Professional Documents
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2) morphemic (morpheme is first, elementary meaningful part of word; it expresses abstract significative meanings
used in formation of more concrete meanings of word/ root morphemes have meaning, -er = agent)
3) lexemic (level of words; word – directly naming unit of language that names things and their relations)
4) phrasemic (level of phrases, word groups/ combinations of two or more notional words – have nominative
functions (polynomination), separate words (mononomination)
5) proposemic (level of sentence/ peculiar character of sentence – name situation, express predication (relation of
event to reality))
6) superproposemic/ superphrasal ( combination of separate sentences united by common topic, forming textual
unity, coincides with paradigm)
7) level of text (consists of group of paragraphs, supersentential construction written text)
8) level of discourse (difficult communicative phenomenon, includes social, context info about participants,
knowledge o process, production, perception of text) ~ dialogue
Ван Дайк: discourse – difficult comm. event of social, cultural cooperation, characteristic lines of which are
interests, aims, styles.
John Stone: discourse is combination of text with extra linguistic sociocultural, pragmatic, psychological factors;
communication submerged to life.
Benvenist: discourse – every utterance which predetermines the presence of communicants (addressee, recipient,
intentions of the sender definite to influence the interlocutor)
ANALYTISM
Analytical forms are mostly proper to verbs. They consist of one or more functional words which have no lexical
meaning and only express one or more grammatical categories of number, tense etc. and one notional word (eg. He
has come)
Analytical forms are:
1) tense and aspect verb forms
(continuous, perfect, perfect continuous, future simple, all future forms + interrogative and negative forms of past
and present simple)
2) passive voice
3) subjunctive mood (I should go there if I have time)
4) category of degree of comparison (with some adjectives) (more beautiful)
Chief features of analytical character of the English language
1) comparatively few grammatical inflections
The structure of language is never purely syntactic or analytical. Elements of syntatism:
- ending -s ( third person of verbs and plural of nouns)
- ‘s (possessive case)
- ed/d (past simple of regular verbs)
- -ing (gerund, present participle)
- -en (past participle of some irregular verbs)
- -er/st (comparative, superlative degree of comparison)
2) rare use of sound alterations to denote grammatical forms
eg. speak – spoke/ mouse – mice
3) wide use of prepositions to denote relations between objects and to connect words in a sentence (the roof of the
house/ ср. крыша дома)
4) prominent use of word order to denote relations
5) extensive use of substitutes (one, that, do)
- “one” replaces nouns in singular, “ones” - plural
- “that” substitutes nouns of material, abstract nouns followed by attribute, mostly introduced by preposition “of”
“His walk was different from that of other men”
- “do” substitutes verbs “You know your law better than I do”
6) forms of verbs “to be” (are, were)
Two parts of English grammar that are unequal at length are divided according to general aims and objectives:
1) Pre-scientific grammar (end of 16th cent – 1900)
Two types of grammar:
- early pre-normative grammar (William Bullokar, “Bref Grammar for English”, 1585) – aimed at establishing,
writing English grammar
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- prescriptive (normative) grammar (middle of 18 cent.) – stated strict grammatical rules, standard of correctness
2) Scientific grammar (end of 19th cent. – up to now) – both descriptive and explanatory (classical gr.)
Dividing point between two periods: after H.Sweet’s “Grammar”, 1890
Three more scientific types of grammar
- classical scientific
- structural (descriptive)
- transformational (generative)
Grammar until 17th cent study of Latin. Latin grammar was the only grammar learned in schools. There was no
English grammar until the end of 16th cent.
“Grammar” by William Lily –grammar of Latin written in English, first half of 16 th cent.--> precursor of the earliest
English grammars, very important for English grammar as it set a standard for the arrangement of material;
Adherence to structure of Latin grammar in ”Grammar” by W.Bullokar: 5 cases of nouns, 6 genders (compare
Latin: 6 cases, 6 genders). 1st half of 17th cent. Grammars by Ch. Butler, Ben Jonson –->2 cases
Main results of the description of the English grammatical system by the middle of 18th cent:
1) morphology
Latin classification of parts of speech: 8 word classes
System adopted by modern grammars: substantives and adjectives grouped together as two kinds of nouns,
participle – separate part of speech.
Earliest English grammars, 8 parts of speech are:
- declinable ( nouns, pronouns, verbs, participles ) W.Bullokar
- indeclinable (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections)
OR
- words with number
- words without number B. Jonson
OR
- words with number and case
- words without number and case Ch. Butler
3) Syntax
Brightland’s grammar - important innovation, introduction of the notion “sentence”. In Brightland’s grammar
grammatical sentences are:
- simple sentence (1 affirmation + 1 name)
- compound sentence (2 or more simple sentences)
Prescriptive Grammar.
The most influencial grammar of this period R. Lowth’s “Short Introduction to English Grammar).
Aim of prescriptive grammar:
- reduce English grammar to rules
- set up standard of correct usage
- codify and systematize grammar
Problem of dispute – the number of cases
Lowth: 2 case systems for nouns, 3 case systems for pronouns + term “possessive case”
Syntactic study of simple sentence didn’t advance greatly till the mid 18 cent.
