Theory of Grammar. Учебное пособие

1.4. Grammatical Classes of Words

REPORTS

1.Parts of Speech. Ch. Fries, The structure of English.

2.Parts of Speech. H. Sweet, A New English Grammar.

3.Parts of Speech. O. Jespersen, The philosophy of Grammar.

4.Parts of Speech. P. Roberts, The Relation of Linguistics to the Teaching of English.

5.Parts of Speech. W.N. Francis, The structure of American English.

6.Two sets of Parts of Speech. J. Sledd, A Short Introduction to English Grammar.

7.Грамматическая система английского и русского языков. Система частей речи.

REFERENCES

1.Блох, М. Я. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка [Текст] / М. Я. Блох. − Москва: Высшая школа, 2003. − С. 37−48.

2.Ильиш, Б. А. Строй современного английского языка [Текст]: учебник / Б. А. Ильиш. – Ленинград: Просвещение, 1971. – P. 27−35, 66−72.

3.Иванова, И. П. Теоретическая грамматика современного английского языка [Текст] / И. П. Иванова, В. В. Бурлакова, Г. Г. Почепцов. −

Москва: Высшая школа, 1981. − С. 14–20, 40−46, 91−99.

4.Иофик, Л. Л. Хрестоматия по теоретической грамматике английского языка [Текст] / Л. Л. Иофик, Л. П. Чахоян – Ленинград: Просвеще-

ние, 1972.81, С. 41−57.

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2.1. Noun General

guardian, personality, apprentice, approval, authority, correctness, dictionary, girlie, glamour, persistence, clarity, aptitude, attendant, breadth, wisdom.

3. Comment upon the structure of the following compound nouns:

Lightning-rod, looker-on, commander-in-chief, blackbird, sleepingdraught, lime-kiln, keeping-room, pick-lock, bluestocking, boatman, bluebottle, thank-offering, goodwill, goose-quill, backdoor, backfriend, barefacedness, tailcoat, sleepyhead, skating-rink, singsong, sign-painter, passer-by, moonlight, hop-o'-my-thumb, sportsman, forget-me-not, scarecrow, fire-place, chimneysweep, foreman, gate-keeper, pickpocket, searchlight, merry-go-round, bluebell, blackberry, sealing-wax, sweetmeat, sweetheart, sea-dog, swing-bridge, peep-hole, cut-throat, frontispiece, gold-digger, nightfall, numbfish.

4. Define the class the nouns in the following sentences belong to:

1. "... The Government wants Florence to go to the Crimea and take charge of the hospitals." (Berkeley). 2. On the top of the rise ... he lifted his head to take a quick glance across the countryside of settlement called Saint Helen. (Aldridge). 3. She was very conscious of her legs; she had always been terribly aware of their ugliness. (Bates). 4. "If Harris's eyes fill with tears, you can bet it is because Harris has been eating raw onions, or has put too much Worcester over his chop". (Jerome). 5. Pork and beef and lamb and pheasant and veal: whatever one wanted had always been at hand. (Bates). 6. He likes everything about him to run with the smoothness of first-class machinery. He has his whole life, and the life of all his family, arranged in detail for the next twenty years. (Braine). 7. Between matches it was Alfie Perks, the secretary, who held the team together... (Moore). 8. Florence: "There are multitudes of people wrestling with Death." (Berkeley). 9. I'll take the matter to the police before I let you do it. (Braine). 10. "Daddy darling, can't the band have something to drink?" (Mansfield).

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Part 2. Noun

6. Using a dictionary, tell from what word each of these abstract

SPECIAL USES OF NOUNS

1. Proper nouns are used as common in either of two ways:

(1)The origin of something can be used for the thing itself: as china, from China.

(2)The name of a place or a person famous for certain features is transferred to any person or place possessing those features; Hercules and Samson were noted for their strength, and we call a very strong man a Hercules or a Samson.

2. Material nouns may be used as class names. Instead of considering the whole body of substance of which certain uses are made, one can speak of particular uses or phases of the material; as

(1)Of individual things made from particular substances capable of being wrought into various shapes. "The sailor was put in irons" meaning chains of iron.

