N. M. Rayevska modern english
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Sometimes it is possible to use the simple Past Tense for both actions in analogous arrangements; the difference will be one of emphasis. The Past Perfect emphasises the priority of time. In its stylistic value it is slightly more formal.
Thus, for instance, the following two sentences appear to be interchangeable: I had studied French before I started English. I studied French before I started Greek. Textbooks often say that 'had studied' implies that
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Compare the Ukrainian: Як гукнеш, так і відгукнеться. Що посієш, те й пожнеш.
Similarly in Russian: Как аукнется, так и откликнется. Что посеешь, то и пожнешь.
Closely related to this is the use of the Future Tense applied to lifeless things to denote power or capacity, e. g.: (1) The hall will seat two hundred. (2) That will do. (3) That won't do.
b) the activity essentially characteristic of the subject, very often with some approval, disapproval or reproach. The necessary meaning is usually signalled by the context, e. g.:
"Very true, child; but what's to be done? People will talk, there's no preventing it." (Sheridan)
"Doctors!" said James, coming down sharp on his words; "I've had all the doctors in London for one or another of us. There's no satisfaction to be got out of them; they'll tell you anything. There's Swithin, now. What good have they done him? There he is, he's bigger than ever; he's enormous; they can't get his weight down. Look at him!" (Galsworthy)
Further examples are: Don't listen to him! He will tell you incredible things. They will sit here for hours playing chess.
This kind of functional contrast in the use of the tense-forms may be illustrated by numerous examples in Ukrainian.
Cf. Сидить і оком не моргне. Мовчить і слова не скаже.
Similarly in Russian: Сидит и глазом не моргнет. Молчит и слова не скажет.
Compare also: Чуден Днепр при тихой погоде, когда вольно и плавно мчит сквозь леса и горы полные воды свои. Ни зашелохнет, ни прогремит.
Here is a good example to illustrate the use of the Future Tense where it does not convey the pure idea of tense but is associated with modal conceptions of a very strong presumption (Hypothetical Future):
"...Father! I have said I do not... I have said I cannot..."
"By the most merciful what? What? The name for it! Words for it!"
"Do not frown on me father. I wish him happiness. I cannot marry him. I do not love him."
"You will remember that you informed me aforetime that you did love him."
"I was ignorant. I did not know myself. I wish him to be happy." (Dreiser)
We find here various shades of hypothetical meaning ranging from a mere supposition and conjecture to a strong presumption. The necessary meaning is generally sensed from the grammatical or situational context and intonation in actual speech. Other examples are:
(1) He will already be asleep, don't disturb him. (2) That will be your luggage, I think. (3) Mother will be wondering where we are.
A parallel development may be traced in other languages.
Cf. French: Il dormira déjà (He must already be asleep).
German: Er wird schon schlafen. Das wird schon wahr sein. Der Brief wird wohl fertig sein.
The Future Perfect Tense may take over analogous functions. We mean such contextual situations when it does not imply futurity at all but
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is used to indicate a mere supposition with reference to a completed action, e.g.: They will have heard the news may be synonymous with I suppose they have heard the news or They may have heard the news. Further examples are: a) They won't have seen you come. (Syn. They can't have seen you come) b) It will have been already gathered from the conversation of these worthies that they were embarked in an enterprise of some magnitude... (Dickens)
In present-day English shall and will are not the only ways of referring to future time. Futurity may also be expressed by transpositions of other verb-forms, well known in many, if not all, languages. Implying futurity, we can say, for instance: I'll read my essay on Tuesdays → I read my essay on Tuesday → I'm reading my essay on Tuesday. The difference will lie here in the implied attitude to, ground of expectation of the future action, or determination to do so.
"...About leaving your husband, Lady Corven; any reason you'd care to give me?" Clare shook her head.
"I'm not going into my life with him, either here or anywhere. And I'm not going back to him". (Galsworthy)
The Future Tense may be used with imperative force. This is the case, for instance, when we desire to speak courteously and at the same time indicate that we are confidently expecting that our wish will be fulfilled.
As you are going to the post office, you will perhaps mail these letters for me.
When spoken in earnest tone the future becomes almost a command. She (grandmother to grandchild) said, "You will do nothing of the kind!"
