Morphological Categories of the Noun

Morphological Categories of the Noun

The only morphological category of the noun which is almost always

marked in present-day English is that of number. It is realized, like in Ukrainian,

through zero and marked inflexions, respectively; child – children, ox – oxen,

baths, cargoes, heroes, An irregularity can be observed in the position of the

English inflexion –s in various compounds, eg: take-off = take-offs, forget-me-not

= forget-me-nots, commander- in-chief = commanders-in-chief; passer-by =

passers-by.

Completely allomorphic is also the formation of plural number by way of

mutation in the following seven English nouns: foot – feet, tooth – teeth, goose –

geese; man – men, woman – women, louse – lice, mouse – mice.

A few simple life nouns in English have one and the same form (cf. grouse,

sheep, swine, plaice). Usually, these nouns also have zero plural: carp, pike, trout,

deer, salmon. Apart from the genuinely English there are some borrowed noun

inflexions. These are Latin: -a – ae: alga – algae, larva – larvae; -us – i: stimulus

– stimuli, terminus – termini; - um – a: curriculum – curricula, erratum – errata,

etc. Several Greek borrowings preserve their singular and plural inflexion: -is – es:

analysis – analyses, basis – bases, ellipsis – ellipses and -on – a: criterion –

criteria, phenomenon – phenomena, though some nouns often take regular

English plural forms: memorandums, ganglions, solos, tempos, metropolises, etc.

Unlike English, Ukrainian number inflexions are partly predetermined by the

declension groups to which the nouns are allotted, and partly by the gender of

nouns and final consonant or vowel, which can respectively be hard, soft or mixed

(sibilant).

The major allomorphic feature in the system of noun categories is the

existence (in Ukrainian as in Russian and Byelarussian) of dual number (двоїна)

which is often mixed up with the plural or replaced by it. The nouns express dual

number in connection with the numeral adjuncts, two, three and four. The number

is mostly indicated by stress which differs, as a rule, from that of the plural form,

eg:

Singular – Plural – Dual Singular – Plural – Dual

Берег – бере´ги – два ´береги верба – ´верби – три вер´би

слово – сло´ва – чотири ´слова квітка - квіт´ки – дві ´квітки

Typologically isomorphic, on the other hand, are classes of singularia and

pluralia tantum nouns expressing quantity. The former include four semantic

groups of mainly common nouns which denote 1) parts of the world: the

North/South, the East/West, the North-West/East; північ, південь, захід, схід,

північний захід, etc; 2) names of materials: copper, milk, bread; золото, хліб,

сіль, etc; 3) collective nouns: foliage, shrubbery, rubbish; білизна, сміття,

збрід, etc; 4) abstract nouns: joy, love, news, advice; патріотизм,, прогрес, гнів,

сором, etc.

Fewer semantic groups among the pluralia tantum nouns coincide in English

and Ukrainian. Common are: 1) summation plurals (scissors, tongs, skates, shorts,

trousers; ножиці, обценьки, терези, шорти, штани, etc; 2) some geographic

names: Athens, the Netherlands, the Bahamas, the Andes; Афіни, Нідерланди,

Карпати Анди, Суми, etc, 3) nouns of remnants: scraps, leavings, remains,

sweepings, недопитки, перебірки, висівки, помиї, etc.

Many nouns may have plural meaning in English and singular meaning in

Ukrainian or vice versa, eg: barracks, goods, customs, works, police, arms,

gymnastics, etc.; казарма ____________, товар, майно, мито, поліція, зброя, фізкультура.

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Ukrainian plurals: вершки, дріжджі, дрова, гроші, on the other hand, have

singularia tantum equivalents in English: cream, yeast, firewood, money, etc.

The category of case and the expression of case relations in English remains

a controversial problem. R.Quirk, S.Greenbaum and co-authors speak of common

and genitive cases (-‘s genitive and of -genitive). Ukrainian nouns may have 7

marked singular and plural oppositions in nominative (називний), genitive (родовий), dative (давальний), accusative (знахідний), instrumental (орудний), locative (місцевий) and vocative (кличний) cases, eg: хмара, хмари, хмарі, хмару, хмарою, (на) хмарі, хмаро. Or in plural: степи, степів, степами, степи,степам, (у) степах, степи.

