11 The morphological characteristics (categories) of the adverb.

It is one of the parts of speech, which were established as long as an antique time. In the grammar of English and other languages adv is a verb, denoting non- substantive property, which differs adverbs from adjectives.

(Non- substantive property is understood as the property of action, other property or circumstances which accompany an action).

e.g. She sings badly. We were awfully hungry. It will happen very soon.

Adverbs can combine with verbs, adjectives, adverbs and adverbial phrases.

Structurally they may be:

1) non- derived (without affixes) why, where

2) derived (with affixes) slowly, sideways

3) compound (nowhere, anyway)

4) phrasal form (at least, up- side- down).

Generally adverbs are formed from adjectives with the suffix “-ly”.

The suffix “ly” is a typical maker of an adverb. However many adverbs, related to adjective may have the same form, as the corresponding adjective.

e.g. fast – fast

And vice versa, some adjectives look like adverbs.

e.g. Friendly, Cowardly, Ugly.

We should specially mention preposition adverbs. These are elements, which form the semantic blend with verbs.

e.g. Give up, give away, Give over

Such combinations have different names. They are generally referred as phrasal verbs, two-part verbs, composite verbs. The verbs in such combinations are mostly one- syllable words. The most common adverbs are those denoting place or direction.

Types of adverbs:

1) qualitative (express immediate quality of actions)

e.g I walked angrily out of the room.

2) quantitative (express degree, measure or gradational evaluation)

e.g. I am almost positive.

3) Circumstantial. (They denote circumstances, under which the action is fulfilled. The adverbs -of place (here, there, abroad), -of time (now), - of manner (angrily). They also include adverbs, which function as connectives and question words (how, why, where)).

The traditional classification of adverbs is according to their meaning:

Time, place, manner, degree etc.

More advanced classification:

1) Non- special adv include:

- a view point adverbs (historically, politically)

- focus adverbs (even you, I only saw Mery)

- intensifying adverb (It is simply a question of hard work)

- process adverbs (manner) (They treated him badly)

- comment adverbs (Obviously they wont come)

- adverbs of causes and consequence (We have a growing population and therefore we need more food)

2) Special adverbs:

- place adverbs (They are not here)

- time and frequency adverbs (He arrived late. He always sings in the shower.)

The category of comparison

Similar to adjectives: adverbs can be:

1) Gradable – Gradable adverbs are capable of expressing the intensity of the process.

e.g He sings loudly -> more loudly.

Even some circumstantial adverbs are subject to evolutional grading.

2) Non- gradable

The syntactic features of the adverbs:

Adverbs can function as adverbial modifiers, attributes.

Adverbs modify:

3. verbs and verbal phrases (I am certainly happy)

4. Adjectives (very good, awfully hungry)

5. Other adverbs (quite soon, extremely quickly)

6. Prepositional phrases (You are entirely in the wrong)

Adverb can also refer to the whole sentence.

adjective.

e.g. Very good, quite soon.

Adverbs can refer to prepositional question.

№ 6 Types of language units and language levels

1. segmental units – lingual units which consist of phonemes, they can be of various types: syllables- morphemes- words- phrases

2. supra- segmental units, which don’t exist by themselves but are realized together with segmental units. They express different modificational meanings which are reflected on the strings of segmental units. They are: intonation, accent, pause, patterns of word order

Language levels:

The segmental units of language form a hierarchy of levels- units of any higher level are formed of units of the immediately lower level

Lingual units may be of the following levels:

1. phonemic level. Its unit is the phoneme (the phoneme is not a sign as it has no meaning)

2 .morphemic level: its unit is the morpheme, it is the smallest meaningful part of the word

3. lexemic level: its unit is the word. The word realizes the function of nomination

4. denotemic level. Its unit is a denoteme or a phrase ( a phrase is a combination of 2 or more notional words)

5. proposemic level. Its unit is a sentence which as a sign fulfills the function of nomination and predication. A sentence names a certain situation and expresses predication which is the relation of the denoted event to reality. Predication shows whether the event is real or unreal

6. the level of topicalisation. Its element is the utterance or dicteme whose function is to build up a stretch of some text. Utterance is produced by the speaker in the process of speech.

