Grammatical use of the word that

Proper Usage of «That» in English

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Updated on November 26, 2019

The word ‘that’ is a common word in English that is used in many different ways. Did you notice the use of ‘that’ in the previous sentence? In this case, ‘that’ was used as a relative pronoun as a complement. Often ‘that’ can be used or left out of a sentence entirely. For example, many English students know (that) you can leave out ‘that,’ depending on the instance. This guide to the use of ‘that’ will help you understand when to use the word, as well as when it’s okay to leave it out.

‘That’ as a Determiner

‘That’ is used as a determiner at the beginning of sentences to indicate one object which is far from the speaker. Note that the plural form of ‘that’ as a determiner is ‘those.’ ‘That’ and ‘those’ is generally used with ‘there’ to indicate that the object(s) is not close to the speaker.

Examples

  • That’s my friend Tom over there.
  • That’s a pencil you have in your hand.
  • Those paintings are by Cezanne.
  • That is my house on the corner of the street.

‘That’ as a Relative Pronoun

‘That’ can be used as a relative pronoun to connect two clauses. In this case, ‘that’ can also be substituted by ‘who’ or ‘which.’

Examples: That = Which

Tom bought the apples that the man was selling.
OR
Tom bought the apples which the man was selling.

Examples: That = Who

Peter invited the boy that was new in class.
OR
Peter invited the boy who was new in class.

‘That’ in a Clause as an Object

‘That’ can be used in clauses that act as the object of a verb.

Examples

  • Jennifer hinted that she would be late for class.
  • Doug knew that he needed to hurry up.
  • The teacher suggested that we finish our homework.

‘That’ in a Clause as a Complement to a Noun or an Adjective

‘That’ can be used in a clause following a noun or an adjective as a complement. A complement helps give additional information about the noun or adjective. It answers the question ‘why.’

Examples

  • Peter is upset that his sister wants to drop out of high school.
  • Mr. Johnson appreciates our efforts that have brought in a lot of donations.
  • She is certain that her son will be accepted to Harvard.

‘That’ Clause as Subject of a Sentence

‘That’ clauses can introduce a phrase acting as the subject of a sentence. This use of ‘that’ clauses is somewhat formal and is not common in everyday speech.

Examples

  • That it is so difficult is hard to understand.
  • That Mary feels so sad is very upsetting.
  • That our teacher expects us to do two hours of homework every day is crazy!

The Fact That …

Related to the use of ‘that’ clauses as a subject is the more common phrase «The fact that…» to introduce a sentence. While both forms are correct, it is much more common to begin a sentence with the phrase «The fact that….»

Examples

  • The fact that he wants to see you should make you happy.
  • The fact that unemployment is still high proves what a difficult economy this is.
  • The fact that Tom passed the test shows how much he has improved.

Compound Conjunctions with ‘That’

There are a number of compound conjunctions (words that connect) with ‘that.’ These expressions tend to be used in formal English and include:

«in order that,» «so that,» «providing that,» «in case that,» «now that,» «given that»

Examples

  • He purchased the computer so that he might improve his typing.
  • Susan told him she would marry him providing that he found a job.
  • Alice feels happy now that she has moved into a new home.

After Reporting Verbs

‘That’ can be dropped after reporting verbs such as say (that), tell someone (that), regret (that), imply (that), etc.

Examples

  • Jennifer said (that) she was in a hurry.
  • Jack told me (that) he wanted to move to New York.
  • The boss implied (that) the company was doing very well.

After Adjectives

Some adjectives can be followed by ‘that’ when answering the question ‘why.’ ‘That’ can be dropped after the adjective.

  • I’m happy (that) you found a new job.
  • She’s sad (that) he’s going to move to New York.
  • Jack is anxious (that) he didn’t pass the test.

As Object in Relative Clauses

It’s common to drop ‘that’ when it is the object of the relative clause it introduces.

  • He invited the boy (that) he met on the train.
  • Shelly purchased the chair (that) she had seen at the auction.
  • Alfred wants to read the book (that) Jane recommended.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the mode in northern Indian or Hindustani music, see Thaat.

That is an English language word used for several grammatical purposes. These include use as an adjective, conjunction, pronoun, adverb, and intensifier; it has distance from the speaker, as opposed to words like this. The word did not originally exist in Old English, and its concept was represented by þe. Once it came into being, it was spelt as þæt (among others, such as þet), taking the role of the modern that. It also took on the role of the modern word what, though this has since changed, and that has recently replaced some usage of the modern which. Pronunciation of the word varies according to its role within a sentence, with two main varieties (a strong and a weak form), though there are also regional differences, such as where the sound is substituted instead by a in English spoken in Cameroon.

Modern usage[edit]

The word that serves several grammatical purposes. Owing to its wide versatility in usage, the writer Joseph Addison named it «that jacksprat» in 1771, and gave this example of a grammatically correct sentence: «That that I say is this: that that that that gentleman has advanced, is not that, that he should have proved.»[1] That can be used as a demonstrative pronoun,
demonstrative adjective,
conjunction,
relative pronoun,
relative adverb,
and an intensifier.[1]

  • That as a demonstrative pronoun refers to a specific object being discussed, such as in «that is a cat»;[2] the word is a distal demonstrative pronoun, as opposed to proximal, because there is distance between the speaker and the object being discussed (as opposed to words such as this, where there is a relative sense of closeness).[3]
  • When used as a demonstrative adjective, that describes which specific object is being discussed; for example, in the phrase «that spotted dog is Fido», that specifies which particular dog is Fido among all spotted dogs.[4]
  • In its usage as a conjunction, it connects clauses together, such as in «I know that Peter is right».[5] In sentences with several clauses, that is also used as a discriminator to differentiate between subjects of a clause.[6]
  • As a relative pronoun, that introduces restrictive clauses, such as in «the different factors that are fundamental and specific to particular features»; in a study of medical science journals in Britain leading up to 2004, it was found that that had been largely replaced by the word which when used in this context,[7] while writing that is increasingly formal—ranging from verse to fiction to nonfiction—finds that usage decreasing as wh- words (interrogatives) relatively increase.[8]
  • That is used as a relative adverb, such as in «it doesn’t cost that much».[9] When used in this way, that requires inferences be drawn by the listener to determine the meaning of the speaker.[9]
  • The word also intensifies elements of a sentence, similar in function to the word so, such as when one says «I was that ill … I couldn’t even stand up.»[9] But just as in its use as a relative adverb, that as an intensifier is best understood when the addressee infers meaning from its usage.[9] In the example given, that intensifies and refers to a possible view already held by the addressee (whether the speaker was not seriously ill), even though the speaker does not explicitly confirm or intensify this previously-held belief.[9]

Historical usage[edit]

In Old English, that did not exist, and was only represented by þe.[10] It originated in the north of England sometime before the 1200s and spread around the country in the thirteenth century; it then rapidly became the dominant demonstrative pronoun.[11] Before the writings of Ælfric of Eynsham, þæt was normally regularized as þe in writing, but by the time Ælfric lived, þæt was common.[12] As a pronoun, þæt was widely used in Old English, though it was later replaced by wh- words.[10] Where þe had only stood in for subjects of a clause, þæt instead took on the role of both a subject and an object,[13] and when þe and þæt were both used, þæt was always relative in orientation.[14] The symbol (OE thaet.png) was used as an abbreviation, before it was phased out by the Romantic þt.[15] Similarly, was a ligature to represent that,[16] as seen in the gravestone of William Shakespeare: «Bleste be yͤ man yͭ spares thes stones«.[17] In Middle English, þe was entirely replaced by þat (among other representations), before again being replaced by the modern that.[10] Among all relative markers in the English language, including who, which, whose, and what, that—through its ancient form of þæt—appears to be the oldest.[11]

In Old English translations of Latin (but only sparsely in original Old English texts), the phrase þæt an is frequently used—typically meaning «only»—but its origins and characteristics are not well-understood.[18] Frequently, the construction of þæt an was in the original Latin, which referred then to a following clause.[19] The use of þæt an was for cases in which there was exclusivity (to distinguish between general and specific objects), but translators also used it in situations where exclusivity was already given through other syntactical elements of the sentence.[20] In these texts, þæt seems to be used pleonastically (redundantly), and it began to be used as an independent adverb.[21] In the context of weather events, þæt was never used, such as in the example sentence þæt rigneð (translated as «that rains»).[22]

Similarly, for several centuries in Old English and early Middle English texts, the phrase onmang þæt (translated as «among that») persisted.[23] In the hundreds of years of its existence, it was used infrequently, though the usage was stable.[24] Even in Old English, usage of hwile («while») was much more commonplace, with its frequency some six times as large as onmang þæt in a surveyed corpus.[25] Onmang þæt experienced grammaticalisation (turning a word into a grammatical marker),[25] and as a result of its low usage, possibly underwent a period of specialization, where it competed with other grammaticalised phrases.[26]

After verbs such as said, and more generally in introducing a dependent clause, contemporary English grammar allows the speaker to either include that or to omit it.[27] This construction—as in «I suspect (that) he is right»—is called the zero form when that is not used.[27] While there has been some analysis of the relative frequency of Old and Middle English usage of the zero form, these studies are of limited value, since they rely on unique text corpora, failing to give a general view of its usage.[28] In the late period of Middle English, the linguist Norihiko Otsu determined, the zero form was generally as popular as the form in which that is included.[29] The zero form was common in documents closely relating to speech, such as sermons, suggesting spoken English often omitted that in these contexts.[30]

Pronunciation[edit]

That has several pronunciations. While in received pronunciation, it is pronounced either as or , in Cameroonian English, for example, the /ð/ is alveolarised as /d/, resulting in a pronunciation of /dat/.[31] The weak and strong forms (the two of received pronunciation) of that vary according to their grammatical roles, with one as a demonstrative and the other as an anaphoric (referencing adverb).[32] In this way, /ðæt/ represents a determining pronoun (such as in «what is that?»), while /ðət/ is a subordinating word (as in «that is as it should be»).[33]

See also[edit]

  • Dependent statement
  • Deixis

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ a b Cheshire 1995, p. 370.
  2. ^ Weinstein 1974, p. 180.
  3. ^ Pavesi 2013, p. 105.
  4. ^ Reimer 1991, pp. 194–195, 201.
  5. ^ Mańczak 1973, p. 58.
  6. ^ Otsu 2002b, p. 226.
  7. ^ Sonoda 2004, p. 1.
  8. ^ Van den Eynden Morpeth 1999, p. 121.
  9. ^ a b c d e Cheshire 1995, p. 378.
  10. ^ a b c Suárez 2012, p. 80.
  11. ^ a b Cheshire, Adger & Fox 2013.
  12. ^ Morris 1868, p. ix.
  13. ^ Suárez 2012, p. 89.
  14. ^ Seppänen 2004, p. 73.
  15. ^ Honkapohja 2019, pp. 60–61.
  16. ^ Sutherland 2020, p. vii.
  17. ^ Bovilsky 2011, p. 292.
  18. ^ Rissanen 1967, p. 409.
  19. ^ Rissanen 1967, p. 412.
  20. ^ Rissanen 1967, p. 425.
  21. ^ Rissanen 1967, p. 417.
  22. ^ Naya 1995, p. 28.
  23. ^ Nykiel 2018, pp. 575, 586.
  24. ^ Nykiel 2018, p. 575.
  25. ^ a b Nykiel 2018, p. 586.
  26. ^ Nykiel 2018, p. 588.
  27. ^ a b Otsu 2002a, p. 225.
  28. ^ Otsu 2002a, pp. 225–226.
  29. ^ Otsu 2002a, p. 227.
  30. ^ Otsu 2002a, p. 232.
  31. ^ Ngefac 2005, p. 44.
  32. ^ Poussa 1997, p. 691.
  33. ^ Cornish 2018, p. 438.

Works cited[edit]

  • Bovilsky, Lara (2011). «Early modern ecostudies: From the Florentine Codex to Shakespeare (review)». Shakespeare Quarterly. 62 (2): 292–295. doi:10.1353/shq.2011.0017. S2CID 191566397.
  • Cheshire, Jenny (March 1995). «That jacksprat: An interactional perspective on English that«. Journal of Pragmatics. 25 (3): 369–393. doi:10.1016/0378-2166(95)00032-1.
  • Cheshire, Jenny; Adger, David; Fox, Sue (March 2013). «Relative who and the actuation problem». Lingua. 126: 51–77. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2012.11.014.
  • Cornish, Francis (November 2018). «Revisiting the system of English relative clauses: Structure, semantics, discourse functionality» (PDF). English Language and Linguistics. 22 (3): 431–456. doi:10.1017/S136067431700003X. S2CID 125481529.
  • Honkapohja, Alpo (2019). «Anchorites and abbreviations: A corpus study of abbreviations of Germanic and Romance lexicon in the Ancrene Wisse«. In Stenroos, Merja; Mäkinen, Martti; Thengs, Kjetil Vikhamar; Traxel, Oliver Martin (eds.). Current explorations in Middle English. Berlin: Peter Lang. ISBN 9783631784730.
  • Mańczak, Witold (1973). «The use and omission of the conjunction that«. Linguistics. 11 (95): 51–58. doi:10.1515/ling.1973.11.95.51. S2CID 144204069.
  • Morris, Richard (1868). Old English homilies and homiletic treatises (Sawles Warde, and þe Wohunge of Ure Lauerd: Ureisuns of Ure Louerd and of Ure Lefdi, &c.) of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. London: Early English Text Society.
  • Naya, Belén Méndez (1995). «‘Hit’ AND ‘ðæt’ anticipating subject clauses in OE: True syntactic equivalents?». Neuphilologische Mitteilungen. 96 (1): 23–37. ISSN 0028-3754. JSTOR 43346052.
  • Ngefac, Aloysius (2005). «Homophones and heterophones in Cameroon English». Alizés: Revue angliciste de la Réunion: 39–53.
  • Nykiel, Jerzy (November 2018). «Onmang Þaet – Incipient grammaticalisation in Old and Middle English». Transactions of the Philological Society. 116 (3): 574–593. doi:10.1111/1467-968X.12140. S2CID 149971418.
  • Pavesi, Maria (2013). «This and that in the language of film dubbing: A corpus-based analysis». Meta: Journal des traducteurs. 58 (1): 103–133. doi:10.7202/1023812ar.
  • Reimer, Marga (1991). «Demonstratives, demonstrations, and demonstrata». Philosophical Studies. 63 (2): 187–202. doi:10.1007/BF00381687. ISSN 0031-8116. JSTOR 4320229. S2CID 170148319.
  • Rissanen, Matti (1967). «Old English þæt an ‘only’«. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen. 68 (4): 409–428. ISSN 0028-3754. JSTOR 43342366.
  • Seppänen, Aimo (May 2004). «The Old English relative þe«. English Language and Linguistics. 8 (1): 71–102. doi:10.1017/S136067430400125X. S2CID 122524683.
  • Sonoda, Kenji (2004). «The restrictive relative pronouns that and which in BrE». Bulletin of the School of Allied Medical Sciences Nagasaki University. 17 (2): 1–4.
  • Suárez, Cristina (1 January 2012). «The consolidation of þat as an invariable relativizer in the history of English». Nordic Journal of English Studies. 11 (1): 79. doi:10.35360/njes.256.
  • Sutherland, Kristina Regan (2020). Conduct and carnival: Domestic soft power in early modern comedies (PhD). University of Georgia.
  • Otsu, Norihiko (2002a). «On the absence of the conjunction that in late Middle English». In Saito, Toshio; Nakamura, Junsaku; Yamazaki, Shunji (eds.). English corpus linguistics in Japan. Amsterdam: Rodopi. ISBN 9789042013698.
  • Otsu, Norihiko (November 2002b). «On the presence or absence of the conjunction þæt in Old English, with special reference to dependent sentences containing a gif-clause». English Language and Linguistics. 6 (2): 225–238. doi:10.1017/S1360674302000217. S2CID 120420972.
  • Poussa, Patricia (1997). «Derivation of it from Þat in eastern dialects of British English». In Hickey, Raymond; Puppel, Stanislav (eds.). Language history and linguistic modelling. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Van den Eynden Morpeth, Nadine (1999). «Jack Sprat that and the humble wh- relatives: Reconstructing social contexts by means of commercial CD-ROMS». In Tops, Guy A.J.; Devriendt, Betty; Geukens, Steven (eds.). Thinking English Grammar To Honour Xavier Dekeyser, Professor Emeritus. Peeters. ISBN 9789042907638.
  • Weinstein, Scott (1974). «Truth and demonstratives». Noûs. 8 (2): 179–184. doi:10.2307/2214785. ISSN 0029-4624. JSTOR 2214785.

External links[edit]

  • The dictionary definition of those at Wiktionary

grammar rules that and which

Get the grammar rules for using that and which.

There’s a lot of confusion about that and which. These two words are often used interchangeably, even though they’re not necessarily interchangeable.

Historically, that and which may have carried the same meaning, and some English dialects may allow for that and which to be swapped without affecting the meaning of a sentence.

However, in American English, the grammar rules offer a distinct difference between the two words. By the time you’re done reading this post, you’ll fully understand the difference between that and which, and you’ll be able to use both words correctly.

That and Which

As with most grammar rules, there are exceptions and exemptions from the standard ways that and which should be used in a sentence. To gain understanding of confusing word pairs, it’s always best to start with the basics. As we look at how to properly use that and which, we’ll focus on simple, standard usage.

That and which can be categorized into several different parts of speech. Both words can function as adjectives and pronouns. Additionally, that can serve as a conjunction and as an adverb. Today, we’re looking at how that and which should be used when they are working as relative pronouns.

Relative Pronouns

From Wikipedia: “A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause within a larger sentence. It is called a relative pronoun because it relates to the word that it modifies.”

Like adjectives and adverbs, relative pronouns modify other words. Adjectives modify nouns:

  • I have a car.
  • I have a red car.

