The Verb System of Present-Day American English 9783110873900, 9789027934307

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The Verb System of Present-Day American English

JANUA LINGUARUM Studia Memoriae Nicolai van Wijk Dedicata edenda curai

C. H. van Schooneveld Indiana University

Series Practica 24

The Verb System of Present-Day American English Robert L. Allen

Mouton Publishers Berlin • New York • Amsterdam

First printing 1966 Second printing 1982

ISBN 90 279 3430 4 © Copyright 1982 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin. All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form - by photoprint, microfilm, or any other means - nor transmitted nor translated into a machine language without written permission from the publisher. Printing: Druckerei Hildebrand, Berlin. - Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer Buchgewerbe G m b H , Berlin. Printed in Germany.

PREFACE

This study originated in a long-standing curiosity about the English verb system, a curiosity which grew out of several attempts to explain this complex system of interlocking relationships to students, both in Turkey and in Afghanistan, who were trying to understand and to master enough of the inner structure of English to be able to make up correct sentences of their own. My original orientation to English grammar had been entirely traditional; my decision to re-examine the verb system from the point of view of structural linguistics was inspired by stimulating discussions in classes and seminars conducted by Professor Aileen Traver Kitchin, then with the Department of English and Foreign Languages at Teachers College, Columbia University. The study itself began under the supervision of Professor Gerald W. Dykstra of Teachers College, who, as the original Chairman of my doctoral committee, gave the study the helpful guidance it needed during its initial stages. Throughout its course, this study has benefited greatly from the sympathetic advice, ready encouragement, and valuable suggestions that I have received from Professor Dykstra and from the other two members of my committee, Professors Elliott V. K. Dobbie and Allen Walker Read of Columbia University. To all three of these scholars I owe a great debt of gratitude, as I do also to Professor Lennox Grey, Head of the Department of English and Foreign Languages at Teachcrs College, who took over as Acting Chairman of my committee during Professor Dykstra's leave of absence. His understanding and encouragement have contributed greatly to the eventual completion of this study. I owe a very special debt of gratitude to Professor Uriel Weinrcich of Columbia University, who first introduced me to the work of Roman Jakobson and to the whole area of European linguistics; from Professor Weinreich's own publications on linguistic subjects I have gained many valuable insights that have helped to clarify my own thinking at several points. My great indebtedness to the linguistic theories of Roman Jakobson, and also to those of Kenneth L. Pike, will be evident to even the most casual reader of this dissertation. Many persons have contributed to the development of my analysis of English structure (described in part in this dissertation) and to my analysis of the English verb system. Among others I should like to mention especially Floyd H. Black

6

PREFACE

and Harold L. Scott, who, as President and American Vice-President of Robert College during my second term there (from 1945 to 1950), gave me a free hand in trying out new ways of teaching English and of explaining its grammar to the students in the Preparatory Division; Olive Greene, at that time President of the American College for Girls in Izmir, who, in spite of her own long and successful career as a traditionally oriented teacher of English, was perhaps the first to recognize any merit in my earliest attempts to re-analyze the English verb system; those teachers at Robert College and at the American College for Girls in Izmir (as well as the students in those two institutions) who suffered without complaint during my first experiments in trying to transfer my theories to the classroom; the students in my courses at Teachers College, who must often have been confused by the intricacies of my explanations and by the differences between successive stages in my analyses; the Caltex Pacific Oil Company, and especially Robert E. Butterfield, then the Director of its Employee Development Program, who in 1957-1958 provided me with an unusual opportunity for preparing and trying out materials based upon my analysis of English structure; the other English teachers in the Caltex program, who courageously taught from materials that looked like no textbooks they had ever seen; and those Caltex employees who have tried—or are still trying— to learn English from those materials. I should like to express also my great appreciation of the invaluable assistance I have received from Edward Ouchi, of the Wheatley School, and from Andras Balint, of Trenton State College, in specific details of the analysis of English here presented as well as in the development of the theory on which it is based; the many searching questions which they have asked have again and again forced a re-examination—or suggested an extension—of certain aspects of the theory or certain areas of the analysis. I am indebted above all to my wife, Virginia F. Allen, for her constant encouragement, illuminating criticisms, invaluable suggestions, and untiring assistance at every stage of the study, without which the study could never have been completed. And finally I should like to make acknowledgment of the gracious permissions granted by the following authors and publishers to quote example sentences from, or to reproduce charts from, materials to which they hold the rights: William E. Bull, George S. Fichter, John Gunther; Miss Fanny Holtzmann (for Richard Aldrich); George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., W. Heffer & Sons, Ltd., The Atlantic Monthly, New Directions, Random House Inc., The Reader's Digest, The Saturday Evening Post, Time Inc., and The Yale University Press. May 22, 1962

R. L. A.

TABLE O F CONTENTS

PREFACE

5

LIST OF TABLES

13

LIST OF FIGURES

15

REFERENCES AND ABBREVIATIONS

17

I . INTRODUCTION

1.0. 1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.4. 1.5. 1.6. 1.7.

The Problem as Originally Defined: Expanded versus NonExpanded Verb-Clusters Review of Other Studies Structural Descriptions of English Verb Inflection . . . The Goal of Linguistic Analysis The Search for a Satisfactory Explanation of the Uses of Expansion The Need for a Study of the Overall Verb System . . . The Selection of Verb Forms for Analysis The Need for a New Analysis of English Syntax . . .

I I . REVIEW OF OTHER STUDIES

2.1. 2.2.

2.3.

The History of Expanded Verb-Clusters Discussions of Expanded Verb-Clusters in Grammars and Handbooks 2.21. Discussions in Traditional and Standard Grammars 2.22. Discussions in Structural Grammars . . . . 2.23. Discussions in Handbooks and in Textbooks for Teaching English as a Foreign Language Studies Devoted Specifically to Expansion and/or Non-Expansion 2.31. General Studies 2.32. Studies Limited to the Present Tense . . . .

19

19 19 20 21 23 24 24 27 28

28 31 31 41 50 57 57 61

8

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2.4. 2.5.

Other Studies of English Verb Forms Unsolved Problems

66 77

I I I . STATEMENT OF ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

3.0. 3.1. 3.2. 3.3. 3.4.

3.5.

The Search for Productive Techniques of Analysis "Expansive" versus "Reductive" Analyses Tagmemic Theory "Sector" Analysis Binary Oppositions 3.41. "Two-Choice" Selections 3.42. General or Overall Meanings 3.43. "Marked" versus "Unmarked" Meanings Conclusions

81

.

.

.

.

.

.

81 82 83 85 88 88 91 92 95

I V . DEFINITION OF TERMS

4.0. 4.1. 4.2. 4.3. 4.4. 4.5. 4.6. 4.7.

4.8.

4.9.

98

Method of Analysis Some Basic Units Sentences and Larger Units Modification Territories and Sectors "Semi-Sentences" The Order of Sectors in a Major Sentence Constructions and Grammatical Relations 4.71. Clusters 4.72. Constructs 4.73. Categories of Constructions Grammatical "Devices" 4.81. Listed Lexeme-Classes 4.82. "Ties" and "Valences" Meaning, Signification, and Ambiguity 4.91. Meaning versus Signification 4.92. Structural Ambiguity

98 99 102 104 105 107 110 113 113 114 115 116 116 117 119 119 122

V . DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

5.1. 5.2. 5.3. 5.4.

126

Criteria for Selection The Method of Selection Analysis of the Corpus Conclusions Drawn from This Analysis

126 129 130 136

V I . DEFINITE TIME AND INDEFINITE TIME

6.1.

Previous Classifications of the Non-Expanded Tenses 6.11. The Traditional "Six Tenses"

139

.

.

139 139

TABLE OF CONTENTS

6.2.

6.3.

6.4.

9

6.12. Jespersen's "Seven Tenses" 6.13. Reichenbach's "9 Fundamental Forms" . . 6.14. Bull's "Four Axes of Orientation" . 6.15. Other Classifications A Re-Analysis in Terms of Only Two Kinds of "Time" 6.21. Verb-Clusters of the Form "will have v-n" . 6.22. The "Past" and the "Future" in Reference to the Moment of Coding "Definite" versus "Indefinite" 6.31. Identified Entities in Space 6.32. Identified Events in Time Time-Orientation versus Absence of Time-Orientation

V I I . TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

7.1.

7.2.

7.3.

7.4. 7.5.

8.0. 8.1.

150 152 152 155 158 164

Time-Relationships 7.11. The Three Temporal Time-Relationships . 7.12. Included Verb-Clusters vs. Non-Included Verb-Clusters 7.121. Applications 7.122. Time-Relationship in Commands and after the Verb " H o p e " 7.13. Redundancy and Neutralization 7.14. "Later" Time-Relationship vs. "Anticipated" TimeRelationship "Back-Shifting" 7.21. Back-Shifting in "Indirect Speech" in Past Time . 7.22. Back-Shifting after "Wish", "As if", etc. 7.23. Back-Shifting in Non-Factual Conditions 7.24. Ambiguous Conditions Sub-Systems 7.31. The "Future" and "Anticipated" Sub-Systems . 7.32. The Modals Immediate Time versus Extended Time Time-Fields 7.51. Inclusive Reference 7.52. Stage Directions and Demonstrations 7.53. "Eternal Truths" and "Broken Sequence"

V I I I . EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS .

141 143 145 148 149 149

164 164 165 167 169 169 170 171 171 173 174 176 176 176 179 181 184 184 186 188

.

192

"Divided Reference" versus "Undivided Reference" . Space-Orientation versus Time-Orientation 8.11. Space-Oriented Nouns: "Suffusive" vs. "Non-Suffusive" 8.111. Bounded Nominals: Unique ("Proper") vs. Rcpeatable ("Count")

192 193 193 194

10

TABLE OF CONTENTS

8.112. Non-Bounded Nominals: "Mass" vs. " A Kind of" Time-Oriented Nominals: Bounded vs. Non-Bounded . Generic Nominals Events: Space-Oriented and Time-Oriented 8.141. Bounded (or "Telic") Predications: Unique vs. Repeated 8.1411. Unique Predications: Momentary vs. Extended 8.1412. Extended Predications: Included vs. Inceptive

200

8.142. Non-Bounded (or "Atelic") Predications . 8.15. "Generic Predications" Inclusive Reference versus Non-Inclusive Reference . . . 8.21. Bounded Predications vs. Non-Bounded Predications . 8.22. Inclusive Reference vs. Intrusive Reference . . . "Overlapping" 8.30. "Synchronism" vs. "Interrelationship" . . . . 8.31. Medial Overlapping 8.32. Terminal Overlapping 8.33. Concurrent Overlapping 8.34. Concomitant Overlapping

202 204 204 204 207 208 208 211 213 214 215

8.12. 8.13. 8.14.

8.2.

8.3.

I X . MOMENTARY PREDICATIONS AND "SUFFUSIVE" PREDICATIONS .

9.1.

9.2.

194 195 196 196 197 199

.

218

Aspect in English 9.11. Inclusive (or Perfective) Aspect vs. Intrusive (or Imperfective) Aspect Inclusive Predications: Momentary versus Extended . 9.21. Momentary Predications: Extendable vs. Non-Extendable 9.211. "Asseverative Predications'" 9.22. Extended Predications: "Profusive" vs. "Suffusive" 9.221. Suffusive Predications: Shared (or "Public") vs. Non-Shared (or "Private")

218

X . ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CI.AUSIDS

10.1. Ellipsis in Semi-Sentences . 10.11. Restrictions on Ellipsis 10.12. T h e Two Different Kinds of Semi-Sentences . . 10.2. Verbid-Clusters 10.21. T h e Different Forms of Verbid-Clusters . . . . 10.22. Voice. Aspect, and Time-Relationship in Verbid-Clusters

218 221 221 222 222 228 232

232 232 233 234 234 234

TABLE OF CONTENTS

10.3. Predicatids 10.31. The Forms of Predicatids 10.32. Common Uses of Predicatids 10.33. Dangling Modifiers 10.34. Elliptical Clauses 10.35. Special Uses of Predicatids 10.36. Predicatids in the C(, Position 10.4. Collapsed Clausids 10.41. Contracted Clausids 10.42. Embedded Clausids 10.43. Discontinuous Clausids 10.44. "Absolute" Clausids 10.45. Introduced Clausids 10.5. The Order of Sectors and Sub-Sectors in an English Sentence . 10.6. The Order of Elements in Clusters and Clausids . . . . 10.61. The Order of Elements in Verb- and Verbid-Clusters . 10.62. "Concatenations" RECAPITULATION

11

239 239 239 240 240 241 243 243 243 245 246 246 247 247 248 248 248 255

APPENDIX A: TYPES OF PREDICATIONS THAT DO NOT NORMALLY OCCUR WITH EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

263

(1) Non-Extendable Momentary Predications (a) "Asseverative" Predications (b) A Sample List of Other Momentary Predications Commonly Expressed by Non-Expanded Verb Forms (2) "Suffusive" Predications (a) Shared Suffusive Predications ("Public") (b) Non-Shared Suffusive Predications ("Private") . . . .

263 263

APPENDIX B: THE SIXTEEN VERB-TYPES BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Sources of the Examples Used in This Study 2. Books and Articles Discussing Expanded Verb-Clusters 2.1. Grammars and Handbooks 2.11. Traditional Grammars 2.12. Structural Grammars 2.13. Textbooks for Teaching English as a Foreign Language 2.2. Shorter Studies 3. Other Studies of English Verb Forms 4. Discussions For and Against the Use of Meaning

264 264 264 265 267 274

274 275 275 275 277 277 279 280 282

12

TABLE OF CONTENTS

5. Discussions of Binary Oppositions 6. Other Materials Consulted 6.1. Books 6.2. Articles

285 287 287 292

LIST O F TABLES

I. Analysis of 4800 Verb- and Verbid-Clusters taken from Representative Samples of Present-Day American English: The Non-Modals opposite

130

II. Analysis of 4800 Verb- and Verbid-Clusters taken from Representative Samples of Present-Day American English: The Modals opposite

131

III. Analysis of 4800 Verb- and Verbid-Clusters taken from Representative Samples of Present-Day American English: Passive Clusters and Verbid-Clusters opposite

132

IV. Verbid-Clusters

235

V. Voice, Aspect, Time-Relationship, and Nominalization in VerbidClusters VI. Different Kinds of Clausids VII. The Morphemes and Valences that Signal Verbal Categories

237 247 256

LIST OF FIGURES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

Palmer's "Chronological Diagrams" 38 Jespersen's "Seven Tenses" 142 Reichenbach's "9 Fundamental Forms" 142 Bull's "Four Axes of Orientation" 146 The Traditional Three Divisions of Time (and Three Kinds of TimeRelationship) 149 A Re-Analysis of the English Verb System in Terms of Two Kinds of Time 152 The "Past" and the "Future" in Reference to the Moment of Coding . 152 Non-Identified Time(s) and Identified Time(s) 159 The Three Basic Kinds of Time-Relationship 165 "Later" Time-Relationship and "Anticipated" Time-Relationship . 171 Back-Shifting 172 The Sub-Systems for Showing Time-Relationships in Anticipated Time and in Future Time 177 The Use of Modals and Secondary Auxiliaries to Show Time and Time-Relationship 180 183 Charleston's "Twofold Conception of Time" Immediate Time and Extended Time (Oriented with Reference to the Moment of Coding) 183 Different Kinds of Predications 186 "Eternal Truths" or "Broken Sequence" 190 Entities and Events 197 Different Kinds of Overlapping 211 The Complete "Time Chart": Time, Time-Relationship, Overlapping, and Back-Shifting 211 Different Kinds of Inclusive Predications 222 Time-Relationship Signals in Clausids 238 The "Verb Key" 249 The Order of Elements in Verb- and Verbid-Clusters . . . 250—251

REFERENCES AND ABBREVIATIONS

The books and periodicals examined for this study appear in Section 1 of the Bibliography. Examples quoted from these sources in the text are followed by the abbreviations given below, within parentheses. Numbers refer to pages. A small c indicates a passage consisting for the most part of conversation; a small n indicates a passage with little or no conversation in it. AM: GG : HN : IA : LC : MW: NY : PN : RD : SE : SI

:

SP : SS :

The Atlantic Monthly, July, 1955. [n 26; c 43; n 60.] The Case of the Grinning Gorilla (Pocket Book edition, 1956). [c 2-3; n 22-23; n 58-60; c 104-105.] To Have and Have Not (Permabook edition, 1953). [c 94-96; n 123-125; c 135-136; n 160-162.] Inside Asia (War edition, 1942). [n 137-140; n 262-264; n 390-393; n 480-483.] The Lonely Crowd (1950). [n 94-97; n 194-196; n 258-260; n 336-339.] Men in White (in The Pulitzer Prize Plays 1918-1934). [c 804-806; c 810-811; c 820-821; c 828-830.] The New Yorker, April 16, 1955. [c 45-46.] Point of No Return (Bantam edition, 1956). [c 142-143; n 222-223; c 258-259; n 324-325.] The Reader's Digest, April, 1955 (pp. 176-177); July, 1956 (pp. 79-81, 128-131, 190-192). [c 176-177; n 79-81; n 128-131; c 190-192.] The Saturday Evening Post, July 14, 1956. [n 30, 71; n 65, 67; c 79; c 82.] Strange Interlude (in The Pulitzer Prize Plays 1918-1934). [c 434-435; c 452-453; c 476-477; c 491-492.] Study in Power, Vol. I (1953). [n 112-114; n 176-179; n 232-234; n 380-383.] Summer and Smoke (in Best American Plays, Third Series, 1945-1951). [c 672-673; c 682-683; c 692-693; c 698-699.]

I. INTRODUCTION

1.0. T H E PROBLEM AS ORIGINALLY D E F I N E D : E X P A N D E D VERSUS N O N - E X P A N D E D VERB-CLUSTERS

This study originated as an attempt to analyze the differences between expanded and non-expanded verb-clusters in present-day American English. 1 As a teacher of English in Turkey from 1938 to 1941 and again from 1945 to 1950, the present writer had been faced repeatedly with the need to explain these differences to students. He had been forced, therefore, to seek some explanation to use in teaching, but none of the explanations in grammars or textbooks available at the time seemed to cover all the different uses of the two kinds of forms. Eventually, on the basis of a superficial analysis of his own usage, the present writer concluded that the primary difference between expanded verb-clusters and non-expanded verb-clusters was one of "incompleteness" as opposed to "inclusiveness". In his classes, therefore, he used an explanation similar to that appearing in Book I of his Kontrollu Ingilizce, to the effect that the auxiliary BE% shows "only part of an action", while the auxiliaries HAVE and WILL show "all of an action".3

1.1. REVIEW O F OTHER STUDIES

But no English textbook known to the writer at that time gave "incompleteness" as a principal meaning of expanded verb-clusters. Indeed, some of his colleagues told him that they could not discern any suggestion of "incompleteness" in such forms. 1 The term VERB-CLUSTER is used here for any verb group consisting of a verb form and one or more preceding auxiliaries which functions (with a subject nominal) as one of the two components of a predication. So-called "past tense" and "present tense" verb forms are considered to be special cases of verb-clusters. An E X P A N D E D verb-cluster is any verb-cluster formed by combining some form of the auxiliary BE, with or without another auxiliary, with the ing form of a verb. Other labels which have been used for expanded verb-clusters are "'continuous tenses", "progressive forms", "definite tenses", "periphrastic forms", and "the expanded tenses" (or "expanded forms") of the verb. 4 A verb or an auxiliary cited in solid capitals is to be taken as a cover term for all of its different forms: thus "BE" refers to any or all of the eight forms be, been, being, am, are, is, were, and was, while "be" refers only to the base form. 5 Robert L. Allen, Kontrollu Ingilizce (Controlled English) (Istanbul, Amerikan Bord Nejriyat Dairesi, 1948-1950), I, 120. (Translated from the Turkish.)

20

INTRODUCTION

A desire to discover whether or not there might be any justification for such an analysis led eventually to an extensive study of articles and books by both American and European linguists as well as by American and European grammarians. 4 The writer was amazed to discover what a great variety of explanations had been proposed by different writers for the uses of expansion in English verb-clusters. According to some writers, an expanded verb-cluster expresses a "continuous" or "progressive" action; according to others, it emphasizes the "duration" of an action. A few writers explain the uses of expanded verb-clusters in terms similar to those used by Otto Jespersen for his " f r a m e " theory (discussed in 2.21, below); one or two writers even suggest that the uses of expanded verb-clusters in English are "idiomatic" and can be learned only after long study of the usage of native speakers. 5

1.2. S T R U C T U R A L D E S C R I P T I O N S O F E N G L I S H V E R B I N F L E C T I O N

Of the several descriptions of English verb forms that have been written by structural linguists, two have been studies of English verb inflection (and have been so titled). 0 Although Hockett states that his study was originally prepared as material for teaching English to Latin Americans at the University of Michigan, he does not attempt to explain the uses of the different forms: his purpose is to describe and classify "all the types of entirely verbal phrases that are used".' On the basis of differentiation of form, he divides English verbs into three main classes: the copula, the modal auxiliaries, and all others. After describing the non-finite forms and the simple finite forms and the four "finite tense-modes" (present, past, subjunctive, and unreal), he lists the irregular forms of irregular verbs, grouped according to their past participles. He then discusses the thirteen types of verb-phrases, the features of "order" (direct and inverted) and of "status" (affirmative and negative), and "modulation" (in terms of different kinds of stress). The only clues to the use of one or another form are to be found in the labels which he assigns to them: among the verb-phrases, for example, he lists the " passive", the "intensive", the "simple progressive", the "passive progressive", etc. 1 See the references in later chapters, and also those in the Bibliography. •"' Cf., f o r example, the curious remark by G . H. Vallins on page 30 of The Pattern of English (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Penguin Books, 1957): "Modern tense is not so much an element of g r a m m a r or syntax as a part of idiom". See also L. M. Myers, Guide to American English (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1955), p. 390: "Our uses of these forms depend on an erratic set of habits rather than any fixed principles". Even Leonard Bloomfield says that "the difference between wrote and iras writing is so elusive and differs so much for different verbs and in different phrases, that the definer, after stating the main principles, cannot do better than to resort to a demonstration by means of examples". Language (New York, Henry Holt and C o m p a n y , 1933), p. 280. 8

Charles F. Hockett, "English Verb Inflection". Studies in Linguistics, I (May, 1942), 1.2.11.2.8; Bernard Bloch, "English V e r b Inflection". Language, X X I I I (October-December, 1947), 399-418 [reprinted in Readings in Linguistics, edited by Martin Joos (Washington, D.C., American Council of Learned Societies, 1957), pp. 243-254]. 7 Hockett, op. cit., I, 6.

21

INTRODUCTION

Bloch specifically disclaims any pedagogical intent for his paper." He lists "the four morphemes that appear as inflectional suffixes after verbal bases, together with their morpheme alternants"; 9 he divides the base morphemes "into seven base groups according to the number of their morpheme alternants and the particular suffix morphemes before which the alternants occur"; 10 he lists all the irregular bases, with their alternants; and then he classifies all the irregular verbs into twenty "conjugation types" on the basis of their inflection classes and their base groups. He also discusses ten types of "morphophonemic alternation between base alternants of English irregular verbs" and, finally, "atonic verbs".

1.3. T H E G O A L O F L I N G U I S T I C

ANALYSIS

Although Bloch's treatment of English verb inflection has drawn criticism from several quarters, 11 one cannot but admire the rigor with which Bloch develops his analysis on the basis of the set of axioms which he has adopted. As has been pointed out, he specifically disclaims any pedagogical intent. But when the same kind of structural description appears in a book written as "a basis for the preparation of materials to teach English as a foreign language", 12 one may echo the question asked by Gordon M. Messing with reference to Robert A. Hall's monograph on French (= Language Monograph No. 24, 1948): "Cui bono? . . . Surely not for the beginner, who would find it peculiarly unsuited to his needs. Surely not, again, for a structuralist who knows no French [supply English] and wishes a compendious outline of the language. For whom then?" 1 3 T o cite but one example of the kind of grammatical description which a beginner would find "peculiarly unsuited to his needs": there appear in the same dialogue in Lesson 16 of Structural Notes and Corpus the two sentences "Where are you going now?" and "How do you go?", with no comment on the difference between the two verb-clusters are going and do . . . go. The only explanation given for the difference between the two verb forms appears in the following lesson, where, under the heading " G r a m m a r Points", the student is told that the form go is the 8

B e r n a r d Bloch, " E n g l i s h V e r b I n f l e c t i o n " , in Readings in Linguistics, edited by M a r t i n J o o s ( W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . , A m e r i c a n C o u n c i l of L e a r n e d Societies, 1957), p. 253. » Ibid., p. 245. i" ¡bid., p. 246. 11 See, f o r e x a m p l e , E u g e n e A . N i d a , " T h e I d e n t i f i c a t i o n of M o r p h e m e s " , Language, XXIV ( O c t o b e r - D e c e m b e r , 1948), 414-441 [reprinted in Readings in Linguistics, p p . 255-271]; W . H a a s , " Z e r o in Linguistic D e s c r i p t i o n " , Studies in Linguistic Analysis (Special V o l u m e of the Philological Society, 1957), p p . 33-53; T r y g v e H e l t v e i t , " T h e Linguistic S t a t u s of I r r e g u l a r V e r b F o r m s in E n g l i s h : S o m e Critical R e m a r k s " , English Studies, X L (April, 1959), 102-108. 12

Structural Notes and Corpus: A Basis for the Preparation of Materials to Teach English as a Foreign Language (Washington, D.C., T h e Committee on the Language Program, American C o u n c i l of L e a r n e d Societies, 1952). " G o r d o n M . Messing, " S t r u c t u r a l i s m a n d L i t e r a r y T r a d i t i o n " , Language, XXVII (JanuaryM a r c h , 1951), 4.

22

INTRODUCTION

"simple form" of the verb, that a form like going is called the "ing-form" of the verb, that "the ing-form consists of the simple form of the verb followed by /ir)/", and that "such a combination [of a form of the verb / b i y / and the ing-form of another verb] constitutes a progressive verb phrase". (It is not until Lesson 62 that an explanation is given of "the difference in meaning between the past tense and the past progressive". The explanation given there is a fairly traditional one: the student is told that "the past tense specifies an action as having taken place more or less at a point of time in the past; the past progressive, on the other hand, describes the same action as in process, as going on, at some point of time in the past". 14 ) Structural descriptions like Bloch's "English Verb Inflection", as well as statements like the one explaining the difference between go and going (cited above), have earned for their authors such epithets as "linguistic taxonomists" 15 —scholars who, surveying languages from "their bloodless, nerveless, and meatless point of view",16 are "preoccupied with the methodology of code-cracking . . . at the expense of research on how codes are handled by those who know them, i.e., the speakers of the languages studied". 17 Many linguists, however, find themselves, like Norman A. McQuown, "unable to share the attitude that the only goal of linguistic analysis is to achieve a neatly tied-up, logically consistent bundle of structural abstractions, divorced from all cultural reality". 18 Roman Jakobson insists, for example, that "the analysis of any linguistic sign whatever can be carried out only under the condition that its sensible aspect undergo an investigation in the light of its intelligible aspect (the signans in the light of the signatum) and vice versa". 1 ' J. R. Firth states that "the elements of a language should be considered with reference to situations".- 0 Leonard Bloomfield, whose name is often given to the "school" of structural linguists,21 himself states that "a less rigorous statement may be more useful even for scientific purposes. This may be illustrated (at least, I hope so) by the following less rigorous statement of French verb inflection, which can be 14 Structural Notes and Corpus (mimeographed edition, n.d.). p. 290. On page 289 there appears the not very scientific statement that "the verb / b i y / , always an individualist, insists upon being unlike all other English verbs in the past tense as well as the present: it has two past tense forms, / w â z / a n d w à h r / " . 15 William E. Bull, Time, Tense, and the Verb: A Study in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics with Particular Attention to Spanish (= University of California Publications in Linguistics, Vol. 19) (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1960), p. 110. 10 Allen Walker Read. "An Account of the Word 'Semantics' ", Word, IV (August, 1948), 82. 17 Uriel Weinreich, review of John B. Carroll's The Study of Language: A Survey of Linguistics and Related Disciplines in America, in Word, IX (December, 1953), 277. 18 N o r m a n A. McQuown, review of Zellig S. Harris' Methods in Structural Linguistics, in Language, X X V I I I (October-December, 1952), 497. " R o m a n Jakobson, "The Phonemic and Grammatical Aspects of Language in Their Interrelations", Actes du Sixième Congrès international des Linguistes (Paris, 1949), p. 6. 20 J. R. Firth, "General Linguistics and Descriptive G r a m m a r " , Transactions of the Philological Society, 1951, p. 74. 21 See, for example, Charles C. Fries, "The Bloomfield 'School'", Trends in European and American Linguistics 1930-1960. edited by Christine M o h r m a n n , Alf Sommerfelt, and Joshua Whatmough (Utrecht. Spectrum Publishers, 1961), pp. 196-199.

23

INTRODUCTION 22

compared with G. Trager's rigorous account in Language 30.131". (His "less rigorous statement of French verb inflection" then follows.) Perhaps C. E. Bazell states the goal of linguistic analysis most forcefully: "The object of linguistic analysis is the establishment of the minimal arbitrary code on the basis of which the facts of speech may be understood . . . a morphemic analysis is unsatisfactory if it does not explain the use of the units analyzed . . ."2:1 Or again: "An analysis which has no consequences for speech has no purpose."-' 4 Hockett himself states, in another article, that the purpose of the structural linguist "is not simply to account for all the utterances which comprise his corpus at a given t i m e . . . Rather, the analysis of the linguistic scientist is to be of such a nature that the linguist can account also for utterances which are not in his corpus at a given time. That is, as a result of his examination he must be able to predict what other utterances the speakers of the language might produce, and, ideally, the circumstances under which those other utterances might be produced."25 Carl. Hj. Borgstrom goes even further: in his criticism of the glossematic theory of Louis Hjelmslev, he states that "a grammar which merely records a number of utterances and the concrete situations in which they are uttered, would miss its chief aim, which is to enable the reader to understand and to form any utterances, not only those recorded in the grammar". 26 "I am inclined to think", he adds, "that the practical, unsystematic descriptions [of the traditional grammars] are, in some respects, more genuinely scientific that the systematic works, just because they do less violence to the natural order of research processes and, therefore, invite less to misinterpretation." 27

1.4. T H E S E A R C H FOR A S A T I S F A C T O R Y E X P L A N A T I O N OF T H E USES O F E X P A N S I O N

In the hope of finding some technique or techniques of analysis which, in addition to providing a description of the items involved and of their distribution, would also explain the use of the units analyzed, the present writer examined in detail 21

Leonard Bloomfield, "On Describing Inflection", Monatshefte für deutschen Unterricht, X X X V I I (April-May, 1945), 8. C. E. Bazell, "Choice of Criteria in Structural Linguistics", Word, X (August-December, 1954), 135. 24 C. E. Bazell, "On the Problem of the Morpheme", Archivuin Linguistiaim. I (1949), 8. 25 Charles F. Hockett, "A N o t e on 'Structure'", International Journal of American Linguistics, X I V (1948), 269 (the italics in the last group of words have been added). 28 Carl. Hj. Borgström. "The Technique of L.inguistic Descriptions", Acta Linguistica, V (1945-1949), 2. 27 Ibid., p. 13. See in this connection also M. S. Beeler, "Remarks on the German Noun Inflection", Language Learning, VIII (1957-1958), 39-45; James W. Marchand, "The Use of Prediction in Teaching the German Verb", Language Learning, V (1955), 138-143; and two other papers by C. E. Bazell: "The Fundamental Syntactic Relations", Casopis pro Modernt Filologii, XXXIII (1949), 9-15, and "Syntactic Relations and Linguistic Typology", Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussnre, VIII (1949), 5-20.

24

INTRODUCTION

several different approaches to linguistic analysis. Some of the conclusions which he reached as a result of this survey are summarized in 3.5. The approach which seemed to offer most toward a solution of various problems arising in connection with the present study was that of the Prague School, whose "most-favored principle", in the words of André Martinet, "is the principle of binarity, according to which the whole of language should be reducible to sets of binary oppositions". 28 Perhaps the best known advocate of the theory of binary oppositions is Roman Jakobson, who has applied this kind of analysis to the Russian system of cases,29 to the Russian verb system,30 and even—as part of a discussion of Franz Boas' "view of grammatical meaning"—to the English verb system.31 In these studies, Jakobson analyzes grammatical concepts in terms of sets of two mutually opposite grammatical categories, one of which is "marked" while the other is "unmarked" or "neutral".

1.5. T H E N E E D F O R A S T U D Y O F T H E O V E R A L L V E R B S Y S T E M

Since for every expanded verb-cluster there is a corresponding non-expanded form, and since no analysis of the English verb system studied by the present writer seemed to provide a wholly satisfactory framework within which to analyze the differences between expansion and non-expansion, it eventually appeared that the scope of the study would have to be broadened in order to include most if not all of the verb forms occurring in present-day English. This analysis of the overall verb system will be described in Chapters VI-X; in Chapters VIII and IX, the oppositions between expanded verb-clusters and non-expanded verb-clusters will be examined as one sub-set of oppositions within the total system.

1.6. T H E S E L E C T I O N O F V E R B F O R M S F O R A N A L Y S I S

The present writer had originally hoped to base this study entirely on randomly selected evidence; to this end he selected a corpus of 4800 verb-clusters and verbidclusters 32 appearing in forty-eight passages selected at random from three novels 28 André Martinet, "Structural Linguistics". Anthropology Today, edited by A. L. Kroeber (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1953), p. 585. 2 " R o m a n Jakobson, "Beitrag zur allgemeinen Kasuslehre. Gesamtbedeutungen des russische Kasus", Travaux du Cercle Linguisliqne de Prague, No. 6 (1936). pp. 240-288. 30 R o m a n Jakobson, "Zur Struktur des russischen Verbums", Charisteria Guielelmo Mathesio quinquagenario (Prague, Prazsky Linguisticky Krouzek, 1932), 74-84; "Russian Conjugation'', Word, IV (December, 1948), 155-167; Shifters, Verbal Categories, and the Russian Verb (Cambridge, Mass.. Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, 1957). 31 R o m a n Jakobson, "Boas' View of Grammatical Meaning", American Anthropologist, LXI, N o . 5, Part 2 (October, 1959), 139-141. 32 A V E R B I D - C L U S T E R is a word group consisting of a verb f o r m with or without a preceding auxiliary which lacks orientation with reference to time, like the word group having eaten in the sentence After having eaten, he watched television for an hour.

INTRODUCTION

25

by different writers, from three works of non-fiction by different writers, from three plays by different dramatists, and from five representative periodicals. (The method of selection and a detailed analysis of the 4 8 0 0 items of the corpus appear in Chapter V.) The corpus selected for the present study proved to be extremely valuable in suggesting the frequency of use of some forms as opposed to others, and also in alerting the present writer to certain uses of one or another form which he might otherwise have overlooked. But even though the corpus provided examples for most oppositions between expanded verb-clusters and their non-expanded counterparts, the writer hesitated to base any conclusions on such examples alone since in all such cases the pairs of sentences differed in much more than just their verb forms. Several studies of English verb forms which the writer had read included generalizations about one or another verb form which seemed based not so much on the actual grammatical meaning signaled by that verb form as upon some meaning to which other elements in the sentence had contributed. A central difficulty in syntactic analysis is that of finding "minimal pairs". In phonemic analysis it is common practice to search for pairs of words which differ from each other only in one phone; if the two words in a minimal pair signify different meanings, then the two phones which differ from each other in those words are said to be in opposition to each other and to represent occurrences of two different phonemes. Similarly, in syntactic analysis, if one wishes to pinpoint the grammatical meaning signaled by one verb form in opposition to another, one should compare two sentences identical in all respccts except for the verb forms contrasting with each other. But it is seldom possible to find pairs of sentences differing from each other in only one element in texts which have been sclectcd at random. The alternatives to using texts selected at random are (1) to elicit non-random examples f r o m one or more informants, and (2) to use oneself as an informant. The former procedure is commonly followed in field work; the latter has been followed in several recent linguistic studies, notably by Archibald A. Hill in his Introduction to Linguistic Structures33 and in various statements by generative grammarians. 3 ' 1 Each procedure has certain inherent problems. In the first, as D. L. Olmsted contends, "the process of drawing the examples is crucial to the analysis and . . . is a weak, possibly fatally weak, link in the chain of investigation. Its weakness results from the fact that, where the linguist is not a native speaker of the language, the process devolves in an unstructured way upon the informant." 3 5 In the latter there 33

Archibald A. Hill, Introduction to Linguistic Structures; From Sound to Sentence in English ( N e w York, H a r c o u r t , Brace and C o m p a n y , 1958). See. f o r example, N o a m C h o m s k y , Syntactic Structures (= Jamta Linguarum, N r . IV) ('s-Gravenhage, M o u t o n & C o m p a n y , 1957), and Robert B. Lees, The Grammar of English Nominalizations (= Publication Twelve of the Indiana University Research Center in Anthropology, Folklore, and Linguistics) (July, 1960). 35 D . L. Olmsted, "Substitution and Frequency-Estimation in Linguistic Analysis", International Journal of American Linguistics. X X V I I (October, 1961), 312. 34

26

INTRODUCTION

is always the danger that the analyst, because of some linguistic theory he has in mind, may invent utterances which "go beyond 'utterances known to occur' " 3 6 —in order, for example, to fill some "hole" in his analysis, and thus make his analysis "neater". It has been pointed out by Fernand Mossé, for example, that "cette FP [forme périphrastique] passive n'existe encore qu'au présent et au prétérit. Nous ne l'avons rencontrée qu'une seule fois au futur et dans un texte récent où il s'agit sans doute d'un emploi d i a l e c t a l . . . . H. E. Palmer GrSpE [A Grammar of Spoken English] 129 et suiv. ne connaît que le présent et le prétérit et les paradigmes complets donnés par Sweet PrimerSpE [A Primer of Spoken English] 37 et NEGr [A •New English Grammar] § 2 1 6 3 . . . n'ont pas de correspondance dans la réalité." 87 Similarly, Jespersen criticizes Sweet for including forms like I have been being seen, I had been being seen, I shall be being seen, I shall have been being seen, in his Elementerbiuh.™ When, therefore, one finds linguists discussing verb-clusters like will have been being paid39 and would have been being loved,40 one may ask whether such forms actually occur in the analysts' dialects or if they have been made up by the application of regular rules of analogy and extension. It can be argued, of course, that once an analyst has made up such a form and has uttered it, the form then exists in his idiolect. But if one were to accept this kind of reasoning, one could borrow from Irish English the contraction amn't, paralleling aren't and isn't, and thus fill a hole which has long annoyed lovers of perfect paradigms. After using the form amn't in a sentence, one could claim that this form occurred in one's own idiolect. The impossibility of finding pairs of sentences in his corpus which differed from each other only in their verb forms forced the present writer to supplement his examples with others drawn from his own usage. These examples were all checked against the usage of other native speakers of English, however, to guard against the possibility that they were forms which had begun to "sound grammatical" to him as the result of several repetitions. Sentences appearing in the corpus which contained similar verb forms were then examined for any further light that they might throw upon the use or uses under consideration.

M

See the discussion by C. F. Voegelin in his "Typology of Density Ranges' II: Contrastive and Non-Contrastive Syntax", Internationa! Journal of American Linguistics, XXVII (October, 1961), 287-288. 294-296. Fernand Mossé, Histoire de la forme périphrastique être + participe présent en anglais de 1200 à nos jours (Thèse pour le Doctorat ès Lettres présentée à la Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Paris, 1938), p. 154. 88 Otto Jespersen, A Modem English Grammar on Historical Principles, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949), IV (1931), 231. " Archibald A. Hill, Introduction to Linguistic Structures (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958), pp. 210-221. Henry Lee Smith. Jr.. "Classification of English Verbal Forms" (paper read at the 19th Summer Program of the Linguistic Society of America, Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 27, 1957).

INTRODUCTION

27

1.7. T H E N E E D F O R A N E W A N A L Y S I S O F E N G L I S H S Y N T A X

As this study progressed, it began to appear that certain details of the English verb system could not be explained within the framework of existing analyses of English structure. It seemed, for example, that several grammatical categories which other writers had described as categories of words were more accurately categories of constructions. It proved necessary, therefore, to make a new analysis of English syntax. 41 This analysis is summarized in Chapter IV, in which certain terms needed for this study are presented and defined.

11 Materials based upon earlier stages of this re-analysis appear in Robert L. Allen and Virginia F. Allen, Graded English for Cahex Employees (mimeographed edition; Rumbai, Indonesia. The Caltex Pacific Oil Company, 1958).

II. R E V I E W O F O T H E R

STUDIES

2.1. THE HISTORY OF EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS T h e most detailed study of the history and development of expanded forms in English is Fernand Mossé's Histoire présent

en anglais

de 1200

de la forme

périphrastique

and subsequently published as V o l u m e X L I I 1 of Collection par La Société

être

+

participe

à nos jours, written originally as a doctoral dissertation

de Linguistique

de Paris

Linguistique

publiée

( 1 9 3 8 ) . According to M o s s é , aspect was

indicated in Old English by "certains préverbes, en particulier ceux qui n'ont plus d'existence propre dans la langue c o m m e préposition ou adverbe". 1 O n e of these pre-verbs was the prefix ge-: verbs formed with gene distinguent assez souvent du verbe simple. Celui-ci exprime la durée indéterminée, indépendamment de toute considération de commencement ou de fin et de résultat. 1

Fernand Mossé, Histoire de la forme périphrastique être + participe présent en anglais de 1200 à nos jours (Thèse pour le Doctorat ès Lettres présentée à la Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Paris, 1938). pp. 6-7. For discussions of aspect, see W[ilhelm] Streitberg. Urgermanische Grammatik: Einführung in das vergleichende Studium der altgermanischen Dialekte (Heidelberg, Carl Winter's Universitätsbucbhandlung, 1896), pp. 277 ff.; Max Deutschbein, "Die Einteilung der Aktionsarten", Englische Studien, LIV (1920), 80-86, and System der neuenglischen Syntax, 2d ed. (Leipzig, Quelle and Meyer, 1926), pp. 36 ff., 70 ff.; Edward Sapir, Language (New York. Harcourt. Brace and Company, 1921), p. 114; E[tsko] Kruisinga. English Accidence and Syntax, Part II of A Handbook of Present-Day English, 4th ed., in 3 vols. (Utrecht, Kemink en Zoon. 1925), I, 64-91; and. more recently, H. V. Velten, "On the Origin of the Categories of Voice and Aspect", Language, VII (December, 1931), 229-241; and Fred Householder. Jr., review of E. Adelaide Hahn's Subjunctive and Optative: Their Origin as Futures, in Language, XXX (July-September, 1954), 389-399. For a discussion of aspect in languages other than English, see Howard B. Garey, "Verbal Aspect in French", Language, XXXIII (April-June, 1957), 91-110. with references, and James Ferrell, "The Meaning of the Perfective Aspect in Russian", Word, VII (August, 1951), 104-135, with references. For aspect in English, see George O. Curme, Syntax (Boston, D. C. Heath and Company, 1931), pp. 373388. and also Harold Whitehall, "The English Language", Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language (college ed.; Cleveland, The World Publishing Company, 1936). pp. xxiv-xxv. Whitehall recognizes an "indefinite" aspect (in the simple tense forms), and the following "definite" aspects: a "perfect" or "completive" aspect (indicated by the use of a past paticiple after HAVE or BE), an "imperfect" or "durative" aspect (indicated by the use of an ing form after BE), an "iterative" or "repetitive" aspect (indicated by the use of keep with an ing form), an "inceptive" or "commencement" aspect (indicated by the use of get with an ing form), and an "effective" aspect (indicated by the use of get with a past participle). Curme recognizes a "durative" aspect; two kinds of "point action" aspect, "ingressive" (as in 'She

REVIEW OF OTHER STUDIES

29

Le composé en ge- au contraire sert à indiquer suivant le cas que la durée est déterminée, que l'action est conduite jusqu'au b o u t . . . ; ou bien qu'on ne considère qu'un moment de l'action qui est le commencement ou la fin; ou encore que l'action est réduite à un point du temps.2 The g- of ge- was palatalized from the very beginning. In the eleventh century the prefix was reduced in writing to /-, and by the thirteenth century had disappeared completely except in the past participle. (It has left "'an inglorious monument", to quote P. Fijn van Draat, '"in yclept and yclad", words now all but obsolete, except in poetic diction. 8 ) Mossé doubts that the "/- soit devenu spontanément a- comme le dit O E D " ; instead, the a- in words like alike and aware—quoted also by van Draat—was formed by analogy with the a- in away (from on wog) and along (from andlang) and merely replaced the i- in words like iwar and Hike. Although the system of oppositions between verbs with ge- and verbs without the prefix thus no longer existed in the thirteenth century, "un troisième élément aspectif s'était introduit, sous l'influence latine, élément qui se développe et réussit: c'est la forme périphrastique he waes feohtendeThis "forme périphrastique" never disappeared entirely in Middle English, and by the fifteenth century "on peut voir que la F P est présente dans toutes les régions et dans tous les documents, littéraires ou non". 5 In Middle English the participai ending -end(e)—and its variants -ind(e) and -and(e)—fell together with the -ing(e) ending for verbal nouns, inherited from Old English feminine verbal nouns in -ing and -ung. The verbal noun was commonly used in phrases introduced by the prepositions on and in, as in these quotations from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: "On huntyng be they riden roially" (A 1687); "So ferden they in chaungyng of hir hewe" (A 1647). Later the preposition on was dropped asleep', 'It is beginning to rain) a n d " e f f e c t i v e " (as in ' S h e dropped d e a d ' , ' S h e stopped crying')-, a " t e r m i n a t e " aspect (as in 'I s a w t h e bird d r o p ' ) ; a n d a n " i t e r a t i v e " a s p e c t . But C u r m e ' s " a s p e c t s " o f t e n s e e m to be little m o r e t h a n n a m e s f o r d i f f e r e n t kinds of lexical m e a n i n g s ; a s C . R. G o e d s c h e says in " A s p e c t versus A k t i o n s a r t " (.Journal of English aiul Germanic Philology, X X X I X , 1940, 191): in classifying verbs as 'iterative', ' f r e q u e n t a t i v e ' , ' i n c h o a t i v e ' , 'privative', etc., " w e d o n o t h i n g t o f u r t h e r the study of a s p e c t . W e o n l y set u p classifications o n the basis of lexical m e a n i n g . . . we c a n n o t a s c r i b e a n ingressive m e a n i n g t o the e x p a n d e d f o r m ; this f o r m m e r e l y d e n o t e s t h a t such a c t i o n is p e r f o r m e d ( d u r a t i v e aspect); the i n h e r e n t m e a n i n g of the v e r b 'to b e g i n ' simply c o n c e n t r a t e s a t t e n t i o n o n the e a r l y stages of t h e p r o c e s s . " B e c a u s e of t h e great d i s a g r e e m e n t a m o n g d i f f e r e n t w r i t e r s a s to t h e s p e c i f i c f e a t u r e s of t h e English v e r b system which i n d i c a t e aspect - a n d e v e n as to t h e n u m b e r of aspects w h i c h should be r e c o g n i z e d (if a n y ) - t h e t e r m " a s p e c t " will not be used in this s t u d y f o r a n y b u t t h e f o r m a l g r a m m a t i c a l d i f f e r e n c e s signaled by t h e p r e s e n c e (or a b s e n c e ) of e x p a n s i o n in verb-clusters. 2 F e r n a n d M o s s é , Histoire de 1200 à nos jours (Thèse l'Université d e Paris, 1938), ' P. F i j n v a n D r a a t . " T h e Its C o n s e q u e n c e s " , Englische 4 F e r n a n d Mossé, op. cit.. s Ibid., p. 36.

anglaise de la forme périphrastique être + participe présent en p o u r le D o c t o r a t ès L e t t r e s p r é s e n t é e à la F a c u l t é des L e t t r e s d e pp. 7-8. Loss of t h e P r e f i x ge- in t h e M o d e r n English V e r b a n d S o m e of Stndien. X X X I (1902), 365. p. 25.

30

REVIEW OF OTHER STUDIES

commonly reduced to a or to a-, or was dropped altogether, as in to be long a dying (Samuel Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe, 7.367), to be long a-coming (Ben Jonson, The Staple of News, 2.5), to be long resolving (Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 262). By the time of Izaak Walton, the use of the ing form without a preposition seems to have been as common as its use with a preposition: in his Compleat Angler (1653), the pattern / am fishing occurs as frequently as I am a-fishing. According to Mossé, "l'innovation du moyen anglais, c'est la création du 'gérondif' lerning. . . . Ainsi . . . le nom en -ing a donné au participe sa forme, mais il a reçu de lui sa valeur verbale". 6 The "fusion morphologique" of the present participle, gerundive, and verbal noun "annonce de l'état de choses moderne". 7 The active construction to go a-begging seems to have appeared first toward the end of the fourteenth century, but the passive construction to be a-doing did not appear until the middle of the fifteenth century. Eventually the a- in the passive construction was also dropped, so that a verb-cluster like were singing could be either active or passive, as in while they were singing this song (Thomas Deloney, Thomas of Reading, 104) and while the verses were yet singing (Walter Scott, The Antiquary, 10). This situation was remedied by the development of expanded forms in the passive: compare Edmund Spenser's while his wounds were dressing (Faerie Queene, 2.11.49) with Samuel Taylor Coleridge's while my hand was being drest by a Mr. Young (in a letter dated March 1797). According to Mossé, the first authentic example of an expanded form in the passive is to be found in a letter written by Robert Southey dated October 9, 1795, in which he writes: "a fellow whose uppermost upper grinder is being torn out by the roots by a mutton-fisted barber". 8 This grammatical "monstrosity", "illogical, confusing, inaccurate, unidiomatic"," for which even John Henry Newman expressed "an undying, never-dying hatred", 10 incurred much resistance at first on the part of certain writers, but has by today become firmly established in both spoken and literary usage.11 " Fernand Mossé. Histoire de la forme périphraslique être + participe présent en anglais de 1200 à nos jours (Thèse pour le Doctorat ès Lettres présentée à la Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Paris. 1938), p. 101. 7 Ibid., p. 106. " Quoted by Mossé, op. cit., pp. 149-150. » Richard G r a n t White, Words and Their Uses (1871), pp. 334 f t , quoted in Mossé, op. cit., p. 157. 10 Fernand Mossé, op. cit., p. 157. " See also the "Historical Introduction" in Chapter XII, "The Expanded Tenses", in Vol. IV of Jespersen's A Modern English Grammar (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1931), pp. 165177. F o r other accounts of the history and development of expanded forms in English, see also Axel E r d m a n n . Old Anglo-Saxon Period (Part I of Essay on the History and Modern Use of the Verbal Forms in -ing in the English Language) (Stockholm, P. A. N y m a n , 1871); Adolf Piittmann, "Die Syntax der sogenannten progressiven F o r m im Alt- und Frühmittelenglischen", Anglia. X X X I (1908), 405-452; Alfred Akerlund, On the History of the Definite Tenses in English (Cambridge. W . H e f f e r and Sons, 1911), and "A Word on the Passive Definite Tenses", Englische Studien. XLVII (1913-14). 321-337; Ph[il] Aronstein, "Die periphrastische F o r m im Englischen", Anglia, X L I I (1918), 1-84; W . van der G a a f , "Some Notes on the History of the Progressive F o r m " , Neophilologus, X V (1930), 201-215; and George O. Curme, "Some Charac-

31

REVIEW OF OTHER STUDIES

As to the reason for the use of the auxiliary BE in expanded verb-clusters, Curme suggests that the copula BE originally had point-action force with the meaning of become. Later, it became associated with the verb is, which has durative force. The two verbs became confounded. . . . Be is the only verb in our language that can be employed in the progressive form because it is the only verb that can be used in its simple form without becoming terminate. This new condition came about the moment that the progressive form became established. This is the most remarkable fact in our language. The establishment of this form in English has brought about more lasting changes in our expression than any other development that has ever taken place. 12 2.2. DISCUSSIONS OF EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS IN GRAMMARS AND HANDBOOKS 2.21. Discussions

in Traditional

and Standard

Grammars

After having traced the historical development of "la forme périphrastique", Mossé turns to a discussion of its "emplois et valeurs". His analysis of several thousand examples of expanded verb-clusters does not lead him to any simple explanation of their use: he states that "nous ne croyons pas qu'il existe un emploi systématique de la FP, mais simplement des tendances". 13 He then proceeds to classify these "tendencies" under such headings as "Durée indéterminée pure: l'actualité", "Permanence et caractéristique", "Description et observation des faits", and the like, and concludes with the following statement: En effet, si l'on excepte le tour I am going lo pour le futur prochain, on remarquera qu'il n'existe pas d'emploi que soit une servitude grammaticale absolue. Dans l'étude qui précède, nous avons bien insisté à plusieurs reprises sur la notion de t e n d a n c e . Le catalogue des emplois de la F P que nous avons essayé de dresser ne teristic Features of Aspect in English", Journal of [English and] Germanie Philology, XXXI (April, 1932), 251-255. For studies of the use of the expanded form by specific writers, see B. Trnka, On the Syntax of the English Verb from Caxton to Dryden (= Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague, No. 3) (1930); F. Th. Visser, A Syntax of the English Language of St. Thomas More ( = Vols. 19, 24, and 26 of Materials for the Study of the Old English Drama) (Louvain, Libraire Universitaire, 1946, 1952, 1956); Georg Fridén, Studies on the Tenses of the English Verb from Chaucer to Shakespeare, with Special Reference to the Late Sixteenth Century ( = Vol. II of Essays and Studies on English Language and Literature) (Upsala, A. B. Lundequistika Bokhandeln, 1948); Karl Brunner, "Expanded Verbal Forms in Early Modern English", English Studies, XXXVI (October, 1955), 218-221; and Siegfried Korninger (ed.), Studies in English Language and Literature: Presented to Professor Dr. Karl Brunner on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday (Vienna, BraumUller, 1957), especially the studies by Fernand Mossé, "Reflexions sur la genèse de la 'forme progressive'", and E. Raybould, "Of Jane Austen's Use of Expanded Verbal Forms". 13 George O. Curme, "Some Characteristic Features of Aspect in English", Journal of [English and] Germanic Philology, XXXI, 254. " Fernand Mossé, Histoire de la forme périphrastique être + participe présent en anglais de 1200 à nos jours (Thèse pour le Doctorat ès Lettres présentée à la Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Paris, 1938), p. 174.

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représente pas autre chose que des tendances. Jamais ces emplois ne sont absolument imposés par la grammaire de l'anglais: l'usage de la FP est facultatif.14 But as C. A. Bodelsen points out, Mossé's whole grouping of tendencies seems "somewhat arbitrary". 15 Bodelsen shows that most of the different "meanings" are to be found in most cases either in the verbs themselves or in accompanying adverbs, or even in the stress and intonation with which certain sentences would be pronounced. With regard to Mossé's claim that the use of expanded forms in English has not yet been completely systematized and sometimes defies analysis, Bodelsen comments: "This I find difficult to believe. It is, I am convinced, never possible to replace an expanded by a simple form without changing something in the meaning." 16 He continues: It is of course clear that the two forms are used to describe the same happenings, but they describe them as seen from two different points of view, and it must be possible to define in what the difference consists. It must be possible to reduce the long catalogue of meanings to some formula, some unitary meaning, however abstract, of which the others are only variants.17 Contrasting with Mossé's inability to discover any central meaning for the expanded form is the terse, categorical statement to be found in Kittredge and Farley's Advanced English Grammar: "The progressive form of a tense represents the action of the verb as going on or continuing at the time referred to." 18 All of their examples fit their rule. There is no discussion of the use of expanded forms with reference to either future time or to repeated events (as in John is always complaining). And even though Kittredge and Farley discuss the use of progressive forms in the passive and also in the subjunctive, they do not mention their use in such sentences as I have been living in New York for the last ten years. J. C. Nesfield, whose English Grammar Series is widely used in India and the Far East, 19 describes a progressive or "continuous" form in much the same manner—that is, as one "which denotes that the event (in Present, Past, or Future time) is still continuing or not yet complete"; he describes a "Perfect" form as one "which denotes that the event (in Present, Past, or Future time) is in a complete or perfect state"; and then adds the information that there is also a "Perfect Continuous, 14

Fernand Mossé, Histoire de la forme périplvasliqtie être + participe présent en anglais de 1200 à nos jours (Thèse pour le Doctorat ès Lettres présentée à la Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Paris. 1938), p. 269. 15 C. A. Bodelsen, review of F. Mossé's Histoire de la forme périplirastique être + participe présent en Germanique, in English Studies, XX (October, 1938), 208. (The study by Mossé discussed in 2.1 above later appeared as the second volume of the work here cited.) i« Bodelsen, loc. cit. » Ibid. 18 George Lyman Kittredge and F r a n k Edgar Farley, An Advanced English Grammar (Boston, Ginn and Company, 1913), p. 113. " J. C. Nesfield, English Grammar Series, "new edition", 4 vols. (Bombay, Macmillan and Company, 1951). T h e first edition was originally printed in 1895, and was reprinted fifty-three times between that date and 1934, when the "new edition" appeared; this second edition has been reprinted at least ten times since then.

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33

which combines the meanings of the two preceding forms; as, 'I have been loving', 'I had been loving', 'I shall have been loving'". (This description appears on page 44 of Book II of his English Grammar Series, and is repeated almost verbatim on page 73 of Book III and on page 60 of Book IV.) Statements like those made by Kittredge and Farley and by Nesfield give no more information about the uses of expanded verb-clusters than is to be found in the structural descriptions discussed in 1.2, above. Their authors offer less insight into the functions of expansion in English than does Mosse, in spite of the latter's claim that he can discern no systematic use of "la forme periphrastique", but only "tendances". But all four writers have one thing in common: they use meaning as the basis for grammatical classification. As has already been observed, Curme also bases his classifications on notional values: he recognizes an "ingressive" aspect in She dropped asleep, but an "effective" aspect in She dropped dead.23 And yet, in striking contrast to his recognition of different aspects even in instances where the form of the verb is identical, is Curme's statement that "the essential meaning of the progressiv [sic] form is duration and it never means anything els [sic]". 21 But several pages later he qualifies this statement by adding that "there is always the idea of the unfinisht, incomplete, in the progressiv form unless the contrary is expressly stated elswhere in the sentence or implied in the context". 22 He elaborates still further in his Parts of Speech and Accidence, where he states that the "Progressive Aspect" is "expressed by the expanded form" and "represents the action as progressing, proceeding, hence as not ended". 23 With "Durative Verbs" it expresses duration; with "Iterative Verbs" it expresses repetition or iteration; and with "Point-Action Verbs" it calls attention, "not to an act as a whole, but to only one point, either the beginning or the end". 21 Henry Sweet denies that the primary function of expanded forms is duration; instead, he seems to support the claim of the present writer that an expanded verbcluster shows "part of an action". Sweet says: In M o d e r n - as in Old - English the definite tenses always imply incompletion. . . T h e y also always imply a certain duration: they are n o longer used as point or inchoative tenses. . . But the expression of duration is not their primary f u n c t i o n in M o d e r n any more than in Old English. N o r can they be used t o express unlimited duration or r e p e t i t i o n . . . T h e characteristic of these tenses is that they use duration to define the time of a point-tense, as in when he came, I was writing a letter.-7'

Etsko Kruisinga agrees with Sweet that "the progressive . . . always implies in20

George O. Curme, Syntax (Boston, D. C. Heath and Company, 1931), p. George O. Curme, "Development of the Progressiv Form in Germanic", the Modern Language Association, XXVIII (1913), 172. " Ibid., p. 177. 23 George O. Curme, Parts of Speech and Accidence (Boston, D. C. Heath 1935), p. 233. 24 Ibid., pp. 233-234. 25 Henry Sweet, A New English Grammar, Logical and Historical (Oxford, Press, 1892-1898), II, 97. 21

385. Publications

of

and Company,

The Clarendon

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completion", but he adds that the progressive future is more descriptive than the non-progressive forms: it draws attention to the process of the action or state. Indeed [he continues] it may be that this is the fundamental function of the progresssive, whereas the function that has given rise to the name 'progressive' is only due to the context. It should be added, however, that the progressive function is the usual one in the present and the preterite. 27 This descriptive function is elaborated upon in the eighth edition of Kruisinga's An English Grammar (revised by P. A. Erades). There it is stated that the descriptive value of the progressive often suggests that the activity, occurrence or state described has been the object of the particular interest or careful observation on the part of the speaker.. . . Thus 'the bride wore a white silk gown' is a bald statement of fact; we can imagine the lady-reporter who writes 'The bride was wearing a white silk gown' lovingly taking in all the details of the gown, following the bride with her eyes as she walked up the aisle, etc. 28 Elsewhere Kruisinga and Erades discuss the "prospective progressive" (i.e., the use of the present progressive to refer to a future time) and the "emotional progressive" (the use of the progressive to give an emotional coloring to the sentence). On page 2 5 2 appear these two important statements: The time [expressed by the progressive] is t h o u g h t of as limited in duration. 2 » That is why we can say Your cap is lying in the passage but why the progressive would never be used in London lies on the Thames, or why we say I live here, where the verbal idea is t h o u g h t of as permanent. . . . . . the succession of events that a story relates is expressed by simple forms, and . . . the verbal ing is used as soon as two events are thought of as connected. 50 According to H. Poutsma, the fundamental function of the expanded form is "to express durativeness or iterativeness", 31 but it may also have "a variety of secondary functions, which are not always easy to determine or discriminate". 32 These secondary functions include "the Progressive Function", "the Relieving Function", "the Prospective Function", "the Characterizing Function", and "the Qualitative Function". Poutsma also lists a large number of "Verbs whose Meaning or Syntactical Function is incompatible with the Force of the Expanded Form", and then proceeds to cite examples from various writers in which many of these same verbs are used in the expanded form. Not surprisingly, Poutsma feels that 20

Etsko Kruisinga, English Accidence and Syntax, Part II of A Handbook of Present-Day English, 5th ed„ 4 vols. (Groningen, P. Noordhoff, 1931-1932), I, 342. " Ibid., 350-351. E. Kruisinga and P. A. Erades. Accidence and Syntax, Vol. I of An English Grammar, 8th ed. (Groningen, P. Noordhoff, 1953), p. 255. M The words thought of are emphasized here in order to call attention to a point emphasized earlier in the same passage: namely, "that what matters here, as always in language, is the speaker's view of matters". 30 Kruisinga and Erades, loc. cit. S1 H. Poutsma, A Grammar of Late Modern English for the Use of Continental, Especially Dutch, Students (Groningen. P. Noordhoff, 1904-1926), Part II, Sec. 2, p. 317. » ¡bid., p. 318.

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35

it will create small wonder that in the handling of such an illusive idiom as the Expanded Form no uniformity of usage is observed by different writers and speakers. The observant student will, most probably, be struck by the fact that some writers employ it more frequently than others.33 But as Anna Granville Hatcher points out, "the method of Poutsma and others, who list examples from Shakespeare and Elinor Glyn side by side, obviously fails to give us a picture of our language at any given stage".34 Sweet's remark that "the characteristic of these tenses is that they use duration to define the time of a point-tense" is echoed by Otto Jespersen, who finds in that characteristic the essential use of the expanded forms. It is often said [he states] that the expanded tenses indicate duration of the action or state denoted by the verb. But in this form the assertion evidently is not correct... The essential thing is that the action or state denoted by the expanded tense is thought of as a temporal

frame

encompassing

something

else w h i c h as o f t e n as n o t is t o b e u n d e r s t o o d

from the whole situation. The expanded tenses, therefore, call the attention more specially to time than the simple tenses, which speak of nothing but the action or state itself.35 He adds that expanded forms often seem to give emotional coloring to a sentence, and suggests that this may be due to the length of expanded verb-clusters as compared with non-expanded clusters.36 But later Jespersen suggests that he is always doing that may be paraphrased as he is continually beginning that again.3'' After discussing several uses of the expanded forms, Jespersen concludes that it is not always possible "to carry through a sharp logical line of division between the simple and expanded forms, consequently the choice of one or the other form is in some cases of very little importance for the meaning of the sentence". 38 Jespersen discusses expanded and non-expanded verb-clusters within the conceptual framework of a seven-tense system, which he describes in the first chapter of Volume IV, and also in Chapters XIX and XX of The Philosophy of Grammar.3' 33 H. Poutsma, A Grammar of Late Modern English for the Use of Continental, Especially Dutch, Students (Groningen, P. N o o r d h o f f , 1904-1926), Part II, Sec. 2, p. 344. 34 A n n a Granville Hatcher, "The Use of the Progressive F o r m in English: A New Approach", Language, X X V I I (July-August 1951), 276. 85 Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, E j n a r Munksgaard, 1909-1949), IV, 178-180. *> C. T. Onions also comments on this emotional coloring: "The Continuous forms are sometimes used idiomatically without implying anything 'continuous', e.g., 'what have you been doing to that picture?'/'Someone has been tampering with this lock'. These are different f r o m have you done, has tampered-, they give an emotional colouring to the sentence, and express surprise, disgust, impatience, or the like." (An Advanced English Syntax, 6th ed., London, Kegan Paul, Trench, T r u b n e r and Company, 1932, p. 113.) 57 Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949), IV, 178-180. 58 Ibid., pp. 213-214. Otto Jespersen, The Philosophy of Grammar (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1924), pp. 254-289. See also his Essentials of English Grammar (New York, Henry Holt and C o m pany, 1933), pp. 230-231.

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These two chapters are a rewritten, rearranged version of his "Tid og Tempus", printed in 1914. 40 On page 414 of "Tid og Tempus" there appears the following diagram: 41 [1]

he is writing T

[now]

he was writing t

when I entered

In the text he points out the similarity in meaning of he was writing when I entered to as he was writing I entered. In other words, in one case the writing provides a temporal frame encompassing this moment ("now"); in the other case the writing provides a temporal frame encompassing the speaker's entrance. Jespersen's diagram is expanded by J. H. G. Grattan and P. Gurrey in their book Our Living Language in order to demonstrate "the Modern English habit of using Tense to m a k e clear THE RELATIVE DURATION OF TWO ACTIONS WHICH ROUGHLY SYNCHRONIZE,

or to make clear the duration of an action as compared with some point of time". 12 Grattan and Gurrey give the following diagrams and examples: (p. 216:)

[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

(p. 221:)

[7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

The band is playing while I write The band plays while I am writing The band is playing while I am writing The band is playing now The band plays while I write The band was playing while I wrote The band played while I was writing The band was playing while I was writing The band was playing at six o'clock The band played while I wrote

Otto Jespersen, "Tid og Tempus. Forsatte Logisk-Grammatiske Studier", Oversigt over del Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger, No. 5-6 (1914), pp. 367-420. A similar diagram appears on p. 180 of A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949), IV. 42 J. H. G. Grattan and P. Gurrey, Our Living Language (London, Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1925), p. 216.

