Theoretical background of the research of stylistic potential of tense-aspect verbal forms

1. Theoretical background of the research of stylistic potential of tense-aspect verbal forms

1.1  Perspective of the research

Interest in our main problem, how it originated, how it works and develops, has existed in remote ages. Chronologically at once we pay our special attention to individuals, whose contribution to the subject – Stylistic Potential of Tense-Aspect Verbal Forms in Modern English – has been well-known. In Table 1 that we have completed for students we present some names of philologist, titles of their works, years who began to research this problem many years ago up to now. [38; 43; 47]

Our short overview we begin with William Lily (1468–1522) who wrote «A short Introduction of Grammar» and was the first between others in this sphere. Then in 1580 «A Treatise for Declining Verb» was written by Claudius Holyband (1580). After that William Bullokar (1530–1609) created the first grammar of English «Pamphlet for Grammar» in 1586, a short sketch based on Lily’s Lating Grammar.

Naturally in this years the struggle for national grammar and language began and John Wallis (1616–1703) wrote Gramatica Liguae Anglicanae (1649) for foreign students that was held in high esteem but has only produced since the eighteenth century. John Walker’s Ryming Dictionary of the English Language (1732–1807) is used in works on stylistic problems by our contemporary scholars. Next was Lindley Murray (1745–1826) who published his English Grammar, adapted to the different classes of learners, and became the best-known scholar with the nickname «Father of English Grammar».

In 1853 year Macel Claude Victor Andre (1793–1875) published his major work Language as a Means of Mental Culture and International Communication, written in English, where he showed his position that «impression» – stylistic background of grammar – should always precede «expression». Then a Grammar of Spoken English with a lot of stylistic features was presented by Palmer Harold (1923). His friend who became effectively Palmer’s «crown prince» – Hornby Albert (1898–1979) – developed ideas and projects in his pedagogical grammar Guide to Pattens and Usage in English (1954) where the author put the concept of «grammar time» on the first place: what type of grammar time we need to use for expressing of definite temporal relationship, positions and states.

In this time Eckersley C.E. (1893–1967) wrote Brighter Grammar (1953) were he tried to approach English grammar in the same «scientific» way and to show that it is not a collection of dull, dead words but a living thing.

A lot of works on Linguistics which are used by Russian and Ukrainian scholars were written by Ottor Jesprsen (1860–1943), especially his monumental Modern English Grammar (1909–1949); The Philosophy of Grammar (1924), Efficiency in Linguistic Change (1943) and others. Edward Sapir wrote in a Danish newspaper:

«Your (Jespersen’s) work has always seemed to me to be distinguished by its blend of exact knowledge, keenness of analysis, ease and lucidity of STYLE, and by an imaginative warmth that is certainly not common in scientific writing» [43; 95].

The reality can be seen in the three kilos of paper of A Comprehensive Grammar of English Language (1985) written by Randolph Quirk and his team. In our paper we will exploit Chapter 4 «The Semantics of the Verbal Phrase». We have completed Table 1 for those students who wish to continue their researches this problem in the historical frames.

Throughout of centuries English Scholar created the system of the Morphology Grammar where English verbal forms as the basis of Grammar have gradually been presented, studied and researched as a great stylistic potential. Being placed in unusual syntagmatic environment which change their canonized grammatical characteristics and combinability, English Verbs acquire stylistic significant.

1.2 The analysis of the stylistic potential of tense-aspect verbal forms in modern English by foreign linguists

The motivation for Gearge Yuri’s classic work Explaing English Grammar is to describe and explain the basic forms of the present and past tenses, perfect and progressive aspects and main structures of the English verb complex. Drawing on his experiment we want to add some interesting points from his ideas.

According to G. Yuri’s system [32; 54–84] in order to describe the different forms of a verb, we need to talk about tense, which often has to do with the location of a situation in time, and aspect, which characterizes the way in which that situation is perceived or experienced. The author affirms that English has two distinct tense forms, present and past tenses, and two distinct forms for aspect, perfect and progressive aspects, which are marked on the verb. Giving unusual table with the basic structure of English verb forms G. Yuri underlines that the sense of team «tense» in English is not based on simple distinctions in time.

e.g. And today I woke with splitting headache.

Tomorrow I fly to London for a big meeting.

Yesterday the land tells me my rent's going up.

The present form here ties the situation described closely to the situation of utterance. The past tense form makes the situation described more remote from the situation of utterance. Situation in the future are treated differently they are inherently non-factual. The author means that the verb form that is traditionally called «future tense» is actually expressed vie a modal verb which indicates the relative possibility of the event.

If we look inside the situation we shall talk about aspect [32; 63–68]. Aspect is divided by author into two parts: