GRAMMAR IN THE SYSTEMIC CONCEPTION OF LANGUAGE

GRAMMAR IN THE SYSTEMIC CONCEPTION OF LANGUAGE

Subtopics to be discussed: • • • the definition of language; the distinction between language and speech; lingual elements (units); segmental and supra-segmental lingual units; hierarchical relations between lingual units of different levels; the three constituent parts (subsystems) of the language; morphology and syntax - the two main sections of grammar; grammar as a branch of linguistics; syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations in grammar; the plane of content and the plane of expression; diachronic and synchronic relations in grammar.

We are • Homo Sapiens • Homo Loquens • Homo Grammaticus

The definition of language • a means of forming, storing and transmitting information (viewed from its cognitive function language). • a means of communication (viewed from its social function language). • a structured system of sings (viewed from the point of its internal properties language).

NB! • Language is a semiotic system (system of signs). • A system is a structured set of elements united by a common function.

Language is a system of specific interconnected and interdependent lingual signs united by their common function of forming, storing and exchanging ideas in the process of human intercourse.

Three characteristics of language: • Complex • Productive • Arbitrary

complex • He is a bachelor and has never been married. - Он получил степень бакалавра и никогда не был женат. • С праздником! - With a holiday! (надпись на коробке конфет) • I feel bad - Я чувствую плохо. • Silver is the best conductor of electricity - Сильвер - лучший проводник электрички • Высшее Техническое - Maximum Technical (из резюме) • настоящая кожа - real skin (наклейка на перчатках) • недвижимость - unmovables (из объявления в газете) •

complex • I gotcha. . . - Я гоча, я гоча • звезды сцены и кино - platform and cinema stars • Уха - ear soup (меню в одном из центральных киевских ресторанов) • Частный предприниматель - private businessman (из резюме) • Power plant - энергия растения • Международная обстановка - international furniture • от себя - FROM ITSELF на себя - ON ITSELF

Как было Как стало Обратный перевод Институт белка Squirrel Institute Институт белки Президент РАН President of wounds Президент ранений Институт акустики машин при Самарском Acoustics institute of machines in case of Акустический институт машин в случае Государственном Аэрокосмическом Samara state aerospace university of them. ихнего Самарского государственного Университет им. С. П. Королёва S. P. queen университета. С. П. королевы. О рдена Дружбы народов Институт этнографии и антропологии им. Н. Н. Миклухо-Маклая Orders of Friendship among Nations institute Ордена Дружбы между Нациевого of ethnology and anthropology of them. N of института этнологии и антропологии этих N Miklukho-Maklaya ваших. Эн-Миклухо-Маклевского Эна.

Институт русской литературы (Пушкинский дом) Institute of Russian literature (Pushkinskii Институт русской литературы at home) (Пушкинскии на дому) Институт востоковедения РАН Institute of vostokovedeniya Институт Бред. Транслитом Полярно-альпийский ботанический сад. Polyarno-alpiiskii botanic sad-institut of институт им. Н. А. Аврорина Кольского Kolsk research centre научного центра РАН Бред. Транслитом-Бред. Транслитом ботанический печальный-институт Кольского научного центра Военно-медицинская академия Руко-медицинская академия [1] Arm-medical academy Институт языка, литературы и искусства Tongue institute, literatures and arts of им. Г. Цадасы Дагестанский научный them. G. Tsadasy of Daghestan research центр РАН centre Языкастый институт, литература и искусства ихние. Г. Цадаси Дагестанского исследовательского центра Региональный центр этнополитических Regional center of etnopoliticheskikh исследований investigations Региональный центыр Бред. Транслитом расследований.

Productive

Arbitrary

Ferdinand de Saussure (Switzerland) • the originator of the systemic approach in linguistics ; • was the first to divide the phenomenon of language in general into two sides: • an ‘executive’ side (‘parole’) • an underlying language system (‘langue’)

Language in general comprises two aspects: • the system of special lingual units - language • the use of the lingual units - speech

The main distinctions between language and speech are the following: • language is abstract and speech is concrete; • language is common, general for all the bearers while speech is individual; • language is stable, less changeable while speech tends to changes; • language is a closed system, its units are limited while speech tends to openness and endless.

