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Topic 1

Theoretical Grammar as part of Linguistics.

1 .Introduction.

In the course of the Foundations of Theoretical Grammar our task will be to give an analysis of English grammatical structure in the light of general principles of Linguistics. We'll consider the main arguments put forward to sustain the various views, to weigh each of them, and to find out the most convincing way of solving the particular problem involved. As a result of your studies you are to acquire an insight into the structure of the language and an ability to form your own ideas on this or that question. This would appear to be a necessary accomplishmentfor a teacher of English, who is apt to find differing, and occasionally contradictory, treatment of the grammatical phenomena he has to mention in his teaching.

Such are, for example,the system of parts of speech, the continuous forms of the verb, the asyndetic composite sentences, etc.

In the course of the history of Linguistics many different views of language and languages have been put forward. Beginning from the 17th century grammarians stated that a language at a given period was a system and could be treated as such. Suffice it to mention here the name of suchSwiss scholar as Ferdinand de Saussure, who laid the foundations of a new linguistic theory acknowledging the study of a system of a given language as such. De Saussure's views were then developed and modified by various schools of modern linguistic thinking. It is on the basis of this view that a theoretical investigation of the grammatical system of a language at a definite point of its history, becomes possible and fruitful. A peculiarity of the modern trend of Linguistics is the desire to arrive at results independent of the view of a particular scholar. There can hardly be any doubt that the ability to arrive at such results would mark a significant advance in Linguistics, which has far too long been suffering from conflicts btw. contradictory views put forward by various authors and disputed by others.

It needs hardly be emphasized thata language is a whole, consisting of parts, closely united.

The linguist's task is, accordingly, to point out the demarcation line separating those aspects or levels from one another, on the one hand, and the connections btw. them, on the other. This is by no means an easy task, as well more than once have occasion to observe.

Our subject is the grammatical structure of English, and we shall have to delineate the boundaries and connections btw. grammatical structure, on the one hand, and phonology and the vocabulary, on the other.

2. Language and Speech.

The distinction btw. Language and Speech, which was first introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure, has since become one of the cornerstones of modern Linguistics.

Language is the system, phonological, lexical and grammatical which lies at the base of all speaking.

It is the source, which every speaker and writer has to draw upon if he is to be understood by other speakers of the language.

Speech,on the other hand, is the manifestation of language, or its use by various speakers and writers of the given language.

Thus, what we have before us in oral or in written form, as material for analysis, is always a product of speech, namely something either pronounced or written by some individual speaker or writer or occasionally a group of speakers or writers. There's no other way for a scholar to get at language than through its manifestations in speech. Thus, in stating that English nouns have a distinction of two numbers, singular and plural, and that there are several ways of expressing the category of plural number in nouns, we are stating facts of language, that is, elements of that system on which a speaker or writer of English has to draw.

Similarly, the statement that in English there are phrases of the pattern "adverb+adjective+noun" is certainly a statement about the syntactical system of English,on the phrase level.

For instance, the concrete phrasestrikingly inadequate reply - is a fact of speech, created by the individual speaker for his own purposes, and founded on the knowledge, a) of the syntactical pattern in question, and b) of the words which he arranges according to the pattern.

So it appears that the material which a scholar takes up for investigation is always a fact of speech. It is the scholar's task, then, to analyze the speech facts which are at his disposal in such a manner as to get through them to the understanding language system, without which they could not have been produced.

3. Some chief features characterizing English as an analytical language.

1. Comparatively few grammatical inflections (case inflections in nouns, adjectives and pronouns and personal inflections in verbs).
2. A sparing use of sound alternations to denote grammatical forms.
3. A wide use of prepositions to denote relations btw. objects and to connect words in the sentence.
4. Prominent use of word order to denote grammatical relations: a more or less fixed word order.

QUESTIONS.

1. What is Theoretical Grammar aimed at as a branch of Linguistics?
2. Why is it necessary for a teacher of English to know the Foundations of the Theoretical Grammar of English?
3. Where does the boundary btw. language and speech lie?

Topic 2

Grammatical classes of words. Parts of speech.

The words of language depending on various formal and semantic features are divided into grammatically relevant sets or classes. The traditional grammatical classes of words are called"parts of speech ".

The problem of parts of speech is one that causes great controversies both in general linguistic theory and in the analysis of separate languages.

The term"parts of speech"though firmly established is not a very happy one. What is meant by a"part of speech "is a type of word differing from other types in some grammatical point or points.

The principleson which the classification is based are three in number:

1. meaning

1. form
2. function.

