Explain the difference between the word combination and the sentence

The
theory of phrase or word combination in linguistics has a long
tradition going back to the 18-th century. According to Russian
scholars the term ‘word combination’ (словосочетание)
can be applied only to such groups of words which contain at least
two notional words forming a grammatical unit. Thus Soviet linguists
restrict the use of the term ‘word combination’ to combination of
notional words. Western scholars hold a different view of the
problem. They consider that every combination of two or more words
constitutes a unit which they term ‘phrase’. In other words,
western linguists do not limit the term ‘phrase’ to combination
of notional words and do not draw a sharp distinction between the two
types of word-groups such as ‘wise men’ and ‘to the
lighthouse’. The first and the most important difference of opinion
on the question between soviet and western scholarsconcerns the
constituents of the word groups forming grammatical units.

Another
debatable problem in soviet linguistics was whether a predicative
combination of words forms a word combination.

It
is generally known that a sentence is based on predication and its
purpose in communication. A word combination has no such aim. Word
combinations are more like words because they are employed for naming
things, actions, qualities and so on. In contrast with soviet
linguists some western scholars make no difference between subject –
predicate combinations of words and other word combinations, though
some western theories bear considerable resemblance to Russian ideas.

There’s
no traditional terminology in the works of English and American
scholars discussing combinations of words; and different terms are
used to express the same idea (phrase, combination of words, cluster
of words, word group).

9. The Sentence

When
we speak or write we convey our thougths through sentences. A
sentence is the only unit of language which is capable of expressing
a communication containing some kind of information. But linguistics
is at difficulty to define it. One of the definitions is ‘the
sentence is the smallest communication unit expressing a more or less
complete thought and having a definite grammatical structure and
intonation’. In most sentences intonation functions as part of a
whole system of formal characteristics.

The sentence and the word group (phrase)

Neither
words no word groups can express communication. Cf. the arrival of
the delegation is expected next week (a sentence). It is a structure
in which words are grouped (arranged) according to definite rules
(patterns).

Another
difference between the sentence and the phrase is predicativity.
Predicativity comprises tense and mood components. The sentence
together with predicativity expresses a fact, while a phrase gives a
nomination without time reference:

The
doctor arrived. The doctor’s arrival.

Predication
is a word or combination of words expressing predicativity. Thus the
essential property of sentence is predicativity and intonation.

Classification of Sentences

Sentences
are classified 1) according to the types of communication and 2)
according to their structure.

In
accordance with the types of communication sentences are divided
into:

Declarative
(giving information). E.g. the book is interesting (statement).

Interrogative
(asking for information). E.g. is the book interesting? (question).

Imperative
(asking for action). E.g. give me the book! (command, request).

Each
of these 3 kinds of sentences may be in the affirmative and negative
form, exclamatory and non- exclamatory.

Types of
Sentences According to Structure

I
a) Simple sentences containing one predication (subject-predicate
relationship)

b)
Composite sentences containing one or more predications Composite
sentences are divided into compound and complex sentences.

II.
Simple sentences and main clauses may be two-member and one-member
sentences.

The
two-member sentence pattern is typical of the vast majority of
sentences in English. It is a sentence with full predication. (The
Sun shines. She walks fast).

If
a simple sentence contains the subject and the predicate only, it is
called unextended. E.g. spring came.

If
a sentence comprises secondary parts besides the main parts, it is
called extended. E.g. Dick came home late.

The
one-member sentence contains only one principle part, which is
neither the subject nor the predicate. E.g. Thieves! Fire! A cup of
tea, please! A one-member sentence sometimes resembles a two-member
sentence. E.g. No birds singing in the dawn. It may be complex in
structure: e.g. And what if he had seen them embracing in the
moonlight?

Imperative
sentences with no subject also belong here: Get away from me!

If
the main part is expressed by an infinitive, such a one-member
sentence is called an infinitive sentence: Oh, to be in England!

The
exclamatory character is a necessary feature of these sentences.
Infinitive sentences are very common in represented speech.

Types of
One-member Sentences in English

Nominative
(substantive) E.g. Another day of fog.

Verbal
(Imperative: Don’t believe him! ,Infinitive: Only to think of it!
,Gerundial: No playing with fire!)

Adjectival
one-member sentences: Splendid! How romantic!

Types of
Sentences According to their Completeness

1. Complete
   (non-elliptical) sentences.

2. Incomplete
   (elliptical) sentences.

Elliptical
sentences are such sentences in which one or several parts are
missing as compared with analogous sentences where there is no
ellipsis. Elliptical sentences may freely be changed into complete
sentences, the missing part of the sentence being supplied from the
preceding or following context, by means of intonation: e.g. I sat
near the window, he – near the door (= he sat near the door).
Playing, children? (= are you playing, children?) Cf. A small but
cosy room (a one-member sentence); in the background stands/ is a
little writing table (an elliptical two-member sentence). The main
sphere of elliptical sentences is of course dialogue.

