English faculty

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ENGLISH FACULTY

correspondent department

1. Morphology and syntax as part of grammar. Units of grammar, their functions and types of relations between them in language and speech

english grammar morphology syntax

Main units of Grammar are a word and a sentence. A word may be divided into morphemes, a sentence may be divided into phrases (word-groups). A morpheme, a word, a phrase and a sentence are units of different levels of language structure. A unit of a higher level consists of one or more units of a lower level.

Grammatical units - 2 types of relations:

- in the language system (paradigmatic relations)

- in speech (syntagmatic relations).

In the language system each unit is included into a set of connections based on different properties. F. ex., word forms child, children, child's, children's have the same lexical meaning and have different grammatical meanings. They constitute a lexeme.

Word-forms children, boys, men, books... have the same grammatical meaning and have different lexical meanings. They constitute a grammeme (a categorial form, a form class). The system of all grammemes (grammatical forms) of all lexemes (words) of a given class constitutes a paradigm.

Syntagmatic relations are the relations in an utterance.

Main grammatical units, a word and a sentence, are studied by different sections of Grammar: Morphology (Accidence) and Syntax. Morphology studies the structure, forms and the classification of words. Syntax studies the structure, forms and the classification of sentences. Morphology studies paradigmatic relations of words, Syntax studies syntagmatic relations of words and paradigmatic relations of sentences.

There is also a new approach to the division of Grammar into Morphology and Syntax. According to this approach Morphology should study both paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of words. Syntax should study both paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of sentences. Syntactic syntagmatics is a relatively new field of study, reflecting the discourse.

2. Grammatical meaning and grammatical form. Means of form-building. Synthetic and analytical forms

The grammatical meaning and grammatical form are the basic notions of Grammar.

The grammatical meaning is a general, abstract meaning which embraces classes of words. The grammatical meaning depends on the lexical meaning. It is connected with objective reality indirectly, through the lexical meaning. The grammatical meaning is relative, it is revealed in relations of word forms, e.g. speak - speaks. The grammatical meaning is obligatory. Grammatical meaning must be expressed if the speaker wants to be understood.

The grammatical meaning must have a grammatical form of expression (inflexions, analytical forms, word-order, etc.). The term form may be used in a wide sense to denote all means of expressing grammatical meanings. It may be also used in a narrow sense to denote means of expressing a particular grammatical meaning (plural, number, present tense, etc.).

Grammatical elements are unities of meaning and form, content and expression. In the language system there is no direct correspondence of meaning and form. Two or more units of the plane of content may correspond to one unit of the plane of expression (polysemy; homonymy). Two or more units of the plane of expression may correspond to one unit of the plane of content (synonymy).

Means of form-building and grammatical forms are divided into synthetic and analytical.

Synthetic forms are built with the help of bound morphemes, analytical forms are built with the help of semi-bound morphemes (word-morphemes).

Synthetic means of form-building are affixation, sound-interchange (inner-inflexion), suppletivity. Typical features of English affixation are scarcity and homonymy of affixes. Another characteristic feature is a great number of zero-morphemes.

Though English grammatical affixes are few in number, affixation is a productive means of form-building.

Sound interchange may be of two types: vowel- and consonant-interchange. It is often accompanied by affixation: bring - brought.

Sound interchange is not productive in Modem English. It is used to build the forms of irregular verbs.

Forms of one word may be derived from different roots: go - went. This means of form-building is called suppletivity. Different roots may be treated as suppletive forms if:

1) they have the same lexical meaning;

2) there are no parallel non-suppletive forms;

3) other words of the same class build their forms without suppletivity.

Suppletivity, like inner inflexion, is hot productive in Modem English, but it occurs in words with a very high frequency.

Analytical forms are combinations of the auxiliary element (a word morpheme) and the notional element: is writing. Analytical forms are contradictory units: phrases in form and wordforms in function. In the analytical form is writing the auxiliary verb be is lexically empty. It expresses the, grammatical meaning. The notional element expresses both the lexical and the grammatical meaning. So the grammatical meaning is expressed by the two components of the analytical form: the auxiliary verb be and the affix ing. The word-morpheme be and the inflexion -ing constitute a discontinuous morpheme.

3. Structure of words. Grammatically relevant types of morphemes

The smallest meaningful units of grammar are called morphemes. Morphemes are commonly classified into free (those which can occur as separate words) and bound. A word consisting of a single (free) morpheme is monomorphemic, its opposite is polymorphemic.

According to their meaning and function morphemes are subdivided into lexical (roots), lexico-grammatical (word-building affixes) and grammatical (form-building affixes, or inflexions).

Morphemes are abstract units, represented in speech by morphs. Most morphemes are realized by single morphs: unselfish. Some morphemes may be manifested by more than one morph according to their position. Such alternative morphs, or positional variants of a morpheme are called allomorphs: cats, [s], dogs [z], foxes [iz].

Morphemic variants are identified in the text on the basis of their cooccurence with other morphs, or their environment. The total of environments constitutes the distribution.

