18. Grammar in the systemic conception of language.

Such discipline as Grammar studies the gram. sys-m of language, analyses and defines its gram. categories the mechanisms of gram. formation of utterances out of the words in the process of speech making. Lingual units stand to one another in to fundamental types of relations: syntagmatic and paradigmatic. Synt. rel, are immediate relations between units in a segmental sequence, they are syntagmatically connected (I was invited by my friends to a new night-club). Morphemes within the words are also connected syntagmatically (invit/ed/; friend/s/; night/-club/). The combination of to words or word-groups one of which is modified by the other forms a unit which is referred to as a syntactic syntagma. They are of four types: predicative, objective, attributive, adverbial. The other type of relations opposed to syntagmatic is called paradigmatic. These relations exist between elements of the system outside the strings where they occur. This intra-systemic relations find their expression in the fact that each lingual unit is included in a set or series of connections based on different formal and functional properties (gram. cat-ies, parts of the sent., synonyms etc.). Syntag. relations are actually observed in utterances and they are, so to say, “in presence”. Unlike syntag. paradigmatic relations can not be directly seen that’s why they are referred to as relations “in absence”. Also units of lang. are divided into segmental and supra-segmental. Supra-segm. units do not exist by themselves and are realized only with segm. units. They are intonation, pauses, ascents, patterns of word-order etc. Segmental units form a certain hierarchy of six levels(phonemic, morphemic, lexemic, phrasemic, proposemic, textual).

19. Synonymy. Criteria of synonymy. Types of connotation. Euphemisms.

The problem of criteria of synonymy is still an object of controversy. Notional criterion defines synonyms as words of the same category of part of speech convening the same notion but different in shades of meaning or stylistic characteristics. There is another semantic criterion which defines synonyms in terms of componential analysis as words with the same denotation but differing in connotation. (to look-to stare-to peer-to peep-to glance-to gaze). In modern research the criterion of interchangeability is sometimes applied. Here synonyms are defined as words which are interchangeable at least in some contexts without any considerable alteration in denotation meaning. Synonyms possess such confusing feature as duality they are somewhat the same but yet they are obviously different (like-love-admire). Synonyms are one of the most important expressive means of the language as they can represent the same phenomenon in different aspects, shades, variations. The skill to choose the most suitable word from a group of synonyms in every context is a great asset (to grin-to smile/скалиться/ улыбаться). The only existing classification system of synonyms was established by Ac. Vinogradov and includes three types: ideographic (words with the same notion but different in shades of meaning), stylistic (different in stylistic characteristics) and absolute (coinciding in all their shades of meaning and all their styl. char-cs.). In any language there are some words which are traditionally treated as coarse, impolite, rude unpleasant and avoided to be used in speech. The leading semantic component in the semantic structure of a word is usually termed denotation. It expresses the notional content of a word and define its main meaning. But in order to get a sufficiently clear picture of what the word really means we must take into consideration the additional meaning the word possesses. This is connotative component or connotation which may be emotive, evaluative (posit. or negat.), of duration, of cause. There are words in every language which people instinctively avoid because they are considered indecent, indelicate, rude, too direct or impolite. And these words are replaced in a roundabout way by substitutes called euphemisms. This device is dictated by social conventions, taboos and generally accepted norms which are often exaggerated and groundless (lavatory –washroom, restroom, water-closet, etc.). They may be religious, medical, moral and parliamentary and their life is usually short.