UNIVERSITY OF MOLDOVA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIO-HUMANIST SCIENCES

CHAIR OF LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

Comparative Study of Grammatical,

Lexical and Lexical-Grammatical Categories.
(Practical aid for the course of Contrastive Grammar)

CHIINU

2012

CZU.:
Dumitru Melenciuc. Comparative Study of Grammatical, Lexical and Lexical-Grammatical
Categories. University of Moldova Academy of Sciences, 2012.
(Practical aid for the course of Contrastive Grammar)
Suport de curs Studiu comparativ al categoriilor gramaticale, lexicale i lexical-gramaticale
pentru cursul Gramatica contrastiv. Chiinu: ASM, 2012. 73 p., 6 c.a.
Lucrarea este destinat studenilor ca supliment la cursul teoretic de gramatic contrastiv i poate fi folosit
n predarea categoriilor gramaticale din limba englez vorbitorilor de limb romn.

CONTENTS
Introduction. .4
1.Confrontational Linguistics4
2.Comparative Analysis on the Emic and Etic Levels..5
2.1.Lexical, Lexical-Grammatical and Grammatical Categories..5
2.3.Morphological-Grammatical Categories6
3.The Lexical-Grammatical Categories and Tertium Comparationis...6
4.Metalanguage and Linguistic Confrontation of Verbal Categories...7
5.Polysemy, Homonymy, Synonymy, Redundancy and Transposition of Verbal
Categorial and Grammatical Forms..............................................................................9
6.The English Verbal Categories.13
7.The Category of Mood .13
8.The Category of Aspect16
9.Aspectual Categorization in Cognate Languages.20
10.Category of Anteriority or Taxis24
10.1.The Category of Taxis and the Semantic Evolution of the Term Perfect...24
10.2. The English Present Indefinite and its equivalents in Romanian and French.30
10.3.The English Future Indefinite and its Equivalents in French and Romanian..31
10.4.The English Present Perfect and its Equivalents in French and Romanian.31
10.5.The Categorial Meaning of Past Perfect in the Confronted Languages..32
10.6.Hypercorrectness or Hypergrammaticality.34
10.7.Category of Anteriority as seen by A.I.Smirnitsky and E.Benveniste35
10.8.A Contrastive Analysis of Non-finite Forms of Taxis36
10.9.The Category of Taxis in Oblique Moods...38
11.The Semiotic and Metasemiotic Use of the Category of Voice39
12.The Category of Comparison in English and Romanian44
13.The Category of Grammatical Deixis in English and Romanian...47
14.The Conceptual Category of Deixis...........................................................................50
15.The Category of Representation.54
16.Word Order and Its Metasemiosis..62
Conclusions..68
Bibliography.71

Introduction

The present work is intended as a theoretical course for undergraduate students in their scientific
research and to supplement the theoretical course of Contrastive Grammar, which forms part of the
curriculum of the University of Moldova Academy of Sciences. The present textbook can be successfully
used in scientific research and teaching English grammar applyng the comparative method.
Morphological grammatical verbal categories of aspect, taxis, tense, voice, mood, representation, deixis
and comparison are confronted with their equivalents in Romanian. Occasional examples are taken from
other languages. Syntax is represented here with the Word Order and Its Metasemiosis
Most of the materials are taken from the authors publications: O.Akhmanova and D.Melenciuc The
Principles of Linguistic Confrontation, Moscow, 1977, D. Melenciuc Confrontational Linguistics,
Chiinu, USM, 2000; D. Melenciuc Comparativistics, Chiinu, CEP USM, 2003, D. Melenciuc
Practical Modern English Grammar, Chiinu, CEP USM, 2003. A number of articles written and
published by D.Melenciuc have also been used in the present work.
1.Confrontational Linguistics
The metalanguage used in the field is described differently. There are quite a number of terms used in
linguistics depending on what kind of comparison the linguist wants to undertake. Some linguists speak of
contrastive analysis as part of a wider field denoted by the term linguistic confrontation. The word
contrast comes from the Latin contrastare and implies difference, opposition. Before we turn to differences
we should compare systematically and synchronically objects which may be quite similar, or even the same
in some respects. Sameness and similarity have always been the cornerstone of linguistic confrontation.
The comparative-historical (diachronic) study of languages for many years was considered to be the
only scientific method in linguistics. Gradually it gave way to other methods and approaches like linguistic
synchrony and in the study of natural human languages as a special kind of semiotic system. Nevertheless,
the idea of comparing different languages remained as a guiding principle. The synchronic comparison
implies a quest for new sets of features and peculiarities. For comparative philology these were always
thought of as something that was genetically common, something that gradually diverged under the pressure
of a variety of structural and extra-linguistic factors. Analytical comparison was, and is still, looking for
something to serve for the comparison of languages of totally different families, for some kind of abstract
features and peculiarities. To serve as tertium comparationis they must be regarded as similar or even
identical in spite of the fact that the languages, which are assumed to share these properties, have no genetic
ties at present, and have never had in the past. The confrontational comparison (or typology) has the
advantage over comparative philology of being able to suggest a method, which would be applicable to all
languages, irrespective of their history or possible genetic relationship.
We start with the analysis of the importance of confronting certain grammatical categories on both the
emic and etic levels. Confrontation should not be restricted to just forms, words or texts. The categorial
approach is very important but one should not neglect the concrete historical changes and those functional
peculiarities of the natural human languages, which are being realized at a particular period. This means that
the categorial approach should not be allowed to degenerate into abstract typological theoretization as
applied to a particular branch of linguistics. The system of categories, which is established to serve as the
starting point must always be complemented by scrupulous analysis of their etic functioning as categorial
forms. These are mutually opposed and make categorization possible. Comparison, in the widest sense of the
word, is ruled out unless those carrying it out are convinced that there exists a certain fundamental similarity
between the two or more objects under investigation. If there were no underlying assumptions that all
languages have something in common, the problem of confrontation simply would not exist. The importance
of translations and bilingual dictionaries, most important and well-grounded forms of linguistic confrontation
and the existing problems, are discussed here as well.
Analyzing grammatical categories in English and Romanian on the emic and etic levels, we have
come to the conclusion that linguistic confrontation cannot be performed purely on one of the morphological
categories. Universal or conceptual categories should be used in comparative studies. Thus, in the case of the
category of taxis, we have observed, that in English and Romanian contextual, lexical and grammatical
means, or usually a combination of both lexical and grammatical means, are used to express anteriority. The
latter dominate in both languages, while in Russian, the lexical element is on the first plane, and the
grammatical means are scarcely represented. A transitional process has been detected in the confronted
languages, like in all the European languages. A description of grammatical forms of categorial forms in the
confronted languages is supplemented by an analysis of other means of expression. The synchronic and
diachronic approaches should be used in order to observe that gender, aspect, mood, voice, anteriority, etc.
are historical categories: they appeared, developed up to a system and now have already given away (gender)

or have begun to give away (perfect forms) their positions as grammatical categories, or are in a state of
metasemiotic transposition (aspect).
Though contrastive analysis in the field of grammatical morphology has been considered as part of
confrontational linguistics for a long time, there is no clear cut distinction between the confrontation of
related and unrelated languages, using the results of comparative philology of cognate languages in their
confrontation with unrelated languages. The confrontation of languages can be carried out by comparing: a)
unrelated languages; b) closely related languages; c) distantly related languages, and d) also by simultaneous
confrontation of related and unrelated languages.
2.Comparative Analysis on the Emic and Etic Levels
Confrontation of Forms. Objective reality does not depend on language or speakers. We reflect it in our
consciousness. Reality is biunique: 1) the reality of the world and 2) the reality of the native language, the
joint impression of the things around us and of our mother tongue. It is quite natural for us to apprehend
reality in a way, which is somehow affected by the categories and categorization of our language.
Categorization in grammar is much more complex than in lexicology: 1) it is compulsory or obligatory, 2)
it is much more abstract. The difference between lexicology and grammar then is as follows: the speaker is
free to choose words, to take them or leave them. Grammatical forms are imposed on the speakers. These are
laws, which the speaker is bound to obey. For confrontation of forms in different languages to get under way,
the first step is to try and understand the specific grammatical categorizations of the languages under
consideration. Thus, the purely grammatical side of the English aspect has been investigated and it has been
clear that confusion of grammar and usage should be avoided. All English verbs including the putandi and
sentiendi ones can quite properly be used in the continuous aspect. On the other hand the lexical element in
expressing aspectual meaning prevails in Romanian. [39, 71-72]
Hyper-grammaticality (hypercorrectness). Abuse of grammar may be of two kinds:
1) The speaker turns to some very complex and artificial structures, because he thinks that they are more
literary and will enable him to appear as a highly educated man. This is a kind of hyper-grammaticality or
hypercorrectness, which we meet especially frequently in documents and in some varieties of journalese, etc.
2) The formation of complex artificial grammatical forms and structures may depend on metasemiotic
factors, on a desire to achieve a specific stylistic effect. The phenomenon of hyper-grammaticality first
attracted linguists attention in connection with the extremely interesting paper written by Marcel Cohen.
[39, 72]
This outstanding linguist had spent very much time and effort on the normalization of Modern
French Grammar. Among the recommendations he was particularly interested in, the normalization of the
forms of the subjunctive mood stands out. M.Cohen had not only succeeded in formulating those
recommendations, but in also realizing his principles of selection of forms in his famous book Histoire dun
langue: le franais. A good example of hyper-grammatical teaching of grammar is the case of future perfect
forms, which are used very seldom in British English in colloquial speech and practically not used at all in
the American English in everyday speech. The same phenomenon is observed in Romanian and other
languages. Translators and speakers in general should always pay attention to the changes in the given
language and always check all possible rules in practice. Categories are only the first stage in language
learning. The results of scientific abstraction must be verified by the actual functioning of the system, the
researcher always bearing in mind that language is in a state of constant change. The study of grammar, the
attempts to normalize grammatical usage, the study of the new tendencies and systematic confrontation of
these with those falling into disuse, requires a much more serious scientific generalization on the subject than
has been done so far. This is also important because research of this kind will help in doing away with
groundless abstractions of grammar. It follows then, that the two basic principles are to understand the basic
underlying system, and on this basis to go on with a profound analysis of English authentic texts and their
equivalents in the native language. The only way really to learn grammar, to find out the real state of affairs
concerning this or that morphological category, is to observe how the different basic theoretical grammatical
premises are realized in different languages and different registers (styles).
2.1.Lexical, Lexical-Grammatical and Grammatical Categories.
Categories are reverberations in the human consciousness of objective reality, a step to the cognition
of the world. The categories of particular sciences are reverberations of certain specific aspects of objective
reality, which belong to the branch of science in question. They are the broadest and the most general
concepts within the scope, arrived at by rational scientific methods. It is extremely important to understand
that categories are secondary, that they are derived from the facts of language. A theoretical course should
not be separated from the normative one. Sometimes theoretical courses are delivered to students in no way

connected with what they are doing at their lessons when they are studying the language. As a result
categories come first as primary entities. When we talk about categories, we always have to take into
consideration the fact that the reality of human communication is primary, the most important element. We
can speak of a lexical category only if we find identity of stem and the utter impossibility of a simultaneous
realization of all categorial forms of the given opposition. Otherwise stated, in actual enunciations, or
utterances, only one of the two or more categorial forms can be realized. We should also mention the fact
that morphological studies should be initiated with the marked member of any opposition. [39, 73]
2.3.Morphological-Grammatical Categories
The main rules or methods to apply in discovering and describing such categories: 1. A
morphological grammatical category is constituted by the opposition of no less than two categorial forms.
Thus, the category of taxis in English is constituted by the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms, and
the category of aspect is constituted by the opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms, etc. 2.The
opposition of no less than two categorial forms is the only possible realization of a morphologicalgrammatical category, the only form of its existence. A grammatical category exists in its categorial forms.
3.The morphological-grammatical categories are historical: their number and characteristics change in the
course of time. Thus, if the Saxon genitive ceased to exist as an inflectional form, this would destroy not
only the categorial form of the possessive case, but also the grammatical category of case in Modern English
as a whole. This would not be an unexpected outcome of a devolution: the category of case in English has
been steadily loosing ground for about a thousand years. In contrast with the noun, the verb in English tends
to become categorially overdetermined, owing to the steady increase in the number and variety of its
categories. In the course of time it developed the category of aspect (the opposition of continuous/ noncontinuous forms), the category of taxis (the opposition of perfect / non-perfect forms), etc. 4.A
morphological grammatical category is confined to the categorial forms by which it is constituted, i.e. it
cannot cover or include all the inflectional forms of a word. When certain properties are manifested by all the
inflectional forms of a word, they constitute a lexical-grammatical category. This is the case of gender of
nouns in Russian, as against gender of adjectives, which is a grammatical category, constituted by the
opposition of the categorial forms of masculine, feminine, and neuter genders. 5. Every inflectional form
expresses at least one categorial form, but it can also comprise several and thus cater, on the expression
plane, for several morphological-grammatical categories. Morphological grammatical forms can be studied
on two levels: 1) the semantic level, where, for example, the present tense forms express actions which
include the moment of speaking, and 2) the metasemiotic level, where present tense forms are used to denote
an action which clearly does not include the moment of speaking. [39, 73-74]
3.The Lexical-Grammatical Categories and Tertium Comparationis
The concept of lexical-grammatical categories is closely connected with the parts-of-speech classification,
because as parts of speech, words are organized or divided into classes (parts of speech), each of which
combines in it certain lexical and grammatical characteristics. Thus, if we take the verb, then it is a verb,
because it functions syntactically in a certain way, it has a system of morphological inflections, but it also
has got a certain general categorial lexical meaning. A verb is not only something that has got a set of
grammatical categories, but it is also something that expresses or denotes a certain object of extra-linguistic
reality, as a phenomenon, as an action or state in general. The parts of speech are determined to a greater or
less degree. Thus the verb in English is very well determined by a large number of grammatical categories
The noun in its turn is not so well determined, because the category of case in it depends on the existence of
the possessive case. [39, 75-78]
It was taken for granted that confrontation of two or more languages is always based on something
that is not actually given in the researchers immediate experience. In case of genetically related languages
we simply begin with the common stock of grammatical categories, which can be regarded as the common
heritage of all the languages under consideration. This is the natural outcome of comparative historical
studies (comparative philology) - which has assembled a very large number of facts and has worked out a
system of elaborate and reliable methods. As time went on, comparative philology, and more widely
comparative-historical study of languages, which was distinct for many decades as the unique and absolute
scientific method in linguistics, had gradually to give way to other methods and approaches. A powerful
factor was the growing interest in linguistic synchrony and the study of natural human languages as a special
kind of semiotic system. The idea of comparing different languages remained as a guiding principle, but
since the comparison was now to be synchronic it implied a quest for altogether new sets of features and
peculiarities. For comparative philology these were always thought of as something that was genetically

common, something that gradually diverged under the pressure of a variety of structural and extra-linguistic
factors. Analytical comparison (typology) was, and is still looking for something to serve for the comparison
of languages of totally different families for some kind of abstract features and peculiarities. To serve as
tertium comparationis they must be regarded as similar, or even identical, in spite of the fact that the
languages, which are assumed to share these properties, have no genetic ties at present and have never had
them in the past. The confrontational comparison has the advantage over comparative philology of being
able to suggest a method which would be applicable to all languages, irrespective of their history or of there
being any genetic relation between them. But analytical comparison, when the languages under consideration
are genetically related, can enable the researcher to understand them very deeply. The analytical comparison
in its original form takes up different component facts, synchronically, without thinking of genetic
community of its total absence. If we compare the category of taxis in English, Romanian and an unrelated
language, the common basis for comparison is the category of taxis (anteriority). Gradually analytical
comparison was performed not only on the etic level as observed in arbitrarily selected texts, but by using the
categorial approach. The categorial approach should not be allowed to degenerate into abstract typological
theoretization as applied to a particular branch of linguistics. The system of categories, which is established
to serve as the starting point must always be complemented by a scrupulous analysis of their etic
functioning as categorial forms. These are mutually opposed and make categorization possible. [39, 75-78]
A very important factor in analytical comparison is the choice of an etalon language. Comparing the
category of anteriority in English and Romanian we prefer English as an etalon language, because this
category has been widely scientifically described and it can serve as an excellent starting point for a
contrastive analysis of the mentioned categories in both languages. When we take a global view of linguistic
confrontation we see what a variety of different aspects of language are encompassed in it. It has already
been stated that analytical comparison, and more widely, linguistic confrontation is often assumed to
disregard the factor of genetic community or lack of it. This general principle should now be reconsidered at
any rate contrastive studies should be divided into two parts: on the one hand we have cognate languages
(closely and distantly related languages) and, on the other hand, languages which belong to completely
different systems. [39, 78]
4.Metalanguage and Linguistic Confrontation of Verbal Categories
Before comparing grammatical categories, we should give an introduction to the metalanguage used
by different schools and scholars in English. The comparison in this case is double: first we confront
different terminological systems of the existing linguistic schools with an etalon system in English (the same
could be done in the other confronted languages taken separately). This makes it easier for students to better
understand the material on the subject given by different schools and scholars. Then we should confront the
terminological systems of the analyzed languages. One of the main stumbling blocks in rational grammatical
categorization is the lack of a firmly established relationship between the actual phenomena and their names.
The metalanguage of morphological grammatical categories cannot be taken for granted and metalinguistic
work cannot be regarded as merely taking an inventory of terms. It is a question of discovering whether there
is any real difference in the various approaches and theories, or whether it is purely metalinguistic difference,
mere conventions on the metalinguistic level. Often the researcher fails to keep clearly apart the object of
analysis and the metalanguage - the words and expressions used when people talk about the object language.
We very often find a large number of different metalinguistic expressions and are faced with a peculiar
situation: we must compare those different systems and try to understand why the different metalinguistic
expressions were introduced. Very often there is a discrepancy not only in the metalinguistic expressions
used to denote certain more specific or particular categories, but also in the naming or description of the most
general concepts themselves. If we compare A.I.Smirnitskys metalanguage, which was further developed by
O.Akhmanova in her Dictionary of Linguistic Terms, with the well known metalinguistic system proposed
by Martin Joos, we find that what Smirnitsky call morphological grammatical category, Joos refers to as
dimensions of categorization reserving the name category for what Smirnitsky calls categorial form.
[39, 80-81] Interesting results from the point of view of metalanguage can also be obtained by looking at
the existing inventories of metalinguistic expressions used to denote the same actual or objective facts. When
we take the categories of tense, aspect and anteriority, we find out that the same idea, or the same content, is
expressed by different metalinguistic means. A case in point is the term continuous aspect named by some
authors as durative, progressive, imperfective, imperfect, dynamic, etc. (11 other terms have been registered).
The terms continuous, durative, progressive aspect are so close to each other in meaning that they may be
regarded simply as triplets. Here are some more groups of doublets, triplets, n-plets within the category of
taxis or anteriority (more terms exist here as well): past perfect: anterior past, antepreterite, antepreterit,

before past tense, pluperfect, prepast tense; present perfect: anterior present, before present tense, perfect,
pre-present tense; future perfect: ante-future tense, anterior future, before future(tense), pre-future tense.
Every one of the accumulation of terms is used to denote exactly the same thing. Very often it is not merely a
question of choosing between this or that particular term, but the question of approach or attitude to
categorization. Let us take the category of tense, which is constituted by the opposition of three categorial
forms: present, past and future. These terms are sometimes described by much longer and much more
ponderous terms. Thus, the term present (past and future) indefinite is sometimes substituted by: simple
present (past and future, ordinary present (past and future), static present (past, future), present (past and
future) of the common aspect, present (past and future) progressive or non-perfect, etc. Each of the
grammatical forms, which are in English used to denote or express the respective categorial forms of tense,
may also be viewed as negative or zero expressions of categorial forms which constitute different
grammatical categories. Thus, if the categorial forms of present, past and future tense, expressed by the
particular set of grammatical forms, are contrasted with the grammatical forms, functioning in English as
grammatical expression for aspect and anteriority. There can be no objection, in principle, to stating every
time that what we are dealing with in the case of grammatical form like I work, I worked, I shall work are
simple or ordinary forms. They express the non-continuous or non-progressive aspect and are, besides, nonperfect (in the sense that they express simultaneity, and not anteriority). [39, 81-82]
No categorization is attainable and no consistent metalanguage can be worked out, unless a very
clear distinction is made between grammatical forms and categorial forms as distinct form categories. One
and the same grammatical form may serve as an expression plane for different categorial forms, the
opposition of which constitutes the respective categories. Analyzing the great mass of different
metalinguistic expressions, such as: generic aspect, inclusive aspect, indefinite aspect, non-durative aspect,
non-progressive aspect or anterior present, anterior past, anterior future, or before present tense, before past
tense, before future tense, etc., we must find an answer to the following question. Is this accumulation of
terms used to denote the same object, or are all kinds of names and words used to indicate the fact that one
and the same grammatical form may carry more than one or possibly even several categorial forms? Thus,
the form of the word works is present tense, non-continuous aspect, indicative mood, third person, nonperfect; or worked, which again is a grammatical form which like all forms of the verb expresses the past or
preterit tense, the non-perfect or non-anteriority, the indicative mood and so on. The over complex
metalinguistic systems lead to an accumulation of terms and not to a clear and non-contradictory description
of all the categorial forms, carried by the given grammatical form. These terms are particularly reprehensible
when they seek to denote certain grammatical meanings, such as the notional category of perfective,
indefinite, generic, general, etc. aspect. At first sight there is no harm in replacing the term continuous/non
continuous aspect in English by perfective vs. imperfective. But perfective is not so easy to distinguish from
the lexeme perfect. It follows that if the term perfective is used to indicate a categorial form of aspect, while
perfect is retained to denote the categorial form of anteriority, then obviously the system is much less
convincing than the opposition of continuous/non-continuous, which so clearly explains what is actually
opposed. There is a difference between the aspectual system of Russian and other Slavic languages, on the
one hand, and the aspectual system of English, on the other. The problem of plurality of names cannot be
simply dismissed as something that is purely conventional. It is important to decide whether we deal with a
purely metalinguistic fact, or whether the difference resides in deeper systemic relationships. Thus, if we
compare the terms continuous and durative aspect, we could regard this as a purely metalinguistic question,
because both terms are synonymous. We could assume that if the word aspect is retained in both cases, then
what we describe as the categorial form of the continuous aspect is called the continuous tense. Here we
shall have to explain that calling it a continuous tense would involve an altogether different acceptation of
the term tense. It would no longer be a question of what is meant by the term continuous tense, it would be a
matter of specifying what is understood by tense. Let's take the opposition of perfect aspect vs. progressive
aspect as used by some linguists, based on the categorial meaning of finished vs. unfinished action. As soon
as we come to examples like He had been reading his book for two hours before I came back. We cannot
have two aspectual forms expressed simultaneously by the same form (had been reading - to express a
finished and an unfinished action simultaneously). Perfect here expresses grammatical anteriority supported
and intensified by the lexical anteriority marker before. Anteriority is the main meaning of all the perfect
forms. A finished action can be expressed both by some perfect and non-perfect forms: I have written a letter
and I wrote a letter to him. In both these cases we have the same result. Confronting terminological systems
of languages we come across unusual discrepancies. We discover that the Romanian gerunziul does not
correspond to the English gerund. It regularly corresponds to the English present participle. The present
participle in Romanian got out of usage and its function was taken over by gerunziul. After analyzing

different categorial systems and interpretations in English and Romanian we choose the most widely used
ones for confrontation. When confronting the category of mood we usually choose a system of 6 categorial
forms in English to compare with an identical number of moods in Romanian: Indicative, Imperative,
Subjunctive I, Subjunctive II and Suppositional and in Romanian: Indicativul, Imperativul, Conditionalual,
Optativul (Subjunctivul II), conjunctivul, Prezumptivul (or Suppositional). A closer inspection of these
modal systems display considerable discrepancies. Thus, in Romanian Conditionalul and Optativul
(Subjuncitve II) are expressed by completely homonymous forms and in the majority of grammar books and
manuals they are given as one categorial form: condiionalul or condiional-optative. n "Gramatica limbii
romne" the conditional and optative are analysed but still as part of one categorial form, the terms are used
differently from those in English: condionalul in this system corresponds to the English Subjunctive II and
optativul to the English Conditional. Most surprising is the fact that condiionalul and optativul may be
expressed in Romanian by several grammatical forms, which are polyfunctional and formally belong to
different moods. Thus for example, the sentence "If I had had time I would have come to help you yesterday"
- Dac aveam timp, veneam s te ajut ieri; (imperfectul modal in both cases); Dac a fi avut timp a fi venit
s te ajut ieri; (optative, conditional); S fi avut timp a fi venit (or veneam) s te ajut ieri (conjunctivul in
the secondary clause). We think the category of mood in modern Romanian needs to be reinterpreted,
because the present classifications are somewhat confusing. Thus, for example, if we take conjunctivul - the
criterion in singling it out as a separate mood serves the verbal form with the particle "s". A plurality of
meanings, registered by us, demonstrate that this grammatical form is polyfunctional. Here are some
meanings it can express: 1) Subjunctive I (also named Old Subjunctive) - Long live democracy! S traiasc
democraia! I insist that he come. Eu insist ca el s vin. It is necessary that he be (come) here in time. E
necesar ca el s vin aici la timp. 2) Subjunctive II -If I were you. S fiu n locul dumitale... If I had had
time yesterday... S fi avut timp ieri... 3) Regularly substituting the infinitive in Romanian: They promised to
take him home. Ei au promis s-l duc acas. 4) Used in different combinations like: Let's sit and talk. Sa
edem i s vorbim. He will come in time. El are s vin la timp (future tense indicative mood); To believe
me capable of something like that! S m cread capabil de aa ceva! 5) After modal verbs: Even a child
could understand. i un copil putea s neleag. 6) Future tense - What shall I do? Ce s fac? 7) To
express supposition, including the meanings of suppositional mood: (supposition, necessity, order,
command, insistence ). Might he have been here? S fi fost el aici? Could I have lost it on my way home?
S-l fi pierdut n drum spre cas? I insist (order) that he should be present. Eu insist (ordon) ca el s fie
prezent. It is necessary that he should be here. E necesar ca el s fie aici. [39, 82-85]
5. Polysemy, Synonymy, Homonymy, Redundancy
and Transposition of Verbal Categorial and Grammatical Forms
Grammatical and categorical forms can be polysemantic, synonymous, homonymous and even
antonymous. The categories of mood in modern Romanian and English could be reinterpreted, because their
present classifications are somewhat confusing. In the case of Romanian prezumtivul we have almost a
complete transposition of future continuous and future perfect (both forms are extremely rarely used to
express future actions in the indicative) into a relatively new mood "prezumtivul". Thus for example: 1) Vei
fi din ora! You should come from the city! Probably you come from the city! 2) Vei fi venit cu trenul. You
must have come by train. I suppose you have come by train. 3) Ar fi fiind asta dorina prinesei? Could this
be the wish (desire) of the princess? Partially transposed are the forms of simple future, conjunctive
continuous and non-continuous, conditional, optative continuous and non-continuous forms.[6, 85-91] In
case of the Romanian conjunctive the criterion in singling it out, as a separate mood, serves the verbal form
with the particle "s". A multitude of contextual sub-meanings demonstrate that this grammatical form is
polyfunctional and can be used in the meanings of the English indicative, subjunctive 1, subjunctive II,
suppositional, infinitive in both perfect and non-perfect forms. Subjunctive I (Old Subjunctive) in the first
and second meanings usually corresponds to forms of conjunctivul in Romanian: Long live democracy! S
traiasc democraia! I insist that he come. Eu insist ca el s vin. It is necessary that he be (come) here in
time. E necesar ca el s fie (vin) aici la timp. Subjunctive I in the second meaning has a stylistic synonym Suppositional mood: I insist that everybody should come in time! Insist ca toi s vin la timp! It is necessary
that he should be (come) here in time. E necesar ca el s fie (vin) aici la timp. In both cases the use of the
corresponding categorical forms is lexically conditioned by modal words accompanying the verbs. Thus, we
can speak here of lexical-grammatical categorial meanings of mood. Subjunctive II has three synonymous
equivalents in Romanian: If I had had time yesterday I should have come to help you yesterday. S fi avut

(=dac a fi avut/dac aveam) timp ieri a fi venit (veneam) s te ajut ieri. Thus, there are three forms in
Romanian corresponding to the English Subjunctive II or Optative Mood: optativul, conjunctivul and
imperfectul modal, which in this case are perfect synonyms. In the main clause the Conditional mood
corresponds in the confronted language to Condiionalul and imperfectul modal. [39, 92-100] Here we
should also mention the fact that in some grammar books the Romanian Condiionalul and Optative are
considered to form one categorical form of mood, probably because their forms coincide. In reality here we
have two different homonymous categorical forms with their specific meanings.
Conjunctivul regularly substitutes the infinitive in the Romanian colloquial language: They promised
to take him home. Ei au promis s-l duc acas. He must have come in time. El trebuie s fi venit la timp.
Even a child could understand, i un copil putea s neleag. To believe me capable of something like that!
S m cread capabil de aa ceva! An interesting phenomenon has been observed in this case. During the
last 18 years most people improved their native literary language and now we can observe the infinitive
being used more often, to a certain extent, replacing conjunctivul not only in the literary publications,
official speeches, but also in everyday activity conversations. Conjunctivul is used to express the future
tense in colloquial speech: What shall I do? Ce s fac? He will come in time. El are s vin la timp. In the
second example we have a future form used in colloquial speech, synonymous to El va veni la timp,
corresponding to the literary style. Conjunctivul is also used to express lexical and grammatical supposition,
necessity, order, command, insistence: Might he have been here? S fi fost el aici? He might have been there.
El ar fi putut s fi fost acolo. Have I lost it on my way home? S-l fi pierdut n drum spre cas? I insist
(order) that he should be present. Eu insist (ordon) ca el s fie prezent. It is necessary that he should be here.
E necesar ca el s fie aici. Conjunctivul can also be used to express the imperative and present indefinite
indicative forms: Leave the town immediately! S pleci (pleac) din ora imediat! Dont you worry, mother!
S nu te neliniteti, mam! Do not doubt! S nu te ndoieti! Let's sit and talk. S edem i s vorbim. There
is no doubt that conjunctivul should not be considered to be a grammatical form expressing one categorial
mood form. It is just a grammatical form used to express quite a number of categorial forms.
Most surprising is the fact we have mentioned above, that condiionalul and optativul can be
expressed in Romanian by several synonymous grammatical forms, which are polyfunctional and formally
belong to different moods: If I had had time I (should) would have come to help you yesterday - Dac
aveam timp, veneam s te ajut ieri; (imperfectul modal in both cases); Dac a fi avut timp a fi venit s te
ajut ieri; (optative, conditional); S fi avut timp a fi venit (or veneam) s te ajut ieri (conjunctivul in the
secondary clause). Had had time here expresses an anterior unreal action in the future, past and to a
present moment, and in most cases is homonymous to a similar form in the indicative mood, used to express
anteriority in the past and future in the past (in clauses of time and condition). [6, 92-100] Past conditional
(perfect form) has several homonymous forms: suppositional mood (in the first person), future perfect in the
past indicative mood, the modals should and would plus perfect infinitive. Thus, for example: He would
have come, but he had no time; I should have read the book but I could not find it; I should have come
earlier; He promised that he would have come before the beginning of the meeting.
Analyzing the perfect forms of the oblique mood forms we find out that in some cases they do not
really express an anterior action. Thus, if we take the example: He said he would have come earlier
yesterday if he had known; El a spus c ar fi venit (venea) mai devreme ieri, dac ar fi tiut (s fi tiut, dac
tia). In order to check this we transform the example into the indicative mood changing the category of
affirmation/negation; He did not come yesterday because he did not know. Here we have an action in the past
not connected with the present moment. As soon as the action is related to the present moment it acquires an
anteriority meaning: If she had worked hard at her lessons this month she would have no problems at the
exam. Dac ea ar fi lucrat (lucra, s fi lucrat) la lecii pe parcursul lunii acestea n-ar avea probleme la
examen. The perfect form in the secondary clause expresses an anterior action to the present moment and
corresponds to a present perfect form in the indicative mood: She has not worked hard at her lessons this
month and now she has problems at the exams. In case of actions corresponding to future perfect, past
perfect the oblique moods forms express an anteriority meaning. The past perfect form in the indicative
mood is already polysemantic as it is used to express an anterior action to another action or moment on the
axis of time, and it also can express an anterior action in the future from a moment in the past in clauses of
time and condition. In the oblique mood forms the past perfect form can express anteriority to moments in
the past, present and future, including the future in the past. It becomes homonymous in the case when it
expresses and action in the past not connected with the present moment and not anterior to any moment or
action in a given context.

10

The forms of prezumtiv in Romanian represent an interesting case like that of conjunctivul. At a
closer inspection we discover that by the forms of present prezumtiv Continuous forms are practically used,
forms which were actively used in the indicative mood in earlier Romanian. Some examples taken from the
History of Moldovan Grammar, published by prof. V.Marin (Chisinau, 1970), quoting sources of XVII-XIX
centuries [23] could prove the fact that in reality we have various categorial forms of mood in the continuous
aspect. Here are some examples in the indicative continuous forms: Era ca oile rtcindu Au fost avndu
prieteug mare cu Ptru Vod. [23,36,123] tefan Vod Tocmai cnd prerea de ru l ajunsese... erau
trecnd printr-o pdure mare i deas.; Au fost dormind la bisearica lui svetin Benedict. [23, 83] i era
mergndu i apropiindu-m ctre Damascu, ntru ameadz... [23,90] martorului tu nsumi era stndu
[39,91] Analyzing these examples we have no hesitation in stating the fact that the constructions of the
auxiliary verb a fi + gerunziul express the grammatical continuous aspect meaning like in English, Spanish,
Portuguese and Italian. The durative action here produces a stronger metasemiotic effect on the reader or
listener than the imperfect. In Modern Romanian extended or periphrastic forms are used only in the oblique
moods in colloquial speech: Unde-i Petru? Va (o) fi lucrnd n livad. -S fie el lucrnd n livad? De ar
fi el lucrnd n livad! [39, 112] Metasemiotic transposition is found in both English and Romanian. Thus,
the category of aspect can be metasemiotically used not in its usual way, but in a way that will provide
additional overtones: expressive, evaluative, emotional, modal, etc. For example: "He is leaving tomorrow".
"Are you coming on Sunday?" In these two forms the aspectual and tense categorial meanings are used to
express a stylistic connotation, the future action being expressed purely lexically (tomorrow, on Sunday). In
Romance languages aspectual meanings are most often expressed by the perfective and imperfective
opposition. But for metasemiotic purposes, for categorial intensification, most often they use durative forms.
The continuous forms and various constructions in Romanian, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are
subservient to the lexical and lexical-grammatical aspectual means and are usually used in emotional speech
for expressivity and emphasis in an action developing in time, intensified by the interaction with lexical and
prosodic means. Thus, in the Spanish expressive discourse the continuous forms are often preferred: Estoy
hablando. Juan est comiendo. Mara est escribiendo una carta. Los pasajeros estarn llegando a su
destino. Ayer estuve repasando la gramtica. Las gotas de agua estaban cayendo pausadamente.
Hemos estado nadando tres horas. Maana estar trabajando todo el da en la biblioteca. [54] Identical
constructions exist in Italian: Marcovaldo stava portando a spasso la famiglia. Pietro sta leggendo
un libro. [20] The continuous forms are usually accompanied by lexical supporters or intensifiers like
todo el dia the whole day through, toat ziua and interacting with the lexical durative meanings of the
verbs. In Romanian these examples are usually rendered by means of imperfectul, constructions with
gerunziu or contextual and lexical durative means. The Portuguese construction estar + gerundio is also
the equivalent of the English continuous form: Eu estou estudando na Universidade. Ele estava
lendo quando ela me chamou. Amanha estaremos preparando toda a documentacao. [68] In Spanish,
Italian and Portuguese there exist several constructions with gerundio expressing aspectual duration. Thus, the
Portuguese construction ficar + gerundio expresses a progressive action and is translated into English by
means of continuous aspect forms: Fico olhando para retrato. The construction andar a + infinitive:
A Teresa anda falando da mudanca de casa. [68] What is important to mention is the fact that in
Portugal the construction estar + gerundio can be substituted by the construction estar a +infinitive
preserving the durative meaning: Pedro esta a ler novo livro. The same happens with the
construction ficar + gerundio, where gerundio is substituted by the infinitive: Fico estudar 3 horas.
The construction continuar (seguir, prosseguir) + gerundio express a continuous action as well: Ele
continua lendo o jornal. The construction continuar a + infinitive practically expresses the same type of
continuous action: Ele continua a ler jornal. [68] Exactly the same we have in English: He continues
reading the journal can be easily changed into He continues to read . The construction with the noncontinuous infinitive has a weaker aspectual grammatical meaning, the lexical durative meaning of
continue taking over the categorial function.
The imperfect forms may be also used stylistically in case suprasyntactic metasemiotic means are
used. The continuous/non-continuous binary opposition in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian (and
partially in Romanian) are in a process of transposition from a pure grammatical aspectual category into a
stylistic one. In English this grammatical opposition is well represented in all the functional styles of the
language and is regularly used for stylistic purposes in emotionally coloured expressive and emphatic
speech.

