I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem.

I, 2016

Contents
5.2. Grammatical categories of word classes .......................................................................................................... 1
5.2.1. Nominal grammatical categories ....................................................................................................................2
5.2.2. Verbal grammatical categories ......................................................................................................................12

5.2. Grammatical categories of word classes

According to Stekauer (Essentials of English Linguistics, 1993, p. 48), the term grammatical
category refers to a group of elements recognized in the description of particular languages. There
are authors who refer to the parts of speech as categories, but others, who follow a more traditional
usage, restrict the application of the term to features associated with the parts of speech such as
person, tense, mood, number, case, etc.
A grammatical category is defined in English linguistics as a property of items within the
grammar of a language. It has a number of possible values (called exponents/grammemes), which
are normally mutually exclusive within a given category. Examples of frequently encountered
grammatical categories include tense (which may take values such as present, past), number (with
values such as singular and plural), and gender (with values such as masculine, feminine and
neuter). (Grammatical category)
The definition of category in Romanian1 is much fuzzier, which makes it quite useless for the current
discussion, though, paradoxically, the grammatical categories of all the ten parts of speech recognized
by Romanian mainstream grammar are widely present even in school textbooks.
Inflectional/grammatical morphemes (see 2.1.) express grammatical meaning such as number or
tense, traditionally called grammatical categories. They may be either free morphemes (function
words) or bound affixes (inflectional suffixes). In synthetic languages 2 , such as Romanian, the
grammatical categories are expressed almost exclusively by inflectional endings, whereas in analytic
languages, such as Modern English3, the grammatical categories are expressed primarily by function
words and only infrequently by a few inflections.
Brinton and Brinton note that the grammatical category is a linguistic, not a real-world category,
and that there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between the two types of categories,
though they are usually closely related. They illustrate this observation with “tense” - which is a
linguistic category, versus “time” – which is a category of the world. (2010, p. 114)

1
Categorie gramaticală = noțiune gramaticală fundamentală care exprimă relații stabilite de vorbitorii unei limbi între
elemente ale limbii obiective (ex. gen, număr, persoană, comparație) sau între ei și lumea obiectivă (ex. timp, mod).
C.g. reprezintă modul de organizare internă a materialului de forme ale unei limbi.
2
In linguistic typology, a synthetic language is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a
low morpheme-per-word ratio in what is described as an isolating language. (Synthetic language)
3
An analytic language is a language that conveys grammatical relationships without using inflectional morphemes.
A grammatical construction can similarly be called analytic if it uses unbound morphemes, which are separate
words, and/or word order. Analytic languages are in contrast to synthetic languages. However, English is also
not totally analytic in its nouns as it does use inflections for number, e.g. "one day, three days; one boy, four
boys". (Analytic language)
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

The authors also point to the fact that grammatical categories can be identified either by formal or
by notional means. If the formal distinctions are exclusively made by means of inflection, English
has only two tense distinctions - past and present, as in work/worked. By notional means, the
existence of a universal set of grammatical categories and terms is assumed, which for tense are
past, present, and future. These are expressed in English by means of inflection and, in the case of
the future, by periphrasis4 (as in will work). The same observations are true about Romanian, even
though the range of past tense inflections is much wider. The authors also differentiate between
overt and covert categories. Overt categories have explicit or formal realization on the relevant part
of speech, such as past tense in English (the -ed inflection on the verb), while covert categories are
expressed only implicitly by the co-occurrence of particular function words, such as the future
tense in English (the will auxiliary occurring with the verb) (2010, pp. 114-5). Again, the remarks
apply to the Romanian verb as well.
Because terminology is not always consistent, we should not mistake grammatical categories
(tense, number, case, etc.) for lexical categories, which are closely synonymous with word
classes/parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.).
In The Linguistic Structure of Modern English, Brinton and Brinton group the grammatical
categories into two classes: number, gender, person, case, degree and definiteness are
recognized as nominal categories, while tense, aspect, mood and voice are verbal categories
(2010, pp. 115-32). They also note which different word classes each of the grammatical
categories is relevant to:
nouns: number, gender, case, (person), and definiteness;
pronouns: number, gender, case, and person;
adjectives and some adverbs: degree;
verbs: number, person, tense, aspect, mood, and voice.
prepositions and conjunctions: no grammatical categories are relevant to prepositions and conjunctions, which are
invariable.
The subsequent discussion in 5.2.1. and 5.2.2. is mainly based on their observations.

5.2.1. Nominal grammatical categories

5.2.1.1. Number
There are two terms of the category of number in both English and Romanian: singular (the
concept of ‘one’) and plural (the concept of ‘more than one’). In English, number is expressed
by inflection in:
 count nouns, generally by -s (dog/dogs)
 demonstratives (this/these, that/those)
 the 1st and 3rd p (but not in the 2nd p) of pronouns
• personal pronouns (I/we)
• possessive determiners (my/our)
• possessive pronouns (mine/ours)
• reflexive pronouns (myself/ourselves)

4
A phrase containing a function word which is functionally equivalent to an inflection is called a periphrasis, or
periphrastic form. (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, p. 114)
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

 certain pronouns and adjectives:

• singular: every, each, someone, anybody, a/an
• plural: all, many, few, several, most
 in verbs, indicated by the singular -s of the 3rd pers., which occurs in the present but not
in the past tense (he writes versus they write, he wrote). Number is expressed more fully
in the inflected forms of the verb be (singular am, is, was, plural are, were), which
because of its high frequency, tends to preserve inflections more fully than do other
verbs.
In Romanian, number is marked in all the situations above, plus several others (such as in the
large majority of adjectives, more extensively in verbs etc.).
The concept of generic number incorporates singular and plural and is used when the speaker
does not want to specify number. It is expressed in English in three ways5:
1. the definite article + singular noun (The tiger may be dangerous)
2. the indefinite article + singular noun (A tiger may be dangerous)
3. Ø article + plural of count nouns or singular of mass nouns (Tigers may be dangerous or Gold
is valuable).
In both English and Romanian, 1st person personal pronouns present a usage peculiarity which
has become out-dated: the so-called “royal we” or “editorial we” (pluralul de majestate in
Romanian) which is a situation of the utilization of the plural when singular is denoted. Another
situation when the plural replaces the singular occurs in Romanian with the politeness plural,
used with the personal pronouns for social purposes, to signal the relations between people
(acquaintance vs. stranger, superior vs. inferior, etc.).
5.2.1.2. Gender
English has a rather straightforward system of gender called natural gender6, in which gender
distinctions made in language depend upon the sex of the object in the real world. English
distinguishes masculine, feminine, common gender (masc. or fem.), and neuter (sexless)
genders.
At first sight, this is an odd perspective for a Romanian, in whose native language gender
appears to be a central grammatical category, important for noun declension7 and for the noun’s
agreement with pronouns, adjectives and articles. The relation between natural gender and
grammatical gender8 is obvious in many of the animate nouns in Romanian, as there is a certain
correlation between their grammatical gender and the gender of the being they denote (o vacă
albă (fem.) vs. un bou alb (masc.), o fată harnică (fem.) vs. un băiat harnic (masc.), etc.)9.
Gender appears to be arbitrary - not related to the sex of the object denoted - for the inanimate

