Теоретическая грамматика (английский язык). Практикум

Задания Exercises

Exercise 1. State morphological composition of the following nouns

Exercise 2. State to what class the nouns belong

1.The hotel specialized in homely English blood and we had pieces of excellent lamb with green peas and new potatoes and a deep-dish pie with Devonshire cream to follow.

2.His face was sick with pain and rage.

3.He was reading in the library. I was very much impressed by his power of concentration.

4.He was professor of physics.

5.Snow lay thick in the valley.

6.Isabel poured out the coffee and Larry lit his pipe.

7.I found them sitting over a cup of tea.

8.The hills ran up clear above the vegetation in spires of naked rock.

Exercise 3. State whether the underlined nouns denote countable or uncountable objects.

1.The box is made of iron and has a tricky lock.

2.The fever within her was like a red-hot iron pressing upon her breast.

3.Montanelli took the hand and examined it closely. «Have they put irons on a fresh wound?»

4.There was a moon but it was still low in the sky. It gave sufficient light for Victoria.

5.He saw a light in one window on the ground floor.

6.The book gives much food for thought.

7.Health is a priceless possession.

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ПРАКТИКУМ

6. THE VERB

Цель: рассмотреть глагол как часть речи, его категории, рассмотреть классификацию глаголов, познакомиться с основными понятиями finite forms, nonfinite forms, participle, gerund, infinitive, modality, aspect, time, tense, time correlation, retrospective coordination, mood, absolute time, relative time, voice, сформировать навыки идентификации глагола, его категорий и форм в предложении, навыки его образования.

Знания и умения, приобретаемые студентами: студенты должны усвоить различные категории глагола как части речи, а также уметь определять грам- матико-лексические категории глагола.

Формируемые компетенции: ОПК-3.

Актуальность темы определяется тем, что в ее рамках рассматриваются категории глагола и его классификация, формируются навыки определения грамматико-лексических категорий глагола.

Теоретическая часть Theoretical part

Grammatically the verb is the most complex part of speech. This is due to the central role it performs in the expression of the predicative functions of the sentence, i.e. the functions of establishing the connection between the situation (situational event) named in the utterance and reality. The complexity of the verb is inherent not only in the intricate structure of its grammatical categories, but also in its various subclass divisions, as well as in its falling into two sets of forms profoundly different from each other: the finite set and the non-finite set (verbals, or verbids).

The class of verbs falls into a number of subclasses distinguished by different semantic and lexico-grammatical features. On the upper level of this division two unequal sets are identified: the set of verbs of full nominative value (notional verbs) which are opposed to the set of verbs of partial nominative value (semi-notional and functional verbs). The set of notional verbs is derivationally open. The second set is derivationally closed, it includes limited subsets of verbs characterized by individual relational properties. On the lower level of division each set can be subdivided into numerous subsets according to their relevant features.

Notional verbs are classified on the basis of three main principles: the relation of the subject of the verb to the process denoted by the verb, the aspective verbal semantics, the verbal combinability with other language units.

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ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКАЯ ГРАММАТИКА ( А Н Г Л И Й С К И Й Я З Ы К )

According to the first criterion, all notional verbs are divided into two sets: actional and statal. Aspective verbal semantics (the second criterion) exposes the inner character of the process denoted by the verb. It represents the process as durative (continual), iterative (repeated), terminate (concluded), interminate (not concluded), instantaneous (momentary), ingressive (starting), overcompleted (developed to the extent of superfluity), undercompleted (not developed to its full extent), and the like. According to the aspective verbal semantics, two major subclasses of notional verbs are singled out: limitive and unlimitive.

The syntactic valency of the verb falls into two cardinal types: obligatory and optional. The obligatory valency is such as must necessarily be realized for the sake of the grammatical completion of the syntactic construction. The subjective and the direct objective valencies of the verb are obligatory. The optional valency is such as is not necessarily realized in grammatically complete constructions: this type of valency may or may not be realized depending on the concrete information conveyed by the utterance. Most of the adverbial modifiers are optional parts of the sentence, so in terms of valency the adverbial valency of the verb is mostly optional.

Thus, according to the third criterion – the valency of the verb -all notional verbs are classified into two sets: complementive (taking obligatory adjuncts) and supplementive (taking optional adjuncts). Complementive and supplementive verbs fall into minor groups: complementive verbs are subdivided into predicative, objective, and adverbial verbs; supplementive verbs are subdivided into personal and impersonal verbs.

In connection with complementive and supplementive characteristics of verbs there arises the question of clarifying the difference between the two notions – «objectivity» and «transitivity».

The finite forms of the verb make up a very complex and intricate system; its intricacy is caused by the fact that they are directly connected with the structure of the sentence, the finite verb functioning as its predication centre.