There may be three types of morphemic distribution: contrastive, non-contrastive, complementary. Morphs are in contrastive distribution if their position is the same and their meanings are different: charming - charmed. Morphs are in non-contrastive distribution if their position is the same and their meanings are the same: learned - learnt. Such morphs constitute free variants of the same morpheme. Morphs are in complementary distribution if their positions are different and their meanings are the same: speaks - teaches. Such morphs are allomorphs of the same morpheme.

Grammatical meanings may be expressed by the absence of the morpheme: book - books. The meaning of plurality is expressed by the morpheme -s. The meaning of singularity is expressed by the absence of the morpheme. Such meaningful absence of the morpheme is called zero-morpheme.

The function of the morpheme may be performed by a separate word. In the opposition work - will work the meaning of the future is expressed by the word will. Will is a contradictory unit. Formally it is a word, functionally it is a morpheme. As it has the features of a word and a morpheme, it is called a word morpheme. Word-morphemes may be called semi-bound morphemes.

4. Grammatical categories. Method of opposition (A.I. Smirnitsky)

Grammatical category is a system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms. Traditional categories are: the category of gender, number, person, case, tense, mood, voice.

The set of grammatical forms constitutes a paradigm. The paradigmatic relations of grammatical forms in a category are exposed in the so-called grammatical opposition. In other words, grammatical category is some total of all the oppositions of words.

E.g. the category of number. The opposition of 2 forms: pen - pens (z). The correlated members of the opposition must possess 2 types of features: common features (the basis of the contrast) and differential features (immediately express the function in question): pen (weak memeber) - pens (strong member).

Oppositions can be classified into qualitative types:

- privative: one member has a certain distinctive feature; this member is called marked, or strong (+); the other member is characterized by the absence of this distinctive feature. This member is called unmarked, or weak (-): (study (-) - studied (+),

- gradual: members of the opposition differ by the degree of certain property: (large - larger - largest),

- equipollent: Both members of the opposition are marked (am⁺ - is⁺ - are⁺),

Most grammatical oppositions are privative. The marked (strong) member has a narrow and definite meaning. The unmarked (weak) member has a wide, general meaning.

In certain contexts the difference between members of the opposition is lost, the opposition is reduced to one member. Usually the weak member acquires the meaning of the strong member: We leave for Moscow tomorrow. This kind of oppositional reduction is called neutralization. The strong member may be used in the context typical for the weak member. This use is stylistically marked: He is always complaining. This kind of reduction is called transposition.

By the number of opposemes - into binary, ternary, quaternary, etc.

Types of categories:

- notional (of quantity, agent);

- semantic (of gender, modality);

- morphological (number and case of nouns; degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs; tense, voice, aspect, correlation, mood of verbs);

- syntactical (of predicativity, of agent).

Grammatical categories may be influenced by the lexical meaning. Such categories as number, case, voice strongly depend on the lexical meaning. They are proper to certain subclasses of words.

As grammatical categories reflect relations existing in objective reality, different languages may have the same categories. But the system and character of grammatical categories are determined by the grammatical structure of a given language.

5. Parts of speech as lexico-grammatical classes of words. 3 principles of classifying words into parts of speech

Parts of speech are grammatical classes of words distinguished on the basis of 3 criteria: semantic, morphological and syntactic, i.e. meaning, form and function.

1. Meaning (Semantic Properties).

Each part of speech is characterized by the general meaning which is an abstraction from the lexical meanings of constituent words. (The general meaning of nouns is substance, the general meaning of verbs is process, etc.)

This general meaning is understood as the categorial meaning of a class of words, or the part-of-speech meaning.

Semantic properties of a part of speech find their expression in the grammatical properties. To sleep, a sleep, sleepy, asleep refer to the same phenomenon of objective reality, but they belong to different parts of speech, as their grammatical properties are different.

So meaning is a supportive criterion which helps to check the purely grammatical criteria, those of form and function.

2. Form (Morphological Properties)

The formal criterion concerns the inflexional and derivational features of words belonging to a given class, i.e. the grammatical categories (the paradigms) and derivational (stem-building, lexico-grammatical) morphemes.

This criterion is not always reliable as many words are invariable and many words contain no derivational affixes. Besides, the same derivational affixes may be used to build different parts of speech: -ly can end an adjective, an adverb, a noun: a daily; -tion can end a noun and a verb: to position.

Because of the limitation of meaning and fonn as criteria we mainly rely on a word's function as a criterion of its class.

3. Function (Syntactic Properties)

Syntactic properties of a class of words are the combinability of words (the distributional criterion) and typical functions in the sentence.

The three criteria of defining grammatical classes of words in English may be placed in the following order: function, form, meaning.