5
The same ways are possible in Romanian, as well.
6
natural gender = grammatical gender that reflects, as in English, the sex or animacy of the referent of a noun rather
than the form or any other feature of the word. (Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th
Edition. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Natural gender)
7
declension = the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and articles that indicates number, gender and case.
8
In the system of grammatical gender, every noun (either animate or inanimate) is treated as masculine, feminine
or neuter.
9
Gender distinctions are normally expressed in such pairs that contrast feminine and masculine nouns.
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

nouns (o zi (fem.), un pat (masc.), etc.). Actually, Romanian grammars distinguish between two
classes of nouns:
 nouns with motivated gender – animate nouns for which there is a correspondence
between the grammatical gender and the natural gender of the being denoted by the noun
 nouns with unmotivated gender, that include all inanimate nouns, but also animate
nouns that denote both genders with only one form, either masculine (elefant, șoarece,
tânțar, etc.) or feminine (balenă, furnică, rândunică, rudă, etc.)
Unlike Romanian, modern English no longer distinguishes nouns and determinatives on the basis
of grammatical gender. The effect of this development is the lessened place of gender in English
nouns. According to Close, ”cow is not ‘feminine gender’ as opposed to the ‘masculine’ bull.
Cow and bull are two separate words, one referring to a female of a species of animal, the other
to the male. Both words can be preceded by a set of determiners, such as a, any, each, either,
every, my, the, this, that, each of which has one form only (Close 1992: 1).
Old English had grammatical gender, but by the 11th century, during the Middle English period
its use started to decline. Towards the end of the 14th century some English dialects had almost
completely lost grammatical gender, and in Modern English words are not normally assigned
gender according to their inflectional class. The features that have survived into Modern English
are related to natural gender, such as the use of certain nouns and pronouns (such as queen,
knight, he, she, etc.) to refer specifically to persons or animals of one sex.
Thus, gender is expressed by inflection only in the 3rd person personal pronouns, singular he,
she, it. According to Brinton and Brinton (2010, pp. , 116-7), nothing about the morphological
form of nouns such as boy and girl indicate that they are masculine or feminine gender, and
gender is shown only by the co-occurrence of relevant pronouns, he and she, which refer back to
the noun: the boy … he, the girl … she. The authors note that this makes gender a covert10
category of the noun; they also observe that there are limited ways in which gender may be
expressed overtly on the English noun:
 by derivational suffixes, such as the feminine suffixes -ine (hero/heroine), -ess (god/goddess), -
rix (aviator/aviatrix), and -ette (suffragist/suffragette) or the common gender suffixes -er
(baker), -ist (artist), -ian (librarian), -ster (prankster), and -ard (drunkard);
 by compounds, such as lady-, woman-, girl-, female-, -woman (lady friend, woman
doctor, girl friend, female fire fighter, chairwoman) or boy-, male-, gentleman-, -man (boy
friend, male nurse, gentleman caller, chairman);

10
”Whorf (1956) draws the important distinction between overt and covert grammatical categories: an overt
category is one having a formal mark that is present in every sentence containing a member of the category
(e.g., English plural); a covert category includes members that are marked only in certain types of sentences.
(Whorf labels the distinctive treatment required in such environments “reactance.”) In English, gender is a
covert category marked only by the reactance of singular third-person pronouns and the relative pronouns
who/what/which (which indicate animacy). Despite this limited presence in the surface structure of English
syntax, gender is nonetheless a grammatical category and requires a systematic analysis of the patterns of
anaphoric pronoun use for clues about the structure of the categories within the system. Intuitive assumptions
about the relationship between sex and gender are not sufficient, for while biological sex is a good indicator of
gender class, it is not absolutely predictive. ” (Curzan)
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

 by separate forms for masculine, feminine, and common genders, such as boy/girl/child
or rooster/hen/chicken;
 by separate forms for masculine and feminine genders, such as uncle/aunt, stallion/mare,
bachelor/spinster and proper names such as Joseph/Josephine, Henry/Henrietta.
None of these means is systematic and the feminine is always derived from the masculine11.
Also, the masculine form typically doubles as the common gender form12, as with dog (feminine,
bitch).
A source of difficulty is the fact that a common gender for the 3rd person singular to be used
after a singular indefinite pronoun such as each or every does not exist in English. The traditional
use of the masculine form for the generic (e.g. From each according to his ability, to each
according to his needs13), tends to be currently replaced by the use of the plural their, which is
gender-neutral but which violates number agreement (e.g. From each according to their ability,
to each according to their needs). Brinton & Brinton note that forms like his or her, his/her, s/he
(e.g. From each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her needs) are newer
attempts to correct this deficiency.
5.2.1.3. Person
Person can be defined as the relationship between a subject and its verbal, showing whether the
subject is speaking about itself (1st person - I and we); being spoken to (2nd person – you singular
and plural); or being spoken of (3rd person - he, she, it, and they).
In both Romanian and English there are three persons: 1st person (the speaker), 2nd person (the
person spoken to) and 3rd person (the person or thing spoken about).
The pronouns to which the grammatical system of person applies are called personal pronouns,
and as Brinton & Brinton (118) observe, person distinctions are expressed by the inflected forms of
the pronouns:
1st pers. 2nd pers. 3rd pers.
personal pronouns: I you he, they
personal possessive determiners: my your his, their
personal possessive pronouns: mine yours his, theirs
personal reflexive pronouns: myself yourself himself,
themselves
The same authors (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, p. 118) note that nouns are all 3rd person, and this is
shown only covertly by the co-occurrence of pronouns: the house … it (I, you), the houses …
they (we, you).
They also enumerate other forms that express generic besides the use of the rather formal one
that expresses generic person (all persons) and note that the generic you is the most common in
informal usage.

11
The case of widow (fem.)/widower (masc.) is an exception, explained by Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 117) as the
result of the fact that women generally outlive men. Another exception is the pair ballerina/ballet dancer, but
here the masculine is a compound, not a simple form.
12
In the case of cow/bull, goose/gander or drake/duck, the feminine form is the common gender form, presumably
because the female is more important in the barnyard economy (Brinton and Brinton, 2010, 117).
13
A slogan popularised by Karl Marx in Critique of the Gotha Program (1875).
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

1st pers. pl we We're often misinformed by the media.

2nd pers. sg and pl you You never can tell.
3rd pers. sg one One doesn’t do that in polite company.
3rd pers. pl they They’ll find a cure for cancer soon.
In both English and Romanian another person than the expected one may be used in certain
situations:
 3rd pers. for 1st pers. – in very young children (Mary wants cake – where Mary is the
speaker), in official statements (Your boss clearly forbids such behaviour – where the boss
is the speaker), in academic style (This author aims at …. – written by the author
himself/herself), etc.
 1st pers. for 2nd pers. - spoken by a parent to a young child (We’ll stop that now, will we?).
The grammatical category of person is also marked inflectionally, by the -s affix added on the verb.
Note that this happens exclusively with the verbs in the present indicative, singular, 3rd person. Be
is an exception as it preserves inflections in other persons (1st pers. am, 2nd and 3rd pers. are, 3rd
pers. is), and with the past tense as well (was, were).
As O’Grady et al note, “a widely attested type of verbal inflection in human language involves
person--a category that typically distinguishes among the first person (the speaker), the second
person (the addressee), and the third person (anyone else). In many languages, the verb is marked
for both person and number (singular or plural) of the subject. When one category is inflected for
properties (such as person and number) of another, the first category is said to agree with the
second. [...]. Modern English has a [comparatively] impoverished system of person and number
agreement in the verb, and an inflectional affix is used only for the third person singular in the
non-past tense” (2001, pp. 168-9).
5.2.1.4. Case
In many languages, Romanian included, case is another type of inflectional contrast associated
with nouns. O’Grady et al describe it as “a category that encodes information about an element’s
grammatical role (subject, direct object, and so on). In Modern English, this information is
expressed largely through word order and the use of prepositions” (2001, p. 166).
According to Brinton and Brinton (2010, pp. , 119), case is an indication of the function of a
noun phrase, or the relationship of a noun phrase to a verb or to other noun phrases in the
sentence. Case is most fully expressed in the personal and interrogative/relative pronouns, which
distinguish nominative case (the function of subject), genitive case (the function of possessor),
and objective case (the function of object) by different inflected forms:
nominative: I we you he, she, it they who
genitive: my/mine our/ours his, her/hers, its their/theirs whose
objective: me us you him, her, it them whom
The genitive includes forms which function as predeterminers, such as my and our, as well as forms
which function as pronouns, such as mine or ours.
Crystal (1996, p. 74) maintains that there are only two cases in contemporary English: the
common case, where the noun has no ending, and the genitive case formed by adding an ‘s to
the singular form of the noun and an apostrophe only for the plural form. One reason for this
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

terminological simplification is that there is no inflectional mark that distinguishes, for example,
a noun in the nominative case from one in the accusative case.
sg. pl.
common case cat cats
genitive case cat’s cats’
Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 119) note that, though orthographically there are four distinct
forms of nouns when singular and plural, common and genitive case are considered, the
apostrophe is merely orthographic so that the forms cats, cat’s, and cats’ are phonologically
indistinguishable. Only irregular plurals such as the noun man actually distinguish four forms
both orthographically and phonologically.
sg. pl.
common case man men
genitive case man’s men’s
Even on certain pronouns the distinction between the nominative and objective forms has
disappeared, as with it and you:
nominative: it you
genitive: its your
objective: it you
The two authors (2010, p. 120) point to other case distinctions which can be made, such as the
dative case (the function of indirect object), but consider it a subcategory of the objective case,
shown by periphrasis with to or for or by word order (V iO dO):
He gave Jane the book.
He gave the book to Jane.
Other traditional cases, such as the “instrumental” case, are expressed only periphrastically in
English nowadays, for example, with the prepositions with or from (I broke the glass with a
rock).
In order to account for the case contrasts found in English nouns and pronouns, O’Grady et al (2001, p.
261) propose a set of rules that associate case with specific syntactic positions. The case rules for
English NPs:
a. The complement of V receives accusative case.
b. The complement of P receives accusative case.
c. The specifier of N receives genitive case.
d. The subject receives nominative case.
According to the rules, a sentence such as Mary saw him is well-formed, since the pronoun in
the complement NP is accusative, as required by rule a. In contrast, Mary saw he is
ungrammatical, since the pronoun in the complement NP has the nominative form, in violation of
the same rule.
Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 120) illustrate the conventional uses of cases with the use of the
nominative case after the verb be (e.g. It is I) and maintain that the same function can be
expressed by different cases, as in instances where the concept of possession is expressed by
either the genitive or dative case (e.g. The book is mine, The book belongs to me).
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

The same case can express different functions or meanings, and this is obvious in the behaviour
of the genitive case, which does not simply express possession. The following types of genitives
have been identified (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, pp. 120-1), based on the meaning relationship
between the noun in the genitive and the head noun:
 possessive genitive: Felix’s car (Felix owns his car)
 subjective genitive: the movie star’s entrance (the movie star enters - the same relation as
between a subject and a verb)
 objective genitive: the city’s reconstruction (X reconstructs the city - the same relation as
a direct object does to a verb)
 genitive of origin: Shakespeare’s plays, the baker’s cakes (expresses the source, person,
or place from which something originates)
 descriptive genitive: man of wisdom, a woman of courage (usually expressed
periphrastically, it is often equivalent to a descriptive adjective, as in man of wisdom =
‘wise man’)
 genitive of measure: an hour’s time, a stone’s throw (expresses an extent of time or
space)
 partitive genitive: a member of the crowd, a spoke of the wheel (expresses the whole in
relation to a part)
 appositive genitive: the city of Vancouver, the state of California (renames the head noun)
Quite often the of-genitive/ prepositional genitive can replace the ‘s genitive in many usages, or
at least double it. Leech (2006, p. 47) notes the speakers’ tendency to use the of-construction
where the genitive would cause too much complexity in front of the head noun, and illustrates it
with the following illustration: the night train to Edinburgh’s departure is less likely to occur
than the departure of the night train to Edinburgh. He also points to the fact that the placing of
the ’s at the end of Edinburgh is perfectly acceptable, even though the genitive indicates the
departure of the train, rather than the departure of Edinburgh, and labels it as an example of the
so-called group genitive, where the genitive phrase contains postmodification. Other examples
are: [the mayor of Chicago’s] re-election campaign, [someone else’s] fault. (Leech 2006: 47).
Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 121) suggest that, though the inflectional genitive (with ‘s) and the
periphrastic form (with of + NP) are normally interchangeable, it is not always possible to
substitute one means of expression for the other. “For example, while the Queen’s arrival is
interchangeable with the arrival of the Queen, a person of integrity is not interchangeable with
an integrity’s person nor is a stone’s throw interchangeable with a throw of a stone. Certain
types of genitives, such as the partitive, descriptive, or appositive, are typically expressed only
periphrastically”.
The authors (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, p. 121) also point to various types of ambiguities that
appear in the genitive structures, such as the phrase the shooting of the hunters, which is
ambiguous between subjective and objective genitive readings because it can mean either ‘the
hunters shoot X’ or ‘X shoots the hunters’. The child’s picture is also ambiguous, since we do not
understand whether the child has drawn the picture or someone else has taken the picture of the
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

