Stylistic potential of tense-aspect verbal forms in modern English

The change of the tense-forms with one and the same time reference is a most effective stylistic devices in expressive language. The historical present describes the past as if it is happening now: it conveys something of the dramatic immediacy of an eye-witness account. The phenomenon of present/past tense alternation is common in informal spoken narrative, conversations and letter writings.

3. Echo Utterances

In the discourse function echo utterances are either questions or exclamations.

1 Recapitulatory echo questions:

a) a yes-no questions or questions which repeat part or all message:

e.g. A: The Browns are emigrating.

B: Emigrating?

e.g. A: Switch the light off, please.

B: Switch the LIGHT OFF?

or

Switch the LIGHT OFF, did you say?

(to make the meaning explicit)

b) a wh-echo questions which indicates, by wh-words, which part of the previous utterance the speaker did not hear or understand;

e.g. A: It cost five dollars.

B: How much did it cost?

or

How much did you say it cost?

I (after wh-element only)

e.g. A: Switch the light off.

B: Switch WHAT off?

e.g. A: His son is a macro engineer.

B: His son is a WHAT?

NOTE: What may replace a verb: e.g.: She sat there and WHAT ted?

Stylistic purpose: to express irony, incredulity, or merely fill a conversational gap.

c) questions about questions:

e.g.: A: Have you borrow my PEN?

B: (Have I) borrow your PEN?

(a yes-no question about wh-question;

a wh-question about a yes-no question;

a wh-question about a wh-question)

2 Explicatory echo questions

They are always WH-questions, which ask for the clarification, rather than the repetition.

e.g.: A: Take a look at this!

B: Take a look at WHAT?

e.g. A: He's missed the bus again.

B: WHO's missed the bus?

e.g. A: Oh, dear, I've lost the letter.

B: WHICH letter I have you lost?

(do you mean you have lost?)

not «did»

3. Echo exclamations: the form of utterance to be repeated may be declarative, interrogative, imperative, or even exclamative.

Stylistic purpose: to express astonishment, amazement, confusion, wonderment, consternation.

e.g.: A: I'm going to London for a holiday.

B: To LONdon! That not my idea of a rest.

e.g.: A: Open the door, please.

B: Open the DOOR! Do you take me for a doorman?

Note: In the frame of our research we give follow examples from quoted literature, namely:

Examples from Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice:

e.g.: Jane: I was very much flattered by his asking me to dance a second time. I did not0 expect such a compliment.

Elizabeth: Did not you? I did for you.

e.g.: Mr. Bennet. The person of whom I speak is gentleman and a stranger.

Mrs. Bennet's eyes sparkled.-A gentleman and a stranger! It is Mr. Singly, I am sure. [4; 63]

e.g.: (Mr. Bingley) What think you of books? said he, smiling.

Jane. Books-Oh! no. I am sure we never read the same, or not with the same feelings! [4; 97].

e.g.: Mrs. Bennet. I cannot bear to think that they should have all this estate. If it was not for the entail, I should not mind it.

Mr. Bennet. What should not you mind?

Mrs. Bennet. I should not mind anything at all. [4; 135]

e.g.: Lady Catherine. Has your governess left you?

Miss Bennet. We never had any governess.

Lady Catherine. No governess. How was that possible?

Five daughters brought up at home without a governess! I never heard of such a thing. Your mother must have quite a slave to your education. [4; 168].

e.g.: (Colonel Fitzwilliam) «We are speaking of musik, madam,» said he, when to longer able to avoid a reply. Lady Catherine. Of music! Then pray speak aloud. It is all subjects my delight… [4; 176]

Examples from Wilkie Collins. The Women in White.

e.g.: The Count. Gently, Percival-gently! Are you insensible to the virtue of Lady Clyde?

Sir Percival. That for the virtue of Lady Clyde! I believe in nothing about her but her money… [2; 298]

e.g.: Mr. Fairlie…. Inexpressibly relieved, I am sure, to hear that nobody is dead. Anybody ill? «…Anybody ill?» - I repeated (Frederick)… [2; 315]

e.g.: «Where are you going? He (Sir Percival) said to Lady Glade.

«To Marian's room,» she answered.

