Grammatical categories refer to the types of grammatical information expressed in a language.

Languages differ widely in terms of notions they choose to grammaticalize. In English the nine items of
grammatical information(tense, aspect, voice, mood, number, person, gender, case, comparison ) are
expressed by syntactic and by analytic means.

Tense is a grammatical category which is expressed by verb inflection (present and past tense). Since
English has no future inflected form of the verbs, the threefold semnatic opposition (present past,
future) is reduced to two tenses: the present tense and the past tense.

The state present is used with stative verbs senses to refer to a single unbroken state of affairs that
existed in the past, exist now and is likely to continue to exist in the future. It includes the ‘timeless
present’ which refers to ‘eternal truths’ such as general truths (Silver is more valuable than gold)and
cognition truth (Two and two is four). It also includes more restricted time spans: We live near Toronto.
The soup tastes delicious.

The habitual present is used with dynamic verb senses to refer to events that occur repetedly (Joh goes
to New York every year)

The instantenous present refers to the speech time, it describes a single evet that occurs at the time of
speaking or writing. It is used in certain restricted situations , In performative sentences (You are under
arrest) and in oral communication, in case simultaneous narration (Now he opens the door and…)
commentaries (Smith shoots and its goal)demonstrations (I now press this buttom) exclamations (Here
comes the winner).

The present tense can have a non-specific temporal reference, it can be used to refer to the
past(historical present- Plane crashes, Just as we arrived, up comes Ben and slaps me on the back as if
we are life-long friends) or the future. In main clauses the simple present occurs to suggest that the
future vent is certain to take place (The plane leaves at 5 o’clock). The use of simle present for future
time is more common in subordinate clauses, particularly in conditional (If I pay, he will come) and in
temporal cluases (Call me when you arrive there)

The past tense combine two features of meaning : the event/state must have taken place in the past
with a gap between the completion and the present moment. The speaker must have in mind a definite
moment when the event took place. The EVENT PAST is used with dynamic verbs senses to refer to a
single definite event in the past(Mary left at 8 a.m). The habitual past is used with dynamic verb senses
to refer to past events that repeatedly occur (We spent our holidays in Spain when we were children).
The STATE PAST is used with stative verb senses to describe a single unbroken state of affairs in the past
(I once liked reading novels).

The past tense can be used with past perfect reading (I turned the lights off before I went). It may refer
to the present time, in syntactic constraints (backshifting in indirect speech She said she knew you and in
subjunctive-hypothetical past: If you knew him you wouldn’t say that) and in case of attitudinal past-
used to refer more tentatively to a present state of affairs (Did you want to talk to me)
Aspect is a grammatical category which stands for the different ways of viewing the internal temporal
constituency of a situation. It is a matter of the speaker’s viewpoint or prespective on the situation, such
as whether the situation is viewed as ongoing, completed, beginning, ending or repeating.

The HABITUAL aspect has only past time reference, it is expressed with the structure : used to

John used to smoke two packs of cigarette (implied meaning: He no longer does it)

The PROSPECTIVE aspect connects the present and the future. Typically, the prospective meaning is
expressed with the following structures: (be about to, to be on the point of –they have an inchoative
meaning, they describe the subjects present state relative to some future event : She was on the point
of bursting into tears)to be going to (inchoative meaning, unlike other expressions of futurity, it has no
straightforward future time reference, it refers to the future result of the present intention: I am going
to have my house redecorated or present cause: Look at the clouds! It is going to rain!)

The primary function of the PROGRESSIVE or continuous aspect is to describe situations seen as
developing processes whose individual phases are essentially different from one another. In
consequence, it may imply that the situation has limited duration and it is not necessarily completed ( I
am watching a film).

The secondary functions of the progressive aspect are to express:

A. temporariness (type of behavior with limited duration)

John is being rude (on this particular occasion)

John is rude ( a permanent feature)

B. incomplete events

I was reading a book last night/ I read a book last night

The past progressive suggests that the book was perphaps not finised. In contrast, the simple past
indicates that I had finished reading the book

C. habitual situations holding for a relatively limited period of time

At the time she was having singing lessons

D. emotional connotations

You are always coming late for this class (The speaker is irritated)

E. iterative meaning (punctual verbs- describe the repetition of similar events)

I was jumping for joy.

While aspect is concerned with the different ways of representing the internal temporal constituency of
a situation, the perfect is rather different since it says nothing directly about the situation itself, but
rather relates some present state/ effect to some previous situation or cause.

I lost my pen 10 minutes ago-the past tense locates the event on the past time axis

I have lost my wallet (I have no money) lays focus on the present effect of the previous cause

Perfect of result- the present state referred to is the result of some past event

I have fixed the TV (It is working)

Experiential perfect indicates that a given situation has held at least once some time in the past leading
up to the present.

Bill has been to America

Perfect of persistent situation:

Refers to a situation that started in the past and continued until now

I have been learning English for 10 years

Perfect of recent past

Is used when the present relevance of the past situation referred to is merely one of temporal closeness

I have just met John

Voice is a grammatical category that describes the relationship between the action that the verb
expresses and the subject of the sentence. Voice is an indicator of whether the subject is perfoming the
action (active voice- John beats Jack) or whether the subject is being affected by the action (passive
voice-jack was beaten by John).

In English, there are two types of voice, an active voice which is unmarked and a passive voice which
has morhosyntactic realization.

The passive transformation involes

 The use of a particular complex finite verb phrase (inflected form of the auxiliary verb ‘to be’+
past participle form of the main verb)
 Change in word order and a shift in the grammatical status of elements(the direct object in the
becomes the subject after passive transformation)
 The addition of an optional element (an agentive prepositional phrase)

Uses of the passive construction

  The agent of an action is not known

Our office was broken into last night

It is obvious who the agent is: John was arrested (obviously by the police)

 We want to avoid identifying the agent Some mistakes were made in the preparation of the
report
 Passive tends to be associated with the informational function of the language, it is considred to
be more impersonal, more objective than the active voice, therefore it is preferred in scientific
discourse

As a rule transitive verbs may occur in both active and passive constructions. The passive contraints may
be verb-related, object-related, agent-related, semantic or style-related.

Verb- related contsraints:

Transitive verbs in certain uses cannot be passivized

This colour becomes you

They have a nice house. John lacks confidence. He resembles his father.

Agent-related contsraints

The agent phrase is optional. The passive is the normal construction when the agent is difficult to specify
, when the agent is too obvious, or when the speaker prefers to leave the agent unspecified

Many people were killed during the war

He was born in 1987

John was accused of murder.

Object-related constraints

Passivization is impossible when the object is expressedby/ includes a reflexive, reciprocal, or possessive
pronoun

John hurt himself.

John and Jack hurt each other

He shook his head.

Semantic contrsaints- voice enables us to preserve the meaning

I cannot do it/ It cannot be done

St

Style constraints

 Passive tends to be associated with the informational function of the language, it is considred to
be more impersonal, more objective than the active voice, therefore it is preferred in scientific
discourse

MOOD

 grammatical category which stands for the linguistic means of expression used to refer to a
situation as factual or non-factual, real or unreal, assertive or non-assertive
 in English the mood-related distinction rests upon the finite non-finite distinction.

The finite verb forms (Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative)

 may have person and number distinctions
 Will necessarily pertain to the present/past or future time sphere
 Are context-dependent due to the high number of syncretic forms

The indicative

- Is used to refer to real, factual situations or assertions

- Has a full range of temporal references

The subjunctive

-occurs in contexts involving non-factuality

- as compared to the indicative mood which which expresses real, factual actions or states, the
Subjunctive mood is used to refer to possible, uncertain actions to happen in the future, unreal
actions for the past or hypothetical, uncertain actions for the present

Types of subjunctive

1. Mandative Subjunctive

-occurs in suboardinate clauses introduced by that, after a relatively small class of verbs (verba
dicendi- demand, ask, require, recollect, recommend) or after expressions of recommendation,
resolution, surprise

- it is used in formal style

The parlament voted that the present law be changed.

There was a suggestion that John be fired.

They demanded that John Come earlier.

 2. Formulaic subjunctive

- occurs in certain stereotyped, conventional or traditional phrases built on patterns of little

productivity in the language

Come what may

Heaven forbid

Long live the King!

So be it

Suffice it to say.

3. The ‘were’ Subjunctive (V- ed1)

- used to express factual remoteness in conjunction with conditional constructions introduced by if/
unless/ suppose/ supposing/ imagine

If I had the money, I would buy a car

- it also occurs in clauses functioning as complement to the verb wish or after constructions with
It’s high time, would rather, as if/ as though

I wish you were here.

It is time we went home.

I would rather you didn’t talk so much.

