Limba Englez Contemporan

(Morfologia Lb. Engleze)

- Anul 1, Sem. 2

I.

What is Morphology?

In linguistics, morphology (/mfldi/) is the study of words, how they are formed, and
their relationship to other words in the same language.
It analyzes the structure of words and parts of words, such as stems1, root words2, prefixes,
and suffixes.
1

In languages with very little inflection, such as English language and Chinese, the stem is
usually not distinct from the "normal" form of the word (the lemma3, citation or dictionary
form). However, in other languages, stems may rarely or never occur on their own. For example,
the English verb stem run is indistinguishable from its present tense form (except in the third
person singular). However, the equivalent Spanish verb stem corr- never appears as such because
it is cited with the infinitive inflection (correr) and always appears in actual speech as a nonfinite (infinitive or participle) or conjugated form. Such morphemes that cannot occur on their
own in this way are usually referred to as bound morphemes.
In computational linguistics, a stem is the part of the word that never changes even when
morphologically inflected, and a lemma is the base form of the word. For example, given the
word "produced", its lemma (linguistics) is "produce", but the stem is "produc" because there are
words such as production.
2

A root, or a root word, is a word that does not have a prefix (in front of the word) or a
suffix (at the end of a word). The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word
family (root is then called base word), which carries the most significant aspects of semantic
content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. Content words in nearly all languages
contain, and may consist only of root morphemes. However, sometimes the term "root" is also
used to describe the word minus its inflectional endings, but with its lexical endings in place. For
example, chatters has the inflectional root or lemma chatter, but the lexical root chat. Inflectional
roots are often called stems, and a root in the stricter sense may be thought of as a monomorphemic stem.
The root of a word is unit of meaning (morpheme) and, as such, it is an abstraction, though it
can usually be represented in writing as a word would be. For example, it can be said that the
root of the English verb form running is run, or the root of the Spanish superlative adjective
amplsimo is ampli-, since those words are clearly derived from the root forms by simple suffixes
that do not alter the roots in any way. In particular, English has very little inflection and a
1

tendency to have words that are identical to their roots. But more complicated inflection, as well
as other processes, can obscure the root; for example, the root of mice is mouse (still a valid
word), and the root of interrupt is, arguably, rupt, which is not a word in English and only
appears in derivational forms (such as disrupt, corrupt, rupture, etc.). The root rupt is written as if
it were a word, but it's not.
3

In morphology and lexicography, a lemma (plural lemmas or lemmata) is the canonical

form, dictionary form, or citation form of a set of words (headword).
In English, for example, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme4, with run
as the lemma. Lexeme, in this context, refers to the set of all the forms that have the same
meaning, and lemma refers to the particular form that is chosen by convention to represent the
lexeme. In lexicography, this unit is usually also the citation form or headword by which it is
indexed. Lemmas have special significance in highly inflected languages such as Arabic, Turkish
and Russian. The process of determining the lemma for a given word is called lemmatisation.
4

A lexeme is a unit of lexical meaning that exists regardless of the number of inflectional
endings it may have or the number of words it may contain. It is a basic unit of meaning, and the
headwords of a dictionary are all lexemes. Put more technically, a lexeme is an abstract unit of
morphological analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single
word. For example, in the English language, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same
lexeme, conventionally written as run. A related concept is the lemma (or citation form), which
is a particular form of a lexeme that is chosen by convention to represent a canonical form of a
lexeme. Stem is the part of the word that never changes even when morphologically inflected; a
lemma is the base form of the word. For example, from "produced", the lemma is "produce", but
the stem is "produc-". This is because there are words such as production.
Lemmas, being a subset of lexemes, are likewise used in dictionaries as the headwords, and
other forms of a lexeme are often listed later in the entry if they are not common conjugations of
that word.
The lexemes of a language are often composed of smaller units with individual meaning
called morphemes, according to root morpheme + derivational morphemes + desinence (not
necessarily in this order), where:
The root morpheme is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most
significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced to smaller constituents.
The derivational morphemes carry only derivational information.
The desinence is composed of all inflectional morphemes, and carries only
inflectional information.
The compound root morpheme + derivational morphemes is often called the stem. The
decomposition stem + desinence can then be used to study inflection.

Morphology also looks at parts of speech, intonation and stress, and the ways context can
change a word's pronunciation and meaning.
Morphology differs from morphological typology, which is the classification of languages
based on their use of words and lexicology, which is the study of words and how they make up a
language's vocabulary.
The rules understood by a speaker reflect specific patterns or regularities in the way words
are formed from smaller units in the language they are using and how those smaller units interact
in speech. In this way, morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies patterns of word
formation within and across languages and attempts to formulate rules that model the knowledge
of the speakers of those languages.

II.

Categorii lexicale i gramaticale.

Morfologie derivaional vs. morfologie inflexionar. Definiia morfemului.

1. Morphemes
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit in a language. In other words, it
is the smallest meaningful unit of a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is
called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between
the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word, by definition, is
freestanding. When it stands by itself, it is considered a root because it has a meaning of its own
(e.g. the morpheme cat) and when it depends on another morpheme to express an idea, it is an
affix because it has a grammatical function (e.g. the s in cats to indicate that it is plural). Every
word comprises one or more morphemes.
Every morpheme can be classified as either free or bound. These categories are mutually
exclusive, and as such, a given morpheme will belong to exactly one of them.
Free morphemes can function independently as words (e.g. town, dog) and can
appear with other lexemes (e.g. town hall, doghouse).
Bound morphemes appear only as parts of words, always in conjunction with a root
and sometimes with other bound morphemes. For example, un- appears only
accompanied by other morphemes to form a word. Most bound morphemes in
English are affixes, particularly prefixes and suffixes. Examples of suffixes are -tion,
-ation, -ible, -ing, etc. Bound morphemes that are not affixes are called cranberry
morphemes.
Bound morphemes can be further classified as derivational or inflectional.
1) Derivational morphemes
Derivational morphemes, when combined with a root, change either the semantic meaning
or part of speech of the affected word. For example, in the word happiness, the addition of the
bound morpheme -ness to the root happy changes the word from an adjective (happy) to a noun
(happiness). In the word unkind, un- functions as a derivational morpheme, for it inverts the

meaning of the word formed by the root kind. Generally the affixes used with root word are the
bound morphemes.
2) Inflectional morphemes
Inflectional morphemes modify a verb's tense, aspect, mood, person, or number, or a
noun's, pronoun's or adjective's number, gender or case, without affecting the word's meaning or
class (part of speech). Examples of applying inflectional morphemes to words are adding -s to
the root dog to form dogs and adding -ed to wait to form waited. An inflectional morpheme
changes the form of a word. In English, there are eight inflections.
Allomorphs are variants of a morpheme that differ in pronunciation but are semantically
identical. For example, in English, the plural marker -(e)s of regular nouns can be pronounced /z/, /-s/, or /-z, -z/, depending on the final sound of the noun's singular form.
Zero morphemes/null morphemes. Generally these types of morphemes have no visible
changes. For instance the singular form of sheep is "sheep" and its plural is also "sheep". The
intended meaning is thus derived from the co-occurring determiner (e.g. "some-" or "a-").
Content morphemes express a concrete meaning or content, while function morphemes
have more of a grammatical role. For example, the morphemes fast and sad can be considered
content morphemes. On the other hand, the suffix ed belongs to the function morphemes given
that it has the grammatical function of indicating past tense. Although these categories seem very
clear and intuitive, the idea behind it can be harder to grasp given that they overlap with each
other. Examples of an ambiguous situation are the preposition over and the determiner your,
which seem to have a concrete meaning, but are considered function morphemes because their
role is to connect ideas grammatically. A general rule to follow to determine the category of a
morpheme is:
Content morphemes include free morphemes that are nouns, adverbs, adjective, and
verbs. It also includes bound morphemes that are bound roots and derivational
affixes.
Function morphemes can be free morphemes that are prepositions, pronouns,
determiners, and conjunctions. Additionally, they can be bound morphemes that are
inflectional affixes.
Roots are composed of only one morpheme, while stems can be composed of more than one
morpheme. Any additional affixes are considered morphemes. An example of this is the word
quirkiness. The root is quirk, but the stem is quirky which has two morphemes. Moreover, there
exist pairs of affixes that have the same phonological form, but have different meaning. For
example, the suffix er can be derivative (e.g. sell seller) or inflectional (e.g. small
smaller). These types of morphemes are called homophonous.
Some words might seem to be composed of multiple morphemes, but in fact they are not.
This is why one has to consider form and meaning when identifying morphemes. For example,
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the word relate might seem to be composed of two morphemes, re- (prefix) and the word late,
but this is not correct. These morphemes have no relationship with the definitions relevant to the
word like feel sympathy, narrate, or being connected by blood or marriage. Furthermore,
the length of the words does not determine if it has multiple morphemes or not. To demonstrate,
the word Madagascar is long and it might seem to have morphemes like mad, gas, and car, but it
does not. Conversely, small words can have multiple morphemes (e.g. dogs).

2. Parts of speech/Lexical categories

English words have been classified into eight or nine parts of speech (lexical
class/category):
1) Noun (names)
a word or lexical item denoting any abstract (abstract noun: e.g. home) or concrete entity
(concrete noun: e.g. house); a person (police officer, Michael), place (coastline,London), thing
(necktie, television), idea (happiness), or quality (bravery). Nouns can also be classified as count
nouns or non-count nouns; some can belong to either category. The most common part of the
speech; they are called naming words.
2) Pronoun (replaces)
a substitute for a noun or noun phrase (them, he). Pronouns make sentences shorter and
clearer since they replace nouns.
3) Adjective (describes, limits)
a modifier of a noun or pronoun (big, brave). Adjectives make the meaning of another word
(noun) more precise.
4) Verb (states action or being)
a word denoting an action (walk), occurrence (happen), or state of being (be). Without a verb
a group of words cannot be a clause or sentence.
5) Adverb (describes, limits)
a modifier of an adjective, verb, or other adverb (very, quite). Adverbs make your writing
more precise.
6) Preposition (relates)
a word that relates words to each other in a phrase or sentence and aids in syntactic context
(in, of). Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun with another word in the
sentence.
7) Conjunction (connects)
a syntactic connector; links words, phrases, or clauses (and, but). Conjunctions connect
words or group of words
8) Interjection (expresses feelings and emotions)
an emotional greeting or exclamation (Huzzah, Alas). Interjections express strong feelings
and emotions.
9) Article (describes, limits)
a grammatical marker of definiteness (the) or indefiniteness (a, an). Not always listed among
the parts of speech. Sometimes determiner (a broader class) is used instead.
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The notion of a lexeme is very central to morphology, and thus, many other notions can be
defined in terms of it. For example, the difference between inflection and derivation can be
stated in terms of lexemes:
Inflectional rules relate a lexeme to its forms.
Derivational rules relate a lexeme to another lexeme.
Given the notion of a lexeme, it is possible to distinguish two kinds of morphological rules.
Some morphological rules relate to different forms of the same lexeme; while other rules relate
to different lexemes. Rules of the first kind are inflectional rules, while those of the second kind
are rules of word formation. The generation of the English plural dogs from dog is an inflectional
rule, while compound phrases and words like dog catcher or dishwasher are examples of word
formation. Informally, word formation rules form "new" words (more accurately, new lexemes),
while inflection rules yield variant forms of the "same" word (lexeme).
Word formation is a process, as we have said, where one combines two complete words,
whereas with inflection you can combine a suffix with some verb to change its form to subject of
the sentence. For example: in the present indefinite, we use go with subject I/we/you/they and
plural nouns, whereas for third person singular pronouns (he/she/it) and singular nouns we use
goes. So this -es is an inflectional marker and is used to match with its subject. A further
difference is that in word formation, the resultant word may differ from its source words
grammatical category whereas in the process of inflection the word never changes its
grammatical category.
There is a further distinction between two kinds of morphological word formation:
derivation and compounding. Compounding is a process of word formation that involves
combining complete word forms into a single compound form. Dog catcher, therefore, is a
compound, as both dog and catcher are complete word forms in their own right but are
subsequently treated as parts of one form. Derivation involves affixing bound (i.e. nonindependent) forms to existing lexemes, whereby the addition of the affix derives a new lexeme.
The word independent, for example, is derived from the word dependent by using the prefix in-,
while dependent itself is derived from the verb depend.
An important difference between inflection and word formation is that inflected word forms
of lexemes are organized into paradigms, which are defined by the requirements of syntactic
rules, whereas the rules of word formation are not restricted by any corresponding requirements
of syntax. Inflection is therefore said to be relevant to syntax, and word formation is not. The
part of morphology that covers the relationship between syntax and morphology is called
"morphosyntax" and concerns itself with inflection and paradigms but not with word formation
or compounding.
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One of the largest sources of complexity in morphology is that this one-to-one

correspondence between meaning and form scarcely applies to every case in the language. In
English, there are word form pairs like ox/oxen, goose/geese, and sheep/sheep, where the
difference between the singular and the plural is signaled in a way that departs from the regular
pattern, or is not signaled at all. Even cases regarded as regular, such as -s, are not so simple; the
-s in dogs is not pronounced the same way as the -s in cats; and, in plurals such as dishes, a
vowel is added before the -s. These cases, where the same distinction is effected by alternative
forms of a "word", constitute allomorphy.
In morpheme-based morphology, word forms are analyzed as arrangements of morphemes. A
morpheme is defined as the minimal meaningful unit of a language. In a word such as
independently, the morphemes are said to be in-, depend, -ent, and ly; depend is the root and the
other morphemes are, in this case, derivational affixes. In words such as dogs, dog is the root and
the -s is an inflectional morpheme. In its simplest and most nave form, this way of analyzing
word forms, called "item-and-arrangement", treats words as if they were made of morphemes put
after each other ("concatenated") like beads on a string.
Lexeme-based morphology usually takes what is called an item-and-process approach.
Instead of analyzing a word form as a set of morphemes arranged in sequence, a word form is
said to be the result of applying rules that alter a word-form or stem in order to produce a new
one. An inflectional rule takes a stem, changes it as is required by the rule, and outputs a word
form; a derivational rule takes a stem, changes it as per its own requirements, and outputs a
derived stem; a compounding rule takes word forms, and similarly outputs a compound stem.
In linguistics, morphological derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of
an existing word, e.g. happiness and unhappy from the root word happy, or determination from
determine. It often involves the addition of a morpheme in the form of an affix, such as -ness,
un-, and -ation in the preceding examples.

3. Derivational morphology
Derivational morphology often involves the addition of a derivational suffix or other affix.
Such an affix usually applies to words of one lexical category (part of speech) and changes them
into words of another such category. For example, the English derivational suffix -ly changes
adjectives into adverbs (slow slowly).
However, derivational affixes do not necessarily alter the lexical category; they may merely
change the meaning of the base, while leaving the category unchanged. A prefix (write rewrite; lord over-lord) will rarely change lexical category in English. The prefix un- applies to
adjectives (healthy unhealthy) and some verbs (do undo), but rarely to nouns. A few
exceptions are the derivational prefixes en- and be-.
Derivation can also occur without any change of form, for example telephone (noun) and to
telephone. This is known as conversion, or zero derivation.

Derivation that results in a noun may be called nominalization. This may involve the use of
an affix (as with happy happiness, employ employee), or may occur via conversion (as
with the derivation of the noun run from the verb to run). In contrast, such that result in a verb
may be called verbalization (as with from the noun butter into the verb to butter).
Derivational patterns differ in the degree to which they can be called productive. A
productive pattern or affix is one that is commonly used to produce novel forms. For example,
the negating prefix un- is more productive in English than the alternative in-; both of them occur
in established words (such as unusual and inaccessible), but faced with a new word which does
not have an established negation, a native speaker is more likely to create a novel form with unthan with in-. The same thing happens with suffixes. For example, if comparing two words
Thatcherite and Thatcherist, the analysis shows that both suffixes -ite and -ist are productive and
can be added to proper names, moreover, both derived adjectives are established and have the
same meaning. But the suffix -ist is more productive and, thus, can be found more often in word
formation not only from proper names.

4. Inflection
Derivation can be contrasted with inflection (which means the formation of grammatical
variants of the same word, as with determine/determines/determining/determined) in that
derivation produces a new word (a distinct lexeme), whereas inflection produces grammatical
variants of the same word.
Generally speaking, inflection applies in more or less regular patterns to all members of a
part of speech (for example, nearly every English verb adds -s for the third person singular
present tense), while derivation follows less consistent patterns (for example, the nominalizing
suffix -ity can be used with the adjectives modern and dense, but not with open or strong).
However, it is important to note that derivations and inflections can share homonyms, that being,
morphemes that have the same sound, but not the same meaning. For example, when the affix er, is added to an adjective, as in small-er, it acts as an inflection, but when added to a verb, as in
cook-er, it acts as a derivation.
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different
grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, and mood.
The inflection of verbs is also called conjugation, and one can refer to the inflection of nouns,
adjectives and pronouns as declension.
The inflected form of a word often contains both one or more free morphemes (a unit of
meaning which can stand by itself as a word), and one or more bound morphemes (a unit of
meaning which cannot stand alone as a word). For example, the English word cars is a noun that
is inflected for number, specifically to express the plural; the content morpheme car is unbound
because it could stand alone as a word, while the suffix -s is bound because it cannot stand alone
as a word. These two morphemes together form the inflected word cars.
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Words that are never subject to inflection are said to be invariant; for example, the English
verb must is an invariant item: it never takes a suffix or changes form to signify a different
grammatical category. Its categories can be determined only from its context.
Requiring the forms or inflections of more than one word in a sentence to be compatible with
each other according to the rules of the language is known as concord5 or agreement. For
example, in "the choir sings", "choir" is a singular noun, so "sing" is constrained in the present
tense to use the third person singular suffix "s".

5. Agreement
5

Agreement or concord (abbreviated agr) happens when a word changes form depending on
the other words to which it relates. It is an instance of inflection, and usually involves making the
value of some grammatical category (such as gender or person) "agree" between varied words or
parts of the sentence.
The agreement based on overt grammatical categories as above is formal agreement, in
contrast to notional agreement, which is based on meaning. For instance, in American English
the phrase The United Nations is treated as singular for purposes of agreement even though it is
formally plural.
Agreement generally involves matching the value of some grammatical category between
different constituents of a sentence (or sometimes between sentences, as in some cases where a
pronoun is required to agree with its antecedent or referent). Types of agreement:
Person; agreement based on grammatical person is found mostly between verb and
subject.
Number; agreement based on grammatical number can occur between verb and
subject. Again as with person, there is agreement in number between pronouns (or
their corresponding possessives) and antecedents. Agreement also occurs between
nouns and their modifiers, in some situations. In English this is not such a common
feature, although there are certain determiners that occur specifically with singular or
plural nouns only (One big car vs. Two big cars, Much great work vs. Many great
works).
Gender; in languages in which grammatical gender plays a significant role, there is
often agreement in gender between a noun and its modifiers. There is also agreement
in gender between pronouns and antecedents. Examples of this can be found in
English (although English pronouns principally follow natural gender rather than
grammatical gender): The man reached his destination vs. The ship reached her/its
destination.
Case; in languages that have a system of cases, there is often agreement by case
between a noun and its modifiers. Case agreement is not a significant feature of
English (only personal pronouns and the pronoun who have any case marking).
Agreement between such pronouns can sometimes be observed: Who came first he
or his brother? vs. Whom did you see him or his brother?
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 There is also a tense agreement.

Sequence of tenses (also known as agreement of tenses, succession of tenses and tense
harmony) is a set of grammatical rules of a particular language, governing the agreement
between the tenses of verbs in related clauses or sentences.
A typical context in which rules of sequence of tenses apply is that of indirect speech. If, at
some past time, someone spoke a sentence in a particular tense (say the present tense), and that
act of speaking is now being reported, the tense used in the clause that corresponds to the words
spoken may or may not be the same as the tense that was used by the original speaker.
In some languages the tense tends to be "shifted back", so that what was originally spoken in
the present tense is reported using the past tense (since what was in the present at the time of the
original sentence is in the past relative to the time of reporting). English is one of the languages
in which this often occurs. For example, if someone said "I need a drink", this may be reported in
the form "She said she needed a drink", with the tense of the verb need changed from present to
past.
The "shifting back" of tense as described in the previous paragraph may be called
backshifting or an attracted sequence of tenses. In languages and contexts where such a shift
does not occur, there may be said by contrast to be a natural sequence.
In English, an attracted sequence of tenses (backshifting) is often used in indirect speech and
similar contexts. The attracted sequence can be summarized as follows: If the main verb of a
sentence is in the past tense, then other verbs must also express a past viewpoint, except when a
general truth is being expressed.
In some cases, though, a natural sequence of tenses is more appropriate. The rule for writers
following the natural sequence of tenses can be expressed as follows: imagine yourself at the
point in time denoted by the main verb, and use the tense for the subordinate verb that you would
have used at that time. Thus the tense used in the indirect speech remains the same as it was in
the words as originally spoken. This is normal when the main verb is in the present or future
tense (as opposed to past tense or conditional mood).
However it is also possible to use the natural sequence even if the main verb is past or
conditional. This option is more likely to be used when the circumstance being expressed
remains equally true now as it did when the speech act took place, and especially if the person
reporting the words agrees that they are true or valid.
In conclusion, Modern English does not have a particularly large amount of agreement,
although it is present.
All regular verbs (and nearly all irregular ones) in English agree in the third-person singular
of the present indicative by adding a suffix of either -s or -es. The latter is generally used after
stems ending in the sibilants sh, ch, ss or zz (e.g. he rushes, it lurches, she amasses, it buzzes.)
There are not many irregularities in this formation: to have, to go and to do render has, goes
and does. The highly irregular verb to be is the only verb with more agreement than this in the
present tense.

