Теоретическая грамматика (английский язык). Практикум

thoroughly realistic representation of real conversation. The following text sample is from The Old Devils (1987), written by Kingsley Amis.

–Compare the linguistic and functional characteristics of this fictional conversation with the natural conversations analyzed in Exercises 1–6 above.

–Identify and illustrate linguistic features that are typical natural conversation.

“If you want my opinion,”said Gwen Cellan – Davies,“the old boy’s a terrifically distinguished citizen of Wales. Or at any rate what passes for one these days”. Her husband was cutting the crusts off a slice of toast.

“Well, I should say that’s generally accepted”

“And Reg Burroughs is another after his thirty years of pen-pushing in first City Hall and later County Hall, for which he was duly honoured”.

“That’s altogether too dismissive a view. By any reckoning Alun has done some good things. Come on now, fair play”.

“Good things for himself certainly: Brydan’s Wales and that selection, whatever it’s called/ Both still selling nicely after all these years. Without Brydan and the Brydan industry, Alun would be nothing. Including especially his pwm work – those poems are all sub – Brydan”.

“Following that trail isn’t such a bad -”

“Goes down a treat with the Americans and the English, you bet. But – ” Gwen put her head on one side and gave the little frowning smile she used when she was putting something to someone, often a possible negative view of a third party, “wouldn’t you have to agree that he follows Brydan at, eh, an altogether lower level of imagination and craftsmanship?”

“I agree that compared with Brydan at his best, he doesn’t” – “You know what I mean”

Exercise 6. Observing the grammar of natural conversations.

Pay attention to conversations in English either among your friends or on the radio or television – and make a note of any utterances that seem syntactically complex or odd.

–Write down the most interesting examples and try to analyze their grammatical structure.

–If you have difficulty, bring the examples to class for group discussion.

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18. LINGUISTICS OF THE TEXT

Цель: рассмотреть понятия text, discourse, textual units, supra-phrasal unity, cumuleme, occurseme, paragraph, stylistic load, retrospect, prospect, category of author, cohesion, representation, substitution, context, рассмотреть текст как предмет исследования и его основные характеристики.

Знания и умения, приобретаемые студентами: студенты должны усвоить понятия text, discourse, textual units, supra-phrasal unity, cumuleme, occurseme, paragraph, stylistic load, retrospect, prospect, category of author, cohesion, representation, substitution, context, усвоить основные характеристики текста.

Формируемые компетенции: ОПК-3.

Актуальность темы определяется тем, что в ее рамках осваиваются понятия text, discourse, textual units, cohesion, representation, substitution, context и

основные характеристики текста.

Теоретическая часть Theoretical part

Any text is a coherent stretch of speech which is a semantico-topi- cal and syntactic unity. Sentences make up textual stretches on syntactic lines according to a communicative purpose in a particular communicative situation. As a result, a textual stretch has a unifying topic. So, in syntactic terms a text is a strictly topical stretch of talk centering on a common informative purpose.

The text began to be considered by many linguists as the highest lingual unit having its own categories and elements, and also rules of organization, i.e. having its specific grammar.

In the framework of the given understanding of text, it has two main differential features topical (semantic) unity and semantico-syn- tactic cohesion. Under topical unity we understand impossibility to extract from the text any of it fragmant or in other case the text is destroyed or is reorganized into another text. Any way of extraction can lead to visible change of the text. Under cohesion we understand logical semantico-syntactic and formal structure of the text, leading to the reorganizing its components in any order or including into it some “foreign” fragments.

The cohesion of the text can be formal and semantic. To indicate formal-linguistic means of intratextual links in the linguistics of the text the term cohesion is used and to indicate semantic means the term – coherence. And different types of cohesion and cogeration are described. For cohesion:

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1)Reference. Under reference we understand the references either to preceding context (retrospection) or to the following context (prospection) sometimes the retrospectual reference is also called anaphora and prospective reference – cataphora. The most evident means of reference in English is the article determination: the definite article usually serves as the marker of anaphoric link and the indefinite article as the marker of cataphoric link. For example, in the sentence The boy was pale. the definite article shows that the denotatum, indicated by the noun (boy) has already been mentioned in the previous context.

2)Substitution. The most evident and often used example of substitution is pronominalization – the use of pronouns instead of nouns:

Jack could neither read nor write. He was illiterate.

