Sentences with Included Clauses

Of 47 sentences with an Included Clause 32 contain a Subject Clause and 15 (32%) a Predicative Clause. Examples:

1. "Throw some pebbles in the water." — "That's what I've been doing" (A. Saxton); 2. "You look as though you've been sleeping in a hollow log" (D. Cusack); 3. "Oh, Mat! That's what I've been trying to tell you all along" (E. O'Neill); 4. "What you've been doing is really horrible" (D. Parker); 5. That she has been making fun of him is beyond doubt (Mrs. Hungerford); 6. "What she has been saying to me has made me feel hopeless" (Th. Hardly).

VERBS USED IN THE BEFOREPRESENT DYNAMIC

431 verbs in the Beforepresent Dynamic is used on 50,000 pages of the sources analysed. The list that follows contains verbs used in the sources more than one time each:

do (152 times: 7.3%); think (138); talk (95); try (69); go (65: go+ + on — 27); look (61; look + for — 32; look + be — 7; look + for­ward —7); wait (58); work (54); tell (53); make (41); want (36); read (35); drink, have (34); say (32); live (31); get (25: get + become — 11); wonder (24); play, watch (23); keep (22); happen, see (19); feel, take (18); listen, sit (16); cry, study (15); ask (14); expect, mean, put (13); give, hear, stand (12); dream, hang, run, write (10); come, worry (9); fight, grow, practice, save, travel, use, walk (8); buy, call, pay, plan, sleep (7); act, carry, follow, help, hold, hope, speak (6); admire, behave, chaise, complain, discuss, fool, long, need, overwork, stay (5); build, dance, drive, fly, eat, intend, kill, knock, learn, lie (=recline), miss, ride, seek, sell, teach, throw, treat, visit (4); bite, bother, break, collect, consider, correspond, develop, die (=desire), figure, handle, lean, let, lie (=deceive), smoke, pester, plot, pretend, rest, rub, spend, support, turn, wish (3); allow, attend, avoid, beat, bicker, brag, clean, clear, count, court, crawl, cut, deal, debate, deceive, dig, drift, endeavour, enjoy, explain, fill, fish, fret, gallivant, gamble, hide, hit, hunt, hurt, insult, jump, loaf, neglect, nurse, observe, pet, pick, pitch, poke, pound, pull, quarrel, reproach, ring, rise, scheme, search, send, show, sing, slave, spread, stare, starve, stick, strain, strive, swim, switch, threaten, train, waste (2).

The other 257 verbs are used in the Beforepresent Dynamic one time each. Among them are the verbs ail, appear, dread, fancy, imagine, know, and suffer.

It will be noticed that the verb most frequently used in the Before-present Dynamic is to do (152 times: 7.3%) and that such verbs as think, want, wonder, happen, see, feel, expect, mean, hear, worry, hope, admire, long, need, intend, wish are also very frequent in this tense. As to ail, appear, fancy, imagine, know, and suffer, they are on the same frequency level as attack, bathe, bring, change, dine, dress, enter, fall, feed, finish, laugh, march, move, phone, prepare, rain, shave, washand the like.

Examples:

To Think. The verb to think in the Beforepresent Dynamic is used in the variant meaning to turn over in the mind, ponder:

1. "I've been thinking of you a great deal" (D. Carter); 2. "I mean it. I've been thinking it over" (H. G. Wells); 3. "Ever since I saw you last I have been thinking, thinking" (Th. Dreiser).

To Want: 1. "I've been wanting to talk to you" (Th. White); 2. "I've been wanting to say this for ages" (H. Walpole); 3 "What's the matter with you? I've been wanting to ask you" (D. Carter); 4. "Why don't you come and see me?" — "I will," said Carrie."Really, I've been want­ing to come" (Th. Dreiser); 5. "I've long been wanting to write something real. I think I've done it" (Sh. Anderson) 6. "Ever since I came home, I have been wanting this, too" (M. Wilson).

To Wonder: 1. "I like you so much that I have been wondering if you really like me" (Th. Dreiser); 2. "I've been wondering about that and intend to get to the bottom of it some day" (A. Clark); 3. He took Rond-er aside: "My wife and I have been wondering whether you'd honour us on the twenty-fifth" (H. Walpole); 4. "It's a silly meaningless ex­pression and I have been wondering where I might have heard it" (M. Wil­son); 5. "Hilma," he said, "I have been wondering lately about things"

(F. Norris); 6. "Have you been wondering about that ever since?" (A. Sax­ton).

