4.

Thesis of lectures
4. Thesis of lectures
№ Title of the lecture and abstracts Volum
WEEK e in
hours
1 Lecture 1 Considered problematic issues (schedule of lectures):Language and Speech Levels 1
1.1 language and speech levels
1.2primary and secondary levels
1.3 units of levels
1.3 the difference between language and speech
The summary of this lecture:
Language (Speech) is divided to certain strata or levels. The linguists distinguish basic and
nonbasic (sometimes they term them differently: primary and secondary) levels. This distinction
depends on whether a level has got its own unit or not. If a level has its own unit then this level is
qualified as basic or primary. If a level doesn't have a unit of its own then it is a non - basic or
secondary level. Thus the number of levels entirely depend on how many language (or speech)
units in language. There's a number of conceptions on this issue: some scientists say that there are
four units (phoneme/phone; morpheme/morph; lexeme/lex and sentence), others think that there
are five units like phonemes, morphemes, lexemes, word -combinations (phrases) and sentences
and still others maintain that besides the mentioned ones there are paragraphs, utterances and texts.
As one can see there's no unity in the number of language and speech units. The most wide -
spread opinion is that there are five language (speech) units and respectively there are five
language (speech) levels, they are: phonetic/phonological; morphological; lexicological, syntax -
minor and syntax - major. The levels and their units are as follows: 1. phonological/phonetical
level: phoneme/phone 2. morphological level: morpheme/morph 3. lexicological level: lexeme/lex
4. Syntax - minor: sentence 5. Syntax - major: text
Thus, non - basic or secondary level is one that has no unit of its own. Stylistics can be said to
be non - basic (secondary) because this level has no its own unit. In order to achieve its aim it
makes wide use of the units of the primary (basic) levels. The stylistics studies the expressive
means and stylistic devices of languages. According to I.R. Galperin "The expressive means of a
language are those phonetic means, morphological forms, means of word -building, and lexical,
phraseological and syntactical form, all of which function in the language for emotional or logical
intensification of the utterance. These intensifying forms of the language, wrought by social usage
and recognized by their semantic function have been fixed in grammars, dictionaries".(12)
"What then is a stylistic device (SD)? It is a conscious and intentional literary use of some
of the facts of the language (including expressive means) in which the most essential features (both
structural and semantic) of the language forms are raised to a generalized level and thereby present
a generative model. Most stylistic devices may be regarded as aiming at the further intensification
of the emotional or logical emphasis contained in the corresponding expressive means".(12)
When talking about the levels one has to mention about the distinction between language and
speech because the linguistics differentiates language units and speech units.
The main distinction between language and speech is in the following: 1) language is abstract
and speech is concrete; 2) language is common, general for all the bearers while speech is
individual; 3) language is stable, less changeable while speech tends to changes; 4) language is a
closed system, its units are limited while speech tend to be openness and endless. It is very
important to take into account these distinctions when considering the language and speech units.
There are some conceptions according to which the terms of "language levels" are substituted by
the term of "emic level" while the "speech levels" are substituted by "ethic levels". Very often
these terms are used interchangeably. The lowest level in the hierarchy of levels has two special
terms: phonology and phonetics. Phonology is the level that deals with language units and
phonetics is the level that deals with speech units. The lowest level deals with language and speech
units which are the smallest and meaningless. So, the smallest meaningless unit of language is
called phoneme; the smallest meaningless unit of speech is called phone. As it's been said above
the language units are abstract and limited in number which means that phonemes are abstract and
that they are of definite number in languages. The speech units are concrete, changeable and
actually endless. This means that language units (phonemes) are represented in speech differently
which depends on the person that pronounces them and on the combinability of the phoneme.
Phonemes when pronounced in concrete speech vary from person to person, according to how
he has got used to pronounce this or that sound. In linguistic theory it is explained by the term
"idiolect" that is, individual dialect. Besides, there may be positional changes (combinability):
depending on the sounds that precede and follow the sound that we are interested in the
pronunciation of it may be different, compare: low and battle. The sound "1" will be pronounced
differently in these two words because the letter “l" in the first word is placed in the initial position
and in the second word it stands after the letter "t". So we face "light" (in the first word) and "dark"
version (in the second case). These alternants are said to be in the complimentary distribution and
they are called allophones (variants, options or alternants) of one phoneme. Thus allophone is a
variant of a phoneme.
The second level in the hierarchy of strata is called morphological. There's only one term for
both language and speech but the units have different terms: morpheme for language and morph
for speech. This level deals with units that are also smallest but in this case they are meaningful.
So the smallest meaningful unit of language is called a morpheme and the smallest meaningful unit
of speech is called a morph. The morphs that have different forms, but identical (similar) meanings
are united into one morpheme and called "allomorphs". The morpheme of the past tense has at
least three allomorphs, they are. /t/, /d/, /id/ - Examples: worked, phoned and wanted. The variant
of the morpheme depends on the preceding sound in the word.
The third level is lexicological which deals with words. Word may be a common term for
language and speech units. Some linguists offer specific terms for language and speech: "lexeme"
for language and “lex” for speech.
The correlation between "lexeme" and "lex" is the same as it is between “phoneme” and
“phone” and “morpheme” and “morph”. “Lexeme” is a language unit of the lexicological level
which has a nominative function. "Lex" is a speech unit of the lexicological level which has a
nominative function.
Thus, both lexeme and lex nominate something or name things, actions phenomena, quality,
quantity and so on.
Examples: tree, pen, sky, red, worker, friendship, ungentlemanly and so on. An abstract
lexeme "table" of language is used in speech as lex with concrete meaning of "writing table",
"dinner table", "round table", "square table", and so on. There may be "allolexes" like allophones
and allomorphs. Allolexes are lexes that have identical or similar meanings but different forms,
compare: start, commence, begin.
To avoid confusion between "morpheme" and "lexemes" it is very important to remember
that morphemes are structural units while lexemes are communicative units: morpheme are built of
phonemes and they are used to build words - lexemes. Lexemes take an immediate part in shaping
the thoughts, that is, in building sentences. Besides, lexemes may consist of one or more
morphemes. The lexeme "tree" consists of one morpheme while the lexeme "ungentlemanly"
consists of four morphemes: un - gentle - man - ly.
The next level is syntax - minor which deals with sentences. The term "Syntax - minor" is
common one for both language and speech levels and their unit "sentence" is also one common
term for language and speech units. The linguistics hasn't yet worked out separate terms for those
purposes.
The abstract notion "sentence" of language can have concrete its representation in speech
which is also called "Sentence" due to the absence of the special term. Example: "An idea of
writing a letter” on the abstract language level can have its concrete representation in speech: John
writes a letter. A letter is written by John.
Since one and the same idea is expressed in two different forms they are called "allo -
sentences". Some authors call them grammatical synonyms. Thus, sentence is language and speech
units on the syntax - minor level, which has a communicative function.
In the same way the level syntax - major can be explained. The unit of this level is text - the
highest level of language and speech. "Syntax- major" represents both language and speech levels
due to the absence of separate term as well as "text" is used homogeneously for both language and
speech units.
The language and speech units are interconnected and interdependent. This can easily be
proved by the fact that the units of lower level are used to make up or to build the units of the next
higher level: phones are used as building material for morphs, and morphs are used to build lexes
and the latter are used to construct sentences. Besides, the homonyms that appear in the phonetical
level can be explained on the following higher level, compare: - "er" is a homonymous morph. In
 order to find out in which meaning it is used we’ll have to use it on the lexicological level; if it is
added to verbs like "teacher", "worker" then it will have one meaning but if we use it with
adjectives like “higher”, “lower” it will have another meaning. Before getting down to “the
theoretical grammar” course one has to know the information given above.
Test tasks and questions for current, boundary and intermediate control to this lecture
1. What is the etymology of Grammar?
2. Why do we have to stratify language and speech?
3. What is the difference between primary and secondary levels?
4. Do all the linguists share the same opinion on the stratification of language?
5. How many basic or primary levels are there in language and speech?
6. What's the difference between language levels and speech levels?
7. What does phonetical - phonological level study?
8. What does morphological level study?
9. 10. What does lexicological level study?
10. What does syntax - minor study?
2 Lecture 2 Considered problematic issues (schedule of lectures): The Grammatical Structure of a 1
Language
2.1 The meanings of the notion of "Grammatical Structure"
2.2 The lexical and grammatical meanings
2.3 The grammatical structure of languages from the point of view of general linguisticsThe
summary of this lecture:
The grammatical signals have a meaning of their own independent of the meaning of the notional
words. This can be illustrated by the following sentence with nonsensical words: Woggles ugged
diggles.
According to Ch. Fries (32) the morphological and the syntactic signals in the given sentence
make us understand that “several actors acted upon some objects”. This sentence which is a
syntactic signal, makes the listener understand it as a declarative sentence whose grammatical
meaning is actor - action - thing acted upon. One can easily change (transform) the sentence into
the singular (A woggle ugged a diggle.), negative (A woggle did not ugg a diggle.), or
interrogative (Did a woggle ugg a diggle?) All these operations are grammatical. Then what are the
main units of grammar - structure.
Let us assume, for example, a situation in which are involved a man, a boy, some money,
an act of giving, the man the giver, the boy the receiver, the time of the transaction - yesterday...
Any one of the units man, boy, money, giver, yesterday could appear in the linguistic structure as
subject.
 The man gave the boy the money yesterday.
 The boy was given the money by the man yesterday.
 The money was given the boy by the man yesterday.
 The giving of the money to the boy by the man occurred yesterday.
 Yesterday was the time of the giving of the money to the boy by the man.
 "Subject" then is a formal linguistic structural matter.
Thus, the grammatical meaning of a syntactic construction shows the relation between the
words in it.
We have just mentioned here "grammatical meaning", “grammatical utterance”. The whole
complex of linguistic means made use of grouping words into utterances is called a grammatical
structure of the language.
All the means which are used to group words into the sentence exist as a certain system; they
are interconnected and interdependent. They constitute the sentence structure.
All the words of a language fall, as we stated above, under notional and functional words.
Notional words are divided into four classes in accord with the position in which they stand in
a sentence. Notional words as positional classes are generally represented by the following
symbols: N, V, A, D.
The man landed the jet plane safely
N V A N D
Words which refer to class N cannot replace word referring to class V and vice versa. These
classes we shall call grammatical word classes.
Thus, in any language there are certain classes of words which have their own positions in
sentences. They may also be considered to be grammatical means of a language.
So we come to a conclusion that the basic means of the grammatical structure of language
 are: a) sentence structure; b) grammatical word classes.
In connection with this grammar is divided into two parts: grammar which deals with
sentence structure and grammar which deals with grammatical word - classes. The first is syntax
and the second - morphology.
W. Francis: "The Structure of American English".
The Structural grammarian regularly begins with an objective description of the forms of
language and moves towards meaning.
An organized whole is greater than the mere sum of its parts
The organized whole is a structural meaning and the mere sum of its parts is a lexical
meaning.
Five Signals of Syntactic Structure
1. Word Order - is the linear or time sequence in which words appear in an utterance.
2. Prosody - is the over-all musical pattern of stress, pitch, juncture in which the words of an
utterance are spoken
3. Function words - are words largely devoid of lexical meaning which are used to indicate
various functional relationships among the lexical words of an utterance
4. Inflections - are morphemic changes - the addition of suffixes and morphological means
concomitant morphophonemic adjustments - which adopt words to perform certain structural
function without changing their lexical meanings
5. Derivational contrast - is the contrast between words which have the same base but differ in the
number and nature of their derivational affixes
One more thing must be mentioned here. According to the morphological classification
English is one of the flexional languages. But the flexional languages fall under synthetical and
analytical ones. The synthetical-flexional languages are rich in grammatical inflections and the
words in sentences are mostly connected with each-other by means of these inflections though
functional words and other grammatical means also participate in this. But the grammatical
inflections are of primary importance. The slavonic languages (Russian, Ukraine…) are of this
type.
The flectional-analytical languages like English and French in order to connect words to
sentences make wide use of the order of words and functional words due to the limited number of
grammatical flexions. The grammatical means - order of words – is of primary importance for this
type of languages.
Lexical and Grammatical Meaning
In the next chapter we shall come to know that some morphemes are independent and directly
associated with some object of reality while others are depended and are connected with the world
of reality only indirectly. Examples:
desk-s;bag-s; work-ed; lie-d …
The first elements of these words are not dependent as the second elements. Morphemes of the
1st type we’ll call lexical and meanings they express are lexical
The elements like -s, -ed, -d are called grammatical morphemes and meanings they express
are grammatical.
Thus, lexical meaning is characteristic to lexical morphemes, while grammatical meanings are
characteristic to grammatical morphemes.
Grammatical meanings are expressed not only by forms of word – changing, i.e. by affixation
but by free morphemes that are used to form analytical word-form, e.g. He will study, I shall go.
The meaning of shall, will considered to be grammatical since comparing the relations of invite
- invited - shall invite we can see that the function of shall is similar to that of grammatical
morphemes -s, -ed.
Test tasks and questions for current, boundary and intermediate control to this lecture:
1. What do you understand by “grammatical structure of a language”?
2. What is the difference between synthetic and analytical languages?
3. What are the basic grammatical means of the English language?
4. Describe all the grammatical means of English.
5. Compare the grammatical structure of English with the grammatical structure of your
native language?
6. What is the difference between lexical and grammatical meanings?

