The contextual shifts of "now"

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King Danylo University

The contextual shifts of “now”

Mykhaylenko V.V.

Abstract

The article investigates the unit now in three types of context to differentiate its part of speech category, meaning and its sentence position in the novel “Theatre” ” by W.Somerset Maugham (p. 1-100), its Russian translation by Галина А. Островская, and in the British National corpus to compare the statistics in the novel and thecorpus its statistic data aimed at the common trends in the development of now as an original adverb into particle (discoursal and imperative) context. Context in philosophy is the idea that a statement or thought has meaning only in relationship to a certain setting or background. In literature context illuminates the meaning and relevance of the text, and may be something cultural, historical, social, or political. The study of meaning has become the main point in two areas of linguistics: semantics i concerned with the ways meaning is encoded in language, pragmatics - “the study of those relations between language and context that are grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of a language. Bateson (1979) underlines that “without context, there is no communication” and that to understand communicational aspects of a phenomenon, one must look to ever larger context units in a “hierarchy of contexts within contexts.” We are hypothising that there is a close relationship between the position of now, its part ofspeech designation and its semantics, therefore we are planning to analyse the unit now in three types of context, where they take on discourserelated functions as a result of what is now widely accepted to be a grammaticalization process. The core contribution of this paper lies in the investigation of now which undergoes a cross-categorial transpisition of now as an original adverb ^discourse particle and adverb ^ pragmatic particle under the influence of various ttypes of context: The introduction of a context helps to demonstratethe dynamic behaviour of the meaning. The comparison of the data rerieved from the novel and the British National corpus point out the common features of the cross-categorial transposition of now. We believe that units like still, yet, only, just and others can demonstrate the same shifts in various contexts.

Key words: adverb, particle, context, discourse, transpostion, shift, grammaticalization.

Михайленко В.В.

Контекстуальні пересуви “now”

Анотація

now semantics distribution sentence

У статті досліджено одиницю now у трьох типах контексту, щоб вирізнити її частино-мовну приналежність, семантику та дистрибуцію у реченні на матеріалі роману «Театр» У. Сомерсет Моема (с. 1-100), його російському перекладі (перекладач - Галина А. Островська) і в Британському національному корпусі для порівняння загальних процесів. Все це спрямовано на визначення тенденції розвитку now як прислівник ^ частку (дискурсивну та імперативну) у межах контексту. Контекст у філософії - це думка про те, що висловлювання має значення лише у певній ситуації. У літературному контексті висвітлюється значення та актуальність тексту, який може бути культурним, історичним, соціальним чи політичним. Вивчення значення є головним завданням семантики, яка досліджує способи кодування значення у мові та прагматики, яка досліджує “вивчення відносин між мовою та контекстом, які граматикалізовані або закодовані в структурі мови. Бетесон (1979) підкреслює, що «без контексту немає комунікації» А для розуміння комунікативних рис явища потрібно визначити типи контекстів, які утворюють певну ієрархію. Ми припускаємо, що існує тісний взаємозв'язок між дистрибуцією now та її семантикою. Відповідно, ми плануємо проаналізувати now у трьох типах контексту, де ця одиниця виконує функції, пов'язані зі структурою дискурсу, у результаті чого відбувається процес її граматикалізації. Основний доробок даної статті полягає у дослідженні явища, що now зазнає міжкатегоріальну транспозицію: прислівника «дискурсивний маркер (або частка) та прислівника прагматична частка під впливом різних типів контексту. Введення категорії контексту допомогло продемонструвати динаміку значення now. Порівняння даних, одержаних з роману та Британського національного корпусу, вказує на загальні риси у мовах, що порівнюються. Ми вважаємо, що одиниці типу now, only, still, yet, just та інші, можуть демонструвати однакові зміни в різних контекстах. Використання перекладу свідчать про загальні тенденції граматикалізації.

Ключові слова: прислвник частка, контекст,дискулс, транспозиція, пересув, граматикалізація.