3)Ellipsis. Under it we understand structure incompleteness of the sentence. The elliptical sentence, though, can always be built up to the completed. There are two principal types of ellipsis: a) paradigmatically filled in elliptical sentences. Thus, the question Ready?; b) syntagmatically filled in elliptical sentences. How was your journey? – Fine.

4)Conjunction. Under it we understand the usage of different connection elements between the sentences, mostly conjunctions (I was terribly angry. And Ann was too) but also other ways, for example, adverbs (firstly, secondly, lastly) and also sententional formations of the type I mean.

5)Isotopia of the text. It is also named lexical cohesion and thematic net, it presupposes the usage of lexical units, as from the same means of link “subject sphere”. Thus, if in the abstract we observe such words as books, librarians, to read, reading halls, shelves, journals, it is clear that the description concerns the situation in the library or in the reading-hall.

Coherence

The text is not only structural but thematic unity, and it means that it is possible to point out content parameters which characterize it as the unit of the highest level. These are such parameters:

1.Intentionality is the aims, tasks and intentions, which has the author, generating the text.

2.Acceptability is the admissibility of a generated text for it recip-

ient.

3.Informativeness is the degree of presentation in the text of the view, unknown, unexpected.

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4.Situativity is the accordance of the form and content of the situation of communication.

5.Intertextuality is the connection of this text with other text.

The theory of text usually presupposes the investigation of problems concerning the context. In linguistics there are a lot of types of context but we’ll speak about two: horizontal and vertical.

Under horizontal we mean the context describing the series of events, immediately changing one another in the frame of dynamically developed in time situation. For example, A boy entered the room. He came up to the window and opened it. Looking out the window, he saw a girl crossing the street.

Under vertical we understand the context, which describes the situation or situations, preceding or being simultaneously with that which is given in the initial sentence of the context; the time in such context freezes or gets the regressive features, for example: A boy entered the room. He was dressed poorly but neatly. He was thin and pale and looked very tired. It was obvious that he had not eaten for days as he was very weak. He was standing in the doorway ready to faint.

Text and discourse are the notions interrelated but not identical. Under the text most researchers understand the example of written speech literally, stylistically organized according to a particular genre and that’s why it is characterized by thought up composition, relevance, syntactical correctness and structural completeness.

Discourse isn’t bounded by such parameters. First, it cannot be summed to the written form. Second, it is spontaneous, and it isn’t from the point of the form, ideal, structurally changeable, stylistically not completely correct.

Discourse is a verbal reaction of a man to the communicative situation; it is speech “absorbed in life”, it’s the type of activity which exist along with other activities.

The text is characterized by the presence of its own categories and parameters. The formal feature of the discourse is the presence of discourse lexicon (discourse markers, discourse operators) – the adequate interpretation of such verbal elements can be only when they are engaged in speech structure. To such discourse words the grammarians ascribe interjections (oh, aha), the formation of sentential type (you know, you see), particles (even, only) and some others.

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Вопросы, выносимые на обсуждение Points for discussion

1.What definition of text is syntactically relevant?

2.What are the principles of identifying textual units?

3.What is the basic difference between a cumuleme and an occurseme?

4.What is the role of the dicteme in the formation of text?

5.What basic functions are performed by the dicteme?

6.What textual categories do scholars usually identify?

7.What enables linguists to regard topical unity and semanti- co-synlaclic cohesion as the basic textual categories?

Задания Exercises

Exercise.1 Dwell on the means of cohesion in the given text fragments.

MODEL:

Ten minutes later, with face blanched by terror, and eyes wild with grief, Lord Arthur Savile rushed from Bentinck House, crushing his way through the crowd of fur-coated footmen that stood round the large striped awning, and seeming not to see or hear anything. 7 ‘he was bitter cold, and the gaslamps round the square flared and flickered in the keen wind; but his hands were hot with fever, and his forehead burned like fire. On and on he went, almost with the gait of a drunken тип policeman looked curiously at him as he passed, and a beggar, who slouched from an archway to ask for alms, grew frightened, seeing misery greater than his own. Once he stopped under a lamp, and looked at his hands. He thought he could detect the stain of blood already upon them, and a faint cry broke from his trembling lips.

Murder! that is what the cheiromantist had seen there. Murder! The very night seemed to know it, and the desolate wind to howl it in his ear. The dark corners of the streets were full of it. It grinned at him from the roofs of the houses.