To Happen: 1. "It's no use ranting, Jean. I know exactly what's been happening" (G. Gordon); 2. "So lots of things have been happening to you!" (G. Gordon); 3. "I don't know what's been happening to me lately" (H. Walpole).

To See. Of 19 instances the verb to see is used 14 times in the mean­ing to meet and converse and 5 times in the meaning to perceive with one's eyes or with one's mind's eye or to watch, as in:

1. "I've been seeing her. She is very ill" (H. Walpole); 2. "I've been reading about you and seeing your picture in the papers here" (Th. Drei­ser); 3. "His face has got more genuine idiocy in it than I've seen around here yet, and God knows I've been seeing miracles in that line this summer" (B. Tarkington); 4. "She has been seeing visions again" (D. du Maurier); 5. "I've been seeing spots all day" (J. Galsworthy); 6. "Who the hell asked you to save my life? I came east to be killed." — "You've been seeing war-films" (G. Greene).

To Feel: 1. "I'm glad you told me. I've been feeling unhappy all dinner" (J. Galsworthy); 2. "I've been feeling too unwell" (D. du Mauri­er); 3. "What is it, Savina?" — "It's the way you've been feeling the past few months" (M. Wilson).

To Expect: 1. "Where have you been?" he asked. "I have been expect-
ing you" (Th. Dreiser); 2. "Father, do you know that he is bound to
come?" — "I have been expecting it" (Th. White); 3. "I saw your friend
Watton."—"I've been expecting him to come along," he said, trying to
appear casual (J. Lindsay). . ,

To Mean (=intend): 1. "Granny, dear, I've been meaning to tell you — Derek and I are engaged" (J. Galsworthy); 2. "I've been meaning to say something to you about that, but I haven't known how" (A. Kjng-sley); 3. "We must turn those old books out. I've been meaning to for ages" (H. Walpole).

To Hear: 1. "Listen, I've been hearing about you from old man Demp-sey" (M. Wilson); 2. "We've been hearing from Stanley" (J. Galsworthy); 3. "How are we doing, Dexter? Still keeping the old flag high? Carrying on the fight? That's it!" — Ron laughed with him. "You've been hear­ing things," he told the old man (H. Smith); 4. "I'm afraid Anna's gone out." — "So I've just been hearing" (A. Kingsley); 5. "This cures every­thing," the doctor said.— "Except old age." — "I have been hearing about old age too long to take it seriously" (I. Stone); 6. "Time and tide wait for no man." — "I have been hearing that time and tide line all my life, and I don't know what it means" (J. Updike).

To Worry: 1. "Don't worry." — "Oh, I haven't been worrying, Frank" (Th. Dreiser); 2. "I have no home." — "Yes, you have. We've been wor­rying about you" (J. Braine); 3. "I don't understand lawyers, but if they say it's all right, I'm glad. I've been worrying" (J. Galswor­thy).

To Hope: 1. "Won't you be seated, Miss Thompson? I've been hoping to have another talk with you" (W. S. Maugham); 2. "And we've been hoping that, today you would tell us just what you think of it" (E. Whar-

ton); 3. "Ever since we have been living here, Mother and I have been hoping to see the owner of this adorable place" (Th. Dreiser).

To Admire: 1. "She has just been admiring your red jar" (Miss Yonge); 2. "I've been admiring your craft ever since she came in sight. Looks like a fast sailer. What's her tonnage?" (O'Henry); 3. "I have been admir­ing your management of him!" (G. Meredith).

To Long: 1. "She held out her face for a kiss. "I've been longing for that" (J. Braine); 2. "I'll make you a cup of tea. I have been longing for one myself" (D. Cusack); 3. "You are mine, Clara. I have been long­ing for you, looking forward" (G. Meredith).

To Need: 1. "You've done fine. You gave us just the push we've been needing" (A Kingsley); 2. "You owe your career to Arthur. He has been needing you badly." — " Needing me?" (Th. White); 3. "We'll need to see about putting some flesh on these thin arms of yours. You've been needing someone to look after you" (A. Cronin).

To Intend. To Wish: 1. "I heard the other day that he has the Front Street line but I didn't believe it. I've been intending to ask you about it" (Th. Dreiser); 2. "The truth is, my dear, I've been intending to write you, but I've been rushed to death" (Th. Dreiser); 3. "All the time you've been lying upstairs ill I have been wishing that we were on the same side in politics" (H. Hill); 4. "But ever since I saw you at my uncle's last April, I've been wishing I might see you again" (Th. Dreiser).