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37

Although Jespersen refers favorably to Grattan and Gurrey's "very able vivid exposition of the question", 43 the use of dots to represent events that extend beyond a moment of time such as / write, the band plays, I wrote, and the band played, seems unfortunate. One may also question the validity of the relationships suggested by the diagrams in [7], [8], and [11]: does The band was playing while 1 wrote, for example, indeed suggest that the playing of the band extended before and after the writing? Mosse gives a different interpretation, which in some respects appears to represent the facts more accurately: [12] [13]

•

[14] [15]

[16 ] [17] [18 ] [19 ]

•

I. action ligne (FP): action point (F Simple) While I was writing he came in II. action point (F Simple): action ligne (FP) He came in while I was writing III. action ligne (FP): action ligne (FP) He was reading while I was writing IV. action point (F Simple): action point (F Simple) When he came in the clock struck one . . . Ill peut se subdiviser à son tour en: III. a) action ligne (FP): action ligne (FP) He was reading while I was writing III. b) action ligne (FP): action ligne (F Simple) While he was reading I wrote III. c) action ligne (F Simple): action ligne (FP) He read while I was writing III. d) action ligne (F simple): action ligne (F Simple) He read while / wrote44

To these diagrams Mossé appends the comment that les types H i t et IIIc s'expliquent p a r le fait que q u a n d deux actions sont synchrones, il arrive f r é q u e m m e n t q u ' u n e d'elles seulement soit à la F P , soit parce qu'elle fait, plus que l'autre, image dans l'esprit du sujet parlant, parce que l'attention de ce dernier est fixée sur elle; soit p o u r des raisons de style et p o u r éviter d'employer deux fois de suite la F P . 4 5

Mossé then proceeds to examine "Les diverses réalisations de ses formules": he gives several pages of examples of type I, of type II, and of types III«, 1116, and of IIIc (more of Ilia than of either IIIZ> or IIIc). Unfortunately, he gives no examples of either type IV or of type IIId since they "ne nous interessefnt] pas ici". 4 ' 13

Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949), IV, 232. ,4 Fernand Mossé, Histoire de la forme périphrastique être + participe présent en anglais de 1200 à nos jours (Thèse pour le Doctorat ès Lettres présentée à la Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Paris, 1938), p. 205. 45 ibid. U:I she suggests six such references for the present tenses, and gives examples of each in both non-expanded and expanded forms. Each of the six categories should be analyzed separately, she says; for her own study she chooses the sixth, the opposition between explanation t h a t it "springs f r o m a genuine poetic feeling: the past tense would make the bare statement of plot pretend t o literary status, and as literature it would be atrociously bad". Archibald A . Hill describes the "so-called historical present as a use of the u n m a r k e d non-past believed to be a stylistic variant". ( i n t r o d u c t i o n to Linguistic Structures, N e w York, H a r c o u r t , Brace and C o m p a n y . 1958, p. 53.) T h e use of present f o r m s with reference to past time probably occurs m o r e o f t e n in everyday speech t h a n m a n y writers have suspected; it is not unc o m m o n , f o r example, to bear a m o t h e r or f a t h e r address sentences like the following to one of their children: And so you (go and) pull her hair. Is that any way to behave? O r again, The first time I give you a dollar bill, you go and lose it! (Go and seems to occur in such sentences rather frequently.) 20» Dwight L. Bolinger, " M o r e on the Present Tense in English", Language, X X I I I (OctoberDecember, 1947), 436. 201

Bolinger suggests that, by a "metaphorical extension", the sentence Here comes the teacher " B E C O M E S 'constitution of things' by absorbing the attention completely." (Ibid.. p. 434.) R a l p h B. L o n g claims instead that in such sentences "the external point of view of the spectator at a play is a p p r o a c h e d " . (The Sentence and Its Parts, Chicago, T h e University of C h i c a g o Press, 1961, p. 123.) But A n n a Granville Hatcher is probably m u c h closer to the truth in calling such a sentence a " f o r m u l a " inherited f r o m an older f o r m of English: "Since we retain the original word order, the original f o r m of the verb is also preserved." ("The Use of the Progressive F o r m in English", Language, X X V I I , July-August, 1951, 274.) Mf A n n a Granville Hatcher, "The Use of the Progressive F o r m in English: A N e w A p p r o a c h " . Language, X X V I I (July-August, 1951), 259. 203 Ibid., 263.

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My nose itches

and [61]

My nose is running.

After examining several more examples in this category, Hatcher concludes that, in the present, "the choice of constructions is D E T E R M I N E D B Y T H E N A T U R E O F T H E V E R B S THEMSELVES". 2 " 4 She then lists several verbs which are ordinarily used in the simple present, pointing out that in such sentences as [62] [63] [64]

I deny that he is guilty I thank you I pass

etc., "we have to do with a very peculiar type of predication . . . : T H E ' A C T I V I T Y ' PREDICATED HAS NO EXISTENCE APART F R O M T H E PREDICATION, B U T IS I D E N T I C A L W I T H IT".*®5 Finally Hatcher states the general rule that "the simple form is the norm for verbs which describe a process that is both non-overt and non-developing; the progressive is the norm for all other verbs". 206 But even this rule requires qualification; after further discussion, Hatcher concludes that in reference to a single present occurrence, the progressive is the norm for all verbs that describe overt or developing activity or both, as well as for those verbs of nonovert, non-developing activity that stress of themselves (1) the effect of the activity on the subject, (2a) his absorption in activity, or (2b) the results or aims of this activity emphases that may be summarized in the label 'involvement of the subject'; the simple form is the norm for all the rest. . . .207 In the last of the four studies referred to above, Nora Landmark suggests that possibly the fact that Hatcher uses expanded forms in the questions which she asks (the answers to which lead her to her final formulation) may "discriminate in an artificial manner against the simple form statements which we feel can nevertheless be understood to have an involvement of the subject meaning". 208 She points out that some of the examples in her own data seem not to support Hatcher's conclusions. Nevertheless Landmark feels that, on the whole, "Hatcher's findings support Calver's and Bolinger's", so that we may conclude that FACT OF PROCESS, with CONSTITUTION OF THINGS as the most important corollary, respresents the most conclusive and concise statement of the meaning(s) of the simple form. The constitution-of-things label in itself synthesizes all 504

Anna Granville Hatcher, "The Use of the Progressive F o r m in English: A N e w Approach", Language, X X V I I (July-August. 1951), 265. 205 Ibid., 267. Martin Joos calls this the "asseverative use" of these verbs, in his English Language and Linguistics, mimeopraphed edition (Beograd, Institute for Experimental Phonetics, 1958), p. 87. aoe Hatcher, op. cil., p. 268. Ibid., 279. «»a N o r a Landmark, " A Study of the T w o F o r m s of the English Verb in the Present Tense" (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Michigan State College, East Lansing, 1954), p. 67.

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meanings I have found stated by other grammarians with the exception of the two types involving verbs of saying noted above ["You say you hit him?" and "1 suggest that you go"].20» It seems to the present writer that Landmark may have perceived such a "synthesis of all meanings" more out of a desire to produce some neat summarizing statement than as the result of any conclusions based on her own data. After examining over 2000 examples of expanded and non-expanded verb-clusters in the grammatical environments in which they appear in her corpus, in the hope of discovering some formal clue or clues which may suggest the choice of one form rather than the other in a given instance, Landmark concludes that "to establish by means of completely objective criteria the difference in the meaning of these two forms awaits . . . the invention of more exact methods by the descriptive linguists. Lacking a precedent in such methods, this investigation has found it impossible to divorce structural and lexical meanings; the two appear to be inextricably involved". 210 Statements like the following suggest that she finally abandoned any attempt to discover objective criteria: "While we cannot predict what is in the mind of a speaker who says 'how sweetly she sleeps there' we may for illustrative purposes say that such a statement directs the attention, for example, to sleep as an abstract concept; whereas, 'how sweetly she is sleeping there' directs the attention to the subject, i.e., to that which is in extension". 211 But Landmark's study is of interest for one of the techniques she uses in her analysis: that of substituting the other of the two forms (expanded or non-expanded) for the one found in her own examples, in order to determine whether such a substitution would change the meaning - and if so, in what way. (As a result of applying this technique, she comes to the conclusion that the simple form is chiefly conccrned with "intensional meaning", the expanded form with "extensional meaning". 212 ) She also reports the results of a statistical study of the individual verbs appearing in her corpus, which she classifies into groups according to whether they "resist expanding", or are "frequent in the expanded form but infrequent in the simple form", and so on. 213 Perhaps reference should be made here to Benjamin L. Whorf's explanation of the difference between the use of non-expanded verb-clusters in sentences like / hear you and He sees it and the use of expanded verb-clusters in sentences like I am working and The boy is running?1* According to Whorf, "there is one thing 209 N o r a Landmark, " A Study of (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ibid., p. 139. 211 Ibid., p. 51. 212 Ibid. 213 Ibid., pp. 75 ff. 214 Benjamin L. Whorf, "Gestalt Research Series, Indiana Historical

the T w o F o r m s of the English Verb in the Present Tense" Michigan State College, East Lansing, 1954), pp. 55-56.

Techniques of Stem Composition in Shawnee", Society, I, N o . 9 (April, 1940), 393-406.

Prehistory

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on which all observers of the appearance of a running boy will agree, at least after questioning or experimental testing - that it can be divided into p a r t s . . . They will all divide it into (1) a figure or outline having more or less of motion (the boy) and (2) some kind of background or field against which, or in which, the figure is seen". 215 He goes on to say that the laws governing visual perception are basically the same for all persons, then asks how such laws can provide any frame of reference for non-visual experience - and gives as answer: By process of elimination. Everything that 'takes up space' can be shown to be known directly or indirectly through vision. Everything unvisual is unspatial in character (and vice versa) and is felt as immediate to the experiencer.. . . Visual experience is projected and constitutes space, or what we shall call the external field of the observer; unvisualexperience is introjected and makes up what we shall call . . . the ego field, or egoic field, because the observer or ego feels himself, as it were, alone with these sensations or awarenesses. 21 ' This provides an explanation for the use of expanded versus non-expanded forms in English: Verbs referring to the subject's ego-field experience use the simple tense for momentary present fact, and not the present progressive. Other verbs employ the present progressive tense for either momentary or continued present fact, and the simple present . . . for the nomic or customary tense aspect. 217

2.4. OTHER STUDIES OF ENGLISH VERB FORMS A few other, more general studies of English verb forms deserve special attention as representing different approaches to the analysis of such forms. Three of these - an article by B. M. Charleston on "A Reconsideration of the Problem of Time, Tense, and Aspect in Modern English", 21 » Section 51 (pp. 2 8 7 - 2 9 8 ) of Hans Reichenbach's Elements of Symbolic Logic,219 and William E. Bull's monograph on Time, Tense, and the Verb220 - are primarily interesting for their discussion of 215 Benjamin L. Whorf, "Gestalt Techniques of Stem Composition in Shawnee". Prehistory Research Series, Indiana Historical Society, 1, No. 9 (April. 1940), 396. 21 « Ibid., p. 397. 2ir Ibid., 398. For a criticism of Whorf's analysis, see the comments by Joseph H. Greenberg on p. 167 of Harry Hoijer (ed.), Language in Culture: Proceedings of a Conference on the Inter-relations of Language and Other Aspects of Culture (Supplement to Vol. LVI. No. 6 [December, 1954], of American Anthropologist). 218 Britta Marian Charleston, "A Reconsideration of the Problem of Time, Tense, and Aspect in Modern English", English Studies, XXXVI (October, 1955), 263-278. In an earlier work, Studies on the Syntax of the English Verb (Bern, Verlag A. Francke, 1941), Charleston had, in the manner of Poutsma, distinguished several different "functions" of the expanded forms, such as the "Actualizing Function" and the "Characterizing and Qualifying Functions". 211 Hans Reichenbach. Elements of Symbolic Logic (New York, The Macmillan Company. 1947). 220 William E. Bull, Time, Tense, and the Verb: A Study in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, with Particular Attention to Spanish (= University of California Publications in Linguistics, Vol. XIX) (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1960).

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time with reference to the so-called moment of speech; they will be examined in greater detail in connection with the discussion of "Definite Time and Indefinite Time" in Chapter VI. A fourth treatment of English verb forms of special interest is to be found in Martin Joos's English Language and Linguistics,221 although much of his discussion seems needlessly complicated. And several of his assertions are open to question: one wonders, for example, if a demonstrator who uses non-expanded verb-clusters in such statements as [65]

I fill the flask with water

really "uses word and deed to DEFINE EACH OTHER". IS it true that a dramatist who uses non-expanded forms in such stage directions as [66]

The door opens; John enters

"is creating all' this, is making it all true by writing it, is defining the things, persons, and acts by each other"? 22 -' Or again, is it true that the use of the present perfect "neutral" (i.e., non-expanded form), as in [67]

I have eaten my supper

really implies that the eating was in the past but "NECESSARILY recently enough so that NONE of the effects have had time to become significantly weaker"? 223 It is difficult to discern any lingering effects of the reading referred to in such a sentence as [68]

I've read Bleak House twice, but I don't remember anything about it.

As Archibald A. Hill points out in his Introduction to Linguistic Structures, although an explanation of the use of the perfect like that given by Sweet (see footnote 223, below) '-'has become.the accepted analysis, it is not strictly accurate". 224 As examples which do not fit the usual analysis, Hill gives the sentences [69] I have come to see you three times this week, but you were not at home and (as an answer to the question "Do you live in Washington?") [70]

I have lived in Washington

with primary stress on have and secondary on lived, where the speaker might add 221

Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed edition (Beograd, Institute for Experimental Phonetics, 1958), pp. 48-102. ¡bid., pp. 87-88. 223 Ibid., p. 91. Cf. the statement by Henry Sweet that the perfect "expresses an occurrence which began in the past and is connected with the present, either by actual continuance u p to the present time, . . . or in its results". (A New English Grammar, 2 vols., Oxford, T h e Clarendon Press, 1892-1898, I, 98.) 824 Archibald A. Hill, Introduction to Linguistic Structures: From Sound to Sentence in English (New York, Harcourt, Brace and C o m p a n y , 1958), p. 212.

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some such sentence as "but now I live in New York". As Hill points out, "primary stress on have breaks any connection with action going on at the present time".225 Perhaps the most original part of Joos's treatment of verb forms is his discussion of "the semantic-grammatical category of PRIVATE verb(-meaning)s".226 "Private verbs" do not permit of expansion: for example, we say [71] (a) not (b)

James hates music * James is hating music.227

It is easy to see how the label "private" can be applied to verbs like hate, like, believe, and understand, but it is hard to see how the same label can be applied to the verb extend as used in the sentence [72]

The roof extends out over the porch

(not *is extending). Evidently Joos intends "private" as a label only, not as a description of all the verbs in this category. In a paper read at the December, 1959, meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Joos used the term "relation verbs" instead.228 But then the question arises as to what the definition of "private" or "relation" verbs is. If one defines such verbs as those which do not occur in "durative formulas" (i.e., expanded verb-clusters), and then states that such verbs resist expansion, one is applying circular reasoning. Joos suggests "a strict test which does work" for "sorting out the private verbs from among the vastly greater number of public verbs" in English, namely, the impossibility of using the present forms of private verbs for future time.229 And yet, if the covert feature which makes such verbs incompatible with expansion is also responsible for making them incompatible with future time-expressions, one test cannot be used to explain the other. Incompatibility with expansion and incompatibility with future timeexpressions may be merely two "reactances" of the same covert category.230 Joos groups private verbs in three classes:231 (1) those verbs which "specify relations between the milieu and the person in such a way as to characterize the person's internal condition", as in [73] 225

James hates music;

Archibald A. Hill, Introduction to Linguistic Structures: From Sound to Sentence in English (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958), p. 212. 226 Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed edition (Beograd, Institute for Experimental Phonetics, 1958), pp. 82 ff. 257 This example appears on p. 84 of Joos's monograph, in a list of examples which includes "I plan to buy a house". But surely it is possible to say "I'm planning to buy a house". 228 Joos, "Process and Relation Verbs in English" (paper read at the Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Chicago, December 28, 1959). 229 Joos, English Language and Linguistics, pp. 83-84. See also William Z. Shetter, "Durative Formulas in Brazilian Portuguese: T h e Verbal Dimension of ' F o c u s ' " , Language Learning, X I (1961), 50, n. 5. 280 T h e terms "reactance" and "covert category" are from Benjamin Lee Whorf, " G r a m m a tical Categories", Language, X X I (1945), 1-11. 2 " Joos, English Language and Linguistics, pp. 83-84.

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(2) those verbs which still show "some relation between person and thing, but the thing is what is considered as characterized by the relation", as in That touches a sore spot, [74] That hurts; [75] and (3) those verbs that characterize things by their relation to each other, where no person is essentially involved, as in [76]

Italy borders upon France,

[77]

Haste makes waste.232

(For a different analysis - and classification - of such verbs, see Chapter IX, "Momentary Predications and 'Suffusive' Predications".) Archibald A. Hill calls Joos's label ("private verbs") an "apt name" since "no one but the speaker himself is a competent witness to such action as seeing or understanding, while with an action such as looking at, the hearer can verify what is occurring".2.311 But he adds that while the distinction between private and public verbs is a useful teaching device and makes clear to learners of the language why we say "I like apple pie now," but "It is raining now," it is not a sufficiently accurate description to take care of all cases. He cites call, say, and declare as examples which do not fit this definition of "private verbs" but which, nonetheless, are not used in expanded verb-clusters. In addition to discussing the uses of the different verb forms of English, Hill describes the distribution patterns of the various verb types and the stress superfixes that accompany different verb phrases. He distinguishes four types of verb phrases: Type A - l , containing a verb followed by an infinitive without to, as in I could go;234 Type A-2, containing a verb followed by an infinitive with to, as in I wanted to go; Type B, containing a verb followed by a present participle, as in I kept trying; and Type C, containing a verb followed by a past participle, as in I had taken,233 Hill suggests that the basic component of expanded forms is incompleteness, but that "it seems natural to assume that duration can be easily correlated with it at least in our language frame". 23 " That the component of duration is not primary can be seen from the fact that one can say either of the following sentences: [78] (a) (b) 232

I was playing the piano from ten to eleven this morning I played the piano from ten to eleven this morning.

Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed edition (Beograd, Institute for Experimental Phonetics, 1958), pp. 84-85. 233 Archibald A. Hill, Introduction to Linguistic Structures: From Sound to Sentence in English (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958), p. 207. 234 Hill calls the auxiliaries "negative verbs" since they take the negative suffix -nt. 235 Hill, op. cit., p. 191. On p. 202 Hill states that the number of normal verbs which enter into verbal phrases with a following present participle is not large; see, however, the list of Type IA verbs in Appendix B of the present study. 23> Ibid., p. 209.

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Hill observes that the verbs which normally do not occur in expanded form in the present tense also do not occur in expanded form in the past tense. This suggests that there may be some common element in expansion as opposed to non-expansion in both the present and past tenses, in spite of Hatcher's insistence that the tenses should be dealt with separately.237 Elsewhere Hill suggests that the form always has two distinct functions, according to whether it is added to a non-expanded verbcluster or to an expanded verb-cluster: in the former case, "it means 'without fail', as in 'The sun always rises in the East'", but in the second case "it indicates that the action is repeated and incomplete, as in 'The sun is always rising when John gets up'". 2 3 8 But the distinction between the meaning "without fail" and the indication of repetition does not seem clear-cut when one contrasts such sentences as these: [79] (a) (b)

John always refuses when I suggest that we go to the movies John is always doing something important when I suggest that we go to the movies. It is undoubtedly true, as Hill asserts, that "with many if not all verbs", have may be used to show that the action is still going on". 230 He gives as examples [80] [81]

I have been hungry all day, and I still am. I have spoken English for many years, and I still do.

But he seems not to have noticed the curious fact that have spoken English may express either of two different meanings: if we change the time-expression in the second example to make it the same as the time-expression in the first, we get the ungrammatical [82]

*I have spoken English all day, and I still do.

Obviously, I have spoken English all day does not mean the same as I have spoken English for many years; to show that the action is still going on after the former, we would add and I still am : [83]

I have spoken English all day, and I still am,

or, more commonly, [84]

I've been speaking English all day, and I still am.

If this last example represents the action as still going on now, as it seems to, one may ask whether the second example quoted from Hill really does "indicate that the action is still going on". f

" Anna Granville Hatcher, "The Use of the Progressive Form in English", Language, XXVII (July-August, 1951), 263. Archibald A. Hill, Introduction to Linguistic Structures (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958), p. 211. Ibid., p. 212. With "many" verbs, yes - but certainly not with all: one would not say They have drowned all day or They have arrived all day, to use as examples two of the "telic" verbs discussed by Howard B. Garey, "Verbal Aspect in French", Language, XXXIII (April-June, 1951), 105-106.

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A little later Hill states that one can find both a component of completeness and a component which is non-past action in the clause [85]

When I have finished this book tomorrow . . .

- but that the completeness "is to be associated only with the past participle, and the non-past component only with the non-past first verb, have":-40 If this were true, one could claim, with equal validity, that since, in the sentence [86]

I will have finished this book by tomorrow

the component of completeness is associated with the past participlc, the component of futurity (or non-pastness) must be expressed by will (in which case the have is redundant) or else by have (in which case the will is redundant). Surely one cannot claim that a component of incompleteness is to be associated with the ing form in the phrase before bursting, since the ing form also occurs in the phrase after bursting with reference to a completed action. The correct explanation is that the ing form is obligatory after any preposition: 241 no semantic component of incompleteness can be read into this use of the ing form. In the same way, no semantic component of completeness can be read into the use of the past participle after have since the past participle is obligatory after the auxiliary have. (See [27] above.) Something that is obligatory or completely predictable conveys no information.- M An interesting analysis of English verb-clusters in terms of binary selections appears in "Boas' View of Grammatical Meaning" by Roman Jakobson. According to Jakobson, an English speaker must, when choosing a verb-cluster, select between (A) a passive and an active construction, (B) preterite and non-preterite, (C) perfect and non-perfect, (D) progressive and non-progressive, (E) potential and non-potential, (F) assertorial and non-assertorial (except that in a negation or question, "a simple verb form . . . is compulsorily replaced by a 'do' construction, and there is no two-choice situation"). 24:1 In each pair of categories listed here, the first is the more specified or "marked", and the second is the less specified or "unmarked". Jakobson summarizes these "selective verbal categories" in a tabic 240

Archibald A. Hill, Introduction to Linguistic Structures (New York, Harcourt, Brace and C o m p a n y , 1958), p. 212. îu T h e to that is used with infinitives is not a true preposition: cf. " H e used to take cold showers" (with the infinitive-introducing to) and " H e was accustomed to taking cold showers" (with the preposition to). 242 Uriel Weinreich, "On the Semantic Structure of Language", in Universal!, of Language. edited by Joseph H. G r e e n b e r g (Cambridge, Mass., T h e M.I.T. Press, 1963), pp. 160, n. 37. 34:1 R o m a n J a k o b s o n , "Boas' View of G r a m m a t i c a l Meaning", American Anthropologist. L X I . N o . 5, Part 2 (October, 1959), pp. 139-141. Jakobson gives as the reason f o r the lack of a two-choice situation in a negation o r a question the fact that "any nexal negation and any nexus-question has a patently assertorial, vérificative m o d a l i t y " (p. 140). But one m a y question his conclusion that "thus the lack . . . of such interrogative constructions as 'killed he' . . . h a s a semantic motivation": the distinction between the c o n f i r m a t i o n "he did kill" and the simple positive statement "he killed" is reflected in the distinction between the c o n f i r m a t i o n question "Did he kill the bull?" (with p r i m a r y stress on did) and the simple question "Did he kill the bull?" (with tertiary or weak stress on the did).

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in which a list of the different verbal forms is followed by six columns headed with the letters A to F, representing the six pairs of selective categories: a plus sign after a verbal form in any column designates the marked member of the pair represented by that column, while a minus sign designates the unmarked member. One of the most recent studies devoted exclusively to the English verb system and one of the best - is W. F. Twaddell's The English Verb Auxiliaries. Preliminary drafts appeared in duplicated form in 1959; the study then appeared as a printed booklet in I960. 244 A slightly altered version, with a short introduction on linguistics, appeared as Chapter V, "Linguistics (English verb grammar)", in Communication in General Education, published in I960. 215 Twaddell's study is an interesting mixture of criticisms of traditional grammar ("it has been a common error to assign some meaning like 'present, non-past' to a construction which lacks the Past modification..., or a meaning like 'active' to constructions without be + participle" 248) and of descriptions which sound like those of the classic grammarians ("the Past modification . . . signals earlierness, time anterior to that of the utterance, and nothing else";247 "have + participle . . . signals a significant persistence of results . .., a valid present relevance of the effects of earlier events";248 "the grammatical meaning of be + -ing is . . . 'limited duration' "24»). Twaddell, "by a special convention", regards (I) the past inflection, (II) the auxiliary have -(- the [past] participle, (III) the auxiliary be + -ing, and (IV) the auxiliary be + the [past] participle, as "modifying" the lexical verb in any verbcluster in which one of these four elements appears.250 He discusses the different kinds of verb-clusters under the headings "Zero modification", "Modification I", "Modification II", and so on. He then summarizes the "Semantics of the Four Modifications" in an admirably concise treatment, although several of his generalizations are open to question. It is probably not true, for example, that "the lexical verb alone, without any auxiliaries and Past inflection . . . conveys the semantic content of the lexical verb alone, with no grammatical meaning beyond that of 'verb' ".251 It is also probably not true that "stage directions and ritual instructions" ?44 w . F. Twaddell, The English Verb Auxiliaries 1960). 245

(Providence, R. I., Brown University Press,

Francis Shoemaker and Louis Forsdale (eds.), Communication in General Education: College Composition and Communication (Dubuque, Iowa, Wm. C. Brown Co., 1960), pp. 49-64. S4n Twaddell, op. cit., p. 3. 247 One is reminded of Curme's statement that "the essential meaning of the progressiv form is duration and it never means anything els" ("Development of the Progressiv Form in Germanic", Publications of the Modern Language Association, XXVIII, 1913, 172). 248 Cf. the statement by Henry Sweet quoted on p. 67, n. 223, above, and Archibald A. Hill's criticism of Sweet's analysis, quoted on the same page. 248 These definitions appear on pp. 6-7 of Twaddell's The English Verb Auxiliaries. 250 ¡bid., p. 1. 251 Twaddell, op. cit., p. 5. The so-called "present" verb forms do have a "grammatical meaning".

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signal the grammatical meaning of "indefinitely repeatable": when one orders a book and writes [87]

I enclose a check for $5

one probably does not use "the lexical verb alone" because of the possibility of enclosing a five-dollar check again an indefinite number of times. (And does a headline like President Flies to Miami really suggest something "immutable and eternal"?) Twaddell does not distinguish between the so-called "present tense" and the infinitive since both are the same in form, and yet one assumes from his discussion that he would distinguish between hit with zero-modification and hit with Modification I (in this case, "zero" to signal "Past"), although these two words are also the same in form. It may be true that the infinitive is "simply timeless",252 but one may question whether the so-called "present tense" form is also timeless, even though both forms are identical (except in the case of BE, which has distinct infinitive and present forms). Reference has already been made to Twaddell's treatment of Modification II (have + participle) as signaling "a valid present relevance of the effects of earlier events". Twaddell states that this modification "explicitly links an earlier event or state with a current situation". 253 He bases his claim on the "classic exemplification of the meaning of current relevance" to be found in a sentence like [88]

My family has lived in this town since 1638.

But it is unfortunate that he has chosen an atelic verb like live to exemplify the use of this modification: have with the past participle of telic verbs frequently suggests completedness more than it does "a significant persistence of results", as in [89]

I have read many second-rate books.

(To signal a present result of such reading, such as a tired feeling because of so much reading, one would use both Modification II and Modification III: [90]

I have been reading many second-rate books.) 254

Twaddell finds it "convenient to distinguish five semantic classes of lexical verbs with respect to their having inherent or potential ingredients of duration, limitation 252

W. F. Twaddell, The English Verb Auxiliaries (Providence, R.I., Brown University Press, 1960), p. 5. In The Philosophy of Grammar (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1924), Otto Jespersen argues against calling "present" verb forms "timeless" (p. 259). 253 Twaddell, op. cil., p. 6. 254 Note also Archibald A. Hill's statement quoted above, that even with such an atelic verb as live, "primary stress on have breaks any connection with action going on at the present time" (Introduction to Linguistic Structures, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958, p. 212) - that is, it suggests completedness rather than "a significant persistence of results". Cf. the statement by W. Stannard Allen that "as soon as we imply a relationship between the past and Now, the perfect continuous must be used" (Living English Structure, 3d ed., London, Longmans, Green and Company, 1955, p. 87).

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of duration, and repeatability". 2 "' These five classes are (1) verbs with lexical meanings "neutral with respect to duration or repetition", such as operate ano teli, (2) verbs with durational meaning which may allow of limitation, such as> teach and repair4, (3) verbs that suggest non-durational meanings, with possibility of repetition, such as break and find; (4) verbs that suggest non-durational meanings, with no possibility of repetition in some contexts, such as proclaim and prescribe;250 and (5) verbs that express durational activities "not normally subject to repetition", 237 such as know and border. As with most classifications based on meanings, Twaddell's distinctions are not exact or clear-cut enough to enable other analysts to achieve the same results (or even to know in which group to include certain verbs): the present writer, for example, finds it difficult to understand how telling a story (or telling somebody about a coming event) differs significantly from teaching a lesson, or why operate should be classed in one group but repair in another. (And does the verb tastes really suggest "unique event" in the sentence [91]

This stew tastes wonderful

or either "unlimited permanent duration" or "unrepeatable occurrence"? 258) The classification of verbs here described does not seem to bear out Twaddell's statements that "there arc rigorous and intricate procedures for analyzing the code structure of a language, on all levels" and that "in a grammatical description, a linguist makes his classifications on a formal, not a semantic, basis".2"'" The primary reason for the inclusion of such a classification in Twaddell's treatment of verbs seems to be the need for some criterion by which to distinguish verbs that are "normally immune to the be + -ing modification" 260 from all other verbs. According to Twaddell, it is the verbs in Class 5 that resist expansion verbs like equal, know, contain, dislike, and border. Although know and dislike are, properly speaking, "private verbs", border certainly is not. It refers to some geographical relationship in space, as in the sentence " 5 W . F . Twaddell, The English Verb Auxiliaries (Providence. R. I., Brown University Press, I960), p. 7. ,M These seem to be the verbs which A n n a Granville H a t c h e r describes as predicating an activity that is identical with - but has n o existence apart f r o m - the predication ( " T h e U s e of the Progressive F o r m in English: A N e w A p p r o a c h " , Language, X X V I I , July-August, 1961, 267); M a r t i n Joos calls t h e m "asseverative verbs" (English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed edition, Beograd, Institute f o r Experimental Phonetics. 1958, p. 87). s " Twaddell. op. cit., p. 8. 258 W . F . Twaddell, "Linguistics (English verb g r a m m a r ) " . Communication in General Education, edited by Francis S h o e m a k e r and Louis Forsdale ( D u b u q u e , Iowa, William C. Brown C o m p a n y , 1960), p. 59. O n t h e s a m e page Twaddell says that ' with d i f f e r e n t subjects, a given predicate m a y m e a n either 'unlimited d u r a t i o n ' or 'unrepeatable occurrence' ". But it does not seem to be necessary f o r the subject to change: cf. That stuff hurts, which m a y express either unlimited duration, meaning something like 'every time I put it on,' or unrepeatable occurrence, meaning "right now'. 5M Ibid., p. 49. 2»o Twaddell, The English Verb Auxiliaries, p. 8.

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[92]

75

Canada borders on the United States;

similarly, the verbs lie and flow are immune to expansion in these sentences: [93] [94]

Hamadan lies at the foot of Mt. Alvand. The Rhine flows past Coblenz. 20 '

And yet the verbs lie and flow are not "normally immune to the be + -ing modification". It appears that perhaps it is not so much the verbs themselves that should be classified in different groups as the predications which they express. In his discussion of "The Modal Auxiliary System",202 Twaddell states that "the fact that the modals do not co-occur suggests that there are elements of incompatibility in their meanings". And yet elsewhere he says that " 'have to, have got to' are stylistic alternatives to must".-*3 Since Twaddell lists the auxiliary will under the modals, and since it is possible to say [95]

We will have to do that tomorrow,

it seems that there are, in fact, no elements of incompatibility in the meanings of at least will and must. (The same argument could be applied to may and can: be able to has much the same meaning as can, so that although "We may can come does not occur, We may be able to come does.) In "The Method of Descriptive Morphology", Floyd G. Lounsbury says, of Oneida, that "mutual exclusions between members of the same position class are not necessarily or even typically cases of contradictory or logically exclusive meanings". 264 The same may be said of the English modals - and also of the English determiners: the determiners a and my, for example, are mutually exclusive members of the same position class, so that *a my friend does not occur in English, but English speakers get around this by means of such paraphrases as a friend of mine or one of my friends. The reason the modals do not co-occur is not that they are incompatible in meaning. Twaddell also proposes a semantic analysis of the modals into "a system of partial similarities and partial differences". He gives as meanings for will, "prediction; inherent futurity", and adds later that "will has no meaning beyond prediction per se". But in the sentence [96] 2,1

John won't let me play with him,

T h e last example is taken f r o m R. A. Close, "Concerning the Present Tense", English Language Teaching, XIII (January-March, 1959), 66, where Close comments that "though the Rhine is always flowing past Coblenz and has not stopped doing so. we are concerned with the process as a whole, not with a partial, temporary aspect of it. . . ." (Italics added.) s«2 w . F. Twaddell, The English Verb Auxiliaries (Providence, R. I. Brown University Press, 1960), pp. 10-12. a " W. F. Twaddell, "Linguistics (English verb grammar)", Communication in General Education, edited by Francis Shoemaker and Louis Forsdale (Dubuque, Iowa, William C. Brown Company, I960), p. 63. 294 Floyd G. Lounsbury, "The Method of Descriptive Morphology". Oneida Verb Morphology (= Yale University Publications in Anthropology, N o . 48) (1953). reprinted in Readings in Linguistics, edited by Martin Joos (Washington, American Council of Learned Societies, 1957), p. 384.

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the meaning of "willingness" would seem to be more pronounced than any suggestion of prediction. Twaddell is probably not entirely accurate in his statement that "main stress on an auxiliary signals insistence on the truth value (affirmative or negative) of the sentence as a whole". 265 This is undoubtedly true in an exchange such as the following [97] (a) (b)

"You haven't done your homework yet." "Yes, I have [done it]."

But in the following exchange the stress on the auxiliary seems to emphasize timerelationship rather than insistence on the truth: [98] (a) (b)

"When will you do your homework?" "1 have done it."

It is probably also inaccurate to say, as Twaddell does, that "like the interrogative subjects / Who / What / Which / ? the empty subject 'there' is itself unmarked for number. A following verb displays the number agreement appropriate to the predicate noun complement or to an earlier noun or pronoun reference". 26 ' In the sentence [99]

Who are you?

the verb are does agree with the pronoun you,2" but in the sentence [100]

There's only you (SIc453) 268

the verb does not seem to agree with the predicate pronoun. 269 And finally, it is interesting to compare Twaddell's statement that "English grammar is not organized into a time system" 270 with Whorf's criticism of English for being so much more time-bound than, for example, Hopi, in his "Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language". 271 8,5

W. F. Twaddell. The English Verb Auxiliaries (Providence, R. I., Brown University Press, 1960), p. 14. Ibid., p. 17. 2.7 But surely you is not a "predicate" pronoun here but rather the inverted subject. See the discussion in Robert L. Allen, "Relative Definiteness of Subject and Complement in English" (paper read at the Fifth Annual Conference on Linguistics of the Linguistic Circle of New York. New York, May 14, 1960) and also the discussion of "the anticipatory substitute" there in Robert L. Allen, "The Classification of English Substitute Words". General Linguistics, V (Spring, 1961). 17, with references. 2.8 For an explanation of the abbreviations used after all examples quoted from the present writer's corpus, see p. 17, "References and Abbreviations". Cf. the curious explanation by James Sledd that in a sentence like "There's only you the simple subject and the verb . . . do not agree". (A Short Introduction to English Grammar, Chicago, Scott, Foresman and Company, 1959, pp. 142-143.) 270 Twaddell, The English Verb Auxiliaries, p. 20. 271 Benjamin L. Whorf, "The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language", Collected Papers on Metalinguistics (Washington. D.C., Foreign Service Institute, Department of State, 1952), pp. 81-84, 87-90.

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One last study of verb forms that might be mentioned here, for sentimental reasons more than anything else, is Harold E. Palmer's discussion of his theory of "the anomalous finites" (or auxiliaries), in "Making Things Easy", an editorial in The Bulletin of the Institute for Research in English Teaching:212 It was this article that made the present writer aware for the first time of the importance of the auxiliaries in the English verb system.

2.5. U N S O L V E D P R O B L E M S

Although the studies of English verb forms discussed in this chapter explain some of the uses of one form or another satisfactorily (or at least suggest clues as to the reason for this or that use), several questions still remain unanswered. No writer, for example, has given a satisfactory explanation of the reason for the use of present or present perfect verb-clusters in subordinate temporal clauses referring to future time. Jespersen says that this is the rule "because futurity is sufficiently indicated in the main verb". 273 But one may then ask why we need the past tense in a subordinate clause after a past main verb, as in [101]

I opened the door when he rang.

Why not */ opened the door when he rings? Surely the past time referred to here is "sufficiently indicated in the main verb". Reichenbach's explanation is equally unconvincing: he says that in the subordinate clause "the point of speech is neglected. The neglect is possible because the word 'when' refers the reference point of the second clause clearly to a future event". 274 Archibald A. Hill's attempt to explain the use of when I have finished this book with tomorrow has already been discussed.275 There is also the question of the seeming lack of any difference in meaning between these two sentences: [102] (a) (b)

I have lived in New York for the last ten years. I have been living in New York for the last ten years.

One may also ask why expanded forms do not seem to occur in imperative sentences, at least in normal educated usage, or why we cannot say [103]

* After I was eating supper . . . .

Reference has already been made to the difference between I have spoken 272

English

Harold E. Palmer, "Making Things Easy", The Bulletin of the Institute for Research in English Teaching (Department of Education, Tokyo), No. 103 (April, 1934), pp. 1-6. 273 Otto Jespersen, Essentials of English Grammar (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1933), p. 239. 874 H a n s Reichenbach, Elements of Symbolic Logic (New York, The Macmillan C o m p a n y , 1947), p. 296. Reichenbach suggests that the use of a f u t u r e f o r m in the subordinate clause "would be more correct". 215 See p. 71, above.

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for many years (and I still do) and the sentence / have spoken English all day, where and I still do cannot be added. And where does t h e ' v e in if he'd've known (analyzed by Joos as being added to 'd = would instead of 'd = had)270 come from? And does the combination of an expanded verb-cluster with always really take on an emotional coloring in many cases, as Jespersen suggests,277 or does the emotional coloring come from the context? There certainly seems to be no such coloring in a sentence like [104]

The Jacksons are always thinking up interesting things to do.

One question that turns up repeatedly in the literature is that of the kind of meaning(s) suggested by those verbs which resist expansion. It seems hard to believe that such verbs do not have some common semantic component or components, since, if they did not, the only way for an English-speaking child to learn to avoid the use of any such verb in an expanded verb-cluster would be through correction rather than by analogy: since the great majority of verbs are used in their expanded form to refer to something going on at the moment of speaking, one may assume that a child using one of these verbs for the first time would use its expanded form, also, for reference to the moment of speaking if there were no common component to suggest that this verb was to be treated in the same way as other verbs in this special list. Thus the child would have to use each verb in the list at least once and to be corrected in its use before he could learn which verbs not to expand. For much the same reason, it is difficult to believe that expanded forms have as many different "functions" or "characters" as Poutsma suggests. To paraphrase Jespersen's criticism of A. Western's "modifications and qualifications" of his own rule,278 it should be possible to arrive at more precise results even though it may not be possible to draw perfectly sharp lines of demarcation between expanded and non-expanded forms. Certainly, since the verbs which seem to resist expansion in the present tenses seem also to resist expansion in the past tenses, one would seem justified in studying both past and present tenses together, rather than separating them rigidly, as Hatcher does. And is it the same semantic component (or components) referred to above that makes these special verbs (or many of them, at least) incompatible with a future time-expression? And is the component really to be found in the verb itself? An examination of the examples in H. Poutsma's A Grammar of Late Modern English 270 and in Otto Jespersen's A Modern English Grammar280 suggests that almost any one of these verbs may be expanded under S7

' Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed edition (Beograd, Institute for Experimental Phonetics, 1958), pp. 96-97. Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar. 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949), IV, 192. Ibid., IV, 231. 179 H. Poutsma, A Grammar of Late Modern English, 4 vols. (Groningen. P. Noordhoff, 1904-1926), Part II, Section II. i8 ° Jespersen, op. cit., Vol. IV. i77

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79

special circumstances. The very fact that Martin Joos cites so many of them in sentences in his English Language and IJnguistics-Si suggests that it may not be so much the verbs themselves that resist expansion as the sentences - or predications - in which they occur. Reichenbach interprets the rules usually given in grammar books under the heading "sequence of tenses" as representing "the principle that, although the events referred to in the clauses may occupy different time points, the reference point should be the same for all clauses".28- He analyzes the sentence [105]

I had mailed the letter when John came and told me the news

as follows: 1st clause: Ei - Ri - S 2nd clause: R2.E-2 - S 3rd clause: Ri,E:> - S (E represents the "point of the event"; R represents the "point of reference"; and S represents the "point of speech".) But, although Reichenbach's principle seems very logical as stated, it does not fit the facts; in the following two sentences, for example, the reference point does not remain the same for all the clauses: [106]

He had not believed in what he was doing . .. (PNn325) 1st clause: Ei - R! - S 2nd clause: Ro,Eo - S

[107]

. . . they had said it would kill him in a year if he did not give up alcohol for at least three months (HNnl60)

1st clause: Ei - R, - S 2nd clause: R s - Eo - S 3rd clause: Rs,E:i - S Jespersen himself calls attention to several seeming exceptions to his own rules. He points out, for example, that in the following sentence quoted from James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, the "frame" seems to be implied by the non-expanded form know rather than by the expanded form is talking: 1108]

Rousseau knows he is talking nonsense.

Elsewhere Jespersen points out that the use of will is not possible in the subordinate clause of a sentence like [109]

*It will be splendid if he will be able to join us

but that will is quite natural in a sentence like - S1 Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed edition (Beograd, Institute for Experimental Phonetics, 1958), pp. 84-85. Mä H a n s Reichenbach, Elements of Symbolic Logic (New York, T h e Macmillan C o m p a n y , 1947), p. 293. 883 Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949), IV, 184.

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I will come if it will be (of) any use to you.284

[110]

Again, Jespersen points out that it would be unnatural to say [111]

*I didn't know you are here;

the normal form is the one which he quotes from George Bernard Shaw: I didn't know you were here.283 In this same connection, one may ask why the first sentence in each of the following pairs is natural, while the second does not seem to occur, at least in the present writer's dialect: [112] (a) (b) [113] (a) (b) [114] (a) (b) [115] (a) (b)

They told me he's here. *They knew he's here. They told me he's here. *They told me you're here. They told me he's come. *They told me you've come. They told me you're living here. *They told me you're here.286

And why do we use did more often than do in sentences like [116] below, or the non-expanded form in sentences like [117] — but the expanded form in sentences like [118] (where there is no time reference)? [116] [117] [118]

Did you know that it's raining? You mother tells me you have been disobedient today.287 Your father was telling me that you have succeeded in isolating the germ of that fever epidemic that's broken out at Lyon. (SSc672) And finally, one may ask why, in an if clause in a non-factual condition, the verb changes from the preterit to the past perfect form when the time reference of the sentence changes from "now" to a past time, as in the first pair of sentences below, while the verb in a non-factual clause introduced by as if does not so change when the time-reference changes, as in the second pair of sentences: [119] (a) (b) [120] (a) (b)

884

He He He He

would speak to her now if he knew her. would have spoken to her yesterday if he had known her. acts now as if he knew her. acted yesterday as if he knew her.

Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949), IV, 400. 285 Ibid., p. 153. 28 * The expressions lie's here and you're here in these examples are to be taken as referring to "his" or "your" physical presence "here", rather than to residency or employment. (Conceivably, a person working in one institution might say to someone who had been working elsewhere the previous year, "They told me you're here now", meaning "working here".) 887 Quoted from B. M. Charleston, "A Reconsideration of the Problem of Time, Tense, and Aspect in Modern English", English Studies, XXXVI (October, 1955), 271.

III. STATEMENT O F ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

3.0. T H E SEARCH FOR P R O D U C T I V E T E C H N I Q U E S O F ANALYSIS

As has already been stated, the present study was originally undertaken in the hope of finding a satisfactory explanation for the difference between the uses of expanded and non-expanded verb-clusters in present-day English. To this end, many discussions of the English verb system - a large number of them discussions of expansion versus non-expansion - were carefully studied; at the same time, a corpus of 4800 verb- and verbid-clusters, selected at random from representative samples of present-day American English, was analyzed in detail. 1 The various treatments of verb forms examined yielded many helpful suggestions or valuable clues that pointed the way to an analysis of the total verb system, but, as has been seen,2 certain questions still remained unanswered. Several of the examples which appeared in the corpus did not seem to be satisfactorily explained by any of the theories proposed (except, perhaps, by those "explanations" which suggested so many different functions for one or another verb form that the analyst was able, with little difficulty, to find for any given example at least one, if not several, possible pigeon-holes). In the hope of finding some analytical technique or techniques which would yield more satisfactory results, the present writer turned to an examination of the procedures followed by one or another group of contemporary linguists. Limitations of space do not permit of a detailed discussion of all the techniques that were studied. The interested reader will find a list of the books and articles consulted in Section 6 of the Bibliography. 3 But in this chapter the writer will discuss only those approaches and theories which seemed to offer most promise for a satisfactory analysis of the verb system of English. 1

An item-analysis of the corpus and an account of the method followed in its selection appear in Chapter V. 2 See 2.5, above (pp. 77-80). 3 For additional references, see also the list in Kenneth L. Pike and Eunice V. Pike, Live Issues in Descriptive Linguistics, 2nd ed. (Santa Ana, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1960), and the even more comprehensive lists to be found in the bibliographical sections at the ends of the chapters in Kenneth L. Pike, Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, preliminary edition, 3 vols. (Glendale, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1954, 1955, 1960).

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3.1. "EXPANSIVE" VERSUS "REDUCTIVE" ANALYSES Some linguists lay great stress upon the necessity for maintaining a rigid separation between the three "levels" of phonology, morphology, and syntax. Bloch and Trager insist that "phonemic analysis must come first". 4 Trager and Smith claim that all analyses based on inadequate phonological data "are defective in direct proportion to the amount of phonological analysis omitted". 5 In Harris' "Schedule of Procedures", the distinct phonologic elements are determined first, and then the distinct morphologic elements. 0 Trager claims, in his review of Hockett's Course in Modern Linguistics, that "a successful syntax must be built" on the "ever-present, complex, yet wonderfully informative system of phonological marking of phrases and larger groupings". 7 And yet no "successful syntax" has ever been built on such a basis. The nearest approach to one is Introduction to Linguistic Structures, by Archibald A. Hill. 8 But W. Haas, in his review of Hill's book, makes a strong case for what he calls "reductive" analysis - that is, analysis beginning with unit-utterances and working down to phonemes - since if we tried to keep strictly to Professor Hill's programme - ascending from sound to sentence, and never looking at any higher level before we have reached it - then, we might travel but surely could never arrive. Reductive analysis has arrived from the start; it looks back at familiar country - total meaningful utterances - and reduces it to a linguistic map. By the expansive procedure on the other hand, we are supposed to reach lands unknown - and this without a map, even without being allowed to look ahead. It would only be by keeping our eyes turned backward that we could claim to be advancing to higher levels of analysis. 9 4

Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager, Outline of Linguistic Analysis (Baltimore, Linguistic Society of America, 1942), p. 53. 5 George L. Trager and Henry Lee Smith, Jr., An Outline of English Structure (Norman, Okla., Battenburg Press, 1951), pp. 53-54. 6 Zellig S. Harris, Structural Linguistics, Phoenix edition (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1960 - originally published in 1951 under the title Methods in Structural Linguistics), p. 6. But Murray Fowler, in his review of Harris' book (Language, XXVIII, October-December, 1952, 509), concludes that "Harris' procedure cannot be used to isolate a single morpheme". Note in this connection the footnote on p. 365 of Harris' book, and his own apparent use of meaning in "Co-occurrence and Transformation in Linguistic Structure", Language, XXXIII (July-September, 1957), 283-340. 7 George L. Trager, review of Charles F. Hockett's A Course in Modern Linguistics, in Studies in Linguistics, XIV (Winter, 1959), 80. 9 Archibald A. Hill. Introduction to Linguistic Structures: From Sound to Sentence in English (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958). 9 W. Haas. "Linguistic Structures", Word. XVI (August, 1960), 263-269. Cf. Louis Hjelmslev's statement that "the first task of the analysis is . . . to undertake a partition of the textual process" (Louis M. Hjelmslev, Prolegomena to a Theory of Language, trans. Francis J. Whitfield, Madison, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1961, p. 30). Hjelmslev calls this procedure the "deductive" method, which Haas suggests might be better described as "reductive" (W. Haas, "Concerning Glossematics", Archivum Linguisticum, VIII, 1956, 95). See also the statement by W. S. Allen that "since grammatical elements . . . are simply relational abstractions, there is no guarantee that they can be referred to any precise segmentation of the utterance - or of the phonological statement of the utterance" (in the discussion following the

STATEMENT OF ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

83

3.2. TAGMEMIC THEORY A promising procedure for linguistic analysis is to b e found in Kenneth L. Pike's theory of "tagmemes". M o s t linguists s e e m to agree in distinguishing between three levels of linguistic analysis, but they disagree as to just what these levels are. F o r linguists like B l o c h , Trager, and Smith, the three levels are p h o n o l o g y , morphology, and syntax (and are to b e kept rigorously separate); in the view of transformational linguists, the grammar of a language includes a phrase structure, a transformational structure, and a m o r p h o p h o n e m i c s (and transformational grammarians see n o o b jection to mixing levels); Pike, in turn, views a sentence as analyzable simultaneously into three hierarchies - a lexical hierarchy, a phonological hierarchy and a grammatical hierarchy. The lexical hierarchy has the morpheme as its minimum, with unitary morpheme sequences or specific morpheme collocations at higher levels in the hierarchy. The phonological hierarchy would have either the phoneme or the contrastive feature of the phoneme as its minimum unit, with syllables, stress groups.clause groups, breath groups, rhetorical periods, etc., as higher-level units of that hierarchy. The grammatical hierarchy has the tagmeme as its minimum, with various, kinds of tagmemic constructions as higher-layered units in the hierarchy. . . . A tagmeme . . . always has as one of its basic characteristics a correlation between a functional slot and a morpheme (or morpheme-sequence, etc.) distribution class. 10 Pike g o e s o n to say that "there is a reciprocal relation between a morphemic

reading of Kenneth L. Pike's report "Interpénétration of Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax", Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Linguists, Oslo, Oslo University Press, 1958, quoted on p. 375). 10 Kenneth L. Pike, "On Tagmemes, Née Gramemes", International Journal of American Linguistics, XXIV (October, 1958), 275-276. For other discussions of tagmemic theory by Pike, see also "Grammemic Theory", General Linguistics, II (Spring, 1957), 35-41 ; "Grammemic Theory in Reference to Restricted Problems of Morpheme Classes", international Journal of American Linguistics, XXIII (July, 1957), 119-128; "Interpénétration of Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax", Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Linguists (Oslo, Oslo University Press, 1958), pp. 363-371; "Language as Particle, Wave, and Field", The Texas Quarterly, II (Summer, 1959), 37-54; and Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, preliminary ed., 3 vols. (Glendale, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics. 1954, 1955, 1960), III, 26-37, where he also compares tagmemic grammar with transformational grammar. For applications of tagmemic analysis to various languages, see Doris Cox, "Candoshi Verb Inflection", International Journal of American Linguistics, XXIII (July, 1957), 129-140; Olive A. Shell, "Cashibo II: Grammemic Analysis of Transitive and Intransitive Verb Patterns", International Journal of American Linguistics, XXIII (July, 1957), 179-218; Helen Long Hart, "Hierarchical Structuring of Amuzgo Grammar", International Journal of American Linguistics, XXIII (July, 1957), 141-164; Marvin Mayers, "Poncomchi Verb Structure", International Journal of American Linguistics, XXIII (July, 1957), 165-170; Velma Bernice Pickett, The Grammatical Hierachy of Isthmus Zapotec (Language Dissertation, No. 56) (1960); Benjamin Elson and Velma B. Pickett, Beginning Morphology-Syntax (Santa Ana, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1960); and Robert E. Longacre, "String Constituent Analysis", Language, XXXVI (January-March, 1960), 63-88. In several of these studies, morphemes are labeled by numbers according to a technique originally suggested by C. F. Voegelin, whereby all morphemes numbered within a given "decade" (e.g., 21-29 or 31-39) belong to the same morpheme-class.

84

STATEMENT OF ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

distribution class on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the functional slot manifested by that class". This "slot-class correlation" gives "a characteristic flavor to our tagmemic approach". 11 A construction is "a sequence of two or more tagmemes in a higher-layered tagmeme or hypertagmeme". 12 (But Longacre uses the labels "phrase-level tagmemes" and "clause-level tagmemes" instead of "hypertagmemes". 13 ) Emphasis in Pike's theory is "upon grammatical UNITS rather than upon grammatical RELATIONS". 1 4 In this theory, ascending levels of analysis "must be replaced by a hierarchical view in which there is an interlocking between the three hierarchies of lexical structure, phonological structure, and grammatical structure". 1 '' Pike's emphasis on positions or "slots" is not new; Lounsbury discusses "position classes" in "The Method of Descriptive Morphology". 16 And as long ago as 1949 C. E. Bazell had said that "neither the morpheme nor its place in the pattern . . . has meaning in their own right: their combination constitutes the signifiant"But the conception of a tagmeme (i.e., a slot-class correlation) as a unit in itself, is Pike's original contribution and offers promise of being one of the most productive procedures of linguistic analysis.18 Unfortunately, however, there has been no detailed analysis of English along tagmemic lines. One of the few tagmemic analyses of English sentences known to the present writer is to be found in Longacre's "String Constituent Analysis", 1 ' where, unfortunately, Longacre argues "from expansions". This expansive, as opposed to reductive, analysis greatly weakens the effect of Longacre's discussion of his example clause, which is 11 Kenneth L. Pike, " O n Tagmemes, Nee Gramemes", International Journal of American Linguistics, X X I V (October, 1958), 276. >-' Ibid., p. 277. 13 Robert F. Longacre, "String Constituent Analysis", Language, X X X V I (January-March, 1960), 69 and passim. 14 Pike, op. cit., p. 278. 15 Ibid. See also Pike's discussion of "mixing, skipping, and mashing levels" in his Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, preliminary ed., 3 vols. (Glendale, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1954, 1955, 1960), III, 79-81. " Floyd G. Lounsbury, "The Method of Descriptive Morphology", Oneida Verb Morphology (Yale University Publications in Anthropology, N o . 48, 1953), reprinted in Martin Joos (ed.), Readings in Linguistics (Washington, D.C., American Council of Learned Societies, 1957), pp. 379-385; see especially pp. 383-384. 17 C. E. Bazell, "On the Problem of the Morpheme", Arcliivum Linguisticum, I (1949), 1. 18 A provocative aspect of Pike's "unified theory of the structure of h u m a n behavior" is his conception of the "trimodal structuring" of such behavior. Pike calls the three modes (1) "the feature mode", with the "emic m o t i f ' and the m o r p h e m e as minimum units; (2) "the manifestation mode", with the "acteme" and the phoneme as minimum units; and (3) "the distribution mode", with the "motifemic-slot-class-correlative" and the tagmeme as minimum units. (Kenneth L. Pike, Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, preliminary ed., 3 vols., Glendale, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1954, 1955, 1960, I, 35-39, 72 and passim.)

" See also the m o r e complicated analysis of several English sentences in Pike, op. cit.. I l l , 13-17.

STATEMENT OF ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

[1]

85

"The slow lumbering covered wagon / pulled / the pioneer's family / across the prairie / just yesterday / / b u t . . . " 2 0

In the first place, Longacre cuts the clause into five constituents, as indicated by the single slashes; he justifies such a division on the grounds that "this sentence can be shown to be homologous to a shorter sentence with five similar unexpanded parts: John sold gum downtown yesterday, wherein John is analogous to The slow lumbering covered wagon; sold is analogous to pulled; and so on'". 21 But the original clause can also be shown to be homologous to John ate downtown yesterday, which would suggest that the predication pulled the pioneer's family should be treated as one constituent. And again, in Longacre's analysis (as in other expansive analyses) no allowance is made for positions that might happen to be unfilled in the given sentence. 22

3.3. " S E C T O R " A N A L Y S I S

In his Philosophy of Grammar, Jespersen suggests that grammatical facts may be considered from three points of view, namely, (A) form, (B) function, and (C) notion. 23 H e then presents the following schema to show how the English preterit, though only one syntactic category, has various forms and also different "logical purports": 2 4 [2]

A. F O R M :

B. F U N C T I O N :

-ed (handed) -t (fixed) -d (showed) -t with inner change (left) kernel unchanged (put) inner change (drank) different kernel (was) 20

preterit

C. N O T I O N : past time unreality in present time (. . . I wish we knew) future time (it is time you went to bed) shifted present time (how did you know I was a Dane?) all times (men were deceivers ever)

Robert E. Longacre, "String Constituent Analysis", Language, XXXVI (January-March, 1960), 68-69. Ibid., p. 68. 22 It is unfortunate that Longacre did not correct the mistake in his analysis which had been pointed out to him by Fred Householder. (See ibid., p. 66, n. 5a.) Longacre first cuts the nouncluster the pioneer's family into the / pioneer's family, he then cuts pioneer's family into pioneer's / family, and finally, he cuts the 's off f r o m pioneer. As Householder points out, the first cut should be between the pioneer's and family; the next between the pioneer and 's; and the last between the and pioneer. 23 Otto Jespersen, The Philosophy of Grammar (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1924), p. 56. Cf. the discussion by C. B. [E.?] Bazcll in "On F o r m and Function", Journal of English and Germanic Philology, X X X V I I (July, 1938), 329-331. Jespersen, loc. cit.

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STATEMENT OF ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

The term "preterit" in this diagram, however, seems to be no more than a label for a class of allomorphs. Many grammarians would call the items which Jespersen has listed under "notion" the "functions" of the preterit morpheme. If, however, we accept Jespersen's view that the labels in the right-hand column are notional, we could then look upon them as terms suggestive of correlations between the preterit morpheme in the grammatical structure of English and different designata (or disjunctive components of one designatum) 25 in the semantic structure. If, further, we accept Chomsky's stand, 26 endorsed by Weinreich, 27 that the grammatical description of a language should be autonomous vis-à-vis the semantic description, then we would have to omit Jespersen's notional categories when analyzing the grammatical structure of English. We would then have left, in the schema in [2], only a list of the allomorphs of one morpheme, with a libel for that morpheme - in other words, "form" only. However, if we accept Bloomfield's definition of the function of a form as, collectively, the positions in which the form may appear, 28 we can replace Jespersen's "threefold division" with another: that of (A) position, (B) function, and (C) form. We can again assign one term only under the heading "function" as an inclusive term for all the "positions". Under the heading "form", we can then list the different forms which may occur in these different positions. The label nominal, for example, could be employed as a cover term for the use of any one of several forms in any one of several positions, as suggested by the following diagram: [3]

A. "POSITION": subject

B. "FUNCTION": C. "FORM": noun-cluster (The king of England is . . . ) "indirect object" phrase (Over the fence is out) clause (What annoys me is . . . ) "direct object" verbid (Skating is fun; To skate is fun) nominal object of preposition predicatid (John enjoys playing tennis-, John likes to play tennis) "object complement" clausid (1 watched John playing tennis; I saw John play tennis', I expected John to play tennis) (noun of address) etc. etc.

The "forms" are listed last in this diagram instead of first, as in Jespersen's, so that the three different kinds of labels may appear in the order in which they would be 25 Cf. Uriel Weinreich, "On the Semantic Structure of Language", in Vniversals of Language, edited by Joseph H. Greenberg (Cambridge. Mass., T h e M.I.T. Press, 1963), p. 142. N o a m Chomsky, Syntactic Structures ("s-Gravenhage. Mouton and Company, 1957), pp. 92-105. Weinreich, op. cit., p. 116. 18 Leonard Bloomfield, Language (New York. Henry Holt and Company, 1933), p. 185.

STATEMENT OF ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

87

expressed should it be desired to give any construction its full name: the phrase over the fence in the sentence Over the fence is out, for example, could be called a "subject nominal phrase". (But the term "nominal" can be used alone as a cover term when no danger of ambiguity exists.) For the past several years, the present writer has been engaged in an analysis of the grammatical structure of English along the lines suggested above. Although he did not become acquainted with Pike's tagmemic theory until recently, it will be seen that this writer's analysis is similar in several respects to Pike's. The term "function" in [3] could easily be replaced by the label "tagmeme", which would then be taken to represent, not a cover term for all the possible positions for the different forms, but rather a grammatical unit consisting of some form from the right-hand column in some position in the left-hand column. The present writer has long insisted that the forms should be discussed as forms only as individual items out of context, but that - as units functioning within sentences - they, should be discussed in terms of their functions (or, to paraphrase Pike, in terms of their position-form correlations). Sledd makes this same distinction between form and function (defined by position) in his Short Introduction to English Grammar, but he considers form as overriding, with the result that he calls the pronominals this and that "nouns" since they have the plural forms these and those?* However, he does recognize the crucial difference between nouns and noun-clusters. Although much of his analysis of English syntax is excellent, he is handicapped by his "expansive" (as opposed to "reductive") approach. 3 " The present writer believes, as a result of his own attempts to analyze English structure, that reductive analysis is potentially more productive than expansive; he further considers position as overriding. More recently, the present writer has started on an analysis of units larger than the sentence - that is, of sequences of sentences within which a given sentence will have a certain function because of its position in the sequence. By considering elliptical sentences to be merely special cases of full sentences (but with the rigorous condition that it must be possible to supply the missing parts from the immediate environment or context), one is able to analyze the difference between the two sentences "John" and "Bill" in the following conversation:» 1 w

J a m e s Sledd, A Short Introduction to English Grammar (Chicago, Scott. F o r e s m a n and C o m p a n y , 1959), p. 79. ,0 O n p. 83, f o r example, he states that he will use the term nominals for all words and phrases that can fill the blank in the sentence The seemed good. T h u s poor is a nominal in The poor seemed good (pp. 81, 85). It would appear f r o m this definition that the nominal in the sentence The first speaker seemed good should comprise only the two words first speaker, but u n d e r the definition of "nominal p h r a s e " in his "Glossary of G r a m m a t i c a l T e r m s " (p. 229), Sledd seems also to include the determiner the in the nominal, although this does not follow f r o m his discovery procedure. " Cf. Weinreich's suggestion that a R o m a n beggar asking f o r bread probably said " P a n e m ! " , but if finding some bread unexpectedly might have shouted "Panis!" Uriel Weinrcich, " O n the

88

STATEMENT OF ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

[4] (a) (b) (C)

(d)

"John.' "Yes?" "Who broke that window?' "Bill."

A (minor) sentence of the type represented by "John" in [4] (a) may begin a conversation, but a (major) sentence of the type represented by "Bill" in [4] (d) cannot. But most of the present writer's attention has been devoted to an analysis of English sentences and their parts. An examination of a large number of sequences suggests that in most non-literary sentences there is a kind of "spectrum" of basic positions, which may be called "sectors". Just as certain colors may be missing in one or another absorption spectrum without affecting the order of the remaining colors, so also in one sentence or another certain sectors may be vacant, but the order - and relationship - of the occupied sectors remains constant. Although many of the details of this "sector" analysis lie beyond the scope of the present study, certain terms needed for the discussion of verb- and verbid-clusters will be defined in Chapter IV.

