Problem of meaning ambiguity in a language
Functional Re-evaluation of Grammatical Forms in Context. Problem of
meaning ambiguity in a language
Plan
1.
The
meaning of ambiguity
2.
Lexical
ambiguity
3.
Structural
ambiguity
4.
Semantic
ambiguity
5.
Re-evaluation
of Verb. Aspect meaning
6.
Meaning
of category of Voice
7.
Category
of Tense
8.
The most controversial category –Mood
9.
Synonymy in Grammar
Conclusion
Literature
“Understanding
a sentence is much more akin to understanding a theme in music than one may
think.”
—Ludwig
Wittgenstein
What
does ambiguity do? How is poetic indeterminacy constitutive of propositional
content? Do rhetorical and poetic tropes organize communicative acts in order
to make them more understandable? Or do they rather dis-organize them in order
to make them more understandable? What, then, is “understanding”? Does “the
call of the phoneme” (Culler 1988) clarify and crystallize semantic reference? Distract
us from the clarity of semantic reference? Simply distract us? The potential
attraction and distraction of ambiguity is ever-present in discourse.
Language is an
organizer of the world into meaningful units and gives form to experience.
However, this organizing role of language is, by a number of accounts, the root
cause of both the possibility of meaning and the inevitability of ambiguity.
Because languages are inevitably smaller than the worlds of experience they
describe, words have get more than one meaning.
The problem of potential polysemy in grammar is one of the most important,
the one which is very complex and seems to be relevant to a number of aspects.
Observations in this area have proved the efficiency of contextual, distributional
and transformational methods of linguistic analysis. We distinguish here the
interdependence of word-forms within the syntactic structure, the
interdependence of elements within the word-forms and the influence of other
levels of the same language.
1. The meaning of ambiguity
A
word, phrase, or sentence is ambiguous if it has more than one meaning. The
word 'light', for example, can mean not very heavy or not very dark. Words like
'light', 'note', 'bear' and 'over' are lexically
ambiguous. They induce ambiguity in phrases or sentences in which they occur,
such as 'light suit' and 'The duchess can't bear children'.
However, phrases and sentences can be ambiguous even if none of their
constituents is. The phrase 'porcelain egg container' is structurally
ambiguous, as is the sentence 'The police shot the rioters with guns'.
Ambiguity can have both a lexical and a structural basis, as with sentences
like 'I left her behind for you' and 'He saw her duck'.
The
notion of ambiguity has philosophical applications. For example, identifying an
ambiguity can aid in solving a philosophical problem. Suppose one wonders how
two people can have the same idea, say of a unicorn. This can seem puzzling
until one distinguishes 'idea' in the sense of a particular psychological
occurrence, a mental representation, from 'idea' in the sense of an abstract,
shareable concept. On the other hand, gratuitous claims of ambiguity can make
for overly simple solutions. Accordingly, the question arises of how genuine
ambiguities can be distinguished from spurious ones. Part of the answer
consists in identifying phenomena with which ambiguity may be confused, such as
vagueness, unclarity, inexplicitness and indexicality.
Although
people are sometimes said to be ambiguous in how they use language, ambiguity
is, strictly speaking, a property of linguistic expressions. A word, phrase, or
sentence is ambiguous if it has more than one meaning. Obviously this
definition does not say what meanings are or what it is for an expression to
have one (or more than one). For a particular language, this information is
provided by a grammar, which systematically pairs forms with meanings,
ambiguous forms with more than one meaning
2. Lexical ambiguity
Lexical
ambiguity is more common. Everyday examples include nouns like 'chip', 'pen'
and 'suit', verbs like 'call', 'draw' and 'run',
and adjectives like 'deep', 'dry' and 'hard'. There are
various tests for ambiguity. One test is having two unrelated antonyms, as with
'hard', which has both 'soft' and 'easy' as opposites.
Another is the conjunction reduction test. Consider the sentence, 'The
tailor pressed one suit in his shop and one in the municipal court'.
Evidence that the word 'suit' (not to mention 'press') is
ambiguous is provided by the anomaly of the 'crossed interpretation' of
the sentence, on which 'suit' is used to refer to an article of clothing
and 'one' to a legal action.