Adverbs modify verbs:

  • I am walking.
  • I am walking quickly.

The main difference between adjectives and adverbs is that adjectives usually modify things (nouns) while adverbs modify actions (verbs). Relative pronouns also modify words, but they often do so as clauses rather than as single, descriptive words. In the examples below, the clauses are italicized.

  • Bring me the bucket.
  • Bring me the bucket that has apples in it.
  • The bucket, which has apples in it, is blue.

The difference between the words that and which and how they are used as relative pronouns depends on whether the clause they belong to is restrictive or nonrestrictive.

Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses

Restrictive Clauses Are Necessary

A restrictive clause is necessary to the meaning of a sentence. For example:

  • I want the bucket that has apples in it.

If you removed the clause “that has apples in it,” the meaning of the sentence would be lost. Nobody would know which bucket the speaker wants. The clause is necessary to the meaning of the sentence and is therefore a restrictive clause. Because it’s a restrictive clause, it should take the relative pronoun that.

Nonrestrictive Clauses are Unnecessary

A nonrestrictive clause is not necessary to the meaning of a sentence. In fact, it can be removed from a sentence without affecting its meaning. For example:

  • The bucket, which is blue, has apples in it.
  • There are apples in the bucket, which is blue.

If you removed the nonrestrictive clause “which is blue,” from either of the sentences above, the meaning of the sentences would not be lost. We’d still know that the bucket has apples in it. Note that in the second example, the nonrestrictive clause adds information about something that has already been identified. Because the clause is unnecessary to the meaning of the sentence, we know it’s a nonrestrictive clause, and therefore should take the relative pronoun which.

  • Use that before a restrictive (necessary) clause.
  • Use which before a nonrestrictive (unnecessary) clause.

The Easy Way to Remember the Difference Between That and Which

I Needed That

If you need the clause to maintain a sentence’s meaning, then use that. A quick trick for remembering this grammar rule is the phrase “I needed that.”

Which?

Because which is also an interrogative pronoun used to mark questions, it is questionable. You can take it or leave it. It’s not necessary. Think of the word which with a question mark (which?) to remind yourself that if the clause’s presence is questionable and can be removed, then you should use the word which to introduce the clause.

Exceptions and Notes

Here are some exceptions and notes to these rules:

  • Which can be used restrictively when it’s preceded by a preposition. For example, “The bucket in which the apples have been stored is blue.”
  • Which is almost always preceded by a comma, parenthesis, or a dash.
  • In British English, there is little distinction between that and which.

Has this article helped clarify any questions you’ve had about grammar rules? Do you have any other questions about that and which? Do you have any tips to share for remembering how to use these two words? Leave a comment.

Sources (aff links):

  • The Chicago Manual of Style
  • Grammar Girl, “Which Versus That“
  • Wikipedia, “Relative Pronouns“

10 Core Practices for Better Writing

My answer comes so late that it is probably doomed to dwell at the bottom of the answer column, but the question remains a question about which I care, so my answer adds a point other answers have missed.

«Which» instead of «that» is almost always used in sentences with nonrestrictive qualification, as

The horse, which is in the paddock, is six years old.

The horse would still be six years old even if it were in the stable, see? Alternately and more to the point, there seems to be no second horse in view; there is no four-year-old horse about that might (which might?) also concern us.

As other answers have noted and as NOAD has advised, American English slightly, abstractly prefers the word which—as a conjunctive pronoun—to be reserved for this nonrestrictive use.

However, the best American writers have not uniformly followed NOAD’s advice. Peggy Noonan does indeed follow it (with no recent exception I have observed):

My thought, which is really a question, is that candidates for president, while natural competitors, sometimes get to the point where they think they are going to win, and it messes with their heads.

John Steinbeck however does not:

The mattresses which had been on the floor were gone.

Even if you are of the rigid, conservative, antidemocratic school of proper usage, as I tend to be, it is hard to argue with Steinbeck. Nor is Steinbeck the only one.

NOAD’s advice, quoted in another answer, is fine as far as it goes. NOAD is correct. NOAD should be heeded. However, there is more to the story than NOAD tells.

The trouble with the conjunctive pronoun that is that that is not just a conjunctive pronoun. It is a word with too many uses for its own good—too many uses, even in this very paragraph. The word that is a word which (a word that?) serves so many roles, in various parts of English speech, that the less frequent word which makes a welcome change. In the usage of which versus that, the euphonic has trumped the strictly logical.

Germanic languages are sometimes like that. Can’t help it. It’s in the bones of the language. English is not like Greek.

In short, heed NOAD’s advice by default, but where which sounds better than that—as in complex sentences it often does, and even sometimes in simple sentences like Steinbeck’s—even if you are American, feel free to switch to which.

You may often find cause to switch.

That is a very common word in both writing and speaking. We use it as a determiner, a demonstrative pronoun and a relative pronoun. We also use it as a conjunction to introduce that-clauses.

That: determiner and pronoun

We use that most commonly to point to a thing or person. We use it with singular nouns. The thing or person is often distant from the speaker and sometimes closer to the listener, or not visible to either the speaker or listener:

Can you pass me that green bowl over there? (determiner)

[pointing to one of a selection of different paint colours]

I quite like that one.

That’s Harold in the white shirt, isn’t it? (pronoun)

We also use that to refer back to a whole clause:

A:

We’re having a few friends round for dinner. Would you like to come?

Why don’t you come at around 8? That’ll give me time to get ready.

A:

Can you tell Kat to hurry up? We’ve got to leave at 11.

B:

I’ve already told her that.

We use that to refer back to something that has already been spoken or written about:

If he gets that job in London, he’ll be able to visit us more often.

That: relative pronoun

We use that to introduce defining relative clauses. We can use that instead of who, whom or which to refer to people, animals and things. That is more informal than who or which:

She picked up the hairbrush that she had left on the bed.

He was the first director of the National Science Foundation, and he funded science research with an annual budget that grew to 500 million dollars.

That-clauses

We also use that to introduce that-clauses after some verbs, adjectives and nouns:

I admit that I was wrong. (verb + that-clause)

Are you certain that the man in the car was Nick? (adjective + that-clause)

The name of the company illustrates my belief that sign language is a fascinating form of communication. (noun + that-clause)

That: other uses

That’s + adjective

We use that’s + adjective (e.g. that’s lovely, that’s good, that’s great, that’s terrible, that’s awful) to respond to something that someone is telling us, to show that we are listening:

A:

They got stuck in traffic on the way to the airport and missed the plane.

  1. The
    notion of ‘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. For example, 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. This can be explained by the fact that they
have no referents in the objective reality. All function words belong
to this group – articles, particles, prepositions, etc.

  1. Types
    of grammatical meaning.

The
grammatical meaning may be explicit and 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
explicit grammatical
meaning is always marked morphologically – it has its marker. In
the word 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.

The
implicit grammatical meaning may be of two types – general and
dependent. 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). 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.

GRAMMATICAL
MEANING

EXPLICIT
IMPLICIT

GENERAL
DEPENDENT

  1. Grammatical
    categories.

Grammatical categories are
made up by the unity of identical grammatical meanings that have the
same form (e.g. singular::plural). Due to dialectal unity of language
and thought, grammatical categories correlate, on the one hand, with
the conceptual categories and, on the other hand, with the objective
reality. It may be shown with the help of a triangle model:

Conceptual
reality Conceptual category

Objective
reality Lingual reality Objective category Grammatical
category

It
follows that 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. Such categories correlate only with conceptual
matters:

Conceptual
correlate

Lingual
correlate

They
are called significational categories.
To this type belong the categories of mood
and degree.
Speaking about the grammatical category of mood we can say that it
has modality
as its conceptual correlate. It can be explained by the fact that it
does not refer to anything in the objective reality – it expresses
the speaker’s attitude to what he says.

  1. The
    notion of opposition.

Any
grammatical category must be represented by at least two grammatical
forms (e.g. the grammatical category of number – singular and
plural forms). The relation between two grammatical forms differing
in meaning and external signs is called opposition
book::books
(unmarked member/marked member). All grammatical categories find
their realization through oppositions, e.g. the grammatical category
of number is realized through the opposition singular::plural.

Taking
all the above mentioned into consideration, we may define the
grammatical category as the opposition between two mutually exclusive
form-classes (a form-class is a set of words with the same explicit
grammatical meaning).

Means
of realization of grammatical
categories may be synthetic (near –
nearer
) and analytic (beautiful
– more beautiful
).

  1. Transposition
    and neutralization of morphological forms.

In the process of
communication grammatical categories may undergo the processes of
transposition and neutralization.

Transposition
is the use of a linguistic unit in an
unusual environment or in the function that is not characteristic of
it (He is a lion).
In the sentence He is coming tomorrow
the paradigmatic meaning of the
continuous form is reduced and a new meaning appears – that of a
future action. Transposition always results in the neutralization of
a paradigmatic meaning. Neutralization
is the reduction of the opposition to one of its members : custom ::
customs – x :: customs; x :: spectacles.

LECTURE 4: THE PARTS OF
SPEECH PROBLEM. WORD CLASSES

The parts of speech are
classes of words, all the members of these classes having certain
characteristics in common which distinguish them from the members of
other classes. The problem of word classification into parts of
speech still remains one of the most controversial problems in modern
linguistics. The attitude of grammarians with regard to parts of
speech and the basis of their classification varied a good deal at
different times. Only in English grammarians have been vacillating
between 3 and 13 parts of speech. There are four approaches to the
problem:

  1. Classical
    (logical-inflectional)

  2. Functional

  3. Distributional

  4. Complex

The
classical
parts of speech theory goes back to ancient times. It is based on
Latin grammar. According to the Latin classification of the parts of
speech all words were divided dichotomically into declinable
and indeclinable
parts of speech. This system was
reproduced in the earliest English grammars. The first of these
groups, declinable words, included nouns, pronouns, verbs and
participles, the second – indeclinable words – adverbs,
prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. The
logical-inflectional classification is quite successful for Latin or
other languages with developed morphology and synthetic paradigms but
it cannot be applied to the English language because the principle of
declinability/indeclinability is not relevant for analytical
languages.

A
new approach to the problem was introduced in the XIX century by
Henry Sweet. He took into account the peculiarities of the English
language. This approach may be defined as functional.
He resorted to the functional features of words and singled out
nominative units and particles. To nominative
parts of speech belonged noun-words
(noun, noun-pronoun, noun-numeral, infinitive, gerund),
adjective-words
(adjective, adjective-pronoun, adjective-numeral, participles), verb
(finite verb, verbals – gerund, infinitive, participles), while
adverb, preposition,
conjunction
and interjection
belonged to the group of particles.
However, though the criterion for classification was functional,
Henry Sweet failed to break the tradition and classified words into
those having morphological forms and lacking morphological forms, in
other words, declinable and indeclinable.

A
distributional approach
to the parts to the parts of speech
classification can be illustrated by the classification introduced by
Charles Fries. He wanted to avoid the traditional terminology and
establish a classification of words based on distributive analysis,
that is, the ability of words to combine with other words of
different types. At the same time, the lexical meaning of words was
not taken into account. According to Charles Fries, the words in
such sentences as 1. Woggles ugged diggles; 2. Uggs woggled diggs;
and 3. Woggs diggled uggles are quite evident structural signals,
their position and combinability are enough to classify them into
three word-classes. In this way, he introduced four major classes
of words
and 15 form-classes.
Let us see how it worked. Three test frames
formed the basis for his analysis:

Frame
A — The concert was good (always);

Frame
B — The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly);

Frame
C – The team went there.

It
turned out that his four classes of words were practically the same
as traditional nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. What is really
valuable in Charles Fries’ classification is his investigation of
15 groups of function words (form-classes) because he was the first
linguist to pay attention to some of their peculiarities.

All
the classifications mentioned above appear to be one-sided because
parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of only one aspect of
the word: either its meaning or its form, or its function.

In
modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated according to
three criteria: semantic, formal and functional. This approach may be
defined as complex.
The semantic
criterion presupposes the grammatical meaning of the whole class of
words (general grammatical meaning). The formal
criterion reveals paradigmatic
properties: relevant grammatical categories, the form of the words,
their specific inflectional and derivational features. The functional
criterion concerns the syntactic
function of words in the sentence and their combinability. Thus, when
characterizing any part of speech we are to describe: a) its
semantics; b) its morphological features; c) its syntactic
peculiarities.

The
linguistic evidence drawn from our grammatical study makes it
possible to divide all the words of the language into:

  1. those
    denoting things, objects, notions, qualities, etc. – words with
    the corresponding references in the objective reality – notional
    words;

  2. those
    having no references of their own in the objective reality; most of
    them are used only as grammatical means to form up and frame
    utterances – function words,
    or grammatical words.

It is
commonly recognized that the notional parts of speech are nouns,
pronouns, numerals, verbs, adjectives, adverbs; the functional parts
of speech are articles, particles, prepositions, conjunctions and
modal words.

The
division of language units into notion and function words reveals the
interrelation of lexical and grammatical types of meaning. In
notional words the lexical meaning is predominant. In function words
the grammatical meaning dominates over the lexical one. However, in
actual speech the border line between notional and function words is
not always clear cut. Some notional words develop the meanings
peculiar to function words — e.g. seminotional words – to
turn, to get, etc.

Notional
words constitute the bulk of the existing word stock while function
words constitute a smaller group of words. Although the number of
function words is limited (there are only about 50 of them in Modern
English), they are the most frequently used units.

Generally
speaking, the problem of words’ classification into parts of speech
is far from being solved. Some words cannot find their proper place.
The most striking example here is the class of adverbs. Some language
analysts call it a ragbag, a dustbin
(Frank Palmer), Russian academician V.V.Vinogradov defined the class
of adverbs in the Russian language as мусорная
куча. It can be explained by the
fact that to the class of adverbs belong those words that cannot find
their place anywhere else. At the same time, there are no grounds for
grouping them together either. Compare: perfectly
(She speaks English
perfectly)
and again
(He is here
again).
Examples are numerous (all temporals). There are some words that do
not belong anywhere — e.g. after all.
Speaking about after all
it should be mentioned that this unit is quite often used by native
speakers, and practically never by our students. Some more striking
examples: anyway, actually, in fact.
The problem is that if these words belong nowhere, there is no place
for them in the system of words, then how can we use them correctly?
What makes things worse is the fact that these words are devoid of
nominative power, and they have no direct equivalents in the
Ukrainian or Russian languages. Meanwhile, native speakers use these
words subconsciously, without realizing how they work.

LECTURE
5: THE NOUN

1.General
characteristics.

The noun is
the central lexical unit of language. It is the main nominative unit
of speech. As any other part of speech, the noun can be characterised
by three criteria: semantic
(the meaning), morphological
(the form and grammatical catrgories) and syntactical
(functions, distribution).

Semantic
features of the noun. The noun possesses the grammatical meaning of
thingness, substantiality. According to different principles of
classification nouns fall into several subclasses:

  1. According
    to the type of nomination they may be proper
    and common;

  2. According
    to the form of existence they may be animate
    and inanimate.
    Animate nouns in their turn fall into human
    and non-human.

  3. According
    to their quantitative structure nouns can be countable
    and uncountable.

This set of
subclasses cannot be put together into one table because of the
different principles of classification.

Morphological
features of the noun. In accordance
with the morphological structure of the stems all nouns can be
classified into: simple,
derived (
stem + affix, affix + stem – thingness);
compound (
stem+ stem – armchair
) and composite
( the Hague ). The noun has morphological categories of number and
case. Some scholars admit the existence of the category of gender.

Syntactic
features of the noun. The noun can be
used un the sentence in all syntactic
functions
but predicate. Speaking about noun combinability,
we can say that it can go into right-hand and left-hand connections
with practically all parts of speech. That is why practically all
parts of speech but the verb can act as noun determiners.
However, the most common noun determiners are considered to be
articles, pronouns, numerals, adjectives and nouns themselves in the
common and genitive case.

2.
The category of number

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

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

  1. oneness
    (individual separate object – a cat);

  2. generalization
    (the meaning of the whole class – The
    cat is a domestic animal
    );

  3. indiscreteness
    (нерасчлененность or
    uncountableness — money, milk).

The plural
form may denote:

  1. the
    existence of several objects (cats);

  2. the
    inner discreteness (внутренняя
    расчлененность, pluralia
    tantum, jeans).

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

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

  2. The
    nouns in which this opposition is not expressed explicitly but is
    revealed by syntactical and lexical correlation in the context.
    There are two groups here:

  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.

  1. 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
    .

3. The
category of case.

Case
expresses the relation of a word to another word in the word-group or
sentence (my sister’s coat). The category of case correlates with
the objective category of possession. The case category in English is
realized through the opposition: The Common Case :: The Possessive
Case (sister :: sister’s). However, in modern linguistics the term
“genitive case” is used instead of the “possessive case”
because the meanings rendered by the “`s” sign are not only those
of possession. The scope of meanings rendered by the Genitive Case is
the following :

  1. Possessive
    Genitive : Mary’s father – Mary has a father,

  2. Subjective
    Genitive: The doctor’s arrival – The doctor has arrived,

  3. Objective
    Genitive : The man’s release – The man was released,

  4. Adverbial
    Genitive : Two hour’s work – X worked for two hours,

  5. Equation
    Genitive : a mile’s distance – the distance is a mile,

  6. Genitive
    of destination: children’s books – books for children,

  7. Mixed
    Group: yesterday’s paper

Nick’s
school cannot be reduced to one nucleus

John’s
word

To avoid
confusion with the plural, the marker of the genitive case is
represented in written form with an apostrophe. This fact makes
possible disengagement of –`s form from the noun to which it
properly belongs. E.g.: The
man I saw yesterday’s son
,
where -`s is appended to the whole group (the so-called group
genitive)
. It may
even follow a word which normally does not possess such a formant, as
in somebody else’s
book
.