(2)Of kinds of the same material. These are the same in substance, but differ in purity, strength, etc. Making the nouns plural it shortens speech, and say teas, tobaccos, paints, oils, candies, clays, coals

(3)Using certain words, singular in idea, plural we make them sound poetical:-The lone and level sands stretch far away.

(4)Of detached portions of matter used as class names; as stones, slates, papers, tins, clouds, mists, etc.

3. Abstract nouns are frequently used as proper names by being personified; that is, the ideas are spoken of as if of living beings. This is a poetic usage, though not confined to verse.

Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind. (Byron).

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2.1.Noun General

4.Abstract nouns are made half abstract by being spoken of in the plural.

They are not then pure abstract nouns, nor are they common class nouns.

For example, examine this:

The arts differ from the sciences in this, that their power is founded not merely on facts which can be communicated, but on dispositions which require to be created. (Ruskin).

5.Nouns used as descriptive terms. Sometimes a noun is attached to another noun to add to its meaning, or describe it; for example, "a family quarrel", "a New York bank", "the State Bank Tax bill", "a morning walk".

6.Words or word groups used as nouns.

(1) Other parts of speech used as nouns:

The great, the wealthy, fear thy blow. (Burns). Every why hath a wherefore. (Shakespeare).

(2) Certain word groups used like single nouns:

Then comes the "Why, sir!" and the "What then, sir?" and the "No, sir!" and the "You don't see your way through the question, sir!" (Macaulay).

(3) Any part of speech may be referred to as a word:

The it, at the beginning, is ambiguous, whether it mean the sun or the cold. (Dr. Blair)

7. Pick out the nouns and tell to which class each belongs. Notice if any have shifted from one class to another.

1.Hope springs eternal in the human breast.

2.Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate.

3.Stone walls do not a prison make. Nor iron bars a cage.

4.Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named.

5.A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.

6.Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

7.The fleet, shattered and disabled, returned to Spain.

8.One To-day is worth two To-morrows.

9.Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

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Part 2. Noun

10.The hours glide by; the silver moon is gone.

11.Her robes of silk and velvet came from over the sea.

12.My soldier cousin was once only a drummer boy.

8.Define the syntactical function of the nouns.

1."What a doctor wants," I said, "is practice..." (Jerome).

2.Roy unpacked three bundles of pelts from his rucksack and lay them out under the mattress of the brass bed. (Aldridge).

3.He washed at the kitchen sink. (Aldridge).

4.An American had bought a ticket and asked her for a dance. (Greene).

5.I saw Phuong for a moment as I had seen her first,... watched by an elder sister who had been determined on a good European marriage. (Greene).

6.Will you render the old man a service he needs?

REPORTS

Make a synopsis of the articles

1.Gardiner, A. The Theory of Proper Names. – Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954. – P. 43−54.

2.Семенова, Т. Н. Антропонимическая индивидуализация: когнитивнопрагматические аспекты [Текст] / Т. Н. Семенова. – Москва: Готика,

2001.

REFERENCES

1.Блох, М. Я. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка [Текст] / М. Я. Блох. − Москва: Высшая школа, 2003. − Москва: Высшая шко-

ла, 2003. – С. 55−58.

2.Блох, М. Я. Практикум по теоретической грамматике английского языка [Текст] / М. Я. Блох, Т. Н. Семенова, С. В. Тимофеева. – Москва: Высшая школа, 2004. – С. 109−110.

3.Иванова, И. П. Теоретическая грамматика современного английского языка [Текст] / И. П. Иванова, В. В. Бурлакова, Г. Г. Почепцов. − Москва: Высшая школа, 1981. – С. 21−22, 28−29.

4.Ильиш, Б. А. Строй современного английского языка [Текст]: учебник / Б. А. Ильиш. – Ленинград: Просвещение, 1971. – С. 36.

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2.2. Noun Gender

2.2.NOUN GENDER

QUESTIONS

1.Why do many scientists think that gender cannot be regarded as a grammatical category?