Parts of speech are heterogeneous classes and the boundaries are not clearly cut especially in the area of meaning. Within a part of speech there are subclasses which have all the properties of a given class and subclasses which have only some of these properties and may have features of another class. So a part of speech may be described as a field which includes both central, most typical members, and marginal, less typical members. Marginal areas of different parts of speech may overlap and there may be intermediary elements with contradictory features (statives, modal words, pronouns). Words belonging to different parts of speech may be united by a common feature and constitute a class cutting across other classes (f. ex., determiners). So the part-of-speech classification involves overlapping criteria and scholars single out from 9 to 13 parts of speech in Modern English.

6. Morphological and syntactico-distributional classifications of words into parts of speech (H. Sweet, O. Jespersen, Ch. Fries)

Alongside of the three criteria principle of dividing words into grammatical classes there are classifications based on one principle, morphological or syntactic.

The founder of English scientific grammar H. Sweet finds the following classes of words: noun-words, including some pronouns and numerals; adjective-words, including pronouns and numerals; verbs and particles. O. Jespersen names substantives, adjectives, verbs, pronouns and particles. In both cases the term particles denotes words of different classes which have no categories.

The opposite criterion, distributional, is used by the American scholar Ch. Fries. Each class of words is characterized by a set of positions in the sentence, which are defined by substitution testing.

As a result of distributional analysis Ch. Fries singles out four main classes of words, roughly corresponding to nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and 15 classes of function words.

7. Notional and functional classes of words

Notional parts of speech are open classes - new items can be added to them, they are indefinitely extendable. Functional parts of speech are closed systems, including a limited number of members. They cannot be extended by creating new items.

The main notional parts of speech are nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Members of these four classes are often connected by derivational relations: strength - strengthen.

Functional parts of speech are prepositions, conjunctions, articles, particles. The distinctive features of functional parts of speech are: 1) very general and weak lexical meaning; 2) obligatory combinability; 3) the function of linking and specifying words.

Pronouns constitute a class of words which takes an intermediary position between notional and functional words. On the one hand, they can substitute for nouns and adjectives, on the other hand, pronouns are used as connectives and specifiers. There may be also groups of closed-system items within an open class (notional, functional and auxiliary verbs).

A word in English is very often not marked morphologically and it is easy for words to pass from one class to another (round as a noun, adjective, verb, preposition). Such words are treated either as lexico grammatical homonyms or as words belonging to one class.

8. The category of number of the Engliss noun

The category of number is proper to count nouns only. Usually words which lack a certain category, have only one form, that of the weak member of the opposition. Non-counts may be singular or plural. So subclasses of non-count nouns constitute a lexico-grammatical opposition “singular only - plural only”: snow, joy, news - contents, tongs, police.

The general meaning revealed through the grammatical opposition a book - books is number, or quantity, or “oneness - more than-oneness”. The general meaning revealed througli the lexico-grammatical opposition is “discreteness - non-discreteness”. The opposition “discreteness - non-discreteness” is semantically broader than the opposition “oneness - more-than-oneness”. It embraces both countable and uncountable nouns. Singular presents the noun-referent as a single indiscrete entity. Plural presents the referent as a multiplicity of discrete entities (separate objects - houses; objects consisting of separate parts - scissors; various types - wines, etc.).

9. The category of case of the English noun

boy - boy's? boys - boys'

Approaches to the category of case in English:

English has 2 cases (the limited case theory).

The number of cases in English is more than 2 (the theory of positional cases, the theory of prepositional cases).

There are no cases at all with English nouns.

These approaches are possible due to a difference in the interpretation of case as a grammatical category.

It is based on explicit oppositional approach to the recognition of grammatical categories. H. Sweet, O. Jespersen, Prof. Smirnitski, Prof. Ilyish: Case is a category of a noun expressing relations between the thing denoted by the noun and other things and properties, or actions, and manifested by some formal sign in the noun itself (an inflexion or a zero sign). Case can't be expressed by the phrase preposition+noun or by word order.

Prof. Blokh: Case is an immanent morphological category of the noun manifested in the forms of noun declension and showing the relations of the nounal referent to other objects and phenomena. It is a morphological-declensional form. So, this is the traditional grammar approach.

The theory of positional cases (Nesfield, Deutschbein, Bryant): the unchangeable forms of the noun are differentiated as different cases due to the functional positions occupied by the noun in the sentence.

e.g. Мать(Им.) видит дочь(Вин.). Дочь (Им.) видит мать (Вин.).

e.g. The mother bought her boy a coat: mother - the Nominative case, boy - Dative, coat - Accusative.

e.g. The mother bought a/the coat for her boy: boy - Dative.

Thus, the English noun would distinguish, besides the inflexional Genitive case, also purely positional cases: Nominative, Vocative, Dative and Accusative. The number of cases can be reduced to 3 (M. Bryant): Nominative, Genitive and Objective in accordance with pronouns I - me.

J. Lyons:

1) Nominative - Bill died.

2) Accusative - John killed Bill.

3) Dative - John gave the book to Tom.

4) Genitive - It was Harry's pencil.

5) Instrumental - John killed Bill with a knife.