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In English, defective verbs generally show no agreement for person or number, they include
the modal verbs: can, may, shall, will, must, should, ought.
Languages that have some degree of inflection are synthetic languages. These can be highly
inflected (such as Latin, Greek, Spanish, Biblical Hebrew, and Sanskrit), or weakly inflected
(such as English). Languages that are so inflected that a sentence can consist of a single highly
inflected word (such as many American Indian languages) are called polysynthetic languages.
Languages in which each inflection conveys only a single grammatical category, such as Finnish,
are known as agglutinative languages, while languages in which a single inflection can convey
multiple grammatical roles (such as both nominative case and plural, as in Latin and German) are
called fusional. Languages such as Mandarin Chinese that never use inflections are called
analytic or isolating.
When a given word class is subject to inflection in a particular language, there are generally
one or more standard patterns of inflection (the paradigms described below) that words in that
class may follow. Words which follow such a standard pattern are said to be regular; those that
inflect differently are called irregular.
For instance, many languages that feature verb inflection have both regular verbs and
irregular verbs. Other types of irregular inflected form include irregular plurals, such as the
English mice, children and women (see English plural), and irregular comparative and
superlative forms of adjectives or adverbs, such as the English better and best (which correspond
to the positive form good or well).
Irregularities can have four basic causes:
1) euphonywhere regular inflection would result in forms that sound esthetically
unpleasing or are difficult to pronounce (far farther or further);
2) principal partsThese are generally considered to have been formed independently
of one another, so the student must memorize them when learning a new word.
3) strong vs. weak inflectionSometimes two inflection systems exist, conventionally
classified as "strong" and "weak." For instance, English and German have weak verbs
that form the past tense and past participle by adding an ending (English jump
jumped, German machen machte) and strong verbs that change vowel, and in
some cases form the past participle by adding -en (English swim swam, swum,
German schwimmen schwamm, geschwommen).
4) suppletionThe "irregular" form was originally derived from a different root. The
comparative and superlative forms of good in many languages display this
phenomenon.
A class of words with similar inflection rules is called an inflectional paradigm. Typically the
similar rules amount to a unique set of affixes.

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Inflecting a noun, pronoun, adjective or determiner is known as declining it. The affixes may
express number, case, or gender.
Inflecting a verb is called conjugating it. The affixes may express tense, mood, voice, or
aspect.
An organized list of the inflected forms of a given lexeme or root word, is called its
declension if it is a noun, or its conjugation if it is a verb.

6. Inflectional morphology
Languages that add inflectional morphemes to words are sometimes called inflectional
languages, which is a synonym for inflected languages. Morphemes may be added in several
different ways:
1) Affixation, or simply adding morphemes onto the word without changing the root,
2) Reduplication, doubling all or part of a word to change its meaning,
3) Alternation, exchanging one sound for another in the root (usually vowel sounds, as
in the ablaut process found in Germanic strong verbs and the umlaut often found in
nouns, among others).
4) Suprasegmental variations, such as of stress, pitch or tone, where no sounds are added
or changed but the intonation and relative strength of each sound is altered regularly.
Affixing includes prefixing (adding before the base), and suffixing (adding after the base), as
well as the much less common infixing6 (inside) and circumfixing (a combination of prefix and
suffix).
Inflection is most typically realized by adding an inflectional morpheme (that is, affixation)
to the base form (either the root or a stem).
6

An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem (an existing word). It contrasts with adfix, a
rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.
English has almost no true infixes (as opposed to tmesis7), and those it does have are
marginal. A few are heard in colloquial speech, and a few more are found in technical
terminology.
7
Tmesis, the use of a lexical word rather than an affix, is sometimes considered a type of
infixation. These are the so-called 'expletive infixes', as in fan-fucking-tastic and abso-bloodylutely. Since these are not affixes, they are commonly disqualified from being considered infixes.
Sequences of adfixes (prefixes or suffixes) do not result in infixes: An infix must be internal
to a word stem. Thus the word originally, formed by adding the suffix -ly to original, does not
turn the suffix -al into an infix. There is simply a sequence of two suffixes, origin-al-ly. In order
for -al- to be considered an infix, it would have to have been inserted in the non-existent word
*originly.
An interfix joins a compound word, as in speed-o-meter.
Old English was a moderately inflected language, using an extensive case system similar to
that of modern Icelandic or German. Middle and Modern English lost progressively more of the
12

Old English inflectional system. Modern English is considered a weakly inflected language,
since its nouns have only vestiges of inflection (plurals, the pronouns), and its regular verbs have
only four forms: an inflected form for the past indicative and subjunctive (looked), an inflected
form for the third-person-singular present indicative (looks), an inflected form for the present
participle (looking), and an uninflected form for everything else (look). While the English
possessive indicator 's (as in "Jane's book") is a remnant of the Old English genitive case suffix,
it is now considered not a suffix but a clitic.

7. Conclusion
To sum up, inflection and derivation are the two main processes of word formation. They are
two kinds of morpho-syntactic operation.
Inflectional operations create forms that are fully grounded and able to be integrated into
discourse, whereas derivational operations create stems that are not necessarily fully grounded
and which may still require inflectional operations before they can be integrated into discourse.
Inflectional operations
Do not change the lexical category of
the word.

Derivational operations
Often change the lexical category of the word

Location

Tend to occur outside

derivational affixes.

Tend to occur next to the root

Type of
meaning

Contribute syntactically conditioned

information, such as number, gender,
or aspect.

Contribute lexical meaning

Lexical
category

Affixes used Occur with all or most members of a

class of stems.

Are restricted to some, but not all members of a

class of stems

Productivity May be used to coin new words of the May eventually lose their meaning and usually
same type.
cannot be used to coin new terms
Grounding

III.

Create forms that are fully-grounded

and able to be integrated into
discourse.

Create forms that are not necessarily fully

grounded and may require inflectional operations
before they can be integrated into discourse

Categoria numrului.

Opoziiile singular-plural i numrabil-nenumrabil. Reflexe morfosintactice ale categoriei

de numr. Substantive colective. Morfologia substantivelor defective. Recategorizarea
substantivelor nenumrabile. Substantivele pluralia tantum.

1. Grammatical category
A grammatical category is a property of items within the grammar of a language; it has a
number of possible values (sometimes called grammemes), which are normally mutually
exclusive within a given category. Examples of frequently encountered grammatical categories
13

include tense (which may take values such as present, past, etc.), number (with values such as
singular, plural, and sometimes dual), and gender (with values such as masculine, feminine and
neuter).
Although terminology is not always consistent, a distinction should be made between these
grammatical categories (tense, number, etc.) and lexical categories, which are closely
synonymous with the traditional parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.), or more generally
syntactic categories. Grammatical categories are also referred to as (grammatical) features.
A given constituent of an expression can normally take only one value from a particular
category. For example, a noun or noun phrase cannot be both singular and plural, since these are
both values of the category of number. It can, however, be both plural and feminine, since these
represent different categories (number and gender).
Categories may be marked on words by means of inflection. In English, for example, the
number of a noun is usually marked by leaving the noun uninflected if it is singular, and by
adding the suffix -s if it is plural (although some nouns have irregular plural forms). On other
occasions, a category may not be marked overtly on the item to which it pertains, being
manifested only through other grammatical features of the sentence, often by way of
grammatical agreement. Examples:
The bird can sing.
The birds can sing.
The sheep is running.
The sheep are running.
The bird is singing.
The birds are singing.

2. Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and
adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two", or "three or
more"). In many languages, including English, the number categories are singular and plural.
Grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity
through inflection or agreement. As an example, consider the English sentences below:
That apple on the table is fresh.
Those two apples on the table are fresh.
The number of apples is marked on the noun"apple" singular number (one item) vs.
"apples" plural number (more than one item)on the demonstrative, "that/those", and on the
verb, "is/are". In the second sentence, all this information is redundant, since quantity is already
indicated by the numeral "two".
A language has grammatical number when its nouns are subdivided into morphological
classes according to the quantity they express, such that:
Every noun belongs to a unique number class (nouns are partitioned into disjoint
classes by number).

14

Noun modifiers (such as adjectives) and verbs may also have different forms for each
number class and be inflected to match the number of the nouns to which they refer
(number is an agreement category).
This is partly the case in English: every noun is either singular or plural (a few forms, such as
"fish", can be either, according to context), and at least some modifiers of nounsnamely the
demonstratives, the personal pronouns, the articles, and verbsare inflected to agree with the
number of the nouns to which they refer: "this car" and "these cars" are correct, while "*this
cars" or "*these car" are ungrammatical and, therefore, incorrect. However adjectives are not
inflected, and most verb forms do not distinguish between singular and plural. Only count nouns
can be freely used in the singular and in the plural. Mass nouns, like "milk", "silverware", and
"wisdom", are normally used in only the singular form. (In some cases, a normally mass noun X
may be used as a count noun to collect several distinct kinds of X into an enumerable group; for
example, a cheesemaker might speak of goat, sheep, and cow milk as milks.) Many languages
distinguish between count nouns and mass nouns.
English is typical of most world languages, in distinguishing only between singular and
plural number. The plural form of a noun is usually created by adding the suffix -(e)s. The
pronouns have irregular plurals, as in "I" versus "we", perhaps because they are ancient and
frequently used words. English verbs distinguish singular from plural number in the third person
present tense ("He goes" versus "They go"). English treats zero with the plural number. Old
English did contain dual grammatical numbers.

3. Forming the plural

The plural morpheme in English is suffixed to the end of most nouns. Regular English plurals
fall into three classes, depending upon the sound that ends the singular form:
Where a singular noun ends in a sibilant sound /s/, /z/, //, //, /t/ or /d/ the plural is
formed by adding /z/ or /z/ (in some transcription systems, this is abbreviated as //). The
spelling adds -es, or -s if the singular already ends in e. When the singular form ends in
a voiceless consonant (other than a sibilant) /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/ (sometimes) or // the plural is
formed by adding /s/. The spelling adds s. For all other words (i.e. words ending in vowels or
voiced non-sibilants) the regular plural adds /z/, represented orthographically by s.
Phonologically, these rules are sufficient to describe most English plurals. However, certain
complications arise in the spelling of certain plurals, as described below.
With nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant, the plural in many cases is spelled
by adding -es (pronounced /z/). However many nouns of foreign origin, including
almost all Italian loanwords, add only s.
Nouns ending in a y preceded by a consonant usually drop the y and add ies (pronounced /iz/, or /aiz/ in words where the y is pronounced /ai/). Words ending
in quy also follow this pattern: soliloquy - soliloquies. However, nouns of this type
which are proper nouns (particularly names of people) form their plurals by simply
adding -s: the two Kennedys, there are three Harrys in our office. With place names
this rule is not always adhered to: Germanys and Germanies are both used, and
15

Sicilies and Scillies are the standard plurals of Sicily and Scilly. Nor does the rule
apply to words that are merely capitalized common nouns: P&O Ferries (from ferry).
Other exceptions include lay-bys and stand-bys. Words ending in a y preceded by a
vowel form their plurals by adding s.
In Old and Middle English voiceless fricatives /f/, // mutated to voiced fricatives
before a voiced ending. In some words this voicing survives in the modern English
plural. In the case of /f/ changing to /v/, the mutation is indicated in the orthography
as well; also, a silent e is added in this case if the singular does not already end with
e. In addition, there is one word where /s/ is voiced in the plural: house houses
/hazz/. Many nouns ending in /f/ or // (including all words where /f/ is represented
orthographically by gh or ph) nevertheless retain the voiceless consonant.
There are many other less regular ways of forming plurals, usually stemming from
older forms of English or from foreign borrowings.
The majority of English compound nouns have one basic term, or head, with which they
end. These are nouns and are pluralized in typical fashion. Some compounds have one
head with which they begin. These heads are also nouns and the head usually pluralizes,
leaving the second, usually a post-positive adjective, term unchanged. It is common in
informal speech to pluralize the last word instead, like most English nouns, but in edited
prose aimed at educated people, they are not recommended. For compounds of three or
more words that have a head (or a term functioning as a head) with an irregular plural
form, only that term is pluralized: man-about-town, men-about-town. With a few
extended compounds, both terms may be pluralizedagain, with an alternative (which
may be more prevalent, e.g. heads of state).

4. Types of number
a. Singular versus plural
In most languages with grammatical number, nouns, and sometimes other parts of speech,
have two forms, the singular, for one instance of a concept, and the plural, for more than one
instance. Usually, the singular is the unmarked form of a word, and the plural is obtained by
inflecting the singular. This is the case in English: car/cars, box/boxes, man/men. There may be
exceptional nouns whose plural is identical to the singular: one sheep/two sheep.
The plural, in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number.
Plural of nouns typically denote a quantity other than the default quantity represented by a noun,
which is generally one (the form that represents this default quantity is said to be of singular
number). Most commonly, therefore, plurals are used to denote two or more of something,
although they may also denote more than fractional, zero or negative amounts. An example of a
plural is the English word cats, which corresponds to the singular cat.
Words of other types, such as verbs, adjectives and pronouns, also frequently have distinct
plural forms, which are used in agreement with the number of their associated nouns.
16

Some languages also have a dual (denoting exactly two of something) or other systems of
number categories. However, in English and many other languages, singular and plural are the
only grammatical numbers, except for possible remnants of the dual in pronouns such as both
and either.
Certain nouns do not form plurals. A large class of such nouns in many languages is that of
uncountable nouns, representing mass or abstract concepts such as air, information, physics.
However, many nouns of this type also have countable meanings or other contexts in which a
plural can be used; for example water can take a plural when it means water from a particular
source (different waters make for different beers) and in expressions like by the waters of
Babylon.
There are also nouns found exclusively or almost exclusively in the plural, such as the
English scissors. Occasionally, a plural form can pull double duty as the singular form (or vice
versa), as has happened with the word "data".
b. Singulative versus collective
Some languages differentiate between an unmarked form, the collective, which is
indifferent in respect to number, and a marked form for single entities, called the singulative in
this context. For example, in Welsh, moch ("pigs") is a basic form, whereas a suffix is added to
form mochyn ("pig"). It is the collective form which is more basic, and it is used as an adjectival
modifier, e.g. cig moch ("pig meat", "pork"). The collective form is therefore similar in many
respects to an English mass noun like "rice", which in fact refers to a collection of items which
are logically countable. However, English has no productive process of forming singulative
nouns (just phrases such as "a grain of rice"). Therefore, English cannot be said to have a
singulative number.
In linguistics, singulative number and collective number (abbreviated sgv and col) are terms
used when the grammatical number for multiple items is the unmarked form of a noun, and the
noun is specially marked to indicate a single item. When a language using a collectivesingulative system does mark plural number overtly, that form is called the plurative.
This is the opposite of the more common singularplural pattern, where a noun is unmarked
when it represents one item, and is marked to represent more than one item.

5. Collective nouns
A collective noun is a word that designates a group of objects or beings regarded as a whole,
such as "flock", "team", or "corporation". Although many languages treat collective nouns as
singular, in others they may be interpreted as plural. In British English, phrases such as the
committee are meeting are common (the so-called agreement in sensu "in meaning"; with the
meaning of a noun, rather than with its form). The use of this type of construction varies with
dialect and level of formality.
In some cases, the number marking on a verb with a collective subject may express the
degree of collectivity of action:

17

The committee are discussing the matter (the individual members are discussing the
matter), but the committee has decided on the matter (the committee has acted as an
indivisible body).
The crowd is tearing down the fences (a crowd is doing something as a unit), but the
crowd are cheering wildly (many individual members of the crowd are doing the same
thing independently of each other).
In linguistics, a collective noun is a word which refers to a collection of things taken as a
whole. Most collective nouns in everyday speech are mundane and are not specific to one
specific kind, such as the word "group," which may apply to "people" in the phrase "a group of
people" but may also correctly refer to "dogs," in the phrase "a group of dogs." Other collective
nouns are specific to one kind, especially terms of venery, which are words for specific groups of
animals. For example, "pride" as a term of venery always refers to lions, never to dogs or cows.
Morphological derivation accounts for many collective words. Because derivation is a slower
and less productive word formation process than the more overtly syntactical morphological
methods, there are fewer collectives formed this way. As with all derived words, derivational
collectives often differ semantically from the original words, acquiring new connotations and
even new denotations.
The English endings -age and -ade often signify a collective. Sometimes, the relationship is
easily recognizable: baggage, drainage, blockade. However, even though the etymology is plain
to see, the derived words take on a distinct meaning.
In British English, it is generally accepted that collective nouns can take either singular or
plural verb forms depending on the context and the metonymic shift that it implies. For example,
"the team is in the dressing room" (formal agreement) refers to the team as an ensemble, while
"the team are fighting among themselves" (notional agreement) refers to the team as individuals.
That is also British English practice with names of countries and cities in sports contexts; for
example, "Germany have won the competition.", "Madrid have lost three consecutive matches.",
etc.
In American English, collective nouns almost invariably take singular verb forms (formal
agreement). In cases that a metonymic shift would be otherwise revealed nearby, the whole
sentence may be recast to avoid the metonymy. (For example, "The team are fighting among
themselves" may become "the team members are fighting among themselves" or simply "The
team is fighting.").
The tradition of using "terms of venery" or "nouns of assembly," collective nouns that are
specific to certain kinds of animals," stems from an English hunting tradition of the Late Middle
Ages. The fashion of a consciously developed hunting language came to England from France. It
is marked by an extensive proliferation of specialist vocabulary, applying different names to the
same feature in different animals. The elements can be shown to have already been part of
French and English hunting terminology by the beginning of the 14th century. In the course of
the 14th century, it became a courtly fashion to extend the vocabulary, and by the 15th century,
the tendency had reached exaggerated proportions.
18

Even in their original context of medieval venery, the terms were of the nature of kennings,
intended as a mark of erudition of the gentlemen able to use them correctly rather than for
practical communication.[citation needed] The popularity of the terms in the modern period has
resulted in the addition of numerous lighthearted, humorous or facetious collective nouns.

6. Countable nouns
In linguistics, a count noun (also countable noun) is a noun that can be modified by a
numeral and that occurs in both singular and plural forms, and that co-occurs with
quantificational determiners like every, each, several, etc. A mass noun has none of these
properties. It can't be modified by a numeral, occur in singular/plural, or co-occur with
quantificational determiners.
Below are examples of all the properties of count nouns holding for the count noun chair, but
not for the mass noun furniture.
Occurrence in plural/singular.
There is a chair in the room.
There are chairs in the room.
There is a furniture in the room. (incorrect)
There are furnitures in the room. (incorrect)
Co-occurrence with count determiners
Every chair is man made.
There are several chairs in the room.
Every furniture is man made. (incorrect)
There are several furnitures in the room. (incorrect)
Some determiners can be used with both mass and count nouns, including "some", "a lot
(of)", "no". Others cannot: "few" and "many" are used with count items, "little" and "much" with
mass. (On the other hand, "fewer" is reserved for count and "less" for mass (see Fewer vs. less),
but "more" is the proper comparative for both "many" and "much".).
The concept of a "mass noun" is a grammatical concept and is not based on the innate nature
of the object to which that noun refers. For example, "seven chairs" and "some furniture" could
refer to exactly the same objects, with "seven chairs" referring to them as a collection of
individual objects but with "some furniture" referring to them as a single undifferentiated unit.
However, some abstract phenomena like "fun" and "hope" have properties which make it
difficult to refer to them with a count noun.
Classifiers are sometimes used as count nouns preceding mass nouns, in order to redirect the
speaker's focus away from the mass nature. For example, "There's some furniture in the room"
can be restated, with a change of focus, to "There are some pieces of furniture in the room"; and
"let's have some fun" can be refocused as "Let's have a bit of fun".

19

In English, some nouns are used most frequently as mass nouns, with or without a classifier
(as in "Waiter, I'll have some coffee" or "Waiter, I'll have a cup of coffee"), but also less
frequently as count nouns (as in "Waiter, we'll have three coffees.").

7. Defective nouns: Plurale tantum Singulare tantum

A plurale tantum (Latin for "plural only", plural form: pluralia tantum) is a noun that
appears only in the plural form and does not have a singular variant for referring to a single
object. In a less strict usage of the term, it can also refer to nouns whose singular form is rarely
used. In English, pluralia tantum are typically words which denote objects that function as pairs
or sets (spectacles, trousers, pants, scissors, clothes, electronics, bagpipes, genitals).
In English, some plurale tantum nouns have a singular form, used only attributively. Phrases
such as "trouser presses" and "scissor kick" contain the singular form, but it is considered
nonstandard to say "a trouser" or "a scissor" on their own. That accords with the strong
preference for singular nouns in attributive positions in English, but some words are used in the
plural form even as attributive nouns (such as "clothes peg", "glasses case").
In English, a word may have definitions which are pluralia tantum. The noun "glasses"
(corrective lenses to improve eyesight) is plurale tantum. The word "glass" (a container for
drinks) may be singular or plural. In most forms of English, quantifying a plurale tantum noun
requires a measure word: "one pair of scissors" instead of "one scissors". Some words, such as
"brain" and "intestine", can be used as either pluralia tantum or as count nouns.
The term for a noun which appears only in the singular form is singulare tantum (plural:
singularia tantum) like the English words "information", "dust", and "wealth". Singulare
tantum is defined by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as "Gram. A word having only a
singular form; esp. a non-count noun." Such nouns may refer to a unique singular object
(essentially a Proper Noun), but more often than not, they refer to uncountable nouns, either
mass nouns (referring to a substance which cannot be counted as distinct objects like "milk") or
collective nouns (referring to objects which may in principle be counted but are referred to as
one like Arabic tut "strawberry"). Given that they do not have a number distinction, they may
appear as singulare tantum in one language but as plurale tantum in another. Compare English
"water" to Hebrew plurale tantum mayim.
In English, such words are almost always mass nouns. Some uncountable nouns can be
alternatively used as count nouns when meaning "a type of", and the plural means "more than
one type of". For example, strength is uncountable in Strength is power, but it can be used as a
countable noun to mean type of strength as in My strengths are in physics and chemistry. Some
words, especially proper nouns such as the name of an individual, are nearly always in the
singular form because there is only one example of what that noun means.