11

The categorial forms of present tense continuous or non-continuous aspect could also serve as an
example of metasemiotic transposition. In some text books we usually find an explanation that the present
tense can be used to express past and future actions. What we really have is a metasemiotic use of present
tense forms to describe a past or future action, for certain emotional-expressive or evaluative purposes, to
express vivacity and dynamism of an action, as if deployed in the speaker's mind or in front of his eyes. In
this case the categorial forms of past and future are expressed purely lexically or contextually. Thus, for
example: Yesterday I was reading in the lounge. Suddenly Ann comes in, sits on the sofa and starts to cry.
Next week I am leaving (leave) for Paris. The verbs expressing mental perception and feeling can be
metasemiotically used in the continuous aspect; the same is true in the case of the usage of progressive forms
with adverbs like always, often, seldom, generally, constantly, permanently, etc. Another case of
metasemiotic transposition can serve the use of conditional mood forms to express: additionally to its main
meaning of an unreal action the fulfillment of which depends on an unreal condition, this categorial is
regularly used to express an action, which is not contrary to reality and expresses politeness, interest, etc.
For example: I should eat an apple if I had any. A mnca un mr, dac a avea. (unreal condition); Look!
You have apples! I should like to eat one! Privete! Avei mere! Eu a mnca unul! (indirect polite request);
Could I help You? Could you help me? A putea s v ajut? (polite offer of help) Ai putea s m ajutai?
(polite request).
One more interesting phenomenon is the gradual transition of some grammatical categories into
lexical-grammatical or purely lexical ones. The category of gender in English and the category of anteriority
(taxis) in Russian can serve as an example of a complete transition. Taxis in English, Romanian and other
European languages are in the process of a similar transition. Perfect forms in modern English and Romanian
are variously interpreted, as expressing anteriority, a complete action, a result, as a tense form, time relation.
But lately more and more linguists consider anteriority to be the main categorlal meaning of finite and nonfinite perfect forms (E.Benveniste, A.Smirnitsky, R.Allen, H.Palmer, etc.). Thus, according to Smirnitsky,
"perfectivity" is the realization of a certain process before a certain moment or action in the movement of
time, while the meaning of the past is merely the realization of the process before the moment of speaking.[6,
145-161] This difference is most clearly observed when we compare the perfect future with the usual past
indefinite, as in the examples: He will have finished reading the book by 10 o'clock. El va fi terminat (va
termina) de citit cartea pe la ora zece and He finished to read the book. El a terminat de citit cartea. The
meaning of past is clearly expressed in both cases, but in the former the past is referred to a certain moment,
which is conceived with respect to future, while with past indefinite it is simply the relationship between the
action and the moment of speaking. Thus, anteriority or perfectivity is the meaning of an action, which
precedes another action or moment on the time axis. The category of anteriority historically appeared in the
result of transposition, when it was necessary to intensify the existing lexical and contextual means by
grammatical ones. Now we have a reverse process but on a different level. At the moment the means of
expressing future anteriority in both languages slightly differ. English has preserved the Latin system of
expressing future actions as seen from a moment in the past. In Romanian it is very rarely used. Now let's
take some examples: 1.Future from the present moment: I shall have read the text by six o'clock (by the time
you come home. Eu voi fi citit textul ctre ora ase (pna cnd te vei ntoarce acas). In both languages
future anteriority is expressed here both grammatically and lexically. The usual tendency in a language is to
simplify redundant forms. Thus, the examples, given above, are naturally simplified in both languages, and
anteriority can be expressed only lexically or contextually: I shall (will) finish reading the text by six o'clock
(by the time you come home). Eu voi termina de citit textul ctre ora ase (pn cnd te vei ntoarce acas).
Present perfect is used to express future anteriority in clauses of time and condition (substituting future
perfect), while perfectul compus in Romanian can be used to express future anteriority only in case of
stylistic (metasemiotic) transposition. Past perfect is used in clauses of time and condition to express future
anteriority from a moment in the past. In past perfect the category of taxis is not as clearly manifested as in
future perfect. But here, too, although past indefinite (or simple past) and past perfect are both past tense
forms, the difference between them is very clearly expressed. The past tense of the perfect form, although
refers to the past, differs clearly enough from past indefinite in having a second and different meaning of past
anteriority. In the American spoken English there is a tendency of rapprochment of present perfect in the
second meaning and past indefinite and the former is often substituted by the latter : Did you ever go to
Paris? Did he arrive yet? He never read this book. In the British Standard English present perfect continues
to differ regularly from past indefinite in all the meanings. We would like to draw your attention to the fact
that it is not enough to state the existence of the category of anteriority or any other categorial system in

12

English and Romanian. Language is permanently changing and all abstract linguistic systems should be
checked in practice (texts, speech), otherwise we could find ourselves "abusing grammar". Confrontation of
metalanguistic systems and grammatical forms disclosed phenomena of polysemy, homonymy and
synonymy. Categorial transposition (stylistic and modal, etc.) is found in both languages. There is a tendency
of regulation and simplification of categorial and redundant grammatical forms. Thus, grammatical
anteriority can be regarded as a pedanticism, for in situations of ordinary everyday speech it is very easy to
do without it, and express the same categorial meaning lexically or contextually. There is a clear-cut
tendency of transition of some grammatical categories to lexico-grammatical or lexical categorial means of
expression.

6.The English Verbal Categories

The verb is a part of speech expresses actions or states. The verb forms can fall under two main
divisions: finite and non-finite. The finite forms of the verb express a number of categorial forms: tense,
anteriority taxis, aspect, mood, number, person, voice, etc. These categories are expressed both by
analytically (I have written, I shall write) and synthetically (I write, I wrote). The non-finite forms (infinitive,
gerund, present participle and past participle) as part of the category of representation express the categorial
forms of anteriority, aspect and voice. The conjugation of the English verb is based on the following forms:
the infinitive (or the present tense stem), the past indefinite form, past participle and present participle.
The verbs can be divided into notional, semi-auxiliary and auxiliary. A notional verb possesses an
independent meaning and is used as a verbal predicate, expresses an action or state of the doer of the action
denoted by the subject: I have written a letter. Ann is reading a book.
A semi-auxiliary verb has no independent function in a given sentence and is used as part of the verbal or
nominal predicate. Its lexical element is expressed by the second element of the predicate (verb, noun,
adjective), the grammatical categorial meaning of tense, mood, person, number is expressed by the semiauxiliary in a finite form. It may be used as a link verb in compound nominal predicates (He was a very good
teacher); as part of a compound verbal predicate expressing modality (supposition, assurance, ability,
obligation, necessity, etc.) and aspectual meanings (the beginning, the end, duration, repetition of an action).
I can type very well. You should come in time. You must have lost the key on the way home. He began to work
early in the morning. He continued to think for a while. An auxiliary verb has only a purely grammatical
meaning and is used to form analytical structures. The following auxiliaries are singled out: Shall, will
(should, would) to form future (and future-in-the past) forms. I shall come later. He will arrive later. He said
he would do the work on Sunday. To have as an auxiliary is used in forms both finite and non-finite: How
nice of you to have come! Having read the book he returned it to me. He had lived in a village before moving
to London. To be is used in continuous and passive voice forms: He is writing a dictation. The dictation is
being written by him. The dictation has been written by him. The letter will be written by Ann. Should,
would. As an auxiliary should is used to form the suppositional (I insist that he should come in time) and
conditional in the first person (I should go to the country if the weather were fine). Would is traditionally
used in the second and third persons of conditional mood, but it is not unusual to be found in the first person
as well (He would have come if he had finished his work earlier. I would have come if I had not been so busy.
You would have met Bill yesterday if you had come to see us.). To do is used in the negative and interrogative
forms of present and past indefinite, imperative and also in the emphatic forms with do (He does not work at
the office. He did not know where she was. Dont come too late! Do come in time!) I shall have done my
work by next Monday, Ill go away on holiday on Tuesday. [39, 101-102]
7.The Category of Mood
The category of mood is a grammatical morphological category, which expresses the relationship
between what is being said and reality. While confronting the category of mood in English and Romanian
we come across certain differences in its interpretation. A.I.Smirnitsky 56 explains this phenomenon by the
fact that different linguists do not mean the same when they speak of mood or modality. When they classify
the forms of this category they often pay attention either to the form or to content. They do not always take
into consideration such phenomena as polysemy, homonymy, synonymy; grammatical, lexical-grammatical ,
lexical, prosodic means of expressing the corresponding categorial form of mood. That is why in various
publications we come across a multitude of terms to name the category of mood: mood, assertion, actual
assertion, relative assertion, aspect of mood, factual- theoretical-hypothetical mood, fact mood (indicative),

13

the mood of fact, declarative mood, thought-mood, imaginative mood, contrary-to-fact mood, inflectional
mood, etc. The number of categorial forms in different grammar books is from 2 to 16. As far as the
grammatical category of mood is concerned the most acceptable system is the one put forward by
A.Smirnitsky and his school and accepted by the majority of linguists: indicative, imperative, subjunctive I,
subjunctive II, conditional and suppositional. More complicated systems usually include grammatical, lexical
and lexical-grammatical modality. As a good example of the case could serve Barbara Strangs system: mood
of determination (will), mood of resolution (shall), permissive (may), concessive (might), potential (can),
compulsive (must), conditional (would), determinative-conditional (could). Sometimes in the mood system
such form as the infinitive, the participle, the gerund, etc. are included. More compact systems of two or
three categorial forms (indicative, imperative, subjunctive) usually combine under one term several
categorial and grammatical meanings. Thus the term subjunctive in some grammar books embrace the forms
of subjunctive I (Long live the queen!), subjunctive II (If I were you; If I had had time yesterday I would
have come), suppositional (I insist that he should be present at the conference), which express completely
different modal meanings. In the majority of Romanian grammar books we find a system of five categorial
forms of mood: indicative, potential, imperative, conjunctive, condiional-optative. In some manuals the
infinitive, the gerunziul, the participle and supinul are added. Difficulties appear when we analyze the forms
of potential, conjunctive and condiional-optative. Here grammatical polysemy grows into homonymy. Thus,
the forms of present potential (voi fi cntnd, s fi cntnd, ar fi cntnd, a fi cntnd, etc..) practically can
express modal meanings of subjunctive II, conditional, indicative, etc. Examples: 1) Se spune, c el ar fi
avnd multe lucruri interesante (They say that he is having /may have/ a lot of interesting things); 2) Dac
el ar fi avnd aceast carte, l-a ruga s mi-o dea (If he were having this book I should ask him to give it to
me); 3) Unde-i Petru? - Va (O) fi lucrnd n grdin. S fie el lucrnd? De ar fi el lucrnd! (Where is
Peter? He might be working in the garden. - Could he be working? If he were working!
Only the forms of present conjunctive turned out to express about 17 meanings: the infinitive, indicative,
imperative, subjunctive I, subjunctive II, etc. Lets take some examples and compare them with their
translations in English: The form with se + the verb form is actively replacing the infinitive in Romanian
(especially in the spoken language): Furtuna se npustise cu atta furie, nct prea c vrea s sfrme
insula n ndri, s o mistuie n flcri, s inunde copacii, s o mture de pe faa pmntului (The storm
culminated in one matchless effort that seemed likely to tear the island to pieces, burn it up, drown it to the
treetops, blow it away, and deafen every creature in it, all at on and the same moment). (M.Twain) The
conjunctive -infinitive can be used without the particle s like the English infinitive without the particle
to. S + verb form can be used to express a number of categorial form meanings: 1) Indicative and
imperative meanings: S nu ai nici o grij, mam! (Dont you worry, mother!) S nu te ndoieti! (Dont
doubt it!) O s-l ntrebm. (We shall ask him.) S-l ntrebm. (Lets ask him.) 2) Subjunctive I: S triasc
pacea n toat lumea! (Long live peace all over the world!); El a ordonat ca el s plece. (He ordered that he
go.) Subjunctive II: Noi am fi fost bucuroi s ne fi ntrebat. (We should have been glad if you had asked us.)
S ne fi spus am fi venit. (If you had told us we would have come.)
When we compare the English conditional and subjunctive II with the Romanian forms of
condiional-optative or better to say, with conditional and optative we find a complete categorial coincidence.
The two grammatical forms of the above mentioned categorial forms in Romanian are homonymous, thats
why in grammar books they are usually treated as one categorial form, in spite of the fact that they really
express different meanings. Lets give some examples: 1) If you had been here you would had helped us.
Dac ai fi fost aici ne-ai fi ajutat. 2) If you were here you would help us. Dac ai fi aici ne-ai ajuta. 3. If I
had started last week I sould have got there in time. Dac a fi plecat sptmna trecut a fi ajuns acolo la
timp.
Comparing the systems of moods in English and Romanian we come to the conclusion that there is
much in common between the two. The same conceptual categorial forms of mood in English are expressed
in Romanian by corresponding forms. Parallel forms sometimes are used to express the same modal
meaning, like in the case of conditional and subjunctive II, which correspond to the Romanian condiional
and optative, and may also correspond to imperfectul modal, conjunctive and potential. Thus, the following
English example can be rendered by means of different forms, which possess in the given context the same
categorial meaning: I should have gone to the meeting if you had told me. Eu m-a fi dus la adunare dac
mi-ai fi spus. Eu m duceam la adunare dac mi-ai fi spus. Eu m-a fi dus la adunare dac -mi spuneai.
Eu m duceam la adunare dac -mi spuneai. Eu m duceam la adunare s-mi fi spus. Changing the
category of affirmation-negation we express the above given by means of indicative mood but some
metasemiotic content is lost: I did not go to the meeting because you did (had not told) not tell me, Eu nu mam dus la adunare pentru c nu mi-ai spus. The modal imperfect in Romanian is naturally used to express

14

aspectual and modal meanings because of the rare use of the periphrastic aspectual forms in the language.
The conditional mood forms both in English and Romanian are used to express politeness (the utterance in
this case is emotionally coloured): Would you like to help me? N-ai vrea s m ajutai? I should like to ask
you something. A vrea s v ntreb (rog) ceva. The above- mentioned modal meanings are very rarely
expressed purely grammatically. Lexical and lexical-grammatical means of expressing modality are further
discussed. A number of modal forms considered to be purely grammatical, in fact are lexical or lexicalgrammatical. Thus in such examples like: I wish I were a student. I insist that he (should) be present. I
demand that he (should) come in time. I could do the work if I could come earlier - the grammatical meaning
of oblique mood is depending on modal words like wish, insist, demand, could in the above given example
expresses parallel modal meanings: 1) lexical, and 2) grammatical (conditional and subjunctive). Modal
verbs and modal words in general can express modal meanings purely lexically (see the examples given
above) or in combination with grammatical forms (lexical-grammatically). Thus in the example I wish I
were a student the modally colored word wish helps to intensify the general grammatical modal meaning
by using the form in the secondary clause in the subjunctive II mood. Subjunctive II can express unreal
condition, wish, supposition, desire, unreal preference or comparison, etc. and is usually used after such
lexical units: wish, suppose, if, as if, as though, though, that, so that, lest, for fear, before, ere, however,
whatever, till, until, save, saving, in case, unless, even if, even though, whichever, whoever, it is time, it is
high time, supposing, whether, etc. For example: If I were you I should stay here; Oh, that the storm were
over! He treats me as if (as though) I were a little child. Here he lives happier than if he lived in the country.
Even though he had come in time he would not have managed to talk to him. Even if he were here you would
not be allowed to see him. It is (high) time you read this book. Supposing you had had enough time yesterday
would you have managed to finish the job? Most of the above mentioned modal words influence the
modality of verbs used in conditional as well as subjunctive II in complex sentences (I should help you if I
had time; I should have helped you if I had had time).
Subjunctive I and Suppositional are usually used after modal words and the modality meaning
corresponds to the given modal word. Subjunctive I (also named Old Subjunctive) is falling in disuse. To a
certain extent it is still used in American English. In British English Subjunctive I is used in the formal
written language in various types of official documents (law, press, parliamentary activity, science and
technology, etc,), in poetry and literary prose, in stable expressions (be it so, so be it, if need be, be that as it
may, be it said, etc. ), in protests, swearing, cursing, etc. Subjunctive I has 2 meanings. In the first meaning it
expresses an optative meaning (a wish, a desire) which is not contrary to reality (May he live a hundred
years! Let success attend you! Long live the queen!) May, let express modality here and in combination
with the main verb they express an optative meaning. Prosodic elements are also important in intensifying
the modal meaning, in the last example it is prevailing. The second general meaning of Subjunctive I is
synonymous with Suppositional mood and is expressing a variety of submeanings in dependence of de modal
word accompanying the main verb (let, may, wish, to request, to be /im/possible, to be agreed, to order, to
suppose, to command, to be necessary, to fear, to be feared, to suggest, to insist, to propose, to arrange, to
demand, to pass a resolution, to give orders, request, suggestion, to grow terrified, to be afraid, adverbial
clauses of purpose introduced by lest, though, although, whatever, whoever, however, etc.). For example:
Should you care for a full explanation of the action, you may call any day. Though he (should) make every
effort, he cannot succeed. However hard it (should) rain, we shall have to go. Whatever he (should) say, I
will not change my mind. We shall start early lest we (should) be late. They grew terrified lest some evil
should have befallen on him. A resolution was passed that everybody (should) take part in the work. Orders
were given that we (should) start work. We arranged that we (should) meet on Sunday. He proposed that
they (should) start. I demand that he (should) come at once. We insisted that he (should be present. It is
requested that all (should) be ready by tomorrow. The modal verbs can express modality purely lexically. In
grammar books in the group of modal or defective verbs are usually included: must, can, could, may, might,
to be, to have, should, would, shall, will, dare, need, used to, ought to, (they have also the function of
auxiliary verbs and in speech or used in texts they acquire a grammatical meaning as well. In reality the
number of modal verbs is much larger. Thus, verbs like: to insist, to demand, to order, to request, to suppose,
to command, to necessitate, etc. express lexical modality. Alongside their lexical modality most of them
could be used to express an additional grammatical modality. The lexical modality is important in using the
main verb in a given grammatical mood form (see conditional, subjunctive I, suppositional, subjunctive II
and imperative). The prosodic element is also very important in expressing or intensifying a modal meaning.
Examples of categorial meanings, expressed by grammatical, lexical-grammatical, lexical and phonological
means is practically found in the majority of grammatical verbal categories. Thus, futurity in expressive
speech may be expressed lexically, the grammatical form is used stylistically: He comes tomorrow (later,

15

next week). I am leaving on Sunday. The category of aspect in English is considered to be a purely
grammatical one, the marked member of the opposition being expressed by continuous forms. A closer
inspection shows that the grammatical marked form, in many cases, is intensified by lexical aspectual
means, or only the lexical means are used. Thus in case of putandi and sentiendi verbs or when we use words
like always, often, seldom, occasionally, continuously, permanently, usually, etc. the continuous forms are not
used, because the meaning of these verbs, adverbs expresses an extended action lexically and there is no
need to use a continuous form in a neutral situation. Only in case of intensification of the categorial meaning,
for the sake of expressivity a continuous form could be used in such cases. The prosodic element is changing
here too to intensify the aspectual-metasemiotic meaning. Thus, the following verbs can be used in the
continuous form only in case of intensification, expressive use: see, feel, taste, observe, agree, disagree,
bear, know, mean, notice, recall, recognize, believe, disbelieve, differ, doubt, find, foresee, recollect,
remember, suppose, think, trust, distrust, understand, smell, detest, forgive, hate, like, dislike, love, mind,
please, displease, prefer, want, wish, desire, hear, look, appear, consider, expect, hope, loathe, refuse, regret,
be, belong to, contain, consist of, cost, depend on, deserve, have, hold, matter, own, resemble, etc.
Here are some examples where both lexical and grammatical aspectual means are used for expressivity
or intensification of aspectual meaning. You are seeing this place for the last time. I am hearing it better now.
The dog was smelling the lamp post. She was feeling the sun extremely. She must be a stranger whom I was
observing. He is always doing things like this. She was all the time smelling at him. They were occasionally
visiting them.
Analyzing all the verbal categories we have observed a phenomenon of transition from grammatical to
lexical-grammatical and lexical means of expressing this or that categorial meaning. A good example could
serve the category of taxis (anteriority), which undergoes a process of lexicalization in many languages: in
Russian the perfect anteriority has practically disappeared and the lexical anteriority has taken its place. The
same is happening in English and Romanian, where some perfect forms are not used any more or are used
very rarely (future perfect, non-finite perfect forms). The sentence I shall have finished my work by six
oclock / before you come back is usually substituted by I shall finish my work by six oclock/before you
come back. Thus grammatical anteriority is becoming redundant and native speakers are regularly omitting
it. By six oclock, before you come back express anteriority lexically or contextually and this is quite
enough to omit the redundant future perfect form. [39, 103-109]
8.The Category of Aspect
The category of aspect in various languages is expressed differently: grammatically, lexico-grammatically,
lexically and prosodically. Aspect is the way an action is viewed. In English, aspect is an extremely reliable
and grammatically impeccable way of expressing the opposition in question. In Romanian the category of
aspect is expressed mainly lexically and in Russian lexico-grammatically, the purely lexical and
phonological elements are used as alternative means or as aspectual intensifiers. The Russian perfective
underlines the fact that the action is finished and the imperfective expresses an action that is not finished and
developing in time, the term itself (imperfective) stresses the fact that the action is not finished. In English
the aspectual opposition has very much in common with the Russian one. But there is no one to one
correspondence.59
The same event can be described by using either continuous or non-continuous forms.
It much depends on the speakers intention, whether he wants to describe the action in development,
extended or just to express an action as very short or habitual, without paying attention to the aspectual
marked categorial meaning. Thus, for example, the sentences Yesterday at five oclock I met my
friends/Yesterday at five oclock I was meeting my friends. In the first sentence the speaker just mentions the
fact of meeting his friends, in the second sentence this fact is intensified by underlying the fact that the action
developed during a certain period of time. The verbs possessing a durative lexical meaning (interminative)
can express continuous aspect both lexically and lexico-grammatically, the latter being emphatic or
intensified aspectually. Thus, He sat at the table / He was sitting at the table; He looked out of the window. A
man stood at the door / I looked out of the window. A man was standing at the door are confronted with
imperfect forms both in Russian and Romanian: ; El edea la mas;
; Un brbat sttea la u (Am vzut un brbat stnd la u). In the case of He sat at the table and A
man stood at the door the lexical aspectual meaning of sat and stood is durative, and it is intensified by
superimposing a grammatical aspectual meaning on the lexical one in was sitting and was standing. The
Romanian and Russian equivalents belong to the imperfective aspect and express an unfinished and extended
action, the grammatical duration here is supplemented by the lexical one. Even terminative or point-action
verbs can be used in the continuous aspect if the action is repeated or the speaker wants to show the action in
development, or to stress the fact that the action lasted during a certain period of time. For example: The boy

16

jumped over the fence / The boy was jumping round the tree. I began to read, but the teacher interrupted
me / I was beginning to read when he came in. In Romanian we have practically the same situation: Biatul
a srit peste gard / Biatul srea n jurul copacului; Eu am nceput s citesc, dar profesorul m-a ntrerupt /
Eu ncepeam s citesc, cnd el a intrat. There are various points of view concerning the category of aspect
in English. One of them is that aspect in English is formed by means of the opposition of perfect and
continuous forms, which is similar to the perfective and imperfective aspect in the Slavic languages. In this
case the sentence I had been working at my article for three hours before he came back would express both
forms: perfect and continuous (had been working). According to the rules of categorization a grammatical
form of the verb can not express both forms of the categorial opposition simultaneously. This confusion may
be connected with the fact that the term perfect or perfective is practically ambivalent and may be used
to express either a finished action or anteriority. For example: I wrote a letter yesterday and I had written a
letter yesterday by five oclock. In both sentences the action is perfect(ive) in the sense that they are finished,
but had written expresses a different perfect meaning, that of anteriority. In Romanian there are no clear-cut
grammatical flexions (with the exception of imperfectul) to indicate the given categorial meaning. In fact,
there existed, and still partially exists, a system of forms similar to the English continuous ones (and can be
found in some other Romance languages), which consist of the auxiliary verb a fi (to be) and gerunziul
(coinciding in meaning with the English present participle). Now these forms are rarely used in the indicative
mood and are not very often confronted with the English continuous aspectual forms. Here are some
examples: 1) Indicative mood (found in old texts): will be writing - va fi scriind, will have been writing - va
fi fost scriind, is writing- este scriind, was writing - era scriind, has been writing - a fost scriind , etc. The
oblique moods: (are still being used and in most grammar books are given as one mood under the name of
prezumptivul or potenialul): conditional: he would be writing - El ar fi scriind; subjunctive II (optativul): If
he were writing dac el ar fi scriind; conditional and subjunctive II anterior forms: El ar fi fost scriind (if) he had been writing, he would have been writing; conjunctivul (corresponding to the English
subjunctive1, subjunctive II; used in constructions where the infinitive used: with suppositional, modal
verbs, etc.): s fi scriind, s fi fost scriind - to be writing, to have been writing; had been writing, etc.
Potential mood: va fi scriind - might be writing, etc. The aspectual meaning of the above given forms is
combined with a metasemiotic one. Here are some examples taken from A History of Romanian Grammar,
published by V.Marin (Chisinau, 1970), quoting sources from XVII-XIX centuries: i cnd va fi avnd vre-o
treab... (When he will be having something to do...), Tocmai cnd prerea de ru l ajunsese... erau trecnd
printr-o pdure mare i deas (Just when he felt sorry for it, they were passing through a large thick forest);
Era ca oile rtcindu (Was wandering like sheep); i c era mergndu i apropiindu-m ctre Damascu,
ntru ameadz... (And I was walking and approaching Damascus at noon...); i din zi n zi muli s-au fost
adugnd (And every day many have been adding...); A fost pltind i el cnd a fost de fa; (He had been
paying when the had been present). In Modern Romanian such indicative forms are used very rarely. Thus,
here is an example heard on the radio: El s-a accidentat i acum este suferind (,,,he is suffering now). In the
oblique moods these grammatical forms are still used, especially in the colloquial speech. All the
constructions of participle I in English usually have identical equivalents in Romanian. These constructions
in English and Romanian are used both aspectually and metasemiotically. This could be seen in the following
examples: I saw Andrew (him) crossing the street - Eu l-am vzut pe Andrei trecnd strada; He heard
someone coming along the path - El a auzit pe cineva venind dealungul crrii; He said looking around - El
a spus uitndu-se njur, He came running - El venea fugind; Walking in the park he met Helen Plimbnduse prin parc, el a ntlnit-o pe Elena; He walked singing - El mergea cntnd. The constructions, regularly
used and confronted in both languages, are: Accusative with participle I in English and Accusative with
gerunziul in Romanian. Thus, for example: Young Francis was seeing the darkies working in the cotton
fields - Tnrul Francis i vedea pe negri muncind pe plantaiile de bumbac (J.Galsworthy); Dupin was
moving quickly to the door, when we again heard him coming up - Dupin se mica repede spre ua, cnd
peste o clip l auzirm pe necunoscut urcnd din nou (E.Po). The next construction is Nominative with
Participle I and Nominative with gerunziul: He was seen running to the river - El a fost vzut fugind spre
ru. Nominative absolute: The dinner being ready, he dished and served it up Prnzul fiind gata, el a
servit masa. The house door being open, she went in before Tom, requesting him to follow her (M.Twain) Ua casei fiind deschis, ea a intrat naintea lui Tom, cerndu-i s-o urmeze. Absolute Participle construction
and Absolute gerunziul construction: A lake with children swimming in it, appeared and disappeared - Un
lac, cu copii scldndu-se n el, apru i dispru. Double predicate: The little maid came running down Fetia venea fugind n jos. He walked singing - El mergea cntnd. He looked smiling - El se uita zmbind .
Such sentences could be easily be transformed: He walked singing = He walked; He was singing - El mergea
cntnd = El mergea i cnta; El cnta (El era cntnd). Thus, in the case of the English Participle I and

17

the Romanian gerunziul we have practically a difference of terms and there is a complete coincidence in their
grammatical meanings. An aspectual form, which is common to Romance languages, is the imperfect.
Imperfectul in Romanian is regularly confronted with the English continuous aspect: They were waiting for
the judge and Mariette was thinking of all the money Don Cesare had spent (Ei ateptau judectorul, Mariet
se gndea la toi banii, pe care Don Cezare i cheltuise). More than that, imperfectul possesses a wider
meaning than the continuous form. It has already been mentioned, that the latter has become so specifically
continuous, and is very often used to express a metasemiotic connotation. Simple past in English is often
used to express not only point actions, but also extended ones. In such cases imperfectly is also used as an
equivalent of past indefinite in English: He represented for her the reality of things (El reprezenta pentru ea
ralitatea vietii); Plainer people were in the ascendant (Oamenii mai simpli erau n ascensiune). Thus, it is
important to notice that some words in English lexically express an extended action (durative or
interminative verbs) and in neutral situations they substitute the grammatical continuous aspect. We have
already mentioned that in some grammar books one may find the statement that putandi and sentiendi verbs
are not and should not be used in the continuous aspect. A closer inspection of this phenomenon shows that
practically all the verbs in English, including the putandi and sentiendi ones can be used in the continuous
aspect. Verbs like believe, see, etc. express aspect lexically and they are rarely used in the grammatical
continuous form, usually when there is a necessity to intensify the aspectual meaning, to make it more
emphatic, more expressive: But I am seeing you, you are there behind the tree! Am I really hearing what you
are saying? Here follows a list of verbs, which possess lexical aspectuality and are rarely used in the
continuous form in neutral situations: see, feel, taste, observe, agree, disagree, believe, disbelieve, differ,
doubt, find, foresee, forget, imagine, hear, know, mean, notice, recall, recognize, recollect, remember,
suppose, think, trust, distrust, understand, smell, detest, forgive, hate, like, dislike, love, mind, please,
displease, prefer, want, wish, desire, hear, sound, look, appear, consider, expect, hope, loathe, refuse, regret,
be, belong to, contain, consist of, cost, depend on, deserve, have, hold, matter, own, resemble, etc. Lets give
some examples taken from English authentic literature: God was witness to all their calamities. He was
seeing them robbed. He was seeing them famish hour by hour. He was seeing them die. I am seeing a brown
colour. You are seeing this place for the last time. I am hearing it better now. Am I really hearing a voice at
last! The dog was smelling the lamp post. She was smelling the fish to find out whether it was fit to eat. She
was tasting the sauce to find out whether it was salt or sugar she had put into it. She was feeling the sun
extremely. She was nothing like me, so she must be a stranger whom I was observing, though in a most
bewildering way, etc. The same could be said about the habitual and repeated actions, usually accompanied
by words possessing a certain durative lexical and aspectual meaning: always, often, constantly,
permanently, occasionally, seldom, usually, etc. It has been observed that English people regularly use the
grammatical continuous aspect in their speech, to make it more expressive: He is always doing things like
this. They were always worrying. She was all the time smelling at him. He was always promising to come.
They were occasionally visiting them.
Thus, the choice of the continuous aspect depends only on the action being viewed as a process. This is the
universal grammatical meaning of the continuous aspect and this is the only criterion that matters when this
or that aspectual form is being chosen. In case of emphasis, when there is a necessity to increase the
categorial aspectual meaning English people can ignore the above mentioned rule: Father, you don't see me.
-Oh, I see you. -No, you dont. -But I am seeing you! You are behind that bush! (seeing is used emphatically
here). Lets take another example. He is always doing things like that (emphatic usage). It is important to
mention the fact that in the confronted languages, and first of all in English, there is a process of
metasemiotic transposition of continuous (progressive, durative, imperfect) aspect into a metasemiotic
category. These forms are often used not only to express aspect, but also for stylistic purposes. The emphatic
use of seeing and always is accompanied by emphatic prosodic means: wide range, high fall, slow tempo,
etc. In Romanian (and in Russian in the present tense) the lexical means of expressing aspectual meanings,
as we mentioned above, prevail over the grammatical ones, i.e. the lexical aspectual category is much more
prominent than the grammatical one. Thus, the English sentences The farmer works in his field, The farmer
is working in his field now are confronted in Romanian and Russian with identical grammatical forms of the
verbs (simple present) in both cases: Fermierul lucreaz pe cmp. Fermierul lucreaz pe cmp acum;
, . Now in English intensifies the
grammatical aspectual meaning, while in Romanian and Russian acum, are the only aspectual
(lexical) means and they can be intensified only contextually and prosodically. We have already mentioned
above the observation concerning the translation of the English continuous passive forms into Romanian and
Russian. Regular confrontation of examples allows us to conclude that English continuous forms are
regularly translated by means of verbs with the particle se in Romanian and flexion - in Russian. In

18

both languages it is usually used to express lexical-grammatical reflexivity. But in this case they are used
purely grammatically to express a different meaning, that of a durative action in the passive voice: The house
is being built now, The house was being built when we arrived there, The house will be built this time next
year Casa se construiete acum (Casa este construit acum), Casa se construia (era construit) cnd am
sosit acolo, Casa se va construi (va fi construit) pe timpul acesta anul viitor - .
, , . The
reflexive particle and flexion here get completely homonymous meanings of passive voice of imperfective
(durative) actions. In English there is no continuous aspect in the passive voice in the future, because both
categorial forms are used with the verb to be and it is not acceptable in the literary English to say: The
house will be being built. Both in Romanian and Russian continuity is expressed: se va construi,
. Va fi construit usually represents a perfective action. The same opposition of finished
(perfective) and imperfective in the passive voice past indefinite is found in both Romanian and Russian:
Casa se construia Casa era construit Casa a fost construit (Casa era construit may have the meaning
of imperfectul pasiv and pluscvamperfectul activ). The Russian: -
represent the above- mentioned aspectual opposition. The category of negation usually influences the
realization of a categorial form. Thus, the continuous aspect used in the negative forms may be considered as
a failure to realize the marked aspectual meaning. Lets take some examples: I am working in the garden/I
am not working in the garden; I am reading a book/I am not reading a book. The positive forms indicate that
the actions (I am working; I am reading) are being carried out at the moment. The negative forms, on the
other hand, stress the fact that the given actions are not being carried out. In fact the continuous aspect is
realized in both cases. In the negative forms we stress the fact, that we are not working in the garden or
reading a book, but we are doing something else. For example: I am not working in the garden, I am walking
in the garden, I am not reading a book, I am writing a letter. In both cases there is an aspectual meaning of
actions developing in time at the given moment. Analyzing the categories of aspect in the confronted
languages we can conclude that the English language possesses a clear-cut grammatical aspectual system,
prevailing over the lexical and prosodic aspectual means used as a rule to intensify the general aspectual
meaning. In Romanian the grammatical aspect is subservient, the lexical and prosodic aspectual categorial
means being prominent. In the contrasted languages one could observe the tendency of metasemiotic
(stylistic) transposition. If we compare a number of related languages with an unrelated one we find that
coincidences and differences vary in each case. Thus, in Romanian and Arabic (and in Russian in the present
tense) the lexical means of expressing aspectual meanings, as we mentioned above, prevail over the
grammatical ones, i.e. the lexical aspectual category is much more prominent than the grammatical one.
Thus, the English sentences The farmer works in his field, The farmer is working in his field now are
confronted in Arabic, Romanian and Russian with identical grammatical form of the verbs in both cases:
Yehmil el mudaraha fi hak lihi, El mudara yehmil fi hak lihi elan; Fermierul lucreaz pe cmp. Fermierul
lucreaz pe cmp acum.; , . Now in English
intensifies the grammatical aspectual meaning, while in Arabic, Romanian and Russian the lexical means
elan, acum, are the only aspectual means and they may be intensified only contextually and
prosodically. In Arabic the imperfect is wider in meaning than in Romanian. The non-finite forms are
denoting an imperfective action taken at any time: Ayu kameisin la yaslahu lehrianny. The present-future
tense expresses an action that may simultaneously represent the present and the future planes: Ini nazer
ilamata faalahu - I am watching what you are going to do (what you are doing). The present and the future
planes are distinguished contextually or phonetically. Thus the above given example may have two meanings
depending on the context: two simultaneous actions in the present and a correlation of a continuous action in
the present and future. The imperfect denotes an incomplete or durative action in the past, developing in time
simultaneously with other actions in the past: Inni naziron illamata faalabu. Seala an hum wa einie
yeshtamauun (He asked them where they were going to congregate). The interminative verbs, compared
with those terminative, express an unfinished or imperfect action and they are used in Arabic with other
verbs like, for instance, the verbs of existence and formation: kana (to be), sara (to get, to grow), asmaha,
amsa, atha, zala... (to become, to get)...: asbaha yafalu (he started doing); amsa maridon (he became sick).
The verb kan in the imperfect form with the particle ma (durative) express a meaning of durative or
continuous action: Ma minti haye (In the meantime as he is still living); Madama yakumu or ma dama kaye
man (In the meantime as he was still standing). The combination of the imperfect of the main verb with the
preceding verb kana creates the meaning of past continuous: Kana yukullu (He was often speaking); Kana fi
allahujuzu tahdemany (The old woman was serving this). The imperfect expresses the future tense if the
sentence a lexical future marker or the particle sa: Lasafiru ghadan; Sa anfahu ileihi haza. Futurity is more
pronounced in the imperfect mood. The verb kana helps to express a continuous action (imperfect) in the

19

past: Lamma jeihtu ileihi kana yaktubu alrisaluta (When I came to him, he was writing a letter). In this case
the continuous action is simultaneous with the action in the secondary clause. Without the verb kana the
same sentence may express a simple sequence of actions: Lama jeihtu e lechi katabu alrisulata (When I
came to him/after I had come to him he wrote a letter.).
Analyzing the categories of aspect in the confronted languages we can conclude that the English language
possesses a clear-cut grammatical aspectual system, prevailing over the lexical aspectual means used as a
rule to intensify the general aspectual meaning. Besides the continuous non-continuous aspectual
opposition in English we can also single out a grammatical aspectual opposition of finished unfinished
(perfective-imperfective). The former is predominant and the latter is subsidiary and is not usually singled
out in grammar books. In Romanian and Arabic the grammatical aspect is subservient, the lexical aspectual
category being prominent. In all the contrasted languages one could observe the tendency of metasemiotic
(stylistic) transposition of aspectual forms. Thus, in English the grammatical means prevail, supported by the
lexical and phonological ones, In Russian the category of aspect is expressed mainly lexico-grammatically,
the purely lexical and phonological elements are used as alternative means or as aspectual intensifiers. Let us
take the categories of aspect in English and Russian expressed correspondingly by the oppositions of
Continuous - non-Continuous and Perfective-Imperfective. The Russian perfective underlines the fact that
the action is finished and the Imperfective expresses an action that is not finished and developing in time, the
term itself (imperfective) stresses the fact that the action is not finished. Though the English aspectual
opposition is practically identical with the Russian one, there is no one to one correspondence. Thus, for
example, the sentences He sat at the table and He was sitting at the table are confronted with only one
equivalent in Russian . In the case of He sat at the table the action itself is prominent,
while in He was sitting at the table - the process, the fact that the action is extended, developing in time is
most important. Their Russian equivalent belongs to the Imperfective aspect and expresses an unfinished and
extended action. Discrepancies of this case are observed in the verbs, possessing an interminative meaning.
The verb forms in the sentences He sat at the table and He was sitting at the table in English belong to
imperfective forms. There is a certain difference between the two forms. They are both, durative or
progressive in meaning, but sat expresses lexical duration, while in the was sitting the given lexical duration
is intensified by the grammatical one. But from the point of view of grammatical aspect the two verb forms
in He sat at the table and He was sitting at the table represent an aspectual opposition of continuous noncontinuous aspect. There have been attempts in English to create an aspectual system like in the Slavonic
languages. An opposition like Perfect - Continuous aspect was put forward by some linguists. Terms like
imperfective, imperfect could be found in grammar books. Now when we turn to Arabic we can see
practically the same problems: of systemic approach and terminology. Thus, it is considered that the
imperfect (also called non-finite) forms are opposed to the finite forms and denote an action as not
completed. From the point of view of taxis these forms do not differ here. The aspectual meaning of the
imperfect is considered as if divorced from the temporal meaning, the action can take place at any time, the
given action or state is not referred to any specific moment, because it is extended. [39, 110-122]
9.Aspectual Categorization in Cognate Languages
Analyzing various aspectual examples we can conclude that in different languages there exist various
aspectual forms: continuous, non-continuous, perfect(ive) and imperfect(ive). In English the continuous
forms dominate over other aspectual means (lexical, lexical-grammatical). There is a metalinguistic
confusion in case of the terms perfect/perfective, which are treated from different points of view by linguists.
The original meaning of the term perfect was finished action and was in opposition to imperfect
(unfinished). Gradually it acquired the meaning of anteriority. This metalinguistic ambiguity contributed to
the appearance in the English text-books of several aspectual categorial oppositions: continuous/noncontinuous, perfect/continuous, perfect/imperfect(ive). In the third case imperfective embraces both the
continuous and non-continuous grammatical and lexical durative forms. In English the grammatical category
of continuous/non-continuous aspect prevails. All the verbal forms can be subdivided into two large groups
of perfective and imperfect(ive) forms, which imply both lexical and grammatical meanings. The perfect
/continuous opposition is not acceptable because perfect forms can express a durative action: I have lived
here for many years (and I am not intending to move to any place). This example is in aspectual opposition
of perfect(ive)/imperfective to I have lived here for many years (and now I move to a new place). At the
same time both examples are part of the unmarked member of the continuous/non-continuous aspectual
opposition. The lexical durative meaning of the verb to live contributes to the intensification of the general
aspectual meaning, especially if it is used in the continuous form, where its expressivity is strongly
enhanced: I have been living here for many years. A finished action can be expressed both by perfect and
non-perfect forms: I have written a letter and I wrote a letter to him. Both actions are finished or perfective.

