the morphological characteristics of a type of word

e.g. noun is characterized by the category of number

3.      

the syntactical properties of a type of word

a)      

b)      

The syntactic (functional) approach

Only the syntactic function of a word should be taken into consideration as a criterion for p/of/sp classification.

* Charles FriesТ classification of words

Ch. F worked out the principles of syntactico<-distributional (s-d) classification of English words. He was the follower of the famous linguist L. Bloomfield.

The s-d classification of words is based on the study of their combinability by means of substitution testing. The testing results in developing the standard model of four main УpositionsФ of notional words in the English sentence:

• noun (N)
• verb (V)
• adjective (A)
• adverb (D)

For his materials he chose tape recorded spontaneous conversation (250, word entries or 50 hours of talk). The words isolated from the records were tested on the three typical sentences (also taken from the tapes), which are used as substitution test-frames.

Frame A. The concert was good (always). [The thing and its quality at a given time]

Frame B. The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly). [УActor-action-thing acted uponФ Цcharacteristic of the action]

Frame C. The team went there. [УActor-action-direction of the actionФ]

As a result of those tests the following lists of words were established:

Class 1. (A) concert, coffee, taste, container, difference, etc. (B) clerk, husband, supervisor, etc.; tax, food, coffee, etc. (C) team, husband, woman, etc.

Class 2. (A) was, seemed, became, etc. (B) remembered, wanted, saw, suggested etc. (C) went, came, ran, lived, worked, etc.

Class 3. (A) good, large, necessary, foreign, new empty, etc.

Class 4. (A) there, here, always, then, sometimes, etc. (B) clearly, sufficiently, especially, repeatedly, soon, etc. (C) there, back, out, etc.; rapidly, eagerly, confidently, etc.

All these words can fill in the positions of the frames without affection their general structural meaning. Repeated interchanges in the substitutions of the primarily identified positional (notional) words in diff. collocations determine their morphological characteristics.

Functional words are exposed in the cited process as being unable to fill in the positions of the frames without destroying their structural meaning. These words form limited groups totaling 154 units. They can be distributed among the three main sets:

1)      

2)      

3)       refer to the sentence as a whole (question words, attention-getting words, words of affirmation and negation, sentence introducers (it, there))

**The Parts of Speech in English:

Traditionally:

1.       The Noun (categories of number, case and def./indef.)

2.       The Adj (the category of degrees of comparison)

3.       The verb (the tense, the aspect, the voice, the time-correlation, the mood, the person, the number)

4.       The Adverb (the d of comp)

5.       The Pronoun (the notional parts of speech (declinable))

6.       The Numeral Form (Function) Words

7.       The prepositions

8.       The Conjunctions

9.       The Particles

10.    The Interjection

11.    The Modal Verbs

12.    The Sentence Words (Yes! No!)

Some disputable problems:

1)       The Adj - s which begin with УaФ (afraidЕ) and УillФ - where to refer them? Sometimes they are included in the group of adj as a special kind of predicative adj - s. Another point of view: they constitute a special PoS which is called the category of state.

2)       Where to refer pronouns? notional or form words. But theyТre somehow in between. They are more notional than functional because they are very important text building elements mostly anaphoric but sometimes cataphoric

3)       The Article. In some grammars we find that the A is considered to be a part of speech and + in some modern grammars.

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

The general definition of a part of speech: it is a lexical-grammatical word class which is characterized by a general abstract grammatical meaning, expressed in certain grammatical markers.

Within a part of speech similar grammatical features are common to all words belonging to this class.

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

1) Words are characterized by individual lexical meanings.

2) Each generalized class of words (noun/verb/adj., etc) has a unifying abstract gram. meaning, for ex.: noun - substance, verb - process, adjective - quality of substance, adverb - quality of process.

3) Some parts of speech are capable of representing gram. meaning in a set of formal exponents; for ex.: the plural of nouns is expressed with suffix Цs. *this feature is not universal in all languages; for ex.: in synthetic lang<-s, adj<-s, numerals, pronouns are inflected in the categories of case, number & gender; while in analytical lang<-s (Eng.) these word classes are devoid of gram. markers with the exception of a few pronouns.

Parts of speech are classified within the domain of morphology.

Modern classification of parts of speech is traced back to ancient Greek. Later this classification was applied to Latin and thus it found its way in modern languages.

The present day classification of parts of speech is severely criticized, when itТs applied to languages the structure of which is different to the structure of the Latin language. So the criticism is easily justified.

On the other hand the traditional division of words into parts of speech seems quiet natural and easy to understand & remember from the logical point of view.

So itТs not the classification itself that is wrong but it must be the principles of classification that should be criticized and reviewed.

The existing principles:

The semantic approach (based on the meaning).