By the time Lowth’s grammar appeared the concept of principle parts of speech in sentence had been already
elaborated to the number of three:
- agent (subject)
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- attribute (predicate)
- object
Very important innovations:
• Compound sentence
compound sentence proper (coordinated parts)
complex sentence (subordinated clauses)
Sentence :1) simple
2) compound proper trichotomic division
3) complex
• Concept of clause – elaborated as a syntactic unit containing a noun and a finite verb
Clause:
- independent
- dependent
OR
- co-ordinate
- subordinate (noun asubord., adjective subord., adverb subord.)
• Concept of phrase different from clause as containing no finite verb.
Prescriptive grammar in the modern period (20th cent)
J. C. Nestfield – although his grammar was published at the end of 19cent, it exerted certain influence on
prescriptive and even scientific grammar of 20th cent. According to Nestfield sentence the following parts:
1) subject
2) adjunct to subject (attributive adjuncts)
3) predicate
4) adjunct to predicate (adverbial adjuncts)
The number of cases was increased to 5 (nominative, genitive, accusative + addition of vocative and dative)
Structural classification of sentences: two new terms “double” (coordination of two sentences) and “multiple”
(coordination of more than two sentences) sentences were substituted for the term “compound” sentence.
Scientific Grammar.
Classical scientific grammar.
Aim 1) describe English grammar scientifically as a whole
2) describe, not prescribe “ Whatever is the general use in language is for that reason grammatically correct”
(H.Sweet)
Morphology:
- criteria for classification of parts of speech (suggested by H.Sweet) !
meaning, form, function.
Authors retain traditional system of 8 parts of speech, but O.Jespersen lists 5 parts of speech based on Sweet’s
criteria:
- substantives
- adjectives
- verbs
- pronouns (pronominal adverbs, articles)
- particles (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections)
Syntax:
(L. G Kimball, C.T. Onions. H. R Stokoe)
- introduction of term “ composite sentence”= compound and complex sentence
(H. Poutsma)
- international scheme of 5 parts of sentence
Kruisinga: close and loose syntactic groups
O. Jespersen: concept of ranks based on principle of determination
In phrase “a furiously barking dog” – three ranks are designated
Primary (“dog”) – absolutely independent word
Secondary (“barking”) – determines or is subordinated to primary
Tertiary element (“furiously”) – determines the secondary
His works “Progress in Language, with special reference to English”, 1894, “Efficiency in linguistic change”, 1941
tries to prove that English as an analytical language has reached a higher stage of development than other
European languages. “Analytic syntax” – attempt to represent structure of English; grammatical constructions are
transcribed in formulas, in which parts of sentence and parts of speech are presented by capital and small letters –
S-subject, V-verb, v-auxiliary verb, O-object, I-infinitive etc. and ranks by numerals 1, 2, 3.
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Structural Grammar
( Fries, Bloomfield, Hackett, Harris)
Aim – structuralize
Morphology – structural classification of parts of speech
Syntax – IC analysis
Structural grammarians criticize traditional grammar, according to their point of view prescriptive and scholarly
grammars both belong to “pre-scientific era”
Charles Fries “ Structure of English” – introduced “frames”=typical constructions, applies new technique
(distributional analysis, substitution) Classified words into 4 “form-classes”, designated by numbers (noun,
pronouns, adjectives, adverbs), 15 groups of “function words” (prepositions, conjunction + specific words aka
particular kinds of pronouns, adverbs, verbs)
Structural linguistics provides insight into the process of interpretation, formation of sentences.
GENERATIVE (Transformational) GRAMMAR
introduced and developed by N. Chomsky; first the method was presented in 1957 in “Syntactic Structures”; was
revised in “Aspects of the Theory of Syntax”
Kernel sentences are produced applying only obligatory transformations to the phrase-structure strings. Ex. Verb +
affix in present tense “hits”
Non-kernel (derived) sentences involve optional transformations in addition, such as active passive/ (the boy
was hit by the man) affirmative negative
Transformational operations consist in re-arrangement, deletion, addition, combination of linguistic elements.
Chomsky’s theory is that language has a base which contains elementary phrase structures. Sentences are not
derived from other sentences but from the structure underlying them. The phrase structures produce sentences
usually by way of transformations.
MORPHOLOGY
The usual definition of morphology: the part of grammar that treats all the forms of words.
Morpheme – one of the central notions of grammatical theory; the smallest meaningful unit into which word form
may be divided.
Ex. Writers write + er + s
Additional remarks:
- two or more morphemes may sound the same but be basically different (homonymous) Ex. –s indicates plural
number and possessive case; -er= agent and degree of comparison
- there may be zero-morphemes (absence of morpheme may indicate certain meaning) Ex. Book(zero morpheme
indicates singular form)-books (-s morpheme indicates plural number)
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Ex. The student comes – The students come
The ox comes – The oxen come parallel change
Distinction between two classes – not entirely dependence on the presence or absence of inflection, but distinction
between head word and adjunct word.majority of indeclinable words are used as agent words, while declinables
stand to particles in the relation of headword.
