12. Function words and Interjections.

FW are the words which, being devoid of the nominative force, serve to arrange notional words; that is they perform purely syntactic function.

Function words comprise adpositions (that is prepositions and postpositions), articles, particles, determiners, conjunctions, interjections, and, from the point of view of certain scholars, even pronouns.

Anichkov called set phrases with adpositions idiomatisms.

The most general definition of prepositions: Pp are function words expressing relations between members of the sentence.

Problematic point: whether they have lexical meaning. Smirnitsky and Ilyish: they DO have lexical meaning (the pen in on the table, the cat is under the table); on the other hand, when functioning as flexions in other languages, devoid of meaning (written by Shakespeare). Compromise: the categorical meaning of prepositions represents a fusion of lexical and grammatical meanings.

Prepositions should be differentiated from homonymous postpositions and adverbs (Nobody has seen him since – I haven’t seen him since the graduation party). Pp are grammatically bound with following nouns. Postpositions depend on the preceding elements and make up one intonation cluster with them.

The conjunction is a part of speech whose function is to connect clauses or phrases as well as to coordinate words within sentences.

At the phrasal level the most common types of conjunctions are the coordinative (and, as well as) and the disjunctive (or, either… or, neither… nor) ones. On the sentence level both coordinating and subordinating conjunctions are used.

The particle is a part of speech that serves to actualizes a certain unit in the flow of speech, clarify or modify the meaning of an utterance. Practically all categories of particles overlap with others and are very close in meaning. Thus, some of them may be looked upon as specifying or limiting (just, only, exactly): I simply wanted to add a couple of words; even then it never occurred to me that…

As to their role in the sentence, there are three possible points of view:

1) they form a special member of the sentence with no strict definition;

2) they are viewed upon as a part of the cluster which they form with the word they depend upon;

3) particles are to be considered outside the sentence, which is absurd; that’s why Ilyish supports the first point of view.

Types of interjections:

1) primary (onomatopoeia);

2) culturally conditioned (dear me! Jesus!)

13. Syntax major units. Grammar of the phrase.

Syntactic units (levels)

1 phrase level

2 clause level

3 sentence level

4 discourse level

A phrase is every combination of two or more words, each of them possessing its own lexical meaning, which forms a grammatical unit and not an analytical form of a word.

In this country, the terms “phrase” used to mean any syntactical word combination until the great Russian linguist Vinogradov limited its scope up to a combination of at least two notional words united by the relations of subordination. This excluded predictive word groups, notional words with adpositions, as well as words with particles. Such approach was criticized by Zhirmundsky. Together with Burlakova, what he understood by a word combination was any group of words tied by the relations or subordination, coordination, predication, as well as juxtaposition with dependent function words.

In the Wrestern literature, there is no common term. What is meant by a phrase is sometimes called a word group or a cluster.

The theory of phrase in the foreign linguistics is connected with the name of Leonard Bloomfield. In 1933 he classified all phrases into endocentric and exocentric, where the basic criterion was the behavior of a phrase in the sentence

1) endocentric are those which can be substituted by one of its constituent parts without distorting the sentence (She was a funny girl, They bought a wardrobe and a sink):

a) coordinative (a wardrobe and a sink);

b) subordinative (a funny girl);

2) exocentric only function together; none of the members can substitute the whole phrase (It was the first time the family celebrated New Year without him):

a) predicative (the family celebrated);

b) prepositional (without him).

According to Sweet’s terminology, the main word in a phrase is its headword, whereas the dependent one is the adjunct.

The syntactical relations between the elements of a phrase are of 3 types:

1) agreement (согласование);

2) government;

3) enjoinment (примыкание).

Agreement is more typical of the Russian language. By agreement we understand a method of expressing a syntactical relationship when a subordinate word takes the grammatical form of the head word. In English it is characteristic only of the combinations with the word this (that).

By government one understands the use of a certain form of the subordinate word required by its headword, but not coinciding with the headword itself. It is restricted by the use of the objective case of the personal pronouns and the pronoun who, when they are subordinate to a verb or follow a preposition.

Adjoinment implies syntactical relations between components of a phrase, when the adjunct is subordinate to its headword without either agreeing or being governed.

Jespersen introduced the 3-range theory, where behind the linear flow of speech there are 2 levels of subordination : a terribly cold weather: the first level of subordination is observed between the WEATHER and COLD, the second one – between COLD and TERRIBLY.

Burlakova introduced a theory very close to that of endocentric and exocentric phrases. Only she used the terms “nucleus” and “non-nucleus”, where the nucleus phrases can be either prospective or retrospective.