- •Seminar 1 fundamentals of grammar. Grammatical categories
- •Get ready to answer the questions below.
- •2. Find Russian equivalents for the following terms; give definitions.
- •3. Give your own examples to illustrate various syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations between phonological, lexical and grammatical lingual units.
- •4. Say which of the strings are synchronic and which are diachronic:
- •5. Describe paradigm realisation of the grammatical categories below using the model:
- •6. Analyse the following oppositions; name the categories realized in each pair and their markers:
- •7. A) Split into groups 1) synthetical forms, 2) analytical forms and 3) free word-combinations. Add a few examples of your own to each group:
- •8. Read the sentences below. Find the cases of oppositional reduction of category of tense:
- •9. Comment on the categories below: decide whether they are a) immanent or reflective, b) transgressive or closed (if (a) is immanent), c) variable feature or constant feature categories:
- •Seminar 2 morphemes and words
- •Get ready to answer the questions below.
- •2. Find Russian equivalents for the following terms; give definitions.
- •I have been thinking about Jane’s decision for a long time.
- •7. Divide the words below into morphemes, identify the distributive type of each of them:
- •8. Split the words below into notional, functional and substitutional. Name the parts of speech they belong to.
- •9. Say to what parts of speech the words in bold may be assigned. Give arguments.
- •10. Study the sentences below and translate them into Russian. Name the parts of speech each word in the sentences belong to. Give arguments.
- •Seminar 3 noun: general characteristics. The category of gender
- •Блох, м.Я. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка / м.Я. Блох. - м.: Высшая школа, 2003. – с. 55-58.
- •Блох, м.Я. Практикум по теоретической грамматике английского языка / м.Я. Блох, т.Н. Семенова, с.В. Тимофеева. – м.: Высшая школа, 2004. – с. 109-110.
- •Get ready to answer the questions below.
- •2. Find Russian equivalents for the following terms; give definitions.
- •7. Give feminine gender nouns for the given masculine gender. Name the lexical means of gender expression.
- •8. Characterise the cases of personification below. Describe the grammatical mechanism and semantic grounds for it.
- •Seminar 4 noun: the categories of number, case and article determination
- •Блох, м.Я. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка / м.Я. Блох. - м.: Высшая школа, 2003. – с. 64-69, 70-82, 83-94.
- •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.
- •Get ready to answer the questions below.
- •2. Find Russian equivalents for the following terms; give definitions.
- •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):
- •7. Arrange the phrases into two columns according to the type of their casal semantics (on the principle of differentiating between possession and qualification) and use the proper articles with them:
- •8. Study the poem below and explain the use of genitive case in it.
- •9. Use the appropriate article, define its meaning and explain your choice with the help of substitution or replacement test like in the model.
- •10. Is the non-use of article meaningful in the examples below? What does the zero article mean in each case?
7. Arrange the phrases into two columns according to the type of their casal semantics (on the principle of differentiating between possession and qualification) and use the proper articles with them:
officer's cap, young man's thesis, tomorrow's important press-conference, mile's distance, Wilde's last epigram, yesterday's unexpected storm, hour's walk, last poem of Shelley, new children's shop, two weeks' journey, day's work, in ... two months' period, nice children's caps, new women's magazine, three hours' walk.
8. Study the poem below and explain the use of genitive case in it.
SEA FEVER
And all I ask is the wheel's kick and the wind's song
and the white sail's shaking,
And а great mist оn the sea's face and а grey dawn
breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy lifе,
То the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's
a whetted knife.
John Masefield
9. Use the appropriate article, define its meaning and explain your choice with the help of substitution or replacement test like in the model.
Model: ... children continued to gallop about the room and didn’t pay any attention to their mother, who was trying to calm them down. - The children (those very children, who were in the room, the children of this woman, their mother: identification) continued to gallop about the room...; … child is a blessing. - A child (any child, every child: relative classifying generalisation) is a blessing; ... children like to play pranks. - Children (in general: absolute generalization, abstraction) like to play pranks.
1) ... man seemed to be very much upset. 2) ... man is worth saving, no matter how unimportant he is. 3) ... man is the only intellectual creation of nature. 4) ... house was built three years ago. 5) He wanted to buy … house.
10. Is the non-use of article meaningful in the examples below? What does the zero article mean in each case?
1) He was wearing a grey shirt and grey flannel trousers. 2) Usually I have bread and butter and coffee for breakfast. 3) You need special knowledge to take up this job. 4) Blood is thicker than water. 5) “PLS ADVISE SOONEST DELIVERY DATE RGDS PETROV” 6) Man was given language to conceal his thoughts (Talleyrand). 7) Terrorism should be fought worldwide.