There is no
universal point of view as to the case system in English. Different
scholars stick to a different number of cases.

  1. There
    are two cases. The Common one and The Genitive;

  2. There
    are no cases at all, the form `s is optional because the same
    relations may be expressed by the ‘of-phrase’: the
    doctor’s arrival – the arrival of the doctor
    ;

  3. There
    are three cases: the Nominative, the Genitive, the Objective due to
    the existence of objective pronouns me,
    him, whom
    ;

  4. Case
    Grammar. Ch.Fillmore introduced syntactic-semantic classification of
    cases. They show relations in the so-called deep structure of the
    sentence. According to him, verbs may stand to different relations
    to nouns. There are 6 cases:

  1. Agentive
    Case (A) John
    opened the door;

  2. Instrumental
    case (I) The key
    opened the door;
    John used the key to open the door;

  3. Dative
    Case (D) John
    believed that he would win (the case of the animate being affected
    by the state of action identified by the verb);

  4. Factitive
    Case (F) The key
    was damaged ( the result of the action or state identified by the
    verb);

  5. Locative
    Case (L) Chicago is
    windy;

  6. Objective
    case (O) John stole
    the book.

4. The
Problem of Gender in English

Gender
plays a relatively minor part in the grammar of English by comparison
with its role in many other languages. There is no gender concord,
and the reference of the pronouns he,
she, it
is very
largely determined by what is sometimes referred to as ‘natural’
gender for English, it depends upon the classification of persons and
objects as male, female or inanimate. Thus, the recognition of gender
as a grammatical category is logically independent of any particular
semantic association.

According
to some language analysts (B.Ilyish, F.Palmer, and E.Morokhovskaya),
nouns have no category of gender in Modern English. Prof.Ilyish
states that not a single word in Modern English shows any
peculiarities in its morphology due to its denoting male or female
being. Thus, the words husband
and wife
do not show any
difference in their forms due to peculiarities of their lexical
meaning. The difference between such nouns as actor
and actress
is a purely lexical one. In other words, the category of sex should
not be confused with the category of sex, because sex is an objective
biological category.

It correlates with gender only when sex differences of living beings
are manifested in the language grammatically (e.g. tiger
– tigress
).
Still, other scholars (M.Blokh, John Lyons) admit the existence of
the category of gender. Prof.Blokh states that the existence of the
category of gender in Modern English can be proved by the correlation
of nouns with personal pronouns of the third person (he,
she, it
).
Accordingly, there are three genders in English: the neuter
(non-person) gender, the masculine gender, the feminine gender.

LECTURE
6:
THE VERB.
1.General characteristics

Grammatically
the verb is the most complex part of speech. First of all it performs
the central role in realizing predication —
connection between situation in the utterance and reality. That is
why the verb is of primary informative significance in an utterance.
Besides, the verb possesses quite a lot of grammatical categories.
Furthermore, within the class of verb various subclass divisions
based on different principles of classification can befound.

Semantic
features of the verb. The verb possesses the grammatical meaning of
verbiality — the
ability to denote a process developing in time. This meaning is
inherent not only in the verbs denoting processes, but also in those
denoting states, forms of existence, evaluations, etc.

Morphological
features of the verb. The verb possesses the following grammatical
categories: tense, aspect, voice, mood, person, number, finitude and
phase. The common categories for finite and non-finite forms are
voice, aspect, phase and finitude. The grammatical categories of the
English verb find their expression in synthetical and analytical
forms. The formative elements expressing these categories are
grammatical affixes, inner inflexion and
function words.
Some categories have only synthetical forms (person,
number),
others
— only analytical (voice).
There are also categories expressed by both synthetical and
analytical forms (mood, tense, aspect).

Syntactic features. The
most universal syntactic feature of verbs is their ability to be
modified by adverbs. The second important syntactic criterion is the
ability of the verb to perform the syntactic function of the
predicate. However, this criterion is not absolute because only
finite forms can perform this function while non-finite forms can be
used in any function but predicate. And finally, any verb in the form
of the infinitive can be combined with a modal verb.

2.
Classifications of English verbs

According to different
principles of classification, classifications can be morphological,
lexical-morphological, syntactical and functional.

A.
Morphological
classifications..

I.
According to their stem-types all verbs fall into: simple (to
go),
sound-replacive
(food
to feed, blood

to bleed),
stress-replacive
(import
to im port,
transport

to transport,
expanded
(with the help of suffixes and prefixes): cultivate,
justify, overcome,
composite
(correspond to composite nouns): to
blackmail),
phrasal:
to have a smoke, to give a smile
(they always have an ordinary verb as
an equivalent). 2.According
to the way of forming past tenses and Participle
II verbs can be regular
and irregular.

B.
Lexical-morphological
classification is
based on the implicit grammatical meanings of the verb. According to
the implicit grammatical meaning of transitivity/intransitivity verbs
fall into transitive
and intransitive.
According to the implicit grammatical meaning of
stativeness/non-stativeness verbs fall into stative
and dynamic.
According to the implicit grammatical meaning of
terminativeness/non-terminativeness verbs fall into terminative
and durative.
This classification is closely connected with the categories of
Aspect and Phase.

C.
Syntactic
classifications. According to the nature of predication (primary and
secondary) all verbs fall into finite
and non-finite.
According to syntagmatic properties (valency) verbs can be of
obligatory
and optional valency,
and thus they may have some directionality or be devoid of any
directionality. In this way, verbs fall into the verbs of directed
(to see, to take, etc.)
and non-directed
action (to arrive, to drizzle, etc.):

Syntagmatic
classification of English verbs

(according
to prof.G.Pocheptsov)

V
Vobj. She shook her head

Vaddr. He phoned me

V2
– V10 Vobj.-addr. She gave me

her pen

V11
– V15 Vadv. She behaved well

V1
V2 – V24 V16 – V24 Vobj.-adv. He put his hat

on the table

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3. Means of form-building in modern English.

The grammatical meaning finds its expression in a grammatical form which is a means of
expressing a grammatical meaning. There are several types of
form-building in English. The main subdivision of form-building types is into synthetic and analytical. In a synthetic
type a grammatical meaning is expressed within a word, in an
analytical type a grammatical meaning is expressed
with the help of auxiliary words (plus suffixes). The synthetic types of
form-building in English include affixation :suffixes –s,-ed, -ing, -er, -est,
-en, -ren, -ne, -m (reads,
shown, books, oxen, taken, mine ,them etc.), sound interchange/ morpho-phonemic
alteration – a meaningful change of vowels or consonants within a morpheme (take
— took, shine — shone) and suppletivity – the
extreme case of morphophon. alteration, there
happens a complete phon. change of the root, is not
productive (go — went, be -was,
good — better – best, I-me, we-us, she-her) .The only productive type in the present-day
English is affixation, but the other two types are no less important, if only
because they occur in words which are most frequently used. The
analytical type of form-building occupies
a very important place in the grammatical structure of English as the
language has evolutionized from being mainly synthetical to becoming
more and more analytical, and analytical tendencies in the present day English are very strong. There exist the
so-called half-analytical structures and
the analytical tendencies find their
reflection in many spheres of the language.

5. Synthetic means of form-building in modern
English.

The grammatical meaning finds its expression in a grammatical form. There are several types of form-building in English. The main subdivision of
form-building types is into synthetic
and analytical. In a synthetic type a grammatical meaning is
expressed within a word, in an analytical type a grammatical meaning is expressed with the help of auxiliary words
(plus suffixes). The synthetic types of form-building in English include
affixation: suffixes- -s, -ed, — ing, -er, -en, -m, -ne (reads,
shown, oxen ,mine, taken etc.), sound
interchange/morphophonemic alteration: a meaningful change of vowels or
consonants within a morpheme (take — took, shine — shone) and suppletivity: the extreme case of morphophonemic
alteration, there happens a complete phon.change of
the root (go — went, be -was,
good — better – best, I-me, we-us, she-her). .The only productive type in the present-day
English is affixation, but the other two types are no less important, if only
because they occur in words which are most frequently used. The
analytical type of form-building occupies
a very important place in the grammatical structure of English as the
language has evolutionized from being mainly synthetical to becoming
more and more analytical, and analytical tendencies in the present day English are very strong. There exist the
so-called half-analytical structures and
the analytical tendencies find their
reflection in many spheres of the language.

4. The predicate as the main means of expressing
predication. Types of predicates.

The Predicate is
the part of the sentence which expresses a predicative feature attributed to
the subject of the sentence. Like the subject, the predicate also carries out a triple function in the sentence:
structural, semantic and communicative. Its structural function
consists in establishing the syntactic relations with the subject and
other parts of the sentence. The semantic
function of the predicate finds its expression
in attributing certain features to the subject. Its communicative function is manifested in the fact that through the
predicate and the expression of predication the sentence becomes a
minimal unit of communication. The predicate is ‘the structural and semantic
centre of the sentence’. In the structure
of a simple, two-member sentence the predicate usually carries out the
function of the rheme, He disappeared. According to the form of expression
predicates are divided into verbal and nominal:
The moon rose. The moon was pale. There exists a phraseological
predicate (presents a combination
of such verbs as have, get,
give, take and a verbal noun (give
a look, take a bath, have a smoke). From the grammatical point of
view the most important characteristic of this type of predicate is
not so much its phraseological but its analytical
character (all analytical structures are
characterized by  idiomaticity
of their components). The verb
expresses the grammatical meaning and the verbal noun expresses a lexical
meaning. The two formal types of
the predicate correspond to the two main semantic types: process predicate which expresses
the action, the state or the existence of the subject and qualification predicate which expresses the quality
(property) of the subject. The process predicate can be further
subdivided into several types in accordance
with the semantic types of verbs: existential (There was a tavern in the town), statal (He slept), locative (The elephant lives in India),
relational (He had a small ranch) and actional
(The car broke down). The qualification predicate has three
subtypes: identifying (So you are the man we have been looking for), classifying
(My friend is a student) and characterizing (My wife is a bit of an
actress. He was too German).Structurally the predicate may be divided into
simple and compound. We said
good- bye — a simple verbal
predicate; It was a lovely place -simple nominal predicate. The predicate is compounded by the
introduction of modal or aspective
components. We started saying good-bye — a compound verbal predicate; It
must be a lovely place — a compound nominal predicate.

6. Secondary parts of sentence. Difficulties of
their classification.

The theory of the
secondary parts (SP) is one of the last developed sections of linguistics. The
object is a SP of the sentence, referring to a part of the sentence
expressed by a verb, a noun, a substan’tival
pronoun, an adj., a numeral, or an adv., and denoting a thing to which the
action passes on, which is a result of the action, in reference(относительно) to which an action is committed(совершено) or a property(св-во, кач-во) is manifested(проявляться), or denoting an
action as object of another action. An object can refer to any part of speech
capable of being a part of the sentence. Attribute is a SP of the
sentence modifying a part of the sentence expressed by a noun, a substantival pronoun, a cardinal (колич.) numeral, and any substantivized
word, and characterizing the thing named by these words as to its quality or
property. The attribute, as distinct from the object, cannot modify (определять) a verb, an adj, an adv, the attribute expresses a property while the
object expresses a thing, but they both can modify a noun, a pronoun, a
numeral. Adv. modifier is a SP of the sentence modifying a part of the
sentence expressed by a verb, a verbal noun, an adj,
an adv, and serving to characterize an action or a property as to its quality
or intensity, or to indicate the way an action is done, the time, the place,
cause, purpose, condition, with which the action or the manifestation of the
quality is connected.

7. Suffixation as a means of form-building in modern
English.

The grammatical meaning finds its expression in a grammatical form. There are several types of form-building in English. The main subdivision of
form-building types is into synthetic
and analytical. In a synthetic type a grammatical meaning is
expressed within a word, in an analytical type a grammatical meaning is expressed with the help of auxiliary words
(plus suffixes). The synthetic types of form-building in English include
affixation (reads, shown, books, theirs etc.), sound interchange (take — took, shine —
shone) and suppletivity (go — went, be -was, good — better – best). .The only productive type in the present-day
English is affixation, but the other two types are no less important, if only
because they occur in words which are most frequently used. The number of
inflectional suffixes in modern English is very small: ‘s’ – the plural forms
of nouns, the Genitive case, used to build the 3 person singular; ‘ed’ – the past tense, Part II in regular verbs; ‘ing’ – Part I, the Gerund; ‘er’
– the comparative degree of the adj.; ‘ist’ – the
superlative degree – they are fairly productive in modern English; ‘en’ – the
plural form of the noun ox – oxen, the past participle in irregular verbs; ‘ren’ – the plural form of the noun child; ‘ne’ – mine; ‘m’ – to build the objective case of the
personal pronouns – him, them – they are non-productive. The number of
suffixes is small, but the frequency of their use is high. Many English words
are characterized by the absence of any inflectional suffixes. The analytical type of form-building
occupies a very important place in the grammatical structure of English
as the language has evolutionized from being mainly
synthetical to becoming
more and more analytical, and analytical tendencies in the present day English are very strong.

8)Classific-n of subord. clauses:

2
approaches: (1) shows correlation of clauses with parts of the sentence =>
a) the subject clause, b) the predicative, c) object, d) adverbial, e)
attributive.

(2)
correlates clauses with parts of speech & distinguishes: a) substantive
clause – corresponding to subj., predic. &
object clauses, b) adverbial clauses, c) adjectival clauses – corresponding
to attribute cl. These 2 classifications
correlate!!!

9.
The subject matter of theoretical grammar. The grammatical structure of the
language.

Language — is a means of
forming and storing ideas as reflections of reality and exchanging them in
the process of human intercourse. Language incorporates 3 constituent parts
which form a unity.

·         
Phonological

·         
Lexical

·         
Grammatical systems

The grammatical system is
studied by Grammar.

Grammar- is the structure of
the language. All lang-s have grammar. Theoretical
grammar is the science of the structure of the lang. It’s a part of the ling.
theory & exists for those lang-s that have been
theoretically investigated. Parts of grammar: morphology, syntax, phonology,
semantics. 2 main aims of the course: 1) to provide a description of
the gram. structure of the lang. as an organized system.2) to look
analytically at the unit making a gram. struct. of
English; to provide a critical review of the existing scientific theories.
The grammatical system of a language helps arrange lexical units into
coherent utterance (членораздельное высказывание): it expresses a certain complete thought and
is marked at all the lingual levels: phonetic, lexical, the level of
combinability, grammatical level. In speech words are connected into
utterances, that are built up sent-s. Means that form gram. structure: 1)
word-change (I see/saw a book). 2)
word-order (The dog beat the man./The
man beat the dog.) 3) functional words: prepositions, articles, auxiliary
verbs, conjunctions (He lives
in/outside London.) 4) intonation (They
are students. They are students?really?) In one
sent. all the 4 means, or 2 or 3 may be used.

The
main unit of the grammatical system is the grammatical category. The
grammatical category is an opposition of at least two forms of one and the
same lexical unit based on a certain general meaning which is more abstract
than the meaning of the members of the opposition. It’s the unity of form
& mean-g.

The
grammatical form is the lexical nucleus + a grammatical marker. Sometimes
they are referred to as word forms (словоформы) The grammatical
meaning is that which distinguishes one member of a paradigm from another.

Another approach to the
analysis of language as a kind of system, language can be looked upon as a hierarchy of levels: Level of text, it’s the main linguistic
unit. Phrasemic level (Phrases are word
combinations, they nominate complex phenomena) Leximic level (Words are nominative units, because they nominate things
and phenomena. They are built up by morphemes.)Morphemic level (Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units
built up by phonemes or one phoneme.) Phonemic
level (Phonemes are meaningless units, their function is differential.) 2
levels are central: words level and sentence level. They are studied by
morphology and syntax. Thus, morphology deals with morphemic structure and
combinability, classification of words. Syntax — with sentences.

49. Cohesion as the main text
property and means of expressing cohesion in English

Cohesion is the main property
of a text. The concept of it was first developed by Michael Halliday. It’s the relations existing among the sentences
& clauses of a text. They are signaled by certain gram.& lex. means that are called cohesive. They mark which sentences are related & in what
manner. It’s not a sufficient condition for the creation of the text.

Cohesion is characterized by
2 types of relation: 1) logical-semantic, 2) anaphoric. Each of them
have various gram.& lex.-gram.means of
expressing these relations.

1)       
between sent-s in a paragraph can be of different
types: of cause & consequence condition, time, concession… They may be
implied or explicitly expressed. Ex. She didn’t go to school. She had been
ill for 2 days.   The can be expressed
with the help of conjunctions (because,etc.)

2)       
between 2 or more items in cohesive sent-s, which
refer to the same thing. These items often form cohesive chains.

Text cohesion
& its relations may be realized through dif. means:

—          
Lexical: the repetition
of the item, the use of synonyms, words of the same root.

—          
Lexical-grammatical: a) pronouns of
dif. classes (he, she, they…); b) articles (“aan” points to the center of
communication; “the” – anaphorically used)

—          
Grammatical (the order is
connected with actual division of the sent. The rheme
of the previous sent. becomes the theme of the following one: ex. I saw a
man. The man was tall.) Word-order as a syntactic means of sent. connection
shows that the structure of the sent. depends on the structure of another.

—          
Conjunctions/
conjunct. words ( join not only composite sent., but also utterances within a text.
Ex. Then, there…)

—          
Incomplete sent-s of the sintagmatic type can be understood with the help of the
context.

50. Means of expressing gender in Modern English

It’s doubtful
whether the grammatical category of gender exists  in Modern English. Gender doesn’t find
regular morphological expression. The distinction of male, female and neuter
may correspond to the lexical meaning of the noun:

Masculine (names of male
beings) — boy, man, husband, cock, bachelor

Feminine (names of female
beings) – girl, woman, wife, cow, hen

Neuter (names of
inanimate objects) – table, house.