Bymeaning we do not mean the individual meaning of each separate word (its lexical meaning) but the meaning common to all the words of the given class and constituting its essence. Thus,the meaning of the substantive (noun) is "thingness". This applies equally to all and every noun and constitutes the structural meaning of the noun as a type of word. Similarly,the meaning of the verb, as a type of word, is that of "process", whatever the individual meaning of a separate verb may happen to be.

Byform we mean the morphological characteristics of a type of word. Thus, the noun is characterized by the category of number (singular & plural), the verb by tense & mood.

Byfunction we mean the syntactical properties of a type of word. These are subdivided into two:

1. its method of combining with other words;
2. its function in the sentence.

"a" has to deal with phrases; "b" - with sentence structures. For example, as to the verb, we can state that a verb combines with a following noun("write letters ") and also with a following adverb ("write quickly "); as to the syntactical function of a verb in a sentence, it is that ofa predicate.

The system of parts of speech.

❖ Proceeding in the usual order, we start with the noun, or substantive. Its characteristic features are the following:

1. Meaning -" thingness".Thus, nouns include not only"chair" and"iron ", but also"beauty, peace, necessity, journey" and everything else presented as a thing or object.
2. Form.Nouns have the category of number (sg. & pl.), though some individual nouns may lack either a singular or a plural form. They also, in the accepted view, have the category of case.

3. Function.a) combining with words to form phrases. A noun combines with a preceding adjective("large room ")or occasionally with a following adjective ("times

immemorial");,with a preceding noun in either the common case("iron bar") or the genitive case (possessive case)("father's room")-, with a verb following it("children play ")or preceding it("play games ").

It is typical of a noun to be preceded by the definite or indefinite article("a room ", " the room ").

b)function in the sentence. A noun may be the subject or the predicative of a sentence, or an object, an attribute, and adverbial modifier. It can also make part of each when preceded by a preposition.

Adjective

 

1. Meaning. The adjective expresses property.
2. Form.Adjectives in Modern English are invariable. Some adjectives form degrees of comparison("long, longer, the longest").
3. Function,a) Adjectives combine with nouns, both preceding and (occasionally) following them,("large room"). They also combine with a preceding adverb("very large").Adjectives can be followed by the phrase "preposition + noun " ("freefrom danger").

b) In the sentence an adjective can be either an attribute("large room ")or a predicative("is large"). It can also be an"objectivepredicative" ("painted the door green ").

The Pronoun

1. Meaning.The meaning of thepronoun as a separate part of speech is somewhat difficult to define. In fact, some pronouns share essentials of nouns("he"),while others have much in common withadjectives (e.g."which ").

This made some scholars think thatpronouns were not a separate part of speech at all and should be distributed btw.nouns andadjectives. But practice proved necessary to find a definition of the specific meaning ofpronouns, distinguishing them from bothnouns andadjectives. From this angle the meaning of pronouns as part of speech can be stated as follows:pronouns point to the things and properties without naming them. Thus, for example, the pronoun"it" points to a thing without being the name of any particular class of things. The pronoun"its "points to the property of a thing by referring it to another thing. The pronoun"what" can point both to a thing and a property.

2. Form. As far as form goes, pronouns fall into different types. Some of them have the category of number (sg. or pl.) (e.g."this-these"), while others have no such category(e.g. "somebody"). Again, some pronouns have the category of case("he - him "), ("somebody - somebody's ")while others have none ("something ").

3. Function.

a) Some pronouns combine with verbs("he speaks ", "find him ") while others can also combine with a following noun("this room ");

b) In the sentence some pronouns may bethe subject ("he, what")orthe object, while others arethe attribute("my ").Pronouns can bepredicatives.

 

Numerals

The treatment of numerals presents some difficulties, too. The so-called cardinal numerals("one, two) are somewhat different from the so-called ordinal numerals

("first, second").

1. Meaning. Numerals denote either number or place in a series.
2. Form.Numerals are invariable.
3. Function.

a) As far as phrases go, both cardinal and ordinal numerals combine with a following noun("three rooms ", "third room "); occasionally, a numeral follows a noun ("soldier three ", "George the third" ).

b) In a sentence a numeral most usually isan attribute("three rooms, the third room "), but it can also besubject, predicative and object.

E.g." Three of them came in time.

"We are Seven" (the title of a poem by H. Wordsworth).

"I found only four".

The Stative

Such words as"asleep, ablaze, afraid, etc." have been often named adjectives, though they cannot be attributes in a sentence, and though their meaning does not seem to be that of property. Some linguists (Ilyish, Webster's New International Dictionary) consider that words of the"asleep " typeconstitute a separate part of speech, and stick to the term"stative".

