The subject of TGr. The systematic approach. Syntagmatics and paradygmatics. Levels of language.

The subject of TGr. The systematic approach. Syntagmatics and paradygmatics. Levels of language.

Grammar is subdivided into morphology and syntax. The object of morphology is the structure classification and combinability of words. Syntax deals with the structure classification and combinability of sentences.

The aim of TGr is to represent a theoretical description of its gr. system, that is to analyse and define its gr. categories and to study mechanisms of formation of utterances out of words in the process of speech making.

Speaking of the systemic approach, a system is a structured set of elements united by a common function. Language is a system of specific interconnected and interdependent lingual signs united by their common function of forming, storing and exchanging ideas in the process f human intercommunication. The originator of the systemic approach was F. de Saussure. He was the first to divide the phenomenon of language in general into two aspects: language and speech.

Segmental lingual units (phonemes that unite into morphemes, words and sentences) form a hierarchy of levels.

The 1^st level is formed by phonemes, the smallest material lingual elements, or segments. They have form, but they have no meaning.

The 2^nd level is composed of morphemes, the smallest meaningful elements built up by phonemes.

The 3rd level consists of words, or lexemes, nominative lingual units.

The 4^th level is the level of sentences, lingual units which name certain situations, or events.

The 5^th level is formed by sentences in a text or in actual speech.

There are two fundamental types of relations between lingual units: paradigmatic and syntagmatic.

Syntagmatic – linear relations between units in a sequence. Paradigmatic relations exist between elements of the system outside the string.

Morphology and its basic problems. The interrelation of morphology and syntax. Morpheme and its types.

Morphology studies the structure classification and combinability of words. The main problem of morphology is giving the definition to the term ‘word’. There is no universal definition, but we may say that word is an elementary component of the sentence, a grammatically arranged combination of meaning and sound. Morphology is also concerned with the process of word formation. Words are formed by morphemes - the smallest unit which carries meaning. An allomorph is a non-distinctive realization of a morpheme.

According to the location of the morphemes with regard to each other they are divided into roots and affixes. Roots express the concrete, “material” part of the meaning of the word and constitute its central part. Affixes specify, or transform the meaning of the root. Affixes are further subdivided into lexical, or word-building (derivational) affixes, which together with the root constitute the stem of the word, and grammatical, or word-changing affixes, expressing different morphological categories, such as number, case, tense and others. With the help of lexical affixes new words are derived, or built; with the help of grammatical affixes the form of the word is changed.

Free morphemes, which can build up words by themselves, are opposed to bound morphemes, used only as parts of words; e.g.: in the word ‘ hands’ hand- is a free morpheme and -s is a bound morpheme.

The lexico-grammatical classes of words. Parts of speech and criteria for their classification.

The term “parts of speech” is accepted by modern linguistics to denote the lexico-grammatical classes of words correlating with each other in the general system of language on the basis of their grammatically relevant properties (semantic, formal and functional properties).

The traditional criteria for the classification of parts of speech are meaning, form and function of words. The semantic criterion refers to the generalized semantic properties common to the whole class of words, e.g.: the generalized (or, categorial) meaning of nouns is “thingness”, of verbs process, of adjectives substantive property, of adverbs non-substantive property. The formal criterion embraces the formal features (word-building and word-changing) that are characteristic for a particular part of speech, e.g.: the noun is characterized by a specific set of word-building affixes, cf.: property, bitterness, worker, etc., and is changed according to the categories of number, case and article determination: boy-boys, boy – boy’s, boy – the boy – a boy, etc. Combinability is also a relevant formal feature for each particular part of speech; for example, verbs can be modified by adverbs, while nouns cannot (except in specific contexts). The functional criterion is based on the functions that the words of a particular class fulfill in the sentence, e.g.: the most characteristic functions of the noun are those of a subject and an object; the only function of the finite form of the verb is that of a predicate; the adjective functions in most contexts as an attribute; the adverb as an adverbial modifier.

Traditionally, all parts of speech are subdivided on the upper level of classification into notional words and functional words. Notional words, which traditionally include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns and numerals, have complete nominative meanings, are in most cases changeable and fulfill self-dependent syntactic functions in the sentence. Functional words, which include conjunctions, prepositions, articles, interjections, particles, and modal words, have incomplete nominative value, are unchangeable and fulfill mediatory (посреднеческий), constructional syntactic functions.

Henry Sweet divided all the words in English into “declinables” and “indeclinables”. The syntactic approach, which establishes the word classes in accord with their functional characteristics, is more universal. Ch. Fries selected the most widely used grammatical constructions and used them as substitution frames: the frames were parsed (разобраны) into parts, each of them got a separate number, and then Ch. Fries conducted a series of substitution tests to find out what words can be used in each of the positions. Some of the frames were as follows: The concert was good (always). The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly). The team went there. All the words that can be used in place of the article made one group, the ones that could be used instead of the word “clerk” another, etc. The results of his experiments were surprisingly similar to the traditional classification of parts of speech: four main positions were distinguished in the sentences; the words which can be used in these positions without affecting the meaning of the structures were united in four big classes of words, and generally speaking coincide with the four major notional parts of speech in the traditional classification: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Besides these “positional words” (“form-words”), Ch. Fries distinguished 15 limited groups of words, which cannot fill in the positions in the frames. These “function words” are practically the same as the functional words in the traditional classification.

The category of voice.

There are 2 main views on the definition.

1) Voice expresses the relations between the subject of an action and the action.

2) Voice expresses the relation between the subject and the object of an action.

The obvious opposition within the category is between Active and Passive (the doer performs an action- active verb.)

