Zero Article (meaningful absence of the article)

• before countable nouns in the Pl and uncountable nouns it has the classifying value, like the Indefinite Article;

• the zero article can only be treated as a morpheme: we do not speak of zero words.

Allomorphs of the Indefinite Article:

a/an & 0 (vs the)

Article as a Determiner

Definite

• definite article

• demonstrative prn

• possessive prn

• N’s

Indefinite

• indefinite article

• pronouns some, any, no, every, each

• absence of any determiner

Article and the Category of Number

• Singular synthetic ( no article) — stone

• Singular analytical ( with a/an) — a stone

• Plural (-es) — stones

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Structure of words. Types of morphemes.

It's necessary to distinguish between form-building and word-building means. Word-building means express notions. e.g. work – worker –> -er – lexical suffix workable –> -able – lex. Suffix They build new words, they're treated in Lexicology. Form-building means are means of building up new forms of words. They are treated in grammar (morphology). Traditionally the following types of morphemes are distinguished: Root morphemes; affixal morphemes (affixes) - prefixes- suffixes- inflections(gr. suffixes)Prefixes, root-morphemes, lexical suffixes are lexical morphemes in English. Only grammatical suffixes (inflections) are form-building means in English. (Russian suffixes and prefixes are form-building) Morphemes

Free morphemes can build up words by themselves, while bound can't do that.

e.g. handful - hand- free; ful – bound Both form-building and word-building affixes can be: productive -er; -or; -ent; -ness-(e)s; -(e)d; -ing; -er, -est & non-productive-dom; -hood (lex. suffixes) -en; -em (gr. suffixes) Both word-building and form-building suffixes can be polysemantic. e.g. -ly (lex. suff) can build adj, adv. => loudly – adv.; friendly – adj. -s (es) (gr. suff.) forms plural/singular of nouns + possessive case. Structurally mrphs fall into 3 types: free, bound and semi-free (semi-bound) morphemes. A free morpheme is defined as one that coincides with some word-forms independently functioning in speech (a stem) – heart – hearts; hearty- heartier.. A bound morpheme occurs only as a constituent part of a word (affixes, unique roots and pseudo-roots: theor- in theory, theoretical). Semi-bound morphemes are morphemes that can function in a morphemic sequence both as an affix and as a free morpheme (sleep well – well-known, half an hour – half-eaten).

 

 

The category of tense. Posteriority.

Objective time and its divisions (present, past and future) can be expressed:

Lexically: time is indicated very definitely and directly yesterday, now, five minutes ago, last year, on March 5, 2010

Grammatically: abstract and indirect/ relative expression: time is denoted through an action that takes place at, before or after the moment of speech: worked

TENSE – the grammatical category denoting TIME

• reflects the objective category of time and expresses the relation between the time of the action and the time of the utterance;

• the opposition underlying this category usually includes 3 forms:

Russian: делаю – делал – буду делать

English: do – did – shall/will do

Present — Past — Future

Objective and Grammatical Present

1 objective present is immeasurable: a fleeting moment of speech, which does not last and cannot be measured:

2 grammatical present denotes a variable period of time including the present moment (the moment of speech).

Grammatical Present:

• He takes the key and unlocks the door. – instantaneous present;

• I am delivering a lecture. – limited present;

• He studies English. – timeless present;

• Spiders have eight legs. – timeless present in a universal statement.

The Past is the time preceding the moment of speech.

The Future is the time following the present moment /moment of speech.

Present is unmarked both formally and semantically: neutralization of the opposition

• past actions: At that moment in comes the policeman… (historic present);

• future actions: The plane takes off at 5.

Present, Past and Future are absolute meanings of time
(show the time of the action in relation to the present moment / moment of speech)

Relative meanings of time:

• Simultaneity

• Priority

• Posteriority

The problem of the FUTURE Tense form:

• is analytical;

• historically, appeared later;

• does not cover defective(modal) verbs;

• is very close to free modal phrases (shall/will+Infinitive).

