Language & its Definition
Language is a complex many sided and many functional phenomenon, therefore, not easy to define. The definition of the language is related to its main functions and also to its internal properties. Viewed from the point of its cognitive function, language is defined as a means of forming, storing and transmitting information or knowledge. Today language is actively studied as a means of reconstructing cognitive processes, which are not accessible for direct observation but can be understood on the basis on analyzing linguistic facts. Viewed from its social function, language is defined as a means of communication and the aim of any meaningful communication is to exchange information, therefore the cognitive and communicative functions are closely interrelated. From the point of view of its internal properties, language is defined as a structural system of signs, thus language is a part of semiotics. With respect to its main functions and internal properties, language may be defined as a structural system of signs used for forming, storing and transmitting information in the process of human communication.
Language incorporates the three constituent parts ("sides"), each being inherent in it by virtue of its social nature. These parts are the phonological system, the lexical system, the grammatical system. Only the unity of these three elements forms a language; without any one of them there is no human language in the above sense.
The phonological system is the subfoundation of language; it determines the material (phonetical) appearance of its significative units. The lexical system is the whole set of naming means of language, that is, words and stable word-groups. The grammatical system is the whole set of regularities determining the combination of naming means in the formation of utterances as the embodiment of thinking process. Each of the three constituent parts of language is studied by a particular linguistic discipline. These disciplines, presenting a series of approaches to their particular objects of analysis, give the corresponding "descriptions" of language consisting in ordered expositions of the constituent parts in question. Thus, the phonological description of language is effected by the science of phonology; the lexical description of language is effected by the science of lexicology; the grammatical description of language is effected by the science of grammar.
Any linguistic description may have a practical or theoretical purpose. A practical description is aimed at providing the student with a manual of practical mastery of the corresponding part of language (within the limits determined by various factors of educational destination and scientific possibilities). Since the practice of lingual intercourse, however, can only be realised by employing language as a unity of all its constituent parts, practical linguistic manuals more often than not comprise the three types of description presented in a complex. As for theoretical linguistic descriptions, they pursue analytical aims and therefore present the studied parts of language in relative isolation, so as to gain insights into their inner structure and expose the intrinsic mechanisms of their functioning. Hence, the aim of theoretical grammar of a language is to present a theoretical description of its grammatical system, i.e. to scientifically analyse and define its grammatical categories and study the mechanisms of grammatical formation of utterances out of words in the process of speech making.
Aspects in the study of language
In semiotics L is described in 3 aspects: syntactics, semantics, & pragmatics. Syntactic deals with the relations between lingual signs; semantics – with the relations between the signs and what they name (objects) and signify (concepts); pragmatics studies the relations between the lingual sign and its users, i.e. human beings.
The history shows that at different periods diff aspects of the L were in the focus of scholastic attention. The structural linguistics concentrated its attention on syntactics, i.e. the relations b-ween the units of the L. The present-day linguistics is mostly focused on the semantic and paradigmatic asp of the L.
The 3 asp of the L can be pointed out and presented separately only in the process of linguistic studies. In the process of the L functioning as a means of communication these 3 asp are integrated, they come 2gether. Only the integration of these asp i.e. the knowledge of WHAT to speak about (semantics), WHAT UNITS TO CHOOSE to make the process of Com-tion successful (pragm) and HOW to arrange the units in accordance with the laws of a concrete L (syntactics) makes a successful communication possible.
The language system presents a hierarchy and consists of sub-systems of levels. A level is a sub-system of language that presents totally of homogeneous units and a set of rules regulating their use and classification. Language structure consists of 3 main domains (область): phonetics, lexic and grammar. Which are further subdivided and form 6 levels: phonemic, morphemic, leximic, prasimic, sentencial or preposimic, supra-sentencial or dictemic.
The lowest is the phonemic level with its central unit – the phoneme – the smallest unit of the language whose function is to differentiate meanings. The phoneme level is closed, it comprises a limited set of phonemes and it is relatively stable. A combination of two or more phonemes forms a new morpheme, which is the smallest meaningful part of the language.