First he came to the Park, whose sombre woodland seemed to fascinate him. He leaned wearily up against the railings, cooling his brow against the wet metal, and listening to the tremulous silence of the trees. ‘Murder! murder!’he kept repeating, as though iteration could dim the horror of the word. The sound of his own voice made him shudder, yet he almost hoped that Echo might hear him, and wake the slumbering city from its dreams. He felt a mad desire to stop the casual passer-by, and tell him everything.

(from O. Wilde «Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime»)

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The principal means of textual cohesion in this fragment is repetition of different kinds: 1) lexical repetition (repetition of the key word): «Murder! that is what the cheiromantist had seen there. Murder!», the repetition of the pronouns: «he» and «it» (substituting «the murder»), repetition of the words used to describe the background: «night», «dark», «wind»; 2) lexical synonymic repetition: «with the face blanched by terror», «the horror of the word»; «eyes wild with grief, «seeing misery greater than his own»; 3) repetition of the verbs of motion: «rushed, crashed the way through, on and on he went, he passed, came to the Park».

Among other means we find substitution (Lord Arthur Savile – he, his; the murder – it, the word, everything) and representation: «Murder! murder! he kept repeating» – «iteration».

Besides, the function of connectors is performed by conjunctions (but, and, yet). Another means of textual cohesion is contrast: «the night was bitter cold, and the gas-lamps round the square flared and flickered in the keen wind; but his hands were hot with fever, and his forehead burned like fire».

The whole piece deals with the description of the main character’s agitated state of mind after he had learned his fate. The following lexical units contribute to the thematic unity of the text: face blanched by terror, eyes wild with grief rushed, crushing his way, seemed not to see or hear anything, his hands were hot with fever, his forehead burned like fire, the gait of a drunken man, misery, could detect the stain of blood, a faint cry, trembling lips, desolate wind, leaned wearily, the horror of the word, shudder, a mad desire.

1. It was 2 p.m. on the afternoon of May 7, 1915. The Lusitania had been struck by two torpedoes in succession and was sinking rapidly, while the boats were being launched with all possible speed. The women and children were being lined up awaiting their turn. Some still clung desperately to husbands and fathers; others clutched their children closely to their breasts. One girl stood alone, slightly apart from the rest. She was quite young, not more than eighteen. She did not seem afraid, and her grave, steadfast eyes looked straight ahead.

«I beg your pardon».

A man’s voice beside her made her start and turn. She had noticed the speaker more than once amongst the first-class passengers. There had been a hint of mystery about him which had appealed to her im-

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agination. He spoke to no one. If anyone spoke to him he was quick to rebuff the overture. Also he had a nervous way of looking over his shoulder with a swift, suspicious glance.

She noticed now that he was greatly agitated. There were beads of perspiration on his brow. He was evidently in a state of overmastering fear. And yet he did not strike her as the kind of man who would be afraid to meet death!

(from A. Christie «The Secret Adversary»)

2. Now, so far as this went, everything fitted in finally and rationally enough. Valentin had learned by his inquiries that morning that a Father.

Brown from Essex was bringing up a silver cross with sapphires, a relic of considerable value, to show some of the foreign priests at the congress. This undoubtedly was the «silver with blue stones»; and Father Brown undoubtedly was the little greenhorn in the train. Now there was nothing wonderful about the fact that what Valentin had found out Flambeau had also found out; Flambeau found out everything. Also there was nothing wonderful in the fact that when Flambeau heard of a sapphire cross he should try to steal it; that was the most natural thing in all natural history. And most certainly there was nothing wonderful about the fact that Flambeau should have it all his own way with such a silly sheep as the man with the umbrella and the parcels. He was the sort of man whom anybody could lead on a string to the North Pole; it was not surprising that an actor like Flambeau, dressed as another priest, could lead him to Hampstead Heath. So far the crime seemed clear enough; and while the detective pitied the priest for his helplessness, he almost despised Flambeau for condescending to so gullible a victim. But when Valentin thought of all that had happened in between, of all that had led him to his triumph, he racked his brains for the smallest rhyme or reason in it. What had the stealing of a blue-and-silver cross from a priest from Essex to do with chucking soup at wall paper? What had it to do with calling nuts oranges, or with paying for windows first and breaking them afterwards? He had come to the end of his chase; yet somehow he had missed the middle of it. When he failed (which was seldom), he had usually grasped the clue, but nevertheless missed the criminal. Here he had grasped the criminal, but still he could not grasp the clue.