The
above examples of ambiguity are each a case of one word with more than one
meaning. However, it is not always clear when we have only one word. The verb 'desert'
and the noun 'dessert', which sound the same but are spelled
differently, count as distinct words (they are homonyms). So do the noun 'bear'
and the verb 'bear', even though they not only sound the same but are
spelled the same? These examples may be clear cases of homonymy, but what about
the noun 'respect' and the verb 'respect' or the preposition 'over'
and the adjective 'over'? Are the members of these pairs homonyms or
different forms of the same word? There is no general consensus on how to draw
the line between cases of one ambiguous word and cases of two homonymous words.
Perhaps the difference is ultimately arbitrary.
Sometimes
one meaning of a word is derived from another. For example, the cognitive sense
of 'see' seems derived from its visual sense. The sense of 'weigh' in 'He
weighed the package' is derived from its sense in 'The package weighed
two pounds'. Similarly, the transitive senses of 'burn', 'fly' and 'walk'
are derived from their intransitive senses. Now it could be argued that in each
of these cases the derived sense does not really qualify as a second meaning of
the word but is actually the result of a lexical operation on the underived sense.
This argument is plausible to the extent that the phenomenon is systematic and
general, rather than peculiar to particular words. Lexical semantics has the
task of identifying and characterizing such systematic phemena. It is also
concerned to explain the rich and subtle semantic behavior of common and highly
flexible words like the verbs 'do' and 'put' and the prepositions
'at', 'in' and 'to'. Each of these words has uses which
are so numerous yet so closely related that they are often described as 'polysemous'
rather than ambiguous.
3. Structural ambiguity
Structural
ambiguity occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying
structure, such as the phrases 'Tibetan history teacher', 'a student
of high moral principles' and 'short men and women', and the
sentences 'The girl hit the boy with a book' and 'Visiting relatives
can be boring'. These ambiguities are said to be structural because each
such phrase can be represented in two structurally different ways, e.g., '[Tibetan
history] teacher' and 'Tibetan [history teacher]'. Indeed, the
existence of such ambiguities provides strong evidence for a level of
underlying syntactic structure. Consider the structurally ambiguous sentence, 'The
chicken is ready to eat', which could be used to describe either a hungry
chicken or a broiled chicken. It is arguable that the operative reading depends
on whether or not the implicit subject of the infinitive clause 'to eat'
is tied anaphorically to the subject ('the chicken') of the main clause.
It
is not always clear when we have a case of structural ambiguity. Consider, for
example, the elliptical sentence, 'Perot knows a richer man than Trump'.
It has two meanings, that Perot knows a man who is richer than Trump and that
Perot knows man who is richer than any man Trump knows, and is therefore
ambiguous. But what about the sentence 'John loves his mother and so does
Bill'? It can be used to say either that John loves John's mother and Bill
loves Bill's mother or that John loves John's mother and Bill loves John's
mother. But is it really ambiguous? One might argue that the clause 'so does
Bill' is unambiguous and may be read unequivocally as saying in the context
that Bill does the same thing that John does, and although there are two different
possibilities for what counts as doing the same thing, these alternatives are
not fixed semantically. Hence the ambiguity is merely apparent and better
described as semantic underdetermination.
Although
ambiguity is fundamentally a property of linguistic expressions, people are
also said to be ambiguous on occasion in how they use language. This can occur
if, even when their words are unambiguous, their words do not make what they
mean uniquely determinable. Strictly speaking, however, ambiguity is a semantic
phenomenon, involving linguistic meaning rather than speaker meaning;
'pragmatic ambiguity' is an oxymoron. Generally when one uses ambiguous words
or sentences, one does not consciously entertain their unintended meanings,
although there is psycholinguistic evidence that when one hears ambiguous
context of utterance words one momentarily accesses and then rules out their
irrelevant senses. When people use ambiguous language, generally its ambiguity
is not intended. Occasionally, however, ambiguity is deliberate, as with an
utterance of 'I'd like to see more of you' when intended to be taken in more
than one way in the very same.