20

8. Uncountable nouns
In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, or non-count noun is a noun with the
syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as
something with discrete subsets. Non-count nouns are distinguished from count nouns.
Given that different languages have different grammatical features, the actual test for which
nouns are mass nouns may vary between languages. In English, mass nouns are characterized by
the fact that they cannot be directly modified by a numeral without specifying a unit of
measurement, and that they cannot combine with an indefinite article (a or an). Thus, the mass
noun "water" is quantified as "20 litres of water" while the count noun "chair" is quantified as
"20 chairs". However, both mass and count nouns can be quantified in relative terms without unit
specification (e.g., "so much water," "so many chairs").
Some mass nouns can be used in English in the plural to mean "more than one instance (or
example) of a certain sort of entity"for example, "Many cleaning agents today are technically
not soaps, but detergents." In such cases they no longer play the role of mass nouns, but
(syntactically) they are treated as count nouns.
In English (and in many other languages), there is a tendency for nouns referring to liquids
(water, juice), powders (sugar, sand), or substances (metal, wood) to be used in mass syntax, and
for nouns referring to objects or people to be count nouns. This is not a hard-and-fast rule,
however; mass nouns such as furniture and cutlery, which represent more easily quantified
objects, show that the mass/count distinction should be thought of as a property of the terms
themselves, rather than as a property of their referents.
For another illustration of the principle that the count/non-count distinction lies not in an
object but rather in the expression that refers to it, consider the English words "fruit" and
"vegetables". The objects that these words describe are, objectively speaking, similar (that is,
they're all edible plant parts); yet the word "fruit" is (usually) non-count, whereas "vegetables" is
a plural count form. One can see that the difference is in the language, not in the reality of the
objects. Meanwhile, German has a general word for "vegetables" that, like English "fruit", is
(usually) non-count: das Gemse. British English has a slang word for "vegetables" that acts the
same way: "veg" [rhymes with "edge"].
Many English nouns can be used in either mass or count syntax, and in these cases, they take
on cumulative reference when used as mass nouns. For example, one may say that "there's apple
in this sauce," and then apple has cumulative reference, and, hence, is used as a mass noun. The
names of animals, such as "chicken", "fox" or "lamb" are count when referring to the animals
themselves, but are mass when referring to their meat, fur, or other substances produced by them.
(e.g., "I'm cooking chicken tonight" or "This coat is made of fox.") Conversely, "fire" is
frequently used as a mass noun, but "a fire" refers to a discrete entity. Substance terms like
"water" which are frequently used as mass nouns, can be used as count nouns to denote arbitrary
units of a substance ("Two waters please") or of several types/varieties ("waters of the world").
One may say that mass nouns that are used as count nouns are "countified" and that count ones
that are used as mass nouns are "massified". However, this may confuse syntax and semantics,
21

by presupposing that words which denote substances are mass nouns by default. According to
many accounts, nouns do not have a lexical specification for mass-count status, and instead are
specified as such only when used in a sentence. Nouns differ in the extent to which they can be
used flexibly, depending largely on their meanings and the context of use. For example, the
count noun "house" is difficult to use as mass (though clearly possible), and the mass noun
"cutlery" is most frequently used as mass, despite the fact that it denotes objects, and has count
equivalents in other languages:
Bad: *There is house on the road. (Bad even if the situation of war is considered)
Bad: *There is a cutlery on the table. (Bad even if just one fork is on the table)
Good: You get a lot of house for your money since the recession.
Good: Spanish cutlery is my favorite. (type / kind reading)
There is often confusion about the two different concepts of collective noun and mass noun.
Generally, collective nouns are not mass nouns, but rather are a special subset of count nouns.
However, the term "collective noun" is often used to mean "mass noun" (even in some
dictionaries), because users conflate two different kinds of verb number invariability: (a) that
seen with mass nouns such as "water" or "furniture", with which only singular verb forms are
used because the constituent matter is grammatically nondiscrete (although it may ["water"] or
may not ["furniture"] be etically nondiscrete); and (b) that seen with collective nouns, which is
the result of the metonymical shift between the group and its (both grammatically and etically)
discrete constituents.
Some words, including "mathematics" and "physics", have developed true mass-noun senses
despite having grown from count-noun roots.

IV.

Categoria determinrii.

Clase de determinani. Caracteristicile elementelor deictice. Valorile descripiilor

demonstrative. Valorile descripiilor definite. Funciile generice ale articolelor. Valorile
descripiilor indefinite.

Determiners. Introduction. Definitions.

A determiner (also called determinative) is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together
with a noun or noun phrase and serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the
context (i.e. whether the noun is referring to a definite or indefinite element of a class, to a closer
or more distant element, to an element belonging to a specified person or thing, to a particular
number or quantity, etc.). In short, common kinds of determiners include:
1) demonstratives (this and that)
2) definite and indefinite articles (like the English the and a or an)
3) possessive determiners (my and their)
4) quantifiers (many, few and several)
5) numerals
22

6) distributive determiners (each, any)

7) interrogative determiners (which)
Most determiners have been traditionally classed either along with adjectives or with
pronouns, and this still occurs: for example, demonstrative and possessive determiners are
sometimes described as demonstrative adjectives and possessive adjectives or as (adjectival)
demonstrative pronouns and (adjectival) possessive pronouns respectively. However, modern
theorists of grammar prefer to distinguish determiners as a separate word class from adjectives,
which are simple modifiers of nouns, expressing attributes of the thing referred to.
X-bar theory contends that every noun has a corresponding determiner (or specifier). In a
case where a noun does not have an explicit determiner (as in physics uses mathematics), X-bar
theory hypothesizes the presence of a zero article, or zero determiner. Noun phrases that contain
only a noun and do not have a determiner present are known as bare noun phrases.
Determiners may be subcategorized as predeterminers, central determiners and
postdeterminers, based on the order in which they can occur. For example, "all my seventeen
very young children" uses one of each. "My all seventeen very young children" is ungrammatical
because a central determiner cannot precede a predeterminer.

Classification of determiners
The following is a more detailed classification of determiners used in English, including both
words and phrases:
1) Demonstrative
Demonstratives are words like this and that, used to indicate which entities are being referred
to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic, their meaning
depending on a particular frame of its reference:
spatial deixis (using the context of the physical surroundings of the speaker and
sometimes the listener);
intra-discourse reference - so called "discourse deixis" (including abstract concepts)
or anaphora, where the meaning is dependent on something other than the relative
physical location of the speaker, for example whether something is currently being
said or was said earlier.
Demonstrative words include demonstrative adjectives or demonstrative determiners, which
qualify nouns (as in Put that coat on), and demonstrative pronouns, which stand independently
(as in Put that on). The demonstratives in English are: this, that, these, those, and the archaic
yon and yonder, along with this one or that one as substitutes for the pronoun use of this or that.
Many languages, such as English and Chinese, make a two-way distinction between
demonstratives. Typically, one set of demonstratives is proximal, indicating objects close to the
speaker (En. this), and the other series is distal, indicating objects further removed from the
speaker (En. that).
Other languages, like Turkish, Nandi, Spanish, Portuguese, Armenian, Serbo-Croatian,
Macedonian, Georgian, Basque and Japanese make a three-way distinction. Typically there is a
23

distinction between proximal or first person (objects near to the speaker), medial or second
person (objects near to the addressee), and distal or third person (objects far from both).
a. Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns
It is relatively common for a language to distinguish between demonstrative determiners or
demonstrative adjectives (also called determinative demonstratives, adjectival demonstratives, or
adjectival demonstrative pronouns) and demonstrative pronouns (sometimes called independent
demonstratives, substantival demonstratives, independent demonstrative pronouns, or
substantival demonstrative pronouns). In other words, a demonstrative adjective functions as a
regular adjective (modifying a noun), while the demonstrative pronouns is used as a pronoun
(replacing a noun). For example:
A demonstrative determiner modifies a noun:
This apple is good.
I like those houses.
A demonstrative pronoun stands on its own, replacing rather than modifying a noun:
This is good.
I like those.
There are five demonstrative pronouns in English: this, that, these, those, and the less
common yon or yonder (the latter is usually employed as a demonstrative adjective; even so it is
rarely used in most dialects of English, although it persists in some dialects such as Southern
American English.)
b. Demonstrative adverbs
Many languages have sets of demonstrative adverbs that are closely related to the
demonstrative pronouns in a language. For example, corresponding to the demonstrative pronoun
that are the adverbs such as then (= "at that time"), there (= "at that place"), thither (= "to that
place"), thence (= "from that place"); equivalent adverbs corresponding to the demonstrative
pronoun this are now, here, hither, hence. A similar relationship exists between the interrogative
pronoun what and the interrogative adverbs when, where, whither, whence.
c. Deixis
In linguistics, deixis (/dakss/) refers to words and phrases, such as me or here, that
cannot be fully understood without additional contextual information -- in this case, the identity
of the speaker (me) and the speaker's location (here).
Words are deictic if their semantic meaning is fixed, but their denotational meaning varies
depending on time and/or place. Words or phrases that require contextual information to convey
any meaning for example, English pronouns are deictic.
Deixis is closely related to anaphora, as will be further explained below.

24

Traditional categories of deixis:

Possibly the most common categories of contextual information referred to by deixis are
those of: person, place, and time - what Fillmore calls the major grammaticalized types of
deixis.
1. Person
Person deixis concerns itself with the grammatical persons involved in an utterance:
(1) those directly involved (e.g. the speaker, the addressee);
(2) those not directly involved (e.g. over-hearersthose who hear the utterance,
but who are not being directly addressed);
(3) those mentioned in the utterance.
In English, the distinctions are generally indicated by pronouns. The following examples
show how. (The person deictic terms are in italics, a signaling notation that will continue through
this article.)
I am going to the movies.
Would you like to have dinner?
They tried to hurt me, but she came to the rescue.
In languages (like English) with gendered pronouns, the third-person masculine pronoun has
traditionally been used as a default when using "it" is inappropriate but the gender of its
antecedent is unknown or inapplicable.
For example:
To each his own.
In English, it is often now common to use the third-person plural, even when the antecedent
is singular:
To each their own.
2. Place
Place deixis, also known as space deixis, concerns itself with the spatial locations relevant to
an utterance. Similarly to person deixis, the locations may be either those of the speaker and
addressee or those of persons or objects being referred to. The most salient English examples are
the adverbs here and there and the demonstratives this and that - although those are
far from being the only deictic words. Some examples:
I enjoy living in this city.
Here is where we will place the statue.
She was sitting over there.
Unless otherwise specified, place deictic terms are generally understood to be relative to the
location of the speaker, as in The shop is across the street. where across the street is
understood to mean across the street from where I am right now.
It is interesting to note that although here and there are often used to refer to locations
near to and far from the speaker, respectively, there can also refer to the location of the
addressee, if they are not in the same location as the speaker. So, although Here is a good spot;
25

it is too sunny over there. exemplifies the former usage, How is the weather there? is an
example of the latter.
Deictic projection: In some contexts, spatial deixis is used metaphorically rather than
physically, i.e. the speaker is not speaking as the deictic centre. For example:
I am coming home now.
The above utterance would generally be considered as the speaker's expression of
his/her going home, yet it appears to be perfectly normal for one to project his physical presence
to his home rather than away from home. Here is another common example:
I am not here, please leave a message.
Despite its common usage to address people who call with no one answering the phone,
the here here is semantically contradictory to one's absence. Nevertheless, this is considered
normal for most people as speakers have to project themselves as answering the phone when in
fact they are not physically.
Languages usually show at least a two-way referential distinction in their deictic system:
proximal, i.e. near or closer to the speaker; and distal, i.e. far from the speaker and/or closer to
the addressee. English exemplifies this with such pairs as this and that, here and there, etc.
In other languages, the distinction is three-way: proximal, i.e. near the speaker; medial, i.e.
near the addressee; and distal, i.e. far from both. This is the case in a few Romance languages
and in Serbo-Croatian, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Filipino, and Turkish. The archaic English
forms yon and yonder (still preserved in some regional dialects) once represented a distal
category that has now been subsumed by the formerly medial "there".
3. Time
Time, or temporal deixis concerns itself with the various times involved in and referred to in
an utterance. This includes time adverbs like "now", "then", "soon", and so forth, and also
different tenses. A good example is the word tomorrow, which denotes the consecutive next day
after every day. The "tomorrow" of a day last year was a different day from the "tomorrow" of a
day next week.
Time adverbs can be relative to the time when an utterance is made ("encoding time", or ET)
or when the utterance is heard ("decoding time", or DT). Although these are frequently the same
time, they can differ, as in the case of prerecorded broadcasts or correspondence. For example, if
one were to write:
It is raining now, but I hope when you read this it will be sunny.
The ET and DT would be different, with the former deictic term concerning ET and the latter
the DT.
Tenses are generally separated into absolute (deictic) and relative tenses. So, for example,
simple English past tense is absolute, such as in: He went., whereas the pluperfect (past perfect)
is relative to some other deictically specified time, as in: He had gone..

26

4. Discourse
Discourse deixis, also referred to as text deixis, refers to the use of expressions within an
utterance to refer to parts of the discourse that contains the utterance including the utterance
itself. For example, in: This is a great story., this refers to an upcoming portion of the
discourse, and in: That was an amazing account., that refers to a prior portion of the
discourse.
Distinction must be made between discourse deixis and anaphora, which is when an
expression makes reference to the same referent as a prior term, as in:
Matthew is an incredible athlete; he came in first in the race.
It is possible for an expression to be both deictic and anaphoric at the same time. In his
example:
I was born in London, and I have lived here/there all my life.
here or there function anaphorically in their reference to London, and deictically in that
the choice between here or there indicates whether the speaker is or is not currently in
London.
The rule of thumb to distinguish the two phenomena is as follows: when an expression refers
to another linguistic expression or a piece of discourse, it is discourse deictic. When that
expression refers to the same item as a prior linguistic expression, it is anaphoric.
5. Social
Social deixis concerns the social information that is encoded within various expressions,
such as relative social status and familiarity. Two major forms of it are the so-called TV
distinctions and honorifics.
a. TV distinction
TV distinctions, named for the Latin tu and vos (singular and plural versions of you)
are the name given to the phenomenon when a language has two different second-person
pronouns. The varying usage of these pronouns indicates something about formality, familiarity,
and/or solidarity between the interactants. So, for example, the T form might be used when
speaking to a friend or social equal, whereas the V form would be used speaking to a stranger or
social superior. This phenomenon is common in European languages.
b. Honorifics
Honorifics are a much more complex form of social deixis than TV distinctions, though
they encode similar types of social information. They can involve words being marked with
various morphemes as well as nearly entirely different lexicons being used based on the social
status of the interactants. This type of social deixis is found in a variety of languages, but is
especially common in South and East Asia.
6. Anaphoric reference
Generally speaking, anaphora refers to the way in which a word or phrase relates to other
text:

27

An exophoric reference refers to language outside of the text in which the reference is
found.
o A homophoric reference is a generic phrase that obtains a specific meaning
through knowledge of its context. For example, the meaning of the phrase "the
Queen" may be determined by the country in which it is spoken. Because there
are many Queens throughout the world, the location of the speaker provides the
extra information that allows an individual Queen to be identified.
An endophoric reference refers to something inside of the text in which the reference is
found.
o An anaphoric reference, when opposed to cataphora, refers to something within a
text that has been previously identified. For example, in "Susan dropped the plate.
It shattered loudly" the word "it" refers to the phrase "the plate".
o A cataphoric reference refers to something within a text that has not yet been
identified. For example, in "He was very cold. David promptly put on his
coat" the identity of the "he" is unknown until the individual is also referred to
as "David".

Deictic center
A deictic center, sometimes referred to as an origo, is a set of theoretical points that a deictic
expression is anchored to, such that the evaluation of the meaning of the expression leads one
to the relevant point. As deictic expressions are frequently egocentric, the center often consists of
the speaker at the time and place of the utterance, and additionally, the place in the discourse and
relevant social factors. However, deictic expressions can also be used in such a way that the
deictic center is transferred to other participants in the exchange, or to persons / places / etc.
being described in a narrative. So, for example, in the sentence:
I am standing here now.
the deictic center is simply the person at the time and place of speaking. But say two people
are talking on the phone long-distance, from London to New York. The Londoner can say:
We are going to New York next week.
in which case the deictic center is in London, or they can equally validly say:
We are coming to New York next week.
in which case the deictic center is in New York. Similarly, when telling a story about
someone, the deictic center is likely to switch to them. So then in the sentence:
He then ran twenty feet to the left.
it is understood that the center is with the person being spoken of, and thus, "to the left"
refers not to the speakers left, but to the object of the storys left, that is, the person referred to
as 'he' at the time immediately before he ran twenty feet.
Usages of deixis
It is helpful to distinguish between two usages of deixis, gestural and symbolic, as well as
non-deictic usages of frequently deictic words. Gestural deixis refers, broadly, to deictic
28

expressions whose understanding requires some sort of audio-visual information. A simple

example is when an object is pointed at and referred to as this or that. However, the category
can include other types of information than pointing, such as direction of gaze, tone of voice, and
so on. Symbolic usage, by contrast, requires generally only basic spatio-temporal knowledge of
the utterance. So, for example
I broke this finger.
requires being able to see which finger is being held up, whereas
I love this city.
requires only knowledge of the current location. In a similar vein,
I went to this city one time
is a non-deictic usage of "this", which does not reference anything specific. Rather, it is used
as an indefinite article, much the way "a" could be used in its place.
Deixis and indexicality
The terms deixis and indexicality are frequently used almost interchangeably, and both deal
with essentially the same idea: contextually dependent references. However, the two terms have
different histories and traditions. In the past, deixis was associated specifically with
spatiotemporal reference, whereas indexicality was used more broadly. More importantly, each is
associated with a different field of study; deixis is associated with linguistics, whereas
indexicality is associated with philosophy.
2) Articles
In English, there are the definite article the and the indefinite articles a and an. Use of the
definite article implies that the speaker assumes the listener knows the identity of the noun's
referent (because it is obvious, because it is common knowledge, or because it was mentioned in
the same sentence or an earlier sentence). Use of an indefinite article implies that the speaker
assumes the listener does not have to be told the identity of the referent. In some noun phrases,
no article is used.
a) Definite determiners,
which imply that the referent of the resulting noun phrase is defined specifically:
The definite article the.
The demonstratives this and that, with respective plural forms these and those.
Possessives, including those corresponding to pronouns my, your, his, her, its, our,
their, whose and the Saxon genitives formed from other nouns, pronouns and noun
phrases (one's, everybody's, Mary's, a boy's, the man we saw yesterday's). These can
be made more emphatic with the addition of own or very own.
Interrogatives which, what (these can be followed by -ever for emphasis).
Relative determiners: which (quite formal and archaic, as in He acquired two dogs
and three cats, which animals were then...); also whichever and whatever (which are
of the type that form clauses with no antecedent: I'll take whatever money they've
got).
29

b) Indefinite determiners:
The indefinite article a or an (the latter is used when followed by a vowel sound).
The word some, pronounced [s()m] (see Weak and strong forms in English), used as
an equivalent of the indefinite article with plural and non-count nouns (a partitive).
The strong form of some, pronounced [sm], as in Some people prefer dry wine; this
can also be used with singular count nouns (There's some man at the door). For words
such as certain and other see below.
The word any, often used in negative and interrogative contexts in place of the
article-equivalent some (and sometimes also with singular count nouns). It can also
be used to express alternative (see below).
3) Possessive determiners
constitute a sub-class of determiners which modify a noun by attributing possession (or other
sense of belonging) to someone or something. They are also known as possessive adjectives,[1]
although the latter term is sometimes used with a wider meaning.
Examples in English include possessive forms of the personal pronouns, namely my, your, his,
her, its, our and their, but excluding those forms such as mine and ours that are used as
possessive pronouns but not as determiners. Possessive determiners may also be taken to include
possessive forms made from nouns, from other pronouns and from noun phrases, such as John's,
the girl's, somebody's, the king of Spain's, when used to modify a following noun.
In many languages, possessive determiners are subject to agreement with the noun they modify,
as in the French mon, ma, mes, respectively the masculine singular, feminine singular and plural
forms corresponding to the English my.
Comparison with determiners and adjectives[edit]
Possessive determiners (possessive adjectives) have features of both determiners and adjectives:
Possessive determiners, as used in English and some other languages, imply the definite
article. For example, my car implies the car that belongs to me/is used by me. (However,
"This is the car I have" implies that it is the only car you have, whereas "This is my car"
does not imply that to the same extent. When applied to relatives other than parents or
spouse, there is no implication of uniqueness "my brother" can mean equally well "one
of my brothers" as "the one brother I have".) It is not correct to precede possessives with
an article (*the my car) or (in today's English) other definite determiner such as
a demonstrative (*this my car), although they can combine with quantifiers in the same
ways that the can (all my cars, my three cars, etc.; see English determiners). This is not
the case in all languages; for example in Italian the possessive is usually preceded by
another determiner such as an article, as in la mia macchina ("my car", literally "the my
car").
Possessive determiners may be modified with an adverb, as adjectives are, although not
as freely or as commonly as is the case with adjectives. Such modification is generally
limited to such adverbs as more, less, or as much ... as (comparative)
or mostly (superlative), for example in This is more my team than your team, This is less
30

my team than your team, This is as much my team as your team, and This is mostly my
team.
Possessive determiners in English[edit]
The basic pronominal possessive determiners in modern English are my, your, his, her, its, our,
their and whose[9] (as in Whose coat is this? and the man whose car was stolen). As noted
above, they indicate definiteness, like the definite article the. Archaic forms include thy and
mine/thine (for my/thy before a vowel). For details, see English personal pronouns.
Other possessive determiners (although they may not always be classed as such, though they
play the same role in syntax) are the words and phrases formed by attaching the clitic -'s (or
sometimes just an apostrophe after -s) to other pronouns, to nouns and to noun phrases
(sometimes called determiner phrases). Examples include Jane's, heaven's, the boy's, Jesus', the
soldiers', those men's, the king of England's, one's, somebody's.
In English, possessive words or phrases exist for nouns and most pronouns, as well as some noun
phrases. These can play the roles ofdeterminers (also called possessive adjectives when
corresponding to a pronoun) or of nouns.
Nouns, noun phrases and some pronouns generally form a possessive with the suffix -'s (or in
some cases just by adding an apostrophe to an existing -s). This form is sometimes called
the Saxon genitive, reflecting the suffix's derivation from a genitive case ending in Old English,
or Anglo-Saxon.[1] Personal pronouns, however, have irregular possessives, and most of them
have different forms for possessive determiners and possessive pronouns, such
as my and mine or your and yours.
Possessives are one of the means by which genitive constructions are formed in modern English,
the other principal one being the use of thepreposition of. It is sometimes stated that the
possessives represent a grammatical case, called the genitive or possessive case, though some
linguists do not accept this view, regarding the -'s ending, variously, as a phrasal affix, an edge
affix or a clitic, rather than as a case ending.
Unlike with other noun phrases which only have a single possessive form, personal pronouns in
English have two possessive forms: possessive determiners (used to form noun phrases such as
"her success") and possessive pronouns (used in place of nouns as in "I prefer hers", and also in
predicative expressions as in "the success was hers"). In most cases these are different from each
other.
For
example,
the
pronoun I has
possessive
determiner my and
possessive
pronoun mine; you has your and yours; he has his for
both; she has her and hers; it has its for
both (though rarely used as a possessive pronoun); we has our and ours; they has their and theirs.
The archaic thou has thy and thine. For a full table and further details, see English personal
pronouns.
Note that possessive its has no apostrophe, although it is sometimes written with one in error or
by people who are making no attempt to abide by this standard, by confusion with the common
possessive ending -'s and the contraction it's used for it is and it has. Possessive its was originally