All lingual types of units have both syntagmatic and paradigmatic characteristics

№7 Classification of words

The structure of modern English:

Modern English is an analytical language which distinct from modern Russian which is syntactical

Characteristics:

1 relatively few gram. flections

2 a wide use of word order to denote gram. relations

3 a moderate use of sound outernations (изменен.) to denote gram/forms

1. Morphology is the part of grammar which deals with the forms of words ( word form) . it also studies connections between forms found in different sentences

2. syntax is the part of grammar which deals with phrases and sentences

Morphology studies:

1 essentials of morphology – morphemes, types of word form derivation, morphemic structure of words

2 the system of parts of speech

3 study of each separate pert of speech

4 categories and syntactical functions of each particular part of speech

The morpheme is the smallest meaningful part of word

Types of morphemes:

1 word building or derivational (build new words)

2 form building or inflections (build different forms of one and same word)

The word

It is another linguistic unit which is considered to be the basic nominative unit of language

The word is minimal part of the sentence and unlike the morpheme is autonomous and it fulfills the function of nomination.

The morphemic structure of words: according to this structure words can be classified into monomorphemic words ( root words) , polymorphemic which consist of more than one( can be monoradical ( 1 root morpheme) and polyradical( more than one root- morpheme /bay-sitter))

The classification of words into parts of speech

The words of language depending on various formal and semantic features are divided into grammatical relevant sets or classes. The traditional gram/classes of word are called parts of speech however since the word is distinguished not only by gram, but also by semantico-lexemic properties, the term «lexico-gram. categories of words” is used instead of part of speech

Parts of speech differentiated on the basic of 3 criteria:

1. the semantic criterion presupposes the evaluation of the generalized meaning which is characteristic of all the subsets of words constituting a given part of speech

2. the formal criterion provides for the exposition of the specific inflextional and derivational features of all the lexemic subsets of a pert of speech

3. the functional criterion concerns the syntactic role of words in the sentence typical of a particular speech

In accord with this described criteria words are divided into notional and functional

The notional parts of speech

They are words of complete notional value. This class of words includes: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, numeral. Each notional part has its particular differential features

1. Differential features of the noun:

- substance

- specific suffixal forms of derivation(-er, -tion)

- the substantive function in the sentence(object, subject)

- the changeable forms of number and case

- prepositional connections

- modification by an adjective

2. The features of the adjective

The categorical meaning are qualitative and property

• the specific suffixes form of derivation( -able, -ous)

• the forms of degree of comparison(for qualitative only)

• adjectival functions in the sentence ( attribute to nouns)

3. The features of the numeral

• the categorical meaning of number: cardinal and ordinal

• specific suffixal forms of derivation (-th)

• the narrow set of simple numerals, specific forms of comparison for compound numerals

• the functions of numerical attribute and numerical substantive

4. The features of pronoun

- the categorical meaning is the category of indication

- the narrow sets of various status with the corresponding formal properties

- adjectival and substantival functions

5. The features of the verb

- the categorical meaning of process

- the opposition of the finite and non-finite forms

- the form of the verbal categories: person number tense aspect voice mood

- the function of the finite predicate for the finite verb other than verbal functions for non-finite verb

6. The features of the adverb

- the categorical meaning of secondary property( property of process for another property)

- the specific suffixal form of derivation( - ly)

- the forms of degrees of comparison

- the functions of various adverbial modifiers

The functional parts of speech

They are words of incomplete nominative meaning. They are non-self dependent and full field mediatory functions in the sentence

They are:

1 article- expresses the specific levitation of the substantive meaning

2 preposition - expresses the dependences and interdependences of substantive reference

3 conjunction - expresses connections of phenomenon

4 participle- emphasizes or limits the meaning of another word

5 modal word- (perhaps, obviously) occupies in the sentence the more or less detached position and expresses the attitude of the speaker to the reflected situation. They can express probability, qualitative evaluation affirmation and negation

6 intergaction also occupies detached position and is a signal of emotions

The stative

It denotes a temporary state of a person or thing. The number of statives is limited. They are all built by the prefix (-a)(asleep, awake)

