Tense and Mood in English: A Comparison with Danish

236 Pages·1990·5.034 MB·English

by  Niels Davidsen-Nielsen

Tense and Mood in English
Topics in English Linguistics
1
Editors
Jan Svartvik
Herman Wekker
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin • New York
Tense and Mood
in English
A Comparison with Danish
Niels Davidsen-Nielsen
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin • New York 1990
Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague)
is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.
@ Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines
of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Davidsen-Nielsen, Niels,
Tense and mood in English : a coraparison with Danish /
Niels Davidsen-Nielsen.
p. cm. — (Topics in English linguistics ; 1)
ISBN 0-89925-718-6 (cloth : acid-free paper)
1. English language—Tense. 2. English language—Mood.
3. English language—Grammar, Comparative—Danish. 4.
Danish language—Grammar, Comparative—English. 5. Dan-
ish language—Tense. 6. Danish language—Mood. I. Title.
II. Series.
PE1301.D35 1990
425-dc20 90-13272
CIP
Deutsche Bibliothek Cataloging in Publication Data
Davidsen-Nielsen, Niels
Tense and mood in English : a comparison with Danish / Niels
Davidsen-Nielsen. — BerUn ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter,
1990
(Topics in English linguistics ; 1)
ISBN 3-11-012581-1
NE: GT
© Copyright 1990 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-1000 Berlin 30.
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any Information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Typesetting: Arthur Collignon GmbH, Berlin. — Illustrations: Thomas Lynnerup Jakobsen.
— Printing: Gerike GmbH, Berlin. — Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin.
Printed in Germany.
To Clougha Pike

Acknowledgements
This book has been written intermittently over the last four or five years,
interrupted by teaching and, particularly, administrative duties. Düring
its preparation I have consulted many colleagues, to whom I would
hereby like to offer my sincere thanks.
Peter Härder and Torben Vestergaard, who have read the entire man-
uscript, and Carl Bache and Carl Vikner, who have read all of it except
chapter 6, have provided me with extremely helpful and perceptive crit-
icism. Without the liberal assistance of these linguists the task of com-
pleting this book would have been harder and the result poorer.
I would also like to thank Helge Schwarz and Sten Vikner for careful
criticism of substantial sections of the manuscript and Erik Hansen, Per
Anker Jensen, Geoffrey Leech, Frank Palmer, and Mick Perkins for
constructive comments on parts of it. The present work has greatly
benefited from the help of these linguists as well.
My thanks are due to several other colleagues and students as well for
responding orally — with patience and apparent interest — to specific
questions which arose as I was struggling to arrive at a clearer under-
standing of tense and modality in English and Danish, and which I
needed to discuss with somebody then and there.
Needless to say none of all these persons can in any way be held
responsible for remaining errors and obscurities in the text.
I am indebted to the Danish Research Council for the Humanities and
to the Otto M0nsted Foundation for generously financing a research visit
to the University of Lancaster in the autumn term of 1988 and to the
Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language there for pro-
viding excellent working conditions in an extremely friendly and stimu-
lating atmosphere.
For assistance received in the late phases of the work I would like to
thank Lillian Vindelbo, Anne Dorthe Staggemeier and Kirsten Eisborg
for typing the manuscript and Alex KHnge for compiling the index and,
in so doing, Spotting a number of errors.
Finally, my thanks are due to my own department (of English) and
the Copenhagen Business School for backing me up in several ways
during the writing of this book.
Copenhagen, May 1989 Niels Davidsen-Nielsen

Contents
Acknowledgements VII
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter2 Auxiliaries 15
2.1. Introduction 15
2.2. Epistemic and non-epistemic modals 18
2.3. Criteria of auxiliarity 21
2.4. The semantic criterion 23
2.5. The criterion of functional dependency 25
2.6. The criterion of permanence of the lexical restrictions of V" 32
2.7. The criterion of direct attachment 35
2.8. Analysis proposed 37
Chapter 3 Analysis of mood 43
3.1. The concept of modality 43
3.2. Mood in English 46
3.3. Mood in Danish 49
Chapter 4 Analysis of tense 53
4.1. Time and tense 53
4.2. Number of tenses and their implementation 55
4.3. Tense meanings 59
4.4. Eight or six tenses? 64
4.5. Other analytical possibilities 66
4.6. Tense in fiction 69
Chapter 5 Mood usage 73
5.1. Possibility 73
5.2. Necessity 83
5.3. Probability 90
5.4. Report 93
5.5. Imperative 98
X Contents
5.6. Subjunctive 105
5.7. Mood in non-fmite verb phrases III
Chapterö Tense usage 113
6.1. Present time meaning 113
6.2. Future time meaning 117
6.3. Fast time meaning 124
6.4. Anterior time meaning 126
6.5. Anterior past time meaning 133
6.6. Anterior future time meaning 136
6.7. Future of the past time meaning 139
6.8. Anterior future of the past time meaning 141
6.9. Summary 143
6.10. Tense usage in indirect speech 147
6.11. Tense in non-fmite clauses 152
Chapter7 Modal usage of tenses 159
7.1. The present 159
7.2. The future 161
7.3. The present perfect 166
7.4. The future perfect 168
7.5. The past 170
7.6. The future of the past 176
7.7. The past perfect 179
7.8. The future perfect of the past 182
7.9. Summary 184
Chapter 8 Semi-auxiliaries and deontic modality 187
8.1. Permission 187
8.2. Compulsion 194
8.3. Obligation 206
8.4. Duty 209
Notes 213
Bibliography 215
Index 221