31

formed with an apostrophe in the 17th century, but this was dropped in the early 19th century,
presumably to make it more similar to the other personal pronoun possessives.[6]
The interrogative and relative pronoun who has the possessive whose. In its relative
use, whose can also refer to inanimate antecedents, but its interrogative use always refers to
persons.[7]
Other pronouns that form possessives (mainly indefinite pronouns) do so in the same way as
nouns, with -'s, for example one's, somebody's (and somebody else's). Certain pronouns, such as
the demonstratives this, that, these, those, do not have possessive forms.
English possessives play two principal roles in syntax:
the role of possessive determiners (more popularly called possessive adjectives;
see Possessive: Terminology) standing before a noun, as in my house or John's two
sisters;
the role of possessive pronouns (although they may not always be called that), standing
independently in place of a noun, as in mine is large; they prefer John's.
As determiners[edit]
Possessive noun phrases such as "John's" can be used as determiners. When a form
corresponding to a personal pronoun is used as a possessive determiner, the correct form must be
used, as described above (my rather than mine, etc.).
Possessive determiners are not used in combination with articles or other definite determiners.
For example, it is not correct to say *the my hat, *a my hat or *this my hat; an alternative is
provided in the last two cases by the "double genitive" as described in the following section a
hat of mine (also one of my hats), this hat of mine. Possessive determiners can nonetheless be
combined with certain quantifiers, as in my six hats (which differs in meaning from six of my
hats). See English determiners for more details.
A possessive adjective can be intensified with the word own, which can itself be either an
adjective or a pronoun: my own (bed), John's own (bed).
In some expressions the possessive has itself taken on the role of a noun modifier, as in cow's
milk (used rather than cow milk). It then no longer functions as a determiner; adjectives and
determiners can be placed before it, as in the warm cow's milk, where
idiomatically the and warm now refer to the milk, not to the cow.
Possessive relationships can also be expressed periphrastically, by preceding the noun or noun
phrase with the preposition of, although possessives are usually more idiomatic where a true
relationship of possession is involved. Some examples:
the child's bag might also be expressed as the bag of the child
our cats' mother might be expressed as the mother of our cats
the system's failure might be expressed as the failure of the system
Another alternative in the last case may be the system failure, using system as a noun
adjunct rather than a possessive.
As pronouns[edit]

32

Possessives can also play the role of nouns or pronouns; namely they can stand alone as a noun
phrase, without qualifying a noun. In this role they can function as the subject orobject of verbs,
or as a complement of prepositions. When a form corresponding to a personal pronoun is used in
this role, the correct form must be used, as described above (mine rather than my, etc.).
Examples:
I'll do my work, and you do yours. (here yours is a possessive pronoun, meaning "your
work", and standing as the object of the verb do)
My car is old, Mary's is new. (here Mary's means "Mary's car" and stands as the subject
of its clause)
Your house is nice, but I prefer to stay in mine. (here mine means "my house", and is the
complement of the preposition in)
Double genitive[edit]
See also: Pleonasm Types of syntactic pleonasm
that hard heart of thine ("Venus and Adonis" line 500)
this extreme exactness of his (Sterne, "Tristram Shandy", chapter 1.IV)
that poor mother of mine (Thackery, "Barry Lyndon", chapter I)
Any Friend of Nicholas Nicklebys is a Friend of Mine, and frequent uses of the
title Friend of Mine
a picture of the kings (that is, a picture owned by the king, as distinct from a picture of
the king a picture in which the king is portrayed)[8]
Some writers regard this as a questionable usage,[9] although it has a history in careful English.
"Moreover, in some sentences the double genitive offers the only way to express what is meant.
There is no substitute for it in a sentence such as Thats the only friend of yours that Ive ever
met, since sentences such as Thats your only friend that Ive ever met and Thats your only
friend, whom Ive ever met are not grammatical."[10] "[T]he construction is confined to human
referents: compare a friend of the Gallery / no fault of the Gallery."[11] Some object to the name,
as the "of" clause is not a genitive. Alternative names are "post-genitive",[12] "cumulative
genitive", "pleonastic genitive",[13][14] "double possessive" and "oblique genitive".[15] The Oxford
English Dictionary says that this usage was "Originally partitive, but subseq[uently became a] ...
simple possessive ... or as equivalent to an appositive phrase ...".[16]
In predicative expressions[edit]
When they are used as predicative expressions, as in this is mine and that pen is John's, the
intended sense may be either that of a pronoun or of a predicate adjective; however their form
(mine, yours, etc.) in this case is the same as that used in other sentences for possessive
pronouns.
Use of whose[edit]
The following sentences illustrate the uses of whose:
As the possessive of interrogative who: Whose pen is this? Whose do you prefer? For
whose good is this being done?

33

As the possessive of relative who (normally only as determiner, not pronoun): This is the
man whose pen we broke. That is the woman in whose garden you woke up.
As the possessive of relative which (again, normally only as determiner): It is an idea
whose time has come (alternatively ...of which the time has come).
Semantics[edit]
Possessives, as well as their synonymous constructions with of, express a range of relationships
that are not limited strictly to possession in the sense of ownership. Some discussion of such
relationships can be found at Possession (linguistics) and at Possessive: Semantics. Some points
as they relate specifically to English are discussed below.
Actions[edit]
When possessives are used with a verbal noun or other noun expressing an action, the possessive
may represent either the doer of the action (the subject of the corresponding verb) or the
undergoer of the action (the object of the verb). The same applies to of phrases. When a
possessive and an of phrase are used with the same action noun, the former generally represents
the subject and the latter the object. For example:
Freds dancing (or the dancing of Fred) Fred is the dancer (only possible meaning with
this verb)
the proposal's rejection or the rejection of the proposal the proposal is rejected
Fred's rejection of the proposal Fred is the rejecter, the proposal is rejected
Time periods[edit]
Time periods are sometimes put into possessive form, to express the duration of or time
associated with the modified noun:
the Hundred Years' War
a day's pay
two weeks' notice
The paraphrase with of is often un-idiomatic or ambiguous in these cases.
Expressing for[edit]
Sometimes the possessive expresses who the thing is for, rather than to whom it belongs:
women's shoes
children's literature
These cases would be paraphrased with for rather than of (shoes for women).
Appositive genitive[edit]
Sometimes genitive constructions are used to express a noun in apposition to the main one, as
in the Isle of Man, the problem of drug abuse. This may be occasionally be done with a
possessive (as in Dublins fair city, for the fair city of Dublin), but this is a rare usage.
4) Quantifiers,
which quantify a noun:
Basic words indicating a large or small quantity: much/many, little/few, and their
comparative and superlative forms more, most, less/fewer, least/fewest. Where two
forms are given, the first is used with non-count nouns and the second with count
34

nouns (although in colloquial English less and least are frequently also used with
count nouns). The basic forms can be modified with adverbs, especially very, too and
so (and not can also be added). Note that unmodified much is quite rarely used in
affirmative statements in colloquial English.
Phrases expressing similar meanings to the above: a lot of, lots of, plenty of, a great
deal of, tons of, etc. Many such phrases can alternatively be analyzed as nouns
followed by a preposition, but their treatment as phrasal determiners is supported by
the fact that the resulting noun phrase takes the number of the following noun, not the
noun in the phrase (a lot of people would take a plural verb, even though lot is
singular).
Words and phrases expressing some unspecified or probably quite small amount: a
few/a little (learners often confuse these with few/little), several, a couple of, a bit of,
a number of etc.
Cardinal numbers: zero (quite rare as determiner), one, two, etc. In some analyses
these may not be treated as determiners.[1]
Other phrases expressing precise quantity: a pair of, five litres of, etc.
Words and phrases expressing multiples or fractions: half, half of, double, twice,
three times, twice as much, etc. Those like double and half (without of) are generally
used in combination with definite determiners (see Combinations of determiners
below).
Words expressing maximum, sufficient or zero quantity: all, both, enough, sufficient,
no.
Note that many of these quantifiers can be modified by adverbs and adverbial phrases such as
almost, over, more than, less than, when the meaning is appropriate.
Words that enumerate over a group or class, or indicate alternatives:
each, every (note that every can be modified by adverbs such as almost and
practically, whereas each generally cannot. However, also note every other, which
refers to each second member in a series.)
any (as in any dream will do; see also under indefinite determiners above), either,
neither
In linguistics and grammar, a quantifier is a type of determiner, such as all, some, many,
few, a lot, and no, (but not numerals)[clarification needed] that indicates quantity.
Quantification is also used in logic, where it is a formula constructor that produces new formulas
from old ones. Natural languages' determiners have been argued[citation needed] to correspond
to logical quantifiers at the semantic level.
All known human languages make use of quantification (Wiese 2004). For example, in English:
Every glass in my recent order was chipped.
Some of the people standing across the river have white armbands.
Most of the people I talked to didn't have a clue who the candidates were.
A lot of people are smart.
35

The words in italics are quantifiers. There exists no simple way of reformulating any one of these
expressions as a conjunction or disjunction of sentences, each a simple predicate of an individual
such as That wine glass was chipped. These examples also suggest that the construction of
quantified expressions in natural language can be syntactically very complicated. Fortunately, for
mathematical assertions, the quantification process is syntactically more straightforward.
The study of quantification in natural languages is much more difficult than the corresponding
problem for formal languages. This comes in part from the fact that the grammatical structure of
natural language sentences may conceal the logical structure. Moreover, mathematical
conventions strictly specify the range of validity for formal language quantifiers; for natural
language, specifying the range of validity requires dealing with non-trivial semantic problems.

5) Personal determiners:
The words you and we/us, in phrases like we teachers; you guys can be
analysed as determiners.[2][3]
Examples:
"As all we teachers know . . ."
"Us girls must stick together. " (informal)
These examples can be contrasted with a similar but different use of pronouns in an
appositional construction, where the use of other pronouns is also permitted but the pronouns
cannot be preceded by the (pre-) determiner "all".[2]
Examples:
"I/we, the undersigned, . . . , "
"We, the undersigned, . . . , "
but not
All we, the undersigned, . . ."
6) Other cases:
The words such and exclamative what (these are followed by an indefinite article
when used with a singular noun, as in such a treat, what a disaster!)
Noun phrases used as determiners, such as this colour, what size and how many (as in
I like this colour furniture; What size shoes do you take?; How many candles are
there?)
Words such as same, other, certain, different, only, which serve a determining
function, but are grammatically more likely to be classed simply as adjectives, in that
they generally require another determiner to complete the phrase (although they still
come before other adjectives). Note that the indefinite article in combination with
other is written as the single word another.

36

7) Zero determiner
In some contexts a complete noun phrase can exist without any determiner (or with "zero
determiner"). The main types of such cases are:

with plural or uncountable nouns used to refer to a concept or members of a class

generally: cars are useful (but the cars when specific cars are being referred to);
happiness is contagious (but the happiness when specific happiness is referred to, as
in the happiness that laughter engenders...).
with plural or uncountable nouns used to refer to some unspecified amount of
something: there are cats in the kitchen; I noticed water on the floor (here it is also
possible to use some cats, some water).
with many proper names: Tom Smith, Birmingham, Italy, Jupiter.
with singular common nouns in some common expressions: smiling from ear to ear,
leaving town today.

Combinations of determiners
Determiners can be used in certain combinations. Common examples are listed below:
A definite determiner can be followed by certain quantifiers (the many problems, these
three things, my very few faults).
The words all and both can be followed by a definite determiner (all the green
apples, both the boys), which can also be followed by a quantifier as above (all the many
outstanding issues).
The word all can be followed by a cardinal number (all three things).
The word some can be followed by a cardinal number (some eight packets, meaning
"approximately eight").
Words and phrases expressing fractions and multiples, such as half, double, twice, three
times, etc. can be followed by a definite determiner: half a minute, double the risk,twice
my age, three times my salary, three-quarters the diameter, etc.
The words such and exclamative what can be followed by an indefinite article (as
mentioned in the section above).
The word many can be used with the indefinite article and a singular noun (many a
night, many an awkward moment).
The words each and every can be followed by a cardinal number or other expression of
definite quantity (each two seats, every five grams of flour).
To specify a quantity within a definite class (as opposed to a definite class of a given quantity), it
is often possible to use a quantifier in pronoun form (often identical to the determiner form),
followed by of and a definite determiner. For example, three of the mice, few of my
enemies, none of these pictures, much of John's information. An alternative construction with
possessives is to place of and the pronoun form of the possessive after the noun: few enemies of
mine, much information of John's.
37

As with other parts of speech, it is often possible to connect determiners of the same type with
the conjunctions and and or: his and her children, two or three beans.

Determiners and adjectives

In traditional English grammar, determiners were not considered a separate part of speech most
of them would have been classed as adjectives. However there are certain differences between
determiners and ordinary adjectives (although the boundary is not always entirely clear).
Determiners take the place (or can take the place) of articles in noun phrases, whereas
adjectives do not. For example, my house (not *the my house), but the big house.
Adjectives can generally be used in combination without restriction, whereas only certain
combinations of determiners are allowable (see section above). For example, a big green
book is grammatical, but *every his book is not.
Most adjectives can be used alone in predicative complement position, as in he is happy;
determiners cannot (*he is the is not a grammatical sentence), except where the same
words are used as pronouns (the problem is this).
Most adjectives have comparative and superlative forms (happier, happiest; more
beautiful,
most
beautiful),
whereas
determiners
generally
are
not
(except much/many, few,little).
Determiners often have corresponding pronouns, while adjectives do not.
Adjectives can modify singular or plural nouns, while determiners are sometimes
restricted to one or the other (as with much and many).
When determiners and adjectives (or other modifiers) occur in the same noun phrase, the
determiner generally comes first: the big book, not *big the book. However there are certain
exceptions when the determiner is the indefinite article a(n): that article normally comes after an
adjective modified with so, as, too or how. For example:
It was so terrible a disease that... (alternatively: ...such a terrible disease that...)
He was as rude a man as I have ever met.
That was too good an opportunity to miss.
I know how good a swimmer she is.

V.

Categoria aspectului.

Opoziia aspectual gramaticalizat perfectiv-imperfectiv. Tipurile de situaii aspectuale i

structura lor temporal (stri, activiti i evenimente). Caracteristicile generale ale aspectului
progresiv. Recategorizri aspectuale.

1. Aspect. Definition
Aspect is a grammatical category that expresses how an action, event, or state, denoted by a
verb, extends over time. Perfective aspect is used in referring to an event conceived as bounded
and unitary, without reference to any flow of time during ("I helped him"). Imperfective aspect is

38

used for situations conceived as existing continuously or repetitively as time flows ("I was
helping him"; "I used to help people").
Further distinctions can be made, for example, to distinguish states and ongoing actions
(continuous and progressive aspects) from repetitive actions (habitual aspect).
Certain aspectual distinctions express a relation in time between the event and the time of
reference. This is the case with the perfect aspect, which indicates that an event occurred prior to
(but has continuing relevance at) the time of reference: "I have eaten"; "I had eaten"; "I will have
eaten".
Different languages make different grammatical aspectual distinctions; some (such as
Standard German) do not make any. The marking of aspect is often conflated with the marking
of tense and mood (see tenseaspectmood).
Grammatical aspect is distinguished from lexical aspect8 or aktionsart, which is an inherent
feature of verbs or verb phrases and is determined by the nature of the situation that the verb
describes.
8

The lexical aspect or aktionsart (German pronunciation: [aktsions a:t], plural

aktionsarten [aktsions a:tn ) of a verb is a part of the way in which that verb is structured in
relation to time. Any event, state, process, or action which a verb expressescollectively, any
eventualitymay also be said to have the same lexical aspect. Lexical aspect is distinguished
from grammatical aspect: lexical aspect is an inherent property of a (semantic) eventuality,
whereas grammatical aspect is a property of a (syntactic or morphological) realization. Lexical
aspect is invariant, while grammatical aspect can be changed according to the whims of the
speaker.
For example, eat an apple differs from sit in that there is a natural endpoint or conclusion to
eating an apple. There is a time at which the eating is finished, completed, or all done. By
contrast, sitting cannot merely stop: unless we add more details, it makes less sense to say that
someone "finished" sitting than it does to say they "stopped" sitting. This is a distinction of
lexical aspect between the two verbs. Verbs that have natural endpoints are called "telic" (from
Ancient Greek telos, end); those without are called "atelic".
Zeno Vendler (1957) classified verbs into four categories: those that express "activity",
"accomplishment", "achievement" and "state". Activities and accomplishments are distinguished
from achievements and states in that the former allow the use of continuous and progressive
aspects. Activities and accomplishments are distinguished from each other by boundedness:
activities do not have a terminal point (a point before which the activity cannot be said to have
taken place, and after which the activity cannot continue for example "John drew a circle")
whereas accomplishments do. Of achievements and states, achievements are instantaneous
whereas states are durative. Achievements and accomplishments are distinguished from one
another in that achievements take place immediately (such as in "recognize" or "find") whereas
accomplishments approach an endpoint incrementally (as in "paint a picture" or "build a house").

39

In his discussion of lexical aspect, Bernard Comrie (1976) included the category semelfactive
or punctual events such as "sneeze". His divisions of the categories are as follows: states,
activities, and accomplishments are durative, while semelfactives and achievements are punctual.
Of the durative verbs, states are unique as they involve no change, and activities are atelic (that
is, have no "terminal point") whereas accomplishments are telic. Of the punctual verbs,
semelfactives are atelic, and achievements are telic. The following table shows examples of
lexical aspect in English that involve change (an example of a State is 'know').

Definiie.
n limba englez aspectul este categoria gramatical specific verbului, care se refer la
felul n care este reprezentat aciunea exprimat de verb: ca avnd durat sau nu, ca fiind
terminatsau nu.
Exist dou contraste n limba englez : durativ - non-durativ (denumit de obicei continuu
- non-continuu) i perfectiv - non-perfectiv.
n primul opoziia este ntre o aciune care are o anumit durat, este n desfurare
ntr-un anumit moment sau ntr-o anumit perioad de timp i este raportat la momentul de
referin now, then etc. i ntre o aciune pentru care o asemenea informaie nu este
important.
Comparai:
John is reading an English newspaper (now). John citete un ziar englezesc (acum), cu:
John reads English newspaper (every day). John citete un ziar englezesc (n fiecare zi).
n al doilea aciunea este ntre aciuni vzute ca terminate n momentul vorbirii: I have
read an interesting article on pollution. Am citit un articol interesant despre poluare.
i ntre aciuni despre care nu se d o asemenea informaie: I have been reading since 10
oclock.
Pentru a analiza contrastul durativ - non-durativ i perfectiv - non-perfectiv n limba
engleztrebuie pornit de la sensul lexical al verbelor*:
A) Verbe care exprimactiviti n limba englez (activity verbs) sunt de dou feluri:
- verbe de activitate durativ (exprimnd aciuni a cror svrire necesit o anumit
duratde timp): eat, dress, drink, read, walk etc.

40

- verbe de activitate non-durativ, care exprim aciuni momentane, f durat, fiind

ncheiate aproape n acelai timp cu efectuarea lor: catsh, hit, kick, slam, slap, snap etc.
Not: Adeseori sensul non-durativ al unor verbe este semnalat de prezena unor particule
adverbiale ca down, out, up, care le deosebesc de verbele de activitate durativ. Comparai:
sit - sit down
stand - stand up
drink - drink up
pick - pick up
La rndul lor, verbele de activitate durativ se mpart n:
- verbe care nu implic nici un scop: rub, run, walk etc.
- verbe care implic atingerea unui scop: iron a shirt, make a dress, read a book, write an
essay.
B) Pe lng verbele care definesc activiti (durative sau non-durative) exist i verbe
care denumesc stri. Acestea sunt durative, deoarece exprim existena unor fapte pe o
perioadndelungatde timp: be clever, be able, know how, exist, live.

2. Aspect vs. Tense

Aspect is often confused with the closely related concept of tense, because they both convey
information about time. While tense relates the time of referent to some other time, commonly
the speech event, aspect conveys other temporal information, such as duration, completion, or
frequency, as it relates to the time of action. Thus tense refers to temporally when while aspect
refers to temporally how. Aspect can be said to describe the texture of the time in which a
situation occurs, such as a single point of time, a continuous range of time, a sequence of discrete
points in time, etc., whereas tense indicates its location in time.
For example, consider the following sentences: "I eat", "I am eating", "I have eaten", and "I
have been eating". All are in the present tense, as they describe the present situation, yet each
conveys different information or points of view as to how the action pertains to the present. As
such, they differ in aspect.
The Germanic languages combine the concept of aspect with the concept of tense. Although
English largely separates tense and aspect formally, its aspects (neutral, progressive, perfect,
progressive perfect, and [in the past tense] habitual) do not correspond very closely to the
distinction of perfective vs. imperfective that is found in most languages with aspect.
Furthermore, the separation of tense and aspect in English is not maintained rigidly. One instance
of this is the alternation, in some forms of English, between sentences such as "Have you eaten
yet?" and "Did you eat yet?". Another is in the pluperfect ("I had eaten"), which sometimes
represents the combination of past tense and perfect ("I was full because I had already eaten"),
but sometimes simply represents a past action that is anterior to another past action ("A little
while after I had eaten, my friend arrived"). (The latter situation is often represented in other
languages by a simple perfective tense. Formal Spanish and French use a past anterior tense in
cases such as this.)