4. Semantic ambiguity
Sentences whose
semantic contents seem to differ in different contexts, in virtue of containing
expressions of such sorts as the following (there may be others):
• indexicals/demonstratives:
[tense], I, today, now, here, we, you, she, they, then, there, that, those
• relational
terms: neighbor, fan, enemy, local, foreign
• perspectival
terms: left, distant, up, behind, foreground, horizon, faint, occluded, clear,
obscure
• gradable
adjectives, both relative and absolute: tall, old, fast, smart; flat, empty,
pure, dry
• philosophically
interesting terms: know, might, necessary, if, ought, free
• prepositions:
in, on, to, at, for, with
• certain
short verbs: put, get, go, take
• possessive
phrases, adjectival phrases, noun-noun pairs: John’s car, John’s hometown,
John’s boss, John’s company; fast car, fast driver, fast tires, fast time; child
abuse, drug abuse; vitamin pill, pain pill, diet pill, sleeping pill
• implicit
temporal, spatial, and quantifier domain restriction
• weather and
other environmental reports: (It is) raining, humid, noon, summer, noisy, eerie
• ostensibly unary
expressions (when used without complements) that denote binary relations: ready,
late, finish, strong enough
• “predicates
of personal taste”: fun, boring, tasty, cute, sexy, gross, cool
• miscellaneous:
and, or, cut, (is) green
The problems
with these content misunderstandings are as follow:
1.Contextualist
platitude: Many sentences, even with all their constituents being used literally
and even factoring out ambiguity, can be used to mean different things in
different contexts. (This doesn’t entail that there’s anything
context-sensitive in or about the sentence itself.)
2. Anti-compositionalism:
Many (declarative) sentences semantically express propositions that are not
completely determined by the semantic contents of their constituents and their
syntactic structure.
3.
Unarticulated Constituentism: Many sentences semantically express propositions some
of whose constituents are not the semantic contents of any of the sentence’s
constituents.
4.
Anti-propositionalism: Many sentences do not semantically express propositions,
even in contexts (because of lexical underspecificity, phrasal underdetermination,
or propositional incompleteness).
5.
Psychological Anti-semanticism: The compositionally determined semantic content
of a sentence, whether or not fully propositional, plays no role in the psychological
processes involved in communication (on either the speaker’s or the hearer’s
side).
6. Outright
Anti-semanticism: Many sentences do not have (compositionally determined)
semantic contents at all.
7. Utterance
“Contextualism”: The semantic content of almost any given sentence, whether or
not it is fully propositional, falls short of the “intuitive content” of a likely
utterance of the sentence because its semantic content is too sketchy,
abstract, or otherwise nonspecific to be what the speaker means.
Three forms of
semantic contents (each can be stronger or weaker as to range of application
and role of context, and perhaps different versions apply to different classes
of expressions):
1. Indexical Contextualism:
The semantic contents of many sentences vary because they contain “non-obvious”
indexical expressions whose contents are determined by context.
2. Variable Contextualism:
The semantic contents of many sentences vary because they contain expressions
that have variables associated with them whose values are determined by context.
3.
Modulational Contextualism: The semantic contents of many sentences vary
because they contain expressions whose senses (and/or phrases whose modes of
composition) are “modulated” by context.
5. Re-evaluation of Verb. Aspect meaning
Functional re-evaluation of grammatical forms is a source of constant
linguistic interest. We may say that whatever may be the other problems of
grammar learning the polysemantic character of grammatical forms is always
primary in importance.
Most grammatical forms are
polysemantic. On this level of linguistic analysis distinction should be made
between synchronic and potential polysemy.
The aspective meaning of the verb reflects the mode of the realization of
the process. The opposition of the continuous forms of the verb to the
non-continuous represents the aspective category of development. In symbolic
notation it is represented by the formula be...ing. The primary denotative meaning of the
Present Continuous is characterised by three semantic elements : a) present
time, b) something progressive, c) contact with the moment of speech. The three
meanings make up its synchronic polysemy.
By potential polysemy we mean the ability of a grammatical form to have
different connotative meanings in various contexts of its uses. Examine for
illustration the connotative (syntagmatic) meanings of the Present Continuous
signalled by the context in the following sentences:
Brian 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 am. To Pauline (Sillitoe) — future time reference. "It
was a wedding in the country. The best man makes a speech. He is beaming all
over his face, and he calls for attention... (Gordon) — past time reference; ... "I'm sorry", he said, his teeth
together, "You're not going in there". (Gordon) — the Present Continuous with the
implication of imperative modality;
"I
am
always thinking of him", said she. (Maugham) — recurrent actions; She is
always grumbling about trifles — the qualitative Present,
the permanent characteristic of the subject.
Four combinations of the continuous and the indefinite
are possible in principle in Modern English. E.g.: While I was typing, Mary
and Tom were chatting in the adjoining room. While I typing, Tom and Mary were
chatting in the adjoining room. While I was typing, they chatted in ... While I
typed, they chatted.