In many schools the semantic principle was used for p/of/sp classification. It is based on the universal forms of human thought which are reflected in 3 main categorial meanings of words:

4)      

5)      

6)      

In Medieval linguistics (Пор<-Ро я ль, 1660) p/of/sp are defined as invariants of the substance-logical plane.

However, this principle is open to criticism; it doesnТt always work; it can be hard to define a categorial meaning of a word

e.g.

The formal approach

Only form should be used as a criterion for the classification of the p/of/sp. (Henry Sweet, Cruisinga).

They distinguished between two classes of words:

declinable

(changeable forms)

This criterion is also unreliable. It doesnТt take into account the way a word functions in the sentence. Must functions as many other verbs, for instance shall which has a declinable form.

This approach has limitations:

3)      

4)      

The formal-semantic approach

Grammarians tried to take into consideration meaning, form & function.

It appears that in analytical, where English belong, itТs impossible to place a word without analyzing it in the sent. In addition to the analysis of the morphological features of this word.

This approach was developed by Russian linguists (Vinogradov, Smirnitsky, Ilyish).

There are three principles on which this classification is based:

4.      

the meaning common to all the words of a given class and constituting its essence.

e.g. thingness of nouns

5.      

the morphological characteristics of a type of word

e.g. noun is characterized by the category of number

6.      

the syntactical properties of a type of word

a)      

b)      

The syntactic (functional) approach

Only the syntactic function of a word should be taken into consideration as a criterion for p/of/sp classification.

* Charles FriesТ classification of words

Ch. F worked out the principles of syntactico<-distributional (s-d) classification of English words. He was the follower of the famous linguist L. Bloomfield.

The s-d classification of words is based on the study of their combinability by means of substitution testing. The testing results in developing the standard model of four main УpositionsФ of notional words in the English sentence:

• noun (N)
• verb (V)
• adjective (A)
• adverb (D)

For his materials he chose tape recorded spontaneous conversation (250, word entries or 50 hours of talk). The words isolated from the records were tested on the three typical sentences (also taken from the tapes), which are used as substitution test-frames.

Frame A. The concert was good (always). [The thing and its quality at a given time]

Frame B. The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly). [УActor-action-thing acted uponФ Цcharacteristic of the action]

Frame C. The team went there. [УActor-action-direction of the actionФ]

As a result of those tests the following lists of words were established:

Class 1. (A) concert, coffee, taste, container, difference, etc. (B) clerk, husband, supervisor, etc.; tax, food, coffee, etc. (C) team, husband, woman, etc.

Class 2. (A) was, seemed, became, etc. (B) remembered, wanted, saw, suggested etc. (C) went, came, ran, lived, worked, etc.

Class 3. (A) good, large, necessary, foreign, new empty, etc.

Class 4. (A) there, here, always, then, sometimes, etc. (B) clearly, sufficiently, especially, repeatedly, soon, etc. (C) there, back, out, etc.; rapidly, eagerly, confidently, etc.

All these words can fill in the positions of the frames without affection their general structural meaning. Repeated interchanges in the substitutions of the primarily identified positional (notional) words in diff. collocations determine their morphological characteristics.

Functional words are exposed in the cited process as being unable to fill in the positions of the frames without destroying their structural meaning. These words form limited groups totaling 154 units. They can be distributed among the three main sets:

4)      

5)      

6)       refer to the sentence as a whole (question words, attention-getting words, words of affirmation and negation, sentence introducers (it, there))

**The Parts of Speech in English:

Traditionally:

13.    The Noun (categories of number, case and def./indef.)

14.    The Adj (the category of degrees of comparison)

15.    The verb (the tense, the aspect, the voice, the time-correlation, the mood, the person, the number)

16.    The Adverb (the d of comp)

17.    The Pronoun (the notional parts of speech (declinable))

18.    The Numeral Form (Function) Words

19.    The prepositions

20.    The Conjunctions

21.    The Particles

22.    The Interjection

23.    The Modal Verbs

24.    The Sentence Words (Yes! No!)

Some disputable problems:

4)       The Adj - s which begin with УaФ (afraidЕ) and УillФ - where to refer them? Sometimes they are included in the group of adj as a special kind of predicative adj - s. Another point of view: they constitute a special PoS which is called the category of state.

5)       Where to refer pronouns? notional or form words. But theyТre somehow in between. They are more notional than functional because they are very important text building elements mostly anaphoric but sometimes cataphoric

6)       The Article. In some grammars we find that the A is considered to be a part of speech and + in some modern grammars.

