Теоретическая грамматика

(1) Language as a system. Language and its grammar.

The definition of language. The distinction between language and speech. Language as a semiotic system: its functions, elements and structure. Lingual elements (units) as signs. Segmental and supra-segmental lingual units. The levels оf lingual units, their structural and functional features. Hierarchical relations between units of different levels. The word and the sentence as the main level-forming units. The text level as the sphere of functional manifestation of all the lingual units. The three constituent parts (subsystems) of the language: phonological (phonetic), lexical and grammatical systems. The systemic character of grammar. Morphology and syntax - the two main sections of grammar. Grammar as a branch of linguistics. Theoretical and practical grammar. Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations between lingual units; syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations in grammar. The plane of content and the plane of expression; synonymy and homonymy in grammar. The notions of diachrony and synchrony; diachronic and synchronic relations in grammar.

(2) Grammatical category - common features of a linguistic phenomenon of a certain class, having their grammatical form and grammatical meaning, a complicated unity of grammatical form and grammatical content (the category of number, mood, eto). Grammar may be practical and theoretical. The aim of practical grammar is the description of grammar rules that are necessary to understand and formulate sentences. The aim of theoretical grammar is to offer explanation for these rules. Generally speaking, theoretical grammar deals with the language as a functional system. Grammatical category la a system of expressing a general!* ed meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of. grammatical forms ( marked s : unmarked). Every grammatical category is characterized by the opposition, the categorical meaning and the function. For example, the category of number: plurality :: singularity,  plurality : : non-plurality

(3) Parts of speech

The traditional term “parts of speech” was developed in Ancient Greek linguistics and reflects the fact that at that time there was no distinction between language as a system and speech, between the word as a part of an utterance and the word as a part of lexis. The term “parts of speech” is accepted by modern linguistics as a conventional, or “non-explanatory” term (“name-term”) to denote the lexico-grammatical classes of words correlating with each other in the general system of language on the basis of their grammatically relevant properties. Traditional classification of words (dating back to ancient times) – 8 parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections.

Objections:

• The definitions are largely notional and often extremely quite vague; e.g. A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun (John came this morning – a man, someone, you-know-who, the aforementioned).
• The number of parts of speech in the traditional grammars seems to be arbitrary. Why 8? Prof. Ilyish – 12 (+ numerals, statives, modal words and particles), prof. Khaimovich and Rogovskaya – 14 (+ articles and response words).

Thus, meaning can’t be the only criterion for classifying words. That’s why to classify words we must take into consideration morphological characteristics of words. For instance, H.Sweet: declinables (nouns, adjectives, verbs) and indeclinables (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections). One more classification (based on syntactic functions of word classes): noun-words (nouns, noun-numerals, noun-pronouns, Infinitives, Gerunds), adjective-words (adjectives, adjective-pronouns, adjective-numerals, Participles), verb-words (verbs, verbals)

 

 

(4) Noun. The category of gender. The problem of the category of gender:

 

Ilyish The ME noun has not got the category of grammatical gender.

+ Between the Sg & the Pl an additional difference of meaning has developed а the plural form develops a completely new meaning which the singular has not got at all (e.g. colour/ colours)- the plural form has been lexicalized.

Blokh: The category of gender is expressed in English by the obligatory correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the 3rd person. It’s strictly oppositional, firmed by 2 oppositions hierarchically related.1.Personal noun (strong).2.Non-person (weak).

 

The other oppositions function in the subject of person nouns only. The cases of reductions:

1. Non-person & their substitute are used in the positions of neutralization.
2. Great number of nouns are capable for expressing both female & masculine person genders.

Ex: person, parent, friend have a common gender. In plural all genders-neutralized.

Nouns can show the sex of their referents lexically ex: boy-friend, girl-friend or with the help of suffixes –ess (mistress).

Categories of gender in English is semantic because it reflects the actual features of the named objects, but the semantic of the category doesn’t in the list make it into non-grammatical.

 

 

(5) Noun. The category of number.

 

A noun is said to be in the singular number when it denotes one person or thing; it is said to be in the plural number when it denotes more than one person or thing.

ME distinguish between 2 numbers singular & plural. So the category of number is expressed by the binary private opposition. The strong member is the pl. and the weak member is the singular. The productive ways of expressing the number the morpheme –S with allophones [s], [z], [iz]

The productive way of expressing the singular is by zero morpheme (coverall morpheme). The other ways are vowel interchange men-man (replacive morpheme). The archaic suffix en-ox-oxen, child-children and also individual singular and plural suffixes of borrowed nouns: formula-formulae.