Clearly, the difference in meaning cannot lie in their
time denotations. The time is shown by their time signals (were - ed). The
meaningful difference consists in the following: the continuous shows the
action in the very process of its realization; the indefinite points it out as
a mere fact. We speak of the morphological category of the verb, but care
should be taken that the character of the development of the action may also be
expressed lexically or remain implicit. E.g.: When I entered the room he
was writing a letter. He wrote and wrote the letter (lexically). When I
entered the room, he wrote a letter.
In the last sentence the form of the verb doesn't
express the Continuous aspect explicitly because the speaker isn't interested
in the action, but in the object of the action. The Continuous refers a to a
definite time-point. The category of development undergoes explicit various
reductions:
1. The unlimitive verbs are very easily neutralized
Ex. The night is wonderfully silent. The stars shine with a fierce
brilliancy, the Southern Cross and wind. The Duke's face seemed blushed, and
more lined than some of his recent photographs showed. He held a glass in his
hand.
2. As to the statal verbs,
their neutralization amounts to a grammatical rule. They are so called
"never-used-in-the-Continuous" verbs: a) the unique “to be”
and “to have”; b) verbs of possession, verbs of relation, of physical
perception, of mental perception
3.
Worthy of note is the regular neutralization with the introductory verb supporting
the participial construction of parallel action. Ex. He stood smoking a
pipe. Not normally: He was standing smoking.
4. On the other hand, the Continuous can
be used to denote habitual, recurrent actions. Continuous verb forms are more
expressive than non-continuous - they are used in emotional speech. Ex.: He
is always complaining.
5. Special note should be of the
broadening use of the Continuous with unlimitive verbs. Here are some typical
examples. Ex. I heard a rumor that a certain member here present has been
seeing the prisoner this afternoon (E.M. Forster). I had a horrid
feeling she was seeing right through me and knowing all about me. What matters
is, you're being damn fools (A.Hailey)
6. Compare similar transpositions in the expressions
of anticipated future. E.g.: Dr. Aarons will be seeing the patient this
morning (A.Hailey). Soon we shall be hearing the news about the docking
of the spaceships having gone through.
Since the
neutralization of the Continuous with these verbs is quite regular, we have an
emphatic reduction serving the purpose of speech expressiveness.
How mysterious women were! One lived alongside and knew nothing of them. What
could she have seen in that fellow Bosinney to send her mad? For there was
madness after all in what she had done — crazy moonstruck madness, in which
all sense of values had been lost, and her life and his life ruined! (Galsworthy)
It's a kind of queer peace, and I often wonder how I could have been
so torn and tortured. (Galsworthy)
It is important to remember that could + Infinitive II may imply two diametrically
opposite meanings: a) a real action in the past and b) a non-fact with
reference to the past. And here the implied context is all that can be
considered relevant.
6. Meaning of category of Voice
The category
of Voice expresses relations between the subject and the object of the action
or between the subject and the action.
The opposition
of the passive form of the verb to the active form of the verb expresses the
voice of the English Verb. E.g.: writes - is written. The passive form
is the strong member of the opposition. On the plane of expression it is marked
by the combination of the auxiliary be with the Past Participle of the notional
verb. The agent may be expressed in the sentence and it's usually introduced
with the help of the preposition by. Ex. The book is written by a young
writer.
The sentence
with the passive voice may include a means of the action, which is introduced,
with the help of the conjunction with. Ex. The book is covered with a
newspaper.
The category
of voice has a much broader representation in the system of the English verb than
in the system of the Ukrainian verb, since in English not only transitive but
also intransitive verbs can be used.
The
demarcation line between the passivized and non-passivized set is not rigid,
and the verbs of the non-passivized set may migrate into the passivized set in
various contexts. Ex. The bed has not been slept in. The house seems not to
have been lived in.
Sometimes the
opposition between 2 forms may be reduced. It means that the verb may be used
in the Active Voice form with the meaning of the Passive Voice.
Some verbs which are usually followed by an object (to sell, to cut, to
wash) can be used without an object and take on a passive meaning. In this case,
the person carrying out the action of the Verb is not referred to. Ex. This
book sells well, i.e. it is sold to many people. The dress washes/irons well,
i.e. it is easily washed/ironed. This material makes up nicely into suits, i.e.
it can be used by the tailor for making suits. The butter spreads easily, i.e.
it can be spread easily. The bread is cutting badly because it's very soft,
i.e. to cut the bread is difficult. Other tenses may also be used. The
book sold well. The dress has washed well. The material will make up nicely.
