Seminar 5 noun: the categories of number, case and article determination

Sources:

1. Блох, М.Я. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка / М.Я. Блох. - М.: Высшая школа, 2003. – С. 64-69, 70-82, 83-94.

2. Блох, М.Я. Практикум по теоретической грамматике английского языка / М.Я. Блох, Т.Н. Семенова, С.В. Тимофеева. – М.: Высшая школа, 2004. – С. 111, 111-112, 112-113.

Additional:

3. Гуревич, В.В. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка. Сравнительная типология английского и русского языков / В.В. Гуревич. – М.: Флинта: Наука, 2003. – С. 8-11, 12-21.

4. Иванова, И.П. Теоретическая грам­матика современного английского языка / И.П. Иванова, В.В. Бурлакова, Г.Г. Почепцов. - М.: Высшая школа, 1981. – С. 22-25, 25-28, 29-33.

5. Кобрина, Н.А. Теоретическая грамматика современного английского языка: учебное пособие / Н.А. Кобрина, Н.Н. Болдырев, А.А. Худяков. – М.: Высшая школа, 2007. – С. 15-18, 32-42, 42-60.

TASKS

1. Get ready to answer the questions below.

1. Why is the category of number called a binary privative opposition?

2. What opposition represents the category of number?

3. What means (productive and non-productive) are used to form the plural?

4. What are the grammatical meanings of the singular and the plural ?

5. What classes of nouns are distinguished with regard to the category of number?

6. What are singularia and pluralia tantum?

7. How can the category of number be reduced?

8. What principles are used to distinguish cases in the theories of positional case, prepositional case, limited case?

9. How is the postpositional theory different from the other three theories?

10. What cases are distinguished within the theory of 2 cases?

11. How are the personal pronouns form correlate with the system of nounal cases?

12. What is the status of the article?

13. What categorical meanings are rendered by the articles?

14. What hierarchy forms the category of article determination?

2. Find Russian equivalents for the following terms; give definitions.

• (non-)productive means, singularia tantum, pluralia tantum, descriptive plural,

• declension, nominative case, genitive (possessive) case, dative case, accusative case, common case, absolute genitive case

• determination, determiner (lexical or grammatical),

3. Use a dictionary to split the nouns into 1) countable; 2) singularia tantum nouns; 3) pluralia tantum nouns. Illustrate their use in context (sentences):

army, cavalry, crowd, courage, peace, tongs, advice, peasantry, evidence, family, money, hair, wages, acoustics

4. Give the plural for the nouns below and split them into 5 groups: 1) regular productive plural forms; 2) suppletive forms; 3) archaic forms; 4) forms with borrowed suffixes; 5) plural forms homonymous for the singular forms. Mind that some nouns may have 2 forms – comment on their difference.

foot, crisis, child, horse, stimulus, deer, louse, formula, man, pupil, ox, brother, cloth, terminus, trout, cow, swine, datum, goose, virtuoso, sheep, cactus, antenna, leaf

5. Use a dictionary to split the singular-plural form pairs below into 1) lexical-semantic variants of the words (singular + plural forms of one noun) and 2) homonyms (2 words with different meanings). Are the formal markers of the plural lexical or grammatical suffixes?

custom - customs, medium - media, glass – glasses, spectacle - spectacles, damage - damages, fruit - fruits, paper – papers, air- airs, ash - ashes, pain - pains, appointment - appointments, poll - polls, ice - ices, art - arts, slip - slips, part - parts, wage - wages, spade - spades, work - works, respect - respects, people - peoples, beauty - beauties, youth - youths, premise – premises

6. Join the nouns below using either genitive case or of-construction or both if possible. For example: Tom + answer à Tom’s answer; the leg + the table à the leg of the table

Jennifer + book; the problems + identity; the declaration + independence; his master + voice; the Duke + Kent; the Queen + England; my life + aim; summer + a day; the ship + name