CC BY
18
УДК 811.111
Е. Е. Страхова
доцент, кандидат филологических наук;
доцент кафедры грамматики и истории английского языка ФГПН МГЛУ e-mail: [email protected]
КОМПЛЕКСНАЯ СЕМАНТИКА ПРОШЕДШЕГО И БУДУЩЕГО В АНГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ КАК РЕЗУЛЬТАТ МЕЖКАТЕГОРИАЛЬНОГО ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЯ ТЕМПОРАЛЬНОСТИ И МОДАЛЬНОСТИ
В статье анализируется комплексная семантика категорий прошедшего и будущего времени в английском языке с позиций теории межкатегориального и межконцептуального взаимодействия. Выявляется перечень взаимодействующих категорий. Особое внимание уделяется взаимодействию категорий времени и модальности на концептуальном уровне и уровне языковой семантики, причем метод анализа семантических отношений в сфере будущего и прошедшего времен оказывается различным, что объясняется спецификой рассматриваемых категорий.
Ключевые слова: межкатегориальное взаимодействие; темпоральность; модальность; проспективная ситуация; внешняя и внутренняя модальность; функционально-семантическая категория; темпоральные и модальные семантические функции; концепт; разноструктурные средства выражения.
E. E. Strakhova
Ph.D., Ass. Prof., Chair of Grammar and History of the English Language, Department of Humanities and Applied Sciences, MSLU e-mail: [email protected]
COMPLEX SEMANTICS OF THE PAST AND THE FUTURE IN ENGLISH AS A RESULT OF INTER-CATEGORIAL INTERACTION BETWEEN TEMPORALITY AND MODALITY
The article proposes a complex approach to the analysis of the English Past and Future as the direct outcome of the phenomenon of inter-categorial and interconceptual interaction. It goes on to specify the range of interacting categories, with special emphasis upon the interaction between Time and Modality, 'networking' on various levels. Of particular interest is the use of different modeling schemes for the Past and Future semantics, as suggested by the cognitive potential of the categories in question.
Key words: intercategorial interaction; temporality; modality; prospective situation; internal and external modality; functional semantic category; temporal and modal semantic functions; concept; heterogeneous language means.
The topic of the present article is the complex semantics of the English Past and Future viewed as the result of intercategorial interaction which involves a number of categories, but centres round (especially in the sphere of the future) the categories of Temporality and Modality.
Most current researchers treat the semantics of the English Tenses as further specification of more general temporal semantics, with such concrete meanings as single point action, durative action, successive actions, repeated actions, etc., most frequently mentioned. Our research shows that this kind of analysis tends to be incomplete as it only focuses on one facet of the category of Time but overlooks the fact that this category does not exist in our conceptual system in isolation but is, rather, deeply integrated into a whole network of links and connections with other categories, sometimes quite distant ones, like quantity (see 'the theory of magnitude' in the psychology of time consciousness1), which has an immediate impact on the resultant complex semantics.
In an attempt to meet this challenge, the given article puts forth the following research issues for discussion.
- If 'networking' is a universal cognitive mechanism of conceptualisation, especially where abstract entities are involved, how does it affect Time and Modality?
- What is the impact of the interconnection between Time and Modality on the semantic potential of the category of Temporality in the system of functional language categories?
- Given the obvious differences in time conceptualisation in the sphere of the Past and the Future, how does it impact their functional semantics as viewed from the perspective of intercategorial interaction?
As research in cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology has shown, the development of 'vertical' and 'horizontal' networks among different categories is not a purely linguistic phenomenon. Recent theories
1 Research into the philosophy and psychology of Time consciousness shows that experiences of simultaneity, successiveness and temporal organisation are elementary temporal perceptions that are a cognitive reality. An approach to psychological data on Time perceptions elaborated within the 'theory of magnitude' suggests that time perception / duration is not a unique module in the brain. Time, Space and Quantity are perceived as magnitudes and are processed by the same system in the brain. They interact very strongly [6].
of the mind highlight its so-called 'connectionist' architecture, which implies that our mental representations are not processed and stored in isolation, but combine to build complex networks. An important thing about them is that the meaning of the whole is not reducible to the meaning of the composite parts. Therefore, it is not just the meaning of the separate entities that matters, but also a system of links and connections between them to such an extent, that outside these connections 'the access nodes' may turn out to be semantically empty.
The phenomenon of network construction involves different entities depending on their position in the conceptual hierarchy: the highest level of abstraction presupposes the interaction of concepts, cognitive categories and models; the level of functional language semantics is organised around interacting functional semantic categories and their semantic functions; finally, the system of grammatical semantics includes complex meanings developed by closely related categories and simultaneously expressed in a word form (for instance, the semantics of Tense and Aspect). Naturally, the extent and direction of this interaction will differ depending on the categories involved.
We believe that the interaction between Time and Modality can already be traced to the conceptual level. Here it takes the form of complex semantic relations between the categories of Time and Evaluation, the latter stemming from one of the key abilities of the human mind to oppose the 'self' element (the content) and the 'beyond-oneself' component (the evaluation)1. In the diachronic perspective, an example of this interrelation can be found in the peculiarities of time conceptualization in the AngloSaxon period: the concept of Time was modally colored and intrinsically implied the dependency of time upon the Divine will, as well as its social significance and emotional intensity. Events and states were perceived in causal relation to their ultimate source - God's will, and time was seen as 'lived through' and 'experienced' rather than conceptualised as a neutral dimension objectively registered by the human mind [4].
Another indirect evidence of interaction between the categories of Time and Evaluation on the conceptual level is provided by the analysis of the conceptual metaphors of Time, many of which are universal in
1 As Evaluation / Judgement is a universal cognitive faculty, it is little wonder that the mental predicate BELIEVE which discloses the concept 'Evaluation' is included by A.Wierzbicka into her list of semantic primitives.
character and immune to cross-cultural variation. As recent research shows [2], at present we operate within the monetary and technocentric metaphorical domains of Time, and if we take a closer look at the metaphors within these classes (e.g. TIME IS A RESOURCE, TIME IS A COMMODITY, TIME IS MONEY, TIME IS A VIRTUAL ENTITY) we will see that they further reinforce the impression of Time being closely inspected by man, objectified, made use of and evaluated from the utility perspective. Moreover, time is often personified in our conceptualisations (e.g. Time will tell), which again testifies to the fact that our cognising activity does not merely focus on registering and processing reality as an objectively given phenomenon, but necessarily involves an element of subjective evaluation, judgement and comparison, resulting in cross-domain mappings and connections.
To recap it all, we believe that Time and Evaluation are closely interrelated categories, and as we shall see further on, this interconnection accounts for the development of specific temporal and modal meanings in the language system.
An obvious impact of the correlation between Time and Evaluation is the enrichment of the semantic potential of the functional semantic categories (FSC) of Temporality and Modality, which are treated here as the extension and further particularisation of the corresponding conceptual / notional categories. More specifically, Temporality expresses the localisation of the action on the temporal axis (from the viewpoint of the speaker), whereas Modality appears to have a highly heterogeneous semantic structure and encompasses a number of micro-FSCs (e.g. epistemic, deontic, optative modality, etc.). The semantics of Temporality and Modality are further elaborated by a complex of semantic functions, and it is here that the interaction between these two categories takes a most conspicuous form.
Let's start with the semantics of the Future as, according to our research, the very nature of the future as a cognitive phenomenon is linked to evaluation and modality.
The semantic potential of the future is enriched by two complementary cognitive processes. On the one hand, our perception of future actions and events intrinsically implicates uncertainty, prognostication and hypothesizing, but on the other hand, the speaker may view the prospective situation as depending on his own will or as being overtly linked to the unfolding exterior circumstances, or occurring independently of either of them.
Table
Modality of the Future
Internal Modality External Modality
Uncertainty, prognostication, hypothesizing An action in the future whose realisation depends on the speaker's / listener's will
An action in the future whose realisation is determined by exterior factors which act as a compelling force in relation to the speaker / listener
Neutral Future
As a result, the functional semantic category of the Future does not simply refer an action or an event to the time span following the moment of speech or some other point of reference (temporal component), but simultaneously realizes a whole set of modal meanings - an elaborate combination, which can be illustrated by a list of semantic functions (SF) of the Future, both general and more specific in character1.
1. General SF1 'An action in the future whose realisation depends
on the addresser's volition' is specified by such SFs as:
a) SF1 'willingness / unwillingness'2:
I thought you didn't want me to start moving until 11 [10, p. 55].
b) SF2 'agreement':
I don't mind giving a small contribution but we can't give away that kind of money now [10, p. 40].
c) SF3 'promise':
You come out now and I won't make the earth shake <...> [8, p. 89].
d) SF4 'intention, planning':
Well, it wouldn't be a party without our whistling postman up on the platform. Are you having a disco? [13, p. 259]
1 We have identified 3 general semantic functions of the Future in our material. It is noteworthy that their semantic structure need not be identical: whereas general SF1 can be further specified by seven concrete SFs, general SF2 is less heterogeneous by nature and is correlated with six concrete SFs, and general SF3 is the least heterogeneous of all as it displays a direct one-to-one correlation.
2 This SF seems to be the most fundamental in the sphere of subjectively-coloured future, as in some way or another it can be traced in the semantic potential of most other concrete SFs.
e) SF5 'spontaneous decision':
My first instinct was to turn my head around to see if I had been watched <...> [10, p. 26].
f) SF6 'compulsion to an action':
It's just that Edmund is insisting on sending Henry to boarding school <...> [13, p. 174].
g) SF7 'evaluation of probability':
<.> but every now and then, before anybody gets married, they get these flashes of what it's going to be like after they're married [14, p. 134].
2. General SF2 'An action in the future whose realisation is
determined by exterior factors which act as a compelling force in relation to the addresser' is specified by such concrete SFs as:
a) SF1 'The realisation of the action is determined by a system of social and moral norms and rules, accepted in the given society and imperative for each of its members':
Because books on such ghastly subjects were destroyed a century ago. By law. Forbidden for anyone to own the grisly volumes [7, p. 49].
b) SF2 'The action is due to take place according to a previous agreement, contract, schedule, timetable':
It was arranged that I should go ahead of her <. > to see to the provisions for our party <.> [15, p. 96].
c) SF3 'The prospective action is seen as a logical consequence in the chain of events':
'Has your man recovered?' 'No, he's resting in the back - pulled ligament.' <...> 'Will your man be able to ride?' 'No, he won't be competing in this race again,' said the team manager [5, p. 390].
d) SF4 'The prospective action is seen as probable or even imminent due to its recurrent and customary character'1:
The sixteenth might be a good date, because by then most of the younger children will have gone back to boarding school [13, p. 17].
1 The repeated character of the action is explicated in the linguistic context.
e) SF5 'The prospective action is conditioned by widely accepted social practices, which are seen as stereotypical models of behaviour by the members of the given society':
'Grown-ups know things', said Piggy. <...> They'd meet and have tea and discuss. <...> They wouldn't set fire to the island. <...> They'd build a ship- <...>. They wouldn't quarrel- [11, p. 120]
f) SF6 'The prospective action is conditioned by the inner qualities of the object described in the utterance, which exist irrespective of the will of the speaker, rather than by exterior circumstances':
'How you've grown!' and 'Good gracious me, you'll be getting a moustache soon' [12, p. 110].
3. General SF3 "Neutral Future" (structurally or lexically conditioned use) - has a homogeneous semantic structure, with a neutralised modal component, and is specified by one concrete SF 'Neutral Future':
Later on, maybe, when I've got used to being without him [13, p. 193].
The analysis of the semantic potential of the English Future enables us to make the following conclusions.
First ofall, the Future appears to be intrinsically linked with Modality, both in its 'external' and 'internal' semantics. The invariable, internal, component reveals itself as the hypothetical character of the future events, which are described by the speaker as possible, and yet uncertain, with different degrees of probability. The variable, external, component is explicated in a whole range of meanings, such as promise, intention, compulsion, etc., depending on the way the speaker regards and evaluates the prospective situation. The only exception is the Neutral Future, when the speaker refrains from expressing his / her personal evaluation of the upcoming events, merely stating that they are about to take place. But even in this case, the future is not purely a-modal, as the internal modality ofhypothesizing and prognostication is always present in its semantic structure.
If we take one step further and trace the representation of the described semantic complexes on the cognitive level, we will see that they are correlated with a set of concepts, which reveal an intricate interplay of the cognizing and evaluating activities of the individual.
Concept 'will'
Concept 'agreement'
Concept 'probability'
t
i
i
General SF1 'An action in the future whose realisation depends on the addresser's will'
Concept 'obligation'
Concept 'logical necessity'
t
i
General SF2 'An action in the future whose realisation is determined by exterior factors which act as a compelling force in relation to the addresser'
Finally, the phenomenon of intercategorial interaction has its consequences for the repertoire of language means used to express the semantics of the future. As can be seen from the examples above, in many cases the speaker chooses lexico-grammatical or lexical means, rather than morphological tense forms, which become available to him as a result of intersection and overlapping of the Functional Semantic Fields of Time and Modality. At the same time, the preference of lexical to morphological means is not coincidental but reflects different ways of scanning a cognitive situation (sequential or summary).
Now let us see how the categories of Time and Modality interact in the sphere of the Past, and how their interaction affects the semantics of this temporal category.
In contrast to the Future, whose semantic potential is mainly made up of temporal and modal components, the semantics of the Past seems to be a far more complex phenomenon.
