Inchoative Aspect

2. Inchoative Aspect

a) the model COME + TO VERB: some activity or state which has been gradually approached and has now set in:

e.g.: I came to like the child. He came to like poetry. Poetry came to be his gratest interest.

e.g. «…I don’t believe «Da» was beautiful, when I came to think of it, and Mademoiselle’s almost ugly». [Galsworthy, 9; 130]

The modal COME + TO VERB can be presented as perfective or terminative meanings:

e.g. «Mr. Bingley and his sisters came to give their – personal invitation for the long-expected ball at Netherfield, which was fixed for the following Tuesday».

[J. Austen. Pride and Prejudice, 4; 90]

e.g. «While the family were in this confusion, Charlotte Lucas came to spend the day with them.» [4; 84]

e.g. «It’s gone now», said Betty.» I shall be stranger than I was afore. Many thanks to ye, my dear, and when you come to be as old as I am, may others do as much for you». [4; 102]

b) Gome + to Vinf = Get + To Vinf (in spoken English indicating that some activity or state has just set in)

e.g. How do I get to know you better?

She got to think.

The children didn't like living in the country when, they first moved from London, but they’re getting to like it (becoming fond of it).

[45; l63]

He’s getting to be (is becoming) quite a good pianist.

He soon got to know (learnt) the wisdom of being patient.

c) Take + to – V ing = the ingressive character of an action or
the beginning of a habit:

e.g. «Then he took to walking (addicted) along the street which he must pass through to get to the shop and he would stand at the corner on the other side as she went along.» (Maugham)

[29; 131]

e.g. «He forced himself at last to finish the magazine/and from the steamer library he culled several volumes of poetry. But they could not hold him, and once more he took to walking.» (J. London)

[3; 115]

d) Fall + to – V ing implies a sudden beginning of the activity:

e.g. «He started to take off his shoes, but fell to staring at the white plaster wall opposite him, broken by long streams of dirty brown where rain had leaked through the roof». (J. Galsworthy) [3; 80]

e.g. «Peggotty fell to kissing the keyhole as she could not kiss me». (Ch. Dickens) [3; 25]

e.g.: «…One of the volumes was a Swinburne. He lay in bed, glancing through its pages, until suddenly he became aware that he was reading with interest. He finished the stanza, attempted to read on, then came back to it. He reasted the book face downward on his breast and fell to thinking». (J. London)

[3; ll6]

e) Phraseological units with verbs BREAK, BURST, FALL, PUT can be used as impression:

e.g. «It just shows a lot o’good you can do when you stick up for your kids», Ada remarked before breaking into a laugh when Johnny clomped into the house that night». [A. Sillitoe, 3; ll8]

e.g. «It is hard to burst into laughter at in ray moments of sentiment, as if my soul was like myself, old and over-grown. Observe, dear lady, what a light is dying on the trees! Does it penetrate your heart, as it penetrates1 mine?» [W. Collins. 2; 257]

e.g. «She burst into tears as she alluded to it, and for a few minutes could not speak another word.» [J. Austen. 4; 278]

e.g. «From there one could look down at the river winding among poplars and willows… Birds broke into song». [J. Galsworthy, 3; 118]

Inchoative Aspect (ingressive aspect) expresses a focus on the onset of situations and is associated with verbs like begin and start. Correlation between morphological, grammatical and semantic means can be found in the frames of the peripheral field of aspect, mood and modality.

3. Patterns with the emphatic DO

Patterns with the emphatic DO may be used to express various emotions, such as: insistence, assurance, affirmation of reply to a question in the affirmative or agreement with what has been said, sympathy, surprise, indignation, irony, mild reproach, admonition and others.

Examples from W. Collins. The Woman in White:

«Have you forgotten the letter he wrote to her at the beginning of her illness? It was shown to you, you read it yourself, and you ought to remember it». – «I do ember it». [3; 344]

«You are heartily welcome, sir, to any think I can tell you», answered Mrs. Clements. She stopped and looked at me wistfully. – «But I do wish,» said the poor woman, «you could have told me a little more about Anne, sir.» [3; 429]

«I am sorry to hear her mother say so.»

«Her mother does say so. How do you know she is dead?»

«I am not at liberty to say how I know it-but I do know it». [3; 438]

«How could I? I was too terrified to move or speak.»

«But when you did move-when you came out – ?»