20

Imperfective actions can also be expressed by both continuous and indefinite non-perfect forms: Yesterday I
worked in the garden. Yesterday I was working in the garden when Peter came to visit us. Worked and was
working express durative actions, but the latter form also means an action developing at a given moment
parallel to another action (when Peter came to visit us).
The perfective-imperfective opposition prevails in many European languages. It may be expressed
lexico-grammatically like in the Slavonic languages, while in some other languages the imperfect forms
express a durative unfinished meaning grammatically, combined in durative verbs with the corresponding
lexical aspectual meaning. Imperfective aspect has a wider meaning than the continuous aspect, which
expresses an action in development parallel to another action or moment. In the English language the
imperfective actions can be rendered both by non-continuous and continuous forms. In the former ones the
lexical duration of the given word permits to express an unfinished or progressive action. Lexical durative
elements may be found in both members of the opposition. The same event can be described by using either
continuous or non-continuous forms. It much depends on the speakers intention, whether he wants to
describe the action in development, extended or just to express an action as very short or habitual, without
paying attention to the aspectually marked categorial meaning. Lets take the examples: Yesterday at five
oclock I met my friends. Yesterday at five oclock I was meeting my friends. In the first sentence the speaker
just mentions the fact of meeting his friends, the duration of the action is not so important here. In the second
variant the action is viewed as developing in time and is more expressive. A number of lexemes, expressing
durative actions lexically, are not used in the continuous forms in habitual situations: see, feel, taste, observe,
agree, disagree, believe, hear, know, mean, notice, think, etc. In emphatic expressive speech all the putandi
and sentiendi verbs can be used in the continuous form: God was witnessing to all their calamities. He was
seeing them robbed. He was seeing them die. I am seeing a brown colour. I am hearing it better now. The
dog was smelling the lamp post. Another example: He looked out of the window. A man stood at the door/ I
looked out of the window. A man was standing at the door. Lexical duration interacts with the grammatical
continuous meaning. The general aspectual meaning increases and the utterance becomes more expressive.
Inchoative, terminative and point-action verbs can also be used in the continuous form if the actions
are repeated or seen by the speaker as developing in time: The boy jumped over the fence/The boy was
jumping round the tree. I began to read, but the teacher interrupted me / I was beginning to read when he
came in. In case of durative adverbs like always, constantly, permanently, occasionally, seldom, usually, etc.
in emphatic emotional speech the continuous forms combined with emphatic prosody are used: He is always
doing things like this. They were always worrying. He was always helping me. Prosodic means are used for
metasemiotic transposition: He is \always doing things like this. Here the lexical and grammatical durative
means are enhanced by a high fall, lento tempo, wide range, increased loudness and paralinguistic means.
[39, 110-115] Continuous forms were actively used in the indicative mood in earlier Romanian. Here are
some examples taken from the History of Moldovan Grammar, published by prof. V.Marin (Chisinau, 1970),
quoting sources of XVII-XIX centuries [24]: Era ca oile rtcindu, Au fost avndu prieteug mare cu Ptru
Vod. [24,36,123] tefan Vod au fost eznd odat n divan cu toiagul n gur. Ct au fost nvnd mai
de mult vreame [24,37] Fostau prins doi nemi turcii i i-au fost iind aproape de cortul vizirului legai.
[24,39] Dece o seam de boieri s-au fost apucndu s fac zapis. [24,53] Tocmai c nd prerea de ru l
ajunsese... erau trecnd printr-o pdure mare i deas.; Au fost dormind la bisearica lui svetin Benedict. [24,
83] i era mergndu i apropiindu-m ctre Damascu, ntru ameadz... [24,90] martorului tu nsumi era
stndu[24,91] Am audzit pre muli mrturisind s hie fost covrind pre Vasilie Vod. [24, 132] i din zi
n zi muli s-au fost adugnd i-au mai fost viind i un general al lui[24,139] A fost pltind i el cnd a
fost de fa. i arcul l-au fost trgnd cu vrtej. [24,155]
Analyzing these examples we have no hesitation in stating the fact that the constructions of the
auxiliary verb a fi + gerunziul express the grammatical continuous aspect like in English, Spanish,
Portuguese and Italian. The durative action here produces a stronger effect on the reader or listener than the
imperfect. In Modern Romanian extended forms are used only in the oblique moods in colloquial speech:
Unde-i Petru? - O fi lucrnd n livad. -S fie el lucrnd n livad? De ar fi el lucrnd n livad! [39, 112]
Constructions with participle I in English usually have identical equivalents in Romanian and other
Romance languages and express continuous actions. 1.Accusative with Participle I: Young Francis was
seeing the darkies working in the cotton fields - Tnrul Francis i vedea pe negri muncind pe plantaiile de
bumbac (J.Galsworthy); 2.Nominative with Participle I and Nominative with gerunziul: He was seen
running to the river - El a fost vzut fugind spre ru. 3.Nominative absolute: The house door being open,
she went in before Tom, requesting him to follow her (M.Twain) - Ua casei fiind deschis, ea a intrat
naintea lui Tom, cerndu-i s-o urmeze. 4.Absolute Participle construction: A lake with children swimming
in it, appeared and disappeared - Un lac, cu copii scldndu-se n el, apru i dispru. Walking in the park

21

he met Helen. 5.Double predicate: He walked singing - El mergea cntnd. In this case we have two
actions as if blended together in a shorter unit: (El mergea. El cnta). All these constructions express a clear
cut grammatical continuous aspect combined with the lexical durative meaning of the verbs. [39, 112-113]
The continuous forms in Romanian, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are subservient to the lexical and
lexical-grammatical aspectual means and are usually used in emotional speech for expressivity and
emphasis in an action developing in time, intensified by the interaction with lexical means and prosody.
Thus, in the Spanish expressive discourse the continuous forms are often preferred: Estoy hablando . Juan est
comiendo. Mara est escribiendo una carta. Los pasajeros estarn llegando a su destino. Ayer estuve
repasando la gramtica. Las gotas de agua estaban cayendo pausadamente. Hemos estado nadando
tres horas. Maana estar trabajando todo el da en la biblioteca. [54] Identical constructions exist in
Italian: Marcovaldo stava portando a spasso la famiglia. Pietro sta leggendo un libro. [20] The
continuous forms are usually accompanied by lexical supporters like todo el dia the whole day through,
toat ziua and interacting with the lexical durative meanings of the verbs. In Romanian these examples are
usually rendered by means of imperfectul, constructions with gerunziu or contextual and lexical durative
means. The Portuguese construction estar + gerundio is also the equivalent of the English continuous
form: Eu estou estudando na Universidade. Ele estava lendo quando ela me chamou. Amanha
estaremos preparando toda a documentacao. [68] In Spanish, Italian and Portuguese there exist several
constructions with gerundio expressing aspectual duration. Thus, the Portuguese construction ficar + gerundio
expresses a progressive action and is translated into English by means of continuous aspect form s: Fico
olhando para retrato. The construction andar a + infinitive: A Teresa anda falando da mudanca de
casa. [20] What is important to mention is the fact that in Portugal the construction estar + gerundio can
be substituted by the construction estar a +infinitive preserving the durative meaning: Pedro esta a
ler novo livro. The same happens with the construction ficar + gerundio, where gerundio is
substituted by the infinitive: Fico estudar 3 horas. The construction continuar (seguir, prosseguir) +
gerundio express a continuous action as well: Ele continua lendo o jornal. The construction continuar a
+ infinitive practically expresses the same type of continuous action: Ele continua a ler jornal. [68]
Exactly the same we have in English: He continues reading the journal can be easily changed into He
continues to read . The construction with the non-continuous infinitive has a weaker aspectual
grammatical meaning, the lexical durative meaning of continue taking over the categorial function.
In Spanish like in Portuguese, besides estar, there exist durative constructions with verbs like: ir, andar,
venir, seguir, continuar, quedar(se), permanecer with gerundio having a pronounced durative aspectual meaning:
Los conferenciantes iban discutiendo algunos problemas de los vuelos csmicos. Las muchachas continuan
charlando. In all these examples the grammatical continuous aspectual meaning is interacting with the lexical
duration of the verbs, intensifying the categorial meaning and making it more expressive. The most often used
is the construction with ir + gerundio, which expresses a consecutive action in development: El bote iba
hacienda agua... La humedad sol iban abriendo las maderas derritiendo la brea. Ya voy comprendiendo
que mi vecino tena razn, etc. [6]. The combination of seguir +gerundio express continuous actions in
present past and future: Seguimos trabajando en la Universidad. Seguiremos tomando parte en los
debates.[3] In most examples the grammatical continuous meaning interact with the lexical duration of the
verbs and adverbs, intensifying the final aspectual expressivity.
In Spanish, Italian and Portuguese there are some other verbs to form durative combinations. Thus, the Spanish
combinations of ir, andar, venir, seguir, continuar, quedar(se), permanecer with gerundio have a pronounced
durative aspectual meaning: Los conferenciantes iban discutiendo (The speakers were discussing) algunos
problemas de los vuelos csmicos. Las muchachas continuan charlando (went on chattering). Un hombre
extrao se quedo registrndome (A stranger went on inspecting me) con la vista de arriba abajo. Ellos, los
chicos, habian ido creciendo saliendo (the children were growing and starting in life) a la vida. In all these
examples the grammatical continuous aspectual meaning can interact with the lexical duration of the verbs,
intensifying the categorial meaning and making it more expressive. [54; 53] The most often used is the
construction with ir + gerundio, which expresses a consecutive action in development: El bote iba hacienda
agua... La humedad sol iban abriendo las maderas derritiendo la brea. Ya voy comprendiendo que mi
vecino tena razn, etc. [53]. Seguir+gerundio expresses continuous actions in present past and future:
Seguimos trabajando en la Universidad. We are still working at the university. Seguiremos tomando parte
en los debates. We shall be taking part in the debates [54] In most examples the grammatical continuous
meaning interact with the lexical duration of the verbs and adverbs, intensifying the final aspectual
expressivity. Many words lexically express an extended action and in neutral situations they substitute the
grammatical continuous aspect.

22

In Portuguese we find identical durative constructions: Ficar+gerundio expresses a progressive action

and is translated into English by means of continuous forms: Fico olhando para retrato, I have been
looking at the picture for a long time. [68] Andar a + infinitivo: A Teresa anda falando da mudanca de
casa. [68] In Portugal the construction estar + gerundio can be substituted by estar a +infinitive preserving
a certain aspectual durative meaning: Pedro esta a ler novo livro. The same happens with the
construction ficar + gerundio, where gerundio is substituted by the infinitive: Fico estudar 3 horas.
Continuar (seguir, prosseguir) + gerundio express a continuous action: Ele continua lendo o jornal. The
combination continuar a + infinitive practically expresses the same type of continuous action: Ele continua
a leer jornal. [68] Exactly the same we have in English: He continues reading the journal can be easily
changed into He continues to read, where the lexical aspectual durative meaning will prevail. Similar forms
are found in Italian as well: Egli andava dicendo delle bugie. He was telling a lie. [20]
Finite and non-finite continuous forms in Romanian, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are mostly used in
emotional speech, for expressivity and emphasis in actions developing in time, intensified by lexical and
prosodic means. In these languages they are usually considered as constructions with some verbs. Analyzing
Spanish conversational emotionally coloured examples, taken from The Lingaphone Institute. Curso
Espaol [74] we find a multitude of finite continuous forms metasemiotially used: Ahora estoy en la
estacin de Atocha. Estoy esperando (I am waiting). No me gusta esperar. Mi hijo Ramn esta sacando
los billetes en la taquilla (is buying tickets at the booking-office). Hoy hace mal tiempo: hace fro y esta
lloviendo (is raining). In these examples a negative connotation is expressed by the speaker, who is
displeased to be waiting there for a long time. All the durative forms clearly express actions in development
parallel to a moment or another action. -Qu estis hacienda, Marisol? (What are you doing?). - Un
momento, abuelita. Estoy mirando estas revistas. (I am looking at these magazines). Como es cameraman
siempre esta viajando (He is always driving). The adverb siempre lexically intensifies the gramatical
continuous meaning. The specific prosodic and paralinguistic means should be analyzed in order to find out
their contribution to the metasemiotic intensification of aspectual duration. Vamos, abuelita. Todos estn
esperando. (Everybody is waiting) Qu estas haciendo? (What are you doing?). Os habis baado ya? -Si,
hemos estado nadando tres horas (We have been swimming for three hours). Acabo de romper una muela y
ahora estoy sangrando (I am bleeding). Vuestro desinters por mis desventuras es increble. -Mam, estas
exagerando. Abuelita, perqu estas llorando? (Why are you crying?) Ya debemos estar llegando. (We should be
arriving already). Vamos pronto, to Felipe, Estoy deseando (I am wishing) ver un poco de Barcelona. Porque'
estoy aprendiendo (Why am I learning) los verbos reflexivos espanoles? Every example, depending on the
extralinguistic context, possesses a specific suprasyntactic prosodic structure. Some statements a characterized by
overstatement reinforced by means of tones and tempo, the effect of non-formality and a pleasant emotional
colouring or displeasure, inquietude are created by the corresponding paralinguistic means: voice quality,
smile, laugh, merriment, cry, groaning, sighing, etc. The immediate linguistic context is also very important:
Acabo de romper una muela y ahora estoy sangrando. Vuestro desinters por mis desventuras es increble.
-Mam, estas exagerando. Abuelita, perqu estas llorando? Real or deliberately exaggerated emotions like
in the example above are expessed by suprasyntactic and paralinguistic means the speaker uses emphatic
tones, increased loudness, slowed down tempo, crying, plaintive voice, in order to get sympathy and warmth
from her relatives. In Spanish like in English the finite continuous forms are used in the present past and future
perfect and non-perfect forms:
Present: Juan esta comiendo (John is eating). Maria esta escribiendo una carta (is writing). Los
pasajeros estarn llegando (are arriving) a su destino. Estoy escribiendo (I am writing) los ejercicios'. El tal
escrito esta siendo muy comentado (is being the most spoken on) en toda Espaa.
Present perfect inclusive: Hoy esta nevando todo el da. Today it has been snowing the whole day. Estoy
mecanografiando (I am typewriting) un artculo para el periodista nuevo.
Past continuous: El consejo de la familia estaba siendo tumultuoso (was being tumultuous). Las gotas de
agua estaban cayendo (were falling) pausadamente. Cuando vino, yo estaba escribiendo una carta a mi
hermano. When he came I was writing a letter to my brother. Cuantas horas seguidas estuvimos durmiendo
(were sleeping)? Ayer estuve repasando la gramtica de las ltimas lecciones. Yesterday I was revising the
grammar of the last lessons.
Future continuous: Maana estar trabajando todo el da en la biblioteca. Tomorrow I shall be working
in the library the whole day through. [54].
Having analyzed examples with finite and non-finite durative forms in some Romance languages we can
state the fact that they are excellent equivalents of what we consider in English as the marked member of the
prevailing grammatical category of continuous aspect. Comparing the forms in the confronted we can come
to the conclusion that they have a common origin. In Middle English there were cases of continuous aspect

23

forms, consisting of the verb be(n) + participle I. In Chaucer's works only six examples have been found. Here
is one of them: singynge he was, or floytige, al the day 'he was singing, or playing the flute, all day long'. In Old
English there were phrases consisting of the verb beon and participle I. There were more than one possible original
ending of the participle I, in -inge and -ende, and they are close to the present participle forms in Romance
languages. There is a possibility that the Middle English continuous forms resulted from a merger of the Old
English -ende - phrases and Old English -inge phrases. [39, 250]
One more point to be mentioned is that in some grammar books we find the rule that putandi and
sentiendi verbs should not be used in the continuous aspect. In fact all the verbs in English, including the
putandi and sentiendi ones can be used in the continuous aspect. Verbs like believe, see, etc. express the
durative aspect lexically and they are used in the grammatical continuous form only in case of emphatic use
of the given categorical meaning, which is more expressive: But I am seeing you, you are there behind the
tree! Am I really hearing what you are saying? God was witness to all their calamities. He was seeing them
robbed. He was seeing them famish hour by hour. He was seeing them die. I am seeing a brown colour. You
are seeing this place for the last time. The same could be said about the habitual and repeated actions,
usually accompanied by words possessing a certain durative lexical and aspectual meaning: always, often,
constantly, permanently, occasionally, seldom, usually, etc: He is always doing things like this. They were
always worrying. She was all the time smelling at him. He was always promising to come. They were
occasionally visiting them. [39, 110-115] Inchoative, terminative and point-action verbs can also be used in
the continuous form if the actions are repeated or seen by the speaker as developing in time: The boy jumped
over the fence/The boy was jumping round the tree. I began to read, but the teacher interrupted me / I was
beginning to read when he came in. In case of durative adverbs like always, constantly, permanently,
occasionally, seldom, usually, etc. in emphatic emotional speech the continuous forms combined with
emphatic prosody are used: He is always doing things like this. They were always worrying. He was always
helping me. Prosodic means are used in case of metasemiotic transposition: He is \always doing things like
this. Here the lexical and grammatical durative means are enhanced by a high fall, lento tempo, wide range,
increased loudness and paralinguistic means.[39, 110-115]. It has been observed that English people
regularly use the grammatical continuous aspect in their speech to create expressive, emotional evaluative
overtones. The same phenomenon has been observed in case of durative of continuous forms in Italian,
Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian.
Lexical and grammatical duration in French and German is expressed by imperfect forms, constructions
with present participle, grondif and lexical means: He represented (imperfect meaning) for her the reality of
things. Ils reprsentaient pour elle la ralit de la vie. El reprezenta pentru ea realitatea vieii. His
conscious was echoing Fleurs comment on Anna Bergfelds letter. Sa conscience rptait lcho des
commentaires de Fleur la lettre de Annie Bergfeld. Contiina i repeta ecoul comentariilor lui Fleur la
scrisoarea Anei Bergfeld. Galsworthy J. The French imparfait is rendered regularly into English by
continuous forms and by past indefinite with lexical duration, though the former are more expressive than the
latter. Er kam lachend die Treppe herunter. He came laughing down the staircase. El venea rznd njos pe
scar. Sie trat lchelnd ins Zimmer. He entered the room laughing. Ich hre ihn kommen. I hear him coming.
II aud venind. Ich hrte ihn kommen. I heard him coming. L-am auzit venind. Wir sahen den spielenden
Kindern zu. We looked at the children who were playing. Ne uitam la copiii care se jucau. Das Kind kam
weinend nach Haus. The child came home crying. Copilul a venit plngnd acas. Er erreichte
schwimmend das andere Ufer. He reached the other bank swimming. A ajuns inotnd la cellalt mal. [52] In
German, like in French, the absence of the continuous forms is compensated by Imperfect and constructions
with Partizip Prsens (Partizip I), which normally express a durative aspectual meaning. The imperfect forms
may be also used stylistically in case suprasyntactic metasemiotic means are used. Thus, the continuous/noncontinuous binary opposition in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian (and partially in Romanian) are in a
process of transition from a pure grammatical aspectual category into a stylistic one. In English this
grammatical opposition is well represented in all the functional styles of the language and is regularly used
for stylistic purposes in emotionally coloured expressive and emphatic speech.
10.Category of Anteriority or Taxis
10.1.The Category of Taxis and the Semantic Evolution of the Term Perfect
Taxis as a historical linguistic category developed various means of expressing anteriority in the IndoEuropean languages. In English, beginning with the Old Period, the grammatical categorical forms started to
develop to support the already existing lexical and contextual means. At present the English category of taxis
is one of the basic grammatical morphological categories which comprise the whole system of the finite and

24

non-finite verb forms. Thus, the opposition of anteriority - simultaneity can be expressed in English in a
purely grammatically. At the same time, it can be also expressed lexically, by contextual markers, like
adverbial modifiers, etc. We should carefully keep apart the conceptual category of anteriority and the
grammatical one as constituted by the oppositions of the relevant categorial forms. Thus, the function of
anteriority is universal in the sense that in all languages we are supposed to be able to express the anteriority
of an action to another action or moment on the axis of time. The fact that the category of taxis is
interconnected with other grammatical categories (aspect, voice, mood, etc.) and expressed by certain
grammatical forms results in different interpretations and various metalinguistic term systems (as aspect,
tense, etc.). In the previous publications we have analyzed mainly the finite perfect and partially the nonfinite ones. In the present article we make an attempt to speak on taxis and the evolution of the term
perfect. The simplification of the system of perfect forms is compensated by lexical and contextual means
getting a more important function in expressing anteriority within the universal category of taxis. Different
meanings can be expressed by one and the same form in different contexts or by changing the lexical
character of the verb. Synchronic relationship studies linguistic categories which are state of permanent
change. Change is the main category of natural human languages, for they are historical categories, they
develop or die out. By so doing, they follow the fate of the speaking community, which has created them as
the principal means of communication. [39,122-143].
Anteriority or taxis is grammatically expressed by perfect forms, which are variously interpreted as
expressing anteriority, a complete action, result, tense categorical meaning, time correlation. But more and
more linguists (E.Benveniste, A.Smirnitsky, R.Allen, H.Palmer, O.Akhmanova) consider anteriority to be the
main categorial meaning of finite and non-finite perfect grammatical forms. [39,122-143]. Anteriority in the
purest way is expressed by lexical means and by finite forms of the verb. The anteriority expressed by the
marked grammatical forms has much in common in many European languages, as their systems go back to
the same source. The grammatical taxis forms appeared in the old times, developed into a system, and then at
present they are in a process of weakening their position and ceding it to lexical and contextual means, which
up till now played a secondary part in the conceptual category of anteriority. That does not mean that the
category of anteriority is not present in languages where most grammatical forms of anteriority have
practically disappeared or they do not exist at all. In such cases, the grammatical forms lose their weight and
are substituted by much simpler forms of the verbs, anteriority being expressed by non-grammatical means.
Any linguistic category should never be studied in isolation only as facts of a single language. A diachronic
investigation should be undertaken, in order to find out everything concerning the evolution of the perfect
forms, the tendency in their historical development. If we confront related languages, we expect fewer
differences and more coinci-dences in the result of confrontation of various categorial forms. [39,122-143].
Having analyzed the category of anteriority in English and Romanian, we can state that it can be expressed
grammatically and lexically, contextually, and it may be prosodically intensified. In the majority of cases
taxis is expressed by at least two of the existing categorial means (lexical and grammatical means occur more
frequently). Lexical means are now in the process of gaining more ground than the grammatical ones. In case
of the category of taxis (simultaneity-anteriority, correlation, anteriority, perfectivity, time relationship,
perfect aspect, etc.) we observe a process of transition from pure grammatical categories in both languages to
lexical and grammatical ones, and, finally, to pure lexical means. In the English and Romanian languages,
lexical, contextual and grammatical means, or the combination of grammatical and lexical means are used to
express anteriority. At present the category of taxis is studied in different functional styles. It has been
observed that the non-finite perfect forms are practically not used in journalese, either in British or American
newspapers. As far as finite perfect forms are concerned, preference is given to present perfect, because this
is the form that is best suited to establishing a correlation between past and present, on the one hand, and the
connection between the performer and the undergoer of the speech event, on the other.
There is a metalinguistic confusion in case of the terms perfect and perfective, which are treated
differently by various linguists and this leads to confusion in the process of categorization. The original
meaning of the Latin term perfect was a finished action and formed an aspectual opposition with imperfect
forms (unfinished actions). This aspectual category still exists in most European languages and is expressed
grammatically, lexico-grammatically and lexically. In the English language it is expressed lexically and
lexico-grammatically. Gradually the metalinguistic unit perfect acquired an additional homonymous meaning
of anteriority. That is why now it would be more convenient to use the term perfective in the meaning of
finished action and the term perfect to express the meaning of anteriority. A perfect form English, depending
on the context, may express either a finished or an unfinished action and, thus, it may be realized in both
members of the aspectual opposition of perfective/imperfective (or finished/unfinished).

25

The approach to categorization may be untenable in the sense that the researcher fails to keep clearly
apart the object of analysis (the facts of the language in question) and the metalanguage - the words and
expressions used when people talk about the object language. But even if this is not the case, we very often
find a large number of different metalinguistic expressions and we have a peculiar situation: we must
compare those different systems and try to understand why the different metalinguistic units were
introduced. Very often there is a discrepancy not only in the terms used to denote certain more specific or
particular categories, but also in the naming or description of the most general concepts themselves [39,
104-114]. The inclusive perfect forms usually express an imperfective (unfinished) anterior action, which
includes the present moment and continues in the future: I have lived here for many years and I am not
intending to move to any other place. This example would be in aspectual opposition of
perfective/imperfective to I have lived here for many years and now I move to a new place (finished anterior
action). At the same time both examples could be part of the marked member of the opposition of
Continuous/non-continuous aspect (found in English and some Romance languages). Here we should take
into consideration the lexical durative aspectual lexical meaning of the verb 'to live", which will contribute
to the intensification of the general aspectual durative meaning combined with the continuous form, where
its expressivity is considerably enhanced: I have been living here for many years. In the examples like "He
had been reading his book for two hours before I came back" we observe that the prevailing aspectual
meaning is that of a continuous action (unfinished action) in development during a certain period of time
before another action in the past (past anteriority).
The secondary aspectual lexical/contextual meaning may be a finished or unfinished action
depending on the given context. The term perfect" here is not used in the meaning of "finished" (perfective or
perfect), here it expresses grammatical anteriority supported and intensified by the lexical anteriority marker
"before". A finished action can be expressed both by perfect and non-perfect forms: "I have written a letter",
I had written the letter before he returned to the office, I will have written the letter before they return to
the office and "Yesterday I wrote a letter to my friend". In all these cases we have the same result. On the
other hand, as we have seen from the examples given above, all the perfect forms in English, like in other
languages, can easily be divided into several groups, expressing the grammatical, lexical and lexicalgrammatical oppositions of continuous/non-continuous, perfective/imperfective or finished/unfinished,
expressing various lexical aspectual meanings (durative, inceptive, terminative, point action, etc.). That
means that there are many possibilities to express various aspectual meanings even in the English language.
One of the most important elements of all the perfect grammatical forms of the verbs in English is
past participle or participle II (Romanian - participiul trecut), expressing anteriority in the purest way. It
may be used separately and can synthetically express anteriority and voice, serve to form a number of perfect
and passive voice analytical forms. Thus, we can form oppositions of participle I and participle II forms like
in the following examples: reading read, citind citit; writing written, scriind - scris; seeing seen,
vznd vzut; creating - created, crend creat - we observe three distinct categorical oppositions, that of
simultaneity vs. anteriority (category of taxis), active vs. passive (category of voice) and continuous vs. noncontinuous (category of aspect). Not all the participles possess all the three categorial forms. Thus, the
intransitive verbs do not possess the passive meaning: going gone, plecnd plecat. Thus, the category of
transitivity-intransitivity should also be taken into consideration in the analysis of participles. Some
intransitive verbs gradually acquire submeanings, which are transitive in character: Running a factory is not
easy. The factory is run well. was laughed at El a fost luat n rs. Past participles can be used
independently. They are usually found in analytical combinations of perfect and passive voice forms. The
intransitive verbs are used in perfect forms, but are not found in passive analytical structures, with the
exception of the verbs go and come found in some word combinations: he is come, he is gone.
The verbs can also be classified according to their lexical meanings: terminative, inceptive, iterative,
durative, etc. The expression of both anteriority and passive voice is usually found in terminative verbs,
while in the durative ones only the passive meaning is clearly seen. Thus, A.Smirnitsky thinks that loved
as a past participle loses its perfectivity, which is clearly seen in participles like broken. But sometimes
this division is not clear-cut. Thus, in case of repeated actions of terminative verbs perfectivity may
weaken or get lost and a durative meaning is taking over. The categorial function of a given past participle
depends on the contextual meaning and on its semantic feature. There is a multitude of combinations of the
verb to be with the past participle. There are cases of homonymy in this case. Combinations of the verb to
be + past participle like in The letter is written by Peter. Soon he will finish writing it, or The door is
closed by Peter (as a process) should be distinguished from The door is closed as a state, where is
closed is not a passive construction, but just defines the state of the door, that it is not open, there is no
meaning of perfectivity in the latter case [70, 268-278]. It is known that the perfect non-finite forms of the

26

verb express anteriority in a much more pure way in comparison with the finite forms. The past participle
expresses anteriority in the purest way. Lets take some examples of participle II used in the function of an
attribute: The house built a hundred years ago is still in a very good state. Casa construit o sut de ani n
urm s-a pstrat n condiii foarte bune. Unfortunately it is not possible to present in this book all the
information obtained. Din pcate nu este posibil de a prezentan cartea aceasta toat informaia obinut. In
both languages a complete coincidence has been attested of past participles in attributive functions. But in
many cases this coincidence is not always possible because of some structural and semantic differences, and
also because of certain linguistic and sociolinguistic traditions in the confronted languages, combinability of
words, homonymy, etc. A.Smirnitsky takes as an example the past participle gone. Is gone may be
identical to the combination have gone in a transferred meaning he died like in the sentence Poor Mr.
Brown is (has) gone. He has left us. He has joined the great majority. Srmanul dl.Brown a murit (a plecat).
El a murit (ne-a prsit). El a plecat (e dus) n lumea strbunilor. Is gone can also be used in the direct
sense of the word to express anterioriity in colloquial speech as in Where is Mr. Brown? He is gone (=has
gone). He will be back in an hour. Unde e dl Brown? El e plecat (=a plecat). Se va ntoarce peste o or. In
case of transitive verbs the past participle has a passive meaning closely connected with perfectivity
(finished action) (The letter written yesterday was sent in time.). But when used in analytical non-perfect
fiorms the past participle gets devoid of anteriority meaning and preserves only the passive categorial
function (The letter was written and sent in time). [70, 278-288] The past participle is regularly confronted
the Romanian with participiul trecut: The methodology tested in the Indo-European field set the pattern.
Metoda experimentat n domeniul indo-european a devenit exemplar. All these observations bring out the
essential difference between the method of communication discovered among bees and our human language.
Toate observaiile acestea scot la iveal diferena esenial dintre metoda de comunicare descoperit la
albini i limba uman. (E.Benveniste) The English participle II can sometimes correspond to the Romanian
mai mult ca perfectul: On the staircase Charny met only some officers, friends of his, informed beforehand.
Pe scri, Charny ntlni numai civa ofieri, prieteni de ai si, care fusese anunai (= anunai) din timp.
The anteriority meaning in English is expressed only lexically, while in Romanian both lexical and
grammatical anteriority means are used for the sake of expressivity. Lets consider some of the syntactic
functions fulfilled by past participle: a) attributive - The data obtained are being carefully analyzed and
studied. Datele obinute sunt analizate i studiate atent; In both languages the participles have the function
of attributes; b) adverbial modifier of time - Asked (being asked) to comment about the U.N. resolution
tabled by the Afro-Asian countries, the Prime Minister replied... ntrebat (find ntrebat, cnd a fost ntrebat)
s comenteze rezoluia ONU propus de rile Afro-Asiatice, Primul Ministru a rspuns...; (J.Galsworthy) In
this case the English participle asked has the function of adverbial modifier of time and could be
substituted by the passive voice form of the present participle being asked. The form tabled has the
function an attribute; c) adverbial modifier of condition - If given the opportunity, this industry will rapidly
develop. Aceast industrie se va dezvolta rapid, dac vor vi create posibiliti favorabile (=Posibiliti fiind
date, aceast industrie se va dezvolta rapid ); (J.Galsworthy) The past participle in the function of an
adverbial modifier corresponds in Romanian to future indefinite passive voice and this shows the fact that
the forms are different in the main variant, though it is possible to render it into Romanian using gerunziul
pasiv, the grammatical categorial voice meaning is the same passive voice; d) adverbial modifier of
concession- But the Right-wing Labour leaders, though forced to give way on some questions, will stick to
their policies. Liderii laburiti de dreapta, dei forai s cedeze n unele probleme, vor susine politica lor;
(J.Galsworthy); e) complex object with past participle - We hope to see this issue raised in all trades
councils, in every union. Noi sperm s vedem aceast problem ridicat n fiecare sindicat.
The construction of complex object with past participle in English corresponds to a construction of
complex object with subjunctive in the meaning of future and in the second complex object with past
participle. [39, 152-164]. Thus, we can state that past participle express anteriority when the action is
precedeing the moment of speech. There are quite a number of cases where the forms under research express
both anteriority and passive voice (in case of transitive verbs) meanings, or only the latter one. As to the term
perfect it is still considered by different linguists as part of various categorical oppositions: of anteriority,
aspect, tense, result. In Romanian perfect in the grammatical form of perfectul simplu is now expressing an
action finished in the past, and thus, it has preserved the old meaning going back to Latin. The term perfect
in the European linguistics is used in several meanings: of finished action (perfective), expressing result,
time correlation, but more and more linguists state the fact that the main meaning expressed by perfect
forms is that of anteriority. Anteriority in the purest way is expressed by lexical means and by predicative
verbal forms. As it was expected the anteriority marked grammatical forms have much in common in
English, French and Romanian, as their systems go back to the same source. That does not mean that the

27

category of anteriority is not present in languages where the grammatical forms of anteriority have
practically disappeared. Thus, in Russian the grammatical elements of anteriority are scarcely used. The
lexical and lexical-grammatical means are used to express the marked categorial taxis meaning. The
grammatical forms analyzed by us express two or more grammatical categorial meanings, interconnected
with those of taxis. Tense and aspect are especially closely connected with them and in this case they are
confronted as a system. Cases of sameness and differences are analyzed and furnished with examples taken
from translations. An interesting difference is observed between present perfect in English and perfectul
compus and pass compos in Romanian and French (formally coincide: to have + past participle). In
connection with the absence of a simple past form in Romanian and French, perfectul compus and pass
compos here are taking an additional function and thus, express, depending on the context, the marked
categorial form in one case (the action is connected with the present moment) and the unmarked one (the
action is separated from the present moment) in another. Thus, the English past indefinite can correspond to
the Romanian perfectul compus and French and pass compos in the spoken language, perfectul simplu
and pass simple in fiction, imparfait and imperfectul, when the lexical meanings of the verbs lexically
express an extended action, and thus it becomes aspectually marked.
As we have mentioned above, when we confront two distantly related languages (English and
Romanian) synchronically we shall use, where possible, the results of comparative-historical analysis. What
is the difference between comparative-historical philology and confrontational linguistics (analytical
comparison)? For comparative-historical philology the starting point is the form, the morphological structure
of the grammatical phenomena in question. In the case of analytical confrontation the starting point is the
grammatical content (when we confront grammatical categories of different languages), the semantics, the
underlying concepts of the grammatical categories under investigation. The concepts are expressed by means
of a system of grammatical forms through the intermediary of categorial forms. It is well known that in the
natural human languages content and form are actually inseparable. We cannot abstract ourselves from form
in analytical comparison and from content in comparative philology. What is the actual connection between
confrontational linguistics and comparative philology? In what way are we supposed to avail ourselves of the
results of comparative-historical investigation when confronting cognate and even unrelated languages? In
order that this problem may be presented as clearly as possible, we shall turn to the category of anteriority in
English and Romanian (sometimes accompanied by French translation of the given examples). Confronting
the category of taxis in English and Romanian we came to the conclusion that there is a common tendency in
both languages: the perfect forms in both languages tend to be replaced by simple non-perfect forms and the
categorial meaning of anteriority is expressed lexically or contextually. This process is more advanced in
Romanian, where some analytical perfect forms are now very rarely used. Our view is that the researcher
should not shut his eyes and ignore the historical associations. There is no doubt that diachrony must be
taken into consideration: confronting languages, which have no genetic connections whatsoever is something
which, generally speaking, belongs to typology, while confrontation of cognate languages should never be
willfully and artificially be reduced to the stricter forms of abstract typological confrontation and contrast. As
we mentioned above the confronted languages belong to the same (Indo-European) family of languages.
They are genetically related, but different in the sense that Romanian is part of the Romance languages,
while English belongs to the Germanic languages.
In contrasting languages we usually begin with the etic level, then we go on to the emic level
(categories) and then return to the texts to make sure that this or that category actually exists in speech at a
given period of time. In this case we will begin by examining the category of anteriority in English and
Romanian (in some cases French is included in the confrontation) on the systemic level and then try to
adduce some examples of their realization on the etic level. On the systemic level English and Romanian
have a fully developed system of grammatical forms expressing the categorial meaning of anteriority. The
category of anteriority embraces the entire system of verb including both finite and non-finite forms. There is
now a general tendency for the perfect forms to be replaced by non-perfect ones, especially in the spoken
language. Thus, in English, we can also observe a rapprochement of present perfect and past indefinite,
especially in the American English, where the process is more advanced. E.Benveniste, 64 too, is fully aware
of the instability of the system. (See below an extended explanation on the theme). In this connection we can
observe, that the perfect - non-perfect opposition (especially present perfect - past indefinite in English,
pass compos - pass simple in French and perfectul compus - perfectul simplu in Romanian) is developing
in a direction where there is a transition of a grammatical category in a stylistic one, i.e. a new category is
raising its head, the category of stylistics. In Romanian perfectul simplu is very rarely used in the spoken
language, where it is completely replaced by perfectul compus. Perfectul simplu is used in fiction literature
and is never used in scientific literature. Thus, this grammatical opposition is gradually coming to express