To Hurt. To Ail. To Dread: 1. "People have been hurting her all her life" (K- Mansfield); 2. "I told the doctor about my old lady. She's been ailing for a couple of years" (R. Lardner); 3. "I have been dreading the ordeal of facing her" (H. Hill).

To Appear. To Fancy. To Imagine. To Know. To Suffer: 1. The indict­ment against twenty-three Africans who have been appearing in the High Court here on charges of public violence was withdrawn by the prosecutor (D. Worker); 2. "It seems to me there is music in the air. I've been fancying I heard it for a minute or two. There! No — yes. It's a band, isn't it?" (B. Tarkington); 3. "But do you know, I've been im­agining myself talking to you like this for years" (Th. Dreiser); 4. "But I must go — all this has only made sure what I have been knowing this long time" (H. Walpole); 5. "Ah, forgive me. But we've had such a hideous journey." —"Have I been wrong?" thought I. "Have they been suffering on the journey?" (K- Mansfield).

Verbs in Beforepresent Dynamic and Beforepresent Staticto Repre­sent Verbal Processes Without Emphasis on Their Limits. In principle, most verbs in the Beforepresent Static can be used to represent verbal processes without emphasis placed on their limits. Compare, for instance, the following two sentences:

"How quickly you have changed" (J. Braine) // Like any living language, English does grow and change as it has grown and changed for centuries (J. Warriner).

In the first sentence the process is represented with its limits empha­sized, in the second without such emphasis on them. The decisive fac­tor being the context.

Processes in a period of time anterior to the present are also repre-

sented by verbs in the Beforepresent Dynamic, which makes possible such oppositions as:

Like any living language, English does grow and change as it has grown and changed for centuries (J. Warriner) // Our language has been and is changing constantly (Ch. C. Fries).

In the above examples the verbal processes are terminative. For non-terminative processes such oppositions are still more common, for example:

"I've waited seven years for this" (J. Galsworthy) // "I've been wait­ing for something as nice as this and now here it is" (A. Kingsley).

The fact that two tenses can be used in certain cases to refer to the same process is not, however, an indication of equality of their mean­ings. Compare, for instance, the two ways a Russian mother may use when she is telling her child to walk a bit more yet: Гуляй, гуляй! Гуляй еще!//Погуляй, погуляй! Погуляй еще! Гуляй and погуляй are forms of the Imperfective and Perfective aspects. The possibility of using the two aspects when referring in certain situations to certain processes does not at all mean that they have the same content, nor that Гуляй, гуляй! conveys the same information as Погуляй, погуляй! It only means that in cases like this two representations in speech of the same verbal process which do not basically change the information conveyed are possible. The difference in the representation of processes without any emphasis placed on their limits by verbs in the Beforepres­ent Static and Dynamic is established in English by Aspectual Mod­els II and III (see pages 37—38, 39—40).

The list below is an illustration of some of the verbs used both in Beforepresent Static and Beforepresent Dynamic to refer to single-act processes represented with no emphasis on their limits:

admire, attend (to take charge of), avoid, behave, bother, build, bully, bury, carry, change, condition, console, develop, dig, do (+well, badly), dog (follow), dream, enjoy, expect, fancy, feel, fight, follow, get (become), get (+on, along), go, grow (become), handle, have, hope, keep, know, lead, learn, lie, listen, live, long, look, mark, mine, miss (+one), mope, move, need, neglect, operate, oppose, owe, rain, read, ride, serve, sit, slave, sleep, spoil, stand, starve, stay, study, suffer, take (+care), teach, think, threaten, treat, try, use, wait, want, watch, wear, wish, wonder, work, worry, worship.

Miscellaneous

Adverbialsof Manner with the Beforepresent Dynamic (4%): 1. "No one's been pressing him very hard" (H. Walpole); 2. "She's been sleeping badly" (H. Walpole); 3. "To tell you the truth, I rather expected it. We have been going too fast, you and I" (Th. Dreiser); 4. "Say, Georgie, I hate to think of how we've been drifting apart" (S. Lewis); 5. "I have been chattering away so thoughtlessly" (Ch. Dickens).

Referencesto Factsof Objective Reality: 1. "Well, to speak of plain facts, she's been avoiding me" (J. Lindsay); 2. "The fact is that I've been buying street-railway stocks" (Th. Dreiser); 3. "To some extent I've,

in fact, been following this course" (J. Lindsay); 4. "As a matter of fact, I have been meaning to get myself a few cdds and ends" (W. S. Maugham).

