Лекции по теоретической грамматике английского языка для студентов

 
1
ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ
 
АГЕНТСТВО
 
ПО
 
ОБРАЗОВАНИЮ
 
Государственное
 
образовательное
 
учреждение
 
высшего
 
профессионального
 
образования
 
ТУЛЬСКИЙ
 
ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ
 
УНИВЕРСИТЕТ
 
Кафедра
 
лингвистики
 
и
 
перевода
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ЛЕКЦИИ
 
по
 
теоретической
 
грамматике
 
английского
 
языка
 
для
 
студентов
 III 
курса
, 
обучающихся
 
по
 
направлению
 031100 – 
Лингвистика
  
и
 
по
 
специальности
 031202 – 
Перевод
 
и
 
переводоведение
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ТУЛА
 
2007 
 
 

 
2
Составила
: 
асс
. 
Тивьяева
 
И
. 
В
.  
 
 
Курс
 
лекций
 
по
 
теоретической
 
грамматике
 
английского
 
языка
 
содержит
 18 
лекций
, 
посвященных
 
актуальным
 
вопросам
 
морфологии
 
и
 
синтаксиса
 
английского
 
языка
. 
Главная
 
цель
 
курса
 
теоретической
 
грамматики
 
заключается
 
в
 
изучении
 
основных
 
грамматических
 
теорий
 
по
 
всем
 
основополагающим
 
проблемам
 
грамматики
 
английского
 
языка
, 
актуальных
 
исследований
 
последних
 
лет
 
для
 
формирования
 
необходимой
 
лингвистической
 
эрудиции
 
будущих
 
бакалавров
 
и
 
специалистов
. 
Тематически
 
и
 
содержательно
 
лекции
 
построены
 
с
 
учетом
 
достижений
 
лингвистической
 
науки
 
за
 
последние
 
десятилетия
 
и
 
предполагают
 
сопоставление
 
различных
 
грамматических
 
явлений
 
с
 
фактами
 
такого
 
же
 
порядка
 
в
 
русском
 
языке
.  
  

 
3
Lecture 1 
Fundamentals of grammar 
1. Grammatical category. Grammatical meaning. Grammatical form.  
2. Theory of oppositions. Types of oppositions. Oppositions in morphology. 
3. Morpheme. Derivation morphemes and inflection morphemes.  
4. Distributional analysis. Morphemic analysis. IC-analysis.  
1. Grammatical category. Grammatical meaning. Grammatical form 
The general notions of grammar which determine the structure of language 
and find their expression in inflection and other devices are generally called 
grammatical categories. As is known, a grammatical category is generally 
represented by at least two grammatical forms, otherwise it cannot exist. A simple 
case of oppositions in pairs of grammatical forms will be found, for instance, 
between the Singular and the Plural in nouns, or between Active and Passive in 
verbs. A 
grammatical category
 is a unit of grammar based on a morphological 
opposition of grammatical meanings presented in grammatical forms.  
It is more or less universally recognised that word-meaning is not 
homogeneous but is made up of various components the combination and the 
interrelation of which determine to a great extent the inner facet of the word. These 
components are usually described as types of meaning. The two main types of 
meaning that are readily observed are the grammatical and the lexical meanings to 
be found in words and word-forms.  
The most general meanings rendered by language and expressed by systemic 
correlations of word-forms are interpreted in linguistics as grammatical meanings.  
Grammatical meanings
 are very abstract, very general. Therefore the 
grammatical form is not confined to an individual word, but unites a whole class of 
words, so that each word of the class expresses the corresponding grammatical 
meaning together with its individual, concrete semantics. Grammatical meanings 
ranged in oppositions and presented in grammatical forms build grammatical 
categories.  

 
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Grammatical forms
 can be morphemes, synthetic forms, and grammatical 
word combinations, which are analytical forms. Synthetic forms unite both lexical 
and grammatical meanings in one word. In analytical forms there two or more 
words in which at least one element is an auxiliary. The auxiliary is a constant 
element of an analytical structure, which is devoid of lexical meaning (it renders 
grammatical meanings and is a purely grammatical element). Analytical structures 
must be differentiated from free syntactical word combinations. In free syntactical 
word combinations all the elements possess both lexical and grammatical 
meanings.  
Cf. 
waiter
 and 
waitress
 
The distinctions of gender in Russian are universal. They refer to all the 
vocabulary of the language. In English this distinction is not a grammatical 
phenomenon. The grammatical category of gender is lost. What we have now is 
some gender distinctions existing as the remnant of history. The distinction “waiter 
vs. waitress” is not universal enough to build up a grammatical category. It does 
not possess the level of grammatical abstraction characterized by an unlimited 
range of occurrence.  
Cf. 
book
 and 
books
 
-s is a form-building morpheme that builds a grammatical form because it is 
characterized by the level of grammatical abstraction realized in an unlimited range 
of occurrence.  
Types of word-form derivation 
These fall under two main headings: 
(a) those limited to changes in the body of the word, without having 
recourse to auxiliary words (synthetic types),  
(b) those implying the use of auxiliary words (analytical types).  
Besides, there are a few special cases of different forms of a word 
being derived from altogether different stems. 

 
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Synthetic Types 
The number of morphemes used for deriving word-forms in Modern 
English is very small (much smaller than either in German or in Russian, 
for instance. 
There is the ending 
-s (-es), 
with three variants of pronunciation and 
the endings 
-en 
and 
-ren, 
in one or two words each, viz. 
oxen, brethren 
(poet.), 
children.
 
There is the ending 
-'s
, with the same three variants of pronunciation as 
for the plural ending, used to form what is generally termed the genitive case of 
nouns. 
For adjectives, there are the endings 
-er 
and 
-est 
for the degrees of 
comparison. 
For verbs, there is the ending 
-s (-es) 
for the third person singular 
present indicative, with the same three variants of pronunciation noted above 
for nouns, the ending 
-d (-ed) 
for the past tense of certain verbs (with three 
variants of pronunciation, again), the ending 
-d (ed) 
for the second participle 
of certain verbs, the ending 
-n (-en) 
for the second participle of certain other 
verbs, and the ending 
-ing 
for the first participle and also for the gerund. 
Thus the total number of morphemes used to derive forms of words is 
eleven or twelve, which is much less than the number found in languages 
of a mainly synthetical structure. 
It should also be noted that most of these endings are mono-semantic, 
in the sense that they denote only one grammatical category and not two or 
three (or more) at a time, as is the case in synthetic languages. For 
example, the plural 
-s 
(or 
-es) 
denotes only the category of plural number, and 
has nothing to do with any other grammatical category, such as case. 
Sound Alternations 
Sound alternations are a way of expressing grammatical categories which 
consists in changing a sound inside the root. This method appears in Modern 

 
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English, for example, in nouns, as when the root vowel [au] of 
mouse 
is 
changed into [a
ı
] in 
mice, 
etc. 
This method is much more extensively used in verbs, such as 
write 
— 
wrote 
— 
written, sing — sang 
— 
sung, meet — met 
— 
met, 
etc. On the whole, 
vowel alternation does play some part among the means of expressing 
grammatical categories, though its part in Modern English has been much 
reduced as compared to Old English. 
Analytical Types 
These consist in using a word (devoid of any lexical meaning of its 
own) to express some grammatical category of another word. 
There can be no doubt in Modern English about the analytical character of 
such formations as, e. g., 
has invited 
or 
is invited, 
or 
is inviting, 
or 
does not 
invite. 
The verbs 
have, be, 
and 
do 
have no lexical meaning of their own in 
these cases. The lexical meaning of the formation resides in the participle or 
infinitive following the verb 
have, be 
or 
do. 
Some doubt has been expressed 
about the formations 
shall invite 
and 
will invite. 
There is a view that 
shall 
and 
will 
have a lexical meaning.  
While the existence of analytical forms of the English verb cannot be 
disputed, the existence of such forms in adjectives and adverbs is not 
nowadays universally recognised. The question whether such formations as 
more vivid, the most vivid, 
or, again, 
more vividly 
and 
most vividly 
are or 
are not analytical forms of degrees of comparison of 
vivid 
and 
vividly, 
is 
controversial. We can only say here that if these formations are recognised as 
analytical forms of degrees of comparison, the words 
more 
and 
most 
have to 
be numbered among the analytical means of morphology. 
Suppletive Formations 
Besides the synthetical and analytical means of building word forms in 
Modern English, there is yet another way of building them which stands quite 
apart and is found in a very limited number of cases only. By a suppletive 
formation we mean building a form of a word from an altogether different 

 
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stem. Examples in point are, the verb 
go, 
with its past tense 
went; 
the 
personal pronoun
 I, 
with its objective case form 
me, 
the adjective 
good 
with its 
comparative degree form 
better, 
and a few more. In the morphological system 
of Modern English suppletive formations are a very insignificant element, 
but they concern a few very widely used words among adjectives, 
pronouns, and verbs. 
 
