
- •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.
§ 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.
The Paradigm of the Infinitive
Order and aspect |
Voice |
|
Active |
Passive |
|
non-perfect, non-continuous |
to write |
to be written |
non-perfect, continuous |
to be writing |
to be being written1 |
perfect, non-continuous |
to have written |
to have been written |
perfect, continuous |
to have been writing |
to have been being written1 |
1 Rarely used.
The Paradigm of the Gerund
Order |
Voice |
|
Active |
Passive |
|
non-perfect |
writing |
being written |
perfect |
having written |
having been written |
The Paradigm of the Participle
Participle I |
Participle II
|
||
Order |
Voice |
||
Active |
Passive |
||
non-perfect |
writing |
being written |
written |
perfect |
having written |
having been written |
§ 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.
The gerund may be preceded by a preposition and a possessive pronoun like a noun.
E. g. One could see that without his even speaking. (Abrahams).
The participle is regularly connected with nouns, like an adjective, and with verbs, like an adverb. See the examples in § 319.
§ 309. The functions of the verbids in the sentence are different from those of the finite verb. The latter regularly functions as the predicate of the sentence. The verbids are, as a rule, not used in this function. But they are used in most other functions.
To g о to Fleur was what he would like to do. (Galsworthy). (Tо go is a subject.)
He promised not t о tell her about the offer. (Wilson). (To tell is used as an objective complement.)
In the sentence They looked up at the sky t о see if it was flying weather (Maugham) the infinitive is an adverbial complement of purpose and the gerund is an attribute. In She is a spoiled child not t о be trusted (Galsworthy) both the participle spoiled and the infinitive to be trusted are attributes.
§ 310. One of the peculiarities of the verbids is their being used as secondary predicates. In the sentence I saw them dancing two actions are named as well as the doers of those actions. But there is a great difference between I saw and them dancing. I saw is more or less independent. It makes a predication (see § 381), the backbone of a sentence, or the sentence itself. Them dancing can exist only in a sentence where there is a predication. The tense and mood relations of the finite verb are then reflected in the verbid and it becomes a secondary predicate, and combinations like them dancing become secondary predications, (see §§ 394, 395) often called complexes or nexuses (see § 324).
The Infinitive