Scientific journal
European Journal of Natural History
ISSN 2073-4972
ИФ РИНЦ = 0,301

THE CATEGORY OF VOICE AND ASPECT AND THEIR INTERACTION

Ten M.G. 1 Kakzhanova F.A. 2
1 MSI “School – Lyceum №15 named after Alikhan Bukeikhanov”
2 The Karaganda State University of the name of academician E.A. Buketov
The English language continues to enrich itself with new forms and expressions as well as to supply and modify the existing ones. The voice and the aspect systems have not yet fully formed and are in the process of development. There are different opinions about the aspect category, some linguists consider, that the English language has the aspect category and some linguists deny the existence of this phenomenon. The voice category also has its own problematic questions, especially reflexive, reciprocal voices. If the voice is considered to be as the verb category it should be expressed by verbs, but not pronouns (oneself, each other and others). These categories are analyzed from the point of diachrony and synchrony. The article is devoted to the study of the category of voice and aspect and their interaction in English verbal system. The study also examines various approaches to determining these categories.
voice
subject
object
aspect
tense
semantic category
grammatical category
grammatical transformations
time relation

Any language is characterized by the presence of active and passive structures. Passive constructions in English in all temporary forms are used quite widely. The question of their number as well as their qualitative characteristic among linguists still remains relevant. Understanding the theoretical component of the passive constructions of the English language and their development becomes possible due to diachronic analysis. In modern linguistics there is no generally accepted definition of the category of voice. The construction of passive voice describes the whole process of a certain event from the observer’s point of view and has a certain form of expression: the auxiliary verb to be, -ed and the preposition by.

R. Quirk, S. Greenbaum and D. Lich distinguish 4 types of basic verbal constructions and assign the voice construction to the fourth type (type D) [1, p. 64]. According to R. Quirk “voice is a grammatical category that allows you to consider an action in a sentence in two ways without any changes in the facts presented” [1].

F.F. Fortunatov, A.M. Peshkovsky and R.O. Yakobson consider the forms of voice in terms of the relation of the verbal action to its subject. A.A. Potebnya, A.A. Shakhmatov pay attention not only to the subject, but also to the object of the verbal construction.

If we consider the voice structure in terms of semantic-syntactic definition, then the nature of the relations in it is expressed not only by determining the semantic meaning of the units, but also through the functional interaction of various parts of speech in a sentence.

Considering this, A. I. Moiseev argues that the forms of the voice express different attitudes of the verbal action and its subject to the subject and the object.

The peculiarity of the voice along with other grammatical categories is determined not only at the morphological level, but the ways of its expression also affect syntax and vocabulary. In addition the complexity of the voice is also determined by the different degree of grammatization of various ways of expressing values. The voice in the English language also has a number of specific features.

B.A. Ilish says that “the voice expresses the nature of the relationship between the subject and the predicate, as well as the attitude of the action to the object, if there is one in the sentence” [2]. E.I. Korolev here focuses directly on the syntactic connection in the construction itself: “forms of voice express the same relationship between subject and object, but for each form of voice, subject and object are expressed by different parts of sentences” [3].

Thus, grammatical transformations in the voice structure occur not only at the level of the verb phrase, but also at the level of the sentence. In the verb phrase the passive structure is formed by adding the appropriate form of the auxiliary verb and the past tense participle of the main verb. At the sentence level the passive voice occurs due to the rearrangement of the parts of the sentence among themselves: the active subject becomes a passive agent, the active object becomes a passive subject. This position allows us to define the voice taking into account not only the semantic meaning of the units, but also the functional interaction of lexical units in the voice structure. Thus the voice can be characterized as a grammatical category, the verbal construction of which contains semantic-syntactic relations between the subject and the object of action.

Due to its ambiguity of use and meaning, there is a question about the presence of a passive voice in the Old English period. The category of voice in this period begins to form with the help of the auxiliary verbs bеon and wеorjjan and participle 2, the combination of which transmitted only the meanings of the passive action, as well as the meanings of the state [2, p. 122]. On the one hand, the presence in the sentence of a verb that has a passive form, the presence of a subject performing the action, as well as verb forms expressing the action, indicates the existence of a certain voice construction during this period. On the other hand, the free arrangement of the voice construction parts in the sentence, in which the verbs béon and wеorjjan played the role of link, not auxiliary verb, and also the coordination of the verbal predicate with the subject in the case form and number indicate the presence of syntactic connection at the level of the sentence members, which means the independent functioning of the participle 2. Thus, the existence of the voice form in the Old English period seems to us weakly expressed and is only the basis for its further formation.

