- •Теоретическая грамматика английского языка
- •§ 2. The phoneme, the morpheme, the word and the sentence are units of different levels of language structure. The phoneme is a unit of the lowest level, the sentence — of the highest.
- •§ 5. The structure, classification and combinability of phonemes is studied by a branch of linguistics called phonology.
- •Morphology
- •Introduction
- •§ 10. The morphemes book- and -s differ essentially:
- •§ 13. Besides lexical and grammatical morphemes there exist some intermediate types.
- •§ 18. In accordance with their structure the following four types of stems are usually distinguished:
- •§ 25. All the words of a lexeme, both synthetic and analytical, are, as defined (§ 19), united by the same lexical meanings.
- •§ 26. Analytical words are closely connected with synthetic ones.
- •§ 28. As shown by a. I. Smirnitsky, words derived from different roots may be recognized as suppletive only under the following conditions:
- •§ 29. The above-mentioned criteria serve to prove the identity of lexical morphemes in spite of their difference in form. The same criteria can be used to prove the identity of any morphemes.
- •§ 30. We have already spoken (§§ 14, 15, 18) about lexico-grammatical morphemes and their functions as stem-building elements. Now we are to see their role in building up classes of words.
- •§ 31. Let us compare the following columns of words:
- •Parts of speech
- •§ 39. Lexemes united by the genera! lexico-grammatical meaning of "substance" are called nouns. Those having the general lexico-grammatical meaning of "action" are called verbs, etc., etc.
- •§ 43. It must be borne in mind, however, that not all the lexemes of a part of speech have the same paradigms.
- •§ 44. The influence of the category of number is obliquely felt even in a case like milk. The word milk is closer to the "singular" member of a number opposeme than to the "plural" one.
- •§ 48. In accordance with the principles described above it is possible to distinguish the following parts of speech in English:
- •§49. Many linguists point out the difference between such parts of speech as, say, nouns or verbs, on the one hand and prepositions or conjunctions, on the other.
- •§ 51. A similar distinction can be drawn between notional and semi-notional lexemes within a part of speech (see § 194) and between notional and semi-notional parts of speech.
- •§ 57. A. I. Smirnitsky defines conversion as a type of word-building in which the paradigm is the only means of word-building.
- •§ 63. The relations between these variants remind us of conversion:
- •§ 64. As follows from our previous discussion of the parts of speech in English, the noun may be defined as a part of speech characterized by the following features:
- •§ 66. Many nouns are related by conversion1 with lexemes belonging to other parts of speech:
- •§ 70. A noun may be used in the function of almost any part of the sentence, though its most typical functions are those of the subject and the object. (See Syntax.)
- •§ 79. Nouns like police, militia, cattle, poultry are pluralia tantum, judging by their combinability, though not by form 3.
- •§ 80. Sometimes variants of a lexeme may belong to the same, lexico-grammatical subclass and yet have different forms of number opposemes.
- •§ 82. Case is one of those categories which show the close connection (a) between language and speech, (b) between mor-phology and syntax.
- •§91. Nouns representing 'plural' grammemes may denote:
- •§ 92. Nouns representing 'common case' grammemes express a wide range, of meanings, the exhaustive examination of which is hardly feasible. Here are some of them.
- •§ 93. As we have seen, 'possessive case' nouns occur a great deal less frequently than their opposites1.
- •§ 97. In the Russian language a noun in the genitive case may be adnominal and adverbial, I. E. It can be attached to a noun and to a verb.
- •§ 100. Let us compare the-English noun with its Russian counterpart. The five properties we use as criteria for distinguishing parts of speech will serve as the basis of comparison.
- •§ 101. Adjectives are a part of speech characterized by the following typical features:
- •§ 104. Suppletive opposemes are few in number but of very frequent occurrence.
- •§ 113. In certain speech environments adjectives can bе used to communicate meanings in some respect different from those of the grammemes they belong to.
- •§ 115. Following is a brief comparison of the basic features of English and Russian adjectives.
- •§ 116. The adverb is a part of speech characterized by the following features:
- •§ 123. Quantitative adverbs like very, rather, too, nearly, greatly, fully, hardly, quite, utterly, twofold, etc. Show the degree, measure, quantity of an action, quality, state, etc.
- •§ 124. Circumstantial adverbs serve to denote various circumstances (mostly local and temporal) attending an action. Accordingly they fall under two heads:
- •§127; Circumstantial adverbs are mostly used in the function of adverbial modifiers of time and placer
- •§ 130. The numeral as a part of speech is characterized by
- •§ 131. The lexico-grammatical meaning of 'number' is not to be confused with the grammatical meaning of 'number'.
- •§ 133. In our opinion, the pair ten — tenth forms an oppo-seme of the grammatical category of numerical qualification.
- •§ 135. As to their stem structure English numerals fall into
- •§ 136. Numerals are easily substantivized, acquiring noun features. •
- •§ 144. The personal pronouns are the nucleus of the class. They are: I (me), thou (thee)1, he (him), she (her), it, we (us), you, they (them).
- •§ 157. Self-pronouns are often used in apposition for emphasis. Dickson's view on the Middle Ages themselves would have to wait until another time. (Amis).
- •§ 159. Demonstrative pronouns can be:
- •§ 162. The pronoun who is the only interrogative pronoun which has a case opposite, whom, as in Whom did you meet?
- •§ 180. Most quantitative pronouns form opposemes of comparison:
- •§ 181. Here belong other (others, other's, others'), another (another's) and otherwise.
- •§ 182. The pronoun one stands somewhat apart, outside the classification discussed above.
- •§ 183. As an indefinite pronoun it is usually a pro-adjective with the meaning "a certain" and refers to both living beings and inanimate things.
- •§ 184. As an indefinite or generalizing personal pronoun one indicates only a person. It is a pro-noun. It has a case opposite one's and is correlated with the reflexive pronoun oneself.
- •§ 186. Summing up, we may say that the pronouns are hot united by any morphological categories, or syntactical functions. So they cannot be regarded as a part of speech.
- •§ 188. As a part of speech the verb is characterized by the following properties:
- •§ 194. Semantically verbs divide into notional and semi-notional (see § 50).
- •§ 196. Modal verbs are characterized:
- •§ 198. Verbs are divided into subjective and objective, depending upon their combinability with words denoting the subjects and the objects of the actions they name (see § 191).
- •§ 200. As usual, variants of a verb lexeme may belong to different subclasses (see § 62).
- •§ 201. Verbs can be classified in accordance with the aspective nature of their lexical meanings into terminative and non-terminative.
- •§ 202. As usual, variants of the same lexeme may belong to different subclasses. When meaning '(to) engage in physical or mental activity', the verb (to)work is non-terminative.
- •§ 208. Participle II may have left-hand connections with link-verbs.
- •The Category of Order (Time Correlation)
- •§ 213. Linguists disagree as to the category the 'perfect' belongs to.
- •§ 216. Let us take an extract from j. Galsworthy's novel To Let:
- •§ 219. The problem of aspect is controversial in English grammar. There is but little consensus of opinion about this category in Modern English.
- •§ 222. Besides those properties that characterize the verb as a whole, the finites possess certain features not shared by the verbids.
- •§ 224. Mood is the grammatical category of the verb reflecting the relation of the action denoted by the verb to reality from the speaker's point of view.
- •§ 229. The indicative mood is the basic mood of the verb. Morphologically it is the most developed system including all the categories of the verb.
- •§ 233. The correlation of time and tense is connected with the problem of the absolute and relative use of tense grammemes.
- •§ 236. In Modern English the category of person has certain peculiarities.
- •§ 240. The development of the modal verbs and that of the subjunctive mood — the lexical and morphological ways of expressing modality1 — have much in common.
- •§ 243. The 'passive voice' and 'continuous aspect' meanings are expressed much in the same way as in the indicative mood system.
- •§ 245. The difference between the two sets of opposemes
- •Verb Grammemes in Speech
- •§ 252. The systems of different moods, as we know, contain different grammemes. We shall therefore discuss the grammemes of the indicative, subjunctive and imperative moods separately.
