LECTURES

ON THEORETICAL ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Розроблено
к.п.н., доцентом кафедри
іноземних мов
гуманітарних факультетів
Татариною І.О.
 UNIT I
THE STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Language consists of the three constituent parts: the phonological system, the
lexical system, the grammatical system.
The phonological system determines the material appearance of the language
units.
The lexical system is the whole set of naming means of language – words and
word groups.
The grammatical system is the whole set of regularities which determine the
combination of the naming means in the formation of utterances.
Each of the above mentioned systems is studied by a correspondent linguistic
discipline: phonology, lexicology and grammar.
Any linguistic description may have a practical or theoretical purpose. The aim
of practical description is to give a student a number of rules that help to master a
certain part of language. The aim of theoretical linguistic description is to analyse the
studied part of the language so as to understand its inner structure and mechanisms of
its functioning. So the aim of theoretical grammar is to present a theoretical
description of the grammatical system of the language. In general theoretical
grammar deals with the language as a functional system.
As you know words are very important when you want to express your
thoughts. But words by themselves do not constitute speech. To make a phrase or a
statement words should be organized. Thus we may conclude that the grammatical
system of a language studies ways and means of word building and their development
into word combinations, phrases and sentences. In other words grammar studies the
structure of the English language.
The grammatical structure of language comprises two major parts – morphology
and syntax. The two areas constitute the study of grammar. Morphology studies
parts of speech; it deals with paradigmatic and syntagmatic properties of
morphological units – morphemes and words. It is concerned with the structure of
words and their relationship to other words and word forms within the paradigm. It
studies morphological categories and their realizationSyntax deals with the
sentence, different types of sentence and their meanings.
Types of relations between units
Lingual units stand to one another in two types of relations: syntagmatic and
paradigmatic.
Syntagmatic relations are immediate linear relations between units in a
segmental sequence. A linguistic unit enters into syntagmatic relations with other
units of the same level.
E.g. in the word-group A PINT OF MILK the word PINT contrasts syntagmatic
relations with A, OF, MILK; within the word PINT – P, I, N and T are in
syntagmatic relations.
The combination of two words or word groups one of which is modified by the
other forms a unit which is called syntactic “syntagma”
Paradigmatic relations are based on the principles of similarity. They exist
between the units that can substitute one another. For instance, in the word-group A
PINT OF MILK the word PINT is in paradigmatic relations with the words bottle,
cup, etc.
According to different principles of similarity paradigmatic relations can be of
three types: semantic, formal and functional.
a) Semantic PR are based on the similarity of meaning: a book to read = a book
for reading. He used to practice English every day – He would practice
English every day.
b) Formal PR are based on the similarity of forms. Such relations exist between
the members of a paradigm: man – men; play – played – will play – is
playing.
 c) Functional PR are based on the similarity of function. They are established
between the elements that can occur in the same position. For instance, noun
determiners: a, the, this, his, Ann‟s, some, each, etc.
Systemic relations in language
System implies the characterization of a complex object as made up of separate
parts (e.g. the system of sounds). Language is a structural system. Structure means
hierarchical layering of parts in `constituting the whole. The notion “hierarchy”
denotes a structure in which the units of any higher level are formed by the units of
the lower level. The units of each level have their own specific functional features. In
the structure of language there are four main structural levels: phonological,
morphological, syntactical and super-syntactical. The main grammar units are
morphemes in morphology and sentences in syntax. The meaning of morpheme is
abstract and significative. The morpheme does not name the referent but it signifies
it. The words consist of morphemes, and the shortest word can include only one
morpheme: cat. A word by itself can also be treated as a language unit – lexeme.
The levels are represented by the corresponding level units:
The 1st level is formed by phonemes. They have form but they have no
meaning. Phoneme have the function of differentiating meanings of morphemes and
words: man – men.
The 2nd level consists of morphemes which are the smallest meaningful
elements built up by phonemes. The meaning of morpheme is abstract and
significative. The morpheme does not name the referent but it signifies it.
The 3rd level comprises words or lexemes. They are nominative lingual units
which have nominative meaning: they name or nominate various referents. The
words consist of morpheme, and the shortest word can include only one morpheme:
cat.
The 4th level is formed by word-combinations or phrasemes which represent
complex nominations of various referents in a sentence: a beautiful girl, their sudden
arrival, etc.
 General characteristics of the grammatical structure of language
The grammatical structure of language is a system of means used to turn
linguistic units into communicative ones, 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 (Ukrainian – зроблю, Russian, Latin, etc).
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
Ukrainian language synthetic devices are dominant. In the process of time English
has become more analytical as compared to Old English. Analytical changes in
Modern English (especially American) are still under way.
Grammatical meanings and grammatical categories
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. For
example, the class of nouns has the grammatical meaning of thingness. 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.
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 – it has its marker. In the word cats the grammatical
meaning of plurality is shown in the form of the noun; cat‟s – here the grammatical
meaning of possessiveness is shown by the form „s; is asked – shows the explicit
grammatical meaning of passiveness.
Grammatical categories are made up by the unity of identical grammatical
meanings that have the same form (e.g. singular::plural).
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. They are called significational categories. To this
type belong the categories of mood and degree.

Practical assignment. Discuss the following questions:

1) Any language comprises three parts, doesn‟t it? What are these parts and
what do they study?
2) State the difference between practical and theoretical grammar.
3) What type of relations between lingual units do you know? Dwell upon the
difference between syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations?
4) Dwell upon the structure of the English language. Characterize the
peculiarities of each of the language levels.
5) State the difference lexical and grammatical meaning of a word. What types
of grammatical meanings do you know? Characterize them.
6) Define the notion of the grammatical category.
 UNIT II
PARTS OF SPEECH
The parts of speech are classes of words. All the members of these classes
have certain characteristics in common which distinguish them from the members of
other classes. There are four approaches to the problem of classification of the parts
of speech:
1. Classical (logical-inflectional)
2. Functional
3. Distributional
4. Complex
The classical parts of speech theory goes back to ancient times. It is based on
Latin grammar. According to the Latin classification of the parts of speech all words
were divided into declinable and indeclinable parts of speech. The first of these
groups, declinable words, included nouns, pronouns, verbs and participles, the second
– indeclinable words – adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. The
classification cannot be applied to the English language because the principle of
declinability / indeclinability is not relevant for analytical languages.
A new approach to the problem was introduced in the XIX century by Henry
Sweet. He took into account the peculiarities of the English language. This approach
may be defined as functional. He took into consideration functional features of
words and singled out nominative units and particles. To nominative parts of speech
belonged noun-words (noun, noun-pronoun, noun-numeral, infinitive, gerund),
adjective-words (adjective, adjective-pronoun, adjective-numeral, participles), verb
(finite verb, verbals – gerund, infinitive, participles), while adverb, preposition,
conjunction and interjection belonged to the group of particles. However, though the
criterion for classification was functional, Henry Sweet failed to break the tradition
and classified words into those having morphological forms and lacking
morphological forms, in other words, declinable and indeclinable.
A distributional approach to the parts to the parts of speech classification can be
illustrated by the classification introduced by Charles Fries. He wanted to establish a
classification of words based on distributive analysis, that is, the ability of words to
combine with other words of different types. At the same time, the lexical meaning of
words was not taken into account. He introduced four major classes of words and 15
form-classes.
All the classifications mentioned above appear to be one-sided because parts of
speech are discriminated on the basis of only one aspect of the word: either its
meaning or its form, or its function.
In modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated according to three
criteria: semantic, formal and functional. This approach may be defined as complex.
The semantic criterion presupposes the grammatical meaning of the whole class of
words (general grammatical meaning). The formal criterion reveals paradigmatic
properties: relevant grammatical categories, the form of the words, their specific
features. The functional criterion concerns the syntactic function of words in the
sentence and their combinability. Thus, when characterizing any part of speech we
are to describe: a) its semantics; b) its morphological features; c) its syntactic
peculiarities.
The linguistic evidence drawn from our grammatical study makes it possible to
divide all the words of the language into:
a) notional words which denote things, objects, notions, qualities, etc., and have
the corresponding references in the objective reality;
 b) function or grammatical words that have no references of their own in the
objective reality; most of them are used only as grammatical means to form
up and frame utterances.
It is commonly recognized that the notional parts of speech are nouns, pronouns,
numerals, verbs, adjectives, adverbs; the functional parts of speech are articles,
particles, prepositions, conjunctions and modal words.
The features of the noun are the following: 1) the categorical meaning of
substance (“thingness); 2) the changeable forms of number and case; the specific
forms of derivation; 3) the substantive function in the sentence (subject, object,
predicative); prepositional connections; modification by an adjective.
The features of the adjective: 1) the categorical meaning of property (qualitative
and relative); 2) the forms of the degrees of comparison (for qualitative adjectives);
the specific forms of derivation; 3) adjectival functions in the sentence (attribute to a
noun; adjectival predicative)
The features of the numeral: 1) the categorical meaning of number (cardinal and
ordinal); 2) the narrow set of simple numerals; the specific forms of composition for
compound numerals; the functions of numerical attribute and numerical substantive.
The features of the pronoun: 1) the categorical meaning of indication (deixis);
2) the narrow set of various status with the corresponding formal properties of
categorical changebility and word-building; 3) the substantival and adjectival
functions for different sets.
The features of the verb: 1) the categorical meaning of process; 2) the forms of
the verbal categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, mood; the opposition of
the finite and non-finite forms; 3) the function of the finite predicate for the finite
verb.
The features of the adverb: 1) the categorical meaning of the secondary property
(the property of process or another property); 2) the forms of the degrees of
comparison for qualitative adverbs; the specific forms of derivation; 3) the functions
of various adverbial modifiers.
 The article expresses the specific limitation of the substantive functions.
The preposition expresses the dependencies and interdependencies of substantive
referents.
The conjunction expresses connections of phenomena.
The particle unites the functional words of specifying and limiting meaning.
The modal word expresses the attitude of the speaker to the reflected situation
and its parts. Here belong the functional words of probability (probably, perhaps,
etc), of qualitative evaluation (fortunately, unfortunately, luckily, etc), and also of
affirmation and negation.
The interjection is a signal of emotions.
The division of language units into notion and function words reveals the
interrelation of lexical and grammatical types of meaning. In notional words the
lexical meaning is predominant. In function words the grammatical meaning
dominates over the lexical one. However, in actual speech the border line between
notional and function words is not always clear cut. Some notional words develop the
meanings peculiar to function words - e.g. seminotional words – to turn, to get, etc.
Notional words constitute the bulk of the existing word stock while function
words constitute a smaller group of words. Although the number of function words is
limited (there are only about 50 of them in Modern English), they are the most
frequently used units.
Assignments for the seminar
Practical assignment Discuss the following questions:
1) Define the notion “parts of speech”. What classifications of parts of speech
do you know?
2) Dwell upon the peculiarities of classical approach to the parts of speech
classification.
3) Dwell upon the peculiarities of distributional approach to the parts of speech
classification.
 4) Dwell upon the peculiarities of functional approach to the parts of speech
classification.
5) Analyze the complex classification of the parts of speech.
6) State the difference between notional and functional parts of speech.
7) What notional words do you know?
8) What functional words do you know?

UNIT III
THE NOUN
General characteristics.
The noun is the central lexical unit of language. As any other part of speech, the
noun can be characterised by three criteria: semantic (the meaning), morphological
(the form and grammatical categories) and syntactical (functions).
Semantic features of the noun. The noun possesses the grammatical meaning of
thingness. Nouns fall into several subclasses:
1. Proper and common;
2. Animate and inanimate. Animate nouns fall into human and non-human;
3. Countable and uncountable
Morphological features of the noun. All nouns can be classified into: simple,
derived (stem + affix, affix + stem – thingness); compound (stem+ stem – armchair).
The noun has morphological categories of number and case. Some scholars 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. As for its combinability, noun can go into right-
hand and left-hand connections 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.
The kinds of nouns
Nouns are divided into 1) Proper; 2) Common. The latter are subdivided into:
1) Class; 2) Collective; 3) Material; 4) Abstract.
A Proper noun is a name given to a particular person or a thing. E.G.
Richard(name); The Independent (newspaper); Moscow (city); Ukraine (country).
A Common class noun is a name which is common to all persons or things of
the same kind. E.G. girl, pen, town.
A Collective noun denotes a group of people, animals or things taken a whole.
Collective nouns are used as singulars. E.G. family, crew.
A Material noun denote the substance of which certain things are mad.e. E.G.
beef, ham, timber
The category of number
The grammatical category of number is the linguistic representation of the
objective category of quantity. The number category is realized through the
opposition of the plural form and the singular form. The number category is realized
only within subclass of countable nouns. The productive formal mark of the plural is
the suffix –(e)s as in the forms dog – dogs; clock – clocks; box – boxes. The other,
non-productive ways of expressing the number opposition are:
1) vowel interchange in several relict forms (man – men);
2) the archaic suffix –(e)n supported by phonemic interchange in a couple of
other relict forms (ox – oxen; child – children; cow – kine; brother –
brethren);
3) the correlation of individual singular and plural suffixes in a limited number
of borrowed nouns (formula – formulae; phenomenon – phenomena; alumnus
– alumni);
 4) in some cases the plural form is homonymous with the singular form (sheep;
deer; fish).
The grammatical meaning of number may not coincide with the notional
quantity: the noun in the singular does not necessarily denote one object while the
plural form may be used to denote one object consisting of several parts. The
singular form may denote:
a) oneness (individual separate object – a cat);
b) generalization (the meaning of the whole class – The cat is a domestic
animal);
c) indiscreetness (нерасчлененность or uncountableness - money, milk).
The plural form may denote:
a) the existence of several objects (cats);
b) the inner discreteness (внутренняя расчлененность, pluralia tantum,
jeans).
Thus all nouns may be subdivided into three groups:
1. The nouns in which the opposition of explicit discreteness/indiscreetness is
expressed : cat \ cats;
2. The nouns in which this opposition is not expressed explicitly but is revealed
by syntactical and lexical correlation in the context. There are two groups here:
A. Singularia tantum. It covers different groups of nouns: 1) abstract notions
(peace, love, joy, courage); 2) the names of the branches of professional
activity (chemistry, architecture, mathematics, linguistics); 3) the names of
mass materials (water, snow, steel, hair); 4) the names of collective
inanimate objects (foliage, fruit, furniture). Some of these words can be
used in the form of common singular with the common plural counterpart.
In this case they mean different sorts of material, etc. E.g. It was a joy to
see her among us.
B. Pluralia tantum. It covers 1) the names of objects consisting of two
halves (jeans, trousers, scissors, spectacles); 2) the nouns with collective
 meaning (supplies, outskirts, clothes, contents, politics, police, cattle,
poultry); 3) names of diseases or some abnormal states of the body
(measles, mumps, hysterics).
The category of case
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. The
scope of meanings rendered by the Genitive Case is the following:
a) Possessive Genitive : Mary‟s father – Mary has a father,
b) Subjective Genitive: The doctor‟s arrival – The doctor has arrived,
c) Objective Genitive : The man‟s release – The man was released,
d) Adverbial Genitive : Two hour‟s work – X worked for two hours,
e) Equation Genitive : a mile‟s distance – the distance is a mile,
f) Genitive of destination: children‟s books – books for children,
g) Mixed Group: yesterday‟s paper
Nick‟s school cannot be reduced to one nucleus
John‟s word
To avoid confusion with the plural, the marker of the genitive case is
represented in written form with an apostrophe.
The Problem of Gender in English
The Category of Gender is a grammatical form denoting sex.
It should be noted that in Old English the gender of a noun was indicated by its
grammatical form. In Modern English the existence of this category is disputable
because there are only few grammatical forms which express it: these are suffixes
–ine and –ess. Thus in Modern English the category of gender is expressed
grammatically and lexically.
 The category of gender is formed by two oppositions. One opposition is formed
by person (human) and non-person (non-human) nouns. The other opposition
functions in the subset of person nouns only, dividing them into masculine and
feminine nouns. Non-person nouns are also referred to as having the neuter gender.
A great number of person nouns can express both feminine and masculine person
genders. They are called the nouns of “common gender”. (person, parent, friend,
cousin, doctor, president). E.g. The President of our Medical Society isn‟t happy
about the suggested way of cure. She insists on quite another kind of treatment in
cases like that.
When there is no need to indicate the sex of the person referent of these nouns,
they are used neutrally as masculine.
We can distinguish masculine and feminine nouns by different ways:

1) A change of word
Bachelor – spinster; boy – girl; bull – cow; cock – hen; father – mother;
gentleman - lady; husband – wife; king – queen; lord – lady; sir – madam; monk –
nun.
2) A change of ending
Actor – actress; adventurer – adventuress; duke – duchess; host – hostess; lion –
lioness; emperor – empress; giant – giantess; prince – princess.
3) Peculiar changes of ending
Czar – czarina; fox – vixen; spinner – spinster; sultan – sultana; testator –
testatrix; wizard – witch.
4) Placing a word-morpheme before or after
He-goat – she-goat; land-lord – land-lady; man-servant – maid-servant; grand-
father – grand-mother; bride-groom – bride; Tom-cat – pussy-cat; Billy-goat – she-
goat; male-elephant – female-elephant; pea-cock – pea-hen.
 Thus the category of gender in English is mostly semantic as it reflects the actual
features of the named objects.
Assignments for the seminar
Practical assignment. Discuss the following questions:
1) Define the notion of the noun.
2) Speak about the semantic features of a noun.
3) Comment on the morphological features of a noun.
4) What syntactical functions can be performed by a noun?
5) How is the category of number presented in the English noun?
6) Dwell about the productive and non-productive ways of expressing the plural
form.
7) What can the singular and plural forms of the nouns express?
8) Analyze the category of case.
9) Comment on the problem of gender.

UNIT IV
THE USE OF ARTICLES IN ENGLISH
The article is a function word, which means it has no lexical meaning and is
devoid of denotative function. Semantically the article can be viewed as a
significator - a linguistic unit representing some conceptual content without
naming it
As you know, there are two articles in English: the definite article “the” and
the indefinite one “a”. It has become a tradition to also single out the so-called
“zero” article, which is found in the contexts where neither the definite nor the
indefinite article is used.
The Use of Articles as Determiners
 The function of all the articles is that of determination. Any human
language has a system of devices used to determine words as parts of speech.
In analytical languages the article is the basic noun determiner.
In synthetic languages, like Ukrainian and Russian the same function is
performed by inflexions.
The Use of Articles as the Theme-and-Rheme Markers
The second function the articles can be used in is that of the theme-and
rheme markers. The theme is the information already known, and the rheme
is the new idea that is being introduced. An utterance where there is only the
rheme can‟t be understood. For example, if someone entered the room and said
something like that, “What about a wedding dress for Jane?” you would not
understand anything.
Utterances that only contain the theme sound ridiculous. E.g. «Let me share
something important with you. This is a table».
In languages like Ukrainian or Russian the final position of the word in the
sentence is rhematic, and the initial position is thematic. In English the same
function is performed by the indefinite and the definite articles correspondingly.
It is important to remember this principle when you translate something into
English, for example:
До кімнати увійшов чоловік. A man entered the room.
Чоловік увійшов до кімнати. The man entered the room.
The Use of Articles as Generalizers
The object denoted by the word is called the “referent”. Referents can be
concrete, if something is said about a concrete object or phenomenon, and
general, if what we say is true for the whole class of objects. E.g. I have a dog
at home (a concrete dog). The dog is man‟s friend (any dog).
In the second sentence the definite article is used as a generalizer. The
generalizing function can be performed by both the definite, the indefinite and
the zero article. The zero article is used in the plural or with uncountable nouns,
for example: E.g. Conscience and cowardice are really the same things. Iron is
metal.
When concrete nouns are used in generic sense, they are usually preceded
by the definite article. The indefinite article may be used when two classes of
objects are compared, for example: E.g. A dog is stronger than a cat.
The Use of Articles as Concretizes
The generalizing function of articles is opposed to that of concretization.
The latter is realized through some specific functions which are different for
definite, indefinite and zero articles.
Functions of the indefinite article
The indefinite article can be used in four functions. Each of them is
realized under specific contextual conditions.
The classifying function of the indefinite article is realized in the so-called
classifying utterances. Their invariant sentence pattern is: N + Vbe + N1. Those
are:
a) structures with the verb “to be”, for example: This is a computer.
b) exclamatory sentences beginning with “what” or such. E.g. What a
long story! He is such a nuisance!
c) sentences including an adverbial modifier of manner or comparison.
E.g. You look like a rose! She works as a teacher.
The function of indefiniteness is realized when the referent of the noun is
not a real thing, but it exists in the speaker‟s imagination only. Those are
sentences containing modal verbs or verbs with modal meaning, forms of the
Subjunctive Mood, Future Tense forms, negative and interrogative sentences.
E.g. I wish I had a home like you do. Have you ever seen a living tiger?
The introductory function
Before sharing some information about the object, we need to introduce it
to the hearer. Fairy tales can be used as ideal illustrations of the use of the
indefinite article in its introductory function. E.g. Once upon a time there lived
an old man. He had a wife and a daughter. He lived in a small house.
The quantifying function
The indefinite article developed from the numeral “one”. The meaning of
“oneness” is still preserved when the article is used with nouns denoting
measure, like “a minute”, “a year” or “a pound”.
Functions of the definite article
The definite article may be used in the following functions:
The identifying function
When we speak, we may want to point out to something that we perceive
with our organs of feeling. There are five different ways of getting the
information about something existing in the objective reality. We can see it (Do
you like the picture?), hear it (I believe, the music is too loud), feel it (The pillow
is so soft!), smell it (What is the name of the perfume?) or taste it (The soup
tastes bitter).
The function of definiteness
The object or thing denoted by the noun is presented as a part of some
complex. In modern science the term “frame” is often used. For example, the
frame “classroom” includes a window, a blackboard and a door. So if both the
speaker and the hearer know what classroom they are speaking of, the
constituents of the classroom don‟t need any special concretization, and the
definite article will be used. E.g. I want to talk to the rector (even if you have
never met the man).
The individualizing function
The object in question may be presented as a unique thing with the hearer‟s
attention focused on its features, which are represented with the help of a
limiting attribute which can be expressed by:
a) adjectives in the superlative degree; E.g. This is the easiest way out.
b) ordinal numerals; E.g. I have forgotten the first word.
 c) attributive relative restrictive clauses; E.g. I need the book I bought
yesterday.
Functions of the zero article
In most cases the zero article performs the same functions as the indefinite
one. The difference is that the combinability of the latter is restricted to the
group of countable nouns used in the singular form, whereas the zero article
combines with uncountable nouns and countable nouns in the plural. E.g. It was
a large room with many windows. The toasts were in champagne.
Still there are situations where the zero article is used in its specific
functions which are different from those of the indefinite article. When used
with the zero article, the noun loses its general grammatical meaning of
thingness to a certain degree. For example, the nouns “day” and “night” used
with the zero article stand for “light” and “darkness” rather than time units .
Assignments for the seminar
Practical assignment. Discuss the following questions:
1) Give the definition of the article. How many articles are there in the English
language?
2) Comment on the functions of the articles.
3) Comment on the functions of the indefinite article.
4) Comment on the functions of the definite article.
5) Comment on the functions of the zero article.