1. It is bound up with the semantics of Aspect1, a language category which either represents a holistic perspective of the past event describing it as completed, bounded, often with a specified end-point, or imposes a fragmented view of the action focusing on one stage in its development, when it was still in progress.
2. It necessarily includes the semantics of Order, as the speaker perceives the relations between events not only as temporal, but also as connected, structured in a certain way, with emphasis on the simultaneity, precedence or posteriority of events in the chain.
1 It is interesting to note that according to psychological data, our perception of continuity and discreteness is one of the basic temporal order judgements.
3. It is intrinsically linked with Modality1, as a number of modal meanings are typically realized in the past-time context (see below).
4. It is logically connected with the category of Causality, as 'causal inferences can be drawn from the mere juxtaposition of sentences or clauses which may or may not be connected by explicit temporal markers' [16].
5. It is realized in Discourse and, hence, is involved in expressing such discursive relations as explanation and result, insertion, regulation and dependency.
As this paper deals with the interaction between the categories of Time and Modality, the analysis will have to be limited to the description of the modal component of the English Past, but in passing we would like to mention that all of the above-mentioned components have to be considered for a comprehensive account of the semantics of the past.
1 The semantics of the Past also intersects with the category of Evidentiality, which is expressed by non-grammatical means in English but finds a regular grammatical expression in some other languages. The main idea here is the possibility of using different linguistic markers for witnessed and non-witnessed events (that is, events the speaker is more or less certain of).
We believe that of all the numerous semantic functions of the Functional Semantic Category of Modality1, the following seven lie in the intersection between the categories of Past and Modality, as they are often realized in the past time context2 (all the following examples are taken from BNC [9]).
1. Modality of reality:
He became embarrassed when he found the woman's eyes tight on him.
2. Modality of unreality:
There, gazing out from the balconies and look-out points, they imagined they were on board frigates and corvettes and that they had cannons and decks.
3. Modality of possibility (as a variant of potential modality):
Ted still couldn't work out how Wayne was able to cover the distance from the door to the CD player so fast.
4. Modality of necessity (as a variant of potential modality):
As a result, the Labour Party was forced to alter many of its once-cherished policies during the mid- and late 1930s.
5. Modality of probability (as a variant of epistemic modality):
It was a landscape which Coleridge probably knew well by the time of his autumn visit, and to whose spectacular beauty he was to introduce the Wordsworths before the year ended.
6. Modality of uncertainty (as a variant of epistemic modality): Did we really meet just over a month ago?
7. Modality of logical necessity (as a variant of epistemic modality):
So, when issues of equal opportunity were raised in the organization where we also work together, I was naturally interested in participating in the debates and in the attempts to change the things around me.
1 For more detail see [1].
2 When selecting examples to illustrate these SFs, it was our intention to pick out sentences which have a combination of a morphological tense form and a modal marker, rather than those which are built around a modal verb or a Subjunctive Mood form, as the use of these combined means of expression further highlights the underlying combined semantics of the past.
In the section to follow we provide a sample analysis1 of two (out of seven) semantic functions of the Past, viewed as the cumulative effect of the temporal and modal semantic components.
1. Concrete point localization (a single or repeated action happening
at a definite time in the past):
a) Combined with the Modal SF 'Reality':
We settled down to dinner at 8p.m. and at 10p.m.
b) Combined with the Modal SF 'Unreality': NOT FOUND
c) Combined with the Modal SF 'Possibility':
Not bad for a little girl of 4 who, just over a year ago, couldn't speak a word of English (could barely speak, indeed, a word of anything).
d) Combined with the Modal SF 'Necessity':
Last year Mr O'Neill was obliged to raise taxes by $1 billion and to cut both spending and staff.
e) Combined with the Modal SF 'Probability':
It is believed that Mr Christie in Edinburgh last night met the four remaining directors on the board, the former chairman, Hamish Deans, and his son George, and Jim Johnston and the Edinburgh lawyer Sandy Moffat.
f) Combined with the Modal SF 'Uncertainty':
I had no idea whether I was into it myself, but for some reason just then the idea seemed rather intriguing.
g) Combined with the Modal SF 'Logical Necessity':
She kept maniacally busy so as not to feel sorrow and set herself the goal of working so hard that at night she fell into bed exhausted.
1 As the starting point for our research, we had insights from the works by three linguists: I. Reznik [3], who developed a list of temporal SFs of the Past; E. Belyaeva [1], who provided a detailed analysis of the FSC of Modality and its various meanings; and T. Tenbrink [16], who analysed spatial and temporal prepositions, and specified some discourse functions of the Past. So, there were two separate traditions of analysis - temporal and modal - and the principal objective of the present research was to try to bring them together.
