- •1)The 2 branches of Grammar, their interconnection. Links of Gr. With other
- •2) Hierarchical structure of l. Segmental and supra-segmental levels.
- •3) The plane of content and the plane of expression. Polysemy, homonymy,
- •4) Notion of the morpheme. Types of morpheme. Suffixes and inflexions.
- •5)Distributional analysis in studying morphemes. Types of distribution.
- •6) Grammatical meaning, form, categories.
- •7)Different aspects of English Syntax.
- •8)Semantic, morphological, and syntactic categories. Notional categories and their
- •9) Textual Grammar.
- •10) Parts of speech. The criteria applied in discriminating parts of speech. The
- •11)The field theory approach to parts-of-speech classification. Classification of parts
- •12) The noun as a part of speech. The problem of the category of gender.
- •13) The category of number of the noun.
- •15) The article.
- •16) The adjective. Degrees of comparison. Substantivization of adjectives.
- •17) The pronoun. The categories of case and number. Subclasses of pronouns.
- •19) The category of aspect of the verb.
- •20) The composite sentence. Compound sentence.
- •21) The principal parts of the sentence:the subject & the predicate. Types of
- •22) The adverb and the structural parts of speech: prepositions, conjunctions,
- •23) The status of verbals in modern English.
- •24) Grammatical semantics of Participle II.
- •25) Word order in English.
- •26) The category of tense of the verb. The problem of perfect forms.
- •27) The complex sentence.
- •28) The category of mood of the verb.
- •29) The category of voice of the verb.
- •30) The phrase, its definition. The study of the phrase in Russian and foreign
- •31) Complicated sentences.
- •32) Types of phrases. Syntactic relations between the components of a phrase.
- •33) Notion of the sentence. Classification of sentence. Types of sentences.
- •34) The secondary parts of the sentence: the object, the attribute, the adverbial
9) Textual Grammar.
Textual grammar appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. 3 basic assumptions of
textual grammar:
-Text is the highest unit of speech, sentences are constituents of the text
-Text is made according to certain general principles of text production. These principles
reflect the semiotic nature of the text.
-A text is a complicated sign. It proves the fact that as abstraction the text belongs to the
system of language, not only to speech. Text being a complex linguistic phenomenon
comprises of several levels: super-phrasal, paragraphs, the whole text. A text is not a
grammatical unit, like a clause or a sentence, it is not defined by its size. A text is a
SEMANTIC UNIT; it is related to a clause or a sentence not by size but by realization,
the coding of one symbolic system in another. A text doesn’t consist of sentences, it is
realized by, or encoded in sentences. Any text is a coherent stretch of speech which is a
semantico-topical and syntactic unity. In syntactic terms a text is a strictly topical stretch
of talk (a continual succession of dictemes) centering on a common informative purpose.
Text has two main differential features: topical (semantic) unity and semantico-syntactic
cohesion. So there are two principles for differentiating textual units: topicalization
and stylization.
Textual units:
Common function: they represent the text as a whole integrally expressing the
textual topic. Earlier to identify semantically connected sentence sequences linguists used
the terms “complex syntactic unity”, “super-phrasal unity”, “super-sentential
construction”. Now since sentences in these unitites are joined by means of syntactic
cumulation, they call them “cumulemes”. We should remember that the meaning of these
terms is the same. Cumuleme is a constituent part of one-direction sequence of sentences
forming a monologue speech and also two-direction sequence forming a dialogue. The
component constructions-utterances in these sequences are positioned to meet one another
and their name is “occursemes” (Latin root “to meet”). Occurseme can include several
cumulemes.
Textual categories:
Textual categories appear and function only in the text as a language unit of the highest
rank. Textual categories reveal the cardinal and the most general differential features of
the text. The list of textual categories is open. To the list of textual categories scholars
usually refer cohesion, informativeness, retrospection (prospection) (direction of
connection between the parts in the text), modality (any author reveals his or her attitude
to what is revealed in the text), causality, implication, the author’s image, continuum
(the development of events described in the text in space and time), divisibility (text
can be divided into parts), otosemanticity? (separate textual parts being independent on
the text level as a whole, quotations, author’s thoughts) and some others.
Most linguists agree that the basic textual categories are topical unity and semantico-
syntactic cohesion. It is conditioned by the fact that the general idea of a sequence of
sentences forming a text includes these two notions. On the one hand, it presupposes a
succession of spoken or written utterances irrespective of their forming or not forming a
coherent semantic complex. On the other hand, it implies a strictly topical stretch of talk.
Coherence – level of semantics. Cohesion – level of syntax.
Sentence is a microstructure, belongs to language. Utterance is a microstructure,
belongs to speech, super-phrasal unit is a microstructure correlates to the whole text.
Text is a macrostructure.