28

something different, a metasemiotic or stylistic opposition. Another important point should be mentioned
here, the simplification of a system does not imply loss of ability of expressing different meanings. In an
involved morphological system various meanings are expressed by the opposition of different forms, while
in a system with a small number of forms, various meanings can be expressed by one and the same form in
different contexts or by changing the lexical character of the verb. Synchronic relationship must be regarded
as something that is in a state of flux. Change is the main category of natural human languages, for they are
historical categories, they develop or die out. By so doing, they follow the fate of the speaking community,
which has created them as the principal means of communication. In order to verify the tendency in Modern
English to substitute perfect forms in the spoken language by simple ones, a number of examples were taken
and given to students to be translated from Romanian into English. The majority of examples had lexical or
contextual markers of anteriority. Those students, who were not familiar with the fact that future perfect is
rarely used in Modern English, regularly used grammatical perfect forms in nearly all the given examples. In
a second test the students were asked to translate a number of sentences with future perfect into Romanian.
Here we had two groups. In the first group the teacher stressed the fact that similar forms exist in Romanian
as well (viitorul anterior). A number of students did not hesitate to use grammatical future anteriority in
Romanian (in spite of the fact that it is very rarely used). In the second group nothing was said about viitorul
anterior. Here the students in the majority of cases used simple grammatical forms, substituting grammatical
anteriority with the lexical one. As far as past perfect is concerned, it is still often used in both languages
under consideration. But there is an interesting observation to be made in this connection. In English, past
perfect is an analytical form, while in Romanian past anteriority is expressed by synthetic forms. In
Romanian there are some analytical forms used in colloquial speech to express past anterioity, but they are
used very rarely. For example: Mai mult ca perfectul analitic/perifrastic (aveam scris, era plecat), perfectul
compus perifrastic (am fost plecat, am fost zis). It goes without saying that if the confrontation of cognate
languages had been reduced to statements of complete formal identity, there would be no need in working
out a separate methodology, for contrastive linguistics, comparative-historical linguistics would be adequate.
Even confrontation of cognate languages becomes necessary because in a very large number of cases they
diverge widely for no synchronically obvious reason. When we confront unrelated languages, we regard the
complete non-coincidence of forms as quite natural and regular. More than that, the complete coincidence
even on the expression plane would be regarded as a curious case, as a peculiar phenomenon. But when we
are dealing with cognate languages we cannot help asking: why is perfectul simplu not used regularly, is it
so functionally limited as to be replaced in speech and non-fiction texts by a stylistically more natural form perfectul compus? It is not always easy to explain this difference only by stylistic factors. It follows naturally
that when we compare English original texts with their translations into French and Romanian we always
find great similarity. Thus, for example: He entered the shop below; Il entra dans le magazine qui se trouvait
au rez-de-chausse; Intr n prvlia de la parter. Soames followed another method; Soames adopta une
autre mthode; Soames adopt o alt metod. (J.Galsworthy) Tom hailed the romantic outcast. Tom appela
le vagabond romantique. Tom l strig pe vagabondul romantic. (M.Twain) The examples adduced here
show the positive result of this confrontation: past indefinite pass simple perfectul simplu are practically
identical, both from the point of view of synchronic functional confrontation and the historical community of
morphological systems. When confronting English, French and Romanian, we begin by concentrating on the
original identity and approach confrontation with preconceived ideas of potential correspondences already
formed in advance. We have an altogether different picture when we confront completely different languages
like English and Arabic or Chinese. In this case all the background knowledge we possess is a certain
abstract supposition. All we have as a background knowledge is that Arabic and Chinese typologically are
able to express actions coinciding with the moment of speech, preceding it, or following it. We cannot have
any previous assumptions what forms these oppositions may have, because there is no comparative-historical
basis whatsoever for us to go by. But when we are dealing with cognate languages we cannot help asking:
why not perfectul simplu, but perfectul compus? Probably we should apply to Romanian what some
specialists is the reason of a comparatively low frequency of pass simple in French, the ousting of it by the
form of pass compos. Perfectul simplu is also functionally limited and is replaced in speech by perfectul
compus. There is every reason to believe that to try and explain this difference only by stylistic factors would
not be easy. This will be possible only if the non-coincidences were confined to colloquial style: When did
they go over? Cnd au emigrat? Quand ont-ils migr?; You were absolutely right; Ai avut perfect
dreptate; Tu a eu raison. For this register pass compos and perfectul compus are better suited, because
these forms here do not express an anterior action to the present moment and the actions are not connected
with the present moment of speech and, thus, here they express actions completely identical with those
expressed by past indefinite. In Romanian and French there do not exist forms similar to the English past

29

indefinite, that is why pass compos and perfectul compus become polyfunctional. The context would help
us find out whether the action expressed is anterior or not anterior to the present moment. Past indefinite may
correspond to the form of imperfectul in Romanian. The past continuous has become so specifically
continuous, it is very often found to have a net semiotic connotation and past indefinite is increasingly used
in cse of lexical durative units to denote not merely point actions, but also those which require serious
attention to the way it progressed - hence the tendency to equate past indefinite with imparfait and
imperfectul: He represented for her the reality of things; El reprezenta pentru ea realitatea vieii; Il
reprsentait pour elle la ralit de la vie. It reminded me too much; Dar ea mi-l reamintea; Mais elles me le
rappelait. Every time the lexical meaning of the verb is not punctual past indefinite and imperfect are quite
comparable and can readily take each others place. It is essential that this question should always be
considered from the point of view of dual meaning of the English past indefinite. The fact that the imperfect
has a wider meaning in Romanian than the English continuous aspect forms may be explained by the fact
that the latter appeared much later and its meaning is based not on aspectual opposition proper, but on a
specific continuous aspect as a form which in most cases is emphatically loaded. Of particular interest are
those cases when past indefinite is confronted with past anteriority forms in the confronted languages. Only a
study of the collocational situations can account for this: All through the house it was a wakeful night; Casa
ntreag petrecuse o noapte de veghe; Toute la maison avait pass un nuit blanche. He was an actor on the
English stage; Fusese actor pe scena englez; Il avait t un comdien sur la scne anglaise. If we base our
conclusions on the context, then what has been said here in the past indefinite form is in the relationship of
anteriority with the preceding and the subsequent situations. The category of anteriority and the content of
precedence in the case of two events, following one another, are in a very complex relationship. The fact is
that real anteriority may both, find expression, or remain unexpressed, in the way the appropriate forms are
used. Everything depends on the purport of the utterance. It is interesting to note that anteriority is closely
connected, in the above given examples, with different predications of being. There are different ways of
saying or expressing it but the less natural ones would be metasemiotically colored. One and the same actual
situation may be categorially interpreted in completely different ways. The choice of this or that
interpretation will depend on the idiomatic character of this or that language as well as the intention of the
speaker. The real anteriority meaning may be grammatically expressed or it may be not. Other anteriority
means (lexical, contextual or both) take over the function. Besides it also depends on the intention of the
speaker. Thus, if we take the example: 1.There were no mushrooms; Les champignons navaient pas pouss;
Ciuperci nu se fcuser. It is very important to take into consideration the fact that the category of anteriority
is in close connection with various sociolinguistic situations. Thus, we can say in Russian:
or . Let us consider the sentence There were no mushrooms, which was translated into
French and Romanian as: Ciuperci nu se fcuser; and Les champignons navaient pas pouss. If we
approach this translation from the point of extra-linguistic reality, then all the variants are identical. More
than that, it would be much more natural to translate There were no mushrooms into Russian as
. or . Or; for example: ? - . -
? - . There are various ways of expressing this idea, but, of course, less natural of
them gets a metasemiotic coloring. What has been said above is confirmed by examples, where the English
past indefinite is confronted with present in Romanian and French: Linguistics was worked out within the
framework of comparative grammar; Lingvistica se elaboreaz n cadrul gramaticii comparative; La
linguistique slabore dans le cadres de la grammaire compare. (E.Benveniste) Why is it that the English
version does not say Linguistics is worked out within the framework of comparative grammar? In this case
probably the English translator is not using present tense because simply he would not consider this as an
idiomatically acceptable way of saying it or because he considers the action as being true in al the times;
present, future and past. It is also probable that in Romanian and French in such a case historical present may
be used without expressing any connotation. In English historical present would invariably carry different
semiotic overtones. Thus, for example, It is not always to be recognized in the different stages, sometimes
tentative, in which Saussures thought was engaged, Il nest pas toujours facile de la reconnatre dans les
dmarches diverses, parfois ttonnantes, ou sengage la rflexion de Saussure, Nu este ntotdeauna uor de
a recunoate la diferite etape, uneori tentative, unde se angajeaz gndirea lui Saussure. (E.Benveniste) In
contrast with French and Romanian, in English present tense would be unacceptable, probably because it is
fraught with emotional coloring and vivacity, which in the present context would be out of place. In Russian,
in such cases, present tense is also used: A new phase developed at the beginning of nineteen century with
the discovery of Sanskrit, One phase nouvelle souvre au dbut du XIXe sicle avec la dcouverte du
sanscrit, O faz nou se ncepe la nceputul secolului XIX odat cu descoperirea limbii sanscrit,
XIX . (E.Benveniste) [39, 122-152]

30

10.2. The English Present Indefinite and its equivalents in Romanian and French
The English present indefinite should correspond to the French present and Romanian prezentul. This is
really confirmed by numerous examples: Tell me all about your sister and Jon. Parlez-moi de votre soeur et
Jon. Povestete-mi despre sora dumitale i despre Jon. Tell him that Im awfully glad, and that I wish him
luck, Dis-lui que je nen rjouis et que je lui souhaite beaucoup de chance. Spune-i c m bucur foarte mult
i c-i doresc noroc. I never bet, said Soames, and I dont smoke. Je ne parie jamais, dit Soames, et je ne
fume pas. Eu nu fac pariuri, zise Soames, i nu fumez. (J.Galsworthy) Cases when present indefinite are
confronted with pass compos and perfectul compus have been described above. The differences are usually
explained by the fact whether the action is inclusive or exclusive. [39, 131]
10.3.The English Future Indefinite and its Equivalents in French and Romanian.
First of all we should mention the fact that the Romanian simple future possesses two synonymous
grammatical forms: a) the auxiliary a voi, a vrea ( Cf. Latin voleo/volere) plus the infinitive; b) a avea
plus the form of conjunctivul ( used here in the function of infinitive). The first form is considered to be
more formal, the second belongs to the colloquial style. Let us start with cases of coincidence: Four rooms
will be ready when you come back. Youll have a bathroom to yourself, of course. Quand vous rentrerez,
votre chambre sera prte. Vous aurez bien sur, votre sale de bain. Cnd te ntorci, camera dumitale va fi
gata. Vei avea, firete, baia dumitale. I will sell it at my bazaar, Soames. It will do for some good man who
can read English. Je le vendrai au march de notre socit, Soames. Ca sera utile un homme qui sait lire
en anglaise. Am s-o vnd la bazarul societii noastre de binefacere, Soames. O s fie (are s fie) de folos
vreunui om cumsecade, care tie s citeasc englezete. (J.Galsworthy)
There are examples where the English future indefinite is confronted in French and Romanian with
present tense: We shall give below the total number of usable Persian examples. Nous donnons ci-dessous la
totalit des exemples perses utilisables. Noi dm mai jos totalitatea exemplelor utilizabile n limba persan.
We shall attempt to restore the facts to their true light. Nous tentons de remettre les faits dans leur vritable
lumire. Noi ncercm (vom ncerca) s reconstituim faptele n lumina lor adevrat. (E.Benveniste)
Suppose we use future tense in in French and Romanian sentences. Present tense probably in this context has
a wider meaning, than in English. While translating E.Benvenistes book from French into English the
translator chose future indefinite, probably, he had reasons to choose this grammatical tense, taking into
consideration the characteristic features of the scientific information in both languages. The use of present
tense in English in the above given examples would make them stylistically colored. In French and
Romanian the use of present tense here corresponds to the style of such registers. [39, 132]
10.4.The English Present Perfect and its Equivalents in French and Romanian
As far as present perfect is concerned it is included in the category of taxis but in this case we do not find a
clear-cut opposition as in the case of future perfect and past perfect. Comparing past indefinite and present
perfect we see that in both cases the actions are in the past. The main difference between them is that past
indefinite is an action separated by the speaker from the present moment: (I visited London in January; Am
vizitat Londra n ianuarie; I saw him ten seconds ago; L-am vzut zece secunde n urm), and present perfect
expresses an anterior action connected with the present moment: 1) directly connected: (I have lived in
London for 10 years; Am locuit n Londra de zece ani/Locuiesc n Londra de zece ani; I have been waiting
you for an hour; Te atept de o or) and 2) indirectly by means of a period of time connected with the
present moment: (I have visited London this year; Am vizitat Londra anul acesta; I have seen him this week;
L-am vzut anul acesta). If there is no time marker and no context we usually use present perfect (I have
read all the books written by this author; Am citit toate crile scrise de acest autor ). What I mean is that I
began to read them somewhere in the past and continued to read them during my life up till now. In case I
want to tell you exactly when I finished reading them I could say: I read all these books written by this
author last year. Present perfect may also be used to express future anteriority in clauses of time and
condition (As soon as I have read the book I shall return it to you. And if I have read it by five oclock, Ill
give it to you today). At first sight it seems that there is complete coincidence between present perfect in
English and perfectul compus in Romanian. But the actual functioning is quite different. Perfectul compus
has one more function, that of expressing actions not connected with the present moment and in this case it is
regularly confronted with past indefinite in English: 1) Anteriority directly connected with the present
moment equivalent to present perfect exclusive actions (I have read the book up till now/ I have been
reading the book up till now; Am citit cartea pn acum). In case of present perfect inclusive, it is regularly
rendered into Romanian by means of present (I have lived in this town for 20 years; I have been living in this
town for 20 years; Locuiesc n acest orel de 20 de ani); 2) Anteriority indirectly connected with the present

31

moment by means of a period of time (I have seen him this year; L-am vzut anul acesta; I have vizited
London three times this century; Am vizitat Londra de trei ori n secolul acesta); 3) An action not connected
with the present moment (Am citit o carte ieri; I read a book yesterday); 4) Future anteriority used
stylistically in colloquial speech (Cum numai am citit cartea i-o intorc; As soon as I have read the book I
shall return it to you; Cum am ajuns acas m apuc de lucru; As soon as I have got home I shall start
working). It should be mentioned here that in English present perfect is used to express future anteriority
only in clauses of time and condition expressing an anterior action in the future, while in Romanian perfectul
compus is used stilistically and is limited to the colloquial language. If we compare the examples adduced
below it would appear that present perfect, pass compose and perfectul compus could be regarded as
identical (when they express an anterior action connected with the present moment), and taking into
consideration the complete formal correspondence we arrive at a tripartite identity. Thus, for example: It was
rather funny - theres never been a Forsyte, you know, anywhere near Parliament, Ctait une conversation
assez drle car tu sais quaucun Forsyte ne sest mme pas approch du parlement, A fost o convorbire
destul de caraghioas, doar tii c nici un Forsyte nu s-a apropiat mcar de parlament. (J.Galsworthy) At
first sight it seems that there is complete coincidence between present perfect in English, on the one side, and
pass compos in French and perfectul compus in Romanian, on the other hand. In the actual functioning
there is a great difference. Thus, if we say in English So, Jons married your sister? and in Romanian Jon sa cstorit cu sora dumitale? Then we shall find that in English we can refer to the fact of Jon marrying
somebodys sister by using both present perfect and past indefinite: both Jon has married your sister and Jon
married your sister or Jon married your sister, didnt he? are grammatically faultless and would fully
correspond to the English grammar rules. The difference between has married (expressing an anterior
action connected with the present moment) and married (an action not connected with the present moment)
will consist in connotations connected with the idea of expression and non-expression of the grammatical
meaning of anteriority. Now if we were to translate exactly Jon married your sister into French and
Romanian Jon maria votre soeur and Jon se cstori cu sora dumitale, then we would be faced with a
stylistic difference.[39, 133-142
10.5.The Categorial Meaning of Past Perfect in the Confronted Languages
Past perfect is used to express anteriority to an action or moment in the past. Coincidence: past perfect
plus-que-parfait pluscvamperfectul: He had bought the meadows on the far side of the river. Il avait achet
les pturages de lautre bord de la rivire. Cumprase punile de pe cellalt mal al Tamisei. (J.Galsworthy)
It should be mentioned the fact that pluscvamperfectul in Romanian has practically lost its analytical forms
gradually substituted by a synthetic form (going back to an analytical form of past participle plus the verb a
fi). Let us adduce some example of analytical perfect forms still found in literature. Examples: .i cum
ajunge la fntn, scoate mai nti furca, de unde o avea strns, i apoi se pune jos s se odihneasc. And
when he reached the well, first of all he took the fork out of the place he had put it, and then he sat down to
rest. Un om, suindu-se pe o ur, unde avea aruncat nite fn, trgea din rsputeri de funie. A man climbing
on a shed, who he had piled some hay, was pulling the rope up with might and main. The perfect forms in the
sentences given above are formed by means of the auxiliary a avea plus past participle. In what follows we
shall give examples of analytical past perfect forms with the auxiliary a fi plus participleII: Nu l-am auzit
revenind i dimineaa am constatat c tot plecat era. I did not hear him return and in the morning I found
that he had been away. Pe cnd eram ajuns aici cu scrisul fusei ntrerupt de fetia mea. My daughter
interrupted me when I had reached this point of my writing. Era o csu singuratic, pe care era crescut
nite muchi pletos. It was a lonely house, on which some shaggy moss had grown. In Romanian we could
find forms identical to the French pass surcompos usually translated by means of past perfect: i mai ales
c i-au fost nchis din urm. And especially that they had locked them inside. Noi am fost zis c snt muli
We had said that there were many. N-a dus lips de nimic ct timp ai fost plecat. He had everything he
needed during the time you had been away.
Non-coincidence: we find past perfect confronted with French pass simple, pass compos and even
imparfait; and Romanian perfectul simplu, perfectul compus and imperfectul (used instead of plus-queparfait and pluscvamperfectul). For example: 1) Past perfect pass compose perfectul compus:.I replied
unwittingly, and not at first observing the extraordinary manner in which the speaker had chimed in with my
meditation; Comme jtais plong dans mes panses, je nai pas mme remarqu des le commencement que
les paroles de Dupin ont concid avec mes panses; ngndurat cum eram, la nceput nici nu mi-am dat
seama c vorbele lui Dupin au coincis ntocmai cu gndurile mele. The grammatical anteriority used in the
French and Romanian sentences are expressed contextually. There is a tendency in Romanian and American
English for present anteriority forms to be substituted by past anteriority units in colloquial speech.

32

2) Past perfect pass simple perfectul simplu: On the evening of twenty second birthday Michael had
come home; Le soir de 22-me anniversaire de Fleur Michel vint la maison; n seara celei de-a douzeci i
dou aniversri a lui Fleur, Mihail veni acas. (J.Galsworthy) In French and Romanian a stylistically
charged form is used, anteriority being expressed contextually.
3) Past perfect imparfait imperfectul: For one hour at least we had maintained a profound silence; Il
avait dj un heur que nous gardions le plus complet silence; De o or noi pstram amndoi cea mai
deplin tcere. In this case the French and Romanian imperfect forms express anteriority lexically and
contextually and the main grammatical meaning is that of durative aspect, which in its turn is lexically
expressed in the English variant.
4) Past perfect pass antrieur perfectul compus: When the king had disappeared the princes and
princesses grouped themselves around the queen. Aussitt que le roi eut disparu, tout ce quil y avait dans la
sale de princes et de princesses vint se grouper autour de la reine. ndat ce regele dispru prinii i
prinesele din sal se grupar n jurul reginei.(A.Dumas) Past perfect in English and pass antrieur in
French are very close in meaning, both expressing past anteriority. Perfectul compus in its turn expresses
here a simple past action, anteriority here being expressed contextually.
The anteriority forms are becoming now peripheral and even facultative. In situations of ordinary,
everyday speech it is very easy to do without them as in Romanian colloquial speech, where
pluscuamperfectul is regularly substituted by perfectul compus and sometimes by imperfect (for a durative
anterior action). The category of taxis does not need to be expressed by elaborate morphological means. It
would be faultlessly correct to say: First I went to the University and then (later) I went to the library. The
confrontation of the English present perfect and the French prsent and prezentul in Romanian is
comparatively simple because of the very close affinity between present perfect and what is actually
happening at the moment of speaking. A direct confrontation of present perfect with prsent and prezentul
must be justified in general, for the action which is denoted by this form immediately affects the state of
things which are found at the moment of speaking. Thus, for example: It has been been observed, indeed,
that these are not equaly subject to change; On observe, en effet, que ceux-ci ne sont pa galement soumis
au changement; ntr-adevr, se observ, c acestea nu sunt supuse unor schimbri. Thus, any inclusive
anterior action to the present moment is usually expressed in Romanian and French by means of present
tense forms. The form of past perfect is used to express unreal anteriority actions in the past, present and
future in clauses of unreal condition (subjunctive II), Past perfect form can express the following meanings
in English: 1) In the indicative mood: a) past anteriority (an action anterior to another action or moment in
the past): When I came home he had (already) gone; Cnd am venit acas el (deja) plecase; b) future
anteriority in the past: He promised to return the book as soon as he had read it; El a promis s ntoarc
cartea cum numai va citi-o (va fi citit-o); It is used to express an unreal optative meaning or condition, or
both in the past subjunctive II. In this case the form of past perfect is not limited to anterior actions in the
past, or anterior actions in the future from a moment in the past (in clauses of time and condition). It is used
to express any anterior action to the moment of speech in the past, present or future. Lets adduce some
examples: a) past perfect indicative mood: He said she had come in time; El a zis c ea venise la timp; b)
subjunctive II, anteriority to a past action: He said he would have come earlier if he had known; El a spus c
ar fi venit (venea) mai devreme dac ar fi avut (s fi avut, dac avea) timp ; c) subjunctive II, a past action,
non-anterior: If she had come in time yesterday you would have seen her; Dac ea ar fi venit (s fi venit,
dac venea) la timp ieri ai fi vzut-o (o vedeai); d) subjunctive II, future anteriority in the past: I knew he
would say that he would have come if he had known; Eu tiam c el va spune c ar fi venit (venea) dac ar fi
tiut (s fi tiut); e) subjunctive II, anteriority to a moment or action in the future: She thinks he will say that
he would have come if he had known; Ea crede c el va spune c ar fi venit (venea) dac ar fi tiut (s fi
tiut, dac tia). There is a tendency in English (especially in the American variant) sometimes to use a
present perfect form instead of past perfect in colloquial speech, anteriority in such cases is expressed
lexically or contextually. This tendency is much more advanced in the Romanian language. In the spoken
non-literary language people would regularly substitute pluscvamperfectul with perfectul compus (in the
meaning of past indefinite), anteriority again is supported lexically and phonetically: Cnd am venit ea deja
a plecat instead of Cnd am venit ea deja plecase. Comparing English and Romainian texts very often we
find non-coincidences like: 1) Past perfect - perfectul compus: I replied unwittingly, and not at first
observing the extraordinary manner in which the speaker had chimed in with my meditation. ngndurat
cum eram, la inceput nici nu mi-am dat seama ca vorbele lui au coincis ntocmai cu gndurile mele. This
discrepancy may be also explained with the tendency in Romanian to substitute pluscvamperfectul by
perfectul compus.

33

2) Past perfect - perfectul simplu: On the evening of her twenty-second (Fleurs) birthday Michael had
come home. In seara celei de-a douazeci si doua aniversari a lui Fleur, Mihai veni acasa. Again, simple
perfect is used here. Simple perfect is used only in fiction in the written form, with the exception of some
dialects. Here it may have been used by the translator to express an anterior action in combination with
contextual means) and this may be considered as a tendency of pluscvamperfectul in Romanian to gradually
get out of usage. As we have already mentioned the anteriority plane can now be regarded as a supercilious
pedanticism. The anteriority form is becoming peripheral and even facultative, for in situations of ordinary,
everyday dialogue it is very easy to do without it. Thus, the simultaneity-anteriority category (taxis) need not
necessarily be expressed by elaborate morphological means. It would be faultlessly correct to say, for
example, He first went to London, and then he came to Paris or He was in London and came to Paris much
later. We would like to conclude by mentioning some important points of linguistic confrontation to be taken
into consideration. First of all, we have to stress the fact, that one could not compare two or more languages,
unless one had a very clear idea of a certain underlying tertium comparationis. In our case it is English and
its category of taxis, which is well developed and has been linguistically well investigated), some third
member on the basis of which the confrontation is effected. Our previous knowledge of the confronted
languages also helps us to secure a firm stand, a reliable basis for our analysis and there is no doubt that
synchronic confrontation of any two systems cannot be really scientific unless account is carefully taken of
their previous development. The perfect forms in both languages tend to be replaced by simple non-perfect
forms and the categorial meaning of anteriority is expressed lexically or contextually. This process is more
advanced in Romanian, where some analytical perfect forms are now very rarely used. Our view is that the
researcher should not shut his eyes and ignore the historical associations. Another important point should be
mentioned here, the simplification of a system does not imply loss of ability of expressing different
meanings. In an involved morphological system various meanings are expressed by the opposition of
different forms, while in a system with a small number of different forms, various meanings can be
expressed by one and the same form in different contexts or by changing the lexical character of the verb.
Synchronic relationship must be regarded as something that is in a state of flux. [39, 122-164]
Grammatical false cognates. While learning the native and foreign languages we find out that many
grammatical forms present difficulties as to properly understanding their meanings. There are quite a number of
cases when we are confronted with grammatical forms which display characteristic features of false friends or
false cognates. The ing-forms or gerund and participle one can find various interpretations in grammar books.
Thus, analyzing the material we can conclude that there are polysemantic grammatical perfect forms, and
some of them which do not express anteriority. The past perfect form in the indicative can be used to express
an anterior action to a moment or action in the past: When I came home he had already left. In clauses of
time and condition it expresses a future anterior action: He said that he would return the book as soon as he
had read it/ The same form is used in subjunctive II to express anterior actions in the past and future and
non-anterior meaning (devoid of anteriority) in the simple past actions: 1.Anteriority in the past: He said he
would have come earlier if he had known; El a spus c ar fi venit (venea) mai devreme dac ar fi avut (s fi
avut, dac avea) timp; 2.Subjunctive II, anteriority to the present moment of speech: If she had come in time
yesterday you would have seen her; Dac ea ar fi venit (s fi venit, dac venea) la timp ieri ai fi vzut-o (o
vedeai); In this case in both languages there is no grammatical anteriority expressed. 3 Subjunctive II, future
anteriority in the past: I knew he would say that he would have come if he had known; Eu tiam c el va
spune c ar fi venit (venea) dac ar fi tiut (s fi tiut). 4. Subjunctive II, anteriority to a moment or action in
the future: She thinks he will say that he would have come if he had known; Ea crede c el va spune c ar fi
venit (venea) dac ar fi tiut (s fi tiut, dac tia). This phenomenon is not clearly expressed for the learner
of the language. Another example of polyfunctionality polysemy and homonymy is should. 1.
Should+infinitive in the secondary clause of the type (it) is recommended (suggested, etc.) that..., in object
clauses after verbs like to recommend, to suggest, to demand, etc.; in subject clauses,etc. Should in this case
is used in the suppositional mood (which is synonymous to subjunctive I in the second meaning).: The best
thing the commission can do is to recommend that the Geneva conference should begin again with renewed
energy. 2. The conditional clause with should + infinitive: Should the U.N. fail (If the U.N. should fail) to
produce an early settlement, are we then to wash our hands of the whole matter. 3.The modal should in
various meanings. Obligation: said that she should be there in time. Emotional emphatic function;
attitude towards the event, etc.: It is strange that he should be there at this time. It is good that the
Government should have recognized the opportunity and the obligations. As to grammatical false friends
there is a lot to be explained to the learners of the native and foreign languages in order to have a better
understanding of the corresponding systems. In grammatical contexts it is the syntactic structure context
serving to determine the meanings of a polysemantic word: the verb make in the meaning of 'to force, to

34

enduce', is found in the context of the structure to make somebody do something or if make is followed by a
noun and the infinitive of a verb, adjective (to make smb. laugh, go, work; to make a good wife, a good
teacher, etc.). Examples like she will make a good teacher are syntactically bound meanings.
10.6.Hypercorrectness or Hypergrammaticality
As a good example here we can take future perfect forms in English, French and Romanian. When we
investigate the material under investigation we still come across examples of Future perfect in all the
confronted languages. Thus, for example: future perfect future antrieur viitorul anterior: Youll arrive
next day after we shall have prepared the way. Vous arriverez le lendemain, quand nous aurons dj prpar
les voies. Voi vei ajunge a doua zi, dup ce noi vom fi pregtit calea. You will have refused once again. Vous
aurez encore une fois refus. Vei fi refuzat nc o dat. In these examples we have complete coincidence. In
order to verify the tendency in Modern English to substitute perfect forms in the spoken language by using
simple forms a number of examples were taken and given to students to be translated from Russian into
Romanian. The majority of examples had lexical or contextual markers of anteriority. Most of the students
translated the examples using simple non-perfect future forms:
; Spre sfritul anului noi vom studia multe cuvinte i expresii noi;
; Noi vom termina lucrul acesta spre sfrit de sptmn; The Romanian
equivalents were given to a different group of students to translate them into English. Those students, who
were not familiar with the fact that future perfect is rarely used in Modern English, regularly used
grammatical perfect forms in nearly all the given examples: We shall have learned many new words and
expressions by the end of the year; We shall have finished this work by the end of the week; She will have
forgotten everything by that time; We shall have finished this text-book by the end of the year; He will have
written this article before he leaves. In a third group the students were asked to translate the above given
English examples with future perfect into Romanian. Here we had two subgroups. In the first subgroup the
teacher stressed the fact that similar forms existed in Romanian as well (viitorul anterior). A number of
students did not hesitate to use grammatical future anteriority in Romanian (in spite of the fact that it is very
rarely used): Spre sfritul anului noi vom fi studiat multe cuvinte i expresii noi. Noi vom fi terminat lucrul
acesta spre sfrit de sptmn. Ea va fi uitat totul pn atunci. Noi vom fi terminat acest manual spre
sfrit de an. El va fi scris articolul acesta nainte de a pleca. In the second subgroup nothing was said about
viitorul anterior. Here the students in the majority of cases used simple grammatical future forms,
substituting grammatical anteriority with the lexical one. [39, 72]
10.7. The Category of Anteriority as seen by A.I.Smirnitsky and E.Benveniste.
Historical linguistics in general, comparative philology in particular, has accumulated a great body of
material, especially for the Romance languages. But as a rule, manuals on the history of these languages are
mainly oriented towards the development of different frms the change of which has taken place in
Morphology and Morphonology. This does not mean that the meanings of these forms and the peculiarities
of their function, as well as the change in their content, which accompany the formal overhauling of the
systems, did not attract any attention at all. Attention has been attracted to them all. Until comparatively
recently the content and even the existence itself of the category of taxis could not be regarded as sufficiently
clarified. More than that, however paradoxical it may seem, the discovery of this category and its
development in detail were independently undertaken, completed and put into effect by two great linguists of
our time. In what follows we would like to underline the importance of two well known scientists that
separately came to the conclusion that the opposition of perfect/non I perfect forms constitutes the category
of anteriority: A.Smirnitsky for English and E.Benveniste for French. According to Smirnitsky perfectivity
is anteriority, it is the meaning of an action which precedes another action or moment of speech. [39, 145]
E.Benveniste is fully aware of the instability of the system. He takes into consideration the fact that,
for example, the relationship between the forms il fit and il a fait is always in a state of flux. Benveniste
comes to the conclusion that jai fait, may either function as an aorist or express anteriority (being a perfect
form) and as a grammatical form it carries two different categorial forms (in different contexts) of the same
category. Benveniste in his book Problmes de linguistique [39, 145]succeeds in giving a convincing
explanation of the reason why in French there gradually evolved the so-called temps surcomposes. Thus,
jai eu fait, for example, becomes a new perfect, for jai fait, which in its turn becomes functionally
indistinguishable from an aorist. The system is thus reconstituted, and the, opposition becomes symmetric
again: To the present je mange is opposed a perfect jai mang, which furnishes discourse with (1) a
present perfective (e.g. jai mange, je nai plus faim); (2) a present anterior (e.g. quand jai mang ; je sors
, me promener). When jai mang becomes the aorist, it recreates for itself a new perfect, jai eu mang.

35

Which similarly gives (1) an aorist perfective (e.g. jai eu mang mon repas en dix minutes); (2) an aorist
anterior (e.g. quand jai eu mange, je suis sorti). Moreover, the temporal parallelism is reestablished
between the two planes of utterance: the pair il mangea (aorist): il eut mang (perfect) of historical
narration now corresponds to il a mang (the new aorist): il a eu mang (the new perfect) in discourse.
The systematic comparison of the two morphological studies is necessary because of the importance attached
to relationship between synchronic states, and diachronic drifts and tendencies. It has also helped to clarify
some methodological aspects of linguistic research. As far as the theory of morphological relationships is
concerned, the concept of anteriority versus simultaneity or taxis has been vindicated independently by
A.Smirnitsky and E.Benveniste for both English and French. In this connection we can conclude that the
perfect/non-perfect opposition (especially present perfect/past indefinite in English, pass compos/ pass
simple in French and perfectul compus/ perfectul simplu in Romanian) is developing in a direction where
there is a transition of a grammatical category in a stylistic one, i.e. a new category is raising its head, the
category of stylistics. Thus, this grammatical opposition is gradually coming to express something different,
a met semiotic or stylistic opposition. Another important point should be mentioned here, the simplification
of a system does not imply loss of ability of expressing different meanings. In an involved morphological
system different meanings are expressed by the opposition of different forms while in a system with a small
number of different forms, different meanings can be expressed by one and the same form in different
contexts or by changing the lexical character of the verb. Synchronic relationship must be regarded as
something that is in a state of flux. Change is the main category of natural human languages, for they are
historical categories, they develop or die out. By so doing, they follow the fate of the speech community;
which has created them as the principal means of communication. [39, 145-151]
10.8. A Contrastive Analysis of Non-finite Forms of Taxis
If we take the category of taxis in the predicative forms, we observe that the categorial forms of anteriority
are mixed with those of tense, voice and aspect. In the nominal forms taxis is usually expressed in a pure
way. The non-predicative forms in English are: past participle, present participle, the gerund and the
infinitive.
Non-perfect infinitive (the unmarked form of taxis).
When we compare related languages we always expect to find more coincidences than differences. Lets
take some examples from English and Romanian and confront them and in some cases do the same with
examples taken from English and Arabic [39, 240-254]: Smaller boys than himself flocked at his heels proud
to be seen with him. (M.Twain) Les petits garons couraient aprs lui, fiers detre vu avec lui. Bieii mici
alergau buluc n urma lui, mndri de a fi vz]i mpreun cu el. We find many examples of complete
coincidence. But there is a great number of them classified as non-coincidences. Very often the English and
French infinitive forms are translated into Romanian by conjunctivul, a polysemantic form which has been
gradually taking over the functions of the infinitive especially in colloquial style: The storm culminated in
one matchless effort that seemed likely to tear the island to pieces, burn it up, drown it to the treetops, blow
it away, and deafen every creature in it, all at one and the same moment. (M.Twain) Lorage se jeta avec une
telle fureur quil semblait quelle voulait mettre lile en pices, la brler avec ses flames, inonder les arbres,
la rduire a nant et exterminer toute creature vivante. Furtuna se npusti cu atta furie, nct prea c vrea
s sfrme insula n ndri, s-o mistue n flcri, s inunde copacii, s-o mistuie depe faa pmntului i
s strpeasc orice fiin vie. (M.Twain) Al asifa Ratabat Al akes Haiso Bada masmuhan fi Al gazera ,
yatawazali, yaratab yakser, yaheb, yadfah kulshaif fi Al hal. The non-perfect infinitive in Arabic (Al Hader
Basit -present infinitive) is corresponding to the English simple infinitive. In Romanian the English infinitive
is very often confronted with conjunctivul. In the example above we find two infinitives that have been
translated into Arabic by means of past indefinite (Al Madi Basit): Al asifa, Bada, Al hal and stresses on t
and n in Ratabat and masmuhan. Here is an example where the infinitive is translated into Arabic by
means of the present indefinite without a stress (Al hader Basit): To take from a civilian to give to a civilian.
An Yahuz min Al Madania.
Next we are going to give examples with perfect infinitive forms in English, French, Arabic and
Romanian: Yes, and fortunately enough to have found the carriage,- answered the queen (A.Dumas). Oui, et
trop heureuse encore davoir trouv ce fiacre. Da, i prea fericit chiar de a fi gsit (s fi gsit) trsura replica regina. (A.Dumas) Naham La sah Al haz gedan an naged Al Araba. In Romanian the form of perfect
infinitive is found in formal speech, while in the colloquial speech conjunctivul perfect is preferred. Now
lets take some examples of non-coincidence: Oh, isnt that so? cried Oliva, delighted to have been caught in
the fact of putting up resistance. Oh! Nest-ce pas? scria Oliva enchante de avoir t prise en flagrant
dlit de rsistance. Ah, nu-i aa? strig Oliva, ncntat c fusese prins (de a fi fost prins) n flagrant

36

delict de rezisten. (A.Dumas). In the official translation we find complete coincidence in English and
French. In Romanian in all the examples past perfect (pluscvamperfectul) was used ihn case of anteriority in
the past. Past perfect here can be easily substituted in formal language by perfect infinitive in Romanian.
There are examples where the French plus-que-parfait is also confronted with perfect infinitive in English: A
sun, that he did not seem to have seen since he came over here. Un soleil, comme il lui semblait, quil
navait pas vu depuis le jour quand il avait travers locan. Un soare pe care, dup cte i se prea, nu-l
mai zrise de cnd trecuse oceanul. But in both cases the anteriority meaning is the same. Perfect infinitive
in English and infintif pass can be confronted in Romanian with perfectul compus, expressing anteriority to
the present moment: I am sure only to have heard what I have heard, to have seen what my eyes have seen!
Suis-je bien sur de avoir entendu ce que jai entendu, davoir vu ce que mes yeux ont vu ! Snt sigur numai
c am auzit (de a vi auzit) ceea ce am auzit, c am vzut (de a fi vzut) ceea ce am vzut! This fact is easily
explained by the fact that in different languages in certain situations various types of taxis means are used to
express anteriority. The French pass compos can also be confronted with the English perfect infinitive:
Sorry to have bothered you. Cest dommage que je vous ai ennuy. mi pare ru c v-am plictisit. In Arabic
in the examples below we have Al hader tam regularly used, accompanied by some lexical forms with a
logical stress on them to identify the given form (an+ stress; Bahda + wa + stress; Ahiran + an +wa + stress).
After having looked at the rat again they separated horrified to have said so many things misterious and
delicate. (M.Twain) Privind la obolan din nou ei s-au desprit ngrozii de a fi spus att de multe lucruri
misterioase i delicate. Bahda Al nazar alaiha saniatan ham tafaraku Li yakulu Ashiah kasira wa wagiha.
At last Ill obtain the favour from you not to leave behind the regret to have seen the poor queen perish and
to have not fought for her. (A.Dumas) Voi obine nsfrit de la Dumneavoastr favoarea de a nu lsa n
urma mea regretul de a fi vzut cum piere biata regin i de a nu m fi luptat pentru ea. Ahiran anna
saufa Atahis minka an Agader halfa Al malik Al fakir wa an Aharibaha. Confronting the material we come
to the conclusion that the perfect infinitive forms are widely used in English and French, and relatively not so
often in Romanian, especially in the spoken language. Cases of perfectul infinitiv in translations can be easily
replaced by the conjunctivul perfect, which are preferable in usual less bookish speech. [39, 240-254]
There are cases where the English Perfect infinitive is translated into Romanian by past perfect and
present perfect. While analyzing the non-finite forms we shall sometimes name participle I and gerund as
-ing forms. The difference between them is that the gerund is closer to the noun in its functions, and the
participle is closer to the adjective. In their perfect forms they have some common functions (of adverbial
modifier) and both forms express anteriority. Thus, for example: Having registered all the letters, the
secretary sent them down to be posted. Having won the first match by only one point, the players realized
that they must train much harder to win the championship. If the actions follow one after the other, a simple
form (non-perfect) is used, anteriority being expressed simply lexically or contextually, there is no need to
intensify it by grammatical anteriority: Not finding my friend at home, I left a note for him. On entering the
room he introduced himself to all those present. After looking through the morning mail the manager, called
in his secretary and dictated a few letters. The perfect -ing forms are usually used in the formal bookish
language. Their passive voice forms are used much more rarely even in the literary language. The perfect
infinitive in English is still regularly used both in the literary and colloquial styles (in the former it is much
more often used). For example: Yes, and fortunately enough to have found the carriage. At last Ill obtain
the favour from you not to leave behind the regret to have seen the poor queen perish, and to not have fought
for her. Confronting the nominal perfect forms it was observed that they are relatively more often used in
English and French than in Romanian, where predicative forms are preferred.
Participle I non-perfect form: a) Participle I participe prsent gerunziul: Tom lay watching
the two intently. Tom tait couch les fixant des yeux tous le deux. Tom sttea culcat, scurtndu-i lung pe
amndoi. The boys went off grieving that there were no outlaws any more, and wondering... Les garons se
plaignant quil ny avait plus des voleurs dans le monde et sefforant Bieii pornit spre cas, cinnduse c pe lume nu mai sunt vestii tlhari, frmntndu-i mintea...(M.Twain) The Romanian gerunziul is
naturally confronted with the English participle I; b) Participle I grondif gerunziul: So he got into the
shoes snarling. Tom, en marmottant, mit ses souliers. Tom, bodognind, ncl pantofii. I went to sleep
reading. Hier soir je me suis endormi en lisant. Asar am adormit citind. (M.Twain); c) Participle I
imparfait imperfectul (or gerunziul): Tom lay thinking. Tom tait couch et pensait. Tom sta culcat i se
gndea (gndindu-se). (M.Twain) A durative action expressed by participle I in a context in the past can
easily be rendered into French and Romanian by means of imperfect forms, which express a durative and
unfinished action in the past.
Gerund non-perfect form: a) Gerund grondif gerunziul: In getting out, he looked back. En
sortant, le jeune homme tourna la tte. Ieind, tnrul ntoarse capul. Upon leaving the hut I rapped as was

