 Welcome back! Having discussed the notion of tense in the e-lecture, the function of the verb part 1, we will now focus on two further functional aspects in this follow-up e-lecture. And they are aspect and voice. Let us start with aspect. The term aspect refers to a grammatical category which reflects the way in which the action denoted by the verb is regarded or experienced with respect to time. So where on the time axis are we? Two aspect constructions can be seen as realising a basic contrast. One views an action as complete or perfective. In present-day English, this perfective aspect is realised in active sentences by means of a complex verb group with a form of have and a past participle as in has taken or had taken. The second aspect views an action as incomplete, that is, the action is still in progress. Thus, it is referred to as the imperfective or progressive aspect. In present-day English, it is realised by means of a form of be plus a present participle as in is taking or was taking. Both aspects may often combine in a single verb group. So in this example, I have been taking a book. We have been as the perfective marker and taking as the progressive marker. In addition to aspect, such a verb group also exhibits tense. So let us look at the relationship between aspect and tense now. The interconnection between tense and aspect indicates that the definition of the two functional categories, tense and aspect, is a mere terminological convenience, which helps us to separate in our minds two different kinds of realisation. The morphological realisation of tense, the inflectional realisation if you wish, and the syntactic realisation of aspect, where we have three aspects, unmarked, perfective and progressive, and two tenses present and past in present-day English. The interconnection between tense and aspect in present-day English provides us with a well-definable system of contrast. We have, for example, the unmarked tense, present tense I take, past tense I took, where in took we have a vocaliate change that indicates the past tense. We then have the present and past tense perfective aspect I have taken versus I had taken, and the present and past tense progressive aspect as in I am taking versus I was taking. And of course, as you already saw, we have combinations of both. I have been taking present-perfective-progressive, I had been taking past-perfective-progressive. By the way, the term simple is often used instead of unmarked. However, this may lead to misunderstandings. In one sense, it means that a verb group is totally unmarked for aspect. That is, for example, we have the simple or unmarked present, the simple or unmarked past tense. And in another sense, the perfect aspect is also referred to as simple versus progressive. So be careful with the term simple in this respect. Let us now look at the two aspects and their overlap with tense in more detail, and let's start with the perfective aspect. The overlap between tense and aspect is most problematic in the differentiation between the simple past tense and the present-perfective aspect. In our example, John lived in the United States for 10 years. An event is denoted that has come to an end and has past-time relevance only. For 10 years is a period belonging to the past. In a second example, John has lived in the United States for 10 years. The same period has continued to the present time and has current relevance. So here we have for 10 years and the period might go on. But both examples indicate a state of affairs before the present moment. Let us look at further senses of the present-perfective. Here are some examples, and these examples show what types of present-perfective can be distinguished. For example, we have states leading up to the present time. The house has been empty for ages. That means it was empty some time ago and it still is. Have you known her for long? Yes, I have. A long time ago that we met and we still know each other. A second interpretation, well, habits. He has sung in the choir since he was a boy. This is a typical use of the perfective aspect. And here is another one, indefinite events. Have you ever been to Venice? Well, again, we have past-time relevance. Let us now turn our attention to the progressive aspect. As the name indicates, the progressive aspect, sometimes also referred to as continuous or durative, indicates a happening in progress at a given time. Let us contrast the progressive aspect with the unmarked aspect. Here are some examples. Mary sings well and Mary sang well, present and past tense unmarked aspect. Mary is singing well versus Mary was singing well, progressive, present and past tense aspect. Now, the simple aspect or the unmarked aspect simply means that Mary is or was a good singer. The meaning of the progressive aspect by contrast can be characterized as temporaryness where the event has a limited duration or it is incomplete. In this case, Mary is singing well versus Mary was singing well. It simply means she performed well at a given point in time, so it was a good performance. The verb senses, state, habit and indefinite events, which we already discussed in the context of the perfective aspect, are interpreted differently when used in the progressive aspect. Now, here is an example. We are living in London. Now, this simply means that it is a certain state. We are living in London now at this moment in time. Or if you take the habitual progressive, the habit, at that time she was having regular lesson. That is, the habit takes place over a limited period at that time. And in the event progressive she is watching TV, the duration has not come to an end yet. Note that there are a number of constraints on the use of the progressive. Let's look at them. The following contexts are normally excluded from the progressive aspect or they result in meaning differences. For example, the context which is labeled qualities or attributes doesn't work. Linda is tall is alright, but Linda is being tall. Well, here the progressive aspect cannot be used. Or take states. John has a code versus John is having a code where John is having a code. The progressive aspect is simply impossible. Also verbs of perception are problematic. I see you versus I am seeing you. You know that normally we cannot use a progressive form of see. And then we have stances. He lives in London versus he is living in London where, of course, a progressive form does not result in ungrammatical structures, but the meaning is a different one. Further contexts that require the simple aspect are explicit illocutionary acts where the verb here, the verb one denotes the act. If the illocutionary verb one occurs in the progressive aspect, it loses its illocutionary force. So I am warning you is no longer a warning, but it becomes a simple act of declaration. Let's now continue with the second verbal function I would like to discuss in this e-lecture, voice. Voice describes a grammatical category which makes it possible to view the action of