3.4. B I N A R Y O P P O S I T I O N S

3.41. "Two-Choice"

Selections

In discussing the different schools of contemporary linguistic thought in Anthropology Today, Martinet gives as the most favored principle of the Prague School the "principle of binarity, according to which the whole of language should be reducible to sets of binary oppositions". 32 Linguists other than those of the Prague School have also stressed the importance of oppositions or contrasts; Householder, for example, says that "the most hopeful approach to meaning is through analysis of contrasts, rather than exclusively of similarities". 33 Phonemic analysis relies heavily on the contrasts between minimal or subminimal pairs; in their discussion of "distinctive features", Jakobson, Fant, and Halle make repeated references to "two-choice" or "binary" selections. 34 Semantic Structure of Language", in Universali of Language, edited by Joseph H. Greenberg (Cambridge, Mass., The M.I.T. Press, 1963), p. 141. M André Martinet, "Structural Linguistics", Anthropology Today, edited by A. L. Kroeber (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1953), p. 585. M Fred W. Householder, Jr., review of E. Adelaide Hahn's Subjunctive and Optative, in Language, X X X (July-September, 1954), 393. 4 > R o m a n Jakobson, C. G u n n a r N. Fant, and Morris Halle, Preliminaries to Speech Analysis: The Distinctive Features and Their Correlates (Technical Report No. 13) (Cambridge, Mass., Acoustics Laboratory. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, January, 1952), pp. 2, 9, and passim. The entire monograph is largely a discussion of two-choice selections. See also the references to yes-no decisions and to binary oppositions in R o m a n Jakobson and Morris Halle, Fundamentals of Language ('s-Gravenhage, Mouton and Company, 1956), pp. 4, 47 and passim. (In their book, Jakobson and Halle distinguish between "opposition" and "contrast": they speak of the "opposition" between two logically correlated alternatives either of which could occur

STATEMENT OF ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

89

Analyses in terms of binary oppositions are common in discussions of phonology, but comparatively few writers have made extensive use of binary oppositions in their analyses of syntax, possibly because of the procedure followed by many grammarians of basing their analyses upon examples taken from different authors. There are a few exceptions, however: reference has already been made to Zandvoort's use of contrasting sentences in his Handbook of English Grammar.3* But perhaps the best known advocate of the use of binary oppositions in linguistic analysis is Roman Jakobson, originally of the Prague School. He has applied such analysis not only to the search for distinctive features, as described in Preliminaries to Speech Analysis™ he was also the first linguist to propose a comprehensive theory that would explain the relative chronology of speech development in all children, a theory based upon oppositions between pairs of phonemes. 37 Jakobson in the s a m e position in a message, as for example the opposition between pitch 3 and pitch 4, either of which might be selected by the speaker f o r the beginning of the m i n o r sentence John in [4] (a);" they speak of the " c o n t r a s t " between two units " b r o u g h t into relief by their contiguity in sensory experience", as for example the contrast between pitch 3 [or 4], on which the m i n o r sentence John might begin, and pitch 1, on which it might end. This distinction between "opposition" a n d " c o n t r a s t " will not be maintained in this study.) F o r other discussions of binary oppositions, see the list in Section 5 of the Bibliography. 15 R. W . Z a n d v o o r t , A Handbook of English Grammar, unilingual ed., 3rd impression, with minor corrections ( L o n d o n , L o n g m a n s [Green and C o m p a n y ] , 1960). A n o t h e r writer w h o is much concerned with binary oppositions in syntax is A. Willem de G r o o t . See. f o r example, his "Les Oppositions dans les systèmes de la syntaxe et des cas". Mélanges de linguistique offerts à Charles Bally (Geneva, G e o r g e et Cie., 1939), pp. 107-127; "Structural Linguistics and W o r d Classes", Lingua, I (September, 1948), 427-500; "Structural Linguistics and Syntactic Laws", Word, V (April, 1949), 1-12; and "Subject-Predicate Analysis", Lingua, VI (April, 1957), 301-318. F o r an interesting but unconvincing analysis of vcrb-clustcrs in terms of binary splits, see Lucien Tesnière, "Théorie structurale des temps composés", Mélanges de linguistique offerts à Charles Bally, pp. 153-183. F o r a mentalistic analysis of the syntax of a sentence in terms of binary subject-predicate relationships, see M a n f r e d S a n d m a n n . Subject and Predicate: A Contribution to the Theory of Syntax (= Edinburgh University Publications in Language and Literature, N o . 5) (Edinburgh, T h e University Press, 1954), pp. 110-115. F o r the development of a child's perception of distinctions in meaning as the result of binary contrasts, see Werner F. Leopold's description of his daughter Hildegard's use of the same words - later, of pairs of words - to designate logical opposites, in his Speech Development of a Bilingual Child: A Linguist's Record, 4 vols. ( = Northwestern University Studies in the Humanities, N o s . 6 [1939], 11 [1947], 18 [1949], 19 [1949]), III, 143-154. 36 R o m a n Jakobson, C. G u n n a r N. F a n t , and Morris Halle, Preliminaries to Speech Analysis: The Distinctive Features and Their Correlates (= Technical Report, N o . 13) (Cambridge, Mass., Acoustics L a b o r a t o r y , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, J a n u a r y , 1952). 17 See, f o r example, his "Le développement du langage enfantin et les cohérences correspondantes dans les langues du m o n d e " , Cinquième Congrès International des Linguistes, Bruxelles (Bruges, I m p r i m é r i e Sainte C a t h e r i n e , 1939), pp. 27-28; "Kindersprache, Aphasie und allgemeine Lautgesetze", Spriikvetenskapliga Sallskapetsi Uppsala Forhdndlingar, 1940-1942, II (1942), 1-83; "Les lois phoniques du langage e n f a n t i n et leur place dans la phonologie générale", Appendix to N . S. T r u b e t z k o y , Principes de phonologie, traduits par J. Cantineau (Paris, Klincksieck, 1949), pp. 367-379. See also the discussion by G e o r g e A. Miller in "Psycholinguistics", C h a p t e r 19 of G a r d n e r Lindzey, Handbook of Social Psychology, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., Addison-Wesley Publishing C o m p a n y , 1954), II, 693-708. F o r a similar analysis of infant language, see H. V. Velten, " T h e G r o w t h of P h o n e m i c and Lexical Patterns in I n f a n t Language", Language, X I X (October-Decembcr, 1943), 281-292.

90

STATEMENT OF ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

h a s a l s o a p p l i e d c o n t r a s t i v e a n a l y s i s t o g r a m m a t i c a l p r o b l e m s , s p e c i f i c a l l y in treatm e n t s of t h e R u s s i a n v e r b , 3 8 t h e R u s s i a n c a s e s y s t e m , " a n d t h e E n g l i s h v e r b . 4 0 J a k o b s o n b e l i e v e s that e v e r y g r a m m a t i c a l c a t e g o r y d i s p l a y s a s e m a n t i c invariant -

a "general m e a n i n g " o r " G e s a m t b e d e u t u n g " - w h i c h p r o v i d e s a c o m m o n

de-

n o m i n a t o r f o r all t h e variant f o r m s of that c a t e g o r y . 1 1 H i s m e t h o d is t o d e t e r m i n e t h e b i n a r y o p p o s i t i o n s b e t w e e n o n e g r a m m a t i c a l c a t e g o r y o r s e t of c a t e g o r i e s a n d a n o t h e r . O f t h e s e t w o c o n t r a s t i n g c a t e g o r i e s o r sets of c a t e g o r i e s , o n e is c o n s i d e r e d t o b e " m a r k e d " w h i l e the o t h e r is " u n m a r k e d " . I n h i s o w n w o r d s , the general m e a n i n g of a marked category states the presence of a certain (whether positive or negative) property A ; the general m e a n i n g of the corresponding unmarked category states nothing about the presence of A , and is used chiefly, but not exclusively, to indicate the absence of A . T h e unmarked term is always the negative of the marked term, but o n the level of general meaning, the opposition of both contradictions m a y be interpreted as 'statements of A ' v.v. 'no statement of A', whereas on the level of 'narrowed,' nuclear meanings, w e encounter the opposition 'statement of A' vi. 'statement of n o n - A . ' 4 2 E l s e w h e r e J a k o b s o n s u g g e s t s t h a t this a s y m m e t r y der

Signalisierung

von

A

und

der

between "[die]

Antinomie

Nicht-Signalisierung

von

A"

o n t h e o n e h a n d , a n d "die A n t i n o m i e d e r N i c h t - S i g n a l i s i e r u n g v o n A u n d

der

S i g n a l i s i e r u n g v o n N i c h t - A " o n t h e o t h e r , m a y b e o n e e x a m p l e of t h e a s y m m e t r i c a l M

R o m a n Jakobson. " Z u r Struktur des russischen Verbums", Charisteria Gnielmo Matliesio quinquagenario (Prague, Prazsky Linguisticky Krouzek, 1932), 74-84: "Russian Conjugation". Word, IV (December, 1948), 155-167; and Shifters, Verbal Categories, and the Russian Verb (Cambridge. Mass.. Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University. 1957). R o m a n Jakobson, "Beitrag zur allgemeinen Kasuslehre. Gesamtbedeutungen der russischen Kasus", Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague, No. 6: Études dédiées au quatrième Congrès de Linguistes (1936), pp. 240-288. See also the discussion of Jakobson's paper "Morfologiieskie nabljudenija nad slavjanskim skloneniem (Sostav russkix p a d e i n y x f o r m ) " in Alexander M. Schenker. review of American Contributions to the Fourth International Congress oj Slavicists, Moscow, September, 1958, in Language, X X X V (October-December, 1959), 659-661. F o r comparisons of Jakobson's analysis of a case system with Hjelmslev's, see the papers by Hans Vogt ("L'étude des systèmes de cas", pp. 112-122) and H a n s Christian S0rensen ("Contribution à la discussion sur la théorie des cas", pp. 123-133) in Recherches structurelles 1949 (= Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague. Vol. V) (1949). F o r similar analyses by other writers, see John Lotz. "The Semantic Analysis of the Nominal Bases in Hungarian", Recherches structurelles 1949, pp. 185-197, and T h o m a s A. Sebeok. "Finnish and Hungarian Case Systems: Their F o r m and Function". Acta ¡nstituti Hungaricici Universitatis Holmiensis (Series B, Linguistica 3; Stockholm, 1946). F o r a suggested extension of Jakobson's "explication of a range of grammatical categories" to a number of N o r t h American Indian languages (and further discussion of Jakobson's analytic procedures), see Dell H. Hymes, "On Typology of Cognitive Styles in Language". Anthropological Linguistics, III (January, 1961), 32-35. 10 R o m a n Jakobson, "Boas' View of Grammatical Meaning", American Anthropologist, LXI, No. 5, Part 2 (October, 1959), 139-141. " F o r "semantic components" on the "submorphemic" level, see William L. Wonderly, "Semantic Components in Kechua Person Morphemes", Language, X X V I I I (July-September, 1952), 366-376. 14 R o m a n Jakobson. Shifters, Verbal Categories, and the Russian Verb (Cambridge, Mass., Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, 1957), p. 5.

STATEMENT OF ANALYTICAL P R O C E D U R E S

91

structure of grammatical signals which is "eine wescntliche Voraussctzung der Sprachveranderungen". 4 3 3.42. General or Overall

Meanings

One may well question, as Schenker does in his discussion of Jakobson's study of the Russian case system, "whether there can be established a general meaning of a case paralleling in a sense the meanings of derivational morphemes, and establishing a reference of the case in the outside world". 14 Hockett calls such a search for the "Gesamtbedeutung" of each case of a case-system "chimerical". 45 And yet it seems difficult to believe that a native speaker could extend the restrictions applying to a given category of words to a new word which he has not previously used himself if he were not able to perceive some common core of meaning to be found in all of them. It would seem that, without such a common "semantic component", the native speaker would have to learn the use of each member of a set of forms or of each word expressing a given category - as an individual item. It may be that in neutral or "unmarked" contexts the central meaning is normally ignored, but since the unmarked members of oppositions may in certain contexts contrast with the marked members, it would appear that some such central meaning must be potentially realizable in the unmarked members as well as in the marked, even if this central meaning is merely "lack of the marked meaning". It is conceivable, of course, that a child could learn to use any given noun or verb in all the ways in which it is normally used, as an individual item, although this would seem to involve a staggering amount of learning. But it is hard to believe that a child could learn to avoid the ways in which a given noun or verb is not normally used merely by not hearing it used in those ways: surely, he would have to be corrected at least once for each misuse. If there were no core meaning common to all members of a given sub-class, the only way in which the child could discover all the members of the sub-class would be by misusing cach such member and by being corrected after each wrong use. It is generally agreed, for example, that certain English verbs are rarely if ever used in expanded verb-clusters to refer to the moment of speaking. For example, a native speaker does not say */ am knowing French or *I am liking mangoes. And yet, by the side of these verbs, there are others like live which may be used either with or without expansion to refer to "now": one hears both we are living in New York and we live in New York. In order to learn that such verbs as know and like arc not used in the same way as live, a child would - in the absence of any central meaning - have to be corrected " Roman Jakobson, "Zur Struktur des russischen Verbums", Charisteria Cuielmo Mathesio quinquagenario (Prague, Praisky Linguisticky Krouzek, 1932), p. 83. 14 Alexander M. Schenker, review of American Contributions to the Fourth International Congress of Slavicists, Moscow, September 1958. in Language. XXXV (October-December, 1959), 659. 15 Charles F. Hockett. review of Recherches xtrnctnrelles l'M9. in Inierimtioiuil Journal of American Linguistics, XVIII (April, 1952), 95.

92

STATEMENT OF. ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

at least once for each such verb after misusing it in an expanded verb-cluster. He could not learn to avoid the use of these verbs in their expanded form merely by not having heard them so used since the great majority of English verbs may be used both with and without expansion. It seems highly probable, then, that all the verbs in this special group - or at least those in each sub-set of this group, which may comprise several such sub-sets - share a common semantic component or components. 3.43. "Marked"

versus "Unmarked"

Meanings

As Jakobson has pointed out, even though one member (e.g., gander) of a given opposition (e.g., gander / goose) may always signal a "marked" meaning (in this case, a "male" individual of a certain species), the "unmarked" member of the opposition (e.g., goose) does not necessarily signal the contrasting meaning. A speaker who uses the word goose in the absence of the word gander may be referring to either a male or a female individual of the species. In such a context, the word goose would be "neutral" in respect to the opposition "male" / "female", and the contrast between "male" and "female" would be "neutralized". Goose is the "unmarked" member of the opposition, and as such signals the contrasting meaning inherent in the opposition only in the immediate presence of the other, or "marked", member. For example, if a speaker who has been asked whether a certain bird is a gander, should reply "No, it is a goose"then the word goose would signal "female" by virtue of its juxtaposition with gander.*' P. A. Erades claims that it may be safely said that in language a difference of form always corresponds to a difference in meaning and that whenever more than one construction is - theoretically possible, they never wholly and under all circumstances denote the same thing. The first axiom of all valid linguistic thinking is that in language nothing can serve as a substitute for something else.47 But there seem to be cases where a more inclusive term is regularly employed instead of a marked term, as for example when one refers to a hen as a chicken. " It is true, of course, as Jerzy Kurylowicz suggests in "La nature des procès dits 'analogiques"', Acta Linguistica, V (1945-1949). 22, that in the course of time the unmarked member of an opposition - through frequent use in contrast with the marked member - may come to assume more and more of the meaning suggested for it by the contrast, until finally both members of the opposition become virtually "marked". (For an interesting method of diagramming the marked and unmarked members of an opposition, see Howard B. Garey, The Historical Development of Tenses from Late Latin to Old French [= Language Dissertation, No. 51], 1955, p. 93.) 17 P. A. Erades, "The Case against 'Provisional' It", English Studies, X X V (December, 1943), 175. F o r an argument against this view, see William E. Bull, Time, Tense, and the Verb (= University of California Publications in Linguistics, Vol. XIX) (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1960), p. 64. Cf. F r e d . W. Householder, review of Charles F . Hockett's A Course in Modern Linguistics, in Language, X X X V (July-September, 1959), 519: "It is no doubt a good heuristic principle always to look for a significant difference wherever the phonemic shape differs, but there is no strong reason why we should always expect to find one."

STATEMENT OF ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

93

A speaker may, of course, call a certain fowl "a hen" in order to indicate that it is not a rooster; on the other hand, the speaker may ignore this potential contrast and call the same fowl "a chicken" - which is neutral as to the opposition "male" / "female", but in a different way from that in which goose is neuiral. The present writer would agree that the difference in form between hen and chicken may signal a difference in meaning, but this is not the same as saying that this difference in meaning is necessarily signaled by every use of one or the other of the two forms. He has tried in vain to discover some difference, however slight, between a situation which would prompt him to say "Look at that hen" and a situation which would prompt him to say "Look at that chicken". When referring to a hen (but not when referring to a rooster), the present writer seems to use the words chicken and hen interchangeably. A similar situation seems to exist for many speakers in their use of have lived versus have been living in such sentences as [5] (a) (b)

I've lived in New York for the last ten years, I've been living in New York for the last ten years.

Several informants, when questioned, have stated that they feel no difference in meaning between the two sentences. It appears that there may be grammatical overlap as well as lexical overlap.48 A speaker who has lived in New York for the last ten years, for example, and who is still living in New York, may, when asked how long he has been in New York, use either the marked form of the verbcluster, as in [5] (b), or the unmarked form, as in [5] (a). Since in such a context the potential contrast between the two is neutralized, the speaker has his choice of either of two forms which are for all practical purposes synonymous, and the only explanation that could be given for his choice would have to be a psychological one, which is here rejected as being too subjective for proper linguistic analysis.4" 18 C f . Fries's claim that "not only does each structure [in a language] usually signal several different meanings, but - what is more important - there is probably in present-day English no structural meaning that is not signalled by a variety of structures". (Charles C. Fries, "Meaning and Linguistic Analysis", Language, XXX, January-March, 1954, 60.) F o r an example of a "structural meaning" signaled by several different structures, see Fries's "The Expression of the Future", Language, III (1926), 87-95, reprinted in Language Learning, VI (1956-1957), 125-133. Explanations which have been given f o r the choice either of have been living or of have lived include references to the "rhythm of the sentence", to stylistic variety, to greater ease of utterance, and the like. T h e possibility of the use of one of the forms f o r stylistic reasons, even in a context where the use of the other might be more common, may be a reflection of the difference between de Saussure's la parole and la langue: variations in la parole may occur, without reflecting variations in la langue, when one is speaking (or writing) under special circumstances. In formal writing, for example, an author may deliberately use both forms for the sake of variety. (See in this connection Edith Raybould's interesting suggestion that l a n e Austen used expanded f o r m s for characterization, although we are no longer able to follow the "subtleties of her manipulation" [Edith Raybould, "Of Jane Austen's Use of Expanded Verbal Forms", Studies in English Languages and Literature: Presented to Professor Dr. Karl Brunner on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, edited by Siegfried Korninger, Vienna, Braumiiller, 1957, p. 190].)

It o f t e n happens that a new form is in competition with an old one; at a given stage in the

94

STATEMENT O F ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

It probably happens fairly frequently that a speaker is faced not so much with a choice between two synonymous expressions as with a choice between two different ways of "looking at" something. A figure consisting of a square inside a circle, for example, may be described as either "a square inside a circle" or "a circle around a square". A speaker's choice of one description or the other in a given situation probably depends upon some such psychological factor as primary focus of attention: which of the two shapes he happens to focus on first. But the difference in meaning between the two ways of expressing the composite figure is not a proper topic for linguistic analysis; when two modes of expression seem synonymous under certain conditions, the linguist can only note the possible choices and describe the formal differences between them, adding the statement that in certain situations either mode may be selected. On the other hand, if in certain situations one or the other mode of expression is not normally used, the linguist should include a statement to this effect in his description. In one context, for example, the two expressions the Joneses and Mr. and Mrs. Jones may be synonymous to all intents and purposes, and no objective explanation can be given as to why a speaker has chosen one rather than the other; but in another context, where reference is being made to the children as well as to the parents, only one of the two expressions - the Joneses - would be used. A statement to this effect would have to be included in any complete description of the use of the definite article with the plural forms of surnames. The primary concern of the analyst should be with obligatory uses rather than with optional or facultative uses.50 This will mean that in many instances he may describe the uses of a marked form in detail and then summarize the uses of the unmarked or neutral form in a statement beginning with such words as "in all other cases". It should be remembered, however, that when both the marked and unmarked forms are used together, the unmarked form regularly signals "lack of the marked meaning", even though the same form may not signal such a meaning when used alone. Thus in the reply "It's a goose" to the question "Is that a gander?", the word goose signals "female of species", although it does not ordinarily do so. It may well be that one reason it is so easy to find examples to corroborate history of their development, there may co-exist, as Fernand Mossé has put it, "deux tendances dont l'équilibre instable fait la vie même d'une langue: une force conservatrice qui tend à maintenir l'héritage du passé, une force novatrice qui tend à y substituer la réalité." (Histoire de la forme périphrastique être -)- participe présent en anglais de 1200 à nos jours, Thèse pour le Doctorat ès Lettres présentée à la Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Paris, 1938, pp. 12-13.) At such-moments in history, the choice of one form or the other in a given situation may be dependent upon such nebulous factors as the speaker's age group, his social class, his recent choice of reading matter - or even upon the last person he has overheard using one of the two forms. 50 Cf. the statement of Roman Jakobson that "the true difference in languages is not in what may or may not be expressed but in what must or must not be conveyed by the speakers". ("Boas' View of Grammatical Meaning". American Anthropologist. LXI, No. 5, Part 2, October 1959, 140.)

STATEMENT O F ANALYTICAL P R O C E D U R E S

95

Jespersen's "frame theory" for the use of expanded verb-clusters in subordinate clauses which provide a "frame" for the action expressed by the main verb-clusters, is that in such sentences expanded clusters usually occur side by side with nonexpanded clusters, so that both members of each opposition signal their contrasting meanings. 3.5. CONCLUSIONS

An examination of the arguments advanced by the proponents of different procedures for linguistic analysis reveals certain assumptions on the basis of which the advocates of one procedure or another have carried out their operations. Some of these assumptions the present writer rejected during the course of this study since the arguments offered in their support seemed unconvincing. But others of the assumptions appeared more reasonable, and these the present writer accepted as hypotheses, to be tried out and tested. Since certain of these hypotheses have provided a kind of framework within which the latter stages of the study were conducted, it may be helpful to summarize them here. Some of these hypotheses received strong support from the results of this study; it should be borne in mind, however, that they were originally accepted as hypotheses only, not as axioms. Chomsky and Weinreich are probably right in insisting that the grammatical structure of a language be analyzed separately from its semantic structure,' 1 while at the same time not excluding the latter as a legitimate object of study/ 2 But whether it is ever really possible to make a complete analysis of the grammatical structure of a language without taking semantic considerations into account seems still to be open to question; Pike, for example, insists that "language is a formmeaning composite". 53 It may be that, just as an analyst finds it practical to use a change on the morphemic level as an aid to the discovery of a distinction between two phonemes, so an analyst may find it helpful - or even ncccssary in certain cases - to use a change on the semantic level as an aid to discovering grammatical differences. It may even be, as Bull suggests, that an analyst will not be able to See Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures ('s-Gravenhage, Mouton and Company, 1957), pp. 92-105; and Uriel Weinreich, "On the Semantic Structure of Language", in Universals of Language, edited by Joseph H. Greenberg (Cambridge, Mass., The M.I.T. Press, 1963), pp. 116-117. See Chomsky, op. cit., p. 101, n. 9; and Weinreich, op. cit., pp. 152-154. 53 Kenneth L. Pike, Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, Preliminary ed„ 3 vols. (Glendale, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1954, 1955, 1960), III, 35. See also Noam Chomsky, "Semantic Considerations in Grammar", Report of the Sixth Annual Round Table Meeting on Linguistics and Language Teaching, edited by Ruth Hirsch Weinstein ( = Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics, No. 8) (Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press, 1955), pp. 141-150, and the discussion following the reading of his paper (transcribed on pp. 150-158), especially the comments by Pike. It seems likely, however, that Pike's concept of meaning is not quite the same as Chomsky's, at least as it relates to linguistic analysis. (For discussions for and against the use of meaning in linguistic analysis, see Section 4 of the Bibliography.)

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STATEMENT O F ANALYTICAL P R O C E D U R E S

find all there is to find in the grammatical structure of a language without first analyzing the conceptual structure of the speakers of that language. 54 Certainly Bull seems justified in his assertion that "common focus is of great importance in linguistic analysis". 55 On the other hand, there is always the danger of finding something that is not there when one works from meaning to form. 5 6 (But the same danger of finding something that is not there is present whenever a linguist lets his hypotheses influence his analysis, even if he emphatically rejects reliance on meaning.) In analyzing the grammatical structure of a language, the tagmemic concept of slot-class or position-form correlations seems to offer the possibility of achieving significant results. But the kind of tagmemic analysis exemplified in Longacre's "String Constituent Analysis' 57 does not seem suitable; Haas is probably right in viewing "the expansive hierarchy" as "a fanciful structure", and in urging a reductive procedure of analysis. 58 Certainly the classification of construction-classes seems fully as important as the classification of word-classes, if not even more so. It may be true that the grammar of a language includes a transformational structure, as Chomsky suggests; 59 it is noteworthy, nevertheless, that sentences generated by transformations fit into the same sectors as do their source-sentences. In the analysis of semantic structure, a procedure that seems to hold great promise is that of binary oppositions, with the related concepts of marked versus unmarked forms (and of neutralization), and of general or overall meanings.' 10 Another approach which promises to be very fruitful is that of the analysis of the semantic structure of a language in terms of semantic features or components, as applied to kinship systems by Lounsbury and Goodenough. 6 1

54

William E. Bull, Time, Tense, and the Verb (= University of California Publications in Linguistics, Vol. XIX) (Berkeley and Los Angeles. University of California Press, 1960), pp. 1-4, 109-120. ••5 Ibid., p. 115. 58 G. A. Pittman claims that in Truk, a language of the Micronesian area, "the verb forms are decided not by time but by evidence!" ("English in the Commonwealth: 2-The Teaching of English in the South Pacific", English Language Teaching, XV, July-September, 1961, 175.) If this is true, then a preconceived "hypothetical tense system" like Bull's could easily mislead an analyst studying Truk. (Cf. also the descriptions of Abaza, Bantu, and Afrikaans, by W. S. Allen, "Structure and System in the Abaza Verbal Complex", Transactions of the Philological Society, 1956, pp. 127-176; H. P. Blok, "Negro-African Linguistics", Lingua, III, April, 1953, 269-294; and Meyer de Villiers, "Absolute and Relative Tense: Empathy in Afrikaans (South African Dutch)", Lingua, IV, April, 1955, 407-412.) " Robert E. Longacre, "String Constituent Analysis", Language, XXXVI (January-March, 1938), 68-69. 58 W. Haas, "Linguistic Structures", Word, XVI (August, 1960), 268-269. 59 See Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures ('s-Gravenhage, Mouton and Company, 1957), p. 46. 00 See the discussion in 3.4, above (pp. 88-95). " See Floyd G. Lounsbury, "A Semantic Analysis of the Pawnee Kinship Usage", Language, XXXII (January-March, 1956), 158-194; and Ward H. Goodenough, "Componential Analysis and the Study of Meaning", Language, XXXII (January-March, 1956), 195-216.

97

STATEMENT OF ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES 6

But as the result of a study conducted separately from this one, "- the present writer now believes that it is unlikely that two different analyses of the semantic structure of a given language - whether analyses made by two different analysts or analyses made by the same analyst at two different times - would coincide at all points. One reason for this, a reason which probably has much to do with the great difficulty of describing meanings rigorously, is to be found in a fact that many theories of meaning have failed to recognize: namely, that not all of the total context or situation within which the recipient of a linguistic message decodes the message enters into the "meaning" which he ascribes to it, but only that part of the context which he perceives as relevant. Similarly, he will probably not "get" from the message its total potential significance, but again only that part of it which he perceives as relevant. Thus different interpreters of the same linguistic message may be expected to analyze the semantic content of the message in different ways, especially if the message is long or complex. The present writer knows of no way to measure differences of perception. But he believes that any linguistic theory, to be valid, must allow for the possibility of different analyses by different interpreters of any but the most simple sentences. Any semantic component which an interpreter fails to perceive as relevant to a given message will fail to enter into the total meaning which he ascribes to it, regardless of how relevant another interpreter may consider it to be.08 It will be shown in Chapter IV that this fact may affect an interpreter's analysis of the grammatical structure of a given sentence, as well.

62

Reported on in a paper read at the Ninth International Congress of Linguists, Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 27-31, 1962. As a case in point, one interpreter may know that the encoder of a given message is not a native speaker of the language in which the message is encoded, while another interpreter may not know this fact — or may ignore it. Yet the recognition of this fact may crucially affect the first interpreter's analysis (or "decoding") of the message. T h e acceptance by some interpreters of the claim that certain modern poems have real significance implies the assumption that the encoders of those poems were native (or near-native) speakers, not machines or chimpanzees pounding away at typewriters. T h e knowledge that a given "poem" had been "produced" by a chimpanzee would crucially affect the "meaning" that it conveyed to the interpreter. 83

IV. DEFINITION O F TERMS

4.0. M E T H O D O F ANALYSIS

In the description of the English verb system appearing in Chapters VI to X, certain grammatical terms are used which have been taken from the present writer's own analysis of English syntax. Most of these terms are defined below. Wherever particulars of this analysis pertain directly to the description of the verb system, justification therefor is given in detail. But a full description of the writer's analysis of English syntax, or of the procedures followed in making such an analysis, would lie beyond the scope of the present study. It may be stated, however, that the method of analysis followed was primarily one of trial and error. Once it had been hypothesized that a reductive analysis might prove more productive than an expansive one, and that a sentence might be defined in terms of a fixed sequence of basic positions which, if filled, would appear in the same order in the great majority of instances, it became necessary to examine a large number of sentences in an attempt to determine these "basic positions". 1 Although it was discovered, as had been anticipated, that there is a hierarchy of functional positions within the English sentence,2 it appeared that the positions on three (or possibly four) of the levels were of primary importance in the recognition of a sentence as opposed to a non-sentence. These positions were called SECTORS. 3 Sectors (and sub-sectors, to be defined below) can generally be distinguished from other positions by the fact that no single sector serves as the position for a modifier of any other single sector, and no single sector serves as the position for an "introducer" of any construction other than the whole sentence.4 It seems, furthermore, that only units appearing in sectors are regularly shiftable to other sectors. 1

Cf. the similar statement of procedure by Robert E. Longacre: "In describing the substitution points within a string we use the tagmeme concept as developed by Pike, i.e. 'a minimal functional segment of a sentence type in which the sentence type is divided according to grammatically functional parts rather than into phonological or lexical parts'" ("String Constituent Analysis", Language, XXXVI, January-March, 1960, 63). ! Cf. the description of Isthmus Zapotec by Velma Bernice Pickett, The Grammatical Hierarchy of Isthmus Zapotec (= Language Dissertation No. 56) (1960). • This use of the term "sector" differs from Eleanor Harz Jorden's use of the same term in The Syntax of Modern Colloquial Japanese (= Language Dissertation, No. 52) (1955). 4 But see below for the special convention by which a "first auxiliary" in the "X" sector is considered to have shifted from the Verbal sector.

99

DEFINITION OF TERMS T h e a n a l y s i s of E n g l i s h s y n t a x r e p r e s e n t e d h e r e is f r e e l y a d m i t t e d t o b e

an

a n a l y s i s p r i m a r i l y of w r i t t e n E n g l i s h rather t h a n of s p o k e n E n g l i s h , a l t h o u g h it h a s b e e n c h e c k e d a g a i n s t s e n t e n c e s o c c u r r i n g in n o r m a l i z e d s p e e c h a n d a p p e a r s t o a p p l y t o t h e m as w e l l a s t o w r i t t e n s e n t e n c e s . 5 T h i s writer d o e s n o t b e l i e v e that w r i t t e n E n g l i s h is m e r e l y a p a l e r e f l e c t i o n of s p o k e n E n g l i s h , as c e r t a i n l i n g u i s t s s u g g e s t . 6 E a c h h a s its o w n c o n v e n t i o n s a n d s h o u l d b e s t u d i e d in its o w n right. 7 It m a y b e n o t e d , h o w e v e r , that t h e s e c t o r s in s e n t e n c e s r e m a i n t h e s a m e in b o t h s p o k e n a n d written E n g l i s h , a l t h o u g h t h e r e a p p e a r s t o b e m o r e s h i f t i n g a r o u n d in t h e o r d e r of s e c t o r s in w r i t t e n E n g l i s h , m o s t c o m m o n l y f o r stylistic r e a s o n s .

4.1. S O M E BASIC U N I T S It is a s s u m e d that t h e b a s i c unit o n t h e p h o n o l o g i c a l level is t h e

PHONEME.

A p h o n e m e m a y b e d e f i n e d , f o l l o w i n g G l e a s o n , as a c l a s s of s o u n d s w h i c h a r e p h o n e t i c a l l y similar, s h o w i n g " c e r t a i n c h a r a c t e r i s t i c p a t t e r n s of d i s t r i b u t i o n " a n d 5

Sentences appearing in conversations, whether in plays, novels, stories, or articles, are considered to be examples of written English rather than of spoken English, in contrast to the recorded sentences transcribed in Howard Maclay and Charles E. Osgood, "Hesitation Phenomena in Spontaneous English Speech", Word, XV (April, 1959), 19-44. It is not claimed that this analysis of syntax will cover all - or even many - of the utterances examined by Maclay and Osgood. ' C f . the statement by Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager that writing "is a secondary visual representation of speech" (Outline of Linguistic Analysis, Baltimore, Linguistic Society of America, 1942, p. 6). 7 F o r example, the "direct speech" (signaled by means of quotation marks and special punctuation) so c o m m o n in novels and stories is not a "secondary visual representation" of spoken English. Again, there is nothing in spoken English of which the indentation at the beginning of a p a r a g r a p h is merely a visual representation. A n d just as spoken English has affected written English, written English has also affected spoken English, as in the pronunciation of certain "learned" words. F o r f u r t h e r discussion of the justification for treating written English as a subject of study in its own right, see any one of several statements by Joseph Vachek, such as " Z u m Problem der geschriebenen Sprache", Travaux du Cerale Linguistique de Prague, VIII (1939), 94-104; "Written English and Printed Language", Recueil linguistique de Bratislava, I (1948), 67-74; "Some Remarks o n Writing and Phonetic Transcription", Acta Linguistica, V (1945-1949), 86-96; and "Two Chapters on Written English", Brno Studies in English, I (1959), 7-38. See also Vilem Mathesius, "On Some Problems of the Systematic Analysis of G r a m m a r " , Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague, VI (1936), 95-107; William F . Edgerton, "Ideograms in English Writing", Language, X V I I (April-May, 1941), 148-150; H. J. Uldall, "Speech and Writing", Acta Linguistica, IV (1944), 11-16; André Martinet, "About Structural Sketches", Word, V (April, 1949), 35 (on the influence of the written tradition of French on its spoken form) and also comments on p. 28 of his Phonology as Functional Phonetics (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1955); G o r d o n M. Messing, "Structuralism and Literary Tradition", Language, X X V I I (January-March, 1951), 1-12; Ernst Pulgram, "Phoneme and G r a p h e m e : A Parallel", Word, V I I (April, 1951), 15-20; the discussion in Chapter I of Harold Whitehall, Structural Essentials of English (New York, Harcourt, Brace and C o m p a n y , 1951); and comments in R u d S. Meyerstein, " A Positional Determination of Semantic Equivalence" (unpublished doctoral dissertation, T h e University of Michigan, A n n Arbor, 1954), pp. 33-43. M. A. K . Halliday accepts punctuation and spacing as possibly the sole criteria for the "delimitation of exponents of each unit" in the g r a m m a r , in his "Some Aspects of Systematic Description and Comparison in Grammatical Analysis", Studies in Linguistic Analysis (1957), p. 58.

100

DEFINITION OF TERMS

"having a characteristic set of interrelationships with each of the other elements in the sound system". 8 Any sound or sub-class of sounds in complementary distribution with another and constituting with it a single phoneme is called an ALLOPHONE of that phoneme. 9 On the morphological level, the basic unit is the MORPHEME, which may be defined as a class of two or more sequences of phonemes which "(a) have the same meaning, (b) never occur in identical environments, and (c) have combined environments no greater than the environments of some single alternant [minimum meaningful sequence of phonemes] in the language". 10 An ALLOMORPH is "a variant of a morpheme which occurs in certain definable environments". 11 The term "morphemes" will here be loosely used for BOUND MORPHEMES, that is, for morphemes which occur only as parts of words,12 never alone (except in hypostasis 13 ). The minimal units of form on the syntactic level are (bound) morphemes and lexemes. A L E X E M E is a morpheme or combination of morphemes that has a single signification which cannot be predicted on the basis of the combination of its constituents. 14 In the sentence in [1] below, for example, the two "words" good and constitute only one lexeme. In the sentence in [2], the first a little comprises two lexemes, but the second a little comprises only one: [1] [2]

I like my coffee good and hot. Constant questioning by a little boy can be more than a little annoying.

Lexemes may be classified into lexeme-classes, which are of two kinds: "LISTED" LEXEME-CLASSES, each of which is defined by listing the members of the class, and "NON-LISTED" LEXEME-CLASSES, each of which is defined by ' H. A. Gleason, Jr., An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics. Revised ed. (New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961), pp. 261, 268. 9 Ibid., p. 263. 10 Zellig S. Harris, " M o r p h e m e Alternants in Linguistic Analysis", Readings in Linguistics, edited by Martin Joos (Washington, American Council of Learned Societies, 1957), p. 115. (Reprinted f r o m Language, XVIII, 1942, 169-180.) 11 Gleason, op. cit., p. 61. 12 Since the word is not treated as a basic unit in this analysis, no exact definition seems necessary. T h e judgment of a native speaker may be accepted as to what does or does not constitute a word in his idiolect. It is assumed that his decision as to whether a given m o r p h e m e is a word or less than a word may well be influenced by his knowledge of the written form of the language. It m a y even be that he will wish to reserve judgment until he has been able to consult a dictionary. 18 Hypostasis is defined by Leonard Bloomfield as "the mention of a phonetically normal speech-form" (Language, New York, Henry Holt and C o m p a n y , 1933, p. 148). 14 See W a r d H. Goodenough, "Componential Analysis and the Study of Meaning", Language, X X X I I (January-March, 1956), 208. T h e term is also used, with different definitions, in H o w a r d B. Garey, The Historical Development of Tenses from Late Latin to Old French (= Language Dissertation No. 51) (1955), p. 11, and Eleanor H a r z Jorden, The Syntax of Modern Colloquial Japanese (= Language Dissertation No. 52) (1955), p. 8. In both of these studies Bernard Bloch is credited with having been the first to suggest the term, although his own definition of a lexeme now differs f r o m the definition he seems to have given originally.

101

DEFINITION OF TERMS

stating "the necessary and sufficient conditions for membership in the class". 15 The non-listed lexeme-classes are the N O U N S , V E R B S , A D J E C T I V E S , and A D V E R B S . Adverbs are defined as lexemes ending in -ly that can occur in front, middle, H , or end positions (see 4.4, below), but not directly preceding nouns in noun-clusters. (Other so-called "adverbs" belong to special listed classes with special labels.) Verbs may be defined as lexemes that can occur as the nuclei of verb-clusters (i.e., clusters occurring in V positions) and that have three timeoriented forms and three non-time oriented forms (see 4.4, below). Adjectives may be roughly defined as lexemes that can directly precede the nuclei in nounclusters, that do not have plural forms, and that often - but not always - have a potential for co-occurrence in noun-clusters with -er, -est or more,

most.

Nouns

may be roughly defined as lexemes that can occur as the nuclei of noun-clusters, that cannot take the endings -er, -est, and that often, but not always, have both singular and plural forms. 16 Most adjectives can be - but nouns cannot be - directly preceded by some such "modi-modifier" (see 4.81, below) as very, fairly, much, or far. (Many of the members of one or another of these non-listed classes are also signaled by certain derivational affixes. 17 ) A n y two or more lexemes which function together as a grammatical unit may be called a C O N S T R U C T I O N . Higher-level constructions include combinations of lexemes and/or constructions. There are two kinds of constructions: clusters and constructs.18 A C L U S T E R consists of a N U C L E U S with or without preceding and/or following S A T E L L I T E S . A cluster consisting only of a nuclcus with no satellites is considered to be a special case of the kind of cluster typically represented by the same nucleus with preceding and/or following satellites. Clusters are the same as Bloomfield's "endocentric constructions", 10 although his definition is considered inadequate: noun-clusters, for example, are not considered as belonging to the same form-class as nouns in the present analysis, nor are nounclusters regarded as functioning in the same way as their nuclei. Nouns regularly function as the nuclei of noun-clusters, but this is not the same as saying that nouns function in the same way as noun-clusters. The noun rabbit, for example, may function as the nucleus of either a "count noun-cluster", as in [3] below, or F o r the " t w o ways of defining a class", see Floyd G. Lounsbury, " A Semantic Analysis of the Pawnee Kinship Usage", Language, X X X I I (January-March, 1956), 167. 16 For difficulties involved in identifying nouns, see Kenneth L. Pike, Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of (he Structure of Human Behavior, Preliminary ed., 3 vols. (Glendale, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1954, 1955, I960), III, 16-17. 17 Many such affixes are described in Charles C. Fries, The Structure of English ( N e w York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952), Chapter V I I . 18 T h e term "construct" is borrowed f r o m Henry Lee Smith, Jr., but is not used for the same linguistic unit to which he applies the term. For Smith's distinction between "constructs" and "constructions", see his "Superfixes and Syntactic Markers", Report of the Seventh Annual Round Table Meeting on Linguistics and Language Study, edited by Paul L . Garvin ( = Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics, N o . 9) (Washington, D. C., Georgetown University Press, 1957), pp. 8-15. 15

l"

Leonard Bloomfield, Language

( N e w Y o r k , Henry Holt and Company, 1933), p. 195.

102

DEFINITION OF TERMS

a "mass noun-cluster", as in [4]; the first nominal (a rabbit) can be made plural, but the second one cannot: [3] [4]

John keeps a rabbit in a hutch in the back yard. I don't like the taste of rabbit.

It is true that the satellites of a nucleus may often be removed without changing the function of the cluster as a whole, but this is not a sufficient criterion. On the sector level, the greater number of clusters have as their nuclei lexemes belonging to one or another of the non-listed lexeme-classes - that is, nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs.20 In all, or almost all, other clusters on the sector level, the satellites of a nucleus may be removed without affecting the functioning of the cluster. The clusters occurring on other levels will be described separately. All clusters, however, have this in common: their satellites are subordinate to (or may be said to "pre-suppose", or to "determine") their nuclei. Any construction which is not a cluster will be called a CONSTRUCT. In the case of certain kinds of constructs - as, for example, that of subject-predicate - it does not seem possible to establish completely satisfactory criteria for determining subordinate or dependent or "determining" elements, although some linguists have tried to do so.21 The different kinds of constructs will be described below. Pike's term "tagmeme" may be used for the basic composite unit on the syntactic level, without requiring that the meaning of such a combination be considered an integral part of the tagmeme, although "meaningfulness" may be used in isolating a tagmeme, just as it is used in isolating a morpheme. A TAGMEME would then be a "position"-"form class" combination; different kinds of tagmemes could be given different labels to suggest their function. A more complete description of a given tagmeme would involve three terms: one for the position, one for the function, and one for the form of the unit (as in "a subject nominal phrase"). 22 A TAGMA, in turn, would be the correlation between a position and a specific form. But for an extension of the definition of tagma, see the discussion in 4.91, below.

4.2. S E N T E N C E S A N D L A R G E R U N I T S

The largest linguistic units that will be defined here are (for written non-conversational English) the PARAGRAPH, signaled by identation of the first line (or, in some modern styles of writing, by the fact that the last preceding line does not extend close to the right margin), and (for spoken and written conversational 20

T h e term " a d v e r b " w h e n used without a preceding qualifier will here refer only to adverbs ending in -ly. 21 See, f o r example, C. E. Bazell, " T h e F u n d a m e n t a l Syntactic Relations", Caiopis pro Modern! Filologii, X X X I I I (1949), 11. But cf. Bazell's discussion of "central or ' n u c l e a r ' " units in his "Syntactic Relations and Linguistic Typology", Caliiers Ferdinand de Saussure, V I I I (1949), 13. 22 See the discussion in 3.3, above (pp. 85-88).

DEFINITION OF TERMS

103

English) the CONVERSATION, defined as the totality of speech acts performed by two or more speakers from the time that one of them first says something to one or all of the others (or is recorded as doing so) until the time that the participants stop speaking to each other for at least an appreciable length of time (or are no longer recorded as doing so). Theoretically, however, any item of past experience shared in common by the participants in a conversation may be linguistically relevant to a complete syntactic analysis of a sentence spoken by one of them. Only on the basis of such an assumption does it seem possible to explain the use of the words did and it in the following example: [5]

I am so glad we did it when we did . . . (RDcl77)

(Reference here is to the linguistic use of these words, not to their meanings.) Within conversations one may distinguish SPEECHES: a speech is defined as all that one speaker says from the time that he begins to speak until he stops for someone else to do so (or until the end of the conversation, if nobody else speaks after him). Speeches are made up of UTTERANCES, which are defined for written English in terms of final punctuation (including dashes at the ends of interrupted speeches), and for spoken English by sentence-final intonation, a change in speakers, or possibly a long pause unaccompanied by hesitation noises. Utterances are of two kinds, sentences and non-sentences. A SENTENCE is here defined as any utterance which the analyst, if he is a native speaker of English, accepts as being grammatical. Any utterance not accepted as grammatical is a NON-SENTENCE. 2 ' It will be seen from this definition that what may be called a sentence by one analyst may be called a non-sentence by another. The present writer holds the view that any valid linguistic theory must allow for differences in interpretation by different interpreters at certain points in their analyses. (See the discussion in 3.5, above.) It may be noted in passing that a sentence may also be defined as a tagmeme (or "hypertagmeme") consisting of a certain form performing a certain function as it occurs in a certain position in a sequence of sentences. A difference in interpretation of a given utterance as being either a "sentence" or a "non-sentence" has little or no bearing upon the present analysis, since we are here concerned primarily with "major sentences". A MAJOR SENTENCE (herein represented by "U") may be defined as one in which all sectors that are occupied occur in the order described below, and which has in addition both a subject (i.e., some lexeme or construction in the "S" sector) and also time-reference. (The letter "x" will be used as a cover symbol for any reference to time as opposed to time-relationship. See the discussion of time-orientation in Chapter VI.) A ** Cf. also the discussion of "grammalicality" in N o a m Chomsky, Syntactic Structures ('s-Gravenhage, Mouton & C o m p a n y , 1957). pp. 13-17; in Archibald A. Hill, "Grammaticality", Word, X V I I (April, 1961), 1-10; in R o m a n Jakobson, "Boas' View of Grammatical Meaning", American Anthropologist, LXI, No. 5. Part 2 (October. 1959), 143-144; and in N o a m Chomsky, "Some Methodological Remarks on Generative G r a m m a r " , Word, XVII (August, 1961), 219' 239.

104

DEFINITION OF TERMS

major sentence is either F U L L or ELLIPTICAL. (For restrictions on ellipsis, see Section 10.11.) Any sentence that is not a major sentence is a M I N O R SENTENCE. (The symbol " u " may be used to represent a minor sentence.) The following are examples of minor sentences: [6] [7]

Here comes Mr. Puddleditch. How strange he looks. 4.3. MODIFICATION

Every unit in a cluster occurring either before or after the nucleus and on the same level as the nucleus (i.e., functioning as a satellite of the nucleus) is said to M O D I F Y the nucleus. A modifier need not immediately precede or follow the nucleus which it modifies, but it must be able to do so - that is, the sentence 24 resulting from the omission of any intervening modifier(s) must be an acceptable sentence. Only one other kind of modification is recognized here: in spoken English, one lexeme may be signaled as modifying another lexeme by means of a primary stress on both (usually indicated in writing by italics or underlining), as in [8]

I only asked for a box of Washo.

It will be seen from this definition that a so-called "predicate adjective" is not considered to be a modifier of the subject in its sentence. The functions of is boring, is a bore, and bores me in the following three sentences are considered to be the same; all three make P R E D I C A T I O N S about "that man": [9] (a) (b) (c)

That man is boring. That man is a bore. That man bores me.

Any attempt to distinguish a hierarchy among the modifiers of a given nucleus by means of immediate-constituent analysis or by any other means is considered to be futile, except possibly in the presence of some significant signal such as contrastive stress. A so-called "sentence-modifier" is, of course, not a modifier of a sentence as a whole, but rather a modifier of the BODY or T R U N K of a sentence. Any such modifier will be called an A D V E R B I A L . An adverbial may either precede or follow the trunk of the sentence which it modifies, a n d is defined by its ability to shift from the E N D position in a sentence to the F R O N T position (or from the front position to the end position) without changing the designation of the sentence as a whole. (There may, of course, be a stylistic difference between the resulting sentence and the original.) A sentence will thus be seen to be a cluster, with its trunk as the nucleus preceded a n d / o r followed by one or more modifying adverbials: The term "sentence", if not qualified by the attributive "minor", is to be taken as referring to a major sentence wherever it occurs in this description.

105

DEFINITION OF TERMS

A->- T -- - may each contain more than one adverbial. Any position in a sentence which can be occupied by more than one sector of the same kind will be called a T E R R I T O R Y . (Adverbial territories may be symbolized by "As.".) The trunk of a sentence is made up of two parts, which will be called the SUBJECT (S) and the P R E D I C A T I V E (Pv). The predicative, in turn, is a cluster with a P R E D I C A T E (Pj as its nucleus. This predicate may be modified by a preceding adverb (ending in -ly) or by a M I D D L E A D V E R B (i.e., one of a special group of listed lexemes including sometimes, often, never, etc.). The position in which such preceding modifiers of the predicate occur will be called the M I D D L E (or "M") POSITION. A predicate may also be modified by a following P R E D I C A T E - M O D I F I E R (or ADJUNCTIVAL). The position for predicate-modifiers will be symbolized by --

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c cQ

C O

o 2

u >

s

Js J a

~

3

o o

G u CO s

1

cfl CO

U ^

n

c3 3

*

C i • § 1 . 5 •o £ _ c ; cs I

113

DEFINITION OF TERMS

or an adverbial is dropped from the sentence in which it occurs, the sentence will still remain grammatical, even though its meaning may not be exactly the same; but the dropping of any one of the three complements will result in an ungrammatical sentence 45 or in a change in the meaning of the verb. In the sentence in [42], for example, the phrase on the table is adjunctal (i.e., a Co), while the phrase on the table in [43] is a predicate-modifier. (Other examples of sentences containing one or another of the complements appear in items [44]-[50] on page 112.) Since in [51] the so-called "past participle" (referred to hereafter as THE D-T-N FORM, since most past participles end in -d or -t or -n) occurs in the verbal sector, while the d-t-n form in [52] occurs in an adjunctal position, the two kinds of passives may be distinguished by calling one A VERBAL PASSIVE and the other AN ADJUNCTAL PASSIVE. If the sentences in [53] and [54] below are compared, it will be seen that there are shifted positions for the sub-sectors G and Co, just as there are for X and M. These shifted positions of G and C> may be labeled C.i and C L>: [53] [54]

Y X., S X V C.,> G , C, C, C, Did you give her pen back to her? No, I didn't give her back her pen.

Go is the position for the so-called "indirect object". ("Y" represents an "external" position. See p. I l l , n. 38.) The various sectors and sub-sectors, with their shifted positions, can now be shown as follows: [55]

Y + 1 + A + X . 1 + S + M_i + X + M + V f CL> C.i + Co + C, + Co + H + A,„ + A„ + A t -I- Z.

4.7. C O N S T R U C T I O N S A N D G R A M M A T I C A L

4-

RELATIONS

4.71. Clusters The most important clusters in addition to those shown in [11] are NOUN-CLUSTERS (e.g., the tall girl with red hair), VERB-CLUSTERS (e.g., has been waving),4« ADJECTIVE-CLUSTERS (e.g., very tall), ADVERB-CLUSTERS (e.g., very rapidly), and ADJUNCT-CLUSTERS (e.g., fast asleep). Adjectivc-clustcrs that precede the nucleus of a noun-cluster and are part of the noun-cluster are called ADJEC45

This rule m a y not hold true for certain elliptical sentences. See p. 203, n. 34. T h e auxiliaries in a verb-cluster are considered to be modifiers of the verb nucleus. (Cf. Paul Roberts, Understanding English, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1958, pp. 195, 210.) Harold Whitehall has pointed out an interesting parallel between the first auxiliary in a verbcluster and the determiner in a noun-cluster, in his Structural Essentials of English (New York, Harcourt, Brace and C o m p a n y , 1951), p. 85. Hans Reichenbacn puts adjectives on a par with the tenses of verbs: see his Elements of Symbolic Logic (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1947), p. 251. ,a

114

DEFINITION OF TERMS

TIVALS. Single-word adjectives occurring in the same position are considered to be special cases of adjective-clusters and are also called adjectivals, as are determiners, nominals in pre-nucleus position ("noun adjuncts") or in post-nucleus position ("appositives") in noun-clusters, and phrases and clauses in post-nucleus position. (In other words, all the satellites in a noun-cluster are adjectivals.) A COMPOUND CLUSTER (or co-ordinative cluster) is similar to an egg with two yolks: it is still one cluster even though it has two nuclei. Such clusters are formed by combining two or more clusters by means of some such co-ordinator as and. Compound clusters exemplify the grammatical relation of CO-ORDINATION. The relationship of any satellite in a cluster to its nucleus exemplifies the grammatical relation of MODIFICATION. A word should be said here about the forms of verb-clusters. All the different possible forms of verb-clusters (such as may be found in a complete paradigm of one verb) will be called TENSES. The tenses will be named on the basis of their form, not on the basis of the time they refer to or the kind of action they represent. Verbexes which are formed by adding some allomorph of the morpheme [-d] (Chomsky's "past" variant of "C") to the base form of the verb will be called PRETERIT forms, and will be symbolized "v-d". Other verbexes will be called NON-PRETERIT forms, and will be symbolized "v-s" (for the forms ending in -s) and "v-0". All forms of verb-clusters containing preterit verbexes or preterit forms of auxiliaries will be called PAST TENSES; all other forms of verb-clusters will be called PRESENT TENSES. 47 All verb-clusters containing some form of the auxiliary HAVE will be called PERFECT verb-clusters. All verb-clusters containing some form of WILL or SHALL (when not used as modals) will be called F U T U R E verb-clusters. All verb-clusters containing some form of the auxiliary BE followed by the ing form of a verb will be called EXPANDED verb-clusters; but all verbclusters containing some form of the auxiliary BE followed by the d-t-n form of a verb will be called PASSIVE verb-clusters. All verb-clusters containing some form of one of the modals ( W I L L and SHALL in their modal uses, CAN, MAY, MUST, SHOULD, and less commonly NEED and DARE) will be called MODAL verbclusters. These labels will be used in combination when referring to complex verbclusters; if used alone, they will be assumed to refer to simple verb-clusters. Thus went is the preterit form of go; both went and did go are past forms of go; and would have been going is the past future perfect expanded form of go. 4.72.

Constructs

Constructs are of two kinds: INTRODUCED and NON-INTRODUCED. The constructs represented in [11] above were non-introduced constructs; the one sym47 C f . the statement by H . J. Uldall that "in Modern English there are only two basic tenses left: every English sentence which is not imperative contains either a Past tense or a Present". / shall see him, f o r example, contains the Present tense of shall. (H. J. Uldall, "Notes on the English Tenses", English Language Teaching, II, February, 1948, 124.)

115

DEFINITION OF TERMS

bolized S + Pv exemplifies the grammatical relation of PREDICATION, while the one symbolized V + C s exemplifies the grammatical relation of COMPLEMENTATION. The most important introduced constructs are CLAUSES, signaled by the (listed) INCLUDERS (or subordinattors) which introduce them, 48 and PHRASES, signaled by the (listed) PREPOSITIONS which introduce them. A clause commonly consists of two members, the introducing member (an includer) and the introduced member (an INCLUDED SENTENCE). (In a "relative" clause, the includer regularly replaces some sector of the included sentence.) A phrase commonly consists of two members, the introducing member (a preposition) and the introduced member (a nominal - usually a noun-cluster, but often also an included phrase, as in "from under the table"). The relationship between an introducer and the construction which it introduces exemplifies the grammatical relation of INTRODUCTION. 4.73. Categories of

Constructions

It has already been observed that some categories seem to be categories of constructions, rather than categories of lexeme-classes.4" Constructions - and more particularly clusters - differ from the lexeme-classes which regularly appear as their nuclei in several significant respects. A noun-cluster, for example, has substitutes different from those for nouns, as can be seen from the examples in [56]: [56] (a) That white shirt is mine. To whom does the blue shirt belong? (b)

To whom docs the blue one belong? i (c) I don't know. To whom does it belong? Furthermore, the modifiers of a noun-cluster differ from those of a noun, as can be seen from the examples in [57]:50 [57] (a) (b) (c)

those

| peaches |

judges]

those ripe | peaches |

just judges|

especially those

|peaches

just

[]udges|

Again, certain endings are cluster endings rather than noun endings, as can be seen from the examples in [58]:51 18 T h e term clause will be used here only for included clauses. Non-included clauses will be called sentences. 18 Cf. Harold V. King, review of Holger Steen S0rensen's Word-Classes in Modern English, in Language, X X X V (October-December. 1959), 710. See also the discussion of a rabbit / rabbit in 4.1 above. 50 T h e modifiers of nomináis also regularly modify pro-nominals, as in the following conversation: "Keep quiet, all of you." "Me, too?" "Especially you." 51 Cf. C. E. Bazell, "Syntactic Relations and Linguistic Topology", Cahiers de Ferdinand de Saussure, VIII (1949), 14.

116

DEFINITION OF TERMS

[58] (a) (b)

one I Board I of Education

two | Board |s of Education /

the | Board | of Education

the | Board | of Education's decision.

4.8. G R A M M A T I C A L " D E V I C E S "

4.81. Listed

Lexeme-Classes

In his American English Grammar, Fries refers to word order, inflections and "function words" as the three devices used in English "for the expression of certain grammatical ideas". 52 Inflections function primarily as signals of "ties", which will be discussed in 4.82, below. "Function words" are those items which have here been referred to as the members of listed lexeme-classes. Several of the listed lexeme-classes have already been described. Although these classes are defined by listing, certain facts about some of the most important classes should be pointed out. A DETERMINER always occurs as the first item in any noun-cluster in which it appears; as a result, two determiners cannot co-occur in the same cluster. Every PRIMARY AUXILIARY has a preterit and/or non-preterit form (or forms) which may occur in the shifted X.i position, before the subject; these time-oriented forms are also called CARRIERS. Lexemes like HAVE TO and USED TO, which function in much the same manner as primary auxiliaries but which do not themselves have forms than can precede the subject, may be called SECONDARY AUXILIARIES. Other listed lexeme-classes which may be named arc the MODI-MODIFIERS (such as very, rather, etc.),33 CONSTRUCTIONMODIFIERS (like the lexeme only in only that tall girl with red hair, only her, only after you've finished your work, only after lunch, etc.); MIDDLE ADVERBS (like often, sometimes, never, which regularly occur in the M position, but may shift to an A position); PREPOSITIONS, INCLUDERS and CO-ORDINATORS; the NEGATOR not (with its variant form n't); the WH-lexemes (including how, how many, etc.), which regularly introduce questions and included clauses; REQUEST-MARKERS (like let's, please, kindly)-, "ROVERS" (like however, therefore)-, INTERJECTIONS (like ouch) and other E X T E R N A L LEXEMES (like yes, no, too)-, GREETINGS; ATTENTION-GETTERS (like hey, say)\ the FILLERS (there, it, and the carrier-verb BE); and the INFINITIVE-MARKER to. Perhaps the most important group of listed lexemes, which may be further 52 Charles Carpenter Fries, American English Grammar (New York, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1940), p. 247. 55 Modi-modifiers are so named in Robert L. Allen and Virginia F . Allen, Graded English jor Caltex Employees, mimeographed edition (Rumbai, Indonesia, The Caltex Pacific Oil Company, 1958); they are called "modifier-modifiers" by Leslie A. Hill, "Position and Order of Modifier-Modifiers", Language Learning, XI (1961), 63-69; Paul Roberts calls them "intensifiers" in his Understanding English (New York, Harper & Bros., 1958), p. 166.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

117

classified into several sub-groups, are the SUBSTITUTES. Anaphoric substitutes substitute for constructions that have already occurred previously in the conversation or speech; anticipatory substitutes substitute for constructions which arc about to occur; immediate substitutes are, properly speaking, not substitutes at all but "deictic signs" that refer to something in the context shared by both the speaker and the hearer. 34 Substitutes may be divided into two large groups: REPLACERS, comprising those lexemes that may either introduce constructions or instead substitute for all or part of constructions such as they ordinarily introduce (like the N O M I N A L - R E P L A C E R those, which may substitute for those books on the table, or for only those books, as in those on the table),•"""' and " P R O - " substitutes, comprising lexemes that do not occur in constructions but may replace them (like the P R O - N O M I N A L them, which may also substitute for those books on the table). Substitutes exemplify the peculiar grammatical relation of SUBSTITUTION. 4.82. "Ties" and

"Valences"

Different kinds of "TIES" between lexemes or constructions and other lexemes or constructions may also be identified. Fries makes much of the tie between the subject of a sentence and its verb in his Structure of English, but it is doubtful whether a tie should be recognized as existing between two constructions when there is no contrast, either overt or covert, to signal "presence of tie" as opposed to "absence of tie". 56 A tie may be said to exist, for example, between the subject and the verb in [59]

A bird flies

because of the contrasting [60]

Birds fly.

When the form of the subject changes, the form of the verb also changes. But there seems to be no justification for positing the existence of a tie between the subject and the verb in the sentence 54

F o r a detailed classification of the substitutes, see Robert L. Allen, "The Classification of English Substitute Words", General Linguistics, V (Spring, 1961), 7-20. Uriel Weinreich uses the term "deictic signs" in his "On the Semantic Structure of Language", in Universal* of Language, edited by Joseph H. Greenberg (Cambridge, Mass., T h e M.I.T. Press. 1963), pp. 123 f f . Otto Jespersen calls such substitutes "shifters" in his Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin (London, George Allen & Unwin, 1922), pp. 123-124, a term which is borrowed by R o m a n Jakobson in his Shifters, Verbal Categories, and the Russian Verb (Cambridge, Mass., Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, 1957); they are called "token-reflexive words" by H a n s Reichenbach in his Elements of Symbolic Logic (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1947), p. 284, and "identifiers" by Charles Morris in his Signs, Language and Behavior (New York, George Braziller, 1955), p. 76. 55

All the carriers may function as P R E D I C A T E - R E P L A C E R S (i.e., as substitutes for X + V + C J , as in "I've never been to Mexico, but Mary has"). Strictly speaking, therefore, a semi-sentence like Mary has is not elliptical. 56 Charles Carpenter Fries, The Structure of English (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952), p. 148 and passim.

118

DEFINITION OF TERMS

[61]

The man came "

since a change from the man to the men will not produce a corresponding change in the verb. Reference has already been made to the ties between any auxiliary and the one immediately following it in a verb-cluster, and between the last auxiliary in a verb-cluster and the verb. The determiners THIS and THAT tie, with the nouns they modify, as in these books. Another important kind of tie is the tie between a substitute and its antecedent or referent. 58 The attraction which a given category, or a given construction, or even a given lexeme, has for the specific form of an element tied to it, or even for a specific item tied to it, may be referred to as a VALENCE existing between the former and the latter, or as the valence of the former for the latter.30 Thus a so-called third person singular subject nominal has a valence for the morpheme [-s] in any non-preterit, non-modal verb-cluster co-occurring with it in its sentence or clause. A valence may exist between a category and a specific morpheme, as in the example just given; it may exist between one category and another, as between Co-requiring (or transitive) verbs and the nominals in the C 0 position following them; it may exist between a specific lexeme and a special form of a following lexeme-class, as between the infinitive-marker to and the following base form of a verb; it may exist between a specific construction and a specific lexeme, as in to the contrary (or Jones to the contrary) notwithstanding; it may even exist between one specific lexeme and another, as between more and than (or -er and than), or between neigh and horse(s) - as its subject - or (the) neigh and (of a) horse.u Valences differ greatly, of course, in the strength of the attraction exerted by one member of a pair on the member tied to it. When each member of a tied pair has a valence for - or "determines" or 57

Charles Carpenter Fries. The Structure of English (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952), p. 151. 58 Charles F. Hockett discusses ties under the labels "concord", "government", and "crossreference" in his chapter on "Kinds of Syntactical Linkage" in A Course in Modern Linguistics (New York, T h e Macmillan C o m p a n y , 1958). pp. 214-220. Linkage a n d / o r agreement a n d / o r concord a n d / o r government are discussed in most of the grammars listed in Section 2.1 of the Bibliography. 59 Cf. the discussions of valences in Hockett, ibid., pp. 246-260, and in Richard Saunders Pittman, A Grammar of Tetelcingo (Morelos) Nahuatl (= Language Dissertation No. 50) (1954), pp. 5-8. F o r a discussion of "inferentially marked meaning" as "meaning marked by the association of two or m o r e m o r p h e m e s across word boundaries", see C. F. Voegelin, "Linguistically Marked Distinctions in Meanings", Indian Tribes of Aboriginal America, edited by Sol Tax (Vol. I l l of Selected Papers of the XXIXth International Congress of Americanists. 1952), pp. 222-233. ,0 T h e last example is taken f r o m Uriel Weinreich's "On the Semantic Structure of Language", in Universal of Language, edited by Joseph H. Greenberg (Cambridge, Mass., T h e M.I.T. Press, 1963), pp. 144. F o r a discussion of the valences existing between certain kinds of verbs and the kinds of complements following them, see W. Nelson Francis, "Resolution of Structural Ambiguity by Lexical Probability: T h e English Double Object", American Speech, X X X I (May, 1956), 102-106, reprinted in Readings in Applied English Linguistics, edited by H a r o l d B. Allen (New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1958), pp. 114-118. See also Edward M. Anthony, Jr., " A n Exploratory Inquiry into Lexical Clusters", American Speech, X X I X (October, 1954), 174-180, reprinted in Readings in Applied English Linguistics, pp. 128-133.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

119

"pre-supposes" - some overt formal signal in the other member, we may say that the two members "agree" with each other. But if only one member of the pair determines an overt formal signal in the other, we may say that the determining member "governs" the other. In many cases, however, it is not possible to identify any overt signals of either agreement or government; it then becomes necessary to seek "dependences" between the two members by either changing one or dropping it altogether, in order to see whether such a change or omission determines some change in the second member. 61 4.9. MEANING, SIGNIFICATION, AND AMBIGUITY 4 . 9 1 . Meaning

versus

Signification

Following Nida, we may define a sememe as "a class of semantically related semes, which constitute the meaningful components of (1) a morpheme, (2) a formal part of a morpheme (e.g. si in slip), (3) a covert feature of a paradigmatic series, or (4) a combination of (1) and (3)". 62 We may further define an "episeme" as "the meaning of the grammatical relationship between morphemes"; an "episememe" as "a class of semantically related episemes (i.e. alloepisemes) which constitute the meaningful relationships between the immediate constituents of a construction"; and a "macroseme" as "the meaning of a linguistic structure which has more than one sememe and at least one episememe". 01 As a cover term for the "macrosememes" (i.e., classes of semantically related macrosemes) of noun-clusters, we will use the label ENTITIES; as a cover term for the macrosememcs of major sentences we will use the label EVENTS; 64 as a cover term for the episememcs of the grammatical relationships between predicates and their subjects we will use the label PREDICATIONS. 6 3 By extension, we will use the term Predication to refer not only to the relationship between a specific predicate 00 and the specific subject which co-occurs with it in a specific sentence, but also to refer to the relationship between a given predicate and any subject which could co-occur with it in a major 61 For a description of kinds of procedures that may be followed in the search for dependences, see Paul L. Garvin, "Syntactic Units and Operations", Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Linguists (Oslo, Oslo University Press, 1958), pp. 626-632. See also the discussion of "covert categories" and the "reactances" of such categories in Benjamin Lee Whorf, "Grammatical Categories", Language, XXI (January-March, 1945), 1-11. For "bilateral concord" as opposed to "unilateral concord", see R. W. Zandvoort, A Handbook of English Grammar, Unilingual ed., 3rd impression, with minor corrections (London. Longmans [Green and Company], 1960), pp. 255 ff. 82 Eugene Nida, "A System for the Description of Semantic Elements", Word, VII (April, 1951), 7-8. » Ibid., pp. 10-11. 14 Most Entities are oriented in space; most Events involve Entities further oriented in time. It should be noted that imperative sentences are classified as minor sentcnccs, not major, since they lack time-orientation. (See the discussion in Chapter VI.) 95 The importance of predications is stressed in Anna Granville Hatcher, "Syntax and the Sentence", Word. XXII (August, 1956), 237. M The term "predicate" is here loosely used for either a predicate or predicative.