37

my custom, and getting no reply, sought for the key. Arrivant a la hute jai frapp la porte comme
dhabitude et ne recevant aucune rponse, jai cherch la cl. Ajungnd la colib, am btut la u ca de
obicei i, neprimind rspuns, am dibuit cheia.The English gerund and the French grondif in the function of
adverbial modifier of time are regularly confronted with gerunziul. b) Gerund plus-que-parfait mai mult
ca perfectul. After destroying some further portions of his lawn, he joined the nearest Golf Club. Quand il
avait dtruit quelques autres portions de son pturage, il sinscrivit dans le club de golf le plus proche. Dup
ce distrusese (distrugnd) alte cteva poriuni de pe pajitea sa, se nscrise n cel mai apropiat club de golf.
(J.Galsworthy) French and Romanian prefer past perfect forms when the English gerund is accompanied by
lexical anteriority means. c) Gerund pass compos perfectul compus (or gerunziul): Upon reaching the
wharf, I noticed a scythe and three spades,,, Quand nous sommes arrives sur la quai, jai remarqu une faux
et bches. Cnd am ajuns (ajungnd) la chei, am observat... o coas i dou hrlee. In all the confronted
sentences here we have consecutive actions. Thus, anteriority grammatical forms are not used here. The
French pass compos and the Romanian perfectul compus in the given context express an action separated
from the present moment, and, thus, they do not express grammatical anteriority in this case and we have
simultaneity in the confronted examples. d) Gerund infinitif infinitivul: Instead of considering each
element by itself and seeking for the cause Au lieu de considrer chaque lment en soi et den chercher
la cause n loc de a considera fiecare element n sine i de a cuta cauza.... (E.Benveniste) In the
French and Romanian examples in the given context the infinitive is possible, taking into consideration the
fact that the verb equivalents of the verb to consider lexically preserve the durative meaning expressed by
the English gerund. c) Gerund imparfait imperfectul: Soames made a point of eating one every year.
Soames goutait une fraise chaque anne. Soames gusta n fiecare an cte o mur. The grammatical duration
expressed by the English gerund is expressed by imperfect forms in the confronted sentences (see the same
in the case of participle I and imperfect forms).
Participle I perfect forms. a) Perfect participle participe pass compos gerunziul perfect:
Having arrived the first, you have the primarity. Vous avez le pas, tant arriv le premier. Avei ntietate
fiind venit primul. Here we have complete coincidence in all the three languages, though gerunziul perfect in
Romanian is rarely used and is usually substituted by forms given below. The only difference that the
auxiliaries in the target languages are the verbs tant, fiind. b) Perfect participle infinitif pass perfectul
compus : The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. Les
courtesans ont apport des forges et aprs avoir entr, il ont clou la porte de lintrieur. Curtenii
aduseser cu ei forje i ilie grele i, dup ce au intrat, au intuit poarta pe dinuntru. In spite of the fact
that there are different forms in the confronted languages the grammatical meaning of anteriority is preserved
in all of them. c) Perfect participle plus-que-parfait mai mult ca perfectul: Soames, having prolonged his
week-end visit had been spending the afternoon at the Zoological Gardens. Soames avait continu son weekend Londres et avait pass laprs-midi dans le jardin zoologique. Soames i prelungise week-endul la
Londra i i petrecuse dup ameaza n grdina zoologic. (J.Galsworthy) Perfect participle is readily
translated into French and Romanian by means of past perfect forms, expressing the grammatical meaning of
past anteriority. It could be substituted by a past perfect form in English as well.
Past Participle . The past participle is regularly confronted with the French participe pass and the
Romanian participial trecut: The methodology tested in the Indo-European field set the pattern. La mthode
prouve sur le domaine indo-europen est devenue exemplaire. Metoda experimentat n domeniul indoeuropean a devenit exemplar. The English participle II can sometimes correspond to the Romanian mai
mult ca perfectul: On the staircase Charny met only some officers, friends of his, informed beforehand.
Charny ne rencontra sur les degres que plusieurs officiers, ses amis, prvenus assez temps. Pe scri,
Charny ntlni numai civa ofieri, prieteni de ai si, care fusese anunai (anunai) din timp. The
anteriority meaning in the confronted languages is practically the same. The category of taxis expressed by
the category of representation is expressed in a most pure way.
10.9. The Category of Taxis in Oblique Moods
Anteriority is expressed in the purest way by lexical means and by non-finite forms of the verb. The
taxis marked grammatical forms have much in common in many European languages, as their systems go
back to the same source. The grammatical perfect forms historically appeared in the ancient times, developed
into a complex system, and they started to lose their position to some other linguistic means, like lexical and
contextual ones, which up till now played a secondary part in the conceptual category of anteriority. The
grammatical forms gradually lose their weight and are substituted by much simpler forms of the verbs,
anteriority being expressed by non-grammatical means. Thus, the category of taxis can be expressed
grammatically, lexically, lexico-grammatically, contextually, and it may be prosodically intensified. In the

38

majority of cases taxis is expressed by at least two of the existing categorial linguistic means (lexical and
grammatical means occur much more frequently). Even in the English language the lexical means are
nowadays in the process of gaining more ground than the grammatical ones. In many European languages
the category of taxis (simultaneity-anteriority, correlation, anteriority, perfectivity, time relationship, perfect
aspect, etc.) is in constant process of transition from pure grammatical categories to lexical and grammatical
ones, or just to pure lexical means. It has been observed that the non-finite perfect forms are practically not
used in journalese, either in British or American newspapers. As far as finite perfect forms are concerned,
preference is given to present perfect, because this is the form that is best suited to establishing a correlation
between past and present, on the one hand, and the connection between the performer and the undergoer of
the speech event, on the other.
Oblique Moods and the Category of Anteriority.
b) subjunctive II and conditional mood, anteriority to a past action: He said he would have come earlier if
he had known; El a spus c ar fi venit (venea) mai devreme dac ar fi avut (s fi avut, dac avea) timp;
c) subjunctive II, anteriority to the present moment of speech: If she had come in time yesterday you would
have seen her; Dac ea ar fi venit (s fi venit, dac venea) la timp ieri ai fi vzut-o (o vedeai);
d) subjunctive II, future anteriority in the past: I knew he would say that he would have come if he had
known; Eu tiam c el va spune c ar fi venit (venea) dac ar fi tiut (s fi tiut);
e) subjunctive II, anteriority to a moment or action in the future: She thinks he will say that he would have
come if he had known; Ea crede c el va spune c ar fi venit (venea) dac ar fi tiut (s fi tiut, dac tia).
It is well known that in the natural human languages content and form are actually inseparable. We
cannot abstract ourselves from form in analytical comparison and from content in comparative philology.
What is the actual connection between confrontational linguistics and comparative philology? In what way
are we supposed to avail ourselves of the results of comparative-historical investigation when confronting
cognate and unrelated languages? In order that this problem may be presented as clearly as possible, we shall
turn to the category of anteriority in English and Romanian. By confronting, for example, the category of
taxis in English and Romanian, we came to the conclusion, that there is a common tendency in both
languages. The perfect forms in both languages tend to be replaced by simple non-perfect forms and the
categorical meaning of anteriority is expressed lexically or contextually. This process is more advanced in
Romanian, where some analytical perfect forms are now very rarely used.
11.The Semiotic and Metasemiotic Use of the Category of Voice
The morphological-grammatical forms can be studied on two levels 1) the semantic level, where, for
example, the present tense forms express actions which include the moment of speaking, and 2) the
metasemiotic level, where present tense forms are used to denote an action which clearly does not include
the moment of speaking. The process of transition of some grammatical categories into lexical ones is being
observed in many languages. It has been observed that the marked members of the opposition are
metasemiotically charged and are often used for expressivity and emphasis. In the grammatical category of
voice the marked form is the passive voice categorical form. N. Raievscaia considers that the analysis of the
category of voice is not limited only to the definition of verbal relations of the subject and object. The
relation of more levels are involved in the development of various means of expressing voice, the
characteristic feature of which cannot be demonstrated without taking into consideration the correlation
between the grammatical and lexical (both the denotational and connotational) meanings. That is why it is
important that the analysis of the category of voice should include all the linguistic and extra-linguistic
phenomena. At a closer inspection we observe that the passive voice, for instance, is preferred in specific
functional styles, where the message is more impersonal, the doer of the action is not made prominent. Thus,
J. Stanley writes that the passive categorial form is regularly used in governmental documents, in scientific
registers and fiction. He thinks that the passive voice permits to abstract ourselves from the author and
concentrate our attention on other elements of the utterance. Some authors think that the passive voice is
mostly used in extreme situation, especially to express notions of violence, misfortune, etc. For instance L.
Payne considers that in the sentence She was hit by a car (ea a fost lovit de o main) the passive voice
expresses an atmosphere of misfortune and the author wants to make it prominent to influence the reader,
this task would be impossible in case of active voice. Positive information may also be expressed in the
passive voice: The famous scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize. The hard working student was always
highly appreciated. In these two examples the emphatic use of the categorical form of the passive voice is
further intensified by lexical means. To increase the evaluative, expressive and emotional overtones in oral
speech people use elements of suprasyntactic prosody. If the utterances given above are said by persons

39

being in a strong emotional state, the most important part of the message would be characterized by specific
metasemiotic prosody: slowed down tempo, increased loudness/ or decreased loudness (with the same
effect), high fall on the most important lexical unit, the range of the voice is widened. Also here the
corresponding to the given situation body language, voice qualifications and voce qualifiers are used to make
a stronger impact on the listener. Thus, in the examples: She was \hit by a car the whole utterance may be
pronounced with an emphatic emotional prosody, and was hit can be further singled out by a high fall on it.
Medvedeva L. mentions the fact that quite a number of proverbs are used in the passive voice for the sake of
expressivity and emphatic use: No sooner said than done; Soon learnt, soon forgotten; Rome was not built
in a day, etc. The omission of the auxiliaries and the use only of the past participles in the first two examples
intensify the metasemiotic connotation.
In texts the authors would usually use various means of passive forms and alternating them with active
voice forms in order to avoid monotony. Turner G. says that sometimes we forget that the utterance Caesar
conquered Gaul varies not only with Gaul was conquered by Caesar, but also with Caesars conquest
of Gaul, The Conquest of Gaul by Caesar and The Conquest of Gaul, Caesars Conquest. In all
these examples we have difference of emphasis and various connotations to be expressed by this or that
utterance. The metasemiotic use of passive voice and other categorical forms like aspect, mood and taxis are
usually combined in the same utterance to produce a stronger stylistic effect not only in English. Thus,
translating passive continuous forms from English into continuous Romanian and Russian we observe that
they are regularly rendered by means of verbs with the particle se in Romanian and flexion - in
Russian. Se and- (cf. the English self) in both languages are usually used to express lexicalgrammatical reflexivity. But in the examples bellow they are used purely grammatically to express a different
meaning, that of a durative action in the passive voice: The house is being built now, The house was being
built when we arrived there, The house will be built this time next year Casa se construiete acum (Casa
este construit acum), Casa se construia (era construit) cnd am sosit acolo, Casa se va construi (va fi
construit) pe timpul acesta anul viitor - . ,
, . The reflexive particle and flexion here have
the meanings of passive voice of imperfective (durative) actions with metasemiotic connotations, expressed
by both the aspectual and voice categorical means. In English there is no continuous aspect in the passive
voice in the future, while in Romanian and Russian continuity is expressed by forms like se va construi,
. Va fi construit. usually represent perfective actions. The same
opposition of finished (perfective) and imperfective in the passive voice past indefinite is found in both
Romanian and Russian: Casa se construia Casa era construit Casa a fost construit (Casa era
construit may have the meaning of imperfectul pasiv and pluscvamperfectul activ). The Russian:
- represent the above-mentioned aspectual opposition. The Romanian
examples in this case are different from the Russian ones because they belong to the colloquial style. The
grammatical categorial forms of passive both in English and Romanian mean an action or process directed
towards the subject from outside and is usually expressed by the grammatical form of the verb to be + past
participle. In Romanian the difference between the following two types of sentences is a stylistic one. A
lexical shift in the meaning is observed both in English and Romanian, there is a contradiction between the
lexical and grammatical meanings of passive and pseudo-active voice: They sell the book The book sells
well (The book is sold/bing sold well) Ei vnd cartea Cartea se vinde bine; The shop opens now ( The
shop is being opened now) - Magazinul se deschide acum Magazinul este deschis acum (este deschis may
be used in the meanings of in the process of being opened and is open); The book reads well The
book is read well (The book is being read well) Cartea se citete bine Cartea este citit bine. In the
second example the passive meaning is combined with the durative one enhancing the metasemiotic
connotation. The following sentences The house is built by this firm; The house is being built by this firm;
The house has been built by this firm; The house was built by this firm; The house was being built by this
firm; The house had been built by this this firm; The house will be built by this firm can be rendered into
Romanian by the following equivalents: Casa este construit de ctre firma aceasta; Casa se construiete de
ctre firma aceasta; Casa a fost construit de ctre firma aceasta; Casa s-a construit de ctre firma
aceasta; Casa era construit de ctre firma aceasta; Casa se construia de ctre firma aceasta; Casa fu
construit de ctre firma aceasta; Casa se construi de ctre firma aceasta; Casa fusese construit de ctre
firma aceasta; Casa se construise de ctre firma aceasta. As we see in Romanian each example there are
two forms of the passive voice. The difference between the two variants of utterances in the passive voice is
one of aspect in the second variant we have two marked categorical forms: passive voice and durative or
imperfective aspect and that means that the stylistic connotation is much stronger than in the first variant,
where we have only one marked categorical form, that of the passive voice.

40

Aanalysing a great number of examples we observe that the passive construction of the auxiliary to
be + past participle is prevailing in English and relatively less often used in Romanian and especially in
Russian. The passive forms in the following sentences We were told to come at five, The soldiers were
ordered to guard the airport are preferrable in English to the active forms They told us to come at five, They
ordered the soldiers to guard the airport. Passive constructions like in the examples given above are usually
rendered into Romanian by means of pronominal verb constructions expressing passive voice, characteristic
of coloquial speech: (Nou) ni s-a spus s venim la ora cinci, Soldailor li s-a ordonat s vin la ora cinci. In
some cases it is unacceptable in Romanian to use the construction with the verb to be plus past participle .
Soldaii au fost ordonai s vin la ora cinci would express a completely different connotational meaning. In
Russian the sentence , sounds to be too strict, official and
pedantic. What we usually find in translations is: () , i.e. the
active voice is preferred here and it is metasemiotically less charged, it is a milder and more polite form of
expressing an order or emphatic request.
Prof. A.Smirnitsky put forward the idea that there are lexical units expressing pure lexical passive or
active meanings and they form a pure lexical opposition. Thus, the relation between the verbs to act (a
aciona) and to suffer (a suferi) resembles the relation between the active and passive voices: Toms
bosom friend sat next to him, suffering, just as Tom had been from the same mortal boring Alturi de Tom
edea prietenul lui la cataram, care suferea de aceeai ucigtoare plictiseal, de care suferise nu demult
Tom (M.Twain). The verb to suffer (a suferi) in the above given example expresses a logical passive
meaning and comes into contradiction with their active form. According to A.Smirnitsky the word noise
(zgomot) in the sentence A noise was heard (Un zgomot a fost auzit or Un zgomot s-a auzit) is
grammatically influenced by the subject, but lexically it is really directed to the object. The two variants in
Romanian express the same categorial form of passive voice and are only stylistically different. In
translations often we have non-coincidences while comparing the source and the target language variants,
because of cases when the passive is preferable in the source language or vice versa: But they discovered the
danger in time- ns primejdia fu observat la timp (M.Twain). In this example the translator used the
passive voice by changing the place of the subject and object and achieving an additional expressivity and
putting the stress on the danger while in the source language they is made prominent. Besides, the speaker
can pronounce fu observat with suprasyntactic prosodic means mentioned above: slowed down tempo,
increased loudness, high fall on the most important lexical unit observat, the range of the voice is widened.
By this we will have quite a different interpretation of they discovered in Romanian, absolutely different
form the point of view of stylistics connotations. The active form could be quite acceptable in Romanian as
well: Dar ei au observat primejdia la timp.
Non-finite passive forms of the verb are also regularly used metasemiotically. Thus, past participle of
transitive verbs may be used instead of finite perfect forms to express both anteriority and passive categorical
meanings. Lets take two examples with past participle in English, participe pass in French and participial
trecut in Romanian: The methodology tested in the Indo-European field set the pattern. La mthode prouve
sur le domaine indo-europen est devenue exemplaire. Metoda experimentat n domeniul indo-european a
devenit exemplar. All these observations bring out the essential difference between the method of
communication discovered among bees and our human language. Lensemble de ces observations fait
apparaitre la diffrence essentielle entre les procdes de communication dcouverts chez les abeilles et
notre langage. Toate observaiile acestea scot la iveal diferena esenial dintre metoda de comunicare
descoperit la albini i limba uman. The anteriority and passive categorical meanings of the past participles
in the confronted languages are clearly expressive. Structurally the sentences are shorter, the past participle
usually substituting a whole secondary clause. The use of past participle in the function of attributes
expresses a stronger metasemiotic connotation: Hydrogen is the lightest substance known. Hidrogenul este
cea mai uoar substan cunoscut. Unfortunately it is not possible to present in this book all the
information obtained. Din pcate nu este posibil de a prezentan cartea aceasta toat informaia obinut. In
both languages a complete coincidence is attested as to the semiotic and metasemiotic meanings of past
participles in attributive functions. Past participle as an adverbial modifier of concession: But the Right-wing
Labour leaders, though forced to give way on some questions, will stick to their policies. Liderii laburiti de
dreapta, dei forai s cedeze n unele probleme, vor susine politica lor. Complex object with past
participle: We hope to see this issue raised in all trades councils, in every union. Noi sperm vedem aceast
problem ridicat n fiecare sindicat. Thus, the past participle in some constructions is also used to express
anteriority and passive categorical meanings.[39, 165-172]
Lets take an example given by A.Smirnitsky where the past participle gone in the combination is
gone, is used in a transferred meaning of he died: Poor Mr. Brown is (has) gone. He was taken from us.

41

He has left us. He has joined the great majority Srmanul dl.Brown a murit (a plecat). El a murit (ne-a
prsit). El a plecat/a fost dus n lumea strbunilor. Is gone in this example possess a strong inherent
stylistic connotation with a sociolinguistic motivation. The same combination can be used in the direct sense
of the word in colloquial speech as in Where is Mr. Brown? He is gone. He will be back in an hour. Unde e dl
Brown? El e plecat. Se va ntoarce peste o or. Is gone in this example is used in the colloquial style.
Having analysed a considerable number of examples we can state that past participle of transitive
verbs can be used to express anteriority and passive categorical meanings not only in constructions to
be+participle II. It may be used independently to express the same categorical meanings. Both anteriority
and passive voice marked categorial meanings possess a certain metasemiotic connotation which is usually
intensified by lexical an suprasyntactic prosodic means depending on the context. Various points of view
concerning the category of voice could be explained by the fact that there is not a clear-cut distinction of
lexical and grammatical means of expressing the categorial forms of voice. The lexical and grammatical
voice means are often very close and they both interact. The number of categorial forms in various linguistic
interpretations ranges from two up to six in most grammar books: active voice, passive voice, mediopassive,
reflexive voice, reciprocal voice, dynamic voice, etc. Most linguists consider that as pure grammatical
categorial forms we could single out only the active and passive voice. The rest of the above stated categorial
forms express the given meanings of voice lexically or lexically-grammatically. In Romanian the system of
categorial forms of voice resembles the one in English, but in most grammar books a system of three forms
is usually put forward: active, passive and reflexive. The reflexive voice in English is considered to be a
purely lexical categorial form. But even here we have a combination of lexical and grammatical meanings.
The reflexive pronouns express lexical reflexivity. The verb combined with such a pronoun usually expresses
an active grammatical voice action reflected back on the subject. Thus, for example: I see somebody there in
the mirror structurally is the same as I see myself there in the mirror, i.e. subject + predicate + object, with
the only difference that myself lexically expresses the reflection of the given action on the subject. In
Romanian the reflexive is also a lexical-grammatical categorial form (the lexical meaning still prevailing
over the grammatical one). Depending on different meanings of the verbs with the pronouns se and i,
in Romanian there are six pronominal voices: reciprocal, passive, dynamic, impersonal, objective and
inventive. The pronouns se and i, in the first and second person singular and plural, have the forms of
personal pronoun objects. The Romanian reciprocal and reflexive pronouns form stable combinations with
verbs and are the markers of the corresponding lexical-grammatical categorial forms of voice. The English
reflexive pronouns are more independent but they also form similar stable combinations with verbs to
express reflexivity. The same can be said of the reciprocal pronouns (each other, one another). In some clearcut contexts the reflexive pronoun may be omitted in English because of redundant information: In the
morning I wash and shave at six oclock. The reflexive pronoun myself is dropped because reflexivity
here is expressed contextually. It is quite clear from the context that I wash and shave myself not something
or somebody else. Let us confront some categorial forms of voice in English and Romanian. The active
voice in the confronted languages express an action carried out by the subject and not reflected back on the
doer of the action: The widows servant kept him clean and neat, combed and brushed, and they bedded him
nightly. Servitoarea vduvei l spla, l mbrca, l pieptna i l culca n fiecare sear (M.Twain).
Sometimes the original text does not coincide with the translation, because in such cases the passive is
preferrable in the target language (or vice versa): But they discovered the danger in time- ns primejdia fu
observat la timp (M.Twain). In this example the translator used the passive voice by changing the place of
the subject and object and achieving an additional expressivity. The active form could be quite acceptable
here: Dar ei au observat primejdia la timp. After a detailed analysis of the material we can conclude, that
pronominal verbs in Romanian form a large lexico-grammatical system, and they are very often used in
speech. Thus, the English active voice forms are regularly rendered into Romanian by means of pronominal
verbs in the reflexive or reciprocal voices: Ill never marry anybody but you and you aint to ever marry
anybody but me N-am s m mrit cu altul, dar i tu s nu te nsori cu nimeni afar de mine (M.Twain).
But Sid snatched his clothes and gone Dar Sid i nfc hainele i dispru (M.Twain). Dar Sid a nfcat
hainele sale i a disprut is stylistically different from the official translation. The English reciprocal voice
is usually translated into Romanian by means of reciprocal pronouns and a reflexive pronoun plus the given
verb: They loved each other Ei se iubeau unul pe altul. Now we shall adduce examples in which the
English reflexive and reciprocal pronouns in the function of objects and verbs in the active voice correspond
in Romanian to pronominal verbs. To intensify the meanings of reflexivity and reciprocality we sometimes
use synonymous pronouns: unul pe altul, unii pe alii, una pe alta, unele pe altele, pe sine, etc.: A deep peel
of thunder went rolling and tumbling down the heavens and lost itself in sullen rumblings in the distance
Un tunet surd rsun, rostogolindu-se pe bolta cerului i se pierdu undeva n deprtare, bodognind

42

suprat; The boys dressed themselves, hid their accoutrements, and went off, grieving that there were no
outlaws any more, and wondering what civilization could claim to have to compensate their loss (M.Twain)
Bieii se mbrcar, ascunser armele i pornir spre cas, cinndu-se c pe lume nu mai sunt tlhari
vestii, frmntndu-i minile cu ce ar putea nlocui astzi aceast pierdere (M.Twain). As we see se and
its variants in Romanian form analytical forms with the corresponding verbs, and sometimes it may be added
to a word in colloquial speech: rostogolindu-se, cinndu-se, frmntndu-i, duc-se. In Russian the
reflexive - has become a flexion and is used only as a flexion, which still preserves its original lexical
meaning of reflexivity. Thus, compare: = . C in has become part of
the given word and is much stronger connected with the corresponding verb than himself in English. The
grammatical categorial form of passive both in English and Romanian means an action or process directed
towards the subject from outside and is usually expressed by the grammatical form of the verb to be + past
participle. Let us compare some examples of passive categorial form in both languages on the etic level and
see which forms are preferable in official translations: Smaller boys than himself flocked at his heels, as
proud to be seen with him, and tolerated by him Bieii mai mici alergau buluc n urma lui, mndri de a fi
vzui mpreun cu el, i c el nu-i alung Tom was therefore elevated to a place with the judge and the other
elect, and the great news was announced. - Tom fu poftit s se sue n stran, unde edea judectorul i
celelalte persoane simandicoase, iar marea noutate fu adus la cunotin. The passive voice forms here
structurally coincide in both languages. Of interest is the case when the English passive voice is translated
into colloquial Romanian by means of pronominal verbs, which are reflexive in their structure and meaning:
Oh! Michael! You will be bored to death! O, Mihail! Ai s te plictiseti de moarte! The translation in the
target language may be interpreted in two ways: 1.Michael will be bored by what will be taking place there,
i.e, the effect will come from outside, there will be nothing interesting there, and in this case this sentence
could be easily translated by means of passive form expressed by to be + past participle as well: O,
Mihail! Ai s fii plictisit de moarte! (the action is coming from the object not from the subject and between
the two varaiants there is a stylistic and aspectual difference). The latter example belongs to the literary style,
while the former belongs to the coloquial one. After a closer investigation of similar examples we have come
to the conclusion that examples like O, Mihail! Ai s te plictiseti de moarte! can also be treated as forms
expressing a durative passive voice action. 2.The second situational interpretation of the sentence O, Mihail!
Ai s te plictiseti de moarte! is that Michael will do something boring, i.e. he will be the doer of the action
reflected on him and in this case the translation can be interpreted as a form of the reflexive voice. This
observation concerning the multifunctional status of the Romanian particle se turned out to coincide with
that of the Russian flexion -. In both Russian and Romanian the given reflexive pronouns have
developed homonymous meanings, which like in the case of the English myself, yourself, himself, herself,
itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves have turned out to express not only reflexive meanings. They are
also used to express passive continuous actions. Regular confrontation of examples allows us to conclude,
that the English continuous forms are regularly translated by means of verbs with the particle se into
Romanian and flexion - in Russian, The reflexive particle and flexion are usually used to express a
reflexive action but in this case they are homonyms and express unfinished (continuous or durative) actions
in the passive voice. For example: The problem is being discussed at the meeting now, The problem was
being discussed at the meeting this time last week, The problem will be discussed (dialectal: The problem
will be being discussed) this time next week Problema se discut (este discutat) la adunare acum,
Problema se discuta (era discutat, a fost discutat) pe timpul acesta sptmna trecut, Problema se va
discuta (va fi discutat) pe timpul acesta sptmna viitoare
, ,
. We should note the fact that in Romanian we have two forms to render
imperfective actions in the past: se discuta (colloquial) and era discutat (imperfectul). The reflexive
particle and flexion are completely synonymous with the meanings of passive voice of imperfective
(durative) action. In English there is no continuous aspect in the passive voice in the future, because both
categorial forms are used with the verb to be and it is not acceptable in the literary English to say: The
house will be being built, which can be found only in dialects. Both in Romanian and Russian future
continuity is expressed: se va construi, . Va fi construit usually represents a
perfective action, but in combination with lexical aspectual durative means it expresses a continuous action:
Casa va fi construit n curs de un an. The same opposition of finished (perfective) and imperfective in the
passive voice past indefinite is found in both Romanian and Russian: Casa se construia Casa era
construit Casa a fost construit (Casa era construit) may have the meaning of imperfectul pasiv and
pluscvamperfectul activ). The Russian: - also represent the
abovementioned aspectual opposition. We should mention here that the particle -se and the flexion - in

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the reflexive meaning combined with a verb are used lexico-grammatically, while in the passive continuous
(imperfective) they become purely grammatical forms. In the result of the analysis we can also conclude that
the traditional passive construction of the auxiliary to be + past participle is prevailing in English and less
often used in Romanian and especially in Russian. The passive forms in the following sentences We were
told to come at five, We are told to come at five, We will be told to come at five; The soldiers were ordered to
guard the airport, The soldiers are ordered to come at five, The soldiers will be ordered to come at five are
preferrable to the active forms used in They told us to come at five, They ordered the soldiers to guard the
airport. The passive constructions are usually rendered into Romanian by means of pronominal verb
constructions expressing passive voice, characteristic of coloquial speech: (Nou) ni s-a spus s venim la ora
cinci, (Nou) ni se spune s venim la ora cinci, (Nou) ni se va spune s venim la ora cinci; Soldailor li s-a
ordonat s vin la ora cinci, Soldailor li se ordon s vin la ora cinci, Soldailor li se va ordona s vin la
ora cinci. In some cases it is unacceptable to use in Romanian the construction with the verb to be plus
past participle. Soldaii au fost ordonai s vin la ora cinci would express a completely different
connotational meaning. In the Russian the sentences ,
sound to be too official and pedantic and what we usually find in
translations is: () , ()
, () , i.e. the active voice is preferred here and it is
metasemiotically less charged. A lexical shift in the meaning can be observed both in English and
Romanian. A well known feature is the contradiction between the lexical and grammatical meanings of
passive and active voice: They sell the book The book sells well Ei vnd cartea Cartea se vinde bine;
The shop is being opened now The shop opens now- Magazinul se deschide acum Magazinul este deschis
acum. Este deschis may be used in the meanings of in the process of being opened and is open; The book
reads well The book is read well Cartea se citete bine Cartea este citit bine. Both in English and
Romanian there are verbs, the lexical meanings of which can be either passive or active and they form a pure
lexical opposition. Thus, A.I.Smirnitsky writes that the relation between the verbs to act (a aciona) and
to suffer (a suferi) resembles the relation between the active and passive voices: Toms bosom friend sat
next to him, suffering, just as Tom had been (suffering) from the same mortal boring Alturi de Tom edea
prietenul lui la cataram, care suferea (suferind) de aceeai ucigtoare plictiseal, de care suferise nu
demult Tom (M.Twain). The verb to suffer (a suferi) in the above given example has in both languages a
logical passive meaning, in spite of the active form of the verbs. There are many lexical passive verbs, which
come into contradiction with their active form in the sentence: to hear a auzi, to observe a observa, to
see a vedea, etc.: I have heard about this Eu am auzit de aceasta; I heard her cry - Am auzit-o plngnd.
Thus, in thesxe examples the verbs are used in the active voice forms, but the action is really directed
towards the subject from outside, like in the case of passive voice actions. According to A.Smirnitsky the
word noise (zgomot) in the sentence A noise was heard (Un zgomot a fost auzit or Un zgomot s-a auzit) is
grammatically influenced by the subject, but lexically it is really directed to the object. The two variants in
Romanian express the same categorial form of passive voice and are only stylistically different. We can
conclude that English and Romanian possess well developed systems of grammatical categorial forms of
passive and active voice. In Romanian the lexico-grammatical categorial form of reflexive voice is
represented by the stable combination of a verb and pronouns se and i(and their variants). In English
the reflexive voice is not purely lexical as it is usually stated: the reflexive pronouns express reflexivity
lexically but in speech they can not be separated from the grammatical meanings of the verbs, that is, here
we have the same combination of grammatical and lexical voice meanings and the given categorial form
should be considered to be lexical-grammatical. Both in English and Romanian the reflexive pronouns have
developed non-reflexive homonymous meanings: in Romanian they may be used to express the categorial
form of passive voice and in English they may be used as emphatic pronouns. [39, 165-172]
12.The Category of Comparsion in English and Romanian
The category of comparison has historically changed in both languages. The reduction of the morphological
paradigm in English led to the obliteration of the grammatical categories of gender, number and case. In
Romanian grammatical gender and number have been preserved. The marked and unmarked categorial forms
of positive, comparative and superlative degrees are expressed in English synthetically, analytically and
suppletively. Historically the synthetic forms were used in Old English and the analytical ones appeared as a
system in the Middle English, when the periphrastic comparative forms, only occasionally used in Old
English, began to be substituted (under French influence) by analytical forms with ma, mo. mare, more,
mast, most, which were used both with English and French adjectives, with monosyllables and disyllables, as
well as with polysyllables. The preference of these over synthetic forms may in some cases be stylistic.