UNIT V
ADJECTIVE
The adjective is a part of speech which expresses the categorical meaning of
property of a substance, e.g.: hard; peaceful, green, etc.
The main syntactical functions of an adjective are: 1) an attribute (either in
preposition to the noun modified or in post-position), e.g.: a suspicious man; a man
suspicious of his wife; 2) a predicative in a compound nominal predicate, e.g.: The
man was very suspicious of his wife.
From the morphological point of view the English adjective has neither
number, nor case, nor gender distinctions. Adjectives are characterized by a specific
set of word-building affixes. We should distinguish between:
1) productive forming suffixes: -less; - like; -ish; -ed (d) (hopeless, childlike,
childish, etc);
2) unproductive adjective forming suffixes: -ful, -ible; -able, -some, -ant, -ent,
-en, -ous (careful, impossible, reliable, troublesome, important, dependent,
wooden, dangerous);
3) productive prefixes: un-, pre- (unhappy, prewar);
4) the unproductive prefix: in- (impolite)
Besides derivative adjectives, there are simple adjectives (good, red) and
compound adjectives (snow-white, life-giving), which have neither suffixes nor
prefixes.
The most important morphological quality of an adjective is that of degrees of
comparison. But we should bear in mind that not all adjectives have degrees of
comparison.
Adjectives fall into two classes: qualitative adjectives and relative adjectives.
Grammatical characteristics of qualitative adjectives
Qualitative adjectives denote qualities of substance such as size, shape, colour,
physical and mental qualities. The most significant features of qualitative adjectives
are:
1) they have certain typical suffixes, such as -ful, -less, -ous, -ent, -able, -y, -
ish (careful, careless, dangerous, comfortable, silvery, etc.);
2) from most of them adverbs can be formed by means of the suffix -ly: merry –
merrily; comfortable – comfortably;
3) most of them have degrees of comparison: big – bigger – the biggest. But it
should be noted that there is a number of qualitative adjectives which have no
 forms of comparison because their own semantics is incompatible with the
idea of comparison at all, e.g.: excellent, semi-final, extinct, deaf, etc.
4) most qualitative adjectives can be used as attributes and predicatives.
Grammatical characteristics of relative adjectives
Relative adjectives denote qualities of a substance through their relation to
materials (silken), place (Asian), to time (weekly, annually), to some action
(preparatory). The most significant features of relative adjectives are:
1) they have certain typical suffixes, such as -en, -ist, -an, -to, -cal: wooden,
Italian, analytical, etc;
2) they do not from adverbs with the suffix -ly;
3) they do not have degrees of comparison
4) they mostly used as attributes.
It should be noted that a relative adjective may acquire the meaning of a
qualitative one when used figuratively. E.g. “a golden crown”: a relative adjective
„golden‟ is used in its primary meaning – “a crown made of gold”; but “golden hair”:
a relative adjective „golden‟ is used in its figurative meaning – “hair of the colour of
gold”; thus one can say: Her hair is even more golden than her mother‟s hair.
Degrees of comparison
The category of comparison expresses the quantitative characteristics of the
quality rendered by the adjective. There are three forms which constitute this
category: the positive degree, the comparative degree, and the superlative degree
forms of the adjective.
The basic form, known as the positive degree, has no special formal mark, e.g.:
tall, beautiful; the comparative degree is marked by two kinds of forms; synthetical
forms with the suffix “-er” and analytical forms with the auxiliary word more, e.g.:
taller, more beautiful; the superlative degree is also formed either synthetically with
the help of the grammatical suffix “-est”, or analytically with the help of the auxiliary
word most, e.g.: tallest, most beautiful. Also, there are suppletive forms of the
degrees of comparison, e.g.: bad – worse – worst.
 The positive degree denotes either the absence of comparison, or
equality/inequality in special constructions of comparison, e.g.: He is tall; He is as
tall as my brother; He is not so tall as my brother.
The comparative degree denotes relative superiority, e.g.: He is taller than my
brother.
The superlative degree denotes absolute superiority, e.g.: He is the tallest man
I‟ve ever seen.
The superlative degree can be used instead of the positive degree in contexts
where no comparison is meant, to denote a very high degree of a certain quality, cf.:
She is a most unusual woman (She is an extremely unusual woman); It was most
generous of you (It was very generous of you). This kind of grammatical transposition
is known as “the elative superlative”. Thus, the superlative degree is used in two
senses: the absolute superiority and the elative superiority (a very high degree of a
certain quality). The formal mark of the difference between the two cases is the use
of either the indefinite or zero articles with the noun modified by the adjective in the
superlative degree, e.g.: It was a most generous gesture; a sensation of deepest
regret.
The quantitative evaluation of a quality involves not only an increase in its
amount, but also its reduction, rendered by the combination of the adjective with the
words less and least, e.g.: important, less important, least important. These
combinations can be treated as specific analytical forms of the category of
comparison: they denote “negative comparison” and are formed with the help of the
auxiliary words less and least; the regular synthetic and analytical forms denoting an
increase in the amount of a quality may be specified as “direct comparison”, or
“positive comparison” forms. Thus, the whole category of comparison is constituted
not by three forms, but by five forms: one positive degree form (important), two
comparative degree forms, direct and reverse (more important, less important), and
two superlative degree forms: direct and reverse (most important, least important).
Substantivization of adjectives
 Some adjectives can acquire some features of the noun. In other words, they can
be substantivized. In Modern English substantivized adjectives are:
1) wholly substantivized when they acquire all the characteristics of nouns;
2) partially substantivized when they take only the definite article.
When adjectives are fully substantivized, they make a new word, a noun, which
is connected with the adjective only etymologically. Conversion of this type often
takes place in stable attributive word-combinations, e.g.: a private – a private soldier,
a native – a native resident. These nouns acquire such forms as number, case, article
determination, e.g.: privates, natives, private‟s, native‟s, a private, the private, etc.
A group of partially substantivized adjectives include words denoting groups of
people sharing the same feature – the rich, the beautiful, the English, and words
denoting abstract notions – the unforgettable, the invisible, etc. Substantivized
adjectives are used with a singular meaning in a number of set phrases, such as: in the
negative; in the open; on the whole; in the main; in short, etc. A comparative degree
is substantivized in the phrases: to get the better of smth; a change for the better. A
superlative is substantivized in the expressions: in the least; for the best; at one‟s
best.
Assignments for the seminar
Practical assignment. Discuss the following questions:
1) Give the definition of an adjective. What syntactic functions can be performed
by this part of speech?
2) What are morphological qualities of an adjective? Enumerate productive and
unproductive affixes of an adjective.
3) Define the notion “degrees of comparison”. What type of adjectives possesses
this morphological quality?
4) Analyse the grammatical features of qualitative adjectives.
5) Analyse the grammatical features of relative adjectives.
6) What degrees of comparison do you know and how are they formed?
7) Explain the difference between the expressions: “She is the most beautiful girl
in the world.” and “She is a most beautiful girl.”
8) Explain the notion “negative comparison”.
9) Give the definition of the substantivized adjectives. Dwell upon the difference
between wholly and partially substantivized adjectives.