6) Agentive - John was killed by Bill with a knife.

7) Comitative - John went to town with Mary.

The weak point lies in the fact that they substitute the functional characteristics for the morphological features of the word class.

The strong point: it rightly illustrates the fact that the functional meanings can be expressed in language by other grammatical means, in particular, by word-order (rose garden - garden rose).

The theory of prepositional cases (analytical theory or the theory of analytical forms): combinations of nouns with prepositions in certain object and attributive collocations should be understood as morphological case forms. Prepositions - according to Curme - are grammatical elements equivalent to case forms. There can be as many cases as there are prepositions. e.g. of Peter, with Peter, to Peter - of, with, to are lexically empty words like has done.

Weak points:

1. There can be no oppositions, they are synonyms.

2. A paradigm is limited and there are too many prepositions.

3. Prepositions are not empty words; they are relational words (they show relations).

4. Each prepositional phrase would bear then another, additional name of `prepositional case' and the total number will expand greatly.

The theory of possessive postposition: the case category has been destroyed. The -`s is a syntactical element which is similar to prepositions. But a preposition begins the construction while the element -`s closes it. So it can be called post-position.

Strong points:

1. This postpositional element may not be applied to all the nouns, but mostly to nouns denoting living beings. The use of -`s is optional.

2. One and the same element is used both with nouns in the Singular and in the Plural (man-man's, men-men's/ boy-boy's, boys-boys'). This morpheme is not dependent on the meaning of plurality. Number and case are expressed separately. 3. The post-positional element can be applied not only to nouns: yesterday's lecture, somebody else's book, Mary and Peter's parents (Mary's and Peter's parents).

4. There are instances of Absolute Genitive: chemist - chemist's

Weak points: -`s can be added to phrases, but these are occasional examples. 94% comprise instances where -`s is added to single nouns. The function of these nouns is always definite - an attribute.

A compromising view: splitting into 2 (Helen's book and somebody else's book are 2 different instances). In some examples -`s is not a case-forming morpheme. We can't deny that.

What to choose: the theory of limited cases, positional, analytical theories or to deny the existence of the category of case in modern English?

The theory of limited cases may be more seriously justified: Case is a morphological category, revealing relations of the noun in the sentence. These relations must be rendered through the form of the noun itself. All other means (word order or prepositions) are not morphological means. That's why they can't be treated as case forms.

If we recognize the existence of cases in English, there is one more problem: terminology. The term Possessive can't be applied to all the cases, the meaning of the case is broader than pure possession:

e.g. children's book - destination

Peter's kindness - a bearer of some quality

Peter's friend- social relations

a mile's walk, an hour's delay - measure, quantity

a chemist's - locative meaning

Peter's voice - partitive relations

Peter's insistence - Subjective Genitive

the Titanic's tragedy - Objective Genitive

an officer's cap - qualification

evening's newspapers, Moscow's talks, winter's rest - adverbial relations.

10. The category of article determination

Many scholars recognize the category of definiteness/mdefiniteness (article determination). Though the article is used as the morphological marker of the noun, it can hardly be treated as a word-morpheme. The position of the article may be occupied by other words (demonstrative and possessive pronouns, etc.). Words, which have a distribution including the article position, are called determiners. The role of determiners is to specify the range of reference of the noun by making it definite or indefinite.

Meaningful absence of the article (zero article), presupposes generalization.

In discussing the use of the articles it is essential to distinguish between specific, or particular reference, and generic reference (R.Quirk et al.):

Tlhe telephone is broken. (Specific reference)

The telephone is useful. (Generic reference)

The distinctions, which are important for countable nouns with specific reference, disappear with generic reference:

1) A telephone is useful.

2) The telephone is useful.

3) Telephones are useful.

The article plays an important role in structuring information. It is one of the means of distinguishing between facts already known (the theme) and new information (the rheme). The definite article is the marker of the theme, the indefinite article is the marker of the rheme.

Certain determiners (articles, demonstrative pronouns) can be used to show that a noun phrase is referentially equivalent to a previous noun-phrase. In such cases the article expresses co-reference, which is one of the means of sentence-connection.

11. Adjective. The category of degrees of comparison

Adjective is a part of speech characterized by the following typical features:

- the lexico-grammatical meaning of “attributes (of substantives)”.

- the morphological category of the degrees of comparison.

- the characteristic combinability with nouns, link verbs, adverbs.

-the stem-building affixes -ful, -less, -ish, -ous, -ive, -ic, un-, pre-, in-, etc.

- Its functions of an attribute and a predicative complement.

Classification of adjectives.

With regard to the category of the degrees of comparison adjectives fall under 2 lexico-grammatical subclasses: comparables and non-comparables. The nucleus of the latter is composed of derived adjectives like wooden, Crimean, mathematical, etc. Theses adjectives are called relative as distinct from all other adjectives called qualitative.