NOUN.
part of speech that has categorical meaning of substance, thingness
main nominative part of speech, central nominative unit of language
Functions in sentence: subject, object, attribute, predicate, adverbial modifier
Special types of combinability (valency):
- Prepositional combinability with another noun (“An entrance to the house”), verb (“To turn round the courner”),
adjective (“Red in face”), adverb (“Far from its destination”)
- Possessive combinability (“The president’s speech” “The book’s cover”)
- Shear contact (without prepositions) (“sport event, film festival”)
In contact group the noun in preposition plays the role of semantic qualifier to the noun in post-position (sport
event= “sport” – attribute)
Article – in some cases only article show that the word is a noun (building (participle) – the building (noun))
As a part of speech, nouns are characterized by word-building distinctions (typical suffixes), compound stem
models, conversion patterns.
Structural classification of nouns according to morphological composition:
- Simple ( have neither suffixes nor prefixes “room”, “table”)
- Compound (built from two or more stems “bluebell”)
- Derivative (have derivative elements, prefixes, suffixes, or both)
Productive noun forming suffixes: - er, - ess, - ness (madness), - ism, -ist
Unproductive: - hood, - dom, - ship, - ment, - (e)ance, - ty, -ity.
Semantic classification: five oppositional pairs
1) proper/ common
Proper nouns – written with capital letters. Name specific person, place, thing, names of days of the week, month,
institutions, religions, historical documents, holy texts, organizations.
Common – name person, place, thing in general sense
2) animate/inanimate (on the basis on forms of existence)
3) human/ non-human (on the basis of personal quality) eg. dog – animate, non-human
4) countable/ uncountable/collective (on the basis of quantitative structure)
Countable – both singular and plural forms, anything you can count.
Uncountable don’t have plural form, sth you can’t count, substance, concepts, ideas, take verb in singular).
Collective – names of group of things, persons.
5) concrete/ abstract
Concrete – can be perceived through physical senses (touch, sight, hearing, taste, smell).
Abstract –can’t be perceived through senses, ideas that exist only in our minds (justice, childhood)
Category of Number
1) singular (one object)
2) plural (more than one object)
- difference between 3 houses - 3 hours (three separate objects existing side by side/ duration of time), waters of
Atlantic – the water of Atlantic (geographical idea/ chemical, physical properties).
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- Plural develops completely new meaning that singular hasn’t got, plural form is lexicalized. Types of nouns that
take only one number
Pluralia Tantum (only plural)
- Denote material objects consisting of two halves (scissors, trousers, glasses),
- indefinite plurality (environs),
- names of sciences (physics, mathematics - as a series of scientific),
- diseases (mumps).
If they are subjects, verb stands in singular, some can be accompanied by indefinite article..
Singularia Tantum (only singular)
- Denote material substance (butter, cheese),
- abstract notions (peace, childhood)
nouns of this type are outside the scheme of no/Verb used together with them- always singular.
Some nouns denoting substance may have plural form (wine – wines – different sorts)
-Nouns denoting groups of human beings (family), animals (cattle) – single unit, fall under the following groups:
1) used (with verbs) only in singular, denoting the number of things collected together but regarded as one object
(machinery)
2) used with verbs in plural, though singular in form (have plural meaning) (police, cattle)
3) used with both with verbs in plural and in singular (family, crowd, nation)
category of CASE
morphological category of noun manifested in forms of noun declination, showing relations of nounal referent to
other objects and phenomena.
expressed by opposition of uninflected form (nominative case), inflective (possessive case=strong member of
opposition).
Four special views of different scholars:
1) theory of positional cases (Nestfield, Deutschbein, Bryant)
Unchangeable forms of nouns are differentiated as different cases due to the functional position of noun in the
sentence.
- Nominative (subject – verb “Rain falls”)
- Genitive =inflectional(“My friend’s pen”)
- Vocative (address “My friend”)
- Dative (indirect object to verb “I gave John a penny”)
- Accusative (noun is direct object to verb “Man killed a rat”/object to preposition “The earth is moistened by rain”)
2) theory of prepositional cases (curm)
Two cases:
- Dative (preposition for/to + noun “for John”)
- Genitive (of + noun “friend of John”)
Inflectional prepositions – grammatical elements equivalent to case forms
GENDER
indicates sex or the lack of it
is expressed by the obligatory correlation of noun with pronouns in third person
Oppositions:
1)Human(person)=strong\nonhuman(nonpersonal)
2) only in the subset of person nouns only: - feminine - masculine \neutral(nonhuman)
JAMES FERNEL:
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3 genders in English:
-neutral-all denoting objects of no sex
Leech classification: only human nouns
- masculine
- feminine
- dual (student, doctor)
- common (child, baby)
- collective (family)
+ nonhuman=no gender
Gender can be marked :
Morphologically (actor – actress)
Semantically marked due to meaning(boy – girl)
Lexically by separate word (boyfriend)
PRONOUN
Definition - many difficulties. More than once in the history of linguistics the existence of pronoun was denied. - -
not proved successful
Present day grammar – categorical meaning of indication
Though pronoun point to things, they can’t be modified by adjectives, can’t be connected with any article or modified
by prepositional phrase.
