Categorial meaning of the word

3.1. Grammatical Form. Categorial Grammatical Meaning.

The word combines in its
semantic structure two meanings – lexical and grammatical. Lexical
meaning is the individual meaning of the word (e.g. table).
Grammatical meaning is the meaning of the whole class or a subclass.

Grammatical
meanings are very abstract, very general. Therefore the grammatical
form unites a whole class of words, so that each word of the class
expresses the corresponding grammatical meaning together with its
individual, concrete semantics.

Examples:

1)
The meaning of the plural of nouns is rendered by the regular plural
suffix –(e)s, (in some cases by other means, such as phonemic
interchange). Different groups of nouns ‘take’ this form with
strictly defined variations (phonological or etymological
conditioning): faces, books, dogs, oxen, sheep, men, formulae, radii,
crises, phenomena.

2) tables

morphological form: it is a
word consisting of two morphemes the root and the inflection.

grammatical form: the plural
from of the noun denoting ‘more than one’.

The
grammatical form
presents a division of the word on the principle of expressing a
certain grammatical meaning.

The
class of nouns has the grammatical meaning of thingness. If we take a
noun (table) we may say that it possesses its individual lexical
meaning (it corresponds to a definite piece of furniture) and the
grammatical meaning of thingness (this is the meaning of the whole
class). Besides, the noun ‘table’ has the grammatical meaning of
a subclass – countableness. Any verb combines its individual
lexical meaning with the grammatical meaning of verbiality – the
ability to denote actions or states. An adjective combines its
individual lexical meaning with the grammatical meaning of the whole
class of adjectives – qualitativeness – the ability to denote
qualities. Adverbs possess the grammatical meaning of adverbiality –
the ability to denote quality of qualities.

There
are some classes of words that are devoid of any lexical meaning and
possess the grammatical meaning only (function words belong to this
group – articles, particles, prepositions, etc).

Types
of the grammatical meaning

1. explicit

The
explicit grammatical meaning is always marked morphologically – it
has its marker (cats – the grammatical meaning of plurality is
shown in the form of the noun; cat’s – here the grammatical
meaning of possessiveness is shown by the form ‘s; is asked –
shows the explicit grammatical meaning of passiveness).

1. implicit

The implicit grammatical
meaning is not expressed formally (e.g. the word table does not
contain any hints in its form as to it being inanimate).

The implicit grammatical
meaning may be of two types

2.1
general

The general grammatical
meaning is the meaning of the whole word-class, of a part of speech
(e.g. nouns – the general grammatical meaning of thingness).

2.2
dependent.

The dependent grammatical
meaning is the meaning of a subclass within the same part of speech.
For instance, any verb possesses the dependent grammatical meaning of
transitivity/intransitivity, terminativeness/non-terminativeness,
stativeness/non-stativeness; nouns have the dependent grammatical
meaning of contableness/uncountableness and
animateness/inanimateness. The most important thing about the
dependent grammatical meaning is that it influences the realization
of grammatical categories restricting them to a subclass. Thus the
dependent grammatical meaning of countableness/uncountableness
influences the realization of the grammatical category of number as
the number category is realized only within the subclass of countable
nouns, the grammatical meaning of animateness/inanimateness
influences the realization of the grammatical category of case,
teminativeness/non-terminativeness — the category of tense,
transitivity/intransitivity – the category of voice.

Categorial
grammatical meanings
are the most general meanings rendered by language and expressed by
systemic correlations of word-forms. These forms are identified
within definite paradigmatic series.

The categorial meaning (e.g.
the grammatical number) unites the individual meanings of the
correlated paradigmatic forms (e.g. singular — plural) and is
exposed through them.

The
grammatical category
is a system of expressing a generalised grammatical meaning by means
of paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms. The grammatical
category presents a unity of form and meaning.

Grammatical
categories are made up by the unity of identical grammatical meanings
that have the same form (e.g. singular-plural). Grammatical
categories correlate, on the one hand, with the conceptual categories
and, on the other hand, with the objective reality. Thus we may
define grammatical categories as references of the corresponding
objective categories. For example, the objective category of time
finds its representation in the grammatical category of tense,
the objective category of quantity
finds its representation in the grammatical category of number.
Those grammatical categories that have references in the objective
reality are called referential
grammatical categories. However, not all of the grammatical
categories have references in the objective reality, just a few of
them do not correspond to anything in the objective reality.
Significational
categories
correlate only with conceptual matters. To this type belong the
categories of mood (its conceptual correlate is modality) and degree.