Introduction

The main objective of the paper is to reveal the components of the lexical meaning of now in its context.Very few people seem able to suggest that what meanings there might be beyond the ones in dictionary [1, p. 324; 10, p. 251-252]. When researching the unit now the dctionaries unanimously refer it, first, to the class of adverbs though in most contexts it does not fit that category. Context in philosophy is the idea that a statement or thought has meaning only in relationship to a certain setting or background. In literature context illuminates the meaning and relevance of the text, and may be something cultural, historical, social, or political. The study of meaning has become the main point in two areas of linguistics: semantics i concerned with the ways meaning is encoded in language, pragmatics -“the study of those relations between language and context that are grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of a language [13, p. 9; 21, p. 53].

We shall investigate the unit now in three types of context to differentiate its part of speech category, meaning and its sentence position in the novel “Theatre” ” by W.Somerset Maugham (p.1-100), its Russian translation by Галина А. Островская, and in the British National corpus to compare the statistics in the novel and thecorpus its statistic data aimed at the common trends in the development of now as an original adverb into particle (discoursal and imperative) context.

Traditionally, adverbs are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, verbs and adjectives, though Beck defines nous, verbs and adjectives as three major open classes and refers the adverb together with adposition to two minor lexical classes. Adverbs are generally believed in particular to be a cross-linguistically marked category than adjectives [3, p. 11-12]. The most well-known study of adverb position isundertaken by Cinque [4, p. 3-4]. We use adverbs as adjunct or modifiers of a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a clause or a whole sentence and, less commonly, about a noun phrase. Adverbs are classified into several categories: time, place, manner, degree, frequency, but some other grammar books distinguish some more categories, for example, focusing, evaluative, linking, focus and viewpoint, truth, comment and directional, contrast or ambiguity, opacity, and veridicality [see 6, p. 205-206; 15, p. 57]. Thus adverbs do not present a unified class, in order to understand them, it is first necessary to establish the right taxonomies [19, p. 285]. The options of adverb positions have been evident since Old English, and we find that authors used to employ them to express specific modes.

Discussion

The word «context» is a metaphor derived from the Latin texere, «to weave.» It came int English in early 15c. in the meaning «a composition, a chronicle, the entire text of a writing,» from Latin contextus «a joining together,» originally past participle of contexere «to weave together,» from assimilated form of com «with, together» (see con-) + texere «to weave, to make» (from PIE root *teks- «to weave,» also «to fabricate»). In the 4th c.A.D. the Latin noun contextio described the text surrounding a given passage. In the Middle Ages, contextio came to mean «literary composition,» but «context,» was expressed through the term circumstantiae. In the 9th c. Sedulius Scotus (fl. 840-860), an Irish teacher, Latin grammarian and scriptural commentator (Encyclopaedia Britannica), suggested the rule of «seven circumstances»-- person, fact, cause, time, place, mode, and topi which lay the foundation of the modern concept of context. Gregory Bateson's ideas are significant for how we understand communication, in different settings whether in family settings, in ecosystems, among humans, or non-humans/. argued that “without context, there is no communication” and that to understand communicational aspects of a phenomenon, one must look to ever larger context units in a “hierarchy of contexts within contexts” [2, p. 5-6; 5, p. 1-2] As we can see, context plays a very important role in discourse analysis [22, p. 558]. The context can eliminate ambiguity of the unit meaning in the sentence; it can indicate referents to avoid repetition, and detect comversational implicature in the terms of `what thespeaker can imply [18, p. 878]. For our investigation the first and the third functions of the context are very significant.

Corpus analysis

We are hypothising that there is a close relationship between the position of now, its part ofspeech designation and its semantics, therefore we are planning to analyse the unit now in three types of context, where they take on discourserelated functions as a result of what is now widely accepted to be a grammaticalization process [7, p. 195].