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

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

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

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

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

The word 'syntax' is derived from the Greek 'syntaxis<' which literally means 'composition', or 'order'. It is a part of grammar which studies ways of arranging words into phrases and sentences in order to produce speech. We communicate only with the help of sentences and it brings many linguists to a conclusion that syntax is the core, or the heart of grammar and morphology is subordinated to it as it serves the needs of syntax. The main units of the syntactic

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

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

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

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

Gram meaning (GM) is a general abstract meaning which unites classes of forms or words and finds its expression

The grammatical meaning finds its expression in a grammatical form

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

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

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

The word 'syntax' is derived from the Greek 'syntaxis<' which literally means 'composition', or 'order'. It is a part of grammar which studies ways of arranging words into phrases and sentences in order to produce speech. We communicate only with the help of sentences and it brings many linguists to a conclusion that syntax is the core, or the heart of grammar and morphology is subordinated to it as it serves the needs of syntax. The main units of the syntactic

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

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

Nouns are preceded by atr, though much has been written about art, the theory of it is still problematic. The meaning of the art is extremely abstract and hard to define, but the main meanings can be summarized as follows: the ind art Ц with count nouns - the nominating meaning, to name an object; with uncount nouns - aspective meaning (asp with abstract nouns - a dull anger, after a long silence), to bring out a special abstract of the notion, expressed by a noun. The definite art: with count nouns (sing, pl)Ц individualizing meaning - it singles out an object or a group of objects from all the other objects of the same class; with count nouns (sing)Ц the generic meaning (The cat is the domestic animal) - the noun becomes a composite image of the all class of objects; with uncount nouns - the restricting meaning - may restrict the abstract notion, expressed by a noun to a specific instance (I didnТt want to show the joy I felt), restricts the material denoted to a definite quality or locality (The water in the glass was too cold to drink - quality, The water in the lake was too cold to bathe in - location). The absence of the art always has the nominating meaning, as it is parallel to the use of the ind art.

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

24. The number of moods in Modern English.

The grammatical category of mood has the reputation of being one of the most controversial categories. Mood is traditionally defined as a grammatical category which expresses the relation of the action to reality as stated by the speaker. As

Nowadays, much under the pressure of the American variant of the language, the forms of Subjunctive I undergo the process of reintroduction into

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

The subject and the predicate constitute the backbone of the sentence: without them the sentence would not exist at all, whereas all other parts may or may not be there, and if they are there, they serve to define or modify either the subject or the predicate, or each other.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Types of predicate:

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

Structural classification:

1.  

2.  

Morphological classification:

1.  

2.  

** The simple nominal predicate - a predicate consisting merely of a noun or an adjective, without a link verb, is rare in English, but it is nevertheless a living type and must be recognized as such.

Only 2 spheres of its use:

1.   The sentences where the immediate neighborhood of the subject noun and the predicate noun or adjective is used to suggest the impossibility or absurdity of the idea that they might be connected. Sentences with this kind of simple nominal predicate are always exclamatory, e.g. My ideas obsolete!!!!!!! It would not do to call such sentences elliptical since the link verb cannot be added without completely changing the meaning of the sentence.

2.   The sentences in which the predicative comes first, the subject next, and no link verb is either used or possible. Such sentences seem to occur chiefly in colloquial style, e.g. УSplendid game, cricketФ, remarked MR Barbecue-Smith heartily to no one in particular; Уso thoroughly EnglishФ.

*** The compound nominal predicate always consists of a link verb and a predicative, which may be expressed by various parts of speech, usually a noun, an adjective, also a stative, or an adverb. Link verb - the idea of link suggests that its function is to connect the predicative with the subject. It is not correct. The true function of a link verb is not a connecting function. It expresses the tense and the mod in the predicate (to be also expresses number and person).

**** There are sentences in which the finite verb is a predicate itself, i.e. it contains some information about the subject which may be taken separately, but at the same time the verb is followed by a predicative and is in so far a link verb. He came home tired - the finite verb in such sentences conveys a meaning of its own, but the main point of the sentence lies in the information conveyed by the predicative noun or adjective. The finite verb performs the function of a link verb.Since such sentences have both a simple verbal predicate and a compound nominal predicate, they form a special or mixed type: double predicates.

27. Various interpretations of the continuous forms.

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

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

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

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

30. Notional words and function words in Modern English.

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

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

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

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

functional words denote relations and connections between the notional words

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

e.g. The letter is on the table.

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

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

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

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

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

*Functional words

Here belong:

• the article

expresses the specific limitation of the substantive functions

• the preposition

expresses the dependencies and interdependencies of substantive referents

• the conjunction

expresses connections of phenomena

• the particle

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

• the modal word

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

• the interjection

is a signal of emotions

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

Case can be defined in the following way: it is a category of the noun that expresses relations between the thing denoted by the noun and other objects and phenomena and that is manifested by some formal sign in the noun itself. This category is based on the opposition of 2 cases: (the limited case theory) the Common case - the Possessive case (Genitive - preferable because not all mean-s of this case are possessive). The general mean of possession has other modifications. It can denote the subject of a quality, state of action: the child's intelligence (quality), the child's sleep (state), the child's answer (action). Occasionally it can denote the object of an action: Clyde Griffiths' trial and execution.