No identity exists in the expression of the category of gender either. In

Ukrainian, Russian, German and other languages there are three grammatical

genders – masculine, feminine, neuter. In Italian, Spanish, French, Danish – two

genders (masculine and feminine), in Estonian, Finnish, Japanese and Turkic

languages no gender distinctions are made but in Bantu language there are about

42 genders realized through different inflexions.

The morphological category of gender is identified through the inflexions of

the adjunct/attribute or through the inflexion of the finite form of the verb in

Ukrainian: Masculine gender Feminine gender Neuter gender

каштан цвів/ріс яблуня цвіла/росла жито цвіло/росло

In present-day English no distinctions of the kind are possible, eg.:

the actor plays the actress plays the child plays

the actor played the actress played the child played

Absence of the morphological category of gender in English can be proved

by the unchanged attributive adjuncts to nouns considered to have this category,

eg:

the great emperor lived… - великий імператор жив

the great heroine lived… - велика героїня жила

the great desire was… - велике бажання було

The noun in English and Ukraine, as in other languages (Romanic,

Germanic, etc.) can be made definite/indefinite semantically by some

morphological or syntactic means. The main morphological means are the articles

(in English) and demonstrative and possessive pronouns (in both the languages),

eg: I know the student; я знаю цього/того студента. I read the/ this, that/ novel;

я читав цей/той роман.

The definite article may point to the noun being generic or unique, eg: The

lion is a wild animal. The sun is a celestial body. The Bible is a holy book.

The category of definiteness may be indicated in English by the affixal

morpheme (cf. colours/flag, lines/verses) or by syntactic means (in both

languages), for example, by adjuncts: the Tory government, King CharlesY; урядторі, готель “Україна”.

The category of indefiniteness is mainly identified by the indefinite article

(in English) or by indefinite pronouns, by numeral “one”, or by adjectives + the

negative particle not. Eg: A student is waiting for you; якийсь студент (незнайомий студент), один якийсь студент чекає вас.

Indefiniteness may be expressed in Ukrainian by the inverted word order:

The door open and the teacher entered… Двері відчинилися, і викладач увійшов

(у клас). The door opened and a teacher entered… Двері відчинилися, і в клас

увійшов викладач.

Morphological, functional and other isomorphic and allomorphic features of different classes of adjective in the contrasted languages. Gradibility of qualitative adjectives

The adjective as a part of speech is characterized in English and in Ukrainian by a common lexico-grammatical nature and common functions. It expresses the attributes of substances (a nice flower, urgent measures) and can serve as a predicative complement after the copula-verb (the child was small, he grew old; дитя було маленьке, вона стала нервовою).

Adjectives in the contrasted languages may be qualitative, directly denoting

qualities of a substance as a size, shape, colour, physical and mental qualities

(little, hard, white; великий, чорний) and relative which characterize objects or phenomena through their relation to other objects and phenomena: to materials (silken, wooden; шовковий, дерев’яний), to place (Italian, Asian; італійський,

азіатський), to some action (preparatory, rotatory; підготовчий, обертальний).

Morphological Means of realization

Category

In English in Ukrainian

Person I know: He knows Я знаю: Він знає

Number He reads: They read Він читає: Вона читає

Tenses

1. Absolute

use

2. Relative use

I work: I worked

He works: He will work

He said he had been seen

when he comes

she will ask – when he came

when he will come

Я працюю. Я працював

Він знає: Він знатиме

Він буде знати

Він прокинувся був, а потім

знов заснув

де він живе

я запитаю – де він жив

де він житиме

Aspect He works: He is working

(common/continuous)

Він читав: Він прочитав це

Вона зараз тренується

(доконаний/недоконаний)

Voice The house is/was built

The house is being built

It will be/have been built

Хата збудована/була, буде

збудована. Хата ставиться.

Хід зроблено.

Mood

Indicative: We love our parents.

Imperative: Don’t speak so loud!