The passive voice is the marked member of the opposition: "be + participle 2", while the active verb is unmarked.

Are there other voices in English? Controversial question.

reflexive - the doer of an action performs an action directed on himself (He dressed himself)

reciprocal - взаимный. They greeted each other. They met...

Middle voice - The book sells well; The door opened.

Classification of sentences

Sentences may be classified:

1. according to the type of classification: interrogative, declarative, imperative.

2. according to theemotional colouring:neutral, emotionally coloured, exclamatory.

3. according to the character of predicative relations: affirmative, negative.

4. according to the number of the main parts: two-member sentences, verbless two-member sentences, one-member sentences.

5. according to the structural completeness: complete, incomplete.

6. according to the character of the subject.

7. according to the number of predicative units: simple, composite. Composite are subdivided into compound and complex. There are also semi-compound and semi-complex sentences.

There are 3 communicative sentence types: declarative, imperative, interrogative.

Declarative sentences are in the affirmative or negative form. Interrogative sentences ask a question. There are 4 kinds of questions:

1. General; 2. Special; 3. Alternative; 4. Disjunctive

An imperative sentence is used to induce a person to do something. It expresses a command, invitation, request etc. Besides, we can speak about so called exclamatory sentences, but this type of sentences doesn’t possess qualities that could place them on the same level with 3 communicative types. Each of the 3 communicative types can be represented in 2 variants: neutral (non-exclamatory) and exclamatory.

The structural grammar.

Structural grammar (Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, and Leonard Bloomfield) is a means of analyzing written and spoken language. It is concerned with how elements of a sentence such as morphemes, phonemes, phrases, clauses and parts of speech are put together. Under this form of linguistic analysis, it is how these elements work together that is most important, as the relationships between the elements typically have a greater meaning than any of the single elements. The study of this method therefore is an important tool for improving clarity in communication. The purpose of this approach is to describe how language is actually used rather than prescribing a 'correct' version for students to learn.

The best way to study language is to look at its systematic structure, which is really the link between thought and sound.

Structural grammar is a way of approaching the study of grammar, especially syntax, by analyzing the relationships among words in a sentence. Any time students are taught to recognize phrases, clauses, or even parts of speech, or to diagram sentences, they are learning structural grammar.

Limitations of structural grammar:

1. Structuralism ignores explanatory adequacy, meaning, linguistic universals, native speaker's intuition and his competence of generating infinite number of sentences from a finite set of items.

2. It is not a whole but a part of a whole – an inventory of units such as phonemes, morphemes, words, lexical categories, phrases.

The case grammar.

Case Grammar is a system of linguistic analysis, focusing on the link between the valence, or number of subjects, objects, etc., of a verb and the grammatical context it requires. The system was created by the American linguist Charles J. Fillmore in (1968), in the context of Transformational Grammar. This theory analyzes the surface syntactic structure of sentences by studying the combination of deep cases (i.e. semantic roles) -- Agent, Object, Benefactor, Location or Instrument – which are required by a specific verb. For instance, the verb "give" in English requires an Agent (A) and Object (O), and a Beneficiary (B); e.g. "Jones (A) gave money (O) to the school (B).

According to Fillmore, each verb selects a certain number of deep cases which form its case frame. Thus, a case frame describes important aspects of semantic valency, of verbs, adjectives and nouns. Case frames are subject to certain constraints, such as that a deep case can occur only once per sentence. Some of the cases are obligatory and others are optional. Obligatory cases may not be deleted, at the risk of producing ungrammatical sentences. For example, Mary gave the apples is ungrammatical in this sense.

A fundamental hypothesis of case grammar is that grammatical functions, such as subject or object, are determined by the deep, semantic valence of the verb, which finds its syntactic correlate in such grammatical categories as Subject and Object, and in grammatical cases such as Nominative, Accusative, etc. Fillmore (1968) puts forwards the following hierarchy for a universal subject selection rule:

Agent < Instrumental < Objective

That means that if the case frame of a verb contains an agent, this one is realized as the subject of an active sentence; otherwise, the deep case following the agent in the hierarchy (i.e. Instrumental) is promoted to subject.

During the 1970s and the 1980s, Charles Fillmore developed his original theory onto what was called Frame Semantics.

The subject of TGr. The systematic approach. Syntagmatics and paradygmatics. Levels of language.

Grammar is subdivided into morphology and syntax. The object of morphology is the structure classification and combinability of words. Syntax deals with the structure classification and combinability of sentences.

The aim of TGr is to represent a theoretical description of its gr. system, that is to analyse and define its gr. categories and to study mechanisms of formation of utterances out of words in the process of speech making.

Speaking of the systemic approach, a system is a structured set of elements united by a common function. Language is a system of specific interconnected and interdependent lingual signs united by their common function of forming, storing and exchanging ideas in the process f human intercommunication. The originator of the systemic approach was F. de Saussure. He was the first to divide the phenomenon of language in general into two aspects: language and speech.

Segmental lingual units (phonemes that unite into morphemes, words and sentences) form a hierarchy of levels.

The 1^st level is formed by phonemes, the smallest material lingual elements, or segments. They have form, but they have no meaning.

The 2^nd level is composed of morphemes, the smallest meaningful elements built up by phonemes.

The 3rd level consists of words, or lexemes, nominative lingual units.

The 4^th level is the level of sentences, lingual units which name certain situations, or events.

The 5^th level is formed by sentences in a text or in actual speech.

There are two fundamental types of relations between lingual units: paradigmatic and syntagmatic.

Syntagmatic – linear relations between units in a sequence. Paradigmatic relations exist between elements of the system outside the string.