Categorial structures of the word - Word и Excel - помощь в работе с программами

The most
general notions reflecting the most general properties of phenomena
are called categories.

As for the
grammatical category itself, it presents a
unity of form
(that is material factor), and
meaning
(ideal factor). In other terms it presents a unity of content and
expression. The plane of content (ex. plurality) comprises the purely
semantic elements contained in the language while the plane of
expression (ex. boys) comprises the material (formal) units of the
language. The two planes are inseparably connected, so that no
meaning can be realized without some material means of expression.

The
ordered set of grammatical forms expressing a category is a
paradigm.
Paradigms
may be small and large, depending on the number of grammatical
categories they express; (ex: the paradigm of the word ‘man’
consists of 4 forms: a man – men (number), man’s – men’s
(case)).

Parts of
speech
represent larger paradigms possessing particular paradigms of case,
number (noun), degrees of comparison (adjective, adverb), tense,
voice, mood, person (verb), etc. Bigger paradigms after parts of
speech are morphology and syntax. The biggest paradigm of a language
is its grammatical structure.

The
paradigms in a category are arranged in the form of grammatical
oppositions.
The elements of the opposition have two
types of features:
common features and differential features.
In the opposition ‘boy-boys’ the common features is number, the
differential features are singularity (boy)/plurality (boys).

The
opposition along the line of one grammatical category is called an
opposeme,
ex. number opposeme: a table – tables.

The
oppositional theory was originally formulated as a
phonological theory.
The qualitative oppositions are privative
(b-d-g, p-t-k); gradual
(постепен)
— (i:-i-e-a) and equipollent
(равноцен)
– (m-b). By the number of members were divided into binary,
ternary (тройной),
quaternary
(четвертной),
etc. The most important type of opposition is the
binary privative opposition.
It is formed by a contrastive pair of members in which one member is
characterized by the presence of a certain differential feature while
the other member is characterized by the absence of this feature. The
member in which the feature is present is called the ‘marked’ or
‘strong’, or ‘positive’ member, and has the symbol ‘+’
(plus); the member in which the feature is absent — the ‘unmarked’
or ‘weak’, or ‘negative’ member, (minus).

The
gradual opposition
is formed by a contrastive group of members and shows the degree of
feature.

The
equipollent opposition
is formed by members which have different positive features.

The most
important type of opposition in morphology, the same as in phonology,
is the binary
privative opposition.
Ex. in the opposition ‘work-worked’ the marked member is ‘worked’
because it has the differential feature, the morpheme –ed, while
the unmarked member ‘work’ has no differential feature.

Equipollent
oppositions
in English morphology are rare (редкий).
Ex. the correlation of the person forms of the verb ‘be’ — am — is —
are. An example of the gradual
morphological opposition
can be seen in the category of comparison: strong — stronger – the
strongest. Both equipollent and gradual oppositions can be reduced to
privative oppositions.

In various
contextual
conditions,
one member of an opposition can be used in the position of the other,
counter-member. This phenomenon is called oppositional
reduction.
Ex. the opposition present – future: start – shall start, has
been reduced in the sentence (ex. Tonight we start for London) as the
weak member ‘start’ replacing the strong member ‘shall start’.

This
kind of oppositional reduction is called neutralization of
opposition. There is another kind of reduction, by which one of the
members of the opposition is placed in conditions uncommon for it.
This use is stylistically marked. (Ex. This man is constantly
complaining of something.) This contradiction intensifies the implied
disapproval of the man’s behavior.

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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

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Обновлено: 13.04.2023

Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of language units. The role of F. de Saussure and I. A. Beaudoin de Courtenay in the development of linguistic theory. The notion of synchrony and diachrony.

Language levels and language units. The correlation of word, phrase, sentence, dicteme (utterance). The peculiar status of phoneme. Word and sentence as basic units of language.

QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:

What are the determining features of a system? How do they apply to language?
What is the functional relevance of the language unit?
What conceptual correlation is the language-speech dichotomy based on?
What is the correlation of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations?
What is the difference between segmental and suprasegmental units?
What language levels are identified in the language system?
What conditions the non-overlapping of language levels?
What functions do the language units, representatives of the six language levels, perform?