Subjunctive: Come what may!

Ми любимо своїх батьків.

Не розмовляйте так голосно!

Хай буде, що буде!

The tabulated examples above testify to the existence of both isomorphic and allomorphic features in the nomenclature and means of expressing some morphological categories of the verb in the contrasted languages.

Absolute isomorphism is observed in the means of realization of the following morphological categories in the contrasted languages.

1. Person and number (with the help of synthetic means, i.e., inflexions only). Cf. He is - they are; I was – they were. Я пиш у – ви пиш ете. Я пис ав – ви писа ли.

2. The imperative mood form with no reference to a definite person, as in the following sentences: Stop talking! Sit still! Не розмовляти! Сидіти тихо!

3. The affirmative and some interrogative forms of the indefinite group of tenses and of the pluperfect (давноминулий) tense: I work. I work ed. I shall work. He had left before I arrived. Я прац юю. Я працю вав. Я буду працювати. Він приходив був, але мене не застав.

4. Isomorphism also exists a) In the correlation with the time of actions expressed: He says she lives in Kyiv. He said she lived in Kyiv. He will say they will live in Kyiv. I thought that she came/would come, had come. Similarly in Ukrainian: Він каже, що вона прийшла; він скаже, що вона прийде; він

казав, що вона приходила/приходила була; b) In the existence of tenses not correlating with the time of actions expressed in the main clause, eg: He will say that he knows/knew, had known it. Він скаже, що вона прийшла/приходила,

приходила була; c) In the existence of some identical forms expressing those same subjunctive mood meanings in English and Ukrainian. Cf. If I knew that before… Якби я знав це раніше… If I had known that before… Якби я був знав це раніше… Had I known that before… Знав би я був це раніше… Were she here then… Була б вона в той час тут…

d) In the existence of identical passive voice forms in the past and future Indefinite tense: He was invited. She will/will not be invited. Він був запрошений. Вона буде/не буде запрошена.

Allomorphic features find their expression in the ways of realization of some morphological categories in English and Ukrainian. These ways are as follows:

1. The use of analytical paradigms in English to express tense, aspect and

voice forms, and negative/interrogative forms, like He is reading now. Is he

reading now? Does/did he speak English? The passage is being translated. 2. The

absence in Ukrainian of the continuous aspect, whose durative meaning can be

expressed by the transitive verb stems with the suffixes –cь, -ся and a

corresponding adverb/adverbial phrase identifying the moment/period of the

action. Cf. Петренко зараз/ще, вже, давно будується.

3. The expression of the category of person in Ukrainian imperative mood

forms: Пиш и! Ти пиш и! Пиш іть! Ви пиш іть! Іди! Будьмо/будьте здорові!

Встань! Встань! Не вір!

Similarly, analytical imperative mood forms have corresponding personal

pronouns in English (Let me say. Let him/us say) and in Ukrainian – the particle нум or нумо (for singular or plural forms respectively) and person and number inflexions of the notional verb. Cf. Нум я запитаю. Нумо заспівайте!

4. The expression of the passive voice in Ukrainian, not only with the help of analytical forms (лист був/буде відісланий), but also with help of some

synthetic means: a) inflexions of the past participle; b) suffixes –сь, -ся of the

notional verb and c) with the help of the verbal forms in - но, -то: Стаття

написана.. Жито скошене. Фрески відновлені. Хата будується/будувалась. Музей зачинено.

A peculiar feature of passive constructions in English is their much more frequent use than in Ukrainian.

 

Isomorphism and allomorphism in the system of verbals of the contrasted languages.

The nomenclature of verbals in the contrasted languages includes some

common and some divergent forms. Common are the infinitive and the two

participles; divergent are the gerund in English and the diyepryslivnyk in

Ukrainian. Verbals from transitive verbs have the following categorical

distinctions in these two languages.