120

DEFINITION OF TERMS

sentence. In other words, although most Events involve both Entities and predications about those Entities, we will use the term "Predication" for the predication alone, as if it were possible to conceive of a predication apart from the "subject" involved. Thus we will call turned on the light a Predication even though obviously some Entity must have been involved in the turning on of the light. But when we discuss the semes of a given form (as, for example, the semes of light), we are discussing "potential" meaning, not "real" meaning. The form light, for example, may express any one of a large number of different semes. Some of these are "semantically related" as in [62]

There is one light on the table, and another light in the corner.

Most analysts would probably consider the two occurrences of light in [62] to be different occurrences of the same morpheme. But some of the semes expressed by light are not semantically related, as in [63]

With a light blow Percy knocked over the light in the corner.

Most analysts would probably consider the two occurrences of light in [63] to be occurrences of different morphemes. There are still other semes that may be expressed by the form light, however, between which it would be extremely difficult to establish any exact degree of semantic relationship. Probably not all analysts would agree as to whether to call the paired occurrences of light in each of the following sentences occurrences of "the same morpheme" or occurrences of "different morphemes": 07 [64] [65]

Please light that light on the table. That light doesn't give much light.

If we accept, with Weinreich, the possibility of "disjunctions within a designatum", 08 then we may speak of the different but related semes (or "senses") of a single morpheme as exemplifying polysemy. Homonymy, on the other hand, is exemplified by two different morphemes with the same form. As in the case of light, one and the same form may exemplify both polysemy and homonymy. Ambiguity may result from either polysemy (as in [66]) or homonymy (as in [67]): [66] [67]

"Where's that light from?" "What's in that penT

In most instances, the context (either the linguistic context, or the situational 67

See also the discussion in Kenneth L. Pike, Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, preliminary ed., 3 vols. (Glendale, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics. 1954, 1955, 1960), I, 80-81; III, 83-84. Eugene Nida calls such "subjectivism" in the analysis of language "completely legitimate", in his Morphology: The Descriptive Analysis of Words, 2d ed. (Ann A r b o r . University of Michigan Press, 1949), pp. 57, n. 51. 68 Uriel Weinreich, "On the Semantic Structure of Language", in Universals of Language, edited by Joseph H. Greenberg (Cambridge, Mass., T h e M.I.T. Press, 1963), p. 143. On the same page Weinreich states that "these disjunctions are determinate results of the participation of a sign in more than one paradigm".

DEFINITION OF TERMS

121

context shared by both the speaker and hearer) will resolve the ambiguity. The situational context, for example, would resolve the ambiguity in either [66] or [67], so that the person addressed would be able to give the desired kind of reply; his reply, if recorded, would provide an analyst with a linguistic context that would resolve the ambiguity.69 To distinguish the total range of semes (either disjunctive or unrelated) that a given form may have, from its designatum as delimited by a specified context, we may call the former its "POTENTIAL MEANING" (or MEANINGS), and the latter its "SPECIFIC MEANING", in the specified context. If, further, we concur with Pike in considering tagmemes to be the minimal units in syntax, we may speak, rather than of the "specific meaning" of a given form in a specified context, of the SIGNIFICATION of the "tagma" manifested by that form in a given utterance, where a TAGMA is taken to be the correlation of a grammatical position with a specijic form rather than with a form-class. 70 But the limiting contexts, in the case of tagmas (or of tagmemes), seem to be syntactic positions. Position would appear to be sufficient for distinguishing the different significations of the tagmas manifested by the four occurrences of light in the following sentence: [68]

With a light step Percy crossed the room to light the light with the light green shade.

Position alone, however, is not enough to differentiate between the "specific meaning" of the lexeme sheep in [69] (a), below, and the "specific meaning" of the lexeme sheep in [69] (b): [69] (a) (b)

Look at that sheep, Look at those sheep.

Several linguists have analyzed the sheep in [69] (b) as consisting of two morphemes: the same morpheme as the sheep in [69] (a) and, in addition, a zero allomorph of the plural morpheme [-s]. But Haas rejects such an analysis; he says that "sheep . . . is a single morph" - " 'zero' itself can contrast only with an overt element, never with acoustic zero. To suppose otherwise would make nonsense of the notion of contrast". 71 89

T h e reply to the question in [66], for example, might be either (a) or (b), below: t66](a) "There's a large neon sign across the street." (b) "It's a gift f r o m Aunt Matilda." The reply to the question in [67] might be either (c) or (d): [67](c) "A pig." (d) "Green ink." 70 Cf. the statement by Bazell, already quoted, that "neither the m o r p h e m e nor its place in the pattern . . . has meaning in its own right, their combination constitutes the signifiant". (C. E. Bazell, "On the Problem of the Morpheme", Arcliivum Lingnisticum, I, 1949, 1.) 71 W . Haas, "Zero in Linguistic Description", Studies in Linguistic Analysis (Special volume of the Philological Society, 1957), pp. 52, 41. (But he acccpts a "class-index 'zero', as distinct from 'zero' used for a linguistic element." Ibid., p. 52.) F o r other discussions of "zero" morphemes, see R o m a n Jakobson, "Signe zéro", Mélanges de linguistique offerts à Charles

122

DEFINITION O F TERMS

It may be possible, however, to avoid positing the presence of a zero morph in the sheep in [69] (b) if we do not discuss the "specific meaning" of the lexeme sheep in that sentence but confine ourselves, instead, to a discussion of the signification of the tagma manifested by that occurrence of sheep. This will require an extension of the definition of a tagma to allow for the valence existing between those and sheep (in contrast to the valence existing between that and sheep in [69J (a)). We can re-define a T A G M A , therefore, as "the grammatical (or syntactic) unit resulting from the occurrence of a specific linguistic F O R M (morpheme, lexeme, or construction) in a grammatical C O N T E X T " . T h e meaning of such a tagma will be its S I G N I F I C A T I O N . Thus the signification of the tagma manifested by the lexeme sheep in [69] (b) differs from the signification of the tagma manifested by the lexeme sheep in [69] (a). The term "context" as used in this definition may be extended to allow for covert valences as well as for overt ones. Thus the lexeme glasses in [70] (a) manifests a different tagma from the lexeme with the same form in [70] (b): 72 170] (a) (b)

He emptied the glasses. He tried on the glasses.

Reference is repeatedly made in these pages to "the verb BE" as opposed to "the auxiliary BE". No assumption is implied thereby to the effect that a given form of the verb BE (e.g., am) is a different lexeme from the corresponding form of the auxiliary BE. (Nor is it claimed that the two are the same lexeme. The present writer does not pretend to know whether they are or are not.) All that is meant by "the verb BE" is "those tagmas manifested by the occurrence of the different forms of BE in 'verb' contexts" (i.e., in sentences where they are not tied to following auxiliaries or verbs and do not substitute for auxiliaries plus following predicates). Such tagmas may be represented by a symbol for the context, followed by BE (for the form) enclosed in parentheses, thus: v (BE). 4.92. Structural

Ambiguity

Structural ambiguity commonly results when some construction may occur in either Bally (Genève. Georg et Cie. 1939), pp. 143-152; Bernard Bloch. "English Verb Inflection". Language, XXIII (October-December, 1947), 399-418. reprinted in Readings in Linguistics, edited by Martin Joos (Washington, D.C., American Council of Learned Societies, 1957). pp. 243-254; Eugene Nida, "The Identification of Morphemes", Language, XXIV (OctoberDecember. 1949), 414-441, reprinted in Readings in Linguistics, pp. 255-271; David L. Olmsted, "Covert (or Zero) Morphemes and Morphemic Juncture". International Journal of American Linguistics, XVII (July, 1951), 163-166 (Olmsted claims that " . . . L A C U N A E in a PATTERN are as important as the overt parts of the pattern"); W. S. Allen, "Zero and Panini", Indian Linguistics, XVI (November, 1955), 106-113; and Kenneth L. Pike, Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, preliminary ed., 3 vols. (Glendale, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics. 1954, 1955, 1960). Ill, 64-65, where several other references may be found. 12 The question of whether the two occurrences of glasses in these sentences represent occurrences of the same or different morphemes is irrelevant at this stage in the analysis.

123

DEFINITION OF TERMS

of two adjacent sectors or parts of sectors, and the other of the two positions is vacant. If we accept the definitions of signification and tagma suggested above, then it follows that the signification of a tagma manifested by the occurrence of a given construction in one position will differ from the signification of the tagma manifested by the occurrence of the same construction in a different position. Ambiguity occurs more frequently in connection with constructions appearing in complement, predicate-modifier, or end-adverbial positions than with constructions appearing in front-adverbial, subject, or verbal positions. This is primarily due to the fact that there are more positions in the last half of a sentence which may be filled by similar constructions than there are in the first half. The recipient of a message usually has little difficulty in recognizing the boundary line between a subject and a following verb-cluster because of the change from "nominal material" to "verbal material". 73 In the complement and following sectors, however, there arc no such clear-cut lines of demarcation between one kind of material and another: a phrase, for. example, may occur as a post-nuclear modifier in a noun-cluster in Co position, or as an adjunctal in G> position, or as a prcdicate-modifier in H position, or as an adverbial in any one of the three end positions. Most if not all of the cases of structural ambiguity discussed by Fries in The Structure of English,1* as well as of those discussed by Noam Chomsky in Syntactic Structures,7'> can probably be explained in terms of uncertainties about positions. Thus, to borrow an example from Fries, 76 the sentence The new train appeared faster may be assigned to sectors in either of these two ways: [71] (a) (b)

S X M C C„ C, C, The new train appeared faster. The new train

appeared

H

A ...

faster.

In (a), faster is analyzed as an adjunctal occurring in Ci position; in (b) it is analyzed as a predicate-modifier. But the fact still remains that our ability to analyze the sentence in two different ways does not resolve the ambiguity. The sentence as it stands - without any larger context that might indicate which of the two analyses is the correct one - remains ambiguous, like the middle figure on page 219 of Hockctt's "Two Models of Grammatical Description". 77 As Hockctt points out. "the ordinary individual . . . This is discussed in Robert L. Allen, "Distinguishing beween Different Levels of Analysis Within Syntax" (paper read at the Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, H a r t f o r d , Connecticut, December 29. 1960). 74 Charles Carpenter Fries, The Structure of English (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952), passim. 15 N o a m Chomsky, Syntactic Structures ('s-Gravenhage, Mouton and Company, 1957), pp. 85-91. Chomsky calls them cases of "constructional homonymity". 70 Fries, op. cit., p. 138. 77 Charles F. Hockett, " T w o Models of Grammatical Description," Word, X (August-December, 1954), 219-220. T h e figure referred to is the picture of a hollow cube, which may be perceived as extending away f r o m the observer upward toward the right or downward toward the left.

124

DEFINITION OF TERMS

w i l l . . . see B now as more like A, now as more like C. . . . B, then, is ambiguous". (Yet he suggests that a specially trained artist, "whose task it is to produce such visiual representations", may be able to see B "as an assemblage of straight lines on a flat surface, without depth". Similarly, an analyst may be able to look at an ambiguous sentence and to perceive both of its possible meanings almost simultaneously.) If the sender of an ambiguous message like the sentence in [71] happens to be present, one may refer to him for the "correct" analysis. (But even the encoders of messages have been known to forget what they originally meant.) However, in the absence of such an authoritative source, only one solution seems possible: either or both - of the two possible analyses must be accepted as correct. In other words, one interpreter may "take" the sentence to mean one thing, while another interpreter takes it to mean something else. As long as both interpretations are justified by the linguistic evidence and no contextual clues for the resolution of the ambiguity have been provided, both interpreters must be considered to be right. As has already been suggested,71* any one of several different factors may have influenced one or the other interpreter to analyze the sentence as he has. Even if certain contextual clues had been offered, it may be that one of the interpreters ignored such clues as being irrelevant. The linguist cannot determine which analysis is "correct" (since both are), nor can he predict with certainty which analysis a given informant is likely to choose. All that the linguist can do is to state the existence of two different and equally acceptable analyses, and to show in what ways they differ - and perhaps also to suggest the kind of larger context in which one sentence rather than the other would be more likely to occur. It is fairly easy to recognize the ambiguity in a sentence like The new train appeared faster, because the difference between the meaning of the tagma Q (faster) and that of the tagma H (faster) is fairly clear-cut. The ambiguity in some sentences is not so evident, however; even after the sentence in [72] (a), below, has been analyzed in two different ways - as in (b) and as in (c) - the ambiguity may still not be immediately perceivable: [72] (a) (b) (c)

Mrs. Maddon walked away slowly. S X M V Co C, C. H A Mrs. Maddon walked away slowly. Mrs. Maddon walked away slowly.

The difference between the tagma H (slowly) and the tagma A (slowly) lies in the fact that the latter can be transposed to the beginning of the sentence without "changing the meaning", while the former cannot. Different interpreters may disagree as to whether this sentence will still have the same designation with the adverb slowly in front position as it does with slowly following away. Inability to agree on one analysis, however, would not reflect a weakness in the procedure; it ;h

See 3.5, above (p. 97).

125

DEFINITION OF TERMS

would reflect a subtle ambiguity inherent in the structure of the language. In one context, the adverb slowly in [72] (a) may be taken as part of the predicative - that is, as part of the Predication that the speaker made concerning the subject. (This context is suggested in (d), below.) In another context, only walked away may be regarded as the Predication, with slowly added as a modifier of the whole statement, as suggested in (e), below: [72] (d)

Ignoring the gun in the thief's hand and his threat to shoot if she didn't move faster, Mrs. Maddon walked away slowly, (e) It was evident that nothing would change her husband's mind. Mrs. Maddon walked away slowly. The grammatical relationship between slowly and the rest of its sentence suggested in [72] (e) may be signaled in speech by a terminal contour preceding the adverb slowly. Such a contour may usually be inserted before an end adverbial, but it is not obligatory: a speaker commonly pronounces an end adverbial in a short sentence with no preceding terminal contour unless he is aware of the possibility of ambiguity, as in the following sentence, which would probably be interpreted differently if no such terminal occurred between the predicate and the adverbial: 79 A

[73] (a) (b) (c)

S

The old man Happily the old man The old man

X M

V

died, died. died

C„ C , C,.

H

A

happily. happily.

See also the last three sentences on page 15 of V o l u m e III of Kenneth L. Pike, Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, preliminary ed., 3 vols. (Glendale, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1954, 1955, 1960), and also the discussion of those sentences on page 17.

V. DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

5.1. CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

It had originally been hoped that this study could be based entirely on randomly selected evidence. To this end, the present writer selected a corpus of passages taken at random from novels, works of non-fiction, and plays (all by different writers), as well as passages from several different periodicals. From these passages he selected a total of 4800 verb-clusters and verbid-clusters.1 In their selection he was guided by the following criteria, which he adopted in the hope of avoiding some of the faults in other analyses. (1) The corpus should represent only contemporary usage. Reference has already been made to Hatcher's criticism of Poutsma and other grammarians for listing examples from Elizabethan writers and contemporary writers side by side.2 Since Shakespeare's use of expanded verb-clusters seems to have differed in several respects from present-day usage," any analysis based in part on examples taken from writers of Shakespeare's time would fail to give an accurate picture of present-day usage. By "contemporary writers" is here meant writers the major part of whose work has been written since 1920. (The earliest work from which passages were 1 In his original selection, the writer had not yet formulated either his definition of verbidclusters (as distinct from verb-clusters) or his definition of elliptical sentences. Consequently, when counting the verb forms in each passage to be included in his corpus, he accepted the verbid-clusters in imperative sentences as on a par with the verb-clusters in statements and questions, although he rejected other verbid-clusters such as those, for example, which appeared after prepositions, as in a sense of never having been there before vanished when Jessica opened the front door herself (PNc258). He also ignored verbid-clusters which appeared in adverbials as in Pressing against the wall, Mason edged his way on past (GGn58), verbidclusters which appeared as adjectivals as in On February 1, 1942, came an encouraging American action . . . (IAnl38-139), and verbid-clusters which appeared as the nuclei of clusters as in Leveling of cars at floors became a problem (RDn81). He also rejected elliptical clauses like while eating supper (see the discussion in 10.34) and collapsed clausids like the one in Washington . . . felt four bullets tear through his clothes . . . (RDnl30), although he did include introduced clausids like the one in / move that the meeting adjourn (SSc682). For a discussion of collapsed clausids, see 10.4.

Anna Granville Hatcher, "The Use of the Progressive Form in English: A New Approach", Language, XXVII (July-August, 1951), 276. Karl Brunner, "Expanded Verbal Forms in Early Modern English", English Studies, XXXVI (October, 1955), 218-221.

s

DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

127

selected for inclusion in the corpus was Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude, which was copyrighted in 1928.) (2) The corpus should represent American usage. It appears, for example, that British usage differs from American (at least statistically) in the form of verbclusters commonly used in included clauses following verbs like insist and command,4 in the use of shall and will/ in the use of verb-forms following help, listen to, and certain other verbs, 0 and even in the use of certain verbs, notably the verb have, where British usage seems to distinguish between have in the sense of "possess" and have in the sense of "experience", "acquire", or even "eat" (as in have a good time, have a drink, and have lunch).7 Zandvoort lists several "peculiarities of American, as distinct from British, English" in his Handbook of English Grammar,8 although not all of his examples of "American peculiarities" seem natural to the present writer. Again, certain examples given by Poutsma and Kruisinga seemed unnatural to the present writer, as well as to other Americans whom he consulted; but he did not feel sufficiently conversant with British usage to judge as to whether they were indeed unusual cases, or instead examples representative of normal British usage. (3) The materials selected for analysis should reflect standard, educated usage. In the case of those passages which did not include any conversations, it was possible to avoid examples of uneducated usage in the choice of the authors represented. In the case of the passages which included conversations, and especially of those selected from plays, an attempt was made to avoid passages containing conversations between speakers one or more of whom could not be assumed to be a speaker of "standard English". This did not prove to be possible at all times, however, especially in the selection of passages from periodicals, which in several instances included speeches by speakers about whose antecedents nothing could be inferred from the context. In such cases, in order to avoid too much interference with the "randomness" of selection, the present writer rejected only those passages

4

R. W. Zandvoort suggests that the use of the "subjunctive" (or, m o r e properly, of the base form of the verb) in a sentence like Pierre insisted that they quit the house is predominantly American; presumably the m o r e common form in British usage would be a verb-cluster with the modal should as in Theseus commanded that the prisoners should be taken to Athens. (A Handbook of English Grammar, unilingual edition, third impression with minor corrections, London, Longmans, Green and C o m p a n y , 1960, pp. 71, 87.) 5 See, for example, Charles C. Fries, American English Grammar (New York, D. AppletonCentury Company, 1940), pp. 159-161. ' See Zandvoort, op. cit., pp. 6-7. ' See, f o r example, Michael West, "American and British Usage", English Language Teaching, XII (January-March, 1958), 41-45, and John Millington Ward, British and American English (London, Longmans, Green and Company, 1961), 32-33. [John Millington-Ward appears to have dropped the hyphen in his name between the time that he wrote The Use of Tenses (1954) and the time that he wrote the book just referred to. In the Bibliography, his name appears under "M".] 8 Zandvoort, op. cit., p. 345, with references.

128

DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

which included examples of English that did not occur regularly in either his own usage or in the usage of other educated speakers whom he knew. (But a conversation in O'Neill's Strange Interlude between two speakers one of whom was obviously intended to be an uneducated woman, was examined separately, to see whether the playwright had attempted to show any difference between her use of verb forms and that of educated speakers. Aside from a few obvious attempts to represent sub-standard usage in the verb forms, as in the use of I got to instead of I've got to, the only noticeable difference seemed to be a higher incidence of expanded verb-clustcrs in the conversation of the uneducated speaker. Out of the 81 verb-clusters spoken by her in the passage examined, 7, or 8.6%, were expanded verb-clusters, as compared with the average incidence of 6% of the total appearing in all the other conversational passages examined.) (4) The verb forms to be examined should be selected in a random manner, to avoid, as far as possible, the chance that some selective factor might influence their choice. To this same end, it appeared advisable that all the passages selected should be of the same length, or at least should include the same number of verb forms, and should each include several verb forms rather than only one or two, since the attempt to select individual sentences at random might again be influenced by some such factor as the length of the sentences. It seems that one would be more likely to get an accurate picture of present-day usage if one were to take and examine all the verb forms appearing in each of several passages, than if one were to examine an equivalent number of verb forms appearing in non-consecutive sentences. (5) The passages selected should represent - in equal proportions, as far as possible - both conversational usage and the more formal kind of usage to be found in materials which do not include conversations. The present writer realized that the very fact the passages included in his corpus were all selected from written materials and did not include any samples transcribed from unrehearsed speech would result in an analysis that reflected "normalized" usage rather than the kind of English one speaks and hears in much of the conversational give-and-take of everyday life. There seemed, however, to be justification for excluding transcriptions of actual conversations: it was the purpose of the writer to analyze the language (la langue), i.e., "the rigid system of patterns, of contrastive features through which the individual speech acts of the speaker become effective substitute stimuli (signals) for a hearer", rather than the sum of the speech acts of a community (la parole), which, as Fries points out, "does not constitute its language".9 Furthermore, it seems probable that a much larger body of examples would be needed for a study of spoken usage than is generally found to be sufficient for setting up standards based on written materials, since unrehearsed spoken materials often include innumerable false starts and incomplete sentences, sentences in which • Charles C. Fries. "The Bloomfield 'School'", Trends in European and American Linguistics 1930-1960, edited by Christine M o h r m a n n . Alf Somerfelt and Joshua W h a t m o u g h (Utrecht, Spectrum Publishers, 1961), p. 221.

DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

129

a speaker starts out to express his thought in one form but switches in mid-sentence to another. One result is that the investigator, in order to be certain that he has located a true "pattern", must examine more than the usual number of sentences in order to make allowance for irregularities that creep in not as examples of standard English but as unusual constructions which the speaker himself might well express differently if he had the time (and the opportunity) to repeat himself.10 Again, intonation, gestures, tonal qualities, and other such phenomena - many of which have not as yet been analyzed - enter into the expression of every utterance in speech, and may often be the decisive factors in the choice of one form as opposed to another. Only a transcription of spoken material which adequately represented the intonation, tone of voice, and the like, would present all of the facts that would be needed for a proper analysis. Because there is no adequate way of representing many such phenomena in writing, a writer of conversational passages tries to avoid sentences which the reader would not know how to interpret.

5.2. T H E M E T H O D OF SELECTION

In order to get a thoroughly representative sampling of standard American English the writer tried to choose plays, novels, works of non-fiction, and periodicals that would reflect as wide a range of styles as possible. The plays chosen were Sidney Kingsley's Men in White, Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude, and Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke. The novels chosen were Erie Stanley Gardner's The Case of the Grinning Gorilla, Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not, and John P. Marquand's Point of No Return. The works of non-fiction were John Gunther's Inside Asia, Allan Nevins' Study in Power: John D. Rockefeller, Industrialist and Philanthropist, Vol. I, and David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character. And the periodicals chosen were The Atlantic Monthly, The Reader's Digest, and The Saturday Evening Post.11 Each of the plays, each of the books, and each of the three periodicals originally selected was opened at random. The pages were turned one by one from that point on (i.e., toward the end of the work) until a page was reached the writing on which consisted almost entirely of conversation (and of conversation between supposedly educated characters); then from that page, beginning with the first complete sentence on the page, exactly 100 verb-clusters appearing consecutively were taken 10

Cf., for example, the transcription of unrehearsed conversations to be found in Howard Maclay and Charles E. Osgood, "Hesitation Phenomena in Spontaneous English Speech", Word, X V (April, 1959), 19-44. 11 One passage from The New Yorker was also included, for reasons stated below. A list of the plays, books, and periodicals from which passages were selected, arranged alphabetically by source, appears under "References and Abbreviations" on p. 17. On the same page there appear the abbreviations which are used in the text of this study, immediately after each example taken from the corpus, to indicate the source of the example. A complete list of all the sources, arranged alphabetically by name of author, appears in Section 1 of the Bibliography.

130

DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

(with the sentences in which they appeared). 12 The book or periodical was then, opened at another page a little further on - again at random - and again the pages were turned one by one until a page was reached on which almost no conversation appeared; from this page another 100 verb-clusters (with their sentences) were taken in the same way. The entire process was then repeated at two other places in the same book or periodical. The same procedure was repeated for each of the plays, for each of the books, and for each of the periodicals, except that so few pages in the detective novel by E. Stanley Gardner were predominantly non-conversational that it proved necessary to go through the entire book from the very first page in order to find two nonconversational passages that met the criteria for selection. On the other hand, the issues of the Atlantic Monthly and Reader's Digest originally examined contained only one predominantly conversational page each; these were supplemented, therefore, by one issue of the New Yorker and by a second issue of the Reader's Digest, from each of which one conversational passage was selected (in the same manner as before) in order to complete the total number of 1200 examples to be chosen from periodicals. In this way it was possible to obtain 4800 examples of verb-clusters, 2400 from passages that were predominantly conversational, and 2400 from non-conversational passages. (From the books of non-fiction, of course, only examples of non-conversational usage were obtained, but these were balanced by the examples from the plays, which were all conversational. 13 ) In addition to the 48 passages selected in the manner described, one passage containing 100 verb-clusters was taken from a conversation appearing in O'Neill's Strange Interlude in which one of the participants was evidently supposed to be an uneducated speaker. This passage was not included in the main corpus, but was studied separately, as were the stage directions. This procedure insured the selection of an equal number of examples from each periodical (or combination of periodicals) and from each of the full-length works, as well as a fairly equal number of conversational and non-conversational items. It was thus possible to compare the usage of one author with that of another, and to compare conversational forms with non-conversational as they appear in standard contemporary written American English. 5.3. A N A L Y S I S O F T H E C O R P U S

A detailed item-analysis of the non-modal verb-clusters which appeared among the 4800 items in the corpus appears in Table I; an analysis of all the modal verbclusters appears in Table II; and an analysis of all the passive verb-clusters, and 11

But see p. 126, n. 1, above, f o r the different interpretation of "verb-clusters" held by the writer at the time he selected his corpus. 14 Stage directions were excluded f r o m the 12 passages selected f r o m plays, but the stage directions were examined separately. Short squibs or fillers appearing at the bottom of pages in the Reader's Digest were also omitted f r o m the passages selected f o r the corpus.

TABLE

Analysis of4800 Verb- and Verbid-Clu Samples of Present-Day American OVERLAPPING

516 699

did v

25

48

2

1

had v-n

5 131

14

3

255

25

1

In nonfactual conditions

e

a

U

U

o u c o

3

3 U c o

13

After i f , c wish, etc.

« 2

e

Terminal

Of another event

Of an identified time

Anticipati (or future

Same (in included clauses)

Earlier

Inceptive

Included

PRETERIT: v-d

Repeated

•3 _

V

Immédiat

FORM OF CLUSTIR

BACK-SHIFTING

Medial

3

9

£

8

2

1 6

187

would v

36

should v

2

4

5

1

2

10

28

5

14

29

45

would have v-n should have v-n 7

were v-ing was v-ing

1

42

4 7

1

would be v-ing

1

1

2

2

8

2

had been v-ing

4 1

1

1

should be v-ing wd.h.bn. v-ing shd.h.bn. v-ing

NONPRETERITE

II jj

do V

docs V

41

334

67

137

11

54

369

100

160

7

I

96

9

13

17

5

1

3 1

have v-n

2

88

4

has v-n

3

60

2 111

will V

1

shall v will have v-n shall have v-n

5

16

are v-ing

3

26

is v-ing

3

28

am v-ing

5 3

3

3

have been v-ing

8

has been v-ing

3

1

1

1

will be v-ing

1

shall be v-ing will h.bn. v-ing shall h.bn.v-ing TOTALS

639 1569

315 349

575

207

123

21

32 14 22

11

For doub

T.-RELATIONSHIP

Extended

Implied

TIME ORIENTATION

rABLE 1 r

bid-Clusters taken from Representative merican English: The Non-Modals

1 28

1

2

198

23

1

77

21

2

8

7

1

1

24

2

8

7

8

12

1

8

Tags

Nontags

1

V better

8

7

Nonconversational

2

53

In qns.

Expanded clusters Conversational

24

In nonquestions

In contracted form

With carrier omitted

PASSIVE CLUSTERS

35

86

As substitutes

452

(Adjunctal)

NO. OF CLUSTERS WITH BE AS VERB

1675

With subject a n d carrier inverted

With not or n't

2

TOTAL

Implied

SPECIAL USES

For doubt, possible denial, ctc.

FTING

liai ons

3 4

6

2 19

14

1

2

0 17

1

1

53

2

2

9

8

28

25

10

1

9

3

2

1

19

2

23

9

27

4

7

1

1

1

0 0 0 —

593

202

20

73

19

6

8

12

2

691

417

24

138

24

5

1)

36

5

38

2

119

6

71

7

1

23

1

II

6

1

41

5

3

6

22

11

5

5

2

53

5

4

1

2

15

3

1

14

1

9

3

15

2

94

9

65

16

111

13

3

9

1 0 0 21 32 31

3

5

8

1

1

1

3

1

3

1

1

1

0 0 0 45

1

3933

1155

84

31

393

259

52

31

157

14

120

59

3

TABLE 1

Analysis of 4800 Verb- and Verbid-Clu. Samples of Present-Day

would V

1

16

1

could v

2

20

7

7

I

1 1

used t o v

6

3

3

1

1

2

3

5

3

32

13

1

7

4

1

5

7

35

5

2

7 4

6

5

7

2

90

5

2

1

3

18

3

10

1

1

4

1

1

5

5

3

3

3

5

5 1

could have v-n might have v-n

1

1

1

2

2

3

1

6

1

had had t o v

1 8

shall v

3

can v

4

38

may v

3

14 1

1

1

1

3

1

1

18

29

2

5

1

3

12 7 3

3

'

34

7

16

19

84

14

2

1

14

34

5

2

2

4

4

16

34

6

1

2

1

1

7

1

1

6

will have t o v

4

4

have got to v

2

2

must v

1

9

have t o v

2

3

has t o v

ought t o v

2

2

1

1

1

1

4

2

2

am going t o v

7

7

arc going to v

3

3

is going t o v

6

6

may be v-ing

1

1

must be v-ing

2

2

-

1

2

1

1

2

1

must have v-n

6

3

9

2

have had t o v

1

I

must h . b n . v - i n g

1

1

25

145 0 39 15

78

101

0

1

2 26

5

9

11

10

458

1 -

may have v-n

TOTALS

1

3

2

need v

5

1

might h . b n . v - i n g will v

'•J

33

was going t o v

2

o tî 2 c c

3

2

should have v-n

•n

2

2

3

Z S

o * . -C o .ti

were going t o v

would have v-n

S

In nonauestions

3

Wi X 1 Substitute

c -a < ï

a >

-

1 No carriei

. . u w

.o

TOTAL

c

(J

hi

if

P 5 o

In n-f conditions

For doubi possible denial, etc

c ra

SPEC

BACK-SHIFTING

+ if

| Terminal

Anticipato (or future

Same ( i n included clauses)

Repeated 9

4

had t o v

Earlier

Inceptive

11

should v

might v

Medial

*o

Included

Immediate

FORM OF CLUSTER

OVERLAPPING

No

T. -RELATIONSHIP

Extended

1 An event

TIME ORIENT.

J A time

|

Americ

36

1

25 33 80 12

1

1

| 1

— —

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1 1

1

1

1 « 1 J 1

1

1 1

1

1 1

1

1 1

1 1

1

1

1

—

I

: !

1 1

1 1 « 1

1 1

2 1

1~ 1 1 1

3 1

1 1

1

2 1 1 1 -1 1 "

1

M

—

1 1

1

-

2 1 1

1 1 1

1

5 1 1

1

2 1 1

1

1

1

1

M

1 10

1

1 -

1 1

1

1-

9 1

1

—

1

1

1

1

—

29 1

1

75 1 1

1

1

1

1 —

1

3 5 28 2 13 15 28 57 1

1

4 1

6

6 1 1•

1 N

1 1

1

1

3 6

1

25 1

1

i

1 1

1

1

—

1

1

—

1

1

1 1

1

1

—

1

li 1

1

1 1

1 |

17

1

— —

1

1

1

5 25 — —

1

1

1

1 — —

2

|

-) 87

|

4

1

1

1 —

1

1

1

41 4 |

—

!

"

1

3 |

— —

|

2 — —

|

— —

|

—

I . I

1

1

|

1

1 3 5 13

|

9

|

2

|

1

12 o

|

1

12 10 >

|

1

1 U

|

1

3 CO a 1-

|

3

1 - 1 " 1 M |

J) Impossibility Possibility Permission Obligation Intention Determination Immediate futurity | Past custom | Invitation | Request = 'what is your will?' | Resolution After if (by chance) 1 should say, It would seem Miscellaneous

| | | | | |

Ability

| Certainty

|

| |

—

4

19 163 10 56 10 3 8 2

1 — —

—

—

6

4

—

—

—

—

3 5

6 20 2

—

—

4

—

4

|

|

| \ |

| | | | | |

[

Compulsion

1

1 * 1 "

1

.ß Ons.

! 1 1 1 ! 1 " 1 1 1 I 1

ce

Exp. clusters

NonConv. | 'd rather | would like 'be willing' | -•• 'want' •habitually' Expectation Inner External

S P r C I A L I S I S OR MFANINGS

I 1 1 1 1 1 1 ! 1 1

With S a n d X inverted

1 1 1 1

3 3

In nonquestions Nontags

ABLE U

bid-Clusters taken from Representative American English: The Modals

10 2

—

4

3 | 4

2

—

—

3 5

3

4

1

—

—

1

—

10 4

i —

1 —

5 —

—

1 2

—

2

—

—

—

—

—

3

DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

131

also of all the verbid-clusters examined, appears in Table III. (The passive verbclusters listed in Table III are all examples of verbal passives; the adjunctal passives are included among the clusters listed in Table I.14) No modal cluster appearing in the corpus occurs in an adjunctal-passive sentence. In each table, the forms of the different kinds of clusters are shown in the first column on the left: "v" represents the base form of the verb; "v-n" represents the d-t-n (or "past participle") form; "v-ing" represents the ing form; "v-d" represents the preterit form; and "v-0" and "v-s" represent the non-preterit forms ("v-s" representing the so-called third person singular form and "v-0" the other non-preterit form, identical with the base form in the case of all verbs except the verb BE). In Table I all the possible forms of non-modal verb-clusters are listed, although the corpus failed to yield examples of some of them; in the other two tables, only the kinds of verb-clusters which actually appeared in the corpus are listed. In each table, the uses of the clusters to indicate reference to time are listed first, and then their uses to indicate time-relationship. 15 These are followed in turn by the uses of clusters to indicate "overlapping" or "inter-relationships" and by their uses in back-shifting to indicate "non-factual" or doubtful predications (or predications expressing polite requests and the like). After the columns showing these different uses there appears a "TOTAL" column, which is followed in turn by columns showing special uses of the different kinds of clusters. In both Table I and Table II there also appear columns in which is indicated the number of each kind of cluster formed with the verb BE as opposed to the auxiliary BE. Since none of the passive verb-clusters appearing in the corpus have BE as their verb, no corresponding column appears in Table III. Only seven of the verbid-clusters have BE as their verb. (In order to save space, these have not been listed.) There appear in all three tables columns showing the number of clusters of each kind co-occurring with not or n't (in " X " position); the number of each kind of cluster occurring in questions, both in tag questions (as in You have, haven't you?) and in regular questions, as well as the number of examples of each kind of cluster in which the carrier (or first auxiliary) precedes the subject (in so-called "inversion"); and the number of examples of each kind of cluster in which the carrier appears in contracted form, as in He's coming (but contractions of not arc not included here). There are also shown in each table the number of examples of each kind of cluster in which the carrier substitutes for the X, V, and Cs sectors (in other words, in which the carrier functions as a pro-predicate), as in I've never been to Mexico, but Mary has), and also the number of elliptical examples of each kind of cluster (that is, the number of examples of each kind of cluster from which the carrier has been omitted, as in Be right back [MWc820]). There is also shown, but for the 14

F o r the difference between verbal passives and adjunctal passives, see p. 113. See also Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 19091949), IV, 98-100. 15 F o r a discussion of these uses, see Chapters VI and VII.

132

DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

expanded verb-clusters only, the number of examples of each different kind appearing in predominantly conversational passages and the number appearing in nonconversational passages. Inevitably, many clusters have been represented in more than one column. A verb-cluster with the carrier had, for example, may be included in the number in the "Earlier T(ime)-Relationship" column and also - if it occurs in the f o r m ' d in the "Contracted" column. The "TOTAL" column has been moved from the far right of cach table to the middle in order to avoid such overlap as much as possible, but examples of clusters of one kind or another are occasionally included in numbers listed in two separate columns to the left of the "TOTAL" column. Some of the non-expanded verb-clusters formed with the carrier had, for example, as in the sentence They had lain there five months (IAn263), seemed to express both "earlier time-relationship" and "terminal overlapping", and are included in the numbers appearing in both those columns. As a result, the numbers appearing in the "TOTAL" column (unlike the numbers appearing in the "TOTALS" row at the bottom of each table) are not in all cases equal to the total of the numbers preceding them. It should be noted that the non-modal uses of will and would and of shall and should (that is, their uses to indicate time or time-relationship, or in back-shifted verb-clusters) are entered separately from their modal uses. If one accepts the statement that in the sentence [1 ]

He's probably been here since early this morning, and he'll probably be here until late tonight

the carrier has ('s) signals earlier time-relationship with reference to the moment of speaking, then there seems to be no justification for not accepting the statement that the carrier will ('11) signals later time-relationship with reference to the moment of speaking. In many instances shall and will seem to be signals of time-relationship, much on a par with have and has (except that they always precede have in verbclusters when both are present); but in many other instances, the primary function of shall and will seems to be not so much to signal time or time-relationship as to suggest some "modal" meaning, such as willingness, desire, resolution, and the like.16 (Slightly more than half of all the verb-clusters introduced by will that appear in the corpus are used to refer to an identified future time rather than merely to time later than the moment of speaking. It is for this reason that the " W. F. Twaddell does not suggest willingness as one of the meanings of will in his English Verb Auxiliaries (Providence, R. I., Brown University Press, 1960). T h e term " m o d a l " is used differently in the present study f r o m the way in which it is used by Twaddell. H e r e it is used for the carriers can, could, may, might and must (and less commonly need and dare), and for the carriers will, would, shall, and should when they are not used to express time, timerelationship, overlapping, or back-shifting. It would perhaps be m o r e accurate to speak of "the modal uses of the carriers" than to speak of "the modals". (Secondary auxiliaries like ought to and used to have also been listed in Table II, although they are not included in the list of modals given above since they do not function as carriers.)

DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

133

label "future" has been used rather than "later", although "later" would perhaps be more accurate.) Several other details which were discovered during tne course or tne analysis of the corpus - details not shown by the figures in the tables - may be mentioned here, as of possible interest: The 76 instances of verb-clusters introduced by did expressing time orientation inciudc 5 instances where the did carries emphatic stress. Of the 106 instances of verb-cluslcrs introduced by do expressing time orientation, 5 are examples of the use of "emphatic" do. The 1351 instances of preterit verb-clusters expressing time-orientation of one kind or another include 466 instances where reference is to a non-identified past time subsequent to an already identified past time. In the original analysis of the corpus, these instances were listed under "later time-relationship." N o separate figures are given for overlapping and non-overlapping uses of the verb BE because of the impossibility of distinguishing clearly in most cases between such uses of that verb: since BE is also used as the auxiliary to signal overlapping, it often suggests overlapping even when it is used as a verb. But all instances of verb-clusters represented by the numbers in the "time orientation" columns except those with BE as their verb express inclusive predications. (Inclusive predications will be discussed in greater detail in 8.2 and 9.2.) The 452 instances of the verb BE listed as occurring in preterit verb-clusters inciudc 2 instances of was able to. Of the 3 instances of 'd better listed in Table 1, one lacks t h e ' d : [2] I better answer before they wake up the old man. (SSc682) (In commands, t h e ' d is regularly omitted as in Better wait! (MWc811) A more satisfactory analysis might be to consider better a middle abverb in such commands.) There are 4 instances of the verb HAVE used as a carrier in the corpus, as in [3] "You have the right instincts, Laura." "Have I?" (MWc811) (This use of HA VE as a carrier in questions seems to be common in British usage, but not so common in American usage). The one example of a verb-cluster of the form should v listed under "Miscellaneous" in Table II occurs in the following sentence: [4] It enraged them that their allies should thus help their enemy. (IAn262) The instances of verb-clusters of the form can v listed under "Impossibility" in Table II are all used with not or n't, as in [5] . . . but you know very well I can't be the one, Doctor! (SIc476) Both instances of verb-clusters of the form must be v-ing cited in Table 11 are instances of the idiomatic I must be going. Of the 452 instances of preterit forms of the verb BE cited in Table 1, 106 are instances of were, and 346 are instances of was. Of the 106 instances of were, 11 occur after / or a third person singular subject. Of the 202 instances of the verb BE used in verb-clusters of the form v-0, 60 are instances of am and 142 are instances of are. All of the instances cited of preterit and non-preterit verb-clusters appearing in contracted form, or with not or n't, or with subject and carrier inverted, or in examples of back-shifting, represent uses of the verb BE. These include one example of the use of u m after 1 wish-. [6] I wish I was a man. (HNc94)

134

DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

Sentences containing there is and there are (or there was and there were) have not been listed as examples of inversion: it has been assumed that in these sentences, the word there is the subject. 17 General truths like Happiness hates the timid (SIc476), which may be assumed to be true again and again, have been included under the heading "Repeated". Mental predications (as in know a fact) have been treated as inclusive predications. 18 Perhaps the two groups of verb-clusters which proved to be the most difficult to classify were the passive verb-clusters and the clusters containing forms of the verb BE followed by d-t-n forms ("past participles") in adjunctal (Ci) position. (Sentences containing verb-clusters of the first kind may be referred to as "verbal passives", while sentences containing the verb BE followed by a d-t-n form may be called "adjunctal passives".) Semantically, the difference between the two kinds of passives seems to be roughly equivalent to the difference between reference to "actions" and reference to "states", as may be seen from these two examples: [7] [8]

Again the pounding was renewed . . . ,(GGn59) [Action] She was equipped with glass windshields, one of which . . . was broken (HNnl23) [State]

In many cases, it was possible to apply the same test often used to distinguish between adjectives ending in -ing and the ing forms of verbs in expanded clusters that is, the test for compatibility (or incompatibility) with very. That man is very interesting, for example, but not *That man is very singing. By the application of this test, it was easy to classify the following sentence as an adjunctal passive: [9]

. . . but the fighting part of him was [very] tired now . . . (HNnl61)

And yet it proved possible to introduce very into some verbal passive clusters, as in the following sentence: [10]

He was [very] disturbed by the coolness of her voice. . . . (PNc258)

The presence of a phrase introduced by by, as in the last example, is often used as evidence for classifying certain sentences as verbal passives, as is the possibility of rephrasing the sentence in active form (for example, The coolness of her voice disturbed him). But neither of these tests seems to work satisfactorily with the following example of a verbal passive: [11]

The Aga Khan was born in 1875. (IAn483)

And yet it is hard to conceive of the d-t-n form born in that sentence as being adjunctal rather than part of the verb-cluster. Again, there was no difficulty in analyzing passive sentences with intransitive verbs; such passives are adjunctal, as can be seen from the following example: [12] 17

She was gone. (NYc46)

See in this connection, Robert L. Allen, "The Classification of English Substitute Words", General Linguistics, V (Spring, 1961), p. 17. See the discussion of "inclusive reference" in Section 8.2.

18

135

DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS 19

(Constructions of this kind are called "resultative" by Trager and Smith. ) But it proved much more difficult to distinguish between verbal passives and adjunctal passives in the following sentences: [13] [14]

The blood rushed up into Pamela's cheeks and she was filled with a hatred so violent that she began to tremble. (AMc43) In 1889, when Cathal Barrett was scarcely born ... ,(AMn60)

Replacement of the form of BE by seemed, a test that is sometimes applied, would suggest that [13] is an adjunctal passive and [14] a verbal passive, whereas in fact the former seems to refer to the moment of "filling" but the latter to time after the "being born". The test which was finally adopted was that of inserting the middle adverb already: if the verb plus d-t-n form seemed to be compatible with the presence of already (and the sentence did not seem to change in meaning), the two together were classified as an adjunctal passive; otherwise they were classified as a verbal passive. As a result of applying this test, the first of the following two sentences was classified as a verbal passive, the second as an adjunctal passive: [15]

A volume like Castiglione's The Courtier, . . . was meant for adults (LCn94) [16] The Company's Terminal at Communitaw on New York Bay occupied half a mile of waterfront and was equipped with modern tanks, warehouses, and pumping appliances. (SPn233) (The context for the last example shows that the reference is not to the actual equipping of the terminal but to the fact that, after it had been equipped with modern tanks and the like, it was equipped with such facilities.) But a few ambiguous sentences defied all analysis; even the context in which the following sentence appears does not make it clear whether this sentence refers to the time at which the house was finished, or to some time after the house had been finished: [17]

When the house was finished and we moved in, people around here were surprised. (SEc79) The only verbs which appear in expanded verb-clusters in the corpus are the following: absorb, act, bark, beat, become, begin, behave, bloom, build, bully, come, conceal, cruise, curse, cut, dash, deal, dedicate, defend, delay, describe, develop, discuss, do, drift, drink, end, endeavor, enjoy, escort, fall, feel, fiddle, fight, flourish, fuss, get, go, guess, gun, handle, hang, have (a gay time), help, hide, hit, hold, indicate, illustrate, kid, languish, leave, listen, live, look, lose, make, marry, move, operate, pass, pay, pick, plan, play, pour, punish, purchase, put, reach, read, receive, refine, refuse, rehearse, respond, rest, retreat, return, rise, run, say, scribble, send, shake, sip, sit, smoke, soar, speak, stand, stare, start, study, suck, suggest, " George L. Trager and Henry Lee Smith, Jr., An Outline Okla., Battenburg Press, 1951), p. 78.

of English

Structure

(Norman,

136

DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

support, surrender, swallow, take, talk, tell, think, threaten, try, use, wait, widen, wonder, work, worry, and write. Of all of these verbs, only 6 - do, get, go, take, think, and try - appear as many as 5 times or more. Only 3 of the verbs which Nora Landmark lists in her study 20 as not having occurred in the expanded form in her corpus appear in this list; they are the verbs become, guess, and indicate.

5.4. C O N C L U S I O N S D R A W N F R O M T H I S A N A L Y S I S

It seems possible to draw several conclusions from the analysis of this corpus. The first of these conclusions is a negative one: it appears that expanded verb forms are not as common in present-day usage - at least, in written materials - as one might expect. Of the 4800 verb- and verbid-clusters examined for this study, only 207, representing 4.3% of the total, are expanded forms. 21 This corpus does seem, however, to corroborate the claim made by some writers that expanded forms are more common in conversation than in non-conversational writing; 22 of the total of 207 instances of expanded forms, 145 or 70.0% occur in predominantly conversational material. (Of the 207 instances, 23 are examples of the use of going to; if these are excluded, only 184 - or 3.8% of the total - remain as true expanded forms.) Even if one takes into consideration only the passages of predominantly conversational material., the 145 expanded verb forms appearing in those passages represent only 6.0% of the total. But perhaps the most surprising conclusion to be based on the examples appearing in this corpus is that the verb BE is far and away the most frequently used verb in English. (It should be noted that reference here is to the verb BE, not to the auxiliary.) Of the 4800 verb- and verbid-clusters included in the corpus, 1191 - or 24.8% of the total - are clusters with some form of BE as the verb. If one adds to this number the 207 expanded clusters in each of which some form of BE appears as an auxiliary, and also the 256 verbal passives in each of which some form of BE also appears as an auxiliary, one gets a total of 1654 verb- and verbidclusters out of 4800 clusters - or 34.46% - which include some form of BE, either as auxiliary or verb. There appears to be some justification then for postponing the n N o r a Landmark, "A Study of the T w o Forms of the English Verb in the Present Tense" (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Michigan State College, East Lansing, 1954). 21 This unexpectedly small number of expanded verb forms did not see to provide a large enough sample on which to base any definite conclusions concerning the uses of such f o r m s in present-day English. F o r this reason, the present writer was forced to examine instances of expanded verb forms appearing in such other studies of contemporary usage as those by Anna Granville Hatcher ("The Use of the Progressive F o r m in English: A New Approach", Language, XXVII, July-August, 1951, 254-280) and Nora L a n d m a r k ("A Study of the T w o F o r m s of the English Verb in the Present Tense", unpublished doctoral dissertation, Michigan State College, East Lansing, 1954), as well as his own usage and the usage of other native speakers to w h o m he had ready access.

" See, for example, Leah Dennis. "The Progressive Tense", Publications Language Association, LV (September, 1940). 855-865.

of the

Modern

DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

137

teaching of any verb other than the verb BE in materials for foreign students beginning the study of English until a fairly late stage in the course. 1 ' 3 An examination of Table I will reveal that not a single example of a verb-cluster with the form will have v-n or shall have v-n appears among the total of 4 8 0 0 clusters. Any analysis of the English verb system, therefore, which gives equal weight to verb forms with will have and verb forms with have and had does not represent the facts accurately. (The significance of this statement will become evident in Chapter VI.) It is also interesting to note that the corpus does not include any examples of verb-clusters of the form should be v-ir,g, would have been v-ing, should have been v-ing, shall be v-ing, will have been v-ing, shall have been v-ing, or of the form should have been v-n, was being v-n, had been being v-n, would be being v-n, should be being v-n, shall be v-n, will have been v-n, shall have been v-n, am being v-n, are being v-n, have been being v-n, has been being v-n, will be being v-n or shall be being v-n." Verbal passives seem to account for a relatively small proportion of the corpus; there are only 256 instances of verbal passives, representing 5.3% of the total. There are almost as many preterit forms of verbs of saying, asking, explaining, announcing, remarking, and the like: 241 examples of such verbs appear (in the preterit) in the corpus. Shall seems to be relatively unimportant as an auxiliary in present-day American English: only 6 examples of vcrb-clusters introduced by shall appear in all. Of these 6 instances, only 1 is an example of future rcfcrencc (after a first-person subject); 4 occur in questions, and 1 occurs in a resolution. All six examples are given below: [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23]

As we shall see, competition increased rather than diminished . . . . (SPn381) Shall I tell you frankly? (SSc673) "Shall I tell you what I was thinking about this evening?" he asked in a lower tone . . . . (AMc43) Shall I tell him? (SIc434) How shall one describe Australia in a sentence? ( I A n l 3 9 ) . . . Resolved, that the President be authorized to sign a proper bill of sale which shall convey to the said Devoe Manufacturing Company the title to the property and fixtures employed in said business. (SPnl79)

- 1 In Kontrollu Ingilizce (Controlled English) by Robert L. Allen, 3 vols. (Istanbul, Amerikan Bord Nejriyat Dairesi, 1948-1950). verbs other than the verb BE arc not introduced until the forty-first lesson (out of a total of seventy lessons). Similarly, in Graded English for Cultex Employees by Robert L. Allen and Virginia F. Allen (mimeographed edition) (Rumbai. Indonesia: The Caltex Pacific Oil Company, 1958), verbs other than the verb BE are not introduced until the forty-first lesson (out of a total of sixty lessons). iJ Several of these forms do occur in present-day English, of course. The corpus examined for this study is admittedly too small a one on which to base any conclusions about the nonoccurrence of a given form. But it does suggest the relative frequency of different forms.

138

DESCRIPTION OF CORPUS

The use of shall to express futurity would seem to be less important in present-day American English than its use in questions asking for another person's advice or order. Other conclusions which seem justified by the examples of verb forms appearing in this corpus will be discussed in later chapters.

VI. D E F I N I T E T I M E A N D I N D E F I N I T E T I M E

6.1. PREVIOUS CLASSIFICATIONS OF THE NON-EXPANDED TENSES 6.11. The Traditional

"Six

Tenses"

If the reader will consult the list of different cluster forms in Table I, he will sec that there are thirty-three possible forms which a non-modal, non-passive verbcluster can take. Of these, sixteen are expanded forms; if we disregard these for the time being, there will remain seventeen different possible forms for the nonexpanded tenses of present-day English. Since we are here primarily interested in the use of these different forms to express time in one way or another, we may group together those forms which d o not seem to differ in their time-reference. T h e forms v-0 and v-s, for example, contrast with each other in the kind of subject with which each is used (i.e., nonthird-person-singular/third-person-singular), not in the kind of time that they refer to or suggest. T h e same is true of do and does, and of have v-n and has v-n. And regardless of what the opposition between will v and shall v may be, these two forms d o not contrast in the kind of time that they express. T h e two forms in each of these pairs may therefore be listed together on the basis of their timc-reference, as m a y also the pairs would v and should v, would have v-n and should have v-n, and will have v-n and shall have v-n. For the same reason, we may group together the two past forms, v-d and did v: they contrast with each other in their use in affirmative/negative sentences, or in n o n - e m p h a t i c / e m p h a t i c sentences, or in assertive/ interrogative sentences, not in their reference to time. Similarly, we may group together the four non-preterit forms: v-0, v-s, do v, and does v. T h e grouping described above will leave us with eight sets of verb forms that are used in present-day English to signal different kinds of time in one way or another. These eight sets are the following: [1]

v-d, did v h a d v-n would v, should v would have v-n, should have v-n v-0, v-s, d o v, does v

140

DEFINITE TIME AND INDEFINITE TIME

h a v e v-n, has v - n will v, shall v will h a v e v-n, shall h a v e v - n If w e use the first m e m b e r of e a c h set as a c o v e r label for its set, w e c a n indicate these eight different kinds of f o r m s m o r e simply as f o l l o w s : [2]

v-d

would v

v-0

will v

had v-n

would have v-n

have v-n

will h a v e v - n

T h e p r o b l e m that h a s long plagued writers describing the E n g l i s h verb system is that of trying to fit these eight different sets of f o r m s into s o m e kind of t e n s e system w h i c h w o u l d c o r r e s p o n d to a native speaker's "feeling" about t i m e a n d / o r t o the facts of E n g l i s h usage. Subjectively, "all time" s e e m s to b e m a d e u p of "the past", "the present", and "the future", within e a c h of w h i c h it is possible to c o n c e i v e of a m o m e n t of time as a reference point. T h e point of reference within "the present" is, of course, the m o m e n t c o m m o n l y referred to as "the m o m e n t of speech", that is "this m o m e n t " , "now": 1 [3]

T H E PAST

THE PRESENT 1

THE

FUTURE

_

>

"NOW" Theoretically, in addition to wishing to refer to " n o w " and to a m o m e n t in the past as well as to a m o m e n t in the future, a speaker might w i s h to refer to an e v e n t as h a p p e n i n g either b e f o r e or after (i.e., earlier than or later than) any of the three m o m e n t s represented in [ 3 ] by a "A". B u t this w o u l d require nine different kinds 1

The present writer objects to the use of the label "the moment of speech" because it suggests that every act of encoding, including that of writing, is an act of speech. Every written sentence may be "thought out" before it is written down, but this is not the same as saying that it is 'spoken". There is another objection to the label "the moment of speech" which applies equally to such a label as "the moment of encoding": the "present" moment of reference is not always the moment at which a given sentence is either spoken or written down. It is common usage in present-day English to use a present tense for reference to a statement appearing in some book or shorter work, even though the sentence referred to may have been written down many years ago. Thus we say, "Herodotus tells us - " . not "Herodotus told us - " . This use of a present form like tells obviously refers, not to the moment of encoding - that is, to the moment when Herodotus first wrote down the statement being alluded to - but to the moment of our "decoding" of Herodotus' remark. Confusion sometimes arises as a result of the fact that we may interpret a present tense as referring to the moment of decoding rather than to the moment of encoding: the present writer recalls that on several occasions when he was a boy intending school in the United States, while his family were in Iran, he understood a sentence in a letter from his family like Uncle Frank Ims just left for the States as referring to something that had happened shortly before his reading of the letter rather than to something that had happened before the writing of the letter one month earlier (with resulting astonishment, on at least one occasion, when "Uncle Frank" arrived in person a day or two later to visit him at school). It is possible to be non-committal as to whether the point of reference for present verb forms is "the moment of encoding" or "the moment of decoding" by using instead the equivocal label "the moment of coding". Hereafter, this label will be used in place of the more traditional "the moment of speech".

141

DEFINITE TIME AND INDEFINITE TIME

of verb forms - and there seem to be only eight available. Evidently, one or more of these nine possible kinds of time are not indicated by special verb forms. The problem thus becomes one of determining which of the nine possible kinds of timereference are not signaled by special forms of the verb. (There is also the possibility, of course, that one or more of the eight different sets of forms listed in [2] may not be used for time-reference at all; this would reduce even further the number of sets available for expressing some kind of time.) Under the influence of Latin grammar, traditional grammarians have commonly assumed that the two kinds of forms appearing in the second column in [2] (i.e., would v and would have v-n) do not express time and should therefore not be called "tenses". This leaves English with only six "tenses", one for the reference to each of the points in [3] represented by "A", and one for "time before" each of those points. This, for example, is the classification to be found in Hook and Mathews' Modern American Grammar and Usage, in which they state that "in the English language a system of tenses has developed which divides time into six segments'VUsing the verb go for their paradigm, Hook and Mathews represent the "six segments" in the following manner: [4]

Past in the past TIME > had gone

Past

Past in the present

Present

Past in the future

Future

has gone, have gone

go, goes

will (shall) have gone

will (shall) go

• went

6.12. Jespersen's "Seven

Tenses"

In a paper which he wrote in 1914, Jespersen discussed the possibility of a ninetense system, but - on the basis of not very convincing arguments - rejected such a system in favor of "seven tenses".» The same arguments appear, in a slightly different form, in Chapters XIX and XX of his Philosophy of Grammar, where he presents the "seven tenses" of English in a chart, with a proposed set of names for the seven forms. 4 Jespersen's chart reappears - without the proposed names for the tenses - in his Modern English Grammar,"> and also as Figure 2 in this study. It will be seen from Figure 2 that Jespersen's seven-tense system docs not allow for reference either to "before-present" or to "after-present". It appears, furthermore, !

J. N. Hook and E. G. Matthews, Modern American Grammar and Usage (New York, The Ronald Press Company, 1956), p. 199. Otto Jespersen, "Tid og Tempus. Fortsatte Logisk-Grammatiske Studier", Oversigt over del Kgl. Danske Videnskahernes Selskabs Forliandlinger, No. 5-6 (1914), pp. 367-420. 4 Otto Jespersen, The Philosophy of Grammar (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1924), pp. 254-289. The chart appears on p. 257. 5 Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949), IV, 2. The chart appearing as Fig. 2 in this study was taken from the volume reprinted in Great Britain by George Allen and Unwin, London, in 1954, and is reproduced here with their permission.

3

Ab

Ac

B

~(A to ca a Q.

s

|

a 3 for the sentence / like it here, and you like it here too."' But the question remains as to whether there is any justification for positing an opposition liken„„.inl.i/like:„iin, corresponding to the opposition am, are/be. There is still another question which must be answered; the answer to this second question may suggest an answer to the first. This is the question raised by Suzanne Langer in her comparison of the expression the death of Caesar with the proposition Caesar died.™ Langer states that the essential difference between these two expressions is to be found in the verb, but it is not the verb that makes Caesar died as opposed to the death of Caesar a "proposition" or assertion, but rather the morpheme [-d], which orients the Predication (Caesar) died to an identified time in the past. Similarly, it is not the auxiliary is that makes A dog is barking as opposed to a barking dog an assertion, but rather the morpheme [-s], which orients the Predication (A dog) is barking with reference to the present. The primary function of the morphemes [-d] and [-s], then, is to orient Predications with reference to either an identified time in the past or to the present. This function has already been referred to as "x". If now the assertion You are quick is compared with the command You be quick, it will be seen that the verb are in the assertion performs the function x that is, it orients the Predication with reference to the present - while the verb be in the command lacks any such orientation. 56 In these two sentences the opposition "presence of x"/"absence of x" is signaled by the difference between the two verb forms are/be. But in the assertion in [19] (a) below as opposed to the command in (b), the opposition "presence of x"'/"absence of x" has no formal expression: f 19] (a) (b)

You eat a lot of spinach (don't you?) You eat a lot of spinach (or you'll never be as strong as Popeye).

",4 Cf. the statement in Sol Saporta. "Morph, Morpheme. Archimorpheme", Word, XII (April, 1956), 12. n. 6: "The fact that a form contrast parallels a meaning contrast somewhere in the system does not imply that the contrast need be posited throughout the system. The most obvious example is perhaps the contrast between first and second person in the English verb system, which exists only in the verb be: I am, you are. On this basis, one is not justified in establishing homonymous forms for, e.g., talk in I talk, you talk". 55 Suzanne Langer. "A Logical Study of Verbs", Journal of Philosophy, XXIV (1927), 125. 5 " Reichenbach calls he in the clause if he be your friend the "subjunctive", but he recognizes the fact that it expresses "absence of assertion". (Hans Reichenbach. Elements of Symbolic Logic, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1947. p. 338.) The most important function of x, then, is to express an assertion (or to ask a question about an assertion).

DEFINITE TIME AND INDEFINITE TIME

161

If the form eat in the assertion in [19] (a) is represented by "v-0" where "0" represents some kind of time-orientation - that is, "x" - the form eat in the command in [19] (b) may be represented as "v", since it lacks any time-orientation. This "base form" of the verb may be analyzed as contrasting with each of the three verbexes by virtue of its lack of any time-orientation. 57 The covert category here represented by zero (0) is signaled in the great majority of sentences by valences existing between the verb-cluster of the form v-0 and some other element or elements in the same sentences.58 Ambiguous cases are surprisingly rare. But the valences which signal the presence of a verb-cluster of the form v-0 as opposed to the presence of a cluster of the form v seem to be of a great variety. In each of the following pairs of sentences, for example, the valence between the non-preterit form of the verb in the first sentence of the pair and some other element or elements in its own sentence is expressed differently, as is the valence between the base form of the verb and some other element(s) in the second sentence in each pair: [20] (a) (b) [21] (a) (b) [22] (a) (b) [23] (a) (b) [24] (a) (b) [25] (a) (b) [26] (a) (b) 57

You are quick. Cf. Everybody is quid, You be quick. Everybody be quiet. Somebody does something, Somebody do something. You eat a lot of spinach, don't you? You eat a lot of spinach, or you'll never be as strong as Popeye. You take this medicine every day, don't you? You take this medicine every day, and you'll soon be well again. Now you behave like a gentleman, Now you behave like a gentleman. You do that, and I'll break your neck, You do that, or I'll break your neck. Don't you dare go in? (with a rising terminal contour) Don't you dare go in.59 (with a falling terminal contour)

Historically, of course, the v-0 f o r m and the v form have developed f r o m different sources in Old English. See here the discussion by Otto Jespersen in The Philosophy of Grammar (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1924), pp. 86-87, of the source of the example a barking dog. See also the statement by Rulon Wells that "the pairing of nominalizing and verbalizing sentences is a fiction. 'At the time of our arrival' has not one verbal counterpart but two, 'when we arrived' and 'when we arrive'". (Rulon Wells, "Nominal and Verbal Style", Style in Language, edited by T h o m a s A. Sebeck, N e w York, John Wiley and Sons, 1960, p. 218.) 58 See the discussion of valences in E. M. Uhlenbeck, "Verb Structure in Javanese", For Roman Jakobson, edited by Morris Halle et al. (The Hague, Mouton and Company, 1956), pp. 557-573. 59 It is interesting to note that, contrary to common belief, the auxiliary do does have a base form, as Harold V. King suggests in his review of A. S. Hornby's A Guide to Patterns and Usage in English, in Language Learning, VI (1955), 84.

162

DEFINITE TIME AND INDEFINITE TIME

[27] (a) (b)

Trucks turn off here, Trucks, turn off here. 60

The fact that the verb form go in each of the following three sentences lacks timeorientation (and is therefore the base form of the verb rather than some special form called the "subjunctive") is shown by the fact that a change of time-reference in the main verb does not produce any change in the verb in the included clause [28] (a) (b) (c)

I insisted yesterday that you go. I still insist that you go. Tomorrow I will insist again that you go.

If these were subjunctive forms, one would expect them to change when the time of the main verb changes. 81 The use of such non-time-oriented forms in negative sentences parallels the use of base forms with not, as may be seen from these sentences: [29] (a) (b) [30] (a) (b) [31] (a) (b)

We want them to come again. We want them not to come again. Let them come again. Let them not come again. I insist that they come again. I insist that they not come again.

The verbs hope, insist, wish, and think have different valences for verb forms in following included clauses, as shown by the following sentences: [32] (a) (b) (c) (d)

I hope he goes. I insist he go. I wish he would go. I think he will go.

The following sentence is ambiguous: [33] I insist that they come here every day. Since the three verb forms v-d, v-0, and v-s all show time-orientation (or "x"), they may be called VERBEXES. The verb forms which do not show time-orientation (v, v-n, v-ing) may be called VERBIDS. By analogy, included clauses containing verb-clusters which do not show time-orientation, like the clauses in [31], may be called CLAUSIDS. And constructions consisting of non-time-oriented verb forms It is to be noted that Halliday accepts such criteria as "punctuation or spacing in a written text"; see M. A. K. Halliday. "Some Aspects of Systematic Description and Comparison in Grammatical Analysis", Studies in Linguistic Analysis (Special volume of the Philological Society. 1957), p. 58. In a sign appearing by the side of a road, the comma would probably be omitted from the sentence in [27](b); the situational context in which the sentence appeared, however - that is. as a sign by the side of the road - would provide the valence which would signal the fact that this was a command, not a statement of fact. " See also Eugene A. Nida, A Synopsis of English Syntax, edited by Benjamin Elson (Norman, Okla., Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1960), p. 122, n. 19.