UNIT VI
ADVERB
 The adverb is a notional part of speech which denotes property. There are three
kinds of adverbs: 1) simple; 2) interrogative; 3) relative (conjunctive).
Simple adverbs can be distinguished from one another by their meaning, such as:
1) Quality (manner) – He did his work slowly.
2) Quantity (degree) – He is clever enough for me.
3) Number – He has already tired twice.
4) Time – He will soon be here. He has already come.
5) Place – We must rest here.
6) Affirming or denying – He will probably return today. We shall certainly
succeed.
7) Emphasizing – Only one man was caught.
The Interrogative adverbs are used for asking questions. Many of them are
compound – expressed by two words. Their chief meanings are:
1) Quality (manner) – How did he do this?
2) Quantity (degree) – How far (to what extent) is this article true?
3) Number – How often did she come? How many students are there?
4) Time – When did he come? How long will you stay there? How soon will
they go?
5) Place – Where did she go? How far did she go?
6) Cause – Why is she crying?
Relative or Conjunctive adverbs are used not for asking questions but for
joining sentences. E. g. This is where we live.
Comparison of adverbs
Like adjectives, adverbs can be used in different degrees of comparison. It
should be pointed out that only Simple adverbs of Quality or Descriptive adverbs
distinguish the category of comparison and have five morphological forms: one
positive, two comparative (direct and reverse) and two superlative (direct and
reverse), e.g.: bitterly – more bitterly, less bitterly – most bitterly, least bitterly.
 If the adverb consists of one syllable, we add -er or -est to the Positive.
E.g. fast – faster – fastest; hard – harder – hardest; near – nearer – nearest; long –
longer – longest.
Some adverbs have irregular forms of comparison. E.g. well – better – best;
badly – worse – worst; much – more – most; little – less – least.
Adverbs which have the ending -ly form their degrees of comparison by means
of more and most. E.g. wisely – more wisely – most wisely; beautifully – more
beautifully – most beautifully. But: early – earlier – earliest.
The superlative degree form can also be used either in the absolute sense (to
denote absolute superiority) or in the elative sense, denoting a high degree of the
property, e.g.: The youngest kid cried most bitterly of all. (absolute superiority) –
The kid cried most bitterly. (high degree of quality)
The forms of adverbs
According to their form, adverbs are divided into simple and derived. Some
adverbs have the same form as the corresponding adjective. In this case we
distinguish an adverb from an adjective by their syntactical function. As you know an
adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun, while an adverb can modify any part of
speech but a noun or a pronoun. E.g. He was much pleased. (adverb) – There is
much thickness here. (adjective); He stayed long. (adverb) – He went on a long
journey. (adjective)
The most productive derivational model of adverbs is the one with the suffix -ly.
It is so highly productive that practically every adjective has its adverbial counterpart,
e.g.: simple – simply, soft – softly, etc
The other structural types are compound adverbs, e.g.: sometimes, downstairs,
etc., and stable adverbial phrases or composite phrasal adverbs, e.g.: upside down, at
least, a great deal of, from time to time, etc. Adverbial phrases are usually made up
of two or more words according to the following structural patterns:
1) a preposition plus noun: of course, at length, in fact, of a truth;
 2) a preposition amalgamated with a noun: indeed, besides, between, to-day,
tomorrow, asleep, away;
3) a preposition plus adjective: in general, in particular, in short, in vain, after
all, at first, at last, at least, in future, at present;
4) a preposition amalgamated with an adjective: below, beyond, behind,
abroad, along, aloud;
5) a noun qualified by an adjective: meantime, meanwhile, yesterday;
6) miscellaneous phrases: by all means, by no means, inside out, upside down,
to be sure, head over heals.
Sometimes adverbs go in pairs connected by the conjunction “and”. E.g. He is
walking up and down, to and fro. You will see him by and by.
Adverbs should not be confused with adverb-like elements, which are
interchangeable with prepositions (and sometimes prefixes) and when placed after the
verb form a semantic blend with it, e.g.: to give – to give up, to give in, to give away,
etc.; to go down the hill – to download, to downplay – to sit down, to bring down, to
bend down, etc. These functional words make a special set of particles; they are
intermediary between the word and the morpheme and can be called “postpositives”.
Assignments for the seminar
Practical assignment. Discuss the following questions:
1) Give the definition of an adverb. Analyse the types of adverbs.
2) Dwell upon the forms of comparison of adverbs.
3) Analyze the structural forms of adverbs. Dwell upon simple and derived
adverbs.
4) Speak about the structural patterns of compound adverbs.
 UNIT VII
THE VERB.
General characteristics
Grammatically the verb is the most complex part of speech. It performs the
central role in realizing predication – connection between situation in the utterance
and reality.
Semantic features: the verb as a part of speech denotes a process developing in
time.
Morphological features: the verb possesses the following grammatical
categories: tense, aspect, voice, mood, person, number, finitude. The common
categories for finite and non-finite forms are voice, aspect and finitude.
Syntactic features: the function of the verb in the sentence depends on whether
the verb is finite or non-finite. Finite verbs combine with the subject in person and
number. Finite verbs are always predicates. Non-finite forms of the verb can be used
in any function but predicate. They can perform the functions of: subject, predicative,
object, attribute, adverbial modifier (of reason, manner, time, result, place).
Classifications of English verbs
According to different principles classifications can be morphological, lexical-
morphological, syntactical and functional.
A. Morphological classifications
a) According to their stem-types all verbs fall into: simple (to go), sound-
replacive (food – to feed, blood – to bleed), stress-replacive (import – to
import, transport – to transport, expanded (with the help of suffixes and
prefixes): cultivate, justify, overcome, composite (correspond to composite
nouns): to blackmail), phrasal: to have a smoke, to give a smile;
b) According to the way of forming past tenses and Participle II verbs can be
 regular and irregular.
B. Lexical-morphological classification is based on the implicit grammatical
meanings of the verb.
According to the implicit grammatical meaning of transitivity/intransitivity verbs
fall into transitive and intransitive. A transitive verb denotes an action that is directed
towards some person or thing and requires some kind of object to complete their
meaning. E.g. His mother never gave him advice. An intransitive verb denotes an
action which concerns only the doer and does not require any objects. E.g. Nobody
knew where the old man lived.
According to the implicit grammatical meaning of stativeness / non-stativeness
verbs fall into stative and dynamic.
Stative verbs do not admit of the Continuous form. Here belong the verbs
denoting:
1) physical perceptions (to hear, to see, to notice);
2) emotions (to adore, to detest, to dislike, to hate, to like, to love, to respect);
3) mental processes (to appreciate, to assume, to believe, to consider, to expect,
to imagine, to know);
4) relations (to belong, to apply, to be, to concern, to consist, to have);
5) wish (to desire, to want, to wish);
6) some other meanings (to agree, to allow, to seem, to astonish, to fail, etc.)
E.g. I hear you well but don‟t understand what you mean.
Dynamic verbs admit of the Continuous form. E.g. I was reading a book when
he came in.
According to the implicit grammatical meaning of terminativeness / non-
terminativeness verbs fall into terminative and durative.
Terminative verbs imply a limit of the action beyond which the action can‟t
continue (to open, to close, to bring, to recognize).
Durative verbs do not imply any such limit and the action can go on (to carry, to
live, to speak, to know, to sit, to play).
