Theoretical Grammar Revision for exams M.A. Kunilovskaya, 2012

Theoretical Grammar Revision for exams M.A. Kunilovskaya, 2012

Вопросы по ТГ на 2011-2012 The Category of Aspect in English. Aspective Subclasses of Verbs in Russian and in English. Language Means used to Express and Identify the Theme and the Rheme. Morphological Categories of Noun. Approaches to Sentence Studies. The Structural Types of Sentences. The category of case. The evolution of theoretical interpretations of the category of case in English. Word as a main unit of morphology. Lexical and grammatical aspects of the word. Types of grammatical meanings.

1. The Category of Aspect in English. Aspective Subclasses of Verbs in Russian and in English. Every action is characterised not only by the time of its occurrence but also by the manner of its performance. The grammatical category describing the manner of the action is called the aspect. The aspect shows whether the action is represented as process, result, whether it was in duration for a certain period of time (from the point of view of its progress & completion). It can be expressed by lexical means (subclasses of verbs): groups of limitive&unlimitive verbs (terminative & durative) and the perfective & the imperfective (in Russian). MIND the cross-language difference: 1) In MEANING: Limitive verbs denote an action implying a certain limit. Unlimitive don’t imply any such limit. to find – to search to look – to see Perfective verbs denote actions that that are viewed as having reached its limit (побелить). Imperfective – actions that might be limitive but still in development (белить) or unlimitive (спать). 2) In Russian the two aspects are rigidly opposed and obligatory realized. In English there are no such clear-cut distinctions.

According to aspective characteristics English verbs can be: Limitive verbs present a process as potentially limited, unlike the term terminative suggests!!! arrive, come, leave, find, start, stop, conclude Unlimitive verbs (durative) imply no limit in their semantics (move, continue, live, sleep, work, behave). Verbs of double aspective nature (understand, исследовать) - meaning depends on the context. English lexical aspect expresses a potentially limited or unlimited process, whereas the Russian aspect expresses the actual conclusion (the perfective, or terminative aspect) or non-conclusion (the imperfective, or non-terminative aspect) of the process in question Unlike their Russian absolutely rigid counterparts, are but loosely distinguished and easily reducible. instantaneous (momentary), ingressive (starting), supercompleted (developed to the extent of superfluity), undercompleted (not developed to its full extent)

Generally acpective verbal classes express the relation of the verbal semantics to the idea of a processual limit. In English unlike Russian aspect is inseparately connected with the tense form (conjugated categories). It is a morphological category, while in Russian it is a lexico-grammatic category.

Traditionally there are 4 aspects: 1) the Perfect aspect presents an action in the form of the result achieved by a certain moment in the Present, Past or Future. 2)The Continuous aspect presents an action in the process of its performance at a certain moment in the Present, Past or Future. Some verbs however are not used in this aspect—verbs of perception (to see, to hear), verbs of mental activity (to know, to believe, to recognise, to suppose), verbs denoting volition (to want, to desire, to wish), verbs denoting abstract relations (to have, to be, to belong, to depend, to consist). 3) the Perfect Continuous aspect describes the period of duration of an action which is indicated either by an adverbial modifier (for 2 hours, since) or by a temporal clause (since I came here). 4) the Indefinite or the Simple aspect. It’s very difficult to characterise the manner of the action in this case because unlike in the 3 aspects above mentioned there is no special auxiliary describing the manner of this action in this case. Some scholars say that the Indefinite aspect has the zero meaning of the aspect because it only indicates the time of an action. For this reason this aspect is called Indefinite or Simple Tenses.

In modern linguistics within oppositional theory Continuous aspect vs. the Non-Continuous aspect (common aspect  unmarked (weak) member). Бархударов: the peculiar marker - discontinuous morpheme be + -ing. the difference in meaning: Continuous aspect is defined as an action in progress, developing at a given moment; Common aspect doesn’t express duration.

