Theory Lecture 2

Theme 3. Morphology. Parts of Speech. Problems of Classification.
Nouns and their categories. The article.

1. Parts of speech. Problems of classification.
2. Nouns and their categories. Syntactical and morphological characteristics of
nouns.
3. Case as the morphological category of the Noun. The case theories.
4. The category of number. Different meanings of the singular and plural forms.
5. The category of gender. Gender in English and in Ukrainian.
6. Noun determiners and their grammatical relevance.
7. The article as a part of speech. Communicative functions of articles.
8. The Definite Article. The Indefinite Article. The Zero Article.
Parts of speech denote_______________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
There are 3 types of grammatically relevant features of words:
Semantic features Formal features Functional features
e.g. e.g. e.g.

According to Emilia Morokhovskaya there are the following parts of speech:
Lexical parts of speech Functional parts of speech
- -
- -
- -
- -
? Noun –
The characteristic features of the noun are:
1- _____________________________________________________________
2- _____________________________________________________________
3- _____________________________________________________________
The class of nouns unites:
 names of objects, places and persons e.g._______________________
 names of qualities e.g._______________________
 processes e.g._______________________
 states e.g._______________________
 abstract notions e.g._______________________
 manner of action e.g._______________________
Nouns can perform syntactic functions of:
- _______________________ e.g. Marry is happy.
- _______________________ e.g. Send the letter, please!
- _______________________ e.g. This is a dog house.
- _______________________ e.g. This is a dog house.
- _______________________ e.g. Sheila lives in Kyiv.
Semantic classification of nouns
Structural (morphological classification) of nouns

Noun
compound (stem+stem)
simple (stem) - arm - wallpaper
composite (where the is the

derived (stem+affix, affix+stem) part of the name
- knowledge, inability -the Thames)
Formal classification (number criterion) of nouns
a) countable b) uncountable c) both countable and

uncountable
Singular form denotes: ________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
Plural form denotes: ________________________________________
________________________________________
Uncountable nouns:
Pluralia tantum Singularia tantum

(absolute Plural) (absolute Singular)
“Theory of positional cases”:
Author(s): _________________________________________________________
Main idea: ________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Criticism: ________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
“Theory of prepositional cases”:
Author(s): _________________________________________________________
Main idea: ________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Criticism: ________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
“Limited case theory”
Author(s): _________________________________________________________
Main idea: ________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Criticism: ________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
“Theory of postpositional cases”:
Author(s): _________________________________________________________
Main idea: ________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
“Theory of deep cases”:
Author(s): _________________________________________________________
Main idea: ________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Gender is the grammatical distinction between ____________, ____________,

and ____________.
Gender in English may be expressed by:
 lexico-semantic means e.g. ____________________________
 syntactic means e.g. ____________________________
 morphological means e.g. ____________________________
? The article –
The main functions of the indefinite articles are: classifying, generic and
numerical.
 In its classifying function (another term is nominating function) the article

serves to refer an object to the class or group of objects of the same kind. In
this case the indefinite article has the meaning of “any”.
E.g. _________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
 In its generic function the indefinite article implies that the object denoted
by the noun is spoken of as a representative of the class, and therefore what
is said about the thing, animal, person or notion mentioned, refers to any
object of the same kind. The article has the meaning of “every”.
E.g. _________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
 In its numerical function the indefinite article retains its original meaning
of the cardinal numeral “one”.
E.g. _________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
There are two main functions of the definite article: specifying (some
grammarians call it individualizing) and generic.
 The definite article in its specifying function serves to single out an object
or a group of objects from all the other objects (things, persons, animals,
abstract notions) of the same kind.
E.g. _________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
 The definite article in its generic function refers the following noun to the
whole class of objects of the same kind, i.e. a noun denotes a genus as a
whole, a thing taken as a type, a genre. The generic article is always found
with collective nouns denoting social groups or classes.
E.g. _________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
NOUN
COUNTABLE UNCOUNTABLE
SINGULAR PLURAL
GENERAL SPECIFIC GENERAL SPECIFIC GENERAL SPECIFIC
a(n) the Ø the Ø the

Theory Lecture 2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Theory Lecture 2

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Theory Lecture 2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Theme 3. Morphology. Parts of Speech. Problems of Classification.

Nouns and their categories. The article.

Parts of speech denote_______________________________________________

There are 3 types of grammatically relevant features of words:

Semantic features Formal features Functional features

e.g. e.g. e.g.

Lexical parts of speech Functional parts of speech

The characteristic features of the noun are:

The class of nouns unites:

 names of objects, places and persons e.g._______________________

 names of qualities e.g._______________________

 abstract notions e.g._______________________

 manner of action e.g._______________________

Nouns can perform syntactic functions of:

- _______________________ e.g. Marry is happy.

- _______________________ e.g. Send the letter, please!

- _______________________ e.g. This is a dog house.

- _______________________ e.g. This is a dog house.

- _______________________ e.g. Sheila lives in Kyiv.

Semantic classification of nouns

Structural (morphological classification) of nouns

composite (where the is the

Formal classification (number criterion) of nouns

a) countable b) uncountable c) both countable and

Singular form denotes: ________________________________________

Plural form denotes: ________________________________________

Pluralia tantum Singularia tantum

“Theory of positional cases”:

Main idea: ________________________________________________________

“Theory of prepositional cases”:

Main idea: ________________________________________________________

“Limited case theory”

“Theory of postpositional cases”:

Main idea: ________________________________________________________

“Theory of deep cases”:

Main idea: ________________________________________________________

Gender is the grammatical distinction between ____________, ____________,

Gender in English may be expressed by:

 lexico-semantic means e.g. ____________________________

 syntactic means e.g. ____________________________

 morphological means e.g. ____________________________

 In its classifying function (another term is nominating function) the article

You might also like

Gender is the grammatical distinction between , ,