The opposition in form. The Genitive case is a marked member, the nominative is unmarked. The marker of the Genetive Case is the 's-sign which also has 3 allomorphs which are [s], [z] and [iz<].

Various views on the category of case. The number of cases and the recognition of the category as such depends on whether case is treated as a morphological form or as a grammatical mean that can be rendered by various means (by an inflection, preposition and word order).

Different theories.

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

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

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

4. The theory of the possessive postposition.The theory was advanced by Prof. Воронцова and is shared by Мухин, Ильиш, Маслова. Acc to this view the Eng noun has lost the category of case in the historic development. All cases, including genitive, are considered extinct. The following arguments are given to substantiate this theory: 1. the use of the s-sign is optional because it can be replaced by an of-phrase. 2. it is used with a limited group of nouns (animate nouns and some other nouns, denoting distance, time and money). 3. it occurs with very few plurals, only with such plurals as men (men's). As to the other it is impossible to distinguish the sg genitive from the pl genitive by ear. 4. The s-signs is only loosely connected with the noun. It can be used not only with sg nouns but also with whole phrases, e.g.: John and Tom's room. The Chancellor of the Exchequer's speech. The man I saw yesterday's son. (the s-signs belongs to the whole phrase, not to a single word). So Воронцова makes the following conclusion: the s-signs is not a case inflexion, it is a syntactical element, resembling a preposition. She calls it a postposition or a format. This is why Блох calls this theory the Possessive Postposition Theory. The strong points of this theory is that it is based on careful observation of linguistic data. Yet, it can hardly be accepted, because it disregards the fact that the genitive form of the noun is systematically contrasted to the unmarked form of the noun. The oppositional nature of this correlation cannot be denied. So, if there is an opposition, there is a category. For that reason most linguists stick to the theory which is called the Limited Case Theory. Блох gives other arguments in favor of the LCT. 1. He emphasizes the fact that the phrasal uses of s-sign are stylistically colored. For that reason these cases can hardly be used as arguments against the existence of the category of case. 2. The s-sign differs from ordinary functional words, like prepositions, because it is morpheme-like in its phonetic properties and also because it is strictly postpositional unlike prepositions and it is far more bound element than a preposition. So Блох suggests that the s-sign has a particle nature and he compares it with the Russian particle бы. Блох believes that the solution of the problem of the category of case is to be sought by combining the LCT with the Possessive Postposition Theory. His conclusion is that a peculiar case system has developed instead of the former inflectional case of nouns. It is based on the particle expression of the Genitive and falls into 2 subtypes, which are the word-genitive and the phrase-genitive

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

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

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

The problem of the perfect forms is most controversial.

To what gram. category do perf. forms belong? There are 4 different ways of interpreting the Perf.:

1)     

This view originates from works by Henry Sweet, Curme, Bryant, Иртеньева, Ганшина, Василевска я .

The perf. denotes a secondary temporal characteristic of an action; it doesnТt refer an action to a certain point of time but expresses priority to the present, past or future. The weak point of this approach - it overlooks the aspective function of the perfect.

Non-perfect forms primary tenses; perfect forms - secondary tenses.

Primary tenses refer an action to a certain point of time in the past or in the future, or they refer actions t the moment of speaking.

Secondaryа

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

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

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

*Later: absolute (=primary) & relative (=secondary) tenses. The treatment is the same.

2)     

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

Prof. В

3)       *the tense-aspect blend view of the perfect.

Иванова is the author. She treats the perf. as a form of double temporal aspective character. It overcomes the one-sidedness of 2 previous approaches. E.g. I havenТt met Charlie for years. A) the temporal meaning of the perfect can be brought forth by time-test question: For how long havenТt you met Charlie? B) The aspective meaning of the perfect can be brought forth by an aspect-test function: WhatТs the result of your not having met Charlie for years? Drawback: it doesnТt disclose the oppositional nature of the perfect.

4)     

Prof. Смирницкий speaks about the category of time correlation.

ItТs represented by the opposition of perf. and non-perf. forms.

Perf. forms have noting to do with the notion of tense. Obviously the difference between УtookФ & Уhad takenФ is not temporal, since both forms denote past actions.

The difference is not aspectual either. He argued with Ильиш & Воронцова: they recognize the continuous aspect, then if the pres. perf. is a special aspect form, we must admit that the form has been going denotes 2 different aspects at the same time. ItТs highly illogical & makes the problem more complicated.

