Why English doesn't have Future Tense

It is indeed an intriguing fact that English does not have future tense . The Anglo-Saxons of yore did not bequeath future tense to the English language . While other languages have separate verb-forms to indicate future tense English is left with none !

We must bear in mind the fact that the early shapers of the English language the Anglo-Saxons ,  lived in an atmosphere with no constraints like prescriptive grammar . The only thing they cared for as far as their language was concerned was communicative effiency and ease of pronunciation -the two forces that shaped  all primitive languages in their infancy . 

If the Anglo-Saxons did not find it necessary to evolve separate  verb- forms to indicate future , they must have had reasons to do so  . I personally  think that the versatility   of their present tense verb- form was the reason . This verb-form was capable of being put  to diverse applications . It could be used to express actions that occurred in the past , which practice  survives today in historical present . It could express action in progress .It could express universal truths and habitual actions . Ii could express

future tense with suitable future time references,  a practice that survives , though in  a limited  way .No woderthe Anglo-Saxons did not see the need for a separate verb-form to express future! 

I wish to conclude this post by expressing the view of the great savant Otto Jespersen that the Anglo-Saxon language (Old English)) had enough internal resources to become a great language in future even if there was no Norman Conquest in 1066!

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Prof. V.P.Rafappan

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English Subjunctive Mood--Is the Sun Setting on It ?

The term "subjunctive " refers to the form of verb used by a speaker when he says something contrary to fact  such as a wish, a possibility, a conjecture, a doubt and so on . Many English learners may not be aware of the existence of `these special verb forms . This is a hang-over from Old English period  when subjunctive verb forms were widely used . The AngloSaxons used one set of verb forms for expressing facts and another for expressing wishes , possibilities etc .They even put these forms to creative use as in reported speech when the reporter wanted to distance himself  from what he reported.All this changed during the Middle English period . Contact with French semi-auxiliaries led to the emergence of modal auxiliaries in English . The English language refined upon French auxiliaries  and put them to several uses . Thus English was no longer in need of special verb forms to express contrary-to -fact situations . The characteristic  subjunctive terminations -e and -en dropped out owing to changing stress patterns and thus subjunctive verb forms lost their identity .Scholars like Bradley and Fowler asserted that subjunctive mood would disappear from English sooner or later !

With the loss of their visual and aural identity and most of their functions being taken over by modal auxiliaries , the English subjunctive mood lost its  raison d'être , and it was firmly set on the road to extinction . But the amazing fact is that the subjunctive still survives  both in British and American English Let us examine the areas where the subjunctive survives in modern English.

1  While expressing orders , requests  recommendations etc the subjunctive mood , that is , special verb forms as distinct from those in indicative mood , is used in the that-clause in complex sentences .

Examples:

a0He demands that everyone obey him

b) Our teacher recommends that everyone learn French .

c)I request that she be more kind to the children .

Note that indicative verb form with -s ending is avoided and this signals subjunctive mood

2 While expressing wishes desires etc subjunctive mood is widely used in English

a  I wish he were my son

b Would that I were young 1! Note the use of subjunctive verb form were in the place of indicative was

Subjunctive mood is used in set expressions  like

a God save the Queen!

b God be with nyou!

c God bless you.

d So be it .

e Till death do us part .

3 In conditional sentences expressing a hypothetical situation  subjunctive mood is still used

a If I were you , I wouldn't do it .

b If he were rich , she would marry him .

4 In unreal past (the use of past tense form of verbs for expressing contrary -to- fact situations)  the verb form used is really past subjunctive , though it is not distinguishable from past indicative . This is borne out by the use of were( , past subjunctive instead  of past indicative was in sentences expressing unreal past .
Example:

 If I stole her car , I would be jailed .

