Кафедра германської і фіно-угорської філології

імені професора Г.Г.Почепцова

ПИТАННЯ ДО ЕКЗАМЕНУ З ТЕОРЕТИЧНОЇ

ГРАМАТИКИАНГЛІЙСЬКОЇ МОВИ

1. The subject of theoretical grammar. Its relation to practical grammar.

Grammar may be practical and theoretical. The aim of practical grammar is the description of grammar rules
that are necessary to understand and formulate sentences. The aim of theoretical grammar is to offer
explanation for these rules. Generally speaking, theoretical grammar deals with the language as a functional
system. As for theoretical linguistic descriptions, they pursue analytical aims and therefore present the studied
parts of language in relative isolation, so as to gain insights into their inner structure and expose the intrinsic
mechanisms of their functioning. Hence, the aim of theoretical grammar of a language is to present a
theoretical description of its grammatical system, i.e. to scientifically analyse and define its grammatical
categories and study the mechanisms of grammatical formation of utterances out of words in the process of
speech making.
2. General principles of grammatical analysis: semantic, syntactic and pragmatic.

1. The relation between a unit and an object in the world around us (objective
reality). E.g. the word ‘table’ refers to a definite piece of furniture. It may be
not only an object but a process, state, quality, etc.

This type of meaning is called referential meaning of a unit. It is semantics that

studies the referential meaning of units.

2. The relation between a unit and other units (inner relations between units). No
unit can be used independently; it serves as an element in the system of other
units. This kind of meaning is called syntactic. Formal relation of units to one
another is studied by syntactics (or syntax).
3. The relation between a unit and a person who uses it. As we know too well,
when we are saying something, we usually have some purpose in mind. We
use the language as an instrument for our purpose (e.g.). One and the same
word or sentence may acquire different meanings in communication. This type
of meaning is called pragmatic. The study of the relationship between
linguistic units and the users of those units is done by pragmatics.

Thus there are three models of linguistic description: semantic, syntactic and
pragmatic. To illustrate the difference between these different ways of linguistic
analysis, let us consider the following sentence: Students are students.

3. The grammatical structure of the English language: general characteristics.

Analytic and synthetic forms of English words.

The grammatical structure of language is a system of means used to turn linguistic

units into communicative ones, in other words – the units of language into the units
of speech. Such means are inflexions, affixation, word order, function words and
phonological means.

Generally speaking, Indo-European languages are classified into two structural types
– synthetic and analytic. Synthetic languages are defined as ones of ‘internal’
grammar of the word – most of grammatical meanings and grammatical relations of
words are expressed with the help of inflexions (Ukrainian - зроблю, Russian, Latin,
etc). Analytical languages are those of ‘external’ grammar because most
grammatical meanings and grammatical forms are expressed with the help of words
(will do). However, we cannot speak of languages as purely synthetic or analytic –
the English language (Modern English) possesses analytical forms as prevailing,
while in the Ukrainian language synthetic devices are dominant. In the process of
time English has become more analytical as compared to Old English. Analytical
changes in Modern English

4. Language as a system and structure. Language levels. Linguistic units and their
peculiarities.
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.

Language is regarded as a system of elements (or: signs, units) such as sounds,

words, etc. System implies the characterization of a complex object as made up of
separate parts (e.g. the system of sounds). Language is a structural
system. Structure means hierarchical layering of parts in `constituting the whole. In
the structure of language there are four main structural levels: phonological,
morphological, syntactical and supersyntatical. The levels are represented by the
corresponding level units:

The phonological level is the lowest level. The phonological level unit is
the`phoneme. It is a distinctive unit (bag – back).

The morphological level has two level units:

the `morpheme – the lowest meaningful unit (teach – teacher);

the word - the main naming (`nominative) unit of language.

The syntactical level has two level units as well:

the word-group – the dependent syntactic unit;the sentence – the main

communicative unit.

+The supersyntactical level has the text as its level unit.

As a system, language is subdivided into three basic subsystems, each of which is a system in its own
turn. They are the phonetical (phonological), lexical and grammatical systems. The phonetical system
includes the material units of which language is made up: sounds, phonemes, different intonation models,
and accent models. The phonetical system of language is studied by a separate branch of linguistics
called phonology. The lexical system includes all the nominative (naming) means of language – words
 and stable word-combinations. The lexical system is studied by lexicology. The grammatical system
includes the rules and regularities of using lingual units in the construction of utterances in the process of
human communication. The grammatical system is described by grammar as a branch of linguistics
5. The dichotomy of language and speech. Language units and speech units.
language is a collective body ofknowledge, it is a set of basic elements, but these elements can form a
great variety of combinations. In fact the number of these combinations is endless. Speech is closely
connected with language, as it is the result of using the language, the result of a definite act of speaking.
Speech is individual, personal while language is common for all individuals.
A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts. In other words, it is a
mutually exclusive bipartition of elements. i.e. nothing can belong simultaneously to both parts, and
everything must belong to one part or the other. They are often contrasting and spoken of as "opposites."
The term comes from dichotomos (divided): dich- ([in] two) temnein (to cut). The above applies directly
when the term is used in mathematics, linguistics. For example, if there is a concept A, and it is split into
parts B and not-B, then the parts form a dichotomy: they are mutually exclusive, since no part of B is
contained in not-B and vice-versa, and they are jointly exhaustive, since they cover all of A, and together
again give A.
6. Systemic relations in language: paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations.
A linguistic unit can enter into relations oftwo different kinds. It enters into paradigmatic relations
with all the units that can also occur in the same environment. PR are relations based on the
principles of similarity, they are associative and unite similar units on one paradigmatic axis to form a
paradigm or a set in which units relate to each other by association with some distinctive feature, or
category, or a kind of relationship common to all members of such a paradigmatic set. They exist
between
A linguistic unit enters into syntagmatic relations with other units of the same level it occurs with. SR
exist at every language level.
edited
Syntagmatic relations can be of three different types: coordinate, subordinate and predicative. a)
Coordinate syntagmatic relations exist between the homogeneous linguistic units that are equal in
rank, that is, they are the relation independence
p) Subordinate syntagmatic relations are the relations of dependence when one linguistic unit
depends on the other: teach + er- - the the word-group level; predicative and subordinate clauses -
the sentence level. E) Predicative syntagmatic relations are the relations of interdependence, they
exist in primary and secondary predication. Primary predication is established between the subject
and predicate of the sentence while secondary predication exists between any non-finite form of the
verb in combination with a nominal element expressed by either a noun or a pronoun.

7. The morpheme as an elementary meaningful unit. Classification of morphemes.

The morpheme is the elementary meaningful part of the word. It is built up by phonemes, so that shortest
morpheme includes only one phoneme. According to their semantics, morphemes can be classified into
lexical (roots), grammatical (inflections), lexical-grammatical (affixes).
he morpheme expresses abstract, significative meanings, which are used as constituents for the
formation of more concrete, nominative meanings of words. Morphemes are, generally, a distinctive
collocation of phonemes (as the free form pin or the bound form -s of pins) having no smaller meaningful
members. Types of morphemes. Free morphemes like town, dog can appear with other lexemes (as
in town hall or dog house) or they can stand alone, or "free". Allomorphs are variants of a morpheme,
e.g. the plural marker in Bound morphemes like "un-" appear only together with other morphemes to
form a lexeme. Bound morphemes in general tend to be prefixes and suffixes. Morphemes existing in
only one bound form are known as "cranberry" morphemes, from the "cran" in that very word. Inflectional
morphemes modify a word's tense, number, aspect, and so on. (as in the dog morpheme if written with
the plural marker morpheme s becomes dogs). Derivational morphemes can be added to a word to
create (derive) another word: the addition of "-ness" to "happy," for example, to give "happiness.
8. The word as the central unit of language.
 The word is the subject matter of Lexicology. The word may be described as a basic unit of language.
The definition of the word is one of the most difficult problems in Linguistics because any word has many
different aspects. It is simultaneously a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit. Accordingly the
word may be defined as the basic unit of a given language resulting from the association of a
particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical
employment.
word is the smallest significant unit of a given language capable of functioning alone and
characterized by positional mobility within a sentence, morphological uninterruptability and
semantic integrity.

The word as an independent free standing language unit is distinguished in speech

due to its ability to take on grammatical inflections (грамматическая
оформленнасть) which makes it different from the morpheme.

The structural integrity (цельная оформленнасть) of the word combined with the
semantic integrity and morphological uninterruptability (морфологическая
непрерывность) makes the word different from word combinations.