- •Indicative Mood Grammemes
- •§ 254. The action it denotes may either coincide with the moment of speech or cover a more or less lengthy period of time including the moment of speech.
- •§ 255. In a context showing that reference is made to the past, the present non-continuous non-perfect may be used to denote past events, mostly presented as the speaker's reminiscences.
- •§ 274. The present non-continuous perfect is regularly found in adverbial clauses of time and condition when the connotation of priority is implied.
- •§ 275. What makes the present non-continuous perfect fundamentally different from the past non-continuous non-perfect can be briefly summarized as follows:
- •§ 276. As a unit of the language system it presents an act in the past (past tense) unspecified as to its character (non-continuous aspect) and preceding some situation (perfect order).
- •§ 277. When used with terminative verbs it may acquire a distinct connotation of resultativity, as in
- •§ 278. The past non-continuous perfect may be inclusive in meaning if supported by the context.
- •§ 280. As a part of the verb system it presents a future action (future tense), unspecified as to its character (non-continuous aspect) and prior to some situation in the future (perfect order).
- •§ 285. The past continuous perfect has much in common with the present continuous perfect, the main difference between them being that of tense.
- •§ 286. Like the present continuous perfect it may be inclusive if supported by the context or else exclusive as in
- •§ 287. The future perfect continuous is actually nonexistent.
- •Voice Grammemes
- •§ 292. It has often, been claimed that passive structures can be regarded as transforms of certain active structures 1.
- •§295. Representatives of subjunctive I grammemes can be distinguished from their indicative and imperative mood homonyms as follows.
- •§ 296. Following are some types of clauses in which should grammemes and their synonyms are regularly used.
- •Imperative Mood Grammemes in Speech
- •§ 303. Besides the features common to the English verb as a whole (see § 188) the verbids have certain features of their own distinguishing them from the finite verb.
- •§ 306. The verbids do not possess many of the categories of the finite verb, such as number, person, tense and mood.
- •§ 307. Here is a table presenting the paradigms of the verbids.
- •§ 308. The combinability of the verbids is of mixed nature. Partly, as we have seen, it resembles that of a finite verb. But some models of combinability are akin to those of other parts of speech.
- •§ 311. The infinitive is a verbid characterized by the following features:
- •§ 317. The participle is a verbid characterized by the following properties:
- •§ 319. As we have already mentioned, the adjectival and the adverbial features of the participle are connected with its combinability.
- •§ 321. The gerund is a verbid characterized by the following features:
- •§ 324. The gerund, which is a peculiarity of the English language, is very extensively used as the centre of complexes (nexuses) synonymous with subordinate clauses. Compare:
- •§ 326. In compliance with the system adopted we shall now work out the comparison of the basic features of the English verb with those of the Russian verb.
- •The adlink (the category of state)
- •§ 327. In Modern English there exists a certain class of words such as asleep, alive, afloat, which is characterized by:
- •The modal words (modals)
- •§ 329. As a part of speech the modals are characterized by the following features:
- •§ 331. The relatively negative combinability of modal words manifests itself in various ways.
- •§ 332. Functioning as a parenthetical element of a sentence, a modal word is usually connected with the sentence as a whole.
- •§ 333. The usage of modals depends upon the type of sentence. They are found almost exclusively in declarative sentences, very rarely in interrogative and almost never in imperative sentences.
- •§ 334. The response-words yes and no are characterized as a separate class by
- •§ 335. Practically every notional word can alone make a sentence in a certain situation of speech.
- •§ 336. Their lexical meanings are those of 'affirmation' and 'negation'. Their lexico-grammatical meaning is that of 'response statement'. They confirm or deny a previous statement.
- •§351. The combinability of at in the last example resembles, to some extent, that of an adverb. Cf. To be laughed away (off).
- •§ 359. The combinability of subordinating conjunctions is somewhat different from that of coordinating ones.
- •§ 360. The division of conjunctions into coordinating and subordinating ones is chiefly based on their lexical meanings and the types of units they connect.