Most qualitative adjectives build up opposemes of comparison, but some do not:

- adjectives that in themselves express the highest degree of a quality: supreme;

- those having the suffix -ish which indicates the degree of quality: reddish;

- those denoting qualities which are not compatible with the idea of comparison: deaf, dead.

The category of degrees of comparis:

The category of the degrees of comparison of adjectives is the system of opposemes (long - longer - longest) showing qualitative distinctions of qualities. More exactly it shows whether the adjective denotes the property of some substance absolutely, or relatively as a higher or the highest amount of the property in comparison with that of some other substances.

`Positive', `comparative' and `superlative' degrees.

The positive degree is not marked. We may speak of a zero morpheme. The comparative and superlative degrees are built up either synthetically (by affixation or suppletivity) or analytically (with the help of word-morphemes more and most), which depends mainly on the structure of the stem.

Some authors treat more beautiful and the most beautiful not as analytical forms, but as free syntactical combinations of adverbs and adjectives. One of the arguments is that less and least form combinations with adjectives similar to those with more and most: e.g. more beautiful - less beautiful, the most beautiful - the least beautiful.

In order to prove that more beautiful is an analytical form of the comparative degree, we have to prove that more is a grammatical word-morpheme identical with the morpheme -er.

More an -er are identical as their meaning of `a higher degree'. Their distribution is complementary. Together they cover all the adjectives having the degrees of comparison. Those adjectives which have comparative opposites with suffix -er have usually no parallel opposites with more and vice versa.

Less and -er have different, even opposite meanings. The distribution of -er and less is not complementary. One and the same lexical morpheme regularly attaches both less and -er: prettier - less pretty, safer - less safe.

Besides, unlike more, less is regularly replaced by not so: less pretty = not so pretty.

These facts show that more in more beautiful is a grammatical word-morpheme identical with the morpheme -er of the comparative degree grammeme а more beautiful is an analytical form.

A new objection is raised in the case of the superlative degree. In the expression a most interesting theory the indefinite article is used whereas a prettiest child is impossible а there is some difference between the synthetic superlative and the analytical one.

One must not forget that more and most are not only word-morphemes of comparison. They can be notional words. They are polysemantic and polyfunctional words. One of the meanings of most is `very, exceedingly' (a most interesting book).

The notional word more in the meaning `to greater extent' can also be used to modify adjectives, as in It's more grey than brown. More grey here is a combination of words.

The positive degree does not convey the idea of comparison. Its meaning is absolute. Jespersen: the positive degree is, a matter of fact, negative in relation to comparison.

The comparative degree and the superlative degree are both relative in meaning (Peter is older than Mary - Peter is not old).

Statives. Among the words signifying properties of a nounal referent there is a leximic set which claims to be recognied as a separate part of speech, a class of words different form the adjectives in its class-forming features. These are words built up by the prefix a- and denoting different states, mostly of temporary duration. Here belong lexemes like afraid, agog, adrift, ablaze. These are treated as predicative adjectives in traditional grammar. Statives are `adlinks' (on analogy with adverbs), they are opposed to adjectives

12. The category of tense

3 basic categories of the verb: aspect, correlation and voice. They are constituted by 2 forms of the verb - analytical and non-analytical. The categories of mood, tense and person are basically different. They are characteristic of only finite forms of the verb. The category of tense, being a predicative category, differs from other categories in its structure, grammatical meaning and its syntactic function because it is connected with the essence of the speech act, with interpersonal relations.

The opposition of past and present is not the opposition of just 2 verbal forms but the opposition of 2 systems of forms:

Present:	Past:
works	worked
is working	was working
has worked	had worked
has been working	had been working
is going to work	was going to work
is to work	was to work

Functionally all the forms, entering these two systems, are the same. They're used in the syntactic function of the predicate in the sentence. But in speech in the plane of communication the present forms reveal their specific character: they reflect facts and evens as actual, immediately related to the participants of the speech act. On the contrary, the forms of the past reflect something that is already the past, history, not immediately related to the participants of the speech act. What is represented by the past forms is of some cognitive interest to the addressee.

If we admit that the tense forms of the present express reality and make the information actual for the participants of the speech act, it is possible then to account for the rule `in clauses of time and condition forms of the present are used instead of the future' (though the verb expresses a future action). The same is relevant for the use of the forms of the present in object clauses after the verbs with the meaning know, learn, find, imagine, see (that), look, take care, mind, etc.:

The problem of the future tense: will+Infinitive.

- An instant or spontaneous decision to do something.

- Predictions of a general character

- Requests, promises, threats, offering help, etc.

Other ways to express a future action: Present Continuous, going to.

13. The category of order

In Modern English there are also special forms for expressing relative priority - perfect forms. Perfect forms express both the time (actions preceding a certain moment) and the way the action is shown to proceed (the connection of the action with the. indicated moment in its results or consequences). So the meaning of the perfect forms is constituted by two semantic components: temporal (priority) and aspeetive (result, current relevance). That is why perfect forms have been treated as tense-forms or aspect-forms (come - has come; is coming - has been coming).