A Linguistic Context is a context defined purely in terms of what follows or what precedes a particular segment that is undergoing a sound change. In other words, a linguistic context will not take into account the social, situational aspects, or the psychological aspects. Linguistic context refers to the context within the discourse, that is, the relationship between the words, phrases, sentences and even paragraphs. It can be also interpreted as the surroundings, circumstances, environment, background or settings that determine, specify, or clarify the meaning of an event or other occurrence.The function of the linguistic context is to help ascertain the unit meaning, primarily its lkexical one. First, the structure of thel lexical meaning of now will be in the focus of our investigation to further determine its possible shifts connected- with theintercategorial transposition of now: adverb ^ particle.

The lexical meaning of the adverb now includes thefollowing components:

(1) at the present time or moment [Merriam Webster, Cambridge, Macmillan, Collins];

(2) in the time immediately [Merriam Webster, Cambridge, Collins];

(3) very soon [Merriam Webster; Macmillan];

(4) used with the sense of present time weakened to express command, request, or admonition [Merriam Webster, Macmillan, Collins];

(5) used with the sense of present time weakened or lost to introduce an important point or indicate a transition to a new situation or event [Merriam Webster, Cambridge];

(6) sometimes [Merriam Webster];

(7) under the present circumstances [Merriam Webster];

(8) at the time referred to in a story [Merriam Webster, MacMillan, Collins;

(9) by this time the action is over [Merriam Webster Cambridge, Collins];

(10) used to introduce a new subject [Cambridge, Collins];

(11) as a result [Macmillan];

(11) attracting attention [MacMillan, Collins];

(12) conjunctive (now/now that).

The componental analysis of now reveals “present time” as the dominant one.

Single adverbs are relatively free, bt there are some positional restrictions. used to disambiguate between two possible interpretations of an adverb.For instance, adverbs of manner have internal ordering restrictions, but they are very free within a sentence and allow for recursion, which are both properties of adjuncts. [1, p. 8].

Now we shall investigatetherelationship of the sentence position of now and its semantics in then Source Language and theTarget language [14, p. 131]

(І) The front position of now of in the sentence: The Initial front sentence position in the novel - 12 (100); in the British National corpus -40(100 cases). Now in the sentence initial position is rather a discourse marker linking the previous event with the present than a temporal adverb specifying the present time of the event adverb [see 16, p. 232]. The factions of DMs and include modalizing (e.g. conversation management or stance expression) as well as text- or discoursestructuring (e.g. linking functions, i.e. the work of connectives [see 7, p. 247; cf. 8, 189-190].We use now as a discourse marker to signal something new, particularly when giving instructions or introducing a new idea or topic, they structure the relationships between speaker and listener. For instance, now links two temporal events - then and now in discourse or two clauses of the composite sentence.

Now +S + Vlink + Predicative ^сейчас: Now his chestnut hair was very grey, and he wore it much shorter,... “Сейчас его каштановые волосы почти совсем поседели, и он стриг их куда короче,...”

Now +S + Vmod + Vinf ^-теперь: Now she could enjoy herself without fear. "Теперь она может безбоязненно наслаждаться жизнью.”

He seemed shy,. well, that was not to be wondered at, now she was there he must be rather overcome, and she set herself to put him at his ease. “Юноша казался робким, что ж, нечему удивляться, теперь, когда она здесь, он, естественно, смущен, очень волнуется, и Джулия решила, что ей надо его ободрить.”

Now + S +Vmod +Vin: Now she could deal with him on equal terms. “Теперь она будет с ним на равных.”

Naturally, now refers to the present, however, in the discourse both can refer the events to the three temporal planes. And the translator tries to follow this tradition, see the Russian equivalent of now “теперь” correlating with the present, past and future, when English now correlates with thepast forms (narrative past)

(ІІ) The mid position of now in the sentence reveals its original dominant component of “present time” of events or actions. The frequency of now midposition in the novel is 14 (40):in the novel is the- fragments of the BNC 68 (100).The regular position of now as an adverb is between the subject and the predicate, between the Vaux and the V notional, or after the predicate. This English regular function of now is not frquently rendered into Russian:

S + Vaux + now + Vpast participle ^ 0 = 0: they could look about for a

theatre, and with the reputation Julia had now acquired it would be safe to start in management. “они начнут присматривать театр и при той репутации, которой добилась Джулия, без риска начнут собственное дело.”

