The categories of person and number

The category of person is the system of two member opposition. It is available only in the

Present Tense in singular number. B. Khaimovich and Rogovskaya (22) state that “the third person

with a positive morpheme being opposed to the first person with a zero morpheme”. In the future

tense sh- of the first person is opposed to w- of the second and third persons.

A similar treatment of the problem is observed in works of L.S. Barkhudarov (2), (4), who opposes third

person to the common person (1st, 2nd persons) because “almost all the verbs in the 1st and 2nd persons have a zero

marker”.

So far as to the category of number is concerned many grammarians consider that it is in its purity

represented only in the verb “to be”, for other verbs the opposition of the 3rd person singular, to 3rd person plural

accepted (in the present-tense).

The aspective categories of the verb

The category of aspect is a linguistic representation of the objective category of Manner of Action. It is realized through the opposition Continuous::Non-Continuous (Progressive::Non-Progressive). The realization of the category of aspect is closely connected with the lexical meaning of verbs.

There are some verbs in English that do not normally occur with progressive aspect, even in those contexts in which the majority of verbs necessarily take the progressive form. Among the so-called ‘non-progressive’ verbs are think, understand, know, hate, love, see, taste, feel, possess, own, etc. The most striking characteristic that they have in common is the fact that they are ‘stative’ - they refer to a state of affairs, rather than to an action, event or process. It should be observed, however, that all the ‘non-­progressive' verbs take the progressive aspect under particular circumstances. As the result of internal transposition verbs of non-progressive nature can be found in the Continuous form: Now I'm knowing you. Generally speaking the Continuous form has at least two semantic features - duration (the action is always in progress) and definiteness (the action is always limited to a definite point or period of time). In other words, the purpose of the Continuous form is to serve as a frame which makes the process of the action more concrete and isolated.

Neutralization is most common for privative oppositions as the unmarked,‘weak’ member has a broader and less specified meaning contains thedistinctive characteristic(s) common for both marked and unmarked memberscan cover the meaning of both members in certain contextual conditions unlessdistributional or other restrictions are imposed. o Neutralization of the opposition within the category of Tense: – Present – Future; – Present – Past. o Neutralization of the opposition within the category of Aspect: – Simple of stative verbs (constant, paradigmatic neutralization caused by the lexical meaning of the verb, an exception); – Simple of activity verbs. o Neutralization of the opposition within the category of Correlation: – Past Simple – Past Perfect; – Past Simple – Present Perfect of actional verbs;! But no neutralization: Past Simple – Present Perfect of activity and state verbs; – Present Simple of hear, forget.

Adjective

The characteristic features of the adjective as a part of speech are as follows:

1. their lexical-grammatical meaning of attributes or we may say that they express property of things

/persons/;2. from the morphological view point they have the category of degrees of comparison;

3. from the point of view of their combinality they combine with nouns, as it has already

been stated above, they express the properties of things. The words that express things we call

nouns. It seems to be important to differentiate the combinability of a word with other words and

reference of a word of a part of speech to another part of speech. We put this because adjectives

modify nouns but they can combine with adverbs, link verbs and the word “one”:

a white horse. The horse is white.

The sun rose red. The sun rose extremely red.

4. the stem-building affixes are: -ful, -less, -ish, -ous, -ive, -ir, un-, -pre-, in-...;

5. their syntactic functions are: attribute and predicative

It is important to point out that in the function of an attribute the adjectives are in most

cases used in pre-position; in post- position they are very seldom: time immemorial; chance to

come.

The category of comparison of adjectives shows the absolute or relative quality of a

substance.

Adverb

Classification of the adverbs. is a part of speech which expresses some circumstances that attend an action or state. The grammatical meaning of the adverb is pointing out some characteristic features of an action or a quality. According to their meanings adverbs fall under several groups: 1. adverbs of time (today, soon, etc.); 2. a.of repetition or frequency (often, seldom, over, etc.); 3.a.of place and direction (inside, backward, etc.); 4. a. of cause and consequence (therefore, accordingly, etc.); 5 .a.of manner (kindly, hard, etc.); 6. a.of degree, measure and quantity (very, almost, once, etc.). 3 groups of adverbs stand aside: interrogative (where, when, why, how), relative and conjunctive adverbs, the former being used in special questions, and the latter two to introduce subordinate clauses. Some adverbs are homonymous with prepositions, conjunctions (before, after, since) and words of the category of state. Some adverbs have degrees of comparison. This grammatical category finds its morphological expression only in a limited group of adverbs, namely, the suppletive forms of ‘well’, ‘badly’, ‘much’, ‘little’, and the degrees of comparison of the adverbs ‘fast’, ‘near’, ‘hard’. In other cases the forms are analytical (wisely - more wisely - most wisely). The adverb ‘far’ has a peculiar form.The syntagmatics of the adverb is that of an adverbial modifier (said softly, nice in a way), and sometimes of an attribute (the then president).

The adverb is separated into a special part of speech because of the following facts:

1. Meaning: they express the degree of a property, property of an action, circumstances under which an

action takes place.

2. Form: they have the degrees of comparison.

3. Stem-building elements: - ly, -ways, -wards,...

4. Combinability: bilateral combinability with verbs, adjectives, adverbs, less regularly

with adlinks: e.g. He was hard asleep.

5. Function: Adverbial modifiers.

According to the meaning adverbs fall under three subclasses:

1. qualitative

2. quantitative

3. circumstantial

Qualitative adverbs usually modify verbs.

Adverbs like: badly, quickly, slowly, steadily, comparatively may be referred to this type of adverbs.