Members of these oppositions are not opposed either as tenses or as aspects (members of each opposition express the same tense and aspect). These oppositions reveal the category of order (correlation, retrospect, taxis).

Tense and order are closely connected, but they are different categories, revealed through different oppositions: comes - came; comes - has come. The fact that the verbals have the category of order (to come - to have come, coming - having come) and have no category of tense also shows the difference of these categories.

The meaning of perfect forms may be influenced by the lexical meaning of the verb (limtive/unlimitive), tense-form, context and other factors.

14. The category of aspect

English verb have special forms for expressing actions in progress, going on at a definite moment or period of time, i.e. for expressing limited duration - continuous forms.

Continuous forms have been traditionally treated as tense forms (definite, expanded, progressive) or as tense-aspect forms.

Members of the opposition are not opposed as tenses (tense is the same). They show different character of an action, the way in which the action is experienced or regarded: as a mere fact or as taken in progress. The opposition common-continuous reveals the category of aspect.

Tense and aspect are ciosely connected, but they are different categories, revealed through different oppositions: comes -- came; comes -- is coming.

The fact that the Infinitive has the category of aspect (to come -- to be coming) and has no category of tense also shows, that these are different categories.

The category of _asgect is closely connected with the lexical meaning. R. Quirk divides the verbs into dynamic (having the category of aspect) and stative (disallowing the continuous form). Stative verbs denote perception, cognition and certain relations: see, know, like, belong. Dynamic verbs may be terminative (limitive), denoting actions of limited duration: close, break, come, and durative (unlimitive), denoting actions of unlimited duration: walk, read, write, shine. With durative verbs the aspect opposition may be neutralized.

So temporal relations in Modem English are expressed by three categories:

1) tense (present - past),

2) prospect (future - non-future),

3) order (perfect - non-perfect)/

The central category, tense, is proper to finite forms only. Categories denoting time relatively, embrace both unites and verbals.

The character of an action is expressed by two categories: aspect (common - continuous) and order.

15. The category of voice

The category of voice is revealed through the binary opposition “active - passive” (love - is loved). Voice denotes the direction of an action as viewed by the speaker.

Voice is a morphological category but it has a distinct syntactic, significance. Active voice has obligatory connections with the doer of the action. Passive voice has - with the object of the action.

In the active construction the semantic and the grammatical subject coincide. In the passive construction the grammatical subject is the object of the action.

The direction of the action may be also expressed lexically, and the lexical and the grammatical meaning may or may not coincide.

The category of voice characterizes both finite forms and verbals: to love - to be loved; loving - being loved.

Participle I may be also opposed to participle II: loving - loved (active - passive). But participle II may also have perfect meaning: writing - written (non-perfect - perfect). Meanings rendered by participle II depend on transitivity/intransilivity and teminativity/durativity.

The category of voice is closelv connected with lexico-syntectic properties of verbs. According to the number and character of valencies verbs fall into subjective and objective, the latter being transitive and intransitive. In English all objective verbs havejhe category of voice. Transitivity in English it is a property of the lexico-semantic variant of the verb.

The main difficulty in defining the number of voices in modern English is the absence of direct correspondence between meaning and form. Three more voices have been suggested in addition to active and passive:

1. Reflexive: He hurt himself.

2. Reciprocal: They greeted each other.

3. Middle: The door opened.

Passive constructions in English are used more frequently than in Russian. In English not only transitive but also intransitive objective verbs have the category of voice. Here belong:

1. Ditransitive verbs with 2 direct objects.

2. Ditransitive verbs with the direct and the indirect object.

3. Verbs taking a prepositional object.

4. Phraseological units of the type to take care of, to set fire to, to lose sight of.

4. Some intransitive subjective verbs followed by prepositional phrases.

5. The combination be + participle II may denote a state as a result of the previous action.

A.I.Smirnitsky: passive constructions have corresponding active constructions: Tables are usually made of wood. - People, usually make tables of wood. But the sentence “The table is made of wood” has no parallel active construction. The combination be+participle II, denoting state, is a compound nominal predicate. Likewise the combination get (become) + participle II is a compound nominal predicate and not the form of the passive voice: got married, became influenced.

16. The category of mood

The category of mood denotes modality or the relation of the contents of the utterance to reality as viewed by the speaker. Modality is a wide notion which characterises every sentence.

Means of expressing modality: lexical (modal verbs), lexico-grammatical (modal words), morphological (mood), syntactic (structure of the sentence), phonetic (intonation). Linguists distinguish between objective modality (expressed by mood-forms) and subjective modality (expressed by lexical and lexico-grammatical means). The category of mood is proper to finit forms of the verb. It is closely connected with the syntactic function of the predicate. The category is revealed both in the opposition of forms and syntactic structures. So the category of Mood has a strong syntactic significance.

Linguists distinguish from 2 to 16 moods in Modem English. The reasons are as follows:

1. The category of mood is in the state of development. Some forms have a limited sphere of use (he, be), new forms are coming into the system (let).

