- •Main Morphological Notions of Theoretical Grammar
- •1. General notions
- •2. General principles of grammatical analysis
- •3. Morphology and syntax as 2 parts of linguistic description
- •4. The notions of grammatical meaning
- •5. Types of grammar
- •The Structure of Morphemes
- •1. The definition of a morpheme
- •2. Word-form derivation
- •3. The notion of oppositions
- •Parts of Speech
- •1. Classification of word classes
- •The Noun
- •1. The noun (general characteristic)
- •2. Grammatical category of number
- •3. Grammatical category of case
- •4. Grammatical category of gender
- •Determiners
- •1. The definition of the article
- •2. Functions of articles
- •3. The category of determinedness and indeterminedness
- •Adjectives
- •1. The definition of the adjective
- •2. Classes of adjectives
- •3. The degrees of comparison
- •Irregular forms of comparison
- •4. Substantivization of adjectives
- •5. Adjectivization of nouns
- •6. The problem of statives
- •1. The verb. Problems of classification
- •The Verb. The Category of Aspect and Tense
- •The Verb. The Category of Phase (order, correlation)
- •The Verb. The Category of Voice
- •1. The definition of the voice
- •The Verb. The Category of Mood
- •The Verbals
- •Pronoun
- •1. Semantic characteristics of pronouns
- •2. Morphological characteristics of pronouns
- •3. Syntactic characteristics of pronouns
- •5. New approach to pronouns
- •Preposition
- •The Conjunctions. Semantics of Conjunctions
- •Numerals
- •Syntaxes
03.09.12
Main Morphological Notions of Theoretical Grammar
1. General notions
2. General principles of grammatical analysis
3. Morphology and syntax as 2 parts of linguistic description
4. The notions of grammatical meaning
5. Types of grammar
1. General notions
The term 'grammar' goes back to a Greek word that may be translated as the art of writing. Later this word acquired a much wider sense and came to embrace the whole study of language. Now it is often used as a synonym of the term 'linguistics'.
Grammar may be practical and theoretical. The aim of practical grammar is the description of grammar rules that are necessary to understand and formulate sentences. The aim of theoretical grammar is to offer explanation for these rules. Generally speaking theoretical grammar deals with the language as a functional system.
2. General principles of grammatical analysis
Linguistic units (or signs) can go into three types of relations:
a) The relation between a unit and an object in the world around us (objective reality),
E.g. the word 'table' refers to a definite piece of furniture; it may be not only an object, but a process, state, quality.
This type of meaning is called referential meaning of a unit. It is semantics that studies referential meaning of the units.
b) The relation between a unit and other units (the relations between units). No unit can be used independently. It serves as an element in the system of other units. This kind of meaning is called syntactic. Formal relation of units to one another is studied by syntactics or syntax.
c) The relation between a unit and a person who uses it. When we are studying something we usually have some purpose in mind, we use the language as an instrument for our purpose. One and the same word of a sentence may acquire different meanings in communication. This type of meaning is called pragmatic. The study of relationship between linguistic units and the users of those units is done by pragmatics.
3. Morphology and syntax as 2 parts of linguistic description
As the word is the main unit of traditional grammatical theory, it serves the basis of the distinction which is frequently drawn between morphology and syntax. Traditionally grammar was divided into morphology and syntax.
The word 'morphology' derives from 2 Greek words which together mean 'the study of forms'. It concerns with the grammatical structure of words (not with the sounds and letters from which word forms are composed, but with the constituents (непосредственная составляющая) of words which have a grammatical function or meaning,
E.g. the English word 'redefinitions' can be analyzed into 4 constituents: re-define-tion-s. Each of these constituents occurs as a constituent in the structure of other words in the language with the same function and meaning.
'Reinspections': re-inspect-tion-s.
The permissible combinations are limited.
The English 'syntax' derives from Greek words meaning 'arrangement' and came to refer to the arrangement of words,
E.g. Every good boy deserves favours - Любой послушный мальчик заслуживает похвалы.
Every deserves good boy favours.
Good boy favours every deserves.
A syntax deals with the structure of words in the sentence (word order is very important in syntax).
Morphology deals with the internal structure of words, peculiarities of the grammatical categories and their semantics while traditionally syntax deals with the rules governing combinations of words in sentence (and texts in modern linguistics). We can therefore say that the word is the main unit of morphology.
28.09.12