Теоретическая грамматика английского языка
Grammar&Semantics.Gr. is semantically expr. means, expresses diff. sem.
meanings. Gr. is a complex set of semantically charged regularities of
forming utterances of speech from the nominative means of l-ge. Since gr.
forms and regularities are meaningful, the rules of grammar must be stated
semantically, or they must be worded functionally. (ex: inverted w/o, its
meaningful functions – difference between meaningful&marginal idea,
emotive&unemotivemodes of speech, dif. types of style) Gr. elements of l-ge
present a unity of content & expression (or form & meaning).
Syntagmatic & Paradigmatic Relations. Beaudoin de Courtenay (Rus.) &
Ferdinand de Saussure (Swiss): showed difference betw. Lingual synchrony
(coexistence of lingual elements) & diachrony (diff. time-periods in the
development of lingual elements as well as l-ge as a whole) & defined l-ge
as a synchronic system of meaningful elements at any stage of its hist.
evolution. Lingual units stand to one another in 2 fundamental types of
relations: syntagmatic & paradigmatic. Syntagmatic relations are immediate
linear relations between units in a segmental sequence. Ex: The spaceship
was launched without the help of a booster rocket. Words, word-groups and
morphemes of words are connected syntagmatically. The combination of 2
words or word-groups one of which is modified by the other forms a unit,
which is referred to as a syntactic “syntagma”. Notional syntagmas:
predicative (a subject+predicate), objective (a verb+its object),
attributive (a noun+its attr.), adverbial (verb/adj/adverb+adv.modifier).
The other type of relations, opposed to synt. And called paradigmatic, are
such as exist between elements of the system outside the strings where they
co-occur. These intra-systemic relations & dependencies are expressed in
the fact that each lingual unit is included in a set of connections based
on diff. formal and functional properties.
Levels of l-ge. 1) The lowest level – phonemic.Phoneme is not a sign, but a
unit of a l-ge (lacks content). It’s abstract, represents by a sound &
letter. Specific function – differential: phonemes distinguish words &
morphemes as material bodies, changes their meanings.2) Morphemic. Morpheme
is a sign–2 sides; the smallest meaningful part of a word. The smallest -s.
F-tion – significative: m. express the signif. or generalized meaning. M.
is a group of allophones. Ex: roots (can function by themselves-free
morph.) & affixes (suffixes, prefixes & inflections). 3) Lexemic. Lexeme (a
word) in a l-ge performs a nominative (назывная) f-tion, it names objects &
phenomena. 1 morpheme can be 1 word (the smallest). 4) Denotemic. A w-
comb./phrase (denoteme) is a comb. of at least 2 notional w-s connected
semantically. A comb. of a n.word & an aux. element is not a phrase, but
just a gram.form. (ex.has been done). F-tion – polynominative. Phrases name
complicated things & phenom, give add. info. about qualities of objects,
circumstances. Phrases: free (we can choose elements freely) & stable
(phraseological units). 5) Proposemic (a level of a sentence). F-tions: a)
Nominative (names a whole situation or a sit. event) & b) Predicative.
Predication is the connection betw. the subj.& the predicate of a s-ce,
which form a predicative line. Predication is expr. through tense&mood of a
verb. 6) Dictemic – level of topicalization. (Blokh) Unit – dicteme.
Utterance – supra-sentential construction. A dicteme is a comb.of 2/more s-
ces which are united by common topic. Though there may be only 1 s-ce in a
d. f-tions: a) Nominative: names sit./sit.events. b)Predicative (see), c)
F.of topicalozation (тематизир.) - main: each dicteme presents a separate
topic in a continual text, d) Stylistic (to expr.the attitude of the
speaker).
The word & the morpheme. In studying the moroheme we study the word in the
necess.details of its composition&f-tions. The word is a basic nominative
unit. Without words – no com-tion even in thought. Bloomfield:
phoneme&morpheme are basic categories of ling.discription. M. – minimal
meaningful segment. M.is a meaningful segmental component of the word; the
m.is formed by phonemes. The word is a nominative unit of of l-ge built up
by morphemes & indivisible into smaller segments as regards its nominative
f-tion. The morphol.system of l-ge reveals its properties through the
morphemic str-re of words.