41

Like tense, aspect is a way that verbs represent time. However, rather than locating an event
or state in time, the way tense does, aspect describes "the internal temporal constituency of a
situation", or in other words, aspect is a way "of conceiving the flow of the process itself".
English aspectual distinctions in the past tense include "I went, I used to go, I was going, I had
gone"; in the present tense "I lose, I am losing, I have lost, I have been losing, I am going to
lose"; and with the future modal "I will see, I will be seeing, I will have seen, I am going to see".
What distinguishes these aspects within each tense is not (necessarily) when the event occurs,
but how the time in which it occurs is viewed: as complete, ongoing, consequential, planned, etc.
The English tenseaspect system has two morphologically distinct tenses, present and past.
No marker of a future tense exists on the verb in English; the futurity of an event may be
expressed through the use of the auxiliary verbs "will" and "shall", by a present form plus an
adverb, as in "tomorrow we go to New York City", or by some other means. Past is distinguished
from presentfuture, in contrast, with internal modifications of the verb. These two tenses may
be modified further for progressive aspect (also called continuous aspect), for the perfect, or for
both. These two aspectual forms are also referred to as BE +ING[9] and HAVE +EN,[10]
respectively, which avoids what may be unfamiliar terminology.
Aspects of the present tense:
Present simple (not progressive, not perfect): "I eat"
Present progressive (progressive, not perfect): "I am eating"
Present perfect (not progressive, perfect): "I have eaten"
Present perfect progressive (progressive, perfect): "I have been eating"
(While many elementary discussions of English grammar classify the present perfect as a
past tense, it relates the action to the present time. One cannot say of someone now deceased that
he "has eaten" or "has been eating". The present auxiliary implies that he is in some way present
(alive), even if the action denoted is completed (perfect) or partially completed (progressive
perfect).)
Aspects of the past tense:
Past simple (not progressive, not perfect): "I ate"
Past progressive (progressive, not perfect): "I was eating"
Past perfect (not progressive, perfect): "I had eaten"
Past perfect progressive (progressive, perfect): "I had been eating"
Aspects can also be marked on non-finite forms of the verb: "(to) be eating" (infinitive with
progressive aspect), "(to) have eaten" (infinitive with perfect aspect), "having eaten" (present
participle or gerund with perfect aspect), etc. The perfect infinitive can further be governed by
modal verbs to express various meanings, mostly combining modality with past reference: "I
should have eaten" etc. In particular, the modals will and shall and their subjunctive forms would
and should are used to combine future or hypothetical reference with aspectual meaning:
Aspects of the future tense:
Simple future, simple conditional: "I will eat", "I would eat"
Future progressive, conditional progressive: "I will be eating", "I would be eating"
42

Future perfect, conditional perfect: "I will have eaten", "I would have eaten"
Future perfect progressive, conditional perfect progressive: "I will have been eating",
"I would have been eating"
The uses of the progressive and perfect aspects are quite complex. They may refer to the
viewpoint of the speaker:
I was walking down the road when I met Michael Jackson's lawyer. (Speaker viewpoint in
middle of action).
I have traveled widely, but I have never been to Moscow. (Speaker viewpoint at end of
action).
But they can have other illocutionary forces or additional modal components:
You are being stupid now. (You are doing it deliberately)
You are not having chocolate with your sausages! (I forbid it)
I am having lunch with Mike tomorrow. (It is decided)
English expresses some other aspectual distinctions with other constructions. Used to +
VERB is a past habitual, as in "I used to go to school," and going to / gonna + VERB is a
prospective, a future situation highlighting current intention or expectation, as in "I'm going to go
to school next year."

3. Perfective and imperfective aspect

The most fundamental aspectual distinction, represented in many languages, is between
perfective aspect and imperfective aspect. It semantically corresponds to the distinction between
the morphological forms known respectively as the aorist and imperfect in Greek, the preterite
and imperfect in Spanish, the simple past (pass simple) and imperfect in French, and the perfect
and imperfect in Latin (from the Latin "perfectus", meaning "completed").
Essentially, the perfective aspect looks at an event as a complete action, while the
imperfective aspect views an event as the process of unfolding or a repeated or habitual event
(thus corresponding to the progressive/continuous aspect for events of short-term duration and to
habitual aspect for longer terms). For events of short durations in the past, the distinction often
coincides with the distinction in the English language between the simple past "X-ed," as
compared to the progressive "was X-ing" (compare "I wrote the letters this morning" (i.e.
finished writing the letters: an action completed) and "I was writing letters this morning"). In
describing longer time periods, English needs context to maintain the distinction between the
habitual ("I called him often in the past" - a habit that has no point of completion) and perfective
("I called him once" - an action completed), although the construct "used to" marks both habitual
aspect and past tense and can be used if the aspectual distinction otherwise is not clear.
Sometimes, English has a lexical distinction where other languages may use the distinction in
grammatical aspect. For example, the English verbs "to know" (the state of knowing) and "to
find out" (knowing viewed as a "completed action") correspond to the imperfect and perfect of
the French verb "savoir" and the Spanish equivalent "saber."

43

The opposite aspect is the perfective (in Ancient Greek, generally called the aorist), which
views a situation as a simple whole, without interior composition. (This is not the same as the
perfect.) Unlike most other tenseaspect category oppositions, it is typical for a language not to
choose either perfective or imperfective as being generally marked and the other as being
generally unmarked.
In narrative, one of the uses of the imperfective is to set the background scene ("It was
midnight. The room was dark. The rain was beating down. Water was streaming in through a
broken window. A gun lay on the table."), with the perfective describing foregrounded actions
within that scene ("Suddenly, a man burst into the room, ran over to the table, and grabbed the
gun.").
English does not have these aspects. However, the background-action contrast provides a
decent approximation in English:
"John was reading when I entered."
Here 'entered' presents "the totality of the situation referred to [...]: the whole of the situation
is presented as a single unanalysable whole, with beginning, middle, and end all rolled into one;
no attempt is made to divide this situation up into the various individual phases that make up the
action of entry." This is the essence of the perfective aspect: an event presented as an unanalyzed
whole.
'Was reading', however, is different. Besides being the background to 'entered', the form
'reading' presents "an internal portion of John's reading, [with] no explicit reference to the
beginning or to the end of his reading."[4] This is the essence of the imperfective aspect. Or, to
continue the quotation, "the perfective looks at the situation from the outside, without necessarily
distinguishing any of the internal structure of the situation, whereas the imperfective looks at the
situation from inside, and as such is crucially concerned with the internal structure of the
situation, since it can both look backwards towards the start of the situation, and look forwards to
the end of the situation, and indeed it is equally appropriate if the situation is one that lasts
through all time, without any beginning and without any end."
This is why, within the past tense, perfective verbs are typically translated into English as
simple past, like 'entered', whereas imperfective verbs are typically translated as 'was reading',
'used to read', and the like. (In English, it is easiest to illustrate aspect in the past tense. However,
any tense is possible: Present "John is reading as I enter", future "John will be reading when I
enter", etc.: In each tense, the aspectual distinction is the same.)
This aspectual distinction is not inherent to the events themselves, but is decided by how the
speaker views them or wishes to present them. The very same event may be described as
perfective in one clause, and then imperfective in the next. For example,
"John read that book yesterday; while he was reading it, the postman came,"
where the two forms of 'to read' refer to the same thing. In 'John read that book yesterday',
however, John's reading is presented as a complete event, without further subdivision into
successive temporal phases; while in 'while he was reading it', this event is opened up, so that the

44

speaker is now in the middle of the situation of John's reading, as it is in the middle of this
reading that the postman arrives.
The perfective and imperfective need not occur together in the same utterance; indeed they
more often do not. However, it is difficult to describe them in English without an explicit
contrast like "John was reading when I entered."
i.

Perfective aspect
The perfective aspect (abbreviated pfv), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a
grammatical aspect used to describe an action viewed as a simple wholea unit without interior
composition.
The perfective aspect is equivalent to the aspectual component of past perfective forms
variously called "aorist", "preterite", and "simple past". Although the essence of the perfective is
an event seen as a whole, most languages which have a perfective use it for various similar
semantic roles, such as momentary events and the onsets or completions of events, all of which
are single points in time and thus have no internal structure. Other languages instead have
separate momentane, inchoative, or cessative aspects for those roles, with or without a general
perfective. Use of a perfective aspect, however, does not imply a punctiliar or short-lived action.
It simply "presents an occurrence in summary, viewed as a whole from the outside, without
regard for the internal make-up of the occurrence."
The perfective aspect is distinguished from the imperfective aspect, which presents an event
as having internal structure (such as ongoing or habitual actions), and from the prospective
aspect, which describes impending or anticipated action.
Aspects such as the perfective should not be confused with tense; perfective aspect can apply
to events situated in the past, present, or future.
English has neither a simple perfective nor imperfective aspect; see imperfective and
perfective for some basic English equivalents of this distinction.
Perfective vs. perfect
The terms perfective and perfect are confused or interchanged in many grammatical
descriptions. A perfect is a grammatical form used to describe a past event with present
relevance, or a present state resulting from a past situation. For example, "I have come to the
cinema" implies both that I went to the cinema and that I am now in the cinema; "I have been to
France" conveys that this is a part of my experience as of now; and "I have lost my wallet"
implies that this loss is troublesome at the present moment.
As English has a perfect, the distinction can be illustrated with the simple past standing in for
the perfective. A perfect construction like "I've eaten" conveys the continued significance of that
action, with implications such as "I'm full" or "you've missed dinner" depending on context. As
such, it is ungrammatical to assign it a time in the past, such as "I've eaten yesterday". A
perfective construction, however, has no such inherent implication of continued relevance, and
as such "I ate yesterday" is perfectly grammatical; indeed, in languages which have a perfective,
that is precisely the aspect which is used for such simple past events.
45

Because of the common confusion of the terms perfect and perfective, various authors have
tried to replace one or the other. Some use the Greek term 'aorist' for perfective, though this has
the problem that it is commonly understood to mean specifically the past perfective. Others have
replaced the perfect with anterior, though this can be ambiguous for those familiar with
languages which have a true anterior tense. Less ambiguous is replacing 'perfect' with
retrospective or resultative.
ii. Imperfective aspect
The imperfective (abbreviated ipfv or more ambiguously impv) is a grammatical aspect
used to describe a situation viewed with interior composition. The imperfective is used in
language to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation
occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a general imperfective,
others have distinct aspects for one or more of its various roles, such as progressive, habitual,
and iterative aspects.
English is an example of a language with no general imperfective. The English progressive is
used to describe ongoing events such as "The rain was beating down". Habitual situations do not
have their own verb form (in most dialects), but the construction "used to" conveys past habitual
action, as in "I used to ski". Unlike in languages with a general imperfective, in English the
simple past tense can be used for situations presented as ongoing, such as "The rain beat down
continuously through the night".
1) Progressive (imperfective) aspect
The continuous and progressive aspects (abbreviated cont and prog) are grammatical
aspects that express incomplete action ("to do") or state ("to be", spirit) in progress at a specific
time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects.
In the grammars of many languages the two terms are used interchangeably. This is the case
with English: a construction such as "He is washing" may be described either as present
continuous or as present progressive. However, there are certain languages for which two
different aspects are distinguished. In Chinese, for example, progressive aspect denotes a current
action, as in "he is getting dressed", while continuous aspect denotes a current state, as in "he is
wearing fine clothes".
The progressive aspect expresses the dynamic quality of actions that are in progress while the
continuous aspect expresses the state of the subject that is continuing the action. For instance,
"Tom is reading" can express dynamic activity: "Tom is reading a book" - i.e. right now
(progressive aspect), or Tom's current state: "Tom is reading for a degree" - i.e. Tom is a student
(continuous aspect). The aspect can often be ambiguous; "Tom is reading Ulysses" may describe
his current activity (it's in his hand), or the state of having started, but not yet finished, the book
(it's in his bag).
The continuous aspect is constructed by using a form of the copula, "to be", together with the
present participle (marked with the suffix -ing). It is generally used for actions that are occurring
at the time in question, and does not focus on the larger time-scale. For example, the sentence
46

"Andrew was playing tennis when Jane called him." indicates what Andrew was doing when
Jane called him, but does not indicate for how long Andrew played, nor how often he plays; for
that, the simple past would suffice: "Andrew played tennis three hours every day for several
years."
The perfect continuous (have been doing), as a special case, sometimes implies that the
action being described was interrupted at the time in question, and does not clarify whether the
action resumed. For example, "Andrew had been playing tennis when Jane called him." may
sometimes suggest that Jane's calling him interrupted his tennis-playing (whereas in the former
example, it was possible that he simply ignored her call), and leaves open the possibility that
what she told him required such urgent action that he forfeited his match and left. But the perfect
continuous need not imply interruptedness, as in "I have been running for 30 minutes, but I'll
stop soon."
Salikoko Mufwene contrasts the effect of the progressive form on the meanings of action
verbs versus those of lexically stative verbs:
[I]t converts events expected to be punctual into longer-lasting, even if transient,
states of affairs [e.g., "Nancy is writing a letter"];
it [con]versely converts those states of affairs expected to last long (lexical statives)
to shorter-lasting / transient states of affairs [e.g., "Tom is living with us"]; and
it simply presents those verbs whose denotations are neutral with regard to duration
as in process / in (transient) duration [e.g., "The wall is cracking"], though duration is
most expected of statives.
Form.
Timpurile aspectului continuu se formeaz dintr-un timp al verbului be i participiul
prezent (forma n -ing) a verbului de conjugat.
ntrebuinarea aspectului continuu
a) Folosirea aspectului continuu cu verbele de activitate durativ f scop arat c
aciunile denumite de verbe sunt n desfurare pe axa prezentului, a trecutului sau a
viitorului: They are walking n the park now. He was swimming n the lake at this time
yesterday.
b) Cu verbele de activitate durativcare implicatingerea unui scop, folosirea aspectului
continuu arat c scopul nu a fost atins, aciunea nu a fost terminat: He is reading a book
now. Citete o carte acum (Nu a terminat-o).She was ironing a shirt. Ea clca o cma.
c) Verbele de activitate non-durativ arat o aciune reperat atunci cnd sunt folosite la
aspectul continuu: He is kicking. Ddin picioare.
d) Verbele care exprim o stare arat c aceast stare este limitat atunci cnd sunt
folosite la aspectul continuu: I live in Braov (thats where my house is). Im living in
Bucharest this year. Anul acesta locuiesc n Bucureti.
ntrebuinrile aspectului continuu la diverse timpuri sunt cele enumerate la &1.10.6.
Diferenele de la un timp la altul constau n momentul n care are loc aciunea i n momentul
de referin.
47

Traducerea formelor aspectului continuu n limba romn:

Verbul romnesc nu are o categorie marcat formal pentru redarea contrastului aspectual
continuu-noncontinuu. Ideea de desfurare sau durat limitat a aciunii este redat n
limba romn cu ajutorul adverbelor de timp: He is teaching now. Pred/Are or acum. He is
teaching arithmetic this year. Pred aritmetica anul acesta.
Singura form verbal din limba romn care exprim, ca i aspectul continuu din limba
englez, o aciune neterminat la un moment dat, sau de durat limitat, este imperfectul i
acesta este folosit de obicei pentru traducerea lui Past Tense continuu n limba romn: She was
working in the garden when I arrivied. Muncea n grdincnd am sosit.
Mai dificil ns este traducerea imperfectului n limba englez, deoarece exist tendina
de a folosi Past Tense Continuous i atunci cnd imperfectul romnesc are alt valoare, cea de
aciune repetat n trecut pentru care limba englezfolosete Past Tense Simple:
Romn: Munceam n grdincnd mduceam la bunici.
Englez: I worked the garden when I went to my grandparents.
2) Habitual (imperfective) aspect
As its name suggests, the habitual aspect specifies an action as occurring habitually: the
subject performs the action usually, ordinarily, or customarily.
Standard English has two habitual aspectual forms in the past tense. One is illustrated by the
sentence "I used to go there frequently". The "used to [infinitive]" construction always refers to
the habitual aspect when the infinitive is a non-stative verb; in contrast, when "used to" is used
with a stative verb, the aspect can be interpreted as stative (that is, it indicates an ongoing,
unchanging state, as in "I used to know that"), although Comrie classifies this too as habitual.
"Used to ..." can be used with or without an indicator of temporal location in the past ("We used
to do that", "We used to do that in 1974"); but the time indicator cannot be too specific, for
example "We used to do that at 3pm yesterday" is not grammatical.
The second way that habituality is expressed in the past is by using the auxiliary verb
"would", as in "Last summer we would go there every day." This usage requires a lexical
indication of when the action occurred; by itself the sentence "We would go there" does not
express habituality, while "We used to go there" does even though it does not specify when. As
with "used to", "would" also has other uses in English that do not indicate habituality: in "In
January 1986 I knew I would graduate in four months", it indicates the future viewed from a past
perspective; in "I would go if I felt better", it indicates the conditional mood.
English can also indicate habituality in a time-unspecific way, referring generically to the
past, present, and future, by using the auxiliary "will" as in "He will make that mistake all the
time, won't he?". As with "used to" and "would", the auxiliary "will" has other uses as well: as an
indicator of future time ("The sun will rise tomorrow at 6:14"), and as a modal verb indicating
volition ("At this moment I will not tolerate dissent").
Habitual aspect is frequently expressed in unmarked form in English, as in "I walked to work
every day for ten years", "I walk to work every day", and "I will walk to work every day after I
get well".
48

The habitual and progressive aspects can be combined in English, as in "He used to be
playing."
3) Iterative (imperfective) aspect
The iterative aspect is a grammatical aspect that expresses the repetition of an event.
Reduplication may be used for iterative aspect: (he was) taking and taking, (he was) taking
and taking, and finally took all of it.

4. Lexical vs. grammatical aspect

There is a distinction between grammatical aspect, as described here, and lexical aspect.
Lexical aspect is an inherent property of a verb or verb-complement phrase, and is not marked
formally.
The distinctions made as part of lexical aspect are different from those of grammatical
aspect. Typical distinctions are between states ("I owned"), activities ("I shopped"),
accomplishments ("I painted a picture"), achievements ("I bought"), and punctual, or
semelfactive, events ("I sneezed"). These distinctions are often relevant syntactically. For
example, states and activities, but not usually achievements, can be used in English with a
prepositional for-phrase describing a time duration: "I had a car for five hours", "I shopped for
five hours", but not "*I bought a car for five hours". Lexical aspect is sometimes called
Aktionsart, especially by German and Slavic linguists.
One of the factors in situation aspect is telicity. Telicity might be considered a kind of lexical
aspect, except that it is typically not a property of a verb in isolation, but rather a property of an
entire verb phrase. Achievements, accomplishments and semelfactives have telic situation
aspect, while states and activities have atelic situation aspect.
The other factor in situation aspect is duration, which is also a property of a verb phrase.
Accomplishments, states, and activities have duration, while achievements and semelfactives do
not.

5. Types of aspect
1) Simple
"Simple" forms of verbs are those appearing in constructions not marked for either
progressive or perfect aspect (I go, I don't go, I went, I will go, etc., but not I'm going or I have
gone).
Simple constructions normally denote a single action (perfective aspect), as in Brutus killed
Caesar, a repeated action (habitual aspect), as in I go to school, or a relatively permanent state, as
in We live in Dallas. They may also denote a temporary state (imperfective aspect), in the case of
stative verbs that do not use progressive forms.
2) Progressive
The progressive or continuous aspect is used to denote a temporary action or state that began
at a previous time and continues into the present time (or other time of reference). It is expressed
49

using a form of the auxiliary verb to be (conjugated appropriately for tense etc.) together with the
present participle (-ing form) of the main verb: I am reading; Were you shouting?; He will be
sitting over there.
Certain stative verbs make limited use of progressive aspect. Their nonprogressive forms
(simple or nonprogressive perfect constructions) are used in many situations even when
expressing a temporary state. The main types are described below.
The copular verb to be does not normally use progressive forms (I am happy, not *I am being
happy). However its progressive aspect is used in appropriate situations when the verb expresses
the passive voice (We are being followed), and when it has the meaning of "behave" or "act as"
(You are being very naughty; He's being a pest).
The verb to have does not use progressive forms when it expresses possession, broadly
understood (I have a brother, not *I'm having a brother), but it does use them in its active
meanings (I'm having a party; She's having a baby; He was having a problem starting his car).
See also have got below. Other verbs expressing a state of possession or similar, such as possess,
own, belong and owe, also do not normally use progressive forms.
Verbs of mental state, sense perception and similar (know, believe, want, think, see, hear,
need, etc.) are generally used without progressive aspect, although some of them can be used in
the progressive to imply an ongoing, often temporary situation (I am feeling lonely), or an
activity (I am thinking about a problem).
Verbs denoting positional state normally do use the progressive if the state is temporary: He
is standing in the corner. (Compare permanent state: London stands on the banks of the
Thames.).
3) Perfect
The perfect aspect is used to denote the circumstance of an action's being complete at a
certain time. It is expressed using a form of the auxiliary verb have (appropriately conjugated for
tense etc.) together with the past participle of the main verb: She has eaten it; We had left; When
will you have finished?
Perfect forms can also be used to refer to states or habitual actions, even if not complete, if
the focus is on the time period before the point of reference (We had lived there for five years). If
such a circumstance is temporary, the perfect is often combined with progressive aspect.
The implications of the present perfect (that something occurred prior to the present moment)
are similar to those of the simple past, although the two forms are generally not used
interchangeably the simple past is used when the time frame of reference is in the past, while
the present perfect is used when it extends to the present.
By using nonfinite forms of the auxiliary have, perfect aspect can also be marked on
infinitives (as in should have left and expect to have finished working), and on participles and
gerunds (as in having seen the doctor).

50

4) Perfect progressive
The perfect and progressive (continuous) aspects can be combined, usually in referring to the
completed portion of a continuing action or temporary state: I have been working for eight hours.
Here a form of the verb have (denoting the perfect) is used together with been (the past participle
of be, denoting the progressive) and the present participle of the main verb.
In the case of the stative verbs, which do not use progressive aspect (see the above section on
the progressive), the plain perfect form is normally used in place of the perfect progressive: I've
been here for half an hour (not *I've been being here...).

VI.

Categoria timpului.

Noiunea de ax de orientare. Noiunile de Timpul Vorbirii, Timpul de Referin i Timpul

de Eveniment.