child. The same applies for the woman’s book - ambiguous between the possessive genitive and
the genitive of origin – as the woman may either own the book or she may have written it.
The double genitive is another complex aspect of the genitive mentioned by Brinton and Brinton
(2010, p. 121), in which periphrastic and inflectional forms co-occur: a friend of Rosa’s, no fault of
his. The double genitive is always indefinite (the friend of Rosa’s) and a human inflected genitive (a
leg of the table’s). It normally has a partitive sense (’one friend among all of Rosa’s friends), though
it is also possible to use it when Rosa has only one friend. A portrait of the king’s (‘one among all the
portraits (of others) that the king owns’) can be contrasted with a portrait of the king (‘a portrait
which depicts the king’).
Leech sees the genitive as “the only remnant in modern English of the case system of nouns,
prevalent in Old English, and also in classical Greek, Latin and many modern European languages.
[…] The genitive form of a noun typically comes before another noun, the head of the noun phrase of
which the genitive is part, for example Robert’s desk ” (2006, p. 46). He also notes that, strictly
speaking, this mark is no longer a case-ending in modern English, but an ending added to noun
phrases, such as [the bride’s] in [the bride’s] arrival, or [my father’s] in [my father’s] favourite
breakfast. In his view, because the genitive fills a determiner slot in the larger noun phrase of which
it is part, the function of the bride’s above is similar to that of her in her arrival or the in the arrival”.
The same author remarks the occurrence of what he calls group genitive14:
The ‘s genitive is normally used when the possessor is a proper noun, preferably the name of a
person: Mary’s house, John’s job, etc. However, it is possible with other animate noun classes:
 nouns denoting humans: the boy’s aunt
 collective nouns: the government’s announcement
 higher animals: the horse’s neck
The of-genitive is normally used with inanimate nouns and with lower animals, but many of the
inanimate nouns also take the ’s genitive as well: the car’s maker/the maker of the car, the
novel’s title/the title of the novel, etc.
The following inanimate noun classes commonly take the ’s genitive:
 geographical names (proper names):
 continents: Europe’s population
 countries: Romania’s politicians
 cities/towns: Bucharest’s transportation system
 universities: Cuza’s Language center
 nouns denoting space or locations (regions, institutions, etc.: the world’s most famous writer, the
Church’s finances, the country’s policy, etc.
 nouns denoting time: yesterday’s newspaper, this year’s events, etc.
 nouns denoting weight or value: a pound’s weight, two euros’ worth of coffee, etc.
5.2.1.5. Degree
Degree is a nominal category that relates to adjectives and adverbs and has three terms:

14
1 A phrase containing a function word which is functionally equivalent to an inflection is called a periphrasis, or
periphrastic form. For example, in English, we can express the possessive either by an inflection -’s (as in Alicia’s
cat) or by a periphrasis with of (as in the leg of the table). (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, p. 114)
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

 positive degree (expressing a quality)

 comparative degree (expressing a greater degree or intensity of the quality in one of two
items)
 superlative degree (expressing the greatest degree or intensity of the quality in one of
three or more items)
Brinton and Brinton (2010, pp. 121-2) note that the positive degree is expressed by the root of
the adjective (e.g. big, beautiful) or adverb (e.g. fast, quickly) – that is, it is null-realized – while
the comparative and superlative degrees are expressed either by inflection (by means of -er, -est)
or by periphrasis (using more, most):
positive Ø big fast beautiful quickly
comparative -er, more bigger faster more beautiful more quickly
superlative -est, most biggest fastest most beautiful most quickly
The inflection is used with:
 monosyllabic forms neater, thinner, wider
 certain disyllabic forms – adjectives ending in –y: holy →holier; -le: little → littler; -er:
bitter → bitterer; -ow: narrow → narrower; -some: handsome → handsomer.
The periphrasis occurs in all other forms, including adverbs ending in -ly (e.g. quicklier).
Lesser degree can be expressed periphrastically with less and least, as in less big, least
beautiful.
Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 122) explain that, for semantic reasons, some adjectives cannot be
inflected for degree. Thus, adjectives such as perfect, unique, round, full, empty, married, and
dead are incomparable because they express absolute qualities. The authors illustrate such
qualities with a two examples – dead and unique. About the former, they comment that
something is either ‘dead’ or not; it cannot be more or less dead. As for superlatives such as most
unique, they are logically impossible, though one frequently hears such forms. The explanation is
that either most can be understood as an emphatic element or unique can be understood as
meaning ‘unusual’.
The concept of superlative is rather easy to comprehend for the Romanian speaker since the rules
are identical, even stricter, in Romanian grammar. That is, an example like the most perfect day,
as well as the second proposed above, would be totally unacceptable in Romanian (cea mai
perfectă zi, cel mai unic). Forăscu (Forăscu) identifies two classes of incomparable adjectives in
Romanian:
1. adjectives that originally were old comparative and superlative forms (exterior, interior, superior,
inferior, optim, excelent, etc.) or those in the positive form with a superlative meaning
(supraaglomerat, ultrasensibil, excelent, admirabil, splendid, perfect, etc.).
Some speakers no longer perceive such adjectives as comparatives or superlatives and tend to
use them with the comparative or superlative degrees (cel mai superior, foarte inferior, condiţiile
cele mai optime, etc.). Such forms must be avoided.
2. adjectives that express an absolute quality which cannot be compared (complet, mort, viu,
pulmonar, principal, perfect, etc.). It is thus wrong to say cel mai principal lucru, o listă foarte
completă.
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 122) point to another peculiarity of English adjectives: forms such
as best time, rudest remark, or closest of friends often express a high degree rather than a true
comparison, with the superlative equivalent to ‘very’. Finally, it is also common to hear the
superlative used in the comparison of two items, as in put your best foot forward, the most
advantageous of two alternatives, even though the rule imposes the structure the + comparative
(put your better foot forward, the more advantageous of two alternatives). The discussion of the
comparative is continued in 5.5.
5.2.1.6. Definiteness
The concepts of definiteness and indefiniteness are seen by Brinton and Brinton (pp. 122-3) as
intuitively quite simple: definite denotes a referent (a thing in the real world denoted by a noun)
which is known, familiar, or identified to the speaker and hearer, while indefinite denotes a
referent which is unfamiliar or not known.
These concepts have been adopted by some Romanian grammars as well, especially due to the
linguistic school of Bucharest (Diaconescu, Manoliu Manea, Guţu Romalo, Coteanu, Coja, etc.).
They view definiteness (determinarea) as the fourth grammatical category of the noun.
If nouns are considered on their own, definiteness is a covert category, because it is obvious
only in the co-occurrence of either the definite article the or the indefinite article a/an with a
noun, though all proper nouns and most pronouns are intrinsically definite.
However, definiteness can be quite confusing in actual practice, because, on the one hand, it
intersects with the category of specificity15 and, on the other hand, article usage in English is
complex and in many instances arbitrary. Thus, each article has several different uses (some of
which are dialectal) and articles are often omitted, which makes article usage a difficult area of
grammar for non-native speakers.
Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 123) identify the following major uses of the:
1. for something previously mentioned: yesterday I read a book … the book was about space
travel (This is the anaphoric, or ‘pointing back’, function of the definite article);
2. for a unique or fixed referent: the Prime Minister, the Lord, the Times, the Suez Canal;
3. for a generic referent: (I love) the piano, (We are concerned about) the unemployed;
4. for something which is part of the immediate socio-physical context or generally known: the
doorbell, the kettle, the sun, the weather;
5. for something identified by a modifying expression either preceding or following the noun: the gray
horse, the house at the end of the block;
6. for converting a proper noun to a common noun: the England he knew, the Shakespeare of our
times, the Hell I suffered.