The stative is not universally recognized as a separate part of speech (traditionally with adjectives) because they express some quality. However the statives do not have degrees of comparison as adj. Ilysh proves that a stative is a separate part of speech because:

1 the meaning of it is not as of a quality but that of a state of temporary duration

2 the form of statives is unchangeable

3 they only function as the predicative

The syntactical distributional classification of words

The syntactic classification of words is more important than part of speech classification because it shows the distribution of words with indifferent sets in accord with their functional specialization. This classification is based on the standard model of 4 main positions of notional words in the English sentence

Fries (Фрайз) used the following frames for substitution test:

1 the concert was good (thing or person + characteristics of the thing and person)

2 the clerk remembered the tax suddenly ( actor+ action+ thing acted upon+ characteristics of the action)

3 the team went there (actor+ action+ the direction of the action)

As a result of substitution tests on these frames the following lists of positional words are established:

1 concert, team, husband (nouns)

2 verbs: seem, became, wanted

3 adj.: good, large

4 adv.: these, here etc

The traditional part of speech division of words and syntactical distributional classification of words have much in common

1 the apposition of notional and functional words

2 the 4 absolutely cardinal classes of words

3 interpretation of functional words as syntactic mediators

№8 The morphological categories of the noun

The general characteristics

The noun is the main nominative unit of speech, its categorical meaning is that of substance. As any other part of speech the noun can be characterized by 3 criteria

1 the semantic criterion: nouns name things, living-beings, places, abstract notions

Semantically nouns fall into several classes:

• according to the type of nomination: proper and common

• according to the form of existence( animate and inanimate одуш. неодуш))

• according to their quantitative structure: countable and uncountable

• according to the type of referent nouns can be concrete and abstract

2 the morphological criterion: gender, number and case

3 the syntactic criterion (object and subject functions)

4 According to the morphemic structure: simple, derived, compound, composite

Morphological criterion

1. Gender plays a relatively minor part in the grammar of English. This category does not find regular morphological expression in modern English, there is no gender agreement between the subject and the verb. The grammatical category of gender should not be compared with the category of sex , because sex is an objective biological category. Bloch admits the existence of the category of gender. He states that the existence of this category can be provided by the obligatory correlation of nouns with personal pronouns of the 3 d person

According these 3 genders in English:

1 Neuter (non-person gender) names of inanimate objects animals and babies whose sex we do not know

2 masculine gender names of male-beings ( boy man husband)

3 feminine gender names of female-beings

4 common gender which is characteristic of nouns capable of expressing both female and masculine genders( a person, friend)

The sex distinction in nouns may ne expressed by the lexical meaning, by word-formation.

2. Number. The gram/category of number is a linguistic representation of the objective category. It is realized through the opposition of 2 form classes: plural and singular form

The singular form may denote oneness (individual separate object), generalization (meaning of the whole class of object)

It may also denote discreteness (money milk), plurality with some nouns: people, sheep, the police

The plural form may denote the existence of several objects, inner discreteness (glasses, clothes)

To sum it up all nouns may be subdivided into 3 groups:

1. nouns in which the opposition of explicit discreteness in discreteness is expressed

2. nouns in which this opposition is not expressed explicitly but revealed by syntactical and lexical correlation in the context

• singularia tantum: nouns without the gram/ending –s –es( advice, bread, metal)

• pluralia tantum : nouns with the endings –s –es ( jeans, scissors)

3. nouns with homogenous number forms for the plural and singular nouns all the nouns the number with which is not expressed formally, but is revealed only lexically and syntactically in the context

3.Case

It expresses the relation of the noun to another noun in the word group or sentence (my sister’s car)

There is no universal point of view on the case system in English: some scholars distinguish 2 cases(common and genitive) some think that there are no classes at all. The form `s is optional because the same relation can be expressed by of-phrase. Some scholars think there are 3 cases: the nominative the genitive and objective( me, him. Her)

According to the limited case theory which is adopted by modern linguistics the category of case in English is realized through the opposition – the common case-the possessive case

However in modern English the term “possessive” is replaced by “genitive” case. This case may render the following meanings:

• possessive genitive( my sister`s car)

• subjective genitive(doctor`s arrival)

• objective genitive( the man`s release)

• adverbial ( 2 hour`s work)

• equation genitive( a mile`s distance)

• genitive of destination( children`s book)

• mixed group( yesterday`s newspaper)

Charles Filmour introduced the syntactic semantic classification of cases (6 cases, which show relations between verbs and the corresponding nouns)

• agentive case( nick opened the door

• instrumental case ( the key opened the door)

• dative case( I gave gold watch to my sister)

• factitive case ( the car was damaged)(shows result)

• locative case ( Moscow is….)

• objective ( tom stole the book)

4. Category of article determination.

Article is a determine unit of a specific nature accompanying the noun. According to Bloch the semantic purpose of the article is to specify a noun, to define it in the most general way and to limit its application. That is why this category is considered to be one of the morphological categories of the noun. The system of articles in English is described as one consisting of 3 articles: the definite indefinite and zero.

The status of the article in modern English:

The article is usually a separate unit which may be separated from its noun by other words. The article occupies a peculiar place( between the word and morpheme) if we interpret the article as a morpheme the idea of a zero article would make no difficulty, if we take the article as a word- the idea of a zero word would cause some terminology differences.

The meanings of articles. The lexical meaning of the indef/article is a weak reminder of its original meaning “one”

The lexical meaning of the def/article is a reminder of its original demonstrative meaning. The def/article expresses the meaning of identification and full fills the following functions:

1. the specifying . it singles out an object of all the other objects of the same kind( those are the girls who live next door)

2. the genetic function. It refers the noun to the whole class of objects( I hate the telephone)

the indef/ articles expresses the meaning of relative generalization and fulfills the following functions:

1. classifying. It refers the object to the class of similar object (I have got an idea)

2. generic. It means that the noun is a representative of a class and its property refers to any object of the class ( A friend in need is a friend indeed)

3 numeric function. It expresses the original meaning of the numeral “one” (an apple a day keeps the doctor away)

The zero article expresses the meaning of absolute generalization. It is used when we speak about things in general (life is hard)

№ 9 The morphological categories of the verb

The verb as part of speech

Grammatically the verb is the most complex part of speech. Verbs are directly connected with the structure of the sentence and function as its predication center. That is why the verb is of primary informative significant in an utterance.

The semantic features of the verb

The verb possesses the gram/ meaning of verbiality, the activity to denote o process, developing in time. A verb is a word or a phrase which expresses an activity, a process, or a state

Classification of the verbs

1. morphological classification

• according to the steam type all verbs fall into: simple( to go, to do) , sound-replacive ( food- to feed), stress-replacive (import-import) , derived (overcome), composite ( to blackmail) , phrased( to have a smoke)

• according to the way of forming past tenses and participle II : regular and irregular

2. the lexical morphological classification. It is based on the implicit gram/ meanings of the verb

• according to the implicit gram/meaning of transitivity: transitive and intransitive

• according to the implicit gram/meaning of stativeness: stative and dynamic

• according to the implicit gram/meaning of terminativeness : terminative or perfective and non-terminative

2. the syntactic classification is based on the syntactic function of the verb

• according to the nature of predication : finite and non-finite

• according to the nature of syntagmatic properties: obligatory and optional. Verbs with obligatory valoncy need a gram/completion, optional valoncy may/may not be realized in the utterance

2. the functional classification

• notional

• semi-notional ( modal verbs, aspective verbs, link verbs)

• auxiliary verbs

The syntactic features of the verb

1 ability to perform the syntactic function of the predicative

2 the ability to be modified by adverbs

3 the ability to take objects

4 non-finite forms can be used in any function but predicate

5 any verb in the form of Inf can combine with … (пропуск)

The morphological features of the verb

The gram/characteristics of the verb: person, number, tense, voice, aspect(continuous/non-cont), order or time correlation(perfect/non-perf) , mood

Forms of the verb possessing the above gram/categories are called finite. The non-finite forms of the verb lack such gram/categories as person number tense and mood.