Table 7. CATEGORIAL DISTINCTIONS OF VERBALS

Infinitive active: to ask passive: to be asked активний: запитувати. пасивний: бути запитаним

Non-progressive active perfect: to have asked passive perfect:to have been asked

недоконаного виду: лить, цвісти, їсти

доконаного виду:

змити, зацвісти, поспати

Progressive infinitive active: to be asking perfect: to have been asking

Gerund active: asking passiv e: being asked active perfect: having asked passive perfect: having been asked

Дієприслівник

Активний теперішнього часу:йдучи, маючи, знаючи активний минулого часу:

йшовши, мавши, знавши

Participle I present active: asking present passive: being asked

perfect active: having asked perfect passive:having been asked

Дієприкметник активний теперішнього часу:читаючий, -а, -е, мигаю-чий, -а, -е

активний минулого часу:перемігший, здолавший

Participle II passive past: asked, made пасивний минулого часу: запрошений, пройдений

The tabulated forms of verbals testify to the existence of allomorphisms in

their structural forms and in their categorical meanings. Thus, the English infinitive

is always distinguished by its determiner “ to ” (to come, to be asked, to be doing),

whereas the Ukrainian infinitive is characterized by the suffixes – ти, -ть, -тись, -

тися. Allomorphism is observed in the categorical meanings of the infinitive and

the participle. The infinitive in Ukrainian has no perfect passive form, no

continuous aspect form, no perfect active and perfect passive of Participle I

pertaining to English.

The gerund and the diyepryslivnyk present allomorphic verbals and they

can not be contrasted in any way. The gerund has both verbals and noun

characteristics, the former being of those of tense and voice (asking – being asked,

having asked – having been asked). The noun characteristics of the gerund find

their expression in the functions in the sentence as subject, object, predicative, and

as an adverbial modifier of manner, eg: The rain poured down without ceasing

(Mugham).

Ukrainian diyepryslivnyk as an indeclinable verbal may be a) nonperfective

or present (несучи, працюючи) and b) perfective or past (донісши,привізши, здолавши, побачивши).

 

Characteristics of English vs. Ukrainian statives, ways of their formation and combinability

Statives in English and Ukrainian are invariable notional words whose

logico-grammatical function is to denote the physical state of persons, things or

phenomena, the psychological state of persons, state in motion, etc. English statives have a characteristic prefix a-: afire, aflame, alike, afloat, atremble, ashudder, etc. “The lamps were still alight…”. (Galsworthy) “I woke at six the next morning and found George awake ”. (J. K. Jerome) “He had been ashamed and afraid “. (Abrahams)

Ukrainian statives, on the other hand, are formed with the help of the

following suffixes: -о: Романові стало і прикро і якось соромно (Минко); -а: Треба хазяїну на хутір… Шкода журитись, молодичко! (М. Вовчок); -е: Добре Чіпці у діда підпасичем. (Мирний)

The category of state may be expressed by means of nouns (in English by

prepositional nouns only). Cf. “She seemed on fire ”. (Glasworthy) “You keep

me in the know”. (Ibid.) Сором слів, що ллються від безсилля. (Л. Українка)

Не раз він був у відчаї. (Стельмах)

Statives in the contrasted languages rarely correlate lexically. Thus, English

statives have mostly predicative verbs, adverbs or adjectives for their equivalents in Ukrainian. Cf. “ I lay awake a long time “. Ядовго не міг заснути. (Galsworthy). “ Ruth was aghast “. (London) Рут була приголомшена.

Among other isomorphic features one more should be pointed out: some

statives may have grading. Cf. He is more dead than alive. She was more

ashamed than anybody else. Йому стало краще. Нам тут гірше. Їй там було найкраще.

SubordinateWord-Groups

Subordinate word-groups in all languages consist of a head component, and

one or more adjuncts/complements. They may be either a single notional word or a

group of words, eg: my pen, her father and mother, take part in the conference,

bad for you.

According to the morphological classification, the following seven

common paradigmatic classes of word-groups are singled out in English and in

Ukrainian:

1. Substantival Word-Groups, in which the mainly attributive adjuncts may

be in pre-position or in post-position to the noun head. Their way if connection is

mainly analytical in English and synthetic in Ukrainian, eg.: st reet traffic rules –

гра оркестру телестудії; last spring football matches – період розпаду ядер

урану; rays of hope – вісті з полів.