15
Specific, nonspecific, and generic. Information is specific if it denotes a particular entity in the real world, while it
is nonspecific if it denotes no particular entity in the real world. HINT: Pronouns and proper nouns are usually
specific, though some pronouns, such as general you, one, or they, are nonspecific, as in You never can tell, One
must consider all options, They never tell you anything, where no person is being referred to.(Brinton and
Brinton, 328).
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

The two authors point to the fact that article usage with proper nouns often depends on the
category of proper nouns (e.g. Lake Superior vs. The Red Sea; The Mississippi River vs. Cache
Creek) or even on the specific example within a category (e.g. The Sudan vs. Ethiopia; Sears
Tower vs. The Eiffel Tower; Washington Monument vs. The Lincoln Memorial). They propose a
very useful rule of thumb: proper nouns with -s (in the plural form) generally take the definite
article: The Everglades, The Great Plains, The Rocky Mountains, The Seychelles.
Brinton and Brinton also list a number of instances in actual usage where the definite article is
omitted when it would be expected:
 with institutions (e.g. at school)
 with means of transportation (e.g. by car)
 with times of day (e.g. at noon)
 with meals (e.g. at breakfast)
 with illnesses (e.g. have malaria).
The major uses of a/an identified by the same authors (2010, pp. 123-4) are the following:
1. for something mentioned for the first time;
2. for something which cannot or need not be identified: (I want) a friend;
3. for a generic referent: (He is) a teacher;
4. equivalent to ‘any’ : a (any) good book;
5. equivalent to ‘one’ : a week or two; and
6. for converting a proper noun to a common noun: a virtual Mozart, a real Einstein.

5.2.2. Verbal grammatical categories

5.2.2.1. Tense
Tense is defined by Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 124) as the linguistic indication of the time of an
action/event in respect to the moment of speaking (or some other reference point).
Time is a nonlinguistic concept that exists independently of human language, while tense is the linguistic
expression of time relations realized by verb forms.
According to Downing and Locke (2006, p. 352), tense is the grammatical expression of the location of
events in time, which anchors an event to the speaker’s experience of the world by relating the event time
to a point of reference. They call the universal, unmarked reference point the moment of speaking -
speech time. In narrative, a point in past time is usually taken as the reference point.
This point of reference is the point versus which some events are anterior (i.e. they take place before it),
posterior (i.e. they will take place after the moment of speaking), or simultaneous with the moment of
speech (i.e. they happen at the same time)
In English there are only two inflectional tense distinctions, that is only two tenses - present and past -
have marked rather than combined (with auxiliaries) forms). Compare call (present tense), called (past
tense) and will call (future tense). The only tense distinction expressed inflectionally is that between call
and called, while will call is a periphrastic structure.
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

On a time line like the one below, for example, a past time statement, such as It rained, or a future-time
statement, such as It will rain, denotes a situation held before the present moment or that will hold after
the present moment, respectively:
------------------------------------x------------------------------------->
past time now future
speech time
present moment
Thus, verbs in the present tense normally refer to 'now' (indicated above by the x), while verbs in the past
tense normally refer to 'before now'.
According to Hasselgård, Lysvåg and Johansson (Glossary of grammatical terms used in English Grammar:
Theory and Use (2nd edition)), the present tense can alternatively express directness or closeness in time and/or
reality (Since you are rich, you can buy that house), while the past tense expresses distance (If you were rich, you
could buy that house).
Brinton and Brinton (2010, pp. , 124-6) argue that, in fact, the present progressive is used to denote
actions going on at the present time (as in I am reading at this moment, not I read at this moment). They
list a number of uses of the PRESENT TENSE form in English which are actually employed for the
expression of other types of temporal as well as nontemporal situations16.
1. habits: I walk to work everyday. She smokes. We eat dinner at 6:00.
A habit such as the one expressed in She smokes can be figured as a series of separate events that are
characteristic of a period and that together constitute a whole.
---★---★---★---★---★---★---★---★---★---->
Habits exist even if the event is not actually going on at the present moment; that is to say, the fact that
she smokes ( = she is a smoker) is true even if she is not actually smoking a cigarette at the present
moment.)
2. states: She lives at home. I like chocolate. I believe you. I have lots of work to do. The dog sees well. I
feel sick. States include nondynamic situations such as:
 emotional states (love)
 cognitive states (understand)
 perceptual states (feel)
 bodily sensations (ache)
 expressions of having and being (own, resemble).
3. generic statements: Beavers build dams. Tigers are ferocious.
A generic statement says something about a class of things (‘beavers build...,’ ‘tigers are ferocious’). Brinton
and Brinton point to the difference between a state such as I am happy and a generic statement such as Tigers
are ferocious, in addition to the nongeneric (I) vs. generic (tigers) subject. This means that the state refers to a
specific situation and can occur with adverbs such as still, already, not yet (e.g. I am still happy/Tigers are still
ferocious).
4. timeless statements: The sun sets in the west. Summer begins on June 21st. Two plus two is four.
Timeless statements express eternal truths and laws of nature.

16
For such uses, the term nonpast is preferred to present.
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

5. gnomic (proverbial) statements: A stitch in time saves nine. Haste makes waste.
Gnomic statements express proverbs, which are not necessarily timeless.
6. future statements: We leave tomorrow. I see the doctor this afternoon.
Future expressed with the simple present generally refers to situations predetermined and fixed, such as
flight timetables, schedule appointments, etc.
7. instantaneous commentary: He shoots; he scores. Now I beat in two eggs. He pulls a rabbit out of the
hat.
Instantaneous commentary occurs in sports reporting, cooking demonstrations, magic shows, etc. This is
the only use of the nonpast form for actions actually going on at the current moment.)
8. plot summary: Hamlet dies at the end of the play. Emma marries Mr. Knightley.
The present is used in summarizing works of literature and in talking about artists as artistic figures.
9. narration in the present (the “historical present”): Then he says …
The historical present is the use of present tense for narrating informal stories and jokes, though it is used
increasingly frequently in serious literature.
10. information present: I hear/see that Manfred has been promoted.
The information present is the use of present tense with verbs of hearing or seeing where one might
expect the past tense.
Conveniently enough, all the ten uses of the English present tense above have corresponding counterparts
in the use of the Romanian timpul prezent.
The uses of the PAST TENSE:
1. an event or a state in past time: Haydn composed the symphony in 1758 or Handel lived in England
for a number of years;
2. narration: Two days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge (Atwood, 2000, p.
1)
3. past habit: I drove to work last year.
The past tense is the tense of narration, but if the simple past denotes a past habit, an appropriate time
adverbial is required. However, there is a special past habitual form - used to, as in I used to drive to
work, which does not normally require a time adverbial.
4. politeness: I was hoping you would help. Did you want to talk to me?
The past tense may also be used nontemporally, as a means to express politeness or to denote the unreal:
present hope; future help.
5. hypothetical: If you studied more, you would do better.
These are “modal” uses of the past, where the subjunctive mood replaces the indicative.
There are several Romanian corresponding past forms for each of the uses above are:
1. perfect compus for an event or a state in past time: Haydn a compus ...
2. perfect simplu or perfect compus for narration: Două zile după ce se sfârși războiul, sora mea....
3. imperfect for past habit: Anul trecut mergeam cu mașina la serviciu.
4. imperfect for politeness: Speram că mă vei ajuta.
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