MORPHEMIC STRUCTURE OF THE WORD

The morphemic structure of the word. The notions of morph, morpheme, allomorph.
The traditional classification of morphemes.
The allo-emic classification of morphemes.
The notion of distribution, types of distribution.
The principle of identifying free/bound, overt/covert, additive/replacive, continuous/discontinuous morphemes.
The notion of zero morpheme.

QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:

What is the basic difference between the morpheme and the word as language units?
What is a morph?
What does the difference between a morpheme and an allomorph consist in?
What principles underlie the traditional study of the morphemic composition of the word?
What principles is the distributional analysis of morphemes based on?
What are the determining features of the three types of distribution?

I. Do the morphemic analysis of the words on the lines of the traditional and distributional classifications.

MODEL: Do the morphemic analysis of the word “inseparable”.

On the lines of the traditional classification the word “inseparable” is treated as a three-morpheme word consisting of the root morpheme “-separ-”, the prefix “in-” and the lexical suffix “-able”.

On the lines of the distributional analysis the root “-separ-” is a bound, overt, continuous, additive morpheme; the prefix “in-” is a bound, overt, continuous, additive morpheme; the suffix “-able” is a bound, overt, continuous, additive morpheme.

a) unmistakably, children’s (books), disfigured, underspecified, surroundings, presume, kingdom, brotherhood, plentiful, imperishable, unprecedented, oxen, embodiment, outlandish;

b) hammer, students’ (papers), sing–sang–singing–singer, really, proficient–deficient–efficient, gooseberry, unreproved, incomparable;

c) quiet, perceptions, wheaterina, bell, unbelievably, glassy, uncommunicative, inexplicable, infamy, strenuousness;

d) inconceivable, prefigurations, southernism, semidarkness, adventuresses, insurmountable, susceptibility, ineptitude, unfathomable, insufficiency, to prejudge, cranberry.

II. Define the type of the morphemic distribution according to which the given words are grouped.

MODEL: insensible–incapable

The morphs “-ible” and “-able” are in complementary distribution, as they have the same meaning but are different in their form which is explained by their different environments.

a) impeccable, indelicate, illiterate, irrelevant;

b) undisputable, indisputable;

c) published, rimmed;

d) seams, seamless, seamy.

III. Group the words according to a particular type of morphemic distribution.

MODEL: worked–bells–tells–fells–telling–spells–spelled–spelt–felled–bell

spells–spelled: the allomorphs “-s” and “-ed” are in contrastive distribution (=fells–felled);

bell–bells: the allomorph “-s” and zero allomorph are in contrastive distribution;

spelt–spelled: the allomorphs “-t” and “-ed” are in non-contrastive distribution;

worked–spelled: the allomorphs “-ed [t]” and “-ed [d]” are in complementary distribution, etc.

IV. Group the words according to a particular type of morphemic distribution:

The most general notions reflecting the most general properties of phenomena are called categories.

As for the grammatical category itself, it presents a unity of form (that is material factor), and meaning (ideal factor). In other terms it presents a unity of content and expression. The plane of content (ex. plurality) comprises the purely semantic elements contained in the language while the plane of expression (ex. boys) comprises the material (formal) units of the language. The two planes are inseparably connected, so that no meaning can be realized without some material means of expression.

The ordered set of grammatical forms expressing a category is a paradigm. Paradigms may be small and large, depending on the number of grammatical categories they express; (ex: the paradigm of the word ‘man’ consists of 4 forms: a man – men (number), man’s – men’s (case)).

Parts of speech represent larger paradigms possessing particular paradigms of case, number (noun), degrees of comparison (adjective, adverb), tense, voice, mood, person (verb), etc. Bigger paradigms after parts of speech are morphology and syntax. The biggest paradigm of a language is its grammatical structure.

