- •The verbal categories of voice and mood.
- •The morphological structure of a word. Types of morphemes.
- •A short history of the origins and development of English.
- •Word-composition. Classification of compound words.
- •Phraseological units and their classification.
- •Phonetics means of stylistics.
- •Expressive means of English syntax.
- •The verb as a part of speech. Subclasses of verbs.
- •Noun determiners. The article. The problem of the zero article.
- •Words of native origin and their characteristics
- •Finite and non-finite forms of the verb. The category of finitude.
- •Periodization of the history of the English language.
- •Polysemy. The semantic structure of a polysemantic word.
- •Synonyms. The sources of synonymy.
- •Classifications of English verbs.
- •The morphological structure of a word. Types of morphemes
- •Homonyms. Classification. Origin of homonyms.
- •The verbal categories of voice and mood.
- •Antonyms. Semantic and morphological classifications.
- •Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices.
- •Types of word meaning.
- •Free word-groups and their classification.
- •Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices.
- •Phraseology: Principles of Classification
- •The Interaction of Different Types of Lexical Meaning.
- •General characteristics of language as a functional system.
- •Phraseology: Word-Groups with Transferred Meanings.
- •Affixation.
- •General principles of grammatical analysis
- •The Noun. General characteristics.
- •Conversion.
- •Categorial structure of the word.
- •Composition.
- •Reduplication.
- •General characteristics of the grammatical structure of language.
- •General characteristics of the English verbs
- •4. **Mood:**
- •5. **Voice:**
- •Types of grammatical meaning.
- •Classifications of English verbs
- •Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices
- •Antonyms. Semantic and morphological classifications.
The Noun. General characteristics.
A noun is a fundamental part of speech that represents a person, place, thing, idea, or concept. It serves as the naming or identifying word in a sentence and plays a crucial role in expressing and conveying information.
1. **Naming:**
- Nouns are words that name people, animals, places, things, concepts, or ideas.
- Examples: cat, Paris, book, love.
2. **Identification:**
- Nouns help identify and distinguish entities in language.
- Example: "The cat is sleeping." In this sentence, "cat" identifies and refers to a specific feline.
3. **Categories:**
- Nouns can be categorized into various types based on their roles and characteristics.
- Common categories include common nouns (general names), proper nouns (specific names), abstract nouns (ideas or concepts), concrete nouns (tangible objects), and collective nouns (groups).
4. **Countability:**
- Nouns can be classified as countable or uncountable based on whether they can be counted as individual units or not.
- Countable nouns: apples, books, people.
- Uncountable nouns: water, happiness, information.
5. **Gender:**
- Some nouns have gender distinctions, particularly in languages with grammatical gender. For example, in languages like French or Spanish, nouns may be masculine or feminine.
- Example: "amigo" (masculine) and "amiga" (feminine) in Spanish, both meaning "friend."
6. **Number:**
- Nouns can be singular (referring to one) or plural (referring to more than one).
- Examples: dog (singular) and dogs (plural).
7. **Possession:**
- Nouns can indicate possession through the use of apostrophes or possessive pronouns.
- Example: "John's car" or "her book."
8. **Function in a Sentence:**
- Nouns can function as subjects, objects, or complements in a sentence.
- Subject: "The cat is on the mat."
- Object: "She read a book."
- Complement: "He is a doctor."
9. **Derivation:**
- Nouns can be derived from other parts of speech, such as verbs or adjectives, through processes like nominalization.
- Example: From the verb "run," we can derive the noun "runner."
10. **Capitalization:**
- Proper nouns, which refer to specific names, are typically capitalized.
- Example: "New York City," where "New York City" is a proper noun.
Understanding the characteristics of nouns is essential for constructing grammatically correct sentences and expressing ideas clearly in language.
Conversion.
Conversion, also known as zero derivation or functional shift, is a linguistic process in which a word changes its grammatical category without the addition of an affix. In other words, a word shifts from one part of speech to another without any visible morphological change. This phenomenon is particularly common in English. The converted word retains its original form but takes on a new syntactic and semantic role. examples:
1. **Noun to Verb:**
- "She decided to **table** the proposal." (Noun: a piece of furniture)
- "He likes to **fish** in the river." (Noun: an animal)
2. **Verb to Noun:**
- "The **run** was refreshing." (Verb: to move rapidly)
- "She took a long **swim** in the pool." (Verb: to move through water)
3. **Adjective to Noun:**
- "The poor deserve help." (Adjective: lacking wealth)
- "I like the blues." (Adjective: a style of music)
4. **Noun to Adjective:**
- "The sun is shining on the **gold** ring." (Noun: a metal)
- "I bought a **silk** scarf." (Noun: a fabric)
5. **Adjective to Verb:**
- "The committee will **green-light** the project." (Adjective: approving)
- "She decided to **brown** the meat." (Adjective: having a brown color)
6. **Adverb to Adjective:**
- "She performed the task **quick**." (Adverb: quickly)
- "He ran **fast**." (Adverb: quickly)
7. **Adjective to Adverb:**
- "She sang a **sweet** song." (Adjective: pleasing to the taste)
- "She sang **sweetly**." (Adverb: in a pleasing manner)
Conversion allows for flexibility and creativity in language use. It often occurs when speakers need to express a concept for which a dedicated word doesn't exist, and they adapt an existing word to serve the purpose. This process is an example of the dynamic and adaptive nature of language.