"None of that! none of that!" he said, glowering under his strange, sad, gray brows. "I can't stand it! Don't tempt me! We're not out of this place yet. He's not! You'll come home with me now". (Dreiser)
You'll go or I'll sell you down the river. You'll never see your mother again or anybody you know... Hurry! (Mitchell)
The imperative force is most expressive in similar uses of the Future Continuous:
"I know who you're here with", he continued, shaking his head sadly. "The dog! I'll get him yet. I've had men watchin' you all the time. Oh, the shame of this day! The shame of this day! You'll be comin' home with me now". (Dreiser)
Transposition of the Future Tense into the Imperative is common in other languages.
French: Vous ferez signer ce texte et vous me le rapporterez demain.
Similarly in German: (1) Mach die Notizen. Du wirst bei mir bleiben. (Bredel) (2) Du wirst den Apfel schießen von dem Kopf des Knaben. (Schiller)
Cf. Ви зробите все, що я просив, і не треба більше розмовляти. Ви напишете мені про свої враження. Я буду Вам дуже вдячний.
The growing use of the "going to-future" is one more point of interest. We must naturally distinguish:
a) be going to — used as a statement of intention, synonymous with intend to, e. g.: They are going to leave to-morrow.
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b) be going to — a periphrastic verb-form denoting a future action — a relative stylistic synonym of the ordinary future tense.
This grammatical idiom has spread considerably during the last 50— 60 years in Modern English, particularly in its American variant, and this process continues. Various dimensions along which such messages may differ are most directly relevant to the subjective modality of predication. The expressive "going to-future" often assumes emotional value implying various subtle shades of meaning, such as, for instance, caution or warning, prophecy or encouragement, prohibition or categorical command. Contextual nuances of such use are very elusive.
In objective referential use the "going to-future" may express futurity without any implication of intention in the strict sense, e. g.:
Soon she is going to be 16 = Soon she will be 16.
Synsemantic in its character, it is widely used in present-day English as an alternative of the ordinary future tense.
The relative distribution of the "going to-future" presents a major point of interest in studying the stylistic aspect of verb-forms, their subjective use with different shades of emotional colouring.
Compare the subtle shades of modal force and expressivity of the context-sensitive "going to-future" in the following examples:
My mother ran away when I was three, and I have no sisters. It's going to be hard for you, with a nomadic, unsatisfactory brute like me. (Galsworthy) — warning, predication.
Intensity and emphasis are particularly strong in negative constructions, which are often used as stylistic alternatives of the Imperative Mood, e. g.:
You're not going to deceive me always! (Dreiser)
It is to be noted that the semantic element of predetermination of or certainty about an action can somewhat weaken the meaning of future time relevance.
"He ought to understand! He piles up his money for me", she thought; "but what's the use, if I'm not going to be happy? Money, and all it brought did not bring happiness". (Galsworthy)
"Oh, what is going to happen now?" she cried. (Mansfield) — supposition, apprehension;
"This is going to be my masterpiece" (Wilde) — prediction, certainty.
"There's no use crying my dear. Crying isn't going to help things" (Gordon) — predetermination, conviction;
"You — you mustn't think any more of what happened just now, little man", he said huskily. "See? That's all over now. That's forgotten. That's never going to happen again. See?" (Mansfield) — certainty, promise.
The analysis of the distributional meaning of the tense-forms in present-day English, brief as it is, will remind us of the constitutional value of syntactic morphology whose subject matter is "grammar in context". Variations in the use of the verb-forms, their potential polysemy and transpositions conditioned by the mode of the speaker's representation of the verbal idea are a source of constant linguistic interest. Different verb-forms may be used with one and the same time-reference. Observations in this field make it apparent that the various functions of the tenses
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are not yet finally and absolutely fixed. Making for greater subtleties and finer shades in expressing the speaker's subjective attitude to the utterance functional shifts are still taking place. This can be best illustrated, for instance, by the extension of the subjective use of the continuous forms in expressive language where they are endowed with special emotive functions. Not less characteristic are the linguistic changes observed in the use of modal verbs. An interesting development of recent years is, for instance, the use of may + infinitive II as equivalent to could + infinitive II with the implication that the envisaged outcome did not occur. The relationship between them is certainly not, as OED implies, anything to do with tense in present-day English.
Revision Material
- Be ready to discuss the distinction between paradigmatic and syntagmatic meanings of verb-forms.