The morphological study of the English finite verb includes the study of its categories, those of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, and mood.

In accord with the traditional approach to these two categories, scholars point out to the existence in English of three persons and two numbers.

The semantic and formal analysis of the person-number forms of the verb shows that in the strictly categorial sense one should speak

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of personal pronouns set consisting of six different forms of blended person-number nature – three in the singular and three in the plural.

They said inconsistency can be overcome if we accept the idea that in English there exist two tense categories.

The first category – the category of primary time – expresses a direct retrospective evaluation of the time of the process denoted, due to which the process receives an absolute time characteristic., This category is based upon the opposition of «the past tense» and «the present tense», the past tense being its strong member.

The second tense category is the category of «prospective time», it is based upon the opposition of «after-action» and «non-after-action», the marked member being the future tense. The category of prospect is relative by nature which means that it characterizes the action from the point of view of its correlation with some other action. As the future verbal form may be relative either to the present time, or to the past time included in non-future, the English verb acquires two different future forms: the future of the present and the future of the past. It means that the future of the past is doubly strong expressing the strong members of the category of primary time and the category of prospect.

Developing A. I. Smirnitsky’s views on the categorial semantics of perfect / non-perfect forms, we can come to the conclusion that in English there exist two aspective categories: the category of development (based on the opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms) and the category of retrospective coordination (based on the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms).

The category of voice occupies a peculiar place in the system of verbal categories because it reflects the direction of the process as regards the participants in the situation denoted by a syntactic construction. The passive form, being marked, expresses the reception of the action by the subject of the syntactic construction; its weak counter-member – the active form – has the meaning of «non-passivity».

The active voice shows that the action is performed by its subject, that the subject is the doer of the action. The passive voice shows that the subject is acted upon, that it is the recipient of the action:

I wrote a letter – A letter was written by me.

Transformational relations for voice may be symbolized as follows:

N1 + Vact + N2 →N2 + Vpas + by + N1

The category of mood shows the relation of the nominative content of the sentence towards reality. By this category the action can be presented as real, non-real, desirable, recommended, etc.

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ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКАЯ ГРАММАТИКА ( А Н Г Л И Й С К И Й Я З Ы К )

The study of the English mood reveals a certain correlation of its formal and semantic features. The subjunctive, the integral mood of unreality, presents the two sets of forms according to the structural division of verbal tenses into the present and the past. These form-sets constitute the two corresponding functional subsystems of the subjunctive, namely, the aspective, the mood of attitudes, and the conditional, the mood of appraising causal-conditional relations of processes.

Non-finite forms of the verb (verbids) are the forms of the verb which have features intermediary between the verb and the non-pro- cessual parts of speech. Their mixed features are revealed in their semantics, morphemic structural marking, combinability, and syntactic functions. Verbids do not denote pure processes but present them as peculiar kinds of substances and properties; they do not express the most specific finite verb categories – the categories of tense and mood; they have a mixed, verbal and non-verbal, valency; they perform mixed, verbal and non-verbal, syntactic functions.

The infinitive combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun, as a result it serves as the verbal name of a process. By virtue of its general process-naming function, the infinitive should be considered as the head-form of the whole paradigm of the verb.

The gerund, like the infinitive, combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun and gives the process the verbal name. In comparison with the infinitive the gerund reveals stronger substantive properties. Namely, as different from the infinitive, and similar to the noun, the gerund can be modified by a noun in the possessive case or its pronominal equivalents (expressing the subject of the verbal process), and it can be used with prepositions.

Like the infinitive, the gerund performs the syntactic functions of the subject, the object, the predicative, the attribute, and the adverbial modifier.

The present participle serves as a qualifying-processual name. It combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective and adverb. The present participle has two categories: the category of retrospective coordination and the category of voice. The triple nature of the present participle finds its expression in its mixed (verb-type, adjec- tive-type, adverb-type) valency and its syntactic functions (those of the predicative, the attribute, and the adverbial modifier).

The past participle combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective. The categorial meaning of the past participle is qualifying: it gives some sort of qualification to the denoted process. Its

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valency is not specific; its typical syntactic functions are those of the attribute and the predicative.

The category of modality is one of the most complex and contradictory categories of grammatical theory. In linguistics there are two approaches to the category of modality – wide and narrow. In wide understanding modality is the category of a sentence, expressing the attitude of its contents to reality from the point of view of the speaker and including such aspects of utterance, as its expressiveness, communicative aim, negation, evaluation, time (V. V. Vinogradov). In the narrow sense modality is the category which shows the attitude of the speaker towards the utterance.

Communicative aim of a sentence and its modality are different things, as the sentence can be interpreted from the view of three aspects:

1)grammatical structure (formal level)

2)meaningful structure (semantic level)

3)the level of organization of the utterance (communicative level). The communicative aim of an utterance is understood in commu-

nicative linguistics as its illocutive power.

