1. Language and speech, their levels

Language is a system of signs, a system of means of expression in the textbooks (grammar), dictionaries, reference books. Language is a means of forming and storing ideas as reflections of reality and exchanging them in the process of human intercourse.

Speech is understood as the manifestation of the system of the language in the process of intercourse (communication). Produced by the means of language – in writing and orally.

The system of language comprises lexemes (words), phonemes (sounds), morphemes and phrasemes.

The second part of language is the rules of the usage of the language units. The units of the speech are: the sentences (written speech) and the utterances (oral speech).

Levels of the language and speech.

1.Phonemic (the lowest) (Language) – unit (phoneme) – has no meaning. Function: word differentiating (back, bag); form differentiation (men, man).

2.Morphemic (morphological) (Language) – unit (morpheme) – M.: abstract. F.: significative (load, reload).

3.Lexemic – unit (lexeme) (Language) – M. and F.: nominative/naming (nouns – names, verbs – name of actions, states).

4.Phrasemic – unit (phraseme) (Language) – M. and F.: nominative/naming (polynomination), (wooden desk).

5.Proposemic (Speech) – unit (proposeme) – M. and F.: predication, forming predicative relations.

6.Supra-proposemic (Speech) – unit (texteme, dicteme (paragraph)) – M. and F.: forming textual unity.

2. Morpheme, its definition and classifications. Allomorphs

Morpheme – is one of the principal notions of morphology. It is defined as a set of morphs having the same meaning (grammatical meaning) and standing in relations of complementary distribution.

The morphs are the smallest meaningful successions of phonemes into which words can be broken up. (Ex. paint – paints – painting – painted – painter).

Morpheme is a set of general abstract notion while the morph is the particular notion. (Ex. Past Simple morpheme: stopped – morph; ran – internal flexion; went – suppletive;)

4 classifications of morphs:

• according to semantics;

• according to form;

• according to distribution;

• according to linear characteristics;

1.There are 2 big groups of morphs: • lexical (roots) are mainly the domain of lexicology, are obligatory character because there are no notional words without roots; • grammatical (affixes) – derivational (they are word-building morphs, belonging to different word classes (parts of speech); they are of optional character); (Ex. -ment, -er, -ess, -able, -ing, -lal); and inflectional (they are word-form-building ones. They serve to derive new grammatical forms of the same word. There may be found a synonymous and homonymous aspect.) (Ex. –s, ‘s, s’; -ed, -ing, -s).

2.Can be: free (can function independently) and bound (affixes – prefixes, suffixes, inflections).

Prefixes. There are 3 prefixes, which are capable of turning one part of speech into another (en- (in-), im-, be-).

Suffixes. Can be homonymous – the same form but different meaning (-al-, -ly, -ful-, -fy-, etc).

Inflections are used to change the form of the word. (Ex. pl., sg., ‘s, tenses, gerund).

3.(applied only to phonemically and morphemically conditioned morphs). Three types of distribution: • non-contrastive (learned vs. learnt, M/F=the same); • contrastive (‘export vs. ex’port, M/F=are different); • complementary (child – children; illiterate, irrelevant). While having the same M/F they cannot be used one instead of another.

4.On the basis of this approach we may distinguish continuous (linear) or discontinuous (non-linear) morphs. Continuous/linear morphs are uninterruptedly used in speech which means that they can form one unit with a stem of the word (Ex. plays (because it forms one word)).

Discontinuous/non-linear morphs ate two-element grammatical units including an auxiliary word + inflectional morpheme. (Ex. be + V + ing, ed). They are also used in Passive Voice.

Classification of allomorphs:

• replacive (men, stood, feet, mice (internal inflection, sound interchange)).

• phonemically-conditioned (plays[z], teaches [iz], stops[s]).

• morphemically-conditioned (ox+en, child+r+en, fox+es).

• zero (one sheep – many sheep□, one deer – two deer□, cut – cut – cut;

• amalgamated – combine 2 meanings in one form (cats’ paws); combines plurality and possessive.