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ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ
АГЕНТСТВО
ПО
ОБРАЗОВАНИЮ
Государственное
образовательное
учреждение
высшего
профессионального
образования
ТУЛЬСКИЙ
ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ
УНИВЕРСИТЕТ
Кафедра
лингвистики
и
перевода
ЛЕКЦИИ
по
теоретической
грамматике
английского
языка
для
студентов
III
курса
,
обучающихся
по
направлению
031100 –
Лингвистика
и
по
специальности
031202 –
Перевод
и
переводоведение
ТУЛА
2007
2
Составила
:
асс
.
Тивьяева
И
.
В
.
Курс
лекций
по
теоретической
грамматике
английского
языка
содержит
18
лекций
,
посвященных
актуальным
вопросам
морфологии
и
синтаксиса
английского
языка
.
Главная
цель
курса
теоретической
грамматики
заключается
в
изучении
основных
грамматических
теорий
по
всем
основополагающим
проблемам
грамматики
английского
языка
,
актуальных
исследований
последних
лет
для
формирования
необходимой
лингвистической
эрудиции
будущих
бакалавров
и
специалистов
.
Тематически
и
содержательно
лекции
построены
с
учетом
достижений
лингвистической
науки
за
последние
десятилетия
и
предполагают
сопоставление
различных
грамматических
явлений
с
фактами
такого
же
порядка
в
русском
языке
.
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Lecture 1
Fundamentals of grammar
1. Grammatical category. Grammatical meaning. Grammatical form.
2. Theory of oppositions. Types of oppositions. Oppositions in morphology.
3. Morpheme. Derivation morphemes and inflection morphemes.
4. Distributional analysis. Morphemic analysis. IC-analysis.
1. Grammatical category. Grammatical meaning. Grammatical form
The general notions of grammar which determine the structure of language
and find their expression in inflection and other devices are generally called
grammatical categories. As is known, a grammatical category is generally
represented by at least two grammatical forms, otherwise it cannot exist. A simple
case of oppositions in pairs of grammatical forms will be found, for instance,
between the Singular and the Plural in nouns, or between Active and Passive in
verbs. A
grammatical category
is a unit of grammar based on a morphological
opposition of grammatical meanings presented in grammatical forms.
It is more or less universally recognised that word-meaning is not
homogeneous but is made up of various components the combination and the
interrelation of which determine to a great extent the inner facet of the word. These
components are usually described as types of meaning. The two main types of
meaning that are readily observed are the grammatical and the lexical meanings to
be found in words and word-forms.
The most general meanings rendered by language and expressed by systemic
correlations of word-forms are interpreted in linguistics as grammatical meanings.
Grammatical meanings
are very abstract, very general. Therefore the
grammatical form is not confined to an individual word, but unites a whole class of
words, so that each word of the class expresses the corresponding grammatical
meaning together with its individual, concrete semantics. Grammatical meanings
ranged in oppositions and presented in grammatical forms build grammatical
categories.
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Grammatical forms
can be morphemes, synthetic forms, and grammatical
word combinations, which are analytical forms. Synthetic forms unite both lexical
and grammatical meanings in one word. In analytical forms there two or more
words in which at least one element is an auxiliary. The auxiliary is a constant
element of an analytical structure, which is devoid of lexical meaning (it renders
grammatical meanings and is a purely grammatical element). Analytical structures
must be differentiated from free syntactical word combinations. In free syntactical
word combinations all the elements possess both lexical and grammatical
meanings.
Cf.
waiter
and
waitress
The distinctions of gender in Russian are universal. They refer to all the
vocabulary of the language. In English this distinction is not a grammatical
phenomenon. The grammatical category of gender is lost. What we have now is
some gender distinctions existing as the remnant of history. The distinction “waiter
vs. waitress” is not universal enough to build up a grammatical category. It does
not possess the level of grammatical abstraction characterized by an unlimited
range of occurrence.
Cf.
book
and
books
-s is a form-building morpheme that builds a grammatical form because it is
characterized by the level of grammatical abstraction realized in an unlimited range
of occurrence.
Types of word-form derivation
These fall under two main headings:
(a) those limited to changes in the body of the word, without having
recourse to auxiliary words (synthetic types),
(b) those implying the use of auxiliary words (analytical types).
Besides, there are a few special cases of different forms of a word
being derived from altogether different stems.
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Synthetic Types
The number of morphemes used for deriving word-forms in Modern
English is very small (much smaller than either in German or in Russian,
for instance.
There is the ending
-s (-es),
with three variants of pronunciation and
the endings
-en
and
-ren,
in one or two words each, viz.
oxen, brethren
(poet.),
children.
There is the ending
-'s
, with the same three variants of pronunciation as
for the plural ending, used to form what is generally termed the genitive case of
nouns.
For adjectives, there are the endings
-er
and
-est
for the degrees of
comparison.
For verbs, there is the ending
-s (-es)
for the third person singular
present indicative, with the same three variants of pronunciation noted above
for nouns, the ending
-d (-ed)
for the past tense of certain verbs (with three
variants of pronunciation, again), the ending
-d (ed)
for the second participle
of certain verbs, the ending
-n (-en)
for the second participle of certain other
verbs, and the ending
-ing
for the first participle and also for the gerund.
Thus the total number of morphemes used to derive forms of words is
eleven or twelve, which is much less than the number found in languages
of a mainly synthetical structure.
It should also be noted that most of these endings are mono-semantic,
in the sense that they denote only one grammatical category and not two or
three (or more) at a time, as is the case in synthetic languages. For
example, the plural
-s
(or
-es)
denotes only the category of plural number, and
has nothing to do with any other grammatical category, such as case.