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A lexeme is a unit of lexical meaning that exists regardless of the number of inflectional endings it may have or the number of words it may contain. It is a basic unit of meaning, and the headwords of a dictionary are all lexemes. Put more technically, a lexeme is an abstract unit of morphological analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single word. For example, in the terminology language, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme, conventionally written as run. A related concept is the lemma (or citation form), which is a particular form of a lexeme that is chosen by convention to represent a canonical form of a lexeme. Lemmas, being a subset of lexemes, are likewise used in dictionaries as the headwords, and other forms of a lexeme are often listed later in the entry if they are not common conjugations of that word. A lexeme belongs to a particular syntactic category, has a certain meaning (semantic value), and in inflecting languages, has a corresponding inflectional paradigm; that is, a lexeme in many languages will have many different forms. For example, the lexeme run has a present third person singular form runs, a present non-third-person singular form run (which also functions as the past participle and non-finite form), a past form ran, and a present participle running. (It does not include runner, runners, runnable, etc.) The use of the forms of a lexeme is governed by rules of grammar; in the case of English verbs such as run, these include subject-verb agreement and compound tense rules, which determine which form of a verb can be used in a given sentence.

A lexicon consists of lexemes.

In many formal theories of language, lexemes have subcategorization frames to account for the number and types of complements. They occur within sentences and other syntactic structures.

The notion of a lexeme is very central to morphology, and thus, many other notions can be defined in terms of it. For example, the difference between inflection and derivation can be stated in terms of lexemes:

Inflectional rules relate a lexeme to its forms.

Derivational rules relate a lexeme to another lexeme.

A grammatical category is a property of items within the grammar of a language; it has a number of possible values (sometimes called grammemes), which are normally mutually exclusive within a given category. Examples of frequently encountered grammatical categories include tense (which may take values such as present, past, etc.), number (with values such as singular, plural, and sometimes dual, trial and paucal) and gender (with values such as masculine, feminine and neuter).

Although terminology is not always consistent, a distinction should be made between these grammatical categories (tense, number, etc.) and lexical categories, which are closely synonymous with the traditional parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.), or more generally syntactic categories. Grammatical categories are also referred to as (grammatical) features.

The name given to a grammatical category (as an uncountable noun) is generally also used (as a countable noun) to denote any of the possible values for that category. For example, the values available in a given language for the category «tense» are called «tenses», the values available for the category «gender» are called «genders», and so on.

A phonological manifestation of a category value (for example, a word ending those marks plurality on a noun) is sometimes called an exponent.

1. Define and exemplify the modality of assessment and the modality of irreality

In grammar and semantics, modality refers to linguistic devices that indicate the degree to which an observation is possible, probable, likely, certain, permitted, or prohibited. In English, these notions are commonly (though not exclusively) expressed by modal auxiliaries, sometimes combined with not.

Martin J. Endley suggests that “the simplest way to explain modality is to say that it has to do with the stance the speaker adopts toward some situation expressed in an utterance”.

Modality reflects the speaker’s attitude toward the situation being described. (Linguistic Perspectives on English Grammar, 2010).

“Modality is concerned with the speaker’s assessment of, or attitude towards, the potentiality of a state of affairs. Modality, therefore, relates to different worlds. Assessments of potentiality (possibility), likelihood or necessity of situations and events, as in You must be right, relate to the world of knowledge and reasoning. This type of modality is known as epistemic modality.

EXAMPLES: It can be chilly here at night. You must be Dr. Livingstone. You might have left your coat at the pub. You must be tired; she can’t be on holiday, it might rain.

The subcategories of epistemic modality are reality and irreality (factuality – non-factuality), irreality on its part being represented by possibility, which may also be connected with the probability of realization, impossibility (counterfactuality) and necessity.

Example: A mother may imagine a counterfactual situation as in: I wish the baby was bigger – the status of irreality.

I would have helped you if you had asked me to. (you didn’t ask me).

I wouldn’t do that if I were you. (I am not you).

It would be nice to live by the sea. (I don’t live by the sea).

1. Discuss the category of number in terms of the following oppositions:

discrete vs. non-discrete objects, collective vs. singulative meanings,

and regular vs. irregular plural forms
There are different approaches to defining the category of number. Thus, some scholars believe that the category of number in English is restricted in its realization because of the dependent implicit grammatical meaning of countableness / uncountableness. The category of number is realized only within subclass of countable nouns, i.e., nouns having numeric (discrete) structure. Uncountable nouns have no category of number, for they have quantitative (indiscrete) structure. Two classes of uncountables can be distinguished: singularia tantum (only singular) and pluralia tantum (only plural). M. Blokh, however, does not exclude the singularia tantum subclass from the category of number. He calls such forms absolute singular forms comparable to the ‘common’ singular of countable nouns.