FUTURE TIME is usually marked in English with modals or semi-modals in a variety of periphrases
(see 5.4.), as well as by the inflected simple tense.
1. will/shall + infinitive: I will help you tomorrow.
2. the simple present: The party begins at 4:00.
3. the present progressive: We’re having guests for dinner.
4. be going to, be about to + infinitive: The child is going to be sick. The boat is about to leave.
5. shall/will + the progressive: I will be moving next week.
Brinton and Brinton remark (2010, pp. , 126) that the forms of the future are subtly different in meaning,
and illustrate this with the following examples:
- It’s going to rain today or It’s about to rain might be uttered while looking up at a threatening
rain cloud, while It will rain today could only be the prediction of the meteorologist or a report of
this person’s prediction.
- It rains today is distinctly odd because it denotes the future as fact, or predetermined, and as
punctual.
- the progressive It’s raining today could not function as a future in this instance either.
- It will be raining today (when you want to mow the lawn) is possible if it denotes a situation
surrounding another event.
They argue that commands (e.g. Wash the dishes!) always carry a future meaning, as one cannot
command someone else to perform an action in the past nor to be performing it at the present moment.
Thus, the imperative places the action at a future moment/time and it has a closer relation to modality
than to tense, since it expresses something that is not (yet) fact.
Tense in reported speech
Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002, pp. 152-3) highlight the special use simple past tense has in reported
speech or thought. In reports, even if the original speech or thoughts were in present tense, past tense is
usually used.
1. Then the next day he said he no longer loved me. (direct speech: 'I no longer love you.')
2. And I thought I was going to go home early. (direct thought: 'I am going to go home early.')
3. Abbey said there was a meeting planned to discuss the contract this week. (direct speech: 'There is a
meeting.')
The tense of the verb in the subordinate that-clause agrees with the past tense of the reporting verb (e.g.
said-loved in 1.). If a speaker is reporting the speech of someone else, there is also a corresponding shift
in pronouns, for example from I to he in 1.
The authors also point to the fact that the circumstances may still be continuing even though past tense is
used (as in 3, for example, where the meeting may still be planned).
An additional variation in tense in reported speech, used mainly in conversation, is the situation in which
present tense is used for the reporting verb and past tense for the indirect quote:
He says he bought another Amiga.
5.2.2.2. Aspect
Brinton and Brinton define aspect as the view taken of an event, or the “aspect” under which it is
considered, basically whether it is seen as complete and whole (perfective aspect) or as incomplete and
ongoing (imperfective aspect).
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

Downing and Locke (2006, pp. , 370) contrast the categories of tense and aspect and maintain that, while
tense is used to locate events in time, aspect is concerned with the way in which the event is viewed with
regard to duration and completion. They compare the two examples below and observe that both are in
the past tense and both locate the situation in past time. The difference is in aspect, expressed by the
verbal form was locking as opposed to the ordinary past locked.
1. He locked the safe. 2. He was locking the safe.
They point to the basic aspectual distinction of perfectivity vs imperfectivity:
 Perfective: the situation is presented as a complete whole, as if viewed externally, with sharp
boundaries, as in 1. (Note that perfectivity is not the Perfect aspect!)
 Imperfective: the situation is viewed as an internal stage, without boundaries and is conceptualised as
ongoing and incomplete; the beginning and end are not included in this viewpoint – we see only the
internal part, as in 2. The Progressive is thus a kind of imperfectivity.
Especially for the Romanian speakers of English, aspect can be a difficult concept, which poses
comprehension and usage difficulties, since traditional Romanian grammars do not recognize this verbal
grammatical category 17 . However, Irimia (1997, pp. 118-20) notes that in Romanian as well, the
grammatical category of aspect develops in the opposition perfective- imperfective18, an opposition best
represented in the Romanian past tenses:
perfective imperfective
perfectul compus imperfectul
perfectul simplu
mai mult ca perfectul
Irimia maintains that aspect is marked inflectionally in the Romanian verbs, and proposes the verb a
coborî as an illustration.
perfective imperfective
coborî + t perfectul compus cobora + m imperfectul
coborî + Ø + i perfectul simplu
coborî + se + m mai mult ca perfectul
Confusion between the categories of tense and aspect arises because they both are related to time.
However, “while tense relates the time of a situation to some other time, commonly the time of speaking,
aspect conveys other temporal information, such as duration, completion, or frequency, as it relates to the
time of action. Thus tense refers to temporally when while aspect refers to temporally how. Aspect can be
said to describe the texture of the time in which a situation occurs, such as a single point of time, a
continuous range of time, a sequence of discrete points in time, etc, whereas tense indicates its location in
time. (Grammatical aspect)
In a series of examples such as I read, I am reading, I have read, and I have been reading, all the verbals
are somehow related to the present time. The difference is that, even if they all describe the present
situation, each conveys its own information about or points of view on the way the action relates to
present time. This is to say, they differ in aspect.
Brinton and Brinton (2010, pp. , 127) find it useful to treat the so-called “compound tenses” – the perfect
and the progressive – as expressions of the category of aspect. They explain that simple past tense in
English is perfective in aspect since it views events as complete and whole, e.g. Yesterday, I drove to
town, ran some errands, and visited with my friends. on The progressive periphrasis (be + the present