2. Theory of oppositions. Types of oppositions. Oppositions in morphology 
In discussing grammatical categories, we shall often have to mention 
oppositions, that is, pairs of grammatical forms opposed to each other in some 
way. The 
opposition
 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 oppositional theory was originally formulated as a phonological theory. 
Three main qualitative types of oppositions were established in phonology: 
privative, gradual, and equipollent. By the number of members contrasted, 
oppositions were divided into binary and more than binary (ternary, quaternary, 
etc.).  
The most important type of oppositions is the binary privative opposition; 
the other types of oppositions are reducible to the binary privative opposition.  
The
 binary privative opposition
 is formed by a contrastive pair of 
members in which one member is characterized by the presence of a certain 
differential feature (strong, marked, positive), while the other member is 
characterized by the absence of the feature (weak, unmarked, negative). Eg. 
voiced vs. devoiced consonants  
The 
gradual opposition
 is formed by a contrastive group of members 
which are distinguished not by the presence or absence of a feature, but by the 
degree of it.  

 
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(Eg. [ï: - i – e -  ae] form a quaternary opposition by the degree of their 
openness) 
The 
equipollent opposition
 is formed by a contrastive pair or group in 
which the members are distinguished by different positive features. (eg. [m] – [b], 
both bilabial consonants, form an equipollent opposition, [m] being sonorous 
nasalized, [b] being plosive.) 
Any opposition can be reformulated in privative terms. Any positive feature 
distinguishing an oppositionally characterized element is absent in the 
oppositionally correlated element, so that considered from the point of view of 
this feature alone, the opposition, by definition, becomes privative.  
The most important type of opposition in morphology is the binary 
privative opposition. The 
privative morphological opposition
 is based on a 
morphological differential feature which is present in its strong member and 
absent in its weak member (eg. present – past). 
Speaking about morphological oppositions we need to keep in mind the fact 
that members of morphological oppositions unlike those of phonological 
oppositions possess both the plane of expression and the plane of content (eg. cat 
– cats). The meaning of the weak member is more general and abstract as 
compared with the meaning of the strong member, which is more particular and 
specific. Due to this difference in meaning, the unmarked member is used in a 
wider range of contexts than the marked member. For example, the present tense 
form of the verb, as different from the past tense, is used to render meanings 
much broader than those directly implied by the corresponding time-plane.  
Equipollent oppositions in the system of English morphology constitute a 
minor type and are mostly confined to formal relations only (eg. am – are – is).  
Gradual oppositions in morphology are not generally recognized. They can 
be identified as a minor type at the semantic level only (eg. strong – stronger – 
strongest).  

 
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In various contextual positions one member of an opposition can be used in 
the position of the other. This phenomenon can be referred to as 
reduction of 
oppositions
.  
eg. 
US soldier goes to Iraq. 
The conference opens next week.  
(The weak member replaces the strong one.) 
This oppositional reduction is stylistically indifferent. Use of the unmarked 
member does not transgress the expressive conventions of ordinary speech. This 
kind of oppositional reduction is called 
neutralization
. Another type of 
oppositional reduction is called 
transposition
. It is defined as contrastive use of 
the counter-member of the opposition (the strong one, as a rule).  
eg. 
She is always finding faults with me.
  
 
3. Morpheme. Derivation morphemes and inflection morphemes 
Most word-forming morphemes are ambiguous, that is, they do not with 
certainty point to any definite part of speech but leave some choice which has 
to be decided by other criteria. The morpheme is one of the central notions 
of grammatical theory, without which no serious attempt at grammatical 
study can be made. Definition of a morpheme is not an easy matter, and it 
has been attempted many times by different scholars. Without going into