He looks as if he were a teenager ( in fact he is 30)

The present subjunctive has the form of the past tense simple in the indicative mood, except for the
verb ‘ to be ’ which only has the form were in standard English.

The perfect subjunctive has the form of the Past Perfect Simple Tense of the Indicative Mood and
expresses a desired but unreal past event.

I wish he had arrived in time (but he didn’t)

Sunjunctive equivalents

- Consist of modal verbs followed by the short infinitive – with present or future meaning
or by the perfect infinitive with past meaning:
- Should+ infinitive There was a suggestion that John should be fired. It is odd that he
should resign
- Would+ Infinitive: I wish you would behave
 - May+ infinitive
 - it is an alternative to formulaic subsunctive Long live our friendship- May our
friendship live long
 In sub- clauses it can express wish, purpose, comparison
 May you never set foot in this house again. Mary never eats sweets for fear that
she may gain weight. It looks as if it may rain.

The analytical subjunctive is chiefly used in the so –called that clauses which are cluases introduced by
the conjunction that. Such cluases are subject clauses (It is a surprise that he should say
something like that) and object cluases (They recommended that we should work
harder). Aditionally, purpose clases also use the analytical subjunctive (We came earliear
so that we should have enogh time to prepare the party.)

The infinitive constructions can also be used as subjunctive equivalents: There was a suggestion to fire
John. We hold hands not to get lost.

The Imperative (V)

 Etymologically, it performs a directive function , but the illocutionary force of the imperative
goes beyond requests and commands, it may express wanings, invitations, prohibitions, wishes,
imprecations (Go to hell), suggestions (Let’s go there
 Subjectless imperatives (Stop! Pay attention) occur in the most common types of directive
cluases, There are no tense, aspect or voice distinctions, rare exceptions are: Have done with it.
Be seated, Get lost
 Subject+ imperative: there are imperatives which retain their subject and which cannot combine
with politeness markers such as please: You be quiet, Speak up you, Somebidy answer the
phone! Everybody clap your hands!

Non- finite verb forms: infinitive, gerund, participle

Infinitive

1) Short/ plain/ bare infinitive

 Modals, perception verbs, causative make
 Modal idioms (would rather/ sooner/ Had better)
 Catenative verbs (help let)
 Why questions Why not go there?

2) Long/ to- infinitive

 Auxiliaries: ought to, have to, be to, used to
 Perception verbs in passive; He was seen to come
 Causative make in the passive I was made to do it
 Linking verbs: seem, appear, happen)He seemed to be upset
3. Infinitival constructions

 Accusative+ Infinitive: He wanted me to tell him a story. You make me laugh. I would like him to
come earlier.
 Nominative+ Infinitive: He was supposed to meet her. We were asked to continue our research
 For-to Infinitive It is time for you to go
 Absolute infinitival constructions: He left home, never to return

Gerund (V-ing)

Aspectual verbs: start, stop, finish, begin, quit

Phrasal verbs: give up, take up

Verbs followed by prepositions: He thought of leaving the town sooner than he planned

Verbs of feeling :like, enjoy, hate, love

Verbs like need, want, require, deserve in quasi-passive constructions: The roof needs repairing.

Impersonal constructions with introductory it: it’s no use crying over spilled milk

Words/ phrases like: busy, feel like, can’t bear, can’t stand He was busy writing letters

Constructions with the Gerund

 Genitive+ Gerund: I can’t stand your interfering all the time. She resented his taking all the
credit
 Accustaive+ Gerund: She resented him taking all the credit.

Participle

There are two forms of the English participle- the present participle and the past participle, which have
not only different forms but also different functions. The present participle (V-ing) is identical in form
with the gerund and its main use is to form the continuous aspect (Present continuous: He is entering
the room).

Present participle constructions:

 Accusative+ present participle: I saw him coming

 Nominative+ present participle: She was seen leaving the house
 Absolute present participle construction: Weather permitting, we wiil go on a trip. Your work is
quite good, considering that you are a beginner
 Prepositional Absolute present participle construction:The children were playing with their
mother watching them
The past participle (V-ed2) is used to form the perfect aspect after the auxiliary verb have (I have seen
Cindarella) and the passive voice after the auxiliary verb be (The bread was eaten).

Past participial constructions:

 Accusative+ past participle : he heard his name called/ he had his license suspended
 Absolute past participial construction: Our work done, we went al home.