«It may spare you a disappointment», remarked Sir Percival, «if I tell you at once that you will not find her there.»

«Not find her there!»

«No. She left the house yesterday morning with Fosco and his wife.» [2; 342]

Examples from Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.

e.g. «Are my feathers so very much rumpled? said Eugene, coolly going up to the looking-glass. «They are rather out of sorts. But consider. Such a night for plumage!

«Such a night? repeated Mortimer. «What became of you in the morning?» [5; 167]

e.g.: «Now, Lammle, «said fascination Fledge by, calmly feeling for his whisker, «it won't do. I won't be led into a discussion. I can't manage a discussion. But I can manage to hold my tongue.»

«Can? «Mr. Lammle fell back upon propitiation.» I should think you could! Why, when these fellows of our acquaintance drink, and you drink with them, the more talkative they get, the more silent you get. The more they let out, the more you keep in». [5; 252].

Echo utterances are recapitulatory echo questions, explicatory echo questions and echo exclamations. They repeat as a whole or in part what has been said by another speaker. They may take the form of any utterance or partial utterance in the language. The stylistic purpose is to express irony, sarcasm, incredulity, doubt, astonishment, amazement, confusion, wonder, or merely to fill in a conversational gap.

STYLISTIC POTENTIAL OF THE CONTINUOUS TENSE

1. Expression of anger or irritation with adverbs such «always, every time, continually, constantly, forever»:

e.g. «I am astonished, «said Miss Bingley,» that my fattier should have left so small a collection of books. What a delightful library you have at Pemberley, Mr. Darcy!

«It out to be good, «he replied,» it has been the work of many generations».

«And then you have added so much to it yourself, you are ALWAYS buying books.»

«I cannot comprehend the neglect of a family library in such days as these.» «Neglect!.»

[Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice. 4; 38].

e.g. «Indeed, «replied Elizabeth,» I am heartily sorry for him; but he has other feelings, which will probably soon drive away his regard for mee. You do not blame me, however, for refusing him?»

«Blame you! Oh, no.»

«But you are ALWAYS blaming me for having spoken so warmly of Wickham?» «No…» [J. Austen, 4; 227].

NOTE: In combination with always, continually, or forever, the progressive loses its semantic component of «temporariness» The speaker seems to suggest that «buying books» or «blaming me» are an irritating or deplorable habits.

e.g.: He is CONTINUALLY complaining about the noise Bill is ALWAYS /CONTINUALLY / FOREVER working late at office.

[R. Quirk, 28; 199, 543].

2. Future arising from present arrangement, plan, programme:

e.g.: «A fine evening, Miss Peecher», said the master.

«A fine evening, Mr. Headstone», said Miss Peecher. «Are you taking walk?»

«Hexam and I are going to take a long walk».

[Ch. Dickens. Our Mutual Friend, 5; 206].

e.g.: He (Sir Percival) stopped, and appeared to notice, for the first time, that we were in our walking costume. «Have you just come in?» he asked, «or were just going out?»

«We are all thinking of going to the lake this morning», said Laura. «But if you have any other arrangement to propose»

«No, no», he answered hastily. «My arrangement can wait…» [W. Collins, 2; 203].

e.g.: «If you think I might risk it, Miss, I'd like to slip round to my dentist.» - Oh! what race is being run this afternoon, then, topping?» [Galsworthy, 29; 145].

e.g.: Brain said to his cousin, «I'm signing on as well in a way, only for life.» I'm getting married».

Both stopped walking. Bert took his arm and stared,

«You're not.»

«I'm. To Pauline. [Sillitoe, 29; 144].

e.g. «I am going forwards, said the stranger, for Frankfort - and shall be back at Strasburg this day month…» -

«Its a long journey, Sir, replied the master of inn-unless a man has great business.»

[Laurence Sterne. Selected Prose and Letters, 21; 171].

e.g. «Right ho! Then brinh me my whangee, my yellowest shoes, and the pod green Homburg. I'm going into the Park to do pastoral dances».

[The Book of English Humor, 16; 85].

