10.Morphological categories of nouns The category of case

boy – boy’s

boys – boys’

Approaches to the category of case in English:

-English has 2 cases (the limited case theory).

-The number of cases in English is more than 2 (the theory of positional cases, the theory of prepositional cases).

-There are no cases at all with English nouns.

These approaches are possible due to a difference in the interpretation of case as a grammatical category.

Prof.Blokh: Case is an immanent morphological category of the noun manifested in the forms of noun declension and showing the relations of the nounal referent to other objects and phenomena. It is a morphological-declensional form.

The theory of positional cases (Nesfield, Deutschbein, Bryant): the unchangeable forms of the noun are differentiated as different cases due to the functional positions occupied by the noun in the sentence.

Thus, the English noun would distinguish, besides the inflexional Genitive case, also purely positional cases: Nominative, Vocative, Dative and Accusative. The number of cases can be reduced to 3 (M.Bryant): Nominative, Genitive and Objective in accordance with pronouns I – me.

J.Lyons: Nominative - Accusative Dative – Genitive – Instrumental – Agentive – Comitative

The theory of prepositional cases (analytical theory or the theory of analytical forms): combinations of nouns with prepositions in certain object and attributive collocations should be understood as morphological case forms. Prepositions - according to Curme – are grammatical elements equivalent to case forms.

11. Noun. Morphol. Categ of nouns-the number category: number: Singular, Dual, Plural

Nouns in some languages reflect the number of objects to which they refer. English distinguishes only two numbers, singular and plural. The former is used to indicate singular objects or referents that can be neither singular nor plural (mass nouns like contemplation). Plural sometimes refers to singular objects, too, e.g. glasses, so the category is clearly grammatical and not semantic.

Some languages, Arabic or Old Church Slavonic, for example, also distinguish objects occurring in pairs by assigning dual number to the noun and a few languages distinguish a paucal, used for referring to a few objects without specifying number.

12 Noun. Morphol. categ of nouns-GENDER : Masculine, Feminine, Neuter

Some languages discriminate two types of gender. There is natural gender, which relates to the gender of the referent and distinguishes nouns referring to males from those referring to females. There is also grammatical gender, which has nothing to do with natural gender, but is only a system of noun classes . The Indo-European languages generally combine the two, i.e. do not distinguish one from the other so that in French, for example, la table 'the table' reflects feminine gender (purely grammatical) as does la femme 'the woman' (combined natural and grammatical).

Verbs also often reflect the gender of their subject nouns and, sometimes, their object nouns as well. The most common genders are Masculine and Feminine but some languages have Neuter as well.

Differences according to gender

Men and women, on average, tend to use slightly different language styles. These differences tend to be quantitative rather than qualitative. Communication styles are always a product of context, and as such, gender differences tend to be most pronounced in single-gender groups. One explanation for this, is that people accommodate their language towards the style of the person they are interacting with. Thus, in a mixed-gender group, gender differences tend to be less pronounced. Functional properties: the most characteristic substantive functions of the noun are that of the subject and that of the object. Other syntactic functions: attribute, adverbial, predicative. Combinability: with articles, other determinants (demonstrative, possessive, indefinite pronouns), with nouns (prepositional combinability – an entrance to the house, casal combinability – the president’s speech, sheer contact – a sports event, film festivals), with adjectives (prepositive and postpositive), with verbs.

 13. Characteristics of the verb as part of speech A verb is a kind of word (see part of speech) that usually tells about an action or a state and is the main part of a sentence. Every sentence has a verb. In English, verbs are the only kind of word that changes to show past or present tense. They also can have different properties in different languages. For example, in some other languages verbs do not change for past and present tense. This means the definition above only works well for English verbs. English has two main kinds of verbs: normal verbs (called lexical verbs) and auxiliary verbs. The difference between them is mainly in where they can go in a sentence. Some verbs are in both groups, but there are very few auxiliary verbs in English. There are also two kinds of auxiliary verbs: modal verbs and non-modal verbs. The table below shows most of the English auxiliaries and a small number of other verbs. There are several auxiliary verbs: To do (do, does, did) To be (am, is, are, was, were): Creates a progressive tense To have (have, has, had): Creates a perfect tense The follow verbs are modal auxiliaries CanCouldMayMightMustShallShould Auxiliary verbs also inflect for negation. Usually this is done by adding not or n't.[1] You shouldn't be here. He isn't at home. We haven't started yet. Many people think that all different ways of using verbs are all different tenses. This is not true. There are three main systems related to the verb: tense, aspect, and mood. Tense. Tense is mainly used to say when the verb happens: in the past, present, or future. Some languages have all three tenses, some have only two, and some have no tenses at all. English and Japanese for example have only two tenses: past and present Aspect. Aspect usually shows us things like whether the action is finished or not, or if something happens regularly. English has two aspects: progressive and perfect. In English, aspect is usually shown by using participle verb forms. Aspect can combine with present or past tense. Mood. Finally, English mood is now usually shown by using modal verbs. In the past, English had a full mood system but that has almost completely disappeared. The subjunctive mood now uses the plain form. There is also a form of be that is used in conditionals to show that something is not true (e.g., If I were a bird, I would fly to California.)

14. Classification of English Verbs

Verbs form the second largest word class after nouns. According to Carter and McCarthy, verbs denote "actions, events, processes, and states."[

Verbs can also be formed from adjectives:[16]

"To dry the old oak's sap, and cherish springs."[19]

Regular and irregular verbs

A verb is said to be regular if its base form does not change when inflections are added to create new forms.An example is: base form: climb; present form: climb; -s form: climbs; -ing form: climbing; past form: climbed; -ed participle: climbed.[20] Irregular verbs are ones in which the base form changes; the endings corresponding to each form are not always unique.] Examples:base form: catch; present form: catch; -s form: catches; -ing form: catching; past form: caught; -ed participle: caught.

base form: choose; present form: choose; -s form: chooses; -ing form: choosing; past form: chose; -ed participle: chosen.

The verb "be" is the only verb in English which has distinct inflectional forms for each of the categories of grammatical forms: base form: be; present form: am, are; -s form: is; -ing form: being; past form: was, were; -ed participle: been.[20]

Modal verbs also form a closed class which consists of the core modals ("can," "could," "shall," "should," "will," "would," "may," "might," "must"), semi-modals ("dare," "need," "ought to," "used to"), and modal expressions ("be able to," "have to").[21] Modals add information to lexical verbs about degrees of certainty and necessity.