In this sentence stole is really past subjunctive of steal  , though it is indistinguishable from past indicative  But when it comes to the verb be ,  were (past subjunctive ) is the preferred form as in "If I were you , I wouldn't do it"

It is clear that subjunctive mood is in not likely  to go from the English language . It has come to stay ,. now overtly , now covertly ; now obviously , now subtly . It seems the sun will never set on it . English is slowly returning to its Germanic ancestry . It is a good sign .  It has no need to shine in Gallic feathers anymore! .The loss of subjunctive mood has  already taken its toll. English has become poorer for the loss of this mood . Look at the following quotations 

'I f Pope be not a poet , where is poetry to be found ?"Dr. Johnson

"That we  may bring , if need arise
no maimed or worthless sacrifice " ( Rudyard Kipling)

The use of subjunctive in these above quotes speaks for itself . Every user of English  must have wished to use a conditional sentence using subjunctive be   instead of the indicative is to express a certain shade of meaning .Dr Johnson uses  the subjunctive be and the indicative is/are to express different shades of meaning.   But  this option  is not available in present-day English.A language becomes poor when it becomes incapable of expressing  subtle shades of meaning . No wonder , English has ceded its place to French as the most accurate of modern languages ! .
Let us hope that  English will not allow   the subjunctive mood , or what  is left of it , to  perish !

Thank you for visiting

Prof V. P. Rajappan"

Special Gerund Constructions and Their Grammar

There are certain sentence constructions in English which teachers find hard to explain to learners . Constructions like " The Police had a hard time controlling the crowd " do not lend themselves to easy explanation . Teachers often explain them away as special gerund constructions which grammar cannot explain . By the way, the -ing -form in some of these constructions are not really gerunds at all , but they are present participles .( When the -ing -form resembles a noun it is called a gerund .. Gerunds share the characteristics of a noun .Present participles , on the contrary, have the characteristics of a verb . and they resemble verbs rather than nouns ).

How can we explain the sentence construction " The Police had a hard time controlling the crowd" ? It is obvious that the preposition in is omitted in this construction. The English language has been dispensing with prepositions when they serve no useful purpose, or when their meaning is absorbed in the verbs . Gerund form is used after prepositions in English ,and this is continued after the omission of prepositions before verbs . There are a few native speakers of English who omit in after the verb succeed as in the sentence" He succeeded becoming the manager" The following sentences show omission of prepositions: in a similar manner .

* She spent the time watching TV( 9omission of by )
*I had difficulty remembering his e-mail address. (omission of in )
*He wasted his time reading cheap magazines .(omission of by )


In some gerund constructions we can see truncated adverbial clauses , that is , adverbial clauses from which subordinating conjunctions (when, while, as etc ) , subject and auxiliary are omitted , leaving behind the -ing-form of the verb and adverbs Look at the following sentences :

*The poet saw her reaping in the field . *
*I heard him singing in the garden .
*She caught him stealing her money .

In each of these sentences the -ing-form is a remnant from an adverbial clause. Such elliptic constructions are common when it comes to expressions of frequently encountered real-life situations in all natural languages


In a few cases, the gerund construction is a device to fuse together two or more closely related clauses into a single sentence . You may know that to-infinitive is sometimes used to fuse together two or more sequentially related clauses into a single sentence . , e.g. He woke up to see his wife missing from his bed . In this sentence three clauses are fused together: He woke up and then he saw that his wife was missing from his bed. The -ing construction does exactly the same job . Example

He sat in the shade of a tree , thinking of his future .
This is the fusion of two clauses , he sat in the shade of a tree and thought of his future

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THAT & WHICH as Pronouns introducing Relative Clauses

ESL learners who are not conversant with the intricacies of English speech- rhythm are often confused when it comes to a choice between that and which to introduce relative clauses . They tend to use these pronouns interchangeably ! Are that and which really different?

That as a relative pronoun appeared in English during the Middle English period . This word has phonetic features enabling it to serve as an introducer to defining relative clauses . The defining relative clause and the rest of the sentence belong to the same tone-group . So the glide from the subject Noun Phrase to the relative clause is a smooth one .For example

The book that I read yesterday is a novel by R.K.Narayan.

The clause "that I read " is a defining relative clause as it is essential for getting at the meaning of the sentence. . The relative clause defines or limits the antecedent- book . The pronoun that,by virtue of its phonetic features , ensures a smooth flow from subject NP to the relative clause. No wonder, then, that the English language accepted that as a better choice than which for introducing defining relative clauses! Which is used for defining relative clauses only in written English of very formal style.

