1.Main notions of grammar. Gr. Meaning, gr. Form, gr. Category. Gr. Oppositions (privative, gradual, equipollent). Weak and strong members of the opposition. Immanent and reflective categories.

Notional words first of all verbs and nouns possesses some morphemic features expressing grammatical meanings. These features determine the grammatical form of the word. Grammatical meanings are very abstract, very general. The grammatical form is not confined to an individual word, but unites a whole class of words, so that each word of the class expresses the corresponding grammatical meaning together with its individual, concrete semantics. Gr. category- a system of expressing a generalized gr. m-g by means of paradigmatic correlation of gr. forms. The set of gr. forms expressing a categorical function constitutes a paradigm. The paradigmatic correlations of gr. forms in a category are exposed by “gr. oppositions”. The gr. categories can be innate for a given class (immanent) or only be expressed on the surface of it, serving as a sign of correlation with some other class (reflective of a second, derivative, semantic value).Gr. cat-s can be constant (unchangeable, “derivational”- the cat. of gender); variable (changeable- degrees of comparison).

The opposition may be defined as a generalised correlation of lingual forms by means of which a certain function is expressed. The correlated elements of the opposition must possess two types of features: common features and differential features. Three main types of oppositions were established in phonology: privative, gradual, equipollent. By the number of members contrasted, oppositions were divided into binary (two members), ternary, quaternary, etc.

The most important type of opposition is the binary privative opposition. It is formed by a contrastive pair of members in which one member is characterised by the presence of a certain differential feature, while the other member is characterised by the absence of this feature. The member in which the feature is present is called the marked, or strong, or positive member, and is commonly designated by the symbol +. The member in which the feature is absent is called the unmarked, or weak, or negative member, and is commonly designated by the symbol -.(play(weak) - played(strong)).

The gradual opposition is formed by a contrastive group of members which are distinguished not by the presence or absence of a feature, but by the degree of it. ([i] - [i:] differentiated by the degree of their openness).

The equipollent opposition is formed by a contrastive pair or group in which the members are distinguished by different positive features. E.g., the phonemes [m] and [b], both bilabial consonants, form an equipollent opposition, [m] being sonorous nasalized, [b] being plosive.