44

The absolute superlative (most + positive form) may have appeared under the influence of Latin (You are
most kind). It is known that in Latin the degrees of comparison were formed synthetically. But even in the
classic Latin a number of adjectives existed which formed the degrees of comparisons analytically. In the V
and VI centuries the analytical forms started to substitute the synthetic ones. Magis and plus were used to
form the comparative degrees, and maxime, super, valde, bene were used to form the superlative. In Old
Latin the comparison of the adjective by means of magis became a grammatical way in Iberia, the South of
Galia and the Danube basin. The adverb plus was also used in forming the comparative degree, but it was not
widely spread being used only in the Northern part of Galia. The superlative was formed by means of
maxime and multum. In the Oriental Romance languages the forms magis dulce turned into mai dulce cel
mai dulce. Besides that other comparative constructions appeared: tot att de bun, mai puin bun, prea bun,
foarte bun, extrem de bun, etc.. Some linguists affirm that the positive degree should not be considered as
part of the category of comparison. Here we should say that there exists an opposition of marked (superlative
and comparative degrees) and the unmarked (the positive degree) categorial forms. Even within the positive
degree we can compare lexically and contextually: This apple is sweet and that one is sour (Compare: This
apple is sweeter than that one. That apple is less sweet than this one. That apple is not as sweet as this one.
That apple is sourer than this one.) That means that we taste the two apples and compare them on the same
level. While when we say that the apple is sweater/sourer or the sweetest we compare in the limits of the
same adjective and quality. Some linguists affirm that the positive degree should not be considered as part of
the category of comparison, but it is one of the three categorial forms of comparison, the unmarked one.
The degrees of comparisons of adjectives and adverbs are usually considered to be part of the corresponding
grammatical categories. The synthetic forms express comparison purely grammatically. When we turn to the
analytical forms the picture is different. More and most which regularly are used to form the analytical
degrees of comparison, being elements of the given analytical forms, have partially preserved their original
lexical meaning. The same can be seen in Romanian: mai, cel mai practically express the same
meanings. Besides there are a number of words used as lexical intensifiers in both languages, which are used
with both analytical and synthetic forms. Degrees of comparison express equality and difference of degree
within the same quality. Only those adjectives, which denote properties, can have degrees of comparison.
Usually grammar books say that qualitative adjectives can form the degrees of comparison and the relative
ones do not. This is not always the case. Thus: adjectives with the suffix ish (reddish), with a negative
meaning (like impossible), a number of adjectives, which mainly belong to a superlative meaning (exclusive,
absolute, extreme, principal, chief, unique, superior, inferior, complete, etc.) But even these adjective can be
used with intensifiers to express a certain inequality: far superior, much more superior, very much superior,
less superior, much less superior, least superior. Even those adjectives that do not form the degrees of
comparison, belong to the positive degree and can in some cases be used for stylistic purposes to form a
comparative degree: You cannot be deader than dead. He was the deadest of them all. You are not less dead
than he is. (E.Hemingway) Relative adjectives do not form degrees of comparison (woolen, wooden,
economic, etc. and some of them can express relative quality of objects or phenomena (wooden door, glass
door, a monthly magazine, daily program, European country, political life, capitalist society, socialist
ideology). In some cases relative adjectives acquire an additional meaning and can form the degrees of
comparison: The life there had been more English than in England. (Aldridge) John is more English than the
English. John is very English. (Swan) He is English to the backbone. He has very little English in him and
you have even less. A grammatical topic a less (least) grammatical topic a purely grammatical topic a
more grammatical topic - the most grammatical of the suggested topics. In all these examples we really
detect a difference or variation of quality within the same adjective. Qualitative adjectives express various
qualities within the same adjective defining a certain object or phenomenon. Thus, varying and static quality
could be considered as an opposition. In this respect we should mention Blokhs division of adjectives into
evaluative and specific. One and the same adjective can be used either in the evaluative or in the
specificative function. As an example he gives the adjective good, which is basically qualitative (goodbetter-the best), but when used as part of a marking scale together with the grading terms bad, satisfactory,
excellent it acquires a static or specificative function. On the other hand, the whole grading system here
(bad-satisfactory-good-excellent) could be considered as a paradigm of lexical degrees of comparison. All
the adjectives, which can form degrees of comparison either lexically or grammatically (the synthetic forms)
can vary their quality or be evaluative. The comparative degree in English and Romanian help to establish
a correlation of superiority, inferiority and equality of a variable quality or property, possessed by objects or
phenomena, which are compared or contrasted. The comparative degree of equality compares objects or
phenomena on the same level, i.e. expresses equality or an equivalence of qualities or properties of two or
more objects: This mountain is as high as that one. = This mountain is not less high than that one. This

45

mountain is not higher than that one. Acest munte este tot att de nalt ca i cellalt = Acest munte nu este
mai puin nalt dect cellalt. Acest munte nu este mai nalt dect cellalt. In this example we practically
have different forms (comparative of equality and inequality) expressing the same meaning. Thus, if
negation is added here then inequality comparison is used: This flower is beautiful. This flower is as
beautiful as that one. This flower is not so beautiful as that one = This flower is less beautiful than that one
= That flower is more beautiful than this one. Aceast floare este frumoas. Aceast floare e tot att de
frumoas ca i aceea. Aceast floare nu este tot att de frumoas ca aceea. = Aceast floare este mai puin
frumoas ca aceea = Floarea aceea este mai frumoas dect aceasta. Here the comparison of equality is
followed by that of inferiority and superiority inequality. In Romanian the degree of comparison of equality
and inequality is formed by the help of the following constructions: tot aa de, tot att de, la fel de,
deopotriv de, ntocmai ca, la fel ca, mai puin, mult mai puin, etc. Examples: O foame tot aa de trist
ca i acele gnduri. Un osta tot aa de viteaz ca Ion. Aceast greeal nu este tot att de grav ca aceea
(This mistake is not as grave as that one). There are quite a number of idioms, where the comparative of
equality is used (though in many cases the meaning of superlative is implied): as busy as a bee (very busy)
harnic ca albina (foarte harnic). The comparative degree of superiority shows that the object or phenomenon
has a higher degree of quality in comparison with those, which are compared. In English the comparative of
superiority is expressed by the comparative degree (synthetic, analytical or suppletive forms) of the adjective
and is followed by the conjunction than: You are more interested in my dresses than my dressmaker. He
looked younger than his friend. Intensifiers are often used to increase the variation on the comparative degree
level: This is much better (Aceasta e mult mai bine); This is much more better (Aceasta e cu mult mai bine);
This is far better; This is better by far; This is considerably better. The performance became more and more
thrilling; The water was deieper and deieper (repetitions). Ever greater success have been achieved (Apa
era/devenea tot mai adnc i mai adnc). The more leasure he has, the happier hie is. Cu ct mai mult se
odihnete, cu att mai fericit el este). Nimic pe lume nu e mai scump i mai slvit dect libertatea. Very often
the usual intensifiers are further intensified by other contextual lexical means: nimic n lume = nothing in the
world. Very often the second element of the comparison of superiority or inferiority is omitted because of
contextual redundancy: Rmnea o sarcin mai grea i mai primejdioas. A more difficult and dangerous
task remained. You wont find better examples. Nu vei gsi exemple mai bune. Fata se fcea din ce n ce mai
frumoas. The girl was getting more and more beautiful. Thus comparing English and Romanian here we
could say that we observe a very close coincidence on the semantic level, on the formal level the synthetic
forms are not used in Romanian. The comparative degree of inferiority both in English and Romanian shows
that objects or phenomena have a lower degree of quality in comparison with other ones: The number of
people is less numerous than it was last time. Numrul de oameni este mai puin numeros dect data trecut.
John is less happy than his brother. John este mai puin fericit dect fratele su. If we combine less and
mai puin with not (nu) we get an equivalent of comparative of equality: The number of people is not
less numerous than it was last time. Numrul de oameni nu e mai puin numeros dect data trecut. It is not
less important = It is not more important = It is as important. Nu este mai piin important = nu este mai
important = E tot att de important. We can see from the last example that the three variants practically
express an equal quality of the compared objects. By using intensifiers of various degree, we can have a
gradual transition on the level of the same categorial form: Tom was taller than Peter Tom was far taller
than Peter Tom was much taller than Peter Tom was much more taller than Peter Tom was
considerably taller than Peter Tom was by all means taller than Peter Tom was undoubtfully taller than
Peter, etc. Tom era mai nalt dect Peter Tom era cu mult mai nalt dect Peter Tom era mult mai nalt
dect Peter Tom era incomparabil, considerabil, infinit, incomensurabil mai nalt dect Peter, etc.
The superlative degree establishes that an object or phenomenon possesses a quality or a property in
the highest or in the lowest degree The English relative superlative has two forms (analytical and synthetic)
while in Romanian only the analytical forms are used. The superlative degree may be absolute and relative,
the latter also being divided into superlative of superiority and superlative of inferiority. The absolute
superlative shows a quality in its highest degree without a comparison with other objects in the given
context. Intensifiers are often used here: You are a very good child You are an extremely good child You
are a very good child indeed You look too good. Addy and Ellie look beautiful enough to please the most
fastidious man. (Shaw) He said of him that he was too serious. (Dreiser) Be quick or it may be too late.
(Dickens) He is awfully nice. She is extraordinarily (extremely, terribly, etc.) clever. We should mention here
that most of the intensifiers are not only used to intensify the degree of variation of the equality but they are
also used metasemiotically, to produce a stylistic effect. In this case grammatical and especially the lexical
means are widely supported by prosodic means: Oh, she is glorious! In addition to the lexical superlative
expressed by glorious the prosodic elements that should be used here considerably intensify the degree of

46

absolute superlative both semiotically and metasemiotically: the adjective glorious is pronounced in a
loud voice (increased loudness), slowed down tempo, wide range, high falling tone all these prosodic
elements are characteristic of highly emotional, emphatic speech.
There are quite a number of adjectives which become absolute superlatives by using such lexical means like:
a) affixes: -less, ultra-, super-, over-, etc. matchless, peerless, oversensitive, over-greedy, overgenerous,
over-busy, overambitious, overactive, superfine, supereminent, superabundant, ultrashort, ultramodern, etc.;
b) analytical genitives: A mountain of a man a very tall man. A devil of a child a very naughty child. A
monster of a dog a monstruous dog. A mountain of happiness extremely happy, etc. c) Some other
combinations: beyond belief, without compare (equal) -too good (great) to be compared to anybody else). d)
repetitions: A red, red rose! e) hyperboles: scared to death = very frightened; immensely obliged = very
much obliged; full to the brim quite full; g) Simile: (as) black as coal = quite black; (as) dry as a bone =
very dry; h) metaphor: blowing hot and cold = very hesitating; he is a fox = he is very sly; i) litotes: no
coward = very brave. Practically all these means, which help express an absolute superlative are
metasemiotically charged and posses inherent stylistic connotations. It should also be mentioned here that the
absolute superlative is not used with a definite article, while the relative superlative is regularly used with a
definite article or other deictic means: The girl put on the best clothes to go to the theatre = The girl put on
her best clothes to go to the theatre. Sometimes the article may be omitted for the sake of expressivity and is
emotionally coloured, intensified here by prosody: Oh, most faithful of friends! When a noun is defined by a
number of superlatives the definite noun may be repeated only in case of emphasis: He is the cleverest,
sweetest and most affectionate of children. He is the cleverest, the sweetest and the most affectionate of
children (emphasized). Sometimes the use of superlative degree with an indefinite article is explained by
stating that it is just an adjective used to express a high degree of the quality possessed by the noun. This
probably is not the case in the following examples: Yesterday I have read a most interesting book, I have
seen a most interesting film. In this case it is not just an absolute superlative (a very interesting book or
film), in each example we have an adjective defining a noun belonging to a class of object possessing a
superlative quality, one of the class (a most interesting book, belonging to the class of the most interesting
books). When a noun is preceded by most, the zero articles usually used, the meaning of most in many
cases is most, but not all of them, the majority of: Most leaves are green. He finds most pleasure in
reading. Most of his mistakes are made through carelessness. In case the second element of comparison is
omitted the definite article may be dropped: The book is most interesting; He is happiest when everybody is
at home. Most intensifiers, including double superlative, are used for the sake of intensification or to produce
a stylistic effect, or both, belong to colloquial or dialectal style. Thus, such forms as most noblest was
accepted in Shakespeares times, but now it is not acceptable in the literary language. But other intensifying
elements are found quite often: I hope you will have the finest weather possible. (Sper c vei avea cel mai
minunat timp posibil.) I have read the worst novel imaginable. It is by far the most interesting play I have
ever seen. They are the very best friends.
In Romanian we have the same division of the superlative degree as in English: relative-superlative
of superiority and that of inferiority, and absolute superlative: El este cel mai srguincios dintre toi
studenii. El este cel mai puin activ dintre toi studenii. De cte ori am trecut de la treptele cele mai nalte
la cele de mai jos. A number of lexical units are used in this case: foarte, tare, prea, adnc, profund,
amarnic de, mult, mult prea, grozav de, nemaipomenit de, stranic de, minunat de, ngrozitor de, teribil de,
dureros de, negrit de, neobinuit de, nespus de, peste seam de, infinit de, peste msur de, etc.: ,,,O prea
frumoas fat (A most beautiful girl). (M.Eminescu) M nelinitete gndul prea puin modest c s-ar fi
putut s nu fie nimeni. Generaia lui e mult prea scutit de grijile zilnice Here we should stress the fact
again that the superlative forms, especially those used with intensifiers, are emphatic and, thus, belong to a
stylistic category as well. [39, 173-180]
13.The Category of Grammatical Deixis in English and Romanian
The category of deixis in English and Romanian is expressed grammatically, lexically and lexicogrammatically. The linguistic and extra-linguistic contexts and prosodic means are also important in the
realisation of this category. The deictic means identify the objects to both the speakers and the listeners and
they have the function of differentiation, defining, singling out, of a special type of identification by
correlating persons and objects, being in this or that relation to the speaker. The main deictic means are:
articles, pronouns, numerals, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, particles, etc. Deixis is a category consisting
of three categorial forms: definite, indefinite and general identification, and is expressed best of all by the
definite, indefinite and zero articles.

47

The Definite Deictic Identification (Indication). In the case of the definite article the object is viewed
upon as known and concrete, and singled out from a class of similar objects 81; the indefinite article is used
when the noun belongs to a certain class of objects, and the zero article (meaningful absence of the article)
represents the given object in a general meaning denoting all the members of the given class. Both in English
and Romanian the definite and indefinite articles correspondingly go back to demonstrative and indefinite
pronouns (the latter in their turn were formed from the numeral), which gradually lost their original meaning.
But in some contexts they have still preserved the original meaning: (At the time he was engaged = At that
time he was engaged; A man entered the room, not two). Now we are going to confront the categorial form
of the definite deictic identification (DDI) on the etic level. The definite article is mostly used in this case to
single out an object or a group of objects from a class: The lads came gaily back.. .(M.Twain) - Beii se
ntorseser pe insul veseli..; The young man felt suddenly quite homesick. (J.Galsworthy) - Deodat
tnrului i s-a fcut dor de cas. .Upon leaving him on the night of our adventure, he solicitated me, in what
I thought an urgent manner, to call upon him very early the next morning. - n noaptea aceea lundu-i
rmas bun de la mine, m-a rugat, i pe ct mi s-a prut, foarte struitor, s vin la el a soua zi dimineaa ct
mai devreme. But as we see from the above given examples the definite article is not the only means to
distinguish an object. Thus, if in the first and second examples the DDI is expressed by articles and context,
then in the third sentence it is intensified by other identifiers - limiting attributes of the nouns ( of our
adventure). In Romanian in a doua zi dimineaa three identifiers are being used: the possessive article a
(which loses its meaning of possessiveness before a numeral), a synthetic article a, and the numeral in an
attributive function. In the phrase n noaptea aceea we have: the synthetic definite article, the
demonstrative (adjectival pronoun and the preposition n. The limiting attribute may be expressed by a
noun with a preposition (the of phrase is often used ins such cases), by a subordinate attributive clause, a
participle phrase, an adjective, when contrast and choice is implied: I became used to seeing the gentleman
with the whiskers - M-am deprins s vd gentlemenul cu bachenbarzi. The room where we sat was small Camera, unde edeam, era mic; It was the very thing he liked - Era chiar acel (lucru) ce i placea.
Some prepositions, especially in Romanian, contribute to the realisation of the categorial form of DDI.
Thus, for example: Peter sprang a couple of yards in the air, and then delivered a war-whoop and set off
round and round the room, banging against furniture... - Peter sri n aer, scoase un urlet slbatic i ncepu
o goan turbat prin odaie, izbindu-se cu capul de mobil... A deiep peel of thunder went rolling and
thumbling down the heavens and lost itself in sullen rumblings in the distance. - Un tunet surd rsun
rostogolindu-se pe bolta cerului i se pierdu undeva n deprtare, bodognind suprat. He was near the
river. - El era lng ru. From these examples we can see that the prepositions (with articles and without
them), combined with the linguistic and extra-linguistic contexts can intensify the deictic function till its
possible realisation as a definite deictic form. There are examples where in Romanian only the preposition is
used to express the definite deixis: (in the distance - in deprtare; near the river lnga ru, etc.).
The demonstrative article in Romanian has, to a certain extent, preserved the meaning of a demonstrative
pronoun. In its purest meaning it expresses the definite deixis in the grammatical form of the superlative
degree, where it is regularly confronted with the English definite article: He is the best student in our class. El e cel mai bun student n clasa noastr. She was the most beautiful girl in the village. - Ea era cea mai
frumoas fat n sat. Demonstrative and possessive pronouns, the possessive case (in English) and the
possessive article (in Romanian) are used to regularly express definite deixis: A frightened look in Beckys
face brought Tom to his senses and he saw that he made a blunder. - Faa speriat a Bechei i art c a dat
gre. But Toms energy did not last. - Dar zelul lui Tom nu inu mult. Ill tell my big brother on you, and he
can trash you with his little finger. - Am s te spun fratelui meu mai mare, care numai cu degetul cel mic i-a
trage o mam de btaie! Tom was suffering in reality now, so handsomely was his imagination working, and
his groans had gathered quite a genuine tone. - Tom suferea acum cu adevrat, att de viu lucra puterea sa
de imaginaie, iar vaietele lui sunau firesc. This boy was well dressed. Biatul acesta era bine mbrcat.
This functionary grasped it in a perfect agony of joy. - Poliistul o nh n culmea fericirii. (M.Twain)
Analyzing these examples we can conclude that possessiveness (both grammatical and lexical) is an effective
means of expressing definite deictic identification. In the first sentence The English possessive case
corresponds to the Romanian genitive and in faa speriat a Bechei we have two deictic means: the efinite
a and the possessive a. Two definite articles are used in zelul lui Tom. The synthetic article is dropped,
when the attribute is in preposition (A Bechei fa speriat), and in this case the possessive article is used
before the noun. In the fifth example the demonstrative pronoun in postposition requires the use of a noun
with a definite article. In preposition acesta (like other attributes) is used emphatically, intensifying the
deictic identification. There are many cases, when the demonstrative pronoun is not translated into
Romanian, but its deictic meaning is rendered by a definite article. Such examples could be easily translated

48

by using a demonstrative pronoun like in the sentence six: Poliistul acesta o nh or Acest poliist a
nhat-o.. Depending on the degree of identification of the noun by the attribute and by macro- and
microcontexts, the category of the definite deixis could be realized without articles and pronouns: Poor Huck
stood abashed and uncomfortable not knowing exactly what to do or where to hide from so many
unwelcoming eyes. - Srmanul Huck, fstcit, nu se simea n apele lui, netiind ce s fac i unde s se
ascund de privirile dusmnoase. In Romanian the synthetic article is shifted within the substantival group
depending on the position of the attribute. Thus, the sentence Tom hailed the romantic outcast could be
translated as Tom l strig pe vagabondul romantic, and Tom l strig pe romanticul vagabond, the latter
example being stylistically coloured. Extra-linguistic reality also plays an important role in realizing de
definite deixis: Peter switched off the TV set, went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator looking for
something to eat. - Peter a deconectat televizorul, s-a dus la buctrie, a deschis frigiderul, cutnd ceva de
mncare. The dining room was large enough. Sufrageria era ndeajuns de ncptoare. Anything that is
considered typical, something that should, for example, be expected to be found in our flats, is used with a
definite deixis. The number of such objects is constantly growing with the progress of civilization.
The Indefinite Deictic Identification (IDI). In the singular the indefinite article is one of the main means
of expressing IDI. A closer analysis of examples helps us to conclude that in both languages we have a
developed system of means to express IDI in both singular and plural: pronouns, numerals, adjectives, and
other markers. Lets take some examples where the indefinite article is used: I had written a letter by five
oclock. - Eu scrisesem o scrisoare ctre ora cinci. He took a letter out of his pocket to read a second time. El scoase o scrisoare din buzunar, pentru a o citi a doua oar. The villagers began to gather, loitering a
moment in the vestibule. (M.Twain). Orenii ncepur s se adune n biseric, oprindu-se pe o clip n
vestibul (M.Twain). In these examples we have complete coincidence in the use of indefinite article. The
indefinite article is used here in the singular. In the plural in English there is no indefinite article. In this case
other means are used. In Romanian grammar books the indefinite pronoun nite (corresponding to the
English some) is considered to be an indefinite article: Give me books - Give me some books; D-mi cari.
D-mi nite cri. In both sentences indefiniteness is expressed in both languages, but in the first sentences
the indefinite meaning is more general, in the latter case a certain limited indefinite number of books is
meant. The categorial meaning of deixis is different in dependence of a number of factors: context,
intensifiers, defining identifiers, etc. The decrease of the categorial meaning of IDI as a result of using
defining elements. There are cases when the definite deixis the is used very closely to an indefinite
meaning, especially in idiomatic expressions, stable combinations, used metaphorically, etc.: They went to
hunt the fox. Ei s-au dus s vneze vulpi. We shall show him the door. Noi i vom arta ua. It is still in the
egg. E nc n ou. He saw him with the naked eye. El l-a vzut cu ochiul nenarmat. In the first sentence the
noun (fox) is used in the singular, though many indefinite objects are meant. This sentence is translated into
Romanian by a free word combination and the noun is used in the plural with a zero article. Examples 2-3 in
both languages are used metaphorically. The definite deictic identification is preserved in Romanian as well:
the definite article in number 2 (ua) and the identifying preposition in the third sentence. The general deictic
meaning here is really indefinite. The same can be observed in examples where musical instruments are
used: He plays the violin. El cnta la vioara, the English definite deixis is translated into Romanian by
means of a zero article. The same is seen in such expressions like: to go to the theatre, to go to the cinema a se duce la teatru, a merge la cinema. It is quite possible that in English the definite article goes back to
those times, when in a town or city there used to be only a theatre or only a cinema, and the definite article is
traditionally used now, when there are many theatres or cinemas in large cities or even in towns. We have
also observed that in all the metaphorically used idiomatic or stable English expressions the definite deixis is
preserved if in Romanian a similar metaphorical usage is realized, like in We shall show him the door - Noi i
vom arta ua. In the confronted languages there are many other indefinite deictic means. The indefinite
article expresses the given categorial form in the purest way. The indefinite pronouns, numerals, adjectives,
negative pronouns, etc. function as indefinite markers alongside their main lexico-grammatical functions:
some, somebody, someone, something, any, anyone, anybody, anything, many, more, most, few, several, a
little, lots, hundreds, any of them, certain, indefinite, one, etc; unul, unii, altul, cineva, ceva, careva,
altcineva, fiecare, puin, oleac, oriicare, oriicine, oriict, oricare, cutare, att, vreunul, civa, toi,
muli, niscaiva, niscai, alde, nimeni. nici unul, nici un, nici o, pe nimic, pentru nimic, intru nimic, de nimic,
vre-o, unu-doi, trei-patru, cu sutele, etc. Thus, for example: I cannot identify anyone. Pe nimeni nu pot s-l
identific. But I could testify that a woman came out of the shop. Dar eu pot s fiu martor, c o oricare
femeie a ieit din magazin. Several people went out. Civa (nite) oameni au ieit. One of them was ready
to help us. Unul din ei era gata s ne ajute. Some people knew it. Unii oameni tiau aceasta. Hundreds of

49

people were on the square. Sute de oameni erau pe pia. The indefinite deictic markers under consideration
can be used with both singular and plural nouns. They can be used even with pronouns or eliptically: Have
you got any books? I have got some. Give me a book. Take one. Avei ceva cri? Da, am cteva. Dai-mi o
carte. Luai una. Numerals can often be used to express indefinite deixis with a meaning of approximation.
The General Deictic Identification (Indication)
The zero deixis , traditionally named zero article, represents an object as a general denotation of
all the objects of the given class, when there is no classification, no singling out of a class. What is meant is
the essential, the content of the object abstracted from its volume, number and boarder of the form. The zero
deixis is used, first of all, with nouns denoting matter and abstract categories and in this case it has the widest
generalizing meaning. Class objects can also be used in a generalised meaning, and in such cases they are
used without definite or indefinite deixis. Here we prefer the term zero deixis to zero article, because
besides articles there are many other deictic means to express the deictic categorial forms of definite and
indefinite identification. Thus, the zero deixis expresses a meaningful absence of definite and indefinite
deictic means, when there is no classification and individualization, when the nouns have a generalizing
meaning. Thus, quite a number of deictic means limit the categorial form of general deictic identification
(GDI): Ill make it my business. O s-i art eu c-i treaba mea; Because I heard you call your hostess a
snob. Pentru c v-am auzit spunnd despre gazda dumneavoastr c este o snoab. After destroying some
further portions of his lawn, he joined the nearest Golf Club.. Dup ce distrusese alte cteva poriuni de pe
pajitea sa, se nscrise n cel mai apropiat club de golf. Analyzing examples we come to the conclusion that
the absence of marked articles does not mean that we have a zero generalizing marker. Various markers are
used: possessive case, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, limiting prepositions. The fact that all
these means belong to the marked categorial forms is evident when we compare the translation with the
original. Thus, in Romanian in most cases a definite article is used (treaba mea, gazda dumneavoastr), and
other deictic means are usually used to intensify the categorial meaning. In English as well it is observed,
that the function of the definite article before some nouns is taken over by other deixis, which are used with
nouns like parliament, Senate, Congress, market, college, school, breakfast, dinner, supper, etc, which are
rarely used or not used at all with a definite article (legislative bodies, names of seasons, days, months,
holidays and so on). We can also conclude that some objects and phenomena are interpreted differently in the
confronted languages from the point of view of the category of deixis. Thus, some nouns like man,
Time, eternity can be used in a broad general meaning, while in Romanian they are viewed as words
representing the class as a whole, in comparison with other classes. Here are some examples: When man was
still abed and the land lived its own life, how full and sweet and wild that life seemed. Cnd omul era n
durerile naterii i pmntul -i tria propria sa via, ct de plin i dulce i slbatic acea via era!
(omul - used with a definite article); At last he was satisfied that time had ceased and eternity began; he
began to doze, in spite of himself. Era adnc ncredinat c timpul se oprise i ncepuse venicia i fr a-i
da seama ncepu s moie (timpul, venicia).
The category of general deictic identification is regularly realized in both languages with countable,
uncountable and abstract nouns: He put up a good deal of glass too, and was laying down melons. -i fcuse
destul de multe sere i cultiva pepeni (zmoi). Tell him that Im awfully glad, and hat I wish him luck.)
Spune-i c m bucur foarte mult i c-i doresc noroc. The names of diseases, as a rule, are used with a zero
deixis: He has influenza (but: He has the flu). El are grip. The geographical names are used differently in
the confronted languages. Some geographical names are used with a definite article in English as a result of
French influence (names of rivers, seas, mountain chains, etc.). In Romanian the majority of geographic
names are used with an article. For example: I have visited Paris this year. Am vizitat Parisul anul acesta. In
addressing someone, in exclamation and commands the definite article is usually used in Romanian, and in
English we have a zero deixis: Uncle, come here quickly! Unchiule, vino aici repede! In Romanian the
article can be expressed by or added to an attribute: Domnule preedinte! (It can change places depending
on the metasemiotic usage: Cerul albastru - Albastrul cer). Some more examples: Hands up! Hand off! Mnile sus! Mnile jos! Daddy comes! - Tticul vine! The absence of definite and indefinite deictic means
does not mean that the category of general deictic identification is being realised. In some cases the markers
are dropped for the sake of economy of space, for brevity (newspaper headlines, dictionary articles, etc.), in
metasemiotic usage, especially in colloquial speech, where the speaker can drop the articles to attract
attention, to make it more expressive. [39, 181-190]
14. The Conceptual Category of Deixis

50

The category of deixis in English is expressed by grammatical (morphological, syntactic), lexical, stylistic,
lexical-grammatical, phonological (supra-segmental, supra-syntactic), contextual and extra-linguistic means.
The prosodic means are very important in the realization of the given category on both semiotic and metasemiotic
levels. The deictic means identify the objects to both the speakers and the listeners and they have the function
of differentiation, defining, singling out, of a special type of identification by correlating persons and objects
being in relation to the speaker. The main grammatical and lexical-grammatical deictic means are: tense,
mood, aspect, anteriority, voice, articles, pronouns, numerals, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, particles,
syntactic structures, etc. Traditionally, linguists would mention the articles as a good example of deixis. In
the case of the definite article the object is viewed upon as known and concrete, and singled out from a class
of similar objects; the indefinite article is used when the noun belongs to a certain class of objects, and the zero
article (meaningful absence of the article) represents the given object in a general meaning denoting all the
members of the given class. Both in English and Romanian the definite and indefinite articles correspondingly go
back to demonstrative and indefinite pronouns (the latter in their turn were formed from the numeral), which
gradually lost their original meaning. The definite article is mostly used in this case to single out an object or
a group of objects from a class: The young man felt suddenly quite homesick. (J.Galsworthy) - Deodat
tnrului i s-a fcut dor de cas. Upon leaving him on the night of our adventure, he solicitated me, in what
I thought an urgent manner, to call upon him very early the next morning. - n noaptea aceea lundu-i
rmas bun de la mine, m-a rugat, i pe ct mi s-a prut, foarte struitor, s vin la el a doua zi dimineaa ct
mai devreme. (M.Twain) But as we see from the above given examples the definite article is not the only
means of reference. Besides context and articles there are other identifiers - of our adventure, very early the next
morning. In Romanian in a doua zi dimineaa three identifiers are being used: the possessive article a
(which loses its meaning of possessiveness before a numeral), a synthetic article a, and the numeral in an
attributive function. In the phrase n noaptea aceea we have: the synthetic definite article, the demonstrative
(adjectival pronoun and the preposition n. The limiting attribute may be expressed by a noun with a
preposition (the of phrase is often used in such cases), by a subordinate attributive clause, a participle phrase,
and an adjective, when contrast and choice is implied: I became used to seeing the gentleman with the
whiskers M-am deprins s vd gentlemanul cu bachenbarzi. The room where we sat was small Camera,
unde edeam, era mic; It was the very thing he liked Era chiar acel (lucru) ce i placea. The articles can
be used with a different deictic meaning, a metasemiotic one: was engaged to be married to a Miss
Hubbard (S. Maugham). In this example the indefinite article in combination with Miss Hubbard create a
specific pejorative deictic connotation, expressed by the speaker, quite displeased with the fact that the
young man is engaged with an unworthy unknown young lady! "Have you a Rosetti?" I asked (Have you a
picture painted by Rosetti?). (S. Maugham) I do not claim to be a Caruso (I do not think I sing very wel
[56,144].
Some prepositions, especially in Romanian, contribute to the realization of the categorial deictic meanings:
Peter sprang a couple of yards in the air, and then delivered a war-whoop and set off round and round the
room, banging against furniture... Peter sri n aer, scoase un urlet slbatic i ncepu o goan turbat prin
odaie, izbindu-se cu capul de mobil... A deep peel of thunder went rolling and tumbling down the heavens
and lost itself in sullen rumblings in the distance. Un tunet surd rsun rostogolindu-se pe bolta cerului i
se pierdu undeva n deprtare, bodognind suprat.[Mark Twain] He was near the river. El era lng ru.
From these examples we can see that the prepositions intensify the deictic function of a definite deictic form.
In Romanian only the preposition is used to express the definite deixis: (in the distance n deprtare; near
the river lng ru etc.). The demonstrative article in Romanian has preserved the meaning of a demonstrative
pronoun and expresses the definite deixis in the grammatical form of the superlative degree, where it is regularly
confronted with the English definite article: He is the best student in our class. El e cel mai bun student n
clasa noastr. She was the most beautiful girl in the village. Ea era cea mai frumoas fat n sat. Demonstrative
and possessive pronouns, the possessive case (in English) and the possessive article (in Romanian) are used
to regularly express definite deictic meanings: But Toms energy did not last. Dar zelul lui Tom nu inu
mult. Ill tell my big brother on you, and he can trash you with his little finger. Am s te spun fratelui meu
mai mare, care numai cu degetul cel mic i-a trage o mam de btaie! This boy was well dressed. Biatul era
bine mbrcat. This functionary grasped it in a perfect agony of joy. Poliistul o nh n culmea fericirii
(M.Twain). Analyzing these examples we can conclude that possessiveness (both grammatical and lexical) is
an effective means of expressing definite deictic meanings. Extra-linguistic reality plays an important role in
realizing deicticity: Peter switched off the TV set, went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator looking for
something to eat. Peter a deconectat televizorul, s-a dus la buctrie, a deschis frigiderul, cutnd ceva de
mncare. The dining room was large enough. Sufrageria era ndeajuns de ncptoare. Anything that is
considered typical, something that should be expected to be found in modern flats, is used with a definite

51

deixis. The number of such objects is constantly growing with the progress of civilization. The indefinite
article and pronouns, numerals, adjectives, and other markers can be used to express the corresponding deictic
meanings: The villagers began to gather, loitering a moment in the vestibule. Orenii ncepur s se adune
n biseric, oprindu-se pe o clip n vestibul.(M.Twain) In these examples we have complete coincidence in
the use of indefinite article. In the plural in English there is no indefinite article. In Romanian grammar books
the indefinite pronoun nite (in reality it is an indefinite pronoun) is considered to be an indefinite article:
Give me books. Give me some books; D-mi cri. D-mi nite cri. In both sentences indefiniteness is
expressed in both languages, but in the first sentences the indefinite meaning is more general, in the latter
case a certain limited indefinite number of books is meant. The categorial meaning of deixis is different in
dependence of a number of factors: context, intensifiers, defining identifiers etc. There are cases when the
definite deixis the is used very closely to an indefinite meaning, especially in idiomatic expressions, stable
combinations, used metaphorically etc.: They went to hunt the fox. Ei s-au dus s vneze vulpi. We shall
show him the door. Noi i vom arta ua. It is still in the egg. E nc n ou. He saw him with the naked eye. El
l-a vzut cu ochiul nenarmat. In the first sentence the noun (fox) is used in the singular as part of a stable
combination and translated into Romanian by a free word combination and the noun is used in the plural
with a zero article. Examples 2-3 in both languages are used metasemiotically (metaphorically). The definite
deictic identification is preserved in Romanian as well: the definite article in number 2 (ua) and the identifying
preposition in the third sentence. The general deictic meaning here is really indefinite. The same can be observed
in examples where musical instruments are used: He plays the violin. El cnt la vioar, the English definite
deixis is translated into Romanian by means of a zero article. The same is seen in such expressions like : to
go to the theatre, to go to the cinema a se duce la teatru, a merge la cinema. The deictic meaning in the
English example is not quite definite. It is due to the rule of using the definite article with musical instruments
in the given context. It is quite possible that in English the definite article goes back to those times, when in a
town or city there used to be only a theatre or only a cinema, and the definite article is traditionally used now,
when there are many theatres or cinemas in large cities or even in towns. We have also observed that in all
the metaphorically used idiomatic or stable English expressions the definite deixis is preserved if in Romanian a
similar metaphorical usage is realized: like in We shall show him the door Noi i vom arta ua. In the
confronted languages there are many other indefinite deictic means. The indefinite article expresses the given
categorial form in the purest way. The indefinite pronouns, numerals, adjectives, negative pronouns, etc.
function as indefinite markers alongside their main lexico-grammatical functions: some, somebody, someone,
something, any, anyone, anybody, anything, many, more, most, few, several, a little, lots, etc; unul, unii, altul,
cineva, ceva, careva, altcineva, fiecare, puin, oleac, oriicare, oriicine, oriict, oricare, cutare, att,
vreunul, civa, toi, muli, niscaiva, niscai, alde, nimeni. nici unul, nici un, nici o, pe nimic etc. Thus, for
example: I cannot identify anyone. Pe nimeni nu pot s-l identific. Several people went out. Civa (nite)
oameni au ieit. One of them was ready to help us. Unul din ei era gata s ne ajute. Some people knew it.
Unii oameni tiau aceasta. The indefinite deictic markers under consideration can be used with both singular
and plural nouns. They can be used even with pronouns or elliptically: Have you got any books? I have got
some. Give me a book. Take one. Avei ceva cri? Da, am cteva. Dai-mi o carte. Luai una. Numerals can
often be used to express indefinite deixis with a meaning of approximation. The category of general deictic
meaning is regularly realized in both languages with countable, uncountable and abstract nouns: He put up a
good deal of glass too, and was laying down melons. -i fcuse destul de multe sere i cultiva pepeni (zmoi).
Tell him that Im awfully glad, and hat I wish him luck. Spune-i c m bucur foarte mult i c-i doresc noroc
[J.Galsworthy]. The names of diseases, as a rule, are used with a zero deixis: He has influenza (but: He has
the flu). El are grip. The geographical names are used differently in the confronted languages. Some
geographical names are used with a definite article in English as a result of French influence (names of rivers,
seas, mountain chains etc.). In Romanian the majority of geographic names are used with an article. For
example: I have visited Paris this year. Am vizitat Parisul anul acesta. In addressing someone, in exclamation
and commands the definite article is usually used in Romanian, and in English we have a zero deixis: Uncle,
come here quickly! Unchiule, vino aici repede! In Romanian the article can be expressed by or added to an
attribute: Domnule preedinte! (It can change places depending on the metasemiotic usage: Cerul albastru Albastrul cer). Some more examples: Hand off! Minile jos! Daddy comes ! Tticul vine! The absence
of definite and indefinite deictic means does not mean that the category of general deictic identification is
being realised. In some cases the markers are dropped for the sake of economy of space, for brevity
(newspaper headlines, dictionary articles etc.), in metasemiotic usage, especially in colloquial speech, where
the speaker can drop the articles to attract attention, to make it more expressive [39, 181-190].
In order to persuade and motivate people we have to use a system of linguistic and extra-linguistic deictic
means. The most important ones are the supra-segmental categories: stress, pause, tone, range, tempo, rhythm,

52

and loudness. Grammatical relations within a sentence cannot be completely intelligible without the
corresponding prosody. A simple lexical unit can often function as a one-word sentence and supplied with
various prosodic structures it can express different meanings. Lets take the word "pretty". In discourse we can
realize several meanings using different prosodic patterns: \pretty used with a simple falling tone is a simple
statement stating the fact that She is \pretty; "\Pretty" here the speaker is greatly impressed and it corresponds
to the exclamation She is quite \pretty!, used with an emphatic high fall, wide range, increased loudness and
slowed down tempo to really express once enthusiasm and admiration. In case of /pretty like in Is she
really /pretty? used with a low rise it may be a simple question or even express some doubt of her being pretty.
In case of \/pretty a fall rise with specific voice qualifications like in She is quite \/pretty we have a
pejorative enantiosemic deictic meaning created by means of suprasyntactic prosody She might be pretty but I
dont like her! The particular prosodic pattern with which the utterance is pronounced affects the meaning and
understanding of an utterance. The variation of stress-patterns can change the meaning: 'dancing 'girl (fata
dansnd) and 'dancing girl' (dansatoarea). A simple pause in an utterance can create confusion. Different
tone patterns also change the meaning: || He 'doesnt 'lend his "books to \anybody|| and || He 'doesnt 'lend
his 'books to \/anybody||. In the first case nobody will get the books, in the second, only some people will
get them [39, 163-164]. Another prosodic element that should be taken into consideration especially in
public speaking is the rhythm.
In the example bellow the listeners choice speaker combines prosodic and paralinguistic means to achieve a
favourable effect on the listeners:
|| U'nique "voice there of Johnny /Mathis with ''Chances \are| and | rather a u.nique\ letter here +'comes
from [smile, giggle].Mary Porter who .writes from /Canberra in Aus\tralia. 'Mary', [high note] "unique"
because actually [whisper] I found your writing just a little bit difficult to read. [whisper] I'm \sorry .love but
I've 'tried /\awfully |hard. I 'hope I've got 'everything \right. | You 'say that you'd 'like me to send .greetings
to your .sister /Jane,[lento]| your friends 'Annie and /Angeline and your 'uncle \Peter. I 'think it's /Peter, I
'hope it \is. [allegro, smile]. 'Anyway, "here is the \song| 'comes from 'The\ Gallery'. ||
The text is characterized by overstatement reinforced by means of tones and tempo, the effect of non-formality
and a pleasant emotional colouring are created by means of a husky voice, giggle and 'phonetic smile'. The
lexical units 'sorry' and 'awfully' are deliberately exaggerated. Whisper accompanies the words that may not
be very pleasant to the hearer; the speaker sounds apologetic in unique because actually I found your writing
just a little bit difficult to read [whisper]. Cases of hesitation phenomena are important for an effect of
spontaneity as if she is talking and not reading a prepared text. In using the above mentioned suprasyntactic
and paralinguistic means the speaker establishes contact with unseen listeners through sympathy and warmth
[40, 69-72]. In order to make the audience listen, the speaker should also show a lively interest in what is
being said. A person may also speak with modesty and deliberate understatement by using a kind of soft and
gentle voice without using any means of emphasis, speaking within the same narrow range and diminished
loudness. This meta-metalevel is used for the public to identify themselves with the speaker. Any public
appearance is a chance for a public speaker to show that he or she is just the same as everyone else. A discourse
is a success when a contact is established between the speaker and the listeners. One must sound interested,
even enthusiastic about what he says, but he must not forget about the attention and interest of the audience.
The manner of performance should correspond to the content [40, 74-79].
Phraseological units, including sayings, are subject to change. They may be intentionally changed to produce a
stylistic impact on the reader, listener or TV viewer: A bird in hand is worth two in the bush Time was
passing his bird in the bush no nearer the hand [J Galsworthy] He was to be approached with a sizable
bird in hand [Dreiser]. This idiomatic expression in different European languages has developed different
forms: Romanian Nu da pasrea (vrabia) din mn pe cea de pe gard; Russian ,
. There are many examples of deformations of idioms in Russian and Romanian. An
example of advertising beer on Russian TV: , .
Criticizing active buyers for not checking the necessary documents before purchasing some bad quality foods,
a TV announcer used: Par mlia n cavitatea bucal a consumatorului (deformation of: Par mlia
n gura lui Ntflea). Examples of this kind are numerous: To be born with a silver spoon in one's mouth
(They had sucked their silver spoon so long now she is threatened with a spoon of bone) [J.Galsworthy]. It
is the last straw that breaks the camel's back... (He said public patience was a camel, on whose back the last
atom that could be borne had already been laid. To cry over the spilt milk... (Try to make him feel that we
admire him for spilling the milk There is no help for spilt milk) [Trollope]. One may as well be hanged for
a sheep as for a lamb (If he was to be hung by the law, by all means let it be for a sheep) [J Galsworthy].
Idioms belong to the periphery of the language and mostly they are used for stylistic purposes, making speech
more expressive and produce a stronger impact on the reader/listener [40, 77-80]. Stylistic periphrasis and