- •§ 361. According to their meanings coordinating conjunctions are divided into
- •§ 362. Though for and so are considered coordinating conjunctions, they are in fact intermediate between coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
- •§ 363. The conjunctions are not numerous, but of very frequent occurrence in speech.
- •§ 364. The two words a(n), the form a separate group or class characterized by
- •§ 367. Some grammarians speak of the 'zero article' 1 or the 'zero form of the indefinite article' 2. We are definitely against these terms.
- •§ 369. In accordance with its meaning 'one of many' the indefinite article is used to denote one thing of a class and is therefore a classifying article.
§ 186. Summing up, we may say that the pronouns are hot united by any morphological categories, or syntactical functions. So they cannot be regarded as a part of speech.
On the other hand they constitute a separate class of words with peculiar meanings and references to the world of reality.
All of them are of double nature, as they combine their peculiar meanings with certain properties of definite parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, numerals, adverbs).
The drawing below gives an idea of this
nouns |
pronouns |
adjectives |
|
numerals |
|
adverbs |
THE VERB
§ 187. Analysing the verb in Modern Russian, V. V. Vinogradov characterizes it as "the most complex and capacious part of speech". Likewise, A. I. Smirnitsky stresses the intricate nature of the English verb, the system of which includes, as if in miniature, some other parts of speech in the shape of the so-called non-finite verbs or verbids 1 (the infinitive, the gerund and the participle).
As a matter of fact, the verb is a system of systems. The main division inside the verb is that between the finite verbs (finites) and the verbids. The finites can further be subdivided into three systems called moods3. The infinitive, the gerund and the participle are also three systems within the verbids. Graphically this can be represented thus:
Finites |
||
Indicative |
Subjunctive |
Imperative |
Verbids |
||
Infinitive |
Gerund |
Participle |
Still, taken as a whole, the verb possesses all the features distinguishing a part of speech. So, naturally, we shall begin with those properties that characterize the verb as a whole. Only after that shall we dwell on the finites and the verbids separately.
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1 The term was suggested by O. Jespersen to avoid adding another connotation to the word verbal besides a) "concerned with words", b) "oral", c) "of the nature of a verb", d) "literal", etc. M. Bryant calls it one of Jespersen's best contributions to terminology (op. cit., p. 87).
3 See 'The Category of Mood'.
§ 188. As a part of speech the verb is characterized by the following properties:
1) Its lexico-grammatical meaning of 'action, process'.
2) Certain typical stem-building elements, such as the suffixes -ize, -en, -ify, the prefixes re-, under-, over-, out-, super-, sub-, mis-, un-, the lexico-gramjnatical word-morphemes 4 up, in, off, down, out, etc.
3) Its grammatical categories; out of the eight categories of the verb system three are found not only in the finites, but in the verbids as well. Two of them — voice (asks — is asked, to ask — to be asked, asking — being asked) and order (asks — has asked, to ask — to have asked, asking — havihg asked) — are found in all the verbids, and the third — aspect (asks — is asking, to ask — to be asking) — in the infinitive.
4) Its characteristic combinability; a verb can be associated with nouns (noun-equivalents) denoting the doer (agent) and the recipient of the action expressed by the verb; it is regularly modified by adverbs.
E. g. They continued their own occupations: a woman ironing, a girl sewing, the old lady looking at her feet, and the dog watching the cat closely. (Green).
Some peculiarities of the combinability of various classes of verbs will be discussed later on.
5) Its syntactical function of the predicate (incident to the finites only). The verbids have other functions (see §§ 303, 309), but they are secondary predicates in secondary predications (see § 310).
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4 See § 14.
§ 189. As we know (§ 19), it is the stem that unites words into lexemes. Therefore, though stem-structure is not a reliable criterion for distinguishing parts of speech, it can show whether certain words belong to the same lexeme or not. Now finites and the corresponding verbids have identical stem-structure, which characterizes them as words of the same lexemes, in spite of certain differences in combinability, function, etc. Cf. gives — giving, gives up — giving up, nationalizes — nationalizing, whitewashes — whitewashing, etc.