Note: the verbs are followed by adverbs in the above examples. It is also
possible to omit the adverb, if the meaning is clear. This is often the case in
the question form and in the negative. E.g.: The book didn't sell, so it
wasn't reprinted. The dress is very pretty. Will it wash? The material should
make up into a winter dress, shouldn't it? Butter won’t spread when it's been
in the fridge. Will the bread cut? If not, try the other knife.
There are some other verbs of this sort, with the nouns (subjects) that
they are often used with in this construction
(A car) drives, steers
(A boat) sails
(A clock) winds up
(A door) locks, unlocks
(A book) reads well / easily, i.e. the book is good / easy to read.
Large native
cigarettes smoked easily and coolly. The lion chops will eat better than they
look.
Besides there 2 Voice some authors speak of some more Voice forms. The
most popular are the Reflexive Voice and the Reciprocal Voice and the Middle
Voice. Ex. She dressed herself. They helped each other.
The reflexive and reciprocal pronouns should be looked upon as the voice
auxiliaries. Such word combinations are treated as analytical verb forms of the
Reflexive or Reciprocal voice . However we can't agree to the idea , because :
1. The reflexive/reciprocal pronouns preserve their lexical meaning but
auxiliaries in analytical forms loose their meanings.
2. There are syntactic relations between the components. The reflexive /
reciprocal pronouns are objects to the verbs. We can prove this by using
homogeneous objects. Ex. He dressed himself and his brother. They praised
one another and all the quests. He defended himself, a victim of the situation.
Hence, such word combinations are free word combinations. As for the
Middle Voice, some authors find it when comparing the following sentences: Ex. He
opened the door.-The door opened.
The Middle Voice uses are cases of neutralizing reduction of the voice
oppositions. Ex. He broke the ice.-The ice broke.
The verbs are active in form, but passive in meaning. Ex. She was
delightful to look at, witty to talk to.
Another case of neutralization: You are mistaken (Passive in form, but
active in meaning). It expresses a state.
The forms of
the Active Voice can't be opposed and it there is no opposition we can't speak
of any special grammatical category. In sentences like “the door opened” we
should speak of medial verbs in the Active Voice.
7. Category of Tense
Traditional grammar speaks of 16 tense forms in
English but actually there exist only 4 of them. The matter is that when
speaking about an action we express its primary characteristics of tense but
then it may be necessary to show the character of the development of the action
or to compare the action with some other one and then in such cases the primary
tense category is modified by some other verb categories such as aspect
(continuous or non-continuous), perfect (perfect or non-perfect).
So we get complex analytical forms, which express not
one category of tense but a number of them. Ex. If we analyze such forms, as
"is reading" we should say that this verb expresses Present Tense and
continuous aspect. Hence the modification of the category of Tense by the
category of aspect brings about the appearance of 16 verb forms.
When speaking about the category of tense we should
remember that we distinguish different tense forms on the basis of some
opposition. But in a number of cases these oppositions may be reduced. It means
that morphological form typical of one tense may express the meaning of some
other tense. We usually observe it in definite contexts.
Ex. The form of the Present Tense may express the
meaning of the Past, Future Tense in subordinate clauses of time and
condition (If I see him tomorrow I will ask him to do it for you).
Besides the Present Tense may be used to express an
action planned for the Future especially with verbs of motion.
When dealing with the category of tense we should
touch upon one more problems, which is typical of English. The problem is known
as the Sequence of Tenses. In English if the predicate verb in the main clause
of a complex sentence is used in the past tense, the predicate verbs in the
subordinate clauses саn be used in the present or future tenses. The Present Tense
is replaced by the Past Tense modified or not modified by the Perfect and the
Future Tense is replaced by the Future-in-the-Past.
The Sequence of Tenses is explained by many
traditional grammars as a mechanical shift of tenses. However, this explanation
can’t be treated as adequate. No mechanical shift takes place.
In the events in the main and subordinate clauses are
simultaneous, then the same tense forms are used. If the events of the
subordinate clause precede the events of the main clause, than the predicate
verb in the subordinate clause is modified by the Perfect.
In the actions the subordinate clause follow the
events of the main clause, then the predicate verb takes the specific form in
the Future-in-the-Past.
We observe this correlation of events only when the
starting temporal center is in the Past.
But if the starting point is in the Present, no
sequence of tenses is observed and we use any tense form in the
subordinate clause or clauses, which is required by the logical sequence of
events. So what we mean by the traditional term Sequence of Tenses that is in
reality sequence of events is nothing but a synthesis of two categorical
notions:
1) The category of tense which expresses the relation
of the action to some moment of time.;
2) The category of perfect, which expresses the
relation of actions to each other.