53

euphemisms are also important means used by people in political activity and polite discourse in general.
People efficiently and intentionally substitute pejorative utterances with relatively more euphemistic and
polite ones. Instead of saying "High pay and less work" one can use "Improved financial support and less
onerous work loads." Instead of He has died people would use such euphemisms to produce a milder
effect: to pass away, to expire, to be no more, to depart, to join the majority, while such stylistic synonyms
like to kick the bucket, to give up the ghost, /to go west are used with a pejorative connotation. Avoiding
the word combination is lying people may tell a person to possess a vivid imagination, or telling
stories. Euphemisms are often used in the speech connected with religious, moral, medical, parliamentary
and diplomatic activities. Many euphemisms gradually acquire a pejorative meaning of the lexical unit it has
substituted and people have to create a new euphemism. For example: madhouse became lunatic asylum,
substituted by mental hospital. There are plenty of political euphemisms. Thus, instead of declaring that
workers have been sacked, they may be dismissed, fired, discharged and lately they are made redundant.
Cf. with the Romanian a fi concediat, which has turned into a fi disponibilizat, undernourishment of
children in the third world usually substitutes starvation of children in the third world [41, 160-166].
We would like to conclude with the fact that analyzing the theme of semiotic and metasemiotic usage of
deictic means in linguistic and extra-linguistic contexts we we observe that very important functions in the
realization of deictic categorical meanings play the lexical, stylistic, sociolinguistic, extra-linguistic syntactic,
suprasegmental, suprasyntactic and paralinguistic means, which should be be analyzed taking in consideration.
In the present paper we have just made a little contribution to the vast material still to be investigated and
analyzed.
15.The Category of Representation
The category of representation (CR) is based on the opposition of predicative and non-predicative
forms. A.Smirnitsky in his book The Morphology of the English Language put forward the idea that the
finite and non-finite forms have much in common as categorial forms of representation, characterizing the
verb as a whole. The main difference between the members of the given opposition is in the degree of
representation of the verbal process. In some cases the verbal form is represented as a pure process in time,
in some other cases additional meanings are imposed on the process (nominal forms). [70] A. Smirnitsky
suggested that the category of representation should consist of three categorial forms: verbal predicative
representation (VPR), substantival representation (SR) (gerund and infinitive) and adjectival representation
(AR) (participle). The substantival representation is further subdivided into: maximum SR (the gerund,
which combines features of both noun and verb), and minimum SR (the infinitive, which combines features
of both noun and verb). The difference consists in the degree of substantival representation. In SR and AR
the verbal signification of a process is primary and the substantival and adjectival representation of a process
as an object is secondary. Identical representation relations can be observed in cases of other lexicogrammatical categories. A.Smirnitsky thinks that the difference between various pronouns, like for example,
my and mine, your and yours, is like the one between the SR and AR. A similar point of view was put
forward by M. Blokh: Non- finite forms of the verb are intermediary in many of their lexico-grammatical
features between the verb and the non-processual parts of speech. Their mixed features are revealed in the
principal spheres of the part-of-speech characterization, i.e. in their meaning, structural marking,
combinability, and syntactic functions. The processual meaning is exposed by them in a substantive or
adjectival-adverbial interpretation: they render processes as peculiar kinds of substances and properties. They
do not express either grammatical time or mood as in the case of finite verb categories). They can be
combined with verbs like non-processual lexemes (performing non-verbal functions in the sentence), and
they can be combined with non-processual lexemes like verbs (performing verbal functions in the sentence).
[6] M.Blokh, like A.Smirnisky thinks that the non-finite forms possess features of nouns, adjectives and
adverbial modifiers, but their fundamental grammatical meaning is that of expressing process. M.Blokh has
come to the conclusion that the non-finites are part of the verb system and form a specific verbal subclass ( a
category, constituted by the opposition of both finite and non-finite forms). The functions of the two
members of the opposition are strictly differentiated: while the finite forms serve in the sentence only one
syntactic function, namely, that of the finite predicate, the non-finite forms serve various syntactic functions
other than that of the finite predicate and the opposition between the finite and non-finite forms of the verb
creates a special grammatical category. The opposition expresses verbal time and mood: while the timemood grammatical signification characterizes the finite verb in a way that it underlies its finite predicative
function, the verbid has no immediate means of expressing time-mood categorial semantics and therefore
presents the weak member of the opposition. Blokh agrees with B. Strang and other linguists in the fact that

54

the category, expressed by this opposition, can be called the category of "finitude", the syntactic content of
which is the expression of predication Also like A. Smirnitsky, M. Blokh expresses practically the same
point of view as to the difference between the gerund and the infinitive: Observations of the actual uses of
the gerund and the infinitive in texts do show the clear-cut semantic difference between the forms, which
consists in the gerund being, on the one hand, of a more substantive nature than the infinitive, i.e. of a nature
nearer to the thingness-signification type; on the other hand, of a more abstract nature in the logical sense
proper. Hence, the forms do not repeat, but complement each other, being both of them inalienable
components of the English verbal system. Blokh also singles out a special lexico-grammatical category of
processual representation: The three stages of this category represent the referential processual entity of the
lexemic series, respectively, as dynamic (the infinitive and its phrase), semi-dynamic (the gerund and its
phrase), and static (the verbal noun and its phrase). The category of processual representation underlies the
predicative differences between various situation-naming constructions in the sphere of syntactic
nominalization. He also identifies another category within the framework of substantival verbids and
relevant for syntactic analysis - the category of modal representation, quoting L. S. Barkhudarov, who marks
the infinitive in contrast to the gerund, the infinitive having a modal force, in particular, in its attributive. [6]
Concerning the gerund and participle categorial forms, they are differently interpreted by various
linguists: some linguistic schools think that all the verbal forms ending in ing should belong to ing forms.
Thus, Blokh mentions the fact that in the American linguistic tradition which can be traced back to the
school of Descriptive Linguistics the two forms are recognized as one integral V-ing. To this point of view
many other linguists have adhered. Other scholars think that present participle and gerund represent different
homonymous non-finite categorial, each of which is fulfilling quite specific functions. Among the second
group of linguists discrepancies have appeared as to how to differentiate between the functions of the gerund
and participle and their depending on their formal combination with certain syncategorematic lexical units.
The first subgroup of scholars think that the formal factor is very important in case of gerund: the use of
preposition in any function (even in the function of adverbial modifiers), also the functions of subject and
predicate. Lets take some examples: Reading (subject) is to the mind what exercise is to the body. In spite
of myself I could not help smiling (object). On hearing (adverbial modifier) the tragic news, she fell at once
into an alarming state of agitation. The independent particle model has the advantage of having (attribute) a
high degree of physical visuality. Modelul particulei independente are avantajul de a poseda un grad nalt
de visualitate fizic. In the third example the adverbial modifier on hearing and the attribute of having
are classified as gerunds, because of the prepositions used in font of them. The second group of scholars
think that any ing-form in the function of an adverbial modifier or attribute, with a preposition or without,
should be considered as a present participle. Thus, for example: Turning round, he stared at me, but I
perceived he did not see me. I kept silence for a little while, thinking of what Stroeve had told me. He
looked... like a man, who has fallen into the water with all his clothes on, and, being rescued from death,
frightened still, feels that he only looks a fool. When Ashendon, having warmly shaken their hands, closed
the door behind the pair he heaved a great sigh of relief. . ...having tried various topics of conversation... I
asked her to tell me who all the people at table were. Ganshina, M A., Vasileskaya N. M. also consider that
the characteristic traits of the non-finite forms consist in the fact that they have a double nature, nominal and
verbal. Their tense distinctions are not absolute, but relative; the form of a verbal does not show whether
the action it denotes refers to the present, past or future; it shows only whether the action expressed by the
verbal' is simultaneous with the action expressed by the finite verb or prior to it. All the non-finite forms can
form predicative constructions, i.e. constructions consisting of two elements, a nominal (noun or pronoun)
and a verbal (participle, gerund or infinitive); the verbal element stands in predicate relation to the nominal
element, i. e. in a relation similar to that between the subject and the predicate of the sentence. In most cases,
predicative constructions form syntactic units, serving as one part of the sentence. [39, 191-197]
Analyzing the non-finite forms in Romanian we have come to the conclusion that the category of
representation exists here as well and it is represented by infinitivul, participiul, gerunziul and supinul, and in
some cases conjunctivul, when it is taking over the functions of the infinitive. In Russian there are three
non-finite forms of the verb, but they do not fully coincide with those in the English language (,
, ). Infinitivul as a verb in the corresponding functions in a sentence is connected
with a doer of an action, the subject being common with that of the regent verb or it may when it it is not
related to the subject of the sentence and have a separate subject. The short infinitive has some substantival
functions, and can be used after verbs (modal, inceptive, terminative verbs) nouns, adjectives, adverbs and
prepositions. Infinitivul is considered to be used in several meanings: of the indicative (combined with the
main verb) (el ncepu a cnta); that of imperative (A nu cnta aici!). Very often the infinitive is substituted
by conjunctivul and vice versa, depending on the language style used in the text or speech. The extended

55

infinitive in Modern Romanian has practically been substantivized and can get an article or an attribute and
may corresponds to the English gerund, half-gerund or gerundial participle in translations. This means that
the Romanian extended or long infinitive has still preserved a considerable processual or verbal meaning:
She stopped reading the text. Ea a ncetat citirea textului (s citeasc textul). My entering the room surprised
him. ntrarea mea n odaie l-a surprins. He was suspected of keeping (possessing) a large sum of mone. El
a fost suspectat de pstrarea (posedarea) a unei sume mari de bani. I felt surprised at his falling into the
water. M-am simit surprins la cderea lui n ap. We need more time for learning (to learn) the material.
Avem nevoie de mai mult timp pentru (a studia) studierea materialului. As we see the Romanian long or
extended infinitive, which is considered to have undergone complete substantivization, in many cases has
preserved its verbal function and may correspond to the English verbal forms of gerund and infinitive (in
same cases to present participle or half gerund), and, in some cases to the Romanian short infinitive like in
the sentence Avem nevoie de mai mult timp pentru (a studia) studierea materialului. Some linguists both
in English and Romanian consider that all the categorial forms of the category of representation (the
infinitive, the gerund, the participle in English, and infinitivul, participial, gerunziul and supinul (partially
conjunctivul ) in Romanian) are part of the category of mood. Practically the infinitive in both languages,
conjunctivul and supinul in Romanian may be used to express modal meanings. Examples: I have a letter
to write. Am o scrisoare de scris, De pedepsit el nu l-a pedepsit, pentru c era un om bun. We have
enough food to eat. Avem ndeajuns hran de mncat. You are not good even for fishing. Nici de pescuit nu
eti bun. I could not finish writing the essay in time. N-am putut termina de scris eseul la timp. What else is
there to be done? Ce mai este de fcut? They discussed what they had to discuss. Ei au discutate ceea ce au
avut de discutat. The Romanian supinul possesses a meaning close to a long infinitive, having various
functions like those of an attribute, indirect object, adverbial modifier. The kind of modality, expressed by
the above mentioned verbal forms, is closer to that of some modal verbs. [39, 191-221]
The Infinitive. The category of representation in Romanian is represented by infinitivul, participiul,
gerunziul and supinul, while in English we have the infinitive, the gerund, the present participle and the past
participle. In some cases the Romanian conjunctivul is taking over the functions of the infinitive. The
infinitive as a verb functioning in the sentence is connected with a doer of an action, the subject being
common with that of the main verb or it may have a separate subject. The short Romanian infinitive has
some substantival functions like the English equivalent, and can be used after all kinds of verbs, nouns,
adjectives, adverbes and prepositions. The infinitive can contextually express the meanings of indicative and
imperative. Very often the infinitive is substituted by conjunctivul and vice versa. The extended infinitive in
Modern Romanian has practically been substantivized and can get an article or an atribute. But in some cases
the long infinitive has still preserved the verbal meaning: Dup terminarea lucrului am plecat acas. After
having finished (after finishing) work he went home. The extended or substantivized infinitive in Romanian
in the function of an adverbial modifier may be substituted by the gerunziu: Terminnd lucrul am plecat
acas. Both sentences correspond to the English sentence: (After) having finished work I went home (the
English present participle). It may also correspond to forms of simple infinitive: We need more time for
leraning (to learn) the material. Avem nevoie de mai mult timp pentru (a studia) studierea materialului. The
extended infinitive in other functions (subject, object) usually correspond in English translations to
substantivized participles: citirea crii the reading of the book; scrierea scrisorii the writing of the letter,
lansarea navei spaciale the launching of the spaceship. The English infinitive has much in common with
the gerund, but the latter possess a more distinct substantival character than the former. The English gerund
can be used with a preposition, and this is not possible with the infinitive. When we compare English, French
and Romanian we always expect great similarity, because they are related languages. If we take closely
related languages the degree of similarity should increase. In case of English, French and Romanian, we
begin concentrating on the original identity and approach confrontation with preconceived ideas of potential
correspondences already formed in advance.
Non-perfect infinitive. When we analyze the material on the categorial level, we have to take into
consideration the specific system of nominal (non-predicative forms). If we take the category of taxis in the
predicative forms, we observe that the categorial forms of anteriority are mixed with those of tense and
aspect, etc. In the nominal forms taxis is usually expressed in a pure way. The non-predicative forms in
English are: the present participle and the gerund with their perfect and non-perfect forms, past participle and
the infinitive (both perfect and non-perfect forms). Comparing related languages we always expect to find
more coincidences than differences. In what follows we are going to analyse a number of examples with
infinitive forms in English, taken from fiction, with their translations in Romanian and French. Lets start
with sentences, where non perfect forms, active and passive voice of the infinitive, are used: Smaller boys
than himself flocked at his heels proud to be seen with him. (M.Twain) Les petits garons couraient aprs lui,

56

fiers detre vu avec lui. Bieii mici alergau buluc n urma lui, mndri de a fi vzui (s fie vzui) mpreun
cu el. In the example given above we have complete coincidence. In spite of the coincidence, the Romanian
infinitive here belongs to the formal literary style and can be easily substituted in some contexts by
conjunctivul in a less formal style. Analyzing a larger number of examples we come to the conclusion that
the great majority of them are classified as non-coincidences, because the translator often preferred the
Romanian conjunctivul instead of infinitive, depending on the style used by the author: The storm
culminated in one matchless effort that seemed likely to tear the island to pieces, burn it up, drown it to the
treetops, blow it away, and deafen every creature in it, all at one and the same moment. (M.Twain) Lorage
se jeta avec une telle fureur quil semblait quelle voulait mettre lile en pieces, la bruler avec ses flames,
inonder les arbres, la rduire a neant et exterminer toute creature vivante. Furtuna se npusti cu atta furie,
nct prea c vrea s sfrme insula n ndri, s-o mistue n flcri, s inunde copacii, s-o mistue depe
faa pmntului i s strpeasc orice fiin vie. (M.Twain) The English non-perfect infinitive can be
translated into Romanian and French by means of present tense form: But what has Cahrlie Ferar done not
to be spoken to for six years! Mais quest-ce quil a fait ce Charlie Ferrar quils ne se parlent pas depuis 6
ans? Dar ce a fcut Charlie Ferar de nu-i vorbesc de ase ani! In Romanian after some verbs the
conjunctive is preferable in both the formal literary language and in the colloquial informal language. Thus,
in the sentence Furtuna se npustise cu atta furie, nct prea c vrea s sfrme insula n ndri, s-o
mistuie n flcri, s inunde copacii, s-o mture de pe faa pmntului i s strpeasc orice fiin vie , if we
change or substitute the verb like vrea with a avea/are intenia de (with the preposition de) then the
infinitive is readily used: Furtuna se npustise cu atta furie, nct prea c a avea/are intenia de a
sfrma insula n ndri, de a o mistui n flcri, de a o inunda copacii, de a o mtura de pe faa
pmntului i de a strpi orice fiin vie. Thus, the preposition de is repeated in front of each infinitive
used after the dominant modal word. Here we should add an interesting observation concerning the use of
the infinitive in Romanian. In Republic of Moldova the use of the infinitive has gradually increased since the
beginning of the 1990th. More people learn the literary formal and literary colloquial language, and they now
prefer in many cases the form of the infinitive to the form of conjunctivul. Another form to be found in
Romanian informal language, corresponding to the English infinitive, is supinul: It is necessary to do the job
today. E necesar de fcut (de a face, s se fac) lucrul astzi. I have to write three letters. Am de scris trei
scrisori. I have a difficult exercise to do. Am un exerciiu dificil de fcut. The underlined forms in the three
sentences in both languages are modally charged and these forms are stylistically expressive. Supinul is
formed by means of particle de plus past participle of the main verb and it is usually used after a modal
word, especially in informal language, and expresses an action with a goal to be fulfilled. In such cases it is
regularly corresponding to the English infinitive having the same semantic function. In brackets the
alternative forms are given, which can be used depending on the style.
Next come examples with perfect infinitive forms in English, French, and Romanian in both active
and passive forms: He seemed to have forgotten that he had talked with the king. Il semblait avoir oubli
quil eut un roi auquel il avait parl. El prea a fi uitat (s fi uitat) c i vorbise un rege. What a joy not to
have been discovered. Quelle chose est un bonheur? Navoir t dcouvert. Ce bucurie de a nu fi fost
descoperii. (A.Dumas) In Romanian the form of perfect infinitive is found in formal speech, while in the
colocquial speech pluscvamperfectul or conjunctivul perfect may be often used. After the preposition de
infinitivul perfect should be used. In all the confronted languages we have the same categorial form of taxis,
the marked form of anteriority. An example of non-coincidence: She pretended to have never seen or known
this monsieur Rtau de Villette. Elle prtendit navoir jamais vu, ni connu, ce monsieur Rtau de Villette.
Pretinse c nu-l vzuse, i nu-l cunoscuse (de a nu-l fi vzut, i de a nu-l fi cunoscut) nici o dat pe acest
domn Rtau de Villette. (A.Dumas). In the official translation we find out that in English and French we
have a complete coincidence. In Romanian in all the examples past perfect (pluscvamperfectul) was used
when we have anteriority in the past, which in this case belongs to colloquial non-formal register. Past
perfect here can be easily substituted in the formal language by perfect infinitive, which is less often used in
Romanian and, thus, the difference between the two forms will be one of style. The English perfect gerund
may sometimes correspond in French and Romanian to perfect infinitives: I don believe in having given (to
have given) you the opportunity to Your Majesty to suspect my frankness. Je crois navoir jamais donn lieu
Votre Majest de suspecter ma frqnchise. Nu cred s fi dat (de a fi dat) vreodat prilej maiestii voastre ca
s se ndoiasc de sinceritatea mea.. The English perfect gerund is often found to correspond to the Frencch
perfect infinitive and Romanian conjunctivul and infintivul perfect in cases when the action is aspectually
extended. There are examples where the French plus-que-parfait is also confronted with perfect infinitive in
English: A sun, that he did not seem to have seen since he came over here. Un soleil, comme il lui semblait,
quil navait pas vu depuis le jour quand il avait travers locan. Un soare pe care, dup cte i se prea (s

57

nu-l fi vzut, de a nu-l fi vzut), c nu-l mai zrise de cnd trecuse oceanul. The perfect infinitive forms in
English are rendered into both Romanian and French by means of past perfect (preferable in colloquial
informal speech), but they could be easily translated by means of perfect infinitive into both languages,
besides in Romanian the form of perfect conjunctive is possible. All these forms coincide in their categorial
meaning anteriority.
The perfect infinitive in English and infintif pass can be confronted with the Romanian perfectul
compus, expressing anteriority to the present moment: I am sure only to have heard what I have heard, to
have seen what my eyes have seen! Suis-je bien sur de avoir entendu ce que jai entendu, davoir vu ce que
mes yeux ont vu ! Snt sigur numai c am auzit (de a fi auzit) ceea ce am auzit, c am vzut (de a fi vzut)
ceea ce am vzut. This fact is easily explained by the fact that in different languages in certain situations
various types of taxis means are used to express anteriority. Perfectul compus in Romanian belongs here to
the informal style; in the formal language the infinitive would be acceptable. There are cases where French
pass compos is also confronted with the English perfect infinitive: Sorry to have bothered you. Cest
dommage que je vous ai ennuy. mi pare ru c v-am plictisit. Confronting the material we come to the
conclusion that the perfect infinitive forms are widely used in English and French, and relatively not so often
used in Romanian informal style of the language. Even in those cases where we do have perfect infinitive
forms in translations, they can be easily replaced by the conjunctivul perfect, which is preferable in less
bookish speech.
Perfect Infinitive in English after modal auxiliaries and after modal verbs in general is regularly
corresponding to the Romanian conjunctivul: Some mistakes must have been made in assembling the parts of
the machine. Nite erori trebuie s fi fost fcute la asamblarea pieselor mainii. The structures proposed may
not have been established with complete certainty. Structurile propuse puteau s nu fi fost stabilite cu o
certitudine complet. Coal was formed millions of years ago from the enormous quantities of vegetation and
trees. The process of their decay must have been very gradual but constant. Crbunele s-a format milioane
de ani n urm din cantiti enorme de vegetaie i copaci. Procesul de descompunere trebuie s fi fost
treptat dar constant. In the Romanian examples here conjunctivul is used in both formal and informal styles.
In such structures, like in the above given examples, infinitivul perfect cannot be used. Having analyzed the
material on the categorial level we have taken into consideration the specific system of nominal (nonpredicativce forms). The category of taxis expressed by the category of representation expressed in a most
pure way. In spite of the fact that there are quite a number of formal discrepancies, we still can state that on
the categorial meaning of anteriority we have complete coincidence in most cases. [39, 197-221]
The Present Participle. The categorial forms of gerund and participle are differently interpreted in
various grammar books: some linguistic schools think that all the verbal forms ending in ing should be
named as ing forms. Blokh mentions the fact that in the American linguistic tradition which can be traced
back to the school of Descriptive Linguistics the two forms are recognized as one integral V-ing. Other
grammar text books consider present participle and gerund represent as different homonymous non-finite
categorial forms, each of which is fulfilling specific functions. Among linguists there are discrepancies as to
how to differentiate between the functions of the gerund and participle, and their dependence on their formal
combination with certain syncategorematic lexemes. There are two main points of view. The first group of
scholars think, that the formal factor is very important in case of gerund: the use of preposition in any
function (even in the function of adverbial modifiers), also the functions of subject and predicate. Lets take
some examples: After having finished (adverbial modifier of time) the work he went home. Terminnd (dup
ce terminase, dup ce a terminat, dup terminarea lucrului) lucrul el a plecat acas. Without being
subjected to a special treatment, raw rubber cannot be used for manufacturing things... Fr a fi supus unui
tratament special, cauciucul neprelucrat nu poate fi folosit pentru a produce obiecteThe independent
particle model has the advantage of having (attribute) a high degree of physical visuality. Modelul particulei
independente are avantajul de a poseda un grad nalt de visualitate fizic. The second group of
grammarians thinks that any ing-form in the function of an adverbial modifier or attribute, with a preposition
or without, should be considered to be a present participle. The ing forms have the function of adverbial
modifier of time, usually carriead out by present participle forms. Besides, here they can be translated into
Romanian by means of gerunziul, which regularly corresponds to the English present participle (some othe
grammatical forms are possible to be used in Romanian: mai mult ca perfectul, long infinitive, perfectul
compus).The categorial meaning of anteriority is expressed both grammatically, lexico-grammatically and
lexically. Gerunziul historically took over the meanings and functions of participiul present, when it got out
of usage. Thus, the difference between gerund and participle is that the gerund is closer to the noun in its
functions (subject and object), and the participle is closer to the adjective, and may have the functions of an
attribute or adverbial modifier. In their perfect forms they both express anteriority. If the actions follow one

58

after the other, a simple form (non-perfect) is used, anteriority being expressed simply lexically or
contextually, because there is no need to intensify it by grammatical anteriority. Thus for example: Having
registered (grammatical anteriority) all the letters, the secretary sent them down to be posted. On entering
(contextual anteriority) the room he introduced himself to all those present. After looking through (lexical
anteriority) the morning mail the manager, called in his secretary and dictated a few letters. The perfect -ing
forms are usually used in the formal bookish language and their passive voice forms are used much more
rarely.
Confronting the participle and gerund, perfect forms in English and Romanian it was observed that
they are relatively more often used in English and French than in Romanian, where predicative forms are
preferred. Non-perfect form:
a) participle I participe prsent gerunziul: Tom lay watching the two intently. Tom tait couch les
fixant des yeux tous le deux. Tom sttea culcat, scurtndu-i lung pe amndoi. The Romanian gerunziul is
naturally confronted with the English participle I and does not correspond to the English gerund.
b) Participle I grondif gerunziul: So he got into the shoes snarling. Tom, en mormotant, mit ses souliers.
Tom, bodognind, ncl pantofii.
c) Participle I imparfait imperfectul (or gerunziul): Tom lay thinking. Tom tait couch et pensait. Tom
sta culcat i se gndea (gndindu-se). A durative action expressed by participle I in a context in the past can
easily be rendered into French and Romanian by means of imperfect forms, which express a continuous and
unfinished action in the past. The translator preferred in the Romanian variant the expressive forms of
imperfectul, but the form of gerunziul would be much more expressive if used here. The regular equivalents
or the English present participle in French and Romanian translation are grondif and gerunziul, which are
regularly confronted: In getting out, he looked back. En sortant, le jeune homme tourna la tte. Ieind,
tnrul ntoarse capul. Upon leaving him on the night of our adventure, he solicitated me... Cette nuit-la en
faisant ses adieux il ma prie... n noaptea aceea, lundu-i rmas bun de la mine, ma rugat... Similar
English perfect forms are confronted in French and Romanian with plus-que-parfait and mai mult ca
perfectul: After destroying some further portions of his lawn, he joined the nearest Golg Club. Quand il avait
dtruit quelques autres portions de son paturage, il sinscrivit dans le club de golf le plus proche . Dup ce
distrusese (distrugnd, dup destrugerea) alte cteva poriuni de pe pajitea sa, se nscrise n cel mai
apropiat club de golf. French and Romanian prefer past perfect forms when the English gerund is
accompanied by lexical anteriority means (after). In Romanian the forms of gerunziul or long infinitive and
contextual anteriority may be used the above given examples. Pass compos perfectul compus (or
gerunziul) can also be used to correspond to the English present participle with lexical anteriority : Upon
reaching the wharf, I noticed a scythe and three spades,,, Quand nous sommes arrives sur la quai, jai
remarqu une faux et bches. Cnd am ajuns (ajungnd) la chei, am observat... o coas i dou hrlee. In
all the confronted sentences here we have consecutive actions. Thus anteriority grammatical forms are not
used here. The French pass compos and the Romanian perfectul compus in the given context express an
action separated from the present moment, and, thus, they do not express grammatical anteriority in this case
and we have simultaneity in the confronted examples. [39, 204-209]
Perfect participle participe pass compos gerunziul perfect: Having arrived the first, you have
the primarity. Vous avez le pas, tant arriv le premier. Avei ntietate fiind venit (venind) primul. In thish
case we have complete coincidence in all the three languages, though gerunziul perfect in Romanian is rarely
used and is usually substituted by forms given below.
Perfect participle infinitif pass perfectul compus: The courtiers, having entered, brought
furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. Les courtesans ont apport des forges et aprs avoir
entr, il ont clou la porte de lintrieur. Curtenii aduseser cu ei forje i ilie grele i, dup ce au intrat, au
intuit poarta pe dinuntru. In spite of the fact that there are different forms in the confronted languages the
grammatical meaning of anteriority is preserved in all of them.
Perfect participle plus-que-parfait mai mult ca perfectul: Soames, having prolonged his week-end
visit had been spending the afternoon at the Zoological Gardens. Soames avait continu son week-end
Londres et avait pass laprs-midi dans le jardin zoologique. Soames i prelungise week-endul la Londra i
i petrecuse dup ameaza n grdina zoologic. Perfect participle is readily translated into French and
Romanian by means of past perfect forms, expressing the same grammatical meaning of past anteriority. It
could be substituted by a past perfect form in English as well. Thus, for example: He had never been outside
Europe, and had a somewhat sketchy idea of places like South Africa, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
The difference we find in the given examples is one of stylistics. Thus, both in English and Romanian the
adjectival and adverbial features of Participle I and gerunziul are manifested in their syntactic functions as
attributes and and adverbial modifiers. [39, 204-209]

59

Aspect Expressed by the Present Participle.

The category of aspect in various languages is expressed differently: grammatically, lexicogrammatically, lexically and prosodically. In English, aspect is an extremely reliable and grammatically
impeccable way of expressing the opposition in question. In Romanian the category of aspect is expressed
mainly lexically and partially grammatically. Both the participle I and gerunziul (and also the English ingforms) express a durative action grammatically. The verbs possessing a durative lexical meaning can express
continuous aspect both lexically and lexico-grammatically, the latter being emphatic or intensified
aspectually. Thus, He sat at the table/ He was sitting at the table are confronted with imperfect forms both in
Russian and Romanian: ; El edea la mas; (L-am vzut eznd la mas. In the case of
He sat at the table the lexical aspectual meaning of sat is durative, and it is intensified by superimposing a
grammatical aspectual meaning on the lexical one in was sitting. The Romanian and Russian equivalents
belong to the imperfective aspect and express an imperfect action; the grammatical duration here is
supplemented by the lexical one. Even terminative or point-action verbs can be used in the continuous aspect
if the action is repeated or the speaker wants to show the action in development, or to stress the fact that the
action lasted during a certain period of time. For example: The boy jumped over the fence/The boy was
jumping round the tree. I began to read, but the teacher interrupted me /I was beginning to read when he
came in. In Romanian we have practically the same situation: Biatul a srit peste gard/ Biatul srea n
jurul copacului; Eu am nceput s citesc, dar profesorul m-a ntrerupt/ Eu ncepeam s citesc, cnd el a
intrat. In Romanian there are no clear-cut grammatical flexions (with the exception of imperfectul) to
indicate the given categorial meaning. As to the constructions with ing+forms we have already mentioned
them above in discussing the category of aspect. We should just mention some examples:
- Accusative with participle I in English and Accusative with gerunziul in Romanian: Dupin was
moving quickly to the door, when we again heard him coming up - Dupin se mica repede spre ua, cnd
peste o clip l auzirm pe necunoscut urcnd din nou (E.Po).
- Nominative with Participle I and Nominative with gerunziul: He was seen running to the river - El a
fost vzut fugind spre ru.
- Nominative absolute: The dinner being ready, he dished and served it up Prnzul fiind gata, el a servit
masa. The house door being open, she went in before Tom, requesting him to follow her (M.Twain) - Ua
casei fiind deschis, ea a intrat naintea lui Tom, cerndu-i s-o urmeze.
- Absolute Participle construction and Absolute gerunziul construction: A lake with children swimming
in it, appeared and disappeared - Un lac, cu copii scldndu-se n el, apru i dispru. Double predicate:
The little maid came running down - Fetia venea fugind n jos. He walked singing - El mergea cntnd.
- Independent participle constructions: The northern shores of the Caspian Sea are frozen every winter,
ice remaining for some hundred days in the colder parts. rmurile de nord ale Mrii Caspice sunt ngeate
n fiecare iarn, ghiaa rmnnd pentru vre-o sut de zile n prile mai reci. The independent participle
constructions with present participles include in their structure a secondary subject and a secondary predicate
(ice remaining- ghiaa rmnnd; the motion becoming- micarea devenind). The present participle here has
a distinct marked aspectual connotation, expressing an equivalent durative meaning like that of the
continuous forms: ice remaining - the ice is remaining for some hundred days in the colder parts. [39, 20112016]
Anteriority and Voice Expressed by the Past Participle.
Past participle and participiul (trecut) in English and Romanian can synthetically express anteriority
and voice and they also serve to form a number of perfect and passive voice analytical forms. Thus, if we
take several examples of verbal forms like: reading read, citind citit; writing written, scriind - scris;
seeing seen, vznd vzut; creating - created, crend creat - we observe three distinct categorial
oppositions, that of simultaneity vs. anteriority (category of taxis), active vs. passive (category of voice) and
continuous vs. non-continuous (category of aspect). Not all the participles posses all the three categorial
forms. The intransitive verbs do not posses the passive meaning: going gone, plecnd plecat. The
category of transitivity-intransitivity should also be taken into consideration in the analysis participles.
Some intransitive verbs gradually acquire submeanings, which are transitive in character. For example:
Running a factory is not easy. The factory is run well. was laughed at El a fost luat n rs. Past
participles are practically rarely used independently, they are usually found in analytical combinations of
perfect and passive voice forms. The intransitive verbs are used in perfect forms, but are not found in passive
analytical structures, with the exception of the verbs go and come found in some word combinations: he is
come, he is gone. The verbs can also be classified according to their lexical meanings: terminative, inceptive,
iterative, durative, etc. The expression of both anteriority and passive voice is usually found in terminative

60

verbs, while in the durative ones only the passive meaning is clearly seen. Thus, A.Smirnitsky thinks that
loved as a past participle loses its perfectivity, which is clearly seen in participles like broken. But
sometimes this division is not clear-cut. Thus, in case of repeated actions of terminative verbs perfectivity
may weaken or get lost a durative meaning is taking over. The categorial function of a given past participle
depends considerably on the contextual meaning it is used in the given text, and on its semantic feature.
There is a multitude of combinations of the verb to be the past participle. We should pay attention to cases
of homonymy. Combinations of the verb to be + past participle like in The letter is written by Peter. Soon
he will finish writing it, or The door is closed by Peter (as a process) should be distinguished from The door
is closed as state, where is closed is not a passive construction, but just defines the state of the door, that it is
not open, there is no meaning of perfectivity in the latter case. It is known that the perfect non-finite forms
of the verb express anteriority in a much more pure way in comparison with the finite forms. The past
participle expresses anteriority in the most pure way. Lets take some examples of participle used in the
function of attributes: Hydrogen is the lightest substance known. Hidrogenul este cea mai uoar substan
cunoscut. Unfortunately it is not possible to present in this book all the information obtained. Din pcate
nu este posibil de a prezentan cartea aceasta toat informaia obinut. In both languages a complete
coincidence has been attested in the result of confrontational analysis of past participles in attributive
functions in English with their correspondents in the Romanian language. But in many cases this coincidence
is not always possible because of some structural and semantic differences, and also because of certain
linguistic and sociolinguistic traditions in the confronted languages, combinability of words, homonymy, etc.
A.Smirnitsky takes as an example the past participle gone. Is gone may be identical to the combination
have gone in a transferred meaning he died like in the sentence Poor Mr. Brown is (has) gone. He has
left us. He has joined the great majority Srmanul dl.Brown a murit (a plecat). El a murit (ne-a prsit). El
a plecat n lumea strbunilor. Is gone can also be used in the direct sense of the word to express perfectivity
in colloquial speech as in Where is Mr. Brown? He is gone. He will be back in an hour Unde e dl Brown? El
e plecat. Se va ntoarce peste o or. In case of transitive verbs the past participle has a passive meaning
closely connected with perfectivity (The letter written yesterday was sent in time). But when used in
analytical non-perfect fiorms the past participle gets devoid of anteriority meaning and preserves only the
passive categorial function (The letter was written and sent in time). The same thing is observed in
Romanian: Scrisoarea scris ieri a fost trimis la timp./ Scrisoarea a fost scris i trimis la timp. The past
participle is regularly confronted with the French participe pass and the Romanian participial trecut: The
methodology tested in the Indo-European field set the pattern. La mthode prouve sur le domaine indoeuropen est devenue exemplaire. Metoda experimentat n domeniul indo-european a devenit exemplar.
The paradigms in grammars lead one to believe that all the verbal forms taken from the name stem belong to
the same conjugation. Les paradigmes des grammaires donnent croire que toutes les formes verbales tires
dun mme theme appartiennent la mme conjugaison. Paradigmele date n crile de gramatic ne fac s
credem, c toate formele verbale luate din aceea tem aparin la aceea conjugare. All these observations
bring out the essential difference between the method of communication discovered among bees and our
human language. Lensemble de ces observations fait apparatre la diffrence essentielle entre les procdes
de communication dcouverts chez les abeilles et notre langage. Toate observaiile acestea scot la iveal
diferena esenial dintre metoda de comunicare descoperit la albini i limba uman. The English participle
II can sometimes correspond to the Romanian mai mult ca perfectul: On the staircase Charny met only some
officers, friends of his, informed beforehand. Charny ne rencontra sur les degrs que plusieurs officiers, ses
amis, prvenus assez temps. Pe scri, Charny ntlni numai civa ofieri, prieteni de ai si, care fusese
anunai (or anunai) din timp. The anteriority meaning in English and French is expressed only lexically,
while in Romanian both lexical and grammatical anteriority means are used for the sake of expressivity. Lets
some of the syntactic functions fulfilled by past participle :
a) attributive - The data obtained are being carefully analyzed and studied. Datele obinute sunt
analizate i studiate atent; In both languages the participles have the function of atributes.
b)
adverbial modifier of time Asked (being asked) to comment about the U.N. resolution tabled by the AfroAsian countries, the Prime Minister replied... ntrebat (find ntrebat, cnd a fost ntrebat) s comenteze
rezoluia ONU propus de rile Afro-Asiatice, Primul Ministru a rspuns... ; In this case the English
participle asked has the function of adverbial modifier of time and ir could be substituted by the passive
voice form of the present participle being asked. The form tabled has the function an attribute;
c) adverbial modifier of condition - If given the opportunity, this industry will rapidly develop.
Aceast industrie se va dezvolta rapid, dac vor vi create (condiii) posibiliti favorabile; The past
participle in the function of an adverbial modifier corresponds in Romanian to future indefinite passive voice