1. Meaning.The meaning of the words of this typeis that of a passing state a person or a thing happens to be in.
2. Form.Statives are invariable.
3. Function.

a) Statives most usually follow a link verb("was asleep, feel asleep"); occasionally they can follow a noun{"man alive"). They can also sometimes be preceded by an adverb("fast asleep ");

b) in the sentence a stative is most usuallya predicative("he fell asleep ").They can also beobjective predicatives ("Ifound him asleep"),andattributes almost always following the noun they modify("a man asleep in his chair ").

 

 

The Verb

1.Meaning. The verb as apart of speech expresses a process.

2. Form.It is characterized by an elaborate system of morphological categories, some of which are, however, controversial. These are: tense, aspect, mood, voice, person & number.

3. Function.

a) Verbs are connected with a preceding noun ("childrenplay")and with a following noun("play games "). They are also connected with adverbs ("write quickly"). Occasionally a verb may combine with an adjective ("married young ").

b) In a sentence a verb (in its finite form) is always thepredicate orpart of it (link verb). The functions of theverbals (infinitive, participle & gerund) must be dealt with separately.
The Adverb

1.Meaning.The meaning of the adverb as a part of speech is hard to define. Indeed, some adverbs indicate time or place of an action ("yesterday, here"), others indicate its property("quickly") and others again the degree of a property ("very"). And it seems best to formulatethe meaning of the adverb as "property of an action or of a property

2.Form.  Adverbs are invariable. Some of them, however, have degrees of comparison ("fast - faster - fastest").

3.Function.

a) An adverb combines with a verb("run quickly"), with an adjective ("very long"), occasionally with a noun("the then president"), and with a phrase ("so out of things"); an adverb can sometimes follow a preposition("from there ");

b) In a sentence an adverb is almost alwaysan adverbial modifier, or part of it, but it may occasionally bean attribute.

 

 

Modal Words

Modal words have only recently been separated from adverbs, with which they were traditionally taken together. By modal words we mean such words as "perhaps, possibly, certainly ".

1. Meaning. Modal words express the speaker's evaluation of the relation btw. an action & reality.
2. Form.Modal words are invariable.
3. Function,a) Modal words usually do not enter any phrases but stand outside them, b) The function of modal words in a sentence is a matter of controversy. Some assume, that modal words perform the function of a parenthesis. They may also be a sentence in themselves.

Prepositions.

1. Meaning.The meaning of prepositions is obviously that of relations btw. things and phenomena.
2. Form.Prepositions are invariable.
3. Function.

a) Prepositions enter into phrases in which they are preceded by a noun, adjective, numeral, stative, verb or adverb, and followed by a noun, adjective, numeral or pronoun.

b) In a sentence a preposition never is a separate part of it.It goes together with the following word to form an object, adverbial modifier, predicative or attribute, and in extremely rare cases a subject.

("There were about a hundred people in the hall").

 

Conjunctions

1. Meaning.Conjunctionsexpress connections btw. things and phenomena.
2. Form.Conjunctions are invariable.
3. Function.

a) They connect any two words, phrases or clauses.

b) In a sentence conjunctions are never a special part of it. They either connect homogeneous parts of a sentence or homogeneous clauses or they join a subordinate clause to its head clause.

Particles
Byparticles we mean such words as"only, solely, even, exclusively, just, etc. " These were traditionally classed with adverbs, from which they, however, differ in more than one respect.

1. Meaning.The meaning of particles is very hard to define. Approximately, theydenote subjective shades of meaning introduced by the speaker or writer and serving to emphasize or limit some point in what he says.
2. Form.Particles are invariable.
3. Function,a) Particles may combine with practically every part of speech, more usually preceding it("only three"), but occasionally following it("for advanced students only"); b) Particles are never a separate part of a sentence.

 

Interjections

1. Meaning. Interjections express feelings("ah, alas").They are not names of feelings but the immediate expression of them. Some interjections represent noises, etc. with a strong emotional colouring("bang!")
2. Form.Interjections are invariable.
3. Function.

a) Interjections usually do not enter into phrases. Only in a few cases do they combine with a preposition and noun and pronoun. E.g."alas for him ".

b) In a sentence an interjection forms a kind of parenthesis. An interjection

may also be a sentence in itself. E.g."Alas!" as an answer to a question.

The problem of notional and formal words.

In giving a list of parts of speech we have not mentioned the terms"notional" and "formal". Words should be divided into two categories on the following principle:

• Some words denote things, actions and other extralinguistic phenomena

(these then should be"notional words ").

• Whereas other words denote relations and connections btw. the notional words and thus have no direct bearing or anything extralinguistic

(these then would be"the formal words " or "form words "). However, this view appears to be very shaky.