Relative clauses may sometimes introduce parenthetical ideas , that is to say, ideas that are not an essential part of the sentence . That clause may be called a non-defining relative clause . It merely provides additional information . So it has to be signalled in some way . English speakers use a pause to signal this, and the relative clause that follows it belongs to a different intonation group . By virtue of its phonetic features which is a better choice than that to indicate the break In written English the non-defining relative clause is marked off from the rest of the sentence with commas . Look at this example

Mobile phones , which are so useful, are often misused by students .

My car , which I bought a year ago, is running well.

Non-defining relative clauses seek to squeeze a lot of information in a single sentence . It is more appropriate in formal style English than in conversational English . The sentences given above can be reworded in spoken English as follows :

Mobile phones are misused by students . It is a pity! They are so useful!

My car is running well. You know , I bought it a year ago .


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Subject-Verb Inversion & Subject-operator Inversion--Difference Explained

There are many people who are not aware of the difference between subject-verb inversion and subject-operator inversion .They freely interchange these expression! But the difference between the two is a real one and it is worth maintaining , too.

I will first explain subject- operator inversion .What is an operator? It is a term used in modern grammar to denote the auxiliary verb , or if there is more than one auxiliary, the first auxiliary verb . Thus in the sentence :

Rama is reading a book .

is is the operator

In the sentence:

Rama will have been learning English for five years by 2012.

will is the operator as it is the first auxiliary in a row of three auxiliaries .

The different forms of the lexical verb be like is , are , am ,was, were etc come under the grammatical category of operators .

The dummy auxiliary do is used as an operator in interrogative and negative sentences when the tense of the verb is simple present tense or simple past tense .

What is Subject- Operator Inversion?

When subject and operator are switched in a sentence , it is called subject-operator inversion . You may have noticed it in interrogative sentences like :

Do you speak English?
Is he still sleeping?
Are you going to bed so early?

What a convenient method to change statements into questions!

There is another use of bubject-operator inversion which often puzzles foreign learners of English . This use of inversion is seen when a sentence element , usually an adverb of frequency is fronted . The fronted element carries tonic stress ,and this gives a peculiar rhythmic twist to the sentence . The operator that follows the fronted word ( like often, rarely never , seldom etc) carries very light stress, being an auxiliary verb , and the subject that follows it carries a much higher degree of stress .

Of course , one could give prominence to a frequency adverb by giving it tonic stress in its normal position in the sentence . But then, the coming together of two stressed words would disrupt the smooth flow of the sentence . Fronting , followed by subject-operator inversion solves this problem! Remember, rhythm is the fundamental feature of any natural language and the syntax of Enflish ( the arrangement of sentence elements) is best explained in terms of English speech thythm which is stress- based and not quantity- based as Latin languages .

Look at the following examples

He has never come late for work .
Never has he come late for work .

I have often seen him accompanying her to the temple .
Often have I seen him accompanying her to the temple .

We rarely see good films these days
Rarely do we see good films these days .

What is Subject -Verb Inversion?

Subject - verb inversion happens when the speaker wants to give thematic-fronting to a phrase in the sentence This results in the subject taking a position after the verb .

Examples

An ancient temple stands on the top of this hill

On the top of this hill stands an ancient temple .

The enemy force marched into the town .

Into the town marched the enemy force .

Remember, the phrase which is given thematic-fronting is often an adverbial realized as a prepositional phrase .

Sentences with the structure subject+ verb+ complement undergo subject- verb inversion when the complement is given thematic-fronting

Example

The ways of God are strange .
Strange are the ways of God .

NB:Subject-verb inversion happens not in all cases of thematic- fronting .It is often seen in sentences with the structure SVA and SVC. Thematic- fronting occurs when the speaker fronts a phrase or word that is uppermost in his or her mind .


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Relative Pronouns and Relative Adverbs - Difference Explained

Look at the following sentences :

1 The book which I read yesterday is a novel by R.K.Narayan.
2 The man who helped me most is my teacher.
3 This is the song which I like most.
4 This is the house where he lived .
5 The morning when we arrived at the hotel was a lovely one .