61

and this shows the fact that the forms are different, but the grammatical categorial voice meaning is the same
passive voice;
d) adverbial modifier of concession- But the Right-wing Labour leaders, though forced to give way
on some questions, will stick to their policies. Liderii laburiti de dreapta, dei forai s cedeze n unele
probleme, vor susine politica lor; e) complex object with past participle - The British people want hydrogen
and atomic weapons outlawed. Poporul britanic vrea ca armele nucleare i cu hidrogen s fie puse n afara
legii. We hope to see this issue raised in all trades councils, in every union. Noi sperm vedem aceast
problem ridicat n fiecare sindicat. The construction of complex object with past participle in English
corresponds to a construction of complex object with subjunctivul with meaning of future and in the second
complex object with participiul trecut. Thus, having analyzed a considerable number of examples we can
state that past participle express anteriority in cases when the action is preceding to the moment of speech.
There are quite a number of cases where the forms under research express both anteriority and passive voice
(in case of transitive verbs) meanings, or only the latter one. [39, 216-221]
16.Word Order and Its Metasemiosis.
Much work has been done by language typologists on diachronic change, following up the work of J.
Greenberg's set of implicational universals, R. Hawkins' extensive investigation of universals.[39, 255]
Translating these universals into claims about diachrony, analysts have sought to develop hierarchies of
change specifying that if a certain change takes place, something else will follow, which in turn will cause a
further change, and, so on. This turns out to be related to Sapir's notion of drift. Sapir E.[39, 255] explains
certain past and present morphological, syntactic, and lexical changes of English by revealing that they are
consequences of certain major psychological tendencies of speakers of this language - which he calls drifts.
Since such tendencies remain alive over long periods of time, he predicts certain further, similar changes for
the future of English and points out that these predictions are already in part becoming true in the English of
lower-class speakers. He shows, furthermore, that the three major drifts - loss of case marking, stabilization
of word order, and the drift toward the invariable -word - are, at least to a large extent, related to each other
and are, ultimately, consequences of yet another drift of English, the phonetic drift of the Germanic
languages toward reduction and loss of final syllables, itself a consequence of the word-initial stress accent
of these languages. This seems to us a considerable achievement in the development of a theory of grammar
change because it is generally stated that every morphological system is destroyed by phonological change.
In our case, as a substantive Subject-Object marking system is eroded by phonological change, English word
order syntax must react to compensate for the ambiguities and perceptual complexities. In spite of these
explanations, one should also note how much Sapir has either not seen or kept for himself. From our present
viewpoint more than half a century later, the omissions look large and surprising. Sapir limits his discussion
to English. Yet similar changes occur in many other languages. He also does not note that the stabilized word
is a particular one, the SVO (subject-verb predicate-object) order, while the dominant word order of older
period of the language, some five thousand years ago, had been SOV, as Sapir must have known from the
writings of earlier authors. What is more important is the fact that English has been subject to another major
drift, the gradual change from an SOV to an SVO language and the question arises whether this drift is
language specific or somehow universal. So that Sapir's picture of the major tendencies in the development
of English syntax remains incomplete in a rather conspicuous way. Lakoff R. continues the investigation of
drift by relating it to comparative and typological linguistic studies. Lakoff begins by presenting "a list of
some changes... that occur in many or all of the Indo-European languages, clearly not as a result of one being
influenced by another".[39, 256] The common feature of Lakoff's six drifts is that they "go from synthetic to
analytic".[39, 256] This trend is also called by Lakoff a "meta-condition on the way the grammar of a
language as a whole can change" (idem). Lakoff's paper is valuable and goes beyond Sapir's discussion in
that it points out that certain drifts may be shared by several languages at least of a given family. This is a
great step towards the development of word order change from a universal point of view. In recent years J.
Greenberg's word order typologies have achieved certain popularity. Greenberg does not employ the term
drift or make reference to Sapir. Yet the phenomena he investigates are closely related to drift, and the work
he has done has contributed so much to the explanation of drift as a universal phenomenon. In his work
Greenberg developing ideas of R. Jakobson [39, 256] postulated a set of implicational universals based on
predominant surface word order patterns. On the basis of his implications, there emerged a notion of a
typologically consistent language. Thus a consistent SOV language would have post-positions, the orders VAux, Adj-N, Genitive-N, Det-N, IO-DO and it will tend to be heavily inflected. A consistent SVO language
would have prepositions and the reverse order, namely Aux-V, N-Adj, N-Gen, N-Det, DO-IO, and it will
tend not to be heavily inflected. Therefore, if a consistent SOV language were to develop into a consistent

62

SVO type, it would undergo a large number of harmonic changes. In a powerful critique, Hawkins R. [39,
255] has identified further problems with the "typological approach" and the diachronic theory based on it.
Hawkins identifies three shortcomings in the thirty implicational universals of J. Greenberg [39, 255]: first,
the correlations across syntactic domains are not very good and the order of verb and object seems to bear no
relation to the order of noun and adjective; second, some language types have no exemplifications; and third,
no distinction is drawn between language types which have very many exponents and those which have a
mere handful. Being taken as theories, Hawkins calls them trigger-chain theories: some property changes and
sets off a chain reaction, which is defined by Greenberg as type implications. Hawkins R. considers that this
trigger may be grammatical, pragmatic or perceptual. Theo Vennemann [39, 255] offers a grammatical
trigger: phonological changes reduce morphological distinctions and the order shifts from SOV to SVO to
prevent widespread ambiguity whereby NP NPV might be interpreted as SOV or OSV. Hyman's after thought is an example of a pragmatic trigger, provoking various elements to occur post-verbally by analogy
to the after-thought constructions and thereby getting the chain started. Antinucci, Duranti and Gebart .
provide a perceptual trigger: they claim that in a SOV language the first relation to change is that of a noun
and its relative clause. The prenominal relatives of SOV languages are alleged to pose perceptual problems
and therefore shift to postnominal position and this triggers off a chain reaction. Hawkins goes on to show
that trigger-chain theories as proposed make false predictions about the hierarchy of changes in a general
typological shift. In order to shed light on the correct theory of grammar the simultaneous changes should be
related where possible. Koch W. [39, 257] took a similar approach to parallel changes in several IndoEuropean languages, claiming that they can be viewed as the symptoms of a more general SOV to SVO
typological change. He argued that it is the rising predominance of SVO order in OE that makes the
breakdown of the inflectional system possible; this was based on the assumption, derived from Greenberg's
work, that SVO languages characteristically do not have rich post-positional inflectional systems. Koch
views the Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages, Greek and Lithuanian as evolving gradually from SOV
to typologically consistent SVO languages. Koch argues that they are evolving at different rates, but they are
all on the same slope, steadily acquiring more and more properties, which are characteristic of the SVO type.
She also states, for example, that Proto-Germanic was in transition from SOV to SVO and that its daughter
languages have steadily acquired more SVO properties. One should therefore be attentive about attempts to
develop theories of change on the basis of such "generalisations". There is no reason to suppose that in this
respect the changes affecting Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Greek, Chinese, and the few other languages with
a long documented history, represent the total range of possibilities. However, if the claims are to be made
about the underlying order of elements in the initial structure in a language, the order of these changes is
often difficult to establish. Linguists have tried to establish the order of some basic changes for English but
without much success. Furthermore, this is done for a wide range of languages and there are no grounds to
suppose that there is a universally determined hierarchy of changes, a prescribed rule, which all languages
must slide down at varying rates. From the stated explanations in the study of diachronic change the essential
problem is that languages vary in their structure to a great extent and this variation makes it difficult if not
impossible to use structural criteria, to identify grammatical categories across languages. It seems to us that
in this respect word order has a privilege over other grammatical categories. Word order changes appear to
be one of the easiest for cross-linguistic comparability, since they are clearly based on a physical property of
the clause, the sequence of units, which can be directly observed. Having dealt with such considerations
about changes in general, it has been seen that in developing from SOV to SVO syntax, languages seem to
follow similar pathways. For instance, Modern German, which developed from the same Germanic SOV
source as English, shares two of Old English's distinguishing characteristics. First, the verb is typically
placed in the second position of the sentence in main clauses, preceded by the subject or some other element
(such as an adverb). Secondly the SOV order is employed for embedded clauses. Since linguists are still not
sure why languages change from one syntactic type to another, the causes of word order change will
undoubtedly remain an important area of investigation, especially since the relative order of Verb and Object
has been closely linked with other word order patterns. A second kind of extra-grammatical cause of
syntactic change is what one might term expressivity. This would include the introduction of novel forms for
stylistic effect, such as the topicalized clauses, which are common in certain English dialects, where a NP
occurs in a marked position and with heavy stress: Pete, she heard, but not Mike. Pete, 1 heard him and he
played football, Mike. These forms are still regarded as novel in English and as having distinct stylistic force;
they are met and considered common in Yorkshire dialects and with British football commentators. In spite
of the fact that English is a subject-prominent language, in which all clauses must have a subject even if
there is nothing to refer to as in It is raining, it accepted such novel clauses. This process, in which instead of
the subject you may make another element more important, by moving it to the front of the sentence, gives

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the element a kind of psychological prominence. The speaker says the most important thing in his mind first:
Rch, I may be, but this doesn't mean I'm happy. J.London
Let us take some examples of cases of stylistic inversion after conjunction, adverbs, etc. in English
and Romanian: Never before have I been in this forest. Nici odat pn acum n-am fost eu n aceast
pdure. Not only does water function as a catalyst, but it also may be a significant rock-building
constituent. Nu numai c apa are funcia de catalizator, ci ea poate fi un constituent important n formarea
stncelor. Nowhere can we see such rapid progress as in computing technique. Nicieri nu putem noi vedea
aa un progres rapid ca n domeniul tehnologiilor informaionale. So bright is Venus that even in the daytime
it is sometimes visible. Aa de luminoas este planeta Venus c chiar n timpul zilei ea este uneori vizibil.
Not only do the tides advance and retreat in their eternal rhythms, but the level of the sea itself is never at
rest. If we take the first sentence and compare it with its direct order variant we find out a considerable
metasemiotic difference between them: I have never been in this forest before. Eu nici odat pn acum nam fost n aceast pdure. Eu n-am fost n aceast pdure nici odat pn acum. The stylistically inverted
variants in both languages make stylistically prominent the adverbs, the auxiliary in English, and even the
whole predicate in Romanian. The prominence of the inverted words can be further intensified by means of
prosody: slowed down tempo, widened range of the voice, increased loudness, high note, etc. The traditional
word order developed a specific intonation pattern and Galperin I. mentions the fact that there is a clash
between semantically less important syntactic elements and the prominent ones and prosody can
considerably intensify or diminish the metasemiotic connotation of the sentence. Thus, in the sentence:
Talent Mr. Micawber has; capital Mr. Micawber has not. Here the first and the last positions being
prominent, the verb has and the negative not get a fuller volume of stress than they would in direct word
order. In this example, the effect of the inverted word order is backed up by two other stylistic devices:
antithesis and parallel construction. Unlike grammatical inversion stylistic inversion does not change the
structural meaning of the sentence, that is, the change in the juxtaposition of the members of the sentence
does not indicate structural meaning but has some superstructural function. Stylistic inversion aims at
attaching logical stress or additional emotional colouring to the surface meaning of the utterance. Having
analysed a large number of examples we can conclude that in a topicalized structure, the fronted element
often evokes a presuppositional set recoverable from the earlier portion of the text. The final element is
strongly rhematic, carrying new information and often linking up with something coming later in the text,
and, thus, in syntax, new constructions are introduced, which by their unusual shape have a novelty value
and are used for metasemiotic purposes. The special stylistic effect slowly becomes bleached out and the
constructions lose their marked force becoming hackneyed, speakers regularly reproduce such ready made
metasemiotic structures to achieve a certain stylistic effect. At the same time other metasemiotic structures
are regularly being produced in speech to produce a genuine metasemiotic effect. We consider this process an
important kind of historical change in syntax, which has been given very little attention in the literature,
perhaps as a consequence of the lack of a real analogue in phonological change.
Intensified Stylistic Syntactic Structures. Another kind of extra-grammatical cause of syntactic
change, considered as a special case of expressivity, is called by Hyman after-thought. We could name it by
using the term intensified stylistic inversion. This plays a role in the development of SOV word order to
SVO. This means that in addition to the usual SOV patterns one would get intensified stylistic structures
SOVO, for instance: Ann biscuits liked ... and chocolate. (Would you like biscuits or chocolate? Biscuits I
like, and chocolate, and cake, too.) Thus in a OV language, intensified stylistic inversion permits
certain surface occurrences of VO. Stockwell and McKnight G. sustain this position and develop such an
account of the word order change in English. McKnight had attributed the rise of post-verbal
complementation in large measure intensified stylistic structures, where to the apparently finished sentence a
number of explanatory details are added, afterthoughts; or some element by reason of close connection with
the following clause, may be put after the verb. To motives like these the analytic order probably owes its
origin. Stockwell is less concerned with such psychological motivation, but notes that there are a
number of structural motivations within the syntax of OE that considerably strengthen the tendency to
exbraciate, where exbraciation is the rightward movement eliminating nominal and adverbial elements.
Stockwell proceeds to identify various processes which gave rise to surface sequences SV(O), so that
eventually a language learner had sufficient basis to generalize that sentences end with complements, not
with verbs. Nowadays this psychological motivation causes some problems. [39, 260] Since consistent OV
languages such as Japanese make very sparing use of intensified stylistic syntactic structures, how may it be
explained that in some OV languages intensified stylistic syntactic structures become so important that it
changes the type of the language to VO? Some linguists, among them Sapir, attribute this change to the
familiar tendency to level the distinction between case marking. Sapir had in my opinion the correct view of

64

such a situation when he said that throughout the history of English the case system... has been steadily
weakening in psychological respects [39, 260]. Surely learners and speakers of a language do not wait until
the last trace of a case marking is lost before they realize that something is going wrong in their language.
Perhaps they will avoid constructions most or all of the time if they run them into difficulties some of the
time, and rely on constructions that guarantee success. Therefore, insofar as the intensified stylistic syntactic
structure phenomenon is a psychological motivation for VO sequences, it contributes to the opacity of the
underlying OV order and therefore may be said to play a causal role in the development of a new VO order.
Much work has been done by language typologists on diachronic change, following up the work of
Greenberg's set of implicational universals, Hawkins' extensive investigation of universals [39, 261].
Translating these universals into claims about diachrony, analysts have sought to develop hierarchies of
change specifying that if a certain change takes place, something else will follow, which in turn will cause a
further change, and, so on. This turns out to be related to Sapir's notion of drift. Sapir explains certain past
and present morphological, syntactic, and lexical changes of English by revealing that they are consequences
of certain major psychological tendencies of speakers of this language - which he calls drifts. Since such
tendencies remain alive over long periods of time, he predicts certain further, similar changes for the future
of English and points out that these predictions are already in part becoming true in the English of lowerclass speakers. He shows, furthermore, that the three major drifts - cases of marking, stabilization of word
order, and the drift toward the invariable word - are, at least to a large extent, related to each other and are,
ultimately, consequences of yet another drift of English, the phonetic drift of the Germanic languages toward
reduction and loss of final syllables, itself a consequence of the word-initial stress accent of these languages.
This seems to us a considerable achievement in the development of a theory of grammar change because it is
generally stated that every morphological system is destroyed by phonological change. In our case, as a
substantive Subject-Object marking system is eroded by phonological change, English word order syntax
must react to compensate for the ambiguities and perceptual complexities. [39, 261] In spite of these
explanations, one should also note how much Sapir has either not seen or kept for himself. From our present
viewpoint more than half a century later, the omissions look large and surprising. Sapir limits his discussion
to English. Yet similar changes occur in many other languages. He also does not note that the stabilized word
is a particular one, the SVO order, while the dominant word order of older period of the language, some five
thousand years ago, had been SOV, as Sapir must have known from the writings of earlier authors. What is
more important is the fact that English has been subject to another major drift, the gradual change from an
SOV to an SVO language and the question arises whether this drift is language specific or somehow
universal. So that Sapir's picture of the major tendencies in the development of English syntax remains
incomplete in a rather conspicuous way, Lakoff continues the investigation of drift by relating it to
comparative and typological linguistic studies. Lakoff begins by presenting "a list of some changes... that
occur in many or all of the Indo-European languages, clearly not as a result of one being influenced by
another. [39, 262] The common feature of Lakoff's six drifts is that they "go from synthetic to analytic". This
trend is also called by Lakoff a "meta-condition on the way the grammar of a language as a whole can
change" (idem). Lakoff's paper is valuable and goes beyond Sapir's discussion in that it points out that certain
drifts may be shared by several languages at least of a given family. This is a great step towards the
development of word order change from a universalist point of view. In recent years Greenberg's word order
typologies have achieved a certain popularity. Greenberg does not employ the term drift or make reference to
Sapir. Yet the phenomena he investigates are closely related to drift, and the work he has done has
contributed so much to the explanation of drift as a universal phenomenon. In his work Greenberg
developing ideas of R. Jakobson postulated a set of implicational universals based on predominant surface
word order patterns. On the basis of his implications, there emerged a notion of a typologically consistent
language. Thus a consistent SOV language would have post-positions, the orders V-Aux, Adj-N, Genitive-N,
Det-N, IO-DO and it will tend to be heavily inflected. A consistent SVO language would have prepositions
and the reverse order, namely Aux-V, N-Adj, N-Gen, N-Det, DO-IO, and it will tend not to be heavily
inflected. Therefore, if a consistent SOV language were to develop into a consistent SVO type, it would
undergo a large number of harmonic changes. [39, 262] In a powerful critique, Hawkins has identified
further problems with the "typological approach" and the diachronic theory based on it . Hawkins identifies
three shortcomings in the thirty implicational universals of Greenberg [39, 262]: first, the correlations across
syntactic domains are not very good and the order of verb and object seems to bear no relation to the order of
noun and adjective; second, some language types have no exemplifications; and third, no distinction is drawn
between language types which have very many exponents and those which have a mere handful. Being taken
as theories, Hawkins calls them trigger-chain theories: some property changes and sets off a chain reaction,
which is defined by Greenberg as type implications. Hawkins considers that this trigger may be grammatical,

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pragmatic or perceptual. Theo Vennemann [39, 263] offers a grammatical trigger: phonological changes
reduce morphological distinctions and the order shifts from SOV to SVO to prevent widespread ambiguity
whereby NP NPV might be interpreted as SOV or OSV. Hyman's after - thought is an example of a
pragmatic trigger, provoking various elements to occur post-verbally by analogy to the after-thought
constructions and thereby getting the chain started. Antinucci, Duranti and Gebart [39, 263] provide a
perceptual trigger: they claim that in a SOV language the first relation to change is that of a noun and its
relative clause. The prenominal relatives of SOV languages are alleged to pose perceptual problems and
therefore shift to post-nominal position and this triggers off a chain reaction. Hawkins goes on to show that
trigger-chain theories as proposed make false predictions about the hierarchy of changes in a general
typological shift. In order to shed light on the correct theory of grammar the simultaneous changes should be
related where possible. Koch [39, 262] took a similar approach to parallel changes in several Indo-European
languages, claiming that they can be viewed as the symptoms of a more general SOV to SVO typological
change. He argued that it is the rising predominance of SVO order in OE that makes the breakdown of the
inflectional system possible; this was based on the assumption, derived from Greenberg's work, that SVO
languages characteristically do not have rich post-positional inflectional systems. Koch views the Germanic,
Romance and Slavic languages, Greek and Lithuanian as evolving gradually from SOV to typologically
consistent SVO languages. Koch argues that they are evolving at different rates, but they are all on the same
slope, steadily acquiring more and more properties, which are characteristic of the SVO type. She also states,
for example, that Proto-Germanic was in transition from SOV to SVO and that its daughter languages have
steadily acquired more SVO properties. I think that one should therefore be attentive about attempts to
develop theories of change on the basis of such "generalisations". There is no reason to suppose that in this
respect the changes affecting Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Greek, Chinese, and the few other languages with
a long documented history, represent the total range of possibilities. However, if the claims are to be made
about the underlying order of elements in the initial structure in a language, the order of these changes is
often difficult to establish. Linguists have tried to establish the order of some basic changes for English but
without much success. Furthermore, this is done for a wide range of languages and there are no grounds to
suppose that there is a universally determined hierarchy of changes, a prescribed rule, which all languages
must slide down at varying rates. From the stated explanations in the study of diachronic change the essential
problem is that languages vary in their structure to a great extent and this variation makes it difficult if not
impossible to use structural criteria, to identify grammatical categories across languages. It seems to us that
in this respect word order has a privilege over other grammatical categories. Word order changes appear to
be one of the easiest for cross-linguistic comparability, since they are clearly based on a physical property
ofthe clause, the sequence of units, which can be directly observed. Having dealt with such considerations
about changes in general, it has been seen that in developing from SOV to SVO syntax, languages seem to
follow similar pathways. For instance, Modern German, which developed from the same Germanic SOV
source as English, shares two of Old English's distinguishing characteristics. First, the verb is typically
placed in the second position of the sentence in main clauses, preceded by the subject or some other element
(such as an adverb). Secondly the SOV order is employed for embedded clauses. Since linguists are still not
sure why languages change from one syntactic type to another, the causes of word order change will
undoubtedly remain an important area of investigation, especially since the relative order of Verb and
Object has been closely linked with other word order patterns. [39, 255-264]
Word Order and Other Metasemiotic Syntactic Means and Devices. In order to prove the fact that
syntactic units are in constant state of flux prof. Galperin I. quotes prof. G. Vinokur who maintains that in
syntax it is no new material that is coined, but new relations, because the syntactical aspect of speech is
nothing more than a definite combination of grammatical forms, and in this sense the actual words used are
essentially immaterial. Therefore syntactical relations, particularly in poetic language, are that aspect of
speech in which everything presents itself as actualization of the potential and not merely the repetition of
the ready-made. It follows therefore, that in order to establish the permissible fluctuations of the syntactical
norm, it is necessary to ascertain what is meant by the syntactical norm itself. In English syntax the concept
of norm is rather loose. In fact any change in the relative positions of the members of the sentence may be
regarded as a variant of the received standard, provided that the relation between them will not hinder the
understanding of the utterance. [39, 264] According to Galperin I. word order is a crucial syntactical
problem in many languages and in English it has peculiarities caused by the concrete and specific
sociolinguistic feature of the language developed by the given speaking community. He quotes O.Jespersen
who said that the English language "...has developed tolerably fixed word orders which in the great majority
of cases shows without fail what is the Subject of the sentence."This "tolerably fixed word order" is Subject-

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Verb (Predicate) - Object (S - P - O). Jespersen also mentions a statistical investigation of word order made
on the basis of a series of representative 19th century writers demonstrating that 82%-97% of all the
analyzed sentences contained all three members (S - P - O), while the percentage for Beowulf was only 16
and for King Alfred's prose 40. [39, 265] Any change of the word order structure of the sentence changes
the prosodic pattern and metasemiotic structure of the given syntactic unit. If the syntactic unit is brought
forward in the sentence, it is made prominent both by the changed structure and by the specific prosody. The
one moved to the end of the sentence may be intensified most of all prosodically. There are several kinds of
stylistic inversion, most frequently used in both English prose and English poetry: the object is placed at the
beginning of the sentence; the attribute is placed in postposition, especially when there is more than one
attribute. [39, 265] A good man he was. Un om bun el era (un om bun el a fost; un om bun era el); With
his face beaming he came up to me. Cu faa radiind el s-a apropiat de mine. The nominal part of the
predicate may be used in front of the subject: A hard working student she was. O foarte srguincioas
student a fost ea. The predicative stands before the link verb and both are placed before the subject as in
Rude am I in my speech... Grosolan sunt eu n vorbirea mea[39, 265] The adverbial modifier (in some
cases combined with the auxiliary verb of the predicate) is placed before the subject group, creating a strong
metasemiotic connotation: Hardly ever is light observed directly from its source. Puin probabil ca lumina
s fie vre-o dat observat direct din sursa ei. Never before has there been any device so efficient. Nici
odat pn acum n-a existat un aparat att de efficient. Not only does water function as a catalyst, but it
also may be a significant rock-building constituent. Nu numai c apa funcioneaz ca un catalizator, dar ea
poate de asemeni fi o parte component important n formarea stncilor. Only gradually, in recent years,
has the chemistry of polymers become separated and become an independent branch of science. Numai
treptat, n anii receni, a devenit industria polimerilor o ramur independent a tiinei. Nowhere can we
see such rapid progress as in computing technique. Nicieri nu putem vedea noi aa un progres rapid ca n
tehnologiile informaionale. Unfortunately records of evaporation are not very numerous. Din nefericire,
cazuri nregistrate de evaporare nu sunt numeroase. In most of the examples given above the adverbial
modifier is made prominent its expressivity is considerably intensified by the change of usual word order. At
the same time, in each case, a prosodic pattern specific to emotionally charged text is detected even in
scientific technical texts. In some examples, the metasemiotic connotation is further increased by the use of
the auxiliary verbs before the subject of the sentence: Hardly ever is; Puin probabil - in the Romanian
translation the auxiliary is used after the subject, because traditionally in such cases it is not accepted in this
position. But in the next example there is a complete coincidence in both languages: Never before has there
been - Nici odat pn acum n-a existat. Of course, there are many other cases of syntactic stylistic change.
Thus, both modifier and predicate stand before the subject, as in "In went Mr. Pickwick." (n odaie a intrat
dl Pickwick); Down dropped the breeze... S-a atenuat vntul lin);[39, 266] Out went the customer
(Afar a ieit clientul). As we see from the examples given above the same degree of stylistic inversion is
used in both languages. In the following examples the nominal part of the predicate is used in front of the
subject making it stylistically prominent, intensifying the expressivity of the dislocated lexeme. Important
as his discoveries were in themselves their significance is further magnified by the impetus they gave to the
development of the comparative and evolutionary trend in physiology. Importante fiind descoperirile lui n
sine, semnificaia lor crete mai departe prin imboldul , care l-au dat ele dezvoltrii tendinei comparative i
evoluioniste n fiziologie. Strange as it may seem, the theory of numbers, being the purest kind of
mathematics, can be called, from a certain aspect, an empirical or even an experimental science. Straniu
cum se pare, teoria numerelor, fiind cea mai pur matematic, poate fi numit, dintr-un anumit aspect, o
tiin empiric sau chiar experimental. However useful the ore may be, it cannot be employed to
advantage unless it can be obtained in adequate quantities and at an acceptable price. Orict de folositor
poate fi minereul, el nu poate fi folosit cu avantaj dac nu poate fi obinut n cantiti adecvate i la un pre
acceptabil. It is important to observe the fact that in both languages we a complete affinity concerning the
structures and their metasemiotic charge, Besides, we should add that the grammatical metasemiosis here
gets a powerful support by being combined with the lexical inherent stylistic connotation (in sentences 1 and
2: strange and important importante, straniu) and the prosodic emotional pattern imposed on them,
too. In sentence three the lexeme however orict intensifies the general stylistic connotation.
As prof. Galperin I. says, practically any change in the direct order results in a change or
intensification of metasemiosis: , the English affirmative sentence is regarded as neutral if it maintains the
regular word order, i.e., subject - predicate - object (or other secondary members of the sentence, as they are
called). Any other order of the parts of the sentence may also carry the necessary information, but the impact
on the reader will be different. Even a slight change in the word order of a sentence or in the order of the
sentences in a more complicated syntactical unit will inevitably cause a definite modification of the meaning

67

of the whole. An almost imperceptible rhythmical design introduced into a prose sentence, or a sudden break
in the sequence of the parts of the sentence, or any other change will add something to the volume of
information contained in the original sentence. It follows that the very concept of inversion has appeared as a
counterpart to the regular word order, the latter being a relatively unemotional, unemphatic, neutral mode of
expression. [39, 267]
Thus, in the following examples the constructions themselves possess a strong
degree of expressivity and by placing them in front of the sentence we get it further intensified. It goes
without saying that if a spark should fall into containers with inflammable liquids, quick and dangerous fires
would result. Should there be no rain crops will be spoiled. Nici nu poate fi vorb, c dac o scnteie ar
cdea ntr-un container cu lichid inflamabil, un incendiu momentan i primejdios ar urma. Should the
lubricant supply stop, even momentarily, serious damage might result. S se opreasc furnizarea
lubrifiantului, chiar pentru un moment, pagube serioase ar putea rezulta. It is but natural that collisions
between atoms should be frequent. E i natural c coliziunea dintre atomi trebuie s fie frecvent. Since
water contains hydrogen and is too abundant and inexpensive, it is but natural that we should try to ob tain
an element from this source. Aa cum apa conine hidrogen i el este foarte abundent i ieftin, e i natural ca
noi s ncercm de a obine un element din aceast surs. The constructions It goes without sayingNici nu poate fi vorb get here an additional expressive-emotional overtone being placed first in the
sentence. The next construction it is but natural is combined with the syntactic structure that we should try
to obtain, in which the emotional should is used and it contributes to the intensification of the metasemiotic
content. The emphatic constructions with It is (was)...that (which, who) are also actively ised in the stylistic
syntactic change, where an emphatic pronoun is used, the auxiliary is usually brought in front of the subject
like in the examples: It is the gravitation that makes the satellites move round the earth. Anume gravitaia
(este aceea care) face ca sateliii s se mite n jurul pmntului. It is among the naturally occuring
minerals that we find the most beautiful examples of crystals. It was from the detection of otherwise
unexplained lines in the solar spectrum that helium was discovered. It was not until the industrial revolution
that metals began to assume the importance they now possess. Only recently has a theory which accounts
reasonably well for all the experimental evidence been proposed. Constructions like no sooner than,
not only does but (than), etc., usually used in an emphatic position can also be included in the class of
syntactic stylistic intensifiers. Thus, for example: No sooner had electronic computers become available for
non-military uses, after the end of world war II, than astronomers began to use this new tool. Cum numai
(ncurnd dup) calculatoarele electronice au devenit disponibile pentru scopuri militare, dup al doilea
rzboi mondial, atunci astronomii ndat au nceput s foloseasc acest aparat nou. Not only do men fly in
the upper layers of the atmosphere, but the time is not too far off when they will leave the Earth and explore
other planets. Nu numai c oamenii zboar n straturile de mare altitudine ale atmosferei, dar timpul se
apropie cnd ei vor prsi Pmntul i vor explora alte planete. In spite of the fact that the English
emphatic constructions do not exactly correspond to the ones available in the Romanian Language, the
metasemiotic syntactic connotation created is practically identical. The initial part of the structure is made
prominent by position, by prosodic and lexico-grammatical means. The second part of the structure, used at
beginning of the next clause creates a sustained stylistic connotation.
The models given above comprise the well-known patterns of stylistic syntactic change. Prof. Galperin I.
Writes that the position of a word in the sentence may be changed within the recognized variants and the
above models are the materialization of these variants. Inversion as a stylistic device is always sensemotivated, and there is a tendency to account for inversion in poetry by rhythmical considerations. In the
majority of cases inversion in poetry is called forth by considerations of metasemiotic content rather than
rhythm. Inversion is one of the forms of what are known as emphatic constructions. The traditional word
order is a non-emphatic construction. Emphatic constructions are usually considered as violations of the
regular word order in the sentence. In practice these structures are as common as the fixed word order
structures. Therefore inversion must be regarded as a strong syntactic stylistic means of the language. [39,
268]
All the variants of stylistic syntactic change structures are used to create metasemiotic expressiveevaluative overtones, which are further intensified by morphological, lexical, lexico-grammatical, and
especially by prosodic emphatic patterns.
CONCLUSIONS
In the present work we have undertaken a confrontation of some morphological grammatical
categories, both on the emic and etic levels. Our previous knowledge of the confronted languages helps us to
secure a firm stand, a reliable basis for our investigation not only in case of comparing related languages, but
also in case of comparing one or two cognate languages with unrelated languages. In case of synchrony in
contrastive linguistics the object of our research is usually different. We no longer think of the genetic

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identities. We concentrate on the differences and try to understand why it is that the functions of the forms
should have diverged so widely? What we have been trying to explain all along is scientific confrontation.
In our case we are bound to discuss the possibility of applying methods of scientific research, which imply
explaining the difference between synchronic systems and their diachronic development, the systems at work
in living texts - the different methods of analysis, the confrontation both on the level of text and on the level
of system. Subsequent research has shown that confrontation must involve a profound study of the systems.
Synchronic confrontation of any two language systems cannot be really scientific, unless account is carefully
taken of their previous development. Linguistic systems are not uniform. The hierarchy of different elements
in the systems, the relation between centre and periphery, has also to be taken into account. The last stage is
returning to the etic level. We should always start with identities and similarities and gradually work our way
to contrasts and non-coincidences. In case of unrelated languages we would have to join the quest for
universals, which are supposed to be easy to be discovered. As a result of systematic confrontational analysis
of the categorial forms of taxis, tense, aspect, mood, deixis, comparison, etc. we have come to the some
general conclusions:
The category of taxis in English, French and Romanian, related languages, is embracing the entire
grammatical system of the verb. The English system is relatively young (created on the basis of the Latin
model), while in Romanian and French it is an old system going back to Latin. But in all the confronted
languages we observe a similar trend: categorial transition from purely grammatical categories into lexicalgrammatical and even purely lexical. The analysis demonstrated that this process is found in other languages,
both related and unrelated, where in spoken languages simpler forms are used and grammatical forms being
substituted by purely lexical ones. The term perfect denotes not only anteriority, it also may be used to
express a perfective or finished action. That is the meaning used by some linguists to put forward a category
of aspect in English (the opposition of Perfect vs. Continuous forms), which is characteristic to some
European languages. Compare for example with the Russian perfective and imperfective aspect
( ). It is quite natural for a number of languages to have the oppositions
of Continuous vs. Non-continuous and Perfective vs. Imperfective (in the meaning of Finished vs.
Unfinished). In English most of the verbal forms can be subdivided into an opposition of perfectiveimperfective aspect, but the existing Continuous vs. non-continuous aspect is prevailing. The category of
aspect in English is in a state of transition from a purely grammatical category into a grammatical-stylistic
and sometimes even purely stylistic one. Confronting the non-finite forms in English and Romanian we
discover identical systems on the emic level, with some slight differences, especially in the formal
expression: The English forms to have written, to have been written, having written correspond in
Romanian to structures formed by means of the auxiliary to be and not to have. That results in homonymy
of grammatical forms. There is also a difference in usage: the perfect nominal forms in Romanian are rarely
used and are usually substituted by finite perfect forms: mai mult ca perfectul, perfectul simplu and
especially perfectul compus. The English present participle is regularly translated into Romanian by means
of gerunziul, which historically took over the meaning of participiul prezent, which was ousted from the
language. The English perfect nominal forms have also been displaying a tendency to gradually get out of
usage. Thus, perfect gerund, perfect participle and, to a certain extent perfect infinitive, are practically used
in formal bookish language. In the colloquial speech the finite perfect forms are usually preferred.
At the first sight we can conclude that the finite system in English is much richer in forms than in
Romanian. Thus, when we compare the English, French and Romanian systems we find very much in
common with occasional natural differences connected with the development of the language in different
speaking communities of the given related languages. It occurs that in Romanian and French there are no
corresponding forms to the English past indefinite, its function being carried out by perfectul compus and
pass compos, both coinciding in form and partially in function with the English present perfect. In the
confronted languages under consideration we find cases of grammatical homonymy. Examples of homonymy
in English could be exemplified by the forms of gerund and participle I (in case of nominal forms), should
plus infinitive (as modal verb plus infinitive, conditional mood, suppositional mood, future in the past),
would plus infinitive (as modal verb plus infinitive, conditional, future in the past), the form of past perfect
( as expressing an anteriority in the past, anteriority in the future from a moment in the past in sentences of
time and condition expressing future from a moment in the past, and expressing an unreal condition, desire
or wish in the past in the Subjunctive II (in this case it does not always express anteriority), present perfect
(anteriority expressed to an action or moment in the present by an action or a period of time including an
action; anteriority in the future, where it substitutes the future perfect in the clauses of time and condition
expressing a future action from a present moment. In spite of the fact that the systems of categorial,
grammatical and lexical-grammatical forms are different in the given language, the categorial meaning of

69

the category of taxis, as well as those of tense and aspect, could be easily expressed in each of the confronted
languages using all possible linguistic means: grammatical, lexical-grammatical, lexical, contextual. A
common tendency has been observed in all the confronted languages that the category of taxis is gradually
undergoing a change. It is in a process of transition from a mainly grammatical category into a lexicalgrammatical or even lexical one. In Russian, a similar process of transition is practically over. Examples of
finite perfect forms can be found only in dialectal speech. Examples of nominal perfect forms are still in
usage: past gerund and past participle. The lexical category of taxis is dominant now in this language. In
English (as in many other European languages) the same process is rapidly advancing. The grammatical
categorial form of the future anteriority is practically not used in the spoken language and is successfully
substituted by simple forms, anteriority being expressed in such cases by lexical means and context. Past
perfect is practically in the same position, especially in the American variant of English where it is often
substituted by simple forms in the spoken language. As far as Romanian is concerned, the future perfect here
(viitorul anterior) is rarely used even in the bookish and formal language. The analytical past perfect is out of
usage and the synthetic one is also in a process of change (in the informal spoken language very often it is
substituted by perfectul compus in its second simple past meaning, past anteriority being expressed lexically
or contextually).
Hypergrammaticality or abuse of grammar should be paid attention to while confronting
grammatical systems of different languages. Abuse of grammar may be of two kinds:
a) The speaker turns to some very complex and artificial complex structures, because he thinks that
they are more literary and will enable him to appear as a highly educated man. This is a kind of
hypergrammaticality, which we meet especially frequently in documents and in some varieties of journalese,
etc.
b) The formation of complex artificial grammatical forms and structures may depend on
metasemiotic factors, on a desire to achieve a specific stylistic effect. The results of scientific abstraction
must be verified by the actual functioning of the system, the researcher always bearing in mind that language
is in a state of constant change. This is especially important when we confront related and unrelated
languages. The study of grammar, the attempts to normalize grammatical usage, the study of the new
tendencies and systematic confrontation of these with those falling into disuse, requires a much more serious
scientific generalization on the subject than has been done so far. We should keep in mind that categories
come first as primary entities. Talking about categories we always have to take into consideration the fact
that the reality of human communication is primary, the most important element. We can speak of a lexical
category only if we find identity of stem and the utter impossibility of a simultaneous realization of all
categorial forms of the given opposition. In actual enunciations or utterances only one of the two or more
categorial forms can be realized. Morphological studies should be initiated with the marked member of any
opposition. In case of the category of taxis we should start with the perfect forms. The morphologicalgrammatical forms can be studied on two levels 1) the semantic level, where, for example, the present tense
forms express actions which include the moment of speaking, and 2) the metasemiotic level, where present
tense forms are used to denote an action which clearly does not include the moment of speaking. The process
of transition of some grammatical categories into lexical ones is being observed in the confronted languages.
Thus, the grammatical category of gender has practically become a lexical category in Modern English. The
same phenomenon could be seen in the case of other grammatical categories. Thus, the category of taxis in
Russian has practically become a lexical category. The same categories in English, Romanian and French
(and other languages) are in a process of transition, where the lexical element is gaining ground. A very
important factor in analytical comparison is the choice of an etalon language. Thus, comparing the category
of anteriority in English and Romanian we can choose English or French as an etalon language, because this
category has been widely scientifically described in these languages and it can serve as an excellent starting
point for a contrastive analysis. The general principle of linguistic confrontation should be reconsidered, as
any contrastive studies should be divided into two parts: we have cognate languages (closely and distantly
related languages) and unrelated ones.
In Romanian there are not clear-cut affixes to indicate the grammatical category of aspect. We have
mentioned above that there existed and still exist some forms similar to the English aspectual ones (and such
forms exist in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese.), but they are rarely used. Analyzing the categories of aspect in
English, and Romanian we can conclude that in English the grammatical aspect is prevailing, while in
Romanian the lexical means are prominent.
It has been found out that one of the main difficulties in grammatical categorization is the lack of a
firmly established relationship between the actual phenomenon and their names. The metalanguage of
morphological grammatical categories cannot be taken for granted and metalinguistic work cannot be

70

regarded as merely taking an inventory of terms. It is mainly a question of discovering whether it is a purely
metalinguistic difference, mere convention on the metalinguistic level. Often the approach to categorization
may be untenable in the sense that the researcher fails to keep clearly apart the object of analysis, the facts of
the language in question, and the metalanguage - the words and expressions used when people talk about the
object language. Very often there is a discrepancy not only in the metalinguistic expression used to denote
certain more specific or particular categories, but also in the naming or description of the most general
concepts themselves or it is a question of approach or attitude to categorization.
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