CLASSIFICATION
Western approach
1) Personal (refer to specific person or thing and change their form to indicate person, number, gender, case)
- subjective (I, you, he, she, it, we, they/pronoun – subject)
- objective (me, you, her, him, it, them, us/ pronoun – object of verb, compound verb, preposition, infinitive phrase)
- possessive =separate class(my, mine, her, his, hers, our, ours, their, theirs, its, yours/pronoun – marker of
possession, defines who owns particular object, person)
2) Demonstrative =points to, indicates N or PRN(these, those, that)
3) Interrogative (to ask questions) (whom, which, what, whoever, whatever, whenever)
4) Relative (link one phrase or clause to another phrase or clause (who, whom, that, which, + ever)
5) Indefinite (refer to identifiable but not specified person or thing, convey idea of all, any, none(in Russian negative
prn), or some)
(all, another, any, anyone, anybody, each, everyone, everything, few, many, none, nobody, somebody, something,
some)
6) Reflexive (refer back to the subject, clause, sentence) (myself, herself, itself, ourselves)=in Russian reciprocal
prn2)
7) Intensive (emphasize antecedent/ form identical to reflexive pronouns) (I myself believe that…)
Categories of pronouns
Russian approach
1) CASE
- nominative (i, she, it, we, you, they, who)
- objective (me, him, her, it, us)
OR
- common (one, another, anybody, somebody)
- genitive (somebody’s, anybody’s, another’s)
All other pronouns have no category of case
2) NUMBER
- restricted field in pronouns
Singular – this, that, other
Plural – these, those, others
I-we/ he,she,it – they no number category here, separate words
“we” is not a form of “I”, as well as “yourself” is not a form of “yourselves”, “myself” is not a form of “ourselves”,
“himself” is not a form of “themselves” these are different words. Myself/ourselves – purely lexical difference,
second element differs by suffix –s used to form plural of all nouns.
No category of gender, he, she, it – all separate words
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3) personal
4) indefinite (some, any)
5) negative (nobody, nothing)
6) interrogative
ADJECTIVE
Categorial semantics of adjective - property or substance
Each adjective used in text presupposes relations to some nouns, a property of whose referent it denotes: its
material, colour, dimensions, state, other characteristics, both permanent and temporary.
Combines with nouns (in preposition, occasionally in postposition) and modified adverbs.
Functions in a sentence: predicative, attribute.
Derivational features: a number of prefixes (un-,in-, pre-), suaffixes (-less, -full, -ish, -ous, -ive, -ic).
Classification
1) Qualitative (various qualities of substances which admit qualitative estimation)
Measures of quality:
- low/high
- adequate/ not adequate
- sufficient/insufficient
- optional/excessive
Eg. Awkward situation/ a very awkward situation
Hearty welcome/ not a very hearty welcome
2) Relative (properties of substances determined by direct relations of substance to some other substance). Eg:
wood-a wooden hut, history – historical event, colour - colourful postcard.
Only qualitative adjectives have degrees of comparison. Category is constituted by opposition of three forms:
- basic form (positive degree)
- comparative\ degree form
- superlative degree (unrestricted superiority)
Some linguists exclude basic form from the category since it doesn’t express comparison by itself
The problem is whether relative adjectives could have degrees of comparison or not. Ex: “wooden” in broader sense
acquires evaluative meaning “more wooden than ever”
Analytical forms of comparison :
Difficult – more difficult – most difficult
First approach: these are analytical forms of comparison because
- actual meaning of formations doesn’t differ from synthetic degrees
- express properties which are presented in different degrees
Second approach: not analytical but free syntactic constructions
- more, most have meaning much as less, least
- combination like superlative can take indefinite article expressing not superlative meaning (“a most
significant attack” – not the highest degree)
STATIVES
Among the words signifying properties of a noun reference there’s a set considered by many scholars as a separate
part of speech.
There are words built up by prefix a- and denoting different states mostly of temporary duration. (ex. afraid, ablaze).
According to the traditional grammar view these are predicative adjectives. Part of speech interpretation of statives
is not shared by all linguists.
The main meanings of statives:
1) psychic state of person (ashamed, aware, afraid)
2) physical state of person (afoot)
3) physical state of object (afire)
4) state of object in space (askew)
Statives are not used in attributive preposition like adjectives, they are distinguished by left-hand categorical
combinability both with nouns and link verbs. “The household was all astir”
Functions in a sentence:
- predicative (“He soon felt asleep”)
- attribute (“A man alive to social interest”)
Statives don’t take synthetic forms of degree of comparison, only analytical ones.
“Jack was the one most aware of the situation which we found ourselves in”
Statives don’t constitute separate class as nouns, verbs, adverbs, rather they are a subclass within a general class
of adjectives.
ADVERB
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word expressing property of an action or property of another property or circumstances in which an action occurs.
Eg. Quickly, indeed, maybe
Adverb is characterized by combinability with verbs, adjectives, words of adverbial nature
Functions: - express different adverbial modifiers, can also refer to the whole situations=determinants
Ex. The woman was crying hysterically (adverbial modifier of manner)
Then he entered the room (adverbial modifier of time)
Adverbs can combine with nouns, acquiring peculiar adverbial, attributive functions, both in post- and preposition.
Eg. The world today presents the picture radically different from what it was before.
Franklin Roosevelt, the then president of the US, proclaimed the deal…
Classification
According to the word building structure:
1) simple (they are few, have pronominal character in semantics) “here, there, now, then, so, quite, how, where,
when”
2) derived (have suffixes, prefixes like –ly,-ways,-wise, -wards, a- “ahead, across”)
There are also peculiar composite formations, phrasal formations of prepositional, conjunctional and other types.
“Sometimes”,”anyhow”,”at last”, “upside down”. Some also include “from outside”, “before now”, till now”.
Words of degree:
1. adverbs of high degree (intensifiers)“very, entirely, utterly, absolutely, pretty, much, considerably”
2. excessive degree (“too, awfully, tremendously, terrifically”)
3. unexpected degree (“astonishly, amazingly”)
4. moderate degree (“ fairly, comparatively, relatively, rather, moderately”)
5. adverbs of low degree (“slightly, a little, a bit”)
6. approximate degree (“nearly, almost”)
7. optional degree (“enough, sufficiently, adequately”)
8. inadequate degree (“insufficiently, intolerably, unbearably, ridiculously”)
9. under degree (“hardly, scarcely”)
Lexico-grammatical Classification
Upper level=Two unequal sets:
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1) full nominative value (notional verbs)
2) partial nominative value (semi-notional, functional verbs)
1) Notional verbs:
Criteria of devision:
-according to relation of subject of verb to the process denoted by the verb (subject-process relation)
1) actional (action of subject)(do, act, make, go, read, perform, learn, discover)
2) statal (state of subject) (survive, suffer, live, worry, stand, see, know)
- according to aspective characteristics of process denoted by verb (aspective semantics)
1) limited (arrive, come, leave, find, start, stop, conclude, aim, drop, catch, sit down, get out)
2) unlimited (move, continue, sleep, work, behave, hope)
- according to combining power in relation to the other notional verbs
VALENCY
combining power of word in relation to the other word in syntactically subordinate positions
Types of valency:
1) obligatory must be necessarily realized for grammatical completion of syntactic construction (subject, direct
object are obligatory parts of a sentence subjective, direct objective valencies) “We saw our house (in the
distance)”
2) optional not necessarily realized in grammatically complete construction, eg. adverbial part in the above
sentence
Obligatory agents with the exception of subject can be called its– complements; optional agents of verb –
supplements.
Semi-notional, functional verbs: serve as markers of predication in the proper sense; show connection between
nominative content of sentence and reality
1) auxiliary verbs (be, have, do, shall, will, should, might, would)
2) modal verbs, verbate (used with infinitive as predicative markers expressing relational meaning of ability,
permission, obligation, advisability) (can, may, must, shall, will, ought, need, used to , dare) be, have – have modal
meaning (be planned, be obliged), considered by many grammarians as modal verbs
3) semi-notional verbal (non-finite) introducer verbs (seem, happen, turn out, try, continue, manage)
4) link verbs (introduce nominal parts of predicate commonly expressed by noun, adjective, phrase of similar
semantic and grammatical character)
- pure link verbs (to be)
- specifying link verbs
perceptional (seem, look, feel, hear, taste)
factual (become, get, grow, remain, keep)
VERB.
The category of mood.
character modus
degree of reality, possibility of action.
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Indicative mood (eg. We live in Russia) – the only real mood in English, it has full tense, time correlation, aspect
markings.
Categorial meaning of the category of mood – hypothetical nature of the state of affairs described as seen from
speaker’s point of view.
Functions of marked members – categorical meaning (It’s time John went on diet)
Functions of unmarked members negate categorical meaning.
Smirnitsky
1) indicative
2) imperative (Go there!)
3) subjunctive I (be/go for all persons I suggest that he go there, If it be so)
4) subjunctive II (were for all persons, forms like knew, had known homonymous with words of past tense,
perfect, non-perfect I wish I were present)
5) suppositional (should/would + bare inf. I suggest that he should go there)
6) conditional (should, would + inf. in the main clause of unreal conditions)
There are other ways to indicate reality of possibility of action besides the category of mood.
Lexical syntactic means:
- combination of modal verbs + infinitive (“Don’t wait up for me because I might be late”)
Lexical means:
- modal words (may be, possibly, probably) (Perhaps, he wants advice)
- other words (nouns, adjectives, verbs) of modal semantics which introduce subordinate clauses and act as
predicators (wish, it’s time) (“It’s time we were moving”)
Syntactic means:
- imperatives as clauses introduced by as if, through (Take it easy. She really looks sometimes as if she isn’t all
there)
+ Different combinations of the above means
+Intonation, Prosody
VERB.
The category of Tense.
- the objective category of time, expresses relations between the time of the action and the time of the utterance.