a sentence either two ways in an active or in a passive one. Here are two examples. John eats an egg and John is eating an egg two active forms. The passive an egg is eaten by John and egg is being eaten by John. Important to notice is that the facts reported in each sentence are not changed. Voice concerns not only verb groups, but other constituents in the clause too. The passive is formed from an active sentence. So here are our active sentences. It is formed from an active sentence by the addition of a form of B. Here we have B plus a past participle of the active verb. An egg is eaten or an egg is being eaten where we have the progressive form. The rule NP auxiliary verb verb plus NP becomes NP auxiliary verb plus past participle and then a byphrase plus the noun phrase that was the subject of the corresponding active. However, the situation is not as simple as that. There are various types of passives and several constraints on their formation. So let's look at these types of passives. One alternative form is the use of get, which as you all know is not an auxiliary at all. So here are some get passives. The cat got run over. United got beaten last night. Also, the purely formal definition of the passive that is B and get plus past participle is very broad and would include far too many examples. For this reason, the following passive gradients can be defined. We can define central passives. We have passives that we can refer to as semi passives. And last but not least, there are passives that are not real passives, but so called pseudo passives. Let's look at them more closely. Central passives or true passives have a direct active passive relation. They can be subdivided depending on the presence or absence of an agentive subject in the corresponding active sentence. In our first example, the violin was made by my father where we have the corresponding active sentence. My father made the violin. My father is clearly the agent. In the next example, the conclusion is not justified by the results. Active, the results do not justify the conclusion. The subject is no longer an agent. It is non-agentive. In the same holds, for example, three, coal has been replaced by oil and oil is definitely non-agentive. In our fourth example, the problem can be avoided easily. The subject of the active sentence, here labeled X, has no byphrase counterpart in the passive at all. However, in any case, all central passives have an active counterpart. Semi passives have active counterparts too, as this first example shows. We are encouraged to continue by the results. The results encourage us to continue. However, the verbs also share many characteristics with adjectives. How can we show that? Well, there are some tests. One test to show that encouraged is an adjective is adjectival coordination. We can simply take another adjective and coordinate it with encouraged. An example would be we are encouraged and motivated. We are encouraged and fit and so on. Another test for adjectiveness is that adjectives can be part of an adjectival phrase, and we can use an intensifier such as rather extremely or very. We are rather encouraged. We are extremely encouraged and so on and so forth. So, one test is that we can replace R, that is the form of B, in the semi-passive by other verbs such as feel, seem and so on. We feel encouraged would be an example. Here is another example. Mike was interested in linguistics. Linguistics interested Mike. Now, try on your own. Can you apply our three semi-passive tests here? Can you do that? Of course you can, but I will show you the solution later on. Let's look at pseudo-passives first. Pseudo-passives superficially look like central passives. They are built using B or GET plus a past participle form. Well, here are two examples. The building is demolished, the world is getting globalized. However, they neither have an active equivalent nor the possibility of agent addition. Let's illustrate this. The building is demolished. Well, the agent would be the building is demolished by X. It doesn't really work. And X demolishes the building is certainly not the semantic active counterpart of the building is demolished. And in the world is getting globalized, well, X would be the agent, but is it really, is there an agent? And X globalizes the world. Well, that's certainly not the corresponding active sentence as far as the meaning is concerned of the world is getting globalized. Okay, let us finally look at some restrictions or constraints on passive formation that depend on the verbs that occur in passives. There are, for example, verbs that can be used in active sentences only. He lacks confidence. He resembles his father. You cannot passivize. He lacks confidence. Confidence is lacked by him. And likewise, you cannot passivize his father is resembled by him. Well, the results are really strange. There are also verbs that can only occur in passives. Be born and be rumored. He was born in Marburg. You cannot simply create a corresponding active Marburg bore him or someone rumors that John is ill. This doesn't work. Also, transitive prepositional verbs like go into or arrive at cannot freely occur in passives. He went into the problem. The problem was gone into by him. Well, this doesn't really work. The solution was arrived at by them also a very strange sentence. And furthermore, there are object constraints. It is quite interesting to note that verbs with final finite causal objects can more easily be passivized than verbs with non-finite objects. So, John hoped that he could win. That he could win was hoped by someone is much better than John hoped to win. To win was hoped by someone. Further constraints concern aspects of meaning. For example, the use of quantifiers which change the meaning in active passive pairs. Just passivize the sentence. Every boy knows one joke. Try. And you will find that the meaning of the active is different as compared with the meaning of the passive sentence. All right. That's it. Before we summarize, let's look at the solution of our semi passive test. Here we are. Mike was interested in linguistics is a semi passive because interested has adjectival properties. It can be coordinated with other adjectives as in Mike was interested in and fascinated by linguistics. It can occur in adjectival phrases with an intensifier. Mike was very interested was extremely was rather interested. And the verb be was can be replaced by other verbs such as seemed Mike seemed interested. So we clearly have reasons to believe that Mike was interested in linguistics is a semi passive. But I'm sure you got it all right. Okay, let's summarize. This lecture looked at two central functions of the verb aspect and voice. Both are realized syntactically in present day English. That is by means of a complex verb group. In the final lecture belonging to this series of discussing functional aspects of the verb, we will look at the realization of mood and modality in present day English. Until then, have a nice time.