The grammatical categories can
be

1)
immanent – innate for a given class of words
(the category of number is organically connected with the functional
nature of the noun)

2)
reflective – categories of a secondary, derivative semantic value
(the
category of number in the verb; the verbal number is not a
quantitative characterisation of the process, but a numerical
featuring of the subject-referent).

Grammatical
categories can also be divided into;

1. constant
   (unchangeable, derivational)
   – the category of gender, which divides the class of English nouns
   into non-human names, human male names, human female names, and
   human common gender names.

2. variable
   (changeable, demutative) – substantive
   number (singular – plural) or the degrees of comparison (positive
   – comparative – superlative).

Some
marginal categorial forms may acquire intermediary status, being
located in-between the corresponding categorial poles. For instance,
the nouns singularia tantum and pluralia tantum present a case of
hybrid variable-constant formations, since their variable feature of
number has become ‘rigid’, or ‘lexicalised’ (news, advice,
progress; people, police; bellows, tongs; colours, letters; etc.).

The
gender word-building pairs should be considered as a clear example of
hybrid constant-variable formations, since their constant feature of
gender has acquired some changeability properties, i.e. has become to
a certain extent ‘grammaticalised’ (actor — actress, author —
authoress, lion — lioness, etc.).

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Notional words possess some morphemic features expressing grammatical (morphological) meanings. These features determine the grammatical form of the word.

The grammatical form units a whole class of words. Each word of the class expresses the corresponding grammatical meaning together with its individual, concrete meaning.

The most general meanings are interpreted in linguistics as categorical grammatical meanings. The categorical meaning (e.g. grammatical number) unites the individual meaning of the correlated paradigmatic forms (e.g. singular – plural).

The grammatical category is a system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of grammatical form.

The ordered set of grammatical forms expressing a categorical function constitutes a paradigm.

The paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms in a category is exposed by “grammatical opposition”. Grammatical opposition is a generalized correlation of lingual forms by means of which a certain function is expressed. The correlated elements (members) of the opposition must possess two types of features: common features and differential features. Common features serve as the basis of contrast, while differential features immediately express the function in question.

The most important type of opposition is the binary privative opposition. The binary privative opposition is formed by a contrastive pair of members in which one member is characterized by the presence of a certain differential feature (mark), while the other member is characterized be the absence of this feature. The member in which the feature is present is called “mark”, “strong” or “positive” and is designated by the symbol + (plus). The member in which the feature is absent is called the “unmarked”, “weak” or “negative” member, and is designated by the symbol – (minus). (past –present: We worked (strong member) – We work (weak member).

Grammatical classes of words

The words of language are divided into grammatically relevant sets of classes. The traditional grammatical classes of words are called “parts of speech”. Modern principles of part of speech identification have been formulated as a result of painstaking research. The three conducted names are especially notable for the elaboration of these criteria: V.V.Vinogradov in connection with his study of Russian grammar, A.I.Smirnitsky and B.A.Ilyish in connection with their study of English grammar.

In modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of the three criteria: “semantic”, “formal”, and “functional”. These factors of categorical characterization of words are referred to meaning, form and function.

The semantic criterion presupposes the evaluation of the generalized meaning, which is characteristic of all the subsets of words constituting a given part of speech. This meaning is understood as the “categorial meaning of the part of speech”.

The formal criterion provides for the exposition of the specific inflexional and derivational (word-building) features of all the lexemic subsets of a part of speech.

The functional criterion concerns the syntactic role of words in the sentence typical of a part of speech.

Words on the upper level of classification are divided into notional and functional, which reflects their division in the earlier grammatical tradition into changeable and unchangeable.

Notional parts of speech are words of complete nominative meaning characterized by self-dependent functions in the sentence.

Лекция 2

• Defenition of the word categorial

  • relating to the concept of categories; «the applicants were classified according to a categorial system»
  • of or relating to the concept of categories

See other words

• • What is catechetical instruction
  • The definition of catechetic
  • The interpretation of the word catechetical
  • What is meant by catechesis
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  • The dictionary meaning of the word get onto
  • The grammatical meaning of the word catch it
  • Meaning of the word catch crop
  • Literal and figurative meaning of the word catch cold
  • The origin of the word categoric
  • Synonym for the word categorical imperative
  • Antonyms for the word categorisation
  • Homonyms for the word catenate
  • Hyponyms for the word catenulate
  • Holonyms for the word chainlike
  • Hypernyms for the word caterer
  • Proverbs and sayings for the word caterpillar-tracked
  • Translation of the word in other languages caterpillar tread