According to a number of scientists (Ilish: 2000; Smirnitsky: 2011, etc.), the voice structure in the Middle English period begins to be used much more often. This period is characterized by the final formation of analytical forms of voice structures, which have undergone significant changes in their functioning. The further development of the voice verb forms during this period leads to the loss of the meaning of bеon and wеorjjan as link-verbs and gains the meaning of the auxiliary verb. The verb ben becomes the main auxiliary verb. The participle 2 also used without a case ending and becomes unchangeable [2, p. 248–249]. During this period in the system of passive constructions the person who committed the action is often used with the preposition by, being finally fixed in the voice structure only by the end of the Middle English period.

In the New English period the forms of voice construction were fully defined. Relations between words cease to be expressed through the grammatical form of the noun. These changes in the subject lead to a change in the structure of impersonal relations. In the New English period the verb loses the category of a person and a number, therefore in impersonal sentences it becomes necessary to use the formally impersonal pronoun it. These changes also relate to the sphere of passive voice with an indirect object of action and with a direct object. Such a structure was preserved due to the fact that in the Middle English period there was no strict word order in the voice structure and an indirect object could be at the beginning of the sentence [4, p. 203].

In the development of the English language there is a strict fixation of the word order which determines changes in the voice structure with indirect object as the subject [4]. The form of the object case is replaced by the form of the nominative case: them ? they. Thus, in the New English period a passive voice is developed with a subject that expresses an indirect object of action.

The peculiarity of the voice construction along with other grammatical categories, is determined not only at the morphological level, but the ways of its expression also affect the sphere of syntax and vocabulary. In addition, the complexity of the voice category is also determined by the different degree of grammarization of various ways of expressing values.

The English language voice system also has a number of specific features. The question of their number as well as their qualitative characteristics among linguists remains relevant. For example, most researchers of English theoretical grammar (G. Sweet, A.I. Smirnitsky) distinguish only two voices in English: active and passive. H. Poutsma distinguishes another voice – the reflexive voice. Comparing the system of Greek grammar with the system of the English language he notes that the meaning of the middle voice in Greek is usually expressed in English by means of reflexive or more rarely reflexive pronouns. The authors of the textbook “Theoretical Grammar of Modern English” Kobrina N.A., Boldyrev N.N., Khudyakov A.A. distinguish six voices.

B.A. Ilish notes that “passive meaning is also not rarely seen in verbs that dropped a reflexive pronoun and, therefore, became non-transitive” and identifies two more: reciprocal and middle voice [2].

From the point of view of some linguists (O. Jespersen, G. Vorontsova), the verbs get / become in the construction with Participle II are also passive. Haimovich and Rogovskaya argue that in such constructions get / become always retain their lexical meanings.

The aspect problem belongs to a rather complex and still unexplored linguistic category. The category of the English aspect remains the subject of controversy of linguists of various directions. The reason for this is the fact that in the Middle English period English lost the system of verb endings which makes difficult to search for the category of the aspect in English. The aspect in English according to B.A. Ilish is formed in the New English period: “The difference in action in the Old English period was expressed using the “ze” prefix not regularly and they were not grammaticalized so that we could talk about the grammatical category of the aspect. In the Middle English period this difference was also lost” [2].

The Middle English period is also characterized by the usage of analytical passive forms for all times of the Indefinite group, the Perfect group as well as for the Infinitive.

The abundance of works on the aspect in English shows that the concept of an aspect is interpreted by many scientists in their own way. The authors differently define the aspect as well as its classification. Among the approaches are the following:

1) The category of the aspect is a semantic category (G.O. Curme, E. Krusinga, H. Poutsma, O. Dahl). O. Dahl says that “the aspect is a part of the semantics of the verb used to convey the duration of the action, its beginning, its end or its completeness” [5, 22].