The paradigms in a category are arranged in the form of grammatical oppositions. The elements of the opposition have two types of features: common features and differential features. In the opposition ‘boy-boys’ the common features is number, the differential features are singularity (boy)/plurality (boys).

The opposition along the line of one grammatical category is called an opposeme, ex. number opposeme: a table – tables.

The oppositional theory was originally formulated as a phonological theory. The qualitative oppositions are privative (b-d-g, p-t-k); gradual (постепен) — (i:-i-e-a) and equipollent (равноцен) – (m-b). By the number of members were divided into binary, ternary (тройной), quaternary (четвертной), etc. The most important type of opposition is the binary privative opposition. It is formed by a contrastive pair of members in which one member is characterized by the presence of a certain differential feature while the other member is characterized by the absence of this feature. The member in which the feature is present is called the ‘marked’ or ‘strong’, or ‘positive’ member, and has the symbol ‘+’ (plus); the member in which the feature is absent — the ‘unmarked’ or ‘weak’, or ‘negative’ member, (minus).

The gradual opposition is formed by a contrastive group of members and shows the degree of feature.

The equipollent opposition is formed by members which have different positive features.

The most important type of opposition in morphology, the same as in phonology, is the binary privative opposition. Ex. in the opposition ‘work-worked’ the marked member is ‘worked’ because it has the differential feature, the morpheme –ed, while the unmarked member ‘work’ has no differential feature.

Equipollent oppositions in English morphology are rare (редкий). Ex. the correlation of the person forms of the verb ‘be’ — am — is — are. An example of the gradual morphological opposition can be seen in the category of comparison: strong — stronger – the strongest. Both equipollent and gradual oppositions can be reduced to privative oppositions.

This kind of oppositional reduction is called neutralization of opposition. There is another kind of reduction, by which one of the members of the opposition is placed in conditions uncommon for it. This use is stylistically marked. (Ex. This man is constantly complaining of something.) This contradiction intensifies the implied disapproval of the man’s behavior.

The definition of the morpheme. The word and the morpheme, their correlation in the level structure of the language. Intermediary phenomena between the word and the morpheme. Traditional classification of morphemes: positional and functional (semantic) criteria. Roots and affixes. Lexical (derivational, word-building) and grammatical (functional, word-changing) affixes. The IC-analysis of the morphemic structure. Grammatical relevance of derivational affixes; lexical (word-building) paradigms. The peculiarities of grammatical suffixes (inflexions) in English. Outer and inner inflexion. The «allo-emic» theory in morphology: morphs, allomorphs and morphemes.Distributional analysis in morphology; contrastive, non-contrastive, and complementary types of distribution. Distributional classification of morphemes: full and empty (zero morphemes), free and bound, overt and covert, segmental and supra-segmental, additive and replacive, continuous and discontinuous morphemes. The assessment of distributional morpheme types. As shown in the previous unit, the morpheme is the elementary meaningful lingual unit built up from phonemes and used to make words. It has meaning, but its meaning is abstract, significative, not concrete, or nominative, as is that of the word. Morphemes constitute the words; they do not exist outside the words. Studying the morpheme we actually study the word: its inner structure, its functions, and the ways it enters speech.

Grammatical meaning and the means of its expression. Paradigmatic correlation of individual grammatical forms. Grammatical category as a system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning. Oppositional analysis of grammatical category. The theory of oppositions. The types of oppositions: binary and supra-binary (ternary, quaternary, etc.) oppositions; privative, gradual, and equipollent oppositions. Oppositions in grammar. Privative binary opposition as the most important type of categorial opposition in grammar. The strong (marked, positive) and the weak (unmarked, negative) members of the opposition, their formal and functional features. Grammatical category in communication: contextual oppositional reduction (oppositional substitution). The two types of oppositional reduction: neutralization and transposition. Synthetical and analytical grammatical forms. The types of synthetical grammatical forms: outer inflection, inner inflection, and suppletivity. The principle of identifying an analytical form; grammatical idiomatism of analytical forms. The types of grammatical categories: immanent and reflective categories, closed and transgressive categories, constant feature categories and variable feature categories. Grammatical meanings of notional words are rendered by their grammatical forms. For example, the meaning of the plural in English is regularly rendered by the grammatical suffix –(e)s: cats, books, clashes. Grammatical meanings of individual grammatical forms are established as such in paradigmatic correlations: the plural correlates with the singular (cat – cats), the genitive case of the noun correlates with the common case (cat – cat’s), the definite article determination correlates with the indefinite article determination (a cat – the cat), etc.