DEFINITE TIME AND INDEFINITE TIME

163

followed by their complements (with or without following modifiers) may be called P R E D I C A T I D S . Compare, for example, the predicate in [34] (a) below, with the predicatid in (b): [34] (a) (b)

John often plays He enjoys playing

tennis. tennis.

In the second diagram in Figure 8 (on page 159), [0] is used as a cover symbol for both [0] and [-s]. 62

62

F o r t h e u s e of a small raised d o t as a s y m b o l s t a n d i n g f o r " s o m e t h i n g t h a t is ' l a t e n t ' " , see O t t o J e s p e r s e n , Analytic Syntax ( C o p e n h a g e n , Levin a n d M u n k s g a a r d E j n a r M u n k s g a a r d , 1937), p p . 162-164. C f . Zellig S. H a r r i s ' " Z e r o S u f f i x " , w h i c h h e calls a " v a r i a n t " of t h e -s, " C o - o c c u r r e n c e a n d T r a n s f o r m a t i o n in Linguistic S t r u c t u r e " , Lanauaae, X X X I I I (July-Sept e m b e r , 1957), 300.

VII. TIME-RELATIONSHIPS A N D TIME-FIELDS

7.1. TIME-RELATIONSHIPS

7.11. The Three Temporal

Time-Relationships

As we have seen, the verbal elements used in English to indicate time and timerelationship in the past belong, properly, within that part of "all time" anterior to the moment of coding. The. morpheme [-d] merely designates as identified some time within the total stretch of unidentified time covered by the auxiliaries have and has, as may be seen from Figure 8. There are certain advantages, however, in considering "past" verb forms as representing one sub-system distinct from the "present" verb forms. This division into a "past" sub-system and a "present" subsystem is suggested by Figure 9, where verbal elements exhibiting the morpheme [-d] are clustered around the left-hand arrow, while verbal elements lacking this morpheme are clustered around the right-hand arrow. The items above the arrows (i.e., [-d] and [0]») indicate the kinds of verb forms used to express TIME, while the items beneath and at the sides of the arrows indicate the kinds of verb forms used to express TIME-RELATIONSHIP. It will be seen from Figure 9 that there are two basic types of time-reference: "past" and "present", and that there are three basic types of lime-relationship-reference: "earlier time", "same time", and "later time". The distinction between time-reference and time-relationship-reference is crucial: verb forms expressing time-relationship are not to be construed as referring to any specific time except in so far as the time-relationship which they show with reference to an identified time "places" them in time. 3 The significance of this may be seen from a sentence like that in [1], where the time expression next 1 It should be remembered that "[0]" is used in these charts as a cover symbol for both [0] and [-s] - that is, for both third-person-singular and non-third-person-singular non-preterit verb forms. e It must be emphasized here that the moment of coding (or "the moment of speech") is as definitely an identified time as any identified time in the past. The basic difference between these two different kinds of identified time is that the moment of coding does not require formal identification: the speaker or writer may assume that his audience recognizes the time of the moment of coding. But a definite time in the past (or even in the future) must be identified by some formal means unless both speaker and hearer share some common experience on the basis of which the speaker can assume that the hearer knows the definite time to which he is referring.

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

165

AN IDENTIFIED TIME IN THE PAST

THE MOMENT O F CODING

[-d]

[0]

had

would

have (has)

[-d] (BE: was/were/was)

will

[-0] (BE: am/are/is)

Fig. 9. The Three Basic Kinds of Time-Relationship.

week shows that Tom's coming will take place after the moment of coding; the verb-cluster would come does not show this - it indicates only that the time of the coming is later than the time of Tom's speaking: [1]

Tom said that he would come some time next week. 7.12. Included Verb-Clusters

v.v. Non-Included

Verb-Clusters

Time-relationship is commonly signaled by verb-clusters in included (i.e., subordinate) clauses. To simplify the discussion here, we will adopt the common practice of assuming that most non-included verb-clusters (i.e., the "main verbs" in most sentences) express time, although it would probably be more accurate to say that only present verb-clusters do so: the verb-cluster in the following sentence, for example, could be analyzed as expressing time-relationship - that is, as indicating "same time as the time shown by the identifying time-expression six months ago": [2] "I gave Charlie a check for those apple trees six months ago." (NYc46) Even when a non-included preterit verb-cluster is used with no time-expression, it may be said to express "same time" with reference to a time already identified in an earlier sentence, as in the sentence immediately following the last example in the passage from which both were taken: [3]

"Charlie didn't tell me." (NYc46))

Or, if no time has been identified in an earlier sentence, a non-included preterit verb-cluster may be said to show "same time" with reference to a past time that both speaker and hearer know about: [4]

"I really came here to talk about apple trees." (NYc46)

This same kind of time-reference - or time-relationship-reference - is also found in included verb-clusters: [5]

"Is that what you came here to talk about?" 3 (NYc46)

' A past time is o f t e n identified by reference to a person or event known to be associated with the past, as in: "But the siege of Boston introduced Washington to his awful responsibilities." ( R D n l 3 1 ) . In novels it is c o m m o n practice to assume as identified a past time at

166

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

But the difference between the kind of time-relationship expressed by non-included preterit verb-clusters and that expressed by most included clusters is great enough to warrant calling the former "time-reference" and the latter "time-relationshipreference". A non-included preterit verb-cluster regularly "ties" with an already identified time which serves as a point of orientation for several sentences or perhaps even for a long description or narration, 4 but included verb-clusters, except in cases of "broken sequence" where there is obviously no relationship between the time-orientation of one cluster and that of another (see the example in [8] below), regularly express time-relationship not with reference to the already identified time that provides the time-orientation for the whole passage, but with reference to the time of the clause or sentence within which the verb-cluster's own clause is included. In the following sentence, for example, cach included verb-cluster shows some kind of time-relationship (earlier, later, or same) with reference to the preceding verb-cluster. Each cluster's clause is included in a larger construction - clause or sentence - with a main verb preceding the clause included in it, as may be seen by the brackets that have been placed before and after each included clause. In other words, the time indicated by each verb-cluster serves as the point of reference for the time-relationship signaled by the verb-cluster on the next lower level (in this sentence, by the next following verb-cluster in all cases). [6]

I had it wrapped in tissue paper [because she had promised me [that she wouldn't eat it [till wc got home]]]. (SSc693) 1st cluster: Ri,E, - S 2nd cluster: E_> RL. - S 3rd cluster: R:1 - E.i - S 4th cluster: R,,Ei - S

It will be seen from the analysis following the sentence (using Reichenbach's S, R , and E for the point of speech, point of reference, and point of the event) that it is not true that the reference point remains permanent throughout; rather, each E which the plot of the novel began to unfold. The following, for example, are the first two nonincluded clauses in Hemingway's To Have and Have Not: "You know how it is there early in the morning in Havana. . . . Well, we came across the square from the dock to the Pearl of San Francisco Café to get coffee . . . . ' ' 1 A non-included preterit verb-cluster need not signal "identically the same time" as the already identified time: one of the most common uses of past verb forms is to express "subsequential" actions, i.e., actions which happen subsequent to each other, in fairly close succession, as in the following paragraph: "The lawyer's groping hand encountered not the iron balustrade but the knob of a door. H e twisted the knob. The door, which was unlocked, opened inward. He slipped through the door, abruptly closed it, and searching frantically for a lock, found a heavy bolt which he shot into place." (GGn59) It is not necessary, of course, for a non-included verb-cluster to express "same time" or "subsequential time" with reference to the already identified time; non-included clusters often indicate earlier time-relationship with reference to the already identified time, as in the following example: "Railroads had held and operated interstate companies and lines, but in general only by special statute." (SPn383)

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

167

(i.e., the time indicated by each verb-cluster) serves as the reference point for the E on the next lower level. This is probably a more generally followed principle than Reichenbach's principle of the permanence of the refercncc point. It is not necessary, of course, that a verb-cluster follow the main cluster of the construction in which its own clause is included. Verb-clusters often show timerelationship with reference to a following cluster, as may be seen from this example: [7]

As he had surmised, this door led directly into the main house. . . . (GGn58)

It is much more common, however, for an included verb-cluster to follow the verbcluster which serves as its reference point, especially in speech. Occasionally an included vcrb-cluster will not show time-relationship with reference to the time of another cluster in its own sentence, but will instead tie with the identified time of the passage (or with the mutually shared "present time"). Such verb-clusters exhibit what may be called "broken sequence": [8]

. . . it was that hour in the suburbs when the telephone rings steadily (NYc45)

7.121. Applications - It will be seen from the preceding examples that there arc two kinds of reference point: an identified time (most commonly in the past, but also often the moment of coding), which serves as the point of orientation for a sentence as a whole; and the time expressed by each verb-cluster in a sentence, which serves as the point of reference for each included verb-cluster on the next lower level.' To distinguish between these two kinds of reference points, we will call the first the "point of orientation", and the second, following Rcichenbach, the "point of reference". Several of the English "shifters" (i.e., lexemes that get their meaning in any given sentence from the context in which they are used) signal some kind of relationship to the point of orientation, as do the lexemes since and ago in the following example: [9]

I haven't seen Percy since two hours ago/'

It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the time-relationship signaled by an included verb-cluster is relationship not to the point of orientation but to the point of reference: that is, to the time expressed by the verb-cluster on the next higher 5 P e r h a p s the most i m p o r t a n t tie between one sentence and the next - and by extension, between most of the sentences in a given passage - is the identified time (to which we have given the cover symbol "x") c o m m o n to all o r most of them. T h i s " x " runs like a thread through all of the sentences of a well-written passage; repeated " b r e a k s " in the thread result in disjointed, " c h o p p y " writing which is o f t e n difficult to follow. Fries discusses the use of pro-nominals and of the definite article as "sequence signals", but he does not mention identified time. (Charles C a r p e n t e r Fries, The Structure of English, N e w Y o r k , H a r c o u r t , Brace and C o m p a n y . 1952, pp. 241-246.) And yet the m o r p h e m e l-d] is as m u c h of a sequence signal as the definite article the. P e r h a p s the t w o most important kinds of sequence signals in English, the signals which m o r e t h a n anything else knit successive sentences together, are the pro-nominals and the two m o r p h e m e s signaling "identifiedness", [-d] and the. 11 Since m e a n s ' f r o m the time stated h e r e a f t e r up to the point of orientation"; ago m e a n s 'prior to the point of orientation'.

168

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

level. In each of the following three sentences, for example, the same included clause - while he ate supper - refers to a different time (with reference to the point of orientation - i.e., to the time of Percy's speaking): [10] (a) (b) (c)

Percy said that he had listened to the radio while he ate supper. Percy said that he always listened to the radio while he ate supper. Percy said that he would listen to the radio while he ate supper.

In the following example, the included clause after he had eaten supper shows earlier time-relationship with reference to Percy's going to bed, not to the time of his speaking: f 11 ] Percy said that he would go to bed after he had eaten supper. In other words, had, [-d], and would (in the diagram in Figure 9) signal earlier, same, and later time-relationship with reference to any verb-cluster containing any of the time-indicators clustered around the left-hand arrow. Thus had shows earlier time than the time signaled by either [-d] or would; [-d] signals the same time as the time signaled by either had or would; and would signals later time than the time of either had or [-d]. By analogy, we would expect the same relationships to hold for the time-indicators clustered around the right-hand arrow in Figure 9. In other words, we would expect have and has to signal earlier time than the time of either [0] or will, and we would expect [0] to signal the same time as the lime of either have/has or will. Examination will show that only one of these relationships does not hold true: as we have already seen (in 6.32, above), re-reference to an indefinite time signaled by have or has is expressed by means of [-d], so that "same time" as the time of have or has is signaled by a past verb form, not by [0], as in: [12]

I've fed all three, . . . as much as I wanted - (SSc692)

but the three other relationships are regularly expressed in the manner suggested by the right-hand arrow in Figure 9, as may be seen from the following examples: [13] (a) (b) (c)

Percy usually listens to the radio after he has eaten supper. But tonight he will go to bed after he has eaten supper. H e will listen to the radio while he eats supper, instead.

It appears, then, that the use of present verb forms (to show "same time") and of present perfect verb forms (to show "earlier time") in clauses included in sentences (or other clauses) referring to future time is actually what one should expect and not a violation of the rules of logic. T h e use of will in an included clause in such sentences would not be "more correct", as Reichenbach suggests, 7 nor are present verb forms used in such included clauses because "futurity is sufficiently indicated in the main verb", as Jespersen states. 8 And Hill's elaborate explanation of the use ' H a n s Reichenbach, Elements of Symbolic Logic (New York, T h e Macmillan Company, 1947), p. 296. 5 Otto Jespersen, Essentials of English Grammar (New York, Henry Holt and C o m p a n y , 1933), p. 239.

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

169

of have finished in a sentence referring to future time would seem to be open to question. • 7.122. Time-Relationship in Commands and after the Verb "Hope" - Although non-included verb-clusters in imperative sentences are not time-oriented, semantically such sentences refer to either present time or future time, not to past time. For this reason, clauses included in imperative sentences do not take future verb forms even when such clauses refer to future time, as in the following examples: [14] [15]

Well, take off my vest before you start. (MWc820) And when you call the Trenchers . . ., tell them . . . . (NYc46)

The verb hope often suggests an Event that it is hoped will take place in the future; for this reason, included clauses following hope commonly have present verb forms for reference to future time, although future verb forms also occur in such clauses: [16] (a) (b)

I hope next Sunday is a pleasant day. I hope next Sunday will be a pleasant day. 7.13. Redundancy

and

Neutralization

As the diagram in Figure 9 shows, had is the auxiliary for showing earlier timerelationship with reference to a past time. Many examples of this use of had appear in the corpus; 10 although most of them are from non-conversational passages, had also appears in conversations, as in this example from Summer and Smoke: [17]

You drove him away from the meeting after I'd bragged so much about how bright and interesting you all were! (SSc682)

And yet the present writer has noticed that many educated speakers of English regularly omit had from included clauses in sentences where there is little danger of ambiguity. Several examples of such dropping of had (and even of have and has) occur in the corpus. For example: [18] [19]

I located the spot near Sedan where Gordon's machine fell (SIc434) Yet when all this is said, the fact remains t h a t . . . (SPnl 14)

But had is seldom omitted when such omission would make its sentence ambiguous, or might even suggest a different meaning from the one intended. Compare, for example, the following two sentences: [20] (a) (b)

I supposed he'd written you. (SIc491) I supposed he wrote you.

• Archibald A. Hill, Introduction to Company, 1958), pp. 208-209. 10 A large proportion of these uses recounting events that are supposed to are recalled by one of the characters. clusters.

Linguistic

Structures

(New York, Harcourt, Brace and

of had occur in "flash-backs" - that is, in sentences have occurred before the past time of the narrative and This use of had is common even in non-included verb-

170

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

Omission of had (and also of have and has) seems to be especially common in included clauses introduced by after. Since the includer after indicates the same kind of time-relationship between its own clause and the clause or sentence in which its clausc is included that the auxiliary had would (if it were present), the use of had in such clauses would be redundant. The opposition between perfect verb forms and the preterit verb forms occurring in such clauses may be said to be neutralized; the function of signaling "earlier time" is taken over by the includer after.11 In sentences like the one in [21] below, the opposition between preterit for "same time" and perfect for "earlier time" is again neutralized, but now nothing indicates the fact that the included verb-cluster does not refer to the same time as the nonincluded cluster cxcept the semantic incompatibility of the simultaneity of the two events referred to: [21]

1 was studying a French history I bought for one franc from a book stall by the Seine. (AMn26) 7.14. "Later"

Time-Relationship

v.v. "Anticipated"

Time-Relationship

It has been said that the auxiliary would, when used in a clause included in a sentence or other clausc containing a preterit verb form, signals "later time" timerelationship. Both Jespersen's diagrams and those of Reichenbach suggest the same thing. 12 And yet this statement is not strictly accurate. Reference in an included clause to a time later than the time of the main verb is commonly signaled by a past verb form (either of the form v-d or of the form did v), not by would, as may be seen from these examples: 122] [23] [241 [25]

She sewed a whole dress for Alice before they rowed her across the river . . . (PNcl42) Things were so different when 1 was here . . . before I married. (MWc821) Pcrcy got there before I did. They were considered unsafe for passenger use until Elisha Graves Otis invented a protective ratchet device which prevented falls. (RDn80)

Similarly, "later time" in the present is often expressed in included clauses by means of a present verb form (v-c>, v-.v, do v, or does v), as may be seen when we transpose the following sentence from past time to present time: [26] (a) (b)

He meant to speak to you before he left. . . .(NYc45) He means to speak to you before he leaves . . . .

Similarly, the preterit got in the sentence in [6] will become the non-preterit get if we transpose that sentence from past time to present time: " It will appear later that the auxiliary BE is regularly omitted f r o m verb-clusters in included clauses introduced by while and as: these two includers seem to p e r f o r m m u c h the same function as that p e r f o r m e d by the auxiliary BE. so that the presence of both would be redundant. 12 See Figures 2 and 3.

171

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

. . . she has promised me that she won't cat it till wc get home.' 3

[27]

The question then arises as to what it is that an included verb-cluster introduced by would signals. The answer to this question is suggested by the following sentence: [28]

Percy said that he would come early, and he did (OR: but he didn't).

It appears that the verb-cluster introduced by would expresses, not an action later than the action referred to by the non-included verb-cluster, but rather anticipation of that action. When we wish to show that the action really took place (or did not take place), we use a past verb-cluster, not one introduced by would." The difference between "later" time-relationship and "anticipated" time-relationship is suggested by the diagram in Figure 10, below (compare Figure 9). A N I D E N T I F I E D T I M E IN T H E PAST

THE MOMENT OF CODING

[-d]

10]

had

would

[-d] F i g . 10.

|-d]

will

have (has)

[-d]

[0]

[0]

[0|

"Later" Time-Relationship and "Anticipated" Time-Relationship.

7.2. 7.21.

Back-Shifting

"BACK-SHIFTING" in "Indirect

Speech"

in Past

Time

Jespersen has given the name "back-shifting" to the change in verb form that takes place when a sentence in "direct speech" is transposed into "indirect speech" in past time. 15 The sentence in [29] (a), below, would, if changed into indirect spccch, appear as in (b): [29] (a)

"17/ go to bed after I've eaten supper."

(b)

Percy said he'd go to bed after he'd eaten supper.

If the reader will consult the diagram in Figure 11. he will see that this kind of " All of these e x a m p l e s of later t i m e expressed by i n c l u d e d clauscs involve i n t r o d u c e d by either before o r until (or till). It m i g h t be a r g u e d t h a t these i n c l u d e r s e x p r e s s t h e " l a t e r t i m e " t i m e - r e l a t i o n s h i p so t h a t it is n o t necessary f o r t h e v e r b , f o r m to d o so. But see t h e s e n t e n c e in [28]. 14 T h i s use of a past v e r b f o r m to signal s o m e t h i n g t h a t a c t u a l l y h a p p e n e d (or did n o t h a p p e n ) a t a l a t e r t i m e t h a n s o m e o t h e r a c t i o n o r e v e n t is r e f l e c t e d in t h e use of p a s t f o r m s in n o n i n c l u d e d v e r b - c l u s t e r s to s h o w " s u b s e q u e n t i a l " t i m e - r e l a t i o n s h i p - t h a t is, to s h o w t h a t o n e e v e n t f o l l o w e d shortly a f t e r a n o t h e r . A n e x a m p l e of this kind of n a r r a t i v e m a y be f o u n d in n. 4 on p. 166, a b o v e . See. f o r e x a m p l e . O t t o J e s p e r s e n . A Modern English Grammar 7 vols. ( C o p e n h a g e n , E j n a r M u n k s g a a r d , 1909-1949), IV, 151 ff.

on Ni.storicaI

Principles,

172

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

AN IDENTIFIED T I M E IN T H E P A S T Non-Factual had (Cd've))

I Factual

WOULD HAVE Cd've)

I Non-Factual WOULD Cd)

had Cd)

If-

Ifhad (BE: had been) *

THE MOMENT OF REFERENCE I Factual have/has Cve)/('s)

WILL ('ID

If-

[0]

l-d]

(BE: w a s / w e r e / w a s ) *

(BE: a m / a r e / i s )

Fig. 11. Back-Shifting. Many speakers regularly replace was with were in non-factual contexts.

back-shifting is very regular: an auxiliary on either the left or the right of the right-hand arrow changes to the corresponding auxiliary on the left or the right of the middle arrow. The same is true of verb forms appearing below the arrows: [30] (a) (b)

"I am glad I don't have a lot of work." Percy said he was glad he didn't have a lot of work.

The shift is always from some auxiliary or tense morpheme clustered around the right-hand arrow to the auxiliary or tense morpheme in the corresponding position around the middle arrow. Hence the name "back-shifting". An interesting parallel to the change that takes place in a verb-cluster when it is back-shiftcd is to be found in the change that takes place in certain time-expressions when a sentence is transformed from direct speech into indirect speech in past time. The morpheme [-d] and the auxiliaries clustered around the middle arrow in Figure 11 may in each case be said to be derivable from [0] or from the auxiliary in the corresponding position with relation to the right-hand arrow, by the addition of [-d] - i.e., by the addition of the signal for an identified time. Thus will changes to would, have changes to had, and [0] changes to [-d]. It is interesting to note that much the same thing happens to time-expressions: the signal for an identified Entity (the) is added to many time-expressions when the sentences in which they occur are changed from direct speech to indirect speech in past time, with the result that next week, for example, becomes the next week. This may be seen more clearly if we compare these two sentences: [31 ] (a) (b)

Percy said that he will come again next Friday, Percy said that he would come again the next Friday.

The addition of a morpheme signaling "identifiedness" in the verb-cluster seems to call for a corresponding morpheme signaling "identifiedness" in the nominal which expresses time.

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

7.22. Back-Shifting

173

after "Wish", "As if", etc.

But back-shifting takes place not only when a sentence is changed from direct speech to indirect speech in past time; it also occurs when we wish to suggest that something is not possible or not true or contrary to fact or highly doubtful. The auxiliaries and tense morpheme clustered around the right-hand arrow in Figure 11 signal factual or possible Predications in present time; if they are shifted to their corresponding forms around the middle arrow - but are still used with reference to present time - they signal counter-factual Predications. Thus If the Joneses are here now suggests that they may be here; but If the Joneses were here now suggests that they are not here. 16 Again, back-shifting to signal something as being non-factual is regular, with one exception: many speakers do not preserve the contrast between were and was in such back-shifted verb-clusters, but use were with all kinds of subjects.17 Thus when the "hope" in [32] (a) is changed to an unrealizable wish, as in (b), both were and was are possible; some speakers use one, some speakers use the other, and some use both: [32] (a) (b)

"I hope Percy is here." "No, he isn't." "That's too bad. I wish he were here" (or "wiw here").18

Back-shifting is common after such expressions as wish (that), Would that, If only, (acts) as i f , (I)'d rather, and It's high time that.1" Suppose may be followed by either a back-shifted form or a non-back-shifted form. Examples of the use of back-shifted forms after these expressions appear below: " This difference in meaning may be said to be manifested by the change in the signification of the tagma manifested by the verb: a past verb f o r m like were has the valence for a past time-expression; when it co-occurs with a present time-expression, as in If the Joneses were here now, its usual context has changed - and, as we have seen, a change in either the context or the f o r m of a tagma results in a change in its signification. (See 4.91, above. But cf. H a n s Reichenbach, Elements of Symbolic Logic, New York, T h e Macmillan C o m p a n y , 1947, p. 339, for a different - and not altogether convincing - explanation.) T h e use of a past verb f o r m with a present time-expression would seem to be an example of what Yngve Olsson calls "discord" (as opposed to "concord"), although he does not mention it in "The English V e r b in its Contexts", English Studies, X L (October, 1959), 358-367. 17 T h u s were after third person singular subjects in non-factual back-shifting contrasts in the usage of such speakers with was after third person singular subjects in factual back-shifting (as in indirect speech). This special kind of "discord" (i.e., lack of concord) is the only clear-cut example of the so-called "subjunctive" in present-day English. (But cf. the unconvincing arguments for the recognition of a "subjunctive" in other verb forms as well in Davis Alvin Snellings, "The Mood of the Unreal Condition in Modern English" [unpublished doctoral dissertation, T h e University of Texas, Austin, 1935].) 18 Both uses appear in the corpus. " Back-shifting also occurs in sentences like the following to show that some hope o r expectation was not realized: W e had hoped that you would be able to visit us. (See A. S. H o r n b y , A Guide to Patterns and Usage in English, London, Oxford University Press, 1954, p. 103, f r o m where this example is taken.) A f t e r expressions like it's high time that, third person singular subjects seem to take was, not were.

174 [33] (a) (b) (c) [34] [35] [36] [37]

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND T I M E - F I E L D S

I wish that Percy were here. Would that Percy were here. If only Percy were here. Mr. Puddleditch acts as if he didn't know what to do. I'd rather he kept his worries to himself. It's time he learned not to gamble money on the stock market. Suppose he lost all that he's invested in stocks!

One of the most common uses of back-shifting is to soften a request, as in the change from Will you please open the door? to Would you please open the door?26 It is this same kind of back-shifting that has softened the authoritative You shall do that to the less commanding You should do that. Back-shifting in the other modals regularly suggests that something could happen or might be true - but won't happen or isn't true. It should be noted that back-shifting after wish that, act as i f , and the like, does not vary according to the time-orientation of the non-included verbs: non-factual predications are signaled by means of the auxiliaries and tense morpheme clustered around the middle arrow in Figure 11, regardless of the time-orientation of the non-included verb-cluster. In other words, the form of the included verb-cluster does not change when the non-included cluster is shifted from present time to past time: [38] (a) (b) [39] (a) (b)

I wish Percy were here now. I wished Percy were there then. Mr. Puddleditch acts as if he didn't know what to do. Mr. Puddleditch acted as if he didn't know what to do. 7.23. Back-Shifting

in Non-Factual

Conditions

Sentences like those in [40] (below) state, in their non-included clauses, something that is anticipated if the conditions set forth in the included or if clauses are fulfilled. Such sentences are called conditional sentences. If the conditions stated in the if clause are possible of fulfillment, either in present time or in future time, the conditional sentences may be called "real" conditions. The verb-clusters in such conditions are regularly formed with the auxiliaries and tense morpheme clustered around the right-hand arrow in Figure 11, with the auxiliary for anticipation (will) in the non-included verb-cluster and either have/has or [0] in the included verbcluster. (This is suggested by the position of the word " I f - " in Figure 11. WILL, as the auxiliary most commonly used in the non-included verb-cluster of such a condition, appears in solid capitals.) :« Note, also, Olsson's suggestion that the second example below is more polite than the first: "I want a piece of soap, please." "I wanted a piece of soap, please." (Yngve Olsson, "The English Verb in its Contexts", English Studies, XL, October, 1959, 366-367.) This may be another example of the use of back-shifting to soften a request.

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

[40] (a) (b)

175

(Percy wants a pair of moccasins.) I'll give him mine if they're still around, I'll give him mine if I haven't lost them.

If the moccasins are lost, however, it will not be possible to give them to Percy ; as a result, these sentences will have to be recast as "non-factual" (or "contrary-tofact") conditions: [41] (a) (b)

I'd give him mine if they were still around, I'd give him mine if I hadn't lost them.

If we wish to state a non-factual condition about some time in the past - that is, if we wish to state what would have happened if some condition which was not met had been met - we need to "back-shift" still further. For this purpose, we need a new set of auxiliaries, to place around a third arrow which will represent "nonfactual" reference for some time in the past. (See the diagram in Figure ll. 2 1 ) These new auxiliary forms may be derived by adding the auxiliary HAVE, which means "earlier", to the auxiliaries and tense morpheme clustered around the middle arrow: this gives us would have (from would), had (from [-d]). but only had for the position to the left of the left-hand arrow corresponding to the had to the left of the middle arrow. (Logically, however, the position to the left of the left-hand arrow should be filled by had + have, by analogy with would have to the right of the arrow.) In place of the preterit forms of the verb BE, we get, by adding H A V E , the complex form had been. With the aid of these new auxiliary forms, we are able to change the sentences in 141] so that they will refer to some time in the past such as "yesterday":

[42] (a) (b)

(Percy wanted a pair of moccasins yesterday.) I would have (or I'd've) given him mine if they had (or they'J) been around, I'd've given him mine if I hadn't lost them.

It may be true, as Joos claims, that "dozens of millions of speakers" tend to add 've to the auxiliary in the if clause of sentences like the last one. But they add it to had, by analogy with the would.'ve of the non-included verb-cluster; the expression if I'd've probably derives from if I had have, not from if I would have, as Joos suggests.2-' Thus in the speech of many speakers the sentence in [42] (b) might become the following: 21 A similar d i a g r a m - but w i t h a f o u r t h a r r o w f o r " T h e F u t u r e " (now rejected a s a m i s r e p r e sentation of the f a c t s - a p p e a r s in R o b e r t L. Allen, KontroUu lngili7.ee (Controlled English). 3 vols. ( I s t a n b u l . A m e r i k a n B o r d Ne§riyat Dairesi, 1948-1950), II, 294. 22 M a r t i n J o o s , English Language and Linguistics, m i m e o g r a p h e d edition ( B e o g r a d , I n s t i t u t e f o r E x p e r i m e n t a l P h o n e t i c s , 1958), p p . 96-97. But t h e s a m e s p e a k e r s m a y a n a l y z e t h e i r o w n use of if i'd've as deriving f r o m would have, n o t had have, since had is n o r m a l l y f o l l o w e d by had, n o t by have. T h u s w h e n trying t o speak less c o l l o q u i a l l y , such s p e a k e r s m a y r e p l a c e if I'd've w i t h if I would have b e c a u s e (being u n c o n t r a c t e d ) it s e e m s t o t h e m m o r e f o r m a l .

176

[43] (a)

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND T I M E - F I E L D S

I'd've given him mine if I hadn't've lost them -

or even: [43] (b)

Id'a given him mine if I hadn't'a lost them. 7.24. Ambiguous

Conditions

We saw above that when the non-included verb-cluster in a sentence with wish or as if shifts from present time to past time, the non-factual included cluster does not so shift: the auxiliaries and tense morpheme clustered around the middle arrow in Figure 11 show that the included clause refers to something that is non-factual regardless of whether the factual non-included verb-cluster refers to present time or past time. The same is true for a non-factual condition in indirect speech (i.e., when it follows a verb of saying): a change in the time of the factual verb of saying does not produce a corresponding change in the non-factual condition. This may be seen from the following example: [44] (a) (b)

(Percy needs a pair of moccasins.) 1 tell you that 1 would give him mine if I hadn't lost them, 1 told you that I would give him mine if I hadn't lost them.

If we turn now to the factual condition in [40] (b) and change it from direct speech to indirect speech, we get the sentence in [45] (b) below: [45] (a) (b)

I will give him mine if I haven't lost them, I told you that I would give him mine if I hadn't lost them.

This sentence represents a factual condition - that is, a condition capable of being fulfilled - in indirect speech. But a comparison of this sentence with the non-factual condition in [44] (b) will show that the two are identical. This means that sentences of this type are ambiguous: it is not possible to tell from a sentence like the one in [45] (b) whether or not there is any possibility of Percy's getting the moccasins.

7.3. SUB-SYSTEMS

7.31. The "Future" and "Anticipated"

Sub-Systems

Although no examples of verb-clusters introduced by will have appear in the corpus, this does not mean that such forms are non-existent in English; on the contrary, their use in certain contexts is obligatory. But such verb-clusters form a kind of sub-system within the overall verb-system. To represent their use by means of a diagram, we may extend the small arrow under the "identified" will in Figure 8, and then write will have just to the left of this arrow, as has been done in Figure 12. Will have thus symbolizes "time before an identified future time". Its use is restricted, however, to "free" verb-clusters - that is, to verb-clusters which are not

177

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

THE MOMENT O F CODING I

have/has

will

[0]

AN IDENTIFIED TIME IN T H E PAST

AN IDENTIFIED TIME IN T H E FUTURE

t-d]

will

had

would

will have

would have [-d]

l-d]

[0]

[0]

Fig. 12. The Sub-Systems for Showing Time-Relationships in Anticipated Time and in Future Time.

closely "bound" to other verb-clusters. In indirect speech in past time, will have changes to would have. We may represent the use of would have by drawing a short arrow below would; by writing would have just to the left of this arrow (as in Figure 12) we can show that it represents time before the time signaled by would (in certain restricted contexts). The most typical example of a "free" verb-cluster is a verb-cluster which functions as the main verb in a sentence. If such a sentence refers to time before the time expressed in a preceding sentence, the use of will have is often obligatory,23 as in: [46]

Mr. Dex won't be here at twelve o'clock. He will have gone to lunch by then.

A free cluster may also occur, of course, in a clause introduced by one of the co-ordinators: [47]

Mr. Dex will be back at one o'clock, but I will have gone by then.

But a free verb-cluster may also occur in an included clause if the clause is "free": that is, if it is not closely bound to the rest of its sentence. A clause introduced by one of the following includers is usually a free clause: although as ( = because) because except (that) 23

for inasmuch as since ( = because) so (that)

such (that) though while ( = although)

But many speakers seem to rephrase their sentences in order to avoid the use of verbclusters beginning with will have.

178

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

The difference between a bound clause and a free clause may be seen from the following examples: [48] (a) (b)

Mr. Dex will go home at five-thirty if he has finished his work by then. Mr. Dex will go home at five-thirty because he will have finished his work by then. 24

Both bound and free clauses may occur in the same sentence. The absence of will from a free clause shows that the clause refers to present time, not to future time. (The auxiliary will in a free clause shows "same time", just as will have shows "earlier time".) Compare the following two examples: [49]

He won't speak to her when she comes tomorrow although he will look at her from a distance.

(All three verb-clusters refer to tomorrow.) [50]

He won't speak to her when she comes tomorrow although he knows [i.e., now] that she will expect him to.

An adjectival (i.e., "relative") clause is usually bound, although it may be free, as in the second example below: [51] (a) (b)

Please give this letter to the first teacher whom you see at school tomorrow, Please give this letter to Mr. Porter, whom you will see at school tomorrow.

It appears at first glance that the difference between the two kinds of adjectival clauses may correspond to the difference between "restrictive" and "non-restrictive" clauses. But not all restrictive clauses are bound; compare the following two sentences: [52] (a) (b)

The man who will speak at assembly tomorrow will be here for most of the day. I'll try to get the autograph of the man who speaks at assembly tomorrow.

The last sentence suggests that " I " will try to get his autograph just before or after his talk. If the getting of the autograph, however, is not closely "bound" to the speaking, the adjectival clause becomes free: (c)

I'll try to get the autograph of the man who will speak at assembly tomorrow.

The includers listed on page 177 occasionally introduce bound clauses, as may be seen from the second example below: :4 It will be noted that the use of will have is obligatory in such a clause, even though "futurity is sufficiently indicated in the main verb". This would seem to refute Jespersen's explanation for the omission of will from bound clauses. (Cf. Otto Jespersen, Essentials of English Grammar, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1933, p. 239).

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

179

[53] (a)

You think that I won't visit Mrs. Fustle when I'm in Washington next week because I won't have time, (b) I won't visit Mrs. Fustle because I don't have time - I won't visit her because I can't stand the woman. Even the regular includers which usually introduce bound clauses may occasionally be used to introduce free clauses; Jespersen quotes an example from Hardy's Return of the Native:25 [54]

I will work in the garden till the evening, and then, when it will be cooler, I will walk to Blooms-End. Another of Jespersen's examples, which is even more interesting, is an example of the use of if to introduce a free clause. On page 262 of Volume IV of his Modern English Grammar, Jespersen gives the example I will come if it's any use to you, and suggests that the included clause as given is "decidedly more natural" than would be the clause if it will be any use to you. On page 400, however, under "Corrections"; he states that "will is quite natural (with non-personal subject) in 'I will come if it will be (of) any use to you', which perhaps is a shade politer than 'if it is'". But the difference between the two does not seem to be so much a matter of politeness or of the use of a non-personal subject; rather, it seems to be related to the difference between bound clauses and free clauses. The pro-nominal it in the first sentence below refers to "medicine"; the clause in which it occurs is the complement (object) of the verb see and therefore an integral part of the sentence - the clause is both included in, and bound to, the main clause. But in the second sentence below, the pro-nominal it substitutes for I will see her: the second clause cannot be part of the main clause, therefore, and is not truly included - and is therefore free. The verb forms in the two clauses introduced by if reflect this distincton: [55] (a) (b)

Give me some of that medicine. I'll see if it does any good. I don't want to call on Mrs. Fustle, but I'll see her if it will do any good. 7.32. The Modals

The modals constitute another sub-system - or set of sub-systems - within the overall verb-system. Different kinds of meaning which may be expressed by one modal or another have been suggested by the headings of the columns in Table II. But probably what is most distinctive about the modals is the way in which their different forms are used - with or without have - for the expression of the different kinds of time and time-relationship. The various temporal and relational uses, as well as the forms which do or do not occur for any given use, are shown in Figure 13. (Secondary auxiliaries like HAVE TO and USED TO are also included among the modals listed in Figure 13, as is the lexeme [BE] able to: BE ABLE TO " Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949), IV, 25.

180

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS AN IDENTIFIED TIME IN T H E PAST

r*

would should could might may have* might have* must have* should have* need (n't) have*

would have should have could have might have

need (n't) have had been going to would have been able to would have had to

could have

1 I Non-Factual

I Factual I

Non-Factual

ought to have

THE MOMENT OF REFERENCE

were going to* were able to* would be able to had to,* would have to

ought to (have)* used to* ('d better not have) 'd rather have would have would should have should could have could might have might —

had been able to had had to

—

must have must should should have need (n't) have need (n't) — dare (n't) had been would be going to going to would be had been able to able to had had to would have to, had to — had got to ought to have ought to — used to ('d better have) 'd better 'd rather have 'd rather would

could have might have should have need (n't) have had been able to had had to ought to have 'd rather have

could might must should need (n't) dare (n't) were able to had to had got to ought to 'd better 'd rather

1 Factual will shall can

1

may, might must should need (n't) dare (n't) are going to are able to have to have got to ought to 'd better 'd rather (will have) will (shall have) shall could have can may have m a y might have might must have must should have should need (n't) have need (n't) — dare (n't) have been are going to going to have been will be able t o able to have had to (will) have to — have got to ought to have ought to used t o — (d' better have) 'd better 'd rather have* 'd rather will (shall) can may, might must should need (n't) dare (n't) are able to have to have got to ought to 'd better 'd rather

Fig. 13. The Use of Modals and Secondary Auxiliaries to Show Time and Time-Relationship. (Starred items are seldom if ever used for non-factual reference in present or f u t u r e time.)

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

181

fills out the temporal and relational uses of can in contexts for which can has no suitable forms, just as HA VE TO fills out the uses of must.) The modals shall, can, may, must, ought, and dare were at one time preterit forms which were later often used for reference to present time; today, all of them are regularly used for reference to the moment of coding, and four of them - the four not ending in -t - have developed new preterit forms. 26 For past time, some of the modals have preterit forms, but other modals use their present forms (or even their preterit forms) with an added have, thus producing verb-clusters similar to clusters introduced by will have and would have: can, for example, has the preterit form could for reference to an identified time in the past, while the "past form" of must is must have:27 [56] (a) (b)

1 could beat you at chess yesterday, and I can still beat you now. Percy must have been at home all day yesterday, and he must still be there now.

Again, the modal may has the preterit form might for the expression of "same time" time-relationship in bound included clauses, but the "past form" may have (or might have) for reference to past time in free included clauses and in non-included clauses, as in [57] (a) (b)

We thought that there might be somebody in the next room. We never spoke above a whisper because there may have been (or might have been) somebody in the next room. Because of the restriction upon the modals that they must always occur in the first position in verb-clusters and may therefore not co-occur with WILL, verb-clusters that include modals are less versatile than those that do not. Compare, for example, the different kinds of time-relationship which can be expressed by BE ABLE TO, but which cannot be expressed by CAN: [58] (a) (b) (c)

He hoped he could / He hoped he would be able to He knew he could / He knew he was able to He wished he could / He wished he were able to

Other idiosyncrasies of the modals arc suggested in Figure 13.

7.4. I M M E D I A T E T I M E V E R S U S E X T E N D E D T I M E

In her "Reconsideration of the Problem of Time, Tense, and Aspect in Modern English", B. M. Charleston insists that 59 Must and ought are peculiar in that Iheir preterit forms have twice become "present" forms. This, and the fact that they end in the [t] sound, may explain why they do not have past forms today. See Stuart Robertson and Frederic G . Cassidy, The Development of Modern English, 2nd ed. (New York, Prentice-Hall, 1954), pp. 139-141. 27 Must with the meaning of 'have to' has no past f o r m ; for reference to external compulsion in past time, had to is used instead.

182

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

for a survey of the functions of tense and aspect in modern English it is of prime importance that there exists a twofold conception of time in the minds of English-speaking people . . . a) infinite time divided into two parts, a past and a future, by the present moment, the speaker's 'now', . . . 6) infinite time divided into three parts, a past timesphere, and a future time-sphere separated from the past time-sphere by the present time-sphere, consisting of the present moment 'now', which is extended in such a way that it is vaguely felt by the speaker to include the section of time of which his 'now' is the nucleus.29 A schema based on Charleston's "twofold conception of time" appears in Figure 14. It may be, however, that a better conceptualization of our perception of present time as both a present "moment" and a variable "extent of time" is the one suggested in Figure 15. Time may be viewed as a broad stream flowing in the direction of the future, on which we are now situated at a point near one edge.29 (Needless to say, we are constantly moving forward with the stream.) As we stare across the stream at the opposite shore, we may consider as being "in front of us" just that part of the stream which could be represented by an imaginary line drawn as a perpendicular to the opposite shore from our position; or, we could consider as being "in front of us" all of the opposite shore that we can see, including all of the stream between us and that shore spreading out in a large triangle with our position as its apex and the opposite shore as its base. 30 The part of the stream directly in front of us (i.e., on the imaginary line) would then comprise what we may call "THE IMMEDIATE PRESENT", while all of the stream that we can see "in front of us" would comprise "THE E X T E N D E D PRESENT". Every non-preterit verb-cluster spoken by us, being time-oriented, would then represent either immediate time or extended time. Extended time, for any cluster, might range in length from "this moment" to "all time", as suggested by Figure 15. We may refer to the triangle of time stretching out in front of us as T H E PRESENT "TIME-FIELD". It will develop that some Predications, such, for example, as find somebody guilty and pronounce you man and wife, refer almost always to immediate time, while other Predications, such as play a rubber of bridge and border on France and Germany, refer only to extended time (with, of course, different degrees of exten58

B. M. Charleston, "A Reconsideration of the Problem of Time, Tense, and Aspect in Modern English", English Studies, XXXVI (October, 1955), 265. 20 We may call this point the "nous-ici-maintenant", to paraphrase Jacques Damourette and Edouard Pichon, Des mots à h pensée: Essai de grammaire de la langue française, 1 vols. (Paris, Collection des linguistiques contemporains, 1911-1940), V, 177: "La position naturelle et fondamentale de l'esprit, c'est de centrer le monde des phénomènes sur le locuteur se concevant lui-même dans l'instant présent: le 'moi-ici-maintenant'. Ce mode d'apercevance des phénomènes constitue l'actualité noncale" (as opposed to "l'actualité toncale"). 90 Cf. Oscar Emanuel Johnson's comparison of "the process in which, and by which, I thus experience as together events or parts of events any two of which as independent of my experience exclude each other temporally" with the "taking of a panoramic picture", in his Tense Significance as the Time of the Action (= Language Dissertation No. 21, 1936), pp. 48 ff. Cf. also the conceptualization of time as consisting of "four parts, viz., the obvious past, tne specious present, the real present, and the future", quoted from E. R. Clay's The Alternative by William James in The Principles of Psychology, 2 vols. (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1893), I, 609.

183

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

THE PRESENT MOMENT

T H E PAST

THE FUTURE

\

1—: T H E PAST TIME-SPHERE

T H E FUTURE TIME-SPHERE

THE PRESENT TIME-SPHERE

) / /

Fig. 14. Charleston's "Twofold Conception of Time". (Schema based on the discussion on page 265 of B. M. Charleston, "A Reconsideration of the Problem of Time, Tense, and Aspect in Modern English", English Studies, X X X V I , October, 1955.)

moment. -This hours, } / T h i s I morning [DID] / T o d a y _ p ' \ I I

I

TWILL] season / T h i s year Nowaday: -I—K my lifetime ft / ,. 1ïTtïi In this century - t ì . g. I / V D [HAVEJ¿ Since^the beginning of lm recorded history / S i n c e the beginning of time .J, >J,

THE PAST

THE FUTURE

M

E

X

T

E

N

D

E

D

v

^ '^

.

T I M E

Fig. 15. Immediate Time and Extended Time. (Oriented with Reference to the M o m e n t of Coding.)

sion). Some verbs seem to participate in both kinds of reference: the Predication in I'm a teacher seems to refer to extended time, while the Predication in I'm here seems to refer to immediate time. Strangely, although you're here seems usually to refer only to immediate time, he's here may refer to extended time (similar to the extended time of He's in Europe now). Again, the Predication in I'm afraid that you're wrong seems to refer to immediate time, but the Predication in I'm afraid seems to refer to extended time. Most, if not all, adjectives may refer to either immediate or extended time, but a few lexemes traditionally classified as adjectives seem to suggest only immediate time: glad and sorry, for example, as in I'm glad to see you and I'm sorry Jane couldn't come, seem to refer only to immediate time, not to extended time. This may be the reason we speak of a happy man and a sad man, but not of *a glad man

184

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

or *a sorry man.™ An adjective used attributively before a noun like man with no other context to indicate temporary reference seems to suggest an attribute extending over a period of time. For this reason glad and sorry are not used with man since they refer to "immediate" time. When preceding nouns, happy and sad suggest extended time, as in a happy man and a sad man; when used in adjunctal position, happy and sad may refer to either extended time or immediate time, as in I'm very happy as opposed to I'm happy to see you. Other implications of the opposition "immediate"/"extended" will appear in the discussion of different kinds of Predications, in Chapters VIII and IX,

7.5. T I M E - F I E L D S

7.51. Inclusive

Reference

Several writers have suggested "incompleteness" as the essential meaning signaled by expansion in verb-clusters.32 Almost all such writers, as well as many writers who have claimed other meanings for expansion, seem to have assumed that in the opposition "expanded verb-clustcrs"/"non-expanded verb-clusters", the former are the "marked forms", and therefore signal the marked meaning. This may originally have been the case, and certainly as regards their form, expanded verb-clusters do appear to be "marked" - by the presence of some form of the auxiliary BE and the ing form of the verb, in contrast to non-expanded verb-clusters, which lack BE and the ing form. But as Jerzy Kurylowicz points out, within the "semantic polarization" represented by a marked category in opposition to an unmarked category, the meaning (or function) of the marked member of the pair tends to force the unmarked member toward the opposite pole so that the unmarked member may take on a meaning or function diametrically opposed to that of the marked member and become itself a marked category rather than a neutral category. 33 It is the point of view of this study that Hatcher has interpreted the facts incorrectly when she says that "the simple form has no basic meaning"; 34 on the contrary, it appears that - perhaps as a result of repeated use in oppositions where they contrasted with expanded verb-clusters - THE NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS HAVE IN PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH A MARKED MEANING OR FUNCTION, T H A T O F SIGNALING INCLUSIVE REFERENCE. (By "inclusive reference" is meant reference to the whole of a Predication or Event, rather than reference to a part of it.) It appears, further, that in the opposition "non-expanded 31 T h e use of sorry in a sorry sight suggests a temporary or "immediate" state rather than an extended state or condition. 32 See the discussion in Chapter II, above. 33 Jerzy Kurylowicz, "La nature des procès dits 'analogiques'", Acta Linguistica, V (19451949), 22. 34 A n n a Granville Hatcher, "The Use of the Progressive F o r m in English: A N e w Approach", Language, X X V I I (July-August, 1951), 259.

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS A N D TIME-FIELDS

verb-clusters"/"expanded

185

verb-clusters", where non-expanded forms signal the

marked meaning of "inclusive reference", expanded forms on the contrary are often neutral as regards this meaning. If, for example, we should hear someone say [59]

I ate supper at home last night,

we would assume that the speaker ate all of his supper. If the extended time signaled by the time-expression which he used is long enough to include the time needed to eat supper, we assume that he ate his supper within that time. (Predications of this kind will be called I N C L U D E D P R E D I C A T I O N S ; the Predication in the sentence in [59] is an example of such a Predication.) If, however, the time indicated by the time-expression is not of great enough duration to include the time needed for the eating of the supper, we assume the supper to have BEGUN

at the moment

indicated,

as in the following example: [60]

I ate supper at seven o'clock

last night.

(Predications of this kind will be called I N C E P T I V E P R E D I C A T I O N S . )

This

assumption that the speaker began his supper at the moment indicated instead of having been in the process of eating it, derives from the fact that we assume that he ate all of his supper but realize that he could not have eaten all of it "at seven o'clock". 35 T h e contrast between the use of a non-expanded verb-cluster and that of an expanded verb-cluster with a time-expression signifying a moment of time may be seen in the following sentences: [61] (a) (b)

I ate supper when my wife came back from her shopping. I was eating supper when my wife came back from her shopping.

It will be noted that the first sentence suggests that I began my supper at that time and ate all of it, while the second sentence is neutral as regards the completion of the supper - my wife could have been the bearer of news which sent me dashing away from the table before I finished my meal. Other kinds of predications which may be expressed by non-expanded verbclusters are R E P E A T E D P R E D I C A T I O N S , as in [62]

W e usually eat dinner at six o'clock,

and M O M E N T A R Y P R E D I C A T I O N S , as in [63]

But last night we didn't begin supper (or sit down to supper) until seven-thirty.

Perhaps an even better proof of the fact that a non-expanded verb-cluster referring to an extended Predication but used with a time-expression indicating a moment of time is taken to mean that the extended Predication must have begun or is to begin at the moment indicated, is to be seen in the use of point-time indications in invitations: a guest invited f o r dinner "at eight o'clock on Saturday evening" would not plan to arrive f o r the dinner half an hour or an hour before eight o'clock on the assumption that the dinner might already have been started by that time. T h e expression " W e will dine at eight" is always taken to mean " W e will sit down to dine at eight o'clock," " W e will begin to dine at around eight o'clock." S5

186

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

Repeated Predications exhibit inclusive reference when they refer to Events considered individually, and must then be expressed by means of non-expanded forms, as in [64]

Professor Dury mentions you quite often. (MWc805)

But if they are conceived of as forming one long "continuous" chain of Events, then this chain of Events may be referred to by means of an expanded cluster: [65]

He was always getting a Guggenheim grant or doing a piece of work for a museum or an institute. (PNn223)

But in either use, repeated Predications establish an extended time, never an immediate time. Momentary Predications will be discussed in detail in Chapter IX. The different uses of the simple tenses are suggested by the diagrams in Figure 16. AN IDENTIFIED TIME /K

AN IDENTIFIED TIME

A

V f

\

\ g , [-d] or [03 dyixxxxixxxxxN b

/ - r

v g , '[-d] or [0]

+•

'

[-d] or [0]

'

\

\

\

[-d] or [0]

Fig. 16. Different Kinds of Predications: Momentary (a); Extended (b, c); Repeated (d, e); Inceptive (f); and Subscquential (g).

7.52. Stage Directions and Demonstrations The use of non-expanded verb-clusters in stage directions and demonstrations has been treated by many writers as an unusual or idiomatic or even peculiar use, one that has to be explained separately as an "exception" to the regular uses of such forms. If, however, we accept the statement that the use of non-expanded verbclusters is the norm for all situations where the speaker wishes to signal reference to the whole of a Predication, it will be seen that non-expanded clusters (i.e., the so-called "simple present" verb forms) are actually what one would expect to find used for reference to Predications in present time when the speaker does not want to indicate Events as going on at the moment of coding but wishes rather to refer to such Events as wholes. When a dramatist states in his stage directions that "Poindexter enters from the left", he does not use the non-expanded form in order

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

187

to suggest that Poindexter enters from the left night after night, but rather to indicate that the entrance occurs as a unit by itself, as a whole, between what has gone before and what follows: it is a complete Event in itself, not to be treated as simultaneous with anything else that is going on. Where a dramatist wishes to show that an entrance is intimately related to, or overlaps, some other Event, he can use a stage direction like the following: [66]

P O I N D E X T E R (entering from the left). What was that you said?

Compare, for example, the following two directions, both taken from the same passage in O'Neill's Strange Interlude: [67] [68]

N I N A (Nodding slowly). I know. (SIc452) M A R S D E N (Bends down, pats her head with trembling hands, soothes her with uncertain trembling words). There - there - . . . (SIc453) Similarly, a woman demonstrating the baking of a cake on television is primarily attending to each step of the process as a step, i.e., to each step taken as a whole. The members of her audience want to know how many eggs they will need and how much flour; they want to know what to do with the eggs, and what to do with the flour. They are interested in hearing each of the requisite steps in much the same form in which it would appear in a cookbook - as a unit, as a whole, as something to get or something to have ready or something to do. The use of expanded forms by a demonstrator would focus her audience's attention on herself, on her actions, rather than on individual, separate steps in the preparation of the cake. But by means of non-expanded forms she is able to state each step as a unit in itself, as one of a fixed sequence of units, rather than as something going on concurrently with something else.30 The steps in such a demonstration, like items listed separately in a cookbook, lack the kind of interlocking "x" interrelationship that is to be found in a piece of narration or in a person's description - either spoken or written - of something he is doing. For this reason, sports announcers on the radio often adopt this style, to make the game that they are describing seem to move more jerkily and thus more rapidly. Many writers who imply that the use of non-expanded present forms in "demonstrations" and "stage-directions" represents an "exception to the rules" rather than normal usage, 37 fail to notice that we regularly use a non-expanded form to express " N o t e that it is immaterial whether a demonstrator says "First I do this, then I do this", or "First you do this, then you do this". T h e Predication is the important part of each sentence the Predication considered almost as if it were disassociated f r o m any subject. It is only a short step f r o m such sentences to imperative sentences. (Commands and requests, it may be noted, are predications par excellence.) " See, for example, A. S. Hornby, A Guide to Patterns and Usage in English (London, Oxford, University Press, 1954), p. 88. Martin Joos states that by using the "descriptive f o r m u l a " / fill the flask with water, a demonstrator matches what he is doing; but that "if, instead of matching, he had been narrating, he would have said 'I am filling . . .'; this would have informed listeners (even by radio) what he was doing. His "I fill . . .' instead uses word and deed to define each

188

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

a Predication in present time when we wish to refer to the whole of the Predication, as in the following examples: [69] [70] [71] (a) (b) [72] [73] (a) (b) [74] [75] [76]

Lest it be thought that I exaggerate, I append the following Reuter's dispatch . . . .(IAn263) I enclose a check for five dollars. (Question asked of a teacher just entering his classroom:) "What do you teach this period?" (Answer:) "I teach history." You turn right at the next corner. I bid two clubs, I pass. I raise you one. What! You say you can't find it? As we approach Sama, we encounter snow. 38 7.53. "Eternal

Truths"

and "Broken

Sequence"

Sentences like [77]

Columbus said that the world is round

turn up in many grammar books as examples of what some writers term "eternal truths". The specific grammar problem involved is of a kind which may be called "broken sequence": the included verb-cluster does not show the same kind of timeorientation as that expressed by the non-included cluster. Most included clusters, as we have seen, show time-relationship with reference to the clause (or sentence) on the next higher level, but the included clause in this sentence cannot show any such relationship since the two verb-clusters have different time-orientation: the first cluster is oriented with reference to the time-field of an identified time in the past, while the second cluster is oriented with reference to the time-field of the moment of coding. The examples that are usually given to illustrate broken sequence involve statements of general truth, like the sentence in [77]. But broken sequence is certainly not limited to such statements; sentences like the following are common in everyday speech: other". (English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed ed., Beograd, Institute f o r Experimental Phonetics, 1958, p. 87.) But it is difficult to see how / am enclosing a check for five dollars is more informative than I enclose a check. . . . R. A. Close's term "synoptic" as a label for this use of non-expanded verb-clusters in present time seems more apt than Joos's "matching". (R. A. Close, "Concerning the Present Tense", English Language Teaching, XIII [January-March, 1959], p. 60.) Close gives as another example, the caption appearing under a picture in a story-book: "Aeneas rescues his father f r o m the burning city". 38 This example is taken f r o m R. A. Close. "Concerning the Present Tense". English Language Teaching, XIII (January-March. 1959). p. 60.

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

[78] [79] [80] [81] [82]

189

Your teacher told me yesterday that you don't pay attention in class. That was the boy who mows our lawn. Did you know that Percy has lost a tooth? I read in last night's paper that the Whartons have a baby boy. They told me that Mr. Puddleditch is in Europe.

And yet it appears that some sentences do not tolerate broken sequence. The following examples, for instance, would probably not occur: [83] [84] [85]

*Queen Isabella said that the world is flat. *Didn't you know that I've come? *They told me you're here. 39

The last two sentences, especially, seem ungrammatical. For some reason, the kind of Predication expressed by the verb-cluster and its complement(s) in the first clause in each of those sentences appears to be incompatible with the kind of Predication expressed by" the second verb-cluster and its complement(s). A possible explanation of this incompatibility is suggested by the diagram in Figure 17, which shows the interlocking of two time-fields, one oriented with reference to an identified time in the past, the other with reference to the moment of coding. The diagram shows that, although the axis of each time-field (that is, its "immediate time") is distinct from the axis of the other, both may share the same extended time. In fact, the base of both triangles - i.e., "all time" - appears to be identical. (It seems highly probable that it is for this reason that broken sequence is especially common in sentences expressing universal truths.) The reason for the non-occurrence of a sentence like the one in [83] is probably related to our unwillingness to accept the truth of the statement expressed by the included clause. In other words, although it is true that Queen Isabella said what she did, namely, that the world was flat - that is, she believed it to be flat at the identified time of her speaking - we do not believe this to be true at the present moment, nor to be true of "all time". The sentence in [83], therefore, is taken to refer only to the immediate time represented by the left-hand vertical arrow and should be rephrased as follows: [86]

Queen Isabella said that the world was flat.

But since we accept Columbus' statement about the roundness of the world as being true, we treat it as referring not merely to the immediate time of Columbus' speaking, but to "all time" - and therefore to an extended time that includes within it both the left-hand vertical arrow and the right-hand one. It appears that there may be some such requirement upon the co-occurrence T h e last example is adapted f r o m Otto Jespersen's A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, 1 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949), IV, 153. See also the examples of other ungrammatical sentences in 2.5 above. (In example [85], the included clause you're here should be taken as referring to "your" physical presence, rather than to residency or employment.)

190

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

AN IDENTIFIED TIME IN THE PAST

THE MOMENT OF CODING THE P R E S E N l \ „TIME-FIELD

Columbus said

that

the world

is

\

round.

Fig. 17. "Eternal Truths" or "Broken Sequence".

within the same sentence of two verb-clusters oriented with reference to different identified times (one in the past, the other "now") where the included clause follows a verb of saying, hearing, or the like, and states what was said or heard - that is, in "indirect speech".40 When we examine the sentences in [78]-[82], we see that the included clause in each refers to an extended time which takes in both the identified time referred to by the non-included verb-cluster (i.e., the left-hand vertical arrow) and also the moment of (de)coding (i.e., the right-hand vertical arrow). "Your" not paying attention in class overlaps both the time at which the teacher told me about it and the present moment (at which I am telling you what the teacher told me); the Whartons had their baby before I read about it in the paper and still do; and so on. But the sentences in [83] and [84] do not show a similar interlocking or overlapping of extended times. I've come suggests not my act of coming or even my extended presence here as a result of having come, but rather the fact that I am here now at this moment.41 Yet Did you know refers to a definite past time (probably the extended past up to the moment when I told you). At any rate, the 40

But this requirement applies only to indirect speech in past time, where the time-relationship signals are had, [-d], and would. (Properly speaking, the requirement does not apply to the use of would, either. Since would expresses anticipation, not assertion of occurrence, the encoder may accept the possibility of the future occurrence of what the original speaker anticipated, and so replace the latter's would with will, as in Percy said that he will come next week, where the encoder has re-stated Percy's original sentence from his own point of view.) The requirement noted above does not apply to indirect speech in present time, however, since "Present lime" includes identified times in the past, as Figure 8 shows. 41 It is to expressions like this that Twaddell's description "a valid present relevance of the effect of earlier events" probably applies (W. F. Twaddell, The English Verb Auxiliaries, Providence, R. I., Brown University Press, 1960, p. 6). But note that John has come does not seem to suggest the immediate (i.e., present) result of John's coming; rather it suggests an extended result stretching from the time of his coming through the present moment, and therefore capable of including the time of "Did you know". In other words, we can say: "Did you know that John has cornel" There appears to be a difference between the time-reference of BE and of clusters with HA VE when they refer to the speaker or the hearer, and the timereference of BE and HAVE clusters when they are used with other subjects.

TIME-RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME-FIELDS

191

extended time expressed by Did you know does not include the present moment; the two Predications are therefore incompatible. Similarly, you're here (in sentence [85]) expresses an immediate time, not an extended time: it refers to the present moment.42 They told me also refers to an immediate time - the time of their telling me. As a result the two Predications in sentence [85] do not share any part of an extended time, and are therefore incompatible. The interlocking - or non-interlocking - of time-fields seems to play an important, but subtle, part in the English verb system.

41

I'm here would also refer to only the present moment. But Aunt Matilda is here could refer to an extended present stretching from the time of her arrival through the present moment. (In each of these examples, reference is to physical presence, not to residency or employment.)

VIII. E X P A N D E D VERB-CLUSTERS A N D N O N - E X P A N D E D VERB-CLUSTERS

8.0. " D I V I D E D R E F E R E N C E " VERSUS " U N D I V I D E D R E F E R E N C E "

Weinreich states that "perhaps all languages distinguish between 'divided' and 'undivided' reference . . ., i.e., between nouns which are quantified in the form 'some x, a little x, much and those which are quantified in the form 'an x, one x, many x' ", l Willard Van Orman Quine says that terms like apple "possess built-in modes, however arbitrary, of dividing their reference".2 And yet a little later he points out that the term apple may be made to double as a mass term, as in "Put some apple in the salad". Since the noun apple may be either "count" or "mass", the question arises as to whether we should consider the N O U N apple as belonging to two different categories, "count" and "mass", or should instead consider the NOMINAL an apple as being a count nominal and the NOMINAL (some) apple as being a mass nominal. Certainly some nouns, e.g., cake, do not seem to suggest "count-ness" more than they suggest "mass-ness", or "mass-ness" more than "count-ness": it is not until we know whether the noun cake is used with the determiner a or else comprises the whole of a nominal by itself (or is used with a determiner like some) that we can be sure whether it is a so-called count noun or a mass noun. 3 (But a nominal like 1 Uriel Weinreich, "On the Semantic Structure of Language", in Universals of Language, edited by Joseph H. Greenberg (Cambridge, Mass., The M.I.T. Press, 1963), p. 129. - Willard Van Orman Quine, Word and Object (Cambridge. Mass., The Technology Press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1960), p. 91. ' A similar ambiguity is to be found in such lexemes as shout. We cannot tell whether shout is a noun or a verb until we know the kind of construction in which it occurs. But there is no difficulty in assigning a shout to the category of noun-clusters and will shout (or to shout) to the category of verb-clusters (or verbid-clusters). It has been suggested that the distinction between "nouns" and "verbs" is universal. Edward Sapir, for example, says that "no language wholly fails to distinguish noun and verb". (Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech, Harvest ed., New York. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949, p. 119.) But it is possible to conceive of a language all of whose "nouns" could also function as "verbs". Such a language would distinguish between "nominals" and "verbals", not between nouns and verbs, and it would be incorrect to state that such a language exhibited instances of class-cleavage unless some of the nominals and/or verbals could function as either. (It appears, however, that even the distinction between "nominals" and "verbals" may not be universal: Whorf suggests that "every major word" in Nitinat and the other Wakashan languages may make a predication and take on such moduli as voice, aspect, and tense. [Benjamin

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

193

the cake is ambiguous: it may refer to either an identified cake or some identified cake.) Weinreich also states that the distinction between divided and undivided reference is to be found among "non-nouns": he gives as an example "divided reference of verbs by means of punctual and iterative aspects". 4 It would appear, however, that a closer analogy in the class of verbs to the difference between a count noun and a mass noun would be the difference between what Garey calls "telic" verbs and "atelic" verbs - that is, the difference between a verb like drown and a verb like play.5 (This distinction will be discussed in greater detail below.) 8.1. S P A C E - O R I E N T A T I O N VERSUS T I M E - O R I E N T A T I O N

8.11. Space-Oriented Nouns: "Suffusive"

vs.

"Non-Suffusive"

As stated above, nouns like apple and cake seem to be used sometimes as count nouns and sometimes as mass nouns. Only the presence of one of the "count determiners" (a/an, every, each, and either and neither when not followed by or") with the singular form of the noun - or else the plural form of the noun, with or without a determiner - signals such a noun as being "count" or "bounded". 7 When discussing such nouns, we will apply the labels "bounded" and "non-bounded" to the NOMINALS (i.e., the noun-clusters) of which the nouns form the nuclei, rather than to the nouns themselves. But there are other nouns such as pencil and car which can always be recognized as bounded even when they do not co-occur with count determiners. The words a little in a little cake or a little egg are ambiguous: they may mean either 'a small (one)' or 'a bit o f . But the nominals a little pencil and a little car are never ambiguous. The difference between nouns like cake, egg, and apple and nouns like pencil and car seems to be that the former refer to Entities that are "suffusive": 8 a cake is cake all the way through - that is, any part of a cake, no matter how Lee Whorf, Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, edited by John B. Carroll, Cambridge, Mass., Institute of Technology, 1956, p. 98.] Perhaps the only elements that are universally essential to the making of an assertion are those which have already been defined as the essential elements in a major sentence in English [see 4.2, above]: "S" [i.e., some "nominal"] and "x" - in short, space-orientation and time-orientation.) 4 Uriel Weinreich, "On the Semantic Structure of Language", in Universals of Language, edited by Joseph H. Greenberg (Cambridge, Mass., The M.I.T. Press, 1963), p. 129. 5 Howard B. Garey, "Verbal Aspect in French", Language, XXXIII (April-June, 1957), 106-110. 6 The classification of "count determiners" suggested here differs slightly from the one appearing in Holger Steen S0rensen, Word-Classes in Modern English (Copenhagen, G . E. C. Gad, 1958), p. 143. 7 "Bounded" is the term used by Leonard Bloomfield in Language (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1933), p. 205. 9 The term "suffusive" is not a particularly apt one. The present writer used it originally in connection with such Entities as gas and water, to which it applies more convincingly. But since he has been unable to think of a better term, he has continued to use "suffusive", even f o r reference to Entities like cake and apple.