3 Lecture 3 Considered problematic issues (schedule of lectures): The Morphemic Structure of the 1
English Language
3.1 Language and speech levels and their corresponding units
3.2 Morpheme-morph-allomorph
The summary of this lecture:
There are many approaches to the questions mentioned above. According to Zellig Harris
"The morphemic analysis is the operation by which the analyst isolates minimum meaningful
elements in the utterances of a language, and decides which occurrences of such elements shall be
regarded as occurrences of "the same" element".
The general procedure of isolating the minimum meaningful elements is as follows:
Step 1. The utterances of a language are examined (obviously) not all of them, but a sampling
which we hope will be statistically valid. Recurrent partials with constant meaning (ran away in
John ran away and Bill ran away) are discovered; recurrent partials not composed of smaller ones
(way) are alternants or morphs. So are any partials not recurrent but left over when all recurrent
ones are counted for. Every utterance is composed entirely of morphs. The division of a stretch of
speech between one morph and another, we shall call a cut.
Step 2. Two or more morphs are grouped into a single morpheme if they: a) have the same
meaning; b) never occur in identical environments and c) have combined environments no greater
than the environments of some single alternant in the language.
Step 3. The difference in the phonemic shape of alternants of morphemes are organized and stated;
this constitutes morphophonemics Compare the above said with the conception of Ch. Hockett.
Ch. Hockett : Step 1. All the utterances of the language before (us) the analyst recorded in some
phonemic notation. Step 2. The notations are now examined, recurrent partials with constant
meaning are discovered; those not composed of smaller ones are morphs. So are any partials not
recurrent but left over when all recurrent ones are accounted for: therefore every bit of phonemic
material belongs to one morphs or another. By definition, a morph has the same phonemic shape in
all its occurrences; and (at this stage) every morph has an overt phonemic shape, but a morph is
not necessarily composed of a continuous uninterrupted stretch of phonemes. The line between
two continuous morphs is a cut. Step 3. Omitting doubtful cases, morphs are classed on the basis
of shape and canonical forms are tentatively determined. Step 4. Two or more morphs are grouped
into a single morpheme if they fit the following grouping - requirements: a) they have the same
meaning; b) they are in non-contrastive distribution; c) the range of resultant morpheme is not
unique. Step 5. It is very important to remember that if in this procedure one comes across to
alternative possibilities, choice must be based upon the following order of priority: a) tactical
simplicity b) morphophonemic simplicity c) conformity to canonical forms. Thus the first cut of
utterance into the smallest meaningful units is called morph. The morphs that have identical
meanings are grouped into one morpheme. It means the morphs and morphemes are speech and
language units that have both form (or shape) and meanings. The smallest meaningful unit of
language is called a morpheme while the smallest meaningful unit of speech is called a morph.
There’s a notion of allomorph in linguistics. By allomorphs the linguists understand the morphs
that have identical meanings and that are grouped into one morpheme. There may be another
definition of the allomorphs: the variants (or options, or alternants) of a morpheme are called
allomorphs.
Compare the above said with Harris’s opinion. Some morphs, however, and some may be assigned
simultaneously to two (or more) morphemes. An empty morph, assigned to no morpheme. (All the
empty morphs in a language are in complementary distribution and have the same meaning (none).
They could if there were any advantages in it, be grouped into a single empty morpheme (but one
which had the unique characteristic of being tactically irrelevant), must have no meaning and must
be predicable in terms of non-empty morphs. A portmanteau morphs must have the meanings of
two or more morphemes simultaneously, and must be in non-contrastive distribution with the
combination of any alternant of one of the member morphemes and any alternant of the other
(usually because no such combination occur).
The difference in the phonemic shape of morphs as alternants of morphemes are organized
and stated; this (in some cases already partly accomplished in Step 1) constitutes
morphophonemics.
In particular, portmanteaus are compared with the other alternants of the morphemes involved,
and if resemblances in phonemic shape and the number of cases warrant, morphs of other than
overt phonemic content are recognized, some of the portmanteaus being thus eliminated.
The Types of Morphemes
Morphemes can be classified from different view-points: 1. functional 2. number correlation
between form and content
 From the point of view of function they may be lexical and grammatical. The lexical
morphemes are those that express full lexical meaning of their own and are associated with some
object, quality, action, number of reality, like: lip, red, go, one and so on. The lexical morphemes
can be subdivided into lexical - free and lexical - bound morphemes. The examples given above
are free ones; they are used in speech independently. The lexical-bound ones are never used
independently; they are usually added to some lexical-free morphemes to build new words like-
friend-ship, free-dom, teach-er, spoon-ful and so on. Taking into account that in form they
resemble the grammatical inflections they may be also called lexical - grammatical morphemes.
Thus lexical - bound morphemes are those that determine lexical meanings of words but resemble
grammatical morphemes in their dependence on lexical - free morphemes. The lexical - bound
morphemes are means to build new words.
The grammatical morphemes are those that are used either to connect words in sentences or
to form new grammatical forms of words. The content of such morphemes are connected with the
world of reality only indirectly therefore they are also called structural morphemes, e.g., shall, will,
be, have, is, - (e)s, -(e)d and so on. As it is seen from the examples the grammatical morphemes
have also two subtypes: grammatical - free and grammatical - bound. The grammatical - free ones
are used in sentences independently (I shall go) while grammatical - bound ones are usually
attached to some lexical - free morphemes to express new grammatical form, like: girl's bag,
bigger room, asked.
From the point of view of number correlation between form and content there may be overt,
zero, empty and discontinuous morphemes.
By overt morpheme the linguists understand morphemes that are represented by both form and
content like: eye, bell, big and so on.
Zero morphemes are those that have (meaning) content but do not have explicitly expressed
forms. These morphemes are revealed by means of comparison: ask – asks high -higher
In these words the second forms are marked: "asks" is a verb in the third person singular
which is expressed by the inflection "s". In its counterpart there's no marker like "s" but the
absence of the marker also has grammatical meaning: it means that the verb "ask" is not in the
third person, singular number. Such morphemes are called "zero". In the second example the
adjective "higher" is in the comparative degree, because of the "- er" while its counterpart "high" is
in the positive degree, the absence of the marker expresses a grammatical meaning, i.e. a zero
marker is also meaningful, therefore it's a zero morpheme.
There are cases when there's a marker which has not a concrete meaning, i.e. there's neither
lexical nor grammatical meaning like: statesman. The word consists of three morphemes: state - s -
man. The first and third morphemes have certain meanings. But "s" has no meaning though serve
as a connector: it links the first morpheme with the third one. Such morphemes are called empty.
Thus empty morphemes are those that have form but no content.
In contemporary English there are cases when two forms express one meaning like: He is
writing a letter Two morphemes in this sentence "is" and " - ing" express one meaning: a
continuous action. Such morphemes are called discontinuous.
Thus there are two approaches to classify morphemes: functional and number correlation
between form and content. The first one can be shown in the following scheme:
Morphemes

