Topic: THEORETICAL GRAMMAR AND THE STRUCTURALIST MODEL OF LANGUAGE

(Lecture 1)
1. The two major types of Grammar and their characteristics.

Types of Grammar as a branch of linguistics are determined by the major stages in the history of linguistic: pre-
scientific and scientific.
The grammar of the pre-scientific period (from 4th c BC-the mid 19th c AD) is called traditional. The most
typical characteristics of traditional grammar are:
1. emphasis on the formal (esp. written) variety of language
2. focusing on the grammatical regularities of the native tongue only
3. automatically applying the alien categories and practices of Latin Grammar to English
e. g. Split infinitives (Finally I decided; To simply ignore it)
4. disregarding contemporary usage
5. attaching more importance to morphology than to syntax
6. prescriptive character – prescribing certain forms as correct and others as ungrammatical

Scientific grammars (structural descriptive, generative, transformational) – focus on scientific analysis of

grammar phenomena.
Their appearance was conditioned by the advent of structural linguistic, which presented language as a system.
As a scientific grammar, theoretical grammar uses linguistic data for a theoretical description of the
grammatical subsystem of language.

2. How is Descriptive traditional grammar different from the other traditional grammars?

Descriptive traditional grammar describes and explains the patterns of usage found in all varieties of language
and recognizes variation in usage.

3. Why are traditional grammars called ‘traditional’?

Traditional grammars are called traditional mostly because they generally assume that grammatical facts are
established by tradition, i.e. by previous usage.

4. What is typical of structuralism as a scientific approach? Who is the founder of structuralism in Linguistics?

1) the world is made up of relationships rather than things, so it can only be understood on the basis of
structural relationships. It means that the significance of any element can’t be understood independently of the
structure to which it belongs
2) an unconscious logical structure underlies general meanings
e.g. language is the underlying structure behind speech
3) the structuralist method allows classifying an infinite member of variations by analyzing structure

The founder of structuralism in Linguistics is the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure.

5. How did F. de Saussure present language?

De Saussure argued that language is a system of signs.

6. Enumerate Saussure’s dichotomies underlying the systemic conception of language.

1) signifier – signified
2) synchrony – diachrony
3) langue – parole
4) syntagm – paradigm

7. What is a sign? What structure does a sign have?

A sign is any cultural symbol that conveys a meaning. The sign is made up of two elements – signifier and
signified.

8. “The sign is arbitrary”. What does it mean?

It means that there is no fixed set of signifiers corresponding to a fixed set of signifieds.

9. Define linguistic synchrony and diachrony.

Linguistic synchrony is the study of language at a particular point in time.

Linguistic diachrony is the study of the history or evolution of language.

10. What’s the difference between syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations?

Syntagmatic relations are immediate, linear (horizontal) relations existing between signs in a sequence. Unlike
syntagmatic relations, paradigmatic relations are not immediate. They exist between elements of the system
outside the sequence in which these elements co-occur. In other words, a paradigmatic (vertical) relationship is
one where an individual sign may be replaced by another.

11. Enumerate the 3 subsystems and 6 levels of language in the structuralist model of