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LECTURE 11
The aim of the lecture is to characterize the following:

  • the aim of theoretical grammar;

  • language as a functional system;

  • ‘system’ and ‘structure’;

  • approaches to the problem of parts of speech:

  • the division of language units into notion and function words;

  • characteristics of notional words;

  • functional words.



BASIC LINGUISTIC NOTIONS OF THEORETICAL GRAMMAR
Language is a means of communication, used to exchange our thoughts, feeling and emotion in the process of human intercourse. Language incorporates the three constituent parts: the phonological system, the lexical system, the grammatical system.

The grammatical system is the whole set of regularities determining the combination of naming means in the formation of utterances as the embodiment of thinking process. The grammatical description of language is effected by the science of grammar. The term “grammar” goes back to a Greek word that may be translated as the “art of writing”.

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 give explanation for these rules, it deals with the language as a functional system.

Language is regarded as a structural system. In the structure of language there are different structural levels: phonological, morphological, syntactical and suprasyntactical.

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 grammatical structure of language is a system of means used to turn linguistic units into communicative, 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. 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 Russian language synthetic devices are dominant. In the process of time English has become more analytical as compared to Old English.

Morphology and syntax as two parts of linguistic description

As the word is the main unit of traditional grammatical theory, it serves the basis of the distinction which is drawn between morphology and syntax. Morphology deals with the internal structure of words, peculiarities of their grammatical categories and their semantics while traditional syntax deals with the rules governing combination of words in sentences (and texts in modern linguistics). We can therefore say that the word is the main unit of morphology.

First of all, it is the main expressive unit of human language which ensures the thought-forming function of the language. It is also the basic nominative unit of language with the help of which the naming function of language is realized. As any linguistic sign the word is a level unit. In the structure of language it belongs to the upper stage of the morphological level. It is a unit of the sphere of ‘language’ and it exists only through its speech actualization. One of the most characteristic features of the word is its indivisibility. As any other linguistic unit the word is a bilateral entity. It unites a concept and a sound image and thus has two sides – the content and expression sides.


The word combines in its semantic structure two meanings – lexical and grammatical. Lexical meaning is the individual meaning of the word (e.g. table). Grammatical meaning is the meaning of the whole class or a subclass.

The class of nouns has the grammatical meaning of thingness (substance). If we take a noun (table) we may say that it possesses its individual lexical meaning (it corresponds to a definite piece of furniture) and the grammatical meaning of thingness (this is the meaning of the whole class). Besides, the noun ‘table’ has the grammatical meaning of a subclass – countableness. Any verb combines its individual lexical meaning with the grammatical meaning– the ability to denote actions or states. An adjective combines its individual lexical meaning with the grammatical meaning of the whole class of adjectives – qualitative – the ability to denote qualities. Adverbs possess the grammatical meaning of adverbiality – the ability to denote quality of qualities.

There are some classes of words that are devoid of any lexical meaning and possess the grammatical meaning only. This can be explained by the fact that they have no referents in the objective reality. All function words belong to this group – articles, particles, prepositions, etc.

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. In the word cats the grammatical meaning of plurality is shown in the form of the noun shown by the suffix ‘s’; the form cat’s indicate the grammatical meaning of possessiveness shown by the form ’s; is asked – shows the explicit grammatical meaning of passiveness.

The implicit grammatical meaning may be of two types – general and dependent. The general grammatical meaning is the meaning of the whole class of words, of a part of speech (e.g. nouns – the general grammatical meaning of substance. The dependent grammatical meaning is the meaning of a subclass within the same part of speech. For instance, any verb possesses the dependent grammatical meaning of transitivity/intransitivity, terminativeness/non-terminativeness, stativeness/non-stativeness; nouns have the dependent grammatical meaning of countableness / uncountableness and animateness/inanimateness. The most important thing about the dependent grammatical meaning is that it influences the realization of grammatical categories restricting them to a subclass. Thus the dependent grammatical meaning of countableness / uncountableness influences the realization of the grammatical category of number as the number category is realized only within the subclass of countable nouns, the grammatical meaning of animateness / inanimateness influences the realization of the grammatical category of case, teminativeness / non-terminativeness - the category of tense, transitivity/intransitivity – the category of voice.

Grammatical categories are made up by the unity of identical grammatical meanings that have the same form (e.g. singular: plural). Due to dialectal unity of language and thought, grammatical categories correlate, on the one hand, with the conceptual categories and, on the other hand, with the objective reality.

It follows that we may define grammatical categories as references of the corresponding objective categories. For example, the objective category of time finds its representation in the grammatical category of tense, the objective category of quantity finds its representation in the grammatical category of number. 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: Conceptual correlate ↔Lingual correlate. They are called signification categories. To this type belong the categories of mood and degree. 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.


Any grammatical category must be represented by at least two grammatical forms (e.g. the grammatical category of number – singular and plural forms). The relation between two grammatical forms differing in meaning and external signs is called opposition – book: books (unmarked member/marked member). All grammatical categories find their realization through oppositions, e.g. the grammatical category of number is realized through the opposition singular: plural.

Taking all the above mentioned into consideration, we may define the grammatical category as the opposition between two mutually exclusive form-classes (a form-class is a set of words with the same explicit grammatical meaning). Means of realization of grammatical categories may be synthetic and analytic.
QUESTIONS


  1. What are the three constituent parts of any language?

  2. What do you know about the grammatical system?

  3. What is the aim of theoretical grammar?

  4. What structural levels of the English language are distinguished?

  5. Speak about the morphological level.


  6. Characterize the syntactical level.

  7. To what structural type of languages do we refer English?

  8. Compare and contrast synthetic and analytical languages.

  9. Speak on morphology and syntax as the basis of English grammar.



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