In these sentences the italicized part is the relative clause . It is called so because it is introduced by a relative pronoun or relative adverb . The words in bold type are either relative pronouns or relative adverbs .

How will you distinguish relative pronouns from relative adverbs? Well, it is as simple as that! Words like which, who whom and that are preceded by nouns , and these nouns are subjects or objects of the verbs in relative clauses . Thus in Sentence No 1 book is the object of the verb read. and which is a relative pronoun . It stands for the noun book . and so it is a pronoun . At the same time it relates to the noun book and so it is rightly called a relative pronoun

Now, have a look at Sentence No 4:The noun house is neither the subject nor the object of the verb lived .It answers the question "at what place?" ansd so the word that follows it , where. , is called relative adverb . It modifies the verb lived by stating the place .

In Sentence No 5 the noun morning answers the question " at what time ? " . It is , therefore, followed by the adverb when which relates to the noun morning .

The way how and the reason why

The relative adverbs in these expressions sound repetitive, don't they? These expressions have practically disappeared from English .

1This is the way how they treated prisoners.
2 I don't know the reason why they have denied me a promotion
.
In the following sentences how and why should be treated as conjunctions ,as they have no antecedents to relate to .
1 This is how they treated prisoners .
2I don't know why they deny me a promotion .

Relative adverbs like where and when cannot be used as conjunctions because their antecedents keep changing from context to context . and so they have to be stated for clarity .
In the case of the reason why and the way how their antecedents (reason and way) are fixed and so they got dropped out .

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Participial Construction & Absolute Construction : Difference Explained

Every learner of English ought to know the difference between participial construction and absolute construction . These two constructions are the source of many an error often committed by English - users .

What is participial construction? It is a common type of sentence construction in English . It consists of a participial phrase or clause followed by the main clause. The participle may be present participle ( - ing) or past participle ( -ed or -en) . Look at these sentences :

*Singing loudly , Rama entered the room .
*Being popular , he will win the election hands down .
*Tired from work, Sita went to bed early.
*Having read the book , she returned it to the library.
*Disappointed in love he, decided to commit suicide .

The first part of the sentence is called a participial phrase . The verbs in participial phrases are in the participle forms , present or past, and their subjects (not mentioned) are always the same as the subjects in the main clauses . So , remember that if you put a noun or pronoun other than the real subject( that is, subject of the participial phrase) at the beginning of the main clause , it may result in confusion ! Look at this sentence :

Walking in the grass , a snake bit her .

What impression do you get? Was the snake walking? If you re-write the sentence as

Walking in the grass, she was bitten by a snake

the sentence would make sense .

Now, let me discuss Absolute Construction . This type of sentence construction makes use of absolute phrases . What is an absolute phrase? Well, it is different from participial phrases in that it explicitly mentions the subject. The subject is never mentioned in participial phrases . For example, "being rich" is a participial phrase , "he being rich" is an absolute phrase . Another difference between participial construction and absolute construction is that the subjects of absolute phrases are always different from those of their main clauses . For this reason the syntactic relation between the absolute phrase and the main clause is always a fragile one . Hence the name absolute construction . You know absolute means "independent" or "not related " etc . The absolute phrases serves to give additional details in a hurried manner, so to speak . Nonetheless, there is a strong semantic relation between the absolute phrase and the main clause . Look at these sentences :

*The party being over, the guests began to depart .
*Her husband being away, she felt lonely and miserable .
*All government offices will remain closed tomorrow, tomorrow being a holiday .
*The doctor having arrived, she looked happy and cheerful .

I hope you have understood the difference between absolute construction and participial construction . ,This will help you to avoid errors in future . .

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I thank the readers for their comments .
A reader from Korea wants me to comment on the sentence :
While Caruso drinking the fresh apple cider, the farmer asked the famous singer his name
This sentence is not an example for absolute construction. Nor is it an example for participial construction. The omission of was before drinking is the cause of the error.The omission must have been due to oversight .

Prof. V.P.Rajappan