The identity of the word manifests itself in the ability of a word to exist as a system
and unity of all its forms (grammatical forms creating its paradigm) and variants:
lexical-semantic, morphological, phonetic and graphic

9. Lexical and grammatical aspects of the word. Types of grammatical meanings.

grammatical information it"word-form" is more convenient in this case than "word" because it shows that
it is a carrier of grammatical information, for example, the word-form speaks shows the present tense
third person singular. It can be identified in such a way exclusively due to the existence of opposed
forms, such as speak, spoke, is speaking, etc. contrasted to speaks in different distinctive features (or
grammatical meaning). Here the relational property of grammatical meaning is revealed. The lexical
meaning of the word is irrelevant for the detection of the type of the word-form. A word-form may be
analytical by structure, which means that it consists of more than one word (e.g. has spoken); an
analytical word-form is equivalent to one word on the rank scale as it expresses one unified content of a
word both from the point of view of grammatical and lexical meaning.
The grammatical meaning may be explicit and implicit. The implicit grammatical meaning is not
expressed formally (e.g. the word table does not contain any hints in its form as to it being inanimate).
The explicit grammatical meaning is always marked morphologically – it has its marker. In the
word cats the grammatical meaning of plurality is shown in the form of the noun; cat’s – here the
grammatical meaning of possessiveness is shown by the form ‘s; is asked – shows the explicit
grammatical meaning of passiveness.
10.Grammatical (morphological) categories. Referential and significational
grammatical categories.
Those grammatical categories that have references in the objective reality are called referential
grammatical categories. However, not all of the grammatical categories have references in the
objective reality, just a few of them do not correspond to anything in the objective reality. Such
categories correlate only with conceptual matters:
These categories are called signilicational categories. To this type belong the categories of mood and
degree (English adjectives and adverbs of manner vary for the grammatical category of degree, as
with big/bigger/biggest). Speaking about the grammatical category of mood we can say that it has
modality as its conceptual correlate. It can be explained by the fact that it does not refer to anything
in the objective reality - it expresses the speaker's attitude to what he says.
11.The notion of opposition as the basis of grammatical categories. Types of
oppositions. Neutralization of the opposition.

The opposition is a generalized correlation of language units, forms, by means of

which a certain category or function is expressed.

The members of the opposition must possess two types of features: common and
differential. Common features serve as the basis for contrast, while the differential
features express the function in question.

Let’s take the opposition “table - tables”. The common feature of this opposition is
the expression of the category of number. The differential features are oneness or
singularity in the first member and more-than-oneness or plurality in the second
member.

The theory of oppositions was established by the Czech linguist S. Trubetskoy in

phonology. He established 3 types of oppositions:

 privative;
 gradual;
 equipollent.

Neutralization is that type of the reduction of the oppositions when the unmarked member of the
opposition is used as the marked one. Neutralization is stylistically neutral. For example, in the
opposition cat : cats, “cats” is the marked member of the opposition denoting plurality. But in the
sentence The cat is a domestic animal the word-form “cat” names a class of animals and that implies
plurality or the meaning of the marked member of the opposition.

12.The parts of speech problem. Different approaches to classifying parts of speech.

The parts of speech are classes of words, all the members of these classes having
certain characteristics in common which distinguish them from the members of other
classesThe problem of word classification into parts of speech still remains one of
the most controversial problems in modern linguistics. There are four approaches to
the problem:

1. Classical (logical-inflectional)
2. Functional
3. Distributional
4. Complex

Parts of speech are also interdependent. First of all, they are distinguished from the other by
the number of words constituting each class. The greatest amount of words is contained in
the noun and verb classes.
13.Complex approach to the parts of speech classification. Notional and functional
parts of speech.

Notional parts of speech are open classes - new items can be added to them, they
are indefinitely extendable. Functional parts of speech are closed systems, including
a limited number of members. They cannot be extended by creating new items.

The main notional parts of speech are nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
Members of these four classes are often connected by derivational relations:
strength - strengthen.

Functional parts of speech are prepositions, conjunctions, articles, particles. The

distinctive features of functional parts of speech are: 1) very general and weak
lexical meaning; 2) obligatory combinability; 3) the function of linking and specifying
words.

The classical parts of speech theory of the English language goes back to ancient times and is based
on Latin grammar. According to the Latin classification of the parts of speech all words were divided
dichotomically into declinable and indeclinable parts of speech.
the first classification worthy of attention is that of a prominent English grammarian who worked on
the verge of the 20th century, Henry Sweet. He may be said to be the first grammarian who broke a
from away the cannons of classical Latin grammar and strove at representing the facts of English as
they were in that language. His approach may be defined as Gunctional. He resorted to the functional
features of words and singled out pominative units and particles. To nominative parts of speech
belonged noun-words (noun, noun-pronoun, noun-numeral, infinitive, gerund), adjective-words
(adjective, adjective-pronoun, adjective-numeral, participles), verb (finite verb, verbals - gerund,
infinitive, participles), while adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection belonged to the group of
particles.

14.The problem of function words in Modern English. Function words in

communication.
Function words in English hаve little lexical or аmbiguous meaning, but instead they аre used to express
grаmmatical relаtionships with other words in a sentence, or specify the аttitude or mood of the speaker.

The linguists are trying to make single classification for function words within the history but even
nowadays there is no one common opinion on this problem.There are four main approaches to this
problem: Classical, developed by prescriptivists; Functional, developed by descriptivists; Distributional,
developed by structuralists and Complex, which includes three previous ones.

The main problem of function words classification is that function words can belong to more than one
class. In most examples, we can only refer a word to a word class when we encounter it in contex
15.The noun as a part of speech. Morphological, semantic and syntactic properties of
the noun. Grammatically relevant classes of nouns.
The noun is the central lexical unit of language. It is the main nominative unit of
speech. As any other part of speech, the noun can be characterised by three
criteria: semantic (the meaning), morphological (the form and grammatical
catrgories) and syntactical (functions, distribution).

Semantic features of the noun. The noun possesses the grammatical meaning of
thingness, substantiality. According to different principles of classification nouns fall
into several subclasses:

1. According to the type of nomination they may be proper and common;

2. According to the form of existence they may be animate and inanimate.
Animate nouns in their turn fall into human and non-human.
3. According to their quantitative structure nouns can
be countable and uncountable.

This set of subclasses cannot be put together into one table because of the different
principles of classification.

Morphological features of the noun. In accordance with the morphological structure

of the stems all nouns can be classified into: simple, derived ( stem + affix, affix +
stem – thingness); compound ( stem+ stem – armchair ) and composite ( the Hague
). The noun has morphological categories of number and case. Some scholars admit
the existence of the category of gender.

Syntactic features of the noun. The noun can be used un the sentence in
all syntactic functions but predicate. Speaking about noun combinability, we can say
that it can go into right-hand and left-hand connections with practically all parts of
speech. That is why practically all parts of speech but the verb can act as
noun determiners. However, the most common noun determiners are considered to
be articles, pronouns, numerals, adjectives and nouns themselves in the common
and genitive case.

Grammatically relevant subclasses of the noun: common and proper, animate

and inanimate, human and non-human, countable and uncountable, concrete
and abstract nouns.

16.The category of number. Formal and functional features of the number category.
The problem of number in different subclasses of nouns.

The grammatical category of number is the linguistic representation of the objective

category of quantity. The number category is realized through the opposition of two
form-classes: the plural form :: the singular form. The category of number in English
is restricted in its realization because of the dependent implicit grammatical meaning
of countableness/uncountableness. The number category is realized only within
subclass of countable nouns.

The grammatical meaning of number may not coincide with the notional quantity: the
noun in the singular does not necessarily denote one object while the plural form
may be used to denote one object consisting of several parts. The singular form may
denote:

a. oneness (individual separate object – a cat);

b. generalization (the meaning of the whole class – The cat is a domestic
animal);
c. indiscreteness (нерасчлененность or uncountableness - money, milk).

The plural form may denote:

a. the existence of several objects (cats);

b. the inner discreteness (внутренняя расчлененность, pluralia tantum, jeans).

The category of number presents a classic example of a binary privative grammatical opposition .The
category of number is expressed by the paradigmatic opposition of two forms: the singular and the plural.
17.The category of case. Meanings the formant “s” can render. Number of cases in
English: different views.

Case is a morphological category which has a distinct syntactic significance, as it

denotes relations, of nouns towards other words in the sentence. Languages of
synthetic structure have a developed case-system. Languages of analytical structure
lack these morphological variants.

This category is expressed in English by the opposition of the form in -'s [-z, -s, -
iz], usually called the "possessive" case, or more traditionally, the "genitive"
case, to the unfeatured form of the noun, usually called the "common" case.
The apostrophised -s serves to distinguish in writing the singular noun in the
genitive case from the plural noun in the common case. E.g.: the man's duty,
the President's decision, Max's letter; the boy's ball.

Common case

 Wide, too general

Genetive case

 More precise. It has a wide variety of meanings:

1. Possessive genitive, e.g.:

Mrs. Johnson s passport —* Mrs- Johnson has a passport (R. Quirk etal.).

2. Subjective genitive, indicating the doer of the action, e.g.: the people's choice —
» The people chose (S. Greenbaum).

3. Genitive of source, denoting such relationships as authorship and origin. Cf.:

the general's letter —> The general wrote a letter (R. Quirk et al.).
Australia's exports —» the exports that come from Australia (S. Greenbaum).

4. Objective genitive, indicating the object of the action, e.g.: Kennedy's

assassination —> Somebody assassinated Kennedy

(S. Greenbaum).

5. Temporal genitive, denoting a period of time, e.g.:

ten days' absence —> The absence lasted ten days (R. Quirk et al.).

6. Equational genitive, establishing the identity of the referent,

e.g.:

a mile's distance ~+ The distance is a mile (L.S. Barkhudarov).

7. Genitive of destination, e.g.:

a women s college —»• a college for women (R. Quirk et al.).

