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The word «only» is used often in common speech and in writing. If it’s used incorrectly, however, the listener or reader may have a hard time figuring out what is really meant. Avoid this confusion by properly using the word «only».

1
Keep in mind that «only» is a modifier. This means that it helps explain what you are trying to say and acts as a descriptive word in your sentence. «Only» can have a strong presence in a sentence and can change the meaning of the sentence if it’s used in the wrong place.^[1] To create a clear sentence, you should place «only» next to the noun, verb, or phrase you are trying to modify.
- When the word «only» is placed incorrectly in a sentence, it becomes a «misplaced modifier». This means the modifier («only») is not placed beside the noun or other word it is meant to modify. This can create confusion for the listener or reader, because the sentence becomes awkward, even misleading.^[2]
2
Be aware of the casual use of «only». You may notice that in everyday speech people tend to place «only» in the wrong place in a sentence, thus conveying nothing more than a general sense of what they are trying to say. As with certain other grammatical rules, it can feel awkward to use proper placement of a modifier in a casual conversation. Sometimes you won’t need to use «only» correctly for your listeners to understand what you mean.^[3]
- It’s important, however, to use the correct placement of «only» when writing a formal letter, a paper, or something for public consumption to ensure you do not confuse your reader.
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3
Notice the common misplacement of «only» in everyday speech. When we are talking informally we might use «only» to indicate that someone did just one thing. For example: «She only ate strawberries for dinner».^[4]
- In this sentence the speaker probably means to say that she had strawberries for dinner and nothing else. The speaker is trying to modify «strawberries» when, in fact, «only» is placed before (and thus modifies) the verb «ate». This implies that the subject in the sentence, «she», does nothing with the strawberries but eat them for dinner. She doesn’t pick them. She doesn’t prepare them. She just eats them.
- The correct placement of «only» in this sentence, based on the probable intended meaning, is: «She ate only strawberries for dinner». The modifier «only» is next to the noun it’s meant to modify and is now grammatically correct. At first, it can feel awkward to say this sentence out loud, because sentences like this are so often misspoken or miswritten. However, once you realize that the wrong sentence construction doesn’t mean what you want it to mean, the correctly constructed sentence will start to feel more comfortable.

1
Create examples of the different ways to use «only» in a sentence. The best way to get a sense of the proper use of the word «only» is to make your own «practice» sentences and note what «only» is modifying in each case.^[5]
- For example, consider these six different placements of «only» in the same sentence:
- «Only I like dancing at a party».
- «I only like dancing at a party».
- «I like only dancing at a party».
- «I like dancing only at a party».
- «I like dancing at only a party».
- «I like dancing at a party only».
2
Use «only» before a subject to modify the subject. For example: «Only I like dancing at a party». In this sentence, «only» is modifying the subject «I». You are saying that you («I») are the only person who likes to dance at a party.^[6]
- You could view this sentence another way: «Only John danced at the party». In this construction no one but John danced at the party. If this is the intended meaning, that John was the only dancer at the party, you would place «only» at the beginning of the sentence so that it modifies «John».
3
Place «only» before the verb in a sentence to modify the verb. For example: «I only like dancing at a party». In this sentence, «only» is modifying the verb «like». This sentence is saying that «I» is doing nothing other than liking dancing at a party. «I» isn’t praising, criticizing or ignoring dancing at a party, s/he is simply liking it. Using «only» to modify a verb is less common than using it to modify a noun or pronoun.^[7]
- The third «practice» sentence above — «I like only dancing at a party» — means that the person likes dancing and no other activities (talking, eating, etc) at a party.
- In the fourth sentence above, «only» could be seen as modifying «dancing» or «at a party». Because the distinction could be important, in speech you would have the option of orally stressing the word or words being modified.
- In the fifth sentence above, «only» modifies «a party», meaning no other location or event. This is a clearer usage than the fourth sentence.
- The final sentence above places «only» after «party». It more clearly expresses the same meaning as the previous sentence.
- You could look at these placements in a different situation or setting. For example: «John only cooks meat for his family». This sentence works if John is a vegetarian and does not buy, prepare, or eat meat. But when he is with his family, who are diehard meat-eaters, he will cook meat for them. In this case, the modifier is correctly placed, as the sentence indicates that John will cook meat for his family but not do anything else with the meat.
4
Use «only» before a second verb in a sentence to modify the second verb. For example: «I like only dancing at a party». In this sentence, «only» is modifying «dancing». («Dancing» in this case is a verb form known as a gerund, which acts as a noun.) This means that «I» like only one thing at a party — dancing — not talking, singing, chatting, or drinking.
- The use of «only» works better in a sentence that indicates the speaker does just one thing in a certain situation. For example: «I eat only vegetables». This sentence means that you consume vegetables but no meat or other food products. «I only eat vegetables,» on the other hand, means that you do nothing with vegetables except eat them.
  - While the above is academically true, so many people say, «I only eat…» when they mean, «I eat only…» — or similar phrases — it has become common and easily understood usage.
5
Place «only» before the ending phrase in a sentence to modify the phrase. For example: «I like dancing only at a party». In this example, «only» is modifying «at a party». This indicates that the speaker likes to dance when s/he is at a party and that s/he does not dance at any other time or place.^[8]
- You can look at this use of «only» another way: «John drinks scotch only with his dad». This sentence means that John drinks scotch with his dad and with no one else.
6
Adjust your use of «only» in your writing. Now that you have looked at the four different ways «only» can be used in a sentence, notice how you use «only» in your next essay, letter, or conversation.^[9]
- Remember to place «only» next to (usually before) the item you want to modify, so your meaning is not confusing or awkward for your reader or listener. Review the above examples to determine which placement of «only» best expresses your intended meaning.
7