Вопросы, выносимые на обсуждение Points for discussion

1.A general outline of the verb as a part of speech.

2.Classification of verbs (notional verbs / semi-notional verbs / functional verbs).

3.The category of person and number: traditional and modern interpretations.

4.The category of tense: the basic notions connected with the category of tense (lexical/grammatical denotation of time; «the present moment»). Modern conceptions of English tenses.

5.The category of aspect.

6.The category of voice. Category of mood.

7.A general outline of verbals: the categorial semantics, categories, syntactic functions.

8.The infinitive and its properties. The categories of the infinitive. Modal meanings of infinitival complexes.

9.The gerund and its properties. The categories of gerund. The notion of half-gerund.

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ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКАЯ ГРАММАТИКА ( А Н Г Л И Й С К И Й Я З Ы К )

10.The present participle, the past participle, and their properties.

11.Language means of expressing modality.

Задания Exercises

Exercise 1. Determine group of verbs to which they belong. Translate the sentences paying attention to the ways you translate the verbs in bold. Make a conclusion about the shift of the lexical meaning when translated verbs in bold are used as continuous and noncontinuous.

1.I can’t understand why he is being so selfish. He isn’t usually like

that.

2.We are enjoying our holiday. We are having a great time.

3.I am thinking of giving up my job.

4.I am seeing the manager tomorrow morning.

5.Why are you smelling this meat? Do you think it has gone off?

Exercise 2. Translate the sentences paying attention to the substitute verbs in bold. Make classification of substitute verbs.

1.She knows this rule and so do I.

2.I am coming and so is she.

3.I said“Winston, if I weren’t in my right mind, I’d think you’re trying to hit on me” and he was like “and you’d be right.”

4.We shall be able to correct the program. He was allowed to perform the operation.

5.“Didn’t your mother tell you that the most expensive is not always the best?”“No she did not…”

6.We shall use this letter, as Prof. N. did, for the constant V.

7.A wise man seldom changes his mind, a fool never does.

8.“Did I say I wasn’t going to start?” “No… No, but – ” “That’s right. Because I am”.

9.“I sort of depend on you now.” “Yes. You do. You do, don’t you,

Paul?”

10.Ah, Annie, you were lying to both of us. I knew it, and you did,

too.

Exercise 3. Translate the sentences paying attention to the translation of the verb. Classify the sentences to express the passive voice:

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(1)the verb «to be» + the short passive participle;

(2)reflexive verb;

(3)non-finite clause;

(4)finite clause with a verb in the active voice.

(Some sentences can be translated in several ways according to Russian verb and context)

1.The book is much spoken about.

2.He was told to stay home.

3.The experiments were made last year.

4.Answers are given in the written form.

5.He was helped to open the door.

6.They were invited by my friend.

7.We were deceived in our hopes.

8.The boy was shown the way.

9.Many mistakes had been made.

10.We were asked to come as early as possible.

Exercise 4: Translate the sentences paying attention to the translation of the verb. Define the function of the verb:

–notional;

–auxiliary to form the grammatical tense;

–auxiliary to form a conditional mood;

–modal.

1.You shall do this work at once.

2.You should tell me the truth.

3.Do I need to read it?

4.Need you have paid so much?

5.I will come whether you like it or not.

6.I would (I’d) better shoot her once instead of shooting her lovers every week.

7.He should have driven more carefully.

8.They shall have this picture.

Exercise 5: Translate the sentences paying attention to the translation of the gerund and determine:

–actions that take place simultaneously;

–future action;

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ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКАЯ ГРАММАТИКА ( А Н Г Л И Й С К И Й Я З Ы К )

–preceding action;

–action irrespective of the time of accomplishment.

1.I’m sure of having read it once.

2.I remember having been shown the letter.

3.I remember seeing you once.

4.She was fond of singing when she was a child.

5.We think of going there in the summer.

6.He came in without knocking.

7.He had intended writing him.

8.I insist on being listened to.

9.Thank you for helping me.

10.He regretted now having written this letter.

Exercise 6. Translate the sentences. Determine which sentence contains:

–the Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction, or a complex ob-

ject;

–the Nominative-with-the-Infinitive Construction, or complex sub-

ject;

–the For-to-Infinitive Construction.

1.I saw him cross the street.

2.I was supposed to meet him.

3.They made her come.

4.That’s for you to think on.

5.It’s necessary for me to know her new address.

6.I expect him to ask that question.

7.He is said to have returned at last.

8.The doctor told me to stay in bed.

9.He is unlikely to help you.

10.I have closed the window for you not to catch cold.

Литература

Основная: 1–3. Дополнительная: 1, 2, 5, 6, 8. Интернет-ресурсы: 1–3.

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