The semantic classification, in the opinion of R. Quirk and his co-authors, is in part
arbitrary. For example, one could claim that cow's milk is not a genitive of origin (milk
from a cow) but a subjective genitive (The cow provided the milk). No wonder that
L.S. Barkhudarov sometimes finds it difficult to name the kernel sentence from which
the construction with the genitive case has been derived, e.g.: Nick's school (L.S.
Barkhudarov). Of course, Nick's school could be transformed into Nick goes to
school, but such transformations can be regarded only as quasi transformations [Z.
Harris] because they do not give an opportunity to clearly formulate the rules of
generating constructions with the genitive case. + для практики посм в книге типы
генетивов: double, absolute

The category of case is disputative

As there exist several CASE THEORIES:

1) Limited case theory (Sweet, Jesperson)

There is such category and there are only 2 cases one of them featured and the
other one unfeatured. + Smirnitskij.

2)Positional case theory (Nesfield, Bryant)

The type of the case not on the base of the form of the Noun but on its position => 4
cases:

+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 object to a
preposition): The man killed a rat. The earth is moistened by rain.
18.The problem of gender in English. Personal pronouns as gender indicators of
nouns. Sex distinctions in the system of the noun.

In linguistics, the term gender refers to various forms of expressing biological or

sociological gender by inflecting words. For example, in the
words actor and actress the suffix -or denotes "male person" (masculine), and the
suffix -ress denotes "female person" (feminine). This type of inflection, called lexical
gender, in the third person singular personal pronouns he (male
person), she (female person), and it (object, abstraction, or animal), and their other
inflected forms.

When gender is expressed on other parts of speech, besides nouns and pronouns,
the language is said to have grammatical gender. Grammatical gender may be
partly assigned by convention, so it doesn't always coincide with natural gender.
Furthermore, the gender assigned to animals, inanimate objects and abstractions is
often arbitrary. Gender can refer to the (biological) condition of being male or
female, or less commonly hermaphrodite or neuter, as applied to humans, animals,
and plants. In this sense, the term is a synonym for sex, a word that has undergone
a usage shift itself, having become a synonym for sexual intercourse.

The category of gender in English is a highly controversial subject in grammar. The

overwhelming majority of linguists stick to the opinion that the category of gender
existed only in Old English. They claim that, since formal gender marks disappeared
by the end of the Middle English period and nouns no longer agree in gender with
adjacent adjectives or verbs, there is no grammatical category of gender in modern
English. They maintain that in modern English, the biological division of masculine
and feminine genders is rendered only by lexical means: special words and lexical
affixes, e.g.: man – woman, tiger – tigress, he-goat – she-goat, male nurse, etc.

The fact is, the category of gender in English differs from the category of gender in
many other languages, for example, in Russian, in French or in German. The
category of gender linguistically may be either meaningful (or, natural), rendering
the actual sex-based features of the referents, or formal (arbitrary). In Russian and
some other languages the category of gender is meaningful only for human (person)
nouns, but for the non-human (non-person) nouns it is formal; i.e., it does not
correspond with the actual biological sense, cf.: рука is feminine, палец is
masculine, тело is neuter, though all of them denote parts of the human body. In
English gender is a meaningful category for the whole class of the nouns, because it
reflects the real gender attributes (or their absence/ irrelevance) of the referent
denoted. It is realized through obligatory correspondence of every noun with the 3rd
person singular pronouns - he, she, or it: man – he, woman – she, tree, dog – it. For
example: A woman was standing on the platform. She was wearing a hat. It was
decorated with ribbons and flowers… Personal pronouns are grammatical gender
classifiers in English.
The category of gender is formed by two oppositions organized hierarchically. The
first opposition is general and opposes human, or person nouns, distinguishing
masculine and feminine gender (man – he, woman – she) and all the other, non-
human, non-person nouns, belonging to the neuter gender (tree, dog – it). The
second opposition is formed by the human nouns only: on the lower level of the
opposition the nouns of masculine gender and of feminine gender are opposed.

Gender is a constant feature category: it is expressed not through variable forms of

words, but through nounal classification; each noun belongs to only one of the three
genders. In addition, there is a group of nouns in English which can denote either a
female or a male in different contexts; these nouns can be substituted by either
‘he’ or ‘she’, e.g.: president, professor, friend, etc. They constitute a separate group
of nouns – the common gender nouns. For them the category of gender is a
variable feature category.

There are no formal marks to distinguish the strong and the weak members in either
of the gender oppositions. They can be distinguished semantically: nouns of the
neuter gender in the upper level of the opposition is more abstract compared to
masculine and feminine gender nouns; they are the weak member of the opposition
and are naturally used in the position of neutralization. For example: The girl was a
sweet little thing; “What is it over there: a man or just a tree?” On the lower level of
the opposition, masculine gender nouns are the weak member of the opposition and
can be used to denote all human beings irrespective of sex, e.g.: Man must change
in the changing world. When there is no contextual need to specify the sex of the
referent, common gender nouns are also neutrally substituted by the masculine
pronoun, e.g.: Every student must do his best.

19. The article as a part of speech. Communicative functions of articles.

The article is a function word, which means it has no lexical meaning and is devoid of
denotative function. Semantically the article can be viewed as a significator, i.e. a
linguistic unit representing some conceptual content without naming it. If analyzed in
its relation to the conceptual reality, the article proves to be an operator, i.e. a marker
of some cognitive operation, like identification, classification, and the like.

there are two articles in English: the definite article “the” and the indefinite one “a”. It
has become a tradition to also single out the so-called “zero” article, which is found in
the contexts where neither the definite nor the indefinite article is used. It is better to
speak of the zero article rather than of the absence of the article for the same reason
that we ascribe the zero marker to the “unmarked” member of the opposition. We
speak of zero units in situations where the grammatical meaning needs to be made
explicit.
The invariant function of all the articles (i.e. the function all of them are used in) is
that of determination. Any human language has a system of devices used to
determine words as parts of speech. In analytical languages the article is the basic
noun determiner.

The second function the articles can be used in is that of the theme-and rheme
markers.

20.The verb as a part of speech. Classifications of English verbs.

The verb is a part of speech which denotes an action. The verb has the following
grammatical categories: person, number, tense, aspect, voice and mood. These
categories can be expressed by means of affixes, inner flexion (change of the root
vowel) and by form words.

Verbs may be transitive and intransitive.

Verbs have finite forms which can be used as the predicate of sentence and non-
finite forms which cannot be used as the predicate of a sentence.

§ 2. According to their morphological structure verbs are divided

into:
1. simple (read, live, hide, speak),
2. derived, i.e. having affixes (magnify, inherit, originate, undo, remarry);
3. compound, i.e. consisting of two stems (daydream, brow-beat);
4. composite, consisting of a verb and a postposition of adverbial origin (sit
down, look after, give up).

The postposition often changes the meaning of the verb with which it is associated.
Thus, there are composite verbs whose meaning is different from the meaning of
their components: to give up —кидати, переставати; to bring up — виховувати; to
do away — ліквідувати.

There are other composite verbs in which the original meaning of its components is
preserved: to stand up, to come in, to go out, to put on.

According to the way in which the Past Indefinite and Participle II are formed, verbs
are divided into three groups: regular verbs, irregular verbs, and mixed verbs.

1. Regular verbs. They form the Past Indefinite and Participle II by adding -ed to the
stem of the verb, or only -d if the stem of the verb ends in -e.

2. Irregular verbs. Here belong the following groups of verbs:

3. Mixed verbs. Their Past Indefinite is of the regular type, and their Participle II is of
the irregular type:
 +to show — showed — shown to sow —sowed —sown

21.General survey of the grammatical categories of the verb.

Verbs are the only parts of speech that can be conjugated, thus expressing five grammatical
categories : person, number, tense, voice and mood.

In the example that follows, the verb "schreibt" expresses these five categories.

Example person number tense voice mood

Julia schreibt ihre Diplomarbeit. 3. person singular present active indicative

Only finite verb forms express all five categories. Non- finite verb forms do not express person,
number or mood. These verb forms are not conjugated and include the infinitive, the present participle
(Partizip I) and the past partiple (Partizip II).

Furthermore, verbs are divided into irregular (starken) and regular (schwachen) verbs. Regular
verbs retain their verb stem vowel unchanged in all tense forms and moods, while the verb stem
vowel of irregular verbs changes, at least between the present form and the Präteritum.

Examples verb stem vowel

schwaches verb stem vowel remains
spiele, spielte, gespielt
(regular) verb unchanged
starkes (irregular) verb singe, sang, gesungen verb stem vowel changes

22.The category of tense in English. Tense oppositions. The problem of future tenses.

The category of tense is a verbal category that reflects the objective category of
time. The essential characteristic of the category of tense is that it relates the time of
the action, event or state of affairs referred to in the sentence to the time of the
utterance (the time of the utterance being 'now ' or the present moment). The tense
category is realized through the oppositions. The binary principle of oppositions
remains the basic one in the correlation of the forms that represent the grammatical
category of tense. The present moment is the main temporal plane of verbal actions.
Therefore, the temporal dichotomy may be illustrated by the following graphic
representation (the arrows show the binary opposition):

Present Past
Future I Future II

Generally speaking, the major tense-distinction in English is undoubtedly that which

is traditionally described as an opposition of past::present. But this is best regarded as
a contrast of past:: non-past. Quite 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
means of auxiliary verbs will and shall. Although it is undeniable that will and shall
occur in many sentences that refer to the future, they also occur in sentences that do
not. And they do not necessarily occur in sentences with a future time reference. That
is why future tenses are often treated as partly modal.

23.The category of aspect. Aspect opposition. Progressive and non-progressive verbs

in communication.
The category of aspect is a linguistic representation of the objective category of
Manner of Action. It is realized through the opposition Continuous::Non-
Continuous (Progressive::Non-Progressive). The realization of the category of
aspect is closely connected with the lexical meaning of verbs.

