- •Theoretical grammar
- •The Subject of Theoretical Grammar
- •Kinds of Theoretical Grammar
- •Theoretical approaches to language data interpretation
- •Main grammatical notions
- •1.3.1. Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations.
- •1.3.2. Grammatical categories.
- •Subdivision of Language Levels’
- •General characteristics of the contemporary English language system
- •Characteristics of English:
- •Kinds of Morphemes
- •2.2. Principles of subdivision of parts of speech
- •1.Henry Sweet (19th century), an English linguist
- •2. Jence Otto Harry Jespersen (1860-1943), a Danish linguist
- •3. Charls Freez (19th-20th century), an American linguist
- •4. Lev Scherba (1880-1944), a Russian (Soviet) linguist,
- •2.3. Classification of parts of speech
- •2.4. Theory of the field structure of the word.
- •3.2. Subcategorization of the Noun.
- •The first classification of nouns
- •The second classification of nouns
- •3.3. Grammatical categories of the Noun.
- •The problem of the Gender of the English Noun.
- •The category of the Number.
- •The category of Case.
- •Comparing Grammatical Forms of the cases of the Latin and English Noun
- •4.1. Interpretation of the status of the English Article
- •4.2. The problem of the number of articles (how many morphological forms the Article can be presented in)
- •4.3. Functions and significance of the Article
- •5.2. Word-formative and word-changing systems of the Verb
- •5.3. Classification of verbs
- •5.3.1. Morphological Classification
- •Scheme of Morphological Classification of Verbs
- •5.3.2. Semantic Classification
- •Scheme of the 1st Semantic Classification of Verbs
- •Scheme of the 2nd Semantic Classification of Verbs
- •5.3.3. Syntactic Classification
- •Scheme of Syntactic Classification of Verbs
- •5.4. Grammatical Categories of the English Verb General Characteristics of the Categories of the English Verb
- •I Categories of the Finite Verbs
- •Terms that are used to name Forms of the Verb that do not make agree with Persons
- •6.2. The Paradigm of the Non-Finite Forms
- •6.3. Functions and Significance of the Non-Finite Forms
- •7.2. Classification of Word-combinations
- •Examples of types of word-combinations
- •Syntactic Location;
- •Morphological Form
- •Presence or absence of Syntacategorematic words
- •7.2. Classification of sentences. Structural Approach.
- •General Structure of the Simple Sentence
- •7.3. Semantics of the Sentence. Relevant Model.
- •Correspondence of Semantic Roles and their syntactic realisation
- •Practice I
- •Test I (teacher’s copy)
- •Test I (s)
- •Practice I Main grammar notions Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations. Grammar categories
1.3.2. Grammatical categories.
To the main notions in the study of Theoretical Grammar the following ones are included: grammatical category; grammatical form and grammatical meaning.
Grammatical Meaning differs from Lexical Meaning. The latter implies an idea or a sense that a word represents. Grammar Meaning also implies an idea or a sense but they (idea\sense) are peculiar to a class of words but not to a single word; they are united by a general propriety of the class of words. Thus, Grammatical Meaning is a generalized or abstract propriety of a class of words and unites big groups of classes of words.
For instance:
Class of words |
Proprieties |
The Noun |
to present objects or things (abstract or concrete).
|
The Verb |
to express action.
|
The Adjective |
to show a sign or a quality of an object or a thing. |
So, the Grammatical Meaning of the Noun is the propriety to present objects or things, the one of the Verb is the propriety to express an action, the one of the Adjective is the propriety to present a sign or a quality of an object or a thing, etc.
Grammatical Meaning is expressed through the formal indices of a class of words or through their absence. Formal indices are specific for each language and express Grammatical Meaning only when they are joined to the stems of definite parts of speech.
For instance:
The index ‘s’ in the English Language can express:
the Plural form of the Noun (a language - languages);
the Present Simple for the 3rd Person Singular (We live. – He lives.);
the Possessive Case of the Noun (a friend’s advice).
Grammatical Form refers to a material expression of Grammatical Meaning (expression of a word’s form or inflexion).
For instance:
The Grammatical Form ‘has been speaking’ is a material (language) expression of the Grammatical Meaning of the Verb which is presented by the definite notional verb ‘speak’ in the Present Perfect Continuous which refers to the 3rd Person Singular.
Grammatical Category appears on the ground of Grammatical Forms (that in their turn express Grammatical Meaning); it cannot include less than two opposite or properly correlated Grammatical Forms.
For instance:
In English there are:
the Category of Tense (Past, Present and Future) that includes 3 Grammatical Forms (properly correlated);
the Category of Aspect (Simple, Continuous, Perfect Simple and Perfect Continuous) that includes 4 Grammatical Forms (properly correlated);
the Category of Voice (Active and Passive) that includes 2 Grammatical Forms (opposite);
the Category of Number (Singular and Plural) that includes 2 Grammatical Forms (opposite), etc.
Grammatical Category presents a peculiar reflection of reality as the Category of Tense, for example, reflects a relation of an action to a moment of time; the Category of Voice reflects a relation of an agent to an action, etc.
Grammatical Category refers to the unity of two or more Grammatical Forms that are opposite or brought into proper correlation in accordance with Grammatical Meaning (example given above).
1.3.3. Language levels (table 1.2)
Table 1.2