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

Non-perf. forms in both aspects (cont. & non-cont.) are opposed to perf. forms in both aspects (cont. & non-cont.).

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

So they think he simplifies the problem intentionally. However, he said that itТs not the only case when a gram. form has an additional shade of meaning. His basic standpoint was that priority is typical of all the 3 forms.

*The category of phase.

The origin of this term is connected with physics, in particular with the theory of electrical current (эл. ток). This theory shows that thereТs a special relation between an action & its effect.

The verb in the current phase denotes an action simultaneous with its effect. In other words, an action is in phase with its effect.

Ex.: By seen he came. (We indicate that he was seen the moment he came)

A verb in the perf, phase denotes an action the effect of which is delayed (the action is out of phase with its effect).

So, when we use the perf. phase we shift our attention from the action itself & relocate it on the effect of the action.

Ex.: He has opened the book. ( The action of opening is a limited duration, it was completed in the past. But the effect of the action is felt in pres.: The book is opened now. So the effect is delayed.)

Билет 33. Predicativity. Means of expressing.

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

Predicativity

V.G.Gak

Predicativity involves establishing subject-predicate relations which, in its turn, is accomplished through the grammatical categories of tense, mood, number and person. (It is true however that once we use the English verb in the position of the predicate, not only these three categories but the other four (number, aspect, time correlation and mood) will also be expressed by the grammatical form of the predicate, but they are not directly related to the expression at night). The expression of predicativity in the sentence is usually referred to as predication. Scholars differentiate between primary and secondary predication and also between explicit and implicit types of predication. Primary predication establishes subject-predicate relations and makes the backbone of the sentence. It is

Predication expressed by the finite form of the verb and by the structures of secondary predication is explicitly expressed in the sentence. Implicit predication is

Билет 34 The category of voice

The categoryа

What the Russian sentences, types of sentences, which correspond to the English, sentence with the PV:

1)       Indefinite Ц personal (Ему сказали).

2)       The Russian sentence with the analytical or the synthetic passive: Дом был построен. Дом строитс я .

3)       Russian sentences with the AV, with the subject-predicate inversion: Это сделал мой брат (It was done by my brother)

4)       Russian impersonal sentences: Крышу несло ветром.

Other voices: itТs a matter of approach if the idea of the Voice depends on the meaning - I wash myself - the reflexive Voice; but if we consider Voices as a grammatical category with special markers, we canТt say that it is a voice. There is no special way of expressing the RV and the R pronoun is not obligatory - itТs not a special category.

<- с я

-          возвратное значение

-          безличное значение (подумалось)

-          синтетический страдательный залог (строитс я ) - требуетс я передать на английский

-          взаимное (подратьс я )

-          средневозвратное (апельсин легко чиститс я )

-          никакое значение (улыбатьс я , сме я тьс я , удивл я тьс я )

The idea of the Passive voice is expressed not only by means of Уto be + P2Ф, but by means of УgetФ, УcomeФ, УgoФ + P2 and УgetФ + passive infinitive (ingressive meaningа <- He got involved; He got to be respected).

The existence of various means of expressing voice distinctions makes it

Билет 35 theoretical and practical diffic of the study of the articles

The article is a determiner of the noun.it<-s function is to define the object or phenomenon in the most general way.The peculisrity of the art, is that in the absence of other determiners.The use of the art.With the noun is obligatory.One of the main theoretical difficulties of the study of the art.its status in the system of morphology/The problem is wheather the art is a separate word.ThatТs the lexical unity,one of the noun determiners.the meaning of the articles:The defin.article expr the indification or individualization of the noun.The use of this art shows that the object is taken in itТs concrete individual quality.The art can be replaced by a demonstrative pronoun(look at the tree=look at this tree).The indef art refers the object to a certain clas of similar objects(we saw a house=we saw a certain house).The absence of the artа

Билет 36 THE CATEGORY OF MOOD

The general meaning: a grammatical category which expresses the relation of the action to reality as stated by the speaker 2 groups of Moods (generally):

-         

-         

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

There are 2 non-fact Moods in English: the Imperative Mood and the Subjunctive Mood. The hypothetic desirable in the form of advice, request, recommendation, order and so on. There is another point of view on the imperative Mood: (we donТt mark the action as real or unreal!) - Stelling (Штелинг) considers the Imperative form Mood the grammatical idiom.

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

Unlike Russian and some other languages, in which thereТs a limited group os special means of marking the action as unreal, in English we have quite a number of forms, which mark unreality.

Though thus are formally different it seems advisable to group them together under the name of the Subjunctive Mood as marking the action as unreal.