In Indo-European languages there are lots of nouns that don’t fit into the traditional definition of the category based on the notion of quantity. A word can denote one object, but it has the plural form. Or a noun can denote more than one thing, but its form is singular. There is a definition of the category of number that overcomes this inconsistency. It was worked out by prof. Isachenko. According to him, the category of number denotes marked and unmarked discreteness (not quantity). A word in a singular form denotes unmarked discreteness whether it is a book, or a sheep, or sheep. If an object is perceived as a discrete thing, it has the form of the plural number. Thus, trousers and books are perceived as discrete object whereas a flock of sheep is seen as a whole. This definition is powerful because it covers nearly all nouns while the traditional definition excludes many words.

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:

• oneness (individual separate object – a cat);
• generalization (the meaning of the whole class – The cat is a domestic animal);
• indiscreteness (uncountableness — money, milk).

The plural form may denote:

• the existence of several objects (cats);
• the inner discreteness (pluralia tantum – jeans).

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

The nouns in which the opposition of explicit discreteness / indiscreteness is expressed: cat – cats;

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:

1. Singularia tantum. It covers different groups of nouns: proper names, abstract nouns, material nouns, collective nouns;
2. Pluralia tantum. It covers the names of objects consisting of several parts (jeans), names of sciences (mathematics), names of diseases, games, etc.

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

A plural noun indicates that there is more than one of those nouns (while a singular noun indicates that there is just one of the nouns). Most plural forms are created by simply adding an -s or –es to the end of the singular word. For example, there’s one dog (singular), but three dogs (plural). However, English has both regular and irregular plural nouns. Regular plurals follow this rule (and other similar rules), but irregular plurals are, well, not regular and don’t follow a “standard” rule.

Let’s start with regular plurals: regular plural nouns use established patterns to indicate there is more than one of a thing.

Irregular plural forms

Some nouns form their plural not by adding the ending s/es, but by changing the letters in the root of the word.

man – men;

woman – women;

child – children;

ox – oxen;

mouse – mice;

louse – lice;

foot – feet;

tooth – teeth;

goose – geese.

Note: The noun “brother” (a member of a family) has a regular plural form: brother – brothers. If the noun “brother” is used in the meaning “a fellow member”, it may have the archaic irregular plural form “brethren” (fellow members).

1. English intonation phrase: its parts and notation symbols

Every language has its own intonation, or speech melody. Intonation helps you to recognize the language that you hear in the same way as the melody of a song helps you to recognize the song that you hear. If you change the melody of a song, it will be difficult for your listener to recognize and understand the song you are singing. The same is true in reference to intonation: if you speak English with Russian intonation, your listener will have a problem understanding what you are saying.

English intonation is a complicated and varied phenomenon. There are dialectal and regional differences in intonation; for example, there are quite a few differences between British and American intonation. Intonation may sound differently depending on whether the speakers have high or low voices, speak fast or slowly, loudly or quietly, energetically, emotionally, neutrally, or listlessly. Men and women may have their own differences and preferences in intonation. For the purpose of studying, this variety may be described in several intonation patterns characteristic of English speech.

In general, linguists distinguish several types of English intonation. Falling intonation and rising intonation are the two basic types used in different types of sentences. These types of intonation are described in Falling Intonation and Rising Intonation. You can listen to them in Listening for Falling and Rising Intonation (AmE) and Listening for Intonation in Questions and Answers (AmE) in the section Phonetics.

Language learners should master typical patterns of standard falling and rising intonation before studying other types of intonation. (Various types of intonation are described in Intonation and Tones in the section Phonetics.)

English intonation is based on several key components, such as pitch, sentence stress, and rhythm.

Low Fall

Usual melodic termination in English intonation. Voice falls in stressed syllables starts at mid or lower pitch down to the bottom.

Low fall is textually shown as a down dash below before stressed syllables as in Lizzy. Low fall sounds categorical, reserves, confident and complete.

Low Rise

English low-rise termination starts at lowest pitch and smoothly rises almost up to mid pitch. Low rise is shown as an up dash below before stressed syllables as in ∕Ellie.

Low rise sounds hesitant, unconfident and incomplete. Low-rise sentences sound inquiring, ready to talk on, as a polite approval.

Step Fall

Gradually descending stepping scale is most common in monological and neutral dialogical speech. First stressed syllables are pronounced with a usual flat tone at high pitch. Following stressed syllables are pronounced lower forming syllable stairs. Unstressed syllables are usually pronounced at the same pitch with a previous stressed one.

High Fall

In high-fall termination voice fall starts above mid pitch and ends lowest within wide fall range.

High fall is shown as a down dash above before stressed syllables.

High-fall phrases sound lively, friendly and well-wishing. This termination is often heard in dialogical speech.

1. Etymology. Etymological structure of the English Vocabulary

Etymology is a branch of linguistics investigating the origin and development of separate words and morphemes.

The vocabulary in comparison with grammar and phonetic system is the most changeable and flexible part of any language. It is in the constant process of changing: some words are ousted by others, some words develop new meanings, the words that were formerly frequently used drop out of usage, new words appear.

The vocabulary is the product of several epochs and its development is closely connected with the history of people. English vocabulary at present is one of the richest in the world. According to its origin it can be divided into two large parts: native words and borrowed words.