- typical function of finite verbs
Three tenses: past
present each can appear in common and continuous aspect
future 6 aspect forms + future in the past, future cont.
Some scholars expressed doubts concerning the future tense, Otto Jespersen denied it. “shall, will” preserve
original modal meaning. The English language, to his opinion, has no way of expressing future which is free from
modal shades of meaning.
Ертеньева approach: system of tenses is divided into:
- tenses with center in present (present, present perfect, future, present continuous, presents perfect continuous)
- tenses with center in past (future in the past, past perfect continuous, past perfect, past continuous, past)
Time correlation
- category is based on opposition of perfect and not perfect
Main approaches:
1) perfect is a peculiar tense category, it should be classed as a category, like present and past (O.Jespersen)
2) category of perfect is aspect category (Воронцова)
- perfect aspect (retrospective)
- common aspect
3) neither tense nor aspect, but specific category different from both (Смирницкий)
VERB.
The category of Voice.
- expresses relations between subject and object of action
- opposition: active/passive
passive voice is a strong member of opposition
passive auxiliaries can be played by “become”, “get”
The question is whether there exist other voices
Additions: 1) reflexive (“he dressed himself”)
2) reciprocal (“they greeted each other”)
3) middle voice (“the door opened”)
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The category of Aspect.
- grammatical category showing the manner in which the action is either performed or represented
- Opposition: Common (unmarked member of opposition)
Continuous (strong member of opposition)
Continuous form – action developing at certain moment or limited period of time (being built, changing)
Common form – names the action (look at the way he walks)
Some linguists consider contionuous form to be one of the tense forms which marks an action as simultaneous to
some other action or time.
Continuous form is not used with verbs denoting abstract relations (belong) and those denoting sense perception or
emotion (see, hope, love). However, there are numerous examples of their usage in continuous form they change
the meaninh of the verb which comes to denote activity. “I’m thinking of him/ I think you’re right” “You’re being silly –
temporary state”
Curm: 4 aspects
1) durative (action continuing, corresponds to continuous aspect)
2) point-action aspect (calls attention not to an act as a whole but only to one point, either to the beginning
ingressive, or to the final point effective)
-Ingressive type (begin, start +inf/ get, grow, fall, turn, become, run, set, take + adj., participle, noun or preposition
phrase) “He awoke early” “He often gets sick”
-Effective type – directs attention to the final point of activity, state “The two friends fell out” “He knocked him out”
3) terminative (action as a whole “He handed me a book”)
4) iterative (indefinitely prolonged succession “He pooh-poohs at everything”)
SYNTAX
– the study of arrangement or connection of words
2 levels: - phrases
- sentences
The Theory of Phrase
There’s no unity concerning definition of phrase.
Russian linguists: the term “word combination” can be applied to such groups of words whicj contain at least two
notional words forming a grammatical unit. (eg. “fine weather”, “ to speak English fluently”)
Western scholars: every combination of two or more words which constitutes a unit is a phrase. The term “phrase”
is not limited to combination of notional words only, no sharp distinction between two types of word groups (eg. “in
the morning” and “wise man”)
H.Sweet: when words are joined together grammatically and logically without forming a full sentence it is a word
group
Professor Ильиш: phrase is any combination of two or more words which is a grammatical unit but not an
analytical form of some words (eg. ”have come”)
H.Sweet: most general relations between words in sentences, from logical point of view, are those of head word
and adjunct word (modifier and modified)
“Tall man is not always strong”/ “All men are strong”
“Strong”, “tall” are adjunct words modifying the meaning of head word “man”/ “men”
Distinction between adjunct word and head word is a relative one. The same word can be head word in one
sentence of context and adjunct word in another. The same word can be even be a head word and adjunct word at
the same time.
Eg. “He’s very strong” (“strong” is adjunct word to “he” and head word to “very”/ “very” is head word in “He is not
very strong”)
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Kruisinga:
Elaboration of Sweet’s theory; developed the theory of close and loose word groups
Close groups – one of the members is syntactically the leading element of the group. They are subdivided into:
1) verb groups (“hear a noise”, “you can go”, ”he lives here”)
2) noun groups (“Mary’s dress”, “village church”)
3) adjective group (“very beautiful”, “very well”)
4) prepositional group (“in the morning”)
Loose group – each element is comparatively independent of other members (“men and women”). Subdivided into:
1) linking groups (“five and twenty, “men and women”)
2) unlinked groups (“ a low soft breathing”)
O. Jespersen : concept of junction and nexus; theory of ranks – applies both to relations between members of word
groups and words of sentence.
Junction: joining of two elements is so close they may be considered as one composite name Eg. “a silly person” =
a fool, “a tall person”= a giant (attributive relations)
Nexus: members are independent and form a whole sentence, complete peace of information (“The door is red”,
“The dog barks”)
One can establish different ranks of words according to their relations of defined and defying Eg. “Extremely hot
weather” (“weather” – primary, “hot” – secondary, “extremely” – tissuary, defines “hot”)
Classifications of word groups
Бархударов: classified word groups according to the way head word is expressed
He distinguished the following word groups:
1) coordinate (words have the same function/joined together syndetically or asyndetically) Eg. “you and me”,
“men and women”
2) subordinate (always have the head word and the adjunct word). Types of subordinate word groups according
to head word:
- nounal (head word is noun) “country doctor”
- adjectival (“dark red”, “very nice”)
- verbal (“to hear a noise”, “write a letter”)
- adverbial (“very suddenly”, “pretty easily”)
3) predicative (relations between the nominal and the verbal parts/ not general predication but secondary one
only)
Types of complexes:
- complex object (“I want you to..”)