194

EXPANDED AND N O N - E X P A N D E D

VERB-CLUSTERS

small, is still cake. The same is true of apple; an apple is apple throughout. No matter how small a piece one cuts off, one still has apple. But this is not true of a pencil: a very small piece of a pencil may be just wood or lead - the label "pencil" is applied only to a specific kind of unit, not to every part of the unit. Non-suffusive nouns always occur as the nuclei of bounded nominals; suffusive nouns may occur as the nuclei of either bounded or non-bounded nominals. 8.111. Bounded Nominals: Unique ("Proper") vs. Repeatable ("Count") - Bounded nominals are of two kinds: those which refer to unique Entities, which cannot be repeated (like Percy and Mr. Puddleditch9), and those which refer to repeatable Entities (like a cake or a pencil). Nouns which regularly function as the nuclei of nominals with unique reference usually do not take a plural affix; such nouns are regularly written with initial capitals and are called "proper nouns". Nouns which can function as the nuclei of repeatable nominals regularly take a plural affix. 8.112. Non-Bounded Nominals: "Mass" vs. "A Kind of" - In their Outline of Linguistic Analysis, Bloch and Trager attempt to define bounded nouns, mass nouns, abstract nouns, and proper nouns "without any reference to their meanings". 10 They do so by dividing the determiners into two groups (class A, which includes the, this, and some, and class B, which includes a/an, each, and every), and by then defining the different sub-classes of nouns in terms of their ability or inability to occur with a determiner of class A and/or class B. "Mass nouns", for example, are those which "occur either without a determiner or with a determiner of class A: milk, fresh milk, the milk (but never a milk)".u "Abstract nouns" may take determiners of either class A or B, or may occur without any determiner: e.g., kindness, this kindness, a kindness. "Proper nouns" are those which "normally take no determiners at all: John, Chicago, December". If one applies this definition rigorously, however, one is forced to classify cake as an abstract noun since cake, this cake, a cake all occur (with no greater difference in meaning than is to be found between kindness and a kindness). Furthermore, as Olive Greene points out, almost any English noun can be used without a determiner or with a/an or with the in certain contexts (although "most of them do not cross over from one 'class' to another very often" 12 ). Even the noun milk may be used with a, as in "Jerseys give a very rich milk". 13 But there is a difference between " There may be other "Percys", of course, but not another Percy of the same kind. The same applies to "Mr. Puddleditch". ,0 Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager, Outline of Linguistic Analysis (Baltimore, Md., Linguistic Society of America, 1942), p. 78. 11 Ibid. For a classification of nouns into an even larger number of sub-classes by means of test-frames, see Leslie A. Hill, "Noun-Classes and the Practical Teacher", Language Learning, IX (1959), 23-32. 18 Olive Greene, "The Problem of the Article in the Teaching and Learning of English as a Foreign Language" (unpublished Master's thesis, The Kennedy School of Missions of The Hartford Seminary Foundation, Hartford, Conn., 1957), p. 83. " Ibid., p. 24.

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

195

nominals like a very rich milk and a poisonous gas, on the one hand, and nominals like a chocolate cake and a red apple on the other. The determiner a in the last two nominals distinguishes units - that is, it distinguishes one cake from another, or one apple from another - while the determiner a in the first two nominals has the meaning "a kind of", 14 and distinguishes not between one unit of milk or gas and another such unit, but rather between one kind of milk or gas and another kind. S0rensen calls the determiner a when used in the first of these two ways an "indefinite determiner"; when a is used with the meaning "a kind of", he calls it a "generic determiner". 1 ' Strictly speaking, nominals like a gas are non-bounded: the "gas" referred to has no "boundary" or outline. "A cake" is a specific kind of unit (although it may be of almost any size); but to express a unit of "gas" or a unit of "milk", one must specify some container, as in a bottle of milk. (In certain contexts, or as the result of frequent usage, certain "mass" nouns may be so commonly associated with specific containers that reference to the container may be omitted: thus at a lunch counter, for example, "a coffee" is regularly taken to mean "a cup of" coffee". But with no such distinguishing context, the nominal a coffee is ambiguous: it may refer either to "a cup of coffee" or to "a kind of coffee.") 8.12. Time-Oriented

Nominals: Bounded vs.

Non-Bounded

Since it appears that a mass noun MAY be used with a determiner of Bloch and Trager's class B, their definition of "abstract nouns" as those which "take determiners of both class A and class B, but occur also in the singular without determiners", does not provide a sufficient criterion. Another kind of classification, however, will distinguish a sub-class of nominals that includes Bloch and Trager's "(a) kindness"; whether the nominals in this group are best called "abstract" is not of immediate concern: the label "abstract" suggests a semantic distinction, and no such distinction is claimed here. The nominals in this sub-class seem to be distinguished from those discussed previously by the fact that they are oriented IN TIME rather than in space: the presence of the determiner a/an in such nominals seems to suggest some kind of TEMPORAL "container" rather than a physical one. Thus "a kindness" (as opposed to "another kindness") seems to refer to someone's kindness on one occasion as opposed to the same person's (or another person's) kindness on another occasion. Similarly, "a summer" differs from "another summer" by their different "locations" IN TIME rather than by any visible outline or shape.10 14 It is p r o b a b l y f o r this r e a s o n t h a t a a n d an a r e regularly o m i t t e d in the speech of m a n y p e o p l e a f t e r expressions with kind of even b e f o r e b o u n d e d n o u n s , as in that kind of chair. 15 H . S. S0rensen, Word-Classes in Modern English ( C o p e n h a g e n , G . E . C . G a d , 1958), p. 143. 18 It is interesting t o note t h a t a n o m i n a l like this summer is a m b i g u o u s : it m a y suggest either "inclusive r e f e r e n c e " o r "intrusive r e f e r e n c e " - t h a t is, it m a y r e f e r either to " t h e w h o l e of this s u m m e r " o r t o " a point of t i m e b e t w e e n t h e b e g i n n i n g a n d the end of the s u m m e r " , as m a y b e seen f r o m these examples: " M r . P u d d l e d i t c h will be h e r e [sometime] this s u m m e r . " " M r . Puddleditch will be h e r e [alll this s u m m e r . "

196

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

Many nouns occur in nominals belonging to different sub-classes: thus one may speak of "tea" (something to drink); "a [kind of] tea"-, "the institution [afternoon] tea" (common among the British but not among Americans); and "a tea [party]" that one has been invited to. Again, rain as a spatially oriented Entity makes the ground wet, while rain as a temporally oriented Entity keeps one's children indoors; a rain as a spatially oriented Entity may be good for the crops (but another kind of rain may damage them), while a rain as a temporally oriented Entity may last for a short period of time or for several days. Some nouns seem to have different forms for "time-orientation" as opposed to "space-orientation": thus a hearty laugh seems to be distinct from another laugh occurring in time, while a hearty laughter seems to be distinguished from another kind of laughter. 8.13. Generic

Nominals

The different sub-classes of nouns seem to differ from each other also according to the kinds of "generic nominals" into which they may enter. 17 Thus pen may be used with generic reference in the nominal a pen (as in A pen is something to write with) or pens (as in Pens are things to write with), less commonly the pen (as in The pen is mightier than the sword); milk is used with no determiner for generic reference (as in Milk is good for you); the institution tea is used with no determiner for generic reference (as in [Afternoon] tea is a peculiarly British institution), but tea meaning "an occasion" has the generic forms a tea or teas but not the tea (as in A tea is — or Teas are - usually quieter than a cocktail party [than cocktail parties]). 8.14. Events: Space-Oriented AND

Time-Oriented

It appears, then, that Entities may be classified as either "Bounded" or "NonBounded", and that they may be further classified as oriented either with respect to space (e.g., a cake-, cake) or with respect to time (e.g., a kindness-, kindness). If space and time are represented as two "axes" extending outward from the point "HERE-NOW", 1 8 as in the diagram on the next page, Entities may be thought of as "lying along" either one axis or the other. (Thus a rain as a spatial entity would be measured by the area it covered, while a rain as a temporal entity would be measured according to how long it lasted.) An Event, however, involves both an Entity and a Predication - that is, both some nominal and "x". 1 ' In the diagram in Figure 18, therefore, an Event would have to be "plotted" with reference to both the space axis and the time axis. A barking dog, for example, is an Entity, not an Event: it is oriented only with refer17 A generic nominal refers to an Entity considered as removed f r o m both space and time as in "A cat is an animal", where the sentence is time-oriented (by is) but neither a cat nor an animal refers to an Entity at any point in space. 18 C f . the discussion of the "point . . . 'nous-ici-maintenant' " in footnote 29 on page 182. Cf. the discussion in footnote 3 on page 192.

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

197

SPACE (3-dimensional)

"CONCRETE" ENTITIES

G W "O w • s | es Z o £ m « ¿ S o s

\ W § •o Z T3 c 3

s5

e W B

o o pa u "NOW"

• B o u n d e d Entities W SC

TIME

N o n - B o u n d e d Entities

"ABSTRACT"

ENTITIES

Fig. 18. Entities and Events. e n c e t o s p a c e . B u t w h e n t h e s a m e E n t i t y is " p l a c e d " in t i m e , as in A dog is

barking,

t h e result is t h e e x p r e s s i o n of a n E v e n t - that is, a n a s s e r t i o n . 2 0 8 . 1 4 1 . Bounded

(or

"Telic")

Predications:

Unique

vs. Repeated

-

Garcy divides

v e r b s i n t o t w o s u b - c l a s s e s , "telic v e r b s " , w h i c h e x p r e s s "an a c t i o n t e n d i n g t o w a r d s a g o a l " , a n d "atelic v e r b s " , w h i c h " d o n o t h a v e t o w a i t f o r a g o a l f o r their realiz a t i o n , b u t are r e a l i z e d as s o o n as t h e y begin". 2 1 Y e t later G a r c y p o i n t s o u t that the v e r b to play, 20

for e x a m p l e , has several meanings:

Although the diagram in Figure 18 may not add much to the discussion of Entities and Events that has preceded, it is included here since it was the present writer's attempt to draw some such diagram which first suggested to him the relationship between Entities and Events. 21 H o w a r d B. Garey, "Verbal Aspect in French", Language, XXXIII (April-June, 1957), 106. N o t e the parallelism between atelic verbs and suffusive nouns: "a little bit of an apple", no matter how small, is still "apple", but "a little bit of a pencil" may be "wood" or "lead" and lack any "pencil" quality; similarly, after a person has once begun to "eat", he "has eaten", no matter how little, but it is not possible to say that a person "has drowned" just after he has begun to "drown". Bull distinguishes f u r t h e r between atelic verbs that are "cyclic", such as the verb revolve, and atelic verbs that are "noncyclic", such as the verb sleep. (William E. Bull, Time, Tense and the Verb [= University of California Publications in Linguistics, Vol. XIX], Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1960, p. 44.) T h e distinction between cyclic and noncyclic Events, however, does not seem to be as useful, for English at least, as the distinction between telic and atelic.

198

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

one is to be occupied with some sort of vague childish activities; another, to play a game; a third, to make music with an instrument; and a fourth, to complete a game or a piece of music. Here we begin to see more clearly into the problem. If there is a direct object, and if this object designates something that has a structure with a temporal ending to it - a game of chess or of tennis, a Beethoven sonata - the expression verb-plus-object is telic. In the contrary case, if the complement of the verb is atelic . . . or if there is no object . . . the expression is atelic.82 It would appear, then, that it is not so much the verb itself which is telic or atelic, but rather the kind of Predication in which the verb participates. (Compare the discussion of nominais like cake and a cake above.) If we substitute the terms "bounded" and "non-bounded" for Garey's "telic" and "atelic", and use "bounded" not for verbs but for Predications, 23 wc can avoid calling the same item both "bounded" and "non-bounded": thus the Predication are playing a rubber of bridge (like the nominal a cake in the sentence I've bought a cake for your birthday) is bounded, whereas the Predication are playing bridge (like the nominal cake in the sentence / like cake) is non-bounded.-'4 In the sentence They are playing a rubber of bridge, of course, the bounded Predication is not "whole" yet - and may never be completed - just as half an apple is not a whole apple: but the PREDICATION play a rubber of bridge - like the NOMINAL an apple - may be called "bounded" (in the grammar), even though both the Predication and the nominal here refer to "incomplete" units (in the "practical world"). BOUNDED PREDICATIONS are of two kinds: "unique" and "repeated". A UNIQUE PREDICATION is one that refers to a single Event; a R E P E A T E D PREDICATION is one that expresses a given Predication as occurring more than once.23 Unique Predications may be expressed by either expanded verb-clusters or nonexpanded verb-clusters, as in the following sentences: [ 1 ] (a) We ate supper at seven o'clock last night. (b) We were still eating supper when Percy walked in twenty minutes later. Repeated Predications are most commonly expressed by non-expanded clusters, as in [2] 22

We ate supper at six o'clock every night last week.

Howard B. Garey, "Verbal Aspect in French", Language, X X X I I I (April-June, 1957), 107. Verbs with no complements are considered to be special cases of Predications, just as nouns with no modifiers are considered to be special cases of noun-clusters. 21 There is probably some significance in the fact that Thomas More never uses verbs which may take objects in expanded verb-clusters except when the verbs are specifically accompanied by objects: the expanded forms of such verbs occur in his writings only when they are used with objects. See F. Th. Visser, A Syntax of the English Language of St. Thomas More, Vols. XIX, XXIV, and XXVI of Materials for the Study of the Old English Drama (Louvain, Librairie Universitaire, 1946, 1952, 1956), XXIV, 738. 25 But a Predication that refers to two or more Events is not necessarily a repeated Predication; by making this distinction we are able to avoid having to decide whether a sentence like the following refers to one Event or to several Events (as many, that is, as there were boys in the room at the time referred to): "Each boy in the room stood up and gave his name."

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

199

The Events expressed by such Predications are conceived of as being separate occurrences, and may be represented by a row of x's, thus: [3]

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

But in special contexts a series of repeated Events may be conceived of as forming a chain of Events and thus as forming one continuous Event, which may be represented as follows: [4]

—x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

x—t

To show that a series of repeated Events is conceived of as "one chain" of Events, a speaker may use an expanded verb-cluster, usually with some time-expression that shows that reference to more than one occurrence of the Event is intended; for example: [5]

[6]

But we're eating supper at seven o'clock (every night) this week - 1 can't get home much before that because of a special job we're working on at the office. I'm taking piano lessons this winter - I've always wanted to be able to play the piano.

Predications with always and expanded verb-clusters are of this kind: [7]

Why can't you keep track of your possessions? You're always losing something or other.2"

8.1411. Unique Predications: Momentary vs. Extended -- Unique Predications may be classified as either momentary or extended. MOMENTARY PREDICATIONS are those that are conceived of as lacking duration, as occurring "all at once", "all in a moment", like the Predications in the following sentences:27 [8] [9] [10] [11] 2

Percy arrived just at seven-twenty. He slammed the door as he walked in. I bid two clubs. . . . an associate of mine once hired an ex-convict . . . .(RDcl91)

" But such Predications do not necessarily have an emotional coloring; there seems to be no coloring in the following sentence: He it as always getting a Guggenheim grant or doing a piece of work for a museum or an institute ( P N n 2 2 3 ) . 27 Bull says that "all events take time to take place and that no event can take place at a point." (William E. Bull, Time, Tense and the Verb [= University of California Publications in Linguistics, Vol. XIX], Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1960, p. 51.) A s f a r as "reality" is concerned, this m a y be true; but it is nonetheless true that we can think of Events as happening "suddenly", "all at once". (In the same passage Bull says that if a clock point is expressed in conjunction with a verb like arrive, the meaning suggested is that the "terminative aspect" of arrive will be simultaneous with one o'clock. He then generalizes f r o m this example. But his reasoning seems to be influenced by the lexical m e a n i n g of the specific verb he has chosen: surely in the sentence Mr. Dex went at one o'clock it is not the termination of his going that coincides with " o n e o'clock", but rather - if anything - its inception. If we change the sentence to Mr. Dex went to Washington at one o'clock, this becomes even clearer: his trip to Washington began at one. But it is probably useless to argue about w h e t h e r m o m e n t a r y Predications like arrive and depart have " b e g i n n i n g s ' or "ends": all that is required is that the actions expressed by them be conceived of as happening "all at once".)

200

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

The kind of "moment" suggested by a momentary Predication cannot be measured, but it can often be differentiated from more extended periods of time by means of the temporal preposition at (in contrast to such temporal prepositions as on, in, during, from . . . to, and between . . . [and]); thus a momentary Predication may refer to an Event which "happened" at seven o'clock, or at noon, or (at) some time between nine and ten, or at the time when something else happened (or began to happen). 28 A moment of time may also be indicated by the use of just with as or when, as in [12]

The telephone rang just as we were getting up from the table.

Momentary Predications - as opposed to extended Predications - are often signaled by the addition of a particle like down or up to a verb, as in sit down, stand up,29 lie down, get up, pick up a basket of apples (cf. pick a basket of apples). Certain pairs of verbs suggest the opposition "momentary"/"extended"; both verbs in such a pair are often used together, as in [13]

She took the rose from him and held it in her hand.

8.1412. Extended Predications: Included vs. Inceptive - A momentary predication always occurs either at a stated (or implied) moment of time, or within a stated (or implied) period of time. We will say that in either case it is "included" in the time stated. A momentary Predication, by definition, cannot take longer to happen than a moment of time. But an extended Predication may co-occur with either a time-expression referring to a period of time long enough to include the whole of the Event expressed by the Predication or a time-expression referring to a period of time (usually a moment of time) shorter than the extent of time required for the occurrence of the Event expressed by the Predication. When a Predication is expressed by a non-expanded verb-cluster in conjunction with a time-expression referring to a point or period of time too short to include the Event expressed by 29

A n expression like "breakfast-time", or "lunch-time", or "supper-time" commonly refers to the (inexact) m o m e n t of the day at which the meal referred to began or is to begin, as in It's supper-time or Percy got up at lunch-time-, but because of the fact that the noun time may refer to either a m o m e n t of time or an extended period of time, lunch-time, for example, may be used f o r "lunch period", although during lunch-time does not seem as natural (to the present writer, at least) as during the lunch hour. {At lunch-time may also be used for reference to some moment during the time that one ate lunch, as in I saw Percy at lunch-time.) Thus periods of time are conceived of as being separated f r o m each other by moments of time: "this m o m e n t " separates the past f r o m the future, and " n o o n " (or, f o r m a n y people, "lunchtime", whenever that may be) separates the morning f r o m the afternoon. This temporal use of at with dividing points of time corresponds to the spatial use of at f o r dividing "points" (not necessarily small) in space, as in Does this train stop at Baltimore on the way to Washington? (The use of at with night seems to be an anomaly. Its use in the expression at night m a y be explained by the fact that a person is usually not conscious of the passing of time when he is asleep.) 24

E. Kruisinga calls these expressions of "perfectivity". ("Critical Contributions to English Syntax", English Studies, III [1921], 46.) But the momentary quality of such Predications seems m o r e significant than their "perfectivity".

201

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

it, t h e P r e d i c a t i o n is usually, if n o t a l w a y s , a s s u m e d t o BEGIN at t h e ( m o m e n t o f ) t i m e i n d i c a t e d , as in the f o l l o w i n g e x a m p l e s : [14]

C a n y o u c o m e t o d i n n e r this S u n d a y e v e n i n g ? We'll

[15]

Suddenly

[16]

After

s a d n e s s left her, d e s p a i r showed

a few moments

eat around

six.

in h e r f a c e . ( S E c 8 2 )

t h e b i g h o u s e loomed

in front

of them.

. . . (GGn22)

C f . F o r a f e w m o m e n t s a big h o u s e l o o m e d in f r o n t of t h e m . [17]

At five o'clock,

[18]

P e r c y a l w a y s watches

h e drove

to the

television

station.30 at eight

o'clock.

P r e d i c a t i o n s w h i c h are e x p r e s s e d b y n o n - e x p a n d e d

v e r b - c l u s t e r s in

conjunction

w i t h t i m e - e x p r e s s i o n s that refer t o p e r i o d s of t i m e l o n g e n o u g h t o i n c l u d e t h e E v e n t s referred t o m a y b e c a l l e d I N C L U D E D P R E D I C A T I O N S ; P r e d i c a t i o n s w h i c h are e x p r e s s e d b y n o n - e x p a n d e d v e r b - c l u s t e r s in c o n j u n c t i o n w i t h t i m e - e x p r e s s i o n s referring t o m o m e n t s of t i m e at w h i c h the E v e n t s referred t o are a s s u m e d t o h a v e b e g u n , or t o begin, m a y b e c a l l e d I N C E P T I V E P R E D I C A T I O N S . 3 1 30

This example is taken f r o m John Millington-Ward, The Use of Tenses in English (London, Longmans, [Green and Company], 1954), p. 33. Millington-Ward's book is the only text f o r non-English-speaking students known to the present writer (with the exception of Robert L. Allen and Virginia F . Allen, Graded English for Caltex Employees, mimeographed edition, Rumbai, Indonesia, The Caltex Pacific Oil Company, 1958) to emphasize the inceptive use of non-expanded verb-clusters. 31 A sentence like the following may be interpreted as referring either to the moment of coding, or else to knowledge extended over a period of time that includes the moment of coding: "I know a little French." Such Predications, which are of a special nature, will be discussed in Chapter IX. They involve certain verbs which rarely occur in expanded form. But it appears that most verbs are usually not used in their simple present forms in Predications expressing Events in progress at the moment of speaking; a question like the following, for example, asked of a teacher (over the telephone, perhaps) in the middle of a class period would probably not be taken to refer to the specific period thus being interrupted but rather to the repeated Event which occurs every day (or every week) during this period: "What do you teach this period?'' Similarly, if such a question were asked of a teacher at the very end of the period, it would probably again be taken to refer to "every day (or week) at this time". But if asked of a teacher at the beginning of a period, it could be taken in either of two ways: it could be taken to refer to the repeated Event, or it could be taken to refer to the specific class just about to get under way. (The teacher may be taking over another teacher's class for just this one day.) A question asked in the middle of a period with reference to that specific period would probably be expressed as follows, with an expanded verb-cluster: "What are you teaching this period?" It should be noted that the question as so phrased refers to "this period" intrusively rather than inclusively: it may be taken to refer to the moment of questioning - or to a part of the period extending before and after the moment of questioning - as well as to the whole period. Thus the teacher asked may reply in either of the following two ways: "I'm teaching arithmetic." "I'm teaching fractions (at the moment)." If the time-expression is omitted, reference seems t o be more directly to the moment of questioning. This is especially evident in a statement like the following: "It's raining." This sentence means, specifically, "It's raining at this moment". The past form of this sentence is not It rained, as is suggested on page 119 of Volume I of An Intensive Course in

202

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

8.142. Non-Bounded (or "Atelic") Predications - Many verbs, when used without bounding complements, express non-bounded Predications - that is, they do not suggest any termination (either in time or in space) for the Predication expressed. The example suggested by Garey - (they) played - is such a Predication: there is no suggestion as to how much playing was involved. It is not necessary for the Predication to express a specific duration of time for it to be considered "bounded"; it is enough that it suggest some termination to the Predication referred to. A more precise definition of a bounded Predication might be the following: A B O U N D E D P R E D I C A T I O N is a Predication which, if it is (rc-)stated with a non-expanded verb-cluster, suggests - or will suggest - that the Event expressed by it has a termination such that even if the activity referred to were to continue indefinitely (if possible), an observer would still be able to say at some point in the activity "This is the end of the Event expressed by the Predication". (Many Predications, of coursc, express Events that cannot be continued beyond a certain point; such Predications are always bounded. Conversely, so-called "states" - as opposed to "actions" - are almost always non-bounded.) Both Predications in the first sentence below are bounded; those in the second sentence are non-bounded: [ 19] (a) (b)

Even as we played the rubber of bridge, Bopur was drowning. While we played bridge, the children swam in the pool.

Although there was no way of telling in advance how long the rubber of bridge referred to in [19] (a) would take, it would have been possible for an observer to discern the point at which the playing of the rubber ended (even though the players may have gone on to play another rubber). Similarly, an observer could have told, approximately, when Bopur drowned - assuming he did drown. But from the Predications played bridge and swain in the pool in [19] (b) it is not evident how much bridge or how much swimming is referred to; there would have been no way for an observer to discern the moment at which the amount of playing and swimming here referred to ended if the playing and swimming had been continued indefinitely (or if, by chance, the same characters decided to re-enact the "same" Event on another occasion - but failed to stop at the same point in the Event). 32 It may be seen from the last examples that the presence of a complement does not always make a Predication bounded. Thus play bridge is a non-bounded Predication, although play a rubber of bridge is bounded. The latter is an extended English for Latin-American Students (by C h a r l e s C . F r i e s a n d t h e R e s e a r c h Staff of the English L a n g u a g e Institute [revised ed.. 6 vols.; A n n A r b o r . English L a n g u a g e I n s t i t u t e . U n i v e r sity of M i c h i g a n , 1943]); t h e p a s t f o r m of It is raining is It u r n raining, as m a y be seen by b r i n g i n g in a t i m e - e x p r e s s i o n to i n d i c a t e the s a m e kind of t i m e - r e f e r e n c e a s is suggested in t h e original sentence: "It is r a i n i n g . " (i.e., at this m o m e n t . ) "It w a s r a i n i n g at this time y e s t e r d a y . " T h e f o l l o w i n g s e n t e n c e w o u l d suggest, instead, that the r a i n b e g a n "at this t i m e y e s t e r d a y " : " I t rained at this time y e s t e r d a y . " " B u t n o two E v e n t s a r e ever really the s a m e , of c o u r s e .

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

203

bounded Predication; play a card, on the other hand, would be a momentary bounded Predication. Similarly, write letters is non-bounded, whereas write a letter is bounded. Walk is non-bounded; but both walk a mile and walk an hour are bounded (the former in space, the latter in time). Jespersen states, as a limitation upon the use of certain verbs, that a transitive verb cannot be used in the present perfect without an object.113 A sentence like */ have read, for example, does not occur (but the corresponding expanded form may occur without an object: for example, I have been reading). It is probably not so much the fact that such verbs are transitive that makes it impossible to use them in the present perfect without an object, as the fact that a transitive verb without an object is commonly non-bounded. This same limitation seems to apply to most non-bounded Predications: one cannot say */ have walked, although one can say I have been walking.3* But one can use the verb walk in the present perfect as part of a bounded Predication, as in I have walked a mile (or I have walked an hour). And yet there seems to be one kind of reference for which present perfect tenses may be used even in non-bounded Predications (including Jespersen's "have ready, this is reference to some such meaning as "a little - some - experience of", as in the following example: [20]

I've read, I've listened to the radio, I've watched television, I've played classical music on my record-player - but 1 haven't enjoyed anything as much as just sitting and doing nothing.

Certain verbs, such as BE and LIVE, seem to be used with this kind of rcferencc fairly regularly, as in " O t t o J e s p e r s e n , A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, 1 vols. ( C o p e n h a g e n , E j n a r M u n k s g a a r d , 1909-1949), I V , 196. 4 * A n y such g e n e r a l i z a t i o n s s h o u l d of c o u r s e be q u a l i f i e d by the w o r d " u s u a l l y " b e c a u s e of t h e possibility of ellipsis - t h a t is, of t h e o m i s s i o n of c e r t a i n items w h i c h w o u l d n o r m a l l y be included in a f u l l s e n t e n c e b u t w h i c h h a v e b e e n o m i t t e d b e c a u s e of the possibility of the h e a r e r ' s s u p p l y i n g t h e m f r o m t h e i m m e d i a t e c o n t c x t (the linguistic c o n t e x t a n d / o r s i t u a t i o n a l context). A l t h o u g h a s e n t e n c e like / have practiced w o u l d not be n a t u r a l as t h e first s e n t e n c e in a c o n v e r s a t i o n , it w o u l d b e p e r f e c t l y n a t u r a l in a n s w e r to a q u e s t i o n like the f o l l o w i n g : " H a v e you done your practicing for today?" " Y e s , I've p r a c t i c e d . " F o r this r e a s o n , m o s t g r a m m a t i c a l g e n e r a l i z a t i o n s s h o u l d p r o b a b l y be based u p o n a n analysis of g r a m m a t i c a l f o r m s a s t h e y a p p e a r in t h e " c i t a t i o n f o r m s " of sentences, i.e., in s e n t e n c e s w h i c h m i g h t o c c u r a s t h e i n t r o d u c t o r y s e n t e n c e s in n e w c o n v e r s a t i o n s . T h u s a s e n t e n c e like They've elected Abernathy w o u l d p r o b a b l y n o t i n t r o d u c e a c o n v e r s a t i o n (except possibly t h e second p a r t of a " d i s c o n t i n u o u s c o n v e r s a t i o n " ) a l t h o u g h it c o u l d easily o c c u r as t h e second sentence: " W h o ' s b e e n c h o s e n as p r e s i d e n t of t h e Y a c h t C l u b ? " " T h e y ' v e elected A b e r n a t h y . " A n d yet e v e n a g e n e r a l i z a t i o n like this o n e m a y n o t a l w a y s h o l d t r u e , b e c a u s e of t h e possibility of d i s c o n t i n u o u s c o n v e r s a t i o n s (or of situational c o n t e x t s ) w h i c h m i g h t s u p p l y t h e missing e l e m e n t s : a h u s b a n d just r e t u r n i n g f r o m the C l u b w h o k n o w s t h a t his w i f e s h a r e s t h e k n o w l e d g e t h a t a new p r e s i d e n t w a s to be c h o s e n t o d a y , m a y say as he w a l k s in the f r o n t d o o r , "Well, t h e y ' v e elected A b e r n a t h y . "

204

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

[21]

I've lived in New York and I've lived in Washington, and I can say from experience that there's no comparison between the two. I've been in Rome once, and can hardly wait to get back.

[22]

8.15. "Generic

Predications"

A generic nominal has been defined as one that refers to an Entity conceived of as not being "placed" in either space or time. By analogy, the name "GENERIC PREDICATIONS" may be given to Predications that do not express Events - that is, to predicatids (verbid-clusters and their complements) that express Predications unoriented with reference to any identified time. 35 "Generic predications" are regularly expressed by verbid-clusters; they may occur as nominals, as adjectivals, or even as adverbials.36 The similarity between space-oriented nominals and timeoriented Predications, and between generic nominals and generic Predications, may be seen from the following examples: Space and/or Time-Oriented: [23] (a) The sailor shot an albatross. (b) Generic: [24] (a) (b)

I have been walking around the block. An albatross is a big sea bird. Walking around the block is my only exercise.

8.2. I N C L U S I V E R E F E R E N C E VERSUS N O N - I N C L U S I V E R E F E R E N C E

8.21. Bounded Predications vs. Non-Bounded

Predications

It is not necessary, of course, that a bounded Predication state specifically that the implied termination is actually reached: one can say, for example, The man was drowning without necessarily suggesting that the man actually drowned. As in the case of the sentence We were eating supper when Percy walked in, the expanded form is non-committal as to whether the supper was ever finished or not. But the use of a non-expanded form, because of its marked meaning of "inclusive reference", would suggest that the man did drown: [25]

The man drowned. (Cf. The man was drowning.)

There is justification, therefore, for claiming that the Predication expressed by the non-expanded verb form have lived in the following sentence is inclusive (i.e., refers to the whole of an Event) and should, since it refers to time earlier than the moment of coding, express a COMPLETED Predication: 35

Cf. Jespersen's use of the name "generic time" for what has here been called "all time" (as referred to by the simple present in The sun rises in the east). (Otto Jespersen, The Philosophy of Grammar, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1924, p. 259.) Examples will be give in Chapter X.

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

[26]

205

I have lived in New York for the last ten years.

If one examines only the verb, apart from the Predication in which it participates, this statement does not appear to be necessarily true: I may still be living in New York. But if we insist that it is the Predication, not the verb, which is either bounded or non-bounded, it becomes evident that the statement is true: 1 have completed ten years of living in New York, regardless of whether I continue to live here or not. A statement like the following adds the additional information (not stated in the last example) that I am still living in New York: [27]

I have been living in New York for the last ten years.

In the present perfect tenses, the expanded form, rather than the non-expanded form, appears to be the "marked form": the non-expanded form is "unmarked" or noncommittal as to the continuation of the Event expressed by the Predication up to the moment of coding, while the expanded form signals the fact that the Event expressed by the Predication (or concomitants thereof - see 8.34, below) has continued right up to the moment of coding.37 With reference to the many languages which he examined in connection with his study of time and tense, Bull says that they all have "fundamentally the same basic structural characteristics. The base, to judge by the universality of its appearance, is the difference between perfective and imperfective aspect".3H The distinction between inclusive reference and non-inclusive reference appears, then, to be fairly universal. The same kind of reference is to be found with respect to Entities, and probably underlies the "divided reference" and "undivided reference" discussed by Weinreich and Quine." Inclusive reference to non-bounded Entities or Predications (e.g., water, walk) is necessarily vague since the limits are indeterminate; in some contexts, such reference is unnatural: [28] (a) (b)

I see water. I walked.

" All the examples of present perfect expanded verbals which appear in the corpus, as well as most of the other examples which the present writer has studied, seem to have this same kind of reference: that is, almost all Predications containing present perfect expanded verbclusters seem to refer to Events which (or the concomitants of which) have continued right u p to the m o m e n t of coding. Some of the sentences examined, however, refer to Events which have stopped just at the m o m e n t of coding, as in the following example, spoken to a newly arrived guest: "We've been reading J a n e Eyre", Miss Lovell said. (PNo258) But even in this instance, the concomitants of the Predication (i.e., of the reading) overlap the m o m e n t of coding: Miss Lovell and Mr. Lovell are still seated in the chairs in which they were sitting while Miss Lovell was reading, and presumably the book itself is still in evidence. 38 William E. Bull, Time, Tense and the Verb (— University of California Publications in Linguistics, Vol. XIX) (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1960), p. 28. (Italics added.) >• See 8.0, above (p. 192).

206

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED

VERB-CLUSTERS

Where such reference does occur, there is often a suggestion of contrast: [29] (a) (b)

When I looked out of the porthole, I saw water, not land. I walked; I didn't run.

But non-inclusive reference to such Entities and Predications is very common. The following sentences are more representative of the kind one usually meets: [30] (a) (b)

I see some water. I was walking.

In each of these sentences, reference is still to a non-bounded Entity or Predication, but the suggestion now is that instead of referring to the whole of it, the speaker is referring to only a relatively small, albeit indefinite, portion of the whole. Frequently, instead of referring to such an indefinite portion, a speaker adds a quantifier to show how much of the whole he is referring to: [31] (a) (b)

I see a glass of water. I walked a mile. Or: 1 walked an hour.

With respect to bounded Entities and Predications, the situation is quite different. Inclusive reference to such Entities and Predications is very common: [32] (a) (b)

I see a cake. The man drowned.

We ate supper.

Non-inclusive reference to bounded Entities and Predications is noncommittal as to how much of the Entity or Predication is being referred to - and even as to whether the whole of the Entity or Predication exists or takes place: [33] (a) (b)

I'd like some cake. The man was drowning.

We were eating supper.

There is often the suggestion of incompleteness in such reference, but this is implied rather than stated: if the cake was a very small one, the speaker might have wanted all of it; the man may have drowned; "we" may have finished supper after Percy walked in. But these are only inferences; the original statements assert nothing to justify such inferences. There are some nouns and verbs, however, that participate in Entities and Predications which, for some reason or other, do not allow of non-inclusive reference; such Entities and Predications seem to require, except in special cases (as when a change of meaning is involved), all-or-none reference. Sentences which suggest noninclusive reference to such Entities and Predications seem ungrammatical or at the least unnatural: [34] (a) (b)

*I see some pencil,4° *I was knowing a little French.

Certain implications of the contrast between inclusive reference and non-inclusive 40 The some in this sentence is to be spoken with weak stress. It is the indefinite determiner; it does not have the meaning of some in the sentence That's some pencil!

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED

VERB-CLUSTERS

207

reference may be pointed out here. In the first place, wherever inclusive reference is unavoidable because of the nature of the Predication (as in Two plus two equals four), the use of a non-expanded form is not a "special use" but what one would expect. Again, non-inclusive reference is obviously incompatible with contexts which imply reference to the whole of some Predication; thus sentences like the following do not occur: [35]

' P e r c y went to bed after he was eating

supper.

Similarly, when one person asks another person to do something, he asks the other person to do all that he wants him to do, not just part of it. Thus in standard speech, non-inclusive reference (by means of expanded verb forms) does not seem to occur in imperative sentences. No examples of the form [36]

*Don't be doing that

appear in the corpus.

41

8.22. Inclusive

Reference

vs. Intrusive

Reference

It appears that in many situations, a speaker may choose either of two forms of which one commonly expresses a marked meaning while the other is commonly noncommittal as regards the marked meaning. Thus a thirsty person may ask specifically for "a glass of water" or noncommittally for '"some water"; a person eating at a lunch counter may ask for "another coffee" or merely for "some more coffee". A person seeing a hen in the back yard may state specifically that he sees "a hen" or he may be noncommittal and state merely that he sees "a chicken"; a person who attends a French class every day may treat each class as a separate Event and refer to his French classes as a series of repeated Events ("I study French every day"), or he may treat each class as merely a link in one continuous chain of Events ("I'm studying French now"); a person who has lived in New York for ten years and is still living there may or may not signal the fact that he has not moved away ("I've lived in New York for the last ten y e a r s " / ' T v e been living in New York for the last ten years"). Again, a speaker may express an "eternal truth" from the point of view of another person who once stated the truth ("Columbus said that the world was round") or he may express the truth from his own point of view ("Columbus said that the world is round"). 41

Sentences like Don't you he worrying seem to occur in colloquial or substandard speech. Such forms were possible in Elizabethan English, before expansion had become as closely associated with non-inclusive reference as it is today. (For examples from Elizabethan English, see Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, 7 vols., Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949, IV, 204-205.) The occurrence of expanded clusters in imperative sentences in some contemporary dialects of English may reflect either the hanging on of older forms or, more probably, the influence of modern Irish: in the passage already referred to, Jespersen quotes an example from George Moore's The Lake (1921). (The present forms of all Gaelic verbs seem to be "composed of the verb bi plus a verbal noun which is translated by the English present participle". James MacLaren. MacLaren's Gaelic Self-Thaughi, 3rd ed., Glasgow, Alex. MacLaren and Sons, n.d., p. 49. Cf. also Alexander Macbain and John Whyte, How to Learn Gaelic, 4th ed., Inverness, The "Northern Chronicle" Office, 1906, p. 23.)

208

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

Many writers have stressed the fact that we cannot predict just what speech forms a given speaker will use in a given situation - or even whether he will utter any speech at all.42 Greene insists repeatedly that in many nominals it is not so much the noun itself that determines whether it is treated as a count noun or as a mass noun but rather "the user of the noun that determines that by the way he looks at the object named by the noun".*3 R. A. Close says "the ultimate choice of tense or aspect will depend, as choice involving meaning often does, less on objective facts (e.g., whether the action is really in progress or not) than on what the speaker is concerned with, or is primarily concerned with, at the time". 44 One pair of oppositions between which speakers frequently have free choice is that of "inclusive reference"/"intrusive reference". A person who has not been feeling very well, for example, may be asked either of the following questions by friends who meet him on the street: [37] (a) (b)

Do you feel any better? (Inclusive reference) Are you feeling any better? (Intrusive reference)

Similarly, a speaker referring to an Event in the past may either look at the Event "from outside" (i.e., inclusively) or he may look at it "from inside" (i.e., intrusively):45 [38] (a) (b) [39] (a) (b) [40] (a) (b)

Your teacher told me yesterday that your class is going on a trip next week. Your teacher was telling me yesterday that your class is going on a trip next week. She didn't conceal much from the public. She wasn't concealing much from the public. (GGc3) "What did you do from 8 to 9 last night?" "I watched TV." "What were you doing from 8 to 9 last night?" "I was watching TV." 8.3. "OVERLAPPING"

8.30. "Synchronism"

vs.

"Interrelationship"

Through all the preceding discussion, it has been implied, though not stated, that reference to "duration" is not one of the primary functions of expansion in verb48

See, for example, Leonard Bloomfield, Language (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1933), p. 141. Olive Greene, "The Problem of the Article in the Teaching and Learning of English as a Foreign Language" (unpublished Master's thesis, The Kennedy School of Missions of The Hartford Seminary Foundation, Hartford, Conn., 1957), p. 44. See also p. 83 of her study. 14 R. A. Close, "Concerning the Present Tense", English Language Teaching, XIII (JanuaryMarch, 1959), 64. 49 The diagram in Figure 16 on page 186 suggests these two different ways of "looking at an Event". 4S

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

209

clusters. Paul Roberts even suggests that "the simple present is coming more and more to indicate an indefinite duration of time, and may some day be better called the 'durative' or 'inclusive' tense". 46 Curme points out that "often to emphasize the idea of duration we add on, or on and on, to the simple verb, or we add and and repeat the verb", as in they walked on, they talked on and on, or they talked and talkedThe first sentence below seems to suggest "duration" more than does the second sentence: [41] (a) (b)

It went on and on. It was going on.

It has been suggested that one of the functions of expansion in verb-clusters is to express "overlapping" - that is, the overlapping, by one Event, of another Event or of an identified time. And yet the term overlapping, as used here, is not intended to mean mere temporal overlapping or "synchronism", of the kind emphasized by Jespersen in his exposition of his "frame theory". Instead, it is the point of view of this study that OVERLAPPING, AS EXPRESSED BY EXPANSION IN ENGLISH, IS A GRAMMATICAL DEVICE FOR INDICATING T H A T A SIGNIFICANT INTERRELATIONSHIP EXISTS BETWEEN ONE E V E N T AND ANOTHER, OR BETWEEN ONE E V E N T AND AN IDENTIFIED TIME. In other words, overlapping is a grammatical device by means of which a speaker can show that he considers one Event to be significantly related to another Event, or to a point in time. 48 The first of the sentences in each pair below, for example, suggests merely that the two Predications expressed in each sentence occurred at about the same time - or perhaps even consecutively. There is no strong implication of any real relationship between the two Predications; the sentences merely state that they took place. The second sentence in each pair, however, seems to suggest that there was some interrelationship between the Predications it expresses, or else that there was some interrelationship between those two Predications 46

Paul Roberts, Understanding Grammar (New York, H a r p e r and Brothers 1954), p. 139. (Italics added.) 47 George O. C u r m e , Syntax, Vol. I l l of A Grammar of the English Language (Boston, D. C. Heath and C o m p a n y , 1931), p. 377. 48 Several writers have suggested that expanded forms express a relationship between different Events o r between different times. E. Kruisinga and P. A. Erades, f o r example, state that "the succession of events that a story relates is expressed by simple f o r m s . . . the verbal ing is used as soon as two events are thought of as connected." (An Engilsh Grammar, 8th ed., 3 vols., Groningen, P. N o o r d h o f f , 1953, I, 252.) R. Volbeda says that "the difference between 'he dines at seven' and 'he is dining at seven' consists in the fact that the person w h o utters the statement feels a certain relation between the real present time and the real f u t u r e time". ("The 'Definite F o r m s ' " , Neopliilologus, XX, 1935, 296.) R. W . Zandvoort suggests that the difference between the use for f u t u r e reference of such forms as I'm coming and f o r m s like I'll come seems to be that "whereas in the f o r m e r the future is represented as connected with the present in the speaker's mind, in the latter the f u t u r e is thought of as such". (A Handbook of English Grammar, unilingual ed., 3rd impression with minor corrections, London, L o n g m a n s [Green and Company], 1960, p. 41.)

210

E X P A N D E D AND N O N - E X P A N D E D

VERB-CLUSTERS

and some unexpressed moment of time: in other words, that the two Events were simultaneous because both of them overlapped the same reference point. [42] (a) (b) [43] (a) (b)

John John They They

watched television last night and Mary wrote a letter. was watching television last night, and Mary was writing a letter. sang and danced. were singing and dancing.

It appears that in such sentences either verb-cluster may be expanded, or - as in the second sentence in each pair above - both verb-clusters may be expanded. It is suggested that the expanding of one verb-cluster rather than the other is influenced not so much by the desire to use one Predication or Event as a "frame" for the other, as it is by the requirements of inclusive and non-inclusive reference: if either Predication expresses an incomplete Event, the verb-cluster in that Predication is expanded; if both Predications express incomplete Events, the verb-clusters in both predications may be expanded; but if either Predication is of the type which does not allow of expansion, the verb-cluster in that Predication is not expanded. Jespersen himself points out that in the following sentence, the frame seems to be implied in the non-expanded verb-cluster rather than in the expanded cluster: [44]

Rousseau knows he is talking nonsense.*'

It will be seen that the first verb in that sentence (knows) is a verb which does not normally admit of expansion; the only way to indicate an interrelationship between the Predications expressed by the two clusters in that sentence, therefore, is by expanding the other cluster. Although the diagrams given by Grattan and Gurrey, by Mossé, and by Hill to represent the temporal relationships between the two parts of such sentences are suggestive, they are probably not accurate representations of the facts. 50 There seem to be several different kinds of overlapping. These are suggested in Figure 19. Figure 20 shows the different verb-clusters that are used to show various types of overlapping; these have been added to the diagram of Figure 11 in order to produce an enlarged "Time Chart" showing several different possible kinds of time, time-relationship, overlapping, and back-shifting. " Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard. 1909-1949), IV, 184. 511 See J. H. G. Grattan and P. Gurrey, Our Living Language (London, Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1925), pp. 216-221; Fernand Mossé, Histoire de la forme périphrastique être + participe présent en anglais de 1200 à nos jours (Thèse pour le doctorat ès Lettres présentée à la Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Paris, 1938), p. 205; Archibald A. Hill, Introduction to Linguistic Structures (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958), p. 210. See also the discussion (and diagrams) in 2.21, above. For example, in the book by Grattan and Gurrey, and also in the one by Hill, a clause such as while 1 wrote is represented by a dot. But while seems often to be used with non-expanded verb-clusters with the same kind of reference that it has when used with expanded verb-clusters; it is probable that while itself suggests overlapping and that many speakers feel the use of both while and an expanded form to be redundant. If this is true, then a clause like while I wrote should be represented by a line, not by a dot.

211

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

AN IDENTIFIED TIME \

> \ if e"C-

>

\\ —

u*»*****»» »

h ,4t

i

*

X » *H

t Fig. 19. Différents Kinds of Overlapping: Terminal: finally (a), initially (b); Concomitant (c, d); Concurrent (e); and Medial: of a m o m e n t (f, g, h), or of an event (i).

THE MOMENT OF CODING (OR REFERENCE)

AN IDENTIFIED TIME IN THE PAST Non-Factual sf

Non-Factual

Factual

s

had

WOULD HAVE

had been

WOULD

had

WOULD BE WOULD HAVE BEEN had been

had

+

[-d]

+

had been

\

Factual N

\

WILL

have/has have been/ has been .

WILL BE

m/N]

+

was/wcre/was am/arc/is (or) were/were/were Fig. 20. The Complete "Time Chart": Time, Time-Relationship, Overlapping, and Back-Shifting. 8.31. Medial

Overlapping

Perhaps the most obvious kind of overlapping is of the type suggested by Jespersen's term "frame". In this kind of overlapping, one Predication expresses an

212

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

extended time within which the other Predication (most commonly, a momentary Predication) is stated as taking place. The extended Predication thus overlaps the momentary Predication. 51 Examples of this kind of overlapping are the following:52 [45] [46] [47]

. . . he might be forgotten when they were passing around honorary degrees. (PNn223) I gathered they were living together. (SIc491) Charles tried to speak as though he were speaking about the Bronte sisters. (PNc259)

The following are examples of the use of non-expanded verb-clusters with while and as to express the same kind of time-relationship: 53 [48] [49]

So, while Gertrude was rehearsing, I put in a call to Groton. (RDcl76) There were patches of sun-yellowed Sargasso weed floating in the water near her that passed slowly in the current going to the north and east, while the wind overcame some of the launch's drift . . . . (HNnl23) [50] A gorilla clapped his hands as the lawyer walked by. (GGn58) [51] "Back to Thurber!" Pamela said to herself as she looked at them. (AMc43) [52] Mason started around the big desk, and as he did so stopped short as he saw the body of a woman crumpled on the floor . . . . (GGn60) In the following sentences, the non-included clusters are expanded; the overlapped (or included) Event is expressed by an included cluster, by another non-included cluster, or by the verb-cluster in an earlier sentence: [53] [54] [55] [56]

When he returned from his errand in the kitchen, Miss Sarah was sipping her tea. . . . (PNcl42) Dudley, she saw, was furiously scribbling. . . . (AMc43) There was a silence after the front door had closed. The house was returning to its norm, but slowly, very slowly. (PNcl43) A porchlight came on to flood the place with brilliance. Somewhere in the back dogs were barking with savage insistence. (GGn22)

Medial overlapping may be of a time rather than of an Event, as in the following examples: [57] [58]

We have already seen that even in 1872 the Standard was refining oil in the Regions and New York as well as in Cleveland. (SPnl79) Meanwhile, mail was coming in from Gertrude's friends all over the world. (RDcl76)

51 T h e extended Predication may be called the "including" Predication; the m o m e n t a r y Predication would then be the "included" Predication. M T h e number of sentences appearing in the corpus that exemplify Jespersen's f r a m e theory is surprisingly small. " T h e corpus contains many more examples of overlapping clauses introduced by as than of overlapping clauses introduced by while.

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

[59] [60]

213

But she was soon enjoying a gay whirl . . . . (RDcl77) . . . it was now getting late in the afternoon. (HNnl25)

The point of time most commonly overlapped by expanded verb-clusters, of course, is the moment of coding (which may or may not be expressed), as in the following sentences: [61] [62] [63]

I'm taking it sort of easy now. Are you writing a new book? (HNcl35) You're swallowing air, Miss Alma. (SSc673) The Rose of Sharon bush is blooming again, the pink one. (PNcl43)

But there may, of course, be medial overlapping of an earlier time or of a later (or anticipated) time, as in these examples: [64]

[65] [66]

The money . . . was one hundred and seventy dollars more a month than the fisherman Albert Tracy had been supporting his family on at the time of his death three days before. (HNcl60) . . . and then it will be fall, and you will be saying, 1 don't see how I'm going to get through the fall. (SSc683) Presently he would be sitting on a folding chair in the June sunlight watching Flora graduate from Smith. (NYc45) 8.32. Terminal

Overlapping

Terminal overlapping is of two kinds: final, in which one Event continues up to, and possibly even beyond, another Event or a point of time; and initial, in which one Event starts at, or a little before, another Event or a point of time, and continues from that time on into the future. (This is suggested in the diagram in Figure 19 on page 211.) Finally-terminal overlapping is regularly expressed by means of some form of HA VE plus been plus the ing form of the verb, as in the following examples: [67] [68] [69]

[70]

The launch had been drifting since 10 o'clock of the night before . . . . (HNnl25) I had been bullying him for the last fifty miles . . . . (AMn60) . . . it was plain that this situation must have been developing for a long while without either of them having consciously perceived it. (PNn222) The sum had been rising annually since the start of the program in 1950 (RDnl28)

Initially terminal overlapping is expressed by means of some form of WILL be plus the ing form of the verb, as in the following example: [71]

I'll be working here for the next hour or two.

(No examples of this kind of overlapping appear in the corpus).

plus

214

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

8.33. Concurrent

Overlapping

Concurrent overlapping indicates an interrelationship between two Events - or one Event and an extended time - which are more or less co-extensive. Both Events (or the extended time and the Event) may begin and end together, or one may begin before - or end after - the other; the emphasis is upon their interrelationship, not upon their temporal relationship. The following are examples of concurrent overlapping: [72] [73]

They weren't thinking what they were doing. (PNc258) . . . Cathal had been handling setters when my own nurse was handling safety pins.54 (AMn60)

In the following example, a non-expanded verb-cluster in an included clause expresses concurrent overlapping with a non-included expanded cluster: [74]

As I sat there quietly cursing the Bourbons . . . the girls were cursing the numbers, the costumes, and the primitive plumbing. (AMn26)

It is not necessary that both verb-clusters be expanded, or that the non-expanded cluster be in a clause introduced by while or as. In the first two examples below, the Event expressed by the expanded cluster is brought into interrelationship with an Event expressed by a non-expanded cluster; in the third sentence, the Event expressed by the expanded cluster is brought into interrelationship with a concurrent period of time; and in the fourth sentence, the expanded verb-cluster seems to indicate overlapping concurrent with "the study of social relationships": [75]

[76] [77] [78]

When the other-directed father plays with his children, he is responding to an immediate demand, not acting as a nodding Jove. (LCn336337) Other fast-freight lines were . . . becoming parts of the railways they served. (SPn233) All the elements of his life were moving as they should that spring . . . . (PNn325) Malcolm was dedicating his life to the study of social relationships .... (PNn222)

Sentences containing expanded verb-clusters used with always are probably examples of concurrent overlapping: [79] 54

. . . someone was always paying his expenses to places barely mentioned in school geography. (PNn223)

The meaning intended here is that both of the Predications overlapped the same period of time - that is, the former took place as long ago as the latter. The sentence does not state that either Event began (or did not begin) - or ended (or did not end) - at the same time as the other.

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

8.34. Concomitant

215

Overlapping

It often happens that an Event does not itself overlap the moment of coding, but that the concomitants of the Event do so. In such cases, the use of expanded verbclusters is normal. A mother whose small son has just come into the house covered with mud uses the expanded form when she says [80]

"You've been playing in the mud again!",

even though the actual playing has not continued up to the moment of speaking. The overlapping of the moment of speaking is not by the playing in mud, but by the concomitants of the playing - that is, by the boy's muddy appearance. Concomitant overlapping may be either final or initial. The most common types of initially-concomitant overlapping are for reference to a future Event which is interrelated in some way with the moment of speaking. This may be shown by means of a present overlapping form, or by means of a future overlapping form, or by means of the secondary auxiliary BE GOING TO. In all cases, however, there is some sense of interrelationship between the moment of coding and the future Event. If there is no such interrelationship - if, for example, the future Event is merely scheduled but no preparation is being made for it - then the verb form usually used is either the future tense or else the simple present, as in the following examples: [81] [82] [83]

I'll see you tomorrow night! (MWc821) "All right, Carter," he said, "you start with us Monday. . . . " ( R D c l 9 0 ) The train for Washington leaves at nine o'clock in the morning.

But when the future Event is brought into interrelationship with the moment of coding - as, for example, when preparations are under way now for the future Event - the use of expanded forms to show concomitant overlapping is common. The following are examples of present overlapping forms used in this way: [84] [85] [86]

D R . B U C H A N A N . I'm coming down. (SSc682) I'm leaving there at the end of next week, sir. (PNn259) Why, you see, Doctor, Ferguson's being married next week, and he's at a ceremony rehearsal or something. (MWc829) Although the present expanded form seems to be used most often for Events in the near future, it may also be used for an Event in the distant future, as in the following example: [87]

After a year in Vienna I'm working with Dr. Hochberg. (MWc806)

The future expanded form often seems to refer to a more distant future Event for which preparations of some kind already have begun - or for which it is now expected that preparations will soon begin, as in this example: 55 55

Reichenbach suggests that "we say . . . 'I shall be going t o see him' and thus express the posterior f u t u r e . . . by speaking, not directly of the event, but of the act of preparation f o r it". ( H a n s Reichenbach, Elements of Symbolic Logic, N e w Y o r k , T h e Macmillan C o m p a n y , 1947,

216

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

[88]

After a year in Vienna I'll be working with Dr. Hochberg.

No examples of this use of future expanded verb-clusters appear in the corpus. Future expanded verb-clusters seem also to be used as a polite way of asking a person about his future plans.56 Hornby contrasts the verb form are you staying (in London long?) with the form will you be going (to the party?), explaining that the first "is a simple inquiry about plans", while the second asks about plans "in a more polite way". 57 But perhaps the most common way of relating a future Event to the present moment is by means of the secondary auxiliary BE GOING TO. As W. S. Allen points out, '"going to' does not normally express simple futurity, but colours the future with intention or a feeling oj certainty in the mind of the speaker". 58 BE GOING TO can be used of the distant future if it expresses a present intention in the mind of the speaker, as in the following examples: [89] [90]

So . . . I'm going to study under von Eiselsberg in Vienna. (MWc805) Believe me, when I have my baby, it's going to get all the care and love and attention it can use. (MWc810)

BE GOING TO can also be used of a natural Event if there is a feeling of certainty about the Event's taking place in the mind of the speaker at the moment of speaking; we can say, for example, [91]

It's going to rain

if there is some indication, such as clouds in the sky, that rain will come. But if there is neither present certainty nor present intention, a future verb-cluster must replace the overlapping BE GOING TO, as in the second of these examples, taken from Hornby: 59 [92] (a) (b)

If Tom passes the examination, his father is going to buy him a bicycle. If Tom asks his father to buy him a bicycle his father will probably do so.

In the last example, there is no concomitant overlapping of the moment of coding. p. 297). W. S. Allen says that "just as the Present Continuous is used as a definite immediate future, so the Future Continuous is used as a definite but not-so-immediate future"; he gives the following sentences as examples: "He's playing a violin solo next." "He'll be playing some more later." (W. S. Allen, Living English Structure [3d. ed., new impression; London, Longmans, Green and Company, 1956], p. 127.) M See, for example, A. S. Hornby, A Guide to Patterns and Usage in English (London, Oxford University Press, 1954), p. 215, and also W. S. Allen, op. cit., pp. 128-129. 57 Hornby, loc. cit., p. 215. 58 Allen, op. cit., p. 122. 50 Hornby, op. cit., p. 213.

EXPANDED AND NON-EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

217

Concomitant overlapping is also used to relate the moment of coding in some way with a past time. Hill gives one example: 00 [93]

We're having a lot of trouble at the office nowadays.

H e says that in this statement "we have clearly specified that we did not always have [a lot of trouble at the office] and that we do not expect to have it always in the future". (The present writer senses only a concomitant overlapping with the past in this sentence; but if Hill's interpretation is correct, then it seems possible to have concomitant overlapping of both the past and the future simultaneously.) Another example of the same kind of overlapping is the following: [94]

I see Percy is wearing a white shirt today.

This sentence suggests that Percy was not wearing a white shirt yesterday - or perhaps that he has not worn a white shirt for the last several days. In the last two examples, a present expanded form was used to relate the moment of coding to a past time. In the following example, a past expanded form is used to relate a past Event to the moment of coding: [95]

Your father was telling me that you have succeeded in isolating the germ of that fever epidemic that's broken out at Lyon. (SSc672) This last sentence is of particular interest because it exemplifies a usage that several writers have treated as idiomatic. The speaker in this sentence is a young woman named Alma; she is talking to a young man named John. She wants to let him know that she knows about his successful discovery of the germ of the fever epidemic. Was telling suggests what she wants it to: that during the course of one of possibly several conversations in the past - conversations related to the present context (that is, to John, and possibly to herself also) - the father mentioned the discovery of the germ, so that she now knows about it. This use of a past expanded verb-cluster to relate a past time to the moment of speech will be discussed further in Chapter IX.

60 Archibald A. Hill, Introduction C o m p a n y , 1958), p. 208.

to Linguistic

Structures

(New York, Harcourt, Brace and

IX. M O M E N T A R Y P R E D I C A T I O N S A N D " S U F F U S I V E "

PREDICATIONS

9.1. ASPECT IN ENGLISH 9.11. Inclusive

(or Perfective)

Aspect

vs. Intrusive

(or Imperfective)

Aspect

Every Predication m a d e in English must be oriented with reference either to a past time-field or to the present time-field. Such reference is signaled by either the m o r p h e m e [-d] or the m o r p h e m e [0]. Within its own time-field, however, the predication may be " p l a c e d " in any one of several different ways, as an examination of Figures 16 and 19 on pages 186 and 211 will show. T h e r e is, however, one essential way in which all Predications represented by the x's and arrows in the first triangle in Figure 16 differ f r o m Predications represented by the arrows in Figure 19: the former are oriented with reference to the outer limits of their time-field, while the latter are oriented with reference to the axis of their time-field (i.e., with reference to an immediate m o m e n t of time). A time-field may be determined in any one of several different ways. A past time-field, for example, may be signaled by naming an extended time-period (or less commonly a point of time) in the past (e.g., last Monday), or by stating an Event that must have taken place in the past (e.g., when / was a boy), or by naming cither a person or an Event that is known to have lived or occurred in the past (e.g., Columbus, at the Battle of Waterloo), or by suggesting a past time that is implied rather than identified (e.g., once or once upon a time), or even by "introducing" an unidentified time in the past and then assuming that that time has been satisfactorily identified (e.g.. I've tasted it once, but I didn't like it). T h e present time-field may be referred to overtly (e.g., nowadays, just now), but more frequently the speaker assumes that no such reference is needed since the hearer shares the present time-field with him. When the present time-field is not specifically referred to, it may be taken to include any reasonable stretch of time extending in duration f r o m the m o m e n t of speech to "all time", with the one condition that it must be oriented with reference to the immediate time of the m o m e n t of coding (represented in Figure 19 by the vertical axis of the triangle). T h e vertical axis (i.e., the immediate moment of time) thus becomes the point of reference for Predications oriented within such a time-field. But when an extended time-field has

MOMENTARY AND "SUFFUSIVE" PREDICATIONS

219

been determined by means of such an expression as nowadays or last Monday or when I was a boy or Columbus, Predications oriented within such a time-field are oriented more with reference to its "sides" or outer boundaries than to its immediate axis, as is suggested by the first diagram in Figure 16. (The second diagram in Figure 16 represents the special case where a speaker has identified a moment of time in the past at which some Predication began.) A comparison of the first triangle in Figure 16 and the triangle in Figure 19 will reveal a crucial difference between Predications represented by the x's and arrows in the former and Predications represented by the arrows in the latter: each Predication represented in Figure 16 is included within the boundaries of its reference field, while each Predication represented in Figure 19 overlaps, in some way or other, the axis which is its reference point. A recognition of the difference between these two different ways of viewing Predications - that is, as either included within a time-field to which they are oriented or else as overlapping a point (or axis) to which they are oriented - is essential to an understanding of the ways in which the English verb system functions. If we imagine ourselves as standing at the apex of first one triangle and then the other, we can sec that we would be viewing the x's and arrows in the triangle in Figure 16 "inclusively", that is, from without, as wholes, but would be viewing the triangle in Figure 19 "intrusively", that is, from within, without regard to either end of any arrow. 1 If aspect is defined as a speaker's way of "looking at" a Predication that he makes, it will be seen that English has only two aspects: INCLUSIVE ASPECT and INTRUSIVE ASPECT (or, to give the two aspects their more customary names, perfective aspect and imperfective aspect).2 Inclusive aspect is the marked member of the opposition "inclusive"/"intrusive" in English, as it seems also to be in Russian. 3 Intrusive aspect, signaled by expanded verb forms, is "noncommittal with respect to completion or non-completion". 4 When it is recognized that one of the essential components in the meaning of a Predication containing a non-expanded verb-cluster is reference to the whole of the Predication, several uses of verb forms that at first seem difficult to explain turn 1

It must be remembered that a series of Predications or Events occurs within an extended time-field and is viewed inclusively unless the Events are thought of as forming a continuous chain, which may then be looked at intrusively. ' T h e r e seems little justification for recognizing as many different aspects as Harold Whitehall does in " T h e English Language", in Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, College ed. (Cleveland, T h e World Publishing C o m p a n y , 1956). pp. xxiv-xxv. ' See, for example, R o m a n Jakobson, Shifters, Verbal Categories and the Russian Verb (Cambridge, Mass., Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, 1957), p. 6. 4 Ibid. Cf. also the statement by James Ferrell that the imperfective in Russian is "a form that is unqualified. It can represent an action without reference to its beginning or end." ("The Meaning of the Perfective Aspect in Russian", Word, VII, August, 1951, 112.) Ferrell also points out that "the verb functionally must not be regarded as something that can be isolated f r o m the remainder of the sentence". (Ibid., p. 123.) In other words, although aspect is signaled by the f o r m of the verb-cluster, it expresses the speaker's way of looking at the Predication.

220

MOMENTARY AND "SUFFUSIVE" PREDICATIONS

out, instead, to be the only possible forms for the expression of the meanings which the speakers wanted to convey.' Several examples of such uses will be discussed below; here it may be pointed out that the use of non-expanded forms for repeated or habitual Predications follows naturally from the fact that when we refer to an Event as occurring more than once, we commonly refer to the whole of each occurrence. A speaker often has his choice as to whether he will treat a predication inclusively or intrusively; he can ask a friend whom he meets, for example, how he feels or how he's feeling, or - with reference to "yesterday afternoon" - he may ask either of the following questions: [1] (a) (b)

What did you do all yesterday afternoon? What were you doing all yesterday afternoon? 0

But certain contexts or certain specialized uses seem to lay restrictions upon the occurrence of one form or the other. It appears, for example, that writers rarely use expanded forms in sentences in which the subject and verb (as distinct from the subject and carrier) are inverted. One seldom if ever comes across sentences like those in [2] (a) and [3] (a) below: [2] (a) (b) [3] (a) (b)

*There are going the Joneses, There go the Joneses. *Down the street was running a boy holding a lady's pocketbook. Down the street ran a boy holding a lady's pocketbook. 7

Thus attempts, like several which have appeared, to "interpret" the use of the different forms that appear in Sweet's classic example (given in [4], below) would seem to be wasted effort." [4]

it is a representation of a lady, she is lying on a couch, at the side of the couch sits a woman as in grief."