1. Categoria timpului
Categoria gramatical a timpului (Tense), categorie specific verbelor, se refer la ordinea
evenimentelor n timp, aa cum este perceput aceasta de vorbitor n momentul vorbirii.
Momentul n care are loc actul de vorbire este momentul prezent (now). Fa de acest
moment
care constituie axa de referina prezentului, unele evenimente sunt:
a) anterioare, cnd ele au loc nainte de momentul vorbirii (evenimentele sunt amintite de
vorbitor): Present Perfect;
b) posterioare fa de momentul vorbirii (evenimentele fiind anticipate de vorbitor,
deoarece vor
avea loc dup momentul vorbirii): Future;
c) simultane cu momentul vorbirii (avnd loc n acelai timp) Present.
Considernd momentul vorbirii punctul prezent, vorbitorul i poate aminti un eveniment
care a
avut loc la un moment anterior momentului vorbirii (then). n raport cu acest moment amintit
then, care
natere axei de referin a trecutului, alte evenimente pot fi:
a) anterioare momentului trecut then: Past Perfect;
b) simultane cu then: Past Tense;
c) posterioare: Future in the Past.
De asemenea, in momentul vorbirii (now), vorbitorul poate anticipa anumite evenimente
(posterioare momentului vorbirii). n raport cu un anume eveniment posterior momentului
prezent (axa
de referina viitorului), alte evenimente pot fi:
a) anterioare: Future Perfect;
b) simultane: Future;
c) posterioare: engleza nu are marcformalpentru aceste evenimente.
51

pag: 009
n analiza timpului, trebuie astfel luate n consideraie trei elemente:
a) momentul vorbirii;
b) momentul (svririi) aciunii;
c) axa sau momentul de referin.
a) Momentul vorbirii este momentul n care enunul este pronunat de vorbitor: now.
b) Momentul aciunii este momentul n care a avut loc aciunea sau starea: now, then,
tomorrow
etc.
c) Momentul de referin reprezint axa pe care se plaseaz vorbitorul n perceperea
evenimentului: axa prezentului, axa trecutului, axa viitorului.
n funcie de cele trei elemente - momentul vorbirii, momentul aciunii i momentul de
referinlimba englezcunoate urmtorul sistem de timpuri:
- pe axa prezentului: Present, Present Perfect, Future;
- pe axa trecutului: Past tense, Past Perfect, Future in the Past;
- pe axa viitorului: Future, Future Perfect*

2. Definitions: What is Tense?

In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested
by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns.
Basic tenses found in many languages include the past, present, and future. Some
languages have only two distinct tenses, such as past and nonpast, or future and nonfuture. There
are also tenseless languages, like Chinese, which do not have tense at all. On the other hand,
some languages make finer tense distinctions, such as remote vs. recent past, or near vs. remote
future.
Tenses generally express time relative to the moment of speaking. In some contexts,
however, their meaning may be relativized to a point in the past or future which is established in
the discourse (the moment being spoken about). This is called relative (as opposed to absolute)
tense. Some languages have different verb forms or constructions which manifest relative tense,
such as pluperfect ("past-in-the-past") and "future-in-the-past".
The English noun tense comes from Old French tens "time" (spelled temps in modern French
through deliberate archaisation), from Latin tempus "time". It is not related to the adjective tense,
which comes from Latin tensus, the perfect passive participle of tendere "stretch".
In modern linguistic theory, tense is understood as a category that expresses
(grammaticalizes) time reference; namely one which, using grammatical means, places a state or
action in time. Nonetheless, in many descriptions of languages, particularly in traditional
European grammar, the term "tense" is applied to series of verb forms or constructions that
express not merely position in time, but also additional properties of the state or action
particularly aspectual or modal properties.

52

Tense is normally indicated by the use of a particular verb form either an inflected form of
the main verb, or a multi-word construction, or both in combination. Inflection may involve the
use of affixes, such as the -ed ending that marks the past tense of English regular verbs, but can
also entail stem modifications, such as ablaut, as found in the strong verbs in English and other
Germanic languages, or reduplication. Multi-word tense constructions often involve auxiliary
verbs or clitics.

3. Types of times
1) Time of utterance
In linguistics, TUTT (always written as uppercase T plus uppercase UTT in subscript) is an
abbreviation for the time of utterance, the primary temporal reference in establishing tense.
Grammatical tense represents the contrast between two measurements along the timeline of
an utterance, with one of those measurements being the time of utterance TUTT (the time at
which the actual utterance is made). TUTT is always the primary point of reference for tense.
There are three additional references to which TUTT can be contrasted: TAST the time of
assertion, TCOM the time of completion, and TEVL the time of evaluation; these are
secondary references. The type used for the secondary reference is determined by aspect and
type of utterance.
2) Time of assertion
In linguistics, TAST (always written as uppercase T plus uppercase AST in subscript) is an
abbreviation for the time of assertion, a secondary temporal reference in establishing tense.
TAST is the time at which the action of a verb takes place. It can be a single point in time (in
the non-durational aspects) such as in English I had dinner at 5pm. Or, it can be a range of
time (in the durational aspects) such as I was eating dinner from 5 till 7.
3) Time of completion
In linguistics, TCOM (always written as uppercase T plus uppercase COM in subscript) is an
abbreviation for the time of completion, a secondary temporal reference in establishing tense.
TCOM is the point in time at which a verb is completed. TCOM is used with perfected forms. In
perfected non-durational aspects it represents the time by which a verb is finished, as in English
I have eaten dinner. In perfected durational aspects it represents either the time at which a verb
is finished, or more normally, a time up to which the verb is completed (but that it may continue
beyond); this meaning of interrupting the verb is the more standard use of this form and allows
the duration of the verb to be measured up to a given point (TCOM). Consider I had been eating
for 2 hours by 7pm, in which an action (eating) has a duration, of which two hours of it is
completed as of 7pm.
4) Time of evaluation
In linguistics, TEVL (always written as uppercase T plus uppercase EVL in subscript) is an
abbreviation for the time of evaluation, a secondary temporal reference in establishing tense. It
53

is used determining tense of generalizations and habitual truths. In these types of utterances,
there is no specific verb occurrence to observe (and thus no assertion). Instead, the purpose of
such utterances is to merely inform. In these utterances, a generalization or an habitual truth is
attested as true (or questioned for trueness in interrogative forms). The earliest point at which
these attestations can be evaluated as true or not serves as the secondary temporal reference for
such constructions.

4. Relative and absolute tense

Relative tense and absolute tense are distinct possible uses of the grammatical category of
tense. Absolute tense means the grammatical expression of time reference (usually past, present
or future) relative to "now" the moment of speaking. In the case of relative tense, the time
reference is construed relative to a different point in time, the moment being considered in the
context. In other words, the reference point (or center of deixis) is the moment of discourse or
narration in the case of absolute tense, or a different moment in the case of relative tense.
A further distinction has also been made between "strict relative" tense, which merely
expresses time relative to the reference point, and "absolute-relative tense" (such as pluperfect),
which expresses time relative the reference point while also placing the reference point in time
relative to the present moment.
A relative past tense is sometimes called an anterior tense, while a relative future tense may
be called a posterior tense.
1. Absolute tense
In the case of absolute tense, the grammatical expression of time reference is made relative to
the present moment. It has been pointed out that the term is somewhat misleading, since this kind
of time reference is not truly absolute, but is relative to the moment of speaking.
Most simple sentences in tensed languages exhibit absolute tense. For example, if Jane says
"John went to the party", the use of the past tense (went) implies that the event (John's going)
took place at a time which is in the past relative to the moment of Jane's uttering the sentence.
In some cases, the operation of sequence of tenses in indirect speech serves to preserve
absolute tense. For example, if Jane says "I like chocolate", and Julie later reports that "Jane said
that she liked chocolate", Julie's conversion of the present tense like into the past liked implies a
reference to past time relative to the time at which Julie is speaking the center of deixis is
moved from the time of Jane's original utterance to that of Julie's current utterance. As will be
seen below, however, this principle does not hold in all languages, and does not always apply
even in English.
2. Relative tense
i.

Strict relative tense

Comrie's strict relative tense expresses time relative to the reference point provided by the
context, without indicating where that reference point lies relative to the present time.
54

An example of a normally absolute tense being used relatively, in English, is provided by

indirect speech placed in the future. If Tom says "John will say that he paid for the chocolate",
the past tense paid refers to a past time relative to the moment of John's expected utterance, and
not necessarily to a past time relative to the moment of Tom's present utterance. The same is
found in some languages even in past indirect speech (where English tends to preserve absolute
tense or use absolute-relative tense, as described in the previous and following sections). In
Russian, for example, the sentence "Jane said that she liked chocolate" would take the
grammatical form "Jane said that she likes chocolate" (see Indirect speech Russian), where
"likes" refers to the present at the time of Jane's reported utterance, and not necessarily the
present at the time at which the utterance is reported.
ii. Absolute-relative tense
Comrie's absolute-relative tense combines the functions of absolute tense and strict relative
tense. It reflects both the position in time of the reference point relative to the moment of
speaking, and the position in time of the described situation relative to the reference point.
Common tenses of this type are the pluperfect and the future perfect. These both place the
situation in the past relative to the reference point (they are anterior tenses), but in addition they
place the reference point in the past and in the future, respectively, relative to the time of
speaking. For example, "John had left" implies that the reference point is in the past relative to
the time of speaking, and that John's leaving occurred before that point. "John will have left" is
similar, except that the reference point is in the future relative to the time of speaking. In the case
of the future-in-the-past, the reference point is in the past, but the action is placed in the future
relative to that point (it can be considered a posterior tense). An example is found in "John would
later return to the party" (although the modal auxiliary would can also have other meanings).
Absolute-relative tense is used in indirect speech in some instances. If Julie says "Jane said
that John had left", the use of had left places John's leaving in the past relative to the (past)
reference point, namely the time of Jane's reported utterance. Similarly, "Jane said that John
would leave" places John's leaving in the future relative to the (past) time of Jane's utterance.
(This does not apply in all languages or even in all cases in English).
Relative tense can alternatively be analyzed in terms of the grammatical category of aspect.
While a form that places the action in the past relative to the reference point may be called an
anterior tense, it may alternatively be regarded as manifesting perfect (or retrospective)
aspect[citation needed]. Similarly, a form that places the action in the future relative to the
reference point may be regarded as having either posterior tense or prospective aspect.
It is common to regard English perfect forms as combinations of perfect aspect with absolute
tense. One reason for this is that, particularly with the present perfect, the use of such forms does
not merely place the action in past time, but also implies relevance to the time under
consideration. Thus the present perfect is taken to combine present tense with perfect aspect; the
pluperfect (now usually called the past perfect in the case of English) is taken to combine past

55

tense with perfect aspect; and the future perfect is taken to combine future tense with perfect
aspect.
Nonetheless, some authors use the term anterior to refer to the perfect, and consider it under
the heading of (relative) tense. Joan Bybee remarks that "[anterior] seems to resemble a tense
more than an aspect, since it does not affect the internal temporal contours of the situation.

3. Types of tenses
1) Present
Present tense is used, in principle, to refer to circumstances that exist at the present time (or
over a period that includes the present time). However the same forms are quite often also used
to refer to future circumstances, as in "He's coming tomorrow" (hence this tense is sometimes
referred to as present-future or nonpast). For certain grammatical contexts where the present
tense is the standard way to refer to the future, see conditional sentences and dependent clauses
below. It is also possible for the present tense to be used when referring to no particular real time
(as when telling a story), or when recounting past events (the historical present, particularly
common in headline language). The present perfect intrinsically refers to past events, although it
can be considered to denote primarily the resulting present situation rather than the events
themselves.
The present tense has two moods, indicative and subjunctive; when no mood is specified, it is
often the indicative that is meant. In a present indicative construction, the finite verb appears in
its base form, or in its -s form if its subject is third-person singular. (The verb be has the forms
am, is, are, while the modal verbs do not add -s for third-person singular.) For the present
subjunctive, see English subjunctive. (The present subjunctive has no particular relationship with
present time, and is sometimes simply called the subjunctive, without specifying the tense.).
2) Past
Past tense forms express circumstances existing at some time in the past, although they also
have certain uses in referring to hypothetical situations (as in some conditional sentences,
dependent clauses and expressions of wish). They are formed using the finite verb in its preterite
(simple past) form.
Certain uses of the past tense may be referred to as subjunctives; however the only
distinction in verb conjugation between the past indicative and past subjunctive is the possible
use of were in the subjunctive in place of was.
3) Future
English is sometimes described as having a future tense, although since future time is not
specifically expressed by verb inflection, some grammarians identify only two tenses (present or
present-future, and past). The English "future" usually refers to a periphrastic form involving the
auxiliary verb will (or sometimes shall when used with a first-person subject; see shall and will).
There also exist other ways of referring to future circumstances, including the going to
construction, and the use of present tense forms.
4) Future-in-the-past

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A "future-in-the-past" tense (or form) is sometimes referred to. This takes essentially the
same form as the conditional, that is, it is made using the auxiliary would (or sometimes should
in the first person; see shall and will).
This form has a future-in-the-past meaning in sentences such as She knew that she would win
the game. Here the sentence as a whole refers to some particular past time, but would win refers
to a time in the future relative to that past time.

VII.

Clasificarea adverbelor de timp.

Valorile timpului prezent din englez. Valorile timpului trecut din englez. Valorile timpului
present perfect din englez. Valorile timpului past perfect din englez. Mijloace de redare a
timpului viitor n limba englez.
Adverbele de timp (Adverbs of Time). Adverbele de timp indic:
- momentul aciunii: now, nowadays, today, then;
- succesiunea n timp: afterwards, before, eventually, formerly, previosly, soon;
- durata: lately, recently, since, still, yet;
- frecvena: definit: weekly, three times a day;
nedefinit: often, usually, seldom, once in a while.

1. Adverbs
An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, noun phrase,
clause, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of
certainty, etc., answering questions such as how?, in what way?, when?, where?, and to what
extent?. This function is called the adverbial function, and may be realised by single words
(adverbs) or by multi-word expressions (adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses).
Putting an adverb that tells us when at the end of a sentence is a neutral position, but these
adverbs can be put in other positions to give a different emphasis. All adverbs that tell us when
can be placed at the beginning of the sentence to emphasize the time element. Some can also be
put before the main verb in formal writing, while others cannot occupy that position.
i.

ADVERBS THAT TELL US FOR HOW LONG

Adverbs that tell us for how long are also usually placed at the end of the sentence.
EXAMPLES
She stayed in the Bears' house all day.
My mother lived in France for a year.
I have been going to this school since 1996.
In these adverbial phrases that tell us for how long, for is always followed by an expression
of duration, while since is always followed by an expression of a point in time.
EXAMPLES
I stayed in Switzerland for three days.
57

I am going on vacation for a week.

I have been riding horses for several years.
The French monarchy lasted for several centuries.
I have not seen you since Monday.
Jim has been working here since 1997.
There has not been a more exciting discovery since last century.

ii.

ADVERBS THAT TELL US HOW OFTEN

Adverbs that tell us how often express the frequency of an action. They are usually placed
before the main verb but after auxiliary verbs (such as be, have, may, & must). The only
exception is when the main verb is "to be", in which case the adverb goes after the main verb.
EXAMPLES
I often eat vegetarian food.
He never drinks milk.
You must always fasten your seat belt.
I am seldom late.
He rarely lies.
Many adverbs that express frequency can also be placed at either the beginning or the end of
the sentence, although some cannot be. When they are placed in these alternate positions, the
meaning of the adverb is much stronger.

Some other adverbs that tell us how often express the exact number of times an action
happens or happened. These adverbs are usually placed at the end of the sentence.
EXAMPLES
This magazine is published monthly.
He visits his mother once a week.
I work five days a week.
58

I saw the movie seven times.

Yet is used in questions and in negative sentences to indicate that something that has not
happened or may not have happened but is expected to happen. It is placed at the end of the
sentence or after not.
Still expresses continuity. In positive sentences it is placed before the main verb and after
auxiliary verbs such as be, have, might, will. If the main verb isto be, then place still after it
rather than before. In questions, still goes before the main verb.
iii. ORDER OF ADVERBS OF TIME
If you need to use more than one adverb of time in a sentence, use them in this order:
1: how long 2: how often 3: when
EXAMPLES
1 + 2 : I work (1) for five hours (2) every day
2 + 3 : The magazine was published (2) weekly (3) last year.
1 + 3 : I was abroad (1) for two months (3) last year.
1 + 2 + 3 : She worked in a hospital (1) for two days (2) every week (3) last year.

2. Tenses
a. Present tense
The present tense is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or
event in present time. The term "present tense" is usually used in descriptions of specific
languages to refer to a particular grammatical form or set of forms; these may have a variety of
uses, not all of which will necessarily refer to present time. For example, in the English sentence
My train leaves tomorrow morning, the verb form leaves is said to be in the present tense, even
though in this particular context it refers to an event in future time. Similarly, in the historical
present, the present tense is used to narrate events that occurred in the past.
1.5.4. ntrebuinare. Prezentul simplu are mai multe ntrebuinri:
1) Prezentul generic (Generic Simple Present) exprim aciuni generale care au loc ntr-un
interval de timp nespecificat, dar care include momentul vorbirii:
The Earth moves round the Sun. Birds fly. Three and three make six.
Adverbele de frecven tipice pentru propoziiile generice sunt: always, never, regularly,
ever: Wood always floats on water.
2) Prezentul simplu este folosit pentru aciuni obinuite, repetate (Habitual Simple
Present), care au loc ntr-o perioad de timp general sau specific, menionat prin adverbe
sau locuiuni adverbiale de timp ca: on Mondays, in summer, every day sau adverbe sau
locuiuni adverbiale de frecven ca: often, frequently, seldom, rarely, occasionally,
sometimes, once a week/month/year: I go to school every day. I usually watch TV in the
evening.

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Not: Prezentul simplu desemnnd aciuni repetate este apropiat de prezentul generic
deoarece nici el nu individualizeaz evenimentele sau specific momentul aciunii.
Deosebirea ntre cele dou folosiri ale prezentului simplu este urmtoarea: n propoziii care
conin aciuni repetate subiectul este individualizat, pe cnd n cele generice subiectul este
general: I go skiing in winter. Water boils al 100 Centigrade. A doctor works hard.
3) Prezentul instantaneu (Instantaneous Simple Present) se refer la aciuni care sunt
vzute ca avnd loc n ntregime n momentul vorbirii. Aceast ntrebuinare a prezentului
simplu se ntlnete n:
a) comentarii: The goal-keeper misses the ball and one more goal is scored. Portarul nu
prinde mingea i se marcheaz ncun gol.
b) demonstraii: I now mix the butter with the cocoa. Acum amestec untul cu cacao.
c) exclamaii: Here comes our teacher! Iat (c) vine profesorul nostru!
4) Folosirea prezentului simplu cu alte valori temporale
A) Prezentul cu valoare de viitor este ntrebuinat n propoziii principale:
a) pentru exprimarea datei: Tomorrow is December 21st. Mine este 21 decembrie.
Tomorrow is Saturday. Mine este smb.
b) pentru redarea unor aciuni planificate, unor aranjamente pentru viitor, conform unui orar
sau program stabilit (de exemplu n excursii organizate), mai ales cu verbe de micare ca: go,
come, leave, return sau verbe ca begin, start, end, finish:
We leave Bucharest at eight. We arrive in Predeal at ten. Plecam din Bucureti la ora 8.
Sosim la Predeal la ora 10.
B) Prezentul cu valoare de viitor este ntrebuinat i n propoziii subordonate:
a) de timp, introduse n when, after, before, as soon as:
Well get home before it gets dark. Vom ajunge acas nainte s se ntunece.
b) condiionale, introduse de if, unless, provided, in case:
If it rains on Sunday, Ill repair my bicycle. Dac o s plou duminic, am s-mi repar
bicicleta.
C) Prezentul cu valoare de trecut se folosete:
a) n naraiuni, pentru nviorarea povestirii (prezentul istoric):
One day, the little boy goes to the woods. There he finds a buried treasure.
b) cu verbe ca tell, hear, learn, write, pentru a sublinia efectul prezent al unei comunicri
trecute: He tells me that have won the competition. mi spune c ai ctigat concursul.
b. Past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to place an action or
situation in past time. In languages which have a past tense, it thus provides a grammatical
means of indicating that the event being referred to took place in the past. Examples of verbs in
the past tense include the English verbs sang, went and was.
The "past time" to which the past tense refers generally means the past relative to the
moment of speaking, although in contexts where relative tense is employed (as in some instances
of indirect speech) it may mean the past relative to some other time being under discussion. A
60

language's past tense may also have other uses besides referring to past time; for example, in
English and certain other languages, the past tense is sometimes used in referring to hypothetical
situations, such as in condition clauses like If you loved me ..., where the past tense loved is used
even though there may be no connection with past time.
In English, the past tense (or preterite) is one of the inflected forms of a verb. The past tense
of regular verbs is made by adding -d or -ed to the base form of the verb, while those of irregular
verbs are formed in various ways (such as seesaw, gowent, bewas/were). With regular
and some irregular verbs, the past tense form also serves as a past participle.
ntrebuinare.
Past Tense simplu este folosit pentru a exprima:
1) o aciune svriti ncheiat ntr-un moment trecut:
a) Momentul n care a avut loc aciunea este de obicei menionat prin adverbe de timp ca:
two hours ago (acum dou ore), yesterday (ieri), last week (sptmna trecut), in 1970 (n
1970) etc.: I went to the opera last night. Am fost la oper asear.
Despre acest moment se pot cere informaii prin ntrebri ncepnd cu when, what time,
how long ago.
b) Aciunea este svrit i ncheiat ntr-un anume moment trecut, chiar dac
acesta nu este menionat, el putnd fi dedus din context. (n schimb se poate specifica locul
aciunii): He shook his head and said no. Ddu din cap dezaprobator i spuse nu. I met him
outside museum. M-am ntlnit cu el n faa muzeului.
c) Aciunea este svriti ncheiat ntr-un moment trecut care este precizat ca
rezultat al unei ntrebri i unui rspuns la Present Perfect. A: Have you seen this film? B:Yes,
I have. I saw it last week.
A:Ai vzut acest film? B: Da, l-am vzut. L-am vzut sptmna trecut.
Not: n acest context (c), Past Tense are o funcie anaforic, referindu-se la un eveniment
deja introdus n vorbire i deci cunoscut: I have been to Constana. I visited the Aquarium and
walked down the pier.
2) o aciune repetat n trecut, care se traduce de obicei prin imperfect n limba romn: I
often visited him. l vizitam adesea.
Past Tense simplu nu se folosete niciodat cu valoare generic sau instantanee, ca Present
Tense simplu.
c. Present perfect
The present perfect is a grammatical combination of the present tense and the perfect aspect
that is used to express a past event that has present consequences.
The forms are present because they use the present tense of the auxiliary verb have, and
perfect because they use that auxiliary in combination with the past participle of the main verb.
English also has a present perfect continuous (or present perfect progressive) form, which
combines present tense with both perfect aspect and continuous (progressive) aspect: "I have
been eating". The action is not necessarily complete; the same is true of certain uses of the basic