There are some verbs in English that do not normally occur with progressive aspect,
even in those contexts in which the majority of verbs necessarily take the progressive
form. Among the so-called ‘non-progressive’ verbs are think, understand, know,
hate, love, see, taste, feel, possess, own, etc. The most striking characteristic that
they have in common is the fact that they are ‘stative’ - they refer to a state of affairs,
rather than to an action, event or process. It should be observed, however, that all the
‘non-­progressive' verbs take the progressive aspect under particular
circumstances. As the result of internal transposition verbs of non-progressive nature
can be found in the Continuous form: Now I'm knowing you. Generally speaking the
Continuous form has at least two semantic features - duration (the action is always in
progress) and definiteness (the action is always limited to a definite point or period of
time). In other words, the purpose of the Continuous form is to serve as a frame
which makes the process of the action more concrete and isolated.

24.The category of voice. Voice opposition. Different views on the number of voices
in English.

The category of voice occupies a peculiar place in the system of verbal categories
because it reflects the direction of the process as regards the participants in
the situation denoted by a syntactic construction. The form of the verb may
show whether the agent expressed by the subject is the doer of the action or
the recipient of the action. The objective relations between the action and the
subject or object of the action find their expression in language as the grammatical
category of voice. Therefore, the category of voice reflects the objective
relations between the action itself and the subject or object of the action.

The category of voice is realized through the opposition active and passive voice.
The active form has the meaning of “non-passivity”. It indicates that the action is
directed from the subject or issues from the subject, thus the subject denotes the
doer (agent) of the action.

The passive form expresses the reception of the action by the subject of the
syntactic construction. It indicates that the action is directed towards the
subject. Here the subject expresses a person or non-person who or which is the
receiver of the action. It does not act, but is acted upon and therefore affected by the
action of the verb.

The realization of the voice category is restricted because of the implicit grammatical
meaning of transitivity/intransitivity. In accordance with this meaning, all English
verbs should fall into transitive and intransitive. However, the classification turns out
to be more complex and comprises six groups:

 Verbs used only transitively: to mark, to raise;

 Verbs with the main transitive meaning: to see, to make, to build;
 Verbs of intransitive meaning and secondary transitive meaning. A lot of
intransitive verbs may develop a secondary transitive meaning: They laughed
me into agreement; He danced the girl out of the room;
 Verbs of a double nature, neither of the meanings are the leading one, the
verbs can be used both transitively and intransitively: to drive home - to drive
a car;
 Verbs that are never used in the Passive Voice: to seem, to become;
 Verbs that realize their passive meaning only in special contexts: to live, to
sleep, to sit, to walk, to jump.

There exist a big problem in connection with the voice identification in English is the
problem of “medial” voices, i.e. the functioning of the voice forms in other than the
passive or active meanings. Some scholars admit the existence of Middle, Reflexive
and Reciprocal voices (Fig. 65).

Fig. 65

The verbal meaning of the action performed by the subject upon itself is classed as
“reflexive” (the subject is both the agent and the recipient of the action at the same
time). It is always possible to use a reflexive pronoun in this case.
The verbal meaning of the action performed by the subjects in the subject group on
one another is called “reciprocal”. It is always possible to use a reciprocal pronoun
here.

When the verbs primarily transitive develop an intransitive middle meaning they are
used in the so called “Middle Voice”.

+However, it should be noted that all these meanings are not expressed
morphologically.

25.The category of mood. The problem of mood opposition. Mood and modality.

The meaning of this category is the attitude of the speaker or writer towards the
content of the sentence, whether the speaker considers the action real, unreal,
desirable, necessary, etc. It is expressed in the form of the verb.

There are three moods in English – the indicative mood, the imperative mood and
the oblique mood (Fig. 66).

The indicative mood form shows that what is said must be regarded as a fact, as
something which has occurred or is occurring at the moment of speaking or will
occur in the future. It may denote actions with different time-reference and different
aspective characteristics. Therefore the indicative mood has a wide variety of tense
and aspect forms in the active and passive voice.

The imperative mood expresses a command or a request to perform an action

addressed to somebody, but not the action itself. As it does not actually denote an
action as a real act, it has no tense category. The unfulfilled action always refers to
the future. Aspect distinctions and voice distinctions are not characteristic of the
imperative mood, although forms such as, be writing, be warned sometimes occur.
This form is always addressed to the second person.

The oblique mood expresses non-facts: unreal or hypothetical actions or states. A

hypothetical action or state may be viewed upon as desired, necessary, possible,
supposed, imaginary, or contradicting reality.

In Old English the oblique mood was expressed by a special system of forms with a
special set of inflections, different from those of the indicative. In the course of time
most of the inflections were lost, and the difference between the forms of the oblique
nd those of the indicative has almost disappeared. In Modern English there remain
only two synthetic forms of the old regular system of the subjunctive, which differ
from the forms of the indicative.

Subjunctive I coincides with the plain verb stem for all persons in both the singular
and the plural. It denotes a hypothetical action referring to the present or future. Of
these surviving forms only be is always distinct from the indicative forms and is
therefore rather current.

Subjunctive II refers the hypothetical action to the present, future or past and shows
that it contradicts reality. The non-factual past indefinite and past continuous are
used to denote hypothetical actions in the present or future. The non-factual past
perfect and past perfect continuous denote hypothetical actions in the past.

+Most of the later formations are analytical, built by means of the auxiliaries which
developed from the modal verbs should and would, plus any form of the infinitive.

The Conditional Mood is formed by means of would + infinitive for all persons, both
singular and plural. This form denotes an unreal action the unreality of which is due
to the absence of necessary conditions. It may be used both in simple and complex
sentences.

+The Suppositional Mood is formed by means of should+ infinitive for all persons,
both singular and plural. This mood represents the action as problematic, but not
contradicting reality. This form expresses necessity, suggestion, advice, supposition.

26.General characteristics of syntax as part of grammar. Syntactic theories.

The grammatical structure of language comprises two major parts – morphology and syntax. The
two areas are obviously interdependent and together they constitute the study of grammar.

Morphology deals with paradigmatic and syntagmatic properties of morphological units –

morphemes and words. It is concerned with the internal structure of words and their relationship to
other words and word forms within the paradigm. It studies morphological categories and their
realization.

Syntax deals with the way words are combined. It is concerned with the external
functions of words and their relationship to other words within the linearly
ordered units – word-groups, sentences and texts. Syntax studies the way in which
the units and their meanings are combined. It also deals with peculiarities of syntactic
units, their behavior in different contexts.

Syntactic units may be analyzed from different points of view, and accordingly,
different syntactic theories exist.

Transformational-Generative Grammar. The Transformational grammar was first

suggested by American scholar Zelling Harris as a method of analyzing sentences and
was later elaborated by another American scholar Noam Chomsky as a synthetic
method of ‘generating’ (constructing) sentences. The main point of the
Transformational-Generative Grammar is that the endless variety of sentences in
a language can be reduced to a finite number of kernels by means of
transformations. These kernels serve the basis for generating sentences by means
of syntactic processes. Different language analysts recognize the existence of
different number of kernels.

Constructional Syntax. Constructional analysis of syntactic units was

initiated by Prof. G.Pocheptsov. This analysis deals with the constructional
significance/insignificance of a part of the sentence for the whole syntactic
unit. The theory is based on the obligatory or optional environment of syntactic
elements. For example, the element him in the sentence I saw him there
yesterday is constructionally significant because it is impossible to omit it. At
the same time the elements there and yesterday are constructionally
insignificant – they can be omitted without destroying the whole structure.

Communicative Syntax. It is primarily concerned with the analysis of

utterances from the point of their communicative value and informative
structure. It deals with the actual division of the utterance – the theme and
rheme analysis. Both the theme and the rheme constitute the informative
structure of utterances. The theme is something that is known already while the
rheme represents some new information. Depending on the contextual
informative value any sentence element can act as the theme or the rheme: Who
is at home? - John is at home. Where is John? – John is at home.

Pragmatic approach to the study of syntactic units can briefly be described

as the study of the way language is used in particular contexts to achieve
particular goals. Speech Act Theory was first introduced by John Austin. The
notion of a speech act presupposes that an utterance can be said with different
intentions or purposes and therefore can influence the speaker and situation in
different ways:

Textlinguistics studies the text as a syntactic unit, its main features and
peculiarities, different ways of its analysis.

Discourse analysis focuses on the study of language use with reference to the
social and psychological factors that influence communication.
27.General principles of Transformational-Generative Grammar.

Transformational-Generative Grammar. The Transformational grammar was

first suggested by American scholar Zelling Harris as a method of analyzing
sentences and was later elaborated by another American scholar Noam
Chomsky as a synthetic method of ‘generating’ (constructing) sentences. The
main point of the Transformational-Generative Grammar is that the endless
variety of sentences in a language can be reduced to a finite number of
kernels by means of transformations. These kernels serve the basis for
generating sentences by means of syntactic processes. Different language
analysts recognize the existence of different number of kernels. The following 6
kernels are commonly associated with the English language:

(1) NV – John sings. (2) NVAdj. – John is happy. (3) NVN – John is a man. (4)
NVN – John hit the man. (5) NVNN – John gave the man a book. (6)
NVPrep.N – The book is on the table.

