Bozhesku M.H.
Bukovina
State Academy of Finance, Chernivtsi
PHASE
SEQUENCE AND INCEPTIVE PHASE IN THE ASPECTUAL AND TEMPORAL PARADIGM
A number of papers have been devoted to the investigation
of the specific character of the aspectuality category, its components, as well as their means of expression. It`s worth
recollecting, for instance, such prominent scholars as Z.
Vendler (1967), T. Givon (1972, 1973), B. Comrie (1976), D.R. Dowty (1972,
1977), H.R. Mehlig (1981), Yu. S.
Maslov (1978, 1983, 1984), B.M. Balin (1979), T.V. Bulygina (1982), N. Yu.
Shvedova (1983), V.S. Khrakovsky (1986, 1987), A.V. Bondarko (1987, 2002), to mention only some of them. On the other hand, the
number of researches dedicated to the phase sequence is much more limited. The
most known are the investigations of combinability of verbal actants and
semantic classes of verbs` subjects with the phase meaning by T.V. Bulygina
(1982), O.N. Seliverstova (1982), N. Yu Shvedova (1983)
and V.S. Khrakovsky (1987). Probably, among other things, it is to a certain
extent connected with the fact that the phase issues and its relations with the
category of aspectuality remain controversial.
According to Yu.S. Maslov, “phasal determination is
singling out one of the phases in the development of the action or state – the
initial, medial or final. Singling out the final phase of the action
practically often merges with the meaning of reaching a limit or approaching a
limit. Singling out the medial phase, i.e. “intraterminal” understanding of the
action (its analysis as intra terminos
– somewhere “between” the initial and final limits), merges correspondingly
with the meaning of unreached limit and incompleteness. Only singling out the
initial phase of the action or state produces more independent aspectual
meaning – inceptive, which is widely represented in different languages” [3, p. 18].
The notion of a phase is directly related to the notion of a limit. We use the term “phase” following the definition of B. Comrie [1] in the refference to a situation, regarded at any
moment of its development. Such interpretation of the phase points to its
inseparable connection with the processes and actions, because these very means
of expression of the dynamic situation are characterized by the feature of
development, i.e. this or that form of modification. The phase is, in this way,
closely related to the limitation, pointing to the limits of the action, and in
particular pointing to its initial/starting limit. The realization of the inceptive
action renders the limit, starting with which the action enters the phase of
its development.
Alongside with the tense and aspect system of the modern
English language the phase vocabulary participates in creating the frames of
limitations, gradual and immediate achievement of the the initial/final limits,
different types of duration and processes, duration of the interval, renewal,
repetition, comlex aspect and taxis frames as well as frames which characterize
the subject in time and space, frames of spatial localization etc.
The inceptive phase vocabulary is a complex interlacement
of different parts of speech derivatives, an intricate system of lexemes and
phraseological units, which have not only the common conceptual ground but are
also connected in most cases by derivational relations. These are the phase
verbs that constitute the most mobile part of the inceptive phasal vocabulary. They creat situations, in which phase meanings are
rhematic. Other parts of speech as a rule participate in the formation of
complex aspect and taxis situations, mostly remaining their theme, in this way
rendering the events of the text in their succession and mutual relations.
Phase verbs directly render the inceptive phase of aspectual action, have wide
syntactic possibilities, can combine both with each other and with other verbal
operators, for instance with modal and causative verbs.
The connection between modality and phase draws special
attention of the researchers. V.S. Khrakovsky (1980) and Yu.S. Stepanov (2002) refer
to the “assessing” nature of the phase verbs. A number of other researchers
describe the modality of the phase verbs: I.B. Dolinina (1988), Yu.A. Levitsky
(1985), E.M. Wolf (1982). T. Givon in
particular mentions that “among the verbs which belong to the modal group,
there is a small number of verbs which render the beginning and ending of the
action (891). Finally it is worth recollecting the semantic elements singled out in the
analysis of aspect in the works of Yu.S. Maslov (1978, 1983) and A.V. Bondarko (1978, 2002).
The inventory of the phases is also far from being
perfect. The specificity of the beginning, continuation and ending phases
classification was analyzed by V.S. Khrakovsky who, singling out the subphases of
the verbs “beginning”, “beginning and continuation”, “renewal”, “interruption”,
“continuation and stopping”, draws our attention to the pragmatic significance
of the phasal meanings of the beginning and interruption in comparison with the
other phasal meanings [4]. The
specific character of the connection of
the phasal verbs with the other verbs was described by S.P. Tiunova (1983); the
specificity of the phases of “anticipation” and “beginning” – by N.Yu. Shvedova
(1983).
Thus, the modern English language possesses an entire
system of means of rendering the inceptive phase which belong to different
levels and are interrelated and which allows to distinguish a function semantic
field of phase sequence in the English language. The function semantic field of
the phase sequence is regarded in linguistics as a system of linguistic means
of different levels which serve for denoting the phase descriptions of actions.
Literature
1.
Comrie B. Aspect. An introduction to the study
of verbal aspect and related problems. – Cambridge University Press, 1976. –
181 p.
2.
Бондарко А.В. Основы функциональной грамматики: языковая интерпретация идеи
времени. – СПб.: Изд-во СПбГУ, 2001. – 260 с.
3.
Маслов Ю.С. Очерки по аспектологии. - Л.: Изд-во
Ленинградского университета, 1984. – 264 с.
4.
Храковский
В.С. Некоторые проблемы универсально-типологической характеристики
аспектуальных значений // Аспектуальность и средства ее выражения: Вопросы
русской аспектологии. – Тарту: Уч. зап. Тарт. ГУ. Вып. 573, 1980. – С. 3-24.