III. Theory of grammar

3.1. General peculiarities of modern english structure

The Outline of the problem discussed

1. The analytical nature of the English language.

2. Inflexion, its ways.

3. Word arrangement on sentence and phrase levels.

4. Structural substitutes (prop-words).

5. Function words.

6. Secondary predication as one of the main peculiarities of Modern English.

Every human language develops in accordance with inner laws of its structure,

and the grammatical system of English, like that of any other language, possesses its

own peculiar features.

It is a common statement that Modern English is an analytical language as

distinct from Russian and Ukrainian which are synthetical. This statement should be

slightly modified, as the notions of analytical and synthetical languages are rather

quantitative than qualitative. Therefore, the English language is said to be more

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analytical than synthetical or “mainly” analytical. This modification is due to the fact

that we never find pure synthesis or analysis in any language. Thus, in Modern

English analytical means of expressing syntactical relations (word-order, function

words, prop-words, analytical formations) prevail, whereas in Russian or Ukrainian

they are not predominant and they are not of the same value as in English. The choice

of word order is seldom relevant grammatically in Russian, it is only relevant

stylistically.

Cf. The hunter killed a bear.

Охотник убил медведя.

Медведя убил охотник.

Analytical forms are also found in Russian (буду делать, сделал бы), but their

weight within the structure of the language is not so great as in English. Hence, we

can roughly say that what is an exception in Russian is a regular case in English.

Thus, for instance, homonymy caused by scarcity of inflexions which has become

one of the most characteristic features of the English language structure is but

occasional in Russian.

What are the main peculiar features which make Modern English an analytical

language?

Present-day English has comparatively few grammatical inflexions, it is

characterized by a certain “scarcity” or “poverty” of inflexions and in a great number

of cases – by the absence of synthetic forms of wordchanging. Thus, for instance,

there are only 2 cases in the English noun (the Common Case and the Genitive Case),

and even not all the nouns have the Plural and the Genitive Case endings; only some

adjectives and adverbs have the comparative degree endings; personal inflexions of

verbs are confined to the 3rd person Singular and the opposition of forms: was – were.

The verb in the Present Indefinite, Indicative Mood, has a special form for the 3d

person and one and the same form for the other persons, both Singular and Plural.

The second person Singular (thou speakest) has become archaic and can be found

only in poetry and in the prose of high-flown style.

What is most characteristic of English inflexions is that they are the same for

all words of the class. Thus, the plural ending –s is used with the majority of count

nouns. The few exceptions (tooth-teeth, goose-geese, ox-oxen, child-children, mousemice,

man-men, woman-women, etc.) are regarded as obsolete forms.

In the sphere of the verb, however, many complications arise, as there is no

regularity among the Past Indefinite and Past Participle forms. Some of them are built

up with the inflexion –ed, others – by means of root vowel change (bring – brought –

brought, take – took – taken, run – ran – run, stand – stood – stood, etc.).

Many words are not inflected at all: most adjectives and adverbs, modal words,

statives, non-count nouns, conjunctions, prepositions, particles and interjections.

Moreover, most words are devoid of any word-forming (derivational) morphemes

which would show that they belong to a certain class. This comparative lack of

morphological distinctions between the classes accounts for the fact that a great

number of words (both notional and functional) can easily pass from one class to

another, their status being determined mainly syntactically, by their function in the

sentence.

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It should be pointed out, that the number of productive (phonemically

conditioned) suffixes in English is rather limited, they are practically reduced to 3

sound forms, concealing different suffixes, due to homonymy on the grammatical

level:

1. / s /, /z /, / iz /

the plural form of the noun

the possessive form of the noun

the 3rd person singular of the verb

2. / t /, / d /, / id /

the Past Indefinite of the verb

the Past Participle of the verb

3. / i. /

the Participle I

the Gerund

the verbal noun

The number of unproductive (morphemically conditioned) suffixes is also very

limited:

-en ox-oxen

-ren child-children

-(e)n of the Past Participle of irregular verbs

-m of the objective case of pronouns

Since inflexion in Modern English is comparatively scarce, the word order

plays a very important role in expressing grammatical relations in an English

sentence. It is fixed to a greater degree than in inflected languages, and there are

many limitations on the combinations that may occur. The order “Subject – Predicate

- Object” is most characteristic of statements and any modification of it is always

justified by either stylistic or communicative considerations. The most mobile

element in the sentence is the adverbial modifier, that can be explained by its

versatile reference to different parts of the sentence. The two types of word order are

generally distinguished within a sentence: normal order (“subject-predicate”) and

inverted order (“predicate-subject”).

