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3.A

Modal auxiliaries: general properties, meaning, past tense.

Some ways of referring to future time

Auxiliaries have one important syntactic function: they become the operator whenthey occur as the first verb of a finite VP.

The main verb ‘be’ and ‘have’ are also operators when they are the only verb in the VP.

BUT the main verb ‘do’ is not an operator just the ‘dummy (auxiliary) do’.

E.g. Do you do a lot of homework?

General characteristics:

- followed by the bare infinite. E.g. You will ask the question.

- Only finite function e.g. no maying, mayed → fist verb in the VP

- No –s form e.g. She must write

- Past forms can refer to present or future actions (often with a tentative meaning)

e.g. I think he may/might be outside.

a) central modal auxiliaries: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would,

must

b) marginal modal auxiliaries: used to, ought to, dare, need

c) modal idioms: auxiliary + infinitive or adverb e.g. had better, would rather, have got

to, be to

d) semi auxiliaries: have or be + verb idiom e.g. be able to, be about to, be going

to, have to

Meaning of the modals:

1. Intrinsic modality: permission, obligation, volition1 (involves some intrinsic

human control over events.)

2. Extrinsic modality: possibility, necessity, volition (involves human judgement of

what is or is not likely to happen. The past form is often merely more tentative or

polite.)

Can/could: possibility, ability, permission

- possibility: Drivers can make mistakes.

- ability: Tim can swim well

- permission: Can I borrow this pen?

May/might: possibility, permission

- possibility: You may be right

1 Volition = akarás, akarat

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- permission: You may borrow my pen

Must: (logical) necessity, obligation/compulsion

- logical necessity: There must be some mistake can’t use in neg. & interrog.

clauses.- obligation: You must be back by ten o’clock

Need, have (got) to: (logical) necessity, obligation/compulsion

Ought to/should: tentative2 inference, obligation

Will/would: prediction, volition, (intention or willingness or insistence)

- prediction: 1. future predictive sense 2.Present pr. sense: That’ll be the postman.

- volition:1. Intention-I’ll write as soon as I can.

- willingness: Will/would you help me?

-insistence

Shall: prediction, volition (with 1st person subject: Shall I…)

Past tense forms of the modals:

- hypothetical meaning: could/might (if clauses)

- tentativeness or politeness: could/might/would

- mood markers: would and should

- hypothetical meaning (conditional II)

- putative3 meaning (mandative subjunctive) e.g. She insisted that we should stay.

Some ways of referring to future time

Expressing future time: in the absence of an inflectional tense, future time is

expressed by means of modal auxiliaries, modal idioms, and semi-auxiliaries, or by

the simple present and progressive forms.

1. will/shall + infinitive e.g. He will be here in half an our. Will you need any help?

2. be going to + infinitive

2.1. future fulfilment of present intention e.g. When are you going to get married? I’m

going to complain if things don’t improve.

2.2. future result of a present cause eg. It’s going to rain. She’s going to have a baby.

3. present progressive (future arising from present arrangement, plan or programme)

eg. The orchestra is playing a Mozart symphony after this. I’m taking the children to

the zoo (next week)

4. simple present ( is frequently only in subordinate clauses; will- if – in subordinate

clauses) E.g

What will you say if I marry the boss?

2 Tentative = kísérleti3 Putative = vélelmezett

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-used for statements about the calendar e.g. Tomorrow is Thursday. School finishes on

21st March.

- immutable4 events: When is high tide? What time does the match begin?

- certain dynamic: The plane takes/is taking off at 6o’clock. I go/am going on vacation

next week.3.B.

Non-assertive items, extraposition, inclusive 'or'

Non-assertive items (2.11, 6.25-28)

while most words can be used equally in assertive and non-assertive predications,

some DETERMINERS, PRONOUNS, ADVERBS have specifically assertive or non-

assertive use:

I saw somebody assertive pronoun

I didn’t see anybody non-assertive pronoun

I saw nobody negative pronoun

partitive5 indefinites

assertive6 pronoun someone, somebody, something

(I can see someone/somebody climbing that tree. There is something I want to tell you.)

determiner some, a/an

(there are nuts here; please have some. All the students speak French and some

speak English as well)

non-assertive pronouns anyone, anybody, anything

(I couldn’t find anything to read. All the students work hard and I don’t think any

will fall.)

determiner either, any

Non-assertive-items (partitive indefinites)

Number Function Count Noncount

Assertive

SingularPronoun someone, somebody,

somethingsome

Determiner a (an)Plural Pronoun & Determiner some

Non-assertiv

e

SingularPronoun anyone, anybody, anything

any Determiner either, any Plural Pronoun & Determiner any

The partitives include quantifiers, which may increase or decrease the implications of

some; thus beside There are some who would disagree, we have

There are many who would disagree.

4 Immutable = megváltoztathatatlan, állandó5 Partitive = részelő eset6 Assertive = állító

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There are a few who would disagree.

There aren’t any who would disagree (= NO one)

There aren’t many who would disagree (= a few)

The wine was inferior and I didn’t drink any (=None)

The wine was inferior and I didn’t drink much (= a little)nonassertive items – not negative in form but neg. In meaning: rarely, hardly,

seldom, little, few. I could hardly see anything. –negative polarity items.

Extraposition:

postponement which involves the replacement of the postponed element by a substitute

form.

It operates almost exclusively on subordinate nominal clauses.

The most important type of extraposition:

- a subject realized by a finite or non-finite clause

- the subject is moved to the end of the sentence, and the normal subject position is

filled by the anticipatory pronoun ‘it’→ The resulting sentence contains two

subjects: postponed subject and anticipatory subject (it) e.g.

It is a pleasure to teach her . It doesn’t matter what you do. It is necessary to do the job

It is important that you should arrive on time.

It = anticipatory subject , + postponed subject ( the real subject of the sentence.

Inclusive 'or' (13.12)

inclusive – a third clause makes the exclusiveness explicit

Inclusive ‘or’:

The use of coordinators:

a. ‘and’

• Indicates a relation between the contents of the linked elements.

• The relation can be made explicit by the addition of an adverbial

- Sequent I washed the dishes and (then) I dried them.

- Consequence=Result He heard an explosion and he (therefore)

phoned the police.

- Contrast Peter is secretive and (in contrast) David is open.

- Concessive7 force She tried hard and (yet) she failed.

- Condition Give me some money and (then) I’ll do the shopping.

- Similarity A trade agreement should be no problem, and

(similarly) a

cultural exchange could be easily arranged.

- Addition He has long hair and (also) he often wears jeans.

7 Concessive = megengedő

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- Comment on / There’s only one thing to do now — and that’s

to apologize

Explanation of

b. ‘or’

• Typical exclusive: excludes the possibility that the contents of both clauses

are true or to be fulfilled e.g. You can sleep on the couch in the lounge or you

can go to a hotel.

• Inclusive: we can add a third clause that makes this inclusive meaning

explicitly: e.g. You can boil an egg, or you can make some sandwiches, or you

can do both.

• Corrective: the alternative expressed by or can be a restatement or a

corrective to what is said in the first conjoin. e.g. They are enjoying themselves

or (at least) they appear to be enjoying themselves.

• Negative condition: can be paraphrased by a negative conditional clause

e.g.

Switch on the radio or we’ll miss the news.

If you don’t switch on the radio, we’ll miss the news.

c. ‘but’

• Expresses a contrast.

• The content of the second sentence is unexpected: John is poor, but he is

happy.

• The second clause expresses positively what the first clause expresses

negatively: I’m not objecting to his morals, but (rather) to his manners.

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