The native element in the vocabulary of English comprises words of Anglo-Saxon origin brought to the British Isles in the 5-th century A.D. by the Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Here also belong words that were coined later on the basis of these Anglo-Saxon words by means of various processes operative in English.

The borrowed element consists of words taken over from other languages and modified in phonemic shape, spelling, grammatical paradigm and meaning according to the standards of English.

Speaking of borrowed words in the language we should distinguish between the terms “source of borrowing” and “origin of borrowing”. The first term is applied to the language from which the loan word was taken into English. The second refers to the language to which the word may be traced.

If we take the word paper as an example, we shall find out that it was borrowed from French. In its turn, the French word papier was borrowed from Latin. Before that the Latin word papyrus had come to Latin from Greek, where it had the form papyros. So, defining its etymology, we should say that the English noun paper is a French borrowing of Greek origin. In the same way the English noun table is a French borrowing of Latin origin, the noun school is a Latin borrowing of Greek origin.

1. Explain and exemplify the lexical, grammatical and phonetic means

of expressing modality
Mood is the grammatical category of the verb which serves to express modality. That is the relation of the action denoted by the verb to reality from the speaker’s point of view. Modality may be expressed in different ways.

1. First of all it may be expressed grammatically by means of the category of Mood; e.g. It is autumn now /Ind.M./ I wish it were summer now /Sub,}. II/ They suggested that we should go to the cinema /Sup.M./

2. It may be expreised lexico-grammatically. i.e. by means of modal verbs /can, may, must/. In modal verbs modality can be expressed twice: it is expressed lexically by the modal lexical meaning of these verbs

and besides it is expressed grammatically by the form of the mood in which modal verbs are used.

e.g. They were in trouble, fortunately I could help them /Ind.M./

They are in trouble. I wish I could help them /Sub II/

3. It may be expressed lexically by means of modal words: perhaps, surely, may be, certainly.

4. The phonetical expression of modality is by means of intonation. It is possible to express assurance or doubt.

e.g. He is clever /I really think he is clever/

He is clever /I don’t think so

The category of mood in Modern English is a very complicated category and it has given rise to lot of discussions and a lot of contradicting opinions. In the book “The structure of English” Pr.Ilysh writes that only 2 things are clear with regard to the category of mood:

This category exists in the English language. There are at least 2 moods in this category and one of these moods is the Indicative Mood.

Pr. Smirnitsky considers that there are 6 moods in the English language:

• The Indicative Mood. They live in Moscow
• The Imperative Mood. Help them
• Subjunctive II. I wish it were summer now,
• Subjunctive I. I suggest you help them
• The Suppositional Mood. I suggest you should help them
• The Conditional Mood. But for him they wouldn’t have finished the work in time.

Professors Barhudarov and Shteling in the book “Грамматика aнглийского языка” write that there are 5 moods of the English verb:

• The Indicative Mood
• The Imperative Mood
• Subjunctive II. But for him I wouldn’t have done it. Pr. Barh. writes that in many textbooks on grammar this form of the verb is called the Conditional Mood.
• Subjunctive II. I wish it were summer now.
• Conjunctive Hood. I suggest you should do it at once. It is important that you do it.
• In the book by Kobrina, Korneeva «English grammar» we find 3 moods:
• The Indicative Mood. They live here.
• The Imperative Mood. Do it at once.
• The Subjunctive Mood. I wish it were summer. I suggest you do it in time.

Pr. Bloch in his book “a cours in theoretical English grammar” (1983) writes about 4 moods. First of all he points to the opposition of the direct mood /the Ind. M./ it which represents an action as a real fact and oblique moods which represent the action denoted by the verb as unreal. The Indicative Mood is the marked member of the opposition and has guite a definite meaning, it represents an action as a real fact. The Oblique moods form the unmarked members of the opposition. They don’t characterize — the action as a real fact and have a number of meanings:

The Spective Mood /subj.I/ . It represents an action as desired or hypothetical. The general meaning of desired or hypothetical action besides the meaning of desire includes supposition, suggestion, recomendation, inducement, command, order.

• Do it at once.
• I suggest that you should do it at once.
• It is important that you do it at once.
• It is important that you should do it at once. Let us do it at once.
• May it all happen as we wish.

Pr. Bloch writes that the Imperative Mood may be included into Subjunctive I because they both express a command, a suggestion or recommendation, do it at once.

I insist that you do it at once.

The combination of verbs should+inf., let+inf, may/might+inf. are included into this mood because they also express — suggestion

The oblique Moods:

The Stipulative Mood /subj.II/. It denotes an unreal action on which other unreal actions depend:

• If he were here he would help us.
• If it were summer we wouldn’t be sitting here.
• The Consective Mood /Subj.II/. It expresses an unreal action
• which depends on another unreal stipulative action;
• If he were here he would help, us.

The category of Mood is so difficult because in this category there is, no strict correlation; between the form and the meaning: /He is speaking, was asked, tables, the most beautiful / in many cases forms that sound alike express different modal meaning – i knew he would соme. If I knew that he would come I would come too.