Referenceto Processes not Controlled Consciously by the Subject. In

the sources analysed the Beforepresent Dynamic refers to consci­ously controlled processes only in 78.7% of its uses. In 21.3% pro­cesses denoted by verbs in the Beforepresent Dynamic are not con­sciously controlled, 5.8% of all the uses of the tense being actions and states of inanimate things.

Inanimate Things: 1. "I should have explained at the beginning that planet В has been attracting the finest brains of planet A" (A. Clark);

2."Do you know how long the cinema has been going?" (J. Galsworthy);

3."That pack of yours has been hitting my back" (J. Aldridge); 4. "This phone's been ringing ever since the newspaper came out" (R. Gehman).

5. "Thermal contraction in the motors," the pilot of the spaceship replied.
"They've been running round five thousand degrees and cool mighty
fast" (A. Clark); 6. "Well, what am I thinking of! Why, the car's been
waiting all the time" (D. Parker).

Processes not Controlled by Living Beings: 1. "What sort of weather have you been having?" (S. Leacock); 2. "Are you all right?" — "I've been having some pains" (E. Hemingway); 3. "You have been looking wretched lately. Is there anything the matter?" (Th. White); 4. "Ever since I gave up smoking I've been putting on weight" (J. Lindsay); 5."You. have been talking in your sleep. Are you all right?" (E. Hemingway);

6. "We've been starving" (S. Lewis).

Successive -ing Forms: 1. "You have been sitting staring at him the whole time" (A. Munthe); 2. "I've been sitting, talking to a friend" (E. Hem­ingway); 3. "I like the cool way you assume that I've been sitting here waiting for you to crook your little finger" (J. Braine).

Exclamatory Sentences with the Word Order of Interrgoative Sen­tences: "True," she murmured. "What have I been thinking of!" (Th. Hardy); "Well, where have you been hiding all this time!" (D. Carter).

To be Going + Infinitive (0.1%): "Jim! I've been going to ask you! Do you think it's possible that Irene herself has already told little Michael?" (D. Carter): Everybody knows I've been going to see her (E. Caldwell).

Reference to People Who Are Dead: His servant woman burst into the studio, crying: "Sangallo is dead!" — "Dead? He has been building in Terni" (I. Stone); "She's been talking of suicide, it's bound to have been a suicide" (W. S. Maugham).

Stage Directions (0.31%: see page 53): 1. He shambles in with the intensive weariness of a man who for hours has been forcing benumb­ed limbs to move (A. Sutro); 2. The two actors depart, but Miss Hellg-row runs from where she has been lingering, by the curtain, to Vane, stage Right (J. Galsworthy); 3. The surgery bell has been signalling for Alleluia — by giving two quick, consecutive rings — several times (O'Casey); 4. The weather is cloudy — it has been raining and is likely to start again (A. Wesker); 5. Lickcheese, who has been waiting at the door, instantly comes in (B. Shaw).

THE BEFOREPAST DYNAMIC

The Beforepast Dynamic is ninth in frequency in fiction (0.17%) and practically not used in technical literature. It is used to refer to any process located to the left from the speaker's mental past or any other past-time process which, initially, has been his mental past. Processes denoted by verbs in the Beforepast Dynamic may be of any length; the distance between them and the processes of reference may be from sev­eral instants to practically unlimited; they can be exclusive or inclu­sive (see Examples (a) — 9:10, page 45); (b) — 9:10, page 45; (a) — 8:9, page 45; (b)—6, page 45); isolated or sequent with other processes; relevant or irrelevant at the moment of reference. The Beforepast Dynamic is mainly (89.5%) used in the author's speech, 10.5% being instances of use in Inner Monologue and dialogue. The Tense is opposed to the Beforepast Static by Models 1(44%), 11(52,2%) and III and IV (3.8%).

As in the case of the Beforepast Static the time content of anteriority of the Beforepast Dynamic is evident, especially in such examples as:

1. He was doing dictation. He had evidently been doing his dicta­tion well and the old gentleman was in good humour (Th. Wolfe); 2. He was drinking now to forget the fact that he had been drinking (J. Ald-ridge); 3. Apart from what Clyde had been and still was dreaming in regard to her, Sondra was truly taken with thoughts and moods in re­gard to him (Th. Dreiser); 4. He mingled with a crowd of men — a crowd which had been, and was still gathering by degrees (Th. Dreiser); 5. He became suddenly aware that she was speaking and that she had been speaking for some time (J. London); 6. But the next case was called and soon engrossed the interest of the audience. It was that of the two housebreakers whom Cowperwood had been and was still studying with much curiosity (Th. Dreiser).

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 634