Gender may be expressed by
word-formation:

a)        
feminine suffixes –ess ( actress, hostess,
tigress), -ine
(heroine), -ette
(usherette)

b)       
compounds of dif.patterns:
1. N+N stem (boy-friend-girl-friend; a Tom-cat- a Tabby-cat; a doctor-a
woman-doctor; a landlord- a landlady); 2. Pronoun+ N (a he-wolf- a she-wolf;
a he-cousin-a she-cousin); 3. oppositions of lexemes ( niece-nephew,
bull-cow, girl-boy).

From the point of view of
gender distinctions English nouns can be divided into 2 groups:
person-nouns(neuter) & non-person nouns ( which are subdivided into
feminine & masculine), but this opposition is not absolute and doesn’t
embrace the whole class of nouns. There are a lot of nouns in English, that
belong to the so-called “common gender” (person, cousin, parent, president,
friend, doctor).

There are also some
traditional associations of certain nouns with gender:

a)        
moon and earth are referred as feminine, sun- as masculine.

b)       
the names of vessels (ship, boat,
ice-breaker, steamer) are referred to as feminine.

c)        
the names of
vehicles (car, carriage, coach) may also be referred to as feminine,
especially by their owners.

d)       
the names of
countries, if the country is not considered as a mere geographical territory,
are referred to as feminine.

All these arguments speak in favour of treating the category of gender in English
nouns as not a purely grammatical, but a lexico-gram.
category, because gender finds a lexical (special suffixes & lexemes) and
a gram. expression in the language ( replacing nouns by personal pronouns)

51. The problem of homonymity in the system
of English moods

The category of
mood in the present English verb has given rise to so many discussions and
has been treated in so many ways, that it seems hardly possible to arrive at
any more or less acceptable conclusion. The only points in the sphere of mood
which haven’t been disputed are the following: 1) there is a category of mood
in Modern English ( Mood-
is the grammatical category of the verb, which expresses the relation of the
action denoted by the verb to reality from the speaker’s point of view); 2)
there are at least 2 moods in the modern English verb, one of which is the
indicative. (The indicative mood is
the basic mood of the verb. Morphologically it’s the most developed system
including all the categories of the verb. Semantically it’s a fact mood. It
serves to present an action as a fact of reality. It’s the most objective of
all the moods. It conveys minimum personal attitude to the fact: Ex. Water
consists of oxygen.)

Linguists differ
greatly in the understanding of this category, especially in the number of
grammatical forms of the mood they find in English. Thus, Smirnitsky,
Vasilevskaya, Akhmanova
find 6 moods (‘indicative’, ‘imperative’, ‘subjunctive1’, ‘subjunctive2’,
‘conditional’ and ‘suppositional’), Ilyish, Ivanova find only 3 moods ( indicative, imperative,
subjunctive), Barkhudarov and Shteling
distinguish only the ‘indicative’ and the ‘subjunctive’ moods. Max Deutschbein finds 16 moods.  

Such a variety of
opinions lies in the complexity of the category itself and also 2 other
phenomena. The first is the problem
of drawing a borderline between polysemy and
homonymy. Both permeate (пронизывают) the structure of
the English language at all levels and sometimes the borderline between them
is hard to draw. Ex. He stopped
doing it. – He wish he stopped
doing it. (here me can’t say clearly, if it’s one polysemantic
form or two morphological homonyms). The
other reason for the controversy of opinions about the scope of the
category of mood is the fact that the grammatical category of the mood is a
component of the functional-semantic category of modality- a complex &
heterogeneous category, which includes other means of expressing various
modal meanings. Some linguists include the combination of modal verbs with
Infinitive into the system of grammatical moods and in this case the number
of moods grows considerably.

53. Controversial problems of the part of speech classification: VERBALS

The
verb has finite & non-finite forms, the latter are called verbals. They have some features in common with the
finite forms, but also some peculiarities of their own. They don’t express
person, number or mood. But like the finite forms the verbals
have aspect (infinitive), correlation and voice distinctions. There is a
present & a past tense in the system of verbals.

There
are 3 verbals in English: the participle, the gerund and the infinitive. In Russian we also
have three non-finite forms (причастие, деепричастие, инфинитив), but they don’t
fully coincide with those in the English language.

Lexically
non-finites don’t differ from finite forms. Grammatically the
difference between them lies in the fact that they denote a secondary action,
a process related to that expressed by the finite form.

The
characteristic traits of the verbals are as
follows:

1)                           
They have a double nature, nominal &
verbal. The participle combines the characteristics of a verb with those of
an adjective; the gerund & the infinitive combine the characteristics of
a verb with those of a noun. The verbal meaning of “action, process” is
presented as some kind of  “substance”
(gerund, infinitive), or “quality” (participle).

2)                           
They 
have some peculiar morphemes: -ing (gerund & participle I); -(e)d, -(e)n (participle II), to
(infinitive).

3)                           
Syntactically the
verbal character of the non-finites is manifested mainly in their
combinability. They form connections with adverbs, nouns, pronouns (denoting
objects of action) like finite verbs, and they connect with finite verbs,
like nouns or adverbs. They are very seldom used as predicates, but they are
used in almost any other function in the sent.

52.
The theory of speech acts

Making a
statement may be the paradigmatic use of language, but there are all sorts of
other things we can do with words. We can make requests, ask questions, give
orders, make promises, give thanks, offer apologies, and so on. Moreover,
almost any speech act is really the performance of several acts at once,
distinguished by different aspects of the speaker’s intention: there is the
act of saying something, what one does in saying it, such as requesting or
promising.

The theory of speech acts is
partly taxonomic (классифицированная) and partly explanatory. It must systematically
classify types of speech acts and the ways in which they can succeed or fail.
It must reckon with the fact that the relationship between the words being
used and the force of their utterance is often oblique. For example, the
sentence ‘This is a pig sty’ might be used nonliterally
to state that a certain room is messy and filthy and, further, to demand
indirectly that it be straightened out and cleaned up. Even when this
sentence is used literally and directly, the content of its utterance is not
fully determined by its linguistic meaning. A major task for the theory of
speech acts is to account for how speakers can succeed in what they do
despite the various ways in which linguistic meaning underdetermines use. In
general, speech acts are acts of communication. To communicate is to express
a certain attitude, and the type of speech act being performed corresponds to
the type of attitude being expressed. For example, a statement expresses a belief,
a request expresses a desire, and an apology expresses a regret. As an act of
communication, a speech act succeeds if the audience identifies, in
accordance with the speaker’s intention, the attitude being expressed.

SPEECH-ACT THEORY AND RHETORIC

       In
his famous work, «How to do Things with Words,» J. L. Austin
outlined his theory of speech acts and the concept of performative
language, in which to say something is to do something. To make the statement
“I promise that p” (in which p is the propositional content of the utterance)
is to perform the act of promising as opposed to making a statement that may
be judged true or false. Performatives cannot be
true or false, only felicitous or infelicitous. Austin creates a clear distinction between performatives and constantives,
statements that attempt to describe reality and can be judged true or false,
but he eventually comes to the conclusion that most utterances, at their
base, are performative in nature. For Austin, what the speaker
is doing is creating social realities within certain social contexts. For
example, using an explicit performative, to say “I
now pronounce you man and wife” in the context of a wedding, in which one is
marrying two people, is to create a social reality, in this case a married
couple.
       
       Austin described three characteristics, or
acts, of statements that begin with the building blocks of words and end with
the effects those words have on an audience. Locutionary
acts: “equivalent to uttering a certain sentence with a certain
‘meaning´ in the traditional sense.” Illocutionary acts: “such
as informing, ordering, warning, undertaking. Perlocutionary
acts: “what we bring about or achieve by saying something, such as
convincing, persuading and even surprising or misleading”. Austin focused on illocutionary acts,
maintaining that here we might find the “force” of a statement and
demonstrate its performative nature. For example,
to say “Don´t run with scissors” has the
force of a warning when spoken in a certain context. This utterance may be
stated in an explicitly performative way, e.g., “I
warn you, don´t run with scissors.”

54. Modality. Means of
expressing modality.

The category of modality is
one of the most complicated linguistic categories which has various forms of
its expression in the language. It has also a lot of various definitions
& interpretations. In the Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary modality
is defined as a functional-semantic category which expresses different types
of relations between the utterance and reality as well as dif. types of
subjective evaluation (оценка) of the
information contained in the utterance. Modality expresses 2 types of
relations and includes 2 levels. That’s why the linguists usually
differentiate between 2 types of modality: objective (or primary) and subjective
(or secondary).Ch. Bally considered that each utterance consists of two
parts, the part which presents information
( he called it ‘dictum’) and the
part which presents the speaker’s evaluation
of this information (he called it ‘modus’).

The primary modality expresses the relation of the contents
of the sentence to reality as established
by the speaker who, choosing the appropriate form of the mood presents
the event as real, unreal or desirable. It is expressed by the
grammatical form of mood and thus it is a
component of predicativity and as such it always
finds a grammatical expression in
the sentence. E.g. You are my wife. Be my wife. I wish you
were my wife. Thus, primary modality as a component of predicativity is an obligatory feature of the sentence —
we cannot make a sentence without expressing primary modality.

Secondary
modality presents another layer of modality, built over the
primary modality. It’ does not always find an explicit expression in the
sentence. Secondary modality is not homogeneous. It contains two layers and
we can differentiate between two types of secondary modality. The first type
expresses the relations between the subject of the sentence and the action.
The action may be presented as possible,
permissive, obligatory, necessary, desirable or unnecessary for the
subject. It is expressed by the modal verbs in their verb-oriented meanings:
ability, possibility, permission, necessity, obligation etc. E.g. Children must be seen but not heard. I
can jump puddles. You may be free for today. The second
type of secondary modality expresses the attitude of the speaker to the
contents of the utterance or the speaker’s evaluation of the event presented in the utterance. This
type of modality can be expressed by: 1)modal words and modal adverbs and modal particles: maybe, probably, certainly,
of course, perhaps, sure, evidently, supposedly, luckily, fortunately etc. ( E.g. This is probably the best chance you have ever had); 2) by modal verbs in their
sentence-oriented meanings: probability, doubt, supposition, certainty, disbelief (E.g. She couldn’t have done it alone) ;3) by modalized verbs seem, to appear, happen, chance (She
appeared to be holding something back from him); 4) by
the so called performative verbs and phrases which
name speech and mental acts: think,
suppose, guess, doubt, be certain, be sure etc. (e.g. I guess
you are right; I am afraid this is true); 5) by special syntactic structures like ‘tag questions’ (This
is true, isn’t it?), as well as 6) by intonation and word order. As we
can see the modal verbs participate in the expression of two kinds of
secondary modality.

56. The problem of analytical forms in the system of English Moods

Most analytical
forms of the subjunctive mood  are
built by means of the auxiliaries which developed from the modal verbs should and would, plus  the infinitive of the notional verb(indefinite or perfect). The
auxiliaries, generally called mood
auxiliaries, have lost their lexical meaning and are used in accordance
with strict rules in certain patterns of sent-s or clauses. Ex. I wish you would
stay with us some days more.; If he had known, he would have come.

Some linguist
think that besides these 2 mood auxiliaries, analytical forms of the
subjunctive mood may be built up with the help of mood auxiliaries may, might and less frequently shall
and will. Ex. I went to London that I might
see June.; Though he may be tired he will go to the concert.

But it should be
noted that not any combination of should
and would with the infinitive is
the subjunctive mood. When the verbs should
and would preserve their lexico-modal meaning   
(should- obligation, would- volition) they form modal
phases (compound verbal predicate): Ex. You should consult a doctor (=
you ought to); He would come and sit with us for hours
(repetition of the action).

Analytical forms
may be divided into 3 groups, according to their use and function.

1)                           
the forms should+infinitive (for
the first person singular & plural) and would+infinitive (for the other persons). This system
coincides in firm with the future in the past and is parallel to the future indef.tense in the indicative mood. There is a strong
tendency in Modern English to use would
for all persons. These forms denote hypothetical actions, either imagined
as resulting from hypothetical conditions, or presented as a real
possibility. Ex. I shouldn’t praise the boy so much, he may get
spoiled.; Would you help me if I need your help?

2)                           
The form would+infinitive for all persons, both singular &
plural. This form is highly specialized in meaning; it expresses a desirable
action in the future. Ex. I wish you would
go there too.

3)                           
The form should+infinitive for
all persons. This form stands apart in the system of the verb, as contrary to
the general tendency to use either 2 forms –shall/should and will/would, or
else to use 1 form- will/would for all persons.

Some linguists (prof. Vorontsova) are of
opinion that Modern English possesses analytical forms of the imperative mood
for the first and the third persons build up with the help of the
semantically weakened unstressed let,
as in Let us go, Let him come…Prof. Ilyish
emphasizes that the “let-constructions” are therefore not in an way
morphological phenomena. They belong to syntax.

10. Syntax as part of Grammar. Main Units of English
syntax.

There’s a debate
about the precise (точный, определенный) status of syntax as a part of grammar.

1)       
Some linguists state that it should deal with the
function and the formation of word-groups within the sent-s. This approach is characteristic of
early English syntax (18-19th cent.), which was concerned only
with analysis of word-groups, their structure and relations between their
elements.

2)       
Other linguists think that syntax should study only the
structure of sent-s.

3)       
There’s also a group of scholars who think that
syntax should deal with the structure of both word-groups and sent-s. It
is the most reasonable one and has actually prevailed in modern linguistics.

Смирницкий: The analysis of the
sentence structure must be regarded as the main problem of syntax; while the
word-groups’ is secondary.

·   
Joining the words into word-groups is only the 1st
step which precedes the formation of a sentence.

·   
A word-group is not complete either structurally or
semantically => it can’t be used as a unit of communication.

·   
A sent. can function as an independent utterance,
but a word-group functions only as an element of a sent.

Therefore, sent-s
are units of speech, while word-groups are bricks in a sentence structure.

The fundamental
feature that distinguishes a sent. from a word-group is that sent. is
always associated with a certain intonation pattern (it’s either a statement,
or request, etc.) A sent. without intonation can’t function as a unit of
speech; it remains a mere combination of words.

Basic English
sentence patterns contain a verb in its finite form. The presence of a verb
in a sent. is characteristic not only of English, but also of all other
European lang-s. Sent-s without verbs are short and
convey only fragmentary information,
the thought can’t be developed and elaborated unless there’s a verb in the
sent.

When the noun and
the verb in the finite form follow each other in the sent., they become the subject and the predicate – the 2
main parts of which basic sent-s are built. They can accompanied by other
words, and usually are, but this doesn’t change their status as the main
parts of the sent. For this reason the combination of subject & predicate
is excluded by many linguists from the domain of word-groups. Some linguists
suggested calling this combination a
clause(элемент.предложение) to
distinguish it from a word-group.

In most general
terms, a word-group is a logical and grammatical combination of 2
or more notional words which do not form a sent.

A sentence may be defined as the basic unit of communication, grammatically
organized and expressing a complete thought. It is characterized by predication (correlation between the
utterance & reality). The most universal means of expressing predication
is intonation; under certain circumstances (a broader context) any word-gr. may become a sent. But in most cases predication is
conveyed through the finite form of the
verb (which expresses person, number, mood, tense, aspect, time
correlation, voice).

Narrative analysis studies lexical &
grammatical means which help to organize the structure of a text. The part of
narrative analysis, which is concerned with gram. means, is called text grammar.

So, these
successive syntactic units form an hierarchy in the following order:

Word-groups =>
sentences => paragraphs

12.
Text grammar as part of linguistics. Basic units.

Text grammar is a rather new
branch of linguistics. It deals with the text. It considers the text the
highest unit of speech. If we consider isolated sentences in a discourse, we
find that it’s very rare that one sentence expresses the complete idea, which
is clear without any context.

Text is an ordered
sequence of sentences combined of various types of logical, lexical and
grammatical cohesion conveying structurally organized info. Text is a product
of oral and written speech. Galperin
recognizes the existence only of written text.

Those who studied the
text as a unit came to the conclusion that a text as a linguistic unit has
its own semantic and structural categories:

The main semantic
categories:

—          
Information(Any text should carry complete information;
it should express a certain communication.)

—          
Profundity(the text should have some depth, some food for
thinking, some idea, which may either be expressed, or may be understood
implicitly)

—          
Presupposition(there should be some level at which
communicate otherwise there may be complete misunderstanding.)

—          
Completeness(The text should be complete in meaning, it
shouldn’t be abrupt)

Structural Cathegories:

1)       
Integration (целостность)

—          
use certain logical
connections and connectors, a certain composition, a certain word order.

2)       
Cohesion (связь)

—          
necessary property of any text which differentiates
it from disconnected utterances. There are various means of text cohesion (когезия): syntactic,
semantic, stylistic.

—          
BLOCH: gram.connectives.
1) Conjunction-like connectives – coordinative, subordinative
conjunctions and adverbial and parenthetical sentence connectors such as:
yet, then, however, moreover. 2) Substitutional
connection – use of substitutes: pronouns.

3)       
Retrospection
& Prospection

—          
(means of text cohesion). Retrospection refers the
reader to the preceding events, prospection – to
the following events

4)       
Continuum

—          
the text should continue without breaking, it
shouldn’t be abrupt. Deictic (связующие) elements, tense forms, number forms, mood
forms

5) Polyphony

— a good text usually has
more than one line of thinking, of reasoning, which is most of all important
for fiction

11. Correlation btw various means
of form-building in ME.

There
are two principal types of form-building means: synthetic and analytical.

The synthetic form-building means
is the expression of the relation of words in the sentence by means of a
change in the word itself. There are three types of the synthetic
form-building means:

—          
affixation

—          
sound
interchange (morphological alteration)

—          
suppletion
(suppletive means)

Affixation is the most
productive means of expressing a grammatical meaning. The number of
grammatical suffixes is small (8). They are:-s, -ed, -ing, -er,
-est, -en, -m (him, them, whom), zero.