As compare to the phonemic level the morphemic level is a little but less closed, and it is more subject to changes. In the course of time some units may evolutionize from words to morphemes. Occasionally, morphemes may be borrowed from other languages. Combining morphemes we produce words which constitute the leximic level, the central part of which is the word.
The leximic level presents the most open, densely populated and the most changeable level of the language. The vocabulary of any well-developed language is enormous. The vocabulary system never remains stable, some words fall out of use, become obsolete. New words are coined daily. (Ex. drinks-families: double income no kids). A lot of words are borrowed from other languages. Some words acquire new meanings. A combination of words results in the formation of a phrase and phrases constitute phasemic level, combining words into phrases enriches the nominative potential of the language. Combining a noun-phrase with a verb-phrase we build a sentence which is the central unit of the sentence level. A combination of two or more sentences constitutes the supra-sentencial level, which is the highest level of the language. Describing the character of the relations between the levels of the language, the American scholar D. Bolinger considered: sounds, words and grammar are the 3 great layers, more like the layers of atmosphere than the layers of a …, for its impossible to cut clearly between then. This simile pants at the relations between the levels. The boarder line between them is not strict, but rather fuzzy. There are a lot of transitional cases between a morpheme and a word. (Ex. sea-man-sailor).
The relations between the levels are also characterized by constant interaction, which is manifested in many ways. The interaction between the phonemic and leximic levels follows from the very function of the phoneme, which is to differentiate meanings. The change of a phoneme results in the change of word meaning. (Ex. pet-pat). The change of stress converse a word from one part of speech to another. The interaction between the phonemic and sentencial levels is manifested in the fact that a statement can be turned into a question by a change of melody. Pauses as well as logical stress can be crucial in communication. The interaction between the lexical and grammatical levels takes numerous and various forms. (Ex. the gram. neighbors can modify the lexical meaning of the word. I tried to concentrate on the lecture, but soon felt a sleep. Have you tried pine apples in Siberia. Trying behave like a gentlemen. The lexical neighbors can modify the gram. meaning of a form. He’s having a party tomorrow. He’s constantly having parties.
Grammatical meaning– general abstract meaning which unites classes of forms or words & finds its expression through formal markers thus placing a linguistic unit in a grammatical category or grammatical class of words.
The differences between lexical and grammatical meanings can be summarized according to the following five points: the degree of abstraction, the fur.. in a language, the degree of autonomy, the degree of openness, obligatory/non-obligatory character. Generally grammatical meanings are more abstract than lexical meanings. (Ex. He fell down and broke his leg-yesterday, a year ago, 20 years ago-the lexical meaning is more concrete). The analysis of grammatical meaning reveals that they reflect not the fragments of reality which is done by lexical meaning, but rather the structure of such fragments. As for Talmy points out in cognitive representation of our experience, characteristics constitute a conceptual frame for the conceptual material, which finds lexical expression. However there are cases in the language, when lexical meaning may be as wide as grammatical meaning. This is the case with words that we use to describe grammatical meanings. Such words are substance, action, number and so on are called “metalexical units”. Grammatical and lexical meanings differ in their functions and consequently in their degree autonomy. Lexical meanings are more autonomous, and grammatical meanings are not and they find expression only in combination with lexical meaning. The lexicon of the language presents an open system. New words are coined daily. The number of lexical meanings is unlimited. The grammar of the language presents a closed system and the number of grammatical meanings is conditioned by the fact that the language appears to be very particular about choosing concepts for the bases of grammatical and lexical meanings. Any concept can be expressed lexically. Whereas the number of concepts which find a grammatical expression is very limited. Such concepts as time and number find a grammatical expression in most languages. Such concepts as colour or size are expressed only lexically. There are cases when the same concept is expressed both lexically and grammatically. In such cases the grammatical representation is always more general and lexical is more concrete. The grammatical category of number differentiates between singular and plural, whereas the concrete meaning is presented in numerals. Grammatical meanings have a regular and obligatory character in the language. Whereas the expression of lexical meanings is necessitated by the speaker’s means (Ex. It has been raining for hours.-present perfect continuos, number, person, indicative mood and voice). However grammatical meanings are not always explicity expressed. They may be implicit. (Ex. We have three more questions to discus)
There are 2 phenomena in the lge that are directly th results of interaction bween gram & lex meanings.