It should be noted that (3) differs from (4) because the former admits no passive
transformation. Transformational method proves useful for analysing
sentences from the point of their deep structure: Flying planes can be
dangerous.

This sentence is ambiguous, two senses can be distinguished: a) the action of

flying planes can be dangerous, b) the planes that fly can be dangerous.
Therefore it can be reduced to the following kernels:

a) Planes can be dangerous b) Planes can be dangerous X (people) fly planes X

Planes fly

28.General survey of modern approaches to the language study: Textlinguistics,

Speech Act Theory, Discourse Analysis.

Pragmatic approach to the study of syntactic units can briefly be described

as the study of the way language is used in particular contexts to achieve
particular goals. Speech Act Theory was first introduced by John Austin. The
notion of a speech act presupposes that an utterance can be said with different
intentions or purposes and therefore can influence the speaker and situation in
different ways:
Textlinguistics studies the text as a syntactic unit, its main features and
peculiarities, different ways of its analysis. Concerned with the analysis of formal
and structural features of the text

Text is the unit of the highest (supersyntactic) level. It can be defined as a sequence of
sentences connected logically and semantically which convey a complete message.
The text is a language unit and it manifests itself in speech as discourse.
Textlinguistics is concerned with the analysis of formal and structural features of the
text. Textual basic integrative properties can be described with the help of the notions
of coherence (цілісність, general topic, the theme the rheme, text the whole unit),
cohesion (формальна складність, text connectors) and deixis (identification by
pointing).

Discourse analysis focuses on the study of language use with reference to the
social and psychological factors that influence communication.

29.Basic syntactic notions: syntactic units, syntactic relations, syntactic connections.

The syntactic language level can be described with the help of special linguistic
terms and notions: syntactic unit, syntactic form, syntactic meaning, syntactic
function, syntactic position, and syntactic relations.

Syntactic unit is always a combination that has at least two constituents. The
basic syntactic units are a word-group, a clause, a sentence, and a text. Their
main features are:

a) they are hierarchical units – the units of a lower level serve the building
material for the units of a higher level;

b) as all language units the syntactic units are of two-fold nature:

c) they are of communicative and non-communicative nature – word-groups and
clauses are of non-communicative nature while sentences and texts are of
communicative nature.

Syntactic meaning is the way in which separate word meanings are combined
to produce meaningful word-groups and sentences. Green ideas sleep
furiously. This sentence is quite correct grammatically. However it makes no
sense as it lacks syntactic meaning.

Syntactic form may be described as the distributional formula of the unit

(pattern). John hits the ball – N1 + V + N2.

Syntactic function is the function of a unit on the basis of which it is included

to a larger unit: in the word-group a smart student the word ‘smart’ is in
subordinate attributive relations to the head element. In traditional terms it is
used to denote syntactic function of a unit within the sentence (subject,
predicate, etc.).

Syntactic position is the position of an element. The order of constituents in

syntactic units is of principal importance in analytical languages. The syntactic
position of an element may determine its relationship with the other elements of
the same unit: his broad back, a back district, to go back, to back sm.

Syntactic relations are syntagmatic relations observed between syntactic units.

They can be of three types – coordination, subordination and predication.

1. Syntactic relations.

The syntactic units can go into three types of syntactic relations.

Coordination (SR1) – syntagmatic relations of independence. SR1 can be

observed on the phrase, sentence and text levels. Coordination may be
symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric coordination is characterized by
complete interchangeability of its elements – pens and pencils. Asymmetric
coordination occurs when the position of elements is fixed: ladies and
gentlemen. Forms of connection within SR1 may be copulative
(you and me), disjunctive (you or me), adversative (strict but just) and
causative-consecutive (sentence and text level only).

Subordination (SR2) – syntagmatic relations of dependence. SR2 are

established between the constituents of different linguistic rank. They are
observed on the phrase and sentence level. Subordination may be of three
different kinds – adverbial (to speak slowly), objective (to see a house) and
attributive (a beautiful flower). Forms of subordination may also be different
 – agreement (this book – these books), government (help us), adjournment
(the use of modifying particles just, only, even, etc.) and enclosure (the use
of modal words and their equivalents really, after all, etc.).

Predication (SR3) – syntagmatic relations of interdependence. Predication

may be of two kinds – primary (sentence level) and secondary (phrase level).
Primary predication is observed between the subject and the predicate of the
sentence while secondary predication is observed between non-finite forms
of the verb and nominal elements within the sentence. Secondary predication
serves the basis for gerundial, infinitive and participial word-groups
(predicative complexes).

30.Coordination. Coordinate syntactic units.

Coordination (SR1) – syntagmatic relations of independence. SR1 can be

observed on the phrase, sentence and text levels. Coordination may be
symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric coordination is characterized by
complete interchangeability of its elements – pens and pencils. Asymmetric
coordination occurs when the position of elements is fixed: ladies and
gentlemen. Forms of connection within SR1 may be copulative
(you and me), disjunctive (you or me), adversative (strict but just) and
causative-consecutive (sentence and text level only).

31.Subordination. Subordinate syntactic units.

Subordination (SR2) – syntagmatic relations of dependence. SR2 are

established between the constituents of different linguistic rank. They are
observed on the phrase and sentence level. Subordination may be of three
different kinds – adverbial (to speak slowly), objective (to see a house) and
attributive (a beautiful flower). Forms of subordination may also be
different – agreement (this book – these books), government (help us),
adjournment (the use of modifying particles just, only, even, etc.) and
enclosure (the use of modal words and their equivalents really, after all,
etc.).

32.General characteristics of the word-group. Classifications of word-groups.

the word-group is a combination of at least two notional words which do not
constitute the sentence but are syntactically connected. According to some other
scholars (the majority of Western scholars and professors B.Ilyish and V.Burlakova –
in Russia), a combination of a notional word with a function word (on the table) may
be treated as a word-group as well. The problem is disputable as the role of function
words is to show some abstract relations and they are devoid of nominative power. On
the other hand, such combinations are syntactically bound and they should belong
somewhere.

General characteristics of the word-group are:

1) As a naming unit it differs from a compound word because the number of
constituents in a word-group corresponds to the number of different denotates:
a black bird – чорний птах (2), a blackbird – дрізд (1); a loud speaker (2), a
loudspeaker (1).

2) Each component of the word-group can undergo grammatical changes without

destroying the identity of the whole unit: to see a house - to see houses.

3) A word-group is a dependent syntactic unit, it is not a communicative unit and has

no intonation of its own.

2. Classification of word-groups.

Word-groups can be classified on the basis of several principles:

According to the type of syntagmatic relations: coordinate (you and me),

subordinate (to see a house, a nice dress), predicative (him coming, for him to
come),

According to the structure: simple (all elements are obligatory), expanded (to read
and translate the text – expanded elements are equal in rank), extended (a word takes
a dependent element and this dependent element becomes the head for another word: a
beautiful flower – a very beautiful flower).

3. Subordinate word-groups.

Subordinate word-groups are based on the relations of dependence between the

constituents. This presupposes the existence of a governing Element which is
called the head and the dependent element which is called the adjunct (in noun-
phrases) or the complement (in verb-phrases).
According to the nature of their heads, subordinate word-groups fall into noun-
phrases (NP) – a cup of tea, verb-phrases (VP) – to run fast, to see a
house, adjective phrases (AP) – good for you, adverbial phrases (DP) – so
quickly, pronoun phrases (IP) – something strange, nothing to do.

The formation of the subordinate word-group depends on the valency of its

constituents. Valency is a potential ability of words to combine. Actual realization of
valency in speech is called combinability.

4. The noun-phrase (NP).

Noun word-groups are widely spread in English. This may be explained by a

potential ability of the noun to go into combinations with practically all parts of
speech. The NP consists of a noun-head and an adjunct or adjuncts with relations of
modification between them. Three types of modification are distinguished here:

1. Premodification that comprises all the units placed before the head: two
smart hard-working students. Adjuncts used in pre-head position are
called pre-posed adjuncts.
2. Postmodification that comprises all the units all the units placed after the
head: students from Boston. Adjuncts used in post-head position are
called post-posed adjuncts.
3. Mixed modification that comprises all the units in both pre-head and post-
head position: two smart hard-working students from Boston.

33.Nominal word combinations. Noun-phrases with pre-posed and post-posed

adjuncts.

In noun-phrases with pre-posed modifiers we generally find adjectives, pronouns,

numerals, participles, gerunds, nouns, nouns in the genitive case (see the table).
According to their position all pre-posed adjuncts may be divided into pre-
adjectivals and adjectiavals. The position of adjectivals is usually right before the
noun-head. Pre-adjectivals occupy the position before adjectivals. They fall into two
groups: a) limiters (to this group belong mostly particles): just, only, even, etc. and
b) determiners (articles, possessive pronouns, quantifiers – the first, the last).
The grammatical relations observed in NPs with pre-posed adjuncts may convey
the following meanings:

1. subject-predicate relations: weather change;

2. object relations: health service, women hater;
3. adverbial relations:
a) of time: morning star,
b) place: world peace, country house,
c) comparison: button eyes,
d) purpose: tooth brush.

It is important to remember that the noun-adjunct is usually marked by a stronger

stress than the head.

NPs with post-posed may be classified according to the way of connection

into prepositionless and prepositional. The basic prepositionless NPs with post-
posed adjuncts are: N adj. – tea strong, NVen – the shape unknown, NVing – the girl
smiling, ND – the man downstairs, NV inf – a book to read, NNum – room ten.

