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THE VERB: MOOD

 

The category of mood in the present English verb has given rise to so many discussions, and has been treated in so many different ways, that it seems hardly possible to arrive at any more or less convincing and universally acceptable conclusion concerning it. Indeed, the only points in the sphere of mood which have not so far been disputed seem to be these: (a) there is a category of mood in Modern English, (b) there are at least two moods in the modern English verb, one of which is the indicative. As to the number of the other moods and as to their meanings and the names they ought to be given, opinions to-day are as far apart as ever. It is to be hoped that the new methods of objective linguistic investigation will do much to improve this state of things. Meanwhile we shall have to try to get at the roots of this divergence of views and to establish at least the starting points of an objective investigation. We shall have to begin with a definition of the category. Various definitions have been given of the category of mood. One of them (by Academician V.Vinogradov) is this: «Mood expresses the relation of the action to reality, as stated by the speaker.» This definition seems plausible on the whole, though the words «relation of the action to reality» may not be clear enough. What is meant here is that different moods express different degrees of reality of an action, viz. one mood represents it as actually taking (or having taken) place, while another represents it as merely conditional or desired, etc.

It should be noted at once that there are other ways of indicating the reality or possibility of an action, besides the verbal category of mood, viz. modal verbs (may, can, must, etc.), and modal words (perhaps, probably, etc.), which do not concern us here. All these phenomena fall under the very wide notion of modality, which is not confined to grammar but includes some parts of lexicology and of phonetics (intonation) as well.

In proceeding now to an analysis of moods in English, let us first state the main division, which has been universally recognized. This is the division of moods into the one which represents an action as real, i.e. as actually taking place (the indicative) as against that or those which represent it as non-real, i.e. as merely imaginary, conditional, etc.


Date: 2015-02-28; view: 661


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