3. Imperative modality

e.g. He tried to brush Anthony aside. But Ahthony firmly stood his ground. «I'm sorry,» he said, his teeth together,

«You're not going in there». (Gordon)

NOTE: You are not going is SYNONYMOUS with Don't go! = Don't you go!

[N.M. Rayevska, 29; l45].

e.g. «We're going after buff in the morning», he told her.

«I'm coming», she said.

«No, you're not».

«Oh, yes, I am. Mayn't I, Francis?»

«We'll put on another show for you tomorrow», Francis Macomber said.

«You are not coining», Wilson said.

[Hemingway, 29; 145].

There are a lot of the subtle meaning associated with the progressive aspect. Syntagmatic connotative meanings of the Present Continuous signalled by different context, linguistic or situational, may denote: expression of anger or irritation; future arising from present, arrangement, plan and programme; the imperative modality and other expressive elements. We used literary texts to illustrate how various features of the continuous tense can be used in spoken English.

Transposition of grammatical forms will lead to their synonymic encounter:

- the Past Tense and the Historical Present;

- the Future Tense and the Present Tense;

- verb-forms of the Imperative and the Present Tense, and others.

2.2 The types of transpositions of verbal forms as stylistic means in the category of aspect

1. Iterative aspect

a) USE + TO infinitive: may denote not only repeated action in the past but permanent state in the remote past:

e.g.: «I had a look at Brane yesterday; he's changed a good deal from when I used to know him. I was one of the first to give him briefs».

[Galsworthy, 29; 133]

e.g.: There used to be a cinema here before the war. Life is not so easy here as it used to be.

[Hornby A.S., 45; 153]

e.g. «The workshops have been shut up half-an-hour or more in Adam Bede's timber yoard which used to be Jonathan Bridge's».

[Eliot, 29; 133]

e.g. «There used to be an old apple tree in the garden. Oh, did there?»

[C.E. Eckersley, 3v; 255]

NOTE: «used to V» is used by 39 from 42 of Englishmen.

[A.I. Dorodnykh, 8; 148]

It is important to mark that in this situations in Spoken English used to V is practised with verbs: to be (to exist), to grow, to know, to love, to hate, to work, to belong, to own.

e.g. «I had a look at Brane yesterday; he's changed a good deal from when I used to know him.»

[Galsworthy, 3; 109]

e.g «Michael went up to Fleur in the room she used to have as a little dirl- a single room, so that he had been sleeping elsewhere.»

[Galsworthy. 29; 133]

b) Would + V - infinitive as an action in the past:

e.g. «Catherine, weak-spirifed, irritable, and completely under Lydia's guidance, had been always affronted by their advice; and Lydia, self-willed and bare less, would scarcely give them a hearing. They were ignorant, idle, and vain. While there was an officer in Meryton, they would flirt with him; and while Meryton was within a walk of Long-bourn, they would be going there for ever».

[J. Austen. Pride and Prejudice, 4; 216]

e.g. «Sometimes Strickland would go down to the reef and come back wit a basket of small, coloured fish that Ata would fry in coconut, or with a lobster…»

[S. Maugham, 3; 111]

e.g. «Stimulated in course of time by the sight of so many successes, he would make another sally, make another loop, would all but have his foot on opposite pavement, would see or imagine something coming, and would stagger back again. There he would stand making spasmodic preparations as if for a great leap, and at last would decide on a start at precisely the wrong moment, and would be roared at by drivers, and would shrink back once more, and stand in the old spot shivering, with the whole of the proceedings to go through again».

[Ch. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, 5; 505]

The historical past tense of «will» is «would», often reduced in speech to «d. The combination of remoteness and likelihood as the conceptual basis of would generally leads to an interpretation of some event as being distant in time or possibility from the moment of speaking. The remoteness element in would, combined with the epistemic interpretation (deductions or conclusions made by the speaker) is an interpretation of the past habitual behavior.

c) Iterative aspect expressed by Verb + ON and ON / OVER and OVER AGAIN / TIME and TIME AGAIN.

e.g. «Remembering Mr. Dawson's caution to me, I subjected Mrs. Rublle to a severe scrutiny at certain intervals for the next three or four days. I over and over again entered the room softly and suddenly, but I never found her out in any «suspicious action.»

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