QUESTIONS

1. What principles is the classification of parts of speech based on?
2. How many parts of speech does this classification comprise?
3. Speak on controversial parts of speech.

 

 

Topic 3.

The Noun. Categories of Number, Gender and Case.

The Noun in Modern English has only two grammatical categories, Number and Case.

The Modern English Noun certainly has not got the category of grammatical Gender, which is to be found, for example, in Russian, French, German & Latin. Number. Modern English, as most other languages distinguishes btw. two numbers:singular & plural.

The singular numbershows that one object is meantand the pluralshows that more than one object is meant.

table – tables

pupil - pupils, etc.

However, language facts are not always so simple as that. The category of Number in English nouns gives rise to several problems which claim special attention. First of all, it is to be noted that there is some difference btw. say,"three houses " and "three hours",whereas"three houses" are three separate objects existing side by side, "three hours "is a continuous period of time measured by a certain agreed unit of duration.

If we turn to such plurals as"waters " (of the Atlantic)or"snows " we shall see that we are drifting further away from the original meaning of the plural number. Firstly, Ao numeral can be used with nouns of this kind. We could not possibly say "three waters or three snows ". We cannot say how manywaters we mean, when we use this noun in the plural number.

It is fairly obvious that the plural form in every case serves to denote a vast stretch of"water" (e.g. an ocean) or of"snow", or ratherof ground covered by snow. So we see that betweenthe singular & thepluralan additional difference of meaning has developed.

Now, the difference btw. the two numbers may increase to such a degree that the plural form develops a completely new meaning which the singular has not got at all. Thus, for example, the plural form"colours" has the meaning of "banner" which is restricted to the plural(e.g. to serve under the colours of liberty"). Since, in this case, a difference in lexical meaning develops btw. the plural and the singular, it is natural to say that the plural form has beenlexicalized. What is essential from the grammatical point of view is the very fact that a difference in meaning, which is purely grammatical in its origin, is apt, under certain conditions, to be overshadowed by a lexical difference.

Pluralia Tantum and Singularia Tantum.

We must also consider here two types of nouns differing from all others in the way of number: they have not got the usual two number forms, but only one form. The nouns which have only a plural and no singular are usually termed "pluralia tantum"(which is the Latin for"plural only"), and those which have only a singular and no plural are termed"singularia tantum"("from Latin"singularia only").

Amongthe pluralia tantum are the nouns"trousers, scissors, tongs, pincers, breeches, outskirts ".As it is obvious from these examples, they include nouns of two types? On the one hand,

- these are the nouns which denote material objects consisting of two halves (trousers, scissors),on the other hand,

- there are those which denote a more or less indefinite plurality(environs - "areas surrounding some place on all sides " — окрестности; dregs - "various small things remaining at the bottom of a vessel after the liquid has been poured out of it", etc.)

If we compare the Englishpluralia tantum with the Russian, we shall find that in some cases they correspond to each other (e.g. trousers - брюки, scissors - ножницы), while in others they do not (e.g. деньги- money). This seems to depend on a different view of the objects in question reflected by the English and the Russian language respectively. The reason why a given object is denoted by a pluralia tantum noun in this or that language is not always quite clear. Close to this group pf pluralia tantum nouns are also some names of sciences, e.g. "mathematics, physics, phonetics, alsopolitics "and some names of diseases, e.g. "measles, mumps ".The reason for this seems to be that, for. ex.,"mathematics " embraces a whole of various scientific disciplines.

Amongthe singularia tantum nouns we must first note some nouns denoting material substance, such as"milk, butter", names of abstract notions, such as "peace, usefulness, incongruity,etc. Nouns of this kind express notions which are, strictly speaking, outside the sphere of number (e.g."milk, fluency"). But in the morphological and syntactical system of the English language a noun cannot stand outside the category of number. If the noun is the subject of a sentence, the predicate verb (if it is the present tense) will have to be eithersg. or pl With the nouns just mentioned the predicate verb is alwayssingular.

Collective Nouns and Nouns of Multitude.

Certain Nouns denoting groups of human beings("family, government, party, etc. ")and also animals("cattle, poultry, etc. ")can be used in two different ways: either they are taken to denote the group as a whole, and in that case they are treated as singulars and usually termed"collective nouns"or else they are taken to denote the group as consisting of a certain numberof individual human beings or animals, and in that case they are usually termed"nouns of multitude".

E.g.My family is small.

My family are good speakers, "small"applies to the family as a whole,₍ while in the other sentence the characteristic"good speakers " applies to every single member of the family. Recently a peculiar view of the category of number was put forward by A. Isachenko (A.B. Исаченко, «О грамматическом значении». Вопросы языкознания №1,1961.) According to this view, the essential meaning of the category (in nouns) is not that of quantity, but of discreteness (расчлененность).

The plural in this view, expresses fundamentally, the notion of something consisting of distinguishable parts, and the meaning of quantity in the usual sense

would then appear to be a result of combining the fundamental meaning of the category as such with its lexical meaning of the noun used in the plural. Thus, in"scissors" the category of plural number, which in Isachenko's view, expresses discreteness, combines with the lexical meaning of the consisting of two halves, whereas in"houses" the same meaning of the grammatical category combines with the lexical meaning of the noun, which denotes separate objects not coalescing together, as in the case of"scissors ".

Accordingly, the resulting meaning is that of a number of separate objects, i.e. the plural number in the usual sense of the term. This view throws a new light on the problem of number of nouns and certainly deserves close attention.

Case.The problem of Case in Modern English nouns is one of the most vexed problems in English Grammar.

The most usual view is that English nouns have two cases:

A common case(e.g. "father")and a genitive caseor possessive case

(e.g. "father's").

Side by side with this view there are other views, which can be roughly classified into 2 main groups:

1. the number of cases in English is more than two;
2. there are no cases in English nouns at all.

Case is the category of a noun expressing relations btw. the thing denoted by the noun and other things, or properties, or actions, and manifested by some formal sign in the noun itself.

This sign is almost always an inflection, and it may also be a "zero" sign, i.e. absence of any sign may be significant. It is obvious that the minimum number of cases in a given language system is two, since the existence of two correlated elements at least is needed to establish a category. Thus,case is part of the morphological system of a language. Approaching the problem of case in English nouns from this angle, we won't recognize any cases expressed by non-morphological means. It will be therefore impossible to accept the theories of those who hold that case may also be expressed by prepositions (i.e. by the phrase"preposition+noun ")or by word order. It should be recognized that once we admit prepositions, or word order, or indeed any non-morphological means of expressing case, the number of cases is bound to grow indefinitely. Thus, if we admit that"of the pen "is a genitive case, and"to the pen "- a dative, there would seem no reason to deny that"with the pen "is an instrumental case,"in the pen " -locative case, etc. Thus, the number of cases in Modern English nouns would become indefinitely large.So it seems obvious that the number of cases in Modern English nouns cannot be more than two ("father, father's").

Of course it must be born in mind, that the possibility of formingthe genitive (possessive) is mainly limited to a certain class of English nouns: those which denote living beings(my father's room, George's sister, the dog's head) and a few others, notably those denoting units of time (a week's absence, this year's elections)and also some substantivized adverbs (today's newspapers, yesterday's news.It should be noted, that this limitation does not appear to be too strict and there even seems to be some tendency at work to use the -'s-forms more extensively. Thus, we can come across such phrases as"a work's popularity", the engineer's overhaul life",which certainly are not stock phrases, like"at his fingers' ends "or"at the water's edge ",but freely formed phrases, and they would seem to prove that it is not absolutely necessary for a noun to denote a living being in order to be capable of having an -'s - form.

Different views have also been expressed concerning the scope of meaning of the -'s. Besides phrases implying possession in the strict sense of the term(my father's boots, etc.), the -'s- is also found in other contexts, such as"my father's friends, my father's arrival, etc. The question now arises how wide this scope may be. From this point of view it has been customary to point out that the relation expressed by the collocation"noun+-'s + noun"is often a subjective relation, as in"my father's arrival":my father's expresses the subject of the action,cf my father arrives ".This would then correspond to the so-called subjective genitive of inflected languages, such as Russian or Latin. It would, however, not do to say that the noun having -'s- could never indicate the object of the action: cf. "Doughty's famous trial & execution ",where the implied meaning of course is"Doughty was tried & executed".This would correspond to the so-called objective genitive of inflected languages, though this particular use would seem to be far less frequent than the subjective.

The -'s - form can also sometimes be used in a sense which may be termed "qualitative", (i.e.an officer's cap ). Only the context will show which is meant here(" a cap belonging to an officer, a cap of the type worn by officers "). A special use of the -'s-forms has also to be mentioned, which may be illustrated by such examples as"I went to the baker's; We spent a week at my uncle's ".Here we see - 's- form as an attribute to some noun supposed to be "understood".

QUESTIONS

1. Give the definition of the Noun. Speak on the category of case.
2. Explain such phenomena as Pluralia Tantum & Singularia Tantum.
3. What is understood by Collective Nouns and Nouns of Multitude?
4. Speak on the category of Case & Gender.