The gram/categories of the verb can be expressed in the following ways:

• synthetically (walk-walked-walks)

• analytically ( have worked-will be working)

The category of person

It serves to associate the action and its doer with the speaker, showing whether the action is performed by the speaker or someone addressed by the speaker or someone who is not participating in the act of communication. The peculiarity of expressing person as well as number in the English verb lies in the deficiency of the finite verb as only the 3 d person singular Pr simple form expresses person grammatically with the morpheme of the 3 d person singular. Only regular verbs have this form. The modal verbs do not show person grammatically. This category is represented in English by opposition: 3 d person singular and non- 3 d persons. The marked member of opposition is the 3 d person sing.

The category of number

It shows whether the action is performed by or associated with one doer or more than one doer . This category is a two-member opposition: singular and plural. Is restricted to the Present tense as cat. of person . The categories of person and number are directly connected and back up to the person number system of the subject. It is the subject that is generally responsible for the expression of person and number or the verb in English

The number and person of “to be”

The verb “to be” also reveals its person and number in the present tense (am, is). The same is true in the past tense(was and were)however “were” may be used in both sing and plural. Modal verbs do not distinguish person and number at all.

The category of Tense

It is a verbal category that reflects the objective category of time. The essential characteristic of it is that it relates the time of the action referred to in the sentence to the time of the utterance “being noun” or the Present Time. In traditional linguistics this category is represented as a 3 form category consisting of Past Present and Future forms. Modern grammars think there are 2 tense categories:

• category of primary time(based on the opposition of position the past and present time)

• the category of prospective time( based on the opposition after action) this category includes the future as an after-action to a present action: and future in the past as an after – action to a past action

Quiet a lot of scholars do not recognize the existence of future tenses , because what is described as the future tense in English is realized by the auxiliary verbs “will/shall” which can be found in the sentence not referred to the future

The category of Aspect

It is a linguistic representation of the objective category of manner in which the action is represented. This category is realized through the opposition continuous/non-cont. (common aspect)

The categorical meaning of the cont. form is usually defined as the meaning of duration. The non-cont. form is devoid of the meaning of duration. The realization of this category is closely connected with the lexical meaning of the verb. Stative or non-action verbs are normally not used in the progressive form. However in modern English even the stative verbs take progressive aspect under particular circumstances. The reason is that the cont/form has 2 semantic features: duration and deferetness (the action is tempered) ( for example: the children are loving having Tim staying with us)

The category of order( time correlation)

The order shows sequence of actions and is based on the opposition perfect/non-perfect. The perfect forms denote an action which is prior to a certain moment of time. The non-perf. forms express actions belonging to certain moment of time or happen regularly. The perfect continuous forms should be treated as forms having marks in both aspect and order

The category of voice

It shows the direction of the action whether the agent expressed by the subject: is the doer of the action or a recipient of the action. This category is realized through the opposition the active/passive voice. The realization of this category is restricted because of the implicit gram/meaning of transitivity – intransitivity. Transitive verbs can be used in the passive : intransitive- not. Due to the peculiarity of voice distinctions of English verbs the classification turns out to be more complex and comprises 6 groups of verbs:

1 verbs used only transitively

2 verbs with the main transitive meaning: to see make build

3 verbs of intransitive meaning which have the ability to develop a secondary transitive meaning or vise-versa

4 verbs of double-nature (transitive and intransitive both)

5 verbs that are never used I the passive voice ( I was having a bath)

6 verbs that realize their passive meaning only in special context (to live, sleep, sit, walk)( this room has not been lived in since)

Some scholars admit the existence of the following type of voice

1 middle voice – when the verbs primarily transitive may develop an intransitive middle meaning ( the book sells easily)

2 the refexive – when the subject is both the agent and the recipient of the language

3 the reciprecal voice (взаимный) is usually used with the plural subject when the idea of reciprocity is expressed ( they kissed (each other))

The category of mood

It expresses the relations between the action denoted by the verb and reality from the point of view of speaker. The speaker may treat that the action as unreal desirable or as a fact. As the subjunctive mood can express different meanings its forms are often subdivided into sub-classes which are joined under the name of the oblige moods. As soon as oblige moods denote unreal actions they cannot be modified by the category of the tense. They denote only relative time that is simultaneous prior or posterior to the verb in the Indicative Mood. Smirnickiy: Indicative, Subjunctive 1,2 and Suppositional Mood.