7. The most controversial category
–Mood
The category of Mood is the most controversial
category of the verb.
B.A. Ilyish: " The category of mood in the
present English verb has given rise to so many discussions, and has been
treated in so many different ways, that it seems hardly possible to arrive at
any more less convincing and universally acceptable conclusion concerning
it."
The category of Mood expresses the
relations between the action, denoted by the verb, and the actual reality from
the point of view of the speaker. The speaker may treat the action/event as
real, unreal or problematic or as fact that really happened, happens or will
happen, or as an imaginary phenomenon.
It follows from this that the category of Mood may be
presented by the opposition
obligue mood - direct mood
= unreality = reality.
The former is the strong member.
The latter is the weak member.
Mood relates the verbal action to such conditions as
certainty, obligation, necessity, and possibility.
The most disputable question in the category of mood
is the problem of number and types of Oblique Moods. Oblique Moods denote
unreal or problematic actions so they can't be modified by the category of
tense proper. They denote only relative time, that is simultaneousness or
priority. Due to the variety of forms it's impossible to make up regular
paradigms of Oblique Moods and so classify them.
Some authors pay more attention to the plane of
expression, other to the plane of content. So different authors speak of
different number and types of moods. The most popular in Grammar has become the
system of moods put forward By Prof. Smirnitsky. He speaks of 6 mood forms:
The Indicative Mood
The Imperative Mood
Subjunctive I
Subjunctive II
The Conditional Mood
The Suppositional Mood
Subjunctive I expresses a problematic
action. Subjunctive I is used in American English and in newspaper style.
Subjunctive I coincides with the Infinitive without the particle to. Ex.: Ring
me up if he would be there.
This mood is
expressed in English to a very minor extent (e.g.: So be it then!). It
is only used in certain set expressions, which have to be learned as wholes:
Come what may, we will go ahead.
God save the Queen!
Suffice it to say that...
Be
that as it may...
Heaven forbid that...
So be it then.
Long live the King!
Grammar be hanged!
This
Mood is also used in that clauses, when the main clause contains an expression
of recommendation, resolution, demand, etc. The use of this subjunctive I
occurs chiefly in formal style (and especially in Am E) where in less other
devices, such as to - infinitive or should = infinitive.
It is necessary that he be there.
It is necessary that he should be
there.
It is necessary for him to be there.
Subjunctive II denotes an unreal action
and it coincides in the form with the Past Indefinite Tense (Subjunctive II
Present) or Past Perfect (Subjunctive II Past). Ex.: I wish he had told the
truth. If only he were here!
Mood is expressed in English to a much greater extent
by past tense forms. E.g.:
If you taught me, I would learn
quickly.
If
she was/were to do smth like that.
He
spoke to me as if I was/ were deaf...
I
wish I was/were was
Note:
1) “Was” is more common in less formal style
2) Only “were” is acceptable in "As it
were" (= so to speak)
3) “Were” is usual in "If I were
you".
The Conditional Mood denotes an unreal action
and is built by the auxiliary verb "world" + any Infinitive a
non-perfect infinitive expresses simultaneousness while a perfect infinitive
expresses priority. E.g.: But for the rain we would go for a walk. But for
the rain we would have gone...
The Suppositional Mood also expresses a
problematic action and is formed with the help of the auxiliary verb
"should" for all the persons + Infinitive. E.g.: Ring me up if he
should be there.
This mood can be used with any verb
in subordinate that - clauses when the main clause contains an expression of
recommendation resolution, demand etc. (demand, require, insist, suggest...)
E.g.: It is necessary that every member should inform himself of these rules
= It is necessary for every member to inform... It is strange that he should
have left so early.
Subjunctive I and the Suppositional
Mood are differentiated only by their form but their meaning is the same.
Taking into consideration the fact that the forms of
the Oblique Moods coincide in many cases with the forms of the
Indicative Mood, there arises a problem of homonymy or polysemy. E.g.: He
lived here. (The indicative Mood, Past Tense, Priority, real action).
If only he lived! (Subjunctive II,
simultaneousness, unreal action)
The meaning of each necessary grammatical abstraction makes itself clear
only in the course of its usage.
Compare also the following patterns with the verb should:
Had I known about it, I should have come yesterday. (should + Infinitive II used with reference to
a non-fact).