In some cases, different forms are used to express the same modal meaning – I suggest that you do it. I suggest that you should do it. The forms do and should do express the same modal meaning and are used in the same syntactical constructions.

It is not always easy to draw the line beetween the grammatical and lexico-gramnatical expressions of modality, e.g. Sometimes it is difficult to say whether the verb should be a modal verb with the meaning следует or whether it is an auxiliary verb devoid of any — meaning and used to form one of the oblique moods.

e.g. I suggest he should do it.

But in some cases it is quite clear that should is an auxiliary verb which forms an oblique mood. It is annoying that the child should be naughty.

Due to the fact that there is no correlation between the form and the meaning linguists express their opinions about it.

Pr. Smirnov said attention to the form of the mood and that’s why he writes that there are 6 moods in English.

Pr. Bloch took into consideration the meanings of this category and he finds 4 moods /Spective mood/ — his Subj. I expresses order, recommendation, suggestion and so he includes into Subjunctive I such forms as: do it, let’s do it, should do it, might do it, do it at once. In textbooks for schools pupils are given 3 moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative, but in the Russian language the subjunctive mood has only 1 form – the form which is homonymous with the past tense and the particle “бы”.

1. Explain and exemplify the referential function.

Discuss the opposition of definiteness vs. indefiniteness, permanent definiteness

vs. occasional definiteness, referent usage vs. non-referent usage,

strong indefiniteness vs. weak indefiniteness
Roman Jakobson defined six functions of language (or communication functions), according to which an effective act of verbal communication can be described. Each of the functions has an associated factor. Our theme is referential function.

The referential function: corresponds to the factor of Context and describes a situation, object or mental state. The descriptive statements of the referential function can consist of both definite descriptions and deictic words, e.g. “The autumn leaves have all fallen now”. Similarly, the referential function is associated with an element whose true value is under questioning especially when the truth value is identical in both the real and assumptive universe.

It is denotative, cognitive function which is oriented toward the ‘context’. To show things or facts, the referential function is the most obvious function of language: for example: “The earth is round.”, “Water boils at 100 degrees.”

Category of Definiteness – Indefiniteness. By these category grammarians understand the definiteness or indefiniteness of the object named (обозначаемый предмет).

The notion of definiteness-indefiniteness can be expressed by lexical means and grammatically, i.e. by the articles and the determiners.

The indefinite article expresses the indefiniteness of the object named. The definite article expresses the definiteness of the object named and singles it out of a class of similar objects.

The absence of the article is also meaningful and occurs when we would expect the indefinite article to be used with abstract nouns and nouns in the plural with which the indefinite article is not used since it is associated with the idea of “oneness”.

Thus, the absence of the article means the absence of the indefinite article mostly and functions as such.

Indefiniteness – a man, men

Definiteness – the man, the men

The determiners this, that, each, every, some, any, which, no, either, much, the conjoint possessive pronouns my, his, etc. are used to express definiteness or indefiniteness. E.g. That room was small. I took off my hat. One day, when we were in love; one wonderful morning in May…

Proper names are identified well enough not to need the articles or the determiners. But as soon as they are not, they are used with the article or some determiner: e.g. The Browns are out of the town. She married a Jackson.

In English article is a sign which expresses the category of determination (definiteness — indefiniteness) grammatically.

It may get the meaning of determination or indetermination only in speech, all the other so-called meanings of the articles are its functions. The article itself cannot particularize or classify the noun. The article is a form word, which shows how the noun should be understood (a class noun, a unique thing, etc). So, the context plays the most important part in the use of articles in English Speech.
Definiteness is always referential (specific), presupposes the existence and uniqueness of the object in the general field of view of the speaker and the listener. Usually, they speak of two majorities. sources of certainty: permanent and occasional. Permanent definiteness arises at the addressee on the basis of information from the immediately preceding text (see Context); eg, «I saw this actress recently in one film (indefiniteness), <…> such a film (definiteness) is good, how is this film (definiteness) called?» (E.V. Grishkovets); «But I have a brother (indefiniteness), he (that is, the brother just mentioned — definiteness) is studying at the second year of the conservatory» (AG Aleksin). The reference to the object in question is a sample of anaphoric relations, which are among the most essential means of maintaining the coherence of the text.

Occasional definiteness relies on knowledge of the world common to the ministry and the hearer, so that certain objects turn out to be uniquely derived from the situations obtained, even if they have not been mentioned before; eg, “There was no free private office in Aragvi, and we were given some sort of office room (uncertainty), the window (certainty) was sealed by newspapers”. (K. Ya. Vanshenkin).

Within the framework of reference specific indefiniteness, the so-called weak indefiniteness (semi-indefiniteness), when the fame of an object for a speaker is combined with its obscurity for the addressee [eg, “About what I am about to tell, I have very scant information, they only allow me to guess something, to guess something” ( A. N. Rybakov); “Ataman of this gang was a certain Gavrilenko, who called himself” the pupil of Prince Kropotkin himself” (DA Granin)], and a strong indefiniteness – the unknown of some object for both the listener and the speaker, when the existence of this object is combined with the impossibility of uniquely to identify him [eg, «Immediately someone hit me on the head with something, and when I jumped up, I came to, there was no bag» (VT Shalamov); “Once in Kiev, it was in the sixty-eighth year, I received a letter from some unknown lady” (V.P. Nekrasov)].