Sound interchange is a
change of a sound in the root of the word. There exist two kinds of sound
interchange – vowel and consonant ones (spend – spent). This type of
form-building means is non-productive.

In suppletive forms there is a complete change of
the phonetic shape of the root. Suppletive forms
belonging to the paradigm of a certain word were borrowed from different
sources. Suppletive forms are found in the paradigm
of such words as TO BE, TO GO, degrees of
comparison of the adjectives GOOD, BAD and in case-forms
of some pronouns (I-me, she-her, we-us). Блох notes
that suppletivity can be recognized in the paradigm
of some modal verbs too: CAN – BE ABLE, MUST – HAVE TO, MAY – BE
ALLOWED. Moreover, he says that it can be observed in pronouns (ONE –
SOME), NOUNS (INFORMATION – PIECES OF INFORMATION, MAN – PEOPLE). Suppletive forms are few in number, non-productive, but
very important, for they are frequently used

 Analytical
forms were described as a combination of an auxiliary and
a notional word.

This
definition is not precise enough and due to its ambiguity (неясность) such
word-combinations as TO THE CHILD, MORE INTERESTING were
treated as analytical forms. To define a true analytical form the theory of
splitting (разделение) of
functions should be taken into account. There must be a splitting of
functions between the elements of an analytical form. The first (auxiliary)
element is the bearer of a grammatical meaning only. It is completely devoid
of lexical meaning, and it is the second (notional) element that is the
bearer of lexical meaning.

This process can
be complete (perfect form) or incomplete (continuous form). The idiomaticity of an analytical form is a characteristic of
a true analytical form. An analytical form functions as a grammatical form of
a word. Analytical forms are much more typical of ME. Synthetic form-building
means are few in number but widely used. Some grammatical suffixes are very productive.Analytical forms comprise synthetic forms.
Although sound interchange is non-productive it is extensively used through
the paradigm of the irregular verbs. Though suppletive
forms are found through the paradigm of very few words they are very
frequently used words.

So we should conclude that
English cannot be called a purely analytical language. It is mainly
analytical.

13.
Analytical forms and their role in form-building.

It’s more productive in
Modern Eng. Traditionally an analytical form is defined this way: it consists
of an auxiliary word and the basic element, which is a notional word. This
definition is am’biguous (двусмыслен, неоднозначн.). And for that
reason some strange forms are treated as analytical: Combinations of
prepositions with nouns were treated as different analytical forms: to the child was treated as the
Dative case of a noun. by the
child was treated as the Instrumental case of a noun. Many linguists
criticized this approach to defining analytical forms and certain theories
have been worked out to differentiate analytical forms and free
word-combinations.

 1. The theory of the splitting of
functions. According to this theory in a true analytical form the
auxiliary element should be the bearer of the grammatical meaning only. It is
devoid of lexical meaning. It is the notional word that is the bearer of
lexical meaning. According to this approach there exist 2 types of analytical
forms: complete and incomplete. In
a complete analytical form the
splitting process has completed and the aux.element
is completely devoid of lex.meaning. e.g. In the
form of the Perfect the verb to have
has no meaning of possession. In an incomplete
analyt.form the aux.element
retains traces of its lex.meaning. e.g. The form of
the Continuous where the auxiliary be
retains traces (признаки) of it’s meaning
of the state.

2.Acc. to the second
approach a true analyt.form is idiomatic in characteràthe overall
meaning of the form is not immediately dependent on the individual meaning of
its constituents. It’s not a sum of meanings of its components. Besides an analyt.form also functions as a grammatical form of a
single word. If we proceed (исходить из) from this approach we should conclude that such
phrases as most interesting are not
an analytical form, because it is not idiomatic enough.

3. Acc. to Бархударов a true analyt.form should posses a discontinuous morpheme
(расчлененная морфема) which is a main
distinguishing feature of an analyt.form (Блох doesn’t share this view). A discontinuous mrph. сonsists of 2 elements –
an auxiliary word and the f.-b. sign of a notional word. The root-mrph of the notional word. is not included (не включ.). According to Бархударов there are only 3 analytical forms (Perfect,
Passive, Continuous): Have+en (insymbolic denotation-обозначение) in form of the
Perfect. Ex. have arrived Be+en in form of the
Passive Be+ing in form of the Continuous.
And from this point of view such phrases as shall take, most interesting, by the child are not analytical
forms. They are free word-combinations.

14. Various classifications of sent-s.

A sent. is a
complicated unit, is always associated with certain intonation
pattern(statement, request); a sent. without intonation can’t function as a
speech unit, it’s complete structurally & semantically, can function as
an independ. utterance.

(I)            
Structural: Sent-s are divided into simple & composite;
composite sent-s are divided into compound & complex. Simple sent-s are divided into 4
major classes (their use correlates with different communicative functions): 1st class: declarative sent-s, or statements. The
subject is always present and usually precedes the verb. 2nd class: interrogative
sent-s, or questions. They are marked by one or more of the following
criteria: ~ the aux. verb is placed in front of the subj.; ~ the initial position of an
interrogative “wh”-element (what, who, which, etc.) 3rd class: imperative sent-s, or commands.
Normally they have no grammatical subj., the verb is in the imperative mood. 4th class: exclamative sent-s, or exclamations. They are
introduced by what / how & have no invertion of
the subj. and predicate.

(II)          
Extended / unextended (распростран./нераспростран.)

A sent. which
consists only of subj. & predicate – unextended.

If it contains one
or more secondary parts (attributes, obj., adv.
modifiers), the sent. is extended.

(III)        
Сomplete / incomplete

Complete sent. contains
all structurally necessary elements:

— the subject + the predicate (if it’s a
2-member sent.);

— the subject + the predicate + object
(if the predicate is expressed by trans. verb);

1-member sent. can
also be complete and incomplete; in the imperative sent. verb is a necessary
element, e.g. “Stop!” vs.
incomplete (usually – in direct, coll. speech, make no sense outside their
context, e.g. “Yours”).

Incomplete (elliptical)
sent-s – structures in which one of the main parts (subj. or pred.) or both are omitted / ellipted.
Elliptical sent-s are divided into 2 types:

—    
1st
type: they are dependent on what has gone before (“John” may be a reply to
2 questions: “Who did it?” & “Who did you see?”). These sent-s are
contextually conditioned. In other words, their incomplete structure can be
restored (восстановл.) from a previous
sent. This kind of ellipsis is called contextual
or syntagmatic.

—    
2nd
type: they don’t depend on what has gone before. Their structure can be
restored from the paradigm of the analogous complete sent. This incompletence is purely grammatical as the structure
doesn’t depend on the previous context. This kind of ellipsis is called grammatical or paradigmatic. Can be of
2 subtypes: 1) structures that can be completed in only 1 way; 2) structures which can be completed
with the help of several paradigms (Cigarette?).
Meaning depends on the situation or the situational context.

15.
Parts of speech and different principles of their classification.

The general definition of a
part of speech: it is a lexical-grammatical word class which is characterized by a
general abstract grammatical meaning, expressed in certain grammatical
markers. Within a part of speech similar grammatical features are common to
all words belonging to this class.

A part of speech is a mixed lexical-grammatical phenomenon,
because:

1) Words are characterized by
individual lexical meanings. 2) Each generalized class of words (noun/verb/adj., etc) has a unifying abstract gram. meaning, for
ex.: noun – substance, verb – process, adjective – quality of substance, adverb
– quality of process. 3) Some parts of speech are capable of representing
gram. meaning in a set of formal exponents; for ex.: the plural of nouns is
expressed with suffix –s (this
feature is not universal in all languages).

PS are distinguished from one
another by the number of wds in each class. The
greatest number of wds is found in the noun &
verb. The N&V correspond to the subj.&pred.
of the sent., they’re usually the center of predication.

      Modern classification of parts of
speech is traced back to ancient Greek. Later this classification was applied
to Latin and thus it found its way in modern languages. The present day
classification of parts of speech is severely criticized, when it’s applied
to languages the structure of which is different to the structure of the
Latin language. So the criticism is easily justified. On the other hand the
traditional division of words into parts of speech seems quiet natural and
easy to understand & remember from the logical point of view. So it’s not
the classification itself that is wrong but it must be the principles of
classification that should be criticized and reviewed.

Classifying a lang. from the
view point of PS, there are the following principles:

1)       
Semantic: the general mean-g of a PS
doesn’t coincide with a lex. or gram.mean-g
of every individual word, but it’s closely connected with it. Thus the gen.
mean-g of a PS is neither lex. nor gram., but it’s
to be called lexical-grammatical. Ex. nouns
are characterized by substantivity, verbs- actions & states, which
together mean processes, adj-s-
attributes of substances, etc.

2)       
Morphological: it has 2 aspects: a) deals
with morphol. categories (each PS possesses certain
morphol. cat-s which are not found in other PS):
ex. nouns- case & number , adj.- comparison, verbs- 7 categories. This
aspect is more important.b) the use of form-build.
affixes (deriv. affixes sometimes can be found
within this or that PS only): ex. nouns- -ment,
-ion, -ness. But deriv.
affixes may be highly confusing: ex. –ly: friendly(adj), daily(noun), kindly(adv.), possibly (modal wd)

3)       
Syntactic: a) the role of a wd in a
sent. (dif. synt. Functions are typical of dif.
PS); b) the combinability of wds/ the syntactical
distribution (распределение): ex. noun can
combine with prepositions, articles, adj-s, other
nouns, verbs.

4)       
Functional: PS- a field that has a core
& a periphery.

The existing principles:

The semantic approach: (based on the
meaning, used in many schools). It is based on the universal forms of human
thought which are reflected in 3 main categorial
meanings of words: 1)substance (предметность); 2)process (процессуальность); 3)property (свойства, качества). However, this
principle is open to criticism; it doesn’t always work; it can be hard to
define a categorial meaning of a word: e.g.        whiteness  — is it substance of a noun or property of
an adjective? action – it denotes
process, but it isn’t a verb.

The formal approach: Only form should
be used as a criterion for the classification of the p/of/sp. (Henry Sweet).

They distinguished between
two classes of words: 1) declinable (склоняем )- changeable forms;
2) indeclinable (static forms)-
articles, prepositions. This criterion is also unreliable. It doesn’t take
into account the way a word functions in the sentence. Must functions as many other verbs, or for instance shall which has a declinable form. The
main problem with this classification- Sweet didn’t manage to work out an
idea of an indep. word-class with peculiar
properties & he didn’t manage to devoid his class-n from the ideas of
mean-g.

The formal-semantic approach:
Grammarians tried to take into consideration meaning, form &
function. It appears that in analytical, where English belong, it’s
impossible to place a word without analyzing it in the sent. in addition to
the analysis of the morphological features of this word. This approach was
developed by Russian linguists (Vinogradov, Smirnitsky, Ilyish). There
are three principles on which this classification is based:

1.        
meaning (the meaning common
to all the words of a given class and constituting its essence- сущность):e.g. thingness of nouns,process of verbs

2.        
form( the morphological
characteristics of a type of word): e.g.
noun is characterized by the
category of number, prepositions, conjunctions and others are
characterized by invariability

3.        
function (the syntactical
properties of a type of word)

a)        
the method of combining with other words (deals with
phrases)

b)       
its function in the sentence (deals with sentences)

The syntactic (functional)
approach: Only the syntactic function of a word should be taken into
consideration as a criterion for p/of/sp classification.

17.
Controversial problems of part of speech classification: pronouns.

A part of speech (PS) is a
lexical gram word class which is characterized by a general abstract gram
meaning expressed in certain gram markers. This definition stresses the fact
that within a part of speech similar gram features are common to all words
belonging to this class. All PS fall into 2 classes: notional (noun, verb, adj, adv,
pronoun, numeral – cover 93% of the English vocabulary, they fill all
positions in the sentence, they possess an independent notional meaning of
their own) and functional (prep,
conj – express relations, they never indicate objects or notions, their use
is obligatory). Speaking about pronouns, we shall answer 2 questions at
least: is the pronoun a separate PS? Notional or functional? Pronouns are not
a separate PS, they distribute them between nouns and adj:
we, he, smb – noun pronouns; my, some – adj pronouns (Henry Sweet). Щерба – the term pronoun can be applied to noun pronouns
only – the word pronoun means ‘instead of a noun’. Jespersen – syntactically
pronouns function in the same way as nouns or adj,
but they do not name objects or properties, they only point to them. The
categorical meaning of a pronoun is that of indication, while the categorical
meaning of nouns is substance and adj – is quality.
Pronouns can be characterized by other features, which make them different
from nouns: they cannot be used with articles or other determiners; personal,
possessive (притяжат.) and reflective
(возвратн.) pronouns have personal
distinctions while nouns and adj do not have them;
personal pronouns have a case system different from that of a noun; in the 3
person singular personal, possessive and reflective pronouns distinguish in
gender; relative and interrogative pronouns distinguish between personal and
non-personal gender (that – which, who – whom). Thus, the pronoun is the
separate PS. Pronoun is a notional PS. Majority believe that pronouns should
be treated as function words: the meaning of the pronoun as a separate class
of words is extremely abstract, such as cope of abstraction is typical of
function words: like other function word pronouns form a closed system – the
number of a pronoun cannot be extended by the creation of additional members.
Бархударов – pronouns form a special
type of words – structural words – the idea is that str
words in his theory occupy an intermediate position between notional and
function words.

16.
Composite sentences as polypredicative
constructions. Types and means of connection between parts of composite
sentences.

Main features of the
sentence:

1) expresses predication => is called a
predicative unit. It’s the main characteristic of the sentence. The
sentence reflects connection between the denoted situational event &
reality, shows whether the action is real or unreal, desirable or not +
expresses the time of the action.

2) nominates a situation or a situational event =>
can be called a nominative unit (but it’s not main feature – word’s
feature).

3) can be called a communicative unit as it
carries this/that communicative intention which determines the communicative
type of the sentence.  Traditional grammar defines the S.:
it’s a word or a group of words capable of expressing a complete thought. Modern linguistics (e.g. semantic syntax)
“The S is a word or a group of words
that nominate a situational event, express predication, and carry a
communicative intention”

The problem of the composite sent.: how to define
it, how to know it from simple sentence. (1) the simple sent. is monopredicative,
=> has only 1 predicative line (center). The predicative line includes the
subject + predicate. (2) the composite
sent. is polypredicative
=> more than 1 predicative lines or centers, reflects 2 or more
situational events, and each predicative center makes up a clause of its own.

Semi-composite sent. How to
distinguish? “He waved his hand and
went away”. – the S nominates 2 situational events but we can’t find 2
predicative centers in it as there is 1 subject & 1 clause =>
semi-composite (Blokh’s term) are intermediate
between simple & composite.

Main features of the composite sentence: 1) a polypredicative
unit, 2) is characterized by a
communicative wholeness => has 1 communicative intention (смысл, значение), 3) is characterized by intonational wholeness, all are interconnected, 4) characteristic of literary written
style, rarely used in oral speech, in conversations.

Types of composite sentences: Acc. to the type
of connection of clauses we can distinguish between complex &compound
sentences. In compound sent-s the type of connection of clauses is coordination-сочинит. (i.e. syntactically the clauses are of equal rank).
In complex sent-s the type of connection of clauses is subordination- подчинит. & clauses are of unequal rank (principal and
subordinate).

The means of combining clauses: syndetic (союзн.) & asyndetic (бессоюзн.). Syndetic => conj-s, relative pron-s
(who, which), relative adv-s (where, how, when, why), phrases (as long as, in
order that). Asyndetic => there are no
connectives between the clauses. Some grammarians say, “the zero connector”.

Classification of subord.
clauses: 2 approaches:

(1) shows correlation of clauses with parts of the
sentence => a) the subject clause, b) the predicative, c) object, d)
adverbial, e) attributive.

(2) correlates clauses with parts of speech &
distinguishes: a) substantive clause – corresponding to subj., predic. & object clauses, b) adverbial clauses, c)
adjectival clauses – corresponding to attribute clause. These 2
classifications correlate!

18.
Word-combination (WC) and their basic types.

The word ‘syntax’
is derived from the Greek ‘syntaxis’ which
literally means ‘composition’, or ‘order’. It is a part of grammar which
studies ways of arranging words into phrases and sentences in order to
produce speech. We communicate only with the help of sentences and it brings
many linguists to a conclusion that syntax is the core, or the heart of
grammar and morphology is subordinated to
it as it serves the needs of syntax. The main units of the syntactic level of the language are: 1) the word
in its syntactic position in the sentence (a part of the sentence); 2) the phrase which is
a combination of two or more notional words arranged according to the rules
of a particular language; 3) the simple sentence as the minimum unit of communication; 4) the
composite sentence which is a combination of two or more clauses
based either on coordinate (a compound sentence) or subordinate (a complex
sentence) relations; 5) the text as the highest unit of language.

The type ‘noun+noun’
is a most usual type of WC in modern English. The type ‘noun in the common case+noun’ may be used to denote 1 idea as modified by
another, in the widest sense (silver watch, army unit). The type ‘noun in the
genitive case+noun’ has a more restricted meaning
and use. The type ‘adj+noun’ is used to express all
possible kinds of things with their properties. The type ‘verb+noun’
may correspond to 2 different types of relation between an action and a
thing. There are also types, such as ‘verb+adv’, ‘adv+adj’, ‘adv+adv’, ‘noun+prep_noun’, ‘adj+prep+noun’,
verb+prep+noun. WC consisting of 2 components may
be enlarged by addition of a third component, and so forth: adj+noun (high houses) may be enlarged by the addition of
the adj in front – adj+adj+noun
(new high houses). The limit of the possible growth of a WC is hard to
define.