The cases of homonymy (fish-fish)

The semantic nature of the difference between singular and the plural presents difficulty of interpretation ex: three houses and three hours.

Three houses-are three separate object and three hours are a continuous period of time as well as three miles, three acres. Here we distinguish “discrete plural” and “plural of measure” ex: water-waters of the Atlantic. Here we refer to a geographical idea, while the water of the Atlantic refers to its physical or chemical properties. Here we see an additional difference of meaning. Talking about the number we’re to mention the process of lexicalization, the essence of which is developing a completely a new meaning of the noun in the plural ex: custom-customs.

We must consider 2 types of noun - Pluralia Tantum & Singularia Tantum.

 

Among the PT are the nouns: trousers, scissors, etc. The direct opposition of PT is ST. Among this, we must note some nouns denoting material substance, milk, butter and names of abstract notions-peace, usefulness with this nouns the predicate verb is always singular.

There exist exceptions when the above mention nouns may have a plural form ex; wine-wines (to denote several special kinds of wine), beauty-beauties (of nature) when we mean the objects exhibiting this quality ex; iron-irons

According to Blokh we should discern absolute plural, the absolute plural form is peculiar to the uncountable subclass of PT nouns. The absolute plural cannot directly combine with numerals. The absolute plural by way of functional oppositional reduction can be represented in 3 ways:

1. In countable nouns having the form of the singular  
   ex: the families were gathered round the table.
2. In countable nouns having the form of the plural  
   ex: I lit cigarette after cigarette.

 

(6) Noun. Category of case.

Case is the category of a noun expressing relations between the thing denoted by the noun and other things, or properties, or actions, and manifested by some formal sign in the noun itself (e.g. inflection, zero-morpheme).

The problem of case in ME nouns is one of the most vexed (disputed) problems in English grammar. The views on the subject differ widely.

Views: The number of approaches is due to a difference in the interpretation of the category of case.

LIMITED CASE THEORY: Prof. Ilyish doesn’t recognize any case expressed by non-morphological means а preposition + Noun is not a case form и English nouns have 2 cases: common case (e.g. father) and genitive case (e.g. father’s); H.Sweet, O.Jespersen, prof. Smirnitsky, prof. Barhudarov.

POSITIONAL CASE THEORY: The number of cases in English is more than 2 (3, 4, 5 …); the case may be expressed by prepositions or by word order;

 

 

(7) Noun. The category of article determination. The semantic purpose of the article is to specify the nounal referent, to define it in the most general way, without any explicitly expressed contrasts.

In the absence of a determiner, the use of the article with the noun is quite obligatory, in so far as the cases of non-use of the article are subject to no less definite rules than the use of it.

??? Is article a purely auxiliary element of a special grammatical form of the noun which functions as a component of a definite morphological category, or is it a separate word, i.e. a lexical unit in the determiner word set, if of a more abstract meaning than other determiners.

??? Can “article + noun” be a form of the noun?

If we agree that the group “article + noun” is an analytical form of the verb we shall have to set up a grammatical category in the noun which is expresses by one or the other article or by its absence. That category might be called DETERMINATION. In this case we could also find a “zero article”.If we stick to the view that the group is a peculiar type of phrase, no “zero article” is possible.

The role of articles in actual division of the sentence.

The door opened and the young man came in./The door opened and a young man came in.

In the 2nd case we can see that the central point of the sentence is a young man, which is new (-> the person who came in proved to be a young man). While in the 1st sentence the central point is that he came in. The central point corresponds to the semantic predicate, or the RHEME. -> the indefinite article expresses what is new, and the definite article expresses what is known already, or at least what is not presented as new.

 

 

(8) The non-finite forms of the verb

In linguistics, a non-finite verb (or a verbal) is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person. As a result, a non-finite verb cannot serve as a predicate and can be used in an independent clause only when combined with an auxiliary verb (e.g., "He can write" but not "He to write"). Rather, it can be said to be the head of a non-finite clause. As such, a non-finite verb is the direct opposite of a finite verb.