That science in the USSR should have attained so high a level of development
is but natural (should + Infinitive II expressing a real action in the past with special emphasis
laid upon its realisation).
The variety of meaning as potentially implicit in a grammatical form, we
naturally associate with the development of synonymy in grammar.
8. Synonymy in Grammar
Synonymic forms in grammar are not exactly alike, they commonly have fine
shares of difference in style and purpose, and students need to be alive to
these differences. There is always selection in the distribution of grammatical
forms in actual speech. They must harmonise with the context as appropriate to
a given situation.
The change in synonymous grammatical forms is often a change in style,
and the effect on the reader is quite different. Even a slight alteration in
the grammatical device can subtly shift the meaning of the utterance. Examine
the following sentence:
"... Have you been wounding him?"
"It is my misfortune to be obliged to wound him", said Clara.
"Quite needlessly, my child, for marry him you must". (Dreiser)
Ellen had wrung her hands and counseled delay, in order that Scarlett
might think the matter over at greater length. But to her pleadings, Scarlett
turned a sullen face and a deaf ear. Marry she would! And quickly, too.
Within two weeks. (Mitchell)
Cf.: Marry she would! and She would marry.
We cannot fail to see that there is a marked difference in style between
the two verb forms: the former is neutral, the latter is highly expressive.
Similarly:
"But, no matter — when her foot healed she would walk to Jonesboro. It would be
the longest walk she had ever taken in her life, but walk it she
would". (Mitchell)
Cf.: walk it she would → she would walk it
As synonyms in grammar express different shades of the grammatical
meaning, one should be careful in the choice of the right forms, the best to
convey the subtler nuances of that meaning.
Knowledge of synonymic differentiation between the grammatical forms
permits a systematic, objective investigation and description of style.
With regard to the methodology employed in our description of synonymy in
grammar there are certain observations which are pertinent tо a summary statement. It will be
helpful to distinguish between a) paradigmatic synonyms and b) contextual
synonyms or synonyms by function in speech.
In English morphology synonyms of the first group are very few in number.
Such are, for instance, synthetical and analytical forms in the Subjunctive and
Suppositional Mood, e. g.:
...'I now move, that the report
and accounts for the year 1886 be received and adopted". (Galsworthy)
(be received and adopted = should be received and adopted)
Paradigmatic synonyms with similarity in function and structural features
may also be exemplified by the following:
Non-emphatic
Emphatic
|
|
Present Indefinite
|
I know
|
I do know
|
He knows
|
He does know
|
|
Past indefinite
|
I knew
|
I did know
|
|
Imperative Mood
|
Come
|
Do come
|
Analytical verbal forms with the intensive do can express a whole
variety of subjective modal meanings: pleasure, admiration, affection, surprise,
anger, mild reproach, encouragement, admonition, etc., e. g.
Oh! darling, don't ache! I do so hate it for you. (Galsworthy) There was
so much coming and going round the doors that they did not like to enter. Where
does he live? I did see him coming out of the hotel. (Galsworthy)
Eagerly her eyes searched the darkness. The roof seemed to be intact.
Could it be — could
it be — ?
No, it
wasn't possible. War stopped for no-thing, not even Tara, built to last five hundred
years. It could not have passed over Tara. Then the shadowy outline did take
form. The white walls did show there through the darkness. Tara had escaped. Home! (Mitchell)
But Swithin, hearing the name Irene, looked severely at Euphemia, who, it
is true, never did look well in a dress, whatever she may have done on other
occasions. (Galsworthy)
Strong emphasis is also produced by using pleonastic patterns with
segmentations, e. g.: He never did care for the river, did Montmorency. (Jerome)
As we have already said, there are no absolute synonyms in grammar.
Synonymic forms will generally differ either in various shades of the common
grammatical meaning, expressive connotation or in stylistic value. The former
may be referred to as relative synonyms, the latter as stylistic ones.
Further examples of paradigmatic synonyms will be found among the
so-called periphrastic forms of the English verb.
Relatively synonymous are, for instance, the Future Indefinite
tense-forms and the periphrastic "to be going to" future. A simple affirmative
statement of intention with no external circumstances mentioned (time,
condition, reason, etc.) is generally expressed by the periphrastic form. When
a future action depends on the external circumstances the "to be going
to" is rare. Cf.:
1. a) He will sell his house, (rare)
b) He's going to sell his house. (normal)
2. a) He'll sell it if you ask him. (normal)
b) He is going to sell it if you ask him. (rare) 1
To be going to with a personal subject implies a much stronger intention
than the Future Tense with shall/will does.