19.
Controversial problems of part of speech classification: adverbs.

A part of speech (PS) is a
lexical gram word class which is characterized by a general abstract gram
meaning expressed in certain gram markers. This definition stresses the fact
that within a part of speech similar gram features are common to all words
belonging to this class. All PS fall into 2 classes: notional (noun, verb, adj, adv, pronoun, numeral – cover 93% of the English
vocabulary, they fill all positions in the sentence, they possess an
independent notional meaning of their own) and functional (prep, conj –
express relations, they never indicate objects or notions, their use is
obligatory). The meaning of the adv as a PS is hard to define. Some adv
indicate time or place of an action (yesterday, here), others indicate its
property (quickly), others  — the
degree of a property (very). Adv are invariable. Some of them have degrees of
comparison (fast, faster, fastest). Adv combine with a verb (run quickly),
with an adj (very long), with a noun (the then
president), with a phrase (so out of things). Adv can follow a prep (from
there). In a sentence they are almost always adv modifiers, or parts of it,
but they may occasionally be attributes.

The adv. is a PS characterized by the following features:

1)      
the lex.-gram. mean.
of  “qualitative, quantative
or circumstantial characteristics of actions, states or qualities:

2)      
the category of the degree of comparison

3)      
typical stem-build. affixes, as in quick-ly, side-ways, clock-wise, a-shore…

4)      
its unilateral (односторон.) combinability
with verbs, adj., adv-s, less regularly with adlinks
(asleep,alive) and nouns.

The function of adverbial complement (дополнение), sometimes other functions

20. The grammatical meaning, the gram form, the gram
paradigm.

Gram meaning (GM) is
a general abstract meaning which unites
classes of forms or words and finds its expression through formal markers thus placing a
linguistic unit in a grammatical category
or a grammatical class of words (a part of speech). Grammatical meanings are more general and
abstract whereas lexical meanings are usually more concrete and specific. The
typological analysis of grammatical meanings reveals that they reflect not
the fragments of reality  but rather the structure of such fragments. Being
limited in their number grammatical meanings have a regular and an obligatory character in the language. We
cannot use a notional word without expressing
its grammatical meaning/meanings. For example, when we say: It has been raining for hours, the verb rain expresses one lexical
meaning and seven grammatical
meanings (person, number, tense, aspect, time correlation, voice, and mood).

The grammatical meaning finds its expression in a grammatical form which is a means of expressing a grammatical meaning.
Difference
between w-form and the word: w-form may be equal to the word but at any rate it presents an
isolated unit. It’s never part of a wd. W-forms- we abstract ourselves from lex.mean-g of the corresp. wd.
We concentrate on the gram. mean-g it caries. Ex. speaks (it shows the 3d
person singular- never interested in the fact that it’s the verb of saying).
Unlike a wd, the w-form is not independent , it’s always bound as a member of
a corresponding set of forms, such as set of f. usually form a paradigm. There are several types of form-building in English. The main subdivision of
form-building types is into synthetical and analytical. In a synthetical
type a grammatical meaning is expressed within a word, in an
analytical type a grammatical meaning is expressed
with the help of auxiliary words (plus suffixes). The synthetical
types of form-building in English include affixation (reads, shown, books,
theirs etc.), sound interchange
(take — took, shine — shone) and suppletivity
(go — went, be -was,
good — better — best}. .The
only productive type in the present-day English is affixation, but the other
two types are no less important, if only because they occur in words
which are most frequently used. The analytical type of form-building occupies a very important place in
the grammatical structure of English as the language has evolutionized from being mainly synthetical
to becoming more and more analytical, and
analytical tendencies in the present day
English are very strong. There exist the so-called half-analytical structures
and the analytical tendencies find
their reflection in many spheres of
the language.

21.
Controversial problems of part of speech classification: numerals.

A part of speech (PS) is a
lexical gram word class which is characterized by a general abstract gram
meaning expressed in certain gram markers. This definition stresses the fact
that within a part of speech similar gram features are common to all words
belonging to this class. All PS fall into 2 classes: notional (noun, verb, adj, adv, pronoun, numeral – cover 93% of the English
vocabulary, they fill all positions in the sentence, they possess an
independent notional meaning of their own) and functional (prep, conj –
express relations, they never indicate objects or notions, their use is obligatory).
The treatment of numerals presents some difficulties. The so-called cardinal
numerals (one, two) are somewhat different from the so-called ordinal
numerals (first. Second). Numerals denote either number or place in a series,
numerals are invariable, as far as phrases go, numerals combine with a
following noun (three rooms, third room), occasionally a numeral follows a
noun (Peter the First). In a sentence a numeral most usually is an attribute,
but it can also be subject – three of them came in time, predicative – we are
seven, object – I found only four.

The numeral as a part of
speech is characterized by:

1)      
its lexico-gram. mean-g of
‘number’

2)       the category of
numerical qualification represented in opposemes
like seven-seventh, nine-ninth,

3)      
its unilateral combinability with nouns (three
children, the third child)

4)      
such typical stem-building suffixes as –teen, -ty

5)      
its functioning as an attribute, less frequently as
some other part of the sent.

22.
Syntactic relations between words in the word-combinations (WC).

The word ‘syntax’
is derived from the Greek ‘syntaxis’ which
literally means ‘composition’, or ‘order’. It is a part of grammar which
studies ways of arranging words into phrases and sentences in order to
produce speech. We communicate only with the help of sentences and it brings
many linguists to a conclusion that syntax is the core, or the heart of
grammar and morphology is subordinated to
it as it serves the needs of syntax. The main units of the syntactic level of the language are: 1) the word
in its syntactic position in the sentence (a part of the sentence); 2) the phrase which is
a combination of two or more notional words arranged according to the rules
of a particular language; 3) the simple sentence as the minimum unit of communication; 4) the
composite sentence which is a combination of two or more clauses
based either on coordinate (a compound sentence) or subordinate (a complex
sentence) relations; 5) the text as the highest unit of language.

WC – every combination of 2
or more words which is a gram unit but is not an analytical form of some
word. The constituent elements of WC may belong to any part of speech.
Syntactic relations between words in the word-combinations fall under 2 main
heads: agreement and government. A – a method of expressing a syntactical
relationship, which consists in making the subordinate word take a form
similar to that of the word to which it is subordinate (only the category of
number). G – the use of a certain form of the subordinate word required by its
head word, but not coinciding with the form of the head word itself.

23.
Different interpretations of the meaning of the English articles. The main
functions of the English articles.

Nouns are preceded by atr. though much has been written about art, the theory
of it is still problematic. The meaning of the art is extremely abstract and
hard to define, but the main meanings can be summarized as follows: the ind art
– with count nouns – the nominating meaning, to name an object; with uncount nouns – aspective
meaning (esp with abstract nouns – a dull anger,
after a long silence), to bring out a special abstract of the notion,
expressed by a noun. The definite art:
with count nouns (sing, pl)– individualizing meaning – it singles out an
object or a group of objects from all the other objects of the same class;
with count nouns (sing)– the generic meaning (The cat is the domestic animal)
– the noun becomes a composite image of the all class of objects; with uncount nouns – the restricting meaning – may restrict
the abstract notion, expressed by a noun to a specific instance (I didn’t
want to show the joy I felt), restricts the material denoted to a definite
quality or locality (The water in the glass was too cold to drink – quality,
The water in the lake was too cold to bathe in – location). The absence of
the art. always has the nominating meaning, as it is parallel to the use of
the ind
art.

The art. have morph and
syntactical functions. MF is to serve as a formal indicator of the noun. The
presence of the art signals that what follows is a noun. The art has 2 SF:
the art. separates the noun from other parts of the sentence; the art is one
of the means that serve to connect sentences within a text (I’ve bought a
book – correlates – The book is interesting). If we apply the theory of
communication we can see that the art. has a communicating function (new and
old info, theme and rhyme).  The
absence of the art.- new info, the def.art.- the
theme of the communication.

24. The number of moods in Modern English.

The grammatical category of mood has the reputation of being one of the most controversial categories.
Mood is traditionally defined as a grammatical category which expresses the relation of the action to reality
as stated by the speaker. As follows from the definition
mood seems to be the only morphological category which includes the category of the speaker in its definition. It means
that it is one of the most
speaker-oriented categories. The forms of the moods serve the needs of the speaker to present the action as real,
unreal (contradicting the state of things in reality) or
hypothetical. The category of mood presents the interpretation of the action by the speaker from the point of view of
its relation to reality. Scholars
differ greatly in the understanding of this category, its scope and, consequently, in the number of grammatical
forms of the mood they find in English.
This number- varies from two (in Barkhudarov’s interpretation)
to sixteeen (in Deutchbein’s
interpretation). In our interpretation and
classification of moods we shall follow the classification system of moods presented by Smirnitsky.
It appears to be the most consistent because it is meaning-oriented
and it also takes into consideration the difference between an analytical
form and a free syntactic combination. His system of moods includes six
moods: the Indicative, the Imperative, Subjunctive I, Subjunctive II, the
Conditional Mood and the Suppositional
mood. The Indicative mood presents the action as real from the
speaker’s point of view. It is the most frequently used type of mood and it
has the greatest number of forms. The forms of the Indicative mood are used
in two communicative types of sentences:
declarative and interrogative. Suppositional mood specializes in the expression of hypothetical actions. The comparison of such
sentences as «If he turns up tell him to -wait for me» and «Should
he turn up tell him to wait for me» shows that
both the verbal forms present the action as hypothetical but differ in
the degree of certainty which is higher in the case of Present Indefinite Indicative. The Imperative mood is used to express
inducement(побуждение, стимул) to action,
which means that the speaker considers the
action as desirable. The use of the
Imperative mood is restricted to only one communicative type of
sentences — imperative sentences. The
Conditional mood is built with the help of the auxiliary verbs should/would
and the Infinitive of the notional verb. As in the case of Subjunctive
II, the non-perfect and perfect forms of the Infinitive have a temporal meaning rather than the meaning of
priority. The Conditional mood expresses an unreal action which is the
consequence of an unreal condition.

27.
Various interpretations of the continuous forms.

 3 stages can be distinguished in the
evolution of views on the continuous.

 1st
approach – of traditional
grammar. It places the continuous forms among the tense forms of the verb.
That’s why – “continuous tenses” => “the tense view of the continuous”
and the meaning of the continuous was defined as that of simultaneity with
some other action. Those who oppose this point of view analyze the form of
the perfect cont. They point out that perfect is quite alien to
simultaneity, it expresses priority but as the continuous is usually
used with perf. It cannot express simultaneity, it
expresses only aspectuality – an action
in progress.

2nd
approach was put forward by prof. Ivanova – she says the continuous renders a
blend of temporal and aspective meanings => “the
tense-aspect blend view”. The merits: Иванова pointed out the aspective meaning of the cont. & showed the actual
connection of aspect & tense in the semantics of the verb.

 3rd
approach – the oppositional theory was applied by linguists Смирницкий, Ярцева, Ильиш, Бархударов – if we analyze
it in terms of oppositional theory we should note the opposition between
continuous and non-continuous forms.

Билет 36 theoretical
and practical diffic. of the study of the articles

The article is a determiner
of the noun.it-s function is to define the object
or phenomenon in the most general way.The peculisrity of the art, is that in the absence of other determiners.The use of the art.With
the noun is obligatory.One of the main theoretical
difficulties of the study of the art.its status in
the system of morphology/The problem is wheather
the art is a separate word.That’s the lexical unity,one of the noun determiners.the
meaning of the articles:The defin.article
expr the indification or
individualization of the noun.The use of this art
shows that the object is taken in it’s concrete individual quality.The art can be replaced by a demonstrative
pronoun(look at the tree=look at this tree).The indef
art refers the object to a certain clas of similar
objects(we saw a house=we saw a certain house).The absence of the art  is also a disputable point.Some
grammarians single out the so called zero article.Thus
saying that there are 3 articles.In generaldiff uses of nouns without an art from the
semantic point of view should bedividedinto 2
types:1)the art.is deliberately ommited
out of stylistic considerations: in titles and headlines,various
notices,in telegraphic speech(Coference
starts Monday). In this cases the omitted articles can be easily
restored.2)cases of traditionally fixedabsense of
the art  a)prepositions phrases(to bed)
b)verbalphrases (to take place) c)repletion groups
(day by day) d)with uncountable nouns(what awful weather).the choice of the
art is closely connected with 2 types of attribute. The limiting attribute
requires the defin art. The descriptive attribute
requires indefinite art or the absence of the art with uncountable nouns and
nouns in the plur.

                              29. The
category of case of English nouns

It’s a form of a noun showing
the relations of that noun to other words in the sent. It helps to define the
syntactic function of the N. in the sent. It’s a morphological category in
English, because it’s represented by dif. w-forms of one and the same noun.
Most linguists regard it as such & agree that the Eng. noun has 2 distinct cases,
because it has 2 distinct form cases.

The genitive case- is built up by
the opposition of 2 forms (the com.case & the genet.case). The form of the gen. case is marked. The
formal marker is the case morpheme is represented by a number of phonol. conditioned allomorphs [s, z, iz].
It’s characterized by a number of points limit in its use in the lang. Its
mainly applied to names of human beings, but it can be used with some
inanimate nouns: esp. denoting time & space relations (yesterday’s paper)
and some adverbs…

The common case- this form is
unmarked & is represented by a zero morpheme. In plural nouns the case
morpheme & the number morpheme are very often expressed by one & the
same morpheme “ ‘ “: boys’ toys. In
nouns that build up the plural with the help of other means but “s” (
children, women) the case morpheme is expressed separately by the suffix ‘s which follows the morpheme of number.The mean-g of the common case is very broad &
extensive, it simply shows that this or that N is non-genetive.
It can be used in any syntactic positions in the sent. The use of nouns in
the common case is very frequent (98%).

The method of
transformational analysis: the mean-g of gen.case:

1)       
possessive (John’s car, the bird’s nest) = John has
a car

2)       
the subjective genitive (doctor’s advice, my
husband’s arrival). Can be transformed: the doctor adviced…-
the doer/subject of the action

3)       
the objective mean-g (John’s punishment, surprise) 2
ways of transformation: John was punished, smb
surprised John- the sufferer of the action.

4)       
adverbial genitive (2 hours’ work)

5)       
genitive of destination (men’s shoes)

The number of cases in Modern
English: there are dif. views on this problem. Historically there was one
common case system for both nouns & personal pronouns in old English.
Some scholars try to introduce a 3 case system. According to them nouns &
personal pronouns have nominative case. Other scholars(J.Curme):
find 4 cases –nominative, genitive, dative, accusative. Prof. Voroncova thinks that the category of case doesn’t exist
in English because it’s not a case inflection(окончания).

                               Билет 38  Various
passive constructions in ME

Passive voice: accord. to a
commonly accepted definition the passive voice shows that the subject of the
sentence is not the agent but the object of the action exp-ed by the verb. The subject doesn’t act but its acted
upon.(She was asked a question).Passive V is widely used in Eng. Its use is extensive not
only in comparison with Russian but also with other languages. The Pass V in
Eng is rich in various constructions. There are certain restrictions in the
use of the passive voice. In most cases the P.V is formed with transitive
verbs so the subject of the Passive constructions corresponds to the direct
object of the verb- the Direct Passive.(they gave him an apple/An apple was
given to him). Some  verbs in Eng take
2 objects: direct, indirect(to tell,promise,show,pay,give,offer,send).
1) the direct passive-A story was
told to me2)indirect- I was told a
story.3) Prepositional obj. may also become the subject of a passive constr(the doctor was send for) 4)Adverbial passive- the subj. of a passive constr
may correspond to an adverbial modifier of place(the bed wasn’t slept in) 5)the complex subj-
a compound verbial predicate a)with an inf- the subjunctive infin. construct 
or the nominative with the infin. (he is
said to be a talented musician) b)
with the particle-the subjunctive const. (he was seen crossing the street) c) with the noun(he was elected
President) d)with an adject(he was found ill) e)with the introductory ‘it’ (it was arranged that they should
come at five). The pass Voice const. is used when the agent of the action is
not mentioned. Gram-ns say, that the PV contains no mention of the doer of
the action-when the agent is unknown or can’t be easily stated (his father
was killed in the war). The fact that “no mention of the agent’ is of great
importance. It proves, that the pass constr. is not
parallel to the act const. and they serve diff purpose. Historically the pass.const. didn’t 
originate from the active construction. The P.V is widely used because
1) a great number of transitive verb 2) polysimy of
the eng verbs, some verbs are transitive and intransitive.A
great variety of passive constrs. in Eng.:
the gram meaning of the combin of to be+Part2. It
has 3 distinctive meanings: 1)he is respected by all his friends-denotes an
action 2)the article is written by John- denotes a state which is the result
of a previously accomplished action- a 
resultant state 3)he is very much obliged to you- denotes a state, not
action.

43)
The problem of the Future Indefinite and the Future-in-the-Past in Modern
English

The category of tense – verbal cat, which
reflects the objective category of time and expresses on this background the
relations bw the time of the action and the time of
the utterance (высказывание)

The future tense form is
analytical – made up by the auxiliary verbs shall, will and the infinitive
which is the lexical part.

The reasons the fut.tense is analytical:

1)       
traditionally anal.form is
to contain an aux.part which carries the gram.info and a lex.part which
is responsible for the meaning – shall/will + inf

2)       
verbs shall/will used to be modal, nowadays
partially lost their modal meaning. But retained modal colouring:
eq. Will you join us – a request; Who shall answer
the phone – obligation

3)       
the combination shall/will +inf  on the whole may have some modal meaning –
of uncertainty – but the meaning of uncertainty is always present when we
speak about the future. Future tense has a special king of modality – a modality
of futurality

Reasons shall/will + inf  should be
treated as a modal combination:

1)       
formally shall/will+inf is
no way different from can/may+inf, etc. It presents
a free combination of a modal verb+inf. It’s easily
combined with dif.types of inf. A future action is
never real, it’s possible, probable, planned… there is close similarity bw all modal structures

2)       
shall/will + inf doesn’t
answer the requirements for an anal.form – doesn’t
contain a discontinuous morpheme found in all other anal.forms

3)       
shall/will + inf isn’t the
only construction that expresses future actions. English is rich in means of
expressing futurality: to be going to, to be about
to, to be to do smth… Purely anal.forms
are usually the only means of expressing a certain gram.meaning

4)       
shall/will like all other modal verbs have their
past forms – and they also combine with dif.types
of the inf.