2. There is no direct correspondence of meaning and form. There are no special forms for expressing unreal actions (with the exception of the forms he be, he were). The same forms are used to express facte and non-facts: should/would do, did. They are treated either as homonymous or as polysemantic.

3. It is difficult to distinguish between mood auxiliaries and modal verbs: may, let.

All the scholars recognize the opposition of 2 moods: indicative and imperative.

Indicalive is represented by a system of categories, (tense, order, aspect, voice, etc.). It is a fact-mood or a direct mood. Imperative is represented by one form, which is used in sentences with implied subject.

G.N. Vorontsova recognizes the analytical form of the imperative, expressed by let+ Infinitive.

Problematic and unreal actions are expressed by 4 sets of forms. The form (he) be/come/take, expressing a problematic action, is the only form which differs from the forms of the indicative. There is one more form of the verb to be, different from the forms of the indicative: (he) were. But this difference disappears in all other verbs, and besides, the form (he) was is now being replaced by the form (he) was. The combinations (he) should be, (he) should have been do not differ from modal phrases.

Forms expressing unreal actions are the same as the forms of the past indicative. These forms are often treated as polysemantic, i.e. forms of the indicative, which express unreal actions in certain syntactic structures (R.Quirk, L.S. Barkhudarov). Forms of the past indicative denote actions, not connected with the moment of speaking, not “relevant” for the speaker, “not real” now. That is why they may be used to denote unreality. In this case subjunctive will be represented by 2 forms of the verb to be: (he) be, (he) were and 1 form of other verbs: (he) do, come, go.

A.I. Smimitsky: these forms are homonymic, denoting real and unreal actions: they were... - real, past; if they were... - unreal, non-past. Subjunctive is represented by 4 sets of forms. In this system of 4 sets of forms, denoting different degree of unreality, there is no direct correspondence of meaning and form:

a) one meaning - different forms: I suggest you do (should do) it.

b) one form - different meanings: I suggest you should do it. In your place I should do it.

The number of oblique moods will depend on the basic principle for distinguishing between them: a) meaning; b) form; c) both meaning and form,

a) B.A. llyish treats these 4 sets of forms as forms of one mood - subjunctive. The difference of form and particular meanings is disregarded: only the common component of meaning (unreality) is taken into account.

b) A.I. Smirnitsky takes into account the difference in form and recognizes 4 oblique moods: Subjunctive I (he be), Suppositional (he should be), Subjunctive II (he were), Conditional (should/would be).

c) The system of forms, expressing different degrees of unreality, will be subdivided into 2 parts:

1. Forms, denoting problematic actions (he be, should be) may be treated as forms of one mood (Subjunctive I), the analytical form ousting the synthetic form in British English.

2. Forms, denoting unreal actions (were, should/would be) are treated as different moods, expressing independent and dependent unreality, or unreal condition and unreal consequence. But their modal meaning is the same and were - should be are not opposed as moods. This opposition reveals the category, which also exists in the system of the indicative mood.

So the wide divergence of views on the number of oblique moods can be accounted for:

a) by different approaches to the problem of polysemy/homonymy;

b) by the absence of mutual relation between meaning and form.

In the system of the indicative mood time may be denoted absolutely (tense) and relatively (order, posteriority). In the system of the subjunctive mood time may be denoted relatively (order, prospect). Perfect forms denote priority, non-perfect forms - simultaneousness with regard to other actions. The category of order may acquire the meaning of the category of tense.

17. The dual nature of non-finite forms of the verb. Morphological categories of verbals

The main division inside the verb is that between the finite verbs (finites) and non-finite verbs (verbals). Through the opposition of finite and non-finite forms the category of finitude is revealed. Finites present marked and intensive member of the opposition. Non-finite forms present unmarked and extensive member of the opposition.

Verbals possess some verbal and some non-verbal features. Lexically verbals do not differ from finite forms. Grammatically non-finites may denote a secondary action or a process related to that expressed by the finite verb.

The finites can be subdivided into 3 systems - moods: indicative, imperative, subjunctive.

The verbids can be subdivided into 3 systems: infinitive, gerund, participle.

Formal morphological characteristics. Verbals possess the verb categories of voice, perfect, and aspect. They lack the categories of person, number, mood, and tense. None of the forms have morphological features of non-verbal parts of speech, neither nominal, adjectival or adverbial.

Combinability and functions. Non-verbal character of verbals reveals itself in their syntactical functions. Thus, the infinitive and the gerund perform the main syntactical functions of the noun, which are those of subject, object and predicative. Participle I functions as attribute, predicative and adverbial modifier; participle II as attribute and predicative. They cannot form a predicate by themselves, although unlike non-verbal parts of speech they can function as part of a compound verbal predicate.