17
Aspect is not marked through auxiliary verbs in Romanian.
18
Irimia corelează opoziția perfectiv- imperfectiv cu opoziția împlinit – neîmplinit.
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

participle) expresses imperfective aspect, because it renders actions in progress, ongoing, and incomplete
(not yet ended). This is the usual way to denote a situation happening at the very moment of speaking,
which by definition is incomplete.
Depending on the temporal nature of the situation expressed by the verb –punctual or durative – the
authors above (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, p. 127) identify the following situations in which the progressive
is used:
 a continuous activity: She is reading. He was having a bath when I called.
 a repeated activity (“iterative aspect”): He was kicking the ball against the wall.
 a process leading up to an endpoint: He is walking her home.
An important observation is that the progressive is generally incompatible with static situations. This is due
to the fact that nondynamic situations cannot be seen as ongoing or in progress (I am liking music, I am
having a car.).
There are however some special uses of the progressive with state verbs:
 to change a state verb into a dynamic one (You are being naughty = behaving badly).
 to indicate a temporary state (He is teaching French this year = he normally teaches another
subject).
 to refer to an increasing or decreasing trend (Gas is costing a lot these days = it costs more than it
used to cost).
 to say something politely (I’m not recalling your name, can you give me a clue?).
According to Brinton and Brinton (2010, pp. , 127-8), both the meaning and categorization of the perfect
(the other periphrasis in English, consisting of have + the past participle) pose difficulties for linguists,
but it is widely agreed that the perfect is an aspect category rather than a tense category. It presents the
“current relevance” of a past event which is relevant either by its continuation into the present or by its
results in the present.
When a state or event that has duration (i.e. that extends over a period of time) is expressed in the perfect,
it denotes a situation that began in the past but continues to the present and possibly beyond (e.g. she has
stayed for a week). This is called a continuative perfect.
Continuative perfect
state I have lived here since childhood.
habit She has sung in the choir for ten years.
activity (continuous) The preacher has talked for the last hour.
activity (iterative) The child has coughed all night.
When an event that is punctual or has a necessary endpoint is expressed in the perfect, it denotes a
situation that is completed but has results in the present (e.g. she has opened the door). This is called the
resultative perfect.
Resultative perfect
activity with a necessary endpoint I have read the novel.
punctual event I have lost my keys.
The table below shows the major ways in which the Present Perfect differs from the Past Tense (Downing
& Locke, 2006, p. 362).
Present Perfect Past Tense
a. The activity/state is placed in the Its time-frame is the past, which is
extended now (a period of time which viewed as a separate time-frame from
extends up to speech time.) that of the present.
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

b. The event occurs at some indefinite The event is located at a specific and
and unspecified time within the definite time in the past. The Past tense
extended now. The Present Perfect does points to a specific time in the past.
not point to a specific time, but relates
to a relevant time.
As we have seen in 4.4., tense is expressed on the auxiliary verb be or have, thus resulting the following
forms:
form description example
present action in progress at the moment of I am reading a novel.
progressive speaking
present perfect past action with results in the present I have read this novel.
present perfect action which has been in progress I have been reading a
progressive from some moment in the past up to novel for the last hour.
speech time (and possibly beyond).
past progressive action in progress at some moment I was reading a novel
in the past at that time.
past perfect past action with results at some past I had read that novel
moment or completed before some before I bought it .
past moment
past perfect action which had been in progress I had been reading the
progressive from some moment in the past up to novel for an hour
some other past moment closer to before calling her.
speech time
future action in progress at some future I will be reading a
progressive moment novel by then.
future perfect future action with results at some I will have read a
future moment or completed before novel for an hour by
some future moment then.
future perfect future action in progress up to a I will have been
progressive particular event or time in the future; reading a novel for an
the duration stops at or before a hour by the time she
reference point in the future arrives.
Finite verbs, and therefore also finite clauses, are marked for tense. Tensed forms distinguish the present
tense (walk, walks) from the past tense (walked); the same applies to the distinction regular verbs -
irregular verbs, as in begin - began, go – went, etc. There are, nevertheless, irregular verbs which have the
same form for the present and past tenses, such as cost, cut, etc. Person and number are marked only on
the 3rd person singular of the present tense indicative (walks, begins) – except for the verb be, which has
more forms. Tense is also carried by the finite operators. (see 2.4.2.)
5.2.2.3. Mood
Mood is the verbal grammatical category that indicates the way in which the speaker regards his/her message,
i.e. whether he/she considers the event fact or nonfact (for example, whether it is intended as a statement of
fact, of desire, of command, etc.). This indication is normally realised by verbal inflections.
In both English and Romanian mood is closely related to tense and aspect and the same word patterns are
used to express the three grammatical categories at the same time.
If we accept the definition above, then we also have to accept the view that, because mood involves the
verbal expression of the speaker’s attitude, only finite verbs can be assigned to a certain mood. This
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

description is actually very similar to the definition for mood in Romanian grammar provided by Irimia19,
who argues that the traditional distinction between finite moods – non-finite moods20 is unfounded, as
the non-finite forms 21 (the infinitive, gerund, participle, supine) are actually either nonverbal or not
exclusively verbal (Irimia, 1997, p. 123).
Akmajian et al. note that “traditional grammars say that a verb is in, for example, the subjunctive mood if
it has a certain inflection (verbal morphology) and a sentence is in that mood if its main verb is in that
mood;” however, they suggest that moods are best analyzed sententially 22 , as forms with certain
conventional communicative functions (2001, pp. , 249).
The same authors distinguish between major moods (1. the indicative mood, 2. the imperative mood, 3.
the subjunctive mood) and minor moods (1. tag declarative, 2. tag imperative, 3. pseudo-imperative,
4. alternative questions, 5. exclamative, 6. optative, 7. "one more" sentence)23.
According to them, there are three major moods in English:
realis/fact mood the indicative mood is used to make factual statements or pose questions
irrealis/nonfact moods the imperative mood to express a request or command
the subjunctive mood to show a wish, doubt, or anything else contrary to
fact
Minor moods are illustrated by the following examples:
Tag declarative You've been drinking again, haven't you.
Tag imperative Leave the room, will you!
Pseudo-imperative Move and/or I'll shoot!
Alternative questions Does John resemble his father or his mother? (with rising intonation on father
and falling intonation on mother)
Exclamative What a nice day!
Optative May he rest in peace.
"One more" sentence One more beer and I'll leave.
Curse You pig, bag of wind, . . .!
Akmajian et al point to the fact that the distinction between major and minor mood is not clear-cut; they
identify the following features that intuitively characterize minor moods:
 are highly restricted in their productivity
 are peripheral to communication
 are probably low in their relative frequency of occurrence
 vary widely across languages." (2001, pp. 249-50)
1. The indicative is the mood of fact, of real situations, that indicates that something is actually the case
or actually not the case. It is expressed by the simple and compound tenses of the verb.