2. Language Means used to Express and Identify the Theme and the Rheme. The Utterance and its Informative Structure: The utterance is a unit of speech and in every case it is adapted to the needs of peculiar speech situation. In some parts of the situation the sentence may coincide with the utterance. Every utterance is characterized not only by semantic and syntactic structures, but also by the structure of its own as a message that is it has its informative structure. Every utterance is subjected to a binary division into the Theme and the Rheme (the Given & the New, the Topic & the Comment). The Topic is the part which contains the information already known to the speakers called presupposition. It is familiar either from life experience of speakers’ or it is mentioned in the previous context. Alexander Halliday: the topic (theme) of the sentence is the peg upon which message, i.e. new information is hung. The Rheme (the comment) contains a new piece of information; the purpose of the utterance is to сonvey it. Classically in two-member s-ces the syntactic subject is its Theme or Topic and the predicate group – its Rheme. In one-member s-ces usually only the comment or the Rheme is given. But at the same time there are asymmetrical interrelations between syntactic and informative structures. In Eng. 2-member centences (with “it”) are treated as consisting of the comment only. → It’s early.

Ways of Expressing the Theme and the Rheme In Eng. there are certain definite markers of the Theme (Topic) and Rheme (Comment): Articles: the definite article is the signal of the Theme, the indefinite – of Rheme. In Russian this difference is expressed through the change of word order. – К воротам подошла машина / машина подошла к воротам. = A car pulled over to the gate / The car … The Theme can be modified by the demonstrative and possessive pronouns. It can be expressed by personal pronouns and Proper names. The initial position in a sentence is typical for the Theme. Though to the sake of emphases it can be placed after the Rheme. Ex. Very ill (comment) she was that day. The Rheme is marked by the indefinite pronouns – some, somebody; negative words; the final position in a s-ce. In a text the former comment may turn into the topic of the next s-ce. Yesterday my brother bought a car. The car turned out to be very expensive, but the prize can be paid in portions.

3. Morphological Categories of Noun Number Case (??? Declension) Gender (???) Article Determination

4. Approaches to Sentence Studies. The Structural Types of Sentences. The features which should be included into definition: the sentence is a syntactic unit; the sentence is an autonomous unit which isn’t a part of a larger syntactic structure; the sentence is a structurally complete unit which is based on a certain syntactic pattern expresses primary predication (expresses relation to reality in terms of tense and mood) names a situation, rather than an object the sentence is characterized by its own purpose of utterance. It can be a statement, a question or a command (the minimal communicative unit). the sentence as a syntactic unit is materialized in a written or oral form (has a phonetic or graphic shape). So, the sentence is an autonomous, structurally complete syntactic unit having its own purpose of utterance and phonetically and graphically shaped which names a situation and expresses predication.

Predicativity as an important sentence feature Ch. Balie: “In every sentence there are 2 obvious aspects: dictum and modus. Dictum expresses the meaning of the sentence (what is said about the subject). Modus expresses the speaker’s attitude to what is being said. Predicativity consists in ascribing an action, state or quality from the predicate to the subject. It is expressed through the interrelation between two principal parts of the sentence the subject and the predicate (formally through their agreement in person and number + tense characteristics, refers an action to a definite period of time). In imperative sentences the doer is always implied if not mentioned. One-member nominal sentences name not a peculiar thing or person but the situation as a whole. They possess the meaning of predication, an ability to describe a situation, not predicativity.

Modality as an important sentence feature Modality is a universal category of language which expresses the relation of sentence meaning to reality as it is presented by the speaker. The most important and most universal means of expressing sentence modality is the verbal category of mood. Since every predicate in a sentence stands in one of 3 moods the modality expressed in this way is called the objective modality. Objective modality is subdivided into 2 groups: modality of reality (indicative mood) and modality of unreality (the imperative, subjunctive moods). There are no indicators of the speaker’s personal attitude towards the meaning of the sentence. Forms expressing the speaker’s personal attitude constitute the subjective modality. Means of expression: Parenthesis: single words (probably, certainly, luckily); phrases (in my opinion, to my mind, to tell the truth); parenthetical clauses (I think, I hope, I doubt, I’m afraid, as john told me). Evaluating words; N-s. Adj-s, Adv-s; Syntactic means (tag-questions); Intonation Modal verbs show the relations between the action and the doer and are not included either into the objective or subjective modality. Peter must (obligatory) do it. May – probable, can – possible due to his phis. or mental ability, should – desirable, has to – is induced, is to – planned.

The Structural Types of Sentences. According to the number of predicative lines (centers): Simple Composite Semi-composite sentence is a sentence with more than one predicative lines which are expressed in fusion. Intermediary between the composite sentence and the simple sentence: Its syntagmatic structure is analogous to that of an expanded simple sentence, since it possesses only one completely expressed predicative unit. Its derivational structure, on the other hand, is analogous to that of the composite sentence, because it is derived from two or more completely expressed predicative units.