Non-referential usages associated with the expression of unspecified uncertainty are most diverse. Among them, in particular, existential uses are singled out, when the situations in which single, but not individualizers participate, are indicated. object: only the «search field» is defined-the class of objects or phenomena into which it enters [eg, “It will be advised to run to one of her friends, most likely to Larissa”. (Yu. V. Trifonov); “Each of Koltsov’s students chooses his favorite ideas in his works, each sculpts his image, creates his own portrait” (DA Granin)], and all-female, when all or at least typical representatives of the open class are meant [ for example, “Many, many years later, during the war and the blockade, I noticed that in dangerous, especially serious moments of life, women are often more economical, more reserved in intonation and facial expressions than men”. (VS Shefner); “I’ll tell you more: take a close look at any person, and you will see that he is not like everyone else” (I. Grekova)].

1. Explain and exemplify the role of passive constructions in English

Passive constructions

All of the example sentences that we have considered up to this point have been in what is known as the active voice. However, this ignores a major type of sentence construction that is sometimes used in speaking, but is more frequently met in the written language – this construction is called the passive.

Contrasting the difference between ‘Active’ and ‘Passive’ voices:

Active sentence

• George Bush started the war.
• The people grow rice in Asia.
• I heated the chemicals to 200 Celsius.

Passive sentence

• The war was started by George Bush.
• Rice is grown in Asia.
• The chemicals were heated to 200 Celsius.

The first sentence uses an active verb because we are saying what somebody (or in other cases, something) DID: we want to say what Bush did. In the second sentence, we are interested in what HAPPENED, so a passive verb is used. In the first sentence, Bush is the object; in the second, he is the subject.

In the second active sentence, the focus is on who grows the rice; in the second passive sentence it is on the rice. Who grows it is unimportant.

In the third passive sentence, it is not important to mention who the person who heated the chemicals is and, following the convention of reporting of a scientific experiment, is not stated.

Form

We make the passive with the verb be in the tense that we require, followed by the past participle. Sometimes, in place of the verb be, we use get often with very little change in meaning, but get is usually preferred when the action is unexpected, unwelcome, or happens in the face of adversity. Get also tends to be informal than be. Here are some short examples of passive sentences.

• Rice is grown in China.
• My computer is being repaired at the moment.
• The thief was arrested.
• All mistakes have been rectified.
• Harry might have been involved in an accident.
• Applications must be received before the end of the year.

The main verb usually ends in -ed but, as we saw earlier, some verbs have irregular past participles as in the first sentence. In active sentences the order of the elements of a sentence usually follows the pattern subject – verb – object, like this:

• That man stole my wallet.
• I painted this picture.

In these examples the subject or ‘doer’ of the verb is that man and I respectively, while my wallet and this picture are the objects. The main purpose of the passive is to change the focus of attention of the sentence, so it is often used when the more important information is:

• what happened to the subject – I’ve been robbed!
• who or what carried out the action – Guernica was painted by Picasso.
• how the action was carried out – the concerto was played beautifully.
• when the doer is unknown – this house was built in 1845.

If we want to include the identity of the doer, then it has to move to the end of the sentence preceded by the word by. So, in the second sentence above we obviously need to know the identity of the artist that painted Guernica otherwise the sentence makes no sense. (The active form of this sentence is Picasso painted Guernica.)

If you look back to the first set of numbered sentences above you will notice that the doer is missing in every case and yet the sentences are still logical and complete. The doers are either unknown, unnecessary or can be guessed from the context, so, for example, in sentence number 3 we can automatically add by the police.

1. Explain the difference between deictic and taxic characteristics of a situation. Define the quantitative and the linear type of verb aspect?

Deictic expressions are based on the idea of identification or drawing attention through pointing by means of language. Deictic expression is any expression that uses deictic word. The deictic word is one which takes some element of its meaning from the situation (the speaker, the addressee, the time and the place) of utterance in which it is used. The general phenomenon of its occurrence is called deixis. (Hurford, 2007: 66) Deixis is kind of reference that can only be accomplished with people and concrete things in one’s immediate environment.

The deictic words point directly to things in physical-social context of the speaker and addressee(s) of the context in which they are used. Context or situation of the utterance of deictic expression is very essential to determine what the referent. Deictic is word or noun phrase that has referent by looking the context. It means that different context will be different referent in spite of same word or expression. For the example: In the dialogue between Cahyo and Eka

Cahyo: I like semantics

Eka: I do too

In those utterances, there are two same words. They are “I”. “I” in first utterance has different referent with “I” in second utterance although they are similar in form and sound. We agree that the first I points to Cahyo who is the speaker of it. It means that “I” in first has referent that is Cahyo. While the second I points to Eka who is the speaker of it. It means that “I” in the second has referent that is Eka. From the example we know that the most important thing that influences the referent is the context. In this case is the speaker. Different context (different speaker) will be different referent of deictic expression.

