Theoretical Grammar

Требования к каждому вопросу:

1. Значимость проблемы для грамматики в целом
2. Очертить круг вопросов, которые составляют проблему
3. Обязательно дать четкие определения основным категориям
4. Типологический аспект

Где что искать (в каких лекциях):

1. Essentials of morphology (lecture GRAMMAR)
2. Lecture TYPOLOGY: typology of the morphological systems; Lecture GRAMMAR: the noun, verb, adjective
3. Lecture GRAMMAR: simple sentence (definition, classification, problem of the simple sentence, parts of sentence); Lecture TYPOLOGY: there is/are, it is
4. Lecture GRAMMAR: complex and compound sentences
5. Lecture GRAMMAR: text, grammar. Language unit (text) has two plains: expression and content. Means of cohesion; theme – rheme

Grammatical category is the central notion of morphology. It is connected with the notion ‘grammatical meaning’ and is based on it. Usually grammatical meaning is opposed to lexical meaning and is more general than it. There are 2 levels of grammatical meaning: categorical grammatical meaning distinguishes parts of speech (like substantivity for nouns) and there is also a narrower notion ‘the grammatical meaning of some category’ – number and case for nouns, tense or voice for verbs. Each part of speech has its own categories which may differ in different languages. So a grammatical category is the unity of some grammatical meaning and the form of its expression. Grammatical forms: synthetic and analytical. This is the basic criterion of typological language classification. In any synthetic form grammatical and lexical meanings are expressed in one component. In the EL there are 3 ways of synthetic form building – inflections, sound alternation (inner flection) and suppletivism. Analytical forms consist of 2 or more elements and only 1 of them has lexical meaning. The rest are called auxiliaries and express all kinds of grammatical meaning. E has a lot of such forms – passive, perfect, future, degrees of comparison, etc. This makes it analytical.

Any grammatical category is based on some type of opposition: number includes singular and plural, tense – present, past and future. The forms which constitute the opposition are called opposemes. Usually oppositions are divided into privative (binary), gradual (where the intensity of meaning grows) and equipollent (where each opposeme has its own specific meaning – tenses). In some cases grammatical oppositions are reduced. It means that 1 of the opposemes disappears, e.g. for uncountable nouns only singular exists, and plural is reduced, for verbs of physical perception continuous forms disappears. It is called neutralization. There is another type of reduction when 1 of the opposemes is used instead of the other and this fact creates some stylistic effect. It is called transposition (many a day; We, Elizabeth). We can conclude that 1) grammatical categories make it possible to change words according to different communicative intentions. 2) some grammatical categories are universal and exist in most language (number, tense). But some are specific just for 1 language (time correlation typical of E, gender in R). 3) the number of forms in the same category can differ (6 cases in R, 2 in E).

Though R and E belong to the same Indo-European family, they have developed in different directions. E belongs to the Germanic branch and its analytical variation, whereas R belongs to the Slavic branch and is a synthetic one. This is reflected in the structure of grammatical categories. (Typology of Parts of Speech) Most notional parts of speech in both languages coincide. Basic differences are connected with functional words. E.g. we use auxiliary ‘do’ in questions and negations in English, the use of articles, the use of link verbs in all tenses.

Nouns in E and R have case and number. Number is a binary opposition of singular and plural. The difference is connected with forms of expression. In R there are a lot of inflections depending on declention. In E the productive means are the inflection –s, sound alternation, zero inflection, many borrowed inflections. Case in R is half ruined because of loss of inflections in ME. In R this paradigm is wider; 6 cases; in E only 2 – common and possessive cases. This fact is typical of any analytical language. But most radical differences are connected with gender. In R it has 3 forms. Every noun (animate or inanimate) has gender. In E noun there are only derivative and lexical means of gender expression (suffix -ess). One more difference is connected with articles in E. They constitute the category of determination. In R it does not exist because there are no morphological markers. But if we need to express this meaning, we resort to other language means – lexical (pronouns), derivative means (-то), syntactic means (word order, theme/rheme).

In R and E we have most categories that coincide, they are isomorphic: tense, voice. But there are some unique categories for 1 language only. E.g. in E correlation of 2 actions is expressed by perfect forms, which constitute the time correlation. In R we express the same idea outside morphology. At the same time the R verb has the category of gender. Besides, there are some differences in verbals in two languages. In R we distinguish between participle and adverbial participle. In E both forms are expressed by the participle and different constructions with it.

So, discrepancies between grammatical categories are very important in teaching languages.

The simple sentence is a monopredicative structure that describes one situation of reality. There are a lot of definitions of sentence that are based on different criteria. Usually semantic and structural definitions are formulated. E.g. semantic – a group of semantically related words that express a complete idea. But this definition is open to criticism for several reasons. 1, there is any definite criterion for the notion ‘a complete idea’; 2, in composite sentences we find more than 1 idea. Structural – a group of syntactically related words that has a subject-predicate structure. But actually there are sentences that lack it. Phonetic – a stretch of speech between 2 pauses characterized by intonational finality. But actually this criterion is subjective; it depends on the speaker. In order to determine all aspects of the sentence we should add 1 more – the sentence is a communicative syntactic unit which differs it from the word group. The structure of the sentence can be of any kind. As a communicative unit the sentence is divided into theme and rheme; they are logical subject and predicate. Sentences are classified as to structure and as to communicative purpose: one/two member, extended/unextended. One-member sentences constitute a specific type and are classified according to form and meaning. Отметить широкую распространенность односоставных предложений в РЯ и причины.

Subject, predicate, complex/simple object, prepositional/postpositional attribute

Text (definition) – the highest unit of the syntactic level that possesses all features typical of other language units; it has two plains (sides) – content and expression; theme – rheme