Verbals may combine with nouns functioning as direct, indirect, or prepositional objects, with adverbs and prepositional phrases used as adverbial modifiers, and with subordinate clauses. Non-finites may also work as link verbs, combining with nouns, adjectives or statives as predicatives, as in. They may also act as modal verb semantic equivalents when combined with an infinitive. All non-finite verb forms may participate in the so-called predicative constructions.

The infinitive has the verb categories of voice (to praise - to be praised), order (to keep - to have kept) and aspect (to bring - to be bringing).

The gerund is a non-finite form of the verb with some noun features. Morphologically the verbal character of the gerund is manifested in the categories of voice and order.

Participle is a non-finite form of the verb with some adjectival and adverbial features. The verbal character of participle is manifested morphologically in the categories of voice and order.

18. Finite and non-finite forms of the verb. The category of representation

The main division inside the verb is that between the finite verbs (finites) and non-finite verbs (verbals).

The finites can be subdivided into 3 systems - moods: indicative, imperative, subjunctive.

The verbids can be subdivided into 3 systems: infinitive, gerund, participle.

The category of representation (A.I. Smirnitsky) is the opposition of finite and non-finite forms. The category of representation is revealed through 3 categorial forms:

1. Verbal representation presented by predicative (personal) forms.

2. Substantive representation is characteristic to gerund and infinitive.

3. Adjectival representation is characteristic to participle.

The leading form of the category of representation is verbal representation, that is personal forms.

L.S.Barkhudarov: The category of representation = the category of finitude. The category of finitude (representation) is based on predicativity.

19. Phrase. Principles of classification (H. Sweet, O. Jespersen, L. Bloomfield)

A narrower definition: a phrase is a unity of 2 or more notional words. A wider definition: phrase - any syntactic group of words. Phrases may be built by:

- combining notional words (out of),

- notional and functional words (in the corner),

- functional words (out of).

Notional phrases are more independent structurally and semantically, other types function as part of notional phrases. A phrase is naming unit. A phrase may have a system of forms. Each component of a phrase may undergo grammatical changes without destroying the identity of the phrase. The naming function of the phrase distinguishes it from the sentence, whose main function is communicative. Therefore the structure N+V is traditionally excluded from phrases. A phrase is usually smaller than a sentence, but it may also function as a sentence (N+V), and it may be larger than a sentence, as the latter may consist of one word.

Phrases may be classified partly by their inner structure (syntactic relations between the components, morphological expression and position of components, or by order and arrangement) and partly by their external functioning (distribution, functions of the components).

The components of the phrase can be connected by different types of syntactic relations. H. Sweet: the most general type of relation is that of the modifier and modified (headword and adjunct), or the relation of subordination. He also distinguished the relation of coordination.

The syntactic theory of O. Jespersen can be applied to phrases and sentences. The theory of three ranks is based on the principle of determination. In the word-group a furiously³ barking² dog¹ 1 is independent and is called a primary, 2 modifies 1 and is called a secondary, 3 modifies 2 and is called a tertiary. A secondary may be joined to a primary in two ways: junction and nexus. These terms are used to differentiate between attributive and predicative relations (relations between the subject and the predicate), or the relations of subordination and interdependence.

The structural theory of word-groups (L. Bloomfield), divides word-groups into two main types: endocentric (headed) and exocentric (non-headed). The criteria for distinguishing between them are distribution and substitution. An endocentric group has the same position as its headword: An old man came in. - A man came in.

The distribution of an exocentric group differs from the distribution of its components: A man came in.

20. Classification of phrases according to the types of syntactic relations between the constituents

The structural theory of word-groups (descriptive linguistics) divides word-groups into two main types: endocentric (headed) and exocentric (non-headed). The criteria for distinguishing between them are distribution and substitution. An endocentric group has the same position as its headword. The distribution of an exocentric group differs from the distribution of its components.

3 types of syntactic relations within word-groups: subordination, coordination, interdependence. Accordingly, phrases are usually classified into subordinate, coordinate and predicative. Sometimes a fourth type, appositive phrases, is mentioned.

Subordination:

1) agreement (concord);

2) government;

3) adjoinment;

4) enclosure.

21. Predicativity. Predication. Constructions with secondary predication

The communicative function of the sentence distinguishes it from phrases and words, which have one function - naming.

Predicativity - the correlation of the thought expressed in the sentence with the situation of speech. Its components are modality, time and person, expressed by the categories of mood, tense and person.

Means of expressing predicativity: predicate verb, subject-predicate group (predication), intonation. Predication constitutes the basic structure of the sentence. A sentence may contain primary and secondary predication. I heard someone singing. The group someone singing is called the secondary predication, as it resembles the subject-predicate group (= the primary predication), structurally and semantically: it consists of two main components, nominal and verbal, and names an event or situation. But it cannot be correlated with reality directly and cannot constitute an independent unit of communication, as verbals have no categories of mood, tense and person. The secondary predication is related to the situation of speech indirectly, through the primary predications.

22. Syntactic structure of the claus (simple sentence). The model of the members of the sentence

The process of analysing sentences into their parts, or constituents, is known as parsing.

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