 C. Syntactic classification. According to the nature of predication (primary and
secondary) all verbs fall into finite and non-finite.
According to their valency, which is the combining power of words in relation to
other words in syntactically subordinate positions, verbs can be of obligatory and
optional valency. Obligatory valency must necessarily be realized for the
grammatical completion of the syntactic construction (subject, direct object – We saw
a house in the distance). Optional valency is such as is not necessarily realized in
grammatically complete constructions (adverbial modifiers).
D. Functional classification. According to their functional significance verbs
can be notional (with the full lexical meaning), semi-notional (modal verbs, link-
verbs), auxiliaries (assist a Principal verb to form tenses in the Indicative or
Subjunctive mood and in the Active or Passive voice).
Grammatical categories of the English verbs
The verb has the following grammatical categories: person, number, tense,
aspect, voice and mood.
Person and Number
The category of person expresses the relation of the action and its doer to the
speaker, showing whether the action is performed by the speaker (the 1 st person),
someone addressed by the speaker (the 2nd person) or someone or something other
than the speaker or person addressed (the 3rd person).
In modern English all verbs can be divided according to the expression of this
category into three groups:
1) modal verbs distinguish no person or number forms at all;
2) the verb „to be’, on the contrary, has preserved more person-number forms
than any other verb in modern English, cf.: I am; we are; you are; he/she/it is;
they are; in the past tense the verb to be distinguishes two number forms in the
first person and the third person: I, he/she/it was (sing.) – we, they were (pl.);
in the second person the form were is used in the singular and in the plural;
3) the bulk of the verbs in English have a distinctive form only for the third
 person singular of the present tense indicative mood.
Thus, the category of person and number in modern English is realized in the
present tense indicative mood by the opposition of two forms: the third person
singular (speaks) and all the other person and number forms, so, it can be called “a
common form” (speak).
The category of number shows whether the action is performed by one or more
than one person or non-person. The system of person and number forms of the verb
in English plays an important semantic role in contexts in which the immediate forms
of the noun do not distinguish the category of number, e.g., singularia tantum nouns
or pluralia tantum nouns, or nouns modified by numerical attributes, or collective
nouns, when we wish to stress either their single-unit quality or plural composition,
cf.: The family was gathered round the table – The family were gathered round the
table; Ten dollars is a huge sum of money for me. – There are ten dollars in my
pocket. In these cases, traditionally described in terms of “agreement in sense”, the
form of the verb reflects not the categorical form of the subject morphemically
expressed, but the actual personal-numerical interpretation of the referent denoted.
The category of person and number can be neutralized in colloquial speech or in
some regional and social variants and dialects of English, cf.: Here‟s your keys; It
ain‟t nobody‟s business.
Tense
The verbal category of tense in the most general sense expresses the time
characteristics of the process denoted by the verb. The essential characteristic of the
category of tense is that it relates the time of the action, event or state of affairs
referred to in the sentence to the time of the utterance. The grammatical expression of
verbal time through morphological forms of the verbs constitutes the grammatical
category of tense (from the Latin word “tempus” – “time”).
The category of tense finds different interpretations by different scholars. In
traditional linguistics grammatical time is presented s a three-form category which
contains the “linear” past, present and future forms.
 As M. Bloch points out that in English there exist two tense categories – 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 described process. The suggested category is represented by the
opposition of “the present tense” and “the past tense” forms.
The category of prospective time is represented by the opposition of “after-
action” and “non-after-action”, thus characterizing the action from the point of view
of its correlation with some other action. As the future verbal form may be relative
either to the present time or to the past time, the English verb has two future forms:
the future of the present and the future of the past. E.g. He says he will finish the
article on Wednesday. He said he would finish the article on Wednesday.
Aspect
The category of aspect is a linguistic representation of the objective category of
manner of action.
According to A. Smirnitsky in English there exist two aspective categories: the
category of development which is realized through the opposition continuous – non-
Continuous and the category of retrospective coordination which is based on the
opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms.
The continuous aspect in English considers the action in its progress, thus
corresponding to the imperfective aspect in Ukrainian. The grammatical meaning of
the continuous has been treated traditionally as denoting a process going on
simultaneously with another process; this temporal interpretation of the continuous
was developed by H. Sweet, O. Jespersen and others.
The perfect, is formed with the help of the auxiliary verb to have and participle II
of the notional verb, e.g.: I have done this work.
The traditional treatment of the perfect as the tense form denoting the priority of
one action in relation to another (“the perfect tense”) was developed by H. Sweet, G.
Curme, and other linguists.
The category of voice
 The form of the verb may show whether the agent expressed by the subject is the
doer of the action or the recipient of the action (John broke the vase – the vase was
broken).
The category of voice is realized through the opposition Active voice – Passive
voice. The realization of the voice category is restricted because of the implicit
grammatical meaning of transitivity/intransitivity. Only transitive verbs can be used
both in the Active and in the Passive Voice.
Some scholars admit the existence of Middle, Reflexive and Reciprocal voices.
“Middle Voice” – the verbs primarily transitive may develop an intransitive middle
meaning: That adds a lot; The door opened; The book sells easily; The dress washes
well.
“Reflexive Voice”: He dressed; He washed – the subject is both the agent and the
recipient of the action at the same time. It is always possible to use a reflexive
pronoun in this case: He washed himself.
“Reciprocal voice”: They met; They kissed – it is always possible to use a
reciprocal pronoun here: They kissed each other.
The category of mood.
The category of mood expresses the character of connections between the
process denoted by the verb and actual reality, in other words, it shows whether the
action is real or unreal. This category is realized through the opposition of the direct
(indicative) mood forms of the verb and the oblique mood forms: the indicative
mood shows that the process is real, i.e. that it took place in the past, takes place in
the present, or will take place in the future, e.g.: She helped me; She helps me; She
will help me; the oblique mood shows that the process is unreal, imaginary
(hypothetical, possible or impossible, desired, etc.), e.g.: If only she helped me!
Assignments for the seminar
Practical assignment. Discuss the following questions:
1) Give the definition of the verb. Dwell upon its semantic, morphological and
syntactical peculiarities.
 2) Characterize the verb from the point of its morphological classification.
3) Characterize the verb from the point of its lexical-morphological
classification.
4) Characterize the verb from the point of its syntactical and functional
classification.
5) Dwell upon the grammatical categories of person and number.
6) Dwell upon the grammatical categories of tense and aspect.
7) Dwell upon the grammatical categories of voice and mood.