Key terms: significative (meaning), intermediary phenomenon (phenomena), root, affix, lexical (derivational, word-building) affix, grammatical (functional, word-changing) affix, stem, outer inflexion, inner inflexion, suppletivity, the IC analysis, allo-emic theory, morph, allomorph, distribution (complementive, contrastive, non-constrastive), distributional analysis, full and empty morphemes, free and bound morphemes, overt and covert morphemes, segmental and suprа-segmental morphemes, additive and replacive morphemes, continuous and discontinuous morphemes

Grammatical meaning and the means of its expression. Paradigmatic correlation of individual grammatical forms. Grammatical category as a system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning. Oppositional analysis of grammatical category. The theory of oppositions. The types of oppositions: binary and supra-binary (ternary, quaternary, etc.) oppositions; privative, gradual, and equipollent oppositions. Oppositions in grammar. Privative binary opposition as the most important type of categorial opposition in grammar. The strong (marked, positive) and the weak (unmarked, negative) members of the opposition, their formal and functional features. Grammatical category in communication: contextual oppositional reduction (oppositional substitution). The two types of oppositional reduction: neutralization and transposition. Synthetical and analytical grammatical forms. The types of synthetical grammatical forms: outer inflection, inner inflection, and suppletivity. The principle of identifying an analytical form; grammatical idiomatism of analytical forms. The types of grammatical categories: immanent and reflective categories, closed and transgressive categories, constant feature categories and variable feature categories.

The generalized meaning rendered by paradigmatically correlated grammatical forms is called “categorial”. Category is a logical notion denoting the reflection of the most general properties of phenomena. Categorial meanings in grammar are expressed by grammatical paradigms. For example, within the system of the English noun the generalized, categorial meaning of “number” is expressed grammatically through the paradigmatic correlation (or, opposition in a paradigm) of two members, of two grammatical forms, each with its own grammatical meaning: the singular (e.g., cat) and the plural (cats).

Thus, the definition of grammatical category is as follows: grammatical category is a system of expressing a generalized categorial meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms. In other words, it is a unity of a generalized grammatical meaning and the forms of its expression.

Помимо различий в форме, между членами привативных оппозиций существуют регулярные семантические отличия: значение слабого члена оппозиции всегда является более общим и абстрактным, а значение сильного члена оппозиции – более конкретным. Именно поэтому слабый член оппозиции используется в более широком диапазоне контекстов, чем сильный, и даже может регулярно замещать его в некоторых контекстах. Например, форма единственного числа существительного может использоваться в родовом значении для обозначения всех элементов некоторого класса объектов: The rose is my favourite flower = (All) Roses are my favourite flowers.

On the basis of various combinations of common and differential features, several types of oppositions are distinguished. The prevalent type in English grammar is a binary privative opposition. The term “binary” means, that the opposition consists of two members, or forms; besides binary oppositions, there are oppositions, that may include more than two members (‘ternary’, ‘quaternary’, etc.). The term “privative” means that the members of the opposition are characterized by the presence/absence of a certain differential feature, which serves as the formal mark of one of its members; in the example above, cat – cats, the ending of the plural is its formal mark. The member of the opposition characterized by the presence of the differential mark is called “marked”, “strong”, or “positive” (commonly designated by the symbol +). The other member of the opposition, characterized by the absence of the differential feature, is called “unmarked”, “weak”, or “negative” (commonly designated by the symbol -). In the category of number the strong, marked member is the plural form, because it possesses a special formal mark (either the productive suffix -(e)s, or other formal means, such as -en in children, etc.), the weak, unmarked member of the opposition is the singular form, which possesses no special mark. To stress the negative marking of the weak member it is also defined in oppositional theory with “non-”terms: e.g., the singular is referred to as “non-plural”.