+he pattern of basic prepositional NPs is N1 prep. N2. The most common preposition
here is ‘of’ – a cup of tea, a man of courage. It may have quite different
meanings: qualitative - a woman of sense, predicative – the pleasure of the
company, objective – the reading of the newspaper, partitive – the roof of the
house.

34.Verbal word combinations. Types of verbal complements.

The VP is a definite kind of the subordinate phrase with the verb as the head. The
verb is considered to be the semantic and structural centre not only of the VP but
of the whole sentence as the verb plays an important role in making up primary
predication that serves the basis for the sentence. VPs are more complex than NPs as
there are a lot of ways in which verbs may be combined in actual usage. Valent
properties of different verbs and their semantics make it possible to divide all the
verbs into several groups depending on the nature of their complements.

Classification of verb-phrases.

VPs can be classified according to the nature of their complements – verb

complements may be nominal (to see a house) and adverbial (to behave well).
Consequently, we distinguish nominal, adverbial and mixed complementation.

Nominal complementation takes place when one or more nominal complements

(nouns or pronouns) are obligatory for the realization of potential valency of the
verb: to give smth. to smb., to phone smb., to hear smth.(smb.), etc.

Adverbial complementation occurs when the verb takes one or more adverbial
elements obligatory for the realization of its potential valency: He behaved well, I live
…in Kyiv (here).

Mixed complementation – both nominal and adverbial elements are obligatory: He

put his hat on he table (nominal-adverbial).

According to the structure VPs may be basic or simple (to take a book) – all
elements are obligatory; expanded (to read and translate the text, to read
books and newspapers) and extended (to read an English book).

35.Predication. Primary and secondary predication. Predicative word combinations.

Predication the part of a sentence in which something is asserted or denied of the

subject of a sentence; one of the two major components of a sentence, the other being
the subject. Predication (SR3) – syntagmatic relations of interdependence. Predication
may be of two kinds – primary (sentence level) and secondary (phrase level).
Primary predication is observed between the subject and the predicate of the
sentence while secondary predication is observed between non-finite forms of the
verb and nominal elements within the sentence. Secondary predication serves the
basis for gerundial, infinitive and participial word-groups (predicative complexes).

Predicative word-groups.

Predicative word combinations are distinguished on the basis of secondary

predication. Like sentences, predicative word-groups are binary in their structure but
actually differ essentially in their organization. The sentence is an independent
communicative unit based on primary predication while the predicative word-group
is a dependent syntactic unit that makes up a part of the sentence. The predicative
word-group consists of a nominal element (noun, pronoun) and a non-finite form of
the verb: N + Vnon-fin. There are Gerundial, Infinitive and Participial word-groups
(complexes) in the English language: his reading, for me to know, the boy running,
etc.)

36.The sentence. Structural and semantic characteristics of the sentence. Different

approaches to the study of the sentence.

It is rather difficult to define the sentence as it is connected with many lingual

and extra lingual aspects – logical, psychological and philosophical.

according to G.Pocheptsov, the sentence is the central syntactic construction

used as the minimal communicative unit that has its primary predication,
actualises a definite structural scheme and possesses definite intonation
characteristics.

the sentence is a unit of language while the utterance is a unit of speech.

The most essential features of the sentence as a linguistic unit are

a) its structural characteristics – subject-predicate relations (primary

predication), and

b) its semantic characteristics – it refers to some fact in the objective reality. It

is represented in the language through a conceptual reality:

We may define the proposition as the main predicative form of thought. Basic
predicative meanings of the typical English sentence are expressed by the finite
verb that is immediately connected with the subject of the sentence (primary
predication).
To sum it up, the sentence is a syntactic level unit, it is a predicative
language unit which is a lingual representation of predicative thought
(proposition).

Different approaches to the study of the sentence. (p.159)

a) Principal and secondary parts of the sentence. (Traditional analysis) (

The word in the sentence are analysed depending on the syntactic functions they
perform into subject, predicate principal parts) and object, attribute, adv. modifier
(secondary parts)
b) Immediate constituents of the sentence. IC analysis (divide into VP, NP)
To grasp the real structure of the English sentence, one must understand not only
words that occur but also the principles of their arrangement. Each language has its
own way of structural grouping. English has dichotomous phrase structure, which
means that the phrase in English can always be divided into two elements
(constituents) until we get down to the single word. All groups of words are arranged
in levels. The name given by linguists to these different levels of relationship is
immediate constituents. Thus, one way of analyzing a sentence is to cut it to its
immediate constituents, that is, to single out different levels of meaning. It is
obvious that dividing a sentence into ICs does not provide much information.
Nevertheless, it can sometimes prove useful if we want to account for the ambiguity
of certain constructions.
c) Oppositional analysis The oppositional method in syntax means correlating
different sentence types: they possess common features and differential features.
Differential features serve the basis for analysis.

One-member sentence :: (against) two-member sentence (Work! :: She works)

Sentence differing in the arrangement of the main constituents in the basic sentence
(We saw a river there::There is a river there)
Sentence differing in the case-form of the subject-noun (Mike was a happy
boy::Mike`s was a happy life)

d) Constructional analysis. (p.163)

According to the constructional approach, not only the subject and the predicate but
also all the necessary constituents of primary predication constitute the main parts
because they are constructionally significant. Therefore, the secondary parts of the
sentence are sometimes as necessary and important as the main ones. The structural
sentence types are formed on the basis of kernels (basic structures). Three main types
of propositional kernels may be distinguished: N V, N is A, N is N.
e) distributional analysis
The distributional analysis is used to fix and study the units of language in relation to
their contextual environments, i. e. adjoining elements in the text.
e.g. Any word which can occur in the slot this…is nice must be a noun because only
noun may occur in the position according to the Eng. rules

37.The hierarchical structure of the sentence. Immediate Constituents analysis.

All nominative parts of the sentence are syntagmatically connected, and the
modificational relations between them can be analyzed in a linear as well as in
a hierarchical way (“immediate constituents” analysis, IC analysis), The
structural pattern of the sentence is determined by the valency of the verb-
predicate; the verb functions as the central predicative organizer of the sentence
constituents. The subdivision of all notional sentence parts into obligatory and
optional in accord with the valency of the verb-predicate makes it possible to
distinguish the category of “elementary sentence”: it is a sentence in which all
the positions are obligatory; in other words, an “elementary sentence” includes,
besides the principal parts, only complementive modifiers.

Immediate constituents of the sentence. IC analysis (divide into VP, NP)

To grasp the real structure of the English sentence, one must understand not only
words that occur but also the principles of their arrangement. Each language has its
own way of structural grouping. English has dichotomous phrase structure, which
means that the phrase in English can always be divided into two elements
(constituents) until we get down to the single word. All groups of words are arranged
in levels. The name given by linguists to these different levels of relationship is
immediate constituents. Thus, one way of analyzing a sentence is to cut it to its
immediate constituents, that is, to single out different levels of meaning. It is
obvious that dividing a sentence into ICs does not provide much information.
Nevertheless, it can sometimes prove useful if we want to account for the ambiguity
of certain constructions.
38.The paradigm of a simple sentence. Kernel and derived sentences. Syntactic
processes.

A simple sentence is a sentence that consists of just one independent clause. A simple
sentence has no dependent clauses. (An independent clause (unlike a dependent
clause) can stand alone as a sentence.)

In transformational grammar, a kernel sentence is a simple declarative construction

with only one verb. A kernel sentence is always active and affirmative. Also known as
a basic sentence or a kernel.

Derived sentence A derived sentence is a transform of a kernel, a result of

transformation;
e. g. NV N1 N2 — NV N2 to N1. They gave Jackson a package — They gave a
package to Jackson.
Syntactic processes may be internal (involve changes in the structure of the parts of a
sentence) and external (cause new relations within a syntactic unit and lead to
appearance of a new part of a sentence).

The Internal syntactic processes include: expansion, complication, compression,

contamination, Ellipsis, Representation, replacememt.

Expansion (расширение) consists in adding of some syntactic units to another unit.

The added elements have the same syntactic status as the expanded element. The
simplest type of expansion is repetition of some element in a syntagmatic chain.

e.g. Good, good boy. I walked and walked.

Compression goes together with expansion. A construction is compressed when

some part common for the elements of expansion remains unexpanded.
e.g. I was about to spit into his face, slam the door behind me and walk away.

Complication is a syntactic process that consists in transforming the structure of a

syntactic unit from simple to complex. The complicacy of structure presupposes a
mutual syntactic dependence of the unit’s constituents.
e.g. She cried. She began to cry.

Contamination has a restricted usage. It can be applied only to the predicate. The
result of contamination is the so-called double, or contaminated, predicate.
e.g. The sun shone glaring and dazzling.

Ellipsis (опущение) takes place when a structurally needed element of the

construction is not explicitly used but only implied. The omitted element can be
restored from the context.
e.g. It seems so strange! – It is!

Representation (репрезентация) consists in using a part of some syntactic unit

representing the whole unit.
e.g. Could you help me? – I will be happy to.

Replacement – the use of words that have a generalized meaning (one, do etc.)
e.g. I don`t need this book. I`d like to take another one.

The external s.p. :

Extension – a nice dress- a nice cotton dress.
Ajoinment – takes place while using specifying words, most often particles: He did it
– only he did it.
Enclosure – it takes place while inserting modal words and other discourse markers:
e.g. after all, anyway etc.