61

present perfect when the verb expresses a state or a habitual action: "I have lived here for five
years."
The present perfect in English is used chiefly for completed past actions or events when it is
understood that it is the present result of the events that is focused upon, rather than the moment
of completion. No particular past time frame is specified for the action/event. When a past time
frame (a point of time in the past, or period of time which ended in the past) is specified for the
event, explicitly or implicitly, the simple past is used rather than the present perfect.
The tense may be said to be a sort of mixture of present and past. It always implies a strong
connection with the present and is used chiefly in conversations, letters, newspapers and TV and
radio reports.
It can also be used for ongoing or habitual situations continuing up to the present time
(generally not completed, but the present time may be the moment of completion). That usage
describes for how long or since when something has been the case, normally based on time
expressions with "for" or "since" (such as for two years, since 1995). Then, the present perfect
continuous form is often used, if a continuing action is being described.
ntrebuinare.
1) Present Perfect este folosit, la fel ca i Past Tense, pentru a desemna un
eveniment anterior momentului vorbirii. Deosebirea ntre cele dou timpuri este n axa pe
care se plaseaz vorbitorul: axa prezentului (Present Perfect) sau axa trecutului (Past Tense); i
n natura evenimentului descris: a) nedefinit (Present Perfect) i b) definit, unic (Past Tense):
a) Ive seen Mary.
b) I saw her at the conference.
2) Folosirea lui Present Perfect este asociatcu adverbe care exprim o perioadde timp
deschis, neterminat: today, this week, this month etc. Ive been to the theatre this week.
pe cnd folosirea lui Past Tense este asociatcu adverbe care exprim o perioad de timp
nchis, terminat: I went to the theatre last week.
3) Present Perfect este uneori folosit cu valoare de Past Tense, pentru a exprima o aciune
vrit n trecut i terminat recent sau chiar naintea momentului vorbirii: He has
come. A sosit.
Aceastntrebuinare a lui Present Perfect este adeseori marcat de adverbe de timp ca just
(tocmai), already (deja), up to now, so far (pn acum), lately, recently (n ultima vreme): He
has just phoned. Tocmai a telefonat.
4) Past Tense este folosit pentru evenimente care au avut loc n trecut i ai cror autori nu
mai exist n prezent, pe cnd la Present Perfect, evenimentele au avut loc n trecut, dar autorii
sau efectele evenimentelor mai existi n prezent.
5) Present Perfect este folosit i pentru a exprima o aciune nceput n trecut i care
continui n momentul vorbirii.
6) Present Perfect poate exprima o aciune caracteristic, repetat n trecut, prezent i
poate i n viitor: He has performed in public. A interpretat n public.
Aceastntrebuinare este marcat de adverbe de frecven ca: often (adesea), always
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(totdeauna), never (niciodat), sometimes (uneori) etc.: He has often performed in public.
7) n propoziii subordonate temporale sau condiionale, Present Perfect este folosit pentru
a reda o aciune anterioar aciunii din propoziia principal, cnd aceasta este exprimat
printr-un verb la imperativ, indicativ prezent sau viitor: Ring me up when you have finished.
Telefoneaz-mi cnd ai terminat. He will help me if he has finished his own work. M va ajuta
daci va fi terminat treaba lui.
d. Past perfect
The past perfect is a type of verb form, treated as one of the tenses of certain languages, used
in referring to something that occurred earlier than the time being considered, when the time
being considered is already in the past. The meaning of the pluperfect is equivalent to that of
English verb forms such as "(we) had arrived" or "(they) had written".
In English grammar, the equivalent of the pluperfect (a form such as "had written") is now
often called the past perfect, since it combines past tense with perfect aspect.
ntrebuinare.
Mai-mult-ca-perfectul este ntrebuinat pentru a exprima:
1) o aciune trecut, ncheiat naintea unui moment trecut: I had finished my lessons by
ten oclock yesterday. mi terminasem leciile nainte de ora 10 ieri.
2) o aciune trecut, ncheiat naintea altei aciuni trecute: When Doris got to the theatre,
the show had (already) started.
3) o aciune trecut, ncheiat imediat naintea unei alte aciuni trecute.
4) o aciune trecut, svrit ntr-o perioad de timp anterioar unei alte aciuni
trecute, dar ajungnd pn la aceasta (cu compliniri adverbiale ncepnd cu for sau since): He
had been in the classroom for two minutes when the teacher came in.
e. Future tense
In grammar, a future tense is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the
verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future
tense form is the French aimera, meaning "will love", derived from the verb aimer ("love").
English does not have a future tense formed by verb inflection in this way, although it has a
number of ways to express the future, particularly the construction with the auxiliary verb will or
shall or is/am/are going to and grammarians differ in whether they describe such constructions as
representing a future tense in English.
The "future" expressed by the future tense usually means the future relative to the moment of
speaking, although in contexts where relative tense is used it may mean the future relative to
some other point in time under consideration. Future tense can be denoted by the glossing
abbreviation fut.
The form of the will/shall future described above is frequently called the simple future (or
future simple). Other constructions provide additional auxiliaries that express particular aspects:
the future progressive (or future continuous) as in "He will be working"; the future perfect as in
"We will have finished"; and the future perfect progressive as in "I will have been practicing."
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For detail on these, see the relevant sections of Uses of English verb forms. (For more on
expressions of relative tense, such as the future perfect, see also the section above.)
Several other English constructions commonly refer to the future:
Present tense forms, as in "The train leaves at 5," or, "My cousins arrive tomorrow."
Since these grammatical forms are used more canonically to refer to present
situations, they are not generally described as future tense; in sentences like those just
given they may be described as "present tense with future meaning". Use of the
present tense (rather than forms with will) is mandatory in some subordinate clauses
referring to the future, such as "If I feel better next week, ..." and "As soon as they
arrive, ...". For more details see the sections on the simple present, present
progressive and dependent clauses in the article on English verb forms.
The going-to future, e.g., "John is going to leave tonight."
The construction with a finite form of the copula verb be together with the toinfinitive, e.g., "John is to leave tonight". (With the zero copula of newspaper
headline style, this becomes simply "John to leave tonight".) For details see am to.
The construction with to be about to, e.g., "John is about to leave", referring to the
expected immediate future. (A number of lexical expressions with similar meaning
also exist, such as to be on the point of (doing something).)
Use of modal verbs with future meaning, to combine the expression of future time
with certain modality: "I must do this" (also mun in Northern English dialect); "We
should help him"; "I can get out of here"; "We may win"; "You might succeed". The
same modal verbs are also often used with present rather than future reference. For
details of their meanings and usage, see English modal verbs.
The various ways of expressing the future carry different meanings, implying not just futurity
but also aspect (the way an action or state takes place in time) and/or modality (the attitude of the
speaker toward the action or state).[2][4] The precise interpretation must be based on the context.
In particular there is sometimes a distinction in usage between the will/shall future and the
going-to future (although in some contexts they are interchangeable).

VIII.

Verbele modale i noiunea de modalitate.

Proprietile morfo-sintactice ale verbelor modale. Sensurile circumstaniale i epistemice ale

verbelor modale (can, could, may, might, must, will, would, shall, should, ought to, dare, need).
Modul (Mood)
Definiie.
Modul este categoria gramatical specific verbului care arat felul n care vorbitorul
consider aciunea din punctul de vedere al posibilitii de ndeplinire a ei n realitate.
Pentru redarea acestui raport al aciunii cu realitatea, limba englez dispune de dou
moduri marcate formal: indicativul (aciune real) i subjonctivul (aciune posibil sau
presupus).
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Not: Unele gramatici menioneaz i modurile condiional i imperativ. n aceast

lucrare formele de condiional (prezent i trecut) sunt tratate n cadrul modului subjonctiv i
&1.13.12). datorit formei identice cu unele forme ale sunjonctivului analitic i funciei
similare (aciune posibil sau presupus, n acest caz condiionat de ndeplinirea unei altei
aciuni).
Formele folosite pentru exprimarea unei aciuni poruncite (aa-numitul mod imperativ)
sunt analizate n cadrul capitolului Felurile propoziiilor, Propoziia imperativ.
Dup categoria gramatical a persoanei i a posibilitii de a forma predicatul unei
propoziii, formele verbale n limba englez se mpart n personale (indicativul i
subjonctivul) i nepersonale (infinitivul, participiul i Gerund-ul).

1. Moods
1) Indicative
Indicative mood, in English, refers to finite verb forms that are not marked as subjunctive
and are not imperatives or conditionals. They are the verbs typically found in the main clauses of
declarative sentences and questions formed from them, as well as in most dependent clauses
(except for those that use the subjunctive). The information that a form is indicative is often
omitted when referring to it: the simple present indicative is usually referred to as just the simple
present, etc. (unless some contrast of moods, such as between indicative and subjunctive, is
pertinent to the topic).
A realis mood is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is
a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of
affairs, as in declarative sentences. Most languages have a single realis mood called the
indicative mood, although some languages have additional realis moods, for example to express
different levels of certainty. By contrast, an irrealis mood is used to express something that is not
known to be the case in reality.
An example of the contrast between realis and irrealis moods is seen in the English
sentences "He works" and "It is necessary that he work". In the first sentence works is a present
indicative (realis) form of the verb, and is used to make a direct assertion about the real world. In
the second sentence work is in the subjunctive mood, which is an irrealis mood here that he
work does not express (necessarily) a fact about the real world, but refers to what would be a
desirable state of affairs.
However, since mood is a grammatical category, referring to the form a verb takes rather
than its meaning in a given instance, a given language may use realis forms for a number of
purposes other than their principal one of making direct factual statements. For example, many
languages use indicative verb forms to ask questions (this is sometimes called interrogative
mood) and in various other situations where the meaning is in fact of the irrealis type (as in the
English "I hope it works", where the indicative works is used even though it refers to a desired

65

rather than real state of affairs). The indicative might therefore be defined as the mood used in all
instances where a given language does not specifically require the use of some other mood.
2) Subjunctive
Certain types of clause, mostly dependent clauses, use a verb form identified with the
subjunctive mood. The present subjunctive takes a form identical to the bare infinitive, as in It is
necessary that he be restrained. There is also a past subjunctive, distinct from the indicative only
in the possible use of were in place of was in certain situations: If I were you, ...
The subjunctive in English is used to form sentences that do not describe known objective
facts. These include statements about one's state of mind, such as opinion, belief, purpose,
intention, or desire. It contrasts with the indicative mood, which is used for statements of fact,
such as He speaks English.
In Modern English, the subjunctive form of a verb often looks identical to the indicative
form, and thus subjunctives are not a very visible grammatical feature of English. For most
verbs, the only distinct subjunctive form is found in the third person singular of the present tense,
where the subjunctive lacks the -s ending: It is necessary that he see a doctor (contrasted with the
indicative he sees). However, the verb be has not only a distinct present subjunctive (be, as in I
suggest that he be removed) but also a past subjunctive were (as in If he were rich, ).
These two tenses of the subjunctive have no particular connection in meaning with present
and past time. Terminology varies; sometimes what is called the present subjunctive here is
referred to simply as the subjunctive, and the form were may be treated just as an alternative
irrealis form of was rather than a past subjunctive.
Another case where present subjunctive forms are distinguished from indicatives is when
they are negated: compare I recommend that they not enter the competition (subjunctive) with I
hope that they do not enter the competition (indicative).
English has present subjunctive and past subjunctive forms, which can be compared with the
corresponding present indicative and past indicative forms (the familiar present and past tense
forms of verbs). The distinction between present and past is one of tense; the distinction between
indicative and subjunctive is one of mood. Note that these terms are used here merely as names
for forms that verbs take; the use of present and past forms is not limited to referring to present
and past time. (Sometimes the term subjunctive is used only to refer to what is called here the
present subjunctive.).
The present subjunctive is identical to the bare infinitive (and imperative) of the verb in all
forms. This means that, for almost all verbs, the present subjunctive differs from the present
indicative only in the third person singular form, which lacks the ending -s in the subjunctive.
The two moods are also fully distinguished when negated. Present subjunctive forms are
negated by placing the word not before them.
The past subjunctive exists as a distinct form only for the verb be, which has the form were
throughout.
In the past tense, there is no difference between the two moods as regards manner of
negation: I was not; (that) I were not. Verbs other than be are described as lacking a past
66

subjunctive, or possibly as having a past subjunctive identical in form to the past indicative:
(that) I owned; (that) I did not own.
Certain subjunctives (particularly were) can also be distinguished from indicatives by the
possibility of inversion with the subject.
The English modal verbs do not have present subjunctive forms, except for synonyms such
as be able to as a subjunctive corresponding to the indicative modal can. However would, should,
could and might can in some contexts be regarded as past subjunctives of will, shall, can and
may respectively. (They may also be described simply as the past forms of the latter modals, or
as modals or auxiliaries in their own right.).
The auxiliary should is used to make another compound form that might be regarded as a
subjunctive, and, in any case, it is frequently used as an alternative to the simple present
subjunctive.
The main use of the English present subjunctive, called the mandative or jussive subjunctive,
occurs in that clauses (declarative content clauses; the word that is sometimes omitted in
informal and conversational usage) expressing a circumstance which is desired, demanded,
recommended, necessary, or similar. Such a clause may be dependent on verbs like insist,
suggest, demand, prefer, adjectives like necessary, desirable, or nouns like recommendation,
necessity; it may be part of the expression in order that (or some formal uses of so that); it
may also stand independently as the subject of a clause or as a predicative expression.
The form is called the present subjunctive because it resembles the present indicative in
form, not because it need refer to the present time.[citation needed] In fact this form can equally
well be used in sentences referring to past, future or hypothetical time (the time frame is
normally expressed in the verb of the main clause).
Examples:
I insist (that) he leave now.
We asked that it be done yesterday.
It might be desirable that you not publish the story.
I support the recommendation that they not be punished.
I braked in order that the car stay on the road.
That he appear in court is a necessary condition for his being granted bail.
A present subjunctive verb form is sometimes found in a main clause, with the force of a
wish or a third person imperative (and such forms can alternatively be analyzed as imperatives).
This is most common nowadays in established phrases, such as (God) bless you, God save the
Queen, heaven forbid, peace be with you, truth be told, so be it, suffice it to say, long live, woe
betide It is used more broadly in some archaic or literary English. An equivalent construction
is that with may and subject-verb inversion: May God bless you etc.

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As noted in the sections above, some clauses containing subjunctive verb forms, or other
constructions that have the function of subjunctives, may exhibit subjectauxiliary inversion
(an auxiliary or copular verb changes places with the subject of the clause).
The most common example of this is in condition clauses, where inversion is accompanied
by the omission of the conjunction if.
Inversion with should: Should you feel hungry, (equivalent to If you (should) feel
hungry)
Inversion with were as simple past subjunctive: Were you here, (equivalent to If
you were here, ).
Inversion with were in compound forms of the past subjunctive: Were he to shoot,
(equivalent to If he were to shoot, i.e. If he shot)
Inversion with had in the pluperfect, referring to usually counterfactual conditions in
the past: Had he written, (equivalent to If he had written)
Inversion with were in compound forms of the pluperfect subjunctive: Were he to
have lied, (equivalent to If he were to have lied).
3) Imperative
The imperative is a grammatical mood that forms commands or requests, including the
giving of prohibition or permission, or any other kind of advice or exhortation.
An example of a verb in the imperative mood is be in the English sentence "Please be quiet".
Imperatives of this type imply a second-person subject (you); some languages also have firstand third-person imperatives, with the meaning of "let's (do something)" or "let him/her/them (do
something)" (these forms may alternatively be called cohortative and jussive).
Imperative mood can be denoted by the glossing abbreviation imp. It is one of the irrealis
moods.
An independent clause in the imperative mood uses the base form of the verb, usually with
no subject (although the subject you can be added for emphasis). Negation uses do-support (i.e.
do not or don't). For example:
Now eat your dinner.
You go and stand over there!
Don't ever say that word again.
Sentences of this type are used to give an instruction or order. When they are used to make
requests, the word please (or other linguistic device) is often added for politeness:
Please pass the salt.
First person imperatives (cohortatives) can be formed with let us (usually contracted to let's),
as in "Let's go". Third person imperatives (jussives) are sometimes formed similarly, with let, as
in "Let him be released".
It is also possible to use do-support in affirmative imperatives, for emphasis or (sometimes)
politeness: "Do be quiet!"; "Do help yourself!".
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4) Conditional
The conditional mood (abbreviated cond) is a grammatical mood used to express a
proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual. It thus refers
to a distinct verb form that expresses a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event, that is
contingent on another set of circumstances.
The conditional mood is generally found in the independent clause (apodosis) of a
conditional sentence, namely the clause that expresses the result of the condition, rather than the
dependent clause (protasis) expressing the condition. The protasis will often use a different verb
form, depending on the grammatical rules of the language in question, such as a past tense form
or the subjunctive mood. This is exemplified by the English sentence "If you loved me you
would support me" here the conditional would support appears in the apodosis, while the
protasis (the condition clause) uses instead the simple past form loved.
Not every conditional sentence involves the conditional mood (and some languages do not
have a conditional mood at all). For example, in the sentence "If I win, he will be disappointed",
the conditional circumstance is expressed using the future marker will. Also a conditional verb
form may have other uses besides expressing conditionality; for example the English would
construction may also be used for past habitual action ("When I was young I would happily walk
three miles to school every day"), or with future-in-the-past meaning.
English does not have an inflective (morphological) conditional mood, except in as much as
the modal verbs could, might, should and would may in some contexts be regarded as
conditional forms of can, may, shall and will respectively. What is called the English conditional
mood (or just the conditional) is formed periphrastically using the modal verb would in
combination with the bare infinitive of the main verb. (Occasionally should is used in place of
would with a first person subject.
English has three types of conditional sentences, which may be described as factual
("conditional 0": "When I feel well, I sing"), predictive ("conditional I": "If I feel well, I will
sing"), and counterfactual ("conditional II" or "conditional III": "If I felt well, I would sing" or
"If I had felt well, I would have sung"). As in many other languages, it is only the counterfactual
type that causes the conditional mood to be used.
a. Zero conditional
"Zero conditional" refers to conditional sentences that express a factual implication, rather
than describing a hypothetical situation or potential future circumstance (see Types of
conditional sentence). The term is used particularly when both clauses are in the present tense;
however such sentences can be formulated with a variety of tenses/moods, as appropriate to the
situation.
b. First conditional
"First conditional" or "conditional I" refers to a pattern used in predictive conditional
sentences, i.e. those that concern consequences of a probable future event.

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In the basic first conditional pattern, the condition is expressed using the present tense
(having future meaning in this context), and the consequence using the future construction with
will (or shall).
The use of present tense in dependent clauses with future time reference is not confined to
condition clauses; it also occurs in various temporal and relative clauses (as soon as he
arrives; take the first train that comes; etc.).
The condition can also be expressed using the modal verb should. This form can be used to
make an inverted condition clause without a conjunction.
Otherwise, the condition clause in a first conditional pattern is not normally formed with a
modal verb, other than can. However, there are certain situations (often involving polite
expressions) where will, would and could may be used in such clauses.
In colloquial English, an imperative may be used with the meaning of a condition clause, as in
"go eastwards a mile and you'll see it" (meaning "if you go eastwards a mile, you will see it").
Although the consequence in first conditional sentences is usually expressed using the will
(or shall) future (usually the simple future, though future progressive, future perfect and future
perfect progressive are used as appropriate), other variations are also possible it may take the
form of an imperative, it may use another modal verb that can have future meaning, or it may be
expressed as a deduction about present or past time (consequent on a possible future event).
c. Second conditional
"Second conditional" or "conditional II" refers to a pattern used to describe hypothetical,
typically counterfactual situations with a present or future time frame (for past time frames the
third conditional is used). In the normal form of the second conditional, the condition clause is in
the past tense (although it does not have past meaning), and the consequence is expressed using
the conditional construction with the auxiliary would.
The past tense (simple past or past progressive) of the condition clause is historically the past
subjunctive. In modern English this is identical to the past indicative, except in the first and third
persons singular of the verb be, where the indicative is was and the subjunctive were; was is
sometimes used as a colloquialism (were otherwise preferred), although the phrase if I were you
is common in colloquial language.
When were is the verb of the condition clause, it can be used to make an inverted condition
clause without a conjunction. If the condition clause uses the past tense of another verb, it may
be replaced by the auxiliary construction were to + infinitive (particularly if it has hypothetical
future reference); if this is done, then inversion can be applied here too:
If I were rich, ... / If I were to be rich, ... / Were I (to be) rich, ...
If I flew, ... / If I were to fly, ... / Were I to fly, ...
Another possible pattern is if it weren't for... (inverted form: were it not for ...), which means
something like "in the absence of ...".
For the possible use of would or could in the condition clause as well, see Use of will and
would in condition clauses below.

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The conditional construction of the main clause is usually the simple conditional; sometimes
the conditional progressive (e.g. would be waiting) is used. Occasionally, with a first person
subject, the auxiliary would is replaced by should (similarly to the way will is replaced by shall).
Also, would may be replaced by another appropriate modal: could, should, might.
When referring to hypothetical future circumstance, there may be little difference in meaning
between the first and second conditional (factual vs. counterfactual, realis vs. irrealis). The
following two sentences have similar meaning, although the second (with the second
conditional) implies less likelihood that the condition will be fulfilled:
If you leave now, you will still catch your train.
If you left now, you would still catch your train.
d. Third conditional
"Third conditional" or "conditional III" is a pattern used to refer to hypothetical situations in
a past time frame, generally counterfactual (or at least presented as counterfactual).
It is possible for the usual auxiliary construction to be replaced with were to have + past
participle. That used, the above examples can be written as such:
If you were to have called me, I would have come.
Would he have succeeded if I were to have helped him?
The condition clause can undergo inversion, with omission of the conjunction:
Had you called me, I would have come. / Were you to have called me, I would have come.
Would he have succeeded had I helped him? / Would he have succeeded were I to have
helped him?
Another possible pattern (similar to that mentioned under the second conditional) is if it
hadn't been for... (inverted form: had it not been for ...), which means something like "in the
absence of ...", with past reference.
e. Mixed conditional
"Mixed conditional" usually refers to a mixture of the second and third conditionals (the
counterfactual patterns). Here either the condition or the consequence, but not both, has a past
time reference.
When the condition refers to the past, but the consequence to the present, the condition
clause is in the past perfect (as with the third conditional), while the main clause is in the
conditional mood as in the second conditional (i.e. simple conditional or conditional progressive,
but not conditional perfect).
If you had done your job properly, we wouldn't be in this mess now.
If I hadn't married Kelly, I wouldn't be living in Scotland now.
When the consequence refers to the past, but the condition is not expressed as being limited
to the past, the condition clause is expressed as in the second conditional (past, but not past
perfect), while the main clause is in the conditional perfect as in the third conditional:
If we were soldiers, we wouldn't have done it like that.

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Other variations on the respective clause patterns are possible, as used accordingly in the
second and third conditionals.

2. Modal verbs
A modal verb (also modal, modal auxiliary verb, or modal auxiliary) is a type of verb that is
used to indicate modality that is: likelihood, ability, permission, and obligation.
English has the modal verbs can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would, and
also (depending on classification adopted) ought (to), dare, need, had (better), used (to). These
do not add -s for the third-person singular, and they do not form infinitives or participles; the
only inflection they undergo is that to a certain extent could, might, should and would function as
preterites (past tenses) of can, may, shall and will respectively.
A modal verb can serve as the finite verb introducing a verb catena, as in he might have been
injured then. These generally express some form of modality (possibility, obligation, etc.),
although will and would (and sometimes shall and should) can serve among their other uses
to express future time reference and conditional mood, as described elsewhere on this page.
Verbele modale (Modal Verbs)
Verbele modale exprim atitudinea vorbitorului fa de enun, aciunea din cadrul acestuia
fiind zutca posibil, probabil, necesar, obligatorie, de dorit etc.: It might rain later. S-a
putea s ploumai trziu. You must meet him at the station. Trebuie s-l atepi la gar.
Din punct de vedere al caracteristicilor formale, verbele modale englezeti se mpart n:
1) verbe noionale exprimnd modalitatea (want, wish, order, oblige, advise, intend, mean,
prefer, etc.) care se comport ca celelalte verbe noionale: He wants to see the play. Vrea s
vadpiesa. Dont oblige him to do this. Nu-l obliga s fac asta.
2) verbe modale defective (Defective Modal Verbs) (can/could, may/might, must, have to,
shall/should, will/would, ought to, be to, used to, need, dare), care exprim de asemenea
modalitatea, dar care din punct de vedere formal, prezint anumite caracteristici.
Not: Termenul de verbe modale folosit pe parcursul lucrrii se refer la verbele modale
defective.
Caracteristicile verbelor modale. Verbele modale au urmtoarele caracterisitici:
a) sunt defective, adic le lipsesc anumite forme verbale. n consecin, nu pot fi conjugate
la toate modurile i timpurile.
Formele pe care le au verbele modale pot fi folosite pentru redarea mai multor timpuri i
moduri. Can, may, must, need i dare, de exemplu, exprim indicativul prezent: I can help you.
Dac ele sunt ns urmate de un adverb de timp viitor, aciunea exprimat de verbul la
infinitiv se refer la un moment viitor: I can only help you next week. Am s te pot ajuta abia
sptmna viitoare.
Formele aparent trecute ale verbelor modale au valori:
- de Past Tense, condiional i subjonctiv (could, would, might): I could skate when I was a
child. tiam patinez cnd eram copil. I could help you if you wanted me to. A putea s te

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ajut dac ai dori. She lent him the camera so that he could take photos on the trip. I-am
mprumutat aparatul de fotografiat ca fac fotografii n excursie.
Not: Might poate fi folosit cu valoare de Past Tense doar n vorbirea indirect: She said
you might go.
- de condiional i subjonctiv (should): I should like to come tomorrow if you dont mind.
A dori s vin mine, dac nu te deranjeaz. He demanded we should come the next day. A
cerut s venim a doua zi.
- la unele forme care le lipsesc, verbele modale sunt nlocuite de perifraze modale, de
anumite construcii cu sens modal (Modal Equivalents): can - be able to; must - have to; may be allowed to/permitted to:
Present: You may go now. Poi / Ai voie spleci acum.
Past Tense: He was allowed go to. I s-a permis / dat voie s plece.
Past Perfect: He had been allowed to go out and play before they left. I se permisese s ias
afarsse joace nainte ca ei splece.
b) nu primesc s la persoana a III-a singular (cu excepia lui be to i have to): He must see
this play. Trebuie s vad aceastpies.
c) formeaz interogativul i negativul f ajutorul auxiliarului do/did (cu excepia lui
have to): Must you do this ? Trebuie s faci asta ? She cannot swim. Nu tie s noate, dar: Do
you have to type that report ? Trebuie sdactilografiezi raportul ?
d) sunt urmate de infinitivul scurt al verbelor noionale (cu excepia lui be to, have to,
ought to): She can cook. tie s gteasc, dar: He has to get up early every day. Trebuie s se
scoale devreme n fiecare zi.
Cnd sunt urmate de infinitivul prezent, verbele modaqle se refer la o aciune prezent
sau viitoare: He might be there now. S-ar putea ca el s fie acolo acum. She might come later.
Ea s-ar putea s vin mai trziu.
Cnd sunt urmate de infinitivul prezent, verbele modale se refer la o acfiune prezent
sau viitoare: He might be there now. S-ar putea ca el sfie acolo acum. She might come later. ea
s-ar putea s vin mai trziu.
Cnd sunt urmate de infinitivul perfect, aciunea exprimat de verbul noional are un
caracter trecut, de anterioritate: He might have been here before we arrived. S-ar putea s fi fost
aici nainte s sosim noi.
e) pe plan sintactic, verbele modale defective alctuiesc un predicat verbal compus
mpreun cu un alt verb la infinitiv: You can buy a TV-set in instalments. Poi s cumperi un
televizor n rate.
n cadrul predicatului verbal compus, verbele modale ndeplinesc o funcie dubl:
- funcia gramatical de marc a timpului: He can skate now. tie s patineze acum. He
could skate when he was a child. tia spatineze cnd era copil.
- funcia lexical de exprimare a modalitii: She can type. tie s bat la main.
You neednt type this. Nu este nevoie sbai asta la main.

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i.

Function of modal verbs

A modal auxiliary verb gives information about the function of the main verb that it governs.
Modals have a wide variety of communicative functions, but these functions can generally be
related to a scale ranging from possibility ("may") to necessity ("must"), in terms of one of the
following types of modality:

epistemic modality, concerned with the theoretical possibility of propositions being

true or not true (including likelihood and certainty)
deontic modality, concerned with possibility and necessity in terms of freedom to act
(including permission and duty)
dynamic modality, which may be distinguished from deontic modality, in that with
dynamic modality, the conditioning factors are internal the subject's own ability or
willingness to act
The following sentences illustrate epistemic and deontic uses of the English modal verb
must:
epistemic: You must be starving. ("It is necessarily the case that you are starving.")
deontic: You must leave now. ("You are required to leave now.")
An ambiguous case is You must speak Spanish. The primary meaning would be the deontic
meaning ("You are required to speak Spanish.") but this may be intended epistemically ("It is
surely the case that you speak Spanish.") Epistemic modals can be analyzed as raising verbs,
while deontic modals can be analyzed as control verbs.
Epistemic usages of modals tend to develop from deontic usages. For example, the inferred
certainty sense of English must developed after the strong obligation sense; the probabilistic
sense of should developed after the weak obligation sense; and the possibility senses of may and
can developed later than the permission or ability sense. Two typical sequences of evolution of
modal meanings are:
internal mental ability internal ability root possibility (internal or external
ability) permission and epistemic possibility
obligation probability
The verbs in the following list all have the following characteristics:
They are auxiliary verbs, which means they allow subject-auxiliary inversion and
can take the negation not, i.e. They function as auxiliary verbs: they modify the
meaning of another verb, which they govern. This verb generally appears as a bare
infinitive, although in some definitions a modal verb can also govern the to-infinitive
(as in the case of ought).
They do not inflect, except insofar as some of them come in presentpast (present
preterite) pairs. They do not add the ending -(e)s in the third-person singular (the
present-tense modals therefore follow the preterite-present paradigm).

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They have the syntactic properties associated with auxiliary verbs in English,
principally that they can undergo subjectauxiliary inversion (in questions, for
example) and can be negated by the appending of not after the verb.
They convey functional meaning,
They are defective insofar as they cannot be inflected, nor do they appear in nonfinite form (i.e. not as infinitives, gerunds, or participles),
They are nevertheless always finite and thus appear as the root verb in their clause.
They subcategorize for an infinitive, i.e. they take an infinitive as their complement.
The verbs/expressions dare, ought to, had better, and need not behave like modal auxiliaries
to a large extent, although they are not productive (in linguistics, the extent commonly or
frequently used) in the role to the same extent as those listed here. Furthermore, there are
numerous other verbs that can be viewed as modal verbs insofar as they clearly express modality
in the same way that the verbs in this list do, e.g. appear, have to, seem, etc. In the strict sense,
though, these other verbs do not qualify as modal verbs in English because they do not allow
subject-auxiliary inversion, nor do they allow negation with not. If, however, one defines modal
verb entirely in terms of meaning contribution, then these other verbs would also be modals and
so the list here would have to be greatly expanded.

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ii. Defectiveness
Modals in English form a very distinctive class of verbs. They are auxiliary verbs like be, do,
and have, but they are defective insofar as they cannot be inflected like these other auxiliary
verbs, e.g. have has vs. should *shoulds, do did vs. may *mayed, etc. In clauses that
contain two or more verbs, any modal that is present appears as the left-most verb in the verb
catena (= chain of verbs). What this means is that the modal verb is always finite (although it is,
as stated, never inflected). In the syntactic structure of the clause, the modal verb is the clause
root.
This trait of modal auxiliaries has motivated the designation defective, that is, modal
auxiliaries are defective in English because they are so limited in their form and distribution. One
can note further in this area that English modal auxiliaries are quite unlike modal verbs in closely
related languages. In German, for instance, modals can occur as non-finite verbs, which means
they can be subordinate to other verbs in verb catenae; they need not appear as the clause root.
iii. Other modals
The verbs listed below mostly share the above features, but with certain differences. They are
sometimes, but not always, categorized as modal verbs. They may also be called "semimodals".
The verb ought differs from the principal modals only in that it governs a to-infinitive
rather than a bare infinitive (compare he should go with he ought to go).
The verbs dare and need can be used as modals, often in the negative (Dare he
fight?; You dare not do that.; You need not go.), although they are more commonly
found in constructions where they appear as ordinary inflected verbs (He dares to
fight; You don't need to go). There is also a dialect verb, nearly obsolete but
sometimes heard in Appalachia and the Deep South of the United States: darest,
which means "dare not", as in "You darest do that."
The verb had in the expression had better behaves like a modal verb, hence had
better (considered as a compound verb) is sometimes classed as a modal or
semimodal.
The verb used in the expression used to (do something) can behave as a modal, but is
more often used with do-support than with auxiliary-verb syntax: Did she used to do
it? (or Did she use to do it?) and She didn't used to do it (or She didn't use to do it)[a]
are more common than Used she to do it? and She used not (usedn't) to do it.
Other English auxiliaries appear in a variety of different forms and are not regarded as modal
verbs. These are:
be, used as an auxiliary in passive voice and continuous aspect constructions; it
follows auxiliary-verb syntax even when used as a copula, and in auxiliary-like
formations such as be going to, is to and be about to;
have, used as an auxiliary in perfect aspect constructions, including the idiom have
got (to); it is also used in have to, which has modal meaning, but here (as when
denoting possession) have only rarely follows auxiliary-verb syntax (see also must
below);
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 do; .
iv.
Replacements for defective forms
As noted above, English modal verbs are defective in that they do not have infinitive, participle,
imperative or (standard) subjunctive forms, and in some cases past forms. However in many
cases there exist equivalent expressions that carry the same meaning as the modal, and can be
used to supply the missing forms. In particular:
The modals can and could, in their meanings expressing ability, can be replaced
by am/is/are able to and was/were able to. Additional forms can thus be supplied: the
infinitive (to) be able to, the subjunctive and (rarely) imperative be able to, and the
participles being able to and been able to.
The modals may and might, in their meanings expressing permission, can be replaced
by am/is/are allowed to and was/were allowed to.
The modal must in most meanings can be replaced by have/has to. This supplies the past
and past participle form had to, and other forms (to) have to, having to.
When will or shall expresses the future, the expression am/is/are going to has similar
meaning. This can supply other forms: was/were going to, (to) be going to, being/been
going to.
The modals should and ought to might be replaced by am/is/are supposed to, thus
supplying the forms was/were supposed to, (to) be supposed to, being/been supposed to.

3. Usage of specific verbs

a. Can and could
The modal verb can expresses possibility in either a dynamic, deontic or epistemic sense, that
is, in terms of innate ability, permissibility, or possible circumstance. For example:
I can speak English means "I am able to speak English" or "I know how to speak
English".
You can smoke here means "you may (are permitted to) smoke here" (in formal English
may or might is sometimes considered more correct than can or could in these senses).
There can be strong rivalry between siblings means that such rivalry is possible.
b. May and might
The verb may expresses possibility in either an epistemic or deontic sense, that is, in terms of
possible circumstance or permissibility. For example:
The mouse may be dead means that it is possible that the mouse is dead.
You may leave the room means that the listener is permitted to leave the room.
In expressing possible circumstance, may can have future as well as present reference (he
may arrive means that it is possible that he will arrive; I may go to the mall means that I am
considering going to the mall).

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May (or might) can also express irrelevance in spite of certain or likely truth: He may be
taller than I am, but he is certainly not stronger could mean "While it is (or may be) true that he
is taller than I am, that does not make a difference, as he is certainly not stronger."
The meaning of the negated form depends on the usage of the modal. When possibility is
indicated, the negation effectively applies to the main verb rather than the modal: That
may/might not be means "That may/might not-be", i.e. "That may fail to be true". But when
permission is being expressed, the negation applies to the modal or entire verb phrase: You may
not go now means "You are not permitted to go now".
c. Shall & Should
The verb shall is used in some varieties of English in place of will, indicating futurity, when
the subject is first person (I shall, we shall).
With second- and third-person subjects, shall indicates an order, command or prophecy:
Cinderella, you shall go to the ball! It is often used in writing laws and specifications: Those
convicted of violating this law shall be imprisoned for a term of not less than three years; The
electronics assembly shall be able to operate within a normal temperature range.
Shall is sometimes used in questions (in the first, or possibly third, person) to ask for advice
or confirmation of a suggestion: Shall I read now?; What shall we wear?
Should is sometimes used as a first-person equivalent for would (in its conditional and
"future-in-the-past" uses), in the same way that shall can replace will. Should is also used to form
a replacement for the present subjunctive in some varieties of English, and also in some
conditional sentences with hypothetical future reference see English subjunctive and English
conditional sentences.
Should is often used to describe an expected or recommended behavior or circumstance. It
can be used to give advice or to describe normative behavior, though without such strong
obligatory force as must or have to. Thus You should never lie describes a social or ethical norm.
It can also express what will happen according to theory or expectations: This should work.
The negative forms are shall not and should not, contracted to shan't and shouldn't. The
negation effectively applies to the main verb rather than the auxiliary: you should not do
this implies not merely that there is no need to do it, but that there is a need not to do it.
d. Will and would
The modal will is often used to express futurity (The next meeting will be held on Thursday).
Since this is an expression of time rather than modality, constructions with will (or sometimes
shall) are often referred to as the future tense of English, and forms like will do, will be doing,
will have done and will have been doing are often called the simple future, future progressive (or
future continuous), future perfect, and future perfect progressive (continuous). With first-person
subjects (I, we), in varieties where shall is used for simple expression of futurity, the use of will
indicates particular willingness or determination.
Future events are also sometimes referred to using the present tense, or using the going to
construction.
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Will as a modal also has a number of different uses:

It can express habitual aspect; for example, he will make mistakes may mean that he
frequently makes mistakes (here the word will is usually stressed somewhat, and
often expresses annoyance).
It can express strong probability with present time reference, as in That will be John
at the door.
It can be used to give an order, as in You will do it right now.
The preterite form would is used in some conditional sentences, and as a past form of future
will as described above under Past forms. (It is sometimes replaced by should in the first person
in the same way that will is replaced by shall.) Other uses of would include:
Expression of politeness, as in I would like... (for "I want") and Would you (be so kind as to)
do this? (for "Please do this").
Expression of habitual aspect in past time, as in Back then, I would eat early and would walk
to school.
Both will and would can be used with the perfect infinitive (will have, would have), either to
form the future perfect and conditional perfect forms already referred to, or to express perfect
aspect in their other meanings (e.g. there will have been an arrest order, expressing strong
probability).
The negated forms are will not (contracted to won't) and would not (contracted to wouldn't).
In the modal meanings of will the negation is effectively applied to the main verb phrase and not
to the modality (e.g. when expressing an order, you will not do it expresses an order not to do it,
rather than just the absence of an order to do it).
e. Must and had to
The modal must expresses obligation or necessity: You must use this form; We must try to
escape. It can also express a confident assumption (the epistemic rather than deontic use), such
as in It must be here somewhere.
An alternative to must is the expression had to (in the present tense sometimes have got to),
which is often more idiomatic in informal English when referring to obligation. This also
provides other forms in which must is defective and enables simple negation.
When used with the perfect infinitive (i.e. with have and the past participle), must expresses
only assumption: Sue must have left means that the speaker confidently assumes that Sue has
left. To express obligation or necessity in the past, had to or some other synonym must be used.
The formal negation of must is must not (contracted to mustn't). However the negation
effectively applies to the main verb, not the modality: You must not do this means that you are
required not to do it, not just that you are not required to do it. To express the lack of requirement
or obligation, the negative of have to or need (see below) can be used: You don't have to do it;
You needn't do it.
The above negative forms are not usually used in the sense of confident assumption; here it is
common to use can't to express confidence that something is not the case (as in It can't be here
or, with the perfect, Sue can't have left).
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Mustn't can nonetheless be used as a simple negative of must in tag questions and other
questions expressing doubt: We must do it, mustn't we? Mustn't he be in the operating room by
this stage?
f. Ought to and had better
Ought is used with meanings similar to those of should expressing expectation or
requirement. The principal grammatical difference is that ought is used with the to-infinitive
rather than the bare infinitive, hence we should go is equivalent to we ought to go. Because of
this difference of syntax, ought is sometimes excluded from the class of modal verbs, or is
classed as a semimodal.
The reduced pronunciation of ought to is sometimes given the eye dialect spelling oughta.
Ought can be used with perfect infinitives in the same way as should (but again with the
insertion of to): you ought to have done that earlier.
The negated form is ought not or oughtn't, equivalent in meaning to shouldn't (but again used
with to).
The expression had better has similar meaning to should and ought when expressing
recommended or expedient behavior: I had better get down to work (it can also be used to give
instructions with the implication of a threat: you had better give me the money or else). The had
of this expression is similar to a modal: it governs the bare infinitive, it is defective in that it is
not replaceable by any other form of the verb have, and it behaves syntactically as an auxiliary
verb. For this reason the expression had better, considered as a kind of compound verb, is
sometimes classed along with the modals or as a semimodal.
The had of had better can be contracted to 'd, or in some informal usage (especially
American) can be omitted. The expression can be used with a perfect infinitive: you'd better have
finished that report by tomorrow. There is a negative form hadn't better, used mainly in
questions: Hadn't we better start now? It is more common for the infinitive to be negated by
means of not after better: You'd better not do that (meaning that you are strongly advised not to
do that).
g. Dare and need
The verbs dare and need can be used both as modals and as ordinary conjugated (non-modal)
verbs. As non-modal verbs they can take a to-infinitive as their complement (I dared to answer
her; He needs to clean that), although dare may also take a bare infinitive (He didn't dare go). In
their uses as modals they govern a bare infinitive, and are usually restricted to questions and
negative sentences.
Examples of the modal use of dare, followed by equivalents using non-modal dare where
appropriate:
Dare he do it? ("Does he dare to do it?")
I daren't (or dare not or dasn't) try ("I don't dare to try")
How dare you!; How dare he! (idiomatic expressions of outrage)

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I dare say (another idiomatic expression, here exceptionally without negation or

question syntax)
The modal use of need is close in meaning to must expressing necessity or obligation. The
negated form need not (needn't) differs in meaning from must not, however; it expresses lack of
necessity, whereas must not expresses prohibition. Examples:
Need I continue? ("Do I need to continue? Must I continue?")
You needn't water the grass ("You don't have to water the grass"; compare the
different meaning of You mustn't water...)
Modal need can also be used with the perfect infinitive: Need I have done that? It is most
commonly used here in the negative, to denote that something that was done was (from the
present perspective) not in fact necessary: You needn't have left that tip.
h. Used to
The verbal expression used to expresses past states or past habitual actions, usually with the
implication that they are no longer so. It is followed by the infinitive (that is, the full expression
consists of the verb used plus the to-infinitive). Thus the statement I used to go to college means
that the speaker formerly habitually went to college, and normally implies that this is no longer
the case.
While used to does not express modality, it has some similarities with modal auxiliaries in
that it is invariant and defective in form and can follow auxiliary-verb syntax: it is possible to
form questions like Used he to come here? and negatives like He used not (rarely usedn't) to
come here. More common, however, (though not the most formal style) is the syntax that treats
used as a past tense of an ordinary verb, and forms questions and negatives using did: Did he
use(d) to come here? He didn't use(d) to come here.
Note the difference in pronunciation between the ordinary verb use /juz/ and its past form
used /juzd/ (as in scissors are used to cut paper), and the verb forms described here: /just/.
The verbal use of used to should not be confused with the adjectival use of the same
expression, meaning "familiar with", as in I am used to this, we must get used to the cold. When
the adjectival form is followed by a verb, the gerund is used: I am used to going to college in the
mornings.

IX.

Bibliografie

1) Gramatica limbii engleze, pentru uz colar, Autori: Georgiana Gleanu Ecaterina

Comiel Editura didactic i pedagogic Bucureti 1982
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_(linguistics)
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_(linguistics)
4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexeme
5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemma_(morphology)
6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_derivation
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7) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflection
8) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infix
9) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_(linguistics)
10) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequence_of_tenses
11) http://www01.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/ComparisonOfInflectionAndDeriv.htm
12) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determiner
13) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noun_phrase#Noun_phrases_with_and_without_determiner
s
14) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_articles
15) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_determiners
16) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_determiners
17) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonstrative
18) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deixis
19) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possessive_determiner
20) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantifier_(linguistics)
21) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determiner_phrase
22) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_possessive
23) http://www.glottopedia.org/index.php/Huddleston_and_Pullum's_(2002)_analysis_of_ten
se
24) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergative%E2%80%93absolutive_language
25) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Part_of_speech
26) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_category
27) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural
28) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singulative_number
29) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_number
30) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun
31) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_terms_of_venery,_by_animal
32) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_noun
33) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun
34) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurale_tantum
35) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_plurals
36) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_aspect
37) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_of_English_verb_forms
38) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfective_aspect
39) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperfective_aspect
40) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_and_progressive_aspects
41) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_(grammar)#Perfect_as_an_aspect
42) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_aspect
43) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iterative_aspect
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44) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitual_aspect
45) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_of_English_verb_forms#Present_progressive
46) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_tense
47) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TUTT_(linguistics)
48) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAST
49) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCOM_(linguistics)
50) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEVL
51) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_and_absolute_tense
52) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_subjunctive
53) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realis_mood
54) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_mood
55) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_mood
56) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_conditional_sentences
57) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_verb
58) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Present_perfect

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