19
„Modul este o categorie gramaticală prin care se exprimă implicarea subiectului vorbitor în desfășurarea
raportului semantic dintre verb (realitate lingvistică) și o acțiune (stare etc.) (realitate extralingvistică),
interpretată prin enunțul sintactic – obiect al procesului de comunicare” (Irimia, 1997, p. 122).
20
În gramatica română se modurile predicative se mai numesc și personale, iar cele nepredicative se numesc și
nepersonale.
21
nonfinite verb = a verb form that is not restricted for person, number, and tense, including infinitives, gerunds,
and participles (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, p. 406)
22
sentential (adj.) = pertaining to or of the nature of a sentence.
23
The conditional is not normally distinguished as a mood because it does not appear as a morphologically distinct
form.
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

The indicative is the most common mood and is used in factual, objective statements. A verb in the
indicative is marked for tense and aspect and in the present tense shows grammatical concord with the
subject:
The major nonfact moods - the imperative and the subjunctive - indicate that something is not actually
the case or a certain situation or action is not known to have happened.
2. In both English and Romanian, the imperative mood is used to express direct commands. It has a
special syntactic form - it is a subjectless sentence - because a direct command can only occur between
the speaker (the 1st person) and the hearer (the 2nd person) - see 2.4. and 3.2.
The imperative consists of the bare form of the verb, as in Shut up!, Keep quiet!, Don’t look at me like
that!.
In English, there is another imperative with let’s addressed either to the 1st person plural, to the 1st person
singular and to the 3rd person, as a kind of suggestion and an imperative with let addressed to the 3rd
person.
imperative
st
1 person 3rd person
sg pl sg pl
Let me see. Let’s keep calm. Let him wait. Let them see to that.
The Romanian correspondent for this form of the imperative is normally the conjunctive mood.
imperativ
persoana I persoana a III-a
sg pl sg pl
(Stai) să văd. (Hai) să ne păstrăm Să aștepte. (Lasă) să se ocupe el de
calmul. asta.
Two more forms of the English imperative can be mentioned (2005, pp. 268-9):
 Emphatic imperative (Do sit down!)
 Passive imperative (Get vaccinated!)
3. The subjunctive expresses wishes, desires, requests, warnings, prohibitions, predictions, possibilities, and
contrary-to-fact occurrences. It occurs only rarely in main clauses in English today, especially in the form of
set formulas such as far be it from me, so be it, suffice it to say, come what may , be that as it may, Long live
the Queen! God forgive you! Curse this day! etc.
The subjunctive is includes verb forms that are mainly used in dependent clauses (conditional clauses,
that-clauses, etc.). The subjunctive form of a verb often coincides with a corresponding indicative form,
such as bare infinitive, present tense, past tense and past perfect indicative.
Subjunctive forms
English has synthetic and analytical subjunctive forms. The synthetic subjunctive is identical in form with the
past simple and the past perfect of the indicative, and the difference between these two forms lies in their time
reference:
example time reference
present subjunctive I wish you told me the truth. present or future
past subjunctive I wish you had told me the truth. past
Be is the only verb which has a special present subjunctive form – were, which is used for all persons:
If I were you, I wouldn’t go in there.
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

The present subjunctive expresses wishes, possibility, uncertainty present unreality, i.e. actions contrary
to present fact:
after it’s time It’s time we went back.
after the verb wish I wish you were here.
in conditional clauses If he had been asked, he would have come.
in concessive clauses Even though she apologized, I would not forgive her.
in comparative clauses He treats her as if she were a child.
The analytical/periphrastic subjunctive expresses unreality by means of a variety of modal auxiliaries
+ infinitive:
shall/should + infinitive They decided that we should be there before 9.
may/might + infinitive We stepped carefully for fear we might slip and fall.
would + infinitive I wish it would get warmer.
could + infinitive What interviewers wish they could tell every job candidate
(http://www.linkedin.com)
The analytical subjunctive should + infinitive is used after adjectives, verbs and nouns that express a
wish, a suggestion, a desire, etc.:
after it is/was + adjective (crucial, necessary, It is crucial that they should finish the project.
essential, natural, surprising, odd, absurd,
strange, urgent)
after the verbs ask, command, insist, order, He suggested that we should call her without delay.
propose, recommend, require, suggest:
after the nouns suggestion, proposal, My proposal is was that she should vote today.
idea, wish, recommendation, desire:
in purpose clauses I finished the presentation earlier so that everybody
should get to the meeting in time.
in negative purpose clauses after lest She was moving carefully lest they should wake up.
in expressions of fear
conditional clauses (the action is If Jack should call, tell him I’ll get back to him.
unlikely to occur)
The analytical subjunctive may/might + infinitive is used in the following contexts:
after the verbs order, request, desire: He ordered that they might be ready at once.
after expressions of fear I’m afraid he may sack me.
in clauses of purpose She gave me his number so that I might call him.
in clauses of concession No matter how hard he may try, he’ll never win their
trust back.
More traditional grammars recognize a fourth major mood, the conditional which occurs in
independent clauses by means of the modal auxiliary would + the bare infinitive of the main
verb, as in I would come, but I'm very busy.
The conditional mood is more frequently used in the main clause of conditional sentences to
render open and closed conditions.
main clause if-clause (introduced by if, unless, in
case)
open present conditional present synthetic subjunctive
condition (would + verb)
I would join you on the trip if I had time.
 I. O. Macari, Lecture 9 sem. I, 2016

closed past conditional past synthetic subjunctive

contion ( would+have+past participle24)
I would have joined you on the trip if I had had time.

5.2.2.4. Voice
Voice is traditionally considered a grammatical category of the verb, but it is actually relevant to
the entire sentence, because it indicates the semantic role of the subject. Thus, the subject is an
agent (the doer of the action) in active voice and a patient (the person or thing acted upon) in
the passive voice.
In both English and Romanian, the passive voice is expressed periphrastically.
English: A wonderful message was sent to her (by John).
Romanian: Un mesaj minunat i-a fost trimis (de către John)25.
The English canonical passive voice – the be-passive - has the following structure:
auxiliary be past participle of (by-PpP containing the agent)
+ verb +
A wonderful message was sent to her (by John).
Another passive form in English is the get-passive (get + past participle of verb), as in He gets
paid every two weeks (by his employers).
The difference between the be-passive and the get-passive is that the former focuses on the
result, while the latter focuses on the action bringing about the result.
A construction which is passive in meaning is get/have something done. It describes two types
of situations:
1. when we want someone else to do something for us, as in I must get/have my hair cut. (= my
hair must be cut by somebody)
2. when the verb refers to something negative/unwanted, as in She had his flat broken into last
night. (= her flat was broken into)
With this construction, the focus is on the result of the activity, not on the person or object that
performs the activity.
In the same way, the construction something/somebody needs doing has a passive meaning, as
in The walls need painting (= the walls need to be painted).
The focus here is on the person or thing that will experience the action.
In the passive, the logical subject/ the agent moves out of the position of grammatical subject and
goes to the by-PpP. Nonetheless, the by-PpP is commonly omitted in the passive, especially when
it brings no relevant information or when the doer of the action is unknown or unimportant.
Brinton and Brinton (2010, pp. , 321) notice a form which is called notional passive (a sentence
which is active in form but passive in meaning) and exemplify it with sentences such as:
The shirt washes easily. = ‘the shirt is easily washed’
These oranges peel easily. = ‘these oranges are easily peeled’
The cake should cook slowly. = ‘the cake should be slowly cooked’
Notional passives usually contain a manner adverb and differ from regular passives in that they
occur without explicit agents and, moreover, there is never even an implicit agent (these oranges
peel easily by you).

24
would + have + past participle is the structure of the bare perfect infinitive.
25
The Romanian word order is much freer, so that the version I-a fost trimis un mesaj minunat (de către John) is not
only possible, but, even more, it is probable.