- •The 2 branches of Grammar, their interconnection. Links of Grammar with other branches of Linguistics.
- •Hierarchic structure of language. Segmental and supra-segmental levels.
- •The plane of content and the plane of expression. Polysemy, homonymy, synonymy. Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations. Language and speech.
- •4. Notion of the morpheme. Types of morpheme. Suffixes and inflexions. Types of word-form derivation.
- •Morpheme
- •In the tradition of the English school, grammatical inflexions are commonly referred to as suffixes.
- •Distributional analysis in studying morphemes. Types of distribution. Distributional morpheme types. Morphemic structure of the word
- •Allo-emic theory
- •On the basis of the degree of self-dependence
- •Ex: handful, hand – free morpheme, ful – a bound morpheme On the basis of formal presentation
- •On the basis of the segmental relation
- •On the basis of grammatical alternation
- •On the basis of linear characteristic
- •6. Grammatical meaning, form, categories.
- •9. Textual Grammar
- •3 Basic assumptions of textual grammar:
- •3 Types of them:
- •10. Parts of Speech. The criteria applied in discriminating parts of speech. The problem of notional and structural parts of speech.
- •11. The field-theory approach to parts-of-speech classification. Classification of parts of speech in English. Ch. Fries’s classification.
- •12. The noun as a part of speech. The problem of the category of gender.
- •Ilyish: The Noun in me has only 2 grammatical categories: number & case. The existence of case appears to be doubtful & has to be carefully analyzed.
- •13. The category of number of the noun.
- •14. The problem of the category of case of the noun. Different case theories.
- •15. The article.
- •Is the article a word or a morpheme?
- •The door opened and the young man came in./The door opened and a young man came in.
- •16. The adjective. Degrees of comparison. Substantivization of adjectives. Adjectivization of nouns.
- •18.The Verb as a part of speech. Classifications of the verb.
- •19. The category of aspect of the verb
- •E.G. We heard the leaves above our heads rustling in the wind.
- •Transposition
- •E.G. Miss Tillings said you were always talking as if it had been some funny business about me.
- •In the expressions of anticipated future (reverse transposition)
- •20. Composite sentence.
- •Compound sentence.
- •21. The Principal Parts of the Sentence: The Subject and the Predicate. Types of Predicate.
- •Compound
- •22. The Adverb and the Structural Parts Of Speech: Prepositions, Conjunctions, Particles, Modal Words, Interjections.
- •1) Nominal
- •2) Pronominal
- •25. The category of tense of the verb. The problem of perfect forms.
- •26. The Complex Sentence.
- •27. The category of mood of the verb
- •28. The Category of Voice
- •29. The Phrase, its definition. H. Sweet’s, e. Kruisinga’s, and o. Jespersen’s theories of the phrase.
- •3) Subordination implies the relation of head-word and adjunct-word. But there are degrees of subordination.
- •32. Notion of the sentence. Classification of sentences. Types of sentences.
- •34. The secondary parts of the sentence
- •35. Participle 2
19. The category of aspect of the verb
The aspective meaning of the verb reflects the realization of the process irrespective of it’s timing. 2 systems of verbal forms should be evaluated: the Continuous & Perfect forms.
Pr. Blokh distinguished 2 oppositions:
The 1st is constitued by the continuous forms of the verb & non-continuous or indefinite form of the verb. It’s the aspective category of development. The strong member is the continuous –build up by the discontinuous morpheme be+ing.
Continuous form denotes an action proceeding continuously at a definite period of time, within certain time limits.
Non-continuous form denotes an action not limited but either occurring repeatedly or everlasting, without any notion of lasting duration at a given moment.
H.Sweet, O.Jespersen put them among the tense forms of the verb. Actually the continuous usually goes with a verb which expresses a simultaneous action. But the timing of the action is not expressed by the continuous. One more fact about the non-temporal meaning of the continuous is its use in the verb form of the perfect continuous. It can only be understood as expressing aspectuality.
The category of development, unlike the categories of person, number, time, has a verbid representation, namely, it’s represented in the infinitive where it expresses the same meaningful contrast b/w action in progress and not in progress. The gerund and the participle do not distinguish the category of development but the traces of progressive meaning are inherent in these forms, esp. in the present participle.
E.G. We heard the leaves above our heads rustling in the wind.
The opposition of the category of development undergoes different reductions:
Neutrolization
The unlimitive verbs are very easily neutralized in cases where the continuity of action is rendered by means other than aspective
e.g. The night is wonderfully silent. The stars shine with a fierce brilliancy…He held a glass of wine.
With “never-used-in-the-continuous” verbs (be, have, other verbs of possession, relation, physical, mental perception) + with verbs in the passive voice, the infinitive
With the introductory verb supporting the participial construction of parallel action
e.g. The man stood (introductory word-neutralization”+”) smoking (participial construction “–“) a pipe.
Transposition
The continuous can be used transpositionally to denote habitual action in emphatic collocations
E.G. Miss Tillings said you were always talking as if it had been some funny business about me.
Also with some statal verbs (reverse transposition)
e.g. I only heard a rumour that a certain member here present has been seeing the prisoner this afternoon.
In the expressions of anticipated future (reverse transposition)
e.g. Dr Aarons will be seeing the patient this morning, and I wish to be ready for him.
The 2nd category of retrospect. It is constituted by the opposition of the perfect form of the verb to the non-perfect one. The strong member is the perfect, which is built up by the discontinuous morpheme have -en.
Views on the perfect forms:
1.The “tense view” of the perfect is represented in the works of Sweet, Curme, Bryant; in Russia by Irtenyeva.
2.The “aspect view” – West, Sonnenschein; Vorontsova.
3. The “tense-aspect view” demonstrates the actual double nature – Ivanova.
4. The categorial individuality of the perfect was shown by Pr. Smirnitsky. This category is different from both tense and aspect. He distinguishes a separate category of time correlation. The content of the category - priority expressed by the perfect form against the non-expression of priority by the non-perfect forms.
The category of retrospection can be neutralized
the non-perfect as the weak member filling in the position of neutralization
e.g. “I feel exactly like you,” she said, “only different because after all I didn’t produce him…”
neutralizations b/w the forms of the present perfect- non-perfect
e.g. Where do you come from?
Colloquial neutralizations of the verbs of physical and mental perception
e.g. I hear the management has softened their stand…