* Several writers have pointed out the fact that the non-expanded f o r m s in English refer to actions or Events as wholes: see, f o r example, G . O. C u r m e , "Some Characteristic Features of Aspect in English", Journal of [English and] German Philology, X X X I (April, 1932), 251, and Ralph B. Long, The Sentence and Its Parts (Chicago, T h e University of Chicago Press, 1961), p. 123. But most writers seem to have considered the expanded forms as "marked", rather than the non-expanded forms. * But even in a question like this there seems to be a suggestion of overlapping, as if the speaker had tried to get hold of his friend the afternoon before but had not been able to. 7 T h e reason for the much greater occurrence of non-expanded f o r m s in such sentences may be similar to the one which Anna Granville Hatcher gives for the non-expanded f o r m in Here comes the teacher: she calls it a " f o r m u l a " inherited f r o m "an earlier age" - the original form of the verb has been preserved along with the original word order. (Anna Granville Hatcher, "The Use of the Progressive F o r m in English: A New Approach", Language, X X V I I , JulyAugust, 1951, 274.) 8 See, f o r example, George O. C u r m e , Syntax, Vol. I l l of A Grammar of the English Language (Boston, D. C. Heath and Company, 1931). p. 374. * H e n r y Sweet, A New English Grammar, Logical and Historical, 2 vols. (Oxford, T h e Clarendon Press, 1892, 1898), II, 101.

MOMENTARY AND " S U F F U S I V E "

PREDICATIONS

221

The most likely reason for the non-expanded form sits in the third sentence is that the third sentence begins with a prepositional phrase followed by inversion of the subject and verb. (The Predication is lying on a couch overlaps the moment of coding - which is also the moment of looking at the painting.) 9.2. INCLUSIVE PREDICATIONS: M O M E N T A R Y VERSUS E X T E N D E D

9.21. Momentary

Predications: Extendable

vs.

Non-Extendable

As the diagrams in Figure 16 suggest, there are at least three different kinds of inclusive Predications: momentary Predications, extended Predications, and repeated Predications (when the repeated occurrcnces are not conceived of as forming one continuous chain).10 It would appear, at first glance, that the most surely "inclusive" of all the three kinds of predications would be momentary Predications; both extended Predications and repeated Predications overlap the immediate time-axis and could therefore be viewed intrusively. But many momentary Predications in English - perhaps even most of them - may be conceived of as extended or stretched out, and as thus overlapping the immediate time-axis rather than being simultaneous with it. The following are examples of such extended "momentary" Predications; the verb in the first sentence - begin - frequently appears in expanded clusters: the preparations accompanying the beginning of an activity (i.e., its concomitants) seem often to stretch out and overlap an immediate time, as the diagram on the next page suggests. [5] [6]

We were just beginning to get along, and now Lew has to do this. (SEc79) He had wanted something and he had set out as intelligently as he could to get it and he was ending by getting it. (PNn325) [7] O, now you're becoming morbid! (SIc435) [8] "You're simply guessing," Hardwick said. (GGcl05) [9] I'm afraid . . . that you're putting too high a price on your offer. (GGcl04) But there appears to be a fairly large group of momentary Predications which resist extension in time and, as a result, expansion in their vcrb-clusters. (Again, it is the Predication in each case which resists such expansion; most if not all of the verbs appearing in these Predications occur in expanded form in other kinds of Predications.) Examples of non-extendable Predications are given below; the use of expanded verb-clusters in such Predications would seem unnatural (or would change the meaning of the verb). [10] As it happened, I was down in the vicinity of the courthouse this morning. . . . (GGc2) [11] That paper at the Historical Society - it reminded me so of poor Alice Lyte. (PNcl42) 10 Although inceptive Predications are expressed by means of non-expanded verb forms as if they were inclusive, they do not refer to Events which take place within the specified moment or period of time.

222

MOMENTARY AND "SUFFUSIVE" PREDICATIONS

A Momentary/ 4 I / L >ls

They arrived early in the afternoon. \ ».They began to arrive early in the afternoon.

(But extended if A They were beginning to arrive at noon.) / I \ They played a rubber of bridge Extended V | \ yesterday afternoon. / 1 A They played bridge all afternoon. /x x x x | x x x x\They came every afternoon. Repeated/

\ They played bridge every afternoon.

Suffusivc/e

1

/

4/ Fig. 21.

[12] [ 13] [14]

^ T h e v all liked to play bridge. \

Different Kinds of Inclusive Predications.

She broke off in confusion. (AMc43) The gorilla abruptly ceased to beat his chest. . . (GGn59) At 16 he went off as a surveyor's assistant . . . (RDnl30)

Other non-extendable Predications are (it) chanced that such-and-such a thing happened, (it) developed that so-and-so was the case, (it) happens that so-and-so is the case. The Predications find out something and discover that something are usually non-extendable, although they are sometimes extended. Other non-extendable Predications are listed in Appendix A, Part 1. (It will be seen that a large number of non-extendable Predications include clauses beginning with the includer that.) 9.211. "Asseverative Predications" - One kind of Predication that is usually nonextendable is the kind probably first pointed out by Hatcher in which " T H E 'ACTIVITY' PREDICATED HAS NO EXISTENCE APART FROM T H E PREDICATION, BUT IS IDENTICAL WITH IT"." Joos calls the use of verbs in such Predications the "ASSEVERATIVE use"; he points out that such use is always in present verb-clusters and after first-person subjects.12 Joos gives as examples / pronounce you man and wife; I declare the meeting adjourned; We find the prisoner guilty, 1 prescribe exercise. Hatcher gives I deny that he is guilty, I thank you, and I pass. A listing of asseverative Predications appears in Appendix A, Part la. 9.22. Extended Predications: "Profusive" vs. "Suffusive" The label "suffusive" has already been applied to certain nouns. 19 It is perhaps " A n n a Granville Hatcher, "The Use of the Progressive F o r m in English: A N e w Approach", Language, X X V I I (July-August, 1961), 267. " Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed ed. (Beograd, Institute f o r Experimental Phonetics, 1958), p. 87. "» See 8.11, above (p. 193).

MOMENTARY AND " S U F F U S I V E "

PREDICATIONS

223

particularly apt when applied to a noun like gas, which refers to an Entity that spreads out in all directions and fills all the space in whatever container it is poured into. But the term is here also applied to nouns like apple and cake, which may be used with a or an to refer to bounded Entities (an apple, a cake) that are nevertheless "the same" all the way through, in all directions. Such nouns may also be used - without a or an - as mass nominals. A large number of Predications may also be called suffusive since they refer to Events that "fill" the period of time referred to, whatever that may be. When no period of time is mentioned, the Events referred to extend in both directions (into the past and also into the future) indefinitely; as in the case of a colorless gas which has just been released, it is impossible to tell just what the boundaries of such Events are. If any time-field is mentioned or implied, a suffusive Predication is assumed to refer to all of it. For this reason, such a Predication is always inclusive, and is therefore always expressed by a Predication containing a non-expanded verb-cluster. Such Predications are necessarily non-bounded Predications; again, it is the Predication which is non-bounded, not the verb itself. Thus the Predication in the first sentence below is non-bounded and suffusive: it refers to an Event with no foreseeable termination, nor would the beginning of the Event, even if its time were known, play a significant part. The Predication in the second sentence is bounded and " P R O F U S I V E " : my hat does not always lie on the table in the hall - it has probably been put there recently - and will probably not stay there indefinitely. The verbs in both sentences are the same, but the two Predications in which they participate are crucially different. [15] (a) (b)

Hamadan lies at the foot of Mt. Alvand. My hat is lying on the table in the hall. 14

Suffusive Predications are similar to overlapping Predications in that both are noncommittal about the boundaries or terminal points of the Events referred to. But suffusive Predications differ crucially from overlapping Predications in that the latter assume that the Events referred to have boundaries or terminal points, that is, that such Events are bounded. Suffusive Predications, on the other hand, convey no such implication; they are "unending" in the sense that they seem to suffuse, or spread out through, any time-period that has been mentioned or implied. The Predication in the following sentence, for example, is not "private", as Joos's term suggests, but it is suffusive in the sense that it will probably continue indefinitely into the foreseeable future (and there is no suggestion as to how recently the Event referred to began): 14 Curme also gives examples of non-expanded and expanded uses of the verb lie, but he explains the uses differently. (George O. Curme, Syntax, Vol. Ill of A Grammar of the English Language, Boston, D. C. Heath and Company, 1931, p. 374.) A few verbs, like the verb contain, seem to resist expansion regardless of whether they refer to an indefinite extent of time or merely to the time of coding: cf. Sea water contains salt with This paper cup contains milk. It is not clear just why these verbs should function differently from verbs like lie.

224

MOMENTARY AND

[16]

15 The roof extends out over the front porch. 15

SUFFUSIVE

PREDICATIONS

The following example, also quoted from Joos, includes another suffusive Predication: [17]

Irish buses run late.16

The implication is that the running late of Irish buses is the usual (and unchanging) state of affairs and that the statement holds true for an indefinite extent of time stretching out both into the past and into the future. The sentence does not refer to the time of the speaker, as Joos has suggested; the making of such a statement may undoubtedly depend on the speaker's knowledge of Irish buses, but like all generalizations the resulting statement is expressed as though it were non-bounded and suffusive, that is, always true. The following examples, which Calver classifies under different headings, all refer to non-bounded, suffusive Events and therefore contain non-expanded verb-clusters:17 [18] [19] [20] [21]

Two plus two equals four. Roses smell. He plays the violin. The sun rises in the east.18

Still other examples (taken from Joos) are the following: [22] [23] [24]

Italy borders upon France. Haste makes waste. This shirt buttons up the back. 19

A comparison of Figure 19 with Figure 21 will show another important difference between overlapping Predications and suffusive Predications. Overlapping Predications are oriented with reference to the immediate moment of time, while suffusive Predications do not imply any such reference or interrelationship. For this reason, a suffusive Predication can be made about an Entity even at a moment when the Entity is not actually engaged in the kind of activity referred to, so long as the Predication holds true generally throughout some extended time. Sentences like the following, for example, may be uttered even when the persons mentioned or 15

Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed ed. (Beograd, Institute f o r Experimental Phonetics, 1958), p. 83. 11 This example was given by Martin Joos in a paper entitled "Process and Relation Verbs in English" read at the Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America in Chicago, December 28, 1959. 17 Edward Calver, " T h e Uses of the Present Tense F o r m s in English", Language, XXII (October-December, 1946), 321-322. But the Predication in this sentencfe may be repeated, rather than suffusive. T h e result is the same: both repeated and suffusive Predications - as inclusive Predications - regularly contain non-expanded verb-clusters. " Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed ed. (Beograd, Institute for Experimental Phonetics, 1958), p. 85.

MOMENTARY AND "SUFFUSIVE" PREDICATIONS

225

speaking are not actually teaching at the moment or are away from New York on a trip: [25] [26]

Mr. Abernathy teaches English.20 I live in New York.

There is still another important difference between overlapping Predications and suffusive Predications, a difference which we may suggest by calling the first type "PROFUSIVE" PREDICATIONS. Compare, for example, the following two sentences: [27] (a) (b)

That pail is leaking, That pail leaks. 21

The Predication in the first example suggests an unfolding of the activity, a "flowing" toward the future, 22 but the Predication in the second example does not suggest that there will be any difference in the state of affairs ten minutes from now or that there was any difference ten minutes ago: the activity it expresses is "suffusive" the Predication made about the pail seems to be true for any point throughout the extended time implied by the sentence. (Compare suffusive nouns like gas, cake, and apple: no matter in which direction one probes in an apple, one still encounters only apple. But, as one probes into a pencil, the material that one encounters changes. Similarly, if one hears that the pail is leaking, one expects that the state of affairs a few minutes from now will not be the same as it is now.) Just as a mass nominal like gas or milk suggests no boundaries to the Entity referred to, although such boundaries may be imposed upon the Entity by some container expressed in the sentence (as in a bottle of milk), so also a suffusive predication, while suggesting no boundaries for itself, may be "contained" by some temporal expression in the sentence: [28] (a) (b)

We have a Volkswagen. We have a Volkswagen this year.

Suffusive Predications do not have to refer only to present time; they may also refer either to past time or to future time, as in the following sentences: [29] (a) (b) 10

We had a Ford last year. We'll have a Chevrolet next year.

T h e expanded f o r m of the Predication teach English, as in the sentence Mr. Abernathy is teaching English now, may suggest any one of several possible interrelationships: it may relate the teaching to the m o m e n t of coding and thus suggest that Mr. Abernathy is actually engaged in teaching at this moment; if the hearer can see that he is not doing so, however, the expanded f o r m may suggest that the speaker views Mr. Abernathy's teaching as a continuous chain of Events which overlaps "now"; or this sentence may even suggest an interrelationship between the m o m e n t of coding and some time in the past at which Mr. Abernathy was not teaching English, or with some m o m e n t in the f u t u r e when Mr. Abernathy will not be teaching English. 81 Cf. Anna Granville Hatcher, "The Use of the Progressive F o r m in English: A N e w Approach", Language, X X V I I (July-August, 1951), 279. ts Cf. the expression "development by degrees", used by Hatcher of another kind of verb (Ibid., p. 268).

226

MOMENTARY AND "SUFFUSIVE" PREDICATIONS

Compare also [30] (a) (b)

Mr. Scribnick writes (books) for a living. Dickens wrote books (most of his life).

The last two sentences are examples of a kind of suffusive Predication which is very common: the kind of Predication that states what someone does for a living. Most of the verbs in such Predications, like most other verbs in suffusive Predications, may be used in both suffusive and also profusive Predications - that is, they may be used with either non-expanded or expanded verb-clusters. Thus one may say either of the following sentences, but with a change of meaning: [31] (a) (b)

I teach English (for a living), I am teaching English (now).

These two sentences may be changed so that they refer to an indefinite past; we can use the same verb form in both cases, but suggest the difference in meaning by different time-expressions: [32] (a) (b)

I have taught English for many years, I have taught English all day.

The Predication in the first sentence is suffusive; the statement is a general one covering many years in the past, with no suggestion of any change in the kind of teaching. The Predication in the other sentence, however, is profusive - there is a definite suggestion of change or development or "flow" of activity. As a result, if we add "and I still - " to each of these sentences, the pro-predicates that will fill the blank spaces will be different: [33] (a) (b)

I have taught English for many years, and I still do. I have taught English all day, and I still am.

Perhaps a more common form for the last sentence would be the following: (c)

1 have been teaching English all day, and I still aw.2»

But not all Predications permit of both non-expanded and expanded verb-clusters. Some suffusive Predications seem to resist expansion in their clusters except under special conditions. Three such Predications are equal jour, have a Volkswagen, and resembles his father. Probably none of the following sentences would occur with an expanded verb-cluster: [34] [35] [36]

Two and two equal four. We have a Volkswagen this year. Percy resembles his father.

(A list of suffusive Predications which do not normally occur with expanded verb13

Cf. the discussion of the sentence in [33](a) by Archibald A. Hill in Introduction to Linguistic Structures (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958), p. 212. The sentence I have taught English for many years probably does not "indicate that the action is still going on," as Hill suggests. HA VE phrases with suffusive Predications do not suggest that an action is still going on, but rather that a general statement of fact still holds true.

MOMENTARY AND " S U F F U S I V E " PREDICATIONS

227

clusters appears in Appendix A, Part 2.) But as several writers have pointed out, a sentence like the one in [36] may be used with an expanded verb-cluster if we add the words more and more all the time - that is, if we make the Predication profusive: [37] Percy is resembling his father more and more all the time. A suffusive Predication in a direct question often has the meaning 'do you know how to', as in the following sentence: [38]

Do you play chess?

But non-expanded verb forms are also used with other kinds of inclusive Predications: one common use of non-expanded verb-clusters, for example, is with repeated Predications. As a result, the Predication in a sentence like the following may be suffusive and refer to an indefinite extent of time, with no implication of beginning or end and with no suggestion of repeated action; or, on the other hand, the same sentence may refer to several actions repeated within the present time-field: [39]

Do you play tennis now?

This question may mean either 'Do you know how to play tennis now?' - i.e., 'Have you learned how to play yet?' - or it may mean 'Is it your custom to play tennis nowadays?' 'Do you get out to play at all?' 24 One commonly uses suffusive Predications when one refers to - or "relays" (i.e., passes on) - information that is printed in a book or article. Thus we relay to others something that appears in one of Emerson's essays by stating: "Emerson says that - " . The difference between the use of the non-expanded cluster says in a sentence like that one and the use of an expanded cluster in a sentence like the following is evident: [40]

Shh! Your father is saying something.

The former Predication is suffusive: the content of what Emerson says will be the same an indefinite period of time from now and was the same an indefinite period of time ago. But the verb SA Y can be used in suffusive Predications about living people as well as about statements that appear in books, as in the following example: [41]

Your teacher says that you've been doing good work lately.

The Predication is saying something in [40] above is profusive; the Predication says that - in [41] is suffusive. The verb SAY can also be used in an asseverative Predication, as in the following sentence: [42]

Your teacher said yesterday that you've been doing good work lately.

It may be interesting at this point to ask just what kind of Predication one would 84

If the same kind of question is asked in 'the person spoken to' or 'one', the sentence " D o you play chess T h e sentence may m e a n either 'Can you (or ' D o y o u (or D o e s one) regularly play chess

a context in which the subject you could be either b e c o m e s doubly ambiguous: with chessmen like those?" C a n one) play chess with chessmen like those?' or with c h e s s m e n like those?'

228

MOMENTARY AND "SUFFUSIVE" PREDICATIONS

need in a sentence like the one in [42] in order to interrelate the teacher's act of saying with the present moment at which the teacher's comment is being reported. Obviously, in order to suggest some interrelationship between the two Events, we would have to use some form of expanded verb-cluster. But a Predication with has been saying would suggest that the teacher has made this comment repeatedly and has perhaps not stopped repeating the comment even yet. A Predication like is saying that, as we have seen, would suggest that the teacher is making the comment at this minute - but could by extension suggest some kind of interrelationship. Another possibility would be a Predication like was saying that, which would place the act of commenting more definitely in the past but would still relate it to the present moment. As a matter of fact, both of the last two types of Predication occur; the latter is probably more common. Compare the following sentences: [43] (a) (b) (c) (d)

Your teacher is saying that you've changed. They're saying that you've changed. Your teacher was saying that you've changed. Your teacher was telling me that you've changed.

9.221. Suffusive Predications: Shared (or "Public") vi. Non-Shared (or "Private") - Most of the Predications which have appeared in the examples considered thus far have been Predications that could contain either non-expanded or expanded verbclusters. But we have been able to identify three different kinds of Predications which usually resist expansion in their verb-clusters. These are (1) asseverative Predications; (2) certain other momentary Predications; and (3) suffusive Predications. But we have not yet examined the type of Predication which is even less compatible with expansion in its verb-cluster than are the foregoing types. The difference between the suffusive Predications in our group (3) and those in this new group may be seen by comparing the following two examples: [44] [45]

Percy resembles his father. Percy likes his father.

Neither of these Predications can be expressed with an expanded verb-cluster; both are suffusive. But there is one important difference between them: bystanders - that is, people other than Percy himself - are able to observe the fact that Percy resembles his father, but only Percy knows that he likes his father. The former is a "public" Predication, to borrow Joos's terms, while the latter is a "private" Predication. For Predications like these, the label "private" is particularly apt. 25 And there is some justification for applying the term to the verbs that occur in these ** But Martin Joos also applies the term to verbs like extend, as in the sentence The roof extends out over the front porch. See his English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed ed. (Beograd, Institute for Experimental Phonetics, 1958), pp. 82-88. I n the present study the label is applied only to Predications that are private, i.e., invisible to others.

MOMENTARY AND "SUFFUSIVE" PREDICATIONS

229

Predications since they usually do not occur in other kinds of Predications. In the list in Appendix A, Part 2b, the reader will find many of the verbs listed by various writers as verbs that do not take expansion. Such verbs include know, like, believe, see, hear, want, etc., etc. But the list includes only verbs that refer to "private" activities - that is, to activities mental or otherwise which the speaker does not share with the hearer. 26 The other verbs that resist expansion appear in one or another of the other three lists. It should be remembered that "private" verbs occur in suffusive Predications: that is, they participate in expressing non-bounded Predications with undiscernible beginnings and ends. 27 Private, non-shared Predications are the prime examples of such Predications: since the hearer cannot observe the activity being described, it is impossible for him to tell when the activity began or when it will end. This indeterminacy of the terminal points of such predications has certain important results. We have already noted that the simple present forms of many verbs are often used with reference to an identified time in the future. The Predications in which such verb forms occur seem to suggest that the future Events referred to are scheduled, or will take place without any effort on the part of the speaker: [46] [47] [48] [49]

The train for Washington leaves at nine o'clock in the morning. I see Mr. Dex at ten. The meeting begins right after lunch. The Puddleditches get back some time on Friday.

But it is impossible to schedule a non-bounded Event with no beginning point; sentences like the following, therefore, do not seem to occur: [50] [51]

*It rains tomorrow morning. *I know the answer at five o'clock.

Some non-bounded Predications are indefinite as to their terminal or end points; it is possible, however, to determine when such Predications begin. Such Predications, therefore, can be scheduled: 29

Hatcher suggests that we would say My nose is running, with the expanded f o r m of the verb, but My nose itches, with the non-expanded f o r m . (Anna Granville Hatcher, " T h e Use of the Progressive F o r m in English: A New Approach", Language, XXVII, July-August, 1951, 264.) T h e difference between these two kinds of Predication can be explained in terms of the opposition " p u b l i c ' V p r i v a t e " - a running nose is public, while an itchy nose is private. But the present writer is not at all certain that he himself would never say My nose is itching, although he agrees that he would always use an expanded verb-cluster in the other of the two sentences. T h e use of expanded forms in public Predications is undoubtedly much reinforced during childhood by parents who inform one that one's nose is running (but w h o never inform one that one's nose itches/is itching). 27 But it can also be argued that the verb want in the following sentence refers to the m o m e n t of speech: / want a piece of cake right now. This is undoubtedly true: the "container" provided f o r want is right now, and, like all suffusive verbs, it "fills" any (length of) time suggested. But in other Predications (as in I want to live to be a hundred), there is no suggestion of any limits to the wanting.

230

MOMENTARY AND " S U F F U S I V E " PREDICATIONS

[52]

We play bridge at eight o'clock this evening.

Suffusive Predications, however, which are indefinite both as to their beginning points and as to their end points, do not normally occur with present verb forms for reference to the future. But for some strange reason, non-extendable momentary Predications do not do so, either. Joos uses this incompatibility of the present forms of private verbs (both expanded and non-expanded) with reference to a future time as a test procedure for identifying such verbs.28 Unfortunately, however, a strict application of Joos's test suggests that verbs like rain and snow are "private", but such verbs can be expanded. There is another test, however, which will usually identify suffusive Predications (although it will not identify momentary Predications). Predications to be tested may be used in a pair of sentences like the following: [53] (a) (b)

At 9:00 o'clock this morning Miss Fustle At 9:15 she still

The second sentence above forces an expanded verb-cluster in all non-momentary bounded Predications; but suffusive Predications take non-expanded clusters in both sentences: [54] (a) (b) [55] (a) (b) [56] (a) (b) [57] (a) (b)

Mr. Dex looked out of the window at 9:00 this morning. At 9:15 he was still looking out of the window. Mr. Dex saw clouds in the sky at 9:00 this morning. At 9:15 he still saw clouds in the sky. Mr. Dex listened to the radio at 9:00 this morning. At 9:15 he was still listening to the radio. Mr. Dex heard thunder at 9:00 this morning. At 9:15 he still heard thunder.

Another pair of frames for testing private verbs has been suggested by Dwight L. Bolingcr:29 [58] (a) (b)

Why don't you Why don't you

any more? some more?

Many suffusive verbs will fit in the blank in the first sentence, but not in the second. The explanation for this seems to be that any more (= any longer) is compatible with suffusive Predications, which could continue longer. But some more suggests an additional amount of some activity - and a suffusive Predication cannot be partitioned. Jespersen points out that the d-t-n form (perfect participle) of what he calls a "non-conclusive verb", when used as an adjectival before a noun, indicates nothing 28

Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed ed. (Beograd, Institute for Experimental Phonetics, 1958), pp. 83-84. Dwight L. Bolinger, "Linguistic Science and Linguistic Engineering", Word, XVI (December, 1960), 378.

MOMENTARY AND "SUFFUSIVE" PREDICATIONS

231

about time, while the d-t-n form of a "conclusivc verb" when so used "denotes the result of an action in the past". S0 He cites, as an example of the d-t-n form of a non-conclusive verb used as an adjective, an honoured colleague; his example of a conclusive verb so used is a paid bill. Jespersen's non-conclusive verbs seem to be similar to the verbs occurring in suffusive predications; the d-t-n form of a verb, as will be shown in Chapter X, commonly suggests a completed action, but the completion of a non-bounded suffusive Predication (with no suggestion of termination) is a contradiction in terms. As a result, the d-t-n forms of verbs participating in suffusive Predications bring with them to the nominals in which they enter as adjectivals something of the same meaning that they suggest in their Predications. A suffusive Predication usually has both an indeterminate beginning and an indeterminate end, but sometimes the context makes either the beginning point or the end point determinate. The Predication may then be able to take an expanded verb. T h e verb like, for example, does not normally occur in expanded form; sentences like the following seem unnatural: [59]

' I ' m liking this music very much.

But an expanded form of like may occur in a question asked of a person who has just begun a new job, or in a question asked of one guest by another at the same party (which provides a shared terminal point for any immediate feeling cither may have for the party and thus makes the "liking of the party" bounded): [60] [61]

How are you liking your new j o b ? " How are you liking the party?

It appears, then, that certain verbs which regularly express suffusive Predications are not expanded when they refer to non-shared, non-bounded Events; but that the same verbs may be expanded when they refer to either shared a n d / o r bounded Events.

,0

Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949), pp. 92-93. " This example appears in A. S. Hornby, A Guide lo Patterns and Usage in English (London, Oxford University Press, 1954). p. 118.

X. ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

10.1. ELLIPSIS IN SEMI-SENTENCES

10.11. Restrictions on Ellipsis Reference was made to "elliptical sentences" in 3.3 above (pp. 87-88), where it was assumed that ellipsis of lexemes or constructions (or even parts of constructions) may be recognized in the analysis of sentences. But certain restrictions must be placed on the recognition of ellipsis since there is always the danger that an analyst may base some part of his analysis on "understood" items in a context where there is insufficient justification for taking ellipsis into account. The great majority of imperative sentences, for example, are expressed with no subject; and even when a subject is expressed in such sentences, the subject may be somebody or anybody, rather than you: for example, [1 ]

Somebody do something.

To treat commands, therefore, as sentences from which the subject you has been omitted would seem to be a distortion of the facts. Commands and requests are probably more accurately described by stating that they are subject-less minor sentences, in which one of a very restricted number of possible subjects may on occasion be inserted. In the case of a semi-sentence like No, he hasn't, however, there is some justification for recognizing ellipsis, since such a semi-sentence seldom occurs as the first utterance in a conversation. Furthermore, a semi-sentence of this kind usually seems to "echo" the sentence (most commonly a question) which it follows: the carrier in the semi-sentence is usually the same as the carrier in the preceding question, and the subject in the semi-sentence is regularly a pro-nominal tied, directly or indirectly, to the subject of the question. But there is less justification for positing ellipsis in a semi-sentence of the type Finished your work? Such a semi-sentence often does occur first in a conversation. Semi-sentences of this type are also very common on posters and in advertisements. If it proves to be possible to define the form (or forms) of such semi-sentences fairly accurately, it may be better to classify them as a special type (or as special types) of minor sentences, as we have classified commands. (It may be noted that

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

233

semi-sentences like the one just cited have certain characteristics in common with commands: both lack subjects, and both lack "x".) 10.12. The Two Different Kinds of

Semi-Sentences

A semi-sentence of the type No, he hasn't contains an X word and is therefore timeoriented or "finite"; a semi-sentence of the type Finished your work?, on the other hand, lacks "x" and is non-finite. We can call the two different types of semi-sentences, therefore, "finite semi-sentences" and "non-finite semi-sentences". Finite semi-sentences are regularly of either the form [2] [3]

± Y ± A No, in fact

+

S he

±

M-i

+

never

X

( ± A ) as in

has

or the form [4] [5]

± I + X + S ( ± M) as in Why hasn't he?

The essential sectors in such semi-sentences are S + X (or X + S). Non-finite semi-sentences are regularly of the form [6] [7]

± M + V + C a ± H ( ± A) as in Still feeling pains in your shoulder?

Non-finite semi-sentences are commonly questions (or cammands); the essential sectors in such semi-sentences are V + C s (or, more simply, V + C). Finite semi-sentences are especially common as "tag-questions" (e.g., You don't know Mr. Puddleditch, do you?) and as "short answers" (e.g., No, I don't). Non-finite semi-sentences are less common; several examples of such semi-sentenccs - exemplifying the use of different kinds of verb forms - are given below. [8] [9] [10] Ill] [12]

Been waiting long? Like it here? About to go home? Tell me the truth. Aha, caught in the act!

Some non-finite semi-sentences lack the V sector. For example: [13]

On your way to work?

Perhaps the most important difference between finite semi-sentences and non-finite semi-sentences is that the former show time-orientation, whereas the latter do not. The verb forms finished, feeling, been waiting, like, etc., are verbid-clusters, not verb-clusters: "x" is lacking from each. By analogy with "verbid", we may call all the V + C constructions in the sentences above "PREDICATIDS" - that is, predicates which do not show time-orientation. But it should be noted that even though the verbid-clusters in these examples do not exhibit time-orientation, they do show both time-relationship and overlapping.

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ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

10.2. VERBID-CLUSTERS

10.21. The Different

Forms of

Verbid-Clusters

Predicatids are composed of verbid-clusters plus their complements, with or without following modifiers. The complements in predicatids do not differ from the complements in predicates; the differences to be found between predicates and predicatids arc the same as the differences between verb-clusters and verbid-clusters. If we list all the possible forms of verbid-clusters (not including verbid-clusters containing secondary auxiliaries), we may got some idea of the possible variety of predicatids in English: any construction introduced by one of these verbid-clusters, no matter how long, will be a prcdicatid. All the possible forms for verbid-clusters are shown in Table IV, on the next page. Not all of the forms shown in the table actually occur, however; those marked with asterisks do not occur (or occur very rarely). But there still remain twenty-one different types of verbid-clusters in actual use in present-day English.

10.22. Voice, Aspect,

and Time-Relationship

in

Verbid-Clusters

If we examine only those verbid-clusters which actually occur, we may note the following points: The presence of BE> requires that the next succeeding form in the verbid-cluster be a d-t-n form. This tie between a form of BE, and the d-t-n form following it signals 'passive voice'. The presence of any form of BE, requires an immediately following ing form; the tie between the form of BE, and the ing form signals 'intrusive aspect' (i.e., overlapping). The presence of any form of HAVE requires that the immediately following form be a d-t-n form; the tie between the form of HA VE and the d-t-n form signals 'earlier time-relationship'. No form of WOULD appears in a verbid-cluster; instead, however, to signal 'later time-relationship', one may sometimes use to, which is always followed immediately by a base form. T o signal a more immediate future time than is signaled by to alone, one may precede the to with about. (It should be noted, however, that although the presence of to frequently suggests 'futurity', as for example in headlines, there are many contexts in which the to seems to be no more that a marker of the infinitive and to be neutral with respect to.any time-relationship.) If we now look for the verbid-clusters in Table IV that consist of only one word, we find that there are four of them: [14]

(1) (4) (12) (15)

eat eaten eaten eating

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

235

TABLE IV

Verbid-Clusters

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

about

to

HAVE

about

to to

about

to to

*about

to to

"about

•to to

•about

•to to

'having have have

•"about

to to

having have have

""about

to to

*about

to to

BE,

having have have

(11)

(12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21)

having have have

•be be be •been been been been •being

be be be been been been been being

BE,

be be be been been been been being being being being being being being being being

V

eat eat eat eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eaten eating eating eating eating eating eating eating eating eating

236

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

These four forms occur as verbid-clusters in the following sentences. (The numbers in parentheses correspond to the numbers of the verbid-clusters in [14] above, and also to their numbers in Table IV.) [15]

(12) (15) (1) (4)

Ever eaten a whole watermelon? I saw a small boy eating one this morning. I stopped to watch him eat it. I saw the melon eaten.

When we contrast item (1), eat, as it is used in [15] (1), with item (15), eating, as used in [15] (15), it appears that verbids of the form eat/eating contrast in much the same way that non-expanded and expanded verb-clusters do: the sentence in [15] (1) suggests that "I stopped to watch the boy eat the whole melon", while the sentence in [15] (15) suggests that I saw the boy in the process of eating the melon - sentence [15] (15) is noncommittal as to whether I stayed to see the boy finish the melon or not. In other words, the base form eat in opposition to the ing form eating seems to signal 'inclusive reference' as opposed to 'intrusive reference'. When next we compare item (4), eaten, as it is used in [15] (4), with item (12), eaten, as used in [15] (12), we see that the two are identical in form. But from the example sentences in which they are used - [15] (4) and [15] (12) - we can see that the first eaten is a d-t-n form signaling 'passive voice', while the second eaten is a d-t-n form signaling 'earlier time-relationship'. When a verbid-cluster comprises two or more lexemes, there is usually little difficulty in determining the kind of voice, aspect, or time-relationship expressed; but when a verbid-cluster consists of only one lexeme, it is sometimes difficult to determine exactly the kind of reference intended. From the following sentence, for example, it is not clear whether broken signals only 'passive voice' or both 'passive voice' and 'earlier time-relationship' - that is, whether Percy saw the window as it was broken or only after it had been broken: [16]

Percy saw the window broken by the thieves.

Another complication grows out of the fact that there are two different "nominal"markers, either of which, when affixed to a verbid-cluster, makes of it (or, more accurately, makes of the predicatid which the verbid-cluster introduces) a nominal that may then be used as the subject of a sentence, as the complement of a verb, or as the object of a preposition. The two nominal-markers are to, which can be used only before a base form, and -ing, which is added on to a base form. Although the form resulting from the addition of this -ing is then identical to the ing form of the same verb, the contexts in which they participate are different, with the result that they manifest different tagmas, with a corresponding difference in their significations. We have seen for example, that a non-bounded predication as expressed by an expanded verb-cluster is incompatible with the "finishedness"

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

237

TABLE V

Voice, Aspect, Time-Relationship, and Nominalization in Verbid-Clusters 'Passive Voice':

[BE]

+ ( )-n

'Intrusive Aspect':

[BE]

+ ( )-ing

'Inclusive Aspect':

(v) [HAVE] + ( )-n

'Earlier T-R': 'Same T-R":

(v)?

'Later T-R':

(about) to

[(1) 'Nominalization': j [(2)

to

+ ( ) + ( ) + ( )-ing

or completeness suggested by the includer after; a sentence like the following does not occur: [17]

* After he war eating supper, Percy went to bed.

But there is no incompatibility between the nominalization signaled by the ing form of a verbid and the "finishedness" or completeness suggested by the preposition after; every verbid-cluster or predicatid used as the object of a preposition must include an ing form, as in [18] below: [18]

After eating supper, Percy went to bed.

The nominalizing affix -ing is always added to the first verbal element (auxiliary or verb) in the verbid-cluster introducing the predicatid, as may be seen from the following three examples: [19] (a) (b) (c)

A fter boiling for an hour, the water all evaporated. After being boiled for an hour, the water all evaporated. After having been boiled for an hour, the water all evaporated.

Table V summarizes the rather complex system of ties and valences signaling verbal categories in verbid-clusters. Reference to the table will show that most of the morphemes listed there participate in more than one kind of reference. The auxiliary BE, for example, signals 'passive voice' when tied to a d-t-n form, but 'intrusive aspect' when tied to an ing form. Similarly, a d-t-n form seems to signal 'passive voice' when it is tied to some form of BE, but to signal 'earlier time-relationship' when tied to some form of HAVE. When tied to some form of BE, the affix ing seems to suggest 'intrusive aspect'; but when added to the first verbal element in a verbid-cluster, it forms a nominal (or possibly also an adjectival, or even an

238

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

EARLIER ([to] be) ,v-n (to have been) v-n

LATER v to v about to v ([to] be) v-n

,r ([t

i . v » v-ing (ACTIVE) °]be v-n (PASSIVE (being)

Fig. 22.

Time-Relationship Signals in Clausids.

adverbial). The lexeme to, when followed by an ing form, is a preposition, but to may also be used with a following base form either to suggest 'later time-relationship' or to introduce a nominal. 1 It will be seen from Table V that several of the verbal categories listed there are signaled by pairs of tied elements rather than by single elements. And, as we have seen, most of the elements appearing in the table participate in the signaling of more than one category. Because of such participation, a morpheme like [-n] or to often brings with it to any situation involving one of the two kinds of reference in which it participates, some suggestion of the other. Thus in contexts where to is used primarily as a marker of nominals, it often suggests 'later time-relationship' when such reference is not incompatible with the given contexts. Table V is useful in showing up potential ambiguities resulting from the use of forms with double reference. Thus the possible ambiguity in a sign reading " W A L L S P A I N T E D " can be explained by the fact that the d-t-n form painted may signal either 'earlier timerelationship', suggesting that certain walls have already been painted, or it may signal 'passive voice' and suggest (perhaps because of the context) that someone on the premises is offering to paint walls. The different kinds of time-relationship that may be signaled by the three verbids v, v-n, and v-ing, as well as by the two infinitives to eat and about to eat, are shown by the diagram in Figure 22. Figure 22 shows only the time-relationship signals to be found in verbid-clusters used in clausids. T o these signals there should be added the auxiliary having, which is often used to signal 'earlier time-relationship' in predicatids used as adverbials, as in the sentence in [24], below. It should be noted that the arrow in the diagram in Figure 22 has no orientation with respect 1 N o t e that when to is used as a preposition, it precedes the nominal that is its object; but w h e n it is used with a base form, it introduces a nominal. T h e difference between these t w o uses m a y be seen from the following examples: Percy is accustomed t o smoking in bed. It is dangerous to smoke in bed. Or: To smoke in bed is dangerous.

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

239

to time: these same signals are used to indicate time-relationship with reference to the time of a verb-cluster oriented either with reference to an identified time in the past, or to the moment of coding, or even to an identified time in the future.

10.3. PREDICATIDS

10.31. The Forms of

Predicatids

Predicatids have the same form as either predicates or predicatives, with the crucial difference that they lack "x" - that is, any orientation with reference to time. 2 Thus a predicate or predicative without its first auxiliary is a predicatid. But the meaning of "predicatid" will be extended so as to include any constructions introduced by any of the verbid-clusters in Table IV. (Several of the verbid-clusters appearing there do not occur, however.) Thus predicatids may be introduced by to, or by about to, or by being, or by having, as well as by any auxiliary form that regularly occurs immediately following a carrier. 10.32. Common

Uses of

Predicatids

It should be noted that the term "predicatid" refers only to the form of such constructions; this label is not supposed to imply any necessary relationship between such constructions and the predicate or complement position in a sentence or clause. Predicatids introduced by an ing form or by the infinitive marker to are regularly used as nominals in S position, in C u position, in adjunctal ( Q ) position, or as the object of a preposition. 3 Nominal predicatids introduced by to sometimes seem to imply more inclusive reference than do -ing nominals, but in many cases it is difficult to recognize any such distinction. Compare, for instance, the following two examples: [20] [21]

I like playing the piano. I like to play the piano.

Predicatids introduced by d-t-n forms, or by ing forms, or by either infinitive marker (to or about to), are regularly used as adjectivals, that is, within noun-clusters as modifiers of the noun nuclei. Single-word adjectival predicatids (i.e., verbids) regularly precede their nouns, while predicatid constructs regularly follow them. 5 It is often useful to distinguish between predicates, comprising only verbals and their complements, and predicatives, comprising predicates with preceding middle modifiers and following predicate-modifiers in H position (on the level of the sentence); such a distinction, however, does not seem fruitful on lower levels. Thus a predicatid may have the form of either a predicate or a predicative (but lack the time-orientation): in other words, a predicatid may or may not include a following predicate-modifier. (It should be remembered that the term "verbal" as used here refers to the complete verb-cluster, including the carrier, even when the carrier shifts to X position. Thus predicates and predicatives are always time-oriented.) s But a predicatid introduced by the infinitive marker to does not occur as the object of a preposition

240

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

Thus predicatids introduced by to always come after nouns, as in a book to read. Adjectival predicatids introduced by ing forms have 'active' reference, as in [22]

I saw a man eating chicken with his fingers.

But an adjectival predicatid introduced by a d-t-n form regularly has 'passive' reference, as in [23]

I felt sorry for the man eaten by the cannibals.

It is interesting to note that, corresponding to passive d-t-n adjectivals and active ing adjectivals, there are also passive to adjectivals, as in a chicken to eat, and active to adjectivals, as in a chicken about to eat. Predicatids introduced by d-t-n forms, ing forms, to (when it is a shortened form of in order to), or by in order to, or less often by about to, are regularly used as adverbials - that is, as so-called "sentence-modifiers". The use of having in such adverbials is fairly common in writing, although not in speech. Such a use of having is shown below: [24]

Having finished supper, Percy went to bed.

Since adverbials may occur in either front or end position, adverbial predicatids are also found in both of those positions, as shown by the following examples: [25] (a) (b)

Realizing the futility of arguing with her prejudice against the theater, I did something I was reluctant to d o . . . . (RDcl76) Mason took a slow step backwards, groping behind him with his hand for the edge of the iron balustrade. (GGn59) 10.33. Dangling

Modifiers

As a general rule, adverbial predicatids are supposed to be tied to the subject of the sentence or clause in which they occur - that is, an adverbial predicatid should usually express a predication which, if it were re-expressed by a verb-cluster in a full sentence, would require as its subject the subject of the clause or sentence in which the adverbial predicatid occurs. Adverbial predicatids which are not properly tied to the subjects of their clauses or sentences are called "dangling modifiers"; an example of such a dangling modifier is to be seen in [26]: [26]

Looking through a microscope, germs seem very big. 10.34. Elliptical

Clauses

Nominal predicatids introduced by ing forms regularly follow prepositions, as in the following sentence: [27]

After washing his hands, Tad sat down at the table.

Although the entire prepositional phrase after washing his hands is here used as an adverbial, the predicatid - washing his hands - is not so used; it is used, instead, as the object of the preposition after. As has already been pointed out, the "finished"

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

241

meaning suggested by after is incompatible with the "incomplete" meaning suggested by a non-expanded verb-cluster, so that it would not be possible to insert S + X between after and washing-, in other words, the following sentence does not seem natural: [28]

* After he was washing his hands, Tad sat down at the table.

For this reason, the lexeme after in [27] must be analyzed as being a preposition rather than an includer. But there are several includers after which S + X are often omitted, as in the following sentence: [29]

While waiting for the others to come, Tad ate a pickle.

Since while does not function as a preposition in any other context, it seems better to analyze this clause as exemplifying ellipsis than to recognize a special prepositional use of includers like while. (It will be noted that the missing S + X may be supplied from the sentence itself.) The includers after which S + X are regularly omitted are the following: although, as, as i f , i f , until, when, where, whether, and while. Such includers may be used with d-t-n forms as well as with ing forms, as in the following example: [30]

Until stopped by his mother, he played with his napkin ring. 10.35. Special Uses of Predicatids

One common use of predicatids which it is difficult to analyze satisfactorily is the use of infinitive predicatids (i.e., predicatids introduced by to plus a base form) after an interrogative word, the whole seemingly used as the object of some such verb as know, learn, teach, ask, and show. As in the case of other predicatids, those used in this way are made negative by inserting not just before the predicatid, as in the following example: [31]

By bitter experience, Mr. Puddleditch learned how not to make money on the stock market.

The use of predicatids in the Co secter, as the "objects" of verbs, has already been demonstrated. But predicatids also occur in adjunctal (i.e., Ci or C 2 ) position. The difference between object complements and adjunctal complements can be seen from the following examples: [32] [33] [34] [35]

S X M V Co Ci C2 Mrs. Barr is calling Tad. Tad is a small boy. He is small. He has just come in.

Object complements are always nominals; they never "refer back to" (or have the same referent as) the nominal in the S position. An object nominal can usually be made the subject of a corresponding passive sentence (although in some cases the resulting passive sentence may seem unnatural because of other factors). The verb

242

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

preceding an object complement must be a "transitive" verb: that is, it must be a verb which, in some sentences at least, can be made passive. Adjunctal complements are complements in the sense that their presence is required by the verb. If, for example, the phrase on the floor were omitted from the sentence in [36] below, the resulting sentence would be ungrammatical. (Occasionally the omission of such a complement will produce a grammatical sentence but one whose verb will have a different meaning from its original meaning.) The distinction between the Ci position and the Q position has to do with the form of the adjunctal construction: Ci is the position for clusters, including, particles like in, on, up, away, and the like, while Co is the position for phrases (as in the next two examples), or for pro-phrases such as here, or for "contracted phrases" or "adjuncts" like upstairs, outdoors, and downtown. C2 is also the position for adjuncts like alone, asleep, alive, abroad, and the like. (Historically, most such lexemes are derived from phrases.) The following sentences give examples of C> complements: [36] [37] 138] 139]

S He Tad But Joe He

X M V Cu C, C2 has left his coat on the floor. has just come into the house. isn't here. has gone abroad.

D-t-n predicatids occurring in Q position form adjunctal passives, as opposed to verbal passives. (Compare [40] and [41], below.) The d-t-n form in example [40] is not part of the main verb-cluster, but the d-t-n form in [41] is. [40]

S X Tad is

[41]

Tad has

M

V

Co

Ci C2 seated beside Jean.

been seated

A

beside Jean.

The ing form in the following example is part of the main verb-cluster: [42] Tad isn't talking to Jean at this moment But the ing form in sentence [43] is probably better analyzed as introducing a predicatid in adjunctal position if the sentence means that Tad and Jean are not on speaking terms: [43]

Tad isn't

talking to Jean.

Although the ing form in [44] is usually considered to be part of the main verbcluster, it seems to be more adjunctal than verbal: [44]

Ruth is always

talking.

Compare the following examples: [45] [46]

S X M V Co Ci Ruth just keeps (on) talking. Ruth just goes on talking when she gets going.

Q

A

243

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

The verb is can be substituted for each of the verbs in the last two sentences; its preterit form (way) can be substituted for the verb in this next sentence: S [47]

X

John

V

C0

went

Cx

C2

fishing

A today.

Predicatids introduced by to and about to regularly belong in adjunctal position: [48] [49]

Tad He

is is

about to eat his pie. to go to bed at 8:00* 10.36. Predicatids in the Co Position

Predicatids may also occur in the Cu position, as the "object" of the verb. Such predicatids are by definition nominals. Neither d-t-n predicatids nor predicatids introduced by about to function as nominals; such predicatids, therefore, are not found in the Co position. But both ing predicatids and predicatids introduced by to do occur as Co complements, as do also predicatids introduced by a base form, without the to. (But only a small, restricted group of verbs take predicatids of this last kind as their objects.) Examples of all three kinds of objects appear below: [50] [51] [52]

S X M V Co Tad hates going to bed. Tad hates to go to bed. Jean will help do the dishes.

The type of predicatid that may occur as the object of any given verb seems to be determined in great measure by the verb itself. Thus certain verbs take one kind of predicatid as object, others take another kind, while some - like the verb hate in [50] and [51] - may take more than one kind of object. Lists of verbs taking different kinds of predicatids as objects appear in Appendix B. 10.4. C O L L A P S E D C L A U S I D S

10.41. Contracted

Clausids

Verbs like elect are regularly followed by two nominals, one in Co position and the other in adjunctal (i.e., C t or C 2 ) position: S X M V C„ C, Q [53] They have elected Abernathy president. In this last sentence, the Ci nominal (president) refers back not to the subject of the sentence but to the last preceding nominal - the Co nominal (Abernathy). All 4

Another way to analyze such sentences would be treat to ries, in the same class as going to. These sentences would S X M V C0 Ct C2 Cf. Tad is about to eat his pie. Tad is going to eat his pie. He is to go to bed at

and about to as secondary auxiliathen be "diagrammed" as follows: A

8:00

244

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

the sentences in [33]-[35] above can be rephrased as the complements of other sentences, as in [54]-[56] below: [54] [55] [56]

I I I

consider consider found

Tad him him

a small boy. small. in.

The sentences in [40] and [47]-[49] can be rephrased in the same way: S X M V Co C, C2 [57] I found Tad seated beside Jean. [58] I found John fishing. [59] I found Tad about to eat his pie. [60] Tad's father told him to go to bed at 8:00. A re-examination of the sentences in [53] to [60] will show that within each sentence there seems to be a "contracted" or "collapsed" clausid possessing a subject (in Co position) and a complement (in Ci or C 2 position) - but no time-orientation. Each of these "COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS" can be re-written as a full sentence with the addition of a suitable form of BE (but with the requirement that the time-orientation of the form of BE be the same as the time-orientation of the sentence from which the collapsed clausid was taken). 5 A collapsed clausid is a construct composed of a subject and a predicatid; it has most of the elements to be found in a full clause or sentence except time-reference. In order to change a full sentence into a collapsed clausid, it is necessary to remove the time-reference (and perhaps also to make certain other changes, such as the replacing of the subject form of a pro-nominal by its object form). When we collapse a sentence like the following, in which there is both an auxiliary and a following verb form, collapsing merely removes the auxiliary: [61] (a) (b)

S X M V Co Ci John was fishing. I found John fishing.

But when the verb in a sentence is some form of BE, removal of the time-reference usually results in the absence of any verb, as in [62] (b): [62] (a) Tad was in. (b) I found Tad in. A collapsed clausid which fills both the Co and the C ( and/or C2 positions in a clause or sentence may be called "A CONTRACTED CLAUSID". A collapsed clausid that lacks any verb form, like the clausid in [62] (b), is always a contracted clausid; but, on the other hand, a contracted clausid may have a verbid-cluster, as 5

Different writers have given different names to clausids of the kind described here, or to those of the kind described in the next section. Otto Jespersen, f o r example, uses the term "nexus" f o r any such combination of "two ideas which must necessarily remain separate: the secondary term adds something new to what has already been n a m e d " ( T h e Philosophy of Grammar, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1924, p. 116). Janet Rankin Aiken uses the term "germ" in her English Past and Present (New York, T h e Ronald Press C o m p a n y , 1930).

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

245

in [61] (b). T h e subject of a contracted clausid regularly occupies the Co position; its predicatid regularly occurs in adjunctal position. 10.42. Embedded

Clausids

But there seems to be a subtle difference between the kind of collapsed clausid found in [63] (a) below and the kind found in (b): [63] (a) (b)

They had the roof They found the roof

painted. painted.

Compare also: [64] (a) (b)

I saw Aunt Agnes dancing the twist I consider it a disgrace.

In the sentence in [63] (a) the object of the verb had seems to be not so much the rooj as the whole business of having the roof painted. In the sentence in [63] (b), however, it seems that what was found was the roof - with the added qualification that it was already painted when found. The second kind of clausid is the kind that we have already called contracted clausids; we may call clausids of the other kind " E M B E D D E D CLAUSIDS". It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between these two kinds of clausids; frequently, however, the use of the test lexeme already will help to make the distinction clear, as it does when one is trying to distinguish between verbal passives and adjunctal passives. It would not be possible, for example, to insert the lexeme already into the sentence in [63] (a), above, but the insertion of already into the sentence in (b) would not change the meaning. There remains the problem of trying to determine where embedded clausids fit in the sequence of sectors. The sentences in [64] suggest a solution; both of the sensences may be combined into one sentence, in the following manner: [65]

1 consider Aunt Agnes dancing the twist a disgrace.

The collapsed clausid of sentence [64] (a) has become the subject in the contracted clausid in sentence [65], Embedded clausids appear, then, to occur in the C,, position. This corresponds closely to the subjective feeling that the roof painted in [63] (a) is more nearly the object of the verb had than an objcct plus a following complement. We may now set up the following positions for the sentence in [65]: S

V

Co

Q 1

[66]

C c7 ' I consider Aunt Agnes dancing the twist a disgrace.

Just as Co-Co are the positions for the subject and predicatid of a contractcd clausid collapsed within the complement of a full sentence, there appear also to be positions for the subject and predicatid of another clausid embedded within the Co position. Collapsed clausids also occur as the objects of prepositions, as in these examples: [67]

Didn't you hear about Aunt Agnes dancing the twist?

246 [68]

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

That's something for you to ponder over.

When a sentence containing the preterit or non-preterit form of a verb is collapsed into an embedded clausid, the verb loses its time-reference and is replaced by the base form, instead: [69] (a) (b)

John fell. I saw John fall.

Cf.: John was falling I saw John falling.

10.43. Discontinuous

Clausids

If we change the sentence in [53] above into a passive sentence, only the subject of the contracted clausid shifts to the S position; the Ci complement (president) remains in the Ci position. This may be seen from the following examples: [70] (a) (b)

S They Abernathy

X V c„ have elected Abernathy has been elected

C, C,> president. president.

Similarly, when a sentence like the one in [69] (b) is changed into the passive, only the subject of the embedded clausid shifts to the S position - the rest of the clausid remains in the C« position: [71] (a) (b)

S X I John was

V C„ Ct saw John fall. seen to fall.

Co

(Notice also that the base form of the verb, fall, changes in the passive sentence to its infinitive form to fall.) Although the subject of the sentence in [71] (b) appears to be the nominal John, it would perhaps be more accurate to say that the real subject is the DISCONTINUOUS CLAUSID John ...to fall. We may indicate the position vacated by the former subject by means of a small arrow pointing in the direction of the S position, as in sentence (b) above. 10.44. "Absolute"

Clausids

Clausids sometimes occur in the front adverbial position. Their grammatical connection to the main body of the sentence is often signaled by no more than their occurrence in the adverbial sector and by the fact that they lack all time-reference and so cannot be independent. Clausids of this kind are fairly common in formal writing: [72]

All attempts at control through cooperation having broken down, the prices of crude and refined alike were falling disastrously. (SPnl77) Minor sentences like the following, which sometimes occur in conversations as complete utterances but which lack any time-orientation, may be considered to be another kind of absolute clausid: [73] (a) (b)

Me be quiet? John do such a thing? Never!

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

247

TABLE VI

Different Kinds of Clausids INCLUDED

NON-INCLUDED

INTRODUCED:

^ that he go. I worry lest he go.

"Hortative": Let's us go.* "Optative": Heaven forbid!

NON-INTRODUCED:

Collapsed: Embedded Contracted

Imperative: You be quiet. Absolute: Me be quiet? John being sick, . . . .

*

Let's is here treated as being a single lexeme, used to introduce "hortative" utterances.

Imperative sentences with you or somebody may also be analyzed as examples of absolute clausids: [74] (a) (b)

You be quiet. Somebody do something. 10.45. Introduced

Clausids

Many included clauses introduced by that following such verbs as insist, demand, and suggest, turn out on closer examination to be clausids rather than clauses: the verbs in such clauses occur in their base form and lack time-oricntation. Such clausids differ from other clausids by being introduced by includers like that and lest. The different kinds of clausids are summarized in Table VI.

10.5. T H E ORDER OF SECTORS AND SUB-SECTORS IN AN ENGLISH SENTENCE

In 4.4 above, a major sentence was analyzed as consisting of a body or trunk made up of a subject and predicative, the whole being modified from both ends by adverbials. This "top level" view of the sentence as a whole may be represented by the following schema: [75]

A-» [S + P v ] -+A

When such a sentence is collapsed and then placed inside the complement sector of another sentence (or after a preposition), any adverbials in front position must be either omitted or shifted to end position: there is no place for long adverbials directly preceding the complement. 8 The four-part schema in [75] may therefore • But in writing, a short adjunctival or adverbial is sometimes moved from H or A position to a position before the complement, especially if the complement is long, as in Mr. Dex wrote on the envelope the name and address of the people in Scotland who . . . .

248

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

be considered to be a special case of the more representative three-part schema shown below: [76]

(S + P v )

A

(In the original schema, of course, allowance should have been made for the extremely important X position; but when clauses are collapsed, the X position automatically drops out.) The three basic parts of a clausid are, then, S, P v , and A, reflecting the same three parts on the level of the sentence itself. When a sentence is contracted, these three parts fit into the positions which have here been called C, Ci or C>, and H. On a still lower level, these three parts occupy three positions within G,. We may thus represent all the sectors and sub-sectors of a major English sentence as belonging to different levels, as follows: [77] or

Y + I + A + X.,+S + [(C„) + (C t + C,>) + H ] + Y + I + A + A., + S + [(c s + c„ + c a ) + (Cp) + C J

M., + X + M + A,„ + A„ + A t + M., + X + M + + A m + A„ + At +

V + Z V + X7

Theoretically, of course, it is possible to keep on collapsing additional clauses into already collapsed clauses, just as it is possible to include clauses within clauses that have already been included.

10.6. T H E O R D E R O F E L E M E N T S IN C L U S T E R S A N D C L A U S I D S

10.61. The Order of Elements

in Verb- and

Verbid-Clusters

The chart in Figure 24 (on pages 250-251) shows the order in which the different elements in verb- and verbid-clusters occur, and the different kinds of ties holding between one element and another in any given sequence of elements. Every English verb (except BE) has six and only six "Principal Parts". Three of the six parts, called verbexes, show time-reference: the choice of one or another of these three parts is determined by ties and valences suggested in the chart by [-d] and [0], (One of the three verbexes also shows a tie to a third person singular subject by means of [-sj.) The other three principal parts are called verbids; they show no time-reference but are selected by the last preceding element in the sequence of elements, as shown in the chart in Figure 23 (on page 249). The verb BE has eight principal parts: it has a third non-preterit verbex which ties with the subject I, and it has an additional preterit verbex, which ties with both third person singular subjects and the subject /. 10.62.

"Concatenations"

It appears, from the examples in [50]-[52], above, that different verbs place different 7

T h e two shifted positions ,C.., and C 4 have been omitted.

249

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

THE "VERB KEY" THE BASE FORM [v]' will, would shall, should can, could may, might must ought . . . to (need) (dare) do/does, did [or (about) to]

THE D-T-N FORM [v-n]>

THE ING FORM [v-ing]' be been being am are is were was

have had having have has had

THE NONPRETERIT FORMS [v-0]

[V-s]

(Every day) (Twice a week) (On Tuesdays) (Sometimes) (Often) (etc.) [we] [he] [you] [she] [they] [it]

c ~

S3SHV1J CINV S33N31N3S N1

-able*

-going*

"have•

•been-

S

who which what that

'

(be.)

BE,

(.being-)

-been-

£

with singular reference

3 e not

83

got*

HAVE

•v-n

>

musr should( need) (dare) ought*

•

"have*

s

I that if before &c never seldom &c

V

how

» '"a

where when why whose (many)

'x •belter - not» -rather

not

2nd Aux

à

who(m) which what that

> •S

who which what that

CARRIERS o c

with plural reference

X

: don't" do"

M you1

M CO

(don't)

VERB TYPE

>

•b'

S

«

•a

«

•

tO 0 «>¿1 «iM

S i

•c TS -S ¡?8f

X

c ? ' 5 O E s Jj ~ u b i? o •= |

ï0Û js ^ o ~ J= _ u 5 E >.

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ft -e ¿3 3 2/5

o .s
u >•. SO og o - *>-' •S n 5 ¿ i f 4 "3 "O "O E - gt o 8 g -2 i ie a I î - S - ' + + + u h -r o - U •fi ^ B. u o S, c: « «-i S7 Jd q» J= V5 + 3 g = « gl)p ¡^ s S f l S i i i C u ta o ~ JS a ». ~ 8 8 Ï« o .S co g "o « s• tooí a s o s £ .s a M U ? — •w- Ofi *o u o ». O •O M M 1« 1 1 £ ï £ ï „ 2 « EI „ Ê + + + + ; > 1c - 3 « . s Z ^ SÍ g + + i fi E . - 2 a « « ~ •s « o « u T T 3 J fi ? j= -o .c x> s. _o .o -t: c 1 e > e O ~5 £ * * -E « M 0 o «> c •§O ¿C ? 3 'O ¿ E o 4 4 4 » Ï ti i . 2 B. h- 4 4 e u •- o •o a ^ - o o. > «> e ™ a ™ a g fi o u f i « + + §• + + + ! • ! ï . s g E s •§ « 'S I = 'S S o S " « Si s — — * i e c » ~ "TS « i u a «í .c u «" » 5 : -ç «u. "" B 4 &> Ji** £

% z

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3 >. g o

ü i í ü C Û ,- S a .ä S

f I

w

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o O 5

252

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

The three verb forms that introduce the three kinds of predicatids exemplified here are (I) the ing form, (II) the infinitive (with to), and (III) the base form. We may symbolize these three types as follows, to show that they occur in the Co position following those verbs: [79]

I: [ + Co(v-ing)] II: [ + C 0 (to v)] III: [ + Cn(v)]

In the complements of the following examples there again occur three predicatids of the same three kinds as in [78], but these predicatids do not seem to be the objects of the verbs preceding them: [80] (a) (b) (c)

John went fishing. Tad is to go to bed at 8:00. Go get a knife from the kitchen.

In 10.35, above, the first two of these predicatids were analyzed as being adjunctal - that is, as occurring in either the C ( or the Co position. We may therefore symbolize them as follows (using the letter "B" to distinguish them from those in [79], which may be labeled "A"): [81] (a)

IB: [ + C,, 2 (v-ing)] I I B : [ + Ci.2.(to v)]

IIIB: [ + C,.,(v)] One other type seems to belong with these three: IVB: [ + C, ,(v-n)]; an example of a sentence containing a predicatid of this type is the following: [82]

John got lost in the woods yesterday.

It should be remembered that in each case it is the kind of verb preceding the predicatid that determines the form of the predicatid itself. Certain verbs take predicatids of only one or two specific types; other verbs take other types. We may classify such verbs by means of the Roman numerals and letters that have been used here as labels for the different kinds of predicatids. Thus a verb like hate (which appears in two different examples in [78]) may be said to belong to both Verb-Type 1A and Verb-Type IIA. Corresponding to the seven different kinds of predicatids described here, there are seven different kinds of collapsed clausids. Those which correspond to the " A " predicatids (which occur in Co positions) arc embedded clausids; those which correspond to the "B" (or adjunctal) predicatids are contracted clausids. (There is also an eighth kind of collapsed clausids - embedded clausids containing d-t-n verbids, which parallel Type IVD, contracted clausids with d-t-n verbids.) One other kind of clausid (labeled "V") is also included in this summary: namely, clausids introduced by that or lest.

253

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

The seven kinds of predicatids and the nine kinds of clausids may now be summarized as in [83], below; one example of each type is given in [84], ("N" represents the subject nominal in a clausid.)

IVC:

[ + Co(v-ing)] [ + Co(to v)] [ + Co(v)] [ + that + N + v)] [ + C«(N + v-ing)] [ + C 0 (N + to v)] [ + Co(N + v)] [ + C„(N + v-n)]

IA: IIA: II1A: IB: IIB: IIIB: IVB: IC: IIC: II IC: IVC: ID: IID: HID: IVD: V :

Tad hates going to bed. Tad hates to go to bed. Jean will help do the dishes. John went fishing for trout. Tad is to go to bed at 8:00. Go get a knife from the kitchen. John got lost in the woods. I saw Aunt Agnes dancing the twist. Tad's father wants him to go to bed at 8:00. I saw John fall. They had their roof painted red. They found John sleeping in a tree. Who chose Percy to referee the game? Jean will help her mother do the dishes. Percy found the window broken. Mr. Puddleditch demands that his wife speak to Mr.

IA: IIA: IIIA: V : IC: IIC: IIIC:

[84]

IB: IIB: IIIB: IVB:

[ + Q ¿(v-ing)] [ + C,, 2 (to v)]

ID: IID: HID: IVD:

[ + C„ (N) + C, .2 (v-ing)] [ + C« (N) + C, (to v)]

[ + C,, 2 (v)] [ + Ci.->(v-n)]

1 + Cu ( N ) +

C , .2 (V)]

[ + Q, (N) + C, .2 (v-n)]

Dex.

Lists of the verbs belonging to the sixteen different verb-types appear in Appendix B. 8 It often happens, of course, that a verb followed by a predicatid or clausid is itself at the same time part of the complement of a preceding verb. Such nestings of one predicatid or clausid within another in a kind of hierarchy or series of clusters may 11

A surprisingly large number of the verbs in the " D " lists (those followed by contracted clausids) are either verbs like find and discover, which are followed by clausids describing Events that have already taken place or that have begun to take place (that is, clausids that suggest "earlier time-relationship") - or else verbs like choose, appoint, advise, which take clausids referring to Events that will take place later (that is, clausids that suggest "later timerelationship"). In contrast to these verbs are those in the " C " lists (those followed by embedded clausids), many of which - like the verbs referring to the senses - take clausids referring to Events occurring at the "same time" as the time of the main verb. It appears that there may be some as yet imperfectly analyzed correlation between the C () position and "same time" time-relationship, and also between the C ( and C , positions and "earlier" or "later" timerelationship.

254

ELLIPTICAL CLAUSES AND COLLAPSED CLAUSIDS

be called "CONCATENATIONS". Although it seldom happens that as many as four or five concatenations appear together in one chain, the following sentence though admittedly an awkward one - may at least suggest the possibilities for nesting and expansion provided by such concatenations: TYPE [85]

I can't understand Mr. Puddleditch wanting Mrs. Puddleditch to go tell John's father to make him stop going fishing all by himself.