Sound Alternations
Sound alternations are a way of expressing grammatical categories which
consists in changing a sound inside the root. This method appears in Modern
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English, for example, in nouns, as when the root vowel [au] of
mouse
is
changed into [a
ı
] in
mice,
etc.
This method is much more extensively used in verbs, such as
write
—
wrote
—
written, sing — sang
—
sung, meet — met
—
met,
etc. On the whole,
vowel alternation does play some part among the means of expressing
grammatical categories, though its part in Modern English has been much
reduced as compared to Old English.
Analytical Types
These consist in using a word (devoid of any lexical meaning of its
own) to express some grammatical category of another word.
There can be no doubt in Modern English about the analytical character of
such formations as, e. g.,
has invited
or
is invited,
or
is inviting,
or
does not
invite.
The verbs
have, be,
and
do
have no lexical meaning of their own in
these cases. The lexical meaning of the formation resides in the participle or
infinitive following the verb
have, be
or
do.
Some doubt has been expressed
about the formations
shall invite
and
will invite.
There is a view that
shall
and
will
have a lexical meaning.
While the existence of analytical forms of the English verb cannot be
disputed, the existence of such forms in adjectives and adverbs is not
nowadays universally recognised. The question whether such formations as
more vivid, the most vivid,
or, again,
more vividly
and
most vividly
are or
are not analytical forms of degrees of comparison of
vivid
and
vividly,
is
controversial. We can only say here that if these formations are recognised as
analytical forms of degrees of comparison, the words
more
and
most
have to
be numbered among the analytical means of morphology.
Suppletive Formations
Besides the synthetical and analytical means of building word forms in
Modern English, there is yet another way of building them which stands quite
apart and is found in a very limited number of cases only. By a suppletive
formation we mean building a form of a word from an altogether different
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stem. Examples in point are, the verb
go,
with its past tense
went;
the
personal pronoun
I,
with its objective case form
me,
the adjective
good
with its
comparative degree form
better,
and a few more. In the morphological system
of Modern English suppletive formations are a very insignificant element,
but they concern a few very widely used words among adjectives,
pronouns, and verbs.
2. Theory of oppositions. Types of oppositions. Oppositions in morphology
In discussing grammatical categories, we shall often have to mention
oppositions, that is, pairs of grammatical forms opposed to each other in some
way. The
opposition
may be defined as a generalized correlation of lingual forms
by means of which a certain function is expressed. The correlated elements
(members) of the opposition must possess two types of features: common features
and differential features. Common features serve as the basis of contrast, while
differential features immediately express the function in question.
The oppositional theory was originally formulated as a phonological theory.
Three main qualitative types of oppositions were established in phonology:
privative, gradual, and equipollent. By the number of members contrasted,
oppositions were divided into binary and more than binary (ternary, quaternary,
etc.).
The most important type of oppositions is the binary privative opposition;
the other types of oppositions are reducible to the binary privative opposition.
The
binary privative opposition
is formed by a contrastive pair of
members in which one member is characterized by the presence of a certain
differential feature (strong, marked, positive), while the other member is
characterized by the absence of the feature (weak, unmarked, negative). Eg.
voiced vs. devoiced consonants
The
gradual opposition
is formed by a contrastive group of members
which are distinguished not by the presence or absence of a feature, but by the
degree of it.
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(Eg. [ï: - i – e - ae] form a quaternary opposition by the degree of their
openness)
The
equipollent opposition
is formed by a contrastive pair or group in
which the members are distinguished by different positive features. (eg. [m] – [b],
both bilabial consonants, form an equipollent opposition, [m] being sonorous
nasalized, [b] being plosive.)
Any opposition can be reformulated in privative terms. Any positive feature
distinguishing an oppositionally characterized element is absent in the
oppositionally correlated element, so that considered from the point of view of
this feature alone, the opposition, by definition, becomes privative.
The most important type of opposition in morphology is the binary
privative opposition. The
privative morphological opposition
is based on a
morphological differential feature which is present in its strong member and
absent in its weak member (eg. present – past).
Speaking about morphological oppositions we need to keep in mind the fact
that members of morphological oppositions unlike those of phonological
oppositions possess both the plane of expression and the plane of content (eg. cat
– cats). The meaning of the weak member is more general and abstract as
compared with the meaning of the strong member, which is more particular and
specific. Due to this difference in meaning, the unmarked member is used in a
wider range of contexts than the marked member. For example, the present tense
form of the verb, as different from the past tense, is used to render meanings
much broader than those directly implied by the corresponding time-plane.
Equipollent oppositions in the system of English morphology constitute a
minor type and are mostly confined to formal relations only (eg. am – are – is).
Gradual oppositions in morphology are not generally recognized. They can
be identified as a minor type at the semantic level only (eg. strong – stronger –
strongest).
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In various contextual positions one member of an opposition can be used in
the position of the other. This phenomenon can be referred to as
reduction of
oppositions
.
eg.
US soldier goes to Iraq.
The conference opens next week.
(The weak member replaces the strong one.)
This oppositional reduction is stylistically indifferent. Use of the unmarked
member does not transgress the expressive conventions of ordinary speech. This
kind of oppositional reduction is called
neutralization
. Another type of
oppositional reduction is called
transposition
. It is defined as contrastive use of
the counter-member of the opposition (the strong one, as a rule).
eg.
She is always finding faults with me.
3. Morpheme. Derivation morphemes and inflection morphemes
Most word-forming morphemes are ambiguous, that is, they do not with
certainty point to any definite part of speech but leave some choice which has
to be decided by other criteria. The morpheme is one of the central notions
of grammatical theory, without which no serious attempt at grammatical
study can be made. Definition of a morpheme is not an easy matter, and it
has been attempted many times by different scholars. Without going into
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