Besides the differences in the form, there are also regular semantic differences between the members of the privative oppositions: the meaning of the weak member is always more general and more abstract, while the meaning of the strong member is always more particular and concrete. Due to this difference in meaning, the weak member of the opposition is used in a wider range of contexts than the strong member and it can even regularly substitute the strong member in certain contexts. For example, the singular form of the noun can be used generically to denote all the objects belonging to a certain class: The rose is my favourite flower = (All) Roses are my favourite flowers.

Besides privative oppositions, there are gradual and equipollent oppositions, which are minor types in morphology. Gradual oppositions are formed by a series of members which are distinguished not by the presence or absence of a differential feature, but by the degree of it. A gradual morphological opposition in English can be identified only in the plane of content in the category of comparison, cf.: big – bigger — biggest. Equipollent oppositions are formed by members, which are distinguished by a number of their own features. An equipollent morphological opposition in English can be identified in the plane of expression in the paradigms of suppletive forms, for example, in the correlation of the person and number forms of the verb be: am – are – is (was – were).

Analytical grammatical forms are prevalent in English; modern English is an analytical type of language.

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Categorial Structure of the Word

1. Definition of the Word

There are many definitions of the term ‘word’ and none of them is generally accepted. But usually people experience no difficulty in separating one word from another in their native tongue. The analysis of numerous definitions of this term is the domain of lexicology. For the purposes of theoretical grammar we’ll accept the following one:

“A word is a free lingual unit (свободная языковая единица) that cannot be divided wholly into smaller free units that can be used to build a sentence.”

There are often restrictions on the phonetic make-up of the word, e.g. English words cannot begin with the sounds [ŋ] and [Ʒ]. The position of a stress is often fixed, that is, it is determined by the boundaries of words or their syllabic structure. Elements within words show greater cohesion ([ko’hi:Ʒn] – связь]) than within larger units. Thus, stems and affixes cannot be separated except by other affixes. Nor does the order of their elements tend to vary.

Distinctions are often drawn:

1. Between a phonological word or word as seen from the viewpoint of phonology, and a grammatical word, established by grammatical criteria only;

2. Between words distinguished in the lexicon (e.g. sing) and the individual word-forms that they can possess (e.g. sang, sung, singing).

2. The Hierarchy of Levels

(1) The lowest level of lingual segments is pho’nemic. It is formed by ‘phonemes. The phoneme has no meaning, its function is purely differential. It differentiates morphemes and words: pit – bit, bit – beat, etc.

(2) The next level is the mor’phemic one. The ‘morpheme is the elementary meaningful part of the word.

(3) The third level is the level of words, or le’xemic level. The word is different from the morpheme. The morphemes express abstract, ‘significative’ meanings which are used as constituents for the formation of more concrete, ‘nominative’ meanings of words. The word is a directly naming , nominative unit of language; it names things and their relations.

(4) The next higher level is the level of phrases (word-groups).

(5) Above the level of phrases lies the level of sentences.

(6) The 6^th level comprises topical grouping which are defined as ‘dictemes, or elementary topical segmental units of the continual text. In the printed text, these grouping coincide with paragraphs.

3. The Lexeme. The ‘Grammeme

While a word may have only one phonological form (sheep, sg. – sheep, pl.), this is not always the case. Let’s, for example, take GO and WENT. Native speakers of English know that these are different forms of the same word. That’s why it is necessary to distinguish between the abstract vocabulary word GO and the phonological and orthographical forms it can take: goes, gone, went, going. We can think of these forms as the realizations (in sound and print) of the abstract vocabulary word. Linguists call such an abstract vocabulary word a lexeme. It means that a single lexeme can have a variety of word-form realizations. The number of these realizations in an English lexeme may vary from one (e.g. always, sheep) to several dozens.

