3. Main notions of Grammar. Grammatical meaning.

Gram meaning (GM) is a general abstract meaning which unites classes of forms or words and finds its expression through formal markers thus placing a linguistic unit in a grammatical category or a grammatical class of words (a part of speech). Gramm meanings are more general and abstract whereas lexical meanings are usually more concrete and specific. The typological analysis of grammatical meanings reveals that they reflect not the fragments of reality but rather the structure of such fragments. Being limited in their number grammatical meanings have a regular and an obligatory(обязательный) character in the Language. We cannot use a notional(значимый) word without expressing its grammatical meaning/meanings. For example, when we say: It has been raining for hours, the verb rain expresses one lexical meaning and seven grammatical meanings (person, number, tense, aspect, time correlation(связь взаимосвязь), voice, and mood).

4.Main notions of Grammar. Grammatical form

Gramm form expresses grammatical meanings .

The form goes denotes present tense, 3rd person, singular number, indicative mood, active voice, etc.

These meanings are revealed in different oppositions : is going, goes, went, has gone.

But grammatical forms cannot express different meanings of the same category. So if a grammatical form has two or more meanings, they belong to different categories.

The grammatical form is a means of expressing a grammatical meaning. There are several types of form-building in English. The main subdivision of form-building types is into synthetical(simple synthetical) and analytical.

In a synthetical type a gramm meaning is expressed within a word, and analytical(which is presented by two or more elements,besides these elements perform different functions) type a gramm meaning is expressed with the help of auxiliary words (plus suffixes).The synthetical types of form-building in English include affixation (reads, shown, books, theirs etc.), sound interchange (take - took, shine - shone) and suppletivity (go - went, be -was, good - better - best}. .The only productive type in the present-day English is affixation, but the other two types are no less important, if only because they occur in words which are most frequently(часто) used. The analytical type of form-building occupies a very important place in the gramm structure of English as the Language has evolutionized from being mainly synthetical to becoming more and more analytical, and analytical tendencies in the present day English are very strong. There exist the so-called half-analytical structures and the analytical tendencies find their reflection in many spheres of the Language.

5.Main of Grammar. Grammatical category.

Gramm category - is a unity of grammatical meaning and grammatical form. Any word word-form present a certain grammatical category. A grammatical category can not exist without certain grammatical markers.

The set of grammatical forms expressing a categorical function constitutes a paradigm. The paradigmatic correlations of grammatical forms in a category are exposed by the so-called “gr. oppositions”.

The opposition – generalized correlation of lingual forms by means of which a certain function is expressed. The correlated elements must posses two types of features: common (the basis of contrast), differential (immediately express a funct. in question)

The notion of grammatical category is central in Theoretical Grammar, it's very important to single out the grammatical category of different types of speech. For that purpose the oppositional theory was worked out. It was originally formulated as a phonological theory.

According to the number of opposed members oppositions can be: -Binary, -More than binary (ternary, quaternary, etc.)

Three main types of grammatical opposition:

Privative (отрицательная)-in which only one element has a distinctive feature. (Based on a morph. differential feature which is present in its strong (marked) member (+) and absent in its weak (unmarked) member (–), work (-) – worked (+).The differential feature is the suff. –(e)d)

Gradual-when members differ in the degree of certain quality ( big – bigger – biggest)

equipollent (равноценный)-in which both members seem to be strong.

(A contrastive pair or group in which the members are distinguished by different positive features. In morph. it is mostly confined to formal relations. am – is – are (correlation of the person forms of the verb to be)

There exist some cases when a grammatical opposition reduced.

An oppositional reduction -is a case when a grammatical opposition is reduced to one member either weak or strong. It has subtypes: nutrilazation-is a case of oppositional reduction in which a strong member is substituted by it’s weak member. (e.g. Man conquers nature. (“man” is used in the sg. but it stands for people in general. The weak member of the categorical opposition of number has replaced the stronger member.),transposition-is a case of oppositional reduction when a grammatical opposition is reduced to a strong member.