Characteristics of Deictic Expression

1. Deictic expressions are meaningful within a given context. Deictic expression is any expression that points to things or people in the context or situation in which the expression uttered. Deictic expression that is not supported by its context will be less meaning.

2. To achieve an appropriate interpretation, both the speaker and the hearer should share the same context of the utterance (they can have distance communication in condition that both of them know the context well before) Such as:

a) Who is speaking

The hearer must know who is speaking to him. By knowing the speaker the hearer will have referent of the speaker expression.

b) The setting (time and space)

c)The non-verbal communication (gesture) of the speaker If the speaker and hearer about the particular thing that exist in their circumstances and the speaker say to the

hearer “take that glass for me!” without pointing the glass,

the hearer will confused which glass the speaker means. But if the speaker says that by pointing the glass, the hearer will have thorough referent.

3. Deictic expressions are mainly useful in face-to-face communication. By face to face, the speaker and the hearer will know exactly the context when the expression uttered. It belongs to whatever, whoever, and time that surround the participants’ environment. From the characteristics above, the function of deixis is to avoid ambiguities referent when the reference in an utterance is not clear by knowing the context and background knowledge about the topic being discussed. For example:

“Dad, mother and aunt do not stay here anymore”.

That may be ambiguities utterance. It will provide backstop for us to determine who do not stay in the circumstances of the speaker, whether dad, mother, and aunt or only mother and aunt. By knowing the context, we will know exactly who they are. If in the context there are not dad, mother and aunt, so the speaker speaks to other, we can decide that the people who do not stay are dad, mother, and aunt. But if n the context of speaker there is dad and the speaker speaks to dad, we can decide that they are just mother and aunt.

Taxis (from Greek meaning structure, order, arrangement) is the tense correlation between actions in the text (in the broad sense, including any types of predicates): simultaneity / non-simultaneity, ceasing, the relations between the primary and secondary actions, etc. [1, p. 503]. Within a speech act, the question is not about a separate action (state etc.), but about several actions, which are in some manner interrelated (chronologically, cause – effect, contrast relations, etc). These relations are reflected by specific relations between the predicates – relations which form the category of taxis. The term “taxis” was first suggested by R. Jakobson who defined it in the following way: “taxis characterizes the fact which is being referred to, concerning another fact which is being referred to, without any relation to the moment of reference” [7, с. 14].

The form of a verb indicates the time of the action, event or condition. The complex temporal relationship of actions, events and conditions is indicated using a sequence of tenses.

There are various ways of categorizing the twelve verb tenses, including according to time: past, present and future.

Verb tense: time

There are four past tenses:

• simple past (I went)
• past progressive (I was going)
• past perfect (I had gone)
• past perfect progressive (I had been going)

There are four present tenses:

• simple present (I go)
• present progressive (I am going)
• present perfect (I have gone)
• present perfect progressive (I have been going)

Note that the present perfect and present perfect progressive are not past tenses—the speaker is currently in the state of having gone or having been going.

There are four future tenses:

• simple future (I will go)
• future progressive (I will be going)
• future perfect (I will have gone)
• future perfect progressive (I will have been going)

Verb tense: aspect

Verb tenses may also be categorized according to aspect. Aspect refers to the nature of the action described by the verb. There are three aspects: indefinite (or simple), complete (or perfect) and continuing (or progressive).

The three indefinite (or simple) tenses describe an action but do not state whether the action is finished:

• simple past (I went)
• simple present (I go)
• simple future (I will go)

The indefinite aspects are used when the beginning or ending of the action, event or condition is unknown or unimportant to the meaning of the sentence. The indefinite aspect also indicates a habitual or repeated action, event or condition.

The three complete (or perfect) tenses describe a finished action:

• past perfect (I had gone)
• present perfect (I have gone)
• future perfect (I will have gone)

The complete aspect indicates that the end of the action, event or condition is known and emphasizes the fact that the action is complete. The action may, however, be completed in the present, in the past or in the future.

The three incomplete (or progressive) tenses describe an unfinished action:

• past progressive (I was going)
• present progressive (I am going)
• future progressive (I will be going)

The progressive aspect indicates that the action, event or condition is ongoing in the present, the past or the future.

It is also possible to combine a complete (or perfect) tense with an incomplete tense to describe an action which was in progress and then finished:

• past perfect progressive (I had been going)
• present perfect progressive (I have been going)
• future perfect progressive (I will have been going)

1. Explain the difference between the word-combination and the sentence.

Give the syntactic classification of word-combinations.

What is the role of fixed word order in the English language?

These three structures are a common part of English, and are all composed of groups of words. Clauses, phrases and sentences are very similar, but they do have different roles. Learning the difference between them will help you make a lot more sense of English grammar, and will be very useful to improve your written English.

