
&
future time
Indirect speech
: past tense in the reporting V tends to make the V of the subordinate clause past tense as well (backshifting, optional)
Attitudinal past
: refers to the speaker's attitude rather than to time (+polite)
Hypothetical past
: common in subordinate
if-clauses
(expresses what is contrary to the speaker's belief/expectation: implies that state/event is not ocurring in the present or future)
"He said he likes chocolate > He said he liked chocolate"
"Do/Did you want to see me now?" (past = more polite)
"If you were rich, you would buy me a ring" (you aren't)
c) MEANS OF EXPRESSING FUTURE TIME
Will
/ shall
Unplanned events based on a prediction or a present decision:
Prediction
: (as the main clause of a conditional/temporal clause)
Volition
: expresses willingness, intention or insistence
"You’ll feel better if/when you say that secret"
"How soon will you announce your decision?"
SHALL: used to indicate futurity, but only with a
first person
subject: "No doubt I shall see you next week"
WILL + progressive infitive: combines future reference with progressive aspect: "I’ll be waiting here"
+bare-infinitive
Be going to
meaning "future fulfilment of the present" used to express future events that are
planned, intended & likely to happen based on evidence or the current situation
, especially in informal speech
Present progressive
meaning "
future arising from present arrangements, plans or timetables
" (planned/arranged in advance). It cannot normally be used with certain stative verb types
Simple present
regularly used in future events that are part of a
fixed timetable
& in dependent clauses after conditional & temporal conjunctions (if, when, etc.)
"What will you say if I go to the party?"
"The guests will be drunk before they leave"
Although there is no future tense in English, there exist some constructions for expressing future time using
periphrasis
a) SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE
With reference to
present time
State present
Stative verbs (have, be, know) in present used
without reference to specific time: general timeless statements
/universal truths
Also, in situations where our knowledge of the world tells us that the time span of the state is
restricted
"We live near Toronto"
"She knows several Lgs."
"Everyone likes Maurice"
"The earth moves round the sun"
"Two and four make six"
(----------)
Habitual present
A sequence of events
repeated over a period of time
(with dynamic verbs)
One can easily add a
frequency Adv
to specify the frequency of the repetition
Vs of stative meaning can sometimes be used in a habitual sense when accompanied by a frequency advbl: "He's always alone"
"We go to Brussels every year"
"Bill drinks heavily"
(- - - - - -)
Instantaneous present
A
single action
begun & completed approximately at the moment of speech (with dynamic verbs). It implies that the event has little or no duration
"Beckham passes the ball to Owen"
( - )
There is no one-to-one relationship btw
focus
& time. The present tense in English may refer to future or past time, depending on context
Special non-present usages, with reference to:
Past
With
Vbs of communication
(say, tell & understand, hear, learn) which refer to the receptive end of the com. process, implying that the past communication’s result is
still operative
"The ten o’clock news says that the weather..."
"Martin tells me the Smiths are moving away"
"I hear that poor Mr Simpson has gone into hospital"
The notion that the past can remain alive in the present also explains the optional use of the Pres tense in sentences referring to
artists & their works
"Picasso is/was able to convey an impression of vividness"
Vbs of communication
Future
With time/position Advs (in main clauses) to suggest that the event is unalterably
fixed in advance (timetables)
"The plane leaves for Dublin at eight o’clock tonight"
In dependent clauses, the future use of the simple present is much more common, particularly in
conditional
(if) &
temporal clauses
(when)
"He’ll do it if you go with him"
"I’ll pay you as soon as I receive the money"
in Fictional narrative style
Conventionally, past tense is used for story-telling, but the
historic present
describes the past
as if it is happening now
"I couldn’t believe! Just as we
arrived
, up
comes
Ben and
slaps
me on the back as if we’
re
life-long friends. “come on, old pal”, he
says
, “let me buy you a drink”..."
(realized
morphologically
)
1. THE VERB PHRASE
Linguistic levels
Morphology
How to
form
verbal tenses (verbal tense formation) (e.g., by adding inflectional suffixes -ed)
Phonology
How to
pronounce
present & past tense inflections (-s/-es, -ed
Syntax
How to
place
verbal tenses in a sentence to constitute grammatical strings
Lexis
Choice between the different
types
of verbs:
lexical, primary, modal
Semantics
Meaning
where syntactic & morphological levels do not tell the difference (the different senses of present continuous)
When...?
a situation has happened? In...
Real time :
Common to all mankind
(universal)
& independent from language
(extralinguistic)
. It has one dimension & is represented by
a straight line
(
past, present, future
)
Verbal tense
How grammar marks the time
at which the action takes place, realized morphologically on the verb form by means of
inflections
(present with future meaning; simple past, etc.)
