4. The notions of grammatical meaning

The word combines in its semantic structure two meanings: lexical and grammatical. Lexical meaning is the main meaning of the word (table). Grammatical meaning is the meaning of the whole class or a subclass (the class of nouns has the grammatical meaning of sameness). If we take a noun 'table' we may say that it possesses its individual lexical meaning (it corresponds to a definite piece of furniture) and the grammatical meaning of sameness (this is the meaning of the whole class). Besides the noun 'table' has the grammatical meaning of a subclass (countableness). Any verb combines its individual lexical meaning with the grammatical meaning of verbiality - the ability to denote actions or states. An adjective combines its individual lexical meaning with the grammatical meaning of the whole class of adjectives (qualitativeness - the ability to denote qualities). Adverbs possess its individual grammatical meaning (adverbiality - the ability to denote quality of qualities).

There are some classes of words that are devoid of any lexical meaning and possess the grammatical meaning only. This can be explained by the fact that they have no referents in the objective reality. All function words belong to this group - conjunctions, prepositions, articles.

5. Types of grammar

There exist the following types of grammar (by Barkhudarov):

1) Prescriptive (нормативная) vs. descriptive (дескриптивная)

The first tries to establish the norms of the correct usage while the second describes the grammatical phenomenon of a language as they are observed in speech.

2) Historical (diachronous) vs. synchronous (синхроническая)

The first traces the historical development and changes of grammatical forms and structures in time. The second describes the grammatical system of a language as it exists at a given point of time.

3) Comparative vs. contrastive

The first sets up correlations between grammatical forms of two or more related languages. The second establishes points of similarity and difference between grammatical structures of two languages irrespective

4) Taxonomic (системная) vs. generative (порождающая)

The first is analytical and inductive; it starts with linguistic data and proceeds from them to abstract categories and classes of grammatical forms. The second is synthetic and deductive; it starts with abstract categories and rules and proceeds from them to concrete utterances in a given language.

The Structure of Morphemes

1. The definition of a morpheme

2. Word-form derivation

3. The notion of oppositions

1. The definition of a morpheme

Morpheme is usually defined as the smallest meaningful unit into which a word form may be divided. It is one of the central notions of theoretical grammar. Morphemes can be identified by comparing the words of a language which have a similar form. Recurrent sequence of sounds, letters with the same function or meaning is recognized as morphemes. A comparison of these forms enables us to identify the following morphemes,

E.g. refuse, refusal, refusals; dismiss dismissals: 'refuse' and 'dismiss' have their usual dictionary meaning; -al- has the function of deriving a noun from a verb and -s- which signals of grammatical category of plural number.

'Writers': 'to write' is the base lexical meaning of the word; -er- expresses the idea of agent performing the action, indicated by the root of the word; -s- shows the plural number.

Two remarks:

1) Two or more morphemes may sound the same, but be basically different, so that they may be homonyms. Thus, the morpheme -er- indicating the doer of an action has a homonym the morpheme -er- denoting the comparative degree of adjectives and adverbs (bigger). Each morpheme can be determined by examining the other morphemes in the word.

2) There may be a zero morpheme when the absence of a morpheme may indicate a certain meaning,

E.g. book, books (these two words are both derived from one stem - 'book'; the example 'books' is characterized by -s- morpheme as being a plural form and 'book' is characterized by the zero morpheme as being a singular form).

Linguists belonging to descriptive school introduce such a notion as allomorphs of one and the same morpheme.

E.g. The girls come. The oxen come.

The girl comes. The ox comes.

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The change of 'girl' to 'girls' is paralleled by the change of 'ox' to 'oxen'. The meaning and function of '-en' and '-s' may be called allomorphs of 1 and the same morpheme (the morpheme of plurality). One morpheme may have 3 allomorphs. If we add 'goose - geese', we'll have 3 allomorphs of one and the same morpheme. The plurality form of the example is represented by the change of 'oo' into 'ee'. If we add this example to our previous ones, we'll have allomorphs of 1 and the same morpheme.

A morpheme consists of several parts (components). They are roots and affixes which can be derived into suffix and prefix. These components are means of translation of grammatical meaning.

The roots express the concrete 'material' part of the meaning of the word, while the affixes express specific part of the meaning of the word. The affix morphemes include prefixes, suffixes and inflections (endings). Affixes and suffixes have word-building functions. Together with the root they form the stem of the word. Inflections express different morpheme categories.