- complex subject (“He’s known to be..” noun + pronoun + infinitive)
- for-phrase it’s cold for us to swim
- gerundial construction (“stop talking”)
- absolute nominative participle construction (“the work done, we continued…”)
Exocentric can’t stand for a whole group in the larger structure, we can’t omit either of the constituents;
in the sentence “Poor John ran away”, noun “John” may substitute for “poor John”, poor John - endocentric
In the sentence “Mary and John ran away” both “Mary” and “John” may stand for a whole phrase (Mary ran away,
John ran away)
Modern approach:
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1) headed (head + adjunct)
Subdivided according to distribution of adjunct into:
- regressive (left-hand distribution of adjunct “beautiful girl”)
- progressive (right-hand distribution of adjunct “to write a letter”)
Subdivided according to the head into:
- nounal (substantival) (“sport event”)
- adjectival (“very beautiful”)
- verbal (“to write a letter”)
- adverbial (“very well”)
2) non-headed (elements are relatively independent)
Classified into:
1) -independent (constituents are independent) “he writes”, ”John and Mary”
-dependent (constituents depend on the context) “my own (dog)”
2)
- one class (constituents are of the same part of speech “John and Mary”)
- different class (“he writes”)
SENTENCE
Sentence has always been considered the main, highest unit of speech
This is the only unit of speech capable of expressing communication that is more or less idea of thought.
Sentence is immediate integrate unit of speech built up of words according to a definite syntactic pattern and
distinguished by contextually relative communicative purpose. Ex. Night/ Let’s go and see them up there.
H. Sweet: sentence is word or group of words capable of expressing complete thought or meaning
Bryant: sentence – communication in words conveying sense of completeness containing at least one independent
verb with its subject.
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specifically confined to the sentence. This is a broader category revealed both in grammatical elements of the
language and in lexical purely nominative elements. There belong such lexemes as:
- probability
- desirability
- necessity
- semi-functional words and phrases of probability and existential evaluation (perhaps, may be, by all means)
- word-particles of modal semantics (such as, just, even, would-be)
- modal verbs (express broad range of modal meaning/ He must have seen the light)
As to predication proper, it consists of not only any kind of modality but also syntactic modality (fundamental
distinction feature of sentence)
Fries: Being a language unit, sentence is characterized by form and meaning.
“A diggled woggle aggled a wiggled diggle” artificial structure, the existence of form is evident, semantically not a
sentence
The very existence of such criteria as form and meaning help us to define a sentence.
“There were no landing fields were field there landing no” (none-sentence)
Tenier: sentence – little drama in which members of the sentence are actors, all other parts are names which have
certain relations with verbs and play certain roles in their relation with verb.
Fillmore: discusses parts of sentences from point of view of semantic significance of roles. Actors are classified:
1) agent (Jack cleaned the floor)
2) patient (Jack underwent surgical operation)
3) experiencer (Jack likes to read)
4) instrument (Jack opened the door with the key)
5) locative (We live in Chelyabinsk)
ANALYSES OF NOUN:
1) COMMON\PROPER
2) HUMAN\NONHUMAN
3) ANIMATE\INANIMATE
4) COUNTABLE\UNCOUNTABLE
Countable – both singular and plural forms, anything you can count.
Uncountable don’t have plural form, sth you can’t count, substance, concepts, ideas, take verb in singular).
Collective – names of group of things, persons.
5) CONCRETE\ABSTRACT
6) NUMBER
-singular (one object)
-plural (more than one object)
Pluralia Tantum (only plural)
- Denote material objects consisting of two halves (scissors, trousers, glasses),
- indefinite plurality (environs),
- names of sciences (physics, mathematics - as a series of scientific),
- diseases (mumps).
If they are subjects, verb stands in singular, some can be accompanied by indefinite article..
Singularia Tantum (only singular)
- Denote material substance (butter, cheese),
- abstract notions (peace, childhood)
nouns of this type are outside the scheme of no/Verb used together with them- always singular.