- Comment on expressive transpositions of the English tense-forms, neutralisation of grammatical meaning and situational synonymy in grammar. Compare analogous developments in other languages.
- Give examples to illustrate the use of verb-forms in transposition with future time reference.
- Comment on the use of "going to"-future in Modern English.
- Be ready to discuss the stylistic range of Continuous forms in Modern English.
- Comment on the denotative and connotative value of the Present Continuous (Progressive) Tense.
- Describe the linguistic essence of the Perfect Tenses in Modern English.
- Give examples to illustrate modal re-interpretation of verb-forms as connected with the problem of Mood. Compare similar developments in other languages.
- Discuss the statement that in Modern English the Continuous tense-forms are more and more assuming the function to intensify the verbal idea and in many cases have emotional value.
- Comment on the linguistic changes in the use of English verb- forms in their present development.
- Discuss the opposition "finitude — non-finitude" in Modern English.
Chapter VII THE PRONOUN
PERSONAL PRONOUNS
In the category of person English makes distinction between three classes of personal pronouns denoting respectively the person (s) speaking (first person); the person (s) spoken to (second person) another person(s) or thing(s) — third person.
Person distinctions are naturally closely related to the category of number.
There is no formal distinction of persons in plural, e. g.: we speak, you speak, they speak. There is no distinction of number in the 1st and 2nd persons either.
In point of fact, the binary opposition speak :: speaks in all English verbs, except the modal auxiliaries expresses the relation: 3rd person singular or any other person of both numbers. The exception to the patterns of conjugational variants is also the verb to be, whose paradigm is unique and includes five distinct finite forms: am, is, are, was, were.
Archaic verb-forms in -t or -st are generally associated with the old pronoun thou. These are unproductive in Modern English and used only in religious texts and occasionally for stylistic purposes in elevated speech or poetry. Thou and ye were formerly often shifted to express the speaker's mood and tone. The "thou of contempt" was so very familiar that a verbal form was coined to name this expressive use. Shakespeare gives it, for instance, to Sir Toby Belch (Twelfth Night) in the lines urging Andrew Aguecheek to send a challenge to the disguised Viola: "Taunt him with the license of ink, if thou thous't him some thrice, it shal not be amiss 1" Proteus and Valentine in Two Gentlemen of Verona initially exchange thou, but when they touch on the subject of love, on which they disagree, their address changes to the "you of estrangement".
Like in other provinces of grammar, attention must be drawn to the use of pronominal forms in transposition. The affective value of such "metaphors" may be traced in many, if not all, modern languages. The first to be mentioned in English is the use of the pronouns we, you and they in patterns where they are synonymous with the formal generic one.
The so-called "editorial" we (Lat. pluralis modestial) is well known, for instance, as used in many modern languages by authors of scientific papers, monographs or articles in a newspaper, etc. Examples are hardly needed.
1
Quoted in: Style in Language ed. by T h. A. S e b e о k. New York-London, 1860.160
The pronoun we is common in proverbial sayings:
We shall see what we shall see. We soon believe what we desire. We never know the value of water till the well is dry.
Cf. Это случится при одном единственном условии,— если мы все — от мала до велика — удвоим и утроим темпы нашей оборонной работы, если каждый из нас — от мала до велика — поймет, что каждый час, тобой потерянный для оборонного труда, будет стоить жизни твоего брата на фронте. (А. Толстой)
Expressive effects of great subtlety will be found in the use of the pronoun we in such examples as:
"I say", said Hurstwood, as they came up the theatre lobby, "we are exceedingly charming this evening".
Carrie fluttered under his approving glance. (Dreiser)
Cf. Ukrainian: Ну, як ми себе почуваємо сьогодні? Russian: Ну, как мы себя чувствуем сегодня? French: Se porte-on mieux aujourd'hui?
The pronoun we is often used when speaking, for instance, to ones-pet child or to a sick person with playfully optimistic emotional colour-ing. The shift of the pronominal form expresses a shift in the speaker attitude and tone. Here again we must say that this recurrent feature 's not specifically English and may easily be traced in other modern languages, e. g.: How are we feeling now? (we — you).
Discussing some tendencies of the present times, E. Partridge1 gives examples of adding to one's reply a declaration in the third person, e. g., in response to,, Do you like that?"we hear the person addressed say "No, said he frowning!"