Simple: one- or two-member Depending on whether Subject and Predicate are explicitly present in the sentence structure and its type simple sentences fall into: one-member: nominal (Fire!) and verbal (Do it!) two-member: complete (When are you going?) and incomplete or elliptical (To the cinema.)

Composite: complex or compound According to the type of relation btw full predicative lines: Subordination Coordination

Semi-composite: semi-compound + semi-complex The semi-compound sentence is a semi-composite sentence built up on the principle of coordination. sentences with coordinated subjects positioned so that the first starts the utterance, while the second concludes it sentences with coordination of predicates both verbal and nominal sentences with infinitival phrases expressing a subsequent action of incidental or unexpected character: He woke in his bed to hear a strange hum in the air. sentences with participial phrases expressing a parallel event that serves as a characteristic to the event rendered by the leading clause: He sat staring down the gardens, trying to remember his childhood.

The semi-complex sentence is a semi-composite sentence built up on the principle of subordination. sentences built up by means of the two base sentences overlapping round the common subject: The man stood silent. sentences built up of two base sentences overlapping round the word performing different functions in them: We saw him approaching us. sentences with post-positional attributes expressed by Participle 1, Participle II or an adjective sentences with adverbial modifiers expressed by Participle 1, Participle II or The Absolute Participial Construction: The task, when completed, seemed very easy. sentences with the gerundial phrases or the for-to-infinitive constructions: Tom’s coming too late annoyed his mother.

5. The category of case. The evolution of theoretical interpretations of the category of case in English The categorial meaning – signaling relations between elements (words) within sentence structure. In Russian it is a fully-fledged word-changing morphological category with a well-developed paradigm (3 declensions).

Theories of Case 1) The theory of positional case It is old grammatical tradition set in contemporary text-books for school (J.C. Nesfield, M. Deutschbein, M. Bryant). IDEA: the unchangeable forms of the noun are differentiated as different cases by virtue of the functional positions occupied by the noun in the sentence. System of cases therefore includes: The inflexional genitive case The nominative case (subject to a verb): Rain falls. The vocative case (address): Are you coming, my friend? The dative case (indirect object to a verb): I gave John a penny. The accusative case (direct object, and also an object to a preposition): The man killed a rat. The earth is moistened by rain. Criticism: This theory substitutes the functional characteristics of the part of the sentence for the morphological features of the word class.

2) The Theory Of Prepositional Cases G. Curme IDEA: combinations of nouns with prepositions in certain object and attributive collocations should be understood as morphological case-forms. Inflexional prepositions are treated as grammatical elements equivalent to case-forms. System of cases: the dative case (to + NOUN, for + NOUN) the genitive case (of + NOUN) the common case ?? Criticism: all the other prepositional phrases in English must be regarded as analytical cases, the total number of the cases running into dozens upon dozens.

3) The Limited Case Theory H. Sweet, O. Jespersen, А.И. Смирницкий, Л.С. Бархударов IDEA: based on the explicit oppositional approach to the recognition of grammatical categories. System of cases: the possessive (genitive) as the strong member of the categorial opposition; the common (non-genitive) as the weak member of the opposition.

4) The Theory Of The Possessive Postposition Г.Н. Воронцова IDEA: the English noun has completely lost the category of case - the GENITIVE CASE form is a combination of a noun with a postposition with preposition-like functions. Reasoning: The postpositional element –‘s is loosely connected with the noun as it can be used not only with single nouns, but also with whole word-groups: somebody else’s daughter There is parallelism of functions between the possessive postpositional constructions and the prepositional constructions, resulting in the optional use of the former: the daughter of somebody else Criticism: the noun form in -`s is systemically contrasted against the unfeatured form of the noun – we can’t ignore the totality of opposition!

Semantic Types of the Genitive 1) "genitive of possessor“: inorganic possession, i.e. possessional relation of the genitive referent to the object denoted by the head-noun Christine's living-room > the living-room belongs to Christine 2) "genitive of integer“: organic possession, i.e. a broad possessional relation of a whole to its part Jane's busy hands > the busy hands as part of Jane's person (a subtype - "genitive of received qualification”: the computer's reliability) 3) "genitive of agent“: an activity or some broader processual relation with the referent of the genitive as its subject the great man's arrival > the great man arrives (a subtype - "genitive of author“: the committee's progress report) 4) "genitive of patient“: expresses the recipient of the action or process denoted by the head-noun the champion's sensational defeat > the champion is defeated

continued 5) "genitive of destination“: denotes the destination, or function of the referent of the head-noun women's footwear > footwear for women 6) "genitive of dispensed qualification“: some characteristic or qualification, not received, but given by the genitive noun to the referent of the head-noun a girl's voice > a voice characteristic of a girl (a subtype -"genitive of comparison“: his perky sparrow's smile > the smile making the man resemble a perky sparrow) 7) "genitive of adverbial”: denotes adverbial factors relating to the referent of the head-noun yesterday's encounter; Moscow's talks 8) "genitive of quantity“: denotes the measure or quantity relating to the referent of the head-noun three miles' distance; an hour's delay back

6. Word as a main unit of morphology. Lexical and grammatical aspects of the word. Types of grammatical meanings. Why WORD is the basic unit of language Two major types of its meaning – lexical & grammatical and their comparison Grammatical meaning – the abstract meaning of a word that depends on its role in a sentence; varies with the change of word form. Unlike individual and optional lexical meaning grammatical meaning is the meaning of the whole class or a subclass of words obligatory manifested in word forms (see types). Ex. oats and wheat, foliage and leaves: here semantcs contradicts the grammatical meanings of ‘one’ and ‘more than one’. Oats is grammatically plural and wheat is grammatically singular. Grammatical category a paradigm grammatical opposition. Ex. the category of number is expressed through an opposition of two forms which render grammatical meanings of “one” and “more than one”.

3. Types of Grammatical Meaning 1. Implicit and explicit 2. Implicit meanings: general and dependant 3. Referential and Relational back

Types of Grammatical Meaning 1 The implicit grammatical meaning is not expressed formally the word “table” does not contain any hints in its form as to it being inanimate. The explicit grammatical meaning is always marked morphologically (has its marker). back

Types of Grammatical Meaning 2 The general grammatical meaning is the meaning of the whole word-class, of a part of speech. nouns have the general grammatical meaning of thingness The dependent grammatical meaning is the meaning of a subclass within the same part of speech which influences the realization of grammatical categories restricting them to a subclass. countability/uncountability - the category of number animateness/inanimateness - the category of case, teminativeness/non-terminativeness - the category of tense, transitivity/intransitivity – the category of voice. back

Types of Grammatical Meaning 3 Referential which reflect objective properties of real phenomena (quantity, time, etc) Relational (syntactic) which serve to combine words into phrases and sentences Verbal number and person Gender and number of Russian adjectives back

Smirnitsky's Distinctive Features of a Grammatical Category 1. Any grammatical category must be represented by, at least, two grammatical forms (grammatical forms are limited in number and regular). the Category of case in English is represented by the opposition of two forms (Common - Possessive ), in Russian - 6 forms. 2. No grammatical category can be represented by all the word forms of the word. If some grammatical meaning is inherent in all the word forms of the given word, we shall deal here not with a grammatical category but with lexico-grammatical category. the Category of Gender in Russian. 3. One word form can combine different grammatical categories. the form "speaks" expresses meanings of 5 categories: tense, person, number, mood, voice. 4. No word form can combine 2 categorial meanings (grammatical meanings of the same category). 5. Every word form must represent at least one categorial form or belong to some grammatical category. There are no word forms without grammatical categories. 6. Grammar studies categories of different types, most familiar of which are morphological grammatical categories. the English verb is the most developed system of them. It has 6-8 morphological categories. back

Types of Categories According to the relation to the objective reality: referential and significational According to the sphere of realization: morphological (lexico-grammatical and word form-changing) and syntactical back

Types of Grammatical Categories 1 referential (immanent) grammatical categories which have references in the objective reality the objective category of time finds its representation in the grammatical category of tense, the objective category of quantity finds its representation in the grammatical category of nounal number. significational (reflective, relational) categories do not correspond to anything in the objective reality. Such categories correlate only with conceptual matters. the category of number in verbs; the category of gender in Russian inanimate nouns back

Types of Grammatical Categories 2 1. morphological – related to grammatical properties of words (according to the changeability of feature) of 1.1. lexico-grammatical type, which oppose groups of words according to their grammatical properties: part-of-speech categories: noun, verb, transitivity, gender in Russian 1.2. word form-changing categories number and case of nouns; degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs; tense, voice, aspect, mood of verbs; 2. syntactical – related to grammatical properties of sentences and phrases predicativity, agent, a determiner phrase, compound sentence. back