- •1. The subject of theoretical grammar. Its relations to other branches of linguistics
- •2. The notion of ‘grammatical meaning’.
- •3. The notion of grammatical forms, category and opposition.
- •4, 8. Grammatical homonymy in morphology and syntax.
- •5 The notion of morph and allomorphs.
- •6 The morpheme. Types of morpheme
- •10, 11. Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations in language
- •12 Language as a system and structure
- •13 The dichotomy of language and speech
- •14. The phrase. The problem of predicative phrases.
- •15. The phrase. Different approaches to the definition of phrase.
- •16. Classification of phrases according to different criteria.
- •17. Coordinate and subordinate phrases.
- •21. Noun
- •22. The category of number
- •23, Syntagmatic properties of noun
- •24. Criteria of noun classification
- •25. The category of case.
- •26. The Problem of Gender in English
- •29 Classification of Verbs
- •30. The category of tense
- •31. The category of voice
- •32.Types of predication
- •33. The category of finitude of verbs.
- •34. The category of aspect
- •35. The category of time correlation.
- •36. Analytical and synthetic forms of the verb.
- •41 - The sentence. General survey.
- •Clauses
- •By structure
- •By purpose Sentences can also be classified based on their purpose:
- •42 - The main characteristics of the sentence
- •43. The structural classification of sentences.
- •44. Communicative types of sentences.
- •45. Actual division of the sentence. Methods of identification of the theme and the rheme.
- •47. Kernel sentences.
- •48. The Composite Sentence
- •49. Compound Sentences
- •52. . Essential features of the sentance
- •54. Pragmatic aspects of the sentence. The correlation of semantics and pragmatics of the sentence.
- •57. The Object
- •58. The Attribute
- •59. The Subject
- •60. The Predicate
12 Language as a system and structure
Language is the system, phonological, lexical, and grammatical, which lies at the base of all speaking. It is the source which every speaker and writer has to draw upon if he is to be understood by other speakers of the language.
Language is regarded as a system of elements (or: signs, units) such as sounds, words, etc. System implies the characterization of a complex object as made up of separate parts (e.g. the system of sounds). Language is a structural system. Structure means hierarchical layering of parts in `constituting the whole. In the structure of language there are four main structural levels: phonological, morphological, syntactical and supersyntatical. The levels are represented by the corresponding level units:
The phonological level is the lowest level. The phonological level unit is the`phoneme. It is a distinctive unit (bag – back).
The morphological level has two level units:
the `morpheme – the lowest meaningful unit (teach – teacher);
the word - the main naming (`nominative) unit of language.
The syntactical level has two level units as well:
the word-group – the dependent syntactic unit;the sentence – the main communicative unit.
The supersyntactical level has the text as its level unit.
As a system, language is subdivided into three basic subsystems, each of which is a system in its own turn. They are the phonetical (phonological), lexical and grammatical systems. The phonetical system includes the material units of which language is made up: sounds, phonemes, different intonation models, and accent models. The phonetical system of language is studied by a separate branch of linguistics called phonology. The lexical system includes all the nominative (naming) means of language – words and stable word-combinations. The lexical system is studied by lexicology. The grammatical system includes the rules and regularities of using lingual units in the construction of utterances in the process of human communication. The grammatical system is described by grammar as a branch of linguistics
13 The dichotomy of language and speech
A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts. In other words, it is a mutually exclusive bipartition of elements. i.e. nothing can belong simultaneously to both parts, and everything must belong to one part or the other. They are often contrasting and spoken of as "opposites." The term comes from dichotomos (divided): dich- ([in] two) temnein (to cut). The above applies directly when the term is used in mathematics, linguistics. For example, if there is a concept A, and it is split into parts B and not-B, then the parts form a dichotomy: they are mutually exclusive, since no part of B is contained in not-B and vice-versa, and they are jointly exhaustive, since they cover all of A, and together again give A.
One of the fundamental concepts of linguistics is the dichotomy of «language and speech» (langue—parole) introduced by F. de Saussure. According to it language is a system of elementary and complex signs-phonemes, morphemes, words, word combinations, utterances and combinations of utterances. Language as such a system exists m human minds only and linguistic forms or units can be systematise" into paradigms. language is a mentally organised system of linguistic units. An ъ0 .. aj speaker never uses it. When we use these units we mix m in acts of speech. As distinct from language speech is not relv mental phenomenon, not a system but a process of combining these linguistic elements into linear linguistic units that are called syntagmatic. The result of this process is the linear or syntagmatic combination of vowels and consonants into words, words into word-combinations and sentences and combination of sentences into texts.