Now let’s take the form ‘goes’. The suffix –(e)s has such meaning as 1) present tense, 2) 3^rd person, 3) singular number, 4) active voice, 5) indicative mood.

This form is a grammeme. When we speak of a word as a grammeme we don’t think of its lexical meaning. We concentrate on the kind of grammatical information it carries. The lexical meaning is irrelevant for the detection of the type of grammeme. So, ‘goes’, ‘runs’, ‘stands’, ‘sits’, etc. is one grammeme.

For practical purposes of grammatical description the term ‘word-form’ is usually used.

A grammeme may be analytical by structure, which means that it may consist of more than one element: will go, have gone. An analytical grammeme is equivalent to one word-form.

Morphemes and grammemes are directly observable units by nature, lexemes are not.

4. The Categorial Grammatical Meaning. The Paradigm.

Notional words, first of all verbs and nouns, possess some morphemic features expressing grammatical (morphological) meanings. These features determine the grammatical form of the word, that is, the type of grammeme.

Grammatical meanings are very abstract, very general, therefore the grammatical form is not confined to an individual word, but unites a whole class of words: plural of nouns – boys, girls, dogs, buildings, trees, etc.; 3^rd person, sg. of verbs – runs, takes, gives, etc.

The most general meanings rendered by language and expressed by systemic correlations of word-forms are called categorical grammatical meanings. Thus, the categorical grammatical meaning unites the individual meanings of the correlated word-forms and is exposed through them. The correlated word-forms carry specific grammatical information. They form a paradigm. A grammatical paradigm formed by the ordered set of grammatical word-forms expresses a categorical grammatical meaning.

For example, the verb forms ‘am speaking, is speaking, are speaking, was speaking, were speaking, etc.’ are units with a common meaning that brings them together into one paradigm. This common meaning is the grammatical meaning of duration or development.

Grammatical paradigms express various grammatical categories. The minimal paradigm consists of two word-forms. This kind of paradigm we see, for example, in the category of noun number: boy – boys.

A more complex paradigm can be divided into two, three and more subparadigms.

The Paradigm of Personal Pronouns

Singular

The nom. form The obj. form The poss. form The poss. form (absolute)

I me my mine

he him his his

she her her hers

it it its its

Plural

we us our ours

you you your yours

they them their theirs

5. The Grammatical Opposition

The paradigmatic correlations of grammatical forms in a category are exposed by the so-called grammatical oppositions. The opposition is a correlation of lingual forms by means of which a certain function is expressed.

The correlated members of the opposition possess two types of features: common features and differential ones. Common features serve as the basis of contrast, while differential ones express the function in question.

There are 3 main qualitative types of opposition: privative [‘prIvqtIv], gradual [‘grxdjVql], equipollent [IkwI’pOlqnt].

By the number of members, oppositions are divided into binary (two members) and more than binary – ternary [‘tWnqrI] (three members), quaternary [kwq’tWnqrI] (four members), etc.

The binary privative opposition is formed by a pair of members in which one member is characterized by the presence of a certain differential feature (“mark”), while the other member is characterized by the absence of this feature.

The member in which the feature is present is called the marked, or strong, or positive member; the member in which the feature is absent is called the unmarked, or weak, or negative member: boy – boys; strong – stronger; democratic – antidemocratic.

The gradual opposition is formed by a group of members which are distinguished not by the presence or absence of a feature, but by the degree of it: strong(ø) – stronger – strongest.

The equipollent opposition is formed by a pair or group in which the members are distinguished by different positive features: phenomenon – phenomena.

It is difficult to find the examples of this kind of opposition in English morphology (am – is – are), but in lexicology the best known examples are antonyms, that is, the pairs of antonyms having different roots: alive – dead, progressive – reactionary, etc.

The most important type of opposition is the binary privative opposition. The other types are reducible to it: strong – stronger – strongest > strong – stronger, strong – strongest; productive – wasteful > productive – unproductive.

6. Oppositional Substitution (Reduction)

In various contextual conditions, one member of an opposition can be used in the position of the other member. This is called ‘oppositional substitution’, or ‘oppositional reduction’, e.g.

