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Examples of Verbal Processes of Increasing Length

1. I smiled at Susan. Susan was going pink (J. Braine); 2. Felix felt his heart beating. She was coming through the orchard with the dog (J. Galsworthy); 3. Nobody else was downstairs, except my aunt. She was reading the letters (E. Delefield); 4. I was waiting for the telephone all last night (A. Saxton); 5. I was now occupying Murdock's room during the few winter weeks when Murdock slept at home. (A. Cronin); 6. He was palpitating with excitement all through the succeeding months (F. Norris); 7. The Right Wing Leaders of the Labour Party are doing exactly what they accused the Tories of doing in the years when Hitler was preparing war (D. Worker); 8. In the fourteenth century the Italians %vere expressing themselves in daggers and verse (J. Galsworthy); 9. They went up to the small munching woodman and asked him where the glades were leading (Th. White) (See also Examples 4 and 5 on page 42).

Concrete Processes. Concrete processes taking place at a certain moment of the past (~’~/~.~) are denoted by verbs in the Past Dynam­ic in about 58% of all its uses (see pp. 109—113).

Examples of Abstract Processes: 1. Even though she was out of school now, she was clerking as before and dressing as before (Th. Dreiser); 2. Her brother was doing the literature course as a preliminary to law (R. Graves); 3. Even then he did not change his habits; for he was drink­ing and playing cards half the day and night (O'Henry); 4. Walter, whom she now greatly admired, was going with a girl by the name of Edna Strong. He often took Edna and some of his friends to boathouse resorts on the Little Shark River (Th. Dreiser); 5. Joseph turned to stare now at a photogravure of a large square-rigged sailing-vessel. It was hanging on the wall in a stained pitch-pine frame under glass (E. James); 6. He knew that they were at their old gayeties. Pullmans were hauling them to and fro, papers were greeting them with inter­esting mentions, the elegant lobbies of hotels and the glow of polished diningrooms were keeping them close within the walled city (Th. Drei­ser); 7- A few ragged remnants of the old forest stood in the woods and'a few of the still older trunks were lying about as dead logs in the brushwood (E. Seton-Thompson); 8. He told me about his difficulties. It appeared that he was making a bare living at times, at others doing very well (Th. Dreiser); 9. Still an active woman, she was managing the household ably (A. Cronin); 10. "Now when I went to that medical school down at Penn," Doc Appleton said, "they thought, you know, a country boy, dumb. After that first year they weren't saying so dumb any more" (J. Updike); 11. Thackerey was seeing a lot of Graham these days (A. Kingsley); 12. He was exhausted. He was working too hard, sleepeng little, and eating nothing (W. S. Maugham); 13. When we met, John Galsworthy asked me technical questions about soldier-slang — he was writing a war play and wanted it to be accurate (R. Graves); 14. Within three days he was ill, though no one had seen the disease before. His temperature went up; he was vomiting, he had diarrhoea, blood spots were forming under his skin (C. P. Snow).



 

THE PAST DYNAMIC TO REFER

TO SIMULTANEOUS PROCESSES

 

The patterns of relative position and lengths of simultaneous pro­cesses denoted by verbs in the Past Dynamic (~~) and the Past Static (- ׳ ×) tenses can be represented graphically as follows:

(1) ~.~ , ~’~ the so called "time frame" (58% of all the uses of
the Past Dynamic);

(2) __

~~ , ~~ , ~~ — synchronous processes;

(3) __

~~ , ~~ — the length of a process denoted by a verb in the Past Static is greater than that denoted by a verb in the Past Dynam­ic (See Ex. 1—3 on p. 20).

(4)~~’,‘~~ , ~~. , .~~ — a process denoted by a verb in the Past Dynamic ends or begins at' the moment when a process denoted by a verb in the Past Static takes place.

Simultaneous processes are mostly expressed in different sentences as well as in sentences with an attributive, object, or a time clause introduced by the conjunction when-, as-, or while.

Simultaneous Processes (~.~ , ~’~) in Different Sentences and Sen­tences with Attributive, Object and Independent Clauses:

In Different Sentences: 1. I felt his pulse. It was beating quickly and feebly (W. S. Maugham); 2. The atmosphere was so close that she stayed for a moment by the door. A very large fire was burning. The room was exceedingly hot (H. Walpole); 3. They saw Joe coming down the hill with the gasoline man. Each was carrying a can (D. Russell); 4. I stormed out of the house. The chief was sitting at home as comfortable as you please (W. Guin).

In Sentences with an Attributive Clause: 1. We went back and then worked our way into the crowd that were crossing the bridge (E. Heming-

way); 2. He gulped the tea that was practically boiling (D. Cusack); 3. She grabbed the waiter who was passing (W. S. Maugham).

In Sentences with an Object Clause: 1. Then they saw that she was crying (W. S. Maugham); 2. He saw that his hand was trembling (E. Hem­ingway); 3. On his way to the station he remembered that he was taking nothing to the kiddies (K. Mansfield).

In Sentences with Independent Clauses: 1. I discovered the bell-handle with difficulty, it was growing so dark (Ch. Dickens); 2. She lifted the cup to her mouth but her hand was shaking (J. Braine); 3. I looked up. A young man was standing scowling over us (J. Braine); 4. Then he saw Jan. She was leaning against the wall of the baggage-shed near the end of the wharf (D. Cusack).

Synchronous Processes:

l."I did not know what I was doing" (M. Mitchell); 2. "Doctor," the sister was asking in a voice whose urgency matched his own (D. Cusack); 3. The clouds were breaking and a golden misty sunset was pouring into the garden. The raindrops on the brilliantly green trees glittered widly and all the birds were singing at the tops of their voices (G. Gibbons).

 


Date: 2015-12-11; view: 680


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