39. The utterance as a unit of speech. Communicative types of utterances.

The utterance as opposed to the sentence is the unit of speech. The main categories of
the utterance from the point of view of its informative structure are considered to be
the theme (given inf.) and the rheme (new inf.). They are the main components of
the Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP) – actual division of the sentence (most
language analysts stick to the term “sentence” but actually they mean “utterance”).

Comm types: declarative (statements), interrogative (questions), imperative

(requests, commands), exclamatory (express various emotions (joy, anger, surprise
etc.)

40.The utterance. Informative structure of the utterance (FSP). The theme and the
rheme.

Informative structure of the utterance is one of the topics that still attract the
attention of language analysts nowadays. The main categories of the utterance from
the point of view of its informative structure are considered to be the theme (given
inf.) and the rheme (new inf.).

the rheme marking devices are:

1. Position in the sentence. As a rule new information in English generally

comes last: The cat ate the rat.
2. Intonation.
3. The use of the indefinite article. However, sometimes it is impossible (as
in 1): A gentleman is waiting for you.
4. The use of ‘there is’, ‘there are’. There is a cat in the room.
5. The use of special devices, like ‘as for’, ‘but for’, etc.: As for him, I don’t
know.
6. Inverted word order: Here comes the sun.
7. The use of emphatic constructions: It was the cat that ate the rat.

However, sometimes the most important information is not expressed

formally: The cat ate the rat after all. The rheme here is ‘the rat’. At the same time
there is very important information which is hidden or implicit: the cat was not
supposed to do it, or – it was hard for the cat to catch the rat, or – the cat is a
vegetarian (this hidden information will depend on the context or situation). In other
words, we may say that this sentence contains two informative centres, or two rhemes
– explicit and implicit.

Pragmatic utterance types performatives and constatives (representatives): performatives are treated
as utterances by which the speaker explicitly performs a certain act, e.g.: I surrender; I pronounce you
husband and wife; and constatives (representatives) as utterances by which the speaker states something,
e.g.: I am a teacher; constatives are further subdivided into minor types, such as promissives (commissives),
e.g.: I will help you; expressives, e.g.: How very sad!; menacives, e.g.: I’ll kill you!, directives, e.g.: Get
out!; requestives, e.g.: Bring the chalk, please; etc.

41.The complex sentence as a polypredicative construction. Types of subordinate

clauses.

The complex sentence is a polypredicative construction built on the principle

of subordination . In paradigmatic presentation, the derivational history of the
complex sentence is as follows: two or more base sentences are clausalized and
joined into one construction; one of them performs the role of a matrix in
relation to the others, the insert sentences. The matrix base sentence
becomes the principal clause of the complex sentence and the insert sentences
become its subordinate clauses, e.g.: The team arrived. + It caused a
sensation. à When the team arrived, it caused a sensation.

The minimal complex sentence includes two clauses: the principal one and
the subordinate one. This is the main type of complex sentences, first, in terms
of frequency, and, second, in terms of its paradigmatic status, because a
complex sentence of any volume can be analyzed into a combination of two-
clause complex sentence units.

Types of subordinate clauses:

1.subject and predicative, object – Substantive cluses

2.attributive clauses
3.adverbial clauses (manner, purpose, place, time, cause, condition,
comparison, result, concession)

e.g.
42.Text as a syntactic unit. Coherence, cohesion and deixis as textual integrative
properties.

Text is the unit of the highest (supersyntactic) level. It can be defined as a

sequence of sentences connected logically and semantically which convey a
complete message. The text is a language unit and it manifests itself in speech as
discourse.

Coherence is a semantic or topical unity of the spoken or written text – that is,
the sentences within the text are usually connected by the same general topic.
Generally speaking, a coherent text is the text that ‘sticks together’ as a whole
unit. Coherence is usually achieved by means of the theme and rheme
progression. There exist various types of the theme and rheme progression, e.g.
 Cohesion is a succession of spoken or written sentences. Sometimes the
sentences may even not coincide topically. The connection we want to draw
between various parts of the text may be achieved
by textual and lexical cohesion. Textual cohesion may be achieved by formal
markers which express conjunctive relations and serve as text connectors. Text
connectors may be of four different types:

1. additive – and, furthermore, similarly, in addition, etc.

2. adversative – but, however, on the other hand, in fact, anyway, after all,
nevertheless, etc.
3. causal – so, consequently, for this reason, thus, etc.
4. temporal – then, after that, finally, at last, in the long run, etc.

Lexical cohesion occurs when two words in the text are semantically related in the
same way – in other words, they are related in terms of their meaning. Two major
categories of lexical cohesion are reiteration and collocation. Reiteration includes
repetition, synonym or near synonym use and the use of general words.
E.g. Pneumonia arrives with the cold and wet conditions. The illness can strike
everyone from infants to the elderly.

Collocation includes all those items in text that are semantically related. The items
may be related in one text and not related in other. For instance, the words
‘neighbour’ and ‘scoundrel’ are not related at all. However, in the following text they
are collocated: My neighbour has just let one of his trees fall into my garden. And the
scoundrel refuses to pay for the damage he has caused.

+Cohesive ties within the text are also formed by endophoric relations. Endophoric
relations are of two kinds – those that look back in the text for their interpretation are
called anaphoric relations; those that look forward in the text are
called cataphoric relations: Look at the sun. It is going down quickly. ‘It’ refers back
to ‘the sun’. It is going down quickly, the sun. ‘It’ refers forwards to ‘the sun’.

43.Textual connecting devices. Reiteration, collocation, endophoric relations.

Lexical cohesion occurs when two words in the text are semantically related in the
same way – in other words, they are related in terms of their meaning. Two major
categories of lexical cohesion are reiteration and collocation. Reiteration includes
repetition, synonym or near synonym use and the use of general words.
E.g. Pneumonia arrives with the cold and wet conditions. The illness can strike
everyone from infants to the elderly.

Collocation includes all those items in text that are semantically related. The items
may be related in one text and not related in other. For instance, the words
‘neighbour’ and ‘scoundrel’ are not related at all. However, in the following text they
are collocated: My neighbour has just let one of his trees fall into my garden. And the
scoundrel refuses to pay for the damage he has caused.

+Cohesive ties within the text are also formed by endophoric relations. Endophoric
relations are of two kinds – those that look back in the text for their interpretation are
called anaphoric relations; those that look forward in the text are
called cataphoric relations: Look at the sun. It is going down quickly. ‘It’ refers back
to ‘the sun’. It is going down quickly, the sun. ‘It’ refers forwards to ‘the sun’.

44.The notion of deixis. Textual deictic markers.

As a linguistic term deixis means ‘identification by pointing’.

Much of the textual meaning can be understood by looking at linguistic markers that
have a pointing function in a given context. For example, the following note pinned
on a professor’s door: “Sorry, I missed you. I’m in my other office. Back in an
hour.” Without knowing who the addressee is, what time the note was written, or the
location of the other office, it is really hard to make a precise information of the
message. Those terms that we cannot interpret without an immediate context are
called deixis. Deictic terms are used to refer to ourselves, to others, and to objects
in our environment. They are also used to locate actions in a time frame relative to
the present. Deictic terms can show social relationship – the social location of
individuals in relation to others. They may be used to locate parts of a text in relation
to other parts.

Deictic expressions are typically pronouns, certain time and place adverbs (here,
now, etc.), some verbs of motion (come/go), and even tenses. In fact all languages
have expressions that link a sentence to a time and space context and that help to
determine reference.

We can identify five major types of deictic markers – person, place, time, textual and
social.

Person deixis refers to grammatical markers of communicant roles in a speech

event. The first person is the speaker’s reference to self; the second person is the
speaker’s reference to addressee(s) and the third person is reference to others who
are neither speaker nor addressee.

Place deixis refers to how languages show the relationship between space and the
location of the participants in the text: this, that, here, there, in front of, at our place,
etc.

Temporal deixis refers to the time relative to the time of speaking: now, then, today,
yesterday, tomorrow, etc.

Textual deixis has to do with keeping track of reference in the unfolding text: in the
following chapter, but, first, I’d like to discuss, etc. Most of the text connectors
discussed above belong to this group.

+Social deixis is used to code social relationships between speakers and addressee or audience. Here
belong honorifics, titles of addresses and pronouns. There are two kinds of social deixis: relational and
absolute. Absolute deictic markers are forms attached to a social role: Your Honor, Mr.President, Your
Grace, Madam, etc. Relational deictic markers locate persons in relation to the speaker rather than by their
roles in the society: my cousin, you, her, etc. In English, social deixis is not heavily coded in the pronoun
system. ‘You’ refers to both – singular and plural. As well as in the Ukrainian language, English possesses ‘a
powerful we’: We are happy to inform…, In this article we…

45.Pragmatic approach to the study of language units. Speech Act Theory: basic
principles and notions.

The term ‘pragmatics’ was first introduced by Charles Morris, a philosopher. He

contrasts pragmatics with semantics and syntax. He claims that syntax is the study of
the grammatical relations of linguistic units to one another and the grammatical
structures of phrases and sentences that result from these grammatical relation,
semantics is the study of the relation of linguistic units to the objects they denote, and
pragmatics is the study of the relation of linguistic units to people who communicate.
In our everyday life we as a rule perform or play quite a lot of different roles – a
student, a friend, a daughter, a son, a client, etc. When playing different roles our
language means are not the same – we choose different words and expressions
suitable and appropriate for the situation. We use the language as an instrument for
our purposes. For instance the utterances,

(a) What are you doing here? We’re talking

(b) What on earth are you doing here? We’re chewing the rag

have the same referential meaning but their pragmatic meaning is different, they are
used in different contexts. Similarly, each utterance combines a propositional base
(objective part) with the pragmatic component (subjective part). It follows that an
utterance with the same propositional content may have different pragmatic
components:

IT`S HOT - just mentioning of the fact; explanation, excuse, inducement to do something
about it, menace.