2.Is the gender division expressed as variable forms of words or as a noun classification?

3.What is the category of gender formed by?

4.What does the common gender mean?

5.How can English nouns show the sex lexically?

6.What does the grammatical personifying transposition effect?

7.Compare the category of gender in English, Russian, German.

EXERCISES

1. Study the tables.

THE ENDING -ESS

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Part 2. Noun

2. Comment on the gender indication in the following sentences:

1."If you own a dog, it’s entirely your responsibility what food she gets." (The Times).

2."It was a wild, cold, unreasonable night of March, with a pale moon, lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her. And now, lo, the whole world could be divested of its garment, the garment could lie there shed away intact, and one could stand in a new world, a new earth, naked in a new naked universe." (Lawrence).

3.”Look at the moon up there. You see her very plainly, don’t you? She’s very real. But if the sun were to shine you wouldn’t be able to see her at all.” (Christie).

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2.2. Noun Gender

4.” We have our differences, gentlemen, but the sea doesn’t care about that. The sea – well, she tries to kill us all regardless what flag we fly.” (Clancy).

5."Russia will not solve the crisis using Western methods or Western thinking. She must turn inward, build on her own spiritual experience and her own spiritual insights to move ahead into a new future..." (Moscow News).

6.What kind of car do you have?” – “British Jaguar. She runs like the wind.” (Isles).

7.I had been stalking the bluebottle fly for five minutes, waiting for him to sit down. (Chandler).

3. Read the fragment from the Internet forum.

Question

Why is it that more and more actresses are calling themselves actors. Even now at award shows they are giving actresses awards that clearly read actor. What was wrong with the word actress?

Answer

Actually, there was a good reason for doing this. Somebody did a study back in the late 70's and documented that 95% of persons working in the television and movie industry who had the title of "Actress" were getting paid less than comparable persons who were called "Actor". In the mid to late 80's they started to correct this by insisting on all on camera persons being called actors. Then along came O. Winfrey, M. Stewart, B. Walters and others who insisted on absolute equality in pay and frills and had the clout to back it up. So the industry had to call all on camera persons "actors", pay them according to the same scale of wages and treat them the same as male actors or be sued huge by these women and lose credibility (see ratings & respect). This is why on camera women are now called "Actors".

4. This tendency got the name of “Inclusive language”. What were the old counterparts of the following politically correct words:

Flight attendant, politician, fire fighter, executive, police officer.

REPORTS

Make a synopsis of the article:

1.Аксенов, А. Т. К проблеме экстралингвистической мотивации грамматической категории рода [Текст] / А. Т. Аксенов // Вопросы языкознания, 1984. – № 1. – С. 14–25.

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Part 2. Noun

REFERENCES

1.Блох, М. Я. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка [Текст] / М. Я. Блох. − Москва: Высшая школа, 2003. – С. 59–63.

2.Блох, М. Я. Практикум по теоретической грамматике английского языка [Текст] / М. Я. Блох, Т. Н. Семенова, С. В. Тимофеева. – Москва: Высшая школа, 2004. – С. 109–110.

3.Гуревич, В. В. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка. Сравнительная типология английского и русского языков [Текст]: учебное пособие / В. В. Гуревич. – Москва: Флинта: Наука, 2003. – С. 11–12.

4.Иванова, И. П. Теоретическая грамматика современного английского языка [Текст] / И. П. Иванова, В. В. Бурлакова, Г. Г. Почепцов. − Москва: Высшая школа, 1981. – С. 22.

2.3.NOUN NUMBER

QUESTIONS

1.How is the category of number expressed?

2.What are the productive and non-productive ways of expressing the number opposition?

3.How should the senemic marks of the plural and the singular be understood?

4.What does the lexicalization of the grammatical meaning of the plural form mean?

5.Is the category of number variable? Why?

6.What does absolute singular/absolute plural mean?

7.What are the types of reduction and what do they concern?

8.Compare the category in the English and Russian languages.

EXERCISES

1. Where possible give the plural of the nouns.

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