Lexical grammatical

free bound free bound

The second one can also be shown in the same way:

Morphemes
overt Zero empty discontinuous
form + - + ++
meaning + + - +

Test tasks and questions for current, boundary and intermediate control to this lecture:
1. What operation is called "morphemic analysis?"
2. What are the procedures for revealing morphemes suggested by Z. Harris and Ch.
 Hockett?
3. What is a morpheme?
4. What is a morph?
5. What is an allomorph?
6. What are the criteria to classify morphemes?
7. What morphemes do you know according to the functional classification?
8. What types of morphemes are distinguished according to the criterion of number
correlation between form and content?

4 Lecture 4 Considered problematic issues (schedule of lectures): The Grammatical Categories 1

4.1 what is categorization?
4.2 what linguistic phenomenon is called a "grammatical category"?
4.3 what is "opposition"?
The types of grammatical categories
The summary of this lecture:
Any research presupposes bringing into certain order the material being studied. The issue
under the consideration is also an attempt to generalize the grammatical means of language.
There are many conceptions on the problem today. According to B. Golovin (13) “a
grammatical category is a real linguistic unity of grammatical meaning and the means of its
material expression”. It means that in order to call a linguistic phenomenon a grammatical
category there must be a grammatical meaning and grammatical means.
M.Y. Blokh explains it as follows: “As for the grammatical category itself, it presents, the
same as the grammatical "form", a unity of form (i.e. material factor), and meanings (i.e. ideal
factor) and constitutes a certain signemic system.
More specifically the grammatical category is a system of expressing a generalized
grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms.
The paradigmatic correlations of grammatical forms in a category are exposed by the so -
called “grammatical oppositions”.
The opposition (in the linguistic sense) may be defined as a generalized correlation of lingual
forms by means of which a certain function is expressed. The correlated elements (members) of
the opposition must possess two types of features: common features and differential features.
Common features serve as the basis of contrast while differential features immediately express
the function in question.
The grammatical categories are better to explain by comparing them with logical categories.
The grammatical categories are opposed to logical ones. The logical categories are universal for all
the languages. Any meanings can be expressed in any language. For instance, there's a logical
category of possession. The meaning of possession can be expressed in all the languages, compare:
My book (English) - Моя книга (Russian) – Менің кітабым (Kazakh).
As it is seen from the examples the meaning of possession in English and Russian is expressed,
by the possessive pronouns (lexical means) while in Kazakh it can be expressed either by the help
of a discontinuous morpheme (...нің ...ім) or by one overt morpheme (…ім). This category is
grammatical in Kazakh but lexical in the other two languages. Thus the universal logical
categories can be expressed by grammatical and non - grammatical (lexical, syntactic) means. The
grammatical categories are those logical ones that are expressed in languages by constant
grammatical means.
The doctrines mentioned above one - side approach to the problem. It is a rather complicated
issue in the general linguistics. But unfortunately we don't have universally acknowledged criteria
to meet the needs of individual languages. One of the most consistent theories of the grammatical
categories is the one that is suggested by L. Barkhudarov.
According to his opinion in order to call a linguistic phenomenon a grammatical category
there must be the following features:
- general grammatical meaning;
- this meaning must consist of at least two particular meanings;
- the particular meanings must be opposed to each - other:
- the particular meanings must have constant grammatical means to express them.
Thus, any linguistic phenomenon that meets these requirements is called a grammatical
category. English nouns have a grammatical category of number. This category has all the
requirements that are necessary for a grammatical category:
1. it has general grammatical meaning of number;
 2. it consists of two particular meanings; singular and plural;
3. singular is opposed to plural, they are antonymous;
4. singular and plural have their own constant grammatical means: singular is represented by a
zero morpheme and plural has the allomorphs like (s), (z), (iz). There are some other means to
express singular and plural in English but they make very small percentage compared with regular
means. Schematically this can be shown as follows:
Number