Kobrina: there are 3 moods. The subjunctive comprises the following forms:

-syntactic form (without modal verbs) (non-perfect and perfect)

- analytical (combinations with modal verbs and Inf. (non-perfect and perfect)

As to the Imperative Mood some grammarians refer it to the Present Subj. form as they are historically connected

The category of finitude

Verb forms make up 2 distinct classes: finite and non-finite. The verbals lack the gram/categories of person number tense and mood. The opposition between finite and non-finite forms of the verb makes a special gram/category which is called finitude.

The syntactic content of this category is the expression of verbal predication. Finite verb forms express a primary predication and non-finite – secondary. The non-finite forms of the verb combine the characteristics of the verb with those of other parts of speech. The inf. And the Gerund combine verb and noun characteristics. They express action or process and substantivity at the same time. The participle combines verb and adjective characteristics. It also expresses property.

The non-finite forms though they posses the components of substance and property are included in the system of the verb because their fundamental meaning is of the action or process. Their verbiality is revealed by their morphological categories, they can take direct objects, they are modified by adverbs. Non-finite forms can full fill any function in a sentence except of the predicate. With the help of non-finites we can expand a simple sentence and thus make a text shorter (we are sitting here in the sun/we can see hills/the hills are covered with snow – sitting in the sun we can see hills, covered with the snow)

№ 10 The morphological characteristics of adjective

It expresses the categorical meaning of property. Each adjective used in the text presuppose relation to some noun and is distinguished by the combinability with nouns directly or with the help of a link verb

Types of adjective:

1 qualitative: denote property of a substance directly. They express a quantitative estimation or measure qualifying the size, form, colour of the substance. The measure of a quality can be estimated: a short distance that is why these adj. Have degrees of comparison

2 Relative adj.- qualify objects through their relations to their objects. They express qualities which are incapetible with the idea of comparison. So they can’t compare or they are unchangeable.( a wooden table)

In order to make the classification of adj. more precise the distinction based on the evaluative function of adj.

May be introduced:

1 evaluative adj (give some qualitative evaluation to the referent. They denote judgment)

2 specificative adj.- point out the corresponding native property of the referent ( private, sexual)

One and the same adj may be used either in evaluative or specificative function

The category of comparison

It is the only morphological characteristics of adj. it is constituent by the opposition of the 3 forms, showing quantitative distinctions of quality

1 basic form (positive degree)

2 comparative degree (limits comparison to only 2 elements)

3 the superlative degree (expresses superiority) the positive degree is not marked so we may speak of zero morpheme in this form

The 2d and 3d form are built up either syntactically (by affixation and irregular comparison good-better – the best) and analytically (more , most)

Some authors treat the forms “more/most beautiful” not as analytically but as the syntactical combinations, one of the arguments is that “less/least” form combinations with adj are similar with those with “more/most”

In order to prove that “more beautiful” is an analytical form of the comparative degree we have to prove that “more” is an gram/word morpheme identical with “-er”

1 “more” and “-er” are identical in their meaning of a higher degree

2 their distribution is complementary. Together they cover all the gradable adj. the same is correct with “most”

However one should not forget that ‘more” and “most” are not only word-morphemes of comparison. They can be notional words. “More” can modify adj. In the meaning to a greater extent( It is more grey than brown)

It also can function as adj: I need more money

“most” can mean “very” ( A most interesting book)

The syntactic features of the adj

The main functions:

1 attributes (to nouns and pronouns)

2 predicative ( I am afraid)

3 part of complex object (he made me furious)

Substantivized adj. combine adjectival and noun characteristics. Like adj they:

• may be modified by adverbs

• may have degrees of comparison

like nouns they may:

• be used with indefinite article (a black)

• have the plural form ( 5 natives)

• have the genitive case ( the native’s clothes)

• function in the sentence as subjects and objects ( the unemployed are loosing hope)