Lexicalization of the grammatical meaning – the process of acquiring a new lexical meaning by grammatical means. custom (обычай) - customs (таможня).
Grammaticalization – a process when word loses its lexical meaning & becomes auxiliary word that carries only a grammatical function. to be going to – loses the lexical meaning of intention & expresses pure futurity.
Linguists differentiate between 2 types of relations in the lge: pragmatic (relations that exist bween lingual units in the system of lge)& syntagmatic (relations established bween the lingual units in the process of the lge functioning i.e. In speech). Correspondingly, gram thory differ-tes between prag & syntag mean of a gram form.
Paradigmatic meaning– in a language as a system – vertical relationships / primary invariant, context-independent meaning of grammatical form.
Syntagmatic meaning of a grammatical form– develops itself in speech / secondary, variant, context-dependent.
Eg. Present Cont. Paradigm – limited duration – denotes an action taking place at the present moment and directly perceived by the observer. In various contextual conditions this primary ,eaning undergoes modifications and a form expresses a number of syntag meanings (n action planned for the near future; a permanent characteristic of a peson; a temporary characteristic or a state – u r being rude; a certain degree of tentativeness – I’m hoping I’ll manage)
Grammatical form – a means of expression a grammatical meaning.There are several types of form-building in Eng. The main subdivision of form-building types is into Synthetical and analytical. In Synthetical type a gram meaning is expressed within a W, in analytical – is expressed with the help of auxiliary Ws (+ suff)
The synth include: affixation {the only productive} (books, theirs, shows), sound-interchange (take-took), suppletivity (go-went, good-better-the best).The analit type ocupies a very important place in the gram struct of the W as L has revolutionized from being mainly synth to becoming more analit. There exist so called half-analytical structures (be going)
3.Means of form-building. Synthetic and analytical forms.
Form-building
morpheme is always a member of opposition [s (pl) – 0
(sg)]. The definition of morpheme is hard to produce. Bloomfield:
defined morpheme as a minimum miningful unit. But this definition is
defective as ir doesn’t specify the kind of meaning we are
discussing. Greasen:
morpheme is a minimal unit in the plain of expression which relates
to some unit in the plain of content. But morphemes in Eng are mostly
lexical. In moderm grammar the following definition has become
popular:
A
form-building morpheme is an element of the word which signals the
presence of grammatical meaning attached to the word by the presence
of this morpheme. The
morpheme has a relational grammatical meaning. Form-building morpheme
is always a member of opposition [s (pl) – 0
(sg)]. A morpheme has an exponent of a grammatical category.
A word form may be equivalent to a word (see, saw) or it may take up more than a word (has been doing). A word form is an isolated unit of grammar, since it carries some grammar information. The lexical meaning becomes irrelevant when we want to define its status.
!!! в аналитических формах и вспомогательные и главные части имеют грамматическое значение.
I. Suffixation.
The number of inflectional suffixes in modern English is very small. They are as follows:
1)-s (s/z/iz) – 1. plural forms of countable nouns – boys. 2.the genitive case in animate nouns – girl’s. 3.the absolute form of possessive pronouns – ours, hers. 4.the 3d person Sg Pr tense the Ind Mood – says
2)-ed (t/d/ed) – 1.the past indefiniteof the regular verbs in the Ind Mood – cried. 2.Past Participle of regular verbs
3)-ing - 1.continuous aspect 2.gerund
4)-er , - est - the comparative and the superlative degrees of adjectives and adverbs.
5)-en -1.plural form: ox-oxen. 2.Past Participle of irregular verbs - taken
6)-ren - child – children
7)-ne - absolute form of the pronoun my – mine
8)-m - the objective case of personal pronouns he and they – him and them
Suffixes 1-5 - are productive ( frequently used). The rest – non-productive (confined to 1 or 2 Ws). Inflectional suffixes in modern E are characterized:
1) The number of form-building suffixes in Eng is small, but the frequency of the use is high.
2) Their application is broad.
3) There are characterrised by homonymy.
4) Many Eng word forms are characterized by the absence of inflectional suffixes. However this fact is considered significant by many grammarians. There is a special term – zero-morph. Barkhudarov analysed the use of suffixes when he built up the Pl f and he compared the presence of the suffix to the absence of the suffix in the Sg f. In the Sg f there is no special suffix, but the Mg of oneness is nevertheless expressed in the W. Thus he calls the meaningful absence of the M – a zero morpheme. There’s an opposite opinion as well. Many modern grammarians consider the absence of morphemes a universal phenomenon in modern E that’s why it isn’t necessary to single out a special zero morpheme.
II.Morpho-phonetic (other scientists– morphophonemic) alteration - a foot – feet; take – took.
It is a meaningful change of vowels or consonants within a morpheme. This alteration takes place within the root of a W. This means is non-productive. It’s called so because it’s used to express a certain gr-l Mg of a W.
III.Suppletion. It’s the extreme case of morpho-phonemic alteration. It completely changes the phonetic form of the root. Non-productive and is limited to a few words: to be – was; to go – went; good – better; bad – worse; I – me; we – us; she - her.
Morphemes. As the biggest units of morphology, words are made up of smaller units – morphemes- is the smallest, indivisible m-ngful lang-ge unit within the structure of a word. Like a word, a morpheme is a two-faced lang-ge unit. It means that a morpheme has a certain m-ng & a certain sound-pattern. But a morpheme is not autonomous, it can occur in speech only as a constituent part of a word.
Accord to their position:
1.root/central (The root morpheme is a lexical nuclears, the semantic centre of the word, it has a concrete lexical m-ng & is a common part of a WB cluster (is a group of words with one & the same root morpheme, linked through synchronic derivational relations: dog – doggy – doggish – doggedness – to dog). The root m-me possesses all types of m-ng: lexical, differential (bookshelf - bookcase) & distributional m-ng (order of arrangement m-ng – e.g. boyishness), except the part of speech m-ng.)
2. affixational/ peripheral (According to their m-ng & their role, morphemes are: Root (roots); Affixational (affixes). According to the opposition, affixes are: Prefixes, which proceed the root; Suffixes, which follow the root; Infixes, placed within the root. Infixes are very rare in the Eng lang: e.g. to stand. According to their function & m-ng, affixes are: Grammatical (suffixes); Derivational (suffixes & preffixes). Gram affixes serve to form new grammar forms of the same word & are studied in Grammar. Derivational affixes serve to build new words & are studied in Lex-gy. The lexical m-ng of affix-nal morphemes is of more generalising character than that of root morphemes. E.g. –er → agent; -less – without. We have about 200 derivative affixes.)
Accord to function:
Notional – carry the lexical meaning of the W (derivational, W-building)
Functional – either carry gram meaning or change the lexical meaning (inflexional, form-build)
Accord to the material form
Positive
Zero – a meaningful absence of a morpheme
Accord to distribution:
Continuous – which is not interrupted by other lements
Dis~
Structurally morphemes fall into free (root morphemes, which coincide with separate words) & bound morphemes (all derivational affixes & inflections & root morphemes which do not coincide with separate words. E.g. horr- (horrible); angl- (Anglo-saxon). There is a group of so-called semi-free or semi-bound morphemes (semi-affixes) which may function both as root morphemes (-man in manmade, manservant) & as derivational elements (-man in gentleman, cabman).e.g. – like (lady-like...); -proof (waterproof, kissproof). Affixes should not be confused with the so-called combining forms – bound root morphemes of Greek & Latin origin, which occur in compounds & derivatives mostly international terms, formed in modern times (telephone, telegraph) but some of them begin a new life as semi-affixes (-cide “kill” (L.) in suicide today is used in autocide or biocide). A morpheme may have several positional, phonetic & graphical variants or representations called allomorphs (please, pleasant, pleasure [pli:z – plezent – ple e]. These 3 variants are allomorphs of one & the same morpheme.The allomorphs of the negative prefixes “in” are “il+l” (illegal), “im + biabils” (impossible), “ir+r” (irregular).
6. According to Blokh: Grammatical category is a system expressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms.
The forms united into Gr Cat possesses a common general meaning that gives a name to the category and each form possesses its own specific meaning that presents a specification of the general meaning & differentiates the form from the other forms within the category. Most of the Gr Cat express diff relations betw phenomena of reality reflected in our minds in the form of concepts & therefore they r conceptual by nature (GC of Tense presents a specific lingual expression of objective (ontological) time)
Conceptual GC are universal, they exist in most of the lges though their scope may vary considerably. The GC of number is the most universal. The complexity of the conceptual GC as determined by the importance of the underlying concept in the culture (in Burmese there is no gram expression of tense)There are GC that have a formal character & reflect the gram-cal features of particular lge & those categories differ from lge to lge. (eg. Number in V(reflected) and N(conceptual in its nature)).
In the process of lge functioning dif GC come into contact with the [] and the relations bween them are characterized by various forms of interaction. The meanings of L unites expressed in the [] always present the result of interaction bween several GC as well as bween the gram & lex meanings in the [] and difer types of contexts (linguistic & extra~)- tense & aspect; tense & mood. So-called “pure gram meanings”, free from intercategorial interaction are nonexistent.
There exists interaction bw the Cat of difer parts of Sp. As well as bw the morphological & syntactic cat (the use of the Adv Then and P Ind forms are usually correlated with the use of the definite article in the Subj position (then the man decided to go shopping) – HARMONIZATION
Another – is observed when a gram form of 1 cat expresses a gram meaning of another cat( [] with Oblique moods – If he were with us -If he had been/// - T Correl)
It is a relational unit which specifies the meaningful relations between grammatical forms constituting the peculiar, purely native structure of a language; unity of GM & GF, a system of expressing a generalized GM by means of paradigmatical correlations of GFs (tense, voice, aspect, person, case, number, mood, time correlation).
A GC is constituted on the basis of contrastive gr forms which share a certain gr meaning correlated to some general concept and differ in more concrete mng within the scope of the same concept/ Such contrastive gr-al forms are called OPPOSITIONS and all gr cat are based on oppositions. The method of OPPOSITIONAL ANALYSYS was introduced by Trubetskoy: op-tions may differ accord to the number of of their members(binary, ternary, quarternary nd polynominal) & acoord to the character of the relations bw ‘em. (privative, equipollent & gradual) The members of privative opp are characterized by the presence / absence of 1 & the same feature. The member that possesses the feature – strong/marked, the other is weak/unmarked. Strong is marked formally(gr-cal morpheme) & semantically(clearly defined gr-al mng), Weak usually has a zero gr-cal morpheme, its meaning is best defined negatively:non-pasive, non-pl. The members of equipollent app r contrasted on the basi of dif features(poo of parts of speech), gradual unites members with diff degree of the same feature)closed-half-open-open vowels). The majority of opp in gr – binary privative.
On the syntagmatic level opp undergoes very import processes.
The position of neutralizationis, as a rule, filled in by the weak member of the opposition due to its more general semantics, the use of the unmarked member of the opposition in the osition of the marked member does not transgress the expressive conventions of ordinary speech.the element that makes it possible - neutralizer e.g.The exhibition opens next week.
The other type of oppositional reduction called transposition takes place when one of the members of the opposition is placed in contextual conditions uncommon for it, that is, the use of the form is stylistically marked. Transposition is based on the contrast between the members of the opposition, it may be defined as a contrastive use of the counter-member of the opposition. As a rule, it is the marked member of the opposition that is employed transpositionally, but not always so. e.g.He is always borrowing my pen.
Functional semantic category – systems of heterogeneous means of the language constituted on the basis of common semantic contents or a common semantic function (все грамматические средства, которыми можно выразить одно грамматическое значение).
If we start analyzing lingual fact in the direction from mng to form we’ll see that 1 & the same semantic contents or concept can be expressed by units of diff lingual levels eg Time: Gr cat of Tense (lived lives &’ll live), (many nounsdenoting various stretches of time and points of T: millennium, epoch, century, year, month, season, second)+ diff Ns denoting activities related to time (before dinner, after the exam)+ occasional landmarks of time (2 wives ago, 100 $ ago, one potato later) adj & adv wuth temporal meanings (now, then, previous, last),[]-c PHs with t m (his would-be-mother in law), form-build prefixes (pre-, post-, after, ex-)
Unlike notional categories, the functional semantic Cs belong to domain of the lge. R built on the ling-ic semantics, which is connected to thought. L has its own semantic contents which is inalienable [ɪ'neɪlɪənəbl] from a l-ic form & lies at the basus of the L picture of world. (Guliga, Shendels, Bondarko)
F-S C have a field structure., they have a centre & periphery. The center of FSC is taken by a GC or a G Class of Ws that express the given semantic contents in the most specialized & clear –cut way. The other components occupy the periphery at a diffnt distance from the center (basis of frequency of usage& clearness of their expression)
FSC form a semantic continuum very similar to the conceptual continuum (the borderlines bw fiff FSCs are not rigid). Periph zones of dif FSCs overlap& their units share the features of 2 or more overlapping cat (arrangeable- characterized by syncretic gr-cal semantics: Adj, mng of quality, able: mng of modality, mng of passivity)
The relations bw the central&peripheral components within FSC can be of diff kinds:
Per elements can modify/specify the mng exp-d by centr comoinents – temporal relations)
Per el may be synonymous to central (cross-level synonymy – He used to be my friend/he is my former friend/my ex-friend)
Edward Laper once remarked that each language has a special cut or design. This special cut finds its manifestation on all the levels of the language, but primarily on its grammatical structure. Why do we need to know about the peculiarities of a grammatical structure? –a) the knowledge of the general tendencies in the language helps to understand the relations for the speakers choice of a grammatical form, b) this knowledge is necessary for a foreign language acquisition. It helps to overcome the interference of the native language. According to specialists, about 70% of all mistakes in our performance in English are caused by interference.
PECULARITIES:
a) English is a very flexible language, which is the result of a loss of many grammatical inflexions in the course of its historical development. Many words in English have a simple morphological structure and no special part of speech markers. And therefor can be used in many positions within the sentence (Ex. ROUND- Let’s round a conversation. They have another round of talk. His face was round. He suddenly turned round. They live just round the corner). Due to morphological simplicity many words in English are easily converted from one pat of speech to another (Ex. –Darling! –Don’t darling me).
b) English is a fixed word order language and it is SVO language (Subject-Verb-Object). In Russian the grammatical relations between words are expressed by morphological markers and therefor word order is relatively free. Because of these differences Russian learners of English are expected to fumble with word order in English.
c) English is a subject prominent language, which means that all sentences must have a subject, even if it is dumming subject (Ex. It’s cold in here. The house felt cold and empty).
d) English has a predominantly-analytical character and a limited number if inflexions and the Russian language is mostly inflexional.
e) Speaking in terms of preferences, scholars point out that English appears to have a strong tendency towards nominalization, English often prefer a nominal form of expression where Russian employs a verb (Ex. Я решила- I made up my mind. Угадай.-Make a guess).
f) English has a more abundant use of the non-finite form verbs, than Russian, therefor sentences in English are characterized by a greater degree of compression (Ex. I’ve never seen him smiling like this).
g) A specific feature of English, which is absolutely unthinkable for Russian is the ability of the preposition to placed at the end of the sentence (Ex. He liked to be taken care of). Some grammarians still ague against this rule claiming that it’s pure English, but this use persists in everybody’s speech.
The two most specific features that penetrate all levels of the English and that are directly related to the simplicity of morphological-logical structure and the scarcity of form-building means are polysemy and homonymy. The borderline is often hard to draw (Ex. Boys will be boys). Polycemy and homonymy make English a very good tool for creating various paradoxes and puns (play of words) (Ex. She took the ruler into her bed to see how long she slept.