2. Verbal word-Groups are: 1) with simple objective or adverbial

complements; 2) with extended or expanded complements; 3) with simple or

extended/expanded objective and adverbial complements.

Simple unextended word-groups with the transitive verbal head take

nominal and adverbial complements/adjuncts. Their patterns are common in

English and Ukrainian. Cf., to receive five, to love him, to love truly; отримати

п’ятірку, кохати його, щиро любити. Common are also prepositional

complements in verbal word-groups: to speak of somebody, to divide by two;

говорити про когось, ділити на два.

Extended and expanded complements have mainly common structural

patterns in the contrasted languages, eg: to like to play the piano – любити

пограти на піаніно; to like to read and to translate the English texts – любити

читати і перекладати англійські тексти.

3. Adjectival Word-Groups have a much smaller number (and varieties) of

structural models, eg: simply beautiful, glad to hear, best of all, good for you, so

very unusual, very nice for boys; просто гарний, радий чути, кращий за всіх,

зручний для нас, аж надто важкий, аж надто гарний для хлопців.

Pertaining to English only are adjectival word-groups with gerundial

complements, eg: worth reading (the book), proud of his having being invited, etc.

Ukrainian adjectival word-groups have free location of most of adjuncts

which is absolutely impossible in English. Cf. дуже добра - добра дуже, значно

молодший за мене - за мене молодший. Ukrainian head adjectives express the morphological categories of number, case and gender which is impossible in English. Cf. гарний зовні, гарна зовні, гарні; гарної зовні, гарною зовні.

4. In Pronominal Word-Groups most often the heads are indefinite, negative

and demonstrative pronouns. The most common adjuncts are pronoun,

prepositional nouns, adjectives, infinitives, verbal word-groups and subordinate

clauses, eg: he himself, something new, much to do, poor me, many of the workers,

some of them, nothing for him to say; він сам, щось нове, щось робити, бідний я, дехто з учнів, нічого для неї передавати.

The usual place of these adjuncts is post-position, though in Ukrainian they

may be used in pre-position as well. Also Ukrainian pronouns are all declinable,

eg: ми всі, нас усіх, нам усім, нами всім, etc. Ukrainian pronominal word-groups

have free word order which is never possible in English. Cf. щось нове – нове щось, нічого казати – казати нічого, etc.

5. Though some grammarians avoid even mentioning the Numerical Word -

Groups, their existence in English and Ukrainian can not be denied. The most

common adjuncts are prepositional nouns, pronouns, adjectives, infinitives,

subordinate clauses, eg: two of the pupils, the firs to come, two of the workers who

were absent; двоє з групи, перший співати; двоє з робітників, що не були

присутні.

6. Adverbial Word-Groups in the contrasted languages can be headed by

adverbs or by adverbial phrases. The adjuncts may be expressed by adverbs or by

adverbial phrases, eg: terribly well, late that evening, earlier than he could think

of; страшно добре, пізніше того вечора, раніше, ніж він міг подумати.

7. Statival Word-Groups rarely correlate in the contrasted languages

semantically and even structurally. This is because English statives have few direct

lexical equivalents in Ukrainian and vice versa. The structural patterns of statival

word-groups in English and Ukrainian are mostly common, though their

components almost never lexically coincide. Cf. afraid to answer, ashamed of the

deed, soon asleep, never afraid of the rain; страшно заснути, важко на душі, значно тепліше, завжди прикро за примхи.

Gerundial complements, naturally, pertain to English statival word-groups

(cf. afraid of being sent away). Also, English statives have a fixed position for a

certain morphological class of word-groups, eg: ashamed/afraid of something, but:

soon asleep. The position of Ukrainian statives in the word-group is free, eg: йому добре тут – тут йому добре – добре йому тут.

Predicative word-groups

Unlike the previous two types of word-groups, predicative word-groups are

only partly common in English and Ukrainian. Completely isomorphic are primary

predication word-groups, eg: The student works hard. The book was published last

year. Студент багато працює. Книжка була опублікована торік.