To put it in other words, they are different speech acts.

speech acts are simply things people do through language – for example, apologizing,
instructing, menacing, explaining something, etc. The term ‘speech act’ was coined by
the philosopher John Austin and developed by another philosopher John Searle.

Austin`s first step was to show that some utterances are not statements or questions
but actions. He reached this conclusion through an analysis of what he termed
‘performative verbs’. performative verb is a verb that explicitly conveys the kind of
speech act being performed.

In pragmatics (the study of how to do things with words) and speech-act theory, the
term felicity conditions refers to the conditions that must be in place and the criteria
that must be satisfied for a speech act to achieve its purpose.

Performatives may be explicit and implicit. Let us compare the sentences:

I promise I will come tomorrow – I will come tomorrow;

I swear I love you – I love you.

On any occasion the action performed by producing an utterance will consist of

three related acts (a three-fold distinction):
 1. locutionary act– producing a meaningful linguistic expression, uttering a
sentence. If you have difficulty with actually forming the sounds and
words to create a meaningful utterance (because you are a foreigner or
tongue-tied) then you might fail to produce a locutionary act: it often
happens when we learn a foreign language.
2. illocutionary act – we form an utterance with some kind of function on
mind, with a definite communicative intention or illocutionary force.
The notion of illocutionary force is basic for pragmatics.
3. perlocutionary act – the effect the utterance has on the hearer.
Perlocutionary effect may be verbal or non-verbal. E.g. I’ve bought a car
– Great! It’s cold here – and you close the window.

46.Classifications of speech acts. Indirect speech acts.

Speech Act Theory was first introduced by John Austin. The term ‘speech act’ was
coined by John Austin and developed by John Searle. J.Searle has introduced the
notion of an “indirect speech act”.
His speech act classification has had a great impact on linguistics. It includes five
major classes of speech acts: declarations, representatives, expressives, directives and
commissives:

Representatives are speech acts that the utterances commit the speaker to the truth of
the expressed proposition. The utterances are produced based on the speaker’s
observation of certain things then followed by stating the fact or opinion based on the
observation. When someone says “she’s beautiful”, the speaker can state the sentence
based on the fact or just give his or her own opinion about physical condition of a
person. It also states what the speaker believes to be the case or not. Statements of
fact, assertions, conclusions, and descriptions are all examples of the speaker
representing the world as he or she believes it is. For example when someone says
“The earth is flat”, it represents the speaker’s assertions about the earth. The speaker
has opinion that the earth is flat. Representatives speech act can be noted by some
speech acts verb, such as: remind, tell, assert, deny, correct, state, guess, predict,
report, describe, inform, insist, assure, agree, claim, beliefs, conclude.

Directives area speech acts that speaker uses to get someone else to do something.
These speech acts include requesting, questioning, command, orders, and
suggesting. For example, when someone says “Could you lend me a pencil, please?”
the utterance represents the speaker requests that the hearer to do something which is
to lend him a pencil. c. Commissives Commissives are speech acts that the utterances
commit the speaker to some future course of action, these include promising,
threatening, offering, refusal, pledges. For example when someone says “I’ll be back”,
represents the speaker’s promise that he/she will be back.

Expressives are speech acts that the utterances express a psychological state. These
speech acts include thanking, apologizing, welcoming, and congratulating. For
example, when someone says “don’t be shy, my home is your home.” The utterance
represents the speaker’s expression that he/she welcomes someone.

Declarations are speech acts that the utterances effect immediate changes in the
institutional state of affairs and which tend to rely on elaborate exta- linguistic
institutions. These speech acts include excommunicating, declaring war,
christening, firing from employment. For example “you are dead to me.”

In indirect speech acts the speaker communicates to the hearer more than he actually
says by way of relying on their mutually shared background information, both
linguistic and nonlinguistic, together with the general powers of rationality and
inference on the part of the hearer.

A:"We should leave for the show or else we’ll be late."

B:"I am not ready yet."

47.Basic principles of Discourse Analysis.

Text as a unit of the highest level manifests itself as discourse in verbal

communication. Therefore actual text in use may be defined as discourse.
Discourses are formed by sequence of utterances. It is obvious that many
utterances taken by themselves are ambiguous. They can become clear only
within a discourse. Utterances interpretation, or discourse analysis, involves a
variety of processes, grammatical and pragmatic. By pragmatic processes we
mean the processes used to bridge up the gap between the semantic
representations of sentences and the interpretation of utterances in context.
Quite often, the sentence may be ambiguous:

His soup is not hot enough

The hearer must not only recover the semantic representation of the sentence
uttered, but decide who the referential expression he refers to, whether the
ambiguous word hot means very warm or spicy, whether the vague
expression his food refers to the food he cooked, the food he brought, the food
he served, the food he is eating, etc.

Besides, utterances have not only propositional content but illocutionary force,
and ambiguities may arise at this level:

You’re not leaving

The hearer must not only recover its explicit propositional content, but also
decide whether it is a statement, a question or an order. Furthermore, utterances
have not only explicit content but also implicit import:

A: Would you like some coffee?

B: Coffee would keep me awake.

The hearer (A) must recover the implication that B does not want any coffee
(or, in some circumstances, that he does).

48.Maxims of conversation by P. Grice.

1. The Maxim of Quality

Do not say what you believe to be false
Do not say for what you lack adequate evidence

2. The Maxim of Quantity

Make your contribution as informative as required
Do not make your contribution more informative than is required

3. The Maxim of Relevance

Be relevant

4. The Maxim of Manner

Be clear
Be orderly

49.Implicatures of discourse. Conversational and conventional implicatures.

Communicative maxims make it possible to generate inferences which are defined

as conversational implicatures and conventional implicatures. Conversational
implicatures are such components of an utterance that are not expressed semantically
but are understood by communicants in the process of communication: Was it you
who broke the cup? This question presupposes: Someone has broken the cup. If you
did not do that your normal reaction would be: What cup?, while the answer I didn’t
do that shows that you know about the fact. Conversational implicatures are universal,
they do not depend on the language used. The second type of implicatures,
conventional implicatures, are derived from a definite lexical or grammatical
structure of an utterance: I saw only John (conventional implicature – I didn’t see
anyone else), Even Bill is smarter than you (Everybody is smarter than John, John is
stupid).

50.Implicatures(1) and indirectness(2). The Politeness Principle(3).

(1) Communicative maxims make it possible to generate inferences which are defined
as conversational implicatures and conventional implicatures. Conversational
implicatures are such components of an utterance that are not expressed semantically
but are understood by communicants in the process of communication: Was it you
who broke the cup? This question presupposes: Someone has broken the cup. If you
did not do that your normal reaction would be: What cup?, while the answer I didn’t
do that shows that you know about the fact. Conversational implicatures are
universal, they do not depend on the language used. The second type of implicatures,
conventional implicatures, are derived from a definite lexical or grammatical
structure of an utterance: I saw only John (conventional implicature – I didn’t see
anyone else), Even Bill is smarter than you (Everybody is smarter than John, John is
stupid).

(2) Both kinds of implicatures are of great interest for discourse analysis. When there
is a mismatch between the expressed meaning and the implied meaning we deal
with indirectness. Indirectness is a universal phenomenon: it occurs in all natural
languages

Let us see how conversational implicatures arise from Maxims of Conversation

and thus create indirectness.

A). In the following example Polonius is talking to Hamlet:

Polonius: What do you read, My Lord?

Hamlet: Words, words, words.

In this dialogue Hamlet deliberately gives less information than is required by

the situation and so flouts the Maxim of Quantity. At the same time he
deliberately fails to help Polonius to achieve his goals, thereby flouting the
Maxim of Relevance. The Maxim of Quantity is also flouted when we say: Law
is law, woman is woman, students are students. This makes us look for what
these utterances really mean.

B). In the utterance You’re being too smart! the Maxim of Quality is flouted and
the hearer is made to look for a covert sense. Similarly, the same maxim is
flouted with metaphors. If I say: He is made of iron, I am either non-cooperative
or I want to convey something different.

C). The Maxim of Relevance can also be responsible for producing a wide
range of standard implicatures:

A: Can you tell me the time?

+B: The bell has gone.

(3)There are times when people say (or write) exactly what they mean, but
generally they are not totally explicit. They manage to convey far more than
their words mean, or even something quite different from the meaning of their
words. It was Paul Grice who attempted to explain how, by means of shared
rules or conventions, language users manage to understand one another. He
introduced guidelines necessary for the efficient and effective conversation.
He defined these guidelines as Cooperative Principle. Cooperative Principle
presupposes that conversation is governed by four basic rules, Maxims of
Conversation. There are four of them:

1. The Maxim of Quality

Do not say what you believe to be false
Do not say for what you lack adequate evidence

2. The Maxim of Quantity

Make your contribution as informative as required
Do not make your contribution more informative than is required

3. The Maxim of Relevance

Be relevant

4. The Maxim of Manner

Be clear