2) This category is inseparable from the category of tense and is a part of the tense system of English verbs (L.S. Barkhudarov, G.N. Vorontsova, I.P. Ivanova, D. Shtelling);

3) A category of aspect is a grammatical category (T.A. Barabash, B.A. Ilish, L.L. Iofik, A.I. Smirnitsky, V.N. Yartsev);

4) This category does not exist in the English language since it cannot be expressed synthetically (A.V. Shirokova).

The Kazakhstan scientists Zh.G. Amirova and M.Sh. Musataeva define the aspect as “the category denoting the temporal flow of an action (limit or non-limit, progressiveness – development of action in time, repeatability, effectiveness, multiple, etc.), in relation to which the meaning of verb aspect (limited or unlimited action by the internal limit) is one of the aspectual meanings” [6].

The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics gives an aspect the following definition: “The term “aspect” is used both in a narrow sense when it is referred to grammatical categories that influence the structure of a situation or its vision by a speaker and in a broad sense when it also covers lexical and semantic categories related to classifications of situations (methods of action)” [7, 240].

The perfect forms take the most controversial position. They are considered both as forms of the perfect form and as a special category of temporal correlation, and as an opposition to the perfect / imperfect.

According to A.I. Smirnitsky [8], the category of perfect is neither one of tense, nor one of aspect but a specific category different from both. He took the perfect to be a means of expressing the category of “time relation”.

The Continuous form has at least two semantic features – duration (the action is always in progress) and definiteness (the action is always limited to a definite point or period of time). In other words, the purpose of the Continuous form is to serve as a frame which makes the process of the action more concrete and isolated. The main use of Continuous form is to express a particular subtype of imperfective aspectuality.

B. Comrie gives a different interpretation of the aspect. According to him in English the verb form should be considered in two oppositions that cover the entire verb system. These are Progressive (expressed with the help of to be and the verb with -ing), non-Progressive, Perfect (verb to have and Participle II) and non-Perfect [9].

L.S. Barkhudarov defines an aspect as a grammatical category expressing the method of performing an action [10, 113]. The aspect is constituted by two oppositions: the non-durable (general) and durable which is expressed in the forms of Continuous. M.Y. Bloch indicates that the form of the Continuous aspect is marked and analytical.

The Infinitive combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun, as a result it serves as the verbal name of a process. It has the grammatical categories of voice, aspect and temporal correlation. Consequently, the categorical paradigm of the infinitive includes eight forms: the indefinite active, the continuous active, the perfect active, the perfect continuous active; the indefinite passive, the continuous passive, the perfect passive, the perfect continuous passive.

The continuous and perfect continuous passive can only be used occasionally, with a strong stylistic coloring. It is the indefinite infinitive that constitutes the head-form of the verbal paradigm.

Like the finite form of verb, the infinitive distinguishes the categories of aspect, voice, and temporal correlation.

The paradigm of the infinitive is determined by the semantic-syntactic properties of the process. If the process is intransitive, we cannot derive voice forms:

to run

– to be running

vs.

to be being run

to have run

– to have been

running

vs.

to have been being run

Thus, having studied the theoretical component of the voice construction and different approaches to its description, we characterized the voice as a grammatical category, the verbal construction of which contains semantic-syntactic relations between the subject and the object of action. These relationships are characteristic of many languages of the world. The voice constructions of the English language system include the morphologically initial form of the active voice and differ from each other in the composition of morphologically derived forms. In comparison with the active voice in modern English there is a passive voice showing that the verb-predicate action is directed at the person or object expressed by the subject, and the reflexive voice. The forms of the passive voice and the modern forms of the reflexive voice, which arose in the early New England period are analytic according to the historical context. The first is a combination of the auxiliary verb to be with participle II, the second is a combination of a verb with a reflexive pronoun in its function. Together with the reflexive voice there are also middle and reciprocal voices.

Along with the voice system there is also an aspect system. The aspect belongs to a rather complex and still unexplored linguistic category. Many questions remain controversial concerning the universality and language specificity. Having examined each of English tenses in order to identify the category of the aspect we can summarize the following result. The aspect is a special grammatical category which characterizes the action according to the character of the flow of an action in time: continuous and perfect forms.

The results of the study showed that a characteristic feature of the English verb system has the close connection between categories of voice, aspect and tense. Moreover, the correlation of the tense and aspect plays an important role in determining the category of the aspect in English.