Secondary Predication Word-Groups are represented in English by the

following syntactic constructions/complexes:

1. The objective with the infinitive constructions, eg: I heard him roll in

blankets. (Hemingway) Again he saw Michael moisten his lips. (Galsworthy)

2. The subjective with the infinitive constructions, eg: Irene was known to

take very sudden decisions. (Galsworthy)

3. The infinitival prepositional constructions, eg: For you to go there just

now would be to walk into a trap with your eyes open. (Voynich)

4. The objective with the participle constructions, eg: I’m sorry to have kept

you waiting… (Saroyan) He could see her face bent over the little kitten in her

arms. (Ibid)

5. The subjective with the participle constructions, eg: He could be seen

following her with his eyes. (Galsworthy) The rain was heard clattering… (Trease)

6. The gerundial constructions, eg: Hope you don’t mind my coming.

London) Excuse my being busy. (Dickens)

7. The objective with the adjective, stative or noun constructions, eg: Get the

coffee ready. (Bronte) I woke… and found George awake. (J.K.Jerome) They

called the baby Arthur. (Lawrence)

8. The nominative absolute participle constructions, eg: The two walked in

silence, Soams watching him out of the corner of his eye. (Galsworthy) They

having the keys, no entrance was possible. (Ibid)

The Ukrainian language has only two structurally similar, if not identical,

models of secondary predication: 1) the participle constructions, eg: дівчина/воназастала двері зачиненими; читачі вважають роман цікавим; ми/студенти пам’ятаємо цього викладача молодим/об’єктивним; 2) the objective

constructions like Ми обрали Іваненка головою; Вони назвали хлопця Петром.

 

Structural types of simple sentences in the contrasted languages. One-word sentences/Quasi-sentences.

 

In the contrasted languages there are distinguished the following common

structural types of sentences: 1) two-member sentences; 2) one-member

sentences.

Binary sentence structures are more characteristic of English, i. e., they are

represented by a larger variety of paradigmatic subtypes than in Ukrainian. This

quantitative correlation of two-member sentences in English and Ukrainian

constitutes the main typological difference in the system of simple sentences of the

two languages.

Morphological Categories of the Noun

The only morphological category of the noun which is almost always

marked in present-day English is that of number. It is realized, like in Ukrainian,

through zero and marked inflexions, respectively; child – children, ox – oxen,

baths, cargoes, heroes, An irregularity can be observed in the position of the

English inflexion –s in various compounds, eg: take-off = take-offs, forget-me-not

= forget-me-nots, commander- in-chief = commanders-in-chief; passer-by =

passers-by.

Completely allomorphic is also the formation of plural number by way of

mutation in the following seven English nouns: foot – feet, tooth – teeth, goose –

geese; man – men, woman – women, louse – lice, mouse – mice.

A few simple life nouns in English have one and the same form (cf. grouse,

sheep, swine, plaice). Usually, these nouns also have zero plural: carp, pike, trout,

deer, salmon. Apart from the genuinely English there are some borrowed noun

inflexions. These are Latin: -a – ae: alga – algae, larva – larvae; -us – i: stimulus

– stimuli, terminus – termini; - um – a: curriculum – curricula, erratum – errata,

etc. Several Greek borrowings preserve their singular and plural inflexion: -is – es:

analysis – analyses, basis – bases, ellipsis – ellipses and -on – a: criterion –

criteria, phenomenon – phenomena, though some nouns often take regular

English plural forms: memorandums, ganglions, solos, tempos, metropolises, etc.

Unlike English, Ukrainian number inflexions are partly predetermined by the

declension groups to which the nouns are allotted, and partly by the gender of

nouns and final consonant or vowel, which can respectively be hard, soft or mixed

(sibilant).

The major allomorphic feature in the system of noun categories is the

existence (in Ukrainian as in Russian and Byelarussian) of dual number (двоїна)

which is often mixed up with the plural or replaced by it. The nouns express dual

number in connection with the numeral adjuncts, two, three and four. The number

is mostly indicated by stress which differs, as a rule, from that of the plural form,

eg: