Category of Correlation (категория временной отнесенности)

Many scholars (Smirnitsky) are of the opinion that the English perfect – non-perfect forms represent a special grammatical category – the category of correlation which is expressed in the system of two-member opposemes: writes – has written; wrote – had written; writing – having written; to be written – to have been written, etc. showing whether the action is viewed as prior to (perfect forms) or irrespective of other actions or situations (non-perfect forms) (Smirnitsky, Barkhudarov).

The category of correlation is closely connected with those of tense and aspect.

All the views on the essence of the perfect forms in English may be classified into:

The category of correlation is characteristic of finites and non-finites of the indicative and the subjunctive mood (with the exception of the imperative mood, participle II and subjunctive I).

E.g. The plane is reported to have left (to leave). She speaks as if she had been there herself. His having taken the book is out of the question.

Many scholars find two perfect meanings: inclusive and exclusive.

E.g. How long have u been here? (inclusive). Where have u been (exclusive).

Gordon and Krylova distinguish 3 uses of the present perfect.

It is used to open up conversations, to introduce a new topic, to sum up a situation:

E.g. What is it they have done? So you have done nothing?

The attention is concentrated on the action itself.

E.g. I have known him since childhood.

E.g. When you have had your tea we’ll see about it. The main sphere of Present Perfect is direct speech.

The Past Perfect has the same meanings but is used mainly in narration, referring to the past: E.g. She was no fool. She had read much and with good sense.

The Future Perfect is used in two cases 1) to express a completed action before a given future moment and 2) an action which begins before a given moment in the future and continues into it or up to it; the later is rather seldom. E.g. I suppose we shall have made up our minds whom we going to elect.

The category of mood

The category of mood is the most controversial category of the verb. Professor Ilyish wrote : “the category of mood in the present English verb has given rise to so many discussions and has been treated in so many different ways that it seems hardly possible to arrive at any more or less convincing and universally acceptable conclusion concerning it”.

Extensive investigations were undertaken by Soviet scholars in the past decades. They are A.I. Smirnitsky, Ilyish, Barkhudarov and a number of others.

The category of mood expresses the character of connection between the process denoted by the verb and the actual reality, either presenting the process as a fact that really happened, happens or will happen, or treating it as an imaginary phenomenon.

Academician V.Vinogradov wrote: “Mood expresses the relation of the action to reality as a stated by the speaker”. Mood is one of the kinds of modality, which may be expressed also by lexical means (modal verbs and modal words) and intonation (melody).

Mood modality is based on the opposition: reality – unreality.

Most of the soviet grammarians distinguish three moods in Modern English. It is a traditional division

The Indicative has no special forms of expression – it is all the tenses in active and passive. H. Sweet calls it a fact mood. Its modal meaning is reality and it may be considered as expressing zero modality.

The Subjunctive mood may be expressed both synthetically and analytically. E.g. I wish you were here.

There are different points of view as to the number of moods in M.E. Professor Smirnitsky distinguishes 4 oblique moods: Subjunctive I, Subjunctive II, the Conditional and the Suppositional. Each of them differs in modal meaning and in form.

E.g. He gave orders that we be present.

Professor Barkhudarov finds only 2 moods: Imperative and Indicative, the latter may express unreality by the shifting of tenses or context. He puts Subjunctive I as Imperative on the ground that they both are similar in form and meaning. E.g. I suggest that he go there. Go there!

Some of the scholars (Plotkin) are of the opinion that there is no morphological system of moods at all and various mood meanings are expressed syntactically and by lexico-semantic means. The mood forms are often homonymous and synonymous and their meanings often depend on the context.

E.g. I wish he would go.

He would go if u went.

He said he would go.

Various oblique mood meanings are connected with syntax rather than with morphology and one and the same meaning may be expressed by different forms: If he came. If he had come. Should he come.

One and the same form may express different modality:

Necessity: It is necessary that he should come.

Doubt: We feared that he should come.

Order, suggestion: I order that he should come.

Other means of expressing modality

Besides the grammatical expression of modality, that is by means of grammatical category of mood, there is the lexical expression of modality by means of modal words and the lexico-grammatical way of expressing modality by means of modal verbs.

Modality expressed by modal verbs (must, may, etc.) shows the speaker’s attitude to the action itself – obligation, probability, certainty, doubt, etc. E.g. He must be coming here.

Modality expressed by modal words shows the speaker’s attitude to the content of the statement – regret, supposition, desirability, etc. E.g. Perhaps, he will come.

Modal verbs, which have tense opposites may be used in the Subjunctive (the marked members)

can – could

may – might

have – had

are – were

shall – should

will – would

E.g. He might have fallen ill - mood modality, expresses unreality, might is Subjunctive II present, while modal verb modality expresses supposition - uncertainty.

He may have fallen ill – mood modality expresses reality, while modal verb modality expresses supposition – uncertainty.

We also have the phonetical way of expressing modality by means of intonation. By changing the intonation of the sentence we may express doubt, probability, astonishment or some other modality.

Category of voice

The category of voice is represented in M. E. by the system of opposemes: loves – is loved, to love – to be loved, etc, and it shows whether the object is the doer of the action or its object. E. g. He opened the door. The door was opened (by him).

The active voice is unmarked, the passive is marked in form and meaning. Some forms of the active voice find no parallel in the passive Future Continuous, Present Perfect Continuous, Past Perfect Continuous, Future Perfect Continuous. In addition to two voices three other voices have been suggested:

1. verbs of objective relation: belong, possess, resemble, contain;

2. link-verbs: appear, prove, seem, turn out;

3. verbs of perception: see, hear, feel, smell, believe, dislike, hate, hope, know;

4. verbs of point-action: burst, jump, drop, pick up, etc.

1. Otto Gespersen and others treat the perfect forms as a tense category.

2. Vorontsova Ilyish and others treat the perfect forms as an aspect category together with such forms as the continuous aspect and common aspect.

Present Perfect I shows that the action took part in the past without mentioning any definite circumstances under which it occurred: He is very sensitive. I have discovered that…

Present Perfect II expresses an action, which began before the moment of speaking and continues into it or up to it.

Present Perfect III is used to express a future action.

• Indicative expressing real facts.

• Imperative expressing command, order, request.

• Subjunctive expressing something desirable, problematic, unreal etc.

1. Subjunctive I expresses synthetically a problematic action, which doesn’t contradict reality.

2. Subjunctive II expresses synthetically and analytically an unreal action. E.g. I wish you were not late.

3. The Conditional mood expresses analytically depended unreality: the realization of the action depends on some condition, which may not be expressed. E.g. It would be good to be here.

4. The Suppositional mood expresses analytically a problematic action, not contradicting reality. The realization of the action may depend on certain circumstances. E.g. Should you meet him, tell him to come

The Suppositional and Subjunctive I almost coincide in meaning but differ in style and usage.

1. the reflexive – he addressed himself

2. the reciprocal – they greeted each other

3. the middle voice – the door opened.

1. active: I opened the door

2. passive: The door is opened by me

3. stative: the doo is opened

So Professor Ilyish finds 5 voices in M. E. This viewpoint was criticized by professor Smirnitsky who believed that there are only two grammatical voices – active and passive, which are clearly opposed structurally and semantically. All the other differences are lexical.

An extreme point of view is expressed nowadays by V. Plotkin, who is of opinion that the English finite verb has no morphological category of voice at all, and the construction be + Ven is the nominal predicate expressing state and consequently it is a syntactical category.

Some of the western linguists find it possible to classify English voice into 3:

O. Jespersen distinguished 2 passive forms: actional passive and stational passive. E.g. The house is painted white every year. The house is painted white.

The problem of the combination be + Ven

Generally the combination be + Ven is considered to be passive when it denotes action (The house is painted white every year) or the compound nominal predicate when it denotes state: the house is painted white; he felt tired, etc. This combination may denote even an action of curious meaning (almost active). The man was drowned.

Practically the combination be + Ven is surely the passive voice when it is accompanied by an adverbial, a by-phrase or continuous form; and participle II is of a durative (non-terminative) verb:

The door is closed at midnight (adverbial).

The man was drowned by a criminal.

Dinner is being served (continuous).

He is loved (durative verb).

The theory of phrase

The Phrase

The theory of phrase or word combination in linguistics has a long tradition going back to the 18-th century.

According to Russian scholars the term ‘word combination’ (словосочетание) can be applied only to such groups of words which contain at least two notional words forming a grammatical unit. Thus Soviet linguists restrict the use of the term ‘word combination’ to combination of notional words.

Western scholars hold a different view of the problem. They consider that every combination of two or more words constitutes a unit which they term ‘phrase’. In other words, western linguists do not limit the term ‘phrase’ to combination of notional words and do not draw a sharp distinction between the two types of word-groups such as ‘wise men’ and ‘to the lighthouse’. The first and the most important difference of opinion on the question between soviet and western scholars concerns the constituents of the word groups forming grammatical units.

Another debatable problem in soviet linguistics was whether a predicative combination of words forms a word combination.

It is generally known that a sentence is based on predication and its purpose in communication.

A word combination has no such aim. Word combinations are more like words because they are employed for naming things, actions, qualities and so on.

In contrast with soviet linguists some western scholars make no difference between subject – predicate combinations of words and other word combinations, though some western theories bear considerable resemblance to Russian ideas.

There’s no traditional terminology in the works of English and American scholars discussing combinations of words; and different terms are used to express the same idea (phrase, combination of words, cluster of words, word group).

The word-group (phrase) is a grammatical unit formed by a combination of two or more notional words, which doesn’t constitute a sentence. The notional words are connected syntactically within the structure of the sentence (cold water, reads a book). They may belong to any part of speech. A word group as such has no intonation, as it is one of the most important features of the sentence. As to syntactical connection English phrases are classed as follows:

• subordinateword-groups (fine weather, to write a letter, fond of reading)

• co-ordinate word-groups (brother and sister, neither here nor there, king dear)

• predicativeword-groups (weather permitting, for u to go)

Subordinate word-groups

Subordinate word-groups fall into two parts: the head (an independent component) and the adjunct (a dependent component)

A good [adjunct] book [head]

Subordinate word-groups can be classified:

According to the head-word

• nouns groups: a sleeping night

• verb groups: to work hard

• adjective groups: extremely clever, rich in oil

• adverb groups: quite near, very quickly

• pronoun groups: some of the students.

According to the structure

• simple [unextended] word-groups consisting of two notional words: a good book, fond of reading.

• Complex [extended] word-groups consisting of more than two notional words: a very good book.

The grammatical relations between words in a word-group are primarily expressed by means of word order, prepositions (a good book, the cover of the book).

The structure of a word-group in English must be grammatically complete because of the absence of inflexions. In noun groups the prog-words one (ones), that (those) are extensively used in English: He is a doctor, and a great one.

In verb groups after a transitive verb the formal ‘it’ often occurs in English: I like it here. He found it impossible to utter the next word.

The grammatical characters of the word is determined by the structure of the word-group: Watch me carefully – verb. He was on duty during the morning watch (noun).

Coordinate phrases may be:

• syndetic & asyndetic

• copulative & appositive

e.g. harsh and loud (1,3), the city of Rome (2,4), they all (2,4).

Appositive phrases may be close and loose 1) Wilson the writer; 2) Tolstoy, the great Russian writer, is dead.

Predicative word-groups

Predicative word-groups consist in two parts: a subjectival and a predicatival.

He didn’t want for me [subjectival] to come [predicatival].

The relations between the subjectival and the predicatival are similar to those of the subject and the predicate. There is no correspondence in person and number between the predicatival and subjectival.

Predicative word-groups like other word-groups are semantic and grammatical units; cannot function as independent sentences as they do not express communications.

The person (thing) expressed by the subject of the sentence and the subjectival are different: Val likes you to look nice. The subject ‘Val’ and the subjectival ‘you’ denote different persons.

Classification of predicative word-groups

There are bound and absolute predicative word-groups:

• bound predicative word-groups are grammatically connected with the verb-predicate of the sentence, functioning as subject, object, predicative, adverbial, or with the noun (attribute), the subjectival is unusually having a dependent form (him, their, John’s), they are not isolated.

E.g. They watched him running down the slope (object).

• Absolute predicative word-groups are always isolated expressing an additional (parallel) quality. They are usually connected by means of intonation with the whole sentence and not only with the verb predicate, the subjectival of the absolute construction denotes a person or a thing other than the object.

E.g. The situation being urgent, we had to go ahead.

Bound Predicative Word Groups

• Accusative with the Infinitive. She saw the girl come in.

• Accusative with the Participle. Dinny saw her uncle walking out.

• Accusative with a nominal part of speech: the chaw made the ice insecure.

These constructions are used only after some verbs (to see, to hear, to watch, to feel, to think, to believe, to suppose, etc.)

• Nominative with the Infinitive. Philip Bosinney was known to be a young man without fortune.

• Nominative with the Participle. They were heard talking together.

• Infinitive for-phrases: For me to go back now would be to admit that I am afraid. He didn’t wait for me to finish.

• gerundial complexes: Erik’s coming to-night meant that a great deal of work had to be put off.

Both the infinitive for-phrases and gerundial complexes are more independent of the verb predicate as their use is not usually restricted be definite verbs.

Absolute Predicative Word Groups

• Nominative (isolated) absolute constructions. Her mother remaining in bed, Dinny dined alone with her aunt.

• Prepositional absolute constructions (with,without) I simply couldn’t sit with Hubert on my mind.

Syntactical Relations between the Components of Phrase

They may be divided into 3 groups: 1) agreement; 2) government; 3) adjoinment. Agreement is a means of syntactical relationship between words which implies that the use of one form necessitates the use of the other.

• an adjunct word agrees in number with its headword (a noun) E.g. this (that) book – these (those) books.

• a singular subject requires a predicate in the singular, a plural subject requires the predicate in the plural. E.g. I am a student. There are 2 books on the table. But in modern english there is sometimes a conflict between form and meaning, in these cases the predicate doesn’t agree with the subject. My family are early risers. My family is small.

Government is a means of connecting words consisting in the use of a certain case form of the adjunct required by its headword.

• The use of the objective case of personal pronouns and of the pronoun ‘who’ when they are subordinate to a verb or follow a preposition: e.g. I saw him (her, them). Whom did u see there?

• We also find government between the headnoun and the attributive adjunct noun. E.g. The boy’s mother; the student’s answer.

Adjoinment is such a way of connecting words when they are joined to one another without any specail forms by only their position and combinability. It is found in the following cases:

• Adverbs are joined to the verb. E.g. they walked slowly.

• Adjectives, participles, pronouns (when used as attributes) are joined to their head-nouns. E.g. a small room.

• Adverbs are joined to adjectives or other adverbs: very interesting, very well.

The sentence

When we or write we convey our thougths through sentences. A sentence is the only unit of language which is capable of expressing a communication containing some kind of information. But linguics is at difficulty to define it. One of the definitions is ‘the sentence is the smallest communication unit expressing a more or less complete thought and having a definite grammatical structure and intonation’. In most sentences intonation functions as part of a whole system of formal characteristics.

The sentence and the word group (phrase)

• Neither words no word groups can express communication. Cf. the arrival of the delegation is expected next week (a sentence). It is a structure in which words are grouped (arranged) according to definite rules (patterns).

• Another difference between the sentence and the phrase is predicativity. Predicativity comprises tense and mood components. The sentence together with predicativity expresses a fact, while a phrase gives a nomination without time reference:

The doctor arrived. The doctor’s arrival.

Predication is a word or combination of words expressing predicativity. Thus the essential property of sentence is predicativity and intonation.

Classification of Sentences

Sentences are classified 1) according to the types of communication and 2) according to their structure.

In accordance with the types of communication sentences are divided into:

• Declarative (giving information). E.g. the book is interesting (statement).

• Interrogative (asking for information). E.g. is the book interesting? (question).

• Imperative (asking for action). E.g. give me the book! (command, request).

Each of these 3 kinds of sentences may be in the affirmative and negative form, exclamatory and non- exclamatory.

Types of Sentences According to Structure

I a) Simple sentences containing one predication (subject-predicate relationship) b) Composite sentences containing one or more predications Composite sentences are divided into compound and complex sentences.

II. Simple sentences and main clauses may be two-member and one-member sentences.

The two-member sentence pattern is typical of the vast majority of sentences in English. It is a sentence with full predication. (The Sun shines. She walks fast).

If a simple sentence contains the subject and the predicate only, it is called unextended. E.g. spring came.

If a sentence comprises secondary parts besides the main parts, it is called extended. E.g. Dick came home late.

The one-member sentence contains only one principle part, which is neither the subject nor the predicate. E.g. Thieves! Fire! A cup of tea, please! A one-member sentence sometimes resembles a two-member sentence. E.g. No birds singing in the dawn. It may be complex in structure: e.g. And what if he had seen them embracing in the moonlight?

Imperative sentences with no subject also belong here: Get away from me!

If the main part is expressed by an infinitive, such a one-member sentence is called an infinitive sentence: Oh, to be in England!

The exclamatory character is a necessary feature of these sentences. Infinitive sentences are very common in represented speech.

Types of One-member Sentences in English

• Nominative (substantive) E.g. Another day of fog.

• Verbal: Imperative: Don’t believe him!; Infinitive: Only to think of it!; Gerundial: No playing with fire!

• Adjectival one-member sentences: Splendid! How romantic!

Types of Sentences According to their Completeness

• Complete (non-elliptical) sentences.

• Incomplete (elliptical) sentences.

Elliptical sentences are such sentences in which one or several parts are missing as compared with analogous sentences where there is no ellipsis. Elliptical sentences may freely be changed into complete sentences, the missing part of the sentence being supplied from the preceding or following context, by means of intonation: e.g. I sat near the window, he – near the door (= he sat near the door). Playing, children? (= are you playing, children?) Cf. A small but cosy room (a one-member sentence); in the background stands/ is a little writing table (an elliptical two-member sentence). The main sphere of elliptical sentences is of course dialogue.

Parts of the Sentence

It is common in grammatical theory to distinguish between main and the secondary parts of the sentence. There are two generally recognized main parts of the sentence – the subject and the predicate, which make predication. As to the secondary parts which expand predication, their numbers varies slightly. The traditional classification of parts of the sentence is open to criticism, because there are many inconsistencies in it: no part of the sentence is properly defined, and many words of a sentence, such as prepositions, conjunctions, parenthetical words are not considered as parts of the sentence.

Nowadays many scholars classify parts of the sentence according to the combinability of words in the phrase. They divide them into the head-words and their adjuncts, the latter into attributes, complements and extensions. Thus the subject and the predicate are head-words, while words attached to them on depending on them are their adjuncts (attributes, adverbial modifiers, extensions, predicatives).

The seminotional words connecting words and clauses are connectives (prepositions, conjunctions). The seminotional words used to specify words and their combinations are called specifiers (articles, particles).

Main Parts of the Sentence

The vast majority of sentences in the English contain both a subject and a predicate (two-member sentences). [Where are you? – I am coming.]

The subject and the predicate make predication, they are tied by correspondence of forms, i.e. the form of number and person of the verb-predicate corresponds to the form of number and person of the subject. [Two families live in their apartment].

There are some nouns in English, which are always followed by the verb-predicate in the plural: cattle, clergy, gentry, militia, police, poultry, etc.

Alongside of the form of the predicate, word order is used as an important means of expressing the connection between the subject and the predicate. The subject precedes the predicate in a declarative sentence and it follows the predicate in an interrogative sentence.

The Subject

The subject is defined in traditional grammar as the thing we speak about. But it’s a logical definition rather than a grammatical one.

Syntactically the subject is the independent member of a two-member predication containing the person component of predicativity. It can be expressed by a word or a group of words.

When it is expressed by a notional word, it combines the notional and the structural subjects, but when the structural and the notional subjects are separated, which occurs often in M.E. , the former is expressed by a syntactical word-morpheme (it, there) and the latter, by a complex or a group of words: e.g. it is necessary for him to come. There is somebody in the room. It is awfully hard work doing nothing.

English impersonal sentences contain the structural subject only. [It is cold].In impersonal subject neither denotes nor points to any person or thing. It serves only as a structural element of the sentence. The impersonal subject is always expressed by ‘it’.

The semantic classification of the subject is as follows:

• definite personal (The sun is down)

• indefinite personal (They say that… One must be careful, You never know…)

• impersonal (It is cold).

It may be expressed by different parts of speech, the most frequent one is noun in the common case, a personal noun in the nominative case, a demonstrative pronoun, a substantivized adjective, a numeral, an infinitive, a gerund. It may be expressed by a group of words or a clause.

Structurally the subject may be simple and complex. Complex subjects are usually expressed by means of predicative constructions with verbals, which imply the idea of secondary predication. E.g. For him to come would be fatal. Her coming up awoke me.

The Predicate

The predicate is a member of predication denoting the action or property of the thing expressed by the subject and containing the mood and tense components of predicativity. There are several types of predicates. Structurally the predicates are divided into simple and compound, morphologically – into verbal and nominal.

The simple verbal predicate is expressed by one word-form that may be either a synthetical or analytical form of the verb, i.e. a verb in any tense, voice and mood. E.g. You will be given all the information when you come. He had been sleeping for 6 hours.

The phraseological unit predicate is a subdivision of the simple predicate expressed by a phraseological unit whose components denotes one idea and form an indivisible unit. E.g. He had a smoke. They had a wash. She gave a cry. I took leave of them.

There is another view according to which it is a subdivision of the compound predicate. Some English grammarians call it ‘a group-verb predicate’. The simple verbal predicate may coincide in form with the compound nominal predicate: The house is painted. – The house is painted every year.

Compound predicates may be subdivided into nominal and verbal.

• The compound verbal modal predicate may consist of a modal verb or a verbal phrase with a modal meaning and an infinitive or a gerund. This predicate shows whether the action expressed by a non-finite form is possible, obligatory, necessary, desirable, etc. E.g. I could not go to the theatre.

• The compound verbal aspect predicate consists of the finite form of the verb, which indicates the beginning, repetition, duration or end of the action denoted by the infinitive or gerund. Here belong such verbs as: to begin, to continue, to start, to keep on, to go on, to stop, to give up, to finish, etc. Also the combinations “would + infinitive” and “used + infinitive”, which express repeated habitual actions in the past belong here: e.g. He began to study properly. She stopped crying. He used to sit on the sofa and read.

There may be mixed types.

• Compound nominal modal: We can be teachers.

• Compound nominal aspective: We begin to be teachers.

The double predicate is a subtype of the compound predicate where the role of the link verb connecting the subject with the predicative is performed by the verb of the full meaning, i.e. a notional verb: She married young. He came home tired. The notional verb may be in the passive voice: e.g. He was found guilty. He was reported dead.Professor Smirnitsky’s semantic predicates are:

• Processing: The doctor arrived.

• Qualifying: He is a doctor.

• Objective: He has many friends.

• Adverbial: He is in London (here).

Predicatives or Predicative Complements

In descriptive grammar an adjunct of a semi-notional verb or a syntactical word-morpheme is called a predicative complement (дополнение) which may be a process predicative or a qualifying predicative. E.g. He does not know this. He must go. We are in Kirov. Tom is angry.

Secondary Parts of the Sentence: Objective Complements or Objects

Objective complements are noun (or noun-equivalent) adjuncts of objective verbs denoting the object of the action or the subject. They are not attached to the verb only, but to any part of the sentence. E.g. Writing letters is a pleasure. There was no time to see her.

The objects are divided into prepositional and postpositionless, the latter into direct and indirect (as to their meaning and position in the sentence).

The direct object denotes something or somebody directly affected by the action of the verb while the indirect object (non-prepositional) denotes a person to whose benefit the action is performed or towards whom it is directed. E.g. He sent me a letter.

The indirect object is used only with a few verbs mostly conveying the idea of giving a person a thing and only in combination with the direct object, which as a rule follows the indirect object.

In the sentence “He sent me” “me” would be understood as a direct object (меня).

The prepositional objects with “to” and “for” are often grammatical synonyms of the indirect object.

In other words, the cognate object is a special kind of a non-prepositional object, which is always expressed by nouns of the same root or meaning with the governing verb. The verbs taking cognate objects are otherwise intransitive verbs. E.g. We live a happy life. She slept a sound sleep.

The cognate object occupies a place intermediate between an object and adverbial modifier expressing rather an adverbial than objective relation. E.g. He laughed a happy laugh = He laughed happily. The prepositional object is an object the relation of which to the governing word (a verb, an adjective, etc.) is expressed by means of various prepositions. E.g. You may rely on me in that matter. I don’t care for such people.

The object expressed by a complex is often called a complex object. E.g. I knew it to be nonsense.

The complex object is an object direct or prepositional consisting of two components of which the second stands in predicate relation to the first. The two components form an invisible syntactical unit, which is regarded as one part of the sentence. The complex object may be expressed only by a predicative construction (infinitive, participial, gerundial). E.g. He watched her enter the house. We are waiting for the rain to stop. Excuse John’s coming so late.

The object may be structural: I felt it (objective predicative) difficult to refuse (notional object).

Sometimes the difference between the object and the adverbial modifier is neutralized. E.g. They passed a mile in silence. She waited an hour. They appointed an hour.

Adverbial Complements (or modifiers)

Adverbial Complements are adjuncts of verbs and convey qualitative, quantitative or circumstantial characteristics of the action denoted by the verb. E.g. He said it in disgust.

The adverbials denote either external relations (of time, place, reason, purpose, etc) or inner qualities of the actions (manner, degree, etc) and are more independent of the verb than the object.

The position of the object especially that of a direct or indirect object is fixed; adverbial modifiers, especially adverbials of external relations are relatively free as to their position in the sentence. E.g. I met a friend (1) of mine on the way (2) to the university (and vise versa 2-1). It is not always easy to draw hard and fast lines between the secondary parts of the sentence, especially when they are expressed by prepositional phrases. It is noteworthy that the choice of the preposition before a prepositional object depends on the verb; the choice of the preposition before an adverbial modifier does not. E.g. Fleur went up to her room (adv. mod.) and sat in the dark (adv. mod.). Mrs. Brook pondered on the delay (object).

According to their meaning adverbial modifiers may be classified as follows:

Of place: Outside it was getting dark.

Of time: Martin talked for 15 minutes with him.

Of manner or attending circumstances: She walked briskly.

Of degree: I was completely happy.

Of cause: I flushed simply from being spoken to.

Of purpose: She stopped for a moment to ease her back.

Of result: Ben was too busy to hear him.

Of condition: In case of your absence I shall leave you a note.

Of concession: She laughed in spite of her…

An adverbial modifier may be expressed by an adverb, a noun with a preposition, a participle, a gerund with a preposition, an infinitive, a whole syntactical word combination.

The complex adverbial modifier is an adverbial modifier, which consists of 2 components, the second component being in predicate relation to the first one. The 2 components form an invisible syntactical unit, which is regarded as a part of the sentence.

The complex adverbial modifier may be expressed by an infinitive (very frequent), participial or gerundial constructions.

E.g. It was too chilly for him to stay here. How didi you get out without his seeing you. It being now pretty late, we went home.

The Attribute

The most difficult question in the study of the attribute is its position in its general system of parts of the sentence. The question is this: is the attribute a secondary part of the sentence standing on the same level with the object and the adverbial modifier, or is it a unit of a lower rank?

Prof. Ilyish is in favor of the view that the attribute is a part of a phrase, rather than the sentence.

The attribute is a word or a group of words, which is an adjunct of a noun or substantivized part of speech. E.g. A voice inside, the man there, something to remind me of.

The attribute can be expressed by a noun, adjective, adverb, numeral, a verbal, a pronoun, etc. It can be prepositive or postpositive, depending on the morphological peculiarities or stylistic factors.

An attribute expressed by a prepositional phrase, an adverb is usually postpositive. Postpositive attributes are sometimes characteristic of official style of speech: Cf. Next Monday – Monday next, from times immemorial, those present semantically the attribute may be qualitative (deep sea), quantitative (many children), circumstantial (man there).

A variant of an attribute is the apposition – a noun placed at the side of another noun to characterize a person or thing the head word denotes by indicating the class or group to which this person or idea belongs: aunt Mary, Professor Brown, the city of New York, the battle of Moscow, a flower of a girl.

Sometimes transformational analysis helps to distinguish between the attribute and the apposition: woman doctor – a doctor that is woman; but child psychology – psychology that is … a child?!

The apposition may be a 1) close or 2) loose one.

Doctor Brown, 2) Leo Tostoy, the great Russian writer.

A close apposition enters into such close relations with its head noun that they form a group with one stress. The head noun is often a proper noun, the name of a person; the apposition denotes rank, profession, relationship, etc. E.g. DoctorWatson,MajorSmith, Peterthe Great.

• A loose apposition follows the head word and has the force of a descriptive attribute. E.g. He is a good boy, your cousin Val.

Sentence and Communication (Functional Sentence perspective)

A sentence carries a communication. A sentence is a unit of language. Communication is a unit of thought. Communication falls into 2 parts: ‘the known’ (also called the topic, the logical subject, the theme) and ‘the new’ (the comment, the logical predicate, the rheme). The portion of the sentence, which is ‘the known’ expresses the starting point of the communication, whereas ‘the new’ contains new information. The former is usually the subject (or the subject-group) of the sentence, the latter is the predicate (or the predicate-group). E.g. The girl (the known) had a little basket in her hand (the new).

The most important semantic element in the communication, which is part of ‘the new’, is called the center of a communication. In the given sentence it is ‘a little basket’. There are sentences, which carry only new information. E.g. It is evening. The whole sentence is ‘the new’ the grammatical subject ‘it’ has no lexical meaning and cannot be the starting point of the communication.

There are many sentences in which the grammatical structure does not coincide with its communicative structure, i.e. ‘the new’ may be part of the subject-group. E.g. in the corner stood a table set for three. The grammatical subject is the center of the communication.

60% of the total are sentences, in which the communicative division coincides with their grammatical division. In connected speech the center of communication of a sentence may become the starting point of the sentence that follows. E.g. Cora and Alan were sitting in a cab (center). The cab (the known) slowed down near the theatre.

A better term for ‘the known’, the starting point of the action is ‘the theme’, and for ‘the new’, the center of communication is ‘the rheme’. They came into use lately, particularly in the works of several Czech linguists. The terms ‘theme’ and ‘rheme’ are both derived from Greek

Word order as a Means of Subordination in English

Compare the following: Who is he? (A simple sentence, a direct question).

I know who he is. (A complex sentence).

The direct word order in the clause ‘who is he’ marks it as a subordinate object clause; the same rule is observed in sentences with asyndetic connection: Will he come soon? (a direct question). I know he will come soon (a subordinate object clause).

With some clauses the inverted word order (inversion) serves as a marker of subordination and is equivalent to a conjunction: Had he stayed a little longer yesterday, we should have finished the work. Compare: If he had stayed a little longer…

Sometimes inversion is used alongside of a conjunction. E.g. Inexperienced though he was, he had still a strong sense of the danger.

Word Order

Word order is an important means of forming a coherent utterance. There are several factors which may determine the arrangements of elements in a sentence: grammatical, communicative, psychological, stylistic, rhythmic, etc. The most important however are the grammatical and the communicative factors. As a grammatical device word order marks the syntactic relationships of words in a sentence. At the same time word order helps to present the communicative structure of a sentence. Sometimes a word order pattern lays particular stress on a certain element of the sentence thus making the sentence more expressive, more emotively charged. So we may distinguish three main functions of word order: grammatical, communicative and expressive.

In English there are more grammatical restrictions as to the position of the sentence elements, so that in such a language the grammatical function should be considered the leading function of word order.

There are two main word order patterns in an inflected language: subject-predicate (S-P) and predicate-subject (P-S). The former is commonly called direct word order, as to the latter, it is referred it is referred to as inverted, reversed, transposed (перемещенный). As is clear from the names some linguists consider the word order P-S as a deviation from the normal, which is not, the two patterns being the main word order patterns, equal in rights, but with different frequency of occurrence. The word order P-S is referred to here as an inverted word order (inversion). Structurally speaking, inversion may be full or partial. We speak of full inversion when the whole of the predicate precedes the subject. We have partial inversion if the subject is preceded by just a part of the predicate: e.g. Long did the hours seem while I waited Bronte and go she must.

The frequency of occurence of the word order pattern P-S is not so high as that of the pattern S-P. It is advisable to distinguish three functions of inversion, in accordance with the three main functions of word order: formal, communicative and expressive.

I. Formal inversion. It is employed to generate sentences, communicatively different from sentences with direct word order. We find formal inversion in:

• Interrogative sentences: have you been talking to him?

• Optative (желательный) sentences: …and may you never have a day’s luck wit them (Shaw).

• Imperative sentences with the subject mentioned: Don’t you dare touch me!

II. Communicative inversion. It serves for the purpose of making the communicative center which in this case is placed at the end of the sentence. Here we can distinguish:

• Inversion in sentences with the structure-filling word ‘there’. E.g. There came through the open door the heavy scent of lilac (Wild).

• Inversion in elliptical sentences beginning with the word ‘so’, ‘neither’, ‘nor’. E.g. I wasn’t noticing. Nor was I.

• Inversion with adverbials of place, time, manner placed at the beginning of a sentence. E.g. Just over a century and a half after King Alfred’s death came the Norman invasion.

• Inversion of a compound nominal predicate with the predicative opening the sentence. E.g. Completely absent in this and throughout the book, is the role and action of class forces.

• Inversion following direct speech. E.g. ‘Have you finished, old thing?’, said Clare.

III. Expressive inversion. Like communicative inversion, expressive inversion marks the communicative center. Besides, it changes the stylistic coloring of a sentence by making it more expressive. It is noteworthy that, unlike sentences with communicative inversion, sentences with expressive inversion have the communicative center placed at the beginning. It is possible to distinguish the following instances of expressive inversion:

• Inversion in sentences beginning with an adverbial or an object emphatically stressed. E.g. Always had woman been attracted by something in his manner. Very often the first element has a restrictive or negative meaning (such words as scarcely, hardly, seldom, rarely, little, even, less, in vain, only, nor, by no means, nowhere, etc).

• Inversion of the compound nominal predicate, the predicative being the communicative center. E.g. An unforgettable scene was the reunion of mothers with their evacuated children. Here also belongs inversion in clauses of concession and reason. E.g. Careful as she had been, Suthy had heard her.

• Inversion in clauses of unreal emotion. E.g. Had it not been for the information, that Bosman had some hours before his death made a statement, there would have been little fear.

Inversion here is purely expressive, as the postfix cannot be considered the communicative center. As to the structure of inversion it depends on the following:

• The function of inversion. Thus communicative inversion is always full.

• The nature of the element opening the sentence. Restrictive and negative words opening the sentence always cause partial inversion. E.g. Never before had he seen such a cold, steady determination in her eyes.

• The way the subject is expressed. Very often if the subject is expressed by a noun, full inversion is used, if the subject is a pronoun, the inversion is partial. E.g. In went the needle and I took my second pipe. In he hopped and laid the great ruby on the table.

Speaking about word order it is necessary to touch upon what can be termed as ‘shift’. Like the term ‘inversion’, it is a conventional term which is applied here to instances of the distant position of an adjunct in relation to its head-word as contrasted to the contact position.

A shift of a secondary part of a sentence is usually caused by communicative reasons and it may and it may not cause inversion of the principal parts, which is also connected with the communicative structure of the sentence. Cf. Slowly and sadly did the two friends return next day. Swiftly in and out of the dressing room the prize model flew, each time wearing a new costume.

An object usually appears at the beginning of the sentence when it is the theme, which does not cause inversion. E.g. His vest he arranged in the same place. Of his love Arthur would tell nothing.

If the object is restricting or negative in meaning, it is usually the communicative center. In this case inverted word order is used. E.g. Nothing do I know about it.

A direct object, if it is in the communicative center, may also be shifted to the very end of the sentence, thus following a prepositional object or even an adverbial. E.g. He left behind him a marked gloom.

Even more striking is a shift of a part of a syntactic complex, which is also caused by communicative reasons. E.g. This talk I felt to be partially theoretical.

Categorical structure of the word

The most general notions reflecting the most general properties of phenomena are referred to in logic as ‘categorical notions’, or ‘categories’.

As for the grammatical category itself, it presents a unity of form (i.e. material factor), and meaning (i.e. ideal factor). In other terms it presents a unity of content and expression. The plane of content (plurality) comprises the purely semantic elements contained in the language while the plane of expression (boys) comprises the material (formal) units of the language. The two planes are inseparably connected, so that no meaning can be realized without some material means of expression.

The ordered set of grammatical forms expressing a category constitutes a paradigm. Paradigmatic relations cannot be directly observed in utterances.

Paradigms may be small and large, depending on the number of grammatical categories they express; e.g. the paradigm of the word ‘man’ consists of 4 forms: a man – men (number) man’s – men’s (case)

Parts of speech represent larger paradigms possessing particular paradigms of case, number (noun), degrees of comparison (adjective, adverb), tense, voice, mood, person (verb), etc. Bigger paradigms after parts of speech are morphology and syntax. The biggest paradigm of a language is its grammatical structure.

The paradigmatic correlations of grammatical forms in a category are exposed by the so-called ‘grammatical oppositions’, boy – boys. The elements of the opposition must possess two types of features: common features and differential features.

Number(common): plurality [differential] (boys).

singularity [differential] (boy),

Common features serve as the basis of contrast, while differential features immediately express the function in question. The opposition along the line of one grammatical category is called an opposeme, e.g. number opposeme: a table – tables.