They denote the quality of actions:

Ex: Clay collapsed on the sand beside Cathie, a wet arm playfully snatching her towel

away.

I want to go home, she said determinedly.

The Qualitative adverbs are derived from the adjectives by the help of productive adverb forming suffix -

ly. Like adjectives the qualitative adverbs have distinctions of degree. These adverbs can both precede and follow

the verbs.Quantitative adverbs show the degree, measure, quantity of an action and state. To this subclass adverbs

like very, rather, too, nearly, greatly, fully, hardly, quite, utterly may be referred. Ex. She had told herself before that

it would be foolish to fall in love with Rob. And she had finally done it.

Her gaze trailed around the room again, stopping at the partially opened double doors that

led into the parlour.

Some part of her was walking with him because of that strange, intimate look they had exchanged - a look

that Cathie would rather forget, but warmth was too fresh. J. Daiby.

If the combinability of the qualitative adverbs is bound with verbs only the combinability

of the quantitative adverbs are more extensive: they can modify verbs, the words of category of

state, adjectives, adverbs, numerals and nouns.

Circumstantial adverbs serve to denote in most cases local and temporal circumstances attending an action.

Accordingly they are divided into two groups:

a) adverbs of time and frequency /today, tomorrow, often, again, twice.../.

b) adverbs of place and direction: upstairs, behind, in front of,... Ex. They stood outside

the door, giving me directions. Now and then they deliberately refused to jump up and find himself

something to do when the unpleasant sensations clutched at him.

c) She waited in front of the window and when he came down he thrust a small dark blue box into her

hands. L.Wright

Thus, circumstancial adverbs denote the time and place the action took place. Therefore

unlike the previous subclasses the circumstantial adverbs can occupy any position in the sentence.

Some circumstantial adverbs can have the degrees of comparison: often, late, near and so on.

Special attention should be given to the fact that some circumstancial adverbs may be

preceded by prepositions: from now on, up to now, from there and so on.

Pronoun

Classification of the pronouns. is a part of speech which points out objects and their qualities without naming them. Therefore, the pronoun possesses a highly generalized meaning that seldom materializes outside of the context. The semantic classification of pronouns includes such subclasses as personal, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative, reciprocal, relative, indefinite, negative, conjunctive, defining and reflexive pronouns. The deictic, or indicatory, function of the pronoun is inherent in many subclasses except, maybe, interrogative, indefinite and negative. The anaphoric function, or the function of connecting with the preceding sentence or clause, is characteristic of relative and conjunctive pronouns though it may be occasionally performed by the other subclasses. Syntactic peculiarities of pronouns are accounted for by the fact that the pronoun is very close in its syntactic functions to those of the noun and the adjective. Hence, the main functions it performs are the ones of the subject, the predicative, the object, and the attribute. The pronoun seems to have the grammatical categories of person, gender (personal and possessive pronouns), case (personal, and the relative and interrogative WHO – the nominative and objective cases; indefinite, reciprocal and negative – the common and genitive cases) and number (demonstrative, and the defining OTHER).

Prepositions

General notion of the prepositions. is part of speech which denotes the relations between object and phenomena. It shows the relations between a verb, another noun, an adjective and sometimes an adverb. Usually the prepositions are not stressed and stands before the word it refers to. E g. Desert moved quickly to the windows. As to their morphological structure prepositions fall under following groups: To simple preposition consists of a single monosyllabic word, as a: in, on, at, with, for, from like, since, till, of, off, up. Derivative or compound preposition consists of two or more syllables and is usually made up of two or more words or is formed by prefixing and suffixing as: behind, below, across, along, around, inside, outside, within, without, into, despite, after, under, outside, except, over, until, upon, about. A participial preposition is a participial form used with the force of a preposition rather than with the force of an adjective, gerund, or verbal noun as: barring, concerning, during, saving, accepting, past, providing, respecting, notwithstanding, regarding, providing, touching. A phrasal preposition is a group of two or more words that may be used as a unit preposition and is at the same lime capable of being resolved into its constituent parts as: according to. as to, because of, by means of, for the sake of, in consequence of, in reference to, in regard to, in respect to with a view to, due to, laugh at and stand by. According to their meaning prepositions may be divided into prepositions of place and direction (in. on. below, under, between, etc ), time (after, before, at, etc), prepositions expressing abstract relations (by. with, because of. with a view to, etc.).

Conjunctions

the peculiarities of Conjunctions. is a part of speech which denotes connection between objects and phenomenally connects parts of the sentence, clauses, and sentences. According to their role in the sentence, conj. fall into two groups: Coordinating conj: and, but, or, either, besides, moreover, likewise, both... and yet. He spoke for the first motion and against the second motion. She moved quickly and with grace. Subordinating conj: that, if whether, as, though, since, when, until, as long as, before, alter, because, unless, so.. That the man didn’t call the police surprised nobody. Somehow I felt that his feelings had changed. According to their morphological structure conj. are divided into the following groups: Simple conj: and, or, but, till, after, that, so, where, when. Some of the simple conj. are homonymous with prepositions, adverbs, and pronouns. Derivative conj: until, unless, etc. Compound conj: however, whereas, wherever, etc. These conj are few. Composite conj: as well as, as long as, in case, for fear (that), on the ground that, for the reason that, etc

Numerals

(a) The numeral is a part of speech which indicates number or the order of persons and things in a series.

 

(b) Numerals are united by their semantics only. They have neither morphologic nor syntactic features. All numerals are subdivided into cardinal and ordinal. Both subclasses can perform equally well the functions peculiar of nouns and adjectives. Numerals possess a specific word-building system: suffixes –teen, -ty, -th. Some of them are easily substantivized and treated as nouns.

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