Role of Aspect in Mutual Interference of Modal and Temporal Meanings
The article studies the interaction between modal, aspectual and temporal meanings in the language and text. Development of the system of aspectual meanings of efficiency / inefficiency, completeness / incompleteness, precedence / following, frequency / momentariness in various language systems are connected with their interaction with the modal meanings of need / probability, must / willingness, ability / capability, belief / knowledge. In this case the context of the form usage rather than its semantics comes to the foreground because rules of the mutual interference of aspectual meanings (in correlation with the specific tense) and modal meanings in the language are established at the text level. The most graphic example is the interaction of perfect and imperfect forms that can be used in text as a means of the meaning objectification. After that the attitudes formed in the text material determine the possibility of mutual transformation of the corresponding forms in the language system at the level of meaning itself. The author concludes that the mutual interference of aspectual, temporal and modal meanings connects the whole language tense fabric making the formal division of tense in the language into present, past and future fade into insignificance.