10.A part of speech – are large lexico-grammatical classes of words differentiated on the basis of their semantic, morphological & syntactic propeties; the grammatical category or word group in a language to which words may be assigned on the basis of how they are used in sentences. The traditional main parts of speech in English are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. Others sometimes used are article and determiner
One of the most important subsystems in any lang is the system of P. of Speech,which reflects the categorization of words into classes.the necessity of such categorization was understood from the earlier days of linguistics.The first classification was made by ancient greeks.Aristotel pointed out ;the name & the verb.the term part of speech is actually not very precise , cause in fact we deal with the classificational word on the level of lang.,not speech, but the term has survived probably through tradition&also through great respect for ancient scholars&their contribution to linguistics.P. of S occupy the central position in the lang system,cause they present the meeting point of two main domains of lang.,it’s lexicon&grammar.therefore they r indispensible for both the theory of lang.& the lang aquisition.It is impossible to present a word in a dictionary without placing it into a certain P.of S.It is equally impossible to explain the meaning of the word in a process of teaching lang without identifying its P.of S. For a native lang such identification is not always necessary,cause P.of S classification is actually a component of a lang competance,which is always inborn.This lang instinct prompts native speakers at least in the case of prototypical representatives P.of S that a DOLL is a noun ,TO PLAY- verb.This supposition was made by Щерба.,who said that children have intuitive knoweledge of their native lang & gram categories.It’s just enough to give names or to put labels to these categories & thus turn intuitive knoweledge into contious one.Experiments conducted with deaf & dump children also give evidence to that these children differenciate between general meanings of substance,property & action.
The criteria of classifying the lexicon into parts of speech.
It is possible to classify words either on the basis of one or several criteria. Gram theory has known both the approaches .the russian scholar Фортунатов made an attempt to classify th R. Voc on the basis of formal criteria[morphological]He devided into: changable,unchangeble.changeble into declention,conjugation.This principle appears to be valnaiable,cause even in Russian there r borrowed nouns that don’t have a declention,yet they r nouns [пальто]A similar classification was made by Henry Sweet on the material of the Eng lang,but probably realizing the indolequancy of the morph criteria, alone he completed his classification by adding syntactic criteria to it.The american scholar Fries built his system of word classes on the basis of syntactic criteria.He believed that words can be classified on the basis of their syntactic position.To carry out his classification he used 3 sentences:the concept was good[always],the team went there,the clerk remembered the tax[suddenly]These sentences were used as diagnostic frames. For his field material he used 50 hours of recorded conversations.With the help of the substitution test he devided all notional words into 4 classes:film-into”concept” class 1.This is how he got 4 classes for which he did not use traditional terms.The remaining 154 words that did not fit in the position of 4 classes were refered to functional words with further subdevision on the basis of the same substitution test into 15 more classes for which he didn’t use the traditional terms either,but named them alphabetically.This classification appeared to be very simple & convenient for practical purposes but it ignores one very important aspect of the theory of P.of S that is their ability to exchange syntactic function in the process of speech production. Ex. We may say:the concert was fun[a pleasure]\the team went places.
The word like any unit of the lang & lang itself posseses 3 main aspects:meaning,form,function.
None of these aspects taken isolatedly appears to be sufficient in the P. of S classification.so the most adiquate classification must be based on the combination of these 3 criteria.Words belonging to 1 part of speech posses a common categorial meaning which is a generalized abstract meaning that is thingness for nouns ,action for verbs,property for adjective,property of property for adverbs.General categorial meanings find their manifistation in the formal morpholog properties .Thus nouns have the Gram. Cat of number&case ;verbs –tense,mood,aspect.Words belonging to one p of s also posses common derivational affixes which help ti identify part of speech.Ex:deforestation.
The semantic properties of words r also projected into their syntactic functions.Words belonging to one p of s r characterized by common syntactic functions[primary f]These primary functions r :subject,object for nouns,predicative &attribute for adjectives,adverbial modifier foe adverbsThe role of these 3 criteria varies across lang.For highly inflexional lang like R&G the morpholog criteria plays the most important role.For isolated like Ch&Japan the most important is the syntactic .In Eng some words have clear morph p of s markers&can be identified on the basis of these markers.But a lot of words have a simple morph structure with no p of s markers& can be converted from one p of s to another&therefore the status of such words can be determined only on the basis of their syntactic position in the sentence.
the cognitive approach to parts of speech
The development of cognitive linguistics which considers ling phenomena as representation of cognitive structeres brought about the necessity to analize p of s from the cognitive point of view considered from this aspect p of s appear to be the main vactors through which the humans percieve,cognize &verbolize objective reality.The cognitive approach to the analyses of ling fact is closely connected with comunicative approach ,cause the 2 parts r very closely interrelated .The cognitive appr came as the further development on onomosiological approach which focused on the correlation between the phenomena of the world & their reflection in the p of speech.The object of analyses in cognitive ling is the word in our mind that is the conceptual picture of the world.