The oppositional theory was originally formulated as a phonological theory. The main qualitative types of opposition were established in phonology: privative (b-d-g, p-t-k); gradual (постепенный) - (i:-i-e-a) and equipollent (равноценный) (bilabial) – (m-b). By the number of members contrasted, oppositions were divided into binary (two members) and more than binary (ternary – триада, тройной, quaternary – четвертной, состоящий из четырех частей, etc). The most important type of opposition is the binary privative opposition; the other types of opposition are reducible (допускающие уменьшения) to the binary privative opposition

The binary privative opposition is formed by a contrastive pair of members in which one member is characterized by the presence of a certain differential feature (mark) while the other member is characterized by the absence of this feature. The member in which the feature is present is called the ‘marked’ or ‘strong’, or ‘positive’ member, and is commonly designated (обозначать, называть) by the symbol ‘+’ (plus); the member in which the feature is absent is called the ‘unmarked’ or ‘weak’, or ‘negative’ member, and is commonly designated by the symbol ‘-’ (minus).

The gradual opposition is formed by a contrastive group of members, which are distinguished not by the presence or absence of a feature, but by the degree of it.

The equipollent opposition is formed by a contrastive pair or group in which the members are distinguished by different positive features.

The most important type of opposition in morphology, the same as in phonology, is the binary privative opposition. The privative morphological opposition is based on a morphological differential feature, which is present in its strong (marked) member and absent in its weak (unmarked) member. E.g. the expression of the verbal present and past tenses is based on a privative opposition the differential feature of which is the suffix (e)d. This suffix, rendering the meaning of the past tense, marks the past form of the verb positively (we worked), and the present form negatively (we work).

The meanings differentiated by the oppositions are sometimes called 'seme' [si:m] сема. For instance, the nounal form 'cats' expresses the seme of plurality, as opposed to the form 'cat' which express, by contrast, the seme of singularity. The two forms constitute a privative opposition in which the plural is the marked member. In order to stress the negative marking of the singular, it can be referred to as 'non-plural'.

The meaning of the weak member of privative opposition is more general and abstract as compared with the meaning of the strong member, which is more particular and concrete.

Due to this difference in meaning the weak member is used in a wider range of contexts than the strong member.

Equipollent oppositions in the system of English morphology constitute a minor type. An example of such an opposition can be seen in the correlation of the person forms of the verb 'be' - am - are - is.

Gradual oppositions in morphology are not generally recognized. An example of the gradual morphological opposition can be seen in the category of comparison: strong - stronger - strongest.

A grammatical category must be expressed by at least one opposition of forms. Both equipollent and gradual oppositions in morphology, the same as in phonology, can be reduced to privative oppositions.

In various contextual conditions, one member of an opposition can be used in the position of the other, counter-member. This phenomenon should be treated as 'oppositional reduction' or 'oppositional substitution'. E.g. Tonight we start for London. The verb in this sentence takes the form of the present, while its meaning in the context is the future. It means that the opposition present - future has been reduced, the weak member (present) replacing the strong one (future).

This kind of oppositional reduction is referred to as 'neutralization' of opposition. There exists another kind of reduction, by which one of the members of the opposition is placed in contextual conditions uncommon for it. This use is stylistically marked. E.g. This man is constantly complaining of something.

The form of the present continuous in this sentence stands in sharp contradiction with its regular grammatical meaning 'action in progress of the present time'. This contradiction intensifies the implied disapproval of the man's behaviour.

The grammatical forms are classed into synthetical and analytical.

Synthatical grammatical forms are realized by the inner morphemic composition of the word, while analytical grammatical forms are built up by a combination of at least two words, one of which is a grammatical auxiliary (word-morpheme) and the other of 'substantial' meaning.

Synthatical grammatical forms are based on inner inflexion, outer inflexion, and suppelivity. Hence, the forms are referred to as inner-inflexional, outer-inflexional and suppletive.

Inner inflexion (infixation) is used in English in irregular verbs for the formation of the Past Indefinite and Past Participle, besides it is used in a few nouns for the formation of the plural; e.g. begin - began - begun; man - men.

Suppletivity like inner inflexion is not productive. It is based on the correlation of different roots, (or it consists in the grammatical interchange of word roots).

Suppletivity is used in the forms of the verbs 'be' and 'go' in the irregular forms of the degrees of comparison, in some forms of personal pronouns.

E.g. be - am - are - is - was - were

go - went, much - more

good - better, little - less

bad - worse, I - me, we - us, she - her.

The grammatical categories can either be innate (врожденный, природный) for a given class of words (part of speech), or only serve as a sign of correlation (взаимосвязь, соотношение) with some other class. For instance, the category of number directly exposes the number of the substance - one ship - several ships (innate). The category of number in the verb, however, does not give a natural characteristic to the denoted process.

Thus, grammatical categories should be divided into 'immanent' categories (присущий, постоянный), i.e. categories innate for a given class, and 'reflective' categories, i.e. categories of a secondary, derivative semantic value. E.g. the verbal person, the verbal number are reflective, while the substantive - pronominal person, the substantive number, the tense of the verb, the comparison of adjectives and adverbs are immanent.

The theory of phoneme

The Functional Aspect of the Sounding Speech

Our purpose is to discuss the destinations of the phoneme methods used in establishing the phonemic structure of the language. The system of English phonemes, modifications of sounds in connected speech & stylistic differentiation of vowels (гласные) & consonants (согласные) in English.

The smallest unit in this linguistic aspect is called the phoneme or the sound type. In the spoken language a much greater number of the varies sounds is pronounced when we usually think. These sounds in every given language unit to form a comparatively small number of sound types, capable of differentiation words & their forms (capable of serving the purposes of human intercourse общение). Weshallcallthemphonemes.

Фонема— кратчайшее общее фонетическое представление данного языка, способное ассоциироваться со смысловыми представлениями, и способное дифференцировать, и может быть выделяема в речи без искажения фонетического состава слова.

Scherba (Щерба) speaks about the sense differentiation functions of the phoneme. The phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit, realized in speech in the forms of speech sounds opposable to other phonemes of the same language to distinguish the meaning of morphemes & words.

The phoneme is a functional unit (единство). The opposition (противопоставление) of phonemes in the same phonetic environment differentiates the meaning of morphemes & words. Sometimes the opposition of phonemes serves to distinguish the meaning of the whole phrase. (Example: He was hurt badly; He was heard badly).

Allophone is used for sounds which are the variants of a phoneme the usually acquire in different positions in the word, but cannot contrast with each other, no be used to make meaningful distinctions.

All the actual speech sounds are allophones that exist in the language. Those the variants that help to distinguish words when opposed to one acquire only in certain positions or in certain sound combinations are realization of one and the same phoneme. The qualities of the allophones can be different and distinct.

Allophones which never acquire in one & the same position are said to be in complementary distribution. And same phonetic position, but can never distinguish meanings of the words are said to be in free variations.

The Relation of a Phoneme & its Allophones

On one hand the phoneme is an abstraction & generalization. It is abstracted from its variants that exist in the actual speech & to all these variants.

On the other hand the phoneme is material, real & objected, because in speech it is represented by concrete material sounds.

The linguistic role of the phoneme is seeing in its functions:

1. The constitutive (составляющая, строительная) function. Phonemes make up morphemes, words & their forms (sentences, phrases & etc.).

2. The distinctive (различительная) function. Phonemes help to distinguish morphemes, words & their forms.

3. The precognitive (различительная) function. Phonemes help to recognize words, morphemes.

In speech we constantly carry out a phonetic & phonological analysis, so it is phonetic characteristics of sounds. But as soon as we determine the role of those sounds in communication when it is of phonological analysis.

Phonetic & phonological analysis of one & the same phenomenon — the sound substance of a language (звуковая субстанция).

Lexical stylistic devices. Lexico - syntactical stylistic devices

Stylistic devices (SD) – for shortening.

Russian linguistic school distinguishes 3 types of meaning inherent (внутренне присущий) in a word:

• Logical

• Emotive

• Nominal

Logical meaning is the precise naming of the idea, phenomenon, object, the name by which we recognize the whole of the concept. This meaning is also called REFERENTIAL or DIRECT. Logical meaning is apt to change; it may be divided between primary & secondary logical meanings. Many SD are based on the interplay of primary and secondary logical meaning.

e.g.to gather:

1. Primary logical meaning

• To come together

• To obtain smth. bit by bit (по частям)

• To collect or pick smth.

2. Secondary

• To understand from smth. said or done.

I gather she is ill.

Logical dictionary meaning of a word is materialized in the context but there is another type of logical meaning: a contextual meaning (that is born in the context).

Emotive meaning unlike logical refers to the feelings and emotions of a speaker towards the object of a speech act or to his emotions as such.

e.g.He seemed terribly lonely. – the word ‘terribly’ has no logical meaning here, only emotive meaning to intensify the emotions, produced by the word ‘lonely’.

There are some groups of words which have only emotive meaning (interjections).

Nominal meaning is the 3 component of lexical meaning. There are words that indicate a partial object out of the class. They are classified in grammars as proper nouns.

e.g. Smith, Oxford, Britain – are all unique but sometimes they hide a nominal meaning. There is the logical meaning of the word. Everybody knows the word ‘Oxford’ but it requires a great deal of afford to recall that it used to be the place where oxen crossed the river.

Many proper names with nominal meaning have common nouns as homonyms.

e.g. Smith – a smith (кузнец); jailor – a jailor (портной).

Words possessing on the logical meaning can refer both to the particular object or phenomenon, or to the whole class of such objects.

Words possessing on the nominal meaning are deprived of this later function and it cannot represent a class. It is important that nominal meaning is always secondary to the logical meaning.

Stylistic approach to meaning is represented in the words of I. Arnold. She regards every separate word as a complex unity which includes 2 types of information:

1. Information as an object to the utterance which is independent of the act of communication

2. Information interrelated with the context of situation at the participance of communication.

The first type of information may be called DENOTATIVE meaning of a word.

The second type conforms to the CONOTATIVE which includes emotional, evaluative, expressive & stylistic components of meaning.

The first type of information according to I. Arnold is obligatory; the second is optional.

All the 4 components of connotation can be present in different combinations or be altogether absent.

Emotional component denotes emotions & feelings. Evaluative component is activated when a word expressive positive or negative judgment.

Expressive component intensifies the features expressed by the neighboring words.

Stylistic component comes into operation if a word is a typical for certain functional styles.

Morphemic repetition. Occasional words

The basic unit of morphemic level is a morpheme. Sometimes apart from its inherent meaning it gets additional meaning – logical, emotive, expressive. One important way of promoting a morpheme is its repetition of root and affixational morphemes.

Especially vividly it is observed in the repetition of affixational morpheme which normally have only structural significance. When repeated they stress either their logical meaning (that of contrast, negation, absence of a quality in such prefixes as: a-, anti-, mis-; or smallness as in suffixes: -ling, -let, -ette (sigarette)); their emotive & evaluative meaning as in suffixes forming degrees of comparison; or else they add to the rhythmical effect.

e.g.We saw the terrible expression of pain in her eyes: unblinking, unaccepting, unbelieving pain. – the repetition of prefix un- that increase negation.

The second even more effective way of using a morpheme for creation of additional information is the formation of new words. They are not neologisms they are created for special situations only and are not occasional words and are characterized by freshness & originality. Very often occasional words are the result of morphemic repetition.

e.g.1) I am an undersecretary of underbureau.

The stress on the insignificance of the occupation of the hero brings for both – the repetition of under– and the appearance due to it of the occasional words: undersecretary & underbureau.

2) ‘Shut up, you crying chattering, moving, arguing things’.

3) She misunderstood him having misheard the command and misdid it. {repetition mis-; assonants}.

OXYMORON

Ox- is a variety of an epithet it is also an attributive (sometimes adverbial) word, joined with an antonymous word in one combination.

Such combination causes a strong emotional impact. It gives a humorous ironic, emotional colouring to the phenomenon described.

e.g.to cry silently; crowded loneliness; a noble rascal; an ugly beauty.

Oxymorons may lose their stylistic quality & gradually fall into the group of word combinations with an intensifier.

e.g.terribly sorry; awfully nice; pretty awful.

Antonomasia – is a lexical SD based on the interaction of logical and nominal meaning of the same word.

In Antonomasia a proper name is used instead of a common noun or visa versa.

The first type of Antonomasia we meet when a proper name is used as a common noun.

e.g.To tell each Masy.

In the second type of Antonomasia a common noun serves as an individualizing name.

e.g.There are three doctors in an illness like yours: Dr. Rest, Dr. Diet, Dr. Fresh Air.

Still another type of Antonomasia is presented by the so called ‘speaking names’ – names whose origin from common nouns is still clearly seen.

E.g.Mr. Snake; Lord Chatterino.

Play on words (pun, zeugma, semantically false chains)

In play on words one-word form is deliberately used in two meanings. The effect of these stylistic devices is humorous. The difference between pun & zeugma is structural, the context that can realize zeugma is more restricted and the word that is used in two meanings simultaneously is not repeated.

Classical zeugma consists of a verb combined with 2 nouns of different semantic groups or a noun with 2 objects.

e.g. she went home in a flood of tears and an expensive car (2 семантич. разнородн. группы).

When the number of homogeneous members semantically disconnected but attached to the same verb we deal with semantically false chains which are thus a variation of zeugma.

e.g. a governess wanted. Must possess knowledge of Romanic, Russian, Italian, Spanish, German, music & mining engineering.

Contextual conditions leading to the formation of pun may vary: it can be misinterpretation of one speaker’s utterance by the other which results in his remark dealing with a different meaning of the misinterpretation word or its homonym.

e.g. –Have you been seeing any spirits?

– or taking any?

Misinterpretation may be caused by the phonetic similarity of 2 homonyms. Such as in case: O.Wild’s play “The importance of being Earnest”.

The devices of play on words are for the most part untranslatable because the semantic structure of poorly semantic or homonymous words in English and Russian may never possess an exact correspondence.

Hyperbole

H is a SD in which emphasis is active through deliberate exaggeration; the feelings and emotions of the speaker are so concentrated that the resorts in his speech to intensifying the quantitative or the qualitative aspect of the object. (e.g. My love should grow faster that empires).

In H like an epithet the emotive meaning is fore grounded.

H is one of the most expressive means of our everyday speech.

It may be the final effect of another SD: metaphor, simile, irony. (e.g. he had the tread of an elephant (metaphor). The man was like the Rock of Gibraltar (simile)).

H can be expressed by all notional parts of speech but there are words which are used in this SD more often than others. They are such: all, every, everybody, the like.

(e.g. She was all angles Angy-bones).

Also (numerical nouns): a million, a thousand.

(adverbs of time): ever, never.

H is aimed exaggerating quantity or quality when it is directed the opposite way, when the size, shape, demotions, characteristic features of an object are not overrated but underrated we deal with understatement or meiosis.

The mechanism of its creation and functioning is identical with that of H. it is not the actual diminishing or growing of the object that is conveyed by a H. or understatement. It is emotional; subjective impression that is realized in SD. They differ only in the direction of the flow of around emotions. English is well-known for its preference of understatement in everyday speech. (e.g. I’m rather annoyed instead of I’m infuriated. The wind is rather strong instead of there is a storm outside.)

But its less characteristic of American English.

e.g. This woman of a pocket size (understatement).

I was scared to death when I came into the room (H).

The theory of intonation

Phonetic and Graphical stylistic devices

PHONETIC. One of the main notions dealing with the interrelation of sound & sense is ONAMATOPOEIA a combination of speech sounds which aims is imitating sounds produced by nature (wind) pins, machines or tools, by people laughter, by animals.

e.g. splash (sound of water); hiss (sound of snake); ramble (metal on metal); giggle; whistle; buzz; coo.

Direct onomatopoeia occurs on words that imitate natural sounds:

e.g.mew; roar; buzz; ding-dong.

Sounds resemblance the word strongly, others require a lot of imagination to understand the source (e.g. cock-a-doole-doo).

Indirect ona-ia is a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense.

e.g.Tiger tiger burning bright

In the forest of the night.

Strongly reminds you of a distant roar of a tiger.

ALLITERATION – is the repetition of consonants usually in the beginning of words.

Assonance is the repetition of vowels (similar) usually in stressed syllables.

They both may produce the effect of euphony (a sense of ease and comfort in pronouncing or hearing).

Cacophony a sense of strain and discomfort in pronouncing or hearing.

As an example of the first may serve the famous lines of E. A. Poe:

Silken, sad, uncertain

Rustling of each purple curtain…

As an example of the second is provided by the unspeakable combination of sounds found in R. Browing:

Nor soul helps flesh now

More than flesh helps soul

Graphical SD

In contemporary advertising mass media and above all creative prose sound is fore grounded mainly through they change of its excepted graphical representation. The intentional violation of a graphical shape of a word or word combination used to reflect its authentic pronunciation is called GRAPHON.

Graphons indicating irregularities or carelessness into English novels and journalism at the beginning of the 18^th century and since then have acquired an ever growing frequency of usage, popularity among writers, journalists, advertisers.

Graphon proved to be an extremely concise but effective means of supplying information about the speakers’ origin, social and educational background, physical or emotional condition.

Graphon individualizing the characters’ speech, adds to his plausibility vividness and memorability. At the same time graphon is very good at conveying the atmosphere of authentic live communication of the informality of a speech act.

Some amalgamated forms which are the result of strong assimilation became clichés in contemporary prose dialogue.

e.g.gimme (give me) ; leme (let me); gonna (going to); gotta (got to); mighta (might have); coupla (couple of); willya (will you).

This flavor of informality and authenticity brought graphon popularity with advertiser.

e.g.‘Rite Bred Shop’; ‘Carpets’; lo, hi (low, high).

Pure graphical devices.

Graphical changes may reflect not only the peculiarities of pronunciation but are also used to convey the intensity of the stress, emphasizing and thus fore grounding the stressed words.

To such pure graphical means not involving the violations we should refer all changes of the type write down: italics, capitalization

Spacing of graphins: hyphenation (e.g. I en-vy you); multiplication (e.g. I’ve a laaaarge cat); end of lines.

The later was widely exercised in Russian poetry by Maiykivsky, famous for his steps in verse lines or Voznesensky.

According to the frequency of usage variability of functions the first place among graphical means or fore grounding is occupied by italics.

Besides, italicizing words to add to the logical or emotive significance, separate syllables and morphemes m,ay also be emphasized be italics (which is higher characteristic of American authors: Selinger and Capote) .

Intensify of speech (often in commands is transmitted through the multiplication of a graphin or capitalization of the word): e.g. ‘allll aboarrrrrrd’, ‘help! Help! Help!’.

Hyphenation of a word suggests the rhymed or clipped manner in which it is uttered as in the humiliation comment:

e.g.‘grinning like a chim-pan-zi’.

Summing up the informational options of the graphical arrangement of a word (a line) an extract one sees the varied applications for recreating the individual and social peculiarities of a speaker, the atmosphere of the complication act, dash, of aimed at revealing and emphasizing the authors’ view point.

Irony –based on the interplay of 2 lexical (logical) meanings (dictionary and contextual) which stand in opposition to each other, thus irony is the clash of 2 diametrically opposite meanings with the purpose of ridicule: we seemingly characterize a thing in a good light but in fact we mean the opposite.

e.g. How clever! – when a person says of does smth foolish.

As a great champion of freedom.

He (the Englishman) annexes half of the world (the verb “annexes” is the context that realizes the ironical meaning of combination “great champion of freedom”).

Irony is generally used to convey a negative meaning therefore only positive context may be used in the their logical dictionary meanings. Irony must not be confused with humour although they have much in common.

Humour always causes laughter while the function of irony is not confined to producing a humorous effect. It may be employed to express displeasure, irritation, pity, regret.

e.g. How we, democrats, stick together!

What is actually meant is opposition ton what is said: ”How we are against each other”.

Epithet – is a peculiar use of a word or a phrase generally in an attributive function which reveals the writer’s emotional attitude to the object described.

Epithet expresses a characteristic of an object both existing and imaginary. Its basic feature is emotiveness and subjectivity: the characteristic attached to the object to qualify it is always chosen by the speaker himself.

Thus the stylistic device of epithet is based on interplay of logical & emotive meaning. The eater (emotive) is born in context and prevails over the logical meaning. Logical attributes (not a stylistic device) are objective non-evaluative.

Stylistic attributes / episodes are a subjective description aimed at singling out the thing described.

e.g. a pretty young girl (pretty young – is a logical attribute (не явл. Стил. Средством))

a rare and radiant maiden (epithet (субъективное мнение))

Epithets can be classified semantically & structurally.

Semantically we distinguish between original and tried epithets. In tried epithets the subjective element is partially lost through frequent repetition.

e.g. clod blooded murder.

Structurally epithets may be:

• Simple (embodied in a word)

• Phrase (embodied in a phrase)

e.g. simple: a lipsticky smile

phrase: a-breakfast-in-the-kitchen smell

I-don’t-agree-with-you expression

A structural variety of epithets is the so called “reversed epithet”, i.e. epithet expressed by a noun or a phrase joined with the noun modified by preposition. They are based on the contradiction between the logical and syntactical: logically defining becomes syntactically defined and visa versa.

e.g.the giant of a man; the devil of a woman (=devilish woman); the shadow of a garage; a woman of a pocket size.

Epithets are used singly, in pairs, in chains, in two-step structures, in inverted constructions (reversed), also as phrase attributes.

e.g.a single epithet: a smiling sun;

a pair of epithets (pairs are represented by 2 epithets joined by a conjunction or asyndetically): wonderful and incomparable beauty.

Chains (strings) of epithets present a group of homogeneous attributes varying in number from 3 up to 20 or more.

e.g.you are a scolding, unfair, unjust, bad old creature.

Two-step epithets are so called the process of qualifying passes 2 stages:

• The qualification of an object;

• Qualification itself.

e.g. an unnaturally cold day

two-step epithets have a fixed structure of adverb + adjective.

e.g. pompously majestic woman.

Phrase epithets:

e.g. a move-if-you-dare smile (the originality proceeds from rare repetition of the once coined phrase epithet which in its turn is explained by the fact that into a phrase epithet is turned a semantically self-sufficient word combination or even a whole sentence which loses some of its independence becoming a member of another sentence).

There exists one more semantic classification of epithets: they can be differentiated into 2 main groups, the biggest of them been

• Effective

• Emotive proper

These epithets convey the emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker.

Most of qualifying words found in the dictionary can be used as affective epithets.

e.g. magnificent, nasty, proud…

The 2^nd group figurative or transferred epithets is formed of metaphors, metonymies and similes expressed by adjectives.

e.g. the sleepless pillow; a ghost-like face; the tobacco-stained fingers.

Like metaphor metonymy & similes corresponding epithets are also based on similarity of characteristics of 2 objects in the 1^st case on nearness of qualified objects in the 2^nd case and on the comparison on the 3^rd.

In the ovewrwhelming majority epithet is expressed by adjectives or qualitative adverbs.

e.g. his-triumphant look; be looked triumphantly .

Nouns come next, they are used either as exclamatory sentence.

e.g. you, peacock,

or as postpositional attributes

e.g. Richard of the Lion Heart

Syntactical stylistic devices

Syntactical SD

Stylistic study of the syntax begins with the study of the length and the structure of the sentence it appears the length of any lang-e unit is very important in information exchange for the human brain can receive and transmit information only if it is punctuated by pauses.

Theoretically speaking a sentence can be of any length. Unable to specify the upper limit of sentence length we definitely know its lower mark to be one word. One-word sentence possesses a very strong emphatic impact for its only word obtains both the word and the sentence stress and its own sentence intonation which help to fore ground the content. Abrupt changes from short sentences to long ones and went back again create a very strong effect of tension for they serve to arrange to a nervous, uneven rhythm of an utterance.

There is no direct correlation between the length and the structure of the sentence.

Short sentences may be structured complicated while the long ones on the contrary may have only one subject predicate pair. Still most often bigger length go together with complex structures.

Not only the understandability & clarity of the sentence but also its expressiveness depend on the position of its clauses so if the sentence opens with the main clause which is followed by dependent unit such a structure is called LOOSE is less emphatic and is a characteristic of informal writings and conversation.

Periodic sentence on the contrary open with subordinate clause, absolute and participial constructions the main clause – at the end. Such structures are known for their emphasis and are used mainly in creative prose.

Similar structuring of the beginning of the sentence and its end produces BALANCED sentences known for stressing the logic and reasoning of the content and thus preferred in publicist writing.

Usually words in sentences are understood in 1 meaning .

Syntactical SD deal with the syntactical arrangement of the utterance which creates the emphasis on it irrespective of the lexical meaning of the employed units.

Parallelism (parallel constructions)

Purely syntactical type of repetition a syntactical device based on the use of the similar synt. pattern in 2 or more sentence s or clauses.

Parallel constructions (PC) may be partial or complete. Partial P arrangement is the repetition of the structure of some parts of successive sentences or clauses.

Complete P arrangement represents identity of structures throughout the corresponding sentences.

The stylistic function of P is the fore grounding of logical, emotive, rhythmical and expressive aspect of the sentence.

Chiasmus [kai’azmas] (хиазм) (or reserved parallelism) is a synt. SD based on the repetition of a synt. pattern with a reserved word order.

e.g. Down dropped the breeze

The sails dropped down.

He love and was loved by everybody (active/passive voice)

Repetition (SD)

R as a SD is reiteration of the same word, word combination, phrase for 2 or more times.

According to the place which the repeated unit occupies in a sentence R is classified into several types:

1. simple repetition – is the R of one and the same member of a sentence without any strict regularity

2. anaphora – is the R of the beginning of some successive sentences of clauses: a…, a…, a…

3. epiphora – is the R of the end of some successive sentences of clauses: …a, …a, …a

e.g. I wake up and I’m alone and I walk around and I’m alone and I talk with people and I’m alone.

The main stylistic function of anaphora is nor\t so much to emphasis the repeated unit as to create the background for the non-repeated one which through its novelty becomes emphasized.

The main function of epiphora is to add stress to the final word of the sentence.

1. Phraming – is the R of the beginning of the in the end thus forming the phrame for the non-repeated part of the sentence. e.g. Nothing ever happed in that little town, left behind by the advance of civilization, nothing. The function of phraming is to elucidate the notion mentioned at the beginning of the sentence

2. catch (anadiplosis) – повтор (…a, a…) is the R of the end of the clause or sentence is the beginning of the following one. E.g. he was shaken, shaken and embitted

3. chain (…a, a…b, b…c, c…)presents several successive catch repetitions. E.g. A smile would come into his face. Smile extends into laughter, the laughter into roar and the roar became general. The main function of chain R is to develop logical reasoning

4. successive R: …a, a, a… – is the stream of closely following each other reiterated units. E.g. On her father’s being groundlessly suspected she felt sure. Sure. Sure

This is the mot emphatic type of R which signifies the pick of emotions of the speaker.

Types of connection

Asyndeton– is a synt. SD based on connection of sentences, word combinations or words without any conjunctions, the deliberate avoidance of conjunctions.

Polysyndeton– it is synt. SD based on repeated use of conjunction enclose connection.

Both asyndeton and polysyndeton have a strong rhythmic impact. The function of polys-n is to strengthen the idea of equal logical or emotive importance of connected sentences while asy-n cutting off connecting words helps to create the effect of energetic active terse.

Attachment is a synt. SD based on the deliberate separation of the 2^nd part of the sentence from the 1^st one by a full stop. The 2^nd part appears as an after-thought. Attachment contrary to asy-n and poly-n is mainly used in various representation of the voice of the personage. Dialogues, reported speech, entrusted narration.

e.g. It was not his stop. It was yours. And mine.

Ellipses is a deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence. E.g. I went to London as one goes to exile, she – to New-York.

Break in the narration is a SD which consists in breaking the narration for rhetorical effect. E.g. Just come here in time, my son or I’ll …

Apokoinu is asyndetent connection of 2 clauses where one word has 2 syntactical functions, is the omission of the pronominal (adverbial) connection which creates a blend of the main and subordinate clauses so that the predicate or the object of the 1^st clause is simultaneously used as a subject of the 2^nd clause. E.g. Here is a gentleman wants to know you (‘who’ is omitted). He was the man killed that deer.

Rhetorical question

Is a synt. SD based on a statement expressed in an interrogative from. As distinct from an ordinary question which is asked to find some information RQ does not require any answer, it serves the purpose of calling the reader’s attention to a particular point of writing or speech.

e.g. What is this if full of care

We have no time to stay and stare?

Parts of speech

Parts of Speech (Grammatical Classes of Words)

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 smantic criterion presupposes (предполагать, заключать в себя) 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 e xposes (выставлять на показ) 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.

Alongside of the three-criteria principle of dividing the words into grammatical classes modern linguistics has developed another, narrower principle based on syntactic featuring of words only.