IC 1IC IIIB IID IIIC IA IB

RECAPITULATION

In the present study the writer has attempted to analyze the verbal categories of English, and to identify the signals by which such categories may be recognized. He has also attempted, as far as possible, to classify the categories in pairs each member of which contrasts with the other, to discover the general or overall meaning of the marked member of each pair, and to show that in many cases the unmarked member may either signal the absence of the overall meaning of the marked category or else be noncommittal as to the absence or presence of that meaning. These pairs of contrasting categories have been presented as sets of two-choice situations, in each of which only one member of the contrasting pair can be selected for the given context. (In many contexts, the selection of one or the other member of a relevant opposition is obligatory; in some contexts, however, the speaker may choose to ignore certain oppositions, which may then be said to be neutralized in those contexts.) The most important verbal categories of English are listed in tabular form in Table VII. 1 Additional comments on each category follow. (1) Time-orientation / Lack of time-orientation. Every verb form is either timeoriented or non-time-oriented. Time-oriented verb forms are called verb-clusters; verb forms lacking time-orientation are called verbid-clusters. Verb-clusters are signaled by the presence of "x" where x is a cover symbol for both the past morpheme [-d] and [0]; [0], in turn, is a cover symbol for both the third-person-singular ending [-s] and a set of valences that hold between verb-clusters exhibiting no overt signal of time-orientation and other elements in their sentences or clauses (such as present time-expressions). Or such valences may hold between a verb-cluster and the context or situation in which its sentence is spoken. Only the carrier (first auxiliary or modal) in a verb-cluster exhibits x. All verbid-clusters, on the other hand, lack x. It occasionally happens that it is impossible to determine from the immediate context whether a verb form that lacks any overt signal of time-orientation was intended by the encoder to be a verb-cluster or a verbid-cluster, but instances of such ambiguity are rare.2 1

In this table, the expression "time-relationship" is replaced by the term taxis, following Roman Jakobson in Shifters, Verbal Categories, and the Russian Verb (Cambridge, Mass., Department of Slavic Languages and Literature. Harvard University, 1957). p. 4. 2 It is not possible to tell from the following sentence, for example, whether Miss Fustle is

256

RECAPITULATION TABLE VII

The Morphemes and Valences that Signal Verbal Categories NONTIME-ORIENTED (Verbid-Clusters)

TIME-ORIENTED (Verb-Clusters) TIME

(Tenses):

x: [-d]/[0] ± (v-n)

+ v-n)

VOICE:

± (BE

ASPECT:

± (BE + v-ing)

± (v-ing)

±

HAVE, [ - D ] / [ 0 ] ,

±

(WILL/SHALL)

v-n/v/ (about) to v

TAXIS AND ANTICIPATION:

WILL/SHALL/CAN/ MAY/MUST/SHOULD/ (NEED)/(DARE)

MOOD:

QUASI-MOOD:

BE GOING TO/BE ABLE TO/

BE GOING TO/

HAVE TO/HAVE GOT TO/

BE ABLE TO/

OUGHT TO/USED TO/

HAVE TO

'D BETTER/'D RATHER

IRREALITY:

|-d] + "now," t-d] + have + "then," * he/she/it -I- were

PERSON:

± (he/she/it + [-s]); ± (I + am); ± (I + was) •

STATUS:

± not/n't; ± Wh ± (X-S)/-Wh +

± not/n't

(S-X)**

* "Then" here = reference to an identified past time. ** But inversion of S and X does occur in statements under certain conditions, as after seldom, never, etc.

(2) Time. Every verb-cluster shows, in its form, orientation with reference either to an identified time in the past or to the moment of coding. (It is not necessary that the verb form actually refer to the time with reference to which it is oriented.) All non-modal verb-clusters may be classified into different groups according to the time and time-relationship and aspect (and perhaps also voice) that they express; these different groups are called tenses, and all the verb-clusters in any one group are said to "be in the tense" of that group. All the tenses which exhibit some variant of [-d] are called past tenses; those which "exhibit" [0] are called present tenses. (Verbid-clusters, of course, lack tenses.) informing

us about a daily occurrence, or wants "them" to come every day: Miss Fustle insists that they come every day.

RECAPITULATION

257

(3) Voice. All verb-clusters are either passive or active. Those which contain some form of the auxiliary BE tied to a following d-t-n form are said to "be in the passive voice"; all others are said to-"be in the active voice".3 (Theoretically, it is possible to make up, for every active verb-cluster, a corresponding passive verbcluster, but not all possible passive forms seem to occur in the speech of most English speakers.) Verbid-clusters may also be said to be either passive or active; passive verbid-clusters are signaled by the presence of the d-t-n form of some verb. (But the d-t-n forms of some verbs occur also in active verbid-clusters; such clusters may occasionally be ambiguous.) Normally, only verbs that may take Co complements (i.e., objects) in the active voice occur in the passive voice; the nominal that would have been in the Co position in the active form of a sentence occurs in the S position in the passive form (followed always by the same x as in the active sentence, and by the same auxiliaries, and also by some form of BE and by the d-t-n form of the original verb).4 Most passive sentences signal the fact that the nominal in the S position is the recipient of the action expressed by the verb-cluster. Passive verbid-clusters commonly occur in noun-clusters (as adjectivals), in either front or end (adverbial) position, and in "collapsed clausids". (For a discussion of collapsed clausids, see Chapter X.) (4) Aspect. Aspect is signaled in verb-clusters by the presence or absence of some form of the auxiliary BE tied to a following ing form. 5 Verb-clusters which exhibit some form of BE tied to a following ing form are called expanded verbclusters. Aspect in verbid-clusters is signaled by the presence or absence of the ing form of some verb. (5) Time-Relationship and Anticipation. There are three kinds of time-relationship: "earlier", "same", and "later". Earlier time-relationship is regularly signaled by the presence of some form of HAVE; both same and later time-relationship are signaled by the same kind of "x" (i.e., by the [-d] or [0]) exhibited by the verbcluster in the clause or sentence within which the temporally related clause or sentence is included. Anticipation is commonly signaled by the presence of some form of WILL (less commonly by some form of SHALL)-, in present verb-clusters, will and shall may signal reference to an identified time in the future. In verbidclusters, time-relationship is signaled by the d-t-n form of some verb, or by the base 3

Since any form of BE may be either an auxiliary or the verb in a sentence, BE + a following d-t-n form may be interpreted as occupying either the X and V positions - or the X and C[ (or C 2 ) positions. This necessitates the recognition of two different kinds of passives, verbal passives and adjunctal passives. 4 If an active sentence consists primarily of a subject + x + a Predication, then a passive sentence must be pre-eminently a Predication since it may lack the original subject but must keep the original x and the elements in the original Predication. According to Erades, Kruisinga suggested "that the so-called 'passive voice' . . . is a device to represent the verbal idea as an occurrence." (P.A. Erades, Review of R. W. Zandvoort's A Handbook of English Grammar, in English Studies, XXVIII, February, 1947 , 24.) 5 All carrier forms of BE may function as substitutes for predicates or predicatives introduced by themselves. In such cases, of course, there is no following ing form for BE to tie to. (The same Is true of BE when it substitutes for the predicate or predicative of a passive sentence.)

258

RECAPITULATION

form of some verb, or by the base form preceded by (about) to. (The combination of to with the base form of a verb may be called an "infinitive", and to when so used may be called the "marker of the infinitive". But to when followed by the ing form of a verb is called a preposition.) (6) Mood. A verb-cluster is said to exhibit mood if it is introduced by any one of the following modals: WILL," SHALL? CAN, MAY, MUST, SHOULD? and NEED and DARE when not followed by to. Thus the name "mood" seems to be a kind of cover term for the meanings expressed by the modals, although the term is applied only to verb-clusters introduced by one of the modals listed above. Verbid-clusters do not exhibit mood in this sense: that is, none of these modals occur in verbid-clusters. (7) Quasi-Mood. A verb-cluster may be said to exhibit quasi-mood if it includes one of the following secondary auxiliaries: BE GOING TO, BE ABLE TO, HAVE TO, HAVE GOT TO, OUGHT TO, USED TO, 'D BETTER, and 'D RATHER. The secondary auxiliaries, like the modals, are defined by listing. Several of them have meanings similar to meanings expressed by one or another of the modals. With the exception of BE ABLE TO, they are all lexemes in the sense that their meanings cannot be predicted on the basis of the meanings of their component parts. (BE ABLE TO has been included in this list since it is often used as a substitute for CAN.) The secondary auxiliaries are similar to the modals in that they are used with the base forms of verbs, but they differ from the modals in that no secondary auxiliary shifts as a unit to the pre-subject position in questions. Like the modals, the secondary auxiliaries are considered as forming part of the verb-cluster in which they occur.8 Three of the secondary auxiliaries - BE GOING TO, BE ABLE TO, and HAVE TO - also occur in verbid-clusters. •

When used to express some modal meaning rather than time-relationship. Should with the meaning 'ought to' is here listed separately from shall. In a sentence like You should eat your spinach, there seems to be little sense of back-shifting; but the verbcluster in I should be very grateful if you would do so seems to be a back-shifted form of shall be (very grateful), and to pattern like I would be very grateful. 8 Lexemes like the get in get going, or the get in get lost, or the keep (on) in keep (on) going, are not considered to be secondary auxiliaries since they are not followed by the base form of a verb. Instead, they are considered to be full verbs; their use with following ing forms and d-t-n forms was discussed in Chapter X. Ought to is usually listed under the modals, but it is here included among the secondary auxiliaries since the to does not accompany the ought to pre-subject position in questions. (Both the modals and the secondary auxiliaries are listed as "modals" in Table II, however. Table II would probably be better titled "The Modals and Secondary Auxiliaries". In Table II, verbclusters introduced by'd better are included among those introduced by had; clusters introduced b y ' d rather are included among those introduced by would. They should probably have been listed separately.) In the speech of some people, the secondary auxiliaries ought to, used to, and'd better have the variant forms had(n't) ought to, did(n't) use to, and better. Have got to regularly has the variant forms has got to, 've got to, 's got to, and got to. Only BE GOING TO, BE ABLE TO, and HAVE TO have different variants for the expression of different times and time-relationships. 7

The order in which the primary auxiliaries, modals, and secondary auxiliaries appear in verb- and verbid-clusters is shown in Figure 24.

RECAPITULATION

259

(8) Irreality. "Irreality" (i.e., counterfactualness, impossibility of occurrence, doubt or even greater politeness) is signaled in verb-clusters by the co-occurrence of the past morpheme [-d] and reference to the present time-field, whether formally identified or not; or by the co-occurrence of [-d] and have and reference to a past time-field, whether formally identified or already identified; or by the cooccurrence of a third person singular subject with the so-called "subjunctive" form were. Irreality is not expressed in verbid-clusters. (9) Person. Person is exhibited in present verb-clusters (but not in past) by the presence (or absence) of the morpheme [-s] after a third person singular subject. (Such clusters are said to "tie" with their third person singular subjects.) The morpheme [-s] is always affixed to the carrier in a verb-cluster; but it does not occur in clusters introduced by the auxiliaries WILL or SHALL, or by any one of the modals, or by OUGHT TO, USED TO, 'D BETTER, or 'D RATHER.» Person is also exhibited in some verb-clusters by the presence of either the form am or the form was tied to a preceding I. Person is not indicated in verbid-clusters. (10) Status. Negative status is signaled in both verb-clusters and verbid-clusters by the presence of not (or n't)-, affirmative status is signaled by the absence of not (or n't). Interrogative status is signaled in verb-clusters by the presence of an interrogative word in I (introductory) position and/or by inversion of the subject and carrier; declarative status is usually signaled by the absence of any interrogative word and by the order S - X (although inversion of the subject and carrier may take place in declarative sentences under certain conditions, as, for example, after seldom, never, and the like). Interrogative and declarative status are signaled only by sentences, not by included clauses. Verbid-clusters usually do not signal either interrogative status or declarative status. The order in which the various verbal elements occur in English sentences and clauses is shown in Figure 24 (on pages 250-251), where many of the obligatory ties holding between one element and another are indicated. (The ties holding between carriers, other auxiliaries, and verb forms are shown in greater detail in Figure 23, on page 249.) Figure 24 also suggests the different kinds of constructions which may follow verbs belonging to one or another of the different verb-types; the verbs belonging to each type are listed in Appendix B. A detailed analysis of a specific example may serve to show how a native speaker of English wishing to convey two or three items of information to those around him finds himself faced at the very outset with the need to select one or the other member of each of several binary oppositions. In certain cases the selection of one member rather than the other will be obligatory; in other cases the speaker will be able to choose whichever member of the opposition he prefers at the moment; in » Since the m o r p h e m e [s] signals only the third person but no other, Joos suggests that it be called the "gender-signal," instead. (Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed ed„ Beograd, Institute f o r Experimental Phonetics, 1958, p. 93.)

260

RECAPITULATION

a few cases the speaker may even be able to avoid making any choice at all. It will appear, however, that in certain cases where the choice of a category (or even of a specific item) might have seemed at first to be optional, restrictions of word order, or of ties or valences holding between one element and another, or of some other requirement of the grammar, will finally determine the category or item to be selected. The speaker of the sentence about to be described is a keeper at a zoo. His sentence will be addressed to three people who are standing near a pool in which there are several seals. The information which the keeper wishes to convey to these people may be suggested by the following non-sentences, from which all verb forms have been deleted: INFORMATION: Seals' meal time: 4 o'clock. If here then, observation thereof possible. The first decision that this speaker has to make concerns the overall form of his utterance. 10 He may choose to express the given information in any one of several different ways: he may choose, for example, to express it in three separate sentences, or in one sentence with two included clauses, or in one sentence with an included clause and a collapsed clausid. We will assume that, in this instance, he selects the last of these possibilities. Other decisions that he has to make concern the order in which he will express the three items of information and the selection of the one item to be expressed by the "main" verb-cluster. The if eliminates the second item from consideration as the "main" item; since the condition suggested by the item beginning with if seems to apply to the third item, we will assume that the speaker selects the third item for his main cluster - and, further, that he decides to begin his sentence with the "if" item. It should be noted that all but one of the choices facing the speaker so far have been optional. His language has as yet not placed many restrictions upon his selections. But when he starts to choose his verb forms, he finds his decisions less "free". Any item that he chooses to express in a clause (as opposed to a clausid), for example, will have to be oriented with reference either to an identified time in the past or to the moment of speech: that is, it will have to contain a verb-cluster, the first lexeme of which will have to exhibit either [-d] or [0]. Since he is referring to a future time, he has to select [0], "4 o'clock" refers to a time later than the moment of speech, a time at which it is anticipated that something will happen; to show this "anticipation", the speaker may select the carrier will. But here his language offers him several alternatives: he may express the feeding of the seals as a scheduled future event by using no signal of time-relationship other than the [0] (e.g., "They feed the seals at 4"); or he may 10 The terms "decision" and "selection" as used here are not intended to suggest any conscious decision or selection on the speaker's part.

RECAPITULATION

261

interrelate the actual feeding with the present waiting-around for the feeding by using the regular signal for concomitant overlapping (BE + v-ing: "They're feeding the seals at 4"); or he may use the special lexeme BE GOING TO, to signal both concomitant overlapping and future intention ("They're going to feed the seals at 4"); or he may even decide not to orient the feeding of the seals with reference to any time but to express it instead by means of a verbid-cluster ("the seals' feeding at 4", or "the feeding of the seals at 4"). We will assume that he adopts the last choice. There must be at least one "main" verb-cluster in his sentence. Since the "if" item cannot be expressed by the main verb-cluster, the speaker is left with only "observation thereof possible" as the item to be so expressed. To signal "possibility", he again has an optional choice; he can select cither the modal CAN or the quasi-modal BE ABLE TO. CAN has only one form for the expression of both present and future time, as well as for later time-relationship," while the choice of BE ABLE TO would lead to still another necessary decision: the selection of the first element in the quasi-modal. We will assume that the speaker decides to use BE ABLE TO, together with will to signal anticipation: will be able to. When he comes to expressing the "if" item, the speaker again finds his freedom of choice restricted by his language. Although the "if" clause seems to refer to 4 o'clock ("then"), his language forces him to relate this clause in time to the time of the main verb-cluster instead of to the future "4 o'clock". Since the "if" clause will refer to the same time as the time of the main verb-cluster, however - and since the main verb-cluster will be introduced by will (be able to) - one might expect the verb-cluster in the "if" clause to begin with will, too. But such is not the case: since the "if" clause will be an included clause introduced by i f , the speaker must select [0] as the signal for "reference to the same time as the future time of the main verb-cluster": e.g., if you are here or if you come here (at 4 o'clock). There are several other verbal categories which have not been mentioned yet. Two of the categories - those of Irreality and Person - seem not to apply in this situation: unless the subject in one of the speaker's clauses is / - or he, she, or it - or a nominal for which he or she or it might substitute - the speaker cannot use any of the overt morphemes for signaling Person listed in Table Vil; again, since the items of information which the speaker is about to pass on arc all "true" or at least "possible", he cannot use any of the valences for signaling Irreality listed in the same table. But two other categories offer him more optional choices: he may, if he wishes, phrase his sentence in negative Status ("if you aren't here at 4 o'clock, you won't be able to see - " ) ; or he may express one of the items in the Passive Voice ("the seals fed"). We will assume that he rejects the first option but accepts the second. There remains the verbal category of Aspect. Here again the speaker has some 11

See Figure 13, above (p. 180).

262

RECAPITULATION

freedom of choice: he may suggest that his audience will be able to observe the seals' entire meal ("see the seals fed"); or he may be noncommital on this point, or may even wish to suggest that his audience will observe only part of the meal that is, the eating of the meal will overlap their observation of it ("see the seals being fed"). Under other circumstances, he might also have decided to signal the existence of some interrelationship between the presence (or return) of the three people at 4 o'clock and the Predication expressed by the main verb-cluster; but if he selects the verb SEE to express "observation" ("will be able to see"), it will not be possible to indicate such interrelationship: see is a "private" verb - that is, a verb that regularly participates in the expression of a non-shared suffusive Predication 12 - and as such it cannot be expanded (except with a change in meaning). In addition to making the necessary selections from among the pertinent verbal categories, the speaker must select the specific verbs that he will use. Here he has great freedom of choice. We will assume that he has already decided on SEE and on FEED; for the "if" clause, he may use BE - or he may use some such verb as RETURN or COME (HERE) or COME (BACK). We will assume that he chooses COME (BACK). In his selection of the actual form of each of these verbs, however, he has no freedom of choice at all: once the auxiliaries and tense-morpheme have been selected, the choice of verb form is predetermined, as is shown in Figure 23. The order in which the different elements must occur in the final sentence is also fairly predetermined, as can be seen from Figure 24: his sentence will begin with the included clause introduced by if (but he could have chosen to place the if clause at the end of his sentence); this clause will be followed by the item about the possibility of observation (expressed by the main verb-cluster), after which the item about the seals being fed will be "embedded" in the Co position, as a collapsed clausid. (The speaker may place the time-expression at 4 o'clock at the end of the included clause, or else at the end of the whole sentence. We will assume that he chooses to do the former.) As a result of all these obligatory and optional selections, and within the fairly rigid framework of English word order and the equally rigid framework of various sets of ties and valences, the speaker will conclude by saying, to the three people in front of him: If you come back at 4 o'clock, you'll be able to see the seals being fed.

"

See Section 2b of Appendix A.

Appendix

A

TYPES OF PREDICATIONS THAT DO NOT NORMALLY OCCUR WITH EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS

1. NON-EXTENDABLE MOMENTARY PREDICATIONS

a. "Asseverative" admit to s.J that s. (agree that s.) 3 announce that s. assert (that) s. beg pardon (or that s.) bet that s. (bid (in bridge)) call s. s. condole with s. consent to s. declare (that) s. (demand (that) s.) deny (that) s. differ with s. (disagree that s.) double (in bridge) find s. guilty, innocent forbid s. to do s. (forgive s.) insist that s. (judge s. s.) move that s.

Predications1

pardon s. (pass (in bridge)) prescribe (that) s. proclaim that s. profess that s. promise to s. (or that s.) pronounce s. and s. man and wife recognize s. (in a meeting) refuse to s. regret an invitation, etc. repeat (that) s. request that s. (say that s.) second the motion sentence s. to s. suggest (that) s. sympathize with s. (tell s. that s.) (thank s.) vote that s. wager that s. warn s. that s.

observe that s. (= say s.) 1 The terms "asseverative", "public", and "private" are taken from Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed ed. (Beograd, Institute for Experimental Phonetics, 1958), pp. 82-88. But Joos uses them for verbs rather than for predications. 1 "s." = "somebody" or "something". * The predications in parentheses may also occur with expanded verb forms, although they seem to be most commonly used with non-expanded forms.

264

APPENDIX A

b. A Sample List of Other Momentary by Non-Expanded break off doing s.4 cease doing s., to do s. chance that s. ( = happen that s.) develop that s. discover that s. find out that s. go off happen that s.

Predications Commonly Verb Forms

Expressed

learn that s. notice (that) s. occur to s. that s. remind s. of s., that s. set off set off s. turn out that s.

(But most momentary predications are extendable and, as a result, often occur with expanded verb-clusters.)

2. "SUFFUSIVE" PREDICATIONS

a. Shared Suffusive Predications abound with s." admit to s., that s. appear (that) s. assert (that) s. become s. ( = look well on s.) belong to s. border on s. comprise s. concern s. consist of s. constitute s. contain s. count ( = matter) cover s. (the state, not the act) cost s. deny s. depend (on s.) ( = be contingent) deserve s. *

("Public"*)

differ with s. do (in how do you do) do s. (for a living) equal s. exceed s. extend (over s.) fail to s. favor s. find that s. fit s. flow by s. (geog.) have s. ( = possess s.) hold true, etc. imply (that) s. include s. insist that s. indicate that s. intersect (with) s.

"s." = "somebody" or "something". The terms "asseverative", "public", and "private" are taken from Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed ed. (Beograd, Institute for Experimental Phonetics, 1958), pp. 82-88. But Joos uses them for verbs rather than for predications. • "s." = "somebody" or "something". 5

265

APPENDIX A

(provoke s.) refuse to s. require s. resemble s. result in s. rise above s. (geog.) rise in the east (said of the sun) seem (that) s. set in the west (said of the sun) (something) shows that s. signify (that) s. sound fine, etc. suffice (that s.) sympathize with s. tell the difference between s. and s. tell the time tower above s. (geog.)

involve s. lack s. lie at the foot of s., etc. (geog.) look like s. (look tired, etc.) 7 make a difference, etc. matter that s. need s. notice (that) s. observe s. ( = notice) occur to s. that s. owe s. s. own s. parallel s. possess s. profess that s. (something) proves (that) s. provide an excuse, etc. b. Non-Shared abhor s." adore s. (ache) 10 agree that s. (something) amazes s. (something) amuses s. annoy s. apprehend s. ( = understand) astonish s. believe (that s.) (bore s.) care if s., to s. consider s. s. consider that s. deem s. s.

Suffusive

Predications

("Private"*)

desire s. detest s. disagree that s. disbelieve s. dislike s. displease s. distrust s. doubt (that) s. entertain s. ( = amuse s.) envy s. esteem s. expect that s. fail to s. fancy s. favor (doing) s.

7 The predications in parentheses may also occur with expanded verb forms, although they seem to be most commonly used with non-expanded forms. 8 The terms "asseverative", "public", and "private" are taken from Martin Joos, English Language and Linguistics, mimeographed ed. (Beograd, Institute for Experimental Phonetics, 1958), pp. 82-88. But Joos uses them for verbs rather than for predications. 9 "s." = "somebody" or "something". 10 The predications in parentheses may also occur with expanded verb forms, although they seem to be most commonly used with non-expanded forms.

266 fear (that) s. feel free to s. feel that s. figure that s. (find that s.) foresee s. forget (that) s. forgive s. (frighten s.) grasp (the fact that) s. guess that s. hate s. hear (that) s. hope that s. hurt imagine that s. impress s. intend to s. interest s. (itch) judge s. s. know (that) s. know how to s. like s. loathe s. long for s. love s. mean s. mind (if) s. (= object to s.) miss s. (need s.) notice (that) s. observe (that) s. perceive (that) s. pity s. please s. prefer s.

APPENDIX A presume that s. pride oneself on s. (puzzle s.) realize that s. recall (that) s. recognize (that) s. recollect (that) s. regard s. as s. regret (that) s. remember (that) s. revere s. satisfy s. (something) scares s. see s. see (that s.) seem fine, etc. seem to s. smart (said of medicine, etc.) smell sweet, etc. sound loud, etc. stagger s. suit s. suppose (that) s. surprise s. suspect (that) s. sympathize with s. taste sour, etc. think (that) s. think so (something) tickles s. tire s. trust (that) s. understand (that) s. want s., to s. wish (that) s., to s. wonder if s. worry that s.

Appendix

B

T H E SIXTEEN VERB-TYPES

T Y P E IA [+Co(v-ing)]

TYPE IB1 [ + Cii(v-ing)]

T Y P E IC [ + Co(N+v-ing)]

abhor acknowledge admit advise allow appreciate attempt authorize avoid (can't) bear begin cease chance choose commence complete confess consider contemplate continue decline defend defer delay deny

appear come feel

appreciate (can't) bear conceive (of) consider depict 2 dislike dread excuse fancy feel get hate have hear imagine like notice object to observe overhear pardon picture recollect remember report

1

go lie seem sit smell sound stand taste get go on keep (on)

T Y P E ID t+C„(N)+C,. 2 (v-ing)] catch come (upon) depict 2 discover find keep leave picture prevent

No attempt has been made to make this list complete. Collapsed clausids formed with verbs appearing in both C and D lists can be interpreted as being either embedded clausids or contracted clausids.

2

268

T Y P E IA [+C 0 (v-ing)] deserve despise detest dislike doubt dread endure enjoy entail escape evade excuse facilitate

fancy favor

fear feign finish forbid forget give up hate (can't) help imagine include intend learn like love mean mention mind miss necessitate need object to omit permit postpone

APPENDIX B

T Y P E IB [+C,.2(v-ing)]

T Y P E IC [+C 0 (N+v-ing)] resent see set smell (can't) stand start understand watch

T Y P E ID [+C 0 (N)+C 1 . 2 (v-ing)]

269

APPENDIX B

TYPE IA [+C 0 (v-ing)]

TYPE IB [+C li2 (v-ing)]

TYPE IC [+C 0 (N+v-ing)]

TYPE ID [+C 0 (N)+C 1 .o(v-ing)]

[ + C„(tO V)]

TYPE IIB 3 [ + C 2 (to v)]

TYPE 1IC [ + C„(N + to v)]

TYPE I ID [ + C„(N) + Q ( t o v)]

afford agree

ache aim

acclaim-(be) 4 account-(be)

advise allow

practice prefer propose quit

recall recollect regret remember renounce repent report resent resist resume risk save shirk shun (can't) stand start stop study suggest teach try understand urge venture withhold TYPE IIA

* as * to

These lists do not include verbs frequently followed by to v where the to may be interpreted an elliptical form of in order to, as in He stopped to think. The verbs followed by "(be)" often seem to require the verb BE (in its infinitive form be) in the collapsed clausids immediately following them.

270

APPENDIX B

TYPE IIA [ + Co(to v)]

TYPE IIB [ + C 2 (to v)]

TYPE IIC [ + Q j ( N + t o v)]

T Y P E IID [ + C 0 ( N ) + Q ( t o v)]

arrange ask attempt (can't) bear begin cease choose claim commence consent continue 'd like decide decline delay demand deserve desire determine disdain dislike dread elect endeavor (can't) endure expect fear forget get guarantee hate help hope intend learn like loathe

appear be bother burn care chance combine come dare deign fail forbear grieve grow (up) happen hesitate incline live long proceed prove rejoice remain seem set out shudder tend trouble turn out yearn

acknowledge-(be) admit-(be) assert assume avow (can't) bear behold-(be) believe cause certify claim expect 5 fancy-(be) fear-(be) find-(be) forbid get grant-(be) guess-(be) hate hold imagine-(be) intend judge-(be) know like love maintain-(be) mean need observe order own-(be) perceive permit prefer proclaim-(be)

appoint apprehend approve ask authorize beg beseech betray bid bother bring oneself bring up call challenge choose command entice entitle entreat esteem exhort expect 5 forbid force give-(understand) goad grieve help hire impel implore importune incite incline induce instigate instruct

« Collapsed clausids formed with verbs appearing in both C and D lists can be interpreted as being either embedded clausids or contracted clausids.

271

APPENDIX B

TYPE IIA [+C 0 (to v)] love manage mean move need neglect offer omit plan prefer prepare pretend profess promise 8 propose refuse regret remember resolve say scorn seek serve (can't) stand start strive swear threaten try undertake venture want wish

TYPE IIB [+C 2 (to v)]

TYPE IIC [+C 0 (N+to v)]

TYPE IID [+C 0 (N)+C 2 (to v)]

profess-(be) pronounce-(be) prove-(be) realize-(be) reckon-(be) recognize-(be) regard-(be) remember-(be) report-(be) represent-(be) repute-(be) request require show-(be) state-(be) style-(be) suffer suppose-(be) suspect-(be) swear-(be) take-(be) term-(be) think-(be) trust understand-(be) visualize-(be) want warrant-(be) wish

invite lead leave motion move name need nominate oblige observe order persuade permit possess pray prefer prepare press prompt provoke raise rate request send sentence set solicit stimulate stir subpoena summon teach tell tempt thank train trouble

• But promise followed by N + to v does not belong to TYPE IIC: promise N to v = promise C.gCg, not promise C 0 C 2 .

272

T Y P E IIA [ + C o ( t o v)]

APPENDIX B

T Y P E IIB [+C 2 (to v)]

T Y P E IIC [ + C 0 ( N + t o v)]

T Y P E IID [ + C 0 ( N ) + C 2 ( t o v)] trust urge warn

[-rCo(v)]

T Y P E IIIB 7 (+Q,»(v)]

hear (say) help let (be, go, live) make (do)

come (eat, tell, etc.) go (find, get, make, tell, etc.) run (tell)

T Y P E IVB[ + Ci, 2 (v-n)]

T Y P E 1VC [ + C 0 (N + v-n)]

T Y P E IIIA

act appear become feel get lie look remain seem smell sound stand 7

bid depict feel get have hear imagine like need observe order prefer

T Y P E IIIC [ + G,(N + v)] feel have hear let listen to look at make notice observe overhear perceive see smell watch

T Y P E HID [+Co(N)+C,. 2 (V)1 bid help

TYPE V TYPE IVD7 [ + C„(N) + C, ,2(v-n)] [ + C „ ( t h a t + N + v ) ] depict discover find keep leave picture make prefer

No attempt has been made to make these lists complete.

ask command demand desire insist move propose recommend request require suggest urge

APPENDIX B

TYPE IVB 7 [+C l l 2 (v-n)] stay taste

TYPEIVC [+C 0 (N+v-n)] request require see urge want watch wish

TYPEIVD7 i+CoiNHC^iv-n)]

273 TYPE V [+C 0 (that+N+v)] These constructions also take that+N+v (but not as C»): It is fitting It is imperative It is important It is proper It is urgent He is anxious

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. SOURCES O F T H E EXAMPLES USED IN THIS STUDY Albrand. Martha, "Reunion with Terror" (Part III), The Saturday Evening Post, CCXXIX, No. 2 (July 14, 1956), 38, 82-87. Aldrich, Richard S., "Gertrude Lawrence as Mrs. A " (A condensation from the book), The Reader's Digest, LXVI, No. 396 (April, 1955), 168-210. Bess, Demaree, "The New Red Peril in Japan", The Saturday Evening Post, CCXXIX, No. 2 (July 14, 1956), 30, 71-73. Cheever, John, "Just Tell Me Who It Was", The New Yorker, XXXI, No. 9 (April 16, 1955), 38-46. Gardner, Erie Stanley, The Case of the Grinning Gorilla (New York, Pocket Books, 1956). (Original edition: William Morrow, 1952.) "George Washington, A Man to Remember" (Condensed from Time), The Reader's Digest, LXIX, No. 411 (July, 1956), 129-133. (Courtesy Time; copyright Time, Inc., 1953.) Gunther, John, Inside Asia. 1952 War edition, completely revised (New York and London, Harper and Brothers, 1938, 1939, 1942). Hemingway, Ernest, To Have and Have Not (New York, Permabooks, 1953). (Original edition: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937.) Holder, William, "Morgan's Wife", The Saturday Evening Post, CCXXIX, No. 2 (July 14, 1956), 31, 78-81. Huxley, Aldous, "Voices", The Atlantic Monthly, CXCVI, No. 1 (July, 1955), 33-45. Kingsley, Sidney, Men In White, in The Pulitzer Prize Plays 1918-1934, edited by Kathryn Coe and William H. Cordell (New York, Random House, 1935). (Original edition: CoviciFriede, 1933.) Marquand, John P., Point of No Return (New York, Bantam Books, 1956). (Original edition: Little, Brown and Company, 1949.) Nevins. Allan, Study in Power: John D. Rockefeller, Industrialist and Philanthropist, Vol. I (New York and London, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953). O'Neill, Eugene, Strange Interlude, in The Pulitzer Prize Plays 1918-1934, edited by Kathryn Coe and William H. Cordell (New York, Random House, 1935). (Original edition: Horace Liveright, 1928.) Ratcliff, J. D., "Elevators That Run by Themselves" (Condensed from Popular Science Monthly), The Readers Digest, LXIX, No. 411 (July, 1956), 79-82. Riesman, David, The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character, written in collaboration with Reuel Denney and Nathan Glazer (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1950). Taylor, Frank J., "Here Comes the Big Top". The Saturday Evening Post, CCXXIX, No. 2 (July 14, 1956), 37, 65, 67, 70. Tomkinson, Constance, "Les Girls", The Atlantic Monthly, CXCVI, No. 1 (July, 1955), 23-29. Warner, Matt, "Good News for Fishermen" (Condensed from The American Legion Magazine, The Reader's Digest, LXIX, No. 411 (July, 1956), 127-128. Weisinger, Mort, "He Knows How to Find Jobs for Ex-Convicts" (Condensed from The American Mercury), The Reader's Digest. LXIX, No. 411 (July, 1956), 190-192.

275

BIBLIOGRAPHY

White, T. H., "A Love Affair", The Atlantic Monthly, CXCVI, No. 1 (July, 1955), 59-62. Williams, Tennessee, Summer and Smoke, in Best American Plays (Third Series, 1945-1951), edited by John Gassner (New York, Crown Publishers, 1952). (Original edition: New Directions, 1948.)

2. BOOKS AND ARTICLES DISCUSSING EXPANDED VERB-CLUSTERS 2.1. Grammars 2.11. Traditional

and

Handbooks

Grammars

Aiken, Janet Rankin, Commonsense Grammar (New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1936). , English, Past and Present (New York, The Ronald Press Company, 1930). , A New Plan of English Grammar (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1933). Brown, Goold, The Grammar of English Grammars, 2nd edition, revised and improved (New York, Samuel S. and William Wood, 1857). Bryant, Margaret M., A Functional English Grammar (Boston, D. C. Heath and Company, 1945, 1959). Clark, Arthur Melville, Spoken English: An Idiomatic Grammar for Foreign Students, 2nd edition, revised and enlarged (Edinburgh and London, Oliver and Boyd, 1947). Curme, George O., College English Grammar (Richmond, Va., Johnson Publishing Company, 1925). , Parts of Speech and Accidence, Vol. II of A Grammar of the English Language by Hans Kurath (Vol. I) and George O. Curme (Vols. II and III) (Boston, D. C. Heath and Company, 1935). , Principles and Practice of English Grammar (now entitled English Grammar) (New York, Barnes and Noble, 1947). , Syntax, Vol. Ill of A Grammar of the English Language (Boston, D. C. Heath and Company, 1931). Davies, Hugh Sykes, Grammar Without Tears (New York, The John Day Company, 1953). Deutchbein, Max, System der neuenglischen Syntax (Cöthen, Otto Schulze, 1917). Grattan, J. H. G., and Gurrey, P., Our Living Language (London, Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1925). Graves, Robert, and Hodge, Alan, The Reader Over Your Shoulder: A Handbook for Writers of English Prose (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1943). Hodges, John C., in consultation with Francis X. Connolly, Harbrace College Handbook, 4th edition (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1956). Hook, J. N., and Mathews, E. G., Modern American Grammar and Usage (New York, The Ronald Press Company, 1956). Jespersen, Otto, Essentials of English Grammar (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1933). , A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1909-1949). Kennedy, Arthur G., Current English: A Study of Present-Day Usages and Tendencies, Including Pronunciation, Spelling, Grammatical Practice, Word-Coining, and the Shifting of Meanings (Boston, Ginn and Company, 1935). Kimball, Lillian G., The Structure of the English Sentence (New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago, The American Book Company, 1900). Kittredge, George Lyman, and Farley, Frank Edgar, An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises (Boston, Ginn and Company, 1913). Krapp, George Philip, The Elements of English Grammar (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908). , The English Language in America, 2 vols. (New York, The Century Company, 1925). , Modern English, Its Growth and Present Use (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909).

276

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Krüger, Gustav, Schwierigkeiten des Englischen, Vol. III: Syntax der englischen Sprache (Dresden und Leipzig, C. U. Kochs Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1904). Kruisinga, Etsko, An English Grammar for Dutch Students, 2nd edition, 2 vols. (Utrecht, Kemink en Zoon, 1917-1922). , A Handbook of Present-Day English, 4th edition, 3 vols. (Utrecht, Kemink en Zoon, 1925). 5th edition, 4 vols. (Groningen, P. N o o r d h o f f , 1931-1932). , and Erades, P. A., An English Grammar, 8th edition (Groningen, P. N o o r d h o f f , 1953). Long, Ralph B., The Sentence and Its Parts: A Grammar of Contemporary English (Chicago, T h e University of Chicago Press, 1961). Maetzner, Eduard Adolf Ferdinand, An English Grammar: Methodical, Analytical, and Historical. Translated f r o m the G e r m a n by Clair James Grece. 3 vols. (London, J o h n Murray, 1874). Mason, C. P., English Grammar, Including Grammatical Analysis, 42nd edition (London, George Bell and Sons, 1918). (1st edition: 1858.) Myers, L. M., American English: A Twentieth-Century Grammar (New York, Prentice-Hall, 1952). , Guide to American English (Englewood Cliffs, N . J., Prentice-Hall, 1955). Nesfield, J. C., English Grammar, Past and Present (London, Macmillan and C o m p a n y , 1911). , English Grammar Series. New edition, revised. Book I: The Parts of Speech, 1956. Book II: Easy Parsing and Analysis, 1954. Book III: Idiom and Grammar for Secondary Schools, 1952. Book IV: Idiom, Grammar, and Synthesis, 1951. (London and Bombay, Macmillan and Company.) (1st edition: 1895.) , Manual of English Grammar and Composition (London, Macmillan and C o m p a n y , 1919). , Outline of English Grammar. Revised edition in five parts (London, Macmillan and C o m pany, 1953). (1st edition: 1900.) Onions, C. T., An Advanced English Syntax, Based on the Principles and Requirements of the Grammatical Society, 6th edition (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, 1932). (1st edition: 1902.) Palmer, Harold E., A Grammar of Spoken English on a Strictly Phonetic Basis, 2nd edition, revised by Harold E. Palmer and F . G . Blandford (Cambridge, England, W . H e f f e r and Sons, 1939). (1st edition: 1924.) Pence, R. W., A Grammar of Present-Day English (New York, T h e Macmillan Company, 1947). Perrin, Porter G., Writer's Guide and Index to English, Revised edition (Chicago, Scott, Foresman and Company, 1950). Poutsma, Hfendrik], A Grammar of Late Modern English for the Use of Continental, Especially Dutch, Students, 5 vols. (Groningen, P. N o o r d h o f f , 1904-1916). , Mood and Tense of the English Verb (Groningen, P. N o o r d h o f f , 1922). Roberts, Paul, Understanding Grammar (New York, H a r p e r and Brothers, 1954). Sack, F. L., The Structure of English: A Practical Grammar for Foreign Students (Berne, A. Francke, 1954). Smith, Charles Alphonso, Grammar (Atlanta, B. F. Johnson Publishing Company, 1903). , Studies in English Syntax (Boston, G i n n and C o m p a n y , 1906). Sonnenschein, E. A., A New English Grammar (Oxford, T h e Clarendon Press, 1916). , The Soul of Grammar, 2nd edition (Cambridge, T h e University Press, 1929). Sweet, Henry, A New English Grammar, Logical and Historical, 2 vols. (Oxford, T h e Clarendon Press, 1892, 1898). Vechtman-Veth, A. C. E., A Syntax of Living English, 2nd edition (Groningen, N . V. Erven P. N o o r d h o f f , 1947). Watts, Bertha M., Modern Grammar at Work. With an introduction by H a r o l d Whitehall (Boston, Houghton Mifflin C o m p a n y , 1944). Zandvoort, R. W., A Handbook of English Grammar. Unilingual edition; third impression with minor corrections (London, L o n g m a n s [Green and Company], 1960).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2.12. Structural

277

Grammars

Brown, D o n a Worrall, Brown, Wallace C., and Bailey, Dudley, Form in Modern English (New York, Oxford University Press, 1958). Conlin, David A., Grammar for Written English (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1961). Francis, W . Nelson, The Structure of American English (New York, T h e Ronald Press Company, 1958). Fries, Charles Carpenter, American English Grammar: The Grammatical Structure of PresentDay American English with Especial Reference to Social Differences or Class Dialects (New York, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1940). , The Structure of English: An Introduction to the Construction of English Sentences (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952). Hill, Archibald A., Introduction to Linguistic Structures: From Sound to Sentence in English (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958). Ives, Sumner, A New Handbook for Writers (New York, A l f r e d A. Knopf, 1960). Lloyd, Donald J., and Warfel, Harry R., American English in Its Cultural Setting (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1956). Newsome, V e r n a L., Structural Grammar in the Classroom (Milwaukee, Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English, 1961). Nida, Eugene A., A Synopsis of English Syntax. Special edition (duplicated) (South Pasadena, Calif., A f g h a n Institute of Technology, 1951). , A Synopsis of English Syntax. Edited by Benjamin Elson (— Linguistic Series, No. 4). ( N o r m a n , Okla., S u m m e r Institute of Linguistics, 1960). Roberts, Paul, English Sentences (New York, Harcourt, Brace and World, 1962). , Understanding English (New York, H a r p e r and Brothers, 1958). Sledd, James, A Short Introduction to English Grammar (Chicago, Scott, F o r e s m a n and C o m pany, 1959). Stokoe, William C., Jr., The Calculus of Structure: A Manual for College Students of English (Washington, D.C., Gallaudet College, 1960). Trager, George L., and Smith, H e n r y Lee, Jr., An Outline of English Structure (— Studies in Linguistics, Occasional Papers No. 3) (Norman, Okla., Battenburg Press, 1951). Whitehall, Harold, Structural Essentials of English (New York, Harcourt, Brace and C o m p a n y , 1951).

2.13. Textbooks

for Teaching English as a Foreign

Language

Allen, Robert L., Kontrollu Ingilizce (Controlled English). Translated in part into Turkish. 3 vols (Istanbul, Amerikan Bord Nejriyat Dairesi, 1948-1950). —, Shortcuts to English: The CONTROLLED ENGLISH Course (Istanbul, Robert College, 1946). (Mimeographed.) , and Allen, Virginia F., Graded English for Caltex Employees (Rumbai, Indonesia, T h e Caltex Pacific Oil Company, 1958). (Mimeographed.) Allen, W . Stannard, Living English Structure: Practice Boole for Foreign Students and Key (London, Longmans, Green and Company, 1955). Crowell, T h o m a s Lee, Jr., Notes on English for Advanced Foreign Students, 2nd edition with two supplements (New York, Columbia University Bookstore, 1953). Dixson, Robert J., Complete Course in English, 2 vols. (New York, Latin American Institute Press, 1953). English Language Institute Staff. English Sentence Patterns - understanding and producing English grammatical structures - An Oral Approach. Revised edition, 3rd printing (Ann Arbor, T h e University of Michigan Press, 1959). Faucett, Lawrence, The Oxford English Course. 4 reading books, 4 language books (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1933). Fries, Charles C., Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language (— Publications of the English Language Institute, No. 1) (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1945).

278

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5. DISCUSSIONS O F B I N A R Y O P P O S I T I O N S Bazell, C. E., "On the Neutralisation of Syntactic Opposition," in Recherches structurales 1949 (— Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Copenhague, 1949), pp. 77-86. Bréal, Michel, "Les commencements du verbe". Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, X I (1900), 268-284. Cooper, Franklin S., Delattre, Pierre C., Liberman, Alvin M., Borst, John M., and Gerstman, Louis J., "Some Experiments on the Perception of Synthetic Speech Sounds", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, X X I V (1952), 597-606. D e Groot, A. Willem, "Classification of Word-Groups", Lingua, V I (1957), 113-151. , "Les oppositions dans les systèmes de la syntaxe et des cas", in Mélanges de linguistique offerts à Charles Bally (Genève, G e o r g et Cie., 1939), pp. 107-127. , Review of R o m a n Jakobson, C. G u n n a r M. F a n t , and Morris Halle, Preliminaries to Speech Analysis: The Distinctive Features and Their Correlates, in Word, IX (1953), 58-64. ."Structural Linguistics and Syntactic Laws", Word, V (1949), 1-12. ."Structural Linguistics and Word Classes", Lingua, I (1948), 427-500. Syntaxis (Den Haag, Servire, 1949). , Structured ."Subject-Predicate Analysis", Lingua, V I (1957), 301-318. Dykstra, Gerald, "Perspective on the Teacher's Use of Contrast", Language Learning, VI (1956), 1-6. Frei, Henry, "Note sur l'analyse des syntagmes", Word, IV (1948), 65-70. Garvin, P a u l L., Review of R o m a n Jakobson, C. G u n n a r M. Fant, and Morris Halle, Preliminaries to Speech Analysis: The Distinctive Features and Their Correlates, in Language, X X I X (1953), 472-481. Halle, Morris, "In Defense of the N u m b e r T w o " , in Studies Presented to Joshua Whatmough on His Sixtieth Birthday, edited by Ernst Pulgram (The Hague, Mouton and Company, 1957), pp. 65-72. , "The Strategy of Phonemics", Word, X (1954), 197-209. Hoenigswald, H e n r y M., "The Principal Step in Comparative G r a m m a r " , Language, XXVI (1950), 357-364. Jakobson, R o m a n , "Beitrag zur allgemeinen Kasuslehre. Gesamtbedeutungen der russischen Kasus", Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague, N o . 6 (1936).

286

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Jakobson, R o m a n , "Boas' View of Grammatical Meaning", American Anthropologist, LXI (1959), 139-145. , "Kindersprache, Aphasie und allgemeine Lautgesetze", Sprâkvetenskapliga Sällskapets i Uppsala Förhändlingar, 1940-1942, Part 2, pp. 1-83. , "Le développement du langage enfantin et les cohérences correspondantes dans les langues du monde", Cinquième Congrès International des Linguistes: Résumés des communications, pp. 27-28 (Bruges, Imprimérie Sainte Cathérine, 1939). , "Les lois phoniques du langage enfantin et leur place dans la phonologie générale", Appendix to N . S. Troubetzkoy, Principes de phonologie (Paris, Librairie C. Klincksieck, 1949), pp. 367-379. , "The Phonemic and Grammatical Aspècts of Language in Their Interrelations", in Actes du Sixième Congrès international des Linguistes (Paris, 1949), pp. 5-18. — , "Russian Conjugation", Word, IV (1948), 155-167. , Shifters, Verbal Categories, and the Russian Verb (Cambridge, Mass., Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, 1957). , "Signe zéro", in Mélanges de linguistique offerts à Charles Bally (Genève, G e o r g et Cie., 1939), pp. 143-152. , " Z u r Struktur des Russischen Verbums", in Cliaristeria Guilelmo Mathesio quinquagenario (Prague, Prazsky L i n g u i s t i c s Krouzek, 1932), pp. 74-84. , Fant, C. G u n n a r M., and Halle, Morris. Preliminaries to Speech Analysis: The Distinctive Features and Their Correlates (Cambridge, Mass., Acoustics Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1952). -, and Halle, Morris. Fundamentals of Language ('s-Gravenhage, Mouton and C o m p a n y , 1956). , and Lötz, John, "Notes on the French Phonemic Pattern", Word, V (1949), 151-158. Kurath, Hans, "The Binary Interpretation of English Vowels: A Critique", Language, X X X I I I (1957), 111-122. Kurylowicz, Jerzy, "La nature des procès dits 'analogiques'", Acta Linguistica, V (1945-1949), 15-37. Latif, Israil, "The Physiological Basis of Linguistic Development and of the Ontogeny of Meaning", Psychological Review, X L I (1934), 55-58, 153-176, 246-264. Leopold, W., "Polarity in Language", in Curme Volume of Linguistic Studies (= Language Monograph No. VU) (1930), pp. 102-109. Lötz, John, "The Semantic Analysis of the Nominal Bases in Hungarian", in Recherches structurales 1949 (= Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Copenhague, 1949), pp. 185-197. — - , "Speech and Language", Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, X X I I (1950), 712717. Martinet, André, "La double articulation linguistique", in Recherches structurales 1949 (— Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Copenhague, 1949), pp. 30-37. Mikus, Francis, "Le syntagme est-il binaire?", Word, III (1947), 32-38. Miller, George A., "Psycholinguistics", Chapter 19 of G a r d n e r Lindzey, Handbook of Social Psychology, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., Addison-Wesley Publishing C o m p a n y , 1954). Ogden, C. K., Opposition: A Linguistic and Psychological Analysis (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, T r u b n e r and Company, 1932). Prieto, Luis J., "Traits oppositionnels et traits contrastifs", Word, X (1954), 43-59. Ruesch, Jürgen, and Bateson, Gregory, Communication, the Social Matrix of Psychiatry (New York, W. W . N o r t o n and C o m p a n y , 1951). Sandmann, M a n f r e d , Subject and Predicate: A Contribution to the Theory of Syntax (Edinburgh, T h e University Press, 1954). II (1950), 24-38. , "Subordination and Coordination", Archivum Linguisticum, Ullmann, S., " W o r d - F o r m and Word-Meaning", Archivum Linguisticum, I (1949), 126-139. Sebeok, T h o m a s A.. "Finnish and Hungarian Case Systems: Their F o r m and Function", in Acta Instituti Hititgarici Universitatis Holmiensis, Series B, Linguistica, 3 (1946). S0rensen, H a n s Christian, "Contribution à la discussion sur la théorie des cas", in Recherches structurales 1949 (= Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Copenhague, 1949), pp. 123-133.

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Stender-Petersen, Ad., "Esquisse d'une théorie structurale de la littérature", in Recherches structurales 1949 (= Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Copenhague, 1949), pp. 277-287. Tesnière, Lucien, "Théorie structurale des temps composés", in Mélanges de linguistique offerts à Charles Bally (Genève, Georg et Cie., 1939), pp. 153-183. Trubetzkoy, Prince N., "Le rapport entre le déterminé, le déterminant et le défini", in Mélange de linguistique offerts à Charles Bally (Genève, Georg et Cie., 1939), pp. 75-82. Uhlenbeck, Eugenius M., "Verb Structure in Javanese", in For Roman Jakobson, edited by Morris Halle et al. (The Hague, Mouton and Company, 1956), pp. 567-573. Visser, F. Th., "The Terms 'Subjunctive' and 'Indicative'", English Studies, XXXVI (1955), 205-208. Vogt, Hans, "Language Contacts", Word, X (1954), 365-374. , "L'étude des systèmes de cas", in Recherches structurales 1949 (= Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Copenhague, 1949), pp. 112-122.

6. OTHER MATERIALS CONSULTED

6.1. Books Allen, Harold B. (ed.), Readings in Applied English Linguistics (New Yoi k, Appleton-CenturyCrofts, 1958). Bally, Charles, Linguistique générale et linguistique française, 2nd ed.. revised (Berne, A. Francke, 1944). Baught, Albert C., A History of the English Language (New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1935). Bergson, Henri, Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness. Translated by F. L. Pogson from Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience (London, George Allen and Company, 1913). Black, Max, Language and Philosophy: Studies in Method (Ithaca, N.Y.. Cornell University Press, 1949). Bloch, Bernard, and Trager, George L., Outline of Linguistic Analysis (Baltimore, Md., Linguistic Society of America, 1942). Bloomfield, Leonard, Language (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1933). Boas, Franz (ed.), General Anthropology (Boston, D. C. Heath and Company, 1938). (ed.), Handbook of American Indian Languages. Part I (Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1911). Part II (Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1922). Part III (New York, Columbia University Press, 1933-1938). , Race, Language, and Culture (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1940). (Fifth Printing, 1955.) B0gholm, N., Brusendorff, Aage, and Bodeisen. C. A. (eds.), A Grammatical Miscellany Offered to Otto Jespersen on His Seventieth Birthday (Copenhagen, Levin and Munksgaard, 1930). Bolinger, Dwight L., Generality, Gradience, and the AU-or-None ('s-Gravenhage, Mouton and Company, 1961). Bryant, Margaret M., and Aiken, Janet Rankin, Psychology of English (New York, Columbia University Press, 1940). Biihler, Karl, Sprachtheorie: Die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache (Jena, Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1934). Carnap, Rudolf, The Logical Syntax of Language. Translated by Amethe Smeaton (Countess von Zeppelin) (New York, The Humanities Press, 1951). Carroll, John B., The Study of Language: A Survey of Linguistics and Related Disciplines in America (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1955). Cliaristeria Guilelmo Mathesio quinquagenario a discipulis et Circuli Linguistici Pragensis sodalibus oblata (Prague, Praicky Linguistic^ Krouzek, 1932). Chomsky, Noam, Syntactic Structures ('s-Gravenhage, Mouton and Company, 1957).

288

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Christophersen, Paul, The Articles: A Study of Their Theory and Use in English (Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1939). Damourette, Jacques, and Pichon, Edouard, Des Mots à la Pensée: essai de grammaire de la langue française, 7 vols. (Paris, Collection des Linguistiques Contemporains, 1911-1940). De Saussure, Ferdinand, Cours de linguistique générale. Edited posthumously by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye with the collaboration of Albert Riedlinger. Quatrième édition (Paris, Payot, 1949). Elson, Benjamin, and Pickett, Velma B., Beginning Morphology-Syntax (Santa Ana, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1960). Firth, J. R., Speech (London, Ernest Benn, 1930). Fries, Charles Carpenter, The Teaching of English (Ann Arbor, Mich., The George Wahr Publishing Company, 1949). Gardiner, [Sir] Alan, The Theory of Speech and Language, 2nd edition (Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1951). Garey, Howard B., The Historical Development of Tenses from Late Latin to Old French = Language Dissertation No. 51) (1955). Gleason, H. A., Jr., An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1955). , An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics. Revised edition (New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961). Goodenough, Ward B., Property, Kin, and Community on Truk (New Haven, Yale Publications in Anthropology, No. 46, 1951). Graff, Willem L., Language and Languages: An Introduction to Linguistics (New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1932). Gray, Louis H., Foundations of Language. With additions and corrections (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1939). Greenberg, Joseph H., Essays in Linguistics (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1957). Guillaume, Gustave, Temps et verbe: Théorie des aspects des modes et des temps (Paris, La Société de Linguistique de Paris, 1929). Hahn, E. Adelaide, Subjunctive and Optative: Their Origin as Futures (= Philological Monographs, No. XVI) (New York, American Philological Association, 1953). Hall, Robert A., Jr., Leave Your Language Alone (Ithaca, N.Y., Linguistics, 1950). , Linguistics and Your Language, 2nd revised edition of Leave Your Language Alone (Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday and Company, 1960.) Halle, Morris, Lunt, Horace G., McLean, Hugh, and van Schooneveld, Cornelius H. (eds.), For Roman Jakobson: Essays on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday (The Hague, Mouton and Company, 1956). Harris, Zellig S., Methods in Structural Linguistics (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1951). , Structural Linguistics. Formerly, Methods in Structural Linguistics (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1960). Hjelmslev, Louis, La Catégorie des cas: Étude de grammaire générale (= Aarsskrift for Aarhus Universitet. Acta Jutlandica), Vol. VII, No. 1 (1935); Vol. IX, No. 2 (1937). , Omkring sprogteoriens grundlaeggelse (Copenhagen, B. Lunos bogtrykkeri, 1943). , Principes de grammaire générale (= Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historiskfilologiske Meddelelser, XVI, No. 1) (Copenhagen, 1928). , Prolegomena to a Theory of Language. Translated by Francis J. Whitfield (Madison, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1961). Hockett, Charles F., A Course in Modern Linguistics (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1958). , A Manual of Phonology. Memoir 11 of the International Journal of American Linguistics (— Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics, 1955). James, William, The Principles of Psychology, 2 vols. (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1893). Jespersen, Otto, Analytic Syntax (Copenhagen, Levin and Munksgaard, Ejnar Munksgaard. 1937).

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289

Jespersen, Otto, Growth and Structure of the English Language, 9th edition. Anchor Book (Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday and Company, 1955). , Language, Its Nature, Development and Origin (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1922). , Linguistica: Selected Papers in English, French, and German (Copenhagen, Levin and Munksgaard, 1933). , The Philosophy of Grammar (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1924). , The System of Grammar (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1933). Jorden, Eleanor Harz, The Syntax of Modern Colloquial Japanese (= Language Dissertation N o . 52) (1955). Joos, Martin (ed.), Readings in Linguistics: The development of descriptive linguistics in America since 1925 (Washington, D.C., American Council of Learned Societies, 1957). Kantor, J. R., An Objective Psychology of Grammar (Bloomington, Ind., T h e Principia Press, 1936). Kent, Roland G., The Forms of Latin: A Descriptive and Historical Morphology (Baltimore, Md., Linguistic Society of America, 1946). Korninger, Siegfried (ed.), Studies in English Language and Literature: Presented to Professor Dr. Karl Brunner on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday (Vienna, Braumüller, 1957). Kroeber, A. L. (ed.), Anthropology Today: An Encyclopedic Inventory (Chicago, T h e University of Chicago Press, 1953). Langer, Suzanne, Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art Developed from Philosophy in a New Key (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953). , Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art. Mentor Books (New York, T h e New American Library of World Literature, 1942). Lees, Robert B., The Grammar of English Nominalizations (= Publication Twelve of the Indiana University Research Center in Anthropology, Folklore, and Linguistics) (1960). Leopold, Werner F., Speech Development of a Bilingual Child: A Linguist's Record (— Northwestern University Studies in the Humanities, N o . 6, 1939; N o . 11, 1947; No. 18, 1949; N o . 19, 1949) (Evanston, 111.). Lewis, M. M., Infant Speech: A Study of the Beginnings of Language. 2nd edition, with additional chapters and appendices (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951). Linton, Ralph (ed.), The Science of Man in the World Crisis (New York, Columbia University Press, 1945). Lindzey, G a r d n e r (ed.), Handbook of Social Psychology, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., AddisonWesley Publishing C o m p a n y , 1954). Macbain, Alexander, and Whyte, John, How to Learn Gaelic. Orthographical Instructions, Grammar, and Reading Lessons. 4th edition (Inverness, T h e Northern Chronicle Office, 1906). MacLaren, James, MacLaren's Gaelic Self-Taught, 3rd edition (Glasgow, Alex. MacLaren and Sons, n.d.). Mandelbaum, David G. (ed.), Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Language, Culture, and Personality (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1949). Studies in Language and Literature (Chicago, T h e University of The Manly Anniversary Chicago Press, 1923). Marckwardt, Albert H., American English (New York, O x f o r d University Press, 1958). , Introduction to the English Language (Toronto and New York, Oxford University Press, 1942). Martinet, André, Économie des changements phonétiques; traité de phonologie diachronique (Berne, A. Francke, 1955). , Phonology as Functional Phonetics (London, O x f o r d University Press, 1949). McCarthy, D o r o t h e a A., The Language Development of the Preschool Child (= Institute of Child Welfare Monograph Series, No. 4) (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1930). McKay, J. G., Easy Gaelic Syntax, Popularly Treated for Beginners (London, David Nutt, 1899).

290

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McKnight, George H., with the assistance of Bert Emsley. Modern English in the Making (New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1928). Meillet, A[ntoine], Linguistique Historique et Linguistique Générale, 2 vols. (Paris, La Société de Linguistique de Paris, 1921, 1936). Mélanges de linguistique offerts à Charles Bally sous les auspices de la faculté des lettres de l'université de Genève par des collègues, des confrères, des disciples reconnaissants (Genève, Georg et Cie., 1939). Mohrmann, Christine, Sommerfeit, Alf, and Whatmough, Joshua (eds.), Trends in European and American Linguistics: 1930-1960 (Utrecht, Spectrum Publishers, 1961). Moore, Samuel, Historical Outlines of English Sounds and Inflections, revised by Albert H. Marckwardt (Ann Arbor, Mich., George Wahr Publishing Company, 1951). Morris, Charles, Signs, Language, and Behavior (New York, George Braziller, 1955). Murray, James A. H., Bradley, Henry, Craigie, William A., Onions, C. T., A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (The Oxford English Dictionary), 22 vols. (Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1884-1933). Nida, Eugene A., An Outline of Descriptive Syntax (Glendale, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1951). (Mimeographed.) Nilsson, Martin P., Primitive Time Reckoning: A Study in the Origins and First Development of the Art of Counting Time among the Primitive and Early Culture Peoples (Lund, C. W. K. Gleerup, 1920). Onions, C. T., Little, William, Fowler, H. W„ and Coulson, J. (eds.), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 3rd edition, revised by C. T. Onions (Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1955). Osgood, Charles E., and Sebeok, Thomas A. (eds.), Psycholinguistics: A Survey of Theory and Research Problems ( = Supplement to The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol. XLIX, No. 4) (1954). O'Shea, M[ichael] V[incent], Linguistic Development and Education (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1907). Parsons, Talcott, and Bates, Robert F., Family, Socialization and Interaction Process (Glencoe, 111., The Free Press, 1955). Paul, Hermann, Principien der Sprachgeschichte (Halle, Max Niemeyer, 1880). , Principles of the History of Language. Translated by H. A. Strong from the 2nd edition of Principien der Sprachgeschichte (London, Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey and Company, 1888). Piaget, Jean, The Language and Thought of the Child. Translated by Marjorie Warden (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, 1926). Pickett, Velma Bernice, The Grammatical Hierachy of Isthmus Zapotec (= Language Dissertation No. 56) (1960). Pike, Kenneth L., Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, preliminary edition, 3 vols. (Glendale, Calif., Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1954, 1955, 1960). Pittman, Richard Saunders, A Grammar of Tetelcingo (Morelos) Nahuatl (= Language Dissertation No. 50) (1954). Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Linguists (Oslo, Oslo University Press, 1958). Recherches structurales 1949: Interventions dans le débat glossématique. Publiées à l'occasion du cinquantennaire de M. Louis Hjelmslev (=: Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Copenhague, Vol. V) (1949). Reichenbach, Hans, Elements of Symbolic Logic (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1947). Robertson, Stuart, The Development of Modern English (New York, Prentice-Hall, 1934). , and Cassidy, Frederic G., The Development of Modern English, 2nd edition (New York, Prentice-Hall, 1954). Russell, Bertrand, Our Knowledge of the External World, 2nd edition (New York, W. W. Norton and Company, 1929). Sapir, Edward, Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921). (Reprinted as a Harvest Book, 1949.)

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291

Sebeok, Thomas A. (ed.), Style in Language: Proceedings of the Conference on Style Held at Indiana University in 1958 (New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1960). Shapiro, Alan, Ouchi, Edward, and Foote, Evelyn, Structural Linguistics: An Introduction for Teachers and Administrators (New York, Metropolitan School Study Council, 1961). Shoemaker, Francis, and Forsdale, Louis (eds.), Communication in General Education: College Composition and Communication (Dubuque, Iowa, William C. Brown Company, 1960). Smith, Madorah Elizabeth, An Investigation of the Developmental Sentence and the Extent of Vocabulary in Young Children (= University of Iowa Studies in Child Welfare, Vol. Ill, No. 5) (1926). S0rensen, Holger Steen, Word-Classes in Modern English (with special reference to Proper Names, with an introductory theory of Grammar, Meaning, and Reference) (Copenhagen, G. E. C. Gad, 1958). Spier, Leslie, Hallowell, A. Irving, and Newman, Stanley S. (eds.), Language, Culture, and Personality: Essays in Memory of Edward Sapir (Menasha, Wisconsin, Sapir Memorial Publication Fund, 1941). Spuhler, J. N . (ed.), The Evolution of Man's Capacity for Culture (Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1959). Sten, H., Les temps du verbe fini (indicatif) en français moderne (= Del Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab: Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser, Vol. XXXIII, No. 3) (1952). Stern, Clara, and Stern, William, Die Kindersprache: Eine psychologische und sprachtheoretische Untersuchung (= Monographien über die seelische Entwicklung des Kindes, Vol. I) (Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Bart, 1907). Stern, William, Psychology of Early Childhood up to the Sixth Year of Age [Psychologie der frühen Kindheit]. Supplemented by extracts from the unpublished diaries of Clara Stern. Translated from the 3rd edition by Anna Barwell (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1924). Streitberg, W., Urgermanische Grammatik (Heidelberg, Carl Winter's Universitätsbuchhandlung, 1896). Studies in Linguistic Analysis, Special Volume of The Philological Society (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1957). Sturt, Mary, The Psychology of Time (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, 1925). Sturtevant, Edgar H., An Introduction to Linguistic Science (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1947). Sundén, K. F., Essay 1. The Predicational Categories in English; Essay 2. A Category of Predicational Change in English (— Uppsala Universitets Arsskrift, Vol. I) (1918). Togeby, Knud, Structure immanente de la langue française (= Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague, Vol. VI) (Copenhagen, Nordisk Sprog-og Kulturforlag, 1951). Träger, George L., The Field of Linguistics (— Studies in Linguistics, Occasional Papers, No. 1) (1949). Troubetzkoy, N. S., Principes de phonologie. Traduits par J. Cantineau. Réimpression de la première édition, 1949 (Paris, Librarie C. Klincksieck, 1957). Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, College Edition (Cleveland, The World Publishing Company, 1956). Weerenbeck, Bernard Herman Joseph, Participe présent et gérondif (Nimègue-Utrecht, Dekker en Van de Vogt en J. W. Van Leeuwen, 1927). Weinreich, Uriel, Languages in Contact: Findings and Problems, with a preface by André Martinet (New York, Linguistic Circle of New York, 1953). Whorf, Benjamin Lee, Collected Papers on Metalinguistics (Washington, D.C., Foreign Service Institute, Department of State, 1952). , Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Edited and with an introduction by John B. Carroll. Foreword by Stuart Chase (Cambridge and New York, The Technology Press of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and John Wiley and Sons, 1956). The Year's Work in English Studies (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1920 to present).

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Studies

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Studies in Syntactic Typology and Contrastive Grammar by Laszlo D e z s o 1982, 207 pp., clothbound DM 84,-/US $37.00 Janua Linguarum, Series Maior 89, ISBN 9027931089 This study examines the way in which the typology of sentence structure and the expression of sentence constituents by various case systems can be used in characterizing and contrasting some nominative languages. Word order and sentence stress are viewed typologically in the characterization of Hungarian and in a brief contrastive study with Russian.

Where Have all the Adjectives Gone? by R. M. W. Dixon 1982, XIV + 256 pp., clothbound DM 68,-/US $30.00 Janua Linguarum, Series Maior 107, ISBN 90 279 3309 X The main function of language is to communicate meaning, These essays take meaning as their starting point—for the study of systems of folk taxonomy and grammatical gender, for comparison of word classes across languages, and for explanation of the semantic basis of grammatical categories.

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