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LEVELS OF LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

ZUBAIR A. BAJWA,ZBR141@GMAIL.COM -WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/ZUBAIR.A.BAJWA

3RD SEMESTER,

DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS,

QUAID-E-AZAM UNIVERSITY, ISLAMABAD

By:

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CONTENTS5

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INTRODUCTION TO GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY…

1. TENSE…

1. past

2. present

3. future

2. ASPECT..

1. perfective

2. imperfective

3. perfect

4. completive

5. inceptive

6. inchoative

7. punctual

8. progressive

9. iterative

10.habitual

difference between tense and aspect3. MOOD

1. epistemic modality

2. deontic modality

4. EVIDENTIALITY...

References … www.facebook.com/zubair.A.bajwa

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Grammatical category (also referred to as grammatical features) is a property of items in

grammar. It has a number of possible values. Examples of frequently encountered grammatical

categories include

• Tense (which may take values such as present, past, etc.)

• number (with values such as singular, plural)

• Gender (with values such as masculine, feminine and neuter).

INTRODUCTION TO GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY

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In English there are three grammatical paradigms that relate to the domains of time and reality.

Tense – expression of the time of a situation in relation to a reference point, usually

the time a clause is uttered (the present)

Aspect – expression of the internal temporal “shape” of a situation

Mode – expression of the speaker’s “attitude” toward the information expressed in a clause,

particularly the speaker’s commitment to the situation’s truth, likelihood, or necessity.

Domain of time and reality

Tense Aspect Mood

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The relationship between form and meaning in the TAM systems of English

Verbs may refer to

Event State

i.e. happeningsWith a definite beginning and end

For example: get, come, leave, hit

i.e. state of affairs which continues over a period And need not a definite beginning and end

For example; be, know, stay, live

1.TENSE

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TENSE5

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Tense is the grammatical expression of relative time. Situations are often anchored in

relation to a reference point, usually the moment the clause is spoken, i.e., “now.” If we think of

time as a line, with “now” represented by a point moving from left to right, we can imagine

relative time in terms this figure.

English verbs have three morphological forms that are usually described as “present

tense” (two forms) and “past tense”.

USAGE OF PRESENT TENSE5

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The following examples illustrate some of the usages of the morphological present tense

“now” (STATES)

o You know how much I love you.

o His ears are huge.

“performative present”

o She moves the chair.

o He breaks the cup.

“habitually over a period of time that includes ‘now’”

o His son walks to school.

o He sometimes kicks his legs when he doesn’t know what I’m

doing.

“future, the planning of which includes ‘now’”

o Tomorrow I leave for Lahore.

o I mean he kicks them out in two weeks.

“possible/probable conditional future situation”

o I’ll have to tell him when he comes.

o I’m taking it with me when I leave.

The grammatical “present tense” of English is often used to refer to situations that are in the future.

Future time is also part of the meaning of most of the modal auxiliaries.

USAGE OF PAST TENSE5

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The most common function of past tense is clearly to refer to completed situations presented as occurring before

the time of speaking, as represented in the examples:

“before now” or “true past”

o You knew that they both had to agree. STATES

o It was rather short notice.

o We were at the last meeting.

o I told them where they could get it. ACTIONS

“polite request for a reminder”

o What was your name again?

o Whose turn was it this time?

“hypothetical conditional (past)”

o They knew they could not replace anybody if they gave the sack.

o If you asked for trouble, you got it.

“hypothetical conditional (present)”

o I wouldn’t live with your father if he took drugs.

“hypothetical conditional (future)”

o If you gave me a fiver I’d be grateful.

o I expect you could really make a mess if you tried.

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ASPECT5

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• grammatical category

• expresses how an action, event or state, denoted by a verb, relates to the flow of time.

• refers to the internal temporal “shape” of actions or states (Comrie 1976).

• refers to the time dimension, but is not anchored relative to a particular point in time, as is

tense.

For example, certain situations are inherently stative, others are processes, some are more dynamic

(involve change and/or movement), while some are relatively static.

English has two constructions whose prototypical function is to adjust the aspect of

an expression.

• progressive construction

• perfect aspect construction.

Progressive construction Perfect aspect construction

Past tense I was just preparing my assignment. I had just prepared my assignment.

Present Tense I am just preparing my assignment. I have just prepared my assignment.

Future Tense I will just be preparing my assignment. I will have just prepared my assignment.

be VERB-ing

have VERB-en

• Particular kinds of situations can have their own INHERENT ASPECT

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The aspect of other clauses is determined by other factors, such as o inherent aspect of the situation describedo syntactic context, the characteristics of the participants involvedo presence of adverbial elements, such as particles, adverbs, and prepositional phrases.

The major division in the conceptual domain of temporal shape is between perfective, imperfective, and perfect aspects.

three major categories

Time line

Notations

Unbounded time

I

( )

x

Boundary of an action

A punctual action

Boundary of a state

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In perfective aspect a situation is viewed in its entirety, including its beginning, middle, and completion.

‘He wrote a letter.’

2.2 Imperfective

2.1 Perfective

In imperfective aspects a situation is viewed from the “inside,” as an ongoing state or process. Habitual, progressive, and iterative aspects are all subtypes of imperfective.

‘He writes letters.’

2.3 Perfect

Perfect aspect normally describes a currently relevant state that results from the situation (normally an action) expressed by the verb:

‘My friend has come from Dubai.’

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2.4 Completive

COMPLETIVE ASPECT expresses the completion of an action. Sometimes completive and

inceptive are called phasal aspects, because they refer to different temporal “phases” of the action

described by the verb:

She finished working.

