Temporal Orientating Names

Temporal orientating names denote temporal coordinates of human activity. With respect to the regularity of their use with articles they are divided into absolute, which have no article in all positions (§ 1), relative, having no article in some patterns (§ 2).

§ 1. Absolute Temporal Names

No article is used with absolute temporal names in their primary function. These nouns comprise:

a)names of days of the week, e.g. Saturday;

b)names of months, e.g. January;

c) names of holidays and festivals, e.g. Christmas, etc.;

d)names of universal temporal notions, e.g. Greenwich Mean Time,British Summer Time.

Note: Articles with absolute temporal names render meanings common for other countable nouns:

a) the definite article singles out a day/a month of a particular week/year:

e.g. It must have been the Wednesday he came to see you.

b) the indefinite article denotes universal features of a day or a month:
e.g. He felt that hunting on a Monday - a working day - not a holiday in anybody's book- was a waste (M.Bragg).

EXERCISES

Exercise 47.

Read what is common to do on different holidays in England and compare it with what you do on those holidays.

- On Mother's Day people send cards to their mothers.

- On Women's Day I send a card to my mother.

1.At Christmas nearly everyone sends cards to friends and relations.

2.It's common to give flowers on Mother's Day.

3.It's common to give chocolate eggs at Easter.

4.It's common to send cards on St.Valentine's Day.

5.A Christmas tree stands in everybody's living-room at Christmas.

6.All English children hang a stocking in everybody's living room at Christmas.

7.On April Fool's Day people play practical jokes or small tricks on their friends.

8.People bake hot cross buns on Easter.

Exercise 48. Ask your friend:

a)what students usually organise on April Fool's Day;

b)how Englishmen prepare for Christmas;

c)why Easter is kept on different dates every year;

d)why people send cards on St.Valentine's Day;

e)what race takes place on Shrove Tuesday;

f)what he knows about St.David's Day;

g)when Mothering Day is kept in Great Britain.

Exercise 49. a) Do you know what is the principal festival of the Christian Church Year?

b)Read the passage about Easter and comment on people's usual preparations for Easter.

Easter is the principal festival of the Christian Church Year marking the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third year after his Crucification. It is celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon on or after March 21. Easter is preceded by the period of preparation called Lent.

c) Calculate on what date Easter falls this year.

Exercise 50. a) Have you read Susan Hill's novel 'The Woman in Black'? Discuss on what holiday the events described in this book may have taken place judging from the title.

b)Read the following review of Susan Hill's novel 'The Woman in Black' and decide why it's a good tale for Christmas Eve.

'It is Christmas Eve, and the children are telling ghost stories. They ask their stepfather, Arthur Kipps, to contribute a story but he declines, and becomes quite angry when they persist. Arthur does not consider ghost stories an amusing diversion. He recalls a harrowing episode 30 years earlier, when as a young lawyer, he was sent to the remote Eel Marsh House to sort out affairs of the recently deceased Mr. Drablow. As soon as he arrived he sensed a mystery at Eel Marsh House and the encounter with the Woman in Black showed that ghosts were no laughing matter (LC).

c) Decide what may have happened at Eel Marsh House.

Exercise 51. a) Do you like or dislike April Fool's Day?

b)Read the passage about April Fool's Day and decide why this holiday is still observed.

In the 16th century in France the start of the new year was observed on April 1. In 1562 when Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar the new year fell on January 1. People made fun of the 'April fools' who continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April 1. They even played tricks on them, often sending them on a 'fool's errand' or silly task (ELD).

c) Decide how you will observe April Fool's Day this year.

d)Discuss what kind people may dislike April Fool's Day.

Exercise 52. Speak on the following situations.

1.Make up a list of most popular British holidays. Compare them with the holidays in this country.

2.Ask each of your friends about his favourite holiday and explain their preferences.

3.Try to guess what holidays your teacher usually looks forward to. Ask the teacher if you are right in your conjecture.

4.Point out the most difficult day of the week for you and your fellow-students.

5.Decide with one of your friends what new holidays should be established in this country.

6.Discuss what holiday Canadians may celebrate on Discovery Day.

7.According to Oxford English Dictionary the first recorded written use of the word 'teenager' was in Popular Science Monthly in 1941. Point out three other new words that have appeared since World War II.

§ 2. Relative Temporal Names

Relative temporal names have an orientating function in certain syntactical patterns. They comprise:

- names of seasons {winter, spring, summer, autumn);

- names of meals {breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper);

- names of periods of the day {morning, afternoon, evening, night; dawn, daybreak, sunrise, dusk, sunset, nightfall, daytime, night-time,breakfast-time, break-lime, lunch-time, tea-time, supper-time, bed-time,etc.)

No article is used with relative temporal names in the following patterns:

1. In the function of the subject with predicates denoting the coming of a certain period (the verbs 'to fall', 'to gather', 'set in', 'come', 'serve'):

e.g. Night fell soon after the storm was over. Dinner will be served soon.

2. a) in the predicative function without descriptive attributes,

e.g. It was noon when the body of Tenessee was delivered into the bands of his Partner (Bret Hart).

b) no article is used in the predicative function with orientating attributes 'early', 'high', 'late':

e.g. It was early morning. It was late autumn.

c) no article is used with names of meals in the pattern 'to have breakfast {lunch, dinner, etc.).

Note: The indefinite article is used with predicative temporal names if they have descriptive attributes, e.g. It was a wet gloomy day.