The choice of the form to mark the action as unreal depends on:

-         

-         

-         

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

The

they present the action (as real, unreal or hypothetical) it is possible to place the

The position of the Imperative mood on the one hand and Subjunctive I

Билет 37 Various passive constructions in ME

Passive voice.Accord. to a commonly accepted definition the passive voice shows that the subject of the sentence is not the agent but the object of the action exp-ed by the verb. The subject doesnТt act but but its acted upon.(She was asked a question).Passive V is widely used in Eng.Its use is extensive not only in comparison with Russian but also with other languages.The Pass V in Eng is rich in various constructions.Certain restrictions in thhe use of the passive voice.In most cases the P.V is formed with transitive verbs so the subject of the Passive constructions corresponds to the direct object of the verb- the Direct Passive.(they gave him an apple/An apple was given to him).Someа

Билет 38. The grammatical category of number

Presents a specific linguistic reflection of quantitative relations between homogeneous objects of reality

Semantically the forms of the plural are not homogeneous either. The

From the point of view of their number characteristics the English nouns

1. names of abstract notions (love, friendship etc.);

2. names of mass materials ( bread, butter, sugar etc.);

3. names of some collective inanimate objects (foliage, machinery etc.);

4. names of sciences and professional activities ( medicine, architecture

5. nouns of heterogeneous semantics. This is a limited group and includes

The first four groups of nouns of Singularia Tantum denote concepts which are incompatible with the idea of countability.

Singularia Tantum nouns, when used in the plural form, always acquire additional meanings. Tax moneys

The group of Pluralia Tantum nouns includes:

1. nouns denoting objects consisting of two parts ( trousers, spectacles

2. nouns denoting results of repeated processes (savings, labours,

3. nouns of multitude (police, gentry, poultry, cattle)',

4. nouns of various semantics ( oats, outskirts, clothes etc.).

Билет 39. Classification of sentences based of their structure.

The structural aspect of the sentence deals with the structural organization of the

According to their structure sentences are classified into simple (monopredicative structures) and composite (polypredicative structures) which are

Though the difference between the complex and compound sentences is based on the two different types of semantic relations: subordination and coordination, the

In the sphere of the compound sentence we have one type of sentences which

Besides these pure types there are also peripheral types: semicomplex and semicompound sentences which contain structures of secondary predication:

Theа

Sentence
Simple Semi-composite Composite

Compound Complex

Билет 40. The category of а

Aspect is a grammatically category

The grammatical category of aspect in English has at its basis a different feature of action, that of duration and is constituted on the basis

The formal marker of the Continuous form is the discontinuous morpheme be ----- ing (one of the few morphemes which has no allomorphs). The semantic marker, i.e. the meaning of the Continuous form is limited duration, or process.,

1)What are you doing here?

-1 work here (M. Dickens).

The analysis of the difference between the semantics of the opposed forms of the aspect shows that the forms of the Continuous aspect often denote

The meaning of duration, under the influence of various contextual and

1) Simultaneity to another action. This meaning is actualized in the structure of a composite sentence or a sequence of sentences, e.g. Ivory was still straining to get behind the cyst, still calm, incisive, unruffled...

2) A temporary character of a state or a quality,

3) Intensity. This meaning is usually found with verbs of sense perception, desirability and liking/disliking.

4) Recurrence of action. This meaning is realized with terminative verbs,

5) Tentativeness, lack of assertiveness. This use of the Continuous form

The Continuous forms carry out a specific function in the text. This function is best seen when we compare the use of the Past Indefinite as the main

This function of the Continuous form can be defined as descriptive. The picture

The forms of the Common aspect as the weak member of the opposition

Neutralization does not take place when the verb is used not in its primary, but in its secondary meaning.

41) The category of ASPECT in modern English

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

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

Imperfective expresses an action or a state without indicating a limit beyond which this act/state can not continue - eq. я читал

Perfective denotes actions that have a limit beyond which this action canТt continue
eq. я прочитал книгу

In Russian aspect is a gram.cat. As each aspect has a certain meaning and form to express this meaning. There are certain markers of each aspect - eq. делать<-сделать

As the Eng.language grammarians of the past didnТt find aspective distinction of the v., instead they spoke about 4 groups of tenses: indefinite, continuous, perfect, perfect-continuous

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

1)      

2)      

Most English verbs are polysemantic and may be terminative in one meaning and non-terminative in another

ItТs never shown formally. There is no marker of belonging to this aspect. The meaning is clear from the context.

1)      

2)      

The terms used to describe aspect are not stable (progressive - perfective; generic - temporalry)

The difference bw the aspect forms isnТt temporal. The tense is the same with both forms

The cont.aspect has a specific meaning - itТs used for incomplete actions that are in progress at the moment under consideration or at a certain period

eq He was studying at 5 oТclock

The common aspect shows the action in a general way, may denote a complete/incomplete action but the form doesnТt state it

Prof.Barhudarov: common aspect = non-continuous.

