ОСНОВЫ ТЕОРИИ ИЗУЧАЕМОГО ЯЗЫКА. ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКАЯ ГРАММАТИКА АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

Методическое пособие по английскому языку

ОСНОВЫ ТЕОРИИ ИЗУЧАЕМОГО ЯЗЫКА. ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКАЯ ГРАММАТИКА АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

В учебном пособии освещены ключевые проблемы теоретической грамматики английского языка и включают следующие главы: предмет, цели и задачи курса; основные понятия теоретической грамматики; американский структурализм; теория частей речи; проблема «глагола» в современном английском языке; семантическая грамматика и прагматика. Теоретические аспекты раскрываются на основе современных научно-педагогических принципов и анализируются с учетом изменений и новых достижений в области лингвистики.

В каждом разделе актуализация теоретических положений опирается на систему практических заданий, которые могут быть использованы как на семинарских занятиях, так и для самостоятельной работы.

Учебное пособие предназначено для использования в преподавании теоретической грамматики английского языка при подготовке студентов, получающих дополнительную квалификацию «Переводчик в сфере профессиональной коммуникации». Книга также может быть рекомендована в качестве пособия для самостоятельной подготовки учащихся к итоговому выпускному экзамену по дисциплине «Основы теории изучаемого языка».

СОДЕРЖАНИЕ

ВВЕДЕНИЕ …………………………………………………………………..			4
ЛЕКЦИИ
	1. Обзор основных направлений грамматики……………………..…...		5
	2. Основные понятия в теории грамматики…………………………....		11
	3. Глагол…………………………………………………………………..		18
	4. Основные методы выявления грамматической структуры в английском языке………………………………………………………..		25
	5. Семантическая грамматика…………………………………………..		33
	6. Теория частей речи………………………………………………..…..		38
	7. Прагматика ………………………………………………………..…..		44
СЕМИНАРЫ
	Семинар 1 ……………………………………………………………....		50
	Семинар 2 ……………………………………………………………....		52
	Семинар 3 ……………………………………………………………....		55
	Семинар 4 ……………………………………………………………....		57
	Семинар 5 ……………………………………………………………....		60
	Семинар 6 ……………………………………………………………....		62
	Семинар 7 ……………………………………………………………....		64
ГРАММАТИЧЕСКИЙ АНАЛИЗ
		Текст 1……………………………………………………………………	66
		Текст 2……………………………………………………………………	82
ТЕРМИНОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ…………………………………..			126
ЛИТЕРАТУРА...……………………………………………………….……..			137

ВВЕДЕНИЕ

Методические указания по теоретической грамматике современного английского языка предназначаются для студентов старших курсов факультета информационных технологий, физического и геолого-географического факультетов университетов, осуществляющих подготовку специалистов в рамках дополнительной квалификации «Переводчик в сфере профессиональной коммуникации».

Курс состоит из двух разделов: I. Лекции; II. Семинары. Материал книги изложен в плане программных требований к теоретическим курсам, направляя внимание студентов на научное понимание новейших достижений в развитии современной грамматической теории. В центре внимания лежит вопрос системного характера языка, диалектического единства формы и содержания всех грамматических явлений, функционально-семантических связей между единицами разного уровня.

Книга знакомит читателя с развитием грамматической теории английского языка и научными поисками новых методов грамматического анализа в исследованиях российских (советских) и зарубежных лингвистов.

В данной работе освещаются также такие вопросы, как синтагматические и ассоциативные отношения лингвистических единиц, проблема «грамматическая категория и контекст», понятие оппозиции для раскрытия сути грамматических категорий в морфологии и синтаксисе, принцип поля в изучении структуры языка, семантические аспекты синтаксиса, имплицитная предикация и проблема синтаксической парадигмы.

После изложения теоретического курса представлены контрольные вопросы, которые не только содействуют усвоению материала данных методических указаний, но и направляют студента на самостоятельную научную работу по теории грамматики.

Лекция 1

ОБЗОР ОСНОВНЫХ НАПРАВЛЕНИЙ АНГЛИЙСКОЙ ГРАММАТИКИ

Цели и задачи нормативной (практической) и теоретической грамматик
Связь с другими науками
История развития английской грамматики
1. Донаучные грамматики (pre-scientific grammars)
2. Классическая научная грамматика (classical scientific grammar)
3. Структурная грамматика (structural grammar)

Цели и задачи нормативной (практической) и теоретической грамматик

Как нормативная (практическая), так и теоретическая грамматика дают описание грамматической структуры языка.

Нормативная грамматика анализирует грамматические структуры с точки зрения их практического применения в процессе общения. Она обеспечивает нас набором четко сформулированных норм и правил, которые не подлежат сомнению или обсуждению.

Лингвисты, занимающиеся теоретической грамматикой, могут иногда расходиться во взглядах на отдельные аспекты нормативной грамматики. Ученые опираются с одной стороны на исследования в области общего языкознания, а с другой стороны на реальные явления речи.

Нормативная грамматика развивается, опираясь на анализ явлений реальной речи, а также положений теоретической грамматики. Именно поэтому нормативная и теоретическая грамматики являются самостоятельными разделами языкознания, хотя и неразрывно связанными друг с другом.

Авторы учебников по практической грамматике также порой могут по-разному трактовать различный грамматический материал, т.к. все они принадлежат к различным направлениям в теоретической грамматике.

E. G.

Существование такой части речи, как слова, относящиеся к категории состояния (Statives), подвергалось сомнению вплоть до 60-х годов, когда Борис Александрович Ильиш доказал, что прилагательные и слова категории состояния – это разные части речи. Он выявил различия в грамматическом значении, грамматической форме и функции этих слов.

Long

Green

Happy

Bright

Asleep

Afraid

Alive

Awake

Long road FUNCTION Boy is alive (NO: alive boy)

Long – longer – the longest FORM NO: “aliver” – “alivest”

E. G.

Существование категории рода для существительных в английском языке не подвергается сомнению в нормативной грамматике:

Lion – lioness

Tiger – tigress

Waiter – waitress

Actor – actress

Однако в ТГ многие ученые опровергают существование категории рода в а/я, ибо, как показывает анализ, суффикс –ess, присоединяемый к основе существительного, часто изменяет не только его род, но и лексическое значение:

Governor (губернатор, правитель) – Governess (гувернантка)

Mayor (мэр) – Mayoress (жена мэра)

Mister (господин) – Mistress (хозяйка, мастерица, учительница, госпожа)

Conductor (дирижер) – Conductress (кондукторша, руководительница)

Более того, большинство существительных в а/я вообще не могут присоединять к себе суффикс –ess. Это означает, что данный суффикс не охватывает весь класс существительных в а/я.

Таким образом, основной целью ТГ является представление всевозможных взглядов различных ученых на наиболее противоречивые вопросы грамматики, а также, по возможности, формулирование четких выводов. В случае невыполнимости последнего (что бывает довольно часто), проблема остается открытой для обсуждения.

ТГ занимается:

Связь с другими науками

ТГ тесно связана с другими лингвистическими науками: лексикология, словообразование, фонетика, стилистика.

Фонетика.

В 19-м веке фонетика считалась частью грамматики. Генри Свит (Henry Sweet), выдающийся английский грамматист, посвятил не одну главу из своего труда по практической грамматике ударению в слове и фразовому ударению, а также их влиянию на грамматические явления.

Связь фонетики и грамматики неоспорима. Смещение ударения в слове ведет к изменению части речи. Изменение в мелодике (интонации) также приводит к изменению части речи (dancing teacher) или изменяет структурный тип предложения. Поэтому некоторые фонетические ошибки в речи могут влиять на грамматическую структуру высказывания, т.о. препятствуя правильному пониманию.

Ударение: ‘object (n) – ob’ject (v), ‘import – im’port

Звуковая замена: woman – women

Интонация: Isn’t the weather ^\fine! – Isn’t the weather _/ fine?

Сдвиг ядерного ударения (nuclear stress):

Swimming _\match – match which is swimming (Part. I)

_\Swimming match – match in swimming (Gerund)

Dancing teacher = teacher who’s dancing (P.I) / teacher of dancing (Gerund)

Лексикология.

Грамматика и лексикология имеют один и тот же объект изучения – слово.

Некоторые лингвисты (Г.Свит) считают, что в грамматике оперируют общими фактами в языке, тогда как лексикология рассматривает каждый частный случай отдельно.

Так, например, то, что форма мн.ч. существительных имеет окончание –s – это общий факт, а формы child – children, man – men – это частные случаи.

В лексикологии слово рассматривается с точки зрения его лексической значимости, лексической комбинаторности; лексикология рассматривает изменения лексического значения.

Грамматика рассматривает слово с точки зрения его грамматического значения, формы и функции.

Грамматика тесно связана с лексикологией, ибо слова не функционируют изолированно друг от друга, в силу чего лексическое значение слова зачастую зависит от его грамматических характеристик.

E. G.

Так, например, артикли обычно предшествуют существительным, а употребление артикля вместе с прилагательным приводит к изменению лексического значения последнего:

Poor – the poor, rich – the rich

Согласование между подлежащим и сказуемым в числе и лице отчасти изменяет лексическое значение подлежащего:

The family

The couple

The committee

Is / Are

Комбинаторность слов зависит не только от их лексического значения, но так же от их грамматического значения:

Possible:

N+N / N+Adj

Part+N / Part+V

Impossible:

Adv+N

Словообразование.

В словообразовании мы можем наблюдать, как одни и те же элементы используются для построения самостоятельных отдельных слов и грамматических форм:

-er:

Long – longer, BUT teach – teacher

Adj à Adj V à N

История развития английской грамматики

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Pre-scientific Scientific

Pre-normative Prescriptive (Normative) Classical Structural

а) Донаучные грамматики

Первая английская грамматика, написанная Уильямом Буллокар (William Bullocar), появилась в 1585г. Автор предпринял попытку описать грамматический строй а/я. Он дал фундаментальное описание 8 частей речи и затронул понятие предложения, типичного для а/я.

Несмотря на то, что эпоха донаучной грамматики началась в конце 16 века, в школах изучалась только латинская грамматика, да и сам термин «грамматика» относился к изучению латинского языка. Именно поэтому учебник латинской грамматики, написанный Уильямом Лили (W.Lily) на а/я в 1527г., послужил образцом будущих английских грамматик. Ранние английские грамматики донаучного периода переносили латинские парадигмы, латинскую терминологию на английские формы и реалии а/я.

Пренормативная грамматика не устанавливала никаких норм или критериев употребления языковых единиц, она лишь делала первые шаги к пониманию различий между латынью (синтетический) и английским (аналитический).

В 17-18вв. начался период предписывающей (prescriptive) или нормативной грамматики. В этот период многие грамматические явления были признаны непригодными или неправильными. Предписывающая грамматика установила жесткие правила касательно того, что было верно в языке, а что – нет, руководствуясь при этом законами логики и разума. Но в большинстве случаев превалировала не логика, а латинские кальки, накладываемые на а/я.

Предписывающая грамматика осуждала многое, что широко использовалось носителями английского языка:

Had better (future, thou past tense)

It’s me (It’s I)

What not

Из всех трудов, написанных в период развития предписывающей грамматики, наибольшего внимания заслуживает работа епископа Лоуфа (Lowth, 1762).

Оба вышеуказанных периода (пренормативная и предписывающая грамматики) оставались донаучными, т.к. не сумели выдвинуть какого-либо объективного подхода к описанию языка.

b) Классическая научная грамматика

К концу 19 столетия появляется новая грамматика – научная. Она возникла в 1875г., была написана Генри Свитом и называлась «A New English Grammar. Logical & Historical».

В этом труде Г.Свит выделил 2 очень важных момента:

Правильным с точки зрения грамматики он считал те явления в языке, которые широко использовались в речи
Он и его последователи (Onions, Jespersen, Curme) выявили 3 признака, по которым все в английском языке можно было подвести под определенную классификацию: значение, форма, функция.

с) Структурная грамматика

Другое направление научной грамматики – структурная грамматика (Structural grammar) – появилось в 20-е гг. 20 столетия вследствие необходимости описания неизвестных или малоизученных языков индейских племен. Леонард Блумфилд (L.Bloomfield) предложил абсолютно новый метод описания структуры языка, который в последствии был назван описательным / дескриптивным (descriptive) или структурным. Языки, которые ему предстояло описать, не обладали письменностью и не принадлежали ни к одной известной группе Индоевропейских языков.

Структурный метод был единственно возможным решением проблемы в этой ситуации.

Структурная грамматика включает:

Дистрибутивная грамматика (Distributional grammar)
Грамматика непосредственно составляющих (Immediate constituents)
Трансформационная грамматика (Transformational grammar)
Грамматика текста (Textual grammar)

Лекция 2

ОСНОВНЫЕ ПОНЯТИЯ В ТЕОРИИ ГРАММАТИКИ

Уровни грамматического строя языка
Понятие «слова» и его структуры в грамматике
Грамматическое значение и грамматическая категория
Оппозиции в грамматике

Уровни грамматического строя языка.

Язык, взятый в полноте своего существования, представляет сложную, органически взаимосвязанную совокупность многообразных единиц, к которым мы относим морфемы, слова (лексемы), словосочетания (фразы), предложения, сверхфразовые единства (абзац) и законченные высказывания (текст).

Такие единицы, как морфема, слово, словосочетание и предложение, называют значащими языковыми единицами, т.к. они выражают специфицированные обобщенные значения. Они составляют основное ядро языковой системы.

Единицы, осуществляющие отдельный акт коммуникации в целом – это высказывания, взятые в своей цельности, независимо от своих размеров. К ним относятся отдельно высказанная сентенция, диалог, художественное литературное произведение, научная книга и т.д. Такие единицы можно назвать цельными коммуникативными высказываниями (или просто высказываниями). В последнее время их все чаще именуют текстами.

Единицы, промежуточные между цельными высказываниями (текстом) и наиболее законченным грамматическим целым (предложение), называют иногда большим синтаксическим целым, иногда сверхфразовым единством. Сюда же относится и абзац.

И цельные высказывания, и сверхфразовые единства, естественно, также являются значащими языковыми единицами, но несравненно более усложненными, чем слово, морфема, словосочетание и предложение.

Морфемы и слова являются объектом изучения для морфологии. Словосочетания и предложения традиционно изучают в синтаксисе; высказывания – в грамматике текста.

Проводя границу между уровнями языковой системы, мы, однако, должны помнить, что языковые единицы не функционируют изолированно друг от друга, и что все они взаимосвязаны.

Некоторые лингвисты выделяют вплоть до 7 уровней в системе языка (Longacre). Эта система иерархична, т.е. единицы более низких уровней входят в состав единиц более высоких уровней:

Морфема

↓

Слово

↓

Фраза

↓

Часть сложного предложения

↓

Предложение

↓

Абзац

↓

Текст

Понятие «слова» и его структуры в грамматике.

Точное определение «слова» и по сей день вызывает в грамматике много споров в силу его сложности и многоплановости.

Александр Иванович Смирницкий определил слово как «систему определенных словоформ» (формальный подход). Так, говоря о слове «река», мы подразумеваем все возможные словоформы – «реки», «рекой», «реку» и т.д.

Одним из наиболее удачных представляется предложенное Ю.С.Масловым определение слова как «минимальной значимой единицы языка, обладающей позиционной самостоятельностью».

Это определение подчеркивает, с одной стороны, подвижность слова в предложении (в различных предложениях одно и то же слово может занимать различные позиции) и, с другой стороны, тот факт, что слово – наименьшая дискретная (т.е. существующая раздельно) единица языка.

Можно еще добавить, что слово – наименьшая единица, способная к синтаксическому функционированию (Осень!) и самая крупная единица морфологии.

Слово – это единица передачи информации в процессе коммуникации.

Слова имеют морфологическую структуру, т.е. состоят из морфем.

Морфема – мельчайшая линейная (т.е. единица, находимая при сегментации слов) значащая единица, имеющая звуковое выражение, но не способная выступать самостоятельной единицей как в языке, так и в речи.

E.G.

Этот несамостоятельный статус морфемы совершенно очевиден, когда морфема выступает как часть более сложного образования – слова.

В «окно» - «окна» ясно вычленяются 2 морфемы: окн- (носительница лексического значения) и –о (носительница значения числа, рода, падежа).

МОРФЕМЫ

КОРЕНЬ АФФИКСЫ cловообразовательные

Префиксы Суффиксы словоизменительные

(writ-ER \ long-ER)

Корневая морфема, по определению В.Н.Ярцевой – это то, что едино в словах, принадлежащих к различным лексико-грамматическим разрядам.

(black – blackish - blacken)

Морфема реально представлена в языке своими вариантами, называемыми алломорфами, имеющими определенную звуковую и смысловую общность.

Алломорфы могут абсолютно совпадать по звуковому оформлению:

FRESH – reFRESHment – FRESHen

speakER – actOR (\ǝ\)

Но часто алломорфы не абсолютно идентичны:

Physic – Physician

Come – Came

Служебные морфемы (аффиксы) в английском несколько отличаются от того, что обычно понимается под термином «флексия».

_________________________________________________________________

E.G.

Так, например, в русском языке –ом (топор-ом, дом-ом, лес-ом) передает значение:

Творительного падежа
мужского рода
единственного числа.

Английские словоизменительные аффиксы передают только одно значение:

-s в “rooms” – только значение множественного числа

-ed –прошедшее время или причастие II

В современной лингвистике существует понятие нулевой морфемы. Нулевая морфема усматривается в словоформах, не имеющих окончания, но способных в других формах той же категории принимать окончания.

стол□ – стол|е| - стол|ом|

А.И. Смирницкий усматривает 3 морфемы в слове teacher□,

поскольку во множественном числе оно имеет окончание –s.

ТАКИМ ОБРАЗОМ, слово можно охарактеризовать как минимальную языковую единицу, обладающей собственной морфологической структурой и выполняющую денотативную функцию (т.е. обозначение предмета или ситуации из неязыковой действительности); как единицу информации и коммуникации.

Грамматическое значение и грамматическая категория

Грамматическое значение и грамматическая категория – два самых важных понятия в грамматике.

Грамматическое значение – обобщение, весьма абстрагированное значение, объединяющее крупные разряды слов и выраженное через характерные формальные показатели.

Формальные показатели специфичны для каждого языка и передают определенное грамматическое значение, хотя, конечно же, в языках с аналитическим строем их не так много.

-s, присоединенный к основе сущ-го à значение множественности

-ed + основа глагола à значение прошедшего времени

Грамматическое значение может быть свободным и зависимым.

Свободное грамматическое значение имеет (регулярные) постоянные средства выражения. (см. примеры выше)

Зависимое грамматическое значение не имеет постоянного формального признака (его еще называют лексико-грамматическим значением) и обычно проявляется через формы, характерные для свободного грамматического значения.

Значение «неисчисляемости» для сущ-х water, gold, gratitude à через неприятие формы с –s (как в tables), а не с помощью собственного формального признака.

Свободное грамматическое значение называют также категориальным, т.к. оно может образовывать собственную категорию.

Грамматическая категория – объединение 2-х или более грамматических форм, противопоставленных или соотнесенных по грамматическому значению. (student – students)

Грамматическая категория – это единство грамматической формы и грамматического значения. Вне постоянных формальных показателей не существует гр. категории.

Если гр. форма изменяется, то гр. значение тоже должно измениться. Определенному гр. значению должна соответствовать определенная гр. форма.

Если форма изменяет гр. значение регулярно и систематически, то единство работает è существует гр. категория.

Англ. сущ-ое имеет гр. значение рода (-ess), но не существует категории рода (governess – гувернантка, а не «правительница»)à -ess не является формальным показателем рода.

Но существует категория числа: -s with N sgà pl, changes.

Гр. категория включает не менее 2-х противопоставленных форм, но возможно и большее их количество.

Категория времени – 3 формы (настоящее, прошедшее, будущее)

Категория вида – 4 глагольных разряда (Simple-Cont-Perfect-Perfect Cont)

НО

2 формы числа сущ-х

2 залога и т.д.

Не существует категорий, имеющих только 1 форму: не может быть одного артикля, одного падежа, одного залога и т.д. – противопоставление внутри категории необходимо.

Оппозиции в грамматике

Обязательным условием для существования любой грамматической категории является система оппозиций.

Оппозиция – это противопоставление форм, имеющих как сходные, так и отличительные черты. (go – is gone, student – students)

Различают «маркированный» (сильный) и «немаркированный» (слабый) члены оппозиции. Маркированный член имеет формально выраженный признак (окончание мн. числа у сущ-х) и обладает более узким и четким гр. значением, чем немаркированный член (go – is gone).

Однако требование рассматривать грамматический строй как систему обязательно бинарных отношений противоречит фактам языка.

Безусловно, бинарные отношения прослеживаются в определенных случаях (ед. и мн. число сущ-х). Но факты современных языков показывают необязательность бинарных отношений.

Live – lived – was living – had lived – had been living

Идея оппозиций, разработанная профессором Трубецким в фонетике, была основана в большинстве случаев на бинарных отношениях, а в грамматике более привычными являются множественные оппозиции.

Отношение лингвистов к теории обязательности бинарных отношений во всех явлениях и сферах языка неодинаково. Она является основой учения американских структуралистов, среди российских лингвистов этой схемы придерживаются А.И. Смирницкий, Л.С. Бархударов, Борис Александрович Ильиш.

Не пользуются методом чисто бинарного анализа В.Г. Адмони, В.Н. Ярцева, А.В. Бондарко, категорически отрицает его Г.С. Щур.

Лекция 3

ГЛАГОЛ

Общая характеристика.
Понятие времени (темпоральности): TIME ó TENSE
Система временных форм английского глагола
Категория вида (аспекта)
Категория залога

Общая характеристика.

GENERAL LINGUSTICS:

Глагол – это часть речи, выражающая действие, состояние или процесс, и характеризующаяся категориями времени, вида, залога, наклонения (mood), лица и числа.

В предложении глагол выполняет функцию (простого) сказуемого или части составного глагольного сказуемого. Кроме того, глагол обладает грамматическим значением

-не/переходности (go, listen/take) (перех: + прям. доп.)

-не/предельности (go, sleep/open, jump, fall-упасть) (пред: огранич. во врем.)