0 (s), (z), (iz)

singular plural
Another example. In English adjectives there's one grammatical category - the degrees of
comparison. What features does it have?
1. It has a general grammatical meaning: degrees of comparison;
2. The degrees of comparison consist of three particular meanings: positive, comparative and
superlative;
3. They are opposed to each - other;
4. They have their own grammatical means depending on the number of syllables in the word.
If in the category of number of nouns there are two particular meanings, in the grammatical
category of degrees of comparison there are three.
Thus, a grammatical category is a linguistic phenomenon that has a general grammatical
meaning consisting of at least two particular meanings that are opposed to each - other and that
have constant grammatical means of their own to express them.
Test tasks and questions for current, boundary and intermediate control to this lecture:
1. Why do we categorize the grammatical meanings?
2. Is there one conception of grammatical categories that is shared by all the scientists or are
there many approaches?
3. Whose conceptions on grammatical category do you know?
4. What are the main requirements for the grammatical category?
5. Comment the grammatical categories of case of nouns; voice, aspect, order of verbs.
6. What types of grammatical categories do you know?
5 Lecture 5 Considered problematic issues (schedule of lectures): The Parts of Speech 1
5.1 Brief history of grouping words to parts of speech
5.2 Contemporary criteria for classifying words to parts of speech
5.3 Structural approach to the classification of words (the doctrine of American Descriptive
School)
The summary of this lecture:
A thorough study of linguistic literature on the problem of English parts of speech enables us
to conclude that there were three tendencies in grouping English words into parts of speech or into
form classes:
1. Pre - structural tendency;
2. Structural tendency;
3. Post - structural tendency;
1. Pre - structural tendency is characterized by classifying words into word - groups according to
their meaning, function and form. To this group of scientists H. Sweet
O. Jespersen, O. Curme , B. Ilyish and other grammarians can be included.
2. The second tendency is characterized by classification of words exclusively according to their
structural meaning, as per their distribution. The representatives of the tendency are: Ch. Fries, W.
Francis, A. Hill and others.
3. The third one combines the ideas of the two above-mentioned tendencies. They classify words
in accord with the meaning, function, form; stem-building means and distribution (or
combinability). To this group of scientists, we can refer most Russian grammarians such as:
Khaimovitch and Rogovskaya , L. Barkhudarov and Shteling and others.
One of the central problems of a theoretical Grammar is the problem of parts of speech. There
is as yet no generally accepted system of English parts of speech. Now we shall consider
conceptions of some grammarians.
H. Sweet's classification of parts of speech is based on the three principles (criteria), namely
meaning, form and function. All the words in English he divides into two groups: 1) noun-words:
nouns, noun-pronouns, noun-numerals, infinitive, gerund; 2) verbs: finite verbs, verbals (infinitive,
gerund, participle)
 I. Declinable Adjective words: adjective, adjective pronouns, adjective-numeral, participles
II. Indeclinable: adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection
As you see, the results of his classification, however, reveal a considerable divergence
between his theory and practice. He seems to have kept to the form of words. Further, concluding
the chapter he wrote: "The distinction between the two classes which for convenience we
distinguish as declinable and indeclinable parts of speech is not entirely dependent on the presence
or absence of inflection, but really goes deeper, corresponding, to some extent, to the distinction
between head - word and adjunct-word. The great majority of the particles are used only as
adjunct-words, many of them being only form-words, while declinable words generally stand to
the particles in the relation of headwords.
O. Jespersen.
According to Jespersen the division of words into certain classes in the main goes back to the
Greek and Latin grammarians with a few additions and modifications. He argues against those
who while classifying words kept to either form or meaning of words, he states that the whole
complex of criteria, i.e. form, function and meaning should he kept in view. He gives the following
classification: 1. Substantives (including proper names)
2. Adjectives In some respects (1) and (2) may be classed together as "Nouns ".
3. Pronouns (including numerals and pronominal adverbs)
4. Verbs (with doubts as to the inclusion of "Verbids")
5. Particles (comprising what are generally called adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions-
coordinating and subordinating - and interjections).
As it is seen from his classification in practice only one of those features is taken into
consideration, and that is primarily form. Classes (1-4) are declinable while particles not. It
reminds Sweet's grouping of words. The two conceptions are very similar.
Tanet R. Aiken kept to function only. She has conceived of a six-class system, recognizing the
following categories: absolute, verb, complement, modifiers and connectives.
Ch. Fries' classification of words is entirely different from those of traditional grammarians.
The new approach - the application of two of the methods of structural linguistics, distributional
analysis and substitution - makes it possible for Fries to dispense with the usual eight parts of
speech. He classifies words into four form - classes, designated by numbers, and fifteen groups of
function words, designated by letters. The form-classes correspond roughly to what most
grammarians call noun and pronouns (1st clause), verb (2nd clause), adjective and adverbs, though
Fries warns the reader against the attempt to translate the statements which the latter finds in the
book into the old grammatical terms.
The group of function words contains not only prepositions and conjunctions but certain
specific words that more traditional grammarians would class as a particular kind of pronouns,
adverbs and verbs. In the following examples:
1. Woggles ugged diggles
2. Uggs woggled digs
3. Diggles diggled diggles
The woggles, uggs, diggles are "thing", because they are treated as English treats "thing" words -
we know it by the "positions" they occupy in the utterances and the forms they have, in contrast
with other positions and forms. Those are all structural signals of English. So Fries comes to the
conclusion that a part of speech in English is a functioning pattern. All words that can occupy
the same "set of positions" in the patterns of English single free utterances (simple sentences) must
belong to the same part speech.
Fries' test-frame-sentences were the following:
Frame A
The concert was good (always)
Frame B
The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly)
Frame C
The team went there
Fries started with his first test frame and set out to find in his material all the words that could
be substituted for the word concert with no change of structural meaning (The materials were some
fifty hours of tape-recorded conversations by some three hundred different speakers in which the
participants were entirely unaware that their speech was being recorded):
The concert was good
food
 coffee
taste....
The words of this list he called class I words.
The word “was” and all the words that can be used in this position he called class 2 words.
In such a way he revealed 4 classes of notional words and 15 classes of functional words.
These four classes of notional words contain approximately 67 per cent of the total instances
of the vocabulary items. In other words our utterances consist primarily of arrangements of these
four parts of speech.
Functional words are identified by letters
Class A Words
the concert was good
the a/an every
no my our
one all both
that some John’s

All the words appearing in this position (Group A) serve as markers of Class 1 words.
Sometimes they are called "determiners".
The author enumerates fourteen more groups of function words among which we find,
according to the traditional terminology
Group B - modal verbs Group I - interrogative pr-ns and adverbs
Group C - n.p.not Group J - subordinating conj-s
Group D - adverbs of degree Group K- interjections
Group E - coordinating conj-s. Group L- the words yes and no
Group F – prepositions Group M - attention giving signals look, say, listen Group G - the
aux-v. do Group N - the word please
Group H - introductory there Group O - let us, let in request sentences.
The difference between the four classes of words and function words are as follows:
1. The four classes are large in number while the total number of function words amounts to
154.
2. In the four classes the lexical meanings of the separate words are rather clearly separable
from the structural meanings of the arrangements in which these words appear. In the fifteen
groups it is usually difficult if not impossible to indicate a lexical meaning apart from the structural
meanings which these words signal. 3. Function words must be treated as items since they signal
different structural meanings: The boys were given the money.
The boys have given the money.
Russian grammarians in classifying words into parts of speech keep to different concepts;
A.I. Smirnitsky identifies three criteria. The most important of them is the syntactic function next
comes meaning and then morphological forms of words. In his opinion stem-building elements are
of no use. His word-groups are:

Notional words Function words

1. Nouns link - verbs
2. Adjectives prepositions conjunctions
3. Numerals modifying function words
4. Pronouns (article, particle)
5. Adverbs only, even, not
6. Verbs

R. Khaimovich and Rogovskaya identify five criteria

1. Lexico - grammatical meaning of words
2. Lexico - grammatical morphemes (stem - building elements)
3. Grammatical categories of words.
4. Their combinability (unilateral, bilateral)
5. Their function in a sentence.
Their Classification
1. Nouns
2. Adjectives
3. Pronouns
 4. Numerals
5. Verbs
6. Adverbs
7. Adlinks (the cat. of state)
8. Modal words
9. Prepositions
10. Conjunctions
11. Particles (just, yet, else, alone)
12. Interjections
13. Articles
14. Response words (yes, no) asleep, alive
As authors state the parts of speech lack some of those five criteria. The most general
properties of parts of speech are features 1, 4 and 5. B. A. Ilyish distinguishes three criteria: 1.
meaning; 2. form, 3. function. The third criteria is subdivided into two: a) the method of
combining the word with other ones b) the function in the sentence. a) has to deal with phrases; b)
with sentence structure. B. A. Ilyish considers the theory of parts of speech as essentially
a part of morphology, involving, however, some syntactical points.
1. Nouns 2. Adjective 3. Pronoun 4. Numerals 5. Statives (asleep, afraid) 6. Verbs 7. Adverbs 8.
Prepositions 9. Conjunctions 10. Particles 11. Modal words 12. Interjections.
L. Barkhudarov, D. Steling (4). Their classification of words are based on four principles. But
the important and characteristic feature of their classification is that they do not make use of
syntactic function of words in sentences: meaning, grammatical forms, combinability with other
words and the types of word - building (which are studied not by grammar, but by lexicology). 1.
Nouns 2. Articles 3. Pronouns 4. Adjectives 5. Adverbs 6. Numerals 7. Verbs 8. Prepositions 9.
Conjunctions 10. Particles 11. Modal words 12. Interjections We find another approach of those
authors to the words of English.
All the words are divided into two main classes: notional words and function - words:
connectives, determinatives.
Function words are those which do not have full lexical meaning and cannot be used as an
independent part of sentences. According to their function these words, as has been mentioned, are
subdivided into connectives and determinatives:
1. connectives form phrases as to believe in something or as in the hall. To connectives authors
refer: prepositions, conjunctions, modal and link verbs;
2. determinatives are words which define the lexical meaning of notional words (they either limit
them, or make them more concrete). These words include articles and particles.
The consideration of conceptions of different grammarians shows that the problem of parts of
speech is not yet solved. There's one point which is generally accepted: in M-n English there are
two classes of words-notional and functional - which are rather distinct.
Test tasks and questions for current, boundary and intermediate control to this lecture

6 Lecture 6 Considered problematic issues (schedule of lectures): The Noun 1

6.1 General Characteristics of Nouns
6.2 The Category of Number in modern English nouns
6.3 The category of case in in modern English nouns
6.4 The problem of gender in modern English

The summary of this lecture:

 6.1 General characteristics
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 characterized by three criteria:
 semantic (the meaning),
 morphological (the form and grammatical categories)
 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.
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 )
composite (the Hague).
The noun has morphological categories of number and case.
Some scholars s admit the existence of the category of gender.
Syntactic features of the noun
The noun can be used in 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 (combinability)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.
Why? How?
As nouns express or denote substance / thing, their distribution is bound with the words which
express the quality of substance, their number, their actions and their relation to the other words
/nouns/ in English.
1. When the quality of nouns are described we make use of adjectives:
 big, red apple
 energetic crisis
 a long, dusty track and others
2. When the quantity and order of nouns are described the numerals are to be used:
 the six continents 25th anniversary
 12 students....
3. When we denote the action of substances we make use of the verbs:
An apple-tree grows in the garden
3.When the relation of nouns to other words are described we make wide use of prepositions
 a window of the school
 to the park
 at the construction of the bridge
 6.2 The Category of Number in modern English nouns
Number is a grammatical category of nouns which denotes the number of objects, expressed
by a word.
 In English there are two numbers: singular and plural.
 The formal signal of the singular number is a zero morpheme
 The formal signal of plurality -/e/s.
 The formation of plural by means -/e/s is considered to be productive: a book-books; a
pen-pens
 non-productive:
a) suffix - en : ox – oxen
b) variation of vowels in the root of a word: tooth-teeth;
goose-geese; mouse-mice; man-men,
c) variation of vowels of the root + suffix- "ren" children;
d) homonymous forms for both singular and plural:
sheep – sheep deer – deer swine – swine
This type of formation of plurality was a norm for the whole group of words in Old English, but in
Modern English only some words have been preserved.
Non-productive type of number we find in some borrowed words from Latin and Greek, such as:
datum – data basis – bases /si:z/
memorandum – memoranda crisis – crises /si:z/
formula – formulae /i: / analysis – analyses /si:z/
These words form their plural as per the norms of Latin and Greek languages, though some of
them form their plural according to English: formulas, memorandums
With regard to the category of number English nouns fall under two subclasses: countable and
uncountable.
The latter is again subdivided into those having no plural form and those having no singular.
The former type is called Pluralia tantum: clothes, goods, the latter - singularia tantum: milk,
water.

6.3The category of case in in modern English Nouns

Case is an indication of a relation in which the noun stands to some other word.
H. Sweet's conception of the number of cases in English doubtful.
He is not sure whether in English there are five or two cases.
H. Sweet's writes: “English has only one inflected case, the genitive /man’s, men’s/, the
uninflected base constituting the common case / man, men /, which is equivalent to the nominative,
vocative, accusative and dative of such a language as Latin”. (But the facts of English made
H.Sweet identify only two)
O. Curme considers that of many case endings once used English has preserved only one, - 1st of
the genitive. Apart from the genitive relation, these grammatical relations are now indicated by the
position of the noun with regard to the verb or prepositions which have taken the place of the old
inflectional endings / He distinguishes four cases:
 Nominative-performs 3 functions: subject, predicate and direct object
 Accusative - performs 3 functions: object, adverbial modifier, predicate. The dog bit my
brother /obj./ He stayed an hour /adverbial acc/ I believed to be him /predicate/
 Dative: When an action directed toward smb: He makes coat for John.
 Genitive: girl's ...
 O. Jespersen distinguishes two cases: common and genitive.
 M. Bryant is of the same opinion.
 H. Whitehall distinguishes two cases in nouns on analogy with the pronouns which can
substitute for them: nominative and objective. He says: "The so-called possessive case is
best thought of as a method of transforming a noun into a modifier"
 Russian grammarians have different views on the problem of case system in Modern
English nouns.
 Russian grammarians have different views on the problem of case system in Modern
English nouns.
B.A. Ilyish considers that – ‘s is no longer a case inflexion in the classical sense of a word.
Unlike such classical inflections, -‘s may be attached:
a) to adverbs: yesterday's events
b) to a word group: Mary and John's apartment
c) to a whole clause: the man I saw yesterday’s son.
B.A. Ilyish concludes that the – ‘s morpheme gradually develops into a "form-word", a kind of
particle serving to convey the meanings of belonging, possession”.
  G.U. Vorontsova does not recognize -'s as case morpheme.
 She treats it as a "postposition", "a purely syntactical form - word resembling a
preposition", used as a sign of syntactical dependence".
 Her arguments are as follows:
 1. The use of-'s is optional /her brother's, of her brother/.
 2. -'s is used both in the singular and in the plural which is not incident to case
morphemes.
 To Khaimovich and Rogovskaya -' s still function as a case morpheme, because:
 1. The-'s morpheme is mostly attached to individual nouns, not noun groups /in 96 %/.
 2. It's general meaning – “the relation of a noun to another word” - is a typical case
meaning.
 3. The fact that -‘s occurs, as a rule, with a more or less limited group of words bears
testimony to its not being a "preposition like form word". The use of the preposition is
determined, chiefly by the noun it introduces: on /in/ under the table ...
 4. oxen’s - cows' /z/, /θ/ and /of/ alternants: identical meanings and in complementary
distribution.
 5. –‘s not a “preposition like word” since it has no vowel as it is found in other
prepositions in English.
 Case expresses the relation of a word to another word in the word-group or sentence (my
sister’s coat).
 The category of case correlates with the objective category of possession.
 The case category in English is realized through the opposition: The Common Case :: The
Possessive Case (sister :: sister’s).
However, in modern linguistics the term “genitive case” is used instead of the “possessive case”
because the meanings rendered by the “`s” sign are not only those of possession

6.4The problem of gender in modern English

 The term “gender” is opposed to the term “sex” (пол).
 The first term (gender) is a pure grammatical term which deals with the grammatical
expression of grammatical gender, i.e. the expression of masculine, feminine and neuter
genders.
 The second word (sex) is used as a common word for both male and female. Thus, it is
often used to denote biological notions.
Is there a grammatical category of gender in English nouns?
The English nouns do not have a grammatical category of gender.
Why?It is because that the nouns do not have constant grammatical means to express the
gender distinctions.
In old English there were three genders with their own markers.
B.A.Ilyish writes the following in this respect: "Three grammatical categories are represented in
the OE nouns, just as in many other Germanic and Indo-European languages: gender, number and
case.
What about in Modern English ?
In Modern English the meaning of gender may be expressed by the help of different other means:
1. gender may be indicated by a change of words that is, by the help of lexic-semantic
means:
man – woman,
cock (rooster) – hen,
bull-cow,
Arthur, Ann, Edgar, Helen and so on.
2. gender may be indicated by the addition of a word that is, by syntactic means examples:
Grandfather – grandmother, manservant – maidservant,
male cat – female cat or he cat – she cat and so on.
3. gender may be expressed by the use of suffixes:
host – hostess
hero – heroine
tiger – tigress.
There are opinions according to which these suffixes are morphological means, thus they are
grammatical means and because of this fact one may consider that English has the grammatical
category of gender.
But it can hardly be accepted.
There is a regular correspondence between English nouns and the personal pronouns in the third
person singular he, she, it.
 But this correspondence is not equal with the one which is found in Russian.
In the Russian language this correspondence is based on both the lexical-semantic and the
grammatical aspects but in English it is based on only the lexical-semantic aspect, that is
"he" is usually used to indicate real biological male sex, "she" indicates real biological female sex
“It” is used to indicate inanimate objects.
It is important to remember that the pronouns he, she, may also be used with regard to inanimate
nouns.
Examples: moon - she,
ship - she,
love - he and so on.
Such a use of these pronouns is explained by the cultural and historical backgrounds and it has
nothing to do with the grammatical expression of the meaning of gender.

Test tasks and questions for current, boundary and intermediate control to this lecture
1. What peculiar features of nouns do you know?
2. How many grammatical categories of nouns do you know?
3. What do you understand by regular and irregular formation of plural of nouns?
4. What means of irregular formation of plural meaning do you know?
5. Does English have the grammatical category of case?
6. What conceptions on the category of case do you know?
7. Is the category of case in English nouns is as stable as it is in your native language?
8. Is there a grammatical category of gender in English nouns?
9. What is the difference between the terms “gender” and “sex”?
10. Compare the gender meanings in English and your native language?
7 Lecture 7 Considered problematic issues (schedule of lectures): The Adjectives 1
7.1 The Grammatical Category of Degrees of Comparison
7.2 Substantivized Adjectives

The summary of this lecture:

The characteristic feature of the adjective as a part of speech

1) their lexical-grammatical meaning of attributes or they express property of things /persons/;
2) from the morphological view point they have the category of degrees of comparison;
3) from the point of view of their combinability they combine with nouns, as they express the
properties of things.
Adjectives modify nouns but they can combine with adverbs, link verbs, and verbs.
A white horse. (A modifies the noun)
The horse is white. (‘is’ link verb)
The sun rose red. (verb)
The sun rose extremely red. (adverb)
4) the stem-building affixes are: -ful, -less, -ish, -ous, -ive, -ir, un-, -pre-, in-...;
homeless, hopeless, useless
British, childish, Spanish
forgetful, helpful, useful
5) their syntactic functions are: attribute (an adjunct) and predicative, postpositive, heads of noun
phrase
the blue sea – attributive adjective (before the noun)
the sea is blue – predicative adjective (follow the verb)
the Governor General - postpositive (immediately after a noun)

Adjectives can often function as heads of noun phrases. As such, they do not inflect for number
and for the genitive case and must take a definite determiner.
Semantic featuresof adjectives
The adjective expresses the property of an entity.
Adjectives are characteristically stative, but many of them can be seen as dynamic.
The stative property of an entity is a property that cannot be conceived as a developing process.
John is very tall
The dynamic property of an entity is a property that is conceived as active, or as a developing
process.
She is being careful.
The Grammatical Category of Degrees of Comparison
Not all the adjectives of the English language have the degrees of comparison.
From this point of view they fall under two types:
1) comparable adjectives (qualitative adjectives)
2) non- comparable adjectives (golden, wooden, silk, cotton, raw )
The comparable ones are qualitative adjectives.
The grammatical category of degrees of comparison is the opposition of three individual
meanings:
1) positive degree
2) comparative degree
3) superlative degree
From the point of view of forming of the comparative and superlative degrees of comparison the
qualitative adjectives must be divided into four groups. They are:
One and some two syllabic adjectives that form their degrees by the help of inflections - er and -est
short - shorter - the shortest
The adjectives which form their degrees by means of root-vowel and final consonant change:
many - more - the most
3) The adjectives that form their degrees by means of suppletion
good - better - the best
4) Many - syllabic adjectives which form their degrees by means of the words "more" and
"most":
interesting - more interesting - the most interesting
7.2 Substantivized Adjectives
Adjectives under certain circumstances can be substantivized, i.e. become nouns.
substantivized adjectives denoting generalized or abstract notions.
They are used with the definite article and have singular agreement:
The young – жастар/молодежь;
the rich – байлар/богачи;
the elderly – қарттар/пожилые;
The young are usually intolerant
Have your read the book by Greg Palast “How the rich are destroying the Earth”?
the useful – пайдалы/полезное;
B. Khaimovich speaks of two types of substantivization full and partial.
By full substantivization he means when an adjective gets all the morphological features of nouns,
like: native, a native, the native, natives.
But all the partial substantivization he means when adjectives get only some of the morphological
features of nouns, as far instance, the adjective “rich” having substantivized can be used only with
the definite article: the rich
Test tasks and questions for current, boundary and intermediate control to this lecture:
1. What are the most important characteristic features of adjectives?
2. Why do we have to differentiate the qualitative and relative adjectives? 3. How are the
comparative and superlative of adjectives formed?
4. What adjectives form their degrees by both inflections and words more and most?
5. Are their adjectives that form their degrees of comparison by means of suppletion?
6. What do you understand by substantivization?
 7. Are the words "more" and "most" lexical or grammatical means when, they form the degrees of
comparison of adjectives?
8. What adjectives form their comparative and superlative by root-vowel and final-consonant
change?
8-9 Lecture 8 Considered problematic issues (schedule of lectures): The Verb 2
8.1 Verb as a Part of Speech
8.2 The Types of Verbs
8.3 Notional and Functional Verbs
8.4 Regular and Irregular Verbs
8.5 Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
8.6 The Grammatical categories of verbs
The summary of this lecture:
The verb is the most complex part of speech. Why? This is due to the central role it performs in
realizing predication - connection between the situation given in the utterance and reality.
A general outline of the Verb as a Part of Speech
1. Verbs express the meanings of action and state;
2. Verbs have the grammatical categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, mood, order and
posteriority most of which have their own grammatical means;
3. the function of verbs entirely depends on their forms:
if they are in finite form they fulfill only one function – predicate;
if they are in non-finite form then they can fulfill any function in the sentence but predicate; they
may be part of the predicate;
4. Verbs can combine actually with all the parts of speech, though they do not combine with
articles, with some pronouns.
It is important to note that the combinability of verbs mostly depends on the syntactical function
of verbs in speech;
5. Verbs have their own stem-building elements. They are: postfixes:
-fy (simplify, magnify, identify…)
-ize (realize, fertilize, standardize…)
-ate (activate, captivate…)
prefixes:
re- (rewrite, restart, replant…)
mis- (misuse, misunderstand, misstate…)
un- (uncover, uncouple, uncrown…)
de- (depose, depress, derange…) and so on.
Classification of Verbs
The classification of verbs can be undertaken from the following points of view:
1) meaning
2) form - formation;
3) function.
Meaning. The verb as a part of speech expresses a process.
Form. The verb is characterized by an elaborate system of morphological categories, some of
which are, however, controversial. These are: tense, aspect, mood, voice, person, and number
Function. (a) Verbs are connected with a preceding noun (children play) and with a following
noun (play games).
They are also connected with adverbs (write quickly).
Occasionally a verb may combine with an adjective (married young).
(b) In a sentence a verb (in its finite forms) is always the predicate or part of it (link verb).
The functions of the verbals (infinitive, participle, and gerund) must be dealt with separately
The category of Tense
Time is an unlimited duration in which things are considered as happening in the past, present
or future. Tense stands for a verb form used to express a time relation. Time can be expressed in
language in two basic ways: 1) lexically; 2) grammatically. The category of tense finds different
interpretations with different scholars.
The category of tense is considered to be an immanent grammatical category which means that
the finite verb form always expresses time distinctions.
According to the concept worked out by Prof. Blokh, there exist two tense categories in
English. They are the category of primary time and the category of “prospective time”.
The category of primary time – expresses a direct retrospective evaluation of the time of the
process denoted. It is based upon the opposition of past vs. present, the past tense being its strong
member. The category of “prospective time” – is based on the opposition of “after-action” and
“non-after-action”, the marked member being the future tense.
The category of Aspect
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. ‘non-progressive’ verbs are think, understand, know, hate, love, see, taste, feel, possess,
own, etc
The category of temporal correlation
The position of the perfect forms in the system of the English verb is a problem which has
been treated in many different ways and has raised much controversy.
There are three major approaches to defining the essence of perfective forms in English:
The category of perfect is a peculiar aspect category, i. e. one which should be given a place
in the list comprising "common aspect" and "continuous aspect". This view was held by a number
of scholars, including Prof. G. Vorontsova.
The position of the perfect forms in the system of the English verb is a problem which has been
treated in many different ways and has raised much controversy.
There are three major approaches to defining the essence of perfective forms in English:
The category of perfect is neither one of tense, nor one of aspect but a specific category different
from both. It should be designated by a special term and its relations to the categories of aspect and
tense should be investigated. This view was expressed by Prof. A. Smirnitsky.
 T
The category of Voice
By the category of voice is meant different grammatical ways of expressing the relation between a
transitive verb and its subject and object.
There are two voices in English grammar: the active and the passive.
H. Sweet , O. Curme recognize two voices.
There are such terms, as inverted object, inverted subject and retained object .
The Inverted object is the subject of the passive construction.
The Inverted subject is the object of the passive constructions.
“The examiner asked me three questions” either of the object words may be the subject of the
passive sentence.
Three questions were asked by the examiner
There are three moods: fact (indicative) or non-fact (subjunctive, imperative).
- in the indicative mood the speaker presents the action as taking place in reality;
Whales are mammals, not fish;
- in the imperative mood the speaker urges the listener to perform some action; Go!, Be quiet!,
Don’t disturb me! ;
- in the subjunctive mood the speaker presents the action as imaginary. I wish I were rich
Non-Finite Forms of the Verb
The non-finite forms of the verb combine the characteristics of the verb with the characteristics of
other parts of speech.
Their mixed features are revealed in their semantics, morphemic structural marking, combinability,
and syntactic functions.
The English (verbids) include four forms:
The Infinitive,
The Gerund,
The Present Participle
The Past Participle

Test tasks and questions for current, boundary and intermediate control to this lecture:
1. What are the most important features of verbs?
2. What is the difference between notional and functional verbs?
3. What are the criteria for classification of verbs?
4. What is the difference between finite and non-finite forms of the verbs?
5. Does English have the grammatical category of Tense? If Yes/No, Coment on it.
6. Does English have the grammatical category of Voice? If Yes/No, Coment on it.
7. Does English have the grammatical category of Mood? If Yes/No, Coment on it.
8. Characterize the Non-Finite Form of the Verb: The Infinitive
9. Characterize the Non-Finite Form of the Verb: The Gerund
10. Characterize the Non-Finite Form of the Verb: The Participle I
11. Characterize the Non-Finite Form of the Verb: The Participle II
10-11 Lecture 9 Considered problematic issues (schedule of lectures): The Adverb 2
9.1 The main features of the adverbs
9.2 Subclasses of Adverbs according to the meaning
The summary of this lecture:
Adverb a word that gives more information about when, how, where, or in what circumstances
something happens for example, quickly, now.
There are several different kinds of adverb:
Adverbs of manner, degree, place, time, duration, and frequency.
What are the main features of adverbs?
1. Meaning: they express the degree of a property, property of an action, circumstances under
which an action takes place.
2. Form: they have the degrees of comparison.
3. Stem-building elements: - ly, -ways, -wards, ...
4. Combinability: bilateral combinability with verbs, adjectives, adverbs, less regularly with
adlinks: e.g. He was hard asleep.
5. Function: Adverbial modifiers
According to the meaning adverbs fall under three subclasses:
1. Qualitative
 2. Quantitative
3. Circumstantial
1. Qualitative adverbs modifies verbs. badly, quickly, slowly, steadily, comparatively
They denote the quality of actions: Ex: Clay collapsed on the sand beside Cathie, a wet arm
playfully snatching her towel away.I want to go home, she said determinedly.
The Qualitative adverbs are derived from the adjectives by the help of productive adverb forming
suffix - ly.
Like adjectives the qualitative adverbs have distinctions of degree.
These adverbs can both precede and follow the verbs.
2. Quantitative adverbs show the degree, measure, quantity of an action and state.
very, rather, too, nearly, greatly, fully, hardly, quite, utterly.
Ex. She had told herself before that it would be foolish to fall in love with Rob. And she had
finally done it.
The combinability of the qualitative adverbs is bound with verbs only.
The combinability of the quantitative adverbs are more extensive: they can modify verbs,
the words of category of state,
adjectives,
adverbs,
numerals
nouns.
The combinability of the qualitative adverbs is bound with verbs only.
The combinability of the quantitative adverbs are more extensive: they can modify verbs,
the words of category of state,
adjectives,
adverbs,
numerals
nouns.
Quantitative adverbs show the degree, measure, quantity of an action and state.
very, rather, too, nearly, greatly, fully, hardly, quite, utterly.
Ex. She had told herself before that it would be foolish to fall in love with Rob. And she had
finally done it.
Circumstantial adverbs serve to denote in most cases local and temporal circumstances attending
an action.
Accordingly they are divided into two groups:
a) adverbs of time and frequency /today, tomorrow, often, again, twice .../.
b) adverbs of place and direction: upstairs, behind, in front of, ... Ex. They stood outside the door,
giving me directions. Now and then they deliberately refused to jump up and find himself
something to do when the unpleasant sensations clutched at him.
She waited in front of the window and when he came down he thrust a small dark blue box into
her hands. L.Wright
Circumstancial adverbs denote the time and place the action took place.
Unlike the Qualitative and quanative subclasses the circumstantial adverbs can occupy any
position in the sentence.
Some circumstantial adverbs can have the degrees of comparison: often, late, near and so on.
Special attention should be given to the fact that some circumstantial adverbs may be preceded by
prepositions: from now on, up to now, from there and so on.

Test tasks and questions for current, boundary and intermediate control to this lecture
1. What are the main features of adverbs?
2. According to the meaning Adverbs fall under three subclasses. Comment on them.
12 Lecture 10 Considered problematic issues (schedule of lectures): The Functional Parts of Speech 1
10.1.A general outline of functional parts of speech.
10.2 The preposition.
10.3 The conjunction.
10.4 The particle.
10.5 The interjection.
10.6 The modal word.
The summary of this lecture:
Functional words are characterized by incomplete nominative meaning, they are non-self-
dependent and they perform mediatory functions in the sentence.
The Preposition
Test tasks and questions for current, boundary and intermediate control to this lecture
The preposition is traditionally defined as a word expressing relations between words in the
sentence.
Semantic features of the Prepositions The preposition is traditionally defined as a word expressing
relations between words in the sentence.
In traditional analysis, the preposition is used with the noun phrase, not with the verb phrase.
She never saw him after the concert. (after is a preposition)
She never saw him after he left town. (after is a conjunction)
Morphological features of the Prepositions.
Structurally, prepositions fall into two categories:
- simple, or one-word prepositions (in, on, for, to, about, after, etc.)
- composite, or two- or three word prepositions (ahead of, because of, according to; by
means of, at the cost of, with reference to, etc.).
Syntactic features of the Prepositions
The function of prepositions is to connect words with each other.
On the sentence level: a preposition is never a part of a sentence by itself; it enters the part of
sentence whose main centre is the following noun, or pronoun, or gerund.
It won’t be correct to say that prepositions connect parts of a sentence. They do not do that, as
they stand within a part of the sentence, not between two parts.
The Conjunction
Semantic features of the Conjunctions
Every conjunction has its own meaning, expressing some connection or other existing between
phenomena in extra linguistic reality.
Conjunctions work as coordination of linguistic forms of syntactic units having equal value.
Syntactic features of the Conjunctions
Two levels are distinguished: phrase level , sentence level
On the phrase level, conjunctions connect words and phrases.
It is called coordinating conjunctions. for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. I’d like pizza or a salad
for lunch
On the sentence level, conjunctions connect clauses (of different kinds). It’s called subordinating
conjunctions because, since, as, although, though, while, and whereas. I can stay out until the
clock strikes twelve.
Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together. Some examples
are either/or, neither/nor, and not only/but also. Not only am I finished studying for English, but
I’m also finished writing my history essay.
The Particle
Particles are function words that express grammatical relationships with other words.
A particle is a separate secondary member of the sentence, which should be given a special
name
Similar in form to prepositions, p-words function as particles within three constructions in
English:
Phrasal verbs; Quasi-modal verbs; Determiner phrases
Phrasal verbs: call off (cancel); pass on (transmit)

Particles in Quasi-modal Verbs

Three English quasi-modal verbs contain p-words that function as particles: ought (to); had better
(had best); used to
 Particles in Determiner Phrases
In determiner phrases such as all three of the, any of their, and both of the in the previous
sentences, the p-word of functions as a particle.

The Interjection
Semantic features of the Interjection.
The interjections, as distinct from nouns, verbs, prepositions, etc., are not names of anything, but
expressions of emotions.
What does the interjection ‘oh’ mean?
Semantic features of the Interjection.
What does the interjection ‘oh’ mean?
The interjection ‘oh’, may be used both when the speaker feels surprised and when he feels
joyous, or disappointed, or frightened, etc.
Syntactic features of the Interjection.
On the sentence level the function of interjections is a controversial matter.
The interjection stands outside the structure of the sentence.
Oh! I can’t believe how nice you look.
Boo! I scared you.
Woops, I dropped the milk and it spilled.
The Modal word
The modal word, occupying in the sentence a more pronounced or less pronounced detached
position, expresses the attitude of the speaker to the reflected situation and its parts.
Functional words of probability (probably, perhaps, etc.), of qualitative evaluation (fortunately,
unfortunately, luckily, etc.)
Modal words stand in a special relation to the sentence. They are not sentence members, since
giving an evaluation of the entire situation presented in the sentence, they stand on the outside.
For instance, Perhaps, dimly, she saw the picture of a man walking up a road .
The modal word perhaps is not a sentence member, but if it is removed, the meaning of the
utterance will be changed – it will be just a statement of the fact
Test tasks and questions for current, boundary and intermediate control to this lecture
1) Describe the Functional Parts of Speech: The Preposition
2) Describe the Functional Parts of Speech: The Conjunction
3) Describe the Functional Parts of Speech: The Particle
4) Describe the Functional Parts of Speech: The Interjection
13-15 Lecture 11 Considered problematic issues (schedule of lectures): Sentence 3
Considered problematic issues (schedule of lectures): Semantic Structure of the 11.1Sentence.
Actual Division of the Sentence
11.2 Semantic Roles and Semantic Configurations
11.3 Actual Division of the Sentence
The summary of this lecture:
1. Semantic Roles and Semantic Configurations
A semantic role is the underlying relationship that a participant has with the main verb in a
clause. It is also known as semantic case, thematic role, theta role (generative grammar), and deep
case (case grammar). Semantic role is the actual role a participant plays in some real or imagined
situation, apart from the linguistic encoding of those situations. If, in some real or imagined
situation, someone named John purposely hits someone named Bill, then John is the agent and Bill
is the patient of the hitting event. Therefore, the semantic role of Bill is the same (patient) in both
of the following sentences:
John hit Bill. Bill was hit by John.
In both of the above sentences, John has the semantic role of agent.
A set of semantic roles and an action expressed by a verb constitute a linguistic semantic model
of an extralinguistic situation and are called semantic configuration. The set of semantic roles
preset by the lexico-semantic peculiarities of the verb makes us the role structure of the verb. The
semantic configuration is the semantic minimum of the sentence. The role structure of an actual
sentence may include roles that are not part of the semantic minimum.
The theoretical status of semantic roles in linguistic theory is still a largely unresolved issue.
For example, there is considerable doubt about whether semantic roles should be regarded as
syntactic, lexical or semantic/conceptual entities. However, the most common understanding is
that semantic roles are semantic/conceptual elements. It should be noticed that there is no
agreement about which and how many roles are needed. This is precisely one of the major
drawbacks of the semantic role list approach. Although most theories of thematic
98 roles assume that there is only a small finite number of them, no consensus has been reached
on the number or nature of the roles. Proposals range from just a few to hundreds of them. The
most common semantic roles include:
Agent/Causer: The ‘doer’ or instigator of the action denoted by the predicate.
e.g. John killed Harry.
Patient: The ‘undergoer’ of the action or event denoted by the predicate. e.g. Mary fell over
Theme: A participant which is characterized as changing its position or condition, or as being in a
state or position. e.g. The cat died. Experiencer: The living entity that experiences the action or
event denoted by the predicate. e.g. John felt happy Recipient/Possessor: Entity receiving/
possessing some entity. e.g. John got Mary a present Goal: The location or entity in the direction
of which something moves. e.g. John went home. Benefactive: The entity that benefits from the
action or event denoted by the predicate. e.g. He showed me the stone. Source: Object from
which motion proceeds. e.g. Mother promised me a new toy. Factitive: The result of the action
denoted by the predicate. e.g. Mother baked scones. Instrument: The medium by which the action
or event denoted by the predicate is carried out. e.g. The key opened the door. Locative: The
specification of the place where the action or event denoted by the predicate in situated. e.g. The
building houses several organizations.
99 It should be noted that some semantic roles can be minimized, that is become a component of
the semantic structure of a word. Presence of a mini-role in a verb’s semantics prevents it from
appearing in the sentence. e.g. to floor – to bring down to the floor (locative) He floored the
intruder with one blow. - * He floored the intruder to the floor with one blow. to bag – to put into
a bag (locative) to nose – to push with the nose (instrument) to sugar – to saturate with sugar
(material/substance) to catholicize – to turn to Catholicism (factitive) to feed – to supply food
(patient) to winter – to stay during the winter (temporative)
Test tasks and questions for current, boundary and intermediate control to this lecture
1) State on the classification of Simple Sentence.
2) State on the traditional scheme of sentence parsing.
3) State on the Main Sentence Parts: the subject and the predicate, their types.
4) State on the Secondary Sentence Parts: the object, the Adverbial modifier, the Attribute.
5) State on the Definition of the Composite Sentence
6) Characterize the Compound Sentences.
7) Characterize the Complex Sentences.
15