3. No article is used in prepositional adverbial phrases:

a) - with names of periods of a day in the prepositional phrases denoting point of time {at midday, by midnight, past noon) which are synonymous with phrases denoting time {at 12 o'clock, by 12 o'clock);

- the definite article is used in the prepositional phrases denoting a period of time, - in/during - phrases:

e.g. in/during the morning; in the night, in the evening.

b) - with names of seasons in prepositional phrases the definite

article is optional, though the definite article tends to denote a particular season: e.g. in (the) winter;

- with names of seasons the definite article is obligatory in the patterns denoting years, e.g. in the winter of 1959;

c) names of meals usually have no article in prepositional phrases, e.g. before/at/after/for dinner, etc.

Note: The use of the definite and indefinite articles with relative temporal names in other patterns follows the rules common for countable nouns, e.g. The breakfast was well cooked. We all enjoyed the lunch.

4. The definite article has a tendency to disappear in some temporal phrases:

a) with the nouns 'quarter' and 'hour' in the phrases 'at (a) quarter to nine', 'half-hour' (half an hour);

b) with the noun 'term' in the phrases 'at the end of (the) term¹, 'in (the) summer term',

e.g. He is leaving school at the end of term and is now waiting for the examination results (B-Today).

c)with the noun 'time' in an orientating function,
e.g. 'It's closing time', he said (B-Today).

d) with the nouns 'time', 'days', 'weeks', 'months' 'years' when they are used with the verb 'pass',

e.g. Time passed. I waited. (I.Murdock).

EXERCISES

Exercise 53. Explain the use of articles with relative temporal names in the following sentences.

J. At 2.30 on the afternoon of Friday, July 13, his elderly secretary watched him get into a taxi (J.Fowles). 2. It was late afternoon before he came out of the delirium (J.London). 3. In the late morning there would be a terrier racing (M.Bragg). 4. About noon our attention was again arrested by the appearance of the Sun (E.Poe). 5. I suppose you're asking to spend the evening with you? 6. Winter set in with 'heavy fall of snow' (A.Cronin). 7. In winter the furrowy high waves would come steaming in (J.Wain). 8. It is very hot in the summer in Madrid. And how cold in winter (E.Hemingway). 9. For a whole winter the three of them had chased everything over the countryside (M.Bragg). 10. Winter dripped like a dog, the fog hardly left our dell. Winter in England has the colourless, steaming look of a fried fish shop window. 11. it was a hard summer for Martin (J.London).

Exercise 54. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences if necessary.

1. ... Autumn ..is staggering in. 2. They did very well ... last autumn. 3. I thought you were here for ... summer. 4. We said good-bye to one another and managed to meet in ... autumn. 5. By the end of... summer John was desperate. 6. On ... morning after his arrest he was tired. 7. A patient was brought there by the doctor himself early on ... Saturday morning. 8. I had had ... charming morning. 9. On ... misty, moonlight night Mr.Bretshaw rode up. 10. He decided to spend ... afternoon with his friends.

Exercise 55. Read the following passage and comment on your attitude to the author's opinion.

I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colours are richer and it is tinged a little with sorrow (L.Yutang).

Exercise 56. Ask your partner

a)what he has managed to do since morning;

b)if he has ever been in the fields at sunrise;

c)what happens in town towards sunset;

d)when heat is usually unbearable;

e)when he can enjoy the meditative silence of nature:

f)when and how the weather for the next day can be forecast;

g)about the most convenient period of the day for reading newspapers;

h) about the most convenient period of the day for watching horror films;

i) about the most convenient part of the day for doing the city.

Exercise 57. a) Do you know what kind of people usually have late dinners? Would you sacrifice dinner for the sake of your hobby?

c) Read the passage about the meals of theatre-goers and comment if their hobby is worth the sacrifice.

As the evening performances normally begin at 7.30 or 8 p.m. there is a kind of minor rush-hour between seven-fifteen and eight o'clock in the evening. The existing times make the question of eating a rather tricky problem: one has to have either early dinner or late supper. Many restaurants in the theatre-land ease the situation by catering specially for early or late diners (ABC-K).

d)Would you prefer early dinner or late supper under the circumstances described in the passage above.

Exercise 58. a) Do you know what is one of the greatest mysteries to foreign visitors in Britain?

b) Read the passage and comment why meals are considered a mystery to foreign visitors in Britain.

Breakfast, which was once taken at 5 o'clock in the morning, can now be at any time before 11.30. It has thus overtaken dinner. In Norman times - the 12th century - dinner was at 9 a.m.; by the 15th century it had moved to 11 a.m.; and today it can be eaten at any time between noon and 2.30 in the afternoon and is called by a larger proportion of population lunch. In the 14th century supper was at 4 o'clock, which is now called tea-time. But outside the south-east of England working families have tea or high tea at about 6 in the evening while the rest of fellow-countrymen have dinner which is often also called supper at about 7.30 p.m. (Anglia).

c) Decide if Englishmen will find meals in this country confusing.

Exercise 59. Speak on the following situations.

1.Discuss how nature differs at sunrise and at sunset.

2.Point out the duties which you fail to carry out before dusk.

3.Describe the conditions of a sick person when night creeps in.

4.Decide what is advisable to do on a Sunday morning.

5.Discuss how the mood of a student differs at various periods of the day.

6.Discuss with your teacher when it is more fruitful to study English: in the morning or at noon.

7.Find someone among your fellow-students who adores to watch nature in autumn. Ask him to tell you what changes he notices.

8.Decide what season fits for sightseeing in London.

9.Share your impressions of the capital of this country in different seasons.

10.Decide how the behaviour of people changes when autumn comes.

11.Select the best season or part of the day for seeing a castle.

Part 5

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 1769