The prominent role of word order is observed not only on the sentence but also

on the phrase level. Attributes may precede of follow their headword, the first pattern

being more usual. The pre-positive use of adjectives and some other parts of speech,

which are in the attributive relations to the noun, has become so typical of Modern

English, that it has accustomed learners of English to the idea of finding an attribute

standing immediately before its headword. Practically any word or a group of words

preceding the head-word is automatically felt to be attributive, i.e. it becomes its

attribute, its premodifier:

a sports event

film festivals

funds distribution

an almost reconciliation

the then government

devil-may-care attitude

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those intended-to-be-popular novels

Of certain interest are word-combinations built up after the pattern N + N, i.e.

when nouns combine with one another by sheer contact. The lexico-grammatical

status of such combinations has presented a big problem for many scholars, who were

uncertain as to the linguistic heading under which to treat them: either as one separate

compound word or a word-combination.

From the above examples we can also see, that the development of pre-positive

attributes has exceeded the bounds of the adjective and the noun, other parts of

speech being included, and premodifiers tend to consist of two, three and even more

elements. The tendency towards heavy premodification, i.e. the use of compex

group premodifiers, is spreading in English today:

an-often-referred-to book

round-the-clock service

I-don’t-know-what-you-are-talking-about eyes

Such a trend has been noted in Modern English generally and particularly in

the language of advertising, technological communication and newspaper headlines.

The rigid word order and scarcity of inflexion result in a very peculiar English

sentence structure: it tends to be completed. Hence, the use of a special set of words

employed as structural substitutes (prop-words) for a certain part of speech.: the

noun substitutes (one, that), the verb substitutes (do, to), the adverb and adjective

substitute (so).

To avoid the repetition of the headword in a phrase, we use a substitute-word

thus preserving the usual structure, its completeness:

e.g. She is a teacher, and a good one.

Go to your dear ones.

And that is the one who gave me away.

My story is not worse than yours.

Ask about it those present.

They were going to have a rest in the country and they knew I was

also going to.

Possessing such a poorly developed system of wordchanging, Modern English

widely uses function words for connecting words and phrases and for expressing

various grammatical meanings of words and their syntactic functions in the sentence.

Function words include prepositions, conjunctions, articles. Their role in

expressing syntactical relations in Modern English can hardly be overestimated,

without function words the English language wouldn’t simply work. The status of

function words is to a certain extent contraditory: being words by the form, by their

function they belong to the grammatical structure.

Though the number of function words is very limited, they enjoy the high

frequency of occurrence, especially the article “the”, the conjunction “and” and the

preposition “of”.

Among the distinctive features characterising Modern English we should also

point out the existence of the so-called secondary or potential predication, resulting

in rapid spread and wide use of predicative complexes or constructions, which are

directly related to certain types of subordinate clauses.

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e. g. He said it loudly for the others to hear it.

He said it loudly so that the others could hear it.

The predicative complex, including a nominal and a verbal components, is not

self-dependent in a predicative sense. It normally exists only as part of a sentence,

which is built up by means of a primary predicative construction that has a finite verb

as its backbone.

Some foreign linguists, mainly those, who shared the reactionary theory of the

supremacy of one language over another tried to make people believe that such

phenomena as “heavy premodification” or “secondary predication” directly reflected

racial and political supremacy of the English nation. O. Jespersen, being a Dane

himself and a prominent anglicist, was an ardent admirer of the English language. In

his book “Growth and Structure of the English Language” he wrote: “Although such

combinations as the last mentioned are only found in more or less jocular style, they

show the possibilities of the language, and some expressions of a similar order belong

permanently to the language... Such things – and they might be easily multiplied – are

inconceivable in such a language as French, where everything is condeMnEd that

does not conform to a definite set of rules laid down by grammarians. The French

language is like the stiff French garden of Louis XIV, while the English language is

like an English park, which is laid out seemingly without any definite plan (order),

and in which you are allowed to walk everywhere according to your own fancy

without having to fear a stern keeper enforcing rigorous regulations. The English

language would not have been what it is if the English had not been for centuries

great respectors of the liberties of each individual and if everybody had not been free

to strike out new paths for himself”.

3.2. THE ENGLISH NOUN, ITS SEMANTIC AND GRAMMATICAL

PROPERTIES

The Outline of the problem discussed

1. The lexico-grammatical meaning of the noun. Semantic classification of

nouns.