Common aspect may denote:

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

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

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

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

42) Classification of sentences based on their communicative function

Aspects of the sentence:

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

- the semantic aspect - the meaning of the sent.

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

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

Types of communication:

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

Declarative Ц the subj precedes the verb

Interrogative Ц aux.v in front of the subj.special w-order, very few modal words - modal w-s expressing full certainty (certainly, surelyЕ) canТt appear in a sent, expressing a question

Semi-interrogative sent-s - Уoh, youТve seen him?Ф

Imperative Ца

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

Eq. But he canТt do anything to you! What can he possibly do to you! Scarlett, spare me!

Purely exclamatory sentence: УOh, for GodТs sake, Henry!Ф

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

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

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

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

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

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

The reasons the fut.tense is analytical:

1)     

2)     

3)     

Reasons shall/will + infа

1)     

2)     

3)     

4)     

2 groups of linguists:

- there are 3 tense forms

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

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

-are used chiefly in subordinate clauses depending on a main clause having its predicate verb in one of the past tenses eq. It didnТt mean she was content to live

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

- starting point isnТt in the present, from which the past and the fut are reckoned, but the past itself - the past is the new centre of system

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

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

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

Aspects of the sentence:

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

- the semantic aspect - the meaning of the sent.

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

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

Structural division:

I.

-simple

-composite: compound and complex

II. extended - unextended, complete - incomplete (because of interruptions or changes of mind on the part of speaker

-elliptical sent-s: 1) contextual/syntagmatic ellipsis - depend.on what has been before
(eq. Who did it? - John) an incomplete form for complete sent-s. The incomp.structure of the sent can be known from the previous sent

2) grammatical/paradigmatic ellipsis - eq. CanТt hear you. - do not depend on what has gone before. The structure can be completed Ц from the paradigm of the analogous complete sent. The incompleteness is purely grammatical, the structure doesnТt depend on the previous context

46) The imperative Mood - represented by one form only, without any suffix or ending

Has no person, number, tense, aspect, itТs limited to one type of sentence only Ц imperative sent.

Usually a verb in the imperative sent has no pronoun, but may be used in emotional speech
Ц eq. You leave me alone!

The Imp.Moodа

The Imood form coincides with the plain stem of the verb, for example - Come here! Sit down

The negative form is built by means of the aux. DO

Eq DonТt be a fool. DonТt worry.

Emphatic requests\commands: eq. Do come and stay with us. Do be quiet.

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

Eq. Let us go together

Let him finish his dinner first

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

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

Let us do smth - an invitation to a joint action

Let him do it - the meaning of permission

The imp.mood is used only in imperative sentences and canТt be used in questions

47) The number of voices in Modern English

The category of Voice expresses the relations bw the subject and the action, but according to other view Voice expresses the relations bw the subj and the obj of the action

Opposition: active Ц passive. Passive - marked -> pattern Уbe + II participleФ, active Цunmarked

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

Any other voices??? -> doubts and controversy

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

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

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

48) Functional sentence perspective - actual division of the sentence

one unit contains given information (supplied by the context), the other - new info for the sake of which the sentence has been uttered or written

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

Ian Firbas (Czech):

the info known from the context - theme

new info - rheme

Michael Halliday: given <-> new

Charles Pocket: topic<-> comment

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

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

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

Eq. The girl

↑Theme Rheme ↑ ↑ (the most important part)

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

• Logical stress (only in oral speech)
• The passive voice helps to reverse w-order and makes it possible to place new info at the end of the sentence
• The indef.article / no article with certain nouns:
  eq. The door opened and an old man came into the room
  She bought an unusual old ring
• Construction with an emphatic УitФ
  eq. It was to Paris that he went - we can emphasize any part of the sent.
• There is / there are
• W-order within certain parts of the sentence
  eq. give smb smth
  give smth to smb
• In adj<-s: young, old, little - form one sense-group with the noun. If some adj<-s are before these 3 words you want to emphasize these adj<-s
  eq. ambitious young man
  He is a young ambitious man (though young but ambitious)
• Particles only,even

There are other means of expressing the rheme, lexical or grammatical. During the past few years the theory of the actual division of the sentence has been criticized for its binary character. It isnТt always possible to divide a sentence exactly into 2 parts. ItТs enough only to establish the center/focus of info

The means of expressing theme/rheme depend on the gram.structure of the given language

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

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

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

1)     

2)     

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

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

-          Lexical-grammatical: a) pronouns of dif. classes (he, she, theyЕ); b) articles (Уa\anФ points to the center of communication; УtheФ Ц anaphorically used)

