1. The notion of the grammatical category: gr. Form & gr. Meaning. Means of form-building. Gr.Oppositions as the basis of gr. Categories. Types of oppositions. Reduction of gr. Oppositions

The term “category” is very wide and is widely used in science. This term reflects the most general and essential features of objects and phenomena of reality. In grammar this term is used in several meanings.

According to Yartseva, a grammatical category is generalized abstract meaning that is systematically expressed in the language in opposition of forms of the same word.

Штелинг: A category is an opposition of a number of forms with differentiation of some grammatical meaning.

The term “category” is used both in morphology and in syntax.

In morphology it denotes 2 things:

1. Lexico-grammatical classes of words (parts of speech)

2. Specific grammatical meanings that characterize each part of speech. E.g.: the noun is characterized by case, number, gender.

In syntax the term “category” denotes functions of the word in the sentence structure.

Щерба stresses that any grammatical category is always 2-sided. It means that it includes 2 aspects: form and meaning. Grammatical form and meaning cannot be separated. Grammatical meaning is what is expressed and grammatical form is how it is expressed.

Grammatical meaning is the most general meaning that unites words into language groups on the basis of some feature. Unlike the lexical meaning, that specifies word, grammatical meaning unites it with the whole class of words of the same type.

Grammatical form. First of all, the process of expression of a new grammatical meaning in some word is called form-building. This process takes place only within 1 word: adding different morphemes we change the grammatical meaning, but the word remains the same. Different languages use several means that help in changing the grammatical form. First of all the means of form-building are divided into synthetic and analytical.

Synthetic:

1. Inflection (affixation)-is a morpheme, added to the root in order to change the grammatical form of the given word. English is analytical and it’s not rich in inflections. But some inflections are used and it should be mentioned that there are a lot of homonyms among inflections (same form, different meanings: -ed). In English the role of “zero” inflection is extremely great. Most morphemes are expressed in “zero”.

2. Sound alternation consists in usage of different vowels or consonants within the root of some words, when their grammatical form is changed.

Alternation can be of 2 types:

1. Consonant

2. Vowel

Sometimes both consonants and vowels are changed at the same time. Alternation can be accompanied with (by?) inflection.

Consonant alternation: spend-spent

Vowel + consonant alternation (complex): bring-brought

Alternation +inflection: knife-knives

3. Suppletivism. Suppletive forms are built with the help of different roots and they should be learnt as units with the same lexical meaning, though they remind of quite different words: to be-is, are, was, were. 2 forms can be caled suppletive ones, if they possess 2 obligatory features:

They should have the same lexical meaning

There should be no other ways of expressing the same grammatical meaning

4. Stress

Stress is regarded as the means of form building only in some languages (e.g. Russian –рУки-рукИ это Pl. Nominative vs. Sg. Genetive). In English stress can not distinguish the forms of the same word, but it can distinguish categories of meaning of parts of speech (a ‘present – to pre’sent).

Analytical:

• Analytical form- the notion of the analytical form is still disputable. Traditionally any analytical form is treated as a construction, that consists of at least 2, perhaps more elements, and the grammatical and lexical meanings in this construction are separated. E.g. is reading (is and –ing are grammatical = discontinuous morpheme; rest-lexical) Analytical: aspect, perfect, passive, future forms.

• Word-order- is especially important for all analytical languages (English). E.g.: paper (attribute) wall---wall paper (noun)

• Outer categorization is typical of English. It consists in determination of grammatical meaning of the word not by itself but by its immediate environment. E.g.: My family is big. – All my family are early-risers.

• Reduplication is an archaic means that still survived in some languages. (Indian bhai-bhai = братья). In Russian this means can express the degree of quality. It is used with adverbs and adjectives: синее-синее море.

Classification of grammatical categories.

They can be classified according to several principles:

1. Formal logical (E.g. Tense to express the succession of several actions, Number, etc)

Formal proper (gender in Russian)

2. Fixed (constant) Gender

Changeable (variable) Number

3. Covert (no markers – c. of in/definiteness in Russian)

Overt (there are some markers)

Every grammatical category is based on 3 types of oppositions (Трубецкой и Якобсон):

• Gradual (ступенчатая )

• Equipollent ( эквиполентная)

• Privative (приватная)

Gradual (all levels of language). This type of opposition consists of more than 2 opposemes which differ in the intensity of the same quality. E.g.:( i: - i - e - æ)-degree of opening. Cold-cool-warm-hot (degree of temperature)

Equipollent: +(a) and +(b)

A and B is difference in meanings. This type may consist of any number of opposemes. Each member is characterized by its own feature. E.g.: (b – d - g) several common features, but different places of articulation. Or: Past-Present-Future

Privative: + and –

There are only 2 members in the opposeme. One of them has some feature (+). It’s called the strong member (marked). The second-weak (unmarked). E.g.: consonants vs. vowels, voiced cons. vs. voiceless cons., diphthongs vs. monophthongs.

The 3^rd type of opposition is considered to be of primary importance not only because of frequency of occurrence, but also because the other 2 types can be transformed (reduced) to privative type. E.g. Present (Present) vs. Past Future (Non-Present)

According to Jacobson, there is a definite law that describes relations between opposemes in privative opposition. The strong member as a rule is narrower in meaning. It is more definite and its meaning is denoted by the marker it has. The other member (weak) is not so definite because it can convey a lot of meanings (Все повернули головую Велосипед есть у П. и Р.).

Reduction of grammatical oppositions.

During the 20^th century the theory of oppositions was developed by Bloch, etc. He laid down the subtheory of the whole theory and named it “Reduction of grammatical oppositions”.

Reduction is usage of 1 of the members of the opposition instead of the other, when the opposition looses its distinctive force. (no difference between the members) Reduction can be of 2 kinds:

1. Neutralization of grammatical opposition

2. Transposition of grammatical opposition

Neutralization is such kind of reduction that takes place under some circumstances and only with some language units. Neutralization coincides with such language facts that are traditionally called “exceptions”. For English nouns the category of Number exists practically only for countable nouns. For abstract and mass (вещественые) nouns it is reduced. The same happens in clauses of time and condition, where the difference between Present and Future disappears and the category of Tense is reduced.

Transposition is such reduction when 1 member is substituted by the other with some additional meaning. In this case the strong member can replace the weak one and it is called “descending opposition”. E.g. the plural of majesty in speech of royal persons is ruled by create a special stylistic effect. The plural of great volume of smth: snows, rains = a great amount of smth.

Ascending opposition: weak member replaces the strong one

Many a man

Many a day

Reduction of grammatical oppositions contributes to the expressive means of language and very often unusual arrangement of grammatical forms gives wider opportunities to convey some desirable meaning.

2. GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN: ISOMORPHIC AND ALLOMORPHIC FEATURES IN THE MORPHOLOGICAL SYSTEMS OF RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH (CASES OF COINCIDENCE AND DIVERGENCE IN THE NOMENCLATURE OF CATEGORIES). TENDENCIES IN THE FORMA] ARRANGEMENT OF CATEGORICAL MEANINGS. SYNTHETIC AND ANALITICAL FORMS IN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH

Isomorphism (term) was introduced by the Polish linguist Kurilovich. He borrowed this term from mathematics. It means similarity or even identity. It’s possible to speak of isomorphism of some elements or even microsystems of some languages and these similarities are mostly single out in the form.

Engl will\shall read Rus буду читать = isomorphism

Engl will\shall read Rus прочитаю = allomorphism

Each language includes elements of both types and their comparison is always the initial step of typological comparison.