2 groups of linguists:

— there are 3 tense forms

— there are 2 tense forms –
there is no special gram.form to express fut.actions. But fut.actons can
be expressed by a modal combination shall/will+inf
and a number of other lex., gram., lex-gram and contextual means

the
Future-in-the-past and the Fut.cont-in-the-past:

-are used chiefly in
subordinate clauses depending on a main clause having its predicate verb in
one of the past tenses eq. It didn’t mean she was
content to live

— do not easily fit into a
system of tenses represented by a straight line running out of the past into
the future

— starting point isn’t in the
present, from which the past and the fut are
reckoned, but the past itself – the past is the new centre of system

— in many sentences the
relation bw the action denoted by the verb and the
time of the utterance(высказывание) is uncertain –
the action may or may not have taken place already

— what is certain is that it
was future from the point of view of the time when the action denoted by the
verb took place

42) Classification
of sentences based on their communicative function

Aspects of the sentence:

— the structural aspect –
the form of the sentence, the way words are organized into it

— the semantic aspect – the
meaning of the sent.

— the actual aspect –
determines which part of the sent conveys the most imp.info

— the pragmatic aspect – the
use of the sent.as a unit of communication: a
statement, a question, an order, a request, a promise

Types of communication:

declarative, interrogative, imperative (incl.emotional) and exclamatory

Declarative – the subj precedes the verb

Interrogative – aux.v in front of the subj.special w-order, very few modal words – modal w-s
expressing full certainty (certainly, surely…) can’t appear in a sent,
expressing a question

Semi-interrogative sent-s – “oh, you’ve seen him?”

Imperative –  no gram.subj, the v – in the imperative mood; modal words,
expressing possibility (perhaps,maybe) are
incompatible with orders and requests

The notion of exclamatory sent-s and their relation to the other 3
types presents some difficulty: every sent, whether narrative, interrogative
or imperative, may be exclamatory, i.e. it may convey the speaker’s feelings
and be characterized by emphatic intonation and by an exclamation mark

Eq. But he can’t do anything to you! What can he
possibly do to you! Scarlett, spare me!

Purely exclamatory sentence: “Oh, for God’s sake, Henry!”

The structure of a certain sent.may be used
for other communicative purposes than those that are characteristics of the
sent-s of this class

eq. Yes/No questions – You will speak to him? –
declarative

Rhetorical questions – Is that the reason for despair? (of course not)

44) The structural, semantic
and pragmatic aspects of the English sentence

Aspects of the sentence:

— the structural aspect – the form of the sentence, the way words are
organized into it

— the semantic aspect – the meaning of the sent.

— the actual aspect – determines which part of the sent conveys the
most imp.info

— the pragmatic aspect – the use of the sent.as
a unit of communication: a statement, a question, an order, a request, a
promise.

Structural division:

I.-simple

-composite: compound and
complex

II. extended – unextended,

IIIСomplete / incomplete

Complete sent. contains
all structurally necessary elements:

— the subject + the predicate (if it’s a
2-member sent.);

— the subject + the predicate + object
(if the predicate is expressed by trans. verb);

1-member sent. can
also be complete and incomplete; in the imperative sent. verb is a necessary
element, e.g. “Stop!” vs.
incomplete (usually – in direct, coll. speech, make no sense outside their
context, e.g. “Yours”).

Incomplete (elliptical)
sent-s – structures in which one of the main parts (subj. or pred.) or both are omitted / ellipted.
Elliptical sent-s are divided into 2 types:

—   
1st
type: they are dependent on what has gone before (“John” may be a reply to
2 questions: “Who did it?” & “Who did you see?”). These sent-s are contextually
conditioned. In other words, their incomplete structure can be restored (восстановл.) from a previous sent. This kind of ellipsis
is called contextual or syntagmatic.

—   
2nd
type: they don’t depend on what has gone before. Their structure can be
restored from the paradigm of the analogous complete sent. This incompletence is purely grammatical as the structure
doesn’t depend on the previous context. This kind of ellipsis is called grammatical or paradigmatic. Can be of
2 subtypes: 1) structures that can be completed in only 1 way; 2) structures which can be completed
with the help of several paradigms (Cigarette?).
Meaning depends on the situation or the situational context.

46) The imperative Mood

– represented by one form
only, without any suffix or ending. Has no person, number, tense, aspect,
it’s limited to one type of sentence only – imperative sent. Usually a verb
in the imperative sent has no pronoun, but may be used in emotional speech. –
eq. You leave me alone!

The Imp.Mood  expresses a command or a request to perform
an action addressed to smb, but not the action
itself. As it doesn’t actually denote a specific action it has no tense
category; the action always refers to the future. Aspect distinctions and
voice distinctions aren’t characteristic of the imp.mood,
although forms such as eq. be writing, be warned
sometimes occur.

The Imp.mood
form coincides with the plain stem of the verb, for example – Come here! Sit
down.

The negative form is built by means of the aux. DO: Eq Don’t be a fool. Don’t worry.

Emphatic requestscommands: eq. Do come and stay with us. Do be quiet.

In commands and requests
addressed to a third person or persons the analytical form let…+inf is
used. When a person addressed is denoted by a personal pronoun, it’s used in
the objective case

Eq. Let us go
together. Let him finish his dinner first.

In negative sent-s the anal.forms take the
particle not without an auxiliary.

The anal.forms
differ in meaning from the synthetic forms, because their meaning is closely
connected with the meaning of the pronoun included in the form.

Let us do smth
– an invitation to a joint action

Let him do it – the meaning
of permission

The imp.mood
is used only in imperative sentences and can’t be used in questions.

47) The number of voices in
Modern English

The category of Voice
expresses the relations bw the subject and the
action, but according to other view Voice expresses the relations bw the subj and the obj of the action expressed by the form of the verb. Ex.
John opened the door. The subj. of sent. is the doer of the action expressed
by the predicate verb. In some cases the lex.
character of the verb the subj. of the active construction can’t be regarded
as the doer of the action. These cases are: ex. He lost his father in the
war.; he broke his leg. Disagreement btw the gram. form of the verb and the lex. mean-g  of the
verb. Due to the lex. mean-g of the V the semantics
of the construction becomes passive. In fact the subj. is not the doer, but
the sufferer. Some grammarians treat these constructions as active due to the
gram. form.

Opposition: active
– passive.
Passive – marked -> pattern “be + II participle”, active –unmarked

Forms of Fut.Cont,
Present Perf.Cont, Past Perf.Cont,
Future Perf.Cont – no parallel forms in passive.

Any other voices??? ->
doubts and controversy

— the reflexive voice (eq.He dressed himself) – the agent and the object of the
action simultaneously ;

— the reciprocal voice (They
greeted each other) – not 1 person; action aimed at the other member of the
same group;

— the middle voice (The door
opened) – the form of the v is act, but the meaning is passive.

The active voice has a number
of mean-gs: active, passive, middle, reflective,
reciprocal.

Pr. Ilyish
“ Eng.
Has several voices. The classif-n is based on
mean-g only.

Pr. Barhudarov
calls the active voice non-passive.

41) The category of ASPECT in modern English

Aspect – a gram.category which characterizes the way in which the
action expressed by the verb is carries out.

In Russian – 2 aspects: imperfective (несов.), perfective (сов.)

Imperfective expresses an
action or a state without indicating a limit beyond which this act/state can
not continue — eq. я
читал; Perfective denotes actions that have a
limit beyond which this action can’t continue: eq. я прочитал книгу. In Russian
aspect is a gram.cat. As each aspect has a certain
meaning and form to express this meaning. There are certain markers of each
aspect – eq. делать-сделать.

As the Eng.language grammarians of the past
didn’t find aspective distinction of the v.,
instead they spoke about 4 groups of tenses: indefinite, continuous, perfect,
perfect-continuous

The majority of grammarians believe the Eng.verb
has aspect. They admit that this gram.category may
be expressed:

·         
lexically  aspect is expressed by the lex.character of the v. The verb falls into 2 groups:

1)       
terminative: apply a limit
beyond which the action can’t continue (to break, to open);

2)       
non-terminative: the action may go
on indefinitely (to love, to sit).

Most English verbs are polysemantic and may
be terminative in one meaning and non-terminative in another. It’s never
shown formally. There is no marker of belonging to this aspect. The meaning
is clear from the context.

·         
grammatically an opposition of
corresponding forms (take – be taken)

1)       
common – the form of the
common aspect isn’t marked;

2)       
continuous – is marked by
the discont.morpheme be + ing
.

The terms used to describe aspect are not stable (progressive —
perfective; generic – temporally)

The difference bw the aspect forms isn’t
temporal. The tense is the same with both forms.

The cont.aspect has a specific
meaning – it’s used for incomplete actions that are in progress at the moment
under consideration or at a certain period: eq He
was studying at 5 o’clock.

The common aspect shows the action
in a general way, may denote a complete/incomplete action but the form
doesn’t state it.

Prof.Barhudarov: common aspect =
non-continuous.

Common aspect may denote:

1)a momentary action (eq she dropped the
plate)

2)a recurrent/repeated action (eq.I get up at
7 o’clock every day)

3)an action occupying a long period of time (eq.he
lived in St.-Pb from 1940 to 1965)

4)an action of unlimited duration (eq.The
Volga flows into the Caspian Sea)

48) Functional sentence perspective

 — actual division of the sentence;
one unit contains given information (supplied by the context), the other –
new info for the sake of which the sentence has been uttered or written.

The theory of the division into 2 units, in accordance with the
message they convey, is known as the actual division of the sentence funct.sent.perspective.

Ian Firbas (Czech): the info known from the
context – theme; new info – rheme.

Michael Halliday: given (данное) — new(новое);

Charles Pocket: topic (называние)- comment(толкование)

In European languages – new info – at the end of the sentence

The group of the subj.(together with attr-s)
generally, but not always coincides with the theme, and the group of the
predicate coincides with the rheme.

The most important piece of new info occupies the end position of the
sent

Eq. The girl    told him everything

         ↑Theme     Rheme
↑           ↑
(the most important part)

But English has a strict word-order, it has special means of expressing the rhemes:

·         
Logical stress (only in oral speech);

·         
The passive voice helps to reverse w-order and makes
it possible to place new info at the end of the sentence;

·         
The indef.article / no
article with certain nouns:
eq. The door opened and an old man came into
the room;
She bought an unusual old ring;

·         
Construction with an emphatic “it”:
eq. It was to Paris
that he went – we can emphasize any part of the sent.

·         
There is / there are;

·         
W-order within certain parts of the sentence
eq. give smb smth
give smth to smb

·         
In adj-s: young, old,
little – form one sense-group with the noun. If some adj-s
are before these 3 words you want to emphasize these adj-s:
eq. ambitious young man
He is a young ambitious man (though young but ambitious)

·         
Particles only,even

There are other means of expressing the rheme,
lexical or grammatical. During the past few years the theory of the actual
division of the sentence has been criticized for its binary character. It isn’t always possible to divide a sentence
exactly into 2 parts. It’s enough only to establish the center/focus of info.
The means of expressing theme/rheme depend on the gram.structure of the given language

                    26. Principal parts of the sentence. Their general characteristics.

The subject and
the predicate constitute the backbone of the sentence: without them the
sentence would not exist at all, whereas all other parts may or may not be
there, and if they are there, they serve to define or modify either the
subject or the predicate, or each other. 
So the subj. & the predicate are the main 2 parts on which basic
sent-s are built. The can be accompanied by other wds
& usually are, but this doesn’t change their status of the main parts of
the sent. Some linguists call S+Pr-
a clause to distinguish from a
w-group (a w-g may be defined as a logical & gram. combination of 2 or
more notional wds which don’t form a sent. And the
sent. may be defined as the basic unit of communication, grammatically
organized & expressing a complete thought. It’s characterized by
predication- the correlation btw utterance & reality).

The subject is one of the 2 main parts
of the sentence:

1)   
It denotes the thing whose action or characteristic
is expressed by the predicate;

2)   
It is not dependent on any other part of the
sentence.

It
may be expressed by different parts of speech, the most frequent ones being:
a noun in the common case, a personal pronoun in the nominative case, a
demonstrative pronoun occasionally, a substantivized
adjective, a numeral, an infinitive, and a gerund. It may also be expressed
by a phrase.

The predicate is one of the 2 main parts
of the sentence:

1)   
It denotes the action or property of the thing
expressed by the subject;

2)   
It is not dependent on any other part of the
sentence.

Types of predicate:

Predicates may be
classified in 2 ways, one of which is based on their structure (simple or
compound), and the other on their morphological characteristics (verbal or
nominal).

Structural classification:

1.   
simple predicate (verbal and nominal)

2.   
compound predicate (verbal and nominal)

  Morphological
classification:

1.   
verbal predicate (simple and compound)

2.   
nominal predicate(simple and compound)

                                            Билет 34 Predicativity. Means of expressing.

 The main
categories of the sentence are predicativity,
modality and negation.

Predicativity is a category
which refers the nominative contents of the sentence to reality

    V.G.Gak points
out three main approaches to the understanding of predicativity:
logical, denotational (semantic) and formal (syntactic).  In the logic-oriented syntactic theories predicativity
is defined as an act of attributing certain features to the subject (predicativity
presents a combination of two components
of thought: the subject of thought and the predicate of thought which denotes
a property, attributed to the subject by the predicate). In the denotational (semantic) approach predicativity
expresses the relation of the sentence to the concrete situation of reality. From the syntactic point of view predicativity is defined as an establishment of syntactic relation between the subject and the
predicate of the sentence carried out with the help of certain
morphological categories. These three
approaches are not contradictory, they just reflect the manysided nature of the
phenomenon and the possibility to analyze its essence from different aspects.

Predicativity
involves establishing subject-predicate relations
which, in its turn, is accomplished through the grammatical categories of
tense, mood, number and person. Predicativity takes
into consideration two aspects of the sentence: semantic, or denotational (the
nominative contents, or the situation of reality expressed by the sentence) and
syntactic (the establishment of subject-predicate relations carried out
with the help of certain grammatical categories). In peripheral structural
types of sentences, such as one-member nominative sentences predicativity is expressed by the intonation (Early spring. London
at night). The expression of predicativity in the sentence is usually referred to as
predication. Scholars differentiate between primary and secondary
predication and also between explicit (ясно выражен.) and implicit types of
predication. Primary predication establishes
subject-predicate relations and makes the backbone (основа) of the sentence. It is expresses by the
finite form of the verb. E.g. Cranes are flying. Secondary
predication is contained in gerundial, infinitival, participial
constructions, detached (отсоедин.) parts of the sentence. Such structures name an
event but do not place it in time, e.g.
I saw cranes flying. Structures of secondary predication
cannot function as autonomous sentences and they are related to the
objective reality only through the main predicative line of the sentence.
From the point of view of their derivational history these structures are the
result of syntactic transformation of two simple sentences and joining them into one. E.g. I saw cranes. The cranes
were flying. — I saw cranes flying.

*Functional words

  Here belong:

·         
the article

expresses the
specific limitation of the substantive functions

·         
the preposition

expresses the
dependencies and interdependencies of substantive referents

·         
the conjunction

expresses
connections of phenomena

·         
the particle

unites the
functional words of specifying and limiting meaning. To this series,
alongside other specifying words, should be referred verbal postpositions as
functional modifiers of verbs, etc.

·         
the modal word

expresses the
attitude of the speaker to the reflected situation and its parts. Here belong
the functional words of probability (probably, perhaps, etc.), of qualitative
evaluation (fortunately, unfortunately, luckily, etc.), and also of
affirmation and negation

·         
the interjection

is a signal of
emotions

                        30. Notional words and function words in Modern English.

Parts of speech are
traditionally subdivided into notional & functional ones. Notional parts
of speech have both lexical & grammatical meanings (nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs, numerals, statives, pronouns,
modal words). Functional parts of speech are characterized mainly by the
grammatical meaning while their lexical meaning is either lost completely or
has survived in a very weakened form.                 

Functional parts of
speech—the article, the preposition, the conjunction. Notional parts of
speech are characterized by word-building & word-changing properties;
functional words have no formal features & they should be memorized as
ready-made units (but, since, till, until). Another most important difference
between functional & notional parts of speech is revealed on the level of
sentence. Where every notional word performs a certain synthetic function
while functional words have no synthetic function at all. They serve as
indicators of a certain part of speech (to + verb; a, the + noun).
Prepositions are used to connect 2 words & conjunctions to connect 2
clauses or sentences.

Ilyish => Some
grammarians think that words should be divided into two categories on the
following principle:

notional words denote
things, actions and other extra-linguistic phenomena

functional words denote
relations and connections between the notional words

This view is shaky, because
functional words can also express smth
extra-linguistic:

e.g.  The
letter is on the table.

        The
letter is in the table. (diff. prepositions express different relations
between objects)

        The match was called off because it was raining. (the conjunction because denotes the causal
connection between two processes).

Some words belonging to a
particular part of speech may perform a function differing from that which
characterizes the p/of/sp as a whole.

e.g.                  I have some
money left. (have – a notional
word)

                        I have found a dog. (have
– an auxiliary verb used to form a certain analytical form of the verb to find, i.e. it is a functional verb)

Билет 40. Classification of sentences based of their
structure.