Aspect
How the action denoted by the verb is viewed (speaker's perspective) in terms of its duration or completion: progressive (
continuous
, in progress) or non-progressive (
perfect
, completed)
whether the action is complete or not
Mood
Syntactic & semantic contrasts of attitude towards the certainty of a statement signalled by certain paradigms:
indicative, subjunctive, imperative
Semantically, they convey the speaker's attitudes. Syntactically, they display alternative focus of verbs by using auxiliaries or different verbal inflections
whether the action is certain or not
0. INTRODUCTION
How is time showed?
Verb (phrases)
Noun phrases
indicate when those actions are taking place
last year, next week, this morning
Adjectives
refer to the
previous, simultaneous, or subsequent
temporal reference/ ordening
former, this, next
Adverbs of time
yesterday, usually, just
Prepositional phrases
in the morning, at night
Clause structures
word classes
Verbs
Grammatical function
Lexical
verbs (full verbs)
Primary
verbs (be, have, do)
Modal auxiliary
verbs (can, will...)
within the verb phrase
Type of verb phrase
Finite
(show tense, aspect, mood & voice)
There is person & number
concord
btw the Subj & the finite verb
Non-finite
(only show aspect & voice) Its forms are:
To-infinitive
-ing Participle
: progressive aspect & active voice
-ed Participle
: perfect aspect & passive voice
d) MODALITY
MODALITY shows the speaker's attitude toward
the likelihood, possibility, or necessity of an event
by means of
modal operators
(lexical items with modal meanings), used to convey a wide range of meanings. However, some modal operators can belong to multiple categories (allow more than one interpretation) depending on their
context & usage
Subject-oriented uses
the speaker's
attitude toward the subject
of the sentence
Ability
: can, could
Willingness
: will, shall
Intention
: would, could
"I could do that too"
"I will do it for you"
"I would like to visit Paris"
Epistemic uses
attitude toward the
truth value
of a statement
Certainty
: must, can't
Possibility
: may, might, could
Prediction
: will, should
"That must be his girlfriend"
"He may come tonight"
"He will finish soon"
Deontic uses
Obligation
: must, have to
Prohibition
: musn't, don't have to
Permission
: can, may
"You have to go to school"
"You must not lie"
"May I use the toilet?"
permissibility
"may, must, can, will, shall, should, ought, need, be & have (to)"
(semantic perspective)
4. MOOD
MOOD: the grammatical forms that a verb takes to show how the verbal action is thought/conveived by the speaker in terms of attitude (
the speaker's attitude towards the level of certainty conveyed by the statement/verb
): (1) as positive or negative statements or questions (factual), (2) as wishes or recommendations (non-factual), (3) as commands (counter-factual)
c) IMPERATIVE
Used for
commands or requests
. It appears in sentences with apparently
no Subject
(it is
omitted
) by using a main
Verb in the base form
(imperative form), & directly addresses the
2nd sg & pl person
(you). Types of commands:
~ with Subject
"Come here, will you?", "You clean your room now!"
~ with Let
"Let us do it", "Let me see this", "Let's enjoy"
~ with no Subject
"Come here!"
Negative ~
"Don't open the door"
Persuasive ~
"Do come with me to the party (please)"
(marked: realized by the base form)
Request, Advice, Command
a) INDICATIVE
Used for
factual statements
& mainly conveyed by factual verbs which express the
action as a real fact
(declarative, interrogative & exclamatory sentences). Features:
It can occur as the verb phrase of main/
independent clauses
It has
tense contrast
: distinction btw present & past tenses
It shows
person & number concord
btw the subject & the finite verb of a clause
(unmarked: without any special attitude in mind)
Assertion, Denial & Question
b) SUBJUNCTIVE
Used for
hypothetical, doubtful or wishful statements
(to express the actions from as subjective point of view). We find two forms (not related to tense):
Present subjunctive
It expresses a necessity, plan or intention in the future. Distinctive in the base form of the verb
to be
("be" instead of "am, is, are") & in the
3rd person singular
(it consists of the base form of the verb only)
Mandative ~
Used in dependent/
subordinate that-clauses
after expressions of
demand, recommendation, proposal, intention
... (I prefer/recommend/ propose/it is desirable/etc.)
Formulaic ~
Used in
certain set expressions
(God save the Queen, Long live the King, Come what may, Heaven forbid that, Be that as it may, Suffice it to say that)
"I insist that Ann reconsider her decision"
"I insist that Ann's decision be reconsidered
Past subjunctive
The
were-subjunctive
:
Formal
& has
hypothetical
meaning (unreal). Used in
conditional
& subordinate clauses after ‘wish’ , ‘suppose’ & ‘imagine’
"If I were rich, I would buy you a house"
"I wish the journey were longer"
(marked: realized by the base form)
Possibility, Uncertainty, Wish
(grammatical perspective)
Stative verbs
: be, feel, know, like, prefer, have, believe, seem, look (
emotions, beliefs, possession, perception, description
)
Dynamic verbs
: ride, walk, play, drive, eat (events & habits)