By some accounts, a non-finite verb acts simultaneously as a verb and as another part of speech (e.g., gerunds combined with articles or the possessive case); it can take adverbs and certain kinds of verb arguments, producing a verbal phrase (i.e., non-finite clause), and this phrase then plays a different role — usually noun, adjective, or adverb — in a greater clause. This is the reason for using the term verbal; non-finite verbs have traditionally been classified as verbal nouns, verbal adjectives, or verbal adverbs.

English has three kinds of verbals:

1. participles, which include past and present participles and function as adjectives (e.g. burnt log, a betting man);
2. gerunds, which function as nouns and can be used with or without an article (the Running of the Bulls, "studying" is an academically beneficial practice)
3. infinitives, which have noun-like (the question is to be or not to be), adjective-like (work to do), and adverb-like functions (she came over to talk). If in order can precede the infinitive ("she came over in order to talk"), then it must be acting as an adverb.^[1] Infinitives are often preceded by 'to'; but not necessarily.

Each of these kinds of verbals is also used in various common constructs; for example, the past participle is used in forming the perfect (to have done).

Other kinds of verbals, such as supines and gerundives, exist in other languages.

(9). The category of number  
 
The grammatical category of number is the linguistic representation of the objective category of quantity. The number category is realized through the opposition of two form-classes: the plural form :: the singular form. The category of number in English is restricted in its realization because of the dependent implicit grammatical meaning of countableness/uncountableness. The number category is realized only within subclass of countable nouns.

The grammatical meaning of number may not coincide with the notional quantity: the noun in the singular does not necessarily denote one object while the plural form may be used to denote one object consisting of several parts. The singular form may denote:

1. oneness (individual separate object – a cat);
2. generalization (the meaning of the whole class – The cat is a domestic animal);
3. indiscreteness (нерасчлененность or uncountableness - money, milk).

The plural form may denote:

1. the existence of several objects (cats);
2. the inner discreteness (внутренняя расчлененность, pluralia tantum, jeans).

To sum it up, all nouns may be subdivided into three groups:

1. The nouns in which the opposition of explicit discreteness/indiscreteness is expressed : cat::cats;
2. The nouns in which this opposition is not expressed explicitly but is revealed by syntactical and lexical correlation in the context. There are two groups here:
3. Singularia tantum. It covers different groups of nouns: proper names, abstract nouns, material nouns, collective nouns;
4. Pluralia tantum. It covers the names of objects consisting of several parts (jeans), names of sciences (mathematics), names of diseases, games, etc.
5. The nouns with homogenous number forms. The number opposition here is not expressed formally but is revealed only lexically and syntactically in the context: e.g. Look! A sheep is eating grass. Look! The sheep are eating grass.

(10) Verb. The category of tence.

They are constituted by 2 forms of the verb – analytical and non-analytical. The categories of mood, tense and person are basically different. They are characteristic of only finite forms of the verb. The category of tense, being a predicative category, differs from other categories in its structure, grammatical meaning and its syntactic function because it is connected with the essence of the speech act, with interpersonal relations.

The opposition of past and present is not the opposition of just 2 verbal forms but the opposition of 2 systems of forms: Present, Past.

Functionally all the forms, entering these two systems, are the same. They’re used in the syntactic function of the predicate in the sentence. But in speech in the plane of communication the present forms reveal their specific character: they reflect facts and evens as actual, immediately related to the participants of the speech act. On the contrary, the forms of the past reflect something that is already the past, history, not immediately related to the participants of the speech act. What is represented by the past forms is of some cognitive interest to the addressee.

• e.g. I have just seen him. I saw him just now.
• e.g. They are coming tomorrow.

If we admit that the tense forms of the present express reality and make the information actual for the participants of the speech act, it is possible then to account for the rule ‘in clauses of time and condition forms of the present are used instead of the future’ (though the verb expresses a future action). The same is relevant for the use of the forms of the present in object clauses after the verbs with the meaning know, learn, find, imagine, see (that), look, take care, mind, etc.:

• I’ll let you know what happens when I speak to him.
• I’ll take care that he doesn’t.

(11). The Category of Aspect

The category of aspect is a linguistic representation of the objective category of Manner of Action. It is realized through the opposition Continuous::Non-Continuous (Progressive::Non-Progressive). The realization of the category of aspect is closely connected with the lexical meaning of verbs.