Выделяют 4 основных формы глагола: INF – PAST SIMPLE – P_II – P_I, которые разделяются на 3 вида:

правильные,

неправильные,

смешанные (dream, learn, show, hang – hanged/hung – hanged/hung)

Иногда парадигма неправильных форм => неодушевленный объект, а правильная форма => одушевленный объект.

He was hanged / he hung the picture.

Функционально глаголы разделяются на:

вспомогательные,

глаголы-связки

смысловые.

-Вспомогательный глагол служит для образования «-» и «?» предложений и для образования временных форм на основе простого сказуемого.

-Глагол-связка связывает именные части речи вследствие аналитического характера англ. яз. (порядок слов). Обычно такие глаголы теряют лексическое значение частично или полностью (to seem fine, to look irritated, to grow cold). Глагол-связка «to be» полностью потерял лексическое значение. Все глаголы-связки образуют, как правило, составные сказуемые.

Глагол обладает категориальными значениями темпоральности, вида и залога

Понятие времени (темпоральности): TIME ó TENSE

Общеизвестно, что время – понятие нелингвистическое, объединяющие в себе 3 состовляющих: прошлое, настоящее и будущее. Традиции английской грамматики закрепили терминологически именование мыслительной (объективно реальной) и языковой (глагольной) категорий: TIME ó TENSE (время реальное – время грамматическое).

Под «грамматическим временем» мы понимаем соответствие формы глагола нашему представлению о реальном времени.

От. Джесперсон представляет реальное время в виде прямой линии, выходящей из прошлого и уходящей в будущее. Настоящее обычно находится посередине и совпадает с моментом говорения, разделяя т.о. движущееся время на прошлое и будущее.

Система временных форм английского глагола

Из-за универсального трехчленного деления объективного времени и под влиянием образцов классических языков глагольные времена делятся на 3 разряда: настоящее, прошедшее и будущее, как, например, в грамматиках Дж. Лича и Я.Свартвика.

Однако, И.П. Иванова считает, что границы настоящего времени подвижны и их можно расширять бесконечно долго, т.о. полностью «стирая» границы между прошлым и будущим. Например, предложения, выражающие вечные истины:

Water boils at 100⁰C.

The sun rises in the East.

The Earth rotates.

Она выдвинула идею «временных центров», согласно которой все действия, выраженные определенными формами глагола соотносятся с определенным моментом времени или центром времени. Они обычно выражены в контексте или в самой ситуации общения.

Он сказал, что поедет в Москву. (Будущее)

Он сказал, что поедет в Москву, (но не поехал). (Полностью прошедшее)

He said he would go to the south. Time centre is in the past

He said he would go to the south, (but he never did).

Таким образом, в а/я существует строгое согласование между грамматической формой и временным центром, которое отсутствует в русском => SEQUENCE OF TENSES (искусственное явление, в отличие от логики).

Зачастую ученые выражают сомнения по поводу существования будущих времен в английском языке. От. Джесперсон высказывает идею, что в а/я не существует будущего времени, аргументируя это, прежде всего, тем, что:

вспомогательный глагол «will» употребляется без каких-либо изменений формы для всех лиц и чисел, что ставит его в один ряд с модальными глаголами;
кроме того, в большинстве случаев глагол «will» сохраняет свою модальность (отношение говорящего к высказанному), выражая желание, хотение.

Т.о. ряд форм, традиционно называемых будущее время водит в зону модальности. Следовательно, в пределах глагольной категории времени в а/я остаются настоящее и прошедшее. Эта точка зрения отстаивается и в «Грам-ке соврем. а/я» Р. Кверка с соавторами.

Однако, в пользу существования будущего времени говорят следующие факты:

тенденция употреблять сокращенные формы «-‘ll», что было бы невозможно с модальными глаголами (значимые+ударение)
очень часто контекст противоречит значению желания, т.е. отрицает модальность (I will have to go thou I don’t want to).

Категория вида (аспекта)

Для всех индоевропейских языков, в том числе и для а/я, характерно своеобразное переплетение категорий времени и вида. Более того, если глагольная категория времени (TENSE), опирающаяся на объективное время (TIME), может сопоставиться в разных языках, поскольку имеет реально существующий эталон сравнения, то вид этим не обладает и в известной мере относится к числу уникальных категорий, определение которых вызывает большие трудности.

Категория вида в современном а/я не совпадает с видовыми противопоставлениями в рус/я. Более того, у самих английских грамматистов нет общепризнанной терминологии в отношении видовых глагольных форм. Так, если мы возьмем глагольные формы систем Continuous & Perfect, то первая в «Грамматике» Дж. Муира именуется имперфектом. В «Грамматике» Р. Кверка эти формы именуются «прогрессив» и «перфект».

Вид (аспект) – характер или способ протекания действия.

Common (общий) – выражает безразличие к характеру или способу протекания действия.

Continuous – подчеркивает развитие или процесс протекания действия.

Perfect – подчеркивает его завершенность.

Существует множество мнений относительно количества видов в а/я, а также способов их выражения. Точка зрения зависит, как правило, от подхода к проблеме. 2 основных подхода: логико-семантический и формально-грамматический.

В логико-семантическом подходе Джордж Керм выделяет различные виды (аспекты) на основе их логико-семантического значения. Согласно его идее некоторые глаголы имеют длительность, выраженную в своем общем семантическом значении. Другими словами, говорящий знает из личного опыта, что для выполнения действия необходимо некоторое время (to read, to write) или неограниченное время (to sleep, to live, to love, to see, to hear), или вообще не нужно времени (to jump, to open, to finish, to start, to wink).

Дж. Керм выделяет 3 аспекта:

Durative aspect (to sleep)
Point-action aspect (to begin) – указывает на начало/завершение действия
Iterative aspect (to pooh) – указывает на неопределенную по продолжительности последовательность действий, повторяющиеся действия.

Согласно такой классификации вид (аспект) не связан с временными формами, он вообще выпадает из системы временных форм.

Более общая точка зрения связана с формально-грамматическим подходом. Российские и зарубежные лингвисты выделяют обычно Common & Continuous Aspects. Некоторые ученые добавляют еще Resultative Aspect (В.А. Ильиш), который обычно выражается с помощью Perfect & Perfect Continuous Tenses.

Г.Н. Воронцова выделяет 3 группы видовых форм:

Basic (основные формы Ind.) – не имеют видового значения, т.к. одна и та же форма может выражать как завершенное, так и незавершенное действие (He changed the subject. – The countryside changed steadily)
Continuous
Perfect (+Perfect Cont.)

И.П. Иванова вообще не признает Common (Basic) Aspect, поскольку он не имеет никакого четко определенного видового значения, но выделяет Continuous, Perfect & Perfect Continuous Aspects. Она считает, что грамматическое значение вида зависимо, т.к. оно всегда раскрывается через временные формы и не имеет собственных формальных признаков.

Тем не менее все лингвисты единодушно признали существование Continuous Aspect, тогда как перфектно-длительный рассматривают подвидом, входящим в состав перфектного вида.

Категория залога

Категория залога обычно определяется как направление действия.

He broke the window.

The window was broken by him.

Если говорить о синтаксическом уровне, т.е. об отношениях между S-Pr-O, то категорию залога обычно принято определять как направленность действия от подлежащего (субъект) на дополнение (объект) и наоборот.

При этом на морфологическом уровне очевидны различия в формах глагола.

Категория залога тесно связана с не/переходностью глаголов. Существует мнение, что только переходные глаголы имеют форму пассивного залога. Однако отличительной чертой а/я является тот факт, что некоторые непереходные глаголы могут использоваться в страдательном залоге.

The bed was not slept in.

The decision was arrived at.

Это возможно благодаря аналитическому характеру а/я, где отношения между членами предложения регулируются с помощью предлогов.

Но существуют некоторые переходные глаголы, которые не имеют семантического соответствия между активным и пассивным залогом.

I do =/= I’m done (мне конец)

Другой особенностью англ. глаголов является их двойственный характер, т.е. то, что они одновременно могут быть переходными и непереходными (в зависимости от сочетаемости)

To walk on foot – to walk the dog

To march along – to march the soldiers

Все лингвисты сходятся на существовании активного и пассивного залога, хотя некоторые из них выделяют еще и

Возвратный (he washed himself)
Взаимный (they washed each other)
Средний (the book reads quickly, the tickets sell well) – не ясна направленность действия

Контраргументы:

Форма глагола при этом не изменяется (нет оппозиций!)
Местоимения – не служебные, а значимые части речи, которые не могут служить для образования формы залога
Направленность действия при этом не изменяется (нет оппозиции)

Эти примеры иллюстрируют частные залоговые отношения, но не свидетельствуют о существовании отдельной грамматической категории.

Лекция 4

ОСНОВНЫЕ МЕТОДЫ ВЫЯВЛЕНИЯ ГРАММАТИЧЕСКОЙ СТРУКТУРЫ ЯЗЫКА

Основные понятия дистрибутивной / дескриптивной грамматики (Distributional or descriptive grammar)
Грамматика непосредственно составляющих (Immediate Constituents grammar)
Трансформационная грамматика (Transformational grammar)
Грамматика текста (Textual grammar)

Основные понятия дистрибутивной / дескриптивной грамматики

В первой половине 20-го века в Европе и Америке возникли новые направления, занимавшиеся изучением и описанием структуры языка. Их часто называли структурным или описательным анализом (structural or descriptive analysis), хотя в действительности они представляют собой различные методы лингвистических исследований.

Дистрибутивный или описательный метод возник в результате того, что языки целого ряда индейских племен были слабо изучены или же не изучены вовсе. Было необходимо изучить и описать систему этих языков. Получивший к тому времени широкое распространение сравнительно-исторический метод был в этом случае бессилен, т.к.:

эти языки не обладали письменностью,
они не принадлежали к Индоевропейской группе языков.

Метод, предложенный L. Bloomfield & Z. Harris, предполагал работу с «сырым» (необработанным) речевым материалом, в результате которой получалось точное описание грамматической структуры языка. Процедура исследований была позднее описана в книге Леонарда Блумфилда «Language» (1933).

Основные понятия, которыми оперируют представители данного метода:

- высказывание (utterance)

- сегмент (segment)

- элемент (element)

- окружение / контекст (environment)

- дистрибуция (distribution)

Л. Блумфилд и его последователи хорошо понимали, что не могут пользоваться традиционно принятой терминологией (фонема, морфема, слово, предложение), т.к. у них в руках были метры пленки с записью живой речи и ни малейшего понятия о ее структуре.

Высказывание – это любой отрезок речи, ограниченный с двух сторон (до и после) тишиной со стороны говорящего (пауза может иметь значение).

Высказывание и предложение – это 2 разных понятия:

Они принадлежат двум разным уровням – высказывание – единица речи, а предложение – единица языка
Высказывание может состоять из одного и более предложений, т.е. оно структурно неограниченно, а предложение характеризуется четкой синтаксической структурой.

|Sorry. Can’t go… I’m busy.|

|Sorry.| Can’t go… I’m busy.| at least 7 utterances, while

|Sorry. Can’t go…| I’m busy.| only 3 sentences any time

|Sorry. |Can’t go…| I’m busy.|

|Sorry. Can’t | go… I’m busy.|

Сегмент – это часть лингвистически представленного временного отрезка высказывания.

Обычно сегмент может совпадать с одной или несколькими морфемами, с одним или группой слов или предложением традиционной грамматики.

Sorry. Can’t go… I’m busy.

Элемент – это абстрагированный (отвлеченный) сегмент, воспринимаемый абстрагировано от его структурных физических особенностей и позиционных характеристик.

Глас Хлаз (ФОНЕМА)

Хлас Глааз ГЛАЗ Не известно сколько фонем: d₃ – 1 фонема

Глас Глаас д+ж – 2 фонемы

Окружение / контекст – позиция элемента, предполагающая его окружение внутри высказывания.

Окружение относится к позиции элементов, стоящих до и после исследуемого элемента.

I m busy studying tired 20

angry dancing off hers

Constant before ‘m

Дистрибуция элемента – совокупность всех контекстов, в которых можно обнаружить элемент, т.е. совокупность всех позиций элемента относительно других элементов.

Было выделено несколько типов дистрибуции:

- контрастивная (contrastive) – когда 2 элемента встречаются в одном и том же контексте, но при этом изменяется лингвистическая форма

Look at the | book | on the table

Look at the | books | on the table

- неконтрастивная (non-contrastive) – когда 2 элемента встречаются в одном и том же контексте, при этом, не меняя значения

Look at the | scarfs | on …

Look at the | scarves | on …

(Hoofs=hooves –копыта, wharfs=wharves - пристань)

- комплементарная (complementary) – наблюдается в том случае, когда 1 элемент никогда не встречается в позиции другого

He am looks

You is thinks

Дистрибутивный метод устанавливает последовательность процедур для установления структуры языка. Он был применен и к уже изученным языкам.

Недостатки дистрибутивного метода следует искать не в процедуре исследований, а в том, как Л. Блумфилд к ней относился:

он называл это лингвистикой (наукой), хотя это был лишь новый метод
имел дело с речевым материалом, а называл его языком.

Грамматика непосредственно составляющих

Грамматика непосредственно составляющих возникла и развивалась на основе метода дистрибутивного анализа, и именно Л. Блумфилду справедливо приписывают то, что он первым выдвинул этот подход. Он первым утверждал, что высказывание «Poor John ran away» можно разделить на 2 непосредственно составляющие (IC). Эта идея была быстро подхвачена, и уже в 1947 году Р. Уэльс выработал принципы анализа непосредственно составляющих.

Термин «непосредственно составляющие»:

«составляющие» - т.к. они составляют собой, образуют структуру предложения;

«непосредственно» - т.к. они непосредственно, напрямую связаны друг с другом.

Целью данного метода было объяснение зарождения структуры предложения через дихотомическое деление (последовательное деление на 2 части), при этом не принимая во внимание лексическое значение. Эта идея созвучна идее Щерба, выраженная им в примере «Глокая куздра штеко бодланула бокренка», где отношения между элементами совершенно очевидны без всякого лексического значения. Согласно Уэльсу, структуру предложения следовало поделить на соответствующие части. При этом надо помнить об одном правиле: слово, принадлежащее одному классу, может быть заменено другим, принадлежащим совершенно другому классу слов. (they à Tom & John à people)

Основной идеей теории НС является то, что любое предложение можно разложить на части, которые Р. Уэльс называл IC (НС). Выделяя эти части, мы каждый раз производим дихотомическое деление. Правильно проделанный анализ непосредственно составляющих помогает понять отношения между элементами, составляющими предложение. Для демонстрации порождения структуры предложения было предложено несколько типов деления:

Уровни

NP – nominal phrase (группа существительного)

VP – verbal phrase (группа глагола)

D – determiner (определяющее слово)

S – sentence (предложение)

The students missed all the lectures. 4

NP + VP
D + N, V + NP
D + NP
D + N

Деривационное дерево – ANALYSIS

NP VP

D N V NP

D N

The students missed all the lectures

Candelabrum (канделябр) – SYNTHESIS

The students missed all the lectures

D N

D N V NP

NP VP

К сожалению, сфера применения анализа непосредственно составляющих была ограничена лишь простыми предложениями. Этот метод невозможно применить для демонстрации порождения структуры сложного предложения. К тому же, иногда он не может показать, что элементы 2-х структур и отношения между ними носят различный характер, т.е. согласно теории НС одна структура может иметь только одно деление НС, и наоборот, если 2 структуры обладают одинаковым делением НС, то семантические отношения между элементами должны быть идентичными. Однако, это не всегда так.

John | is easy to please. à It’s easy to please John. (object)

John | is eager to please. à John pleases eagerly. (doer)

Semantic relations are not the same

Статую золотую пику держащую

Казнить нельзя помиловать

H\T “THE KING OF ENGLAND’S PEOPLE”

Трансформационная грамматика

В 1950е гг. на волне критики, направленной на метод НС, возникла трансформационная грамматика. Ее основатели Харрис и Хомский использовали структуралистический подход для развития идеи о том, что люди рождаются с врожденной способностью разговаривать. Согласно ТГ все типы предложений порождаются из ядерных конструкций (kernel / basic structures). При этом различные лингвисты называют разное количество ядерных конструкций.

Харрис выделяет 7, Оуэн Томас – 4, другие считают, что их 15.

Единственное правило, которым руководствуются лингвисты при выделении ядерных конструкций (ЯК), это то, что они «не должны быть производными».

К сожалению, других, более точных критериев для определения того, какая конструкция является ядерной, а какая – нет, предложено не было.

С помощью этого метода лингвисты пытались объяснить порождение структур в мозгу человека. В результате всех преобразований получается форма, между элементами которой сохраняются те же грамматические и семантические отношения, что и между элементами той ЯК, от которой она была произведена.

Приверженцы этого метода выделяют 3 этапа трансформационных преобразований, причем каждый раз можно производить только одну трансформацию.

Structure à Sentence

I love summer.

I do love summer. (Трансформация утверждения)

I do not love summer. (Трансформация отрицания)

Do I (not) love summer? (Т вопроса)

_________________________________________________________________

S1 + S2 à SS (simple structure)

Ann laughed. T Ann laughed &

He came in. he came in.

S1 + S2 à S3 (complex)

Ann laughed. T Ann laughed

He came in. when he came in.

But:

John is wise. T John is wise ‘cos

He lives in the US. he lives in the US.

Трансформация сложного предложения обычно производится через соединительное или подчинительное связывание 2 простых предложений. Порождение структуры предложения должно происходить с изменением лишь одного элемента на каждом этапе.

ТГ дала повод для возникновения жарких дискуссий, в результате чего были выявлены следующие недостатки данного метода:

отсутствие критериев для определения ЯК
воспроизводя порождение конструкций, ТГ учитывает лишь то, что очевидно, опуская глубинные отношения

The car is black = the black car

The man is right =/= the right man

для некоторых предложений вообще невозможно вывести ЯК (You’re done)
намеренное игнорирование семантического компонента привело к невозможности трансформирования некоторых предложений.

С другой стороны, ТГ нашла свое практическое применение в машинном переводе и преподавании иностранных языков (в Рижском университете проводился эксперимент – студенты изучали одновременно 6 и/я на основе ЯК). Она помогает выявить члены предложений.

H/T “FLYING PLANE IS DANGEROUS”

“STOP LORRIES AHEAD”

Грамматика текста

За последние десятилетия необычайно широко распространилось изучение текста с лингвистической точки зрения. Текст делается, в частности, объектом грамматического анализа. Появились термины «лингвистика текста», «грамматика текста».

Грамматика текста – раздел грамматики, изучающий поведение грамматических единств (в том числе сверхфразовые единства и абзац) в тексте.

Однако было бы неверно рассматривать СФЕ как высшую единицу грамматической системы, заменяя им на этом посту предложение.

СФЕ возникает как явление, целиком порожденное потребностями организации текста, т.е. целиком обусловленное контекстуальными задачами. Поэтому оно лишено той абстрактности и той возможности пребывания в состоянии синтаксического покоя, которые свойственны предложению. Следовательно, высшей единицей грамматического строя как такового остается предложение.

Лекция 5

СЕМАНТИЧЕСКАЯ ГРАММАТИКА

Возникновение и основные понятия семантической грамматики
1. Логический субъект
2. Логический Предикат (Subject & Predicate)
Вещи и их признаки (Things & attributes)
Семантические падежи (Semantic Cases)

Возникновение и основные понятия семантической грамматики

Трансформационная грамматика, раскритикованная в свое время, равно как и структуралистический подход, за неспособность объяснить отношения между элементами предложения в отрыве от семантического компонента, дала толчок развитию семантической грамматики.

Хомский (ТГ) обратил внимание, что одна и та же синтаксическая структура может иметь несколько семантических интерпретаций (объяснений), как в примере «Flying plane is dangerous» или «The piano is needed by a lady with carved wooden legs», где вскрываются скрытые (covert) категории или глубинная семантическая структура предложения. И причина кроется здесь не в структурных особенностях, а в различных семантических отношениях между элементами, которые всегда глубоко скрыты (т.е. отношения между семантическими элементами не всегда идентичны и тождественны отношениям между элементами поверхностной структуры).

Так с попытки объяснить двусмысленность некоторых синтаксических структур начались исследования в области семантики, которые можно назвать семантической революцией 70-х.

В 1966-67-х гг. американский лингвист Чарльз Филмор выдвинул идею универсальной семантической грамматики, основанной на классической логике. В своих первых работах “The case for case” («Дело о падеже») и “The case for case reopened” он изложил базовые понятия семантической грамматики. В качестве основы для создания этой грамматики была выбрана логика, т.к.:

Она изучает структуру мышления
Она универсальна.

Основатель логики, великий философ Аристотель изучал логику и структуру мышления через пропозицию (Proposition). По его мнению, структуру мышления можно было бы представить как

P à S_ubject + P_redicate

Форма мышления состоит из 3 частей: Субъект, Предикат и Связка (the Copular). Логический субъект – это объект нашего мышления, Логический Предикат – это то, что мы думаем про этот объект (т.е. предикат констатирует нечто о субъекте), тогда как Связка либо подтверждает, либо отрицает это.

Другими словами Аристотель объяснил терминами, которыми оперирует логика, отношения между вещами и их свойствами в неязыковой реальности и предложил схему отражения этих отношений в процессе мышления.

Филмор сравнивал свою грамматику с камнем, брошенным в воду: вам не видно камня, а только круги на воде от него, т.е. синтаксический уровень.

John broke the window with a stone at 5 o’clock.

A_gent _______ O_bject I_nstrument T_ime

^Action

The window was broken by John with a stone at 5 o’clock.

Творительный падеж – with / by : -ем

Следующим шагом было нахождение соответствий между элементами семантического и синтаксического уровней (with / by: -ем).

Филмор, работая над созданием своей универсальной семантической грамматики, оперировал следующими понятиями:

Поверхностная (синтаксическая) структура
Глубинная (семантическая) структура
Семантический предикат
Семантические падежи

2. Вещи и их признаки

Филмор выразил идею о том, что логический предикат соответствует семантическому предикату в языке.

Семантический Предикат – слово, которое способно выражать экстралингвистическую (неязыковую) действительность со всеми ее участниками.

Не все слова (части речи) могут быть семант. предикатом. В-основном, это – глаголы (но *manage), абстрактные существительные (common N – называют вещи, но не подразумевают свойства), прилагательные, наречия, предлоги. Каждый семантический предикат открывает места для аргументов справа и слева.

A ß writeà O I Adr (smb. does sth.

with sth. to smb)

ARG SEM.PR. ARG

Не обязательно все аргументы должны быть выражены на поверхностном уровне, чтобы сделать предложение грамматически верным.

Схема порождения грамматического предложения:

Объективная

Реальность Мышление

(вещи и св-ва)

Стимул à Пропозиция à Сем. Предикат à Речь

(Структура Глубинная Поверхностная

мышления) структура структура

Нет четкого соответствия между элементами

Семантические падежи

Филмор разработал систему семантических падежей.

Семантический падеж выражает отношения между Сем Предикатом и его Аргументами (Актантами).

Агенс (Agent) – одушевленный предмет (субъект), совершающий действие, направленное на к-л объект

John threw a stone.

Номинативус (Nominative) – субъект, совершающий действие, не направленное на объект

He hesitated.

My head ached.

Объектный падеж (Object) – неодушевленный объект, на который направленно действие

He put a book on the table.

Патиенс (Patient) – одушевленный объект, на который направлено действие

The dog bites everybody.

Фактативус (Factative) – выражает результат действия или состояния, выраженного глаголом

The boy dug the hole. (Factative)

BUT: The boy dug the ground. (Object)

Локативус (Locative) – местонахождение или пространственная направленность действия

Orenburg is rainy.

They live in London.

Инструментальный падеж (Instrument) – неодушевленный предмет или сила, вовлеченные в действие

A stone broke the window.

Action à at least 2 arguments

State à at least 1 argument (PATIENT)

Process à at least 1 argument (OBJECT)

К сожалению, не существует четкого соответствия между элементами семантического и синтаксического уровней. Поэтому идея Филмора об определенном количестве предлогов, служащих для отражения глубинных семантических отношений на поверхностном синтаксическом уровне, не нашла своего подтверждения. И если предлог «by» в большинстве случаев действительно соответствует агенсу, то остальные предлоги могут выражать различные значения, являясь полисемантическими (многозначными).

Предлог «with», кроме значения инструментального падежа, может передавать и некоторые другие значения:

She is a girl with big eyes. (обладание, принадлежность)

Более того, нет четкого соответствия между значением семантического падежа и вариантом предлога, однозначно выражающего данное значение:

Вытирать полотенцем – with (Instrument)

Вытирать о полотенце – on (Instrument)

Т.о., идея создания универсальной семантической грамматики, независимой от морфологических и синтаксических элементов, стала большим шагом вперед в изучении категорий языка. Она стала толчком к проведению множества исследований в области семантики. К сожалению, семантической грамматике не удалось сформулировать какие-либо правила применительно к речи.

Лекция 6

ТЕОРИЯ ЧАСТЕЙ РЕЧИ

Развитие теории частей речи.

а) логико-грамматическая классификация,

в) функциональная классификация,

с) дистрибутивная классификация

Теория частей речи в Русской лингвистической школе.

а) критерии классификации

в) проблема значимых и служебных частей речи

Грамматическая омонимия.

1.Развитие теории частей речи

Весь словарный состав английского, как и всех индоевропейских языков, подразделяется на определенные лексико-грамматические классы, называемые традиционно частями речи. Существование таких классов не вызывает сомнения ни у кого из лингвистов, хотя, как мы увидим ниже, трактовка их неодинакова у разных ученых.

В ходе развития грамматики предлагались различные критерии классификаций слов по частям речи. Основными принципами этого подразделения на разряды остаются лексическое значение, морфологическая форма и синтаксическое функционирование.

Истоки учения о частях речи восходят к грамматичным воззрениям мыслителей Древней Индии, Греции и Рима. Самая первая теория частей речи приписывается великому греческому философу Аристотелю. Будучи основоположником логики, он в своей классификации опирался именно на неё, вот почему он выделял 3 части речи:

1) имя

2) глагол

3) связку

К «именам» он относил слова обозначающие вещи. К «глаголам» - главным образом глаголы. К «связкам» - различные служебные слова.

Его идеи получили дальнейшее развитие в трудах более поздних ученых, но отсутствие четкого разделения между логическими и грамматическими принципами сохранилось.

Во 2-ом веке слова группировались, образовывая 8 частей речи: имеющие и не имеющие окончаний. Этот принцип классификации, называемый логико - грамматическим, широко распространен как в нашей лингвистической школе, так и зарубежом.

В период существования пре-нормативной грамматики, Уильям Буллокка (William Bullokar, Brief Grammar for English, 1585) подразделял слова на склоняемые и несклоняемые части речи.

Английская классическая научная грамматика унаследовала грамматическую систему, разработанную в прескриптивной грамматике, но Генри Свит (Henry Sweet) выдвинул 3 совершенно новых принципа классификации (meaning, form, function), широко используемые и по сей день.

Критерии, предложенные Генри Свитом, также являлись смесью логики с грамматикой, так как он рассматривал значение и функцию как категории логики.

Под «значением» он понимал способность слова выражать постоянный или переменный признак. Хотя, например, значение существительных (по крайней мере, тех, что обозначают предметы) было несколько иным.

А вот прилагательные и глаголы выражали признаки.

Первые - постоянные, а вторые- переменные признаки.

Blue sky - постоянный

I go to school - переменный

«Функцию» Henry Sweet рассматривал как способность слова быть предметом или его признаком.

«Форма» по Генри Свиту - это исключительно грамматическая категория, в зависимости от которой слова имеют окончания или нет.

С течением времени значение, форма и функция приобрели несколько иные характеристики: форма и функция стали исключительно грамматическими, тогда как значение все еще остается категорией логики.

Дж. Тейгер и Г. Смит предложили две разные классификации: морфологическую и синтаксическую.

На морфологическом уровне они выделяли существительные, личные местоимения, прилагательные и глаголы, т.к. для всех этих частей речи были характерны свои особые наборы суффиксов (словоизменительных форм):

Child – Child’s – Children

They - them - their - theirs

Great – greater - greatest

Do - does - did – done - doing.

Если у слова не было какого-либо окончания, оно не включалось в классификацию. Так, на морфологическом уровне слово «beautiful» не считалось прилагательным, т.к. не обладало синтаксической формой (нет окончания). На синтаксическом уровне они выделяли именные, местоименные, употребленные в качестве прилагательных, глагольные, наречные и предложные части речи.

Пример:

adverbial adjectival

A long delayed request

Adjectival Nominal

Это пример формально-функциональной классификации или синтаксической.

О. Есперсен также предлагал за основу классификации брать значение, форму и функцию, но он выделял только 5 частей речи: субстантивы (substantives), прилагательные, глаголы, местоимения, частицы.

В 50-е годы Fries (Фрис) разработал дистрибутивную классификацию. Он предложил идею о том, что все слова, занимающие одинаковые позиции в предложении, должны принадлежать к одной части речи, т.к. по его мнению часть речи в английском языке - это некая функциональная модель.

2.Теория частей речи в Русской лингвистической школе.

В русской лингвистической школе за основу классификации слов по частям речи также взяты 3 признака:

понятийный
синтаксический
морфологический

В соответствие с этим подразделением содержание, допустим, части речи «имя существительное» может быть определено следующем образом:

1) это слова, общее значение которых сводится к понятию предметности.

это слова, для которых в предложении наиболее типична роль подлежащего или дополнения.
это слова, которые обладают формами и значениями грамматических категорий числа, падежа, (рода), одушевленности и при этом образуются по определенным специфическим словообразовательным моделям.

Научная классификация частей речи производиться по совокупности всех этих трех признаков, но в зависимости от того, какой из них принимается за исходный, основополагающий, классификация получает ту или иную «окраску».

Так, в истории отечественного языкознания концепция частей речи, которую разделяли Ф.Ф Фортунатов и его ученики, может быть охарактеризована как преимущественно морфологическая, а для А.А Шахматова важнейшими критериями в классификации частей речи были представления о субстанциях, качествах-свойствах, действиях-состояниях и отношениях. В трудах А.А. Потебни, И.И. Мещанинова и других языковедов разрабатывалась синтаксическая концепция.

Система частей речи находится в постоянном развитии, в разных языках этот процесс протекает со своими особенностями.

Например, в английском языке существование слов категории состояния как отдельной части речи было доказано в 1960-е годы.

В современных славянских языках, можно полагать, сейчас происходит формирование особой части речи - «категории состояния».

В русском языке ее впервые предложил выделить Л.В. Щерба (нельзя, жаль, пора, холодно, навеселе и т.д.)

Очевидно, что в данном случае группе слов для того, чтобы быть признанной в качестве особой части речи не хватает «самостоятельности» (в частности у них нет общих морфологических признаков). Но категория состояния характерна как проявление развития языковой системы.

Динамичность языковой системы обуславливает нечеткий характер границ и тех частей, выделение которых не подлежит сомнению. Это значит, что конкретные лексемы с большей или меньшей полнотой сочетают в себе необходимые для данной части речи признаки. Иными словами можно сказать, что есть более типичные существительные, а есть менее типичные (кенгуру, такси). Аналогичный вывод можно сделать относительно любой части речи.

Грамматическая омонимия

Одна из трудностей, возникающая при распределении слов по частям речи заключается в том, что принципы значения, формы и функции невозможно с равной доли успеха применить для всех слов данного класса. Иногда слова могут объединяться в один класс лишь на основе 1 или 2 признаков.

Например: класс местоимений

Другой трудностью является явление омонимии в грамматике. Два слова принято считать грамматическими омонимами, если они одинаковы по звучанию, но обладают различными грамматическими значениями, т.е. они принадлежат к разным частям речи.

Не took his daily round (существительное)

He failed to round the table post (глагол)

Come round tomorrow (предлог)

He worked round the house (наречие)

Есперсен отмечал, что в случае с грамматической омонимией мы можем определять, к какой части речи принадлежит данное слово, исходя из его синтаксического положения и комбинаторности.

Другая проблема до сих пор еще не решенная в грамматике, это так называемая «Stone wall problem»

Во многих языках, включая английский, существует четкая зависимость значения слова от его комбинаторности.

Test Flight - Flight Test

Garden Flower - Flower Garden

Home Letters - Letters Home

Лекция 7

ПРАГМАТИКА ПРЕДЛОЖЕНИЯ

Понятие прагматического синтаксиса.
Предложение и высказывание.
Коммуникативные (прагматические) типы высказываний.
Прагматическое транспонирование высказываний.

Понятие прагматического синтаксиса.

Современные исследования в области языкознания отражают множество различных взглядов на сущность языка как на объект изучения языкознания.

Структурное направление в языкознании стремилось максимально абстрагироваться от речевых данностей, описывая язык как некую непротиворечивую, логически стройную, абстрактную схему, что вызвало естественную реакцию - усиление интереса к речевой деятельности.

Языкознание сегодня изучает не столько «язык обособленный, абстрагированный от всего», сколько «язык в совокупности со всем, что окружает его в нашей жизни».

Щерба, например, выделял следующие 3 аспекта в изучении языка:

система языка;
языковой материал;
речевые акты.

На той же волне возникла прагматика. Как раздел современной лингвистической науки прагматика зародилась благодаря английскому философу Чарльзу Пирсу (Charles Pierce), который впервые выделил отношения между языковым знаком и человеком.

Прагматику можно определить как динамично развивающиеся отношения между языковыми единицами и теми, кто их использует, с учетом условий реализации данных отношений.

Изучение прагматики предложений составляет важную область языковых знаний, ибо владение языком предполагает не только умение строить предложения (языковая компетенция), но и умение правильно употреблять их в актах речи для достижения нужного коммуникативно-функционального результата (коммуникативная компетенция).

E.G.

При таком подходе предложения одного и того же структурного типа могут оказаться существенно разными:

«Come!» (как приказание) и «Come!» (как просьба);

«I’ll watch you!» может быть констатацией, угрозой или обещанием.

К основным аспектам прагматики относят:

говорящего / адресанта (the speaker),
слушающего / адресата (the listener),
их совместное взаимодействие (they both together),
вербальный / невербальный контекст,
денотативную ситуацию.

Итак, прагматика выявляет отношения между синтаксическими структурами, теми, кто их использует, и условиями их общения.

Другими словами, прагматика изучает синтаксические структуры, употребляемые в речевых актах не только для передачи информации, но и для демонстрации различных интенций говорящего, таких как обещание, просьба, угроза, разрешение, приказание и т.д.

Предложение и высказывание

Одним из главных понятий, которыми оперирует прагматика, является высказывание. Следует терминологически разграничить «предложение» как единицу системы языка и «высказывание» как компонент акта речевого общения. Хотя четкую границу между смыслом предложения и контекстом речевого акта порой провести трудно, необходимо помнить, что в высказывании интенция говорящего преобладает над значением, тогда как в предложении - нет.

Другим очень важным понятием прагматического синтаксиса является коммуникативная интенция.

Коммуникативная интенция - это присущая высказыванию направленность на разрешение определенной языковой задачи общения.

Коммуникативная интенция - это реализация в речи коммуникативных намерений говорящего с целью получения адекватной речевой или иной реакции слушающего.

E.G.

I’ll come tomorrow. (КИ: обещание)

I’ll come tomorrow. (КИ: декларация, заявление)

I’ll come tomorrow. (КИ: угроза)

Приказание и просьба, угроза и обещание, рекомендация и т.д. - по сути, разные речевые акты, формы межличностного речевого общения.

Произнося «I’ll come» как просто констатацию планируемого к выполнению в будущем действия, как обещание, как угрозу, говорящий каждый раз произносит предложение с разной целью. Принято говорить в этой связи, что подобные разные реализации отличаются друг от друга иллокутивной силой. Т.о., иллокутивный акт характеризуется определенной коммуникативной интенцией.

Локутивный акт характеризуется отсутствием какой-либо коммуникативной интенции. Примерами реализации лишь локутивной силы может быть произнесение предложения ребенком ради самого произнесения, оперирование предложением учащимися в учебных целях, например, при работе над произношением. В реальном же общении реализация предложения неразрывно связана с приданием ему иллокутивной силы.

Уместно, правильно, с соблюдением необходимых условий реализованное высказывание достигает цели в виде перлокутивного эффекта.

Коммуникативные (прагматические) типы высказываний

Регулярные соответствия между коммуникативной интенцией говорящего и реакцией адресата дают нам возможность выделять различные коммуникативные типы высказываний:

КОНСТАТИВ - коммуникативно-интенциональное содержание заключается в утверждении

The Earth rotates.

Для констатива неприемлема форма вопросительного или побудительного предложений.

ПРОМИСИВ - высказывание-обещание.

I’ll come some time.

По форме это всегда повествовательные предложения, неизменно относящиеся к будущему, поэтому глагольное время в них только будущее. Автор данного типа высказываний - всегда гарант обещаемого. Подлежащее, если оно соотносится с автором речи, - всегда «агенс», сказуемое - всегда в форме действительного залога.

Невозможно сказать: "I shall be beaten up" или "I'll stumble over the chair" (т.к. в данных примерах подлежащее передает значение не «агенса», а «патиенса»). Необходимым внешним условием реализации некоторого высказывания как промисива является заинтересованность адресата в осуществлении того, о чем идет речь в высказывании.

МЕНАСИВ - коммуникативно-интенциональное содержание заключается в угрозе.

I'll give you such a belt in a second.

Много общего с промисивами: отнесённость к будущему. Однако условия реализации прямо противоположны - т.е. адресат не заинтересован в осуществлении того, о чем идет речь в высказывании. Автор не выступает в качестве гаранта реальности будущего события. Он может угрожать и событием, совершение которого от него не зависит:

He’ll pay you! (Он тебе задаст!)

ПЕРФОРМАТИВ

I congratulate you.

I welcome you.

I apologize.

В отличие от констатива ни о чем не сообщает. Произнося «I congratulate you», говорящий совершает действие, в данном случае поздравление, приветствие (отсюда происходит и название от англ. «to perform» - «осуществлять, проводить»).

Данный тип высказываний впервые выделил James Austin.

I name this ship The Queen Elizabeth.

I do take this woman to be my lawful wedded wife.

I bet you six pence.

I love you.

При этом глагол не может иметь форму прошедшего или будущего времени. Предложение не может быть отрицательным. Перформатив требует соответствующих условий и ситуации реализации.

ДИРЕКТИВ – содержанием является прямое побуждение адресата к действию.

Get out!

Don't go!

Ronnie, could you get me a soaking wet rag?

Обычно имеет форму побудительного предложения.

Выделяют два типа директивов: инъюнктив и реквестов. Они разнятся силой побудительности.

Инъюнктив реализуется в условиях неравенства общающихся. Говорящий приказывает адресату.

Реквестив реализуется в условиях, когда говорящий либо на равных с адресатом, либо ниже его по положению (статусу и т.д.), когда возможность использовать инъюнктив исключена.

КВЕСИТИВ - вопросительное высказывание, коммуникативная интенция - вызвать речевое действие адресата.

Квеситив фокусирует внимание общающихся на факте отсутствия некоторой информации у адресанта и создает, в силу вопросительности, психологическое напряжение, которое снимается выдачей адресатом ответа.

* * *

Особо выделяют группу глаголов, для которых характерно так называемое явление «иллокутивного суицида». Они никогда не употребляются в 1 лице, ед.ч., изъявительного наклонения, иначе это делает невозможным реализацию коммуникативной интенции.

Мы не говорим:

I boast – I’m the best!

I threaten you – I’ll kill you!

I lie to you – I love you!

Но мы можем употреблять эти глаголы, говоря о ком-то другом.

Прагматическое транспонирование высказываний.

Высказывание, по своим формальным признакам являющееся единицей одного коммуникативного типа, в речевой реализации может приобретать иллокутивную силу другого:

Квеститивное по форме и содержанию высказывание может иметь иллокутивную силу инъюнктива

Are you still here? [= Go away at once!]

Произнося это, говорящий не ожидает никакого ответа от адресата. Применительно к такого рода употреблениям принято говорить о «непрямых» или косвенных актах речи.

Dinner is served. (Констатив с реквестивной иллокутивной силой)

It’s draughty here. (Констатив как инъюнктив)

I've rum out of cigarettes. (Консnатив как реквестив)

Транспонированное употребление имеет социальные основания: выбор способа выражения социально мотивирован.

СЕМИНАР 1

Задание А

Подготовьте выступление по следующим темам:

Цели и задачи нормативной (практической) и теоретической грамматик
Связь с другими науками
История развития английской грамматики
a) Донаучные грамматики (pre-scientific grammars)
b) Классическая научная грамматика (classical scientific grammar)
c) Структурная грамматика (structural grammar)

Задание В

Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

В чем сходство целей нормативной и теоретических грамматик английского языка?
Что является объектом изучения нормативной грамматики? Теоретической?
Что такое «слова категории состояния»? Когда появилось, и кем было доказано это понятие?
В чем отличие прилагательных от «слов категории состояния» (Statives)?
Какие существуют взгляды на проблему категории рода в английском языке? Какое ваше личное мнение?
С какими смежными науками тесно связана теоретическая грамматика английского языка? Обоснуйте свой ответ и приведите примеры.
Как связана теоретическая грамматика английского языка и стилистика? Приведите собственные примеры.
Какие исторические этапы развития прошла теоретическая грамматика английского языка? В каких веках?
В чем основная суть грамматик У.Буллокара и У.Лили, связанных с английским языком?
Чем характеризуется предписывающая грамматика?
В чем отличие и сходство предписывающей и пренормативной грамматик?
Какие отличительные черты классической научной грамматики?
Каковы причины зарождения структурной грамматики?
Чем является структурная грамматика по своей сути?
Какие направления / аспекты включает в себя структурная грамматика?

СЕМИНАР 2

Задание А

Подготовьте выступление по следующим темам:

Уровни грамматического строя языка
Понятие «слова» и его структуры в грамматике
Грамматическое значение и грамматическая категория
Оппозиции в грамматике

Задание В

Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

Из каких единиц состоит язык в своей совокупности?
Какие единицы составляют основное ядро языковой системы?
Что относится к цельным коммуникативным высказываниям?
Какое место в системе языка занимает фонема?
Какие науки в частности изучают единицы системы языка?
Как определяется понятие «слово» с точки зрения формального подхода?
Объясните определение «слова», данное Ю.С. Масловым.
Какие функции выполняет слово?
Какие существуют морфемы?
Что такое словообразовательные и словоизменительные морфемы? Приведите примеры.
Что такое алломорфы?
Какие виды алломорфов существуют в английском языке?
Что такое корневая морфема?
Что такое нулевая морфема?
В чем отличие служебных морфем в русском и английском языках?
Как вы понимаете понятие «грамматическое значение»?
Приведите несколько примеров формальных признаков и определите соответствующие им грамматические значения.
Чем отличается свободное грамматическое значение от зависимого в английском языке?
Существуют ли понятия свободного и зависимого грамматических значений в русском языке? Поясните на примерах.
Что такое грамматическая категория?
Каковы обязательные условия существования той или иной грамматической категории в английском языке?
Существует ли грамматическое значение времени у английских глаголов? Категория? Поясните на примерах.
Докажите или опровергните существование категории числа у существительных в английском языке.
Докажите или опровергните существование категории числа у глаголов в английском языке.
Докажите или опровергните существование категории лица у глаголов в английском языке.
Докажите или опровергните существование категории рода у существительных в английском языке.
Докажите или опровергните существование категории вида у глаголов в английском языке.
Докажите или опровергните существование категории переходности у глаголов в английском языке.
Докажите или опровергните существование категории неисчисляемости у существительных в английском языке.
Докажите или опровергните существование категории предельности у глаголов в английском языке.
Докажите или опровергните существование категории залога у глаголов в английском языке.
Докажите или опровергните существование категории наклонения у глаголов в английском языке.
Докажите или опровергните существование категории падежа у существительных в английском языке.
Что такое оппозиция в грамматике?
В чем разница между маркированными и немаркированными членами оппозиции?
На каких отношениях между элементами строится оппозиция?

СЕМИНАР 3

Задание А

Подготовьте выступление по следующим темам:

Общая характеристика.
Понятие времени (темпоральности): TIME – TENSE
Система временных форм английского глагола
Категория вида (аспекта)
Категория залога

Задание В

Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

Что такое глагол?
Какие функции в предложении выполняет глагол в английском языке?
Какими грамматическими значениями обладает глагол в английском языке?
Какие существуют формы и виды английского глагола?
Как английские глаголы различаются функционально?
Перечислите все вспомогательные глаголы в английском языке.
Что такое «время грамматическое»?
В чем разница между понятиями «time» и «tense»?
В каких случаях, по мнению И.П. Ивановой, границы настоящего времени размыты и не являются четкими относительно времени объективного?
Что такое «временные центры»?
Существуют ли «временные центры» в русском языке? Подтвердите примерами.
Существует ли будущее время в английском языке? Приведите аргументы.
Что такое вид (аспект) у английских глаголов?
Какие традиционные виды (аспекты) глаголы вы знаете? Охарактеризуйте каждый.
В чем заключается логико-семантический подход к определению вида (аспекта) английских глаголов?
Какие виды (аспекты) английских глаголов выделяют приверженцы логико-семантического подхода?
В чем заключается формально-грамматический подход к определению вида (аспекта) английских глаголов?
Назовите основные виды (аспекты) английского глагола, выделяемые в соответствии с формально-грамматическим подходом.
Что такое категория залога английских глаголов?
В чем отличительная черта категории залога английских глаголов от русского языка?
Какие типы залога английских глаголов традиционно признают все лингвисты?
Докажите или опровергните существование возвратного залога у английских глаголов.
Докажите или опровергните существование взаимного залога у английских глаголов.
Докажите или опровергните существование среднего залога у английских глаголов.

СЕМИНАР 4

Задание А

Подготовьте выступление по следующим темам:

Основные понятия дистрибутивной / дескриптивной грамматики (Distributional or descriptive grammar)
Грамматика непосредственно составляющих (Immediate Constituents grammar)
Трансформационная грамматика (Transformational grammar)
Грамматика текста (Textual grammar)

Задание В

Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

Как возникла дистрибутивная / описательная грамматика?
Какие основные понятия дистрибутивной грамматики вы знаете? Почему они были введены?
Что такое «высказывание» в дистрибутивной грамматике?
В чем отличие «высказывания» в дистрибутивной грамматике от «предложения» в традиционной английской грамматике?
Что такое «сегмент» в дистрибутивной грамматике?
Чем отличается «сегмент» в дистрибутивной грамматике от «морфемы» и «слова» в традиционной английской грамматике?
Что такое «элемент» в дистрибутивной грамматике?
В чем отличие «элемента» в дистрибутивной грамматике от «фонемы» в традиционной английской грамматике?
Что такое «контекст» или «окружение» в дистрибутивной грамматике? Приведите свои примеры.
Что такое «дистрибуция элемента»?
Какие существуют типы дистрибуции? Приведите свои примеры.
В чем недостатки дистрибутивной грамматики?
Поясните значение термина «непосредственно составляющих».
Как зародилась и какова основная цель «грамматики непосредственно составляющих»?
В чем основная идея и суть «грамматики непосредственно составляющих»?
Какие существуют типы деления в грамматике непосредственно составляющих?
В чем отличие типов деления «деривационное дерево» и «канделябр» в грамматике непосредственно составляющих?
В чем заключаются недостатки грамматики непосредственно составляющих?
В чем суть трансформационной грамматики?
Как выделяют ядерные конструкции?
Как выполняется трансформация, какие условия?
В чем недостатки трансформационной грамматики?
В чем преимущества трансформационной грамматики?
Что такое грамматика текста?
Какие единицы изучает грамматика текста?
Как соотносятся абзац и предложение в аспекте грамматики текста?
Что такое «текст» на ваш взгляд? Какими характеристиками обладает это понятие?
Можно ли назвать «текстом» монолог?
Можно ли назвать «текстом» диалог? Полилог?
Можно ли назвать «текстом» название учебника?
Можно ли назвать «текстом» название известной газеты или журнала?
Обязательно ли для «текста» графическое отображение? Приведите примеры.
Можно ли назвать «текстом» картину художника? Почему?
Можно ли назвать «текстом» дорожный светофор?
Каковы минимальные границы текста? Приведите примеры.
Может ли морфема выступать «текстом»? Обоснуйте свой ответ на примерах.
Может ли фонема выступать «текстом»? Обоснуйте свой ответ на примерах.
Могут ли графические знаки препинания выступать «текстом»? Обоснуйте свой ответ на примерах.
Можно ли назвать «текстом» поведение человека? Его любые реакции?
Что не является «текстом» с точки зрения лингвистики?

СЕМИНАР 5

Задание А

Подготовьте выступление по следующим темам:

Возникновение и основные понятия семантической грамматики
1. Логический субъект
2. Логический Предикат (Subject & Predicate)
Вещи и их признаки (Things & attributes)
Семантические падежи (Semantic Cases)

Задание В

Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

Какие идеи послужили толчком к развитию семантической грамматики?
Почему основой для создания семантической грамматики была выбрана логика?
Что такое пропозиция?
Что такое логический субъект?
Что такое логический предикат?
Что такое связка в пропозиции?
Какие основные понятия семантической грамматики вы знаете?
Что такое семантический предикат?
Какие слова могут выступать в качестве семантического предиката?
Что такое аргумент в семантической грамматике?
Сколько аргументов должны быть выражены на поверхностном уровне, чтобы предложение было грамматически верным?
Какова структура порождения грамматического предложения по мнению семантической грамматики?
Что такое семантический падеж?
Что выражает семантический падеж «агенс»? Приведите свои примеры.
Что выражает семантический падеж «номинативус»?Приведите свои примеры.
Что выражает «объектный» семантический падеж? Приведите свои примеры.
Что выражает семантический падеж «патиенс»? Приведите свои примеры.
Что выражает семантический падеж «фактативус»? Приведите свои примеры.
Что выражает семантический падеж «локативус»? Приведите свои примеры.
Что выражает «инструментальный» семантический падеж? Приведите свои примеры.
Сколько минимально аргументов открывается в речи, и в каких семантических падежах, если семантический предикат выражает действие? Приведите свои примеры.
Сколько минимально аргументов открывается в речи, и в каких семантических падежах, если семантический предикат выражает состояние? Приведите свои примеры.
Сколько минимально аргументов открывается в речи, и в каких семантических падежах, если семантический предикат выражает процесс? Приведите свои примеры.
В чем недостатки семантической грамматики?
В чем преимущества и достижения семантической грамматики?

СЕМИНАР 6

Задание А

Подготовьте выступление по следующим темам:

Развитие теории частей речи.

а) логико-грамматическая классификация,

в) функциональная классификация,

с) дистрибутивная классификация

Теория частей речи в Русской лингвистической школе.

а) критерии классификации

в) проблема значимых и служебных частей речи

Грамматическая омонимия.

Задание В

Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

Что такое часть речи?
На каких основных принципах классифицируются части речи языковой системы?
Какие части речи выделялись Аристотелем в соответствии с логикой?
В чем суть логико-грамматической классификации слов по частям речи?
Как классифицировались слова по частям речи в период пре-нормативной грамматики?
Какие принципы классификации слов по частям речи были предложены в период классической научной грамматики?
Что понималось под «значением» в период классической научной грамматики?
Что понималось под «формой» в период классической научной грамматики?
Что понималось под «функцией» в период классической научной грамматики?
В чем суть морфологической классификации слов языковой системы по частям речи?
В чем суть синтаксической классификации слов языковой системы по частям речи?
В чем суть дистрибутивной классификации слов языковой системы по частям речи?
На каких принципах строится классификация слов языковой системы по частям речи в русской лингвистической школе?
В чем отличие различных концепции частей речи в русской лингвистической школе?
В чем проблема части речи «слова категории состояния» в русском языке?
В чем основная проблема в теории выделения каждой части речи?
Что такое омонимы в грамматике?
Как определить, к какой части речи относится слово, в случае грамматической омонимии?

СЕМИНАР 7

Задание А

Подготовьте выступление по следующим темам:

Понятие прагматического синтаксиса.
Предложение и высказывание.
Коммуникативные (прагматические) типы высказываний.
Прагматическое транспонирование высказываний.

Задание В

Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

В чем особенности структурных направлений в лингвистике?
Какие аспекты изучения языка предлагал Щерба?
Что такое прагматика?
Что такое языковая компетенция?
Что такое коммуникативная компетенция?
Какие основные аспекты прагматики?
Что такое «интенция» говорящего?
Чем отличается «предложение» от «высказывания», с точки зрения прагматики?
Что такое «коммуникативная интенция»?
Что такое «иллокутивная сила»?
Что такое «иллокутивный акт»?
Что такое «локутивный акт»?
Что такое «перлокутивный эффект»?
Что такое коммуникативные типы высказываний?
Что такое «констатив»?
Что такое «промисив»?
Что такое «менасив»?
Что такое «перформатив»?
Что такое «директив»?
Какие выделяют типы директивов?
Что такое «инъюнктив»?
Что такое «реквистив»?
В чем принципиальное отличие инъюнктива от реквистива?
Что такое «квеститив»?
Что такое глаголы «иллокутивного суицида»?
Что такое «прагматическое транспонирование высказываний»?
Что такое «косвенные акты речи»?
В чем причина прагматического транспонирования высказываний?

ГРАММАТИЧЕСКИЙ АНАЛИЗ

ТЕКСТ 1

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.

The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.

When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.

None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.

At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.

It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar — a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen — then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive — no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs. Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.

But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks. Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt — these people were obviously collecting for something... yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.

Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed openmouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery.

He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.

"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard yes, their son, Harry"

Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.

He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking... no, he was being stupid. Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry. He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her — if he'd had a sister like that... but all the same, those people in cloaks...

He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.

"Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"

And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.

Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.

As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw -- and it didn't improve his mood — was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.

"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly. The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look. Was this normal cat behavior? Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.

Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!"). Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:

"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"

"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early — it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."

Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters...

Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er — Petunia, dear — you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"

As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.

"No," she said sharply. "Why?"

"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."

"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.

"Well, I just thought... maybe... it was something to do with... you know... her crowd."

Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son -- he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"

"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.

"What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"

"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."

"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."

He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.

Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did... if it got out that they were related to a pair of -- well, he didn't think he could bear it.

The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind.... He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on — he yawned and turned over -- it couldn't affect them....

How very wrong he was.

Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.

A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.

Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."

He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. He clicked it again — the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"My dear Professor, I 've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."

"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.

"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."

Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.

"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls... shooting stars.... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent — I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."

"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."

"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."

She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day YouKnow-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"

"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"

"A what?"

"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of"

"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone — "

"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort." Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name.

"I know you haven 't, said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know-oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."

"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."

"Only because you're too — well — noble to use them."

"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."

Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"

It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.

"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are — are — that they're — dead. "

Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.

"Lily and James... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it... Oh, Albus..."

Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know... I know..." he said heavily.

Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. But — he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke — and that's why he's gone.

Dumbledore nodded glumly.

"It's — it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done... all the people he's killed... he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding... of all the things to stop him... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"

"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."

Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"

"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"

"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."

"You don't mean — you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore — you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son — I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"

"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."

"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous — a legend — I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future — there will be books written about Harry — every child in our world will know his name!"

"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can’t you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"

Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes — yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.

"Hagrid's bringing him."

"You think it — wise — to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"

I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.

"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to — what was that?"

A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky — and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.

If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild — long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.

"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"

"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sit," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."

"No problems, were there?"

"No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."

Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.

"Is that where -?" whispered Professor McGonagall.

"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."

"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"

"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well -- give him here, Hagrid — we'd better get this over with."

Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.

"Could I — could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.

"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!"

"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it — Lily an' James dead -- an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles — "

"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.

"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."

"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall — Professor Dumbledore, sir."

Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.

"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.

Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.

"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.

A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley... He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!"

(From “Harry Porter” by J.K. Rowling)

ТЕКСТ 2

This happened in 1932, when the state penitentiary was still at Cold Mountain. And the electric chair was there, too, of course.

The inmates made jokes about the chair, the way people always make jokes about things that frighten them but can't be gotten away from. They called it Old Sparky, or the Big Juicy. They made cracks about the power bill, and how Warden Moores would cook his Thanksgiving dinner that fall, with his wife, Melinda, too sick to cook.

But for the ones who actually had to sit down in that chair, the humor went out of the situation in a hurry. I presided over seventy-eight executions during my time at Cold Mountain (that's one figure I've never been confused about; I'll remember it on my deathbed), and I think that, for most of those men, the truth of what was happening to them finally hit all the way home when their ankles were being clamped to the stout oak of "Old Sparky's" legs. The realization came then (you would see it rising in their eyes, a kind of cold dismay) that their own legs had finished their careers. The blood still ran in them, the muscles were still strong, but they were finished, all the same; they were never going to walk another country mile or dance with a girl at a barn-raising. Old Sparky's clients came to a knowledge of their deaths from the ankles up. There was a black silk bag that went over their heads after they had finished their rambling and mostly disjointed last remarks. It was supposed to be for them, but I always thought: it was really for us, to keep us from seeing the awful tide of dismay in their eyes as they realized they were going to die with their knees bent.

There was no death row at Cold Mountain, only E Block, set apart from the other four and about a quarter their size, brick instead of wood, with a horrible bare metal roof that glared in the summer sun like a delirious eyeball. Six cells inside, three on each side of a wide center aisle, each almost twice as big as the cells in the other four blocks. Singles, too. Great accommodations for a prison (especially in the thirties), but the inmates would have traded for cells in any of the other four. Believe me, they would have traded.

There was never a time during my years as block superintendent when all six cells were occupied at one time-thank God for small favors. Four was the most, mixed black and white (at Cold Mountain, there was no segregation among the walking dead), and that was a little piece of hell. One was a woman, Beverly McCall. She was black as the ace of spades and as beautiful as the sin you never had nerve enough to commit. She put up with six years of her husband beating her, but wouldn't put up with his creeping around for a single day. On the evening after she found out he was cheating, she stood waiting for the unfortunate Lester McCall, known to his pals (and, presumably, to his extremely short-term mistress) as Cutter, at the top of the stairs leading to the apartment over his barber shop. She waited until he got his overcoat half off, then dropped his cheating guts onto his two-tone shoes. Used one of Cutter's own razors to do it. Two nights before she was due to sit in Old Sparky, she called me to her cell and said she had been visited by her African spirit-father in a dream. He told her to discard her slave-name and to die under her free name, Matuomi. That was her request, that her death warrant should be read under the name of Beverly Matuomi. I guess her spirit-father didn't give her any first name, or one she could make out, anyhow. I said yes, okay, fine. One thing those years serving as the bull-goose screw taught me was never to refuse the condemned unless I absolutely had to. In the case of Beverly Matuomi, it made no difference anyway. The governor called the next day around three in the afternoon, commuting her sentence to life in the Grassy Valley Penal Facility for Women-all penal and no penis, we used to say back then. I was glad to see Bev's round ass going left instead of right when she got to the duty desk, let me tell you.

Thirty-five years or so later - had to be at least thirty-five - I saw that name on the obituary page of the paper, under a picture of a skinny-faced black lady with a cloud of white hair and glasses with rhinestones at the corners. It was Beverly. She'd spent the last ten years of her life a free woman, the obituary said, and had rescued the small-town library of Raines Falls pretty much single-handed. She had also taught Sunday school and had been much loved in that little backwater. LIBRARIAN DIES OF HEART FAILURE, the headline said, and below that, in smaller type, almost as an afterthought: Served Over Two Decades in Prison for Murder. Only the eyes, wide and blazing behind the glasses with the rhinestones at the corners, were the same. They were the eyes of a woman who even at seventy-whatever would not hesitate to pluck a safety razor from its blue jar of disinfectant, if the urge seemed pressing. You know murderers, even if they finish up as old lady librarians in dozey little towns. At least you do if you've spent as much time minding murderers as I did. There was only one time I ever had a question about the nature of my job. That, I reckon, is why I'm writing this.

The wide corridor up the center of E Block was floored with linoleum the color of tired old limes, and so what was called the Last Mile at other prisons was called the Green Mile at Cold Mountain. It ran, I guess, sixty long paces from south to north, bottom to top. At the bottom was the restraint room. At the top end was a T-junction. A left turn meant life-if you called what went on in the sunbaked exercise yard life, and many did; many lived it for years, with no apparent ill effects. Thieves and arsonists and sex criminals, all talking their talk and walking their walk and making their little deals.

A right turn, though - that was different. First you went into my office (where the carpet was also green, a thing I kept meaning to change and not getting around to), and crossed in front of my desk, which was flanked by the American flag on the left and the state flag on the right. On the far side were two doors. One led into the small W.C. that I and the Block E guards (sometimes even Warden Moores) used; the other opened on a kind of storage shed. This was where you ended up when you walked the Green Mile.

It was a small door - I had to duck my head when I went through, and John Coffey actually had to sit and scoot. You came out on a little landing, then went down three cement steps to a board floor. It was a miserable room without heat and with a metal roof, just like the one on the block to which it was an adjunct. It was cold enough in there to see your breath during the winter, and stifling in the summer. At the execution of Elmer Manfred - in July or August of '30, that one was, I believe-we had nine witnesses pass out.

On the left side of the storage shed - again - there was life. Tools (all locked down in frames criss-crossed with chains, as if they were carbine rifles instead of spades and pickaxes), dry goods, sacks of seeds for spring planting in the prison gardens, boxes of toilet paper, pallets cross-loaded with blanks for the prison plate-shop... even bags of lime for marking out the baseball diamond and the football gridiron - the cons played in what was known as The Pasture, and fall afternoons were greatly looked forward to at Cold Mountain.

On the right - once again - death. Old Sparky his ownself, sitting up on a plank platform at the southeast corner of the store room, stout oak legs, broad oak arms that had absorbed the terrorized sweat of scores of men in the last few minutes of their lives, and the metal cap, usually hung jauntily on the back of the chair, like some robot kid's beanie in a Buck Rogers comic-strip. A cord ran from it and through a gasket-circled hole in the cinderblock wall behind the chair. Off to one side was a galvanized tin bucket. If you looked inside it, you would see a circle of sponge, cut just right to fit the metal cap. Before executions, it was soaked in brine to better conduct the charge of direct-current electricity that ran through the wire, through the sponge, and into the condemned man's brain.

1932 was the year of John Coffey. The details would be in the papers, still there for anyone who cared enough to look them out - someone with more energy than one very old man whittling away the end of his life in a Georgia nursing home. That was

a hot fall, I remember that; very hot, indeed. October almost like August, and the warden's wife, Melinda, up in the hospital at Indianola for a spell. It was the fall I had the worst urinary infection of my life, not bad enough to put me in the hospital myself, but almost bad enough for me to wish I was dead every time I took a leak. It was the fall of Delacroix, the little half-bald Frenchman with the mouse, the one that came in the summer and did that cute trick with the spool. Mostly, though, it was the fall that John Coffey came to E Block, sentenced to death for the rape-murder of the Detterick twins.

There were four or five guards on the block each shift, but a lot of them were floaters. Dean Stanton, Harry Terwilliger, and Brutus Howell (the men called him "Brutal," but it was a joke, he wouldn't hurt a fly unless he had to, in spite of his size) are all dead now, and so is Percy Wetmore, who really was brutal ... not to mention stupid. Percy had no business on E Block, where an ugly nature was useless and sometimes dangerous, but he was related to the governor by marriage, and so he stayed.

It was Percy Wetmore who ushered Coffey onto the block, with the supposedly traditional cry of "Dead man walking! Dead man walking here!"

It was still as hot as the hinges of hell, October or not. The door to the exercise yard opened, letting in a flood of brilliant light and the biggest man I've ever seen, except for some of the basketball fellows they have on the TV down in the "Resource Room" of this home for wayward droolers I've finished up in. He wore chains on his arms and across his water-barrel of a chest; he wore legirons on his ankles and shuffled a chain between them that sounded like cascading coins as it ran along the lime - colored corridor between the cells. Percy Wetmore was on one side of him, skinny little Harry Terwilliger was on the other, and they looked like children walking along with a captured bear. Even Brutus Howell looked like a kid next to Coffey, and Brutal was over six feet tall and broad as well, a football tackle who had gone on to play at LSU until he flunked out and came back home to the ridges.

John Coffey was black, like most of the men who came to stay for awhile in E Block before dying in Old Sparky's lap, and he stood six feet, eight inches tall. He wasn't all willowy like the TV basketball fellows, though - he was broad in the shoulders and deep through the chest, laced over with muscle in every direction. They'd put him in the biggest denims they could find in Stores, and still the cuffs of the pants rode halfway up on his bunched and scarred calves. The shirt was open to below his chest, and the sleeves stopped somewhere on his forearms. He was holding his cap in one huge hand, which was just as well; perched on his bald mahogany ball of a head, it would have looked like the kind of cap an organgrinder's monkey wears, only blue instead of red. He looked like he could have snapped the chains that held him as easily as you might snap the ribbons on a Christmas present, but when you looked in his face, you knew he wasn't going to do anything like that. It wasn't dull-although that was what Percy thought, it wasn't long before Percy was calling him the ijit - but lost. He kept looking around as if to make out where he was. Maybe even who he was. My first thought was that he looked like a black Samson ... only after Delilah had shaved him smooth as her faithless little hand and taken all the fun out of him.

"Dead man walking!" Percy trumpeted, hauling on that bear of a man's wristcuff, as if he really believed he could move him if Coffey decided he didn't want to move anymore on his own. Harry didn't say anything, but he looked embarrassed. "Dead man---!'

'That'll be enough of that," I said. I was in what was going to be Coffey's cell, sitting on his bunk. I'd known he was coming, of course, was there to welcome him and take charge of him, but had no idea of the man's pure size until I saw him. Percy gave me a look that said we all knew I was an asshole (except for the big dummy, of course, who only knew how to rape and murder little girls), but he didn't say anything.

The three of them stopped outside the cell door, which was standing open on its track. I nodded to Harry, who said: "Are you sure you want to be in there with him, boss?" I didn't often hear Harry Terwilliger sound nervous - he'd been right there by my side during the riots of six or seven years before and had never wavered, even when the rumors that some of them had guns began to circulate - but he sounded nervous then.

"Am I going to have any trouble with you, big boy?" I asked, sitting there on the bunk and trying not to look or sound as miserable as I felt-that urinary infection I mentioned earlier wasn't as bad as it eventually got, but it was no day at the beach, let me tell you.

Coffey shook his head slowly - once to the left, once to the right, then back to dead center. Once his eyes found me, they never left me.

Harry had a clipboard with Coffey's forms on it in one hand. "Give it to him," I said to Harry "Put it in his hand."

Harry did. The big mutt took it like a sleepwalker.

"Now bring it to me, big boy," I said, and Coffey did, his chains jingling and rattling. He had to duck his head just to enter the cell.

I looked up and down mostly to register his height as a fact and not an optical illusion. It was real: six feet, eight inches. His weight was given as two-eighty, but I think that was only an estimate; he had to have been three hundred and twenty, maybe as much as three hundred and fifty pounds. Under the space for scars and identifying marks, one word had been blocked out in the laborious printing of Magnusson, the old trusty in Registration: Numerous.

I looked up. Coffey had shuffled a bit to one side and I could see Harry standing across the corridor in front of Delacroix's cell - he was our only other prisoner in E Block when Coffey came in. Del was a slight, balding man with the worried face of an accountant who knows his embezzlement will soon be discovered. His tame mouse was sitting on his shoulder.

Percy Wetmore was leaning in the doorway of the cell which had just become John Coffey's. He had taken his hickory baton out of the custom-made holster he carried it in, and was tapping it against one palm the way a man does when he has a toy he wants to use. And all at once I couldn't stand to have him there. Maybe it was the unseasonable heat, maybe it was the urinary infection heating up my groin and making the itch of my flannel underwear all but unbearable, maybe it was knowing that the state had sent me a black man next door to an idiot to execute, and Percy clearly wanted to hand-tool him a little first. Probably it was all those things. Whatever it was, I stopped caring about his political connections for a little while.

"Percy." I said. "They're moving house over in the infirmary."

"Bill Dodge is in charge of that detail-"

"I know he is," I said. "Go and help him."

'That isn't my job," Percy said. "This big lugoon is my job." "Lugoon" was Percy's joke name for the big ones - a combination of lug and goon. He resented the big ones. He wasn't skinny, like Harry Terwilliger, but he was short. A banty-rooster sort of guy, the kind that likes to pick fights, especially when the odds are all their way. And vain about his hair. Could hardly keep his hands off it.

"Then your job is done," I said. "Get over to the infirmary."

His lower lip pooched out. Bill Dodge and his men were moving boxes and stacks of sheets, even the beds; the whole infirmary was going to a new frame building over on the west side of the prison. Hot work, heavy lifting. Percy Wetmore wanted no part of either.

"They got all the men they need," he said.

"Then get over there and straw-boss," I said, raising my voice. I saw Harry wince and paid no attention. If the governor ordered Warden Moores to fire me for ruffling the wrong set of feathers, who was Hal Moores going to put in my place? Percy? It was a joke. "I really don't care what you do, Percy, as long as you get out of here for awhile!'

For a moment I thought he was going to stick and there'd be real trouble, with Coffey standing there the whole time like the world's biggest stopped clock. Then Percy rammed his billy back into its hand-tooled holster-foolish damned vanitorious thing - and went stalking up the corridor. I don't remember which guard was sitting at the duty desk that day-one of the floaters, I guess - but Percy must not have liked the way he looked, because he growled, "You wipe that smirk off your shitepoke face or I'll wipe it off for you" as he went by. There was a rattle of keys, a momentary blast of hot sunlight from the exercise yard, and then Percy Wetmore was gone, at least for the time being. Delacroix's mouse ran back and forth from one of the little Frenchman's shoulders to the other, his filament whiskers twitching.

"Be still, Mr. Jingles," Delacroix said, and the mouse stopped on his left shoulder just as if he had understood. "Just be so still and so quiet." In Delacroix's lilting Cajun accent, quiet came out sounding exotic and foreign - kwaht.

"You go lie down, Del," I said curtly. "Take you a rest. This is none of your business, either!'

He did as I said. He had raped a young girl and killed her, and had then dropped her body behind the apartment house where she lived, doused it with coal-oil, and then set it on fire, hoping in some muddled way to dispose of the evidence of his crime. The fire had spread to the building itself, had engulfed it, and six more people had died, two of them children. It was the only crime he had in him, and now he was just a mild-mannered man with a worried face, a bald pate, and long hair straggling over the back of his shirt-collar. He would sit down with Old Sparky in a little while, and Old Sparky would make an end to him ... but whatever it was that had done that awful thing was already gone, and now he lay on his bunk, letting his little companion run squeaking over his hands. In a way, that was the worst; Old Sparky never burned what was inside them, and the drugs they inject them with today don't put it to sleep. It vacates, jumps to someone else, and leaves us to kill husks that aren't really alive anyway.

I turned my attention to the giant.

"If I let Harry take those chains off you, are you going to be nice?"

He nodded. It was like his head-shake: down , up, back to center. His strange eyes looked at me. There was a kind of peace in them, but not a kind I was sure I could trust. I crooked a finger to Harry, who came in and unlocked the chains. He showed no fear now, even when he knelt between Coffey's treetrunk legs to unlock the ankle irons, and that eased me some. It was Percy who had made Harry nervous, and I trusted Harry's instincts. I trusted the instincts of all my day-to-day E Block men, except for Percy.

I have a little set speech I make to men new on the block, but I hesitated with Coffey, because he seemed so abnormal, and not just in his size.

When Harry stood back (Coffey had remained motionless during the entire unlocking ceremony, as placid as a Percheron), I looked up at my new charge, tapping on the clipboard with my thumb, and said: "Can you talk, big boy?"

"Yes, sir, boss, I can talk," he said. His voice was a deep and quiet rumble. It made me think of a freshly tuned tractor engine. He had no real Southern drawl-he said I, not Ah-but there was a kind of Southern construction to his speech that I noticed later. As if he was from the South, but not of it. He didn't sound illiterate, but he didn't sound educated. In his speech as in so many other things, he was a mystery. Mostly it was his eyes that troubled me - a kind of peaceful absence in them, as if he were floating far, far away.

"Your name is John Coffey."

"Yes, sir, boss, like the drink only not spelled the same way."

"So you can spell, can you? Read and write?"

"Just my name, boss," said he, serenely.

I sighed, then gave him a short version of my set speech. I'd already decided he wasn't going to be any trouble. In that I was both right and wrong.

"My name is Paul Edgecombe," I said. "I'm the E Block super - the head screw. You want something from me, ask for me by name. If I'm not here, ask this other, man - his name is Harry Terwilliger. Or you ask for Mr. Stanton or Mr. Howell. Do you understand that?"

Coffey nodded.

"Just don't expect to get what you want unless we decide it's what you need - this isn't a hotel. Still with me?"

He nodded again.

"This is a quiet place, big boy - not like the rest of the prison. It's just you and Delacroix over there. You won't work; mostly you'll just sit. Give you a chance to think things over." Too much time for most of them, but I didn't say that. "Sometimes we play the radio, if all's in order. You like the radio?"

He nodded, but doubtfully, as if he wasn't sure what the radio was. I later found out that was true, in a way; Coffey knew things when he encountered them again, but in between he forgot. He knew the characters on Our Gal Sunday, but had only the haziest memory of what they'd been up to the last time.

"If you behave, you'll eat on time, you'll never see the solitary cell down at the far end, or have to wear one of those canvas coats that buttons up the back. You'll have two hours in the yard afternoons from four until six, except on Saturdays when the rest of the prison population has their flag football games. You'll have your visitors on Sunday afternoons, if you have someone who wants to visit you. Do you, Coffey?"

He shook his head. "Got none, boss," he said.

'Well, your lawyer, then!'

"I believe I've seen the back end of him," he said. "He was give to me on loan. Don't believe he could find his way up here in the mountains!'

I looked at him closely to see if he might be trying a little joke, but he didn't seem to be. And I really hadn't expected any different. Appeals weren't for the likes of John Coffey, not back then; they had their day in court and then the world forgot them until they saw a squib in the paper saying a certain fellow had taken a little electricity along about midnight. But a man with a wife, children, or friends to look forward to on Sunday afternoons was easier to control, if control looked to be a problem. Here it didn't, and that was good. Because he was so damned big.

I shifted a little on the bunk, then decided I might feel a little more comfortable in my nether parts if I stood up, and so I did. He backed away from me respectfully, and clasped his hands in front of him.

"Your time here can be easy or hard, big boy, it all depends on you. I'm here to say you might as well make it easy on all of us, because it comes to the same in the end. We'll treat you as right as you deserve. Do you have any questions?"

"Do you leave a light on after bedtime?" he asked right away, as if he had only been waiting for the chance.

I blinked at him. I had been asked a lot of strange questions by newcomers to E Block - once about the size of my wife's tits-but never that one.

Coffey was smiling a trifle uneasily, as if he knew we would think him foolish but couldn't help himself. "Because I get a little scared in the dark sometimes," he said. "If it's a strange place."

I looked at him - the pure size of him - and felt strangely touched. They did touch you, you know; you didn't see them at their worst, hammering out their horrors like demons at a forge.

"Yes, it's pretty bright in here all night long," I said. "Half the lights along the Mile burn from nine until five every morning." Then I realized he wouldn't have any idea of what I was talking about - he didn't know the Green Mile from Mississippi mud - and so I pointed. "In the corridor."

He nodded, relieved. I'm not sure he knew what a corridor was, either, but he could see the 200-watt bulbs in their wire cages.

I did something I'd never done to a prisoner before, then - I offered him my hand. Even now I don't know why. Him asking about the lights, maybe. It made Harry Terwilliger blink, I can tell you that. Coffey took my hand with surprising gentleness, my hand all but disappearing into his, and that was all of it. I had another moth in my killing bottle. We were done.

I stepped out of the cell. Harry pulled the door shut on its track and ran both locks. Coffey stood where he was a moment or two longer, as if he didn't know what to do next, and then he sat down on his bunk, clasped his giant's hands between his knees, and lowered his head like a man who grieves or prays. He said something then in his strange, almost Southern voice. I heard it with perfect clarity, and although I didn't know much about what he'd done then - you don't need to know about what a man's done in order to feed him and groom him until it's time for him to pay off what he owes - it still gave me a chill.

"I couldn't help-it, boss," he said. "I tried to take it back, but it was too late!'

"You're going to have you some trouble with Percy," Harry said as we walked back up the hall and into my office. Dean Stanton, sort of my third in command - we didn't actually have such things, a situation Percy Wetmore would have fixed up in a flash - was sitting behind my desk, updating the files, a job I never seemed to get around to. He barely looked up as we came in, just gave his little glasses a shove with the ball of his thumb and dived back into his paperwork.

"I been having trouble with that peckerwood since the day he came here," I said, gingerly, pulling my pants away from my crotch and wincing. "Did you hear what he was shouting when he brought that big galoot down?"

"Couldn't very well not," Harry said. "I was there, you know."

"I was in the john and heard it just fine," Dean said. He drew a sheet of paper to him, held it up into the light so I could see there was a coffee-ring as well as typing on it, and then tossed it into the waste basket. 'Dead man walking.' Must have read that in one of those magazines he likes so much!"

And he probably had. Percy Wetmore was a great reader of Argosy and Stag and Men's Adventure. There was a prison tale in every issue, it seemed, and Percy read them avidly, like a man doing research. It was like he was trying to find out how to act, and thought the information was in those magazines. He'd come just after we did Anthony Ray, the hatchet-killer - and he hadn't actually participated in an execution yet, although he'd witnessed one from the switch-room.

"He knows people," Harry said. "He's connected. You'll have to answer for sending him off the block, and you'll have to answer even harder for expecting him to do some real work."

"I don't expect it," I said, and I didn't ... but I had hopes. Bill Dodge wasn't the sort to let a man just stand around and do the heavy looking-on. "I'm more interested in the big boy, for the time being. Are we going to have trouble with him?"

Harry shook his head with decision.

"He was quiet as a lamb at court down there in Trapingus County," Dean said. He took his little rimless glasses off and began to polish them on his vest. "Of course they had more chains on him than Scrooge saw on Marley's ghost, but he could have kicked up dickens if he'd wanted. That's a pun, son."

"I know," I said, although I didn't. I just hate letting Dean Stanton get the better of me.

"Big one, ain't he?" Dean said.

"He is," I agreed. "Monstrous big."

"Probably have to crank Old Sparky up to Super Bake to fry his ass!'

"Don't worry about Old Sparky," I said absently. "He makes the big 'uns little."

Dean pinched the sides of his nose, where there were a couple of angry red patches from his glasses, and nodded. "Yep," he said. "Some truth to that, all right."

I asked, "Do either of you know where he came from before he showed up in ... Tefton? It was Tefton, wasn't it?"

"Yep," Dean said. "Tefton, down in Trapingus County. Before he showed up there and did what he did, no one seems to know. He just drifted around, I guess. You might be able to find out a little more from the newspapers in the prison library, if you're really interested. They probably won't get around to moving those until next week." He grinned. "You might have to listen to your little buddy bitching and moaning upstairs, though."

"I might just go have a peek, anyway," I said, and later on that afternoon I did.

The prison library was in back of the building that was going to become the prison auto shop - at least that was the plan. More pork in someone's pocket was what I thought, but the Depression was on, and I kept my opinions to myself - the way I should have kept my mouth shut about Percy, but sometimes a man just can't keep it clapped tight. A man's mouth gets him in more trouble than his pecker ever could, most of the time. And the auto shop never happened, anyway - the next spring, the prison moved sixty miles down the road to Brighton. More backroom deals, I reckon. More barrels of pork. Wasn't nothing to me.

Administration had gone to a new building on the east side of the yard; the infirmary was being moved (whose country-bumpkin idea it had been to put an infirmary on the second floor in the first place was just another of life's mysteries); the library was still partly stocked - not that it ever had much in it - and standing empty. The old building was a hot clapboard box kind of shouldered in between A and B Blocks. Their bathrooms backed up on it and the whole building was always swimming with this vague pissy smell, which was probably the only good reason for the move. The library was L-shaped, and not much bigger than my office. I looked for a fan, but they were all gone. It must have been a hundred degrees in there, and I could feel that hot throb in my groin when I sat down. Sort of like an infected tooth. I know that's absurd, considering the region we're talking about here, but it's the only thing I could compare it to. It got a lot worse during and just after taking a leak, which I had done just before walking over.

There was one other fellow there after all - a scrawny old trusty named Gibbons dozing away in the corner with a Wild West novel in his lap and his hat pulled down over his eyes. The heat wasn't bothering him, nor were the grunts, thumps, and occasional curses from the infirmary upstairs (where it had to be at least ten degrees hotter, and I hoped Percy Wetmore was enjoying it). I didn't bother him, either, but went around to the short side of the L, where the newspapers were kept. I thought they might be gone along with the fans, in spite of what Dean had said. They weren't, though, and the business about the Detterick twins was easily enough looked out; it had been front-page news from the commission of the crime in June right through the trial in late August and September.

Soon I had forgotten the heat and the thumps from upstairs and old Gibbons's wheezy snores. The thought of those little nine-year-old girls - their fluffy heads of blonde hair and their engaging Bobbsey Twins smiles - in connection with Coffey's hulking darkness was unpleasant but impossible to ignore. Given his size, it was easy to imagine him actually eating them, like a giant in a fairy tale. What he had done was even worse, and it was a lucky thing for him that he hadn't just been lynched right there on the riverbank. If, that was, you considered waiting to walk the Green Mile and sit in Old Sparky's lap lucky.

King Cotton had been deposed in the South seventy years before all these things happened and would never be king again, but in those years of the thirties it had a little revival. There were no more cotton plantations, but there were forty or fifty prosperous cotton farms in the southern part of our state. Klaus Detterick owned one of them. By the standards of the nineteen-fifties he would have been considered only a rung above shirttail poor, but by those of the thirties he was considered well-to-do because he actually paid his store bill in cash at the end of most months, and he could meet the bank president's eyes if they happened to pass on the street. The farmhouse was clean and commodious. In addition to the cotton, there were the other two c's: chickens and a few cows. He and his wife had three children: Howard. who was twelve or thereabouts, and the twin girls. Cora and Kathe.

On a warm night in June of that year, the girls asked for and were given permission to sleep on the screen-enclosed side porch, which ran the length of the house. This was a great treat for them. Their mother kissed them goodnight just shy of nine, when the last light had gone out of the sky. It was the final time she saw either of them until they were in their coffins and the undertaker had repaired the worst of the damage.

Country families went to bed early in those days - "soon as 'twas dark under the table," my own mother sometimes said - and slept soundly. Certainly Klaus, Marjorie, and Howie Detterick did on the night the twins were taken. Klaus would almost certainly have been wakened by Bowser, the family's big old half-breed collie, if he had barked, but Bowser didn't. Not that night, not ever again.

Klaus was up at first light to do the milking. The porch was on the side of the house away from the barn, and Klaus never thought to look in on the girls. Bowser's failure to join him was no cause for alarm, either. The dog held the cows and the chickens alike in great disdain, and usually hid in his doghouse behind the barn when the chores were being performed, unless called ... and called energetically, at that.

Marjorie came downstairs fifteen minutes or so after her husband had pulled on his boots in the mudroom and tromped out to the barn. She started the coffee, then put bacon on to fry. The combined smells brought Howie down from his room under the eaves, but not the girls from the porch. She sent Howie out to fetch them as she cracked eggs into the bacon grease. Klaus would want the girls out to get fresh ones as soon as breakfast was over. Except no breakfast was eaten in the Detterick house that morning. Howie came back from the porch, white around the gills and with his formerly sleep-puffy eyes now wide open.

"They're gone," he said.

Marjorie went out onto the porch, at first more annoyed than alarmed. She said later that she had supposed, if she had supposed anything, that the girls had decided to take a walk and pick flowers by the dawn's early light. That or some similar green-girl foolishness. One look, and she understood why Howie had been white.

She screamed for Klaus - shrieked for him - and Klaus came on the dead run, his workboots whitened by the half-full pail of milk he had spilled on them. What he found on the porch would have jellied the legs of the most courageous parent. The blankets in which the girls would have bundled themselves as the night drew on and grew colder had been cast into one comer. The screen door had been yanked off its upper hinge and hung drunkenly out into the dooryard. And on the boards of both the porch and the steps beyond the mutilated screen door, there were spatters of blood.

Marjorie begged her husband not to go hunting after the girls alone, and not to take their son if he felt he had to go after them, but she could have saved her breath. He took the shotgun he kept mounted in the mudroom high out of the reach of little hands, and gave Howie the .22 they had been saving for his birthday in July. Then they went, neither of them paying the slightest attention to the shrieking, weeping woman who wanted to know what they would do if they met a gang of wandering hobos or a bunch of bad niggers escaped from the county farm over in Laduc. In this I think the men were right, you know. The blood was no longer runny, but it was only tacky yet, and still closer to true red than the maroon that comes when blood has well dried. The abduction hadn't happened too long ago. Klaus must have reasoned that there was still a chance for his girls, and he meant to take it.

Neither one of them could track worth a damn - they were gatherers, not hunters, men who went into the woods after coon and deer in their seasons not because they much wanted to, but because it was an expected thing. And the dooryard around the house was a blighted patch of dirt with tracks all overlaid in a meaningless tangle. They went around the barn, and saw almost at once why Bowser, a bad biter but a good barker, hadn't sounded the alarm. He lay half in and half out of a doghouse which had been built of leftover barnboards (there was a signboard with the word Bowser neatly printed on it over the curved hole in the front - I saw a photograph of it in one of the papers), his head turned most of the way around on his neck. It would have taken a man of enormous power to have done that to such a big animal, the prosecutor later told John Coffey's jury ... and then he had looked long and meaningfully at the hulking defendant, sitting behind the defense table with his eyes cast down and wearing a brand-new pair of state-bought bib overalls that looked like damnation in and of themselves. Beside the dog, Klaus and Howie found a scrap of cooked link sausage. The theory - a sound one, I have no doubt - was that Coffey had first charmed the dog with treats, and then, as Bowser began to eat the last one, had reached out his hands and broken its neck with one mighty snap of his wrists.

Beyond the barn was Detterick's north pasture, where no cows would graze that day. It was drenched with morning dew, and leading off through it, cutting on a diagonal to the northwest and plain as day, was the beaten track of a man's passage.

Even in his state of near-hysteria, Klaus Detterick hesitated at first to follow it. It wasn't fear of the man or men who had taken his daughters; it was fear of following the abductor's backtrail ... of going off in exactly the wrong direction at a time when every second might count.

Howie solved that dilemma by plucking a shred of yellow cotton cloth from a bush growing just beyond the edge of the dooryard. Klaus was shown this same scrap of cloth as he sat on the witness stand, and began to weep as he identified it as a piece of his daughter Kathe's sleeping-shorts. Twenty yards beyond it, hanging from the jutting finger of a juniper shrub, they found a piece of faded green cloth that matched the nightie Cora had been wearing when she kissed her ma and pa goodnight.

The Dettericks, father and son, set off at a near-run with their guns held in front of them, as soldiers do when crossing contested ground under heavy fire. If I wonder at anything that happened that day. it is that the boy, chasing desperately after his father (and often in danger of being left behind completely), never fell and put a bullet in Klaus Detterick's back.

The farmhouse was on the exchange - another sign to the neighbors that the Dettericks were prospering, at least moderately, in disastrous times - and Marjorie used Central to call as many of her neighbors that were also on the exchange as she could, telling them of the disaster which had fallen like a lightning-stroke out of a clear sky, knowing that each call would produce overlapping ripples, like pebbles tossed rapidly into a stilly pond. Then she lifted the handset one last time, and spoke those words that were almost a trademark of the early telephone systems of that time, at least in the rural South: "Hello, Central, are you on the line?"