In accordance with their stem-structure verbs, like other parts of speech, fall under the following groups.
a) Simple verbs (write, know, love).
b) Derived verbs (organize, rewrite, purify, underestimate).
Note. Among the stem-building affixes of the verbs prefixes are of greater importance than suffixes. There is but one productive stem-building verbal suffix (-ize), while productive prefixes are more numerous (re-, un-, over-, under-, mis-, de-, etc.).
Sound-interchange is unproductive (food — feed, blood — bleed), so is the change of stress, as in export — (to) export, transport — (to) transport.
The most productive way of forming verb lexemes is conversion: (a) book — (to) book, (a) man — (to) man, better — (to) better.
c) Compound verbs consisting of two stems, as in (to) broadcast, (to) whitewash, (to) blindfold.
N о t e. Composition is of low productivity in the class of verbs.
d) Composite verbs — made up of a verb with a lexico-grammatical word-morpheme attached to it, as in give up, give in, take off, put on. This way of forming verbs is productive.
§ 190. The lexico-grammatical meaning of the verb is, as usual, an abstraction from the individual lexical meanings of verbs and even from the more general lexical meanings of whole groups of verbs. Thus, the verbs to stand, to sleep, to suffer, etc. denote states rather than actions, but these states are presented as processes developing in time, and come therefore within the range of the lexico-grammatical meaning of the verb.
§ 191. The combinability of the verb is closely linked with its lexico-grammatical meaning. Denoting an action, the verb is naturally associated with nouns and noun-equivalents indicating the doer or the subject of the action.
E. g. Birds fly. He was asked by the teacher. I heard of Т о т 's coming tonight.
The examples above are intended to show the difference between the subject of an action and the subject as a part of the sentence. Only in the first sentence is the subject (doer) of the action of flying denoted by a noun used as the subject of the sentence. In the second sentence the subject of the action of asking is denoted by the noun teacher which is a part of the prepositional object. In the third sentence the subject of the action of coming is denoted by a noun (Tom's) used as an attribute.
Many verbs can also be associated with a noun (or a noun-equivalent) denoting the object of the action.
E. g. He threw a s t о п e. The letter sent two days ago has reached him only today.
Here again the object of the action is something different from the object as a part of the sentence. In the first sentence the object of the action of throwing is denoted by the noun stone functioning as a direct object. In the second sentence the noun letter denotes the object of the action of sending and the subject of the action of reaching.
§ 192. Before discussing the grammatical categories we shall consider some general classifications of verbs based on their formal, semantical and functional properties, viz. the division of verbs into standard and non-standard, notional and semi-notional, subjective and objective, terminative and non-terminative.
Though not based on grammatical meanings and categories, these classifications and the terms they involve will come in useful when we discuss the categories themselves and the functioning of verb grammemes in speech.
§ 193. Write, writes, wrote, writing, written are all the synthetic forms the lexeme contains (see § 19). For short, we shall call them the forms of the 'infinitive', 'present', 'past', 'participle I' and 'participle II' respectively. The form of the stem coincides with the form of the 'infinitive' /rait-/. The form of the 'past' is related with that of the stem by vowel change /ai > ou/. The form of 'participle II' is related with the form of the stem by vowel change /ai > i/ and affixation /-n/.
The lexeme ask, asks, asked, asking, etc. contains only four synthetic forms. The forms of the 'past' and 'participle II' coincide (asked) and are correlated with the form of the stem by affixation alone, the suffix being /-t/.
The overwhelming majority of English verbs resemble the verb ask and are therefore called standard or regular. The form of the suffix may be /-t/, /-d/ or /-id/ depending on the final sound of the stem.
Some two hundred verbs deviate from the standard verbs and are called non-standard or irregular. They do not pres-' ent a uniform group. Some of them resemble the verb write (speak, drive, eat, etc.). Others form the 'past' and 'participle II' without affixation (cut, put, shed, etc.). Still others use both vowel and consonant change and affixation to form the 'past' (teach, buy). Some make use of suppletivity (go, be).
As we see, the difference between the standard and the non-standard verbs is purely formal. We should therefore call this classification formal rather than morphological as the tradition goes.