2. Correlative localization: simultaneity (partial or full):
a) Combined with the Modal SF 'Reality':
There, she was high up above the woods, but instead of being able to see all that was going on below for miles around, as she had expected, all she could see was - leaves!
b) Combined with the Modal SF 'Unreality':
I felt guilty for challenging his motives and, even though a tiny corner of my mind was hearing an imaginary Ellen scoff at my naivety, I believed the senator's sudden and passionate sincerity.
c) Combined with the Modal SF 'Possibility': Fair was being able to control how she felt.
d) Combined with the Modal SF 'Necessity':
Cameron realized he was having to form his words carefully.
e) Combined with the Modal SF 'Probability':
No one would dare say that it was his fault outright, but he knew what was going on in everyone else's mind.
f) Combined with the Modal SF 'Uncertainty':
Thinking so hard about it, he thought for a moment he was hearing guns.
g) Combined with the Modal SF 'Logical Necessity':
They expected me to live on supplementary benefit so I was having to work the street, trying to get my house together.
Our analysis of the semantic functions of the Past provides a better insight into its complex semantics.
First of all, it is quite apparent that the meanings of the past tense forms cannot be always described in purely temporal terms (point localization, simultaneity, precedence, volume localization, etc.); viewed against the background of a broader linguistic context, they appear to overlap with modal meanings, which can be expressed by a wide repertoire of language means, including lexical markers.
Second, not all the semantic functions of Modality are 'compatible' with the past-time context (for instance, the SF of volition is naturally
missing as the action imposed or desired by the speaker is directed into the future).
Furthermore, various means of expression available to the speaker are unequally distributed across the SFs: there seems to be a certain resistance to the use of means of expressing unreality with those SFs whose semantic structure intrinsically includes some kind of temporal markers - the SFs of concrete point localization, volume direct and indirect localization. Supposedly, it might be explained by the fact that an unreal action is content - rather than context - based, that is, the speaker is more interested in describing what might happen than stating exactly when it might happen. Viewed from another perspective, this explains why the SF 'Unreality' is quite typical in the context of general point localization and all the three types of correlative localization: with these SFs it is the occurrence of a past action in isolation or as a part of a chain of events that matters, and not its temporal boundaries.
Finally, a few concluding remarks about the interplay of temporal and modal meanings in the sphere of the Future and the Past.
The initial step in our analysis was to outline a range of interacting categories and specify the extent of their impact on the complex semantics of the two Functional Semantic Categories - the Future and the Past. It turned out that the Future is closely intertwined with Modality, which is accounted for by the very nature of our conceptualization of prospective events. In contrast to the Future, the semantics of the Past is highly sensitive to the meanings of a wider range of language categories, including the categories of Aspect, Order and Modality, as well as some others. On the one hand, it proves a universal character of the phenomenon of intercategorial interaction. But on the other hand, it highlights an important difference in our conceptualization of the Future and the Past: prognostication, hypothesizing, expectation and evaluation (Modality) would be the key terms for the Future, and witnessing (Aspect), evaluation (Modality), structuring (Order) and reporting (Discourse functions) - for the Past.
If we bear this difference in mind, it explains why the method of modelling the semantic relations in the Future and the Past was not quite the same: the SFs of the Future were all centered around Modality (for example, the SFs 'willingness / unwillingness', 'promise', 'intention', 'evaluation of probability', etc.), whereas the semantics of the Past was a combined effect of several basic types of temporal and modal SFs (for example, the SFs
'concrete point localization' + 'necessity', 'general point localization' + 'probability', 'volume direct localization' + 'uncertainty', etc.).
If we go fUrther, different modelling schemes reveal potential differences in our mental picture of the future and the past events: the former is structured around the cognizing individual and his feelings about the prospective situation, while the latter shifts the focus of attention to the event itself, and the individual becomes an onlooker, a reporter even if he reports the events he was personally involved in1.
Another important conclusion is that the interplay of categorial semantics on the deep level is mirrored by the use of heterogeneous language means of expression on the surface level: future meanings are frequently expressed by modally-coloured lexical and lexico-grammatical constructions, whereas in the past we typically find a combination of a morphological tense form and a modal lexical marker.
To conclude it all, our research shows that a holistic picture of the semantics of the future and the past need not be 'monochrome': its palette should include temporal, modal, as well as a number of other hues -a timid attempt at capturing the complexity of the cognizing activity of the human mind.
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