Traditional (functional) class-tion of morphemes. Henry Sweet, Smirnitsky.
Study of morph.str-re in traditional gr. - 2 criteria.1) Positional: the
analysis of the location of the marginal morphemes in relation to the
central ones. 2) Semantic (functional): involves the study of the
correlative contribution of the morpheme to the general meaning of the
word. M-s at the upper level are divided into root & affixal (lex.&gram.).A
lot of varieties of morphemic composition of modern E.words,but preferable
model is: prefix+root+lexical suffix+gram.suffix. Roots: concrete,
“material” part of the meaning of the word, affixes – specificational part
of the meaning. Specifications: of lexico-semantic & grammatico-semantic
character. Or 3 criteria: a) semantic properties of words (meaning), b)
formal properties (form), c) functional (syntactic f-tion).
Distributional class-tion of morphemes. In the distrib.analysis 3 main
types of distribution are discrimin.: contrastive distr., non-contrastive
distr., and complementary distr. Contr.& non-contr.distr.concern identical
environments of different morphs. (Morph is combination of phones that has
a meaning, it happens only once) The morphs are said to be in contrastive
distr. if their meanings (f-tions) are different; such morphs constitute
dofferent morphemes. Ex: returned/returning/returns. The morphs are in non-
contrastive d. if their mean.(f-tions) are identical; such morphs
constitute “free variants” of the same morpheme. Ex: suffixes –ed & -t
(learned/learnt), -s & -i (genies/genii). As for complementary distr., it
concerns diff.environments of formally diff.morphs which fulfill one & the
same f-tion; such morphs are termed “allo-morphs”. Ex: a few allomorphs of
the plural suffix: -en (children), -s (toys), -a (data), -es (crises), -I
(genii), zero (trout-trout). The application of distr.analysis to the
morphemic level-> cl-tion of m. on distr.lines. a) free & bound m., b)
overt & covert m., c) additive & replacive m., d) continuous & discontin.m,
e) segmental & supra-segmental m.
Synthetical & Analytical forms in Grammar. Gr.opposition – correlation of
gr.forms expressing a categorical gram. meaning based on common &
differential features of these forms. The means used for building up member-
forms of categorical oppositions are divided into synthetical & analytical,
and so do the gram.forms. Synthetical – realized by the inner morphemic
composition of the word, while analytical gr.forms are built up by a
combination of 2/more words, one of which is a gram.auxiliary (word-
morpheme), & the other, a word of “substantial” meaning. Synthetical gr.f.
are based on inner inflexion (phonemic (vowel) interchange; non-productive
now, on ancient elements, used in irregular verbs, some nouns-plural),
outer inflection (productive, gram.suffixation: number, case, person-
number, tenseparticipial-gerundial forms, the comparisons), and
suppletivity (non-prod., based on gram.interchange of word roots (be-am-is-
are, go-went, good-better, we-us; +can-be able – broader morphological
interpretation). Analytical (typical of modern E.) – a combination of
aux.word+basic word. “Gramatically idiomatic” combinations (whose relevant
gram.meaning is not dependent on meanings of their component elements taken
apart). But: more, most – unidiomatic
Identification of parts of speech. The words of l-ge, depending on various
formal & semantic features, are divided into grammatically relevant sets or
classes. Traditionally they are called parts of speech (“lexico-gram.”
series of words or categories). Today they are discriminated ac. to 3
criteria: semantic, formal & functional. Semantic (meaning): presupposes
the evaluation of the generalized meaning, characteristic of all words of a
given part of speech. The meaning is understood as “categorical meaning of
the p.of sp.”. Formal (form): provides for the exposition of the specific
inflexional & derivational (word-building) features of all the lexemic
subsets of a part of speech. Functional (function): concerns the syntactic
role of words in the s-ce typical of a part of speech.