Other terms for the ‘language-speech’ dichotomy • ‘language competence’ and ‘language performance’ (N. Chomsky); • ‘ linguistic schema’ – ‘linguistic usage’, ‘linguistic system’ – ‘linguistic process’ (‘text’) (L. Hjelmslev); • ‘code’ – ‘message’ (R. Jacobson).

Lingual units are specific signs – bilateral (two-sided) units that have • FORM • MEANING • Ferdinand de Saussure • Indissoluble link between a a phonetic ‘signifier’ (French: ‘signifiant’), and a ‘signified’ (‘signifie’)

A lingual sign is graphically presented in the form of a triangle

The units of language are of two types: Segmental units: Supra-segmental units: • consist of phonemes; • are the smallest material segments of the language; • form different strings of phonemes (morphemes, words, sentences, etc. ). • do not exist by themselves; • their forms are realized together with the forms of segmental units; • render meanings of various kinds: intonation contours, accents, pauses, patterns of word-order.

Segmental lingual units form a hierarchy of levels. The 1 st level is formed by phonemes; The 2 nd level is composed of morphemes; The 3 rd level consists of words, or lexemes; The 4 th level is formed by word-combinations, or phrasemes; • The 5 th level is the level of sentences, or proposemes; • The 6 th level is formed by sentences in a text or in actual speech. • •

The 1 st level Phonemes • are the smallest material lingual elements • have no meaning • differentiate the meaning

The 2 nd level Morphemes • are the smallest meaningful elements built up by phonemes. • The meaning of the morpheme is abstract and significative: it does not name the referent, but only signifies it. • e. g. step-s; -s renders the meaning of the 3 rd person singular form of the verb, or, the plural form of the noun.

The 3 rd level words, or lexemes are nominative lingual units; • realize the function of nomination; • express direct, nominative meanings; • name, or nominate various referents; • The words consist of morphemes, and the shortest word can include only one morpheme, e. g. : cat.

The 4 th level word-combinations, or phrasemes • represent complex nominations of various referents (a beautiful girl) • phrases along with separate words can be seen as the constituents of sentences, notional parts of the sentence, which make the fourth language level and can be called “denotemes”.

The 5 th level sentences, or proposemes • name certain situations, or events, and at the same time express predication, • Their departure was sudden • The sentence is often defined as a predicative lingual unit. • The sentence simultaneously fulfils two functions – nominative and predicative.

The 6 th level sentences in a text or in actual speech: • Textual units are traditionally called supra-phrasal unities • produced in speech, dictemes Dictemes are characterized by • the unity of topic • are reducibility to one unit of the lower level e. g. advertisement slogan Just do it! a paragraph in a written text can be formed by a single independent sentence, being topically significant.

Language units are opposed to speech units: • Phoneme – sound • Sentence- utterance • Text – discourse

Linguistic unit (sing) can go into three types of relations: • Referential = the relation between a unit and an object in the world around us. Semantics • Syntactic (inner relations between units). Syntactics or syntax. • Pragmatic = the relation between a unit and a person who uses it. Pragmatics.

Two fundamental types of relations between lingual units: The term “syntagmatic relations”: The term “paradigmatic relations”: • is derived from the word “syntagma”, i. e. a linear combination of units of the same level; • These relations are also defined by the Latin term “in praesentia” (“in the presence”, present in the same sequence); • are manifested in speech • denotes the relations between elements in paradigms in the system of language; • ‘associative relations’ (Ferdinand de Saussure ); • implies the way different linguistic units are arranged and associated with each other in human minds; • These relations are also described as relations “in absentia” (“in the absence”); • are associated with the sphere of ‘language’.

Syntagmatic relations (SR) • in the word-group A PINT OF MILK the word PINT contrasts SR with A, OF, MILK; within the word PINT – P, I, N and T are in syntagmatic relations.

Examples of syntagmatic relations: • He started laughing. In this sentence we can point out syntagmatic, or linear relations between the sounds [h+i: ] = [hi: ]; [s+t+a: +t+i+d] = [sta: tid]; etc. ; the morphemes are also connected syntagmatically within words: start+ed = started; laugh+ing = laughing; the combinations of words form syntagmas within phrases and sentences: He + started; started + laughing

Paradigmatic relations (PR) • For instance, in the word-group A PINT OF MILK the word PINT is in paradigmatic relations with the words bottle, cup, etc. The article A can enter into PR with the units the, this, one, same, etc.