Try searching your document (if it is on a word processor) for the word «only». Check that you are using the word correctly in each sentence. Adjust the placement of «only» if it causes a sentence’s meaning to be unclear.

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Question

Which is correct: «I only use this bank account for the debt collector», or «I use only this account for the debt collector»?

The latter.
Question

When do we use «only» at the end of sentence?

When the «only» is meant to modify the noun or verb that immediately precedes it. For example, «I like dancing with you only» means the same as «I like dancing with only you.»
Question

What is the correct phrase to use: «I am left with $5 only,» or «I am only left with $5»?

Either way is OK, but people will understand your point more easily if you say, «I am left with only $5.»

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Article SummaryX

To use the word “only” correctly, place it directly before or after the noun, subject, or verb to make the meaning clear. For example, if you’re trying to say that someone ate 4 strawberries, you can say, “She ate only 4 strawberries.” On the other hand, if you want to say that someone ate strawberries and nothing else, you would say «She only ate 4 strawberries.» Additionally, you can use “only” in front of a subject, like “Only I,” or “Only John” to show that they’re the sole person performing the action. To learn how to use “only” correctly in a sentence with multiple verbs, keep reading.

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Источник

Only is an adjective or adverb.

Only as an adjective

We use only as an adjective to mean that there is just one or very few of something, or that there are no others:

He was the only person in the room.

Being healthy is the only thing that is important to me.

Only as an adverb

We use only as an adverb to mean that something is limited to some people, things, an amount or an activity:

This phone is only available in Japan.

Only a few hundred houses survived the hurricane without any damage.

Only can mean ‘simply’:

He’s only joking.

Spoken English:

In speaking, only can be used with just for emphasis. It can mean ‘very recently’ or ‘almost not’:

She’d only just moved into her new house last July. (very recently)

The building had survived the earthquake of two years before, but only just. (It almost didn’t survive the earthquake.)

Only: position

As an adjective, we use only in front of a noun or one, or before another adjective or a number:

Is that your only copy of the book?

He was the only one who could read in the village.

Not: He was the only who could read …

That was the only large t-shirt left in that colour.

There were only four United fans in the room.

We can use only as an adverb in different positions, depending on its focus. If the subject is the focus, we put only in front position:

Only Jason knows where the key is kept.

Only a very small bed will fit in this room.

If the focus is on another part of the sentence, we usually put only in the normal mid position for adverbs (between the subject and the main verb, or after the modal verb or first auxiliary verb, or after be as a main verb):

I only go home once a month. (between subject and main verb)

She had only arrived at midnight the night before. (after the first auxiliary verb)

She’s only sixteen. (after be as a main verb)

If the focus is a whole clause, we can put only in front position:

My arm hurts but only when I try to raise it.

Источник

Robusto’s answer provides an accurate, commonsense illustration of how the positioning of only in a sentence can significantly influence the sense of the sentence. The followup answer from systemovich offers what one might call the «strict constructionist» (or «machine-applied») interpretation of sentences that include the word only.

In a similar vein, Theodore Bernstein, The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage (1973) lays out a «normal» practical rule for deciding where to situate only in a sentence:

ONLY

Normally the proper positioning of only requires no more than asking yourself, «What does it actually modify?» Thus a headline that says, «$35,000 Bond Thief Only Nets Paper,» does not conform to the normal order; the only patently modifies «paper,» not «nets,» and so should adjoin it. An interesting exercise for developing only awareness was cited in the publication Word Study, distributed by G. $ C. Merriam Company, as follows: «Eight different meanings result from placing only in the eight possible positions in this sentence: ‘I hit him in the eye yesterday.'» Try it.

