2. Transposition of grammatical forms

The use of grammatical forms in unusual surroundings is defined as transposition.

It seems logical to distinguish two types of transposition in grammar:

1. regular transposition

2. stylistic transpositions

Regular transpositions are stylistically neutral and do not lead to synonymy

e.g. If he comes we shall go there at once

( the opposition ‘present – future’ is neutralized)

Stylistic transpositions have a special stylistic value and are used in expressive language, They do lead to the development of situational synonymy in grammar.

e.g. You are not going in there!

(the opposition ‘Indicative – Imperative’ is neutralized)

e.g. Say what you will = Whatever you may (might) say …

Stylistic transposition can also be traced in the following example with personal pronouns

e.g. How are we feeling today (‘you’ = ‘we’)

3.Polysemy, homonymy and synonymy in grammar

1. Polysemy

A separate grammatical form can vary in meaning in different contexts of its use like words that are used as signs of many things/ In case of grammatical polysemy we observe various structural meanings inherent in the given form, one of them being invariable, i.e. can be found in any context of its use.

Contextual variation of component grammatical meanings as potentially implicit in grammatical form must be distinguished from so-called syncretism, i. e. plurality of the signi­fied.

e.g. A simple verb-form may have as al­ways inseparably present in it, the grammemes of mood, time, person, number

he works, she works; similarly: she is, she was, etc.

The study of potential polysemy in grammar must reason­ably be associated with the problem of functional transposi­tions of grammatical forms leading to variation in their meaning in different contexts, linguistic or situational. Exa­mine, for instance, the multiple semantic essence of the Present tense (Continuous Aspect) in Modern English which may express:

1. An action going on at the moment of speaking

You are behaving like a child.

2. Activities, properties

She is playing the piano well.

3. Repeated processes of increasing duration

She is always grumbling.

4. An action anticipated or plan­ned in the future

We are seeing him tonight.

5. Order or command

You are not going in there! (= Don't go in there!)

The necessary meaning of the verb-form is always signall­ed by the context or situation, and no ambiguity arises.

2. Homonymy

Polysemy leads to homonymy. In case of homonymy the invariable structural meaning of a given grammatical form is no longer traced in different uses of this form. Vivid exam­ples of homonymic grammatical forms will be found in the following patterns:

1. She said she would come soon.

2. // she knew this she would come at once.

3. He would come and tell us stories.

4. We asked him to slay here but he wouldn't.

5. If George is there he would know.

It should be mentioned that there is distinct plurality in function of some "grammatical" words (all, since, but, etc).

Observe, for instance, the grammatical nature of "all" in the following patterns:

1) Pronominal use: All is well that ends well.

2) Adjectival use: All day, all night.

3) Adverbial use, effective as a means of emphasis:

a) with adjectives: He is all wrong. That's all right.

b) with verb-forms: The sound did all confound her senses.

c) with adverbs and adverbial phrases: all too soon, all too late, all of a sudden.

d) with nouns: She is all goodness, I am all ears. She is all smiles.

4) In informal style all occurs as a coordinate terminat­ing series where its use is idiomatic and highly exceptional: She is pretty and clever and all.

5) In idiomatic sentence-pattern:

You must sit still all you can ( = as still as you can).