The train leaves tomorrow.

The verb in this sentence has the form of the present indefinite while its meaning in the context is the future. So, the weak member (the present tense form) has replaced the strong member (the future tense form). The oppositional substitution shown in the above given sentence is stylistically indifferent. This kind of oppositional substitution is referred to as neutralization. The position of neutralization is filled in by the weak member of the opposition due to its more general semantics.

Alongside the neutralizing substitution (or reduction) there exists another kind of reduction when the use of the form is stylistically coloured. E.g. He is constantly grumbling.

The form of the present continuous here stands in sharp contradiction with its regular grammatical meaning “action in progress at the present moment”. The contradiction is purposeful: exaggeration.

This kind of oppositional substitution belongs to the domain of transposition. Transposition may be defined as a contrastive use of the counter-member of the opposition. As a rule, the strong member (or the counter-member) of the opposition is transpositionally employed. The stylistic colouring is explained by the comparatively limited regular functions of the strong member (limited semantics).

7. Synthetic(al) and Analytical Grammatical Forms

The grammatical forms fall under two main groups: synthetic and analytical.

Synthetic grammatical forms are realized by the inner morphemic composition of the word, while analytical grammatical forms are built up by a combination of at least two words: a grammatical auxiliary and a word of “substantial” meaning.

Synthetic grammatical forms are based on (1) inner inflexion, (2) outer inflexion and (3) suppletivity.

Inner inflexion, or phonemic vowel interchange, is not productive now: take – took, man – men, etc.

Suppletivity is not productive too. It is based on the correlation of different roots in one paradigm: go – went, good – better.

Outer inflexion is more productive. It is represented by grammatical suffixation: table – tables, take – takes, large – larger, etc. Grammatical prefixation can only be found in Old English.

The synthetic grammatical forms in English are used to build up (1) the number and case forms of the noun (boy – boys, boy – boy’s); (2) the person-number and tense of the verb (take – takes; work – worked), (3) participial and gerundial forms of the verb (take – taken, work – worked, take – taking), (4) the comparison forms of the adjective and adverb.

In the oppositional correlations of all these forms, the initial paradigmatic form of each opposition is distinguished by a zero suffix: boy + Ø – boy + s.

The forms consisting of two or more words are not always recognized as the analytical ones. Many linguists call them peri’phrastic constructions, or structures. The problems connected with the analytical form were investigated mostly by Russian grammarians. They have developed the criteria for the identification of analytical forms.

For example, the main features of a verbal analytical form are the following:

(1) It is a collocation of a constant element which is manifested by an auxiliary finite verb in one of the tense forms, and a variable element – notional verb. The notional verb stands in one of the non-finite forms – infinitive, participle I, participle II.

(2) This collocation is indivisible in grammatical sense, though its components are separate words.

(3) The auxiliaries are limited in number and fixed.

(4) The analytical form has an unlimited range of occurrence [q`kArqns] as a grammatical unit. It covers the whole of the verbal lexicon.

Grammatical categories

The grammatical categories are realized by the types of forms organized in paradigmatic oppositions, e.g. girl — girls (the category of number), large — larger (the category of comparison), etc. They can be divided into immanent categories, that is, categories innate for a given class of words, and reflective categories, that is, categories serving as a sign of correlation with some other class. Reflective categories are categories of a secondary, derivative semantic value.

For instance, the categories of number and person for nouns and pronouns are immanent, while the verbal person and the verbal number are reflective because the forms of these categories are based on grammatical agreement (The boy is smiling. The boys are smiling). For verbs the immanent categories are those of tense, aspect, voice and mood.

These is another important division of grammatical categories. The feature expressed by the category can be either constant (unchangeable) or variable (changeable).

Variable feature categories can be seen in the nominal number (singular — plural), the degrees of comparison (positive — comparative — superlative), the verbal tense, etc.

An example of a constant feature category can be seen in the category of gender.

Constant feature categories reflect the static classifications of phenomena, while variable feature categories expose various connections between phenomena.

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