The two figures that they followed were crawling like black flies across the huge green contour of a hill. They were evidently sunk in

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conversation, and perhaps did not notice where they were going; but they were certainly going to the wilder and more silent heights of the Heath. As their pursuers gained on them, the latter had to use the undignified attitudes of the deer-stalker, to crouch behind clumps of trees and even to crawl prostrate in deep grass. By these ungainly ingenuities the hunters even came close enough to the quarry to hear the murmur of the discussion, but no word could be distinguished except the word «reason» recurring frequently in a high and almost childish voice. Once over an abrupt dip of land and a dense tangle of thickets, the detectives actually lost the two figures they were following. They did not find the trail again for an agonising ten minutes, and then it led round the brow of a great dome of hill overlooking an amphitheatre of rich and desolate sunset scenery. Under a tree in this commanding yet neglected spot was an old ramshackle wooden seat. On this seat sat the two priests still in serious speech together. The gorgeous green and gold still clung to the darkening horizon; but the dome above was turning slowly from peacock-green to peacock-blue, and the stars detached themselves more and more like solid jewels. Mutely motioning to his followers, Valentin contrived to creep up behind the big branching tree, and, standing there in deathly silence, heard the words of the strange priests for the first time.

(from G. K. Chesterton «The Blue Cross»)

Exercise 2. Dwell on the means of cohesion in the given text fragments.

1. My mother was sitting by the fire, but poorly in health, and very low in spirits, looking at it through her tears, and desponding heavily about herself and the fatherless little stranger, who was already welcomed by some grosses of prophetic pins, in a drawer upstairs, to a world not at all excited on the subject of his arrival; my mother, I say, was sitting by the fire, that bright, windy March afternoon, very timid and sad, and very doubtful of ever coming alive out of the trial that was before her, when, lifting her eyes as she dried them, to the window opposite, she saw a strange lady coming up the garden.

My mother had a sure foreboding at the second glance, that it was Miss Betsey. The setting sun was glowing on the strange lady, over the garden-fence, and she came walking up to the door with a fell rigidity of figure and composure of countenance that could have belonged to nobody else.

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When she reached the house, she gave another proof of her identity. My father had often hinted that she seldom conducted herself like any ordinary Christian; and now, instead of ringing the bell, she came and looked in at that identical window, pressing the end of her nose against the glass to that extent, that my poor dear mother used to say it became perfectly flat and white in a moment.

She gave my mother such a turn, that I have always been convinced I am indebted to Miss Betsey for having been born on a Friday.

My mother had left her chair in her agitation, and gone behind it in the corner. Miss Betsey, looking round the room, slowly and inquiringly, began on the other side, and carried her eyes on, like a Saracen’s Head in a Dutch clock, until they reached my mother. Then she made a frown and a gesture to my mother, like one who was accustomed to be obeyed, to come and open the door. My mother went.

(from Ch. Dickens «David Copperfield»)

2. We sat there for half-an-hour, describing to each other our maladies. I explained to George and William Harris how I felt when I got up in the morning, and William Harris told us how he felt when he went to bed; and George stood on the hearth-rug, and gave us a clever and powerful piece of acting, illustrative of how he felt in the night.

George FANCIES he is ill; but there’s never anything really the matter with him, you know.

At this point, Mrs. Poppets knocked at the door to know if we were ready for supper. We smiled sadly at one another, and said we supposed we had better try to swallow a bit. Harris said a little something in one’s stomach often kept the disease in check; and Mrs. Poppets brought the tray in, and we drew up to the table, and toyed with a little steak and onions, and some rhubarb tart.

I must have been very weak at the time; because I know, after the first half-hour or so, I seemed to take no interest whatever in my food - an unusual thing for me – and I didn’t want any cheese.

This duty done, we refilled our glasses, lit our pipes, and resumed the discussion upon our state of health. What it was that was actually the matter with us, we none of us could be sure of; but the unanimous opinion was that it – whatever it was – had been brought on by overwork.

«What we want is rest,» said Harris.

«Rest and a complete change,» said George. «The overstrain upon our brains has produced a general depression throughout the system.

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