2.5 Inceptive

Inceptive aspect expresses the starting phase of an action:

She began to work.The phasal aspects are mostly

expressed in English via lexical verbs

such as finish, stop, start, begin,

commence, and perhaps keep on plus

a clausal Object.2.6 Inchoative

Inchoative aspect describes the event of entering into a state:

Inchoation is expressed by

become, fall, get, turn, grow, and

wax.

‘She got tired.’

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PUNCTUAL actions are those which have no internal temporal structure because they

occur in an instant in time.

2.7 Punctual

‘He sneezed.’x

2.8 Progressive

PROGRESSIVE (or continuative) aspect is a subtype of imperfective. Actions in progressive aspect are ongoing, dynamic processes. They prototypically involve movement and change.

He is writing letters.

Progressive aspect is directly expressed in English via the progressive construction

2.9 Iterative

ITERATIVE ASPECT is when a punctual action takes place several times in succession.

And you’re coughing all night, keeping everybody awake?I was coughing at work.

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2.10 Habitual

HABITUAL ASPECT asserts that a certain action, such as Waldo walking to school, regularly takes place from time to time. It does not assert that an instance of the action is taking place at the time of speaking, or any other specific reference time, though it may incidentally.

‘He walks to school.’

• Habitual is the default aspect expressed by the simple “present tense” for dynamic verbs in English.

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Time

TenseAspect

Past

Present

Future

Perfect Perfective Imperfective

Phasal Non-Phasal

Inceptive Completive Inchoative

PuntualNon-Punctual

Progressive Gnomic

Continuative Repetitive

Iterative Habitual

HIERARCHICAL REPRESENTATION

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TENSE AND ASPECT5

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Tense Aspect

Both convey information about time

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.

refers to temporally when aspect refers to temporally how

tense indicates its location in time. 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.,

For example, "I eat", "I am eating", "I have eaten", and "I have been eating". All are in the present tense, yet each conveys different information or points of view as to how the action relate to the present. They differ in aspect.

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3. MODALITY

MODALITY5

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MODALITY is a complex conceptual domain that covers a wide range of possible speaker’s

attitudes or orientations toward a situation. These include the speaker’s belief in the reality,

necessity, or likelihood of the situation described.

In English, modality is expressed most directly by the modal auxiliaries.

Two subdivisions within modality

describes the speaker’s perception as to how “real” a situation is, or how confident the speaker is in the truth of the assertion.

1. EPISTEMIC MODALITY

describes the speaker’s perception as to how “necessary” a situation is.

2. DEONTIC MODALITY

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Most of the modal auxiliaries in English have both epistemic and deontic functions, though some tend to express one more than the other. Here is a selection of examples of each modal auxiliary, functioning to express a variety of modal notions:

Epistemic modalityPossibility: I might borrow Slumbat’s car this weekend.

It might rain tonight.

They may just want to ask us some questions.

Probability: They should be here by 3:00.

Prediction: They will be here at 6:00 pm.

Ability: Mariela can sing the alto part to the Hallelujah chorus.

Contingent/conditional: I could make spaghetti, if you make a salad.

Give her that gift and she would be in seventh heaven.

Assumption: They must be worried about you.

That ought to be enough curry for this recipe.

The output has to equal the input.

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Deontic ModalityPermission: You can go now.

The defendant may be seated.

Suggestion: You might just send her a card.

Slight obligation: I should eat more green vegetables.

You’d better pick somebody else.

Stronger obligation: They ought to be more polite to her family.

Insistence: He must stop chewing his fingernails.

They have to submit the application by next Tuesday.

You’d BETTER get over here right now!

HIERARCHY OF MODALITY5

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Modality

Epistemic Actuality

Evdiential Validational Conditional Deontic Hypothetical Optative

Direct Hearsay inferential

Sure Unsure

strong Medium Weak

4. EVIDENTIALITY

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EVIDENTIALITY5

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Deals with how speakers let hearers know how they obtained the information expressed in a

clause.

People have different attitudes toward knowledge partially because they obtain knowledge

from different sources

evidentiality is closely tied to tense, aspect, and mode.

For example, we are more likely to be sure of past actions than future actions, the completion of

perfective actions than of actions still in process, realis assertions than irrealis assertions.

The encoding into a language of the source of information being communicated, for

example to distinguish hearsay from something actually witnessed.

All languages have some means of specifying the source of information. European languages (such as Germanic and Romance languages) often indicate evidential-type information through modal verbs or other lexical words (adverbials) (English: reportedly) or phrases (English: it seems to me).

I hear that, I see that, I think that, as I hear, as I can see, as far as I understand, they say, it is said, it seems, it seems to me that, it looks like, it appears that, it turns out that, alleged, stated, allegedly, reportedly, obviously, etc.

Examples

REFERENCES5

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What is a grammatical category? - SIL.org

http://www-

01.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOflinguisticTerms/WhatIsAGrammaticalCategory.htm

Payne, E. Thomas. (2011). Time and Reality: Understanding English Grammar. London,

Cambridge University Press.

Binnick, Robert I. 2006. Aspect and aspectuality. The Handbook of English Linguistics,

ed.Bas Aarts & A. M. S. McMahon, 244–68. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect: An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related

Problems (Reprinted with corrections 1978, 1981) (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics).

Cambridge University Press. 1985. Tense (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics). Cambridge

University Press.

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FOR YOUR PATIENCE

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NO QUESTION IS ALSO NOT A BAD IDEA!