UNIT VIII
NON-FINITE FORMS OF THE VERB (VERBIDS)
All verbal forms fall into two major sets: finite and non-finite. The term “finite”
is derived from the Latin term “verbum finitum”, which shows that these words
denote actions developing in time.
Non-finite forms of the verb, the infinitive, the gerund, participle I (present
participle) and participle II (past participle), are otherwise called “verbals”, or
“verbids”. The term, introduced by O. Jespersen, means that they are not verbs in
the proper sense of the word, because they combine features of the verb with
features of other notional parts of speech.
The non-verbal features of verbids are as follows: 1) they do not denote pure
processes, but present them as specific kinds of substances and properties; 2) they
are not conjugated [„kOnGugeItId] according to the categories of person and
number, have no tense or mood forms; in some contexts they are combined with the
verbs like non-verbal parts of speech; 3) they never function as independent
predicates; their functions are those characteristic for other notional parts of speech.
The verbal features of verbids are as follows: 1) their grammatical meaning is
basically processual; 2) they have aspect and voice forms and verbal combinability
with direct objects and adverbial modifiers; 3) they can express predication in
specific semi-predicative constructions.
 The Infinitive serves as the verbal name of a process. The infinitive combines
verbal features with features of the noun.
Verbal features: it has voice and aspect forms, e.g.: to write, to be writing, to
have written, to be written, to have been written; it can be combined with nouns and
pronouns denoting the subject or the object of the action, and with the adverbial
modifiers, e.g.: for him to write a letter; to write a letter to someone; to write a
letter very carefully.
The noun features of the infinitive are shown in its syntactic functions and its
combinability. The infinitive performs all the functions characteristic of the noun –
that of a subject, e.g.: To write a letter was the main thing he had planned for the
day; of a predicative, e.g.: The main thing he had planned for the day was to write
a letter; of an object, e.g.: He wanted to write a letter to her; of an attribute, e.g.:
It was the main thing to do; of an adverbial modifier, e.g.: He stood on a chair in
order to reach for the top shelf.
If the subject of the action denoted by the infinitive is named in the sentence it
forms a secondary predicative line with the infinitive. The “for + to infinitive”
construction in free use includes the infinitive and its own subject, e.g.: For him to
be late for the presentation was unthinkable; I sent the papers in order for you to
study them carefully before the meeting.
In the constructions known as “complex object with the infinitive” and
“complex subject with the infinitive” the category of the secondary predicative
part forms either the object or the subject of the primary predicative part, e.g.: I saw
her enter the room; She was seen to enter the room.
In most cases the infinitive is used with the particle “to”, which is its formal
mark; it is called a “marked infinitive”. In certain contexts the infinitive is used
without the particle “to” and is called a “bare infinitive”, or “unmarked
infinitive”; the “bare infinitive” is used to build the analytical forms of the finite
verbs in some fixed constructions, e.g.: Will you go there? Why not go there? I‟d
rather stay at home; etc. The particle can be separated from the infinitive by an
adverbial modifier, e.g.: to thoroughly think something over. These cases are
usually stylistically marked and are known as the “split infinitive”.
The gerund serves as the verbal name of a process and combines verbal
features with those of a noun.
The noun features: it can be modified by an attribute and can be used with a
preposition, e.g.: Thank you for listening to me; Your careful listening to me is very
much appreciated. The functions of the gerund in the sentence are as follows – that
of a subject, e.g.: Your listening to me is very much appreciated; It‟s no use crying
over spilt milk; of a predicative, e.g.: The only remedy for such headache is going
to bed; of an object, e.g.: I love reading; of an attribute, e.g.: He had a gift of
listening; of an adverbial modifier, e.g.: On entering the house I said “hello”.
The verbal features of the gerund: it has some aspect and voice forms, e.g.:
writing, being written, having written, having been written. It can be combined with
nouns and pronouns denoting the subject and the object of the action, and with
modifying adverbs, e.g.: I have made good progress in understanding English; She
burst out crying bitterly; Her crying irritated me.
The verbal features distinguish the gerund from the verbal noun, which may be
homonymous with the indefinite active form of the gerund, but 1) it has no other
verbal forms (passive or perfect); 2) it cannot take a direct object, but only
prepositional objects like all other nouns, cf.: reading the letters (gerund) – the
reading of the letters (verbal noun); and 3) like most nouns it can be used with an
article and in the plural, cf.: my coming (gerund) – his comings and goings (verbal
noun).
The gerund can express secondary predication, when the gerundial construction
has its own subject. The subject can be expressed either by a possessive pronoun or
by a noun in the genitive case, if it denotes an animate referent, e.g.: Mike‟s coming
back was a total surprise to us; Do you mind my smoking?; it can also be expressed
by a noun in the common case form or an objective pronoun, e.g.: She said
something about my watch being slow. The gerundial semi-predicative
constructions can be used as different notional parts of a sentence, cf.: Mike‟s
coming back was a total surprise to us (the subject); Do you mind my smoking?
(object); I couldn‟t sleep because of his snoring (adverbial modifier); The thought
of him being in Paris now was frustrating (attribute).
Participle I (present participle) is fully homonymous with the gerund: it is
also an „ing-form‟ (cf.: writing, being written, having written, having been written).
It denotes processual quality, combining verbal features with features of the
adjective and the adverb. The verb-type combinability of participle I is shown in its
combinations with nouns denoting the subject and the object of the action, e.g.: her
entering the room, with modifying adverbs and with auxiliary verbs in the
analytical forms of the verb; the adjective-type combinability of participle I is
manifested in its combinations with modified nouns and modifying adverbs of
degree, e.g.: an extremely maddening presence; the adverb-type combinability of
the participle is revealed in its combinations with modified verbs, e.g.: to speak
stuttering at every word. In its free use, participle I can function as a predicative,
e.g.: Her presence is extremely maddening to me; as an attribute, e.g.: The fence
surrounding the garden was newly painted; and as an adverbial modifier, e.g.:
While waiting he whistled.
Like any other verbid, participle I can form semi-predicative constructions if it
is combined with the noun or the pronoun denoting the subject of the action; for
example, complex object with participle I, e.g.: I saw her entering the room;
complex subject with participle I, e.g.: She was seen entering the room. In complex
object and complex subject constructions the difference between the infinitive and
participle I lies in the presentation of the process: participle I presents the process as
developing, cf.: I often heard her sing in the backyard. – I hear her singing in the
backyard.
In addition, participle I can form a detached semi-predicative construction,
known as the absolute participial construction, which does not intersect in any of
its components with the primary sentence part. Absolute constructions can be non-
prepositional or propositional. The latter are introduced by the prepositions with or
without, e.g.: I won‟t speak with him staring at me like that.
The most common meaning of non-prepositional absolute construction is
description of the appearance, behaviour or inner state of the person denoted by the
subject of the sentence, e.g.: She got up, the clothes folded over her arm.
Another meaning of the absolute construction is to express attending
circumstances, e.g.: The weather being fine, we decided to take a walk;
Absolute constructions with participles are rare in modern English and can be
found mostly in literary style.
Participle II, like participle I, denotes processual quality. It has only one form,
traditionally treated in practical grammar as the verbal “third form”, used to build
the analytical forms of the passive and the perfect of finites, e.g.: is taken; has
taken.
Like any other verbid, participle II can form semi-predicative constructions if
combined with the inner subject of its own; they include complex object with
participle II, e.g.: I‟d like to have my hair cut; We found the door locked; complex
subject with participle II; e.g.: The door was found firmly locked; and absolute
participial construction with participle II, e.g.: She approached us, head half
turned; He couldn‟t walk far with his leg broken.
Assignments for the seminar
Practical assignment. Discuss the following questions:
1) Give the definition of the verbals. What verbals do you know?
2) Distinguish between verbal and non verbal features of the verbals.
3) Speak about the infinitive. Dwell upon its verbal and noun features.
4) What constructions with the infinitive do you know?
5) Speak about the gerund. Dwell upon its verbal and noun features. Distinguish
between the gerund and the verbal noun.
6) Dwell upon the structure and functions of the gerundial construction.
 7) Speak about the peculiarities of Participle I. Dwell upon its semi-predicative
constructions.
8) Speak about the peculiarities of Participle II.