There are some verbs in English that do not normally occur with progressive aspect, even in those contexts in which the majority of verbs necessarily take the progressive form. Among the so-called ‘non-progressive’ verbs are think, understand, know, hate, love, see, taste, feel, possess, own, etc. The most striking characteristic that they have in common is the fact that they are ‘stative’ - they refer to a state of affairs, rather than to an action, event or process. It should be observed, however, that all the ‘non-progressive' verbs take the progressive aspect under particular circumstances. As the result of internal transposition verbs of non-progressive nature can be found in the Continuous form: Now I'm knowing you. Generally speaking the Continuous form has at least two semantic features - duration (the action is always in progress) and definiteness (the action is always lim ited to a definite point or period of time). In other words, the purpose of the Continuous form is to serve as a frame which makes the process of the action more concrete and isolated.

(12). The category of voice

The categorial meaning of voice. The peculiarities of voice as a category. Opposition of active and passive forms of the verb. Non-passivized verbs. The problem of “medial” voice types: reflexive, reciprocal and middle voice meanings. Homonymy of the passive constructions and the predicative use of participle II with link verbs; categorial and functional differences between them.

The verbal category of voice shows the direction of the process as regards the participants of the situation reflected in the syntactic structure of the sentence. Voice is a very specific verbal category: first, it does not reflect the actual properties of the process denoted, but the speaker’s appraisal of it; the speaker chooses which of the participants in the situation – the agent (the subject, the doer of the action) or the patient (the object, the receiver of the action, the experiencer) – should be presented as the subject of the syntactic construction. Second, though it is expressed through the morphological forms of the verb, voice is closely connected with the structural organization of the syntactic construction: the use of passive or active forms of the verb involves the use of the passive or active syntactic construction.

Category of verbal mood. 
Category of mood expresses relation of nominative content of sentence towards reality.  there are two moods – real and unreal. Real actions are expressed by indicative mood and unreal are expressed by oblique mood. Linguists distinguish various semantic varieties of oblique mood: Subjunctive I, Subjunctive II, Conditional, Suppositional. Subjunctive II and Conditional are used in conditional period. They have two forms – either homonymous to Past Indefinite and Future-in-the-Past, or to Past Perfect and Future-Perfect-in-the-Past. Subjunctive II and Conditional express same meaning and don’t exist independently, so they can be united into one mood.  Subjunctive I and Suppositional are on periphery of system. It has fallen out of system and is used in restricted contexts . Another indication that Subjunctive I and Suppositional are on periphery of system is that they are synonymous and interchangeable in structure. category of mood is represented by two oppositions: indicative mood and spective mood. indicative mood is basic mood of verb. spective mood, which includes traditional imperative and subjunctive mood, represents process as non-fact. imperative variety of spective mood is morphologically least developed mood: it is only expressed by bare infinitive form.

(13) Adjective. In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified.

Adjectives are one of the traditional eight English parts of speech, though linguists today distinguish adjectives from words such as determiners that were formerly considered to be adjectives. In this paragraph, "traditional" is an adjective, and in the preceding paragraph, "main" and "more" are.

Most but not all languages have adjectives. Those that do not, typically use words of another part of speech, often verbs, to serve the same semantic function; for example, such a language might have a verb that means "to be big", and would use a construction analogous to "big-being house" to express what English expresses as "big house". Even in languages that do have adjectives, one language's adjective might not be another's; for example, whereas English uses "to be hungry" (hungry being an adjective), Dutch and French use "honger hebben" and "avoir faim," respectively (literally "to have hunger", hunger being a noun), and whereas Hebrew uses the adjective "זקוק" (zaqūq, roughly "in need of"), English uses the verb "to need".

Adjectives form an open class of words in most languages that have them; that is, it is relatively common for new adjectives to be formed via such processes as derivation. However, Bantu languages are well known for having only a small closed class of adjectives, and new adjectives are not easily derived. Similarly, native Japanese adjectives (i-adjectives) are a closed class (as are native verbs), though nouns (which are open class) can be used in the genitive and there is the separate class of adjectival nouns (na-adjectives), which is also open, and functions similarly to noun adjuncts in English.

(14) Adverb.

An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than nouns (modifiers of nouns are primarily adjectives and determiners). Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives (including numbers), clauses, sentences, and other adverbs.

Adverbs typically answer questions such as how?, in what way?, when?, where?, and to what extent?. This function is called the adverbial function, and is realized not just by single words (i.e., adverbs) but by adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses.