It must be borne in mind, however, that not all the lexemes of a part

of speech have the same paradigms. Compare:

sister book informai on

sister’s books —

sisters — —

sisters’ — —

h e i rst lexeme has opposemes of two grammatical categories:

number and case. h e second lexeme has only one opposeme — that

of number. It has no case opposemes. h e third lexeme is outside both

categories: it has no opposemes at all. We may say that the number

opposeme with its opposite grammatical meanings of “singularity”

and “plurality” is neutralized in nouns like information, bread, milk

etc. owing to their lexical meaning which can hardly be associated with

“oneness” or “more-than-oneness”.

We may dei ne neutralization as the reduction of an opposeme to

one of its members under certain circumstances. h is member may

be called the member of neutralization. Usually it is the unmarked

member of an opposeme.25

h e term grammatical category implies that:

1) there exist dif erent morphological forms in the words of a part

of speech possessing dif erent referential meanings;

2) the oppositions of dif erent forms possessing referential meanings are systematic, that is they cover the whole class of words

of that part of speech.

In other words a grammatical category is a systematic opposition of

dif erent morphological forms possessing dif erent referential meanings.

Each grammatical category is composed of at least two contrasting

forms. Otherwise a category would stop existing.

In general, an opposeme of any grammatical category consists of as

many members (or opposites) as there are particular manifestations of

the general meaning. h us, a morphological opposeme is a minimum

set of words revealing (by the dif erence in their forms) only (and all) the

particular manifestations of some general grammatical meaning. Any

morphological category is the system of such opposemes whose members

dif er in form to express only (and all) the particular manifestations of

the general meaning of the category [25; 23–24].

Grammatical category unites in itself particular grammatical

meanings. For example, the grammatical category of gender unites the

meanings of the masculine, feminine, neuter and common genders in

the Ukrainian language. Each grammatical category is connected, as a

minimum, with two forms. For example, the grammatical category of

number comprises the forms of singularity and plurality.

Grammatical meaning is an abstract meaning added to the lexical

meaning of a word, expressing its relations to other words or classes

of words. As a rule, a word has several grammatical meanings. Grammatical meanings are realized in a grammatical word form.

Grammatical form of a word is the variety of the same word dif ering

from other forms of this word by its grammatical meaning. For example,

In the Ukrainian word-form батьку the ending -у expresses the grammatical meaning of the masculine gender, singular number, dative case.

Grammatical form of a word can be simple (synthetic), in which

the grammatical meanings are formed by the ending, suffix, prefix 26

or stress, etc. (дощ  — дощу  — дощем); or composite (analytical), created by adding several words (буду говорити, більш при-

вабливий). The analytical-synthetic grammatical word form is a

combination of two previous types of word forms. For example,

в університеті (the local case is expressed by the flexion and the

preposition); малював би, малювала б (the grammatical meaning

of number and gender is expressed by the form of the main verb,

and the meaning of the conditional mood — by the particle би) [2;

40–41].

6. Part of speech as one of the main

grammatical notions

Every language contains thousands upon thousands of lexemes. When

describing them it is possible either to analyze every lexeme separately

or to unite them into classes with more or less common features.

Linguists make use of both approaches. A dictionary usually describes

individual lexemes, a grammar book mostly deals with classes of lexemes, traditionally called parts of speech.

Parts of speech are generally said to be classes of words having the

same meaning, morphological forms and functions. h e factor of

meaning plays an important part in all languages because the main

function of language is to convey information. By meaning we do not

refer to the individual (lexical) meaning of each separate word but

the one common to all the words of the given class and constituting

its essence. For example, the meaning of the verb as a type of word

is “process” whatever the individual meaning of a separate verb may

happen to be.

By form we mean the morphological characteristics of a type of

word. h us, the noun is characterized by the category of number (singular and plural), the verb by tense, mood etc.

By function we mean the syntactic properties of a type of word:

method of combining with other words and forming syntactic structures. For example, a verb combines with nouns forming structures of 27

predication, e.g. the boy writes and structures of complementation, e.g.

to write letters; a noun can combine with an adjective or another noun

forming structures of modii cation, e.g.a letter box, a large box. On the

other hand, by function we mean the syntactic function of a class of

words in the sentence, e.g. a noun as a subject, a verb as a predicate.

h e relative importance of “form” and “function” factors is dif erent for languages in dif erent systems. For synthetic languages (Ukrainian) form is more important, while syntactic function is important

for analytical languages (English).

If we were to distinguish between the parts of speech of the words

мислити and мислення we can say that their meaning is the same:

мислити  — властивістъ людини, мислення  — властивістъ

людини. h ey denote the same. Only the grammatical form helps us to

distinguish between the verb and the noun. It is obvious that the basis

for distinguishing parts of speech must be the unity of form and meaning. h e content of a part of speech is its meaning; its form is the way it

is linguistically treated. h e word мислити is treated linguistically as

process (мислиш, мислю etc.) while the word мислення is treated as

substance alongside with мисленням, мисленню etc. h e form is usually implied by morphology, syntax and phonetics.

A part of speech is a word or a class of words linguistically representing phenomena and relationships of the objective reality (including man and the products of his mind) in a specii c way (as substances,

properties, changes etc.)

h e lexemes of a part of speech are i rst of all united by their content,

that is by their meaning. Nevertheless, the meaning of a part of speech

is closely connected with certain typical grammatical meanings. h us

the general meaning of a part of speech is neither lexical nor grammatical, but it is connected with both, and we call it lexico-grammatical

meaning.

Lexemes united by the general lexico-grammatical meaning of “substance” are called nouns. h ose having the general lexico-grammatical

meaning of “action” are called verbs and so on.

At the same time it should be borne in mind that dei nitions “substance”, “action”, “quality” are conventional. It is easy to see the notion 28

of “substance” in nouns like water or steel, but a certain stretch of

imagination is necessary to discern “substance” in nouns like hatred,

silence, or “action” in the verbs belong, resemble, contain and the like

[25; 32–33].

h e general lexico-grammatical meaning is the intrinsic property

of a part of speech. Connected with it are also some properties that

i nd, so to say, outward expression. Lexico-grammatical morphemes

are one of these properties. h e stems of noun lexemes ot en include

the morpheme -er, -ness, -ship, -ment (worker, i rmness, friendship,

management). h e stems of verb lexemes include the morphemes -ize,

-ify, be-, en- (modernize, purify, becloud, enrich). Adjective stems ot en

have the sui xes -ful, -less, -ish, -ous (careful, fearless, boyish, continuous). h us, the presence of a certain lexico-grammatical morpheme

(or stem-building element) in the stem of a lexeme ot en marks it as

belonging to a dei nite part of speech. Other stem-building elements

are of comparatively little signii cance as distinctive features of parts

of speech. For example, the vowel interchange observed in food  —

feed, blood — bleed is not systematic and is also found within a lexeme

foot — feet.

A part of speech is characterized by its grammatical categories

manifested in the opposemes and paradigms of its lexemes. For