What is a phrase?

Words can be grouped together, but without a subject or a verb. This is called a phrase.

Because a phrase has neither subject nor verb, it can’t form a ‘predicate’. This is a structure that must contain a verb, and it tells you something about what the subject is doing.

Phrases can be very short – or quite long. Two examples of phrases are:

“After dinner”

“Waiting for the rain to stop”.

Phrases can’t be used alone, but you can use them as part of a sentence, where they are used as parts of speech.

What is a clause?

Clauses are groups of words that have both subjects and predicates. Unlike phrases, a clause can sometimes act as a sentence – this type of clause is called an independent clause. This isn’t always the case, and some clauses can’t be used on their own – these are called subordinate clauses, and need to be used with an independent clause to complete their meaning.

An example of a subordinate clause is “When the man broke into the house”

An example of an independent clause is “the dog barked at him”

While the independent clause could be used by itself as a complete sentence, the subordinate clause could not. For it to be correct, it would need to be paired with another clause: “When the man broke into the house, the dog barked at him.”

What is a sentence?

A complete sentence has a subject and predicate, and can often be composed of more than one clause. As long as it has a subject and a predicate, a group of words can form a sentence, no matter how short.

E.g. “You ate fish.”

More complex sentences can combine multiple clauses or phrases to add additional information about what is described. Clauses may be combined using conjunctions – such as “and”, “but” and “or”.

E.g. “He went out to dinner but didn’t enjoy the meal.”

This example is composed of two independent clauses, “he went out to dinner” and “he didn’t enjoy the meal”, combined with a conjunction- “but”.

Your turn

While clauses, phrases and sentences might seem very similar at first, on closer look you can start to see how they function very differently. To make sure you use them correctly, it’s important to practice identifying them.

Try reading different materials, and spotting the phrases, clauses and complete sentences in a piece of text. Then try to write your own examples of them! And if you would like to learn English with people from all over the world — check out our range of language courses abroad at Eurocentres.com

Phrase and sentence are common structures in any language and are made up of a group of words. A phrase is a short or long group of words that does not convey a complete thought. A sentence is also a group of words, but it conveys a complete thought. This is the main difference between phrase and sentence.

What is a Phrase

A phrase is a group of words that does not convey a complete thought. As phrases do not express a complete idea, they can’t stand alone. They can only be used as parts of sentences. It lacks a subject or a verb or in some cases both. Therefore, it cannot form a predicate. In the English language, there are five main kinds of phrases. They are,

Noun Phrase: gives information about the noun

Examples: a cute baby, an old lady, many of the theories, a hot summer day, some teachers, etc.

Verb Phrase: gives more meaning to the verb

Examples: She has been eating, was walking, had to be hospitalized, singing a song etc.

Adjective Phrase: gives information about the adjective

Examples: very pretty, terribly long,  not very healthy, exquisite handmade

Adverb Phrase: gives information about the adverb.

Examples: slowly and surely, formerly, beautifully, etc.

Prepositional Phrase: gives information about a time, location or condition. A preposition always appears at the front of the phrase.

Examples: down the road, after a long time, beside the lake, on the table, etc.

What is a Sentence

A sentence refers to a group of words that expresses a complete thought. A sentence necessarily contains a subject and a verb. There are four types of sentences. They are as follows,

Declarative Sentence

Declarative sentences state information and facts. A declarative sentence ends with a full stop. This article is mainly written in declarative sentences.

Example:  

The Child is sleeping on the floor.

Radium was discovered by Marie Curie.

The dog barks.                                

Imperative Sentence

Imperative sentences issue commands or orders or they can express wishes or desires. These sentences can contain a single word, or they can be lengthier.

Example:      

Stop!

Be Silent!

Turn left and go straight.                                                                                                                       

Interrogative Sentence

Interrogative sentences ask a question. They are easy to understand as they contain a question mark at the end. Example:  

Are you crazy?

Is it raining?

Did you go to school yesterday?                                                                                                                                          

Exclamatory Sentence

Exclamatory sentences express emotions or excitement. They end with exclamation marks.

I won the first place!

It’s a surprise!                                             

Sentences can be further classified according to their structures. A sentence can have a single clause or several clauses. Sentence structures are classified according to these clauses.

Simple Sentence – contains one independent clause.

Complex Sentence – contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Compound Sentence – contains two or more independent clauses.

Compound-Complex Sentence – contains at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

Difference Between Phrase and Sentence

Definition 

Phrase is a group of words that are arranged in a grammatical construction and acting as a unit in a sentence.

Sentence is a grammatical unit of one or more words that expresses an independent meaning.

Complete Thought

Phrase does not express a complete thought.

Sentence expresses a complete thought.

Subject and Predicate

Phrase does not contain both a subject and a predicate.

Sentence contains both subject and predicate.

Information

Phrase does not give complete information about the subject or the predicate.

Sentence gives complete information about the subject or the predicate.

Punctuation

Phrase does not begin with a capital letter or end in punctuation marks.

Sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.