However, to his credit, Bernstein goes on to note two important exceptions to the mechanistic assignment of only within a sentence:

The words «normal» and «normally» have been prominent in the foregoing paragraphs. They are intended to underline the fact that there are abnormal but proper placements for only. One abnormal placement is dictated by idiom, meaning that a normal placement would sound awkward and contrived. Example: «What is happening now can only be called a paperback-book explosion.» The normal position for only here would be just ahead of «a paperback-book explosion,» which is the phrase it modifies. But placed there, it sounds pedantic and unnatural.

Another «abnormal» placement, which is not really abnormal but only seems so, occurs when the only is a sentence adverb, that is, when it modifies an entire statement rather than a word or phrase. Example: «He only thought that he was being helpful.» The only here is not intended to modify merely «thought,» as would be the case if «thought» were heavily stressed. Nor is the meaning that his mental process was confined to a single idea, as would be implied if the only followed «thought.» Rather the intention is to apply only to the entire sentence, and a sentence adverb of this kind usually precedes the verb.

Some combination of idiomatic usage and what Bernstein calls «sentence adverb» usage may well be at work in the expression «I can only do so much.» An Ngram chart of «can only do so much» (blue line) versus «can do only so much» (red line) for the period 1850–2005 shows a rather remarkable increase in the frequency of the first expression since about 1970, a period during which the frequency of the second expression has increased only slightly:

Evidently, either there has been a startling increase in the frequency of instances where writers are trying to indicate that «they can only do so much» (as opposed to, say, promising so much) or the wording «can only do so much» has come into its own as a set phrase meaning «cannot do more than a certain unspecified maximum amount.» The latter explanation is much more plausible than the former, in my view.

Источник

In traditional grammar, word is the basic unit of language.A word refers to a speech sound, or a mixture of two or more speech sounds in both written and verbal form of language. A word works as a symbol to represent/refer to something/someone in language to communicate a specific meaning.

Contents

1 What is word and its example?
2 What is word and its types?
3 What is word linguistics?
4 What is the meaning of word?
5 What are words called?
6 What is word in language?
7 What is a word class in grammar?
8 Why do we define words?
9 Why do we say word?
10 What is morpheme and word?
11 What is word Slideshare?
12 Is word a noun or verb?
13 What are the parts of a word?
14 What is word Wikipedia?
15 What type of word is there?
16 What is word boundaries?
17 What is called sentence?
18 Is your name a word?
19 What are the 4 main word classes?
20 What is word class in syntax?

What is word and its example?

The definition of a word is a letter or group of letters that has meaning when spoken or written. An example of a word is dog.An example of words are the seventeen sets of letters that are written to form this sentence.

What is word and its types?

There are eight types of words that are often referred to as ‘word classes’ or ‘parts of speech’ and are commonly distinguished in English: nouns, determiners, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions.These are the different types of words in the English language.

What is word linguistics?

In linguistics, a word of a spoken language can be defined as the smallest sequence of phonemes that can be uttered in isolation with objective or practical meaning.In many languages, the notion of what constitutes a “word” may be learned as part of learning the writing system.

What is the meaning of word?

1 : a sound or combination of sounds that has meaning and is spoken by a human being. 2 : a written or printed letter or letters standing for a spoken word. 3 : a brief remark or conversation I’d like a word with you.

What are words called?

All words belong to categories called word classes (or parts of speech) according to the part they play in a sentence. The main word classes in English are listed below. Noun. Verb. Adjective.

What is word in language?

A word is a speech sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or a combination of morphemes. The branch of linguistics that studies word structures is called morphology.

A word class is a group of words that have the same basic behaviour, for example nouns, adjectives, or verbs.

Why do we define words?

The definition of definition is “a statement expressing the essential nature of something.” At least that’s one way Webster defines the word.Because definitions enable us to have a common understanding of a word or subject; they allow us to all be on the same page when discussing or reading about an issue.

Why do we say word?

‘Word’ in slang is a word one would use to indicate acknowledgement, approval, recognition or affirmation, of something somebody else just said.

What is morpheme and word?

Word vs Morpheme
A morpheme is usually considered as the smallest element of a word or else a grammar element, whereas a word is a complete meaningful element of language.

What is word Slideshare?

•“A word’ is a free morpheme or a combination of morphemes that together form a basic segment of speech” .

Is word a noun or verb?

word used as a noun:
A distinct unit of language (sounds in speech or written letters) with a particular meaning, composed of one or more morphemes, and also of one or more phonemes that determine its sound pattern. A distinct unit of language which is approved by some authority.

