- •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
9. Textual Grammar
Textual grammar appeared at the beginning of the 20th century.
3 Basic assumptions of textual grammar:
Text is the highest unit of speech, sentences are constituents of the text
Text is made according to certain general principles of text production. These principles reflect the semiotic nature of the text.
A text is a complicated sign. It proves the fact that as abstraction the text belongs to the system of language, not only to speech. Text being a complex linguistic phenomenon comprises of several levels: super-phrasal, paragraphs, the whole text.
A text is not a grammatical unit, like a clause or a sentence, it is not defined by its size.
A text is a SEMANTIC UNIT; it is related to a clause or a sentence not by size but by realization, the coding of one symbolic system in another. A text doesn’t consist of sentences, it is realized by, or encoded in sentences.
Any text is a coherent stretch of speech which is a semantico-topical and syntactic unity. In syntactic terms a text is a strictly topical stretch of talk (a continual succession of dictemes) centering on a common informative purpose.
Text has two main differential features: topical (semantic) unity and semantico-syntactic cohesion.
So there are two principles for differentiating textual units: topicalization and stylization.
Textual units:
Common function: they represent the text as a whole integrally expressing the textual topic.
Earlier to identify semantically connected sentence sequences linguists used the terms “complex syntactic unity”, “super-phrasal unity”, “super-sentential construction”. Now since sentences in these unitites are joined by means of syntactic cumulation, they call them “cumulemes”. We should remember that the meaning of these terms is the same.
Cumuleme is a constituent part of one-direction sequence of sentences forming a monologue speech and also two-direction sequence forming a dialogue. The component constructions-utterances in these sequences are positioned to meet one another and their name is “occursemes” (Latin root “to meet”). Occurseme can include several cumulemes.
Sentences in cumuleme can be connected either prospectively or retrospectively. If they are connected prospectively, then the meaning is released in the 2nd sentence. Let me tell you one thing. Bill and Mary are getting married. “Thing” is a prospective connector. Retrospective relates the sentence to something that precedes it. Retrospective cumulation is more important, it is the basic type of communication.
Cumulation can be: conjunctive and correlative.
Conjunctive cumulation – use of coordinative or subordinative conjunctions, adverbial and parenthetical sentence connectors.
Correlative cumulation:
Substitutional connection (based on substitutes) M was speaking carefully. He was speaking carefully.
Representative connection (based on representative elements) representative connection is achieved by repetition.
Cumulemes can be subdivided into 3 semantic types: factual, modal and mixed type.
Also there is dicteme – the elementary topical textual unit, it occupies the highest position in the hierarchy of segmental levels of language. It can be expressed either by a cumuleme (a sequence of 2 or more sentences), or by one single sentence placed in a topically significant position. It is polyfunctional, performs the functions of nomination, predication, topicalization, and stylization.
Textual categories:
Textual categories appear and function only in the text as a language unit of the highest rank. Textual categories reveal the cardinal and the most general differential features of the text. The list of textual categories is open. To the list of textual categories scholars usually refer cohesion, informativeness, retrospection (prospection) (direction of connection between the parts in the text), modality (any author reveals his or her attitude to what is revealed in the text), causality, implication, the author’s image, continuum (the development of events described in the text in space and time), divisibility (text can be divided into parts), otosemanticity? (separate textual parts being independent on the text level as a whole, quotations, author’s thoughts) and some others.
Most linguists agree that the basic textual categories are topical unity and semantico-syntactic cohesion. It is conditioned by the fact that the general idea of a sequence of sentences forming a text includes these two notions. On the one hand, it presupposes a succession of spoken or written utterances irrespective of their forming or not forming a coherent semantic complex. On the other hand, it implies a strictly topical stretch of talk. Coherence – level of semantics. Cohesion – level of syntax.
Sentence is a microstructure, belongs to language. Utterance is a microstructure, belongs to speech, super-phrasal unit is a microstructure correlates to the whole text. Text is a macrostructure.
Super-phrasal unit vs. Paragraph
Some linguists consider them to be synonymous. However a paragraph is a term or composition of a written text, while super-phrasal unit is a term of syntax. 1 paragraph may include several super-phrasal units, 1 super-phrasal unit may consist of some paragraphs.
Text is a unit of speech, in language there are rules to generate text.
Text is restricted to linguistics. Discourse is a broader notion; it is a text as a linguistic unit taken in all its socio-cultural aspects.
Pragmatics of the discourse, i.e. systematic relations between structures of text and context. The basic idea of pragmatics is that when we speak we also accomplish certain social acts. Our intentions for such actions are based on our knowledge and beliefs. If we say something, our semantic acts acquire a pragmatic function only if the hearer doesn’t know the information we are giving him and the purpose is to change the knowledge of the hearer. If we are successful in this , then we have accomplished a successful communicative act.
Composite sentences and sequences of sentences
Peter had an accident. He is in the hospital.
Because he had an accident, Peter is in hospital. (Can see other examples on p. 413 TEG Seminars book)
The examples are based on our knowledge of what we expect the listener knows and what is new for him.
In complex sentences “known” elements come in 1st position, “new” elements in second position. We presuppose (assume) that the hearer already knows that Peter had an accident, this gives the name for the 1st clause, it is pragmatically presupposed. And in the second clause we provide new information, we make an assertion. The difference is that if in the composite sentences there is only one assertion, in sequences of sentences there are more. Every sentence is an assertion.
Let’s look at the sentence John is ill or Because John is ill, he won’t come tonight. Why do we need to say the 1st clause if we presuppose that the hearer knows about it? It is because by saying it, we activate a special part of the hearer’s knowledge connected with John. So the hearer will get the new information faster this way, he will know to what it relate to.
Generally sentences contain lots of different assertions which we might not even notice from the 1st sight. Like, for example, under an atomic prepositional analysis of the sentence Peter kissed a girl we can distinguish several assertions Peter kissed a girl not a guy, peter kissed her in the past.
In the sentences like John was ill, so he went to bed the 1st clause is also going to be an assertion, but a “world-determining” one. Once we gave this first information, we can follow it with some other. It may therefore be concluded that for compound sentences of this type, we have one compound assertion.
Assertion is a part of an illocutionary act (of or having to do with that aspect of an utterance which relates to the speaker’s intention).
Presupposition is a semantic act. Presupposing is the act of reference to known objects and facts. The act of introduction may pertain to new objects, new properties of old objects and facts.
Composite speech acts – cases where not the facts are related but a fact with a speech act, or 2 speech acts.
Sequence-sentences
Only the 1st sentence of any conversation or the 1st one following a greeting, call or exclamation can properly be called a situation-sentence. All the rest are either responses or sequence-sentences. They are responses if they begin a new utterance and they are sequence-sentences if they continue an utterance already begun.
Sequence-signals – all elements that function as grammatical links to a preceding sentence. We may recognize 4 main types:
Substitutes
Determiners, function nouns, and function verbs
Coordinators
Sentence-modifiers
Substitutes
Noun substitutes are he, she, it, they
Verb substitute do
Adjective substitute such
Adverb substitute then, there, so, thus, that way
I don’t think John is coming. If he does, he will be sorry.
Determiners, function nouns, function verbs
Noun determiners “the”, “this”, “that”
He has a new job. This job is better than the last.
He isn’t speaking today. At any rate I hope not.
Coordinators
“and”, “but”, “nor”, “or” “yet”
The only distinction between a pair of sentences linked by a coordinator serving as a sequence-signal and a compound sentence is the presence or absence of a sentence-final intonation contour. In written material this distinction is marked by a period or comma.
Sentence-modifiers