2. Formal characteristics: noun-forming suffixes and grammatical categories.

3. Combinability of nouns. Premodification of nouns by nouns.

4. Syntactic functions of nouns.

The noun denotes “substance” or “thingness”. It is considered to be the main

nominative part of speech. Nouns name things, living beings, places, materials,

processes, states, abstract notions and qualities.

The noun has the power, by way of nomination, to isolate different properties

of substances and present them as corresponding self-dependent substances.

Practically any part of speech can be substantivized. This natural and almost

unlimited substantivization force establishes the noun as the central nominative

lexemic unit of language.

e.g. He’s been working like a black.

The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world.

These films are intended for eight-year-olds.

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There were so many ifs in life, never any certainty of anything.

The company has had its share of ups and downs, but it seems to be

doing well now.

We had ice-cream for afters.

Semantically nouns fall into proper and common. Common nouns are

subdivided into count and non-count. The former are inflected for number whereas

the latter are not. Further distinction is into concrete, abstract and material.

concrete

countable

abstract

common

material

non-countable

Nouns abstract

proper

Concrete nouns fall into three subclasses:

1. Nouns denoting animate beings (living beings) – persons and animals.

2. Nouns denoting inanimate objects.

3. Collective nouns denoting a group of persons. These may be further

subdivided into:

a) collective nouns proper denoting both a group consisting of separate

individuals and at the same time considered as a single body.

e.g. The family were on friendly but guarded terms.

Our family is neither large nor small.

b) nouns of multitude which are always assosiated with the idea of plurality;

they denote a group of separate individuals: police, clergy, cattle, etc.

e.g. The police here are efficient.

According to their morphological composition nouns can be divided into

simple, derived, compound.

Simple nouns consist of only one root-morpheme: dog, chair, room, roof, tree,

etc.

Derived nouns are composed of one root-morpheme and one or more

derivational morphemes (prefixes or suffixes). The main noun-forming suffixes are

those building up abstract nouns and those building up concrete, personal nouns.

Abstract nouns Concrete nouns

idealism student

democracy employee

agreement physician

betrayal actress

freedom gangster

cruelty loyalist

difficulty survivor

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Compound nouns include at least two stems:

airmail (N+N)

bluebell (Adj+N)

pickpocket (V+N)

dancing-hall (Ger+N)

father-in-law (N+prep+N)

forget-me-not, pick-me-up (lexicalized phrases)

English nouns are characterized by the grammatical categories of number

and case. Most nouns have both a singular and a plural form, expressing a contrast

between “one” and “more than one”, and these are known as variable nouns.

Instances are not few, however, when the opposition representing the category of

number comes to be neutralized, i.e. there is no number contrast. In this case we deal

with invariable nouns. The grammatical opposition becomes reduced either to its

weak member (Singularia Tantum – clergy, foliage, furniture, wildfowl, etc.) or to its

strong member (Pluralia Tantum – weeds, ashes, embers, etc.)

In some cases usage fluctuates, and the two forms are interchangeable: “brain”

or “brains”, “oat” or “oats”, “wage” or “wages”.

e.g. His wages are high.

How much wages does he get?

That is a fair wage.

Sometimes we can observe the reverse process: the neutralized opposition

becomes nullified or actualized. Material nouns can be used in the plural to denote

large amounts of substance or a high degree of something. Such plurals

(augmentative plurals) are often used for stylistic purposes in literary prose and

poetry:

e.g. the blue waters of the Mediterranean

the sands of the Sahara Desert

the snows of Kilimanjaro

Attention must also be drawn to the emotive use of plural forms of abstract

verbal nouns in a pictorial language:

e.g. a thousand pities

full of secret resentments, longings and fears

a face with no defences against life

Wilfrid has emotions, hates, pities, wants

In a number of cases the plural morpheme turns into an independent lexeme:

e.g. oil – oils (картина, написанная маслом)

arm – arms (оружие)

honour – honours (награды, почести, ордена)

bitter – bitters (стакан горького пива )

attention – attentions (ухаживание)

Grammarians have no unanimity of viewpoints as to the case-system of

English nouns. Open to thought and questioning, this problem has always been much

debated. The most common view on the subject is that nouns have two cases: a

common case and a genitive or possessive case (O. Jespersen, V. Yartseva, B.

Rohovskaya, B. Khaimovich and others). There are grammarians (G. Curme, M.

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Deutschbein), who recognize four cases making reference to nominative, genitive,

dative and accusative. The Russian linguist G.N. Vorontsova recognized no cases in

Present-Day English, she treated -’s as a “postposition” resembling a preposition,

used as a sign of syntactical dependence.