The world in our mind parts of speech
Matter itself Noun
Properties of matter Verb Adjective
Dynamic Static Adverbs
Property of property
The cognative approach to p of s is concerned with the analyses between concepts&their representation in the system of p of speech.This analyses shows that this relationship is not always one to one but very often it is more intricate &complicated .There is a basic parallelism between concepts&their p of s representations but this fundamental parallelism is often broken,cause our mind has an ability to present as nouns not only objects of phisical world but an action,qualities states&the like.That’s why linguists differenciate between ontological objects&oposiological[object in our mind]Both r expressed by nouns,thus one & the same p of s may unite words representing various concepts& on the other hand one & the same concept may be represented by different parts of s.This fact is very important for the cross of ling analyses.One &the same concept may be packed into different p of s in different lang .It results in numerous cases in cross-ling assemetry in p of s which causes mistakes,cause of the native lang interference .Ex;She was torn apart silent=она молчала и молчание словно разрывало ее на части...
11. Parts of Speech (Grammatical Classes of Words)
A part of speech – are large lexico-grammatical classes of words differentiated on the basis of their semantic, morphological & syntactic propeties; (the grammatical category or word group in a language to which words may be assigned on the basis of how they are used in sentences. The traditional main parts of speech in English are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. Others sometimes used are article and determiner.)
The words of language, depending on various formal and semantic features, are divided into classes. The traditional grammatical classes of words are called “parts of speech”, since the word is distinguished not only by grammatical, but also by semantico-lexemic properties, some scholars also refer to parts of speech as lexico-grammatical categories (Смирницкий).
It should be noted that the term “parts of speech” is purely traditional and conventional. This name was introduced in the grammatical teaching of Ancient Greece, where no strict differenciation was drawn between the word as a vocabulary unit and the word as a functional element of the sentence.
In modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of the three criteria: “semantic, formal and functional” (Щерба).
The semantic criterion presupposes the generalized meaning, which is characteristic of all the words constituting (составлять) a given part of speech. This meaning is understood as the categorical meaning of the part of speech.
The formal criterion exposes the specific inflexional and derivational (word-building) features of part a part of speech.
The functional criterion concerns the syntactic role of words in the sentence, typical of a part of speech.
These three factors of categorical characterization of words are referred to as 'meaning', form and function.
The three-criteria characterization of parts of speech was developed and applied to practice in Soviet linguistics. Three names are especially notable for the elaboration of these criteria: V.V. Vinogradov in connection with the study of Russian Grammar, A.I. Smirnitskyand B.A. Ilyish in connection with their study of English Grammar.
Today many scholars believe that it is difficult to classify English parts of speech using one criterion.
Some Soviet linguists class the English parts of speech according to a number of features.
1. Lexico-grammatical meaning: (noun - substance, adjective - property, verb - action, numeral - number, etc).
2. Lexico - grammatical morphemes: (-er, -ist, -hood - noun; -fy, -ize - verb; -ful, -less - adjective, etc).
3. Grammatical categories and paradigms.
4. Syntactic functions
5. Combinability (power to combine with other words).
In accord with the described criteria, words are divided into notional and functional, which reflects their division in the earlier grammatical tradition into changeable and unchangeable.
To the notional parts of speech of the English language belong the noun, the adjective, the numeral, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb.
To the basic functional series of words in English belong the article, the preposition, the conjunction, the particle, the modal word, the interjection.
The difference between them may be summed up as follows:
1) Notional parts of speech express notions and function as sentence parts (subject, object, attribute, adverbial modifier).
2) Notional parts of speech have a naming function and make a sentence by themselves: Go!
1) Functional words (or form-words) cannot be used as parts of the sentence and cannot make a sentence by themselves.
2) Functional words have no naming function but express relations.
3) Functional words have a negative combinability but a linking or specifying function. E.g. prepositions and conjunctions are used to connect words, while particles and articles - to specify them.