Further examples are:
"Mr. Grundy's going to oblige the company with a song", said the Chairman.
"No he ain't", said Mr. Grundy.
"Why not?", said the chairman.
"Because he can't", said Mr. Grundy.
"You had better say you won't", replied the chairman.
"Well, then, he won't", retorted Mr. Grundy. (Dickens)
Nursery talk is known to have its traditional characteristics; mothers and fathers, aunts and grannies are liable to address children using the third person instead of the second, as will he (or she) do it. Examples of this kind may be found in numbers.
The generic use of the pronoun you will be found in any sphere of application. It is common in colloquial English, in literary prose, in proverbial sayings:
You never can tell. You can't eat your cake and have it.
You cannot judge a tree by its bark, etc.
1
See: E. Partridge. Slang Today and Yesterday. London, 1960, p. 123. 161
Emotional colouring is particularly strong in you with its more or less apparent appeal to the person spoken to, as in:
"Now and then? Mr. Croom, didn't you always show your feelings?" If you mean did I always show that I was in love with her — of course I did, you can't hide a thing like that". (Galsworthy)
"I'm ancient, but I don't feel it. That's one thing about painting, it keeps you young". (Galsworthy)
And here is a good example from J. London to illustrate that the generic you and one are not interchangeable when used in this function:
"By the way, Mr. Eden", she called back, as she was leaving the room, "what is booze? You used it several times, you know".
"Oh, booze", he laughed. "It's slang. It means whiskey and beer — anything that will make you drunk".
"And another thing", she laughed back. "Don't use 'you' when you are impersonal. You' is very personal, and your use of it just now>
"I don't just see that".
" Why, you said just now to me, 'whiskey and beer — anything that will make you drunk' — make me drunk, don't you see?"
"Well, it would, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, of course", she smiled. "But it would be nicer not to bring me into it. Substitute 'one' for 'you', and see how much better it sounds". (London)
With reference either to an unspecified person or to people in general we may also use the pronoun they. It is important to observe that in spoken English you implies reference to the speaker or those with whom he identifies himself, they — reference to people with whom the speaker does not identify himself, e. g.: No tree, no shrub, not a blade of grass, not a bird or beast, not even a fish that>(Galsworthy)
They used as a generic pronoun usually refers to some persons unknown and is often highly emotional denoting that the speaker dissociates himself and the person addressed from the situation, e. g.:
My poor little girl, what have they been doing to you?
Analogous is the use of the French pronoun ils, e. g.:
Mais Pied-d'Alouette parla et dit:
— Ils m'ont pris mon couteau.
Qui cela?1
The generic they may alternate with the word people patterning similarly with generic force, e. g.:
Mrs. Candour. Very true child: but what's to be done? People will talk — there is no preventing it. (Sheridan)
Compare the use of the German pronoun sie in analogous transposition:
1
See: P. Г. Пиотровский. Очерки по грамматической стилистике французского языка. М., 1956, р. 136.162
Ihm haben sie das Auto gestohlen. = Ihm hat man das Auto gestohlen 1.
The pronoun they with reference to indefinite persons is sometimes used with demonstrative force, e. g.:
They must hunger in winter that will not work in summer. (proverb)
The shift of the pronominal form expresses a shift in the speaker's attitude and tone. Here again we must say that this recurrent feature is not specifically English. Other languages present similar phenomena.
In Russian and Ukrainian the generic use of verb-forms in the 2nd person singular and plural without a pronominal indicator is a well known stylistic device, e. g.:
«Комуністом стати можна тільки тоді, коли збагатиш свою пам'ять знанням всіх тих багатств, які виробило людство». (В. І. Ленін)
«Песню дружбы запевает молодежь,
молодежь, молодежь.
«Эту песню не задушишь, не убьешь,
не убьешь, не убьешь».
(«Гимн демократической молодежи мира»)
Cf. Сонце! Сонце! Це тебе, довічний світе, стріваючи, вітає земля... Прокинулась світова мати, показала нам личенько красне... Ви почуваєте, що ви частина того світу, невеличка цяточка його живого тіла, непримітний куточок його безмірної душі. (П. Мирний)
1
E. Agricola, H. Görner, R. Кülfner. Wörter und Wendungen. Wörterbuch zum deutschen Sprachgebrauch. Leipzig, 1963, p. 546.