B.S. Khaimovich and B.I. Rogovskaya, the authors of “A Course of English

Grammar” think that the latter point of view is rather extreme. They provide the

following arguments in favour of the existence of a case morpheme:

a) the -’s morpheme is mostly attached to individual nouns; instances like

“The man I saw yesterday’s son” are very rare;

b) its general meaning “the relation of a noun to another word” is a typical

case meaning;

c) the -’s morpheme can’t be a “preposition-like form word” since the use of

the preposition is determined chiefly by the meaning of the preposition itself and not

by the meaning of the noun it intruduces.

At the same time it cannot be denied that the -’s morpheme is characterized by

some peculiarities, being essentially different from the case morphemes of other

languages. It is evident that the case system of Modern English is undergoing serious

changes.

It’s common knowledge that not all the Englsih nouns are capable of forming

the genitive. The following four animate noun classes normally take the -’s genitive:

personal names (George Washington’s statue),

personal nouns (the boy’s new shirt),

collective nouns (the nation’s social security),

higher animals (the horse’s tail).

The inflected genitive is also used with certain kinds of inanimate nouns:

geographical and institutional names (Europe’s future, the school’s history);

temporal nouns (a week’s holiday, today’s business);

nouns of special interest to human activity (science’s influence, the game’s

history, the report’s conclusions)

The grammatical content (meaning) of the genitive case is rather complex.

Besides implying possession in the strict sense of the term (the cat’s food), it is

widely current in other meanings:

subjective genitive – the hostage’s application (the hostage is the one who

applies);

objective genitive – the hostage’s release (the hostage is the one who is

released);

qualitative genitive – a woman’s college (a college for women);

genitive of measure – three hours’ delay (a delay for three hours);

genitive of origin – the traveller’s story (a story told by the traveller).

It should be pointed out, that there is no formal difference between subjective

and objective genitive, between genitives denoting possession and qualitative

genitives, but this kind of ambiguity is usually well clarified by linguistic or

situational context.

English makes very few gender distinctions. Where they are made, the

connection between the biological category “sex” and the grammatical category

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“gender” becomes very close, insofar as natural sex distinctions determine English

gender distinctions. It is typical of Englsih that special suffixes are not generally used

to mark gender distinctions. No gender distinctions are made in the article either.

The category of gender is expressed by the obligatory correlation of nouns with

the personal pronouns of the third person. These serve as specific gender classifiers

of nouns.

English nouns can show the sex of their referents (biological distinctions) by

means of:

1) root formations: king – queen

gentleman – lady

monk – nun

bachelor – spinster

2) suffixal derivation: actor – actress

hero – heroine

abbot – abbess

proprietor – proprietrix

3) word composition: he-bear – she-bear

tom-cat – tabby-cat

landlord – landlady

boy-friend – girl-friend

Combinability of the noun is closely connected with its lexico-grammatical

meaning. Denoting substances nouns are naturally associated with words describing

the qualities of substances (adjectives), their number and order (numerals), their

actions (verbs), relations (prepositions), etc.

The combinability of nouns is variable. They have left-hand connections with

articles, some pronouns, most adjectives, numerals. With prepositions nouns have

both left-hand and right-hand connections, but only left-hand connections are a

characteristic feature of the noun, since most parts of speech may have right-hand

connections with prepositions.

English nouns can also easily combine with one another by sheer contact. In

the contact group the noun, with stands in preposition, plays the role of a semantic

qualifier to the noun in post-position:

a garden chair

a table lamp

a traffic jam

coffee beans

The lexico-grammatical status of these combinations has presented a serious

problem for many scholars, who were uncertain as to the linguistic heading under

which to treat them: either as a compound noun or as a word-combination. Crucial

for this decision is the isolability test (separation shift of the qualifying noun):

a garden chair a chair for a garden

film festivals festivals of films

The corresponding compound nouns, as a rule, cannot undergo the isolability

test with an equal ease.

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The categorial functional properties of the noun are determined by its semantic

properties. The most characteristic substantive functions of the noun are those of the

subject and the object. Other syntactic functions – attributive, adverbial, predicative

– are not immediately characteristic of the substantive quality of the noun. It is to be

noted that, while performing these non-substantive functions, the noun essentially

differs from other parts of speech used in similar sentence positions. This may be

clearly shown by transformations shifting the noun from various non-subject

syntactic positions into subject syntactic positions of the same general semantic

value, which is impossible with other parts of speech.

e.g. Mary is a flower girl. The flower girl is Mary.

He lives in London. London is his place of residence.

This happened 2 years ago. 2 years have elapsed since it happened.