S + Ved + now^ 0=0: She ... did not quite know how to deal with the predicament in which she now found herself. “Миссис Госселин ... не знала, как себя держать в этом затруднительном положении”.

S + Ved + now---- 0=0: She undressed now and slipped between the sheets. “Она разделась и скользнула в постель.”

S + Ved + now--0=0: She noticed that for long now he had come to listen complacently to her praise of his exquisite nose and beautiful eyes. “Джулия заметила, что он уже вполне спокойно выслушивает дифирамбы своему точеному носу и прекрасным глазам.”

In illustration now correlates with the Ved in the main clause `She noticed'where it points the time of theaction and the Vpast perfect in the subordinate clause where it underlines `till the time of theaction mentioned in the main clause and additionaly the perfection of an action. However thetranslator ommited now and its implicit component `perfection' substituted by the Russian explicit `уже'.

Now correlating with the past forms of the verb retains its adverbial nature in in English, though in the target text the translator ommits it as redundant. Thefact is that in the given cases now refers the event to the point in the past together with the past form of the verb and therefore it becomes redundant. Wecan suggesr another explantion - now in undergoes so called cross-categorial transition (adverb -- discorse particle), i.e. here is an example of grammaticalization.

In the rest of fragments now in the midposition must be stressed and it retains its temporal adverbial character which is retained in the Target Discurse:

(ІІІ) The end position of now. The frequency of now final position in the novel is 6 (40); in the frag-mentsofthe BNC is 3 (100). Linguistic context can be explored from three aspects: deictic, co-text, and collocation [18, p. 876].] The adverb now tells us' when” at the end of a sentence is a neutral position. Situational context, or context of situation (the Firthian context of situation) [see 11, p. 30], relates to the environment, time and place, etc. in which the discourse occurs, and also the relationship between the participants. This theory is traditionally approached through the concept of register, which helps to clarify the interrelationship of language with context by handling it under three basic headings: field, tenor, and mode.

S + Vlink +now = сейчас: How old are you now? “Сколько вам сейчас?”

S + Vlink + predicative +now = теперь: she hadn't risked it she would have looked all right in boy's clothes, of course it was too late now. “Разумеется, теперь уже поздно, а может, и хорошо, что она не стала рисковать.”

S + Vaux +V present participle + Vinf +now = теперь: What are you going to do now?» she asked quietly. “Какие у тебя теперь планы? - спокойно спросила она.»

Vaux + S + Vinf+now = сейчас (expressive): D'you mean to say, get married now? “Ты хочешь сказать - пожениться сейчас?”

S + Vlink + S + Predicative + now ^0 = O: Dolly was alert now. “Долли насторожилась”.

S + V + now ^ 0: I'm beginning to feel better now. But, my God, you slut.

“Стало немного лучше, но, клянусь богом, ты меня потрясла.”

In illustration 3.6. the author underlines the “present moment” grammaticalleand lexically, but the auther avoids both due to the explicit context

(IV) AND + NOW. In discourse structure now can be used as a linking element and, evidently,its combinability with the original coorditating conjunction proves our assumption.

our assumption.

And + now + S+ V ^ And =0: ...he was incapable of a generous impulse,

... and nowhe was prepared to stand aside so that she might have her chance. “Майкл не способен на широкий жест, и вот вам, пожалуйста, ... он готов отойти в сторону, чтобы дать ей хороший шанc.”

In illustration the translator ommits now as a redundant linking element

In the followingillustrations the translator underlines the opposition of the two temporal planes:

And + now + S + V = сейчас: but he wanted to be his own master and now in the last year of his articles he had broken away and taken this tiny flat.

“но захотел быть сам себе хозяином и сейчас, в последний год учения, отделился от семьи и снял эту крошечную квартиркe.”