UNIT IX
SYNTAX
Syntax deals with the way words are combined. It is concerned with functions
of words and their relationship to other words within word-groups, sentences and
texts. Syntax studies the way in which the units and their meanings are combined. It
also deals with peculiarities of syntactic units, their behaviour in different contexts.
The main object of study in syntax is the communicative unit of the language,
the sentence. The phrase is the syntactic unit used as a notional part of a sentence.
The basic difference between the phrase and the sentence is as follows: the phrase

cannot express full predication.

Thus, the sentence is a unit of speech which expresses a complete thought
and has a definite grammatical form and intonation. Each sentence has modality
which expresses the speaker‟s attitude towards reality.
 The main components of the actual division of a sentence are the theme and
the rheme.
The theme is the starting point of communication, a thing or a phenomenon
about which something is reported in the sentence; it usually contains some “known”
information.
The rheme is the information reported about the theme; it usually contains
some new information. In English direct actual division means that the theme
coincides with the subject (or the subject group) in the syntactic structure of the
sentence, while the rheme coincides with the predicate (the predicate group) of the
sentence, as in Charlie is late. – Charlie (theme) is late (rheme). In some sentences,
the rheme may be expressed by the subject and it may precede the theme, which is
expressed by the predicate, e.g.: Who is late today? – Charlie (rheme) is late (theme).
Classification of Sentences
The sentence is a communicative unit; that‟s why, the primary classification of
sentences is based on “the purpose of communication”. Thus the communicative
type of sentences depends on the communicative purpose of the speaker. According
to the purpose of utterance sentences may be:
1) declarative which state facts in the affirmative or negative form (They (do
not) work hard.);
2) interrogative which ask questions (general, special, alternative, disjunctive);
3) imperative which express commands, requests, invitations, etc.
4) exclamatory sentences which express emotions (How hard they work!)
In fact any type of sentences may turn into exclamatory. E.g. What a good idea!
How good the idea is!
The finite verb, which performs the function of the predicate, combined with the
subject, forms the so-called “predicative line” of the sentence. On the basis of
predicative line presentation, sentences may be divided into simple, compound and
complex.
 A simple sentence includes a single subject and verb group. E.g. Last July was
unusually hot. Mary and John worked and studied together.
A simple sentence may be unextended if it consists only of the main parts of the
sentence – the subject and the predicate. A sentence is extended if it includes some
secondary parts (the attribute, the object, the adverbial modifier).
A compound sentence consists of two or more simple sentences. A compound
sentence unites two ideas, but it does not necessarily show the relationship between
them. E.g. He came, he saw, he won. Man has his will, but woman has her way.
A complex sentence combines one independent clause and one or more
subordinate (dependent) clauses. An independent clause contains the more important
idea. E.g. After Mary came home, Bill went to have a haircut.
A compound-complex sentence consists of at least two independent clauses and
at least one dependent clause. The dependent clause can be part of the independent
clause. E.g. When the heat comes, the lake dries up, and farmers fear the crop failure.
Sentences are also subdivided into complete and incomplete: in complete
sentences both the subject and the predicate are present; they are also called “two-
member sentences”. If only one principal member is expressed in the structure of the
sentence, the sentence is defined as incomplete; it is also called “one-member
sentence”, or “elliptical sentence”.
On the basis of subject meaning, sentences are divided into a) impersonal, e.g.:
It drizzles; There is no use crying over spilt milk; and b) personal.
Personal sentences are subdivided into a) human and b) non-human. Human
sentences cab be a) definite, e.g.: I know it; and b) indefinite, e.g.: One never knows
such things for sure.
Non-human sentences are subdivided into a) animate, e.g.: A cat entered the
room; and b) inanimate, e.g.: The wind opened the door.
On the basis of predicate meaning, sentences are divided into process featuring
(“verbal”) and substance featuring (“nominal”); process featuring sentences are
further subdivided into actional, e.g.: I play ball; and statal, e.g.: I enjoy your party;
substance featuring sentences are further subdivided into factual, e.g.: She is clever;
and perceptional, e.g.: She seems to be clever.
The Principal Parts of the Sentence
The members of the sentence are traditionally divided into principal (main)
and secondary. The principal parts of the sentence are the subject and the predicate.
The Subject of the sentence is the topic which is being discussed. It can be
expressed by personal pronouns, indefinite pronouns, nouns, infinitives, gerunds, etc.
E.g.: 1) We all make mistakes when we are young. 2) A teacher should be patient. 3)
Seeing is believing. 4) Seven is a lucky number. 5) The unknown is always
interesting.
The Predicate of the sentence is what is said about the subject. Predicates are
subdivided into simple (I read) and compound, which are further subdivided into
compound verbal predicates (She started crying) and compound nominal
predicates with link verbs (She looked beautiful).
The simple predicate denotes an action and is expressed by a finite verb in a
simple or compound tense form.
E.g. We study English. We have been studying English for some years already.
The compound predicate consists of two parts: a finite verb and some other part
of speech.
The compound nominal predicate denotes the state or quality of the person or
thing expressed by the subject (E.g. He is tired. The book is interesting.) The
compound nominal predicate consists of a link verb (to be, to grow, to look, to feel, to
come, to go, etc.) and a predicative (a noun, adjective, a pronoun, numeral, infinitive,
gerund, etc.). Here are some examples:
1) I am a student.
2) She has grown too proud.
3) He looks stupid.
4) She is 38.
5) Irene‟s hair went gray.
 6) My favourite sport is swimming.
7) My first thought was to go away.
The compound verbal modal predicate shows whether the action expressed by
a non-finite form of the verb is possible, impossible, necessary, desirable, etc. E.g.
You can prove everything. We can speak English well.
The compound verbal aspect predicate expresses the beginning, duration or
completion of the action expressed by the non-finite form of the verb. It consists of
such verbs as to begin, to start, to fall, to go on, to keep on, to continue, to stop, to
give up, to finish and an infinitive or gerund. E.g. She stopped asking me about the
time. We began to study English at school.
The Secondary Parts of the Sentence
The secondary parts of the sentence depend on the main parts. The secondary
parts are: the object, the attribute, the adverbial modifier.
The Object is a secondary part of the sentence which completes a verb or
sometimes an adjective and denotes state or thing. E.g. He closed the door.
The object cab be: a) direct which shows a person or a thing directly affected by
the action. (I helped my brother.); b) indirect which shows to whom the action is
directed. (кому? кем?) – She gave him an interesting book to read; c) prepositional.
If there are more than two objects in the sentence the word order is the following:
a) In Ob + D Ob – The teacher told the students a story. b) D Obj + Prep Obj. – The
teacher told a story to the students.
The Attribute is a secondary part of the sentence which qualifies a noun, a
pronoun, or any other part of speech. E.g. She is a beautiful girl.
The Adverbial Modifier is a secondary part of the sentence which modifies a
verb, an adjective or an adverb. According to this we distinguish:
a) the adverbial modifier of time: We shall try it tomorrow.
b) the adverbial modifier of place: He has spies everywhere.
c) the adverbial modifier of manner: He walked quickly.
 d) the adverbial modifier of purpose: He got up from the sofa for her to sit
down.
Assignments for the seminar
Practical assignment. Discuss the following questions:
1) What does syntax study? Define the notion of “the sentence”.
2) Dwell upon the actual division of sentence.
3) Speak about the classification of sentences according to the purpose of
utterance.
4) What is the predicative line of the sentence? How are the sentences
subdivided according to the predicative line presentation?
5) Distinguish between complete and incomplete sentences.
6) Speak about the division of sentences according to the subject meaning.
7) Dwell upon the division of sentences according to the predicate meaning.
8) Analyse the principal parts of the sentence.
9) Dwell upon the peculiarities of the secondary parts of the sentence.

UNIT X
COMPOSITE SENTENCES
The complex sentence
Composite sentences are poly predicative syntactic constructions, formed by
two or more predicative lines, each with a subject and a predicate of its own. Each
predicative unit in a composite sentence forms a clause.
A clause as a part of a composite sentence corresponds to a separate sentence.
There are two principal types of composite sentences: complex and compound.
 In compound sentences, the clauses are connected on the basis of coordinative
connections.
In complex sentences, the clauses are united on the basis of subordinative
connections.
The connections between the clauses in a composite sentence may be effected
syndetically, i.e. by means of special connecting words, conjunctions and other
conjunctional words or word-combinations, or asyndetically, i.e. without any
conjunctional words used.
The minimal complex sentence includes two clauses: the principal one and the
subordinate one.
There are three kinds of subordinate clauses – the Noun-clause, the Adjective-
clause, the Adverb-clause.
A Noun-clause is one which acts as a noun in relation to some word in some
other clause. It may be the subject to a verb, the object to a verb, the object to a
preposition, the complement to a verb, etc. E.g. 1) That he will come back soon is
certain. 2) I shall be glad to know when you will return. 3) This is exactly what I
expected.
An Adjective-clause is one which performs the work of an adjective in relation
to some word in other clause. It means that that such a clause qualifies some noun or
a pronoun belonging to some other clause. Adjective-clauses are introduced by means
of relative pronouns or relative adverbs. The noun or pronoun, that stands as
antecedent to the relative pronoun or adverb, is the word which is qualified by the
Adjective-clause. E.g. 1) A man who has just come asked about you. 2) This is not
the book that I have chosen.
An Adverb-clause is one which acts like an adverb to some verb, adjective or
adverb in some other clause. Adverb-clauses are introduced by subordinating
conjunctions. E.g. 1) He will succeed because he works hard. (cause); 2) He worked
so hard that he was taken ill. (result). 3) I will do this if I am allowed. (condition)
The compound sentence
 The compound sentence is formed from two or more base sentences, joined as
coordinate clauses. One of them becomes the leading clause, and the other clauses
may be called sequential clauses.
Coordination, just like subordination, can be expressed either syndetically (by
means of coordinative connectors) or asyndetically. Coordinative connectors, or
coordinators, are divided into conjunctions proper, e.g.: and, but, or, for, either…or,
neither… nor, etc., and semi-functional connectors of adverbial character, e.g.:
nevertheless, besides, however, yet, thus, so, etc. The coordinate clauses can be
combined asyndetically (by the zero coordinator), e.g.: The quarrel was over, the
friendship was resumed.
The basic type of the compound sentence, as with the complex sentence, is a
two-clause construction. If more than two or more sequential clauses are combined
with one leading clause, from the point of view of semantic correlation between the
clauses, such constructions are divided into “open” and “closed”.
“Open” constructions may be further expanded by additional clauses (as in
various enumerations or descriptions), e.g.: They were sitting on the beach, the
seagulls were flying above, the waves were rolling…
In “closed” coordinative constructions the final part is joined on an unequal
basis with the previous ones and the finalization of the chain of ideas is achieved,
e.g.: He joked, he made faces, he jumped around, but the child did not smile.

Assignments for the seminar

Practical assignment. Discuss the following questions:
1) Give the definition of a composite sentence.
2) State the difference between complex and compound sentences.
3) Of what parts does a complex sentence consist?
4) Dwell upon the peculiarities of different types of subordinate clauses.
5) Define the notion of a compound sentence.
6) Speak about types of coordination.
7) Distinguish between “open” and “closed” constructions.