Assignment “The Subject of Theoretical Grammar. ”
The subject of theoretical grammar.
The history of theoretical grammar: Early (Prenormative) grammars, Prescriptive grammars, Classical Scientific grammar, Prescriptive grammars in the Modern Period, Classical Scientific English Grammar in the Modern period, Structural and Transformational grammars.
Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations. Give your own examples.
What do we call grammatical category?
How can we understand grammatical forms?
Analyze the text. Tell what category does every word express and how do we know that?
Fleur met them in the hall. After dropping John at Dorking she had exceeded the limit homewards, that she might appear to have nothing in her thoughts but the welfare of the slums. “The Squire” being among his partridges, the Bishop was in the chair. Fleur went to the sideboard, and, while Michael was reading the minutes, began pouring out tea.
Recommended Literature
Иванова И.П., Бурлакова В.В., Почепцов Г.Г. Грамматика современного английского языка. – М., 1981.
Bloh M.Y. A Course in Theoretical English Grammar – Moscow, 2000.
Ilyish B.A. The Structure of Modern English. – Moscow. – Leningrad, 1971.
Assignment “Grammar forms and grammar categories”
Points for discussion.
What is grammar?
What is the difference between theoretical and practical grammar?
What is the aim of theoretical grammar?
How is grammar connected with other disciplines?
Morphology and syntax.
Grammar and word-building.
Exercise 1. Use the frame of the hierarchy of units and analyze the following sentences.
Discourse
(
sentence) If
I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it.
C
lause If
I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it.
P
hrase If
I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it.
W
ord If
I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it.
Morpheme If I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it.
phoneme/grapheme
You kind of have to nail him to the wall.
I have inevitably covered a great deal of familiar ground.
You are easy to cook for.
It is perhaps more likely that they were associated with locomotion from the beginning.
If you really think so, it’s meaningless.
Exercise II. Make a paradigm of the plural form of the noun.
Exercise III. Make a paradigm of the degrees of comparison of adjective.
Exercise IV. Determine “marked” and “nonmarked” member of opposition.
Man – men
Read – reads
Boy – boys
Good – better
Friend – friendship
Exercise V. Give examples of:
synthetic form of the plural number of noun.
Analytical form of the degrees of comparison of adverbs
Assignment “Morphemic structure of the word. The problem of parts of speech in the English language ”
Points for discussion
What is a morpheme?
With what meaning of morpheme are we concerned in grammar?
Give the definitions of “suffix”, “inflection” , “ending”.
What types of word-form derivation do you know?
The problem of parts of speech.
Exercises:
I. State the morphological composition of the following words.
Snow, sandstone, impossibility, widower, opinion, exclamation, passer-by, misunderstanding, inactivity, snowball, kingdom, mother–of-pearl, population, pretty, bushy, homeless, thoughtful, improbable, shaky, deep-blue, illegible, courageous, to worry, to forbid, to retell, to retire, to do away, to befriend, to disobey
II. State the meaning of the affix.
Un-, in-, dis-, non-, re-, mis-, en-, de-, over-, under-, pre-, post-, anti-, counter-, co-, inter-, ex-, sub-, super-, trans-, ultra-, -er, -or, -ist, -ian, -ee, -age, -al, -ance, -dom, -hood, -ion, -ment, -ness, -our, -ship, -th, -ty, -able, -al, -ant, -ary, -en, -ful, -ic, -less, -ate, -fy, -ize, -ly
III. Determine the part of speech to which the words belong.
We have now to consider combinations of words, and here we shall find that though a substantive always remain a substantive, there is a certain scheme of subordination in connected speech which is analogues to the distribution of words into “parts of speech” without being entirely dependent on it.