The structural aspect of the sentence deals with the structural
organization of the sentence, it reveals the mechanisms of
deriving sentences and structural types of sentences.

According to their structure
sentences are classified into simple (monopredicative structures) and composite (polypredicative structures) which are further subdivided into complex (based on
subordination) and compound (based on coordination).
Clauses within the structure of a composite sentence may be connected with the help of formal markers
(conjunctions and connectives: relative pronouns and relative adverbs
— syndetically) and without any formal markers
-asyndetically. Thus we should differentiate between two structural varieties
of composite sentences: syndetic and asyndetic types.

Though the difference between the complex and compound sentences is
based on the two different types of semantic relations: subordination and
coordination, the borderline between complex and compound sentences is
not always hard and fast. Sentences may have formal markers of subordination
but the semantic relations between the clauses appear to be more coordinate
than subordinate. Thus, the meaning of subordination is largely weakened in
attributive continuative clauses introduced by the relative pronoun ‘which’,
e.g. She said ‘no’ which was exactly what I had expected to hear. The
relations between the two clauses are closer to coordinate, as we can replace
the subordinate connective »which’ by
the coordinate conjunction ‘and’ without changing essentially
the meaning of the sentence. Another
example of weakened subordination is observed in sentences introduced
by the conjunction ‘whereas’. E.g. She was very tall whereas her
husband hardly reached her shoulder. The meaning of this formally complex sentence can be rendered by a
compound sentence: She was very tall and her husband hardly reached her
shoulder.

Besides there are
also peripheral types: semicomplex and semicompound sentences which contain structures of
secondary predication: infinitival, participial and gerundial
constructions, absolute constructions with or without a participle and
structures with the so-called double predicate. E.g. There is so much work
to be done — There is so much work that has to be done.

Билет 39
The grammatical category of number

Presents a specific linguistic
reflection of quantitative relations
between homogeneous objects of reality conceptualized by the human mind. It is constituted by the binary opposition of singular and plural forms. The formal marker of the
opposition is represented by several
phonetically and historically conditioned allomorphs, such as [-z] (boys), [-s] (cats), [-iz] (classes), [0] (, sheep), [-en] (oxen),
[ ae ] (antennae), [ ai]
(radii) etc. There are quite a few doublets among the plural forms which differ either lexically (a
penny — pennies (coins), pence ( a sum of money)

Semantically the forms of the
plural are not homogeneous either. The paradigmatic meaning of plurality is represented by a number of syntagmatic variants,
such as: discrete plurality (books, houses), indiscrete plurality (hours,
miles), partitive
plurality (spectacles), variety plurality (wines, cheeses,
fruits,), space plurality (snows, sands, waters), family, or clan plurality {the Browns, the Smiths).

From the
point of view of their number characteristics the English nouns fall into two classes: countable
and uncountable. This feature of the noun determines its choice of the article, the
quantitative pronoun and the form of the predicate (singular or plural). Uncountable nouns
are further subdivided into two
groups: Singularia Tantum
and Pluralia Tantum. The
group of Singularia Tantum includes:.1. names of abstract notions (love,
friendship etc.); 2. names of mass materials ( bread, butter, sugar etc.);
3. names
of some collective inanimate objects (foliage, machinery etc.);
4. names
of sciences and professional activities ( medicine, architecture etc.); 5. nouns of
heterogeneous semantics. This is a limited group and includes such nouns as: hair, advice;
knowledge, money, information, news. The
first four groups of nouns of Singularia Tantum denote concepts which are incompatible (несовместим.) with the idea
of countability.

Singularia Tantum nouns, when used in the plural form, always
acquire additional meanings. Tax moneys means considerable sums o.f money coming
from various taxes (this explanation was suggested by
an English speaker who used this noun in the plural).

The group of Pluralia Tantum nouns includes: 1. nouns
denoting objects consisting of two parts ( trousers, spectacles etc.); 2. nouns
denoting results of repeated processes (savings, labours,
belongings etc.); 3. nouns of multitude (police, gentry,
poultry, cattle);4. nouns of various semantics ( oats, outskirts,
clothes etc.).

                                      Билет 37 THE CATEGORY OF MOOD

    The category of
mood in the present English verb has given rise to so many discussions and
has been treated in so many ways, that it seems hardly possible to arrive at
any more or less acceptable conclusion. The only points in the sphere of mood
which haven’t been disputed are the following: 1) there is a category of mood
in Modern English ( Mood-
is the grammatical category of the verb, which expresses the relation of the
action denoted by the verb to reality from the speaker’s point of view); 2)
there are at least 2 moods in the modern English verb, one of which is the
indicative. (The indicative mood
is the basic mood of the verb. Morphologically it’s the most developed system
including all the categories of the verb. Semantically it’s a fact mood. It
serves to present an action as a fact of reality. It’s the most objective of
all the moods. It conveys minimum personal attitude to the fact: Ex. Water consists of oxygen.)

2 groups of Moods
(generally):

—          
the real or fact Moods

—          
the unreal, non-fact, oblique Moods.

The Indicative Mood is the
only real mood in the English language. It represents an action as a real
fact. The forms of the Ind. Mood are the tense-aspect forms of the verb.

There are 2 non-fact Moods in
English: the Imperative Mood (represents an action as a command, urging,
request. It’s a direct expression of one’s will. It’s much more ‘subjective’
than the ind. Mood. It’s modal mean-g is very
strong &distinct: ex. Someone make
an offer and quick!)  and the
Subjunctive Mood (it represents an action as a non-fact, as smth imaginary, desirable, problematic, contrary to
reality: ex. I wish he were here now.)The
hypothetic desirable in the form of advice, request, recommendation, order
and so on. There is another point of view on the imperative Mood: (we don’t
mark the action as real or unreal!) – Stelling (Штелинг) considers the Imperative form Mood the grammatical
idiom.

The Subjunctive Mood
represents an action as unreal: 2 degrees of reality: not quite real
(Present, Future), quite unreal (for the Past).

Some linguists think that the
past indefinite and the Past Perfect used to denote an unreal action are not
mood forms at all, but tense forms.

The classification
system of moods presented by A.I.Smirnitsky. It
appears to be the most consistent because it is meaning-oriented and it also
takes into consideration the difference between an analytical form and a free
syntactic combination. His system of moods includes six moods: the
Indicative, the Imperative, Subjunctive I, Subjunctive II, the Conditional
Mood and the Suppositional mood.

                                  Билет 35 The category of voice

The category  of voice (which is found both with finite
and non-finite forms) is one of the most formal grammatical categories,
because this category doesn’t refer to any fragment of reality, doesn’t
reflect any fragment of reality – it’s a way of describing a certain fragment
of reality. The category of voice deals with the participants of a happening
(doer, action, object) and how they are represented in the sentence (subject,
predicate, object). The Active Voice shows that the grammatical subject of
the sentence or the subjectival is the doer of the
action, denoted by the verb, the Passive Voice shows that the subject or the subjectival is an object of the action. The frequency of
occurrence of the English Passive Voice is very great, greater than in
Russian. One of the reasons is that the number of verbs capable of forming
the Passive Voice is greater in English than in Russian. In many languages:
PV – transitive verbs, in English: PV – any object verb. In some cases the lex. character of the verb the subj. of the active
construction can’t be regarded as the doer of the action. These cases are:
ex. He lost his father in the war.; he broke his leg. Disagreement btw the
gram. form of the verb and the lex. mean-g  of the verb. Due to the lex.
mean-g of the V the semantics of the construction becomes passive. In fact
the subj. is not the doer, but the sufferer. Some grammarians treat these
constructions as active due to the gram. form.

Opposition: active
– passive.
Passive – marked -> pattern “be + II participle”, active –unmarked

Forms of Fut.Cont,
Present Perf.Cont, Past Perf.Cont,
Future Perf.Cont – no parallel forms in passive.

Any other voices??? ->
doubts and controversy

— the reflexive voice (eq.He dressed himself) – the agent and the object of the
action simultaneously ;

— the reciprocal voice (They
greeted each other) – not 1 person; action aimed at the other member of the
same group;

— the middle voice (The door
opened) – the form of the v is act, but the meaning is passive.

The active voice has a number
of mean-gs: active, passive, middle, reflective,
reciprocal.

Pr. Ilyish
“ Eng.
Has several voices. The classif-n is based on
mean-g only.

Pr. Barhudarov
calls the active voice non-passive.

The idea of the Passive voice
is expressed not only by means of “to be + P2”, but by means of “get”,
“come”, “go” + P2 and “get” + passive infinitive (ingressive meaning  — He got involved; He got to be respected).

The existence of various
means of expressing voice distinctions makes it possible to consider voice as
a functional-semantic category with the grammatical category of voice as its
center and other means of expressing voice as a periphery.

31. Theories suggesting more
than 2 cases of English nouns. The problem of analytical cases.

Case can be defined in the
following way: it is a category of the noun that expresses relations between
the thing denoted by the noun and other objects and phenomena and that is
manifested by some formal sign in the noun itself. This category is based on
the opposition of 2 cases: (the
limited case theory) the Common case – the Genitive. The general mean of
possession has other modifications. It can denote the subject of a quality,
state of action: the child’s
intelligence (quality), the child’s
sleep (state), the child’s answer
(action). Occasionally it can denote the object of an action: Clyde Griffiths’ trial. The Genitive case is
a marked member, the nominative is unmarked. The marker of the Genetive Case is the ‘s-sign which also has 3 allomorphs
which are [s], [z] and [iz].

Different
theories.

1. The 3-case theory / the substitutional theory. Was prompted by the fact that
in Old English there existed one common case system for both nouns and
personal pronouns. Some grammarians try to introduce a uniform case system in
Modern English. Accordingly there are 3 cases recognized in the noun:
Nominative, Objective and Genitive. The GC is inflected by the ‘s-sign. As to
the NC and OC they are identified by substituting a personal pronoun for the
noun. E.g.: The boy’s playing in the
garden. – The noun boy is in
the NC because it can be replaced by the personal pronoun he. Look at the boy. – The noun boy
is in the OC because it can be replaced by him. This theory was criticized and rejected by many grammarians
because you cannot attribute the properties of one part of speech to another.

2. The theory of positional cases. It is
connected with the old grammatical tradition and we find it in the works of
German scholars (Дойчбайн, Несфилд, Брайант). According to
that view the case of the noun is determined by its position in the sent. by
analogy with classical Latin grammar. The English noun will distinguish the
following cases of the noun: Nominative, Vocative, Dative, Accusative. They
are not inflectional. They exist along with the inflectional genitive. The
noun in the function of the position of the subject is in the NC. The noun in
the position of a direct address is believed to be in the VC. The noun in the
position of an indirect object to a verb is believed to be in the DC. The
noun in the position of a direct object is in the AC. The theory was bitterly
criticized. The main weakness of it is that it substitutes the functional
characteristics of parts of the sent for the morphological characteristics of
the part of speech, that is the noun.

3. The theory of prepositional cases (Curme, also connected with the old school grammar
teaching). Acc. to this theory, combinations of nouns and pronouns should be
considered as case form: 1. the combination to + noun (to the child)
is treated as the DC. 2. the combination of
+ noun is treated as the GC which exists along with the Inflectional
Genitive. 3. the combination by + N
is treated as the Instrumental Case. Curmy treats prepositions
in these combinations as inflexional prepositions.
They are gram elements that are equivalent to case inflexions. Other
grammarians treat these combinations as analytical cases. This
approach is unconvincing and cannot be accepted for the following reasons: 1.
Prep-s are not devoid of their lexical mean and they cannot be treated as
gram auxiliaries of an analytical form. 2. The number of prepositional
phrases is too numerous to be regarded members of the opposition of the
category of case. 3. There are no discontinous
morphemes. They cannot be treated as analytical forms.

4.
The theory of the possessive postposition.The theory was advanced by Prof.
Воронцова and is shared by Мухин, Ильиш, Маслова. Acc to this view the Eng noun has lost the category
of case in the historic development. All cases, including genitive, are
considered extinct (вымерш.). The following
arguments are given to substantiate this theory: 1. the use of the s-sign is
optional because it can be replaced by an of-phrase.
2. it is used with a limited group of nouns (animate nouns and some other
nouns, denoting distance, time and money). 3. it occurs with very few
plurals, only with such plurals as men
(men’s). As to the other it is impossible to distinguish the sg genitive from the pl genitive by ear. 4. The s-signs
is only loosely connected with the noun. It can be used not only with sg nouns but also with whole phrases, e.g.: John and Tom’s room. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer’s speech. The man I saw yesterday’s son. (the s-signs belongs
to the whole phrase, not to a single word). So Воронцова makes the following conclusion: the s-signs is not a case inflexion,
it is a syntactical element, resembling a preposition. She calls it a
postposition or a format. This is why Блох calls this theory
the Possessive Postposition Theory.

                                  
33. The category of tense in ME

While the existence of the
aspect category in English is a disputed matter, the tense category is
universally recognized. This category denotes the relation of the action
either to the moment of speaking or to some definite moment in the past or
future (it expresses the relations between the time of the action and the
time of the utterance). So the three main divisions of time are represented
in the English verbal system by the three tenses. Each of them may appear in
the common and in the continuous aspect. Thus we get 6 tense-aspect forms.
Besides these 6, however, there are 2 more, namely, the future-in-the-past
and the future-contin.-in-the-past. These forms are
used chiefly in the subordinate clauses depending on the main clause having
its predicate verb in one of the past tenses: ex. It meant for him that even death wouldn’t part them.

The time of the action can be
expressed lexically with the help of such wds and
combinations as yesterday, next week, a
year ago, at half past seven, on the fifth of May, in 1980, etc. All
grammarians believe that the English lang. has the present tense (it denotes actions taken place at the
moment of speaking. It may denote very prolong & timeless actions: ex. I hear a noise. I’m writing a lecture. The
Earth moves round the Sun.; it may be used for past actions- historical
or dramatic present- ex. Yesterday I
entered the room and who do you think I see? It can express future
actions (planned): ex. The train leaves at 5 tomorrow.; in complex sent-s the
present tense is bound or structurally dependent: a) adv. clauses of time,
condition, concession… when, if,
whenever; b) certain types of object clauses after the expressions to see to smth,
to take care, to make sure: ex. I’ll
make sure he comes on time.) The mean-g of the past tense (by Barhudarov): “it denotes an action, which is prior to the
moment of speaking & that is not correlated with the moment of speaking.
Non-past tense denotes actions which are outside the past tense sphere. The
present & past tense forms create an opposition: take- took- is/was taking. Within this opposition the past tense
form is the marker member. It’s marked by the suffixes in reg. verbs & in
speech the suffix is represented by a number of allomorphs [t, d, id]. In
irregular verbs it’s represented by dif. morphologically conditioned
allomorphs – sing/sang.”  The future tense (pr. Smirnitskiy, Ilyish) this tense
form is analytical. It’s made up by the auxiliary verb shall/will & the
inf. Which is the lex. part. Many grammarians even
now believe that English has 2 tenses only- the present & the past (Jesperson, Shtelling, Barhudarov), and shall/will+ inf. Should be treated as a
modal combination. However it doesn’t mean that the future actions can’t be
expressed at all (it can be expressed by a number of other lex., gram. & contextual means).

            32. The category of time-correlation. Various
interpretations of the Perfect forms.

The gramm. category of phase or time-correlation built on
opposition of perf. and non-perf.
forms.

Non-Perfect
– unmarked member. Perfect – marked (strong) member, is built with
aux. “to have” and the Past Part. of the verb. the meaning: it expresses
priority to a certain moment & correlates the action with that moment
=> the name of the category – time-correlation.

The
problem of the perfect forms is most controversial: To what gram. category do
perf. forms belong? There are 4 different ways of
interpreting the Perf.:

1)       
Perfect form as
tense: (works by Henry Sweet, Curme, Ганшина, Василевская)

The perf. denotes a secondary temporal characteristic of an
action; it doesn’t refer an action to a certain point of time but expresses
priority to the present, past or future. Non-perfect forms- primary tenses;
perfect forms – secondary tenses. Primary
tenses refer an action to a certain
point of time in the past or in the future, or they refer actions t the
moment of speaking. Secondary  tenses
don’t refer actions to the moments of time, but they express priority to the
moments of time in the past/future,  or
denote actions prior to the moment of speaking.

Thus,
the pres. perf. may be regarded as a form which
denotes an action that occurs before the moment  of speaking.

The
past perf. expresses an action which took place
before a certain moment.

The
future perf. – an action that will take place
before the certain moment of speaking.

2)       
Perfect form as
aspect form: (Prof. Ильиш: past &
future perfect forms should be regarded as relative tenses, because they
express priority, but the pres. perfect
should be treated as a form of special aspect (the resultative aspect).

Prof.
Вoронцова also treats perfect forms within the framework (основа) of aspect (transmissive aspect forms
– вид преемственности). Since the pres.
perf. shows the action in the past connected with
the present, then the most important feature of this form to show continuity
(преемственность) between past & present.

3)       
Perfect form as a
representative of a certain category: (Prof. Смирницкий speaks about the category of time
correlation). It’s represented by
the opposition of perf. and non-perf.
forms. Perf.
forms have noting to do with the notion of tense. Obviously the difference
between “took” & “had taken” is not temporal, since both forms denote
past actions.

From the view
point of a special categorical meaning , the difference between perf. & non-perf. forms is
that non-perf. forms denote actions taking place at
a certain moment or period of time, while perf.
forms denote actions prior to certain moments or periods of time. From this
point of view the opposition represents the
grammatical meaning of priority found in perf.
forms & non-priority found in
non-perf. forms.

This theory was favourably accepted by grammarians, but some of them said
that there’s a weak point in it. The past perf.
& the future perf. on the one hand, and the
pres. perf. on the other. The meanings are not the
same. The past & future perf. forms denote
priority, but the meaning of the pres. pref. is not limited to priority,
there’s always some connection with the present.

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