On the material of Russian, the principle of syntactic approach to the classification of word-stock were outlined in the works of A.M. Peshkovsky. The principles of syntactic classification of English words were worked out by L. Bloomfield and his followers L. Harris and especially Ch. Fries.

Here is how Ch. Fries presents his scheme of English word-classes.

For his materials he chooses tape-recorded spontaneous conversations which last 50 hours.

The three typical sentences are:

Frames:

• The concert was good (always).

• The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly).

• The team went there.

As a result he divides the words into 4 classes: class I, II, III, IV, which correspond to the traditional nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

Thus, class I includes all words which can be used in the position of the words 'concert' (frame A), clerk and tax (frame B), team (frame C), i.e. in the position of subject and object.

Class II includes the words which have the position of the words 'was', 'remembered', 'went' in the given frames, i.e. in the position of the predicate or part of the predicate.

Class III includes the words having the position of 'good', and 'new', i.e. in the position of the predicative or attribute.

And the words of class IV are used in the position of 'there' in Frame C, i.e. of an adverbial modifier.

These classes are subdivided into subtypes.

Ch. Fries sticks to the positional approach. Thus such words as man, he, the others, another belong to class I as they can take the position before the words of class II, i.e. before the finite verb.

Besides the 4 classes, Fries finds 15 groups of function words. Following the positional approach, he includes into one and the same group the words of quite different types.

Thus, group A includes all words, which can take the position of the definite article 'the', such as: no, your, their, both, few, much, John's, our, four, twenty.

But Fries admits, that some of these words may take the position of class I in other sentences.

Thus, this division is very complicated, one and the same word may be found in different classes due to its position in the sentence. So Fries' idea, though interesting, doesn't reach its aim to create a new classification of classes of words, but his material gives interesting data concerning the distribution of words and their syntactic valency.

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.

• Lexico-grammatical meaning: (noun - substance, adjective - property, verb - action, numeral - number, etc).

• Lexico - grammatical morphemes: (-er, -ist, -hood - noun; -fy, -ize - verb; -ful, -less - adjective, etc).

• Grammatical categories and paradigms.

• Syntactic functions

• 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.

Each part of speech is further subseries in accord with various particular semantico-functional and formal features of the words.

Thus, nouns are subdivided into proper and common, animate and unanimate, countable and uncountable, conctrete and abstract.

E.g. Mary-girl, man-earth, can-water, stone-honesty.

This proves that the majority of English parts of speech has a field-like structure.

The theory of grammatical fields was worked out by V.G. Admoni on the material of the German language.

The essence of this theory is as follows. Every part of speech has words, which obtain all the features of this part of speech. They are its nucleus. But there are such words which don't have all the features of this part of speech, though they belong to it.

Consequently, the field includes central and peripheral elements.

Because of the rigid word-order in the English sentence and scantiness of inflected forms, English parts of speech have developed a number of grammatical meanings and an ability to be converted.

E.g. It's better to be a has-been than a never-was.

He grows old. He grows roses.

The conversation may be written one part of speech.

She took off her glasses.

Give me a glass of water.

The person in the glass was making faces.

Don't break the glass when cleaning the window.

They are called variants of one part of speech. Because of homonymy and polysemy many notional words may have the same form as functional words.

E.g. He grows roses - He grows old.

Professor Ilyish objects to the division of words into notional and functional (formal) parts of speech. He says that prepositions and conjunctions are no less notional than nouns and verbs, as they also express some relations and connections existing independently.

The Noun

The noun is the main nominative part of speech, having the categorial meaning of “substance” and “thingness”.

The noun is characterized by a set of formal features. It has its word-building distinctions, including typical suffixes, compound stem models, conversion patterns.

It has the grammatical categories of gender, number, case, article determination.

The most characteristic function of the noun is that of the subject in the sentence. The function of the object in the sentence is also typical of the noun. Other syntactic functions, i.e. attribute, adverbial and even predicative are not immediately characteristic of its substantive quality.

The noun is characterized by some special types of combinability. It is the prepositional combinability with another noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb.

E.g. an entrance to the house;

to turn round the corner;

red in the face;

far from its destination.

The casal combinability characterizes the noun alongside of its prepositional combinability with another noun.

E.g. the speech of the President - the president's speech.

English nouns can also easily combine with one another by sheer contact. In the contact group the noun in pre-position plays the role of a semantic qualifier to the noun in post-position. E.g. film festivals, a cannon ball.

The lexico-grammatical status of such combinations has been a big problem for many scholars, who were uncertain as to how to treat this combination: either as one separate compound word or a word-group.

In the history of linguistics it is called “The cannon ball problem” (or the stone wall problem).

The Article as a Part of Speech

Neither the meaning of the article nor its nature is studies well yet. In connection with the article there exist two main views.

• The article is a word (possibly a separate part of speech) and the combination of 'article + noun' is a phrase.

• The article is the form element in the system of the noun. It is thus a kind of morpheme and the combination 'article + noun' is a morphological formation.

The article serves to specify a noun. From this point of view the article may be divided into 3 classes: 1) the definite article (the); 2) the indefinite article (a); 3) the zero article.

The function of the definite article is particularization, that of the indefinite one is classifying and that of the zero article is generalization (nomination).

Professor Ilyish remarks that such functions of the article as particularizing, generic, demonstrative are not brought about by the article itself but by the context or situation: e.g. The dog is a domestic animal (general statement). The dog has come home (concrete action).

The articles have the following functions:

The indefinite article is used with a word which names an object, referring it to a class of similar objects and is said to have the nominating or classifying function.

e.g. This is a table. He works here as a teacher.

In its nominating function the indefinite article may be used with a noun which has some descriptive attributes since the object named can possess a number of qualities or qualification which do not single it out of a class of similar objects but only narrow the class to which the object belongs:

cf. He is a boy.

He is a nice boy.

He is a nice boy of twenty, etc.

When the indefinite article is used with a noun which names an average class representative, it is said to have the generalizing function.

E.g. A sentence is a language unit.

In this function the indefinite article comes very near to the meaning of the indefinite pronoun “any” (любой).

E.g. Any sentence is a language unit.

• The indefinite article is sometimes used with the nouns which name unique things or abstract notions:

E.g. There was a young moon.

It may be called the aspective or stylistic function of the indefinite article. In its aspective function the indefinite article may be used with proper names as well.

E.g. He was met at the door by an angry Elizabeth.

In such cases the indefinite article is used in combination with some descriptive attributes to show that the characteristics ascribed by them to the person named is not permanent but temporary (Elizabeth was not always angry: she was angry at that particular moment).

When the indefinite article is used with a proper name without any attribute (or with the pronoun “certain”) the noun stands for a person, that is not familiar with either to both the hearer and the speaker, or to one of them.

E.g. Is there a Mrs. Langdon? Остановилась ли здесь некая миссис Лэнгдон?

• The indefinite article is also used to introduce “the new” in a communication. Then it is said to have the communicating function. E.g. The door opened and a man entered the room.

In the Russian sentence we place the word that corresponds to the English word with the indefinite article at the end of the sentence. The indefinite article in this function is often used to introduce a person or a thing. E.g. A boy wants to see you. In a similar case with a noun in the plural form the indefinite pronoun “some” is used. E.g. Some boys want to see you.

All the above mentioned functions of the indefinite article can exist separately or in combination with each other. In the sentence “There was a moon” the indefinite article has two functions: the communicating and the aspective.

The functions of the definite article

The definite article expresses the definiteness of the object named or the familiarity with the object named and has one principle function, 1) the limiting function.

The definite article singles the object named out of a class of similar objects. The noun with the definite article stands for an object, person or thing known from the circumstances, the situation, the context. The limitation expressed by the definite article is not necessarily based on the earlier introduction of the object named but on the situation. That's why the definite article is the situational article.

In its limiting function the definite article is often used with nouns modified by limiting attributes the purpose of which is to single out the object or the person named. E.g. This is the house that Jack built. She was the smartest girl in the room.

The definite article is also used with the names of unique things (the sun, the moon, the earth, the air, the world, the cosmos, etc). In this case the limiting function of the definite article is based on the exclusiveness of the object named.

2) Sometimes the definite article is used with a noun which stands for the whole of a class of similar objects. E.g. The telephone (as a means of communication) was invented by Bell in the 19th century.

This may be called the generic function of the definite article.

3) The definite article is usually used with a noun which expresses “the known” in a communication. E.g. The door opened and a man entered the room.

Instead of the definite article in English the possessive pronoun is sometimes used. The possessive pronouns are usually used with nouns naming parts of body, articles of clothing, etc. E.g. He laid his hand on his sword. Such possessive pronouns are not rendered into Russian and are not meant to express “possession”.

This substitution of the article by possessive pronouns is only possible, however, when the objects expressed by the nouns with possessive pronouns belong to the subject of the sentence, otherwise we must use the definite article.

cf. He took the matter into his hands.

He took the child by the hand.

The absence of the article before a material or abstract noun has a nominating function. E.g. Life goes on.

The Verb

The verb is a part of speech, which expresses a process or action. The verb is characterized by a developed system of morphological categories. They are: tense, aspect, voice, mood, correlation, posteriority, person, number. Verbs are connected 1) with a preceding or following noun (children play, play chess); 2) with adverbs which is the most characteristic of the verb (play well); 3) occasionally with adjectives (married young). In a sentence a verb is always a simple verbal predicate.

Morphologically a verb may be in a finite form or non-finite (Indefinite, Gerund, Participle).

Syntactically verbs may be objective and subjective.

Semantically verbs may be terminative and non-terminative, the former expressing an action limited in time, the latter expressing an action having no limits in time.

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