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Abstract: LGSWE confuses past tense forms with subjunctive forms, fails to discuss all the aspect forms, and incorrectly believes that there are present subjunctive and past subjunctive. The author of this paper holds that tense forms are those which denote time, and those which do not denote time but express tentativeness or politeness should be regarded as subjunctive forms. Subjunctive verbs do not have the category of person, number or tense, but they do have the category of aspect. They have five forms altogether

Key words: tense; aspect; subjunctive

摘　要:《朗文英语口语和笔语语法》混淆了过去时和虚拟语气,对体貌的论述不全面,错误地认为虚拟语气有现在时和过去时之分。英语口语论文时态是动词表示时间的形式,不表示时间而表示试探、客气等的-ed形式应视为虚拟语气。虚拟语气动词没有人称、数和时态范畴,但有体貌范畴,共有五种形式。

关键词: 时态; 体貌; 语气

Douglas Biber等人的Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English《朗文英

语口语和笔语语法》(以下简称LGSWE)是继Randolph Quirk等人的《英语语法大全》之后的一部英语语法力作。本书的最大特点是以语料库中的资料为依据,对英语口语作了超过以往任何语法著作的描述。和任何著作一样,本书也有缺点和不足之处,本文拟就动词的时态、体貌和虚拟语气问题谈谈笔者的看法。

一、时态问题
LGSWE说,“From a structural point of view, English verbs are inflected for only two tenses: present and past.”(p. 453)“Present tense is unmarked morphologically, except for the suffix( e) son the third person singular; past tense for reg-ular verbs is marked with the suffix-ed.The two tenses typically refer to present and past time respectively.”( ib.)英语动词有两种时态:现在时和过去时。两种时态通常分别表示现在和过去时间。
LGSWE进一步论述了两种时态的用法。现在时表示现在的状态,如I want a packet of crisps (CONV);现在的习惯行为,如She’s vegetarian but she eats chicken. (CONV. p.453);还可以表示现在正在进行的动作如Here comes your mother(CONV. p.454)。现在时表示过去时间是为了更生动地描述。为什么用现在时表示过去的事情会更生动呢?正是因为现在时表示现在时间,才能使过去发生的事情好像说话时正在发生,这是现在时表示现在时间的特殊用途。
LGSWE说表示说话的动词在交谈中用历史现在时表示过去尤其常见,正如CGEL所说,“…the implication of the present tense seems to be that although the communication event took place in the past, its result—the information communicated—is still operative.”[1](P181)可见这种用法的现在时还是表示现在。现在时也可以表示将来,LGSWE说,“Nearly all occurrences of present tense referring to future time occur in one of two related grammatical contexts—either with an accompanying time adverbial that explicitly refers to future, or in a conditional or temporal adverbial clause that has future time reference: 1 It’s open day on Wednesday. (CONV) 2 If I refuse to do what she says this time, who knows where my defiance will end? (FICT) The simple present accompanied by an adverbial of time, as in 1, is used particularly where a future event is felt to be fixed and certain at the time of speech. Example 2 also illustrates a characteristic pattern, where the modal verb in the main clause (will) signals future time, thus providing a future context for the simple present in the dependent clause.”(p.455)可见,现在时表示将来时,要么是现在认为已经确定了将来要发生的事情,要么是因为从主句可以明确看出是将来而不再重复使用表示将来的情态动词will等。和Quirk等人一样,Biber等人的这个见解,现在时表示现在时间,是很精辟的。
但他们对过去时的认识就不对了。前面说过,过去时表示过去时间,但LGSWE认为在两种情况下过去时不表示过去时间:第一,“Additionally, there are functions of the past tense which relate more to present time, but with an added indication of stance. With verbs like think, wonder and want, past tense can indicate a present time state of mind with a tentativeness that shows the speaker is being especially polite.如, Did you want a cup of tea? ( CONV. p. 454)这里过去时表示“试探性”(tentativeness),“说话人特别客气”。时态是表示时间的动词形式,既然这里动词的-ed形式不表示时间,它就不是动词的时态形式,而是表示说话人的看法或态度的语气形式,即表示客气的虚拟语气。第二,“Furthermore, in certain types of dependent clause, the simple past marks the hypothetical: And if you were本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。