Patterns with the passive auxiliaries be and get will also
illustrate grammatical synonyms of the first type.
The passive forms in Modern English are represented by analytic
combinations of the auxiliary verb to be with the past participle of the
conjugated verb. The verb to get can also function as an auxiliary of
the passive, e. g.: (1) My dress got caught on a nail. (2) He got struck by a stone. these are not new usages,
but ones which are spreading.
To get seems closer to the true passive auxiliary be in patterns like the
following: She got blamed for everything. She gets teased by the other
children.
The stabilisation of lexico-grammatical devices to indicate the aspective
character of the action has also contributed to the development of synonymy in
Modern English.
A special interest attaches to contextual synonyms on the grammatica1 level created through transposition
of related grammatical forms, Neutralisation of the distinctive features of the
opposed grammatical forms leads to situational synonymy. Here are a few
examples to illustrate the statement:
(1) Are you coming to the PPRS Board on Tuesday? (Galsworthy) (The
Supposition Present — Future
is neutralised; Are you coming? is synonymus with Will you come?)
Similarly:
(2) Whom do you think I travelled with? Fleur Mont. We ran up against each
other at Victoria. She's taking her boy to boring next week to
convalesce him. (Galsworthy) (She's taking = she will take)
A special interest attaches to contextual synonyms on the grammatica1 level created through transposition
of related grammatical forms, Neutralisation of the distinctive features of the
opposed grammatical forms leads to situational synonymy. Here are a few
examples to illustrate the statement:
(1) Are you coming to the PPRS Board on Tuesday? (Galsworthy) (The
Supposition Present — Future
is neutralised; Are you coming? is synonymus with Will you come?)
Similarly:
(2) Whom do you think I travelled with? Fleur Mont. We ran up against each
other at Victoria. She's taking her boy to boring next week to
convalesce him. (Galsworthy) (She's taking = she will take)
Present Continuous and Present Indefinite may function as situational
synonyms in cases like the following:
(3)Dicky! said James. You are always wasting money on
something. (Galsworthy) (You are always wasting is synonymous with You
always waste).
(4)She is continually imagining dangers when they do
not exist. (She is imagining = she imagines).
(5)June read: Lake Okanagen. British Columbia, I'm not coming
back to England.
Bless you always.— John. (Galsworthy) (I'm not coming = = I shall not come).
(6)Fleur huddled her chin in her fur. It was easterly and cold.
A voice behind her said: Well, Fleur, am I going East? (Galsworthy) Cf. Am I
going East? = Shall
I go East?
Conclusion
In this essay we
have tried to prove that although ideational content is certainly an important
aspect of linguistic communication, it is a mistake to regard clarity of
referential meaning as a master skill, in two ways. First it is an error to
assume that all other words serve at the pleasure of communicating speaker’s
intended semantic reference; and second, it is an error to assume that all
meaningful linguistic action has clarity of referential meaning as its central
goal, or that only messages with clear referential content are in some sense
communicative. Polysemy, ambiguity, synonymy often helps achieve a
communicational goal.
No
doubt this strikes many readers as obvious. And yet, while we might say that in
the Western intellectual tradition they have always been recognized as an
inevitable feature of natural languages, we might say with more conviction that
they have usually been recognized as a problem. Sometimes they break clear
transmission of thought from a speaker to an audience and only undermine
meaning.
But
we propose two things: first, that ambiguity may in fact be productive of understanding
and not simply destructive of it; and second, that what we take as discourse
forms transparent to their ideational referents often are not. This approach
calls for reconsidering what we might mean when we speak of “understanding.”
Usually, understanding is taken to mean recognition of the cognitive content of
an utterance. We might well supplement this with a less technical idea which,
at the moment, we can only call “getting it.”
When
we think about linguistic communication as a multi-channel embodied
participatory experience, our focus shifts to features of contextualized
practice that are multimodal, multivocal, and lean more heavily on
non-propositional features of communication—features that have complicated
relationships to the preservation or presentation of clear referential content.
The general sense in the Western tradition has been that words organize
propositional content into more pleasing form—“good ideas, well expressed,” the
melding of form and content. But perhaps expressions work independently of
propositionality, sometimes aiding, sometimes undermining, sometimes stepping
into the breach where propositionality finds itself at a loss for words.
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