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41
What could a woman do in a situation like that? -What could-any woman do in that sort of situation?
At least I saw interest in her eyes.-At least I saw some interest in her eyes.
Not a word had been pronounced about the terms of the document. No word had been pronounced about
those terms.
The demonstration of the organic connection between the articles and semi-notional determiners, in its turn,
makes it possible to disclose the true function of the grammatical use of articles with proper nouns. E.g.
This," said Froelich, "is the James Walker who wrote 'The Last of the Old Lords'" (M. Bradbury). Cf:. This
is the same James Walker.
I came out to Iraq with a Mrs. Kelsey (A. Christie). Cf.: The woman was a certain Mrs. Kelsey.
It was like seeing a Vesuvius at the height of its eruption. Cf:. The sight looked to us like another Vesuvius.
"I prophesy a wet August," said Old Moore Abinger (M. Dickens). Cf.: Next August will be a wet month,
unlike some other Augusts in retrospect.
In the exemplified grammatical uses transpositional features are revealed similar to those the article acquires
when used with a noun characterized by a contrary semantic base. On the other hand, the analysis of these cases
clearly stamps the traditional proper name combinations with embedded articles, both of the onomastic set
(Alexander the Great, etc.) and the toponymic set (The Hague, etc.) as lexicalizcd collocations that only come
into contact with the periphery of grammar.
§ 6. The essential grammatical features of the articles exposed in the above considerations and tests leave
no room for misinterpretation at the final, generalizing stage of analysis.
The data obtained show that the English noun, besides the variable categories of number and case,
distinguishes also the category of determination expressed by the article paradigm of three grammatical . forms:
the definite, the indefinite, the zero. The paradigm is generalized for the whole system of the common nouns,
being transpositionally outstretched also into the system of proper nouns. Various cases of asymmetry in the
realization of this paradigm (such as the article determination of certain nouns of the types singularia tantum
and pluralia tantum), similar to, and in connection with the expression of the category of number, are balanced
by suppletive collocations. Cf:.
o progress - a kind of progress, some progress - the progress; o news - an item
of news - the news, etc.
The semi-notional determiners used with nouns in the absence of articles, expose the essential article
meanings as in-built in their semantic structure.
Thus, the status of the combination of the article with the noun should be defined as basically analytical, the
article construction as such being localized by its segmental properties between the free syntactic combination
of words (the upper bordering level) and the combination of a grammatical affix with a notional stem in the
morphological composition of an indivisible word (the lower bordering level). The article itself is a special type
of grammatical auxiliary.
C H A P T E R X
VERB: GENERAL
§ 1. Grammatically the verb is "the most complex part of speech. This is due to the central role it performs
in the expression of the predicative functions of the sentence, i.e. the functions establishing the connection
between the situation (situational event) named in the utterance and reality. The complexity of the verb is
inherent not only in the intricate structure of its grammatical categories, but also in its various subclass
divisions, as well as in its falling into two sets of forms profoundly different from each other: the finite set and
the non-finite set.
The complicated character of the grammatical and lexico-grammatical structure of the verb has given rise
to much dispute and controversy. However, the application of the principles of systemic linguistic analysis to
the study of this interesting sphere of language helps overcome many essential difficulties in its theoretical
description, and also a number of terminological disagreements among the scholars. This refers in particular to
the fundamental relations between the categories of tense and aspect, which have aroused of late very heated
disputes.
§ 2. The general categorial meaning of the verb is process presented dynamically, i.e. developing in time.
This general processual meaning is embedded in the semantics of all the verbs, including those that denote
states, forms of existence, types of attitude, evaluations, etc., rather than actions. Cf:.