Some nouns denoting substance may have plural form (wine – wines – different sorts)
-Nouns denoting groups of human beings (family), animals (cattle) – single unit, fall under the following groups:
4) used (with verbs) only in singular, denoting the number of things collected together but regarded as one object
(machinery)
5) used with verbs in plural, though singular in form (have plural meaning) (police, cattle)
6) used with both with verbs in plural and in singular (family, crowd, nation)
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ANALYSES OF VERB:
1) NOTIONAL
Notional verbs:
Criteria of devision:
-according to relation of subject of verb to the process denoted by the verb (subject-process relation)
1actional (action of subject)(do, act, make, go, read, perform, learn, discover)
2statal (state of subject) (survive, suffer, live, worry, stand, see, know)
- according to aspective characteristics of process denoted by verb (aspective semantics)
1limited (arrive, come, leave, find, start, stop, conclude, aim, drop, catch, sit down, get out)
2unlimited (move, continue, sleep, work, behave, hope)
combining power of word in relation to the other word in syntactically subordinate positions
Types of valency:
1obligatory must be necessarily realized for grammatical completion of syntactic construction (subject, direct
object are obligatory parts of a sentence subjective, direct objective valencies) “We saw our house (in the
distance)”
2optional not necessarily realized in grammatically complete construction, eg. adverbial part in the above
sentence
Obligatory agents with the exception of subject can be called its– complements; optional agents of verb –
supplements.
Semi-notional, functional verbs: serve as markers of predication in the proper sense; show connection between
nominative content of sentence and reality
1auxiliary verbs (be, have, do, shall, will, should, might, would)
2modal verbs, verbate (used with infinitive as predicative markers expressing relational meaning of ability,
permission, obligation, advisability) (can, may, must, shall, will, ought, need, used to , dare) be, have – have modal
meaning (be planned, be obliged), considered by many grammarians as modal verbs
3semi-notional verbal (non-finite) introducer verbs (seem, happen, turn out, try, continue, manage)
4link verbs (introduce nominal parts of predicate commonly expressed by noun, adjective, phrase of similar
semantic and grammatical character)
- 1pure link verbs (to be)
- 2specifying link verbs
1perceptional (seem, look, feel, hear, taste)
factual (become, get, grow, remain, keep)
2) CATEGORIES;
PERSON
NUMBER
TENSE (PRESENT, FUTURE, PAST)
TIME CORRELATION (PERFECT\NONPERFECT)
ASPECT (COMMON, CONTINUOUS)
- Common (unmarked member of opposition)
Continuous (strong member of opposition)
VOICE (PASSIVE\ACTIVE)
MOOD
Smirnitsky
• indicative
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• imperative (Go there!)
• subjunctive I (be/go for all persons I suggest that he go there, If it be so)
• subjunctive II (were for all persons, forms like knew, had known homonymous with words of past tense,
perfect, non-perfect I wish I were present)
• suppositional (should/would + bare inf. I suggest that he should go there)
• conditional (should, would + inf. in the main clause of unreal conditions)
- only certain people can baptize, sentence to some penalty, dissolve parliament
- in some cases speaker must be sincere, external circumstances must be suitable
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eg. “Can you give me a lift?” presupposes that hearer has a vehicle, and speaker has a reason for
request. It may be that utterance is meant as a joke or sarcasm, in this case sentence has different
interpretation.
Felicity conditions consist of:
1) preparatory condition (status, authority of speaker to perform SA)
2) condition for execution
3) sincerity conditions
Conversational implicature
English philosophy Greis outlined approach of CI, series of lectures in 1967
CI- how hearers manage to work out complete message when speakers mean more than they
say.
Eg. Have you got cash on you?-->speaker means “Can you lend me some money?”
“I don’t have much on me”
Message is not found in plain sense of sentence- hearer is reading between the lines ---||---
1) usual linguistic meaning
2) contextual info (shared or general knowledge)
3) assumption that speaker is obeying what Greis calls cooperative principle
Conversational maxims
Cooperative principle-way in which people try to make conversations work
-depends on success of conversation, on various speakers approach to interaction
Greis: speakers and hearers share cooperative principle in ordinary conversation
Speaker shape utterances to be understood by hearers.
Principle can be explained by Greis’s maxims:
1) maxims of quality ( speakers should be truthful, not say what they think is false, not make
statements for which they’ve no evidence)
2) maxims of quantity (contribution should be informative as is required for conversation to
proceed, neither too little nor too much)
3) maxims of relevance (speakers contribution should relate clearly to purpose of exchange)
4) maxims of manner (speakers contribution should be clear, brief, orderly, avoiding obscurity,
ambiguity)
Greis does not of course subscribe these maxims, they are useful to analyze, interpret conversation
Politeness principle
series of maxims that J.Leech proposed
way of explaining how politeness operates in conversational exchanges
Leech: politeness-forms of behavior, ability of participants in a social interaction to engage in
atmosphere of relative harmony
Leech’s maxims:
1) tact maxims
2) generosity maxims
3) approbation maxims
4) modesty maxims (minimize self laud)
5) agreement maxims
6) sympathy maxims
Phatic Tokens
way of showing status by orienting comments to oneself, to other, to general situation (like
“weather” issue in England)
Subdivision:
1) self-oriented (personal to speaker) “My feet are killing me”
2) other-oriented (related to hearer) “Do you work here?”
3) neutral (refers to context general state of affairs) “Cold, isn’t it?”
Deixis
linguistic forms of pointing using
deitic markers, words, expressions include:
1) personal or possessive pronouns (I, she, he, you, mine)
2) demonstrative pronouns (this, that)
3) spatial, temporal adverbs (here, there, now) article
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