What are the parts of a word?

The parts of a word are called morphemes. These include suffixes, prefixes and root words. Take the word ‘microbiology,’ for example.

What is word Wikipedia?

A word is something spoken by the mouth, that can be pronounced. In alphabetic writing, it is a collection of letters used together to communicate a meaning. These can also usually be pronounced.Some words have different pronunciation, for example, ‘wind’ (the noun) and ‘wind’ (the verb) are pronounced differently.

What type of word is there?

The word “there” have multiple functions. In verbal and written English, the word can be used as an adverb, a pronoun, a noun, an interjection, or an adjective. This word is classified as an adverb if it is used to modify a verb in the sentence.

What is word boundaries?

A word boundary is a zero-width test between two characters. To pass the test, there must be a word character on one side, and a non-word character on the other side. It does not matter which side each character appears on, but there must be one of each.

What is called sentence?

A sentence is a set of words that are put together to mean something. A sentence is the basic unit of language which expresses a complete thought. It does this by following the grammatical basic rules of syntax.A complete sentence has at least a subject and a main verb to state (declare) a complete thought.

Is your name a word?

Yes, names are words. Specifically, they are proper nouns: they refer to specific people, places, or things. “John” is a proper noun; “ground” is a common noun. But both are words.

What are the 4 main word classes?

There are four major word classes: verb, noun, adjective, adverb.

What is word class in syntax?

In English grammar, a word class is a set of words that display the same formal properties, especially their inflections and distribution.It is also variously called grammatical category, lexical category, and syntactic category (although these terms are not wholly or universally synonymous).

Источник

What is a word?
Rules/Conditions for word
- Rule 1: Every word should have some potential pause in between the speech and space should be given in between while writing.
- Rule 2: Every word in English grammar must contain at least one root word.
- Rule 3: Every word you want to use should have some meaning.
More examples of Word
Quiz Time! (Test your knowledge here)
- #1. Is cat a word? State true or false.
- #2. A group of words can make a ___________.
- #3. A word is a _____________.
- #4. The word is the largest unit in the language. Is it true or false?
- #5. The meaning of words can be studied with ___________.
- #6. A root word is a word that _____________.
- #7. A word can be ____________.
- #8. Morphology is a branch of ___________.
- #9. A word is usually a speech sound or mixture of it. Is it true or false?
- #10. The structure of words can be studied with ___________.
Results
Summary: (What is a word?)

According to traditional grammar, a word is defined as, “the basic unit of language”. The word is usually a speech sound or mixture of sounds which is represented in speaking and writing.

Few examples of words are fan, cat, building, scooter, kite, gun, jug, pen, dog, chair, tree, football, sky, etc.

You can also define it as, “a letter or group/set of letters which has some meaning”. So, therefore the words are classified according to their meaning and action.

It works as a symbol to represent/refer to something/someone in the language.

The group of words makes a sentence. These sentences contain different types of functions (of the words) in it.

The structure (formation) of words can be studied with Morphology which is usually a branch (part) of linguistics.

The meaning of words can be studied with Lexical semantics which is also a branch (part) of linguistics.

Also Read: What is a Sentence in English Grammar? | Best Guide for 2021

The word can be used in many ways. Few of them are mentioned below.

Noun (rabbit, ring, pencil, US, etc)
Pronoun (he, she, it, we, they, etc)
Adjective (big, small, fast, slow, etc)
Verb (jumping, singing, dancing, etc)
Adverb (slowly, fastly, smoothly, etc)
Preposition (in, on, into, for, under, etc)
Conjunction (and, or, but, etc)
Subject (in the sentences)
Verb and many more!

Now, let us understand the basic rules of the words.

Rules/Conditions for word

There are some set of rules (criteria) in the English Language which describes the basic necessity of becoming a proper word.

Rule 1: Every word should have some potential pause in between the speech and space should be given in between while writing.

For example, consider the two words like “football” and “match” which are two different words. So, if you want to use them in a sentence, you need to give a pause in between the words for pronouncing.

It cannot be like “Iwanttowatchafootballmatch” which is very difficult to read (without spaces).

But, if you give pause between the words while reading like, “I”, “want”, “to”, “watch”, “a”, “football”, “match”.

Example Sentence: I want to watch a football match.

We can observe that the above sentence can be read more conveniently and it is the only correct way to read, speak and write.

Incorrect: Iwanttowatchafootballmatch.
Correct: I want to watch a football match.

So, always remember that pauses and spaces should be there in between the words.

Rule 2: Every word in English grammar must contain at least one root word.