The category of Posteriority / Prospect

• The grammatical meaning shall/will do and should/would do (marked forms) have in common is the meaning of after-action: both the forms denote posterior actions that happen after some other moment – in the present or past.

• The unmarked forms (do and did) denote non-posterior actions.

Time in English is expressed:

• absolutely: from the point of view of the moment of speech (by means of the category of Tense – Present and Past)

• relatively: as following/not following some other action (by means of the category of Posteriority – Future). Here belong such words and phrases as after that, before that, some time later etc.

Tense denotes primary absolute time.

Posteriority denotes relative time, after-action.

 

The category of order / correlation.

Temporal category of Order/ Correlation/ Retrospect/ Taxis/ Anteriority/ Priority

• According to A.I. Smirnitsky’s criteria for grammatical categories, Perfect forms are not special tenses: otherwise two meanings of the same category would be expressed in one form: has written is simultaneously Present and Perfect, had written is simultaneously Past and Perfect.

if Present and Past are tenses, Perfect should belong to some other category expressed in the opposition of non-perfect and perfect forms

The Perfect (marked) form:

• analytical: have + Participle II;

• discontinuous morpheme: have…en;

• meaning: precedence to some other moment or action

Come on, ladies. There's nothing to be afraid of. The mice have left the room. (present) He knew that as a girl she had lived in Rome. (past) If you come back in about twenty minutes, Alec and I will have had our talk. (future)

Perfect non-finite forms: I'm very glad to have seen you again.

The category of Order/ Priority

• covers the whole verb system, including finite and non-finite forms:

to write – to have written, writing – having written (which have no tense forms).

• does not cover only Participle II, the Imperative Mood and Subjunctive I.

• expresses time relatively: by stating whether the action is prior or non-prior to some moment in the present, past or future.

NOTE:

• In accordance with the kind of action/process denoted, notional verbs can be terminative/limitive (denote actions which cannot develop beyond a certain inherent limit: bring, jump, arrive, break, spoil, close, open, etc.) and durative/non-limitive/non-terminative (denote actions not limited inherently: walk, read, live, sleep, hope, stand, move, work, etc.).

• This lexico-grammatical division is revealed in the categories of aspect and order.

The meaning of the concrete perfect forms is influenced by the lexical meaning of the verb and the context:

• Terminative verbs in perfect forms denote completed actions and possess the meaning of result:

Go and wash your hands. – I have washed them. I've written a poem. I've finished the sandwiches.

In certain contexts terminative verbs in perfect forms can express repeated actions. In such cases the idea of completion is not expressed: You've always spoilt her. He has f requently lost his keys.

• Durative verbs in perfect forms do not denote completed actions and have no meaning of result. They can express either actions continuing up to a certain moment not including it (exclusive perfect): Here I am! Have you waited long? or including it (inclusive perfect): Isn't he in yet? Have you waited long?

The distinction between the inclusive and the exclusive perfect appears to be a matter of context.

 

The category of aspect.

• a major semantic category denoting the character of the action.

• aspective meanings: repetition, duration, completion, beginning, result, etc.

• Aspective meanings can be expressed both lexically (begin / continue / finish, etc. + Infinitive or Gerund) and grammatically.

• Aspective meaning of result or completion characteristic ofof terminative verbs in perfect forms is lexical, so perfect forms do not belong to the category of aspect.

The grammatical category of Aspect is represented by the opposition of non-continuous and continuous forms:

writes^-- – is writing⁺

Continuous (marked) forms are not tenses:

• two tense meanings in one form are impossible;

• in writes – is writing⁺ tense is the same – Present.

• analytical: auxiliary verb to be + - ing form.

• The discontinuous morpheme: be…ing( These morphemes don’t include the root of the notional verb)

• meaning: an action in progress, in its continuity;

• The category of Aspect covers both finite and non-finite forms of the verb (Infinitive)

to write — to be writing

to have written — to have been writing

Aspect denotes the character of the action, the manner of its development.