Three types of paradigmatic relations: • Semantic PR are based on the similarity of meaning: a book to read = a book for reading. He used to practice English every day – He would practice English every day.

• Formal PR are based on the similarity of forms. Such relations exist between the members of a paradigm: man – men; play – played – will play – is playing.

• Functional PR are based on the similarity of function. They are established between the elements that can occur in the same position. For instance, noun determiners: a, the, this, Ann’s, some, each, etc.

Examples of paradigmatic relations: • the category of number or case of the noun: in Russian – стола – столу – столом – на столе; in English – toys; tooth – teeth; children – children’s. • He laughed. – Did he laugh? – Let him laugh.

As a system, language is subdivided into three basic subsystems: • The phonetical system (sounds, phonemes, different intonation models, and accent models) • The lexical system (words and stable wordcombinations) • The grammatical system includes the rules and regularities of using lingual units in the construction of utterances in the process of human communication.

Grammar as a science • is the heart of the language; • treats of the laws of language and provides the basic principles of language; • considers and examines language from its smallest parts up to its most complex organization; • classifies words into all sorts of categories and states the peculiarities of each category; • classifies the various ways in which words are used for conveyance of ideas.

The study of grammar practical grammar theoretical grammar • describes grammar as a set of rules and regulations to follow • aims at the explanation of how and why the grammatical system works

Branches of grammar: Morphology • The object of morphology is a morphological structure of words described in such terms as a root, a prefix, flexion and so on. The object of morphology is a paradigmatics of a word, i. e. the laws of the form changing according to word-derivation categories (for example, the category of number in nouns table –tables, tense in verbs – walk - walked) and so on. Syntax • studies theories of word combinations and theory of a sentence, sentence patterns

Types of grammar: • Descriptive grammar. This type of grammar has indicative character, giving the description of factual condition of grammatical subdivision of this language. From the point of view of grammar of such type one can judge of the structure of this or that language, of existence in it such things as categories, parts of speech and so on. • Explanatory grammar. This type of grammar is aimed at the explanation of characteristics of the structure of language and has in general commentary character. They have mostly theoretical character and, as a rule, subordinate the description of material to the task of its scientific understanding. • Synchronic grammar. This type of grammar describes the condition of grammatical subdivision of the language on the definite stage of its development making its horizontal survey. • Diachronical (historical) grammar. This type of grammar is the description of grammatical system of language in the dynamics of its development and changing on the basis of vertical survey.

One more fundamental type of relation between language elements synchronic relations diachronic relations • between language elements coexisting at a certain period of time • synchronic relations in New English: hard – harder – hardest; • synchronic relations in Old English: heard - heardra heardost; • between lingual elements of a certain type at different time periods e. g. hard – heard; harder – heardra; hardest – heardost.

A lingual unit has been described above as a sign – a bilateral unit, which has its form and its meaning. The two language planes are: the plane of content • comprises all the meaningful, semantic elements contained in the language the plane of expression • comprises all the material, formal units of the language

Each lingual unit, including grammatical units, is a unity of meaning and form, of content and the means of its expression BUT the correspondence between the two planes is not oneto-one. In cases of polysemy and homonymy two or more units of the plane of content correspond to one unit of the plane of expression, for example, the lexical homonyms: seal, hand, etc. In cases of synonymy, just the other way round, two or more units of the plane of expression correspond to one unit of the plane of content, for example, the lexical synonyms: pretty, nice, beautiful, etc.

homonymy in grammar • the grammatical suffix -(e)s denotes the 3 rd person singular of the verb, the genitive case of the noun, or the plural of the noun, as in breaks, bird’s, birds; synonymy in grammar: future action can be expressed with the help of the future indefinite, the present indefinite, or the present continuous form of the verb, as in We’ll fly tomorrow; We are flying tomorrow.

The term ‘hierarchy’ denotes • a structure in which the units of any higher level are formed by the units of the lower level; the units of each level are characterized by their own specific functional features and cannot be seen as a mechanical composition of the lower level units.

A level can be defined as a subsystem of language which presents a totality of homogeneous units and a set of rules regulating their use and classification.

List of books to be read from cover to cover: 1. B. Ilyish. The Structure of Modern English. 2. M. Blokh. A Course in Theoretical Grammar. 3. И. П. Иванова, В. В. Бурлакова, Г. Г. Почепцов. Теоретическая грамматика современного англ. яз.