The root word is a basic word which has meaning in it. But if we further break down the words, then it can’t be a word anymore and it also doesn’t have any meaning in it.

So, let us consider the above example which is “football”. If we break this word further, (such as “foot” + “ball”), we can observe that it has some meaning (even after breaking down).

Now if we further break down the above two words (“foot” + “ball”) like “fo” + “ot” and “ba” + “ll”, then we can observe that the words which are divided have no meaning to it.

So, always you need to remember that the word should have atleast one root word.

Rule 3: Every word you want to use should have some meaning.

Yes, you heard it right!

We know that there are many words in the English Language. If you have any doubt or don’t know the meaning of it, then you can check in the dictionary.

But there are also words which are not defined in the English Language. Many words don’t have any meaning.

So, you need to use only the words which have some meaning in it.

For example, consider the words “Nuculer” and “lakkanah” are not defined in English Language and doesn’t have any meaning.

Always remember that not every word in the language have some meaning to it.

Also Read: 12 Rules of Grammar | (Grammar Basic Rules with examples)

More examples of Word

Words List	Words List
apple	ice
aeroplane	jam
bat	king
biscuit	life
cap	mango
doll	nest
eagle	orange
fish	pride
grapes	raincoat
happy	sad

Quiz Time! (Test your knowledge here)

#1. A word can be ____________.

all of the above

a noun

an adjective

a verb

Answer: A word can be a noun, verb, adjective, preposition, etc.

#2. A root word is a word that _____________.

none

can be divided further

cannot be divided further

both

Answer: A root word is a word that cannot be divided further.

#3. A group of words can make a ___________.

none

sentence

letters

words

Answer: A group of words can make a sentence.

#4. Morphology is a branch of ___________.

none

Linguistics

Phonology

Semantics

Answer: Morphology is a branch of Linguistics.

#5. The meaning of words can be studied with ___________.

none

both

Morphology

Lexical semantics

Answer: The meaning of the words can be studied with Lexical semantics.

#6. The word is the largest unit in the language. Is it true or false?

#7. Is cat a word? State true or false.

Answer: “Cat” is a word.

#8. A word is a _____________.

group of paragraphs

group of letters

group of sentences

All of the above

Answer: A word is a group of letters which delivers a message or an idea.

#9. A word is usually a speech sound or mixture of it. Is it true or false?

#10. The structure of words can be studied with ___________.

Morphology

both

Lexical semantics

none

Answer: The structure of words can be studied with Morphology.

Results

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Summary: (What is a word?)

(What is a word?)

Generally, the word is the basic and smallest unit in the language.
It is categorised based on its meaning.
Morphology is the study of Words structure (formation) and Lexical semantics is the study of meanings of the words. These both belong to a branch of Linguistics.
A word should have at least one root and meaning to it.

Also Read: What is Grammar? | (Grammar definition, types & examples) | Best Guide 2021

If you are interested to learn more, then you can refer wikipedia from here.

I hope that you understood the topic “What is a word?”. If you still have any doubts, then comment down below and we will respond as soon as possible. Thank You.

Источник

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.

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

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.

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).

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:

Classical
(logical-inflectional)
Functional
Distributional
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:

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

According
to the type of nomination they may be proper
and common;
According
to the form of existence they may be animate
and inanimate.
Animate nouns in their turn fall into human
and non-human.
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:

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

The plural
form may denote:

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

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

The
nouns in which the opposition of explicit
discreteness/indiscreteness is expressed : cat::cats;
The
nouns in which this opposition is not expressed explicitly but is
revealed by syntactical and lexical correlation in the context.
There are two groups here:

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

The
nouns with homogenous number forms. The number opposition here is
not expressed formally but is revealed only lexically and
syntactically in the context: e.g. Look!
A sheep is eating grass. Look! The sheep are eating grass.

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 :

Possessive
Genitive : Mary’s father – Mary has a father,
Subjective
Genitive: The doctor’s arrival – The doctor has arrived,
Objective
Genitive : The man’s release – The man was released,
Adverbial
Genitive : Two hour’s work – X worked for two hours,
Equation
Genitive : a mile’s distance – the distance is a mile,
Genitive
of destination: children’s books – books for children,
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.

There
are two cases. The Common one and The Genitive;
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;
There
are three cases: the Nominative, the Genitive, the Objective due to
the existence of objective pronouns me,
him, whom;
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:

Agentive
Case (A) John
opened the door;
Instrumental
case (I) The key
opened the door;
John used the key to open the door;
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);
Factitive
Case (F) The key
was damaged ( the result of the action or state identified by the
verb);
Locative
Case (L) Chicago is
windy;
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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