(V) but + now. But and now show a contrast between the two items or ideas And in most cases the translator rendering the both units to underline the contrast or enumeration of temporal planes

but + now = теперь пора: it had no; t seemed worthwhile to move while Michael was on active service, but now that a baby was coming... "казалось, нет смысла переезжать, пока Майкл находится в действующей армии, но теперь когда появится ребёнок.”

But + now + S +V = но теперь: but now i n some strange way it had left him. “. но теперь каким-то таинственным образом Майкл утратил свое очарование.”

(VI) NOW + VIMP. The frequency of now + Vimpf in the novel is 5 (40); in the fragments of theBNC is 4 (100). Now in the socio-cultural context which can be customs, mores or norms of a society, the characters live in and how their culture can affect their behaviour and their opportunities,it also looks about where and when each text is set. See, for instance the sentence from the novel:”Julia talked very differently to herself and to other people: when she talked to herself her language was racy”. Clifford Geertz says that culture denotes an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of i nherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate [9, p. 89]. Teun A. van Dijk argues that it is not the social situation itself that influences the structures of text and talk, but rather the definition of the relevant properties of the communicative situation by the discourse participant [20, Ch. 2]. The social-cultural context in discourse is the manner in which interpersonal relationships influence communication: structure of relationship (family, friends, professional, etc.); nature of the relationship (roles of the individuals in the relationship). Discourse varies according to factors such as who it is for, in what situation, and what kind of activity the language is being used for. Leech, Deuchar and Hoogenraad define it as tenor which relates to the relationship between a speaker and the addressee(s) in a given situation, and is often characterized by greater or lesser formality' [12, p. 9]. Context of the following sentences is very important because is the background, environment, setting, framework, or surroundings of events or occurrences. Simply, context means circumstances forming a background of an event, idea or statement, in such a way as to enable readers to understand the narrative or a literary piece. It is necessary in writing to provide information, new concepts, and words to develop thoughts.

Now + Vimp (let's) = 0: Now let's come down to brass tacks. “Перехожу к сути дела.”

now +Vimp = 0: Now listen, Roger's coming home tomorrow. “Послушайте, завтра возвращается Роджер.”

Intr + Vimp + now ^ Particle = Ну: Oh, com e now, it s not so bad as that.

“Ну, полно, полно, не так уж все плохо, как кажется.”

Vimp+ now ^ Now ^ 0 = Ну-ка: Now sit down, duckie, and I'll give you a drop of Scotch to pull you together. “Ну-ка, сядь, цыпочка, и я дам тебе капельку виски, чтобы ты пришла в себя”

Now +Question ^ Particle = НУ: Now what's all this Tosca stuff about? “Ну, а теперь объясни, по какому поводу вся эта сцена из «Тоски»?”

Socio-cultural context refers to the culture, customs and background of epoch in language communities in which the speakers participate. Language is a social phenomenon, and it is closely tied up with the social structure and value system of society. We have investigated a case of grammaticalization of now into a discourse marker sharing Schwenter & Traugott's hypothesis that it can follow a”grammaticalization chain going through a fixed set of phrases: sentence adverb ^ epistemic adverb ^ discourse marker” [see 17, p. 7-8].

Findings and conclusion

The core contribution of this paper lies in the investigation of now which undergoes a cross-categorial transpisition of now as an original adverb ^discourse particle and adverb ^ pragmatic particle under the influence of various ttypes of context: The introduction of a context helps to demonstratethe dynamic behaviour of the meaning. The comparison of the data relieved from the novel and from the British National corpus point out the common features of the cross-categorial transposition of now. We believe that units like still, yet, only, just and others can demonstrate the same shifts in various contexts. The use of translation has proved some trends of grammaticalization of English now correlating with Verb (-ed) which brought its omission in Russian and the shifts of now into discoursal particle or a pragmatic (imperative) particle. Contrastive studies lay the foundation for a futher typological description of functional oartsof speech. For further research, a detailed corpus study of adverbs like, well, then, just, yet, already we'll undertake their evolution to discourse markes.

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