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

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

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

50. Means of expressing gender in Modern English

ItТs doubtful whether the grammatical category of gender exists а

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

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

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

Gender may be expressed by word-formation:

a)     

b)     

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

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

a)     

b)     

c)     

d)     

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

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

The category of mood in the present English verb has given rise to so many discussions and has been treated in so many ways, that it seems hardly possible to arrive at any more or less acceptable conclusion. The only points in the sphere of mood which havenТt been disputed are the following: 1) there is a category of mood in Modern English ( Mood- is the grammatical category of the verb, which expresses the relation of the action denoted by the verb to reality from the speakerТs point of view); 2) there are at least 2 moods in the modern English verb, one of which is the indicative. (The indicative mood is the basic mood of the verb. Morphologically itТs the most developed system including all the categories of the verb. Semantically itТs a fact mood. It serves to present an action as a fact of reality. ItТs the most objective of all the moods. It conveys minimum personal attitude to the fact: Ex. Water consists of oxygen.)

Linguists differ greatly in the understanding of this category, especially in the number of grammatical forms of the mood they find in English. Thus, Smirnitsky, Vasilevskaya, Akhmanova find 6 moods (СindicativeТ, СimperativeТ, Сsubjunctive1Т, Сsubjunctive2Т, СconditionalТ and СsuppositionalТ), Ilyish, Ivanova find only 3 moods ( indicative, imperative, subjunctive), Barkhudarov and Shteling distinguish only the СindicativeТ and the СsubjunctiveТ moods. Max Deutschbein finds 16 moods.

Such a variety of opinions lies in the complexity of the category itself and also 2 other phenomena. The first is the problem of drawing a borderline between polysemy and homonymy. Both permeate (пронизывают) the structure of the English language at all levels and sometimes the borderline between them is hard to draw. Ex. He stopped doing it. - He wish he stopped doing it. (here me canТt say clearly, if itТs one polysemantic form or two morphological homonyms). The other reason for the controversy of opinions about the scope of the category of mood is the fact that the grammatical category of the mood is a component of the functional-semantic category of modality- a complex & heterogeneous category, which includes other means of expressing various modal meanings. Some linguists include the combination of modal verbs with Infinitive into the system of grammatical moods and in this case the number of moods grows considerably.

52. The theory of speech acts

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

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

SPEECH-ACT THEORY AND RHETORIC

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

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

The verb has finite & non-finite forms, the latter are called verbals. They have some features in common with the finite forms, but also some peculiarities of their own. They donТt express person, number or mood. But like the finite forms the verbals have aspect (infinitive), correlation and voice distinctions. There is a present & a past tense in the system of verbals.

There are 3 verbals in English: the participle, the gerund and the infinitive. In Russian we also have three non-finite forms (причастие, деепричастие, инфинитив), but they donТt fully coincide with those in the English language.

Lexically non-finites donТt differ from finite forms. Grammatically the difference between them lies in the fact that they denote a secondary action, a process related to that expressed by the finite form.

The characteristic traits of the verbals are as follows:

1)                          They have a double nature, nominal & verbal. The participle combines the characteristics of a verb with those of an adjective; the gerund & the infinitive combine the characteristics of a verb with those of a noun. The verbal meaning of Уaction, processФ is presented as some kind ofа УsubstanceФ (gerund, infinitive), or УqualityФ (participle).

2)                          Theyа

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

54. Modality. Means of expressing modality.

The main categories of the sent. are predicativity, negation & modality. The category of modality is one of the most complicated linguistic categories which has various forms of its expression in the language. It has also a lot of various definitions & interpretations. In the Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary modality is defined as a functional-semantic category which expresses different types of relations between the utterance and reality as well as dif. types of subjective evaluation (оценка) of the information contained in the utterance. Modality expresses 2 types of relations and includes 2 levels. ThatТs why the linguists usually differentiate between 2 types of modality: objective (or primary) and subjective (or secondary). These two types of modality were first introduced on the material of the Russian language by Vinogradov. The consistent differentiation of the two types of modality was also stimulated by the studies of Ch. Bally who considered that each utterance consists of two parts, the part which presents information ( he called it 'dictum') and the part which presents the speaker's

The primary modality expresses the relation of the contents of the sentence to reality as established by the speaker who, choosing the appropriate form of the mood

Secondary modality presents another layer of modality, built over the primary modality. It' does not always find an explicit expression in the sentence. Secondary modality is not homogeneous. It contains two layers and we can differentiate between two types of secondary modality. The first type expresses the relations between the subject of the sentence and the action. The action may be presented as possible, permissive, obligatory, necessary, desirable or unnecessary for

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

Most analytical forms of the subjunctive moodа

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

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

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

1)                         

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

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

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