Central was, but for a moment could say nothing, that worthy woman was all agog. At last she managed, "Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Detterick, I sure am, oh dear sweet blessed Jesus, I'm a-prayin right now that your little girls are all right---!'

"Yes, thank you," Marjorie said. "But you tell the Lord to wait long enough for you to put me through to the high sheriff's office down Tefton, all right?"

The Trapingus County high sheriff was a whiskeynosed old boy with a gut like a washtub and a head of white hair so fine it looked like pipe-cleaner fuzz. I knew him well; he'd been up to Cold Mountain plenty of times to see what he called "his boys" off into the great beyond. Execution witnesses sat in the same folding chairs you've probably sat in yourself a time or two, at funerals or church suppers or Grange bingo (in fact, we borrowed ours from the Mystic Tie No. 44 Grange back in those days), and every time Sheriff Homer Cribus sat down in one, I waited for the dry crack that would signal collapse. I dreaded that day and hoped for it, both at the same time, but it was a day that never came. Not long after - couldn't have been more than one summer after the Detterick girls were abducted - he had a heart attack in his office, apparently while screwing a seventeen year-old black girl named Daphne Shurtleff. There was a lot of talk about that, with him always sporting his wife and six boys around so prominent come election time - those were the days when, if you wanted to run for something, the saying used to be "Be Baptist or be gone." But people love a hypocrite, you know - they recognize one of their own, and it always feels so good when someone gets caught with his pants down and his dick up and it isn't you.

Besides being a hypocrite, he was incompetent, the kind of fellow who'd get himself photographed pet that point, running southeast through low, wooded hills where families named Cray and Robinette and Duplissey still made their own mandolins and often spat out their own rotted teeth as they plowed; deep countryside where men were apt to handle snakes on Sunday morning and lie down in carnal embrace with their daughters on Sunday night. I knew their families; most of them had sent Sparky a meal from time to time. On the far side of the river, the members of the posse could see the June sun glinting off the steel rails of a Great Southern branch line. About a mile downstream to their right, a trestle crossed toward the coal-fields of West Green.

Here they found a wide trampled patch in the grass and low bushes, a patch so bloody that many of the men had to sprint back into the woods and relieve themselves of their breakfasts. They also found the rest of Cora's nightgown lying in this bloody patch, and Howie, who had held up admirably until then, reeled back against his father and nearly fainted.

And it was here that Bobo Marchant's dogs had their first and only disagreement of the day. There were six in all, two bloodhounds, two bluetick hounds, and a couple of those terrierlike mongrels border Southerners call coon hounds. The coonies wanted to go northwest, upstream along the Trapingus; the rest wanted to go in the other direction, southeast. They got all tangled in their leads, and although the papers said nothing about this part, I could imagine the horrible curses Bobo must have rained down on them as he used his hands - surely the most educated part of him - to get them straightened around again. I have known a few hound-dog men in my time, and it's been my experience that, as a class, they run remarkably true to type.

Bobo shortleashed them into a pack, then ran Cora Detterick's torn nightgown under their noses, to kind of remind them what they were doing out on a day when the temperature would be in the mid-nineties by noon and the noseeums were already circling the heads of the possemen in clouds. The coonies took another sniff, decided to vote the straight ticket, and off they all went downstream, in full cry.

It wasn't but ten minutes later when the men stopped, realizing they could hear more than just the dogs. It was a howling rather than a baying, and a sound no dog had ever made, not even in its dying extremities. It was a sound none of them had ever heard anything make, but they knew right away, all of them, that it was a man. So they said, and I believed them. I think I would have recognized it, too. I have heard men scream just that way, I think, on their way to the electric chair. Not a lot - most button themselves up and go either quiet or joking, like it was the class picnic - but a few. Usually the ones who believe in hell as a real place, and know it is waiting for them at the end of the Green Mile.

Bobo shortleashed his dogs again. They were valuable, and he had no intention of losing them to the psychopath howling and gibbering just down yonder. The other men reloaded their guns and snapped them closed. That howling had chilled them all, and made the sweat under their arms and running down their backs feel like icewater. When men take a chill like that, they need a leader if they are to go on, and Deputy McGee led them. He got out in front and walked briskly (I bet he didn't feel very brisk right then, though) to a stand of alders that jutted out of the woods on the right, with the rest of them trundling along nervously about five paces behind. He paused just once, and that was to motion the biggest man among them - Sam Hollis - to keep near Klaus Detterick.

On the other side of the alders there was more open ground stretching back to the woods on the right. On the left was the long, gentle slope of the riverbank. They all stopped where they were, thunderstruck. I think they would have given a good deal to unsee what was before them, and none of them would ever forget it - it was the sort of nightmare, bald and almost smoking in the sun, that lies beyond the drapes and furnishings of good and ordinary lives - church suppers, walks along country lanes, honest work, love-kisses in bed. There is a skull in every man, and I tell you there is a skull in the lives of all men. They saw it that day, those men - they saw what sometimes grins behind the smile.

Sitting on the riverbank in a faded, bloodstained jumper was the biggest man any of them had ever seen - John Coffey. His enormous, splay-toed feet were bare. On his head he wore a faded red bandanna, the way a country woman would wear a kerchief into church. Gnats circled him in a black cloud. Curled in each arm was the body of a naked girl. Their blonde hair, once curly and light as milkweed fluff, was now matted to their heads and streaked red. The man holding them sat bawling up at the sky like a moonstruck calf, his dark brown cheeks slicked with tears, his face twisted in a monstrous cramp of grief He drew breath in hitches, his chest rising until the snaps holding the straps of his jumper were strained, and then let that vast catch of air out in another of those howls. So often you read in the paper that "the killer showed no remorse," but that wasn't the case here. John Coffey was torn open by what he had done ... but he would live. The girls would not. They had been torn open in a more fundamental way.

No one seemed to know how long they stood there, looking at the howling man who was, in his turn, looking across the great still plate of the river at a train on the other side, storming down the tracks toward the trestle that crossed the river. It seemed they looked for an hour or for forever, and yet the train got no farther along, it seemed to storm only in one place, like a child doing a tantrum, and the sun did not go behind a cloud, and the sight was not blotted from their eyes. It was there before them, as real as a dogbite. The black man rocked back and forth; Cora and Kathe rocked with him like dolls in the arms of a giant. The bloodstained muscles in the man's huge, bare arms flexed and relaxed, flexed and relaxed, flexed and relaxed.

It was Klaus Detterick who broke the tableau. Screaming, he flung himself at the monster who had raped and killed his daughters. Sam Hollis knew his job and tried to do it, but couldn't. He was six inches taller than Klaus and outweighed him by at least seventy pounds, but Klaus seemed to almost shrug his encircling arms off. Klaus flew across the intervening open ground and launched a flying kick at Coffey's head. His workboot, caked with spilled milk that had already soured in the heat, scored a direct hit on Coffey's left temple, but Coffey seemed not to feel it at all. He only sat there, keening and rocking and looking out across the river; the way I imagine it, he could almost have been a picture out of some piney woods Pentecostal sermon, the faithful follower of the Cross looking out toward Goshen Land ... if not for the corpses, that was.

It took four men to haul the hysterical farmer off John Coffey, and he fetched Coffey I don't know how many good licks before they finally did. It didn't seem to matter to Coffey, one way or the other; he just went on looking out across the river and keening. As for Detterick, all the fight went out of him when he was finally pulled off - as if some strange galvanizing current had been running through the huge black man (I still have a tendency to think in electrical metaphors; you'll have to pardon me), and when Detterick's contact with that power source was finally broken, he went as limp as a man flung back from a live wire. He knelt wide-legged on the riverbank with his hands to his face, sobbing. Howie joined him and they hugged each other forehead to forehead.

Two men watched them while the rest formed a rifle-toting ring around the rocking, wailing black man. He still seemed not to realize that anyone but him was there. McGee stepped forward, shifted uncertainly from foot to foot for a bit, then hunkered.

"Mister," he said in a quiet voice, and Coffey hushed at once. McGee looked at eyes that were bloodshot from crying. And still they streamed, as if someone had left a faucet on inside him. Those eyes wept, and yet were somehow untouched ... distant and serene. I thought them the strangest eyes I had ever seen in my life, and McGee felt much the same. "Like the eyes of an animal that never saw a man before," he told a reporter named Hammersmith just before the trial.

"Mister, do you hear me?" McGee asked.

Slowly, Coffey nodded his head. Still he curled his arms around his unspeakable dolls, their chins down on their chests so their faces could not be clearly seen, one of the few mercies God saw fit to bestow that day.

"Do you have a name?" MeGee asked.

"John Coffey," he said in a thick and tear-clotted voice. "Coffey like the drink, only not spelled the same way."

McGee nodded, then pointed a thumb at the chest pocket of Coffey's jumper, which was bulging. It looked to McGee like it might have been a gun - not that a man Coffey's size would need a gun to do some major damage, if he decided to go off. "What's that in there, John Coffey? Is that maybe a heater? A pistol?"

"Nosir," Coffey said in his thick voice, and those strange eyes - welling tears and agonized on top, distant and weirdly serene underneath, as if the true John Coffey was somewhere else, looking out on some other landscape where murdered little girls were nothing to get all worked up about -never left Deputy McGee's. "That's just a little lunch I have."

"Oh, now, a little lunch, is that right?" McGee asked, and Coffey nodded and said yessir with his eyes running and dear snot-runners hanging out of his nose. "And where did the likes of you get a little lunch, John Coffey?" Forcing himself to be calm, although he could smell the girls by then, and could see the flies lighting and sampling the places on them that were wet. It was their hair that was the worst, he said later ... and this wasn't in any newspaper story; it was considered too grisly for family reading. No, this I got from the reporter who wrote the story, Mr. Hammersmith. I looked him up later on, because later on John Coffey became sort of an obsession with me. McGee told this Hammersmith that their blonde hair wasn't blonde anymore. It was auburn. Blood had run down their cheeks out of it like it was a bad dye-job, and you didn't have to be a doctor to see that their fragile skulls had been dashed together with the force of those mighty arms. Probably they had been crying. Probably he had wanted to make them stop. If the girls had been lucky, this had happened before the rapes.

Looking at that made it hard for a man to think, even a man as determined to do his job as Deputy McGee was. Bad thinking could cause mistakes, maybe more bloodshed. McGee drew him in a deep breath and calmed himself. Tried, anyway.

'Wellsir, I don't exactly remember, be dog if I do," Coffey said in his tear-choked voice, "but it's a little lunch, all right, sammidges and I think a swee' pickle."

I might just have a look for myself, it's all the same to you," McGee said. "Don't you move now, John Coffey. Don't do it, boy, because there are enough guns aimed at you to make you disappear from the waist up should you so much as twitch a finger."

Coffey looked out across the river and didn't move as McGee gently reached into the chest pocket of those biballs and pulled out something wrapped in newspaper and tied with a hank of butcher's twine. MeGee snapped the string and opened the paper, although he was pretty sure it was just what Coffey said it was, a little lunch. There was a bacon-tomato sandwich and a jelly fold-over. There was also a pickle, wrapped in its own piece of a funny page John Coffey would never be able to puzzle out. There were no sausages. Bowser had gotten the sausages out of John Coffey's little lunch.

McGee handed the lunch back over his shoulder to one of the other men without taking his eyes off Coffey. Hunkered down like that, he was too close to want to let his attention stray for even a second. The lunch, wrapped up again and tied for good measure, finally ended up with Bobo Marchant, who put it in his knapsack, where he kept treats for his dogs (and a few fishing lures, I shouldn't wonder). It wasn't introduced into evidence at the trial - justice in this part of the world is swift, but not as swift as a bacon-tomato sandwich goes over - though photographs of it were.

'What happened here, John Coffey?" McGee asked in his low, earnest voice. "You want to tell me that?"

And Coffey said to McGee and the others almost exactly the same thing he said to me; they were also the last words the prosecutor said to the jury at Coffey's trial. "I couldn't help it," John Coffey said, holding the murdered, violated girls naked in his arms. The tears began to pour down his cheeks again. "I tried to take it back, but it was too late!'

"Boy, you are under arrest for murder," McGee said, and then he spit in John Coffey's face.

The jury was out forty-five minutes. Just about time enough to eat a little lunch of their own. I wonder they had any stomach for it.

I think you know I didn't find all that out during one hot October afternoon in the soon-to-be-defunct prison library, from one set of old newspapers stacked in a pair of Pomona orange crates, but I learned enough to make it hard for me to sleep that night. When my wife got up at two in the morning and found me sitting in the kitchen, drinking buttermilk and smoking home-rolled Bugler, she asked me what was wrong and I lied to her for one of the few times in the long course of our marriage. I said I'd had another run-in with Percy Wetmore. I had, of course, but that wasn't the reason she'd found me sitting up late. I was usually able to leave Percy at the office.

'Well, forget that rotten apple and come on back to bed," she said. "I've got something that'll help you sleep, and you can have all you want."

"That sounds good, but I think we'd better not," I said. "I've got a little something wrong with my waterworks, and wouldn't want to pass it on to you."

She raised an eyebrow. "Waterworks, huh," she said. "I guess you must have taken up with the wrong streetcorner girl the last time you were in Baton Rouge." I've never been in Baton Rouge and never so much as touched a streetcorner girl, and we both knew it.

"It's just a plain old urinary infection," I said. "My mother used to say boys got them from taking a leak when the north wind was blowing."

"Your mother also used to stay in all day if she spilled the salt," my wife said. "Dr Sadler-"

"No, sir," I said, raising my hand. "He'll want me to take sulfa, and I'll be throwing up in every comer of my office by the end of the week. It'll run its course, but in the meantime, I guess we best stay out of the playground."

She kissed my forehead right over my left eyebrow, which always gives me the prickles ... as Janice well knew. "Poor baby. As if that awful Percy Wetmore wasn't enough. Come to bed soon!'

I did, but before I did, I stepped out onto the back porch to empty out (and checked the wind direction with a wet thumb before I did - what our parents tell us when we are small seldom goes ignored, no matter how foolish it may be). Peeing outdoors is one joy of country living the poets never quite got around to, but it was no joy that night; the water coming out of me burned like a line of lit coal-oil. Yet I thought it had been a little worse that afternoon, and knew it had been worse the two or three days before. I had hopes that maybe I had started to mend. Never was a hope more ill-founded. No one had told me that sometimes a bug that gets up inside there, where it's warm and wet, can take a day or two off to rest before coming on strong again. I would have been surprised to know it. I would have been even more surprised to know that, in another fifteen or twenty years, there would be pills you could take that would smack that sort of infection out of your system in record time ... and while those pills might make you feel a little sick at your stomach or loose in your bowels, they almost never made you vomit the way Dr. Sadler's sulfa pills did. Back in '32, there wasn't much you could do but wait, and try to ignore that feeling that someone had spilled coal-oil inside your works and then touched a match to it.

I finished my butt, went into the bedroom, and finally got to sleep. I dreamed of girls with shy smiles and blood in their hair.

The next morning there was a pink memo slip on my desk, asking me to stop by the warden's office as soon as I could. I knew what that was about - there were unwritten but very important rules to the game, and I had stopped playing by them for awhile yesterday - and so I put it off as long as possible. Like going to the doctor about my waterworks problem, I suppose. I've always thought this "get-it-over-with" business was overrated.

Anyway, I didn't hurry to Warden Moores's office. I stripped off my wool uniform coat instead, hung it over the back of my chair, and turned on the fan in the corner - it was another hot one. Then I sat down and went over Brutus Howell's night-sheet. There was nothing there to get alarmed about. Delacroix had wept briefly after turning in - he did most nights, and more for himself than for the folks he had roasted alive, I am quite sure - and then had take Mr. Jingles, the mouse, out of the cigar box he slept in. That had calmed Del, and he had slept like a baby the rest of the night. Mr. Jingles had most likely spent it on Delacroix's stomach, with his tail curled over his paws, eyes unblinking. It was as if God had decided Delacroix needed a guardian angel, but had decreed in His wisdom that only a mouse would do for a rat like our homicidal friend from Louisiana. Not all that was in Brutal's report, of course, but I had done enough night watches myself to fill in the stuff between the lines. There was a brief note about Coffey: "Laid awake, mostly quiet, may have cried some. I tried to get some talk started, but after a few grunted replies from Coffey, gave up. Paul or Harry may have better luck."

"Getting the talk started" was at the center of our job, really. I didn't know it then, but looking back from the vantage point of this strange old age (I think all old ages seem strange to the folk who must endure them), I understand that it was, and why I didn't see it then - it was too big, as central to our work as our respiration was to our lives. It wasn't important that the floaters be good at "getting the talk started," but it was vital for me and Harry and Brutal and Dean... and it was one reason why Percy Wetmore was such a disaster. The inmates hated him, the guards hated him ... everyone hated him, presumably, except for his political connections, Percy himself, and maybe (but only maybe) his mother. He was like a dose of white arsenic sprinkled into a wedding cake, and I think I knew he spelled disaster the start. He was an accident waiting to happen. As for the rest of us, we would have scoffed at the idea that we functioned most usefully not as the guards of the condemned but as their psychiatrists part of me still wants to scoff at that idea today - but we knew about getting the talk started . . . and without the talk, men facing Old Sparky had a nasty habit of going insane.

I made a note at the bottom of Brutal's report to talk to John Coffey - to try, at least - and then passed on to a note from Curtis Anderson, the warden's chief assistant. It said that he, Anderson, expected a DOE order for Edward Delacrois (Anderson's misspelling; the man's name was actually Eduard Delacroix) very soon. DOE stood for date of execution, and according to the note, Curtis had been told on good authority that the little Frenchman would take the walk shortly before Halloween - October 27th was his best guess, and Curtis Anderson's guesses were very informed. But before then we could expect a new resident, name of William Wharton. "He's what you like to call 'a problem child,' " Curtis had written ' in his backslanting and somehow prissy script. "Crazy-wild and proud of it. Has rambled all over the state for the last year or so, and has hit the big time at last. Killed three people in a holdup, one a pregnant woman, killed a fourth in the getaway. State Patrolman. All he missed was a nun and a blind man!' I smiled a little at that. "Wharton is 19 years old, has Billy the Kid tattooed on upper l. forearm. You will have to slap his nose a time or two, I guarantee you that, but be careful when you do it. This man just doesn't care." He had underlined this last sentiment twice, then finished: "Also, he may be a hang-arounder. He's working appeals, and there's the fact that he is a minor."

A crazy kid, working appeals, apt to be around for awhile. Oh, that all sounded just fine. Suddenly the day seemed hotter than ever, and I could no longer put off seeing Warden Moores.

I worked for three wardens during my years as a Cold Mountain guard; Hal Moores was the last and best of them. In a walk. Honest, straightforward, lacking even Curtis Anderson's rudimentary wit, but equipped with just enough political savvy to keep his job during those grim years ... and enough integrity to keep from getting seduced by the game. He would not rise any higher, but that seemed all right with him. He was fifty-eight or -nine back then, with a deeply lined bloodhound face that Bobo Marchant probably would have felt right at home with. He had white hair and his hands shook with some sort of palsy, but he was strong. The year before, when a prisoner had rushed him in the exercise yard with a shank whittled out of a crate-slat, Moores had stood his ground, grabbed the skatehound's wrist, and had twisted it so hard that the snapping bones had sounded like dry twigs burning in a hot fire. The skatehound, all his grievances forgotten, had gone down on his knees in the dirt and begun screaming for his mother. "I'm not her," Moores said in his cultured Southern voice, "But if I was, I'd raise up my skirts and piss on you from the loins that gave you birth."

When I came into his office, he started to get up and I waved him back down. I took the seat across the desk from him, and began by asking about his wife ... except in our part of the world, that's not how you do it. "How's that pretty gal of yours" is what I asked, as if Melinda had seen only seventeen summers instead of sixty-two or -three. My concern was genuine he was a woman I could have loved and married myself, if the lines of our lives had coincided - but I didn't mind diverting him a little from his main business, either.

He sighed deeply. "Not so well, Paul. Not so well at all."

"More headaches?"

"Only one this week, but it was the worst yet - put her flat on her back for most of the day before yesterday. And now she's developed this weakness in her right hand-" He raised his own liverspotted right hand. We both watched it tremble above his blotter for a moment or two, and then he lowered it again. I could tell he would have given just about anything not to be telling me what he was telling me, and I would have given just about anything not to be hearing it. Melinda's headaches had started in the spring, and all that summer her doctor had been saying they were "nervous-tension migraines," perhaps caused by the stress of Hal's coming retirement. Except that neither of them could wait for his retirement, and my own wife had told me that migraine is not a disease of the old but the young; by the time its sufferers reached Melinda Moores's age, they were usually getting better, not worse. And now this weakness of the hand. It didn't sound like nervous tension to me; it sounded like a damned stroke.

"Dr. Haverstrom wants her to go in hospital up to Indianola," Moores said. "Have some tests. Head X-rays, he means. Who knows what else. She is scared to death!' He paused, then added, "Truth to tell, so am I."

"Yeah, but you see she does it," I said. "Don't wait. If it turns out to be something they can see with an X-ray, it may turn out to be something they can fix."

"Yes," he agreed, and then, for just a moment - the only one during that part of our interview, as I recall - our eyes met and locked. There was the sort of nakedly perfect understanding between us that needs no words. It could be a stroke, yes. It could also be a cancer growing in her brain, and if it was that, the chances that the doctors at Indianola could do anything about it were slim going on none. This was '32, remember, when even something as relatively simple as a urinary infection was either sulfa and stink or suffer and wait.

"I thank you for your concern, Paul. Now let's talk about Percy Wetmore!'

I groaned and covered my eyes.

"I had a call from the state capital this morning," the warden said evenly. "It was quite an angry call, as I'm sure you can imagine. Paul, the governor is so married he's almost not there, if you take my meaning. And his wife has a brother who has one child. That child is Percy Wetmore. Percy called his dad last night, and Percy's dad called Percy's aunt. Do I have to trace the rest of this out for you?"

'No," I said. "Percy squealed. Just like the schoolroom sissy telling teacher he saw Jack and Jill smooching in the cloakroom."

"Yep," Moores agreed, "that's about the size of it."

"You know what happened between Percy and Delacroix when Delacroix came in?" I asked. "Percy and his damned hickory billy-club?"

"Yes, but - "

"And you know how he runs it along the bars sometimes, just for the pure hell of it. He's mean, and he's stupid, and I don't know how much longer I can take him. That's the truth."

We'd known each other five years. That can be a long time for men who get on well, especially when part of the job is trading life for death. What I'm saying is that he understood what I meant. Not that I would quit; not with the Depression walking around outside the prison walls like a dangerous criminal, one that couldn't be caged as our charges were. Better men than me were out on the roads or riding the rods. I was lucky and knew it - children grown and the mortgage, that two-hundred-pound block of marble, had been off my chest for the last two years. But a man's got to eat, and his wife has to eat, too. Also, we were used to sending our daughter and son-in-law twenty bucks whenever we could afford it (and sometimes when we couldn't, if Jane's letters sounded particularly desperate). He was an out-of-work high-school teacher, and if that didn't qualify for desperate back in those days, then the word had no meaning. So no, you didn't walk off a steady paycheck job like mine ... not in cold blood, that was. But my blood wasn't cold that fall. The temperatures outside were unseasonable, and the infection crawling around inside me had turned the thermostat up even more. And when a man's in that kind of situation, why, sometimes his fist flies out pretty much of its own accord. And if you slug a connected man like Percy Wetmore once, you might as well just go right on slugging, because there's no going back.

"Stick with it," Moores said quietly. "That's what I called you in here to say. I have it on good authority - the person who called me this morning, in fact - that Percy has an application in at Briar, and that his application will be accepted."

"Briar," I said. That was Briar Ridge, one of two state-run hospitals. 'What's this kid doing? Touring state facilities?"

"It's an administration job. Better pay, and papers to push instead of hospital beds in the heat of the day." He gave me a slanted grin. "You know, Paul, you might be shed of him already if you hadn't put him in the switch-room with Van Hay when The Chief walked."

For a moment what he said seemed so peculiar I didn't have a clue what he was getting at. Maybe I didn't want to have a clue.

"Where else would I put him?" I asked. "Christ, he hardly knows what he's doing on the block! To make him part of the active execution team - " I didn't finish. Couldn't finish. The potential for screw-ups seemed endless.

"Nevertheless, you'd do well to put him out for Delacroix. If you want to get rid of him, that is."

I looked at him with my jaw hung. At last I was able to get it up where it belonged so I could talk. "What are you saying? That he wants to experience one right up close where he can smell the guy's nuts cooking?"

Moores shrugged. His eyes, so soft when he had been speaking about his wife, now looked flinty. "Delacroix's nuts are going to cook whether Wetmore's on the team or not," he said. "Correct?"

"Yes, but he could screw up. In fact, Hal, he's almost bound to screw up. And in front of thirty or so witnesses ... reporters all the way up from Louisiana . . ."

"You and Brutus Howell will make sure he doesn't," Moores said. "And if he does anyway, it goes on his record, and it'll still be there long after his statehouse connections are gone. You understand?"

I did. It made me feel sick and scared, but I did.

"He may want to stay for Coffey, but if we're lucky, he'll get all he needs from Delacroix. You just make sure you put him out for that one."

I had planned to stick Percy in the switch-room again, then down in the tunnel, riding shotgun on the gurney that would take Delacroix to the meatwagon parked across the road from the prison, but I tossed all those plans back over my shoulder without so much as a second look. I nodded. I had the sense to know it was a gamble I was taking, but I didn't care. If it would get rid of Percy Wetmore, I'd tweak the devil's nose. He could take part in his execution, clamp on the cap, and then look through the grille and tell Van Hay to roll on two; he could watch the little Frenchman ride the lightning that he, Percy Wetmore, had let out of the bottle. Let him have his nasty little thrill, if that's what state-sanctioned murder was to him. Let him go on to Briar Ridge, where he would have his own office and a fan to cool it. And if his uncle by marriage was voted out of office in the next election and he had to find out what work was like in the tough old sunbaked world where not all the bad guys were locked behind bars and sometimes you got your own head whipped, so much the better.

"All right," I said, standing up. "I'll put him out front for Delacroix. And in the meantime, I'll keep the peace."

"Good," he said, and stood up himself. "By the way, how's that problem of yours?" He pointed delicately in the direction of my groin.

"Seems a little better."

'Well, that's fine." He saw me to the door. "What about Coffey, by the way? Is he going to be a problem?"

"I don't think so," I said. "So far he's been as quiet as a dead rooster. He's strange - strange eyes - but quiet. We'll keep tabs on him, though. Don't worry about that!"

"You know what he did, of course."

"Sure."

He was seeing me through to the outer office by then, where old Miss Hannah sat bashing away at her Underwood as she had ever since the last ice age had ended, it seemed. I was happy to go. All in all, I felt as if I'd gotten off easy. And it was nice to know there was a chance of surviving Percy, after all.

"You send Melinda a whole basket of my love," I said. "And don't go buying you an extra crate of trouble, either. It'll probably turn out to be nothing but migraine, after all."

"You bet," he said, and below his sick eyes, his lips smiled. The combination was damned near ghoulish.

As for me, I went back to E Block to start another day. There was paperwork to be read and written, there were floors to be mopped, there were meals to be served, a duty roster to be made out for the following week, there were a hundred details to be seen to. But mostly there was waiting - in prison there's always plenty of that, so much it never gets done. Waiting for Eduard Delacroix to walk the Green Mile, waiting for William Wharton to arrive with his curled lip and Billy the Kid tattoo, and, most of all, waiting for Percy Wetmore to be gone out of my life.

Delacroix's mouse was one of God's mysteries. I never saw one in E Block before that summer, and never saw one after that fall, when Delacroix passed from our company on a hot and thundery night in October - passed from it in a manner so unspeakable I can barely bring myself to recall it. Delacroix claimed that he trained that mouse, which started its life among us as Steamboat Willy, but I really think it was the other way around. Dean Stanton felt the same way, and so did Brutal. Both of them were there the night the mouse put in its first appearance, and as Brutal said, "The thing 'us half-tame already, and twice as smart as that Cajun what thought he owned it."

Dean and I were in my office, going over the record-box for the last year, getting ready to write follow-up letters to witnesses of five executions, and to write follow-ups to follow-ups in another six stretching all the way back to '29. Basically, we wanted to know just one thing: were they pleased with the service? I know it sounds grotesque, but it was an important consideration. As taxpayers they were our customers, but very special ones. A man or a woman who will turn out at midnight to watch a man die has got a special, pressing reason to be there, a special need, and if execution is a proper punishment, then that need ought to be satisfied. They've had a nightmare. The purpose of the execution is to show them that the nightmare is over. Maybe it even works that way. Sometimes.

"Hey!" Brutal called from outside the door, where he was manning the desk at the head of the hall. "Hey, you two! Get out here!"

Dean and I gazed at each other with identical expressions of alarm, thinking that something had happened to either the Indian from Oklahoma (his name was Arlen Bitterbuck, but we called him The Chief ... or, in Harry Terwilliger's case, Chief Coat Cheese, because that was what Harry claimed Bitterbuck smelled like), or the fellow we called The President. But then Brutal started to laugh, and we hurried to see what was happening. Laughing in E Block sounded almost as wrong as laughing in church.

Old Toot-Toot, the trusty who ran the food-wagon in those days, had been by with his holy-rolling cartful of goodies, and Brutal had stocked up for a long night - three sandwiches, two pops, and a couple of moon pies. Also a side of potato salad Toot had undoubtedly filched from the prison kitchen, which was supposed to be off-limits to him. Brutal had the logbook open in front of him, and for a wonder he hadn't spilled anything on it yet. Of course, he was just getting started.

'What?" Dean asked. "What is it?"

"State legislature must have opened the pursestrings enough to hire another screw this year after all," Brutal said, still laughing. "Lookie yonder."

He pointed and we saw the mouse. I started to laugh, too, and Dean joined in. You really couldn't help it, because a guard doing quarter-hour check rounds was just like that mouse looked like: a tiny, furry guard making sure no one was trying to escape or commit suicide. It would trot a little way toward us along the Green Mile, then turn its head from side to side, as if checking the cells. Then it would make another forward spurt. The fact that we could hear both of our current inmates snoring away in spite of the yelling and the laughter somehow made it even funnier.

It was a perfectly ordinary brown mouse, except for the way it seemed to be checking into the cells. It even went into one or two of them, skipping nimbly in between the lower bars in a way I imagine many of our inmates, past and present, would envy. Except it was out that the cons would always be wanting to skip, of course.

The mouse didn't go into either of the occupied cells; only the empties. And finally it had worked its way almost up to where we were. I kept expecting it to turn back, but it didn't. It showed no fear of us at all.

"It ain't normal for a mouse to come up on people that way," Dean said, a little nervously. "Maybe it's rabid."

"Oh, my Christ," Brutal said through a mouthful of corned-beef sandwich. "The big mouse expert. The Mouse Man. You see it foamin at the mouth, Mouse Man?"

"I can't see its mouth at all," Dean said, and that made us all laugh again. I couldn't see its mouth, either, but I could see the dark little drops that were its eyes, and they didn't look crazy or rabid to me. They looked interested and intelligent. I've put men to death - men with supposedly immortal souls - that looked dumber than that mouse.

It scurried up the Green Mile to a spot that was less than three feet from the duty desk ... which wasn't something fancy, like you might be imagining, but only the sort of desk the teachers used to sit behind up at the district high school. And there it did stop, curling its tail around its paws as prim as an old lady settling her skirts.

I stopped laughing all at once, suddenly feeling cold through my flesh all the way to the bones. I want to say I don't know why I felt that way - no one likes to come out with something that's going to make them look or sound ridiculous - but of course I do, and if I can tell the truth about the rest, I guess I can tell the truth about this. For a moment I imagined myself to be that mouse, not a guard at all but just another convicted criminal there on the Green Mile, convicted and condemned but still managing to look bravely up at a desk that must have seemed miles high to it (as the judgment seat of God will no doubt someday seem to us), and at the heavy-voiced, blue-coated giants who sat behind it. Giants that shot its kind with BB guns, or swatted them with brooms, or set traps on them, traps that broke their backs while they crept cautiously over the word VICTOR to nibble at the cheese on the little copper plate.

There was no broom by the duty desk, but there was a rolling mop-bucket with the mop still in the wringer; I'd taken my turn at swabbing the green lino and all six of the cells shortly before sitting down to the record-box with Dean. I saw that Dean meant to grab the mop- and take a swing with it. I touched his wrist just as his fingers touched the slender wooden handle. "Leave it be," I said.

He shrugged and drew his hand back. I had a feeling he didn't want to swat it any more than I did.

Brutal tore a corner off his corned-beef sandwich and held it out over the front of the desk, tweezed delicately between two fingers. The mouse seemed to look up with an even livelier interest, as if it knew exactly what it was. Probably did; I could see its whiskers twitch as its nose wriggled.

"Aw, Brutal, no!" Dean exclaimed, then looked at me. "Don't let him do that, Paul! If he's gonna feed the damn thing, we might as well put out the welcome mat for anything on four legs.-"

"I just want to see what he'll do," Brutal said. "In the interests of science, like." He looked at me - I was the boss, even in such minor detours from routine as this. I thought about it and shrugged like it didn't matter much, one way or another. The truth was, I kind of wanted to see what he'd do, too.

Well, he ate it - of course. There was a Depression on, after all. But the way he ate it fascinated us all. He approached the fragment of sandwich, sniffed his way around it, and then he sat up in front of it like a dog doing a trick, grabbed it, and pulled the bread apart to get at the meat. He did it as deliberately and knowingly as a man tucking into a good roast-beef dinner in his favorite restaurant. I never saw an animal eat like that, not even a well-trained house dog. And all the while he was eating, his eyes never left us.

"Either one smart mouse or hungry as hell," a new voice said. It was Bitterbuck. He had awakened and now stood at the bars of his cell, naked except for a pair of saggy-seated boxer shorts. A home-rolled cigarette poked out from between the second and third knuckles of his right hand, and his iron-gray hair lay over his shoulders - once probably muscular but now beginning to soften - in a pair of braids.

"You got any Injun wisdom about micies, Chief?" Brutal asked, watching the mouse eat. We were all pretty fetched by the neat way it held the bit of corned beef in its forepaws, occasionally turning it or glancing at it, as if in admiration and appreciation.

"Naw," Bitterbuck said. "Knowed a brave once had a pair of what he claimed were mouse-skin gloves, but I didn't believe it!" Then he laughed, as if the whole thing was a joke, and left the bars. We heard the bunk creak as he lay down again.

That seemed to be the mouse's signal to go. It finished up what it was holding, sniffed at what was left (mostly bread with yellow mustard soaking into it), and then looked back at us, as if it wanted to remember our faces if we met again. Then it turned and scurried off the way it had come, not pausing to do any cell-checks this time. Its hurry made me think of the White Rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and I smiled. It didn't pause at the door to the restraint room, but disappeared beneath it. The restraint room had soft walls, for people whose brains had softened a little. We kept cleaning equipment stored in there when we didn't need the room for its created purpose, and a few books (most were westerns by Clarence Mulford, but one-loaned out only on special occasions - featured a profusely illustrated tale in which Popeye, Bluto, and even Wimpy the hamburger fiend took turns shtupping Olive Oyl). There were craft items as well, including the crayons Delacroix later put to some good use. Not that he was our problem yet; this was earlier, remember. Also in the restraint room was the jacket no one wanted to wear - white, made of double-sewn canvas, and with the buttons and snaps and buckles going up the back. We all knew how to zip a problem child into that jacket lickety-larrup. They didn't get violent often, our lost boys, but when they did, brother, you didn't wait around for the situation to improve on its own.

Brutal reached into the desk drawer above the kneehole and brought out the big leather-bound book with the word VISITORS stamped on the front in gold leaf. Ordinarily, that book stayed in the drawer from one month to the next. When a prisoner had visitors - unless it was a lawyer or a minister - he went over to the room off the messhall that was kept special for that purpose. The Arcade, we called it. I don't know why.

"Just what in the Gorry do you think you're doing?" Dean Stanton asked, peering over the tops of his spectacles as Brutal opened the book and paged grandly past years of visitors to men now dead.

"Obeyin Regulation 19," Brutal said, finding the current page. He took the pencil and licked the tip - a disagreeable habit of which he could not be broken - and prepared to write. Regulation 19 stated simply: "Each visitor to E Block shall show a yellow Administration pass and shall be recorded without fail"

"He's gone nuts," Dean said to me.

"He didn't show us his pass, but I'm gonna let it go this time," Brutal said. He gave the tip of his pencil an extra lick for good luck, then filled in 9:49 p.m. under the column headed TIME ON BLOCK.

"Sure, why not, the big bosses probably make exceptions for mice," I said.

"Course they do," Brutal agreed. "Lack of pockets." He turned to look at the wall-clock behind the desk, then printed 10:01 in the column headed TIME OFF BLOCK. The longer space between these two numbers was headed NAME OF VISITOR. After a moment's hard thought - probably to muster his limited spelling skills, as I'm sure the idea was in his head already - Brutus Howell carefully wrote STEAMBOAT WILLY, which was what most people called Mickey Mouse back in those days. It was because of that first talkie cartoon, where he rolled his eyes and bumped his hips around and pulled the whistle cord in the pilothouse of the steamboat.

"There," Brutal said, slamming the book closed and returning it to its drawer, "all done and buttoned up."

I laughed, but Dean, who couldn't help being serious about things even when he saw the joke, was frowning and polishing his glasses furiously. "You'll be in trouble if someone sees that." He hesitated and added, "The wrong someone." He hesitated again, looking nearsightedly around almost as if he expected to see that the walls had grown ears, before finishing: "Someone like Percy Kiss-My-Ass-and-Go-to-Heaven Wetmore."

"Huh," Brutal said. - The day Percy Wetmore sits his narrow shanks down here at this desk will be the day I resign."

"You won't have to," Dean said. "They'll fire you for making jokes in the visitors' book if Percy puts the right word in the right ear. And he can. You know he can!'

Brutal glowered but said nothing. I reckoned that later on that night he would erase what he had written. And if he didn't, I would.

The next night, after getting first Bitterbuck and then The President over to D Block, where we showered our group after the regular cons were locked down, Brutal asked me if we shouldn't have a look for Steamboat Willy down there in the restraint room.

"I guess we ought to," I said. We'd had a good laugh over that mouse the night before, but I knew that if Brutal and I found it down there in the restraint room - particularly if we found it had gnawed itself the beginnings of a nest in one of the padded walls - we would kill it. Better to kill the scout, no matter how amusing it might be, than have to live with the pilgrims. And, I shouldn't have to tell you, neither of us was very squeamish about a little mouse-murder. Killing rats was what the state paid us for, after all.

But we didn't find Steamboat Willy - later to be known as Mr. Jingles - that night, not nested in the soft walls, or behind any of the collected junk we hauled out into the corridor. There was a great deal of junk, too, more than I would have expected, because we hadn't had to use the restraint room in a long time. That would change with the advent of William Wharton, but of course we didn't know that at the time. Lucky us.

"Where'd it go?" Brutal asked at last, wiping sweat off the back of his neck with a big blue bandanna. "No hole, no crack ... there's that, but - " He pointed to the drain in the floor. Below the grate, which the mouse could have gotten through, was a fine steel mesh that not even a fly would have passed. "How'd it get in? How'd it get out?"

"I don't know," I said.

"He did come in here, didn't he? I mean, the three of us saw him."

"Yep, right under the door. He had to squeeze a little, but he made it."

"Gosh," Brutal said - a word that sounded strange, coming from a man that big. "It's a good thing the cons can't make themselves small like that, isn't it?"

"You bet," I said, running my eye over the canvas walls one last time, looking for a hole, a crack, anything. There was nothing. "Come on. Let's go."

Steamboat Willy showed up again three nights later, when Harry Terwilliger was on the duty desk. Percy was also on, and chased the mouse back down the Green Mile with the same mop Dean had been thinking of using. The rodent avoided Percy easily, slipping through the crack beneath the restraint-room door a hands-down winner. Cursing at the top of his voice, Percy unlocked the door and hauled all that shit out again. It was funny and scary at the same time, Harry said. Percy was vowing he'd catch the goddam mouse and tear its diseased little head right off, but he didn't, of course. Sweaty and disheveled, the shirttail of his uniform hanging out in the back, he returned to the duty desk half an hour later, brushing his hair out of his eyes and telling Harry (who had sat serenely reading through most of the ruckus) that he was going to put a strip of insulation on the bottom of the door down there; that would solve the vermin problem, he declared.

"Whatever you think is best, Percy," Harry said, turning a page of the oat opera he was reading. He thought Percy would forget about blocking the crack at the bottom of that door, and he was right.

Late that winter, long after these events were over, Brutal came to me one night when it was just the two of us, E Block temporarily empty and all the other guards temporarily reassigned. Percy had gone on to Briar Ridge.

"Come here," Brutal said in a funny, squeezed voice that made me look around at him sharply. I had just come in out of a cold and sleety night, and had been brushing off the shoulders of my coat prior to hanging it up.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"No," he said, "but I found out where Mr. Jingles was staying. When he first came, I mean, before Delacroix took him over. Do you want to see?"

Of course I did. I followed him down the Green Mile to the restraint room. All the stuff we kept stored there was out in the hall; Brutal had apparently taken advantage of the lull in customer traffic to do some cleaning up. The door was open, and I saw our mop-bucket inside. The floor, that same sick lime shade as the Green Mile itself, was drying in streaks. Standing in the middle of the floor was a stepladder, the one that was usually kept in the storage room, which also happened to serve as the final stop for the state's condemned. There was a shelf jutting out from the back of the ladder near the top, the sort of thing a workman would use to hold his toolkit or a painter the bucket he was working out of. There was a flashlight on it. Brutal handed it to me.

"Get on up there. You're shorter than me, so you'll have to go pretty near all the way, but I'll hold your legs!"

"I'm ticklish down there," I said, starting up. "Especially my knees!'

"I'll mind that!"

"Good," I said, "because a broken hip's too high a price to pay in order to discover the origins of a single mouse."

"Huh?"

"Never mind." My head was up by the caged light in the center of the ceiling by then, and I could feel the ladder wiggling a little under my weight. Outside, I could hear the winter wind moaning. "Just hold onto me."

"I got you, don't worry." He gripped my calves firmly, and I went up one more step. Now the top of my head was less than a foot from the ceiling, and I could see the cobwebs a few enterprising spiders had spun in the crotches where the roof beams came together. I shone the light around but didn't see anything worth the risk of being up here.

'No," Brutal said. "You're looking too far away, Paul. Look to your left, where those two beams come together. You see them? One's a little discolored!'

"I see."

"Shine the light on the join!"

I did, and saw what he wanted me to see almost right away. The beams had been pegged together with dowels, half a dozen of them, and one was gone, leaving a black, circular hole the size of a quarter. I looked at it, then looked doubtfully back over my shoulder at Brutal. "It was a small mouse," I said, "but that small? Man, I don't think so."

"But that's where he went," Brutal said. "I'm just as sure as houses."

"I don't see how you can be."

"Lean closer - don't worry I got you - and take a whiff."

I did as he asked, groping with my left hand for one of the other beams, and feeling a little better when I had hold of it. The wind outside gusted again; air puffed out of that hole and into my face. I could smell the keen breath of a winter night in the border South ... and something else, as well.

The smell of peppermint.

Don't let nothing happen to Mr. Jingles, I could hear Delacroix saying in a voice that wouldn't stay steady I could hear that, and I could feel the warmth of Mr. Jingles as the Frenchman handed it to me, just a mouse, smarter than most of the species, no doubt, but still just a mouse for a' that and a' that. Don't let that bad 'un hurt my mouse, he'd said, and I had promised, as I always promised them at the end when walking the Green Mile was no longer a myth or a hypothesis but something they really had to do. Mail this letter to my brother, who I haven't seen for twenty years? I promise. Say fifteen Hail Marys for my soul? I promise. Let me die under my spirit-name and see that it goes on my tombstone? I promise. It was the way you got them to go and be good about it, the way you saw them into the chair sitting at the end of the Green Mile with their sanity intact. I couldn't keep all of those promises, of course, but I kept the one I made to Delacroix. As for the Frenchman himself, there had been hell to pay. The bad 'un had hurt Delacroix, hurt him plenty. Oh, I know what he did, all right, but no one deserved what happened to Eduard Delacroix when he fell into Old Sparky's savage embrace.

A smell of peppermint.

And something else. Something back inside that hole.

I took a pen out of my breast pocket with my right hand, still holding onto the beam with my left, not worried anymore about Brutal inadvertently tickling my sensitive knees. I unscrewed the pen's cap onehanded, then poked the nib in and teased something out. It was a tiny splinter of wood which had been tinted a bright yellow, and I heard Delacroix's voice again, so clearly this time that his ghost might have been lurking in that room with us - the one where William Wharton spent so much of his time.

Hey, you guys! the voice said this time-the laughing, amazed voice of a man who has forgotten, at least for a little while, where he is and what awaits him. Come and see what Mr. Jingles can do!

"Christ," I whispered. I felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me.

"You found another one, didn't you?" Brutal asked. "I found three or four."

I came down and shone the light on his big, outstretched palm. Several splinters of wood were scattered there, like jackstraws for elves. Two were yellow, like the one I had found. One was green and one was red. They hadn't been painted but colored, with wax Crayola crayons.

"Oh, boy," I said in a low, shaky voice. "Oh, hey. It's pieces of that spool, isn't it? But why? Why up there?"

"When I was a kid I wasn't big like I am now," Brutal said. "I got most of my growth between fifteen and seventeen. Until then I was a shrimp. And when I went off to school the first time, I felt as small as ... why, as small as a mouse, I guess you'd say. I was scared to death. So you know what I did?"

I shook my head. Outside, the wind gusted again. In the angles formed by the beams, cobwebs shook in feathery drafts, like rotted lace. Never had I been in a place that felt so nakedly haunted, and it was right then, as we stood there looking down at the splintered remains of the spool which had caused so much trouble, that my head began to know what my heart had understood ever since John Coffey had walked the Green Mile: I couldn't do this job much longer. Depression, or no Depression, I couldn't watch many more men walk through my office to their deaths. Even one more might be too many.

"I asked my mother for one of her hankies," Brutal said. "So when I felt weepy and small, I could sneak it out and smell her perfume and not feel so bad."

"You think - what? - that mouse chewed off some of that colored spool to remember Delacroix by? That a mouse -"

He looked up. I thought for a moment I saw tears in his eyes, but I guess I was probably wrong about that. "I ain't saying nothing, Paul. But I found them up there, and I smelled peppermint, same as you - you know you did. And I can't do this no more. I won't do this no more. Seeing one more man in that chair'd just about kill me. I'm going to put in for a transfer to Boys' Correctional on Monday. If I get it before the next one, that's fine. If I don't, I'll resign and go back to farming."

"What did you ever farm, besides rocks?"

"It don't matter."

"I know it doesn't," I said. "I think I'll put in with you.-"

He looked at me close, making sure I wasn't just having some sport with him, then nodded as if it was a settled thing. The wind gusted again, strong enough this time to make the beams creak and settle, and we both looked around uneasily at the padded walls. I think for a moment we could hear William Wharton - not Billy the Kid, not him, he had been "Wild Bill" to us from his first day on the block - screaming and laughing, telling us we were going to be damned glad to be rid of him, telling us we would never forget him. About those things he was right.

As for what Brutal and I agreed on that night in the restraint room, it turned out just that way It was almost as if we had taken a solemn oath on those tiny bits of colored, wood. Neither of us ever took part in another execution. John Coffey was the last.

(From “Green mile” by Stephen King)

ТЕРМИНОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ

АГЕНС [семантическая грамматика] – падеж, выражающий одушевленный предмет (субъект), совершающий действие, направленное на какой-либо объект.

АЛЛОМОРФ – морфема, реально представленная в языке своими вариантами, имеющими определенную звуковую и смысловую общность.

АРГУМЕНТ (АКТАНТ) [семантическая грамматика] – участник экстралингвистической реальности, выступающий в речи в качестве субъекта, объекта, адресата, инструмента и пр., но не в качестве семантического предиката, с которым тесно связан и который открывает аргументу места слева и справа; не обязательно все аргументы должны быть выражены на поверхностном уровне, чтобы сделать предложение грамматически верным.

ВИД (АСПЕКТ) ГЛАГОЛА – характер или способ протекания действия; выражает безразличие к характеру или способу протекания действия (Simple); подчеркивает развитие или процесс протекания действия (Progressive); подчеркивает завершенность (Perfect).

ВРЕМЕННЫЕ ЦЕНТРЫ - момент времени, согласно которому соотносятся все действия, выраженные определенными формами глагола; обычно выражены в контексте или в самой ситуации общения.

ВСПОМОГАТЕЛЬНЫЙ ГЛАГОЛ – служит для образования отрицательных и вопросительных предложений и для образования временных форм на основе простого сказуемого.

ВЫСКАЗЫВАНИЕ [дистрибутивная грамматика] – это любой отрезок речи, ограниченный с двух сторон (до и после) тишиной со стороны говорящего (пауза может иметь значение).

ГЛАГОЛ – это часть речи, выражающая действие, состояние или процесс, и характеризующаяся категориями времени, вида, залога, наклонения (mood), лица и числа.

ГЛАГОЛЫ ИЛЛОКУТИВНОГО СУИЦИДА – группа глаголов, которые никогда не употребляются в 1 лице, единственного числа, изъявительного наклонения, иначе это делает невозможным реализацию коммуникативной интенции.

ГЛАГОЛ-СВЯЗКА – связывает именные части речи вследствие аналитического характера английского языка. (порядок слов); обычно теряют лексическое значение частично или полностью (to seem fine, to look irritated, to grow cold); образуют, как правило, составные сказуемые.

ГРАММАТИКА НЕПОСРЕДСТВЕННО СОСТАВЛЯЮЩИХ – любое предложение можно разложить на части, каждый раз производя дихотомическое деление (последовательное деление на две части); при этом существует одно правило: слово, принадлежащее одному классу, может быть заменено другим, принадлежащим совершенно другому классу слов; правильно проделанный анализ непосредственно составляющих помогает понять отношения между элементами, составляющими предложение.

ГРАММАТИКА ТЕКСТА – раздел грамматики, изучающий поведение грамматических единств (в том числе сверхфразовые единства и абзац) в тексте; высшей единицей грамматического строя как такового остается предложение (поскольку не обусловлено контекстуальными задачами, но обладает абстрактностью и возможностью пребывания в состоянии синтаксического покоя).

ГРАММАТИЧЕСКОЕ ВРЕМЯ – соответствие формы глагола нашему представлению о реальном времени.

ГРАММАТИЧЕСКОЕ ЗНАЧЕНИЕ – обобщение, весьма абстрагированное значение, объединяющее крупные разряды слов и выраженное через характерные формальные показатели.

ГРАММАТИЧЕСКАЯ КАТЕГОРИЯ – объединение двух или более грамматических форм, противопоставленных или соотнесенных по грамматическому значению (возможно и большее их количество); единство грамматической формы и грамматического значения.

ГРАММАТИЧЕСКИЕ ОМОНИМЫ – слова, одинаковые по звучанию, но обладающие различными грамматическими значениями, т.е. принадлежащие к разным частям речи.

ДИРЕКТИВ - высказывание в акте речевого общения, коммуникативно-интенциональное содержание которого заключается в прямом побуждении адресата к действию; обычно имеет форму побудительного предложения.

ДИСТРИБУТИВНАЯ КЛАССИФИКАЦИЯ СЛОВ [теория частей речи] - (50 гг. 20 в.) – Фрис теорию, согласно которой все слова, занимающие одинаковые позиции в предложении, должны принадлежать к одной части речи, т.к., по его мнению, часть речи в английском языке - это некая функциональная модель.

ДИСТРИБУТИВНАЯ / ОПИСАТЕЛЬНАЯ ГРАММАТИКА – (20 в.) новый метод лингвистических исследований, возник в результате того, что языки целого ряда индейских племен были слабо изучены или же не изучены вовсе – было необходимо изучить и описать систему этих языков.

ДИСТРИБУЦИЯ ЭЛЕМЕНТА – совокупность всех контекстов, в которых можно обнаружить элемент, т.е. совокупность всех позиций элемента относительно других элементов.

ЗАВИСИМОЕ ГРАММАТИЧЕСКОЕ ЗНАЧЕНИЕ - не имеет постоянного формального признака (также называют лексико-грамматическим значением) и обычно проявляется через формы, характерные для свободного грамматического значения.

ЗАЛОГ – направление действия; направленность действия от подлежащего (субъект) на дополнение (объект) и наоборот; на морфологическом уровне очевидны различия в формах глагола; тесно связан с не/переходностью глаголов.

ЗНАЧАЩИЕ ЯЗЫКОВЫЕ ЕДИНИЦЫ - выражают специфицированные обобщенные значения; составляют основное ядро языковой системы; включают морфему, слово, словосочетание и предложение, а также более сложные – сверхфразовые единства и текст.

ИЛЛОКУТИВНАЯ СИЛА – свойство, которым обладают высказывания, произнесенные с различной целью, т.е. с различной коммуникативной интенцией.

ИЛЛОКУТИВНЫЙ АКТ – речевое общение, происходящее с определенным намерением или целью со стороны говорящего, выраженными в самом общении, а также в полученной реакции со стороны слушающего.

ИНСТРУМЕНТАЛЬНЫЙ ПАДЕЖ [семантическая грамматика] – выражает неодушевленный предмет или силу, которые вовлечены в какое-либо действие.

ИНТЕНЦИЯ [прагматика] – коммуникативное намерение говорящего, выраженное в актах речевого общения.

ИНЪЮНКТИВ - высказывание в акте речевого общения, коммуникативно-интенциональное содержание которого заключается в приказании по отношению к адресату, в условиях определенного неравенства общающихся.

КВЕСТИТИВ – вопросительное высказывание в акте речевого общения, коммуникативно-интенциональное содержание которого заключается в намерении вызвать речевое действие адресата.

КОММУНИКАТИВНАЯ ИНТЕНЦИЯ - присущая высказыванию направленность на разрешение определенной языковой задачи общения; реализация в речи коммуникативных намерений говорящего с целью получения адекватной речевой или иной реакции слушающего.

КОММУНИКАТИВНАЯ КОМПЕТЕНЦИЯ – умение правильно употреблять предложения, оформленные в соответствии с нормами языка, в актах речи для достижения нужного коммуникативно-функционального результата.

КОММУНИКАТИВНЫЕ ТИПЫ ВЫСКАЗЫВАНИЙ – разновидности речевых высказываний, выделяемые на основе регулярных соответствий между коммуникативной интенцией говорящего и реакцией адресата.

КОМПЛЕМЕНТАРНАЯ ДИСТРИБУЦИЯ – совокупность контекстов, когда один элемент никогда не встречается в позиции другого.

КОНСТАТИВ – высказывание в акте речевого общения, коммуникативно-интенциональное содержание которого заключается только в утверждении; неприемлемы формы вопросительного или отрицательного предложений.

КОНТРАСТИВНАЯ ДИСТРИБУЦИЯ – совокупность контекстов, когда два элемента встречаются в одном и том же окружении, но при этом изменяется лингвистическая форма.

КОРЕНЬ (КОРНЕВАЯ МОРФЕМА) – то, что едино в словах, принадлежащих к различным лексико-грамматическим разрядам.

КОСВЕННЫЕ АКТЫ РЕЧИ – ситуация речевого общения, при которой происходит прагматическое транспонирование высказываний, а также сочетание характеристик различных коммуникативных типов высказываний в одном; говорящий не ожидает никакого ответа от адресата; транспонирование социально мотивировано.

КЛАССИЧЕКАЯ НАУЧНАЯ ГРАММАТИКА – (19 в.) правильными, с точки зрения грамматики, считаются те явления в языке, которые широко используются в речи; выявлено 3 признака, по которым все в английском языке можно подвести под определенную классификацию: значение, форма, функция.

ЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ ПРЕДИКАТ – то, что мы думаем про объект (т.е. предикат констатирует нечто о логическом субъекте).

ЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ СУБЪЕКТ – объект нашего мышления.

ЛОКАТИВУС [семантическая грамматика] – падеж, выражающий местонахождение или пространственную направленность действия.

ЛОКУТИВНЫЙ АКТ – речевое общение, характеризующееся отсутствием какой-либо коммуникативной интенции (примерами реализации лишь локутивной силы может быть произнесение предложения ребенком ради самого произнесения, оперирование предложением учащимися в учебных целях, например, при работе над произношением).

МАРКИРОВАННЫЙ ЧЛЕН ОППОЗИЦИИ – имеет формально выраженный признак (напр., окончание множественного числа у существительных) и обладает более узким и четким грамматическим значением, чем немаркированный член (напр., go – is gone).

МЕНАСИВ - высказывание в акте речевого общения, коммуникативно-интенциональное содержание которого заключается в угрозе; много общего с промисивами: отнесённость к будущему, однако условия реализации прямо противоположны - т.е. адресат не заинтересован в осуществлении того, о чем идет речь в высказывании.

МОРФЕМА – мельчайшая линейная (т.е. единица, находимая при сегментации слов) значащая единица, имеющая звуковое выражение, но не способная выступать самостоятельной единицей, как в языке, так и в речи.

НЕКОНТРАСТИВНАЯ ДИСТРИБУЦИЯ – совокупность контекстов, когда два элемента встречаются в одном и том же окружении, при этом, не меняя значения, хотя форма самих элементов может быть различной.

НОМИНАТИВУС [семантическая грамматика] – падеж, выражающий субъект, который совершает действие, не направленное на какой-либо объект.

НОРМАТИВНАЯ (ПРАКТИЧЕСКАЯ) ГРАММАТИКА - анализирует грамматические структуры с точки зрения их практического применения в процессе общения; обеспечивает набором четко сформулированных норм и правил, которые не подлежат сомнению или обсуждению; развивается, опираясь на анализ явлений реальной речи, а также положений теоретической грамматики.

НУЛЕВАЯ МОРФЕМА – морфема без каких-либо формальных показателей, усматривается в словоформах, не имеющих окончания, но способных в других формах той же категории принимать окончания.

ОБЪЕКТНЫЙ ПАДЕЖ [семантическая грамматика] – выражает неодушевленный объект, на который направленно действие.

ОКРУЖЕНИЕ / КОНТЕКСТ [дистрибутивная грамматика] – позиция элемента, предполагающая его окружение внутри высказывания.

ОППОЗИЦИЯ – противопоставление форм, имеющих как сходные, так и отличительные черты.

ПАТИЕНС [семантическая грамматика] – падеж, выражающий одушевленный объект, на который направлено действие.

ПЕРЛОКУТИВНЫЙ ЭФФЕКТ – адекватная реакция слущающего, участвующего в акте речевого общения, в условиях уместного, правильно реализованного высказывания со стороны говорящего; такая реакция не обязательно должна быть выражена исключительно вербально.

ПЕРФОРМАТИВ - высказывание в акте речевого общения, коммуникативно-интенциональное содержание которого сообщает, что говорящий лишь совершает какое-либо действие; глагол не может иметь форму прошедшего или будущего времени; предложение не может быть отрицательным.

ПРАГМАТИКА – наука, изучающая динамично развивающиеся отношения между языковыми единицами и теми, кто их использует, с учетом условий реализации данных отношений; выявляет отношения между синтаксическими структурами, теми, кто их использует, и условиями их общения.

ПРАГМАТИЧЕСКОЕ ТРАНСПОНИРОВАНИЕ ВЫСКАЗЫВАНИЙ – ситуация, при которой единица одного коммуникативного типа может приобретать в реализации речевого акта иллокутивную силу другого по форме и содержанию высказывания.

ПРЕДПИСЫВАЮЩАЯ ГРАММАТИКА – (17-18 вв.) в этот период многие грамматические явления признаны непригодными или неправильными; установлены жесткие правила касательно того, что верно в языке, а что – нет, руководствуясь при этом законами логики и разума; в большинстве случаев превалирует не логика, а латинские кальки, накладываемые на английский язык.

ПРЕНОРМАТИВНАЯ ГРАММАТИКА – (16 в.) не устанавливалось никаких норм или критериев употребления языковых единиц, делались лишь первые шаги к пониманию различий между латынью (синтетический) и английским (аналитический); в-основном, переносились латинские парадигмы, латинская терминология на английские формы и реалии английского языка.

ПРОМИСИВ – высказывание в акте речевого общения, коммуникативно-интенциональное содержание которого заключается в обещании; по форме всегда только повествовательные предложения, неизменно относящиеся к будущему, глагольное время в них только будущее; сказуемое - всегда в форме действительного залога; необходимым внешним условием реализации высказывания является заинтересованность адресата в осуществлении того, о чем идет речь в высказывании.

ПРОПОЗИЦИЯ [семантическая грамматика] – логическое представление структуры мышления, предложенное Аристотелем, состоит из трех частей: Субъект, Предикат и Связка.

РЕКВИСТИВ - высказывание в акте речевого общения, коммуникативно-интенциональное содержание которого заключается в просьбе по отношению к адресату, в условиях равенства общающихся, либо когда говорящий ниже адресата по положению, статусу и пр., или когда возможность использовать инъюнктив исключена.

СВОБОДНОЕ ГРАММАТИЧЕСКОЕ ЗНАЧЕНИЕ - имеет (регулярные) постоянные средства выражения (формальные признаки, характерные для определенного лексико-грамматического разряда слов).

СВЯЗКА [семантическая грамматика] – подтверждение, либо отрицание наших мыслей, выраженных логическим предикатом в отношении логического объекта.

СЕГМЕНТ [дистрибутивная грамматика] – часть лингвистически представленного временного отрезка высказывания; может совпадать с одной или несколькими морфемами, с одним или группой слов или предложением традиционной грамматики.

СЕМАНТИЧЕСКАЯ ГРАММАТИКА – (70 гг. 20 в.) двусмысленность некоторых предложений объясняется не структурными особенностями, а различными семантическими отношениями между элементами, которые всегда глубоко скрыты (т.е. отношения между семантическими элементами не всегда идентичны и тождественны отношениям между элементами поверхностной структуры); в качестве основы для создания этой грамматики была выбрана логика, т.к. она изучает структуру мышления и она универсальна.

СЕМАНТИЧЕСКИЙ ПАДЕЖ – грамматическая категория, которая выражает отношения между семантическим предикатом и его аргументами (актантами).

СЕМАНТИЧЕСКИЙ ПРЕДИКАТ – слово, которое способно выражать экстралингвистическую (неязыковую) действительность со всеми ее участниками.

СЛОВО - минимальная значимая единица языка, обладающая позиционной самостоятельностью (Ю.С.Маслов); наименьшая единица, способная к синтаксическому функционированию и самая крупная единица морфологии; единица передачи информации в процессе коммуникации; выполняет приоритетно денотативную функцию; состоит из морфем.

СТРУКТУРНАЯ ГРАММАТИКА – (20 в.) возникла вследствие необходимости описания неизвестных или малоизученных языков индейских племен. Леонард Блумфилд (L.Bloomfield) предложил абсолютно новый метод описания структуры языка, который впоследствии был назван дистрибутивным, описательным / дескриптивным (descriptive) или структурным. Языки, которые ему предстояло описать, не обладали письменностью и не принадлежали ни к одной известной группе Индоевропейских языков.

ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКАЯ ГРАММАТИКА – положения лингвистов могут иногда расходиться во взглядах на отдельные аспекты нормативной грамматики; опирается с одной стороны на исследования в области общего языкознания, с другой стороны на реальные явления речи.

ТРАНСФОРМАЦИОННАЯ ГРАММАТИКА – (50-е гг. 20 в.) возникла на волне критики, направленной на метод непосредственно составляющих; основатели использовали структуралистический подход для развития идеи о том, что люди рождаются с врожденной способностью разговаривать; согласно теории трансформационной грамматики все типы предложений порождаются из ядерных конструкций (kernel / basic structures); количество ядерных конструкций не определено до сих пор.

ФАКТАТИВУС [семантическая грамматика] – падеж, выражающий результат действия или состояния, выраженного глаголом.

ЧАСТЬ РЕЧИ – большие лексико-грамматические разряды слов системы языка, выделяемые, как правило, на основании лексического значения, морфологической формы и синтаксического функционирования.

ЭЛЕМЕНТ [дистрибутивная грамматика] – это абстрагированный (отвлеченный) сегмент, воспринимаемый абстрагировано от его структурных физических особенностей и позиционных характеристик; отчасти схож с аллофоном в традиционной английской грамматике.

ЯДЕРНАЯ КОНСТРУКЦИЯ – структура, заложенная в человеке при рождении, из которой в дальнейшем порождаются основные типы предложений; не должна быть производной; в результате всех преобразований получается форма, между элементами которой сохраняются те же грамматические и семантические отношения, что и между элементами той же врожденной структуры, от которой она была произведена.

ЯЗЫКОВАЯ КОМПЕТЕНЦИЯ – умение строить предложение, оформленное грамматически, лексически, логически и т.д., в соответствии с нормами языка.

ЛИТЕРАТУРА

Блох, М.Я. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка: учебник/ М.Я. Блох. – М: Высшая Школа, 1983. – 384 с.
Волкова, Л.М. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка: курс лекций/ Л.М.Волкова. – Киев: Вища Школа, 2003. – 157 с.
Есперсен, О. Философия грамматики: учебник/ О. Есперсен. – М: Издательство иностранной литературы, 1958. – 330 с.
Раевская, Н.Н. Теоретическая грамматика современного английского языка: учебник/ Н.Н.Раевская. – Киев: Вища Школа, 1976. – 292 с.
King, S. Green mile / S. King. – NY: Marcy’s publishing house, 1992. – 309 p.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Porter/ J.K. Rowling. – London, 2000. – 276 p.

Скачать: posobie-po-teorgram-2011.doc

Категория: Методички / Методички по иностранным языкам

Уважаемый посетитель, Вы зашли на сайт как незарегистрированный пользователь.
Мы рекомендуем Вам зарегистрироваться либо войти на сайт под своим именем.

Привет студент