«I run back here, to tell you what had happened.» [3; 252]

Examples from Austen J. Pride and Prejudice:

«Certainly, «replied Elizabeth – «there are such people, but I hope I am not one of them. I hope I never ridicule what is wise or good. Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies, do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can-But these, I suppose, are precisely what you are without.» [4; 58]

«You mean to frighten me, Mr. Darcy, by coming in all this state to hear me? But I will not be alarmed though your sister does play so well. There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others.» [4; 177]

«After a few minutes reflect ion, however, she continued -» I do remember his boasting one day, at Netherfield, of the implacability of his resentments, of his having an unforgiving temper. His disposition must be dreadful.» [4; 84]

The main function of DO is a syntactical function. The second purpose of DO – using is to express the subtle shades of subjective modal meanings which we can found only in the speech context or situation.

For foreign students there are not always easy to render the precise effect of the emphatic auxiliary DO in all the variety of its idiosyncratic use.

4. Actions of Single Occurrence:

a) momentaneous actions of single occurrence:

e.g. «Young Lolyon shot at him a penetrationg glance.»

[Galsworthy, 10; 35]

«He made a start towards at the moment as if he had some other farewell words to say; but she only hurried off the faster, and Mr. Tarley followed as in duty bound».

[Ch. Dickens, 5; 48]

«When his hammer tried to take a bite out of his thumb he swore with such awful care and deliberation for five minutes that Vera went into the other room until his vocabulary gave under the passing of time».

[A. Silitoe, 3; 119], [29; 134–135]

b) single actions of some short duration:

e.g. «He did not give it a thought». (Galsworthy)

«She gave him a little hurried kiss». (K. Mansfield) «…Then her meaning flashed across his clever brain and he gave her a thought.» (S. Maugham)

Examples from W. Collins. The Woman in White:

e.g. «The line outside took a sudden turn to the left, ran on straight for a hundred yards or so, and then took another sharp turn to the right to join the high-road.» [2; 239]

e.g. «I collected myself sufficiently to make a sign in the affirmative.» [2; 241]

e.g. «The discovery – I don't know why – gave me such a shock, that I was perfectly incapable of speaking to her for the moment.» [2; 249]

The stylistic range of such «phrasal» verbs is very wide. Their dynamic character and the possibility of attaching various kind of attributes to the nominal element makes them particularly suitable for use in descriptive pictorial language, as compared to corresponding simple verbs. Highly expressive in meanings these «metaphors» have contributed significantly to the development of emotional and affective means in present-day English.

5. Progressive (Durative) Aspect:

T h e d u r a t i v e (progressive) character of the action does not find its expression only in the progressive (continuous) tense-forms of the English verb.

The idea of duration may be also conveyed by verbs used to indicate their continuing perspectives and treated as aspectual verbs (or aspectualizers – (31, p. 223). These verbs do not denote separate actions, their occurrence with complement verbs cannot be interpreted as two actions in sequence.

Progressive aspect can be conveyed by such verbs:

STAND / STAY / LIE / CONTINUE / GO ON / KEEP (on) + V-ing.

e.g. «I stood looking down it, uncertain which way to take next, and while I looked I saw on one thorny branch some fragments of fringe from a woman’s shawl»

(W. Collins, The Woman in White, 2, p. 260)

«Nobody shall see me, but I will keep hearing of your voice, if anything happens.» [2; 253]

e.g. «Sloppy stayed staring at the pattern of the paper on the wall, untill the Secretary and Mrs. Boffin came back together».

[Ch. Dickens, 5; 306]

e.g. «He went to the door, stood looking down at the lock, and said, «Thanks for a great weekend. I had the best time of my life.»

[H. Reginald. Death’s Jest-Book, 1; 115]

e.g. «This was cynicism so patent, that all the Forsyte in Soames rejected it; and yet it would keep coming back.

«She stood looking at herself reflected in it, pale, and rather dark under the eyes; little shudders kept passing through her nerves.» (J. Galsworthy) [3; 113]

NOTE: V-ing means: the period of time/ongoing events or activity and process.

In present-day English, especially in spoken English, these verb-phrases are found more frequently: scarcity in morphological devices to indicate aspect in English has necessitated the development of the conventional practices.

The analysis of the distributional meaning of tense-aspect verbal forms in present-day English, brief as it is, will remind us of the constitutional value of syntactic morphology whose subject matter is «grammar in context». Variations in the use of the tense-aspect verbal forms, their potential polysemy and transpositions conditioned by the mode of the speaker’s representation of the verbal idea are a source of constant linguistic interest. Different tense-aspect forms are not yet finally and absolutely fixed. Making for greater subtle-ties and finer shades in expressing the speaker’s subjective attitude to the utterance functional shifts are really taking place.