Notional parts of speech in English. Acc.to these criteria words on the
upper level are div.into notional (the noun, adj., numeral, pronoun, verb,
adverb), words of complete nominative mean.characterized by self-dependent
f-tions, & functional (the article, prepos., conj., particle, modal verb,
interjection). Noun: 1) meaning-substance (thinfness), 2) the changeable
forms of number & case; specific suff.forms of derivation, 3) the
substantive f-tions in the s-ce (subj., obj., substantival predicate);
prepositional connections; modiication by an adj. Adjective: 1) the
categorical mean. of property (qualitative & relative), 2) forms of degrees
of comparison (for qualitative adj.), spec.suff.forms of deriv., 3) adj.f-
tions (attribute to a noun, adjectival predicate). Numeral: 1) number
(cardinal-порядк. & ordinal-колич.), 2) narrow set of simple numerals,
sp.forms of composition for compound num., sp.forms of deriv.for ordinal
num., 3)f-tions of numerical attr. & numer. substantive. Pronoun:
1)indication (deixis), 2)narrow sets of various status with the
corresponding formal properties of categ.changeability & w-building, 3)the
subst. & adjectival f-tions for dif.sets. Verb: 1)process (finite process &
non-finite pr.), 2)of verbal categories of person, number, tense, aspect,
voice, mood; opposition of finite & non-finite forms, 3)f-tion of the
finite predicate for the finite verb; mixed verbal-other than verbal f-
tions for the non-f.verb. Adverb: 1) secondary property (i.e. of process or
another property), 2)of degrees of comparison for qualitative adverbs;
sp.suffixal forms of derivation; 3) f-tions of various adv. modifiers.
Functional parts of speech.-Words of incomplete nominative meaning & non-
self-dependent, mediary f-tions in the s-ce. Their number is limited.
Article: expresses the specific limitation of the substantive f-tions.
Preposition: expr.the dependencies and interdependencies of substantive
referents. Conjunction: expr. connections of phenomena. Particle: unites
the funct.words of specifying&limiting meaning. Modal verbs: expr.the
attitude of the sp.to the situation. Here belong words of probability
(probably, perhaps), of qualitative evaluation (un/fortunately, luckily),
of affirm. & negation. Interjection: is a signal of emotions.
Syntactic classes of words (Ch.Fries). The syntactic (monofiggerential) cl-
tion of words is based on syntactic featuring of words only. The syntactic
cl-tion of words, in principle, supplements the 3-criteria cl-tion
specifying the syntactic features of parts of speech. For the Rus. l-ge the
basic principles of the syntactic cl-tion of words were outlined in the
works of Peshkovski. In English the syntactico-distributional cl-tion of
words was worked out by Bloomfield & his followers Harris and esp-ly
Ch.Fries. The synt.-distrib. Cl-tion of words is based on the study of
their combinability by means of substitution tests. As a rezult of this
testing, a standart model of 4 main syntactic positions of notional words
was built up. These positions are those of the noun,verb,adj,&adverb.
Pronouns are included into the corresponding positional classes as their
substitutes. Words incapable to occupy the said main syntactic positions
are treated as functional words.
The three-Layer structure of vocabulary (M.Blokh). –cl-tion of the lexicon
presenting some essential generalizations about its str-re. Lexicon is
divided into 2 parts: notional words & f-tional words. The open character
of the notional part & the closed character of the f-tional part have the
status of a formal grammatical feature. Between them there is also an
intermediary field of semi-functional words. 1)The whole of the lexicon is
divided into 3 layers. 2)The 1st(upper) layer, of open character, is formed
by 4 classes of notional words; since these words have full nominative
value,they may be referred to as “names”: respectively, substance-names
(nouns), process-n.(verbs), primary property n.(adj.), secondary property
n. (adverbs); 3) the names are consolidated into an integral system by the
lexical paradigm of nomination-the paradigmatic series whose f-tion is to
form & distribute any given word root among the 4 lexical class-types (p-s
of speech); 4) the 2nd (intermediate) layer of closed char., is formed by
pronominal words or “substitutes of names”; here belong pronouns & replacer
lexemes of all kinds (noun-,verb-,adj-,adv-replacers), w. of broad meaning
(thing, matter etc) & numbers; 5) the 3rd (lower) layer of closed char., is
formed by functional w. proper, or “specifiers of names”: determiners,
prep., conj., particles etc. The f-tion of 2nd & 3rd layers is to organize
together with the categorial means of grammar, the production of speech
utterances out of the direct naming means of l-ge (the 1st layer).
