25. Oppositional reduction, Oppositional substitution.

Oppositional reduction points out the fact that the opposition in this case is contracted, losing its formal distinctive force: Man conquers nature.

In various contextual positions one member of an opposition can be used in the position of the other. This phenomenon can be referred to as reduction of oppositions.

A stylistically indifferent oppositional reduction is called neutralization. Use of the unmarked member does not transgress the expressive conventions of ordinary speech.

Another type of oppositional reduction is called transposition. It is defined as contrastive use of the counter-member of the opposition (the strong one, as a rule).

In various contextual conditions, one member of an opposition can be used in the position of the other, countermember. This phenomenon should be treated under the heading of "oppositional reduction" or "oppositional substitution". Man conquers nature.Человек покоряет природу.

The noun man in the quoted sentence is used in the singular, but it is quite clear that it stands not for an individual person, but for people in general, for the idea of "mankind".

Oppositional substitution shows the very process by which the opposition is reduced, namely, the use of one member instead of the other.

26. History of syntactic studies. Ancient times.

1. Ancient times (Panini (India), Protagoras, Aristotle, Stoics, Plato, Apollonius Dyscolus)

The study of syntax was carried out from the point of view of speech–thought creating processes

No specific terminology was used as yet

The notions used reflected logical, syntactic and morphological approaches to syntactic studies .

Ancient Greek philosophers (Protagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Stoics) studied indiscrete speech units; classified utterances due to their communicative value; divided the sentence into main parts; defined relations between the parts of the complex and compound sentence

Protagoras (Vc BC) distinguished question, answer, request, command

Aristotle (384-322 BC): confirmative, negative, narrative, imperative utterances

Stoics (IIIc BC): negative, affirmative sentences, general/ special question, orders, swears, requests, vocative utterances

PLATO (424/423 BC – 348/347 BC) a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates. Plato and followers divided a sentence into two parts: name (onoma) and verb (rhema) , i.e. Subject and Predicate

Stoics, ancient Greece - III c. BC. Initiated the study of the complex and compound sentence and relations within it as causal, result, conditional, connective, disjunctive .

Apollonius Dyscolus (II c. AD) - Nicknamed ὁ δύσκολος, meaning "the Surly or Crabbed or Hard to please”

Apollonius is the first Greek grammarian of whom we possess a work in its entirety. Syntax is viewed from morphological grounds (word as the basis) > syntax of parts of speech.

27. History of syntactic studies. Middle ages and XIX c.

• Scholasticism, rationalism, Port Royal Grammar

Middle ages (xiii-xvi c.)

Scholasticism, Rationalism, Port Royal Grammar

Syntax was viewed as study of ways of expressing thought. Syntactic categories as opposed to morphological ones were thought to be of universal character

Followers of this approach: (XIX c) M.V. Lomonosov, L.G. Yakob, I.I. Davydov, K.S.Aksakov, F.I.Buslaev.

Scholasticism – the system of theological and philosophical teaching predominant in the Middle Ages , based upon the authority of the church father Aristotel and his commentators.

Rationalism is a philosophical movement which gathered momentum during the Age of Reason of the 17th Century. It is usually associated with the introduction of mathematical methods into philosophy during this period by the major rationalist figures, Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza. The preponderance of French Rationalists in the 18th Century Age of Enlightenment, including Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Charles de Secondat (Baron de Montesquieu) (1689 - 1755), is often known as French Rationalism.

Rationalism relies on the idea that reality has a rational structure in that all aspects of it can be grasped through mathematical and logical principles, and not simply through sensory experience.

Port-Royal Grammar - a linguistic theory set forth by A. Arnauld and C. Lancelot in their Universal and Logical Grammar (1660).

The Port-Royal grammar, based on Cartesian principles and medieval linguistic doctrines, analyzes the correspondence between grammar and logic. The theory holds that all human beings possess the same capacity for thought and speech and that a single ideal logical plan underlies all languages, although no individual language fully makes use of the intrinsic potential of human speech. The task of grammar is to determine the principles common to all languages as well as the basic differences between languages. Since all concrete languages rely on convention, it is possible to create a new language that would avoid logical errors or to establish a precise and unambiguous use for the words of a given language.

The following ideas of the Port Royal grammarians are reflected in the XX-century generative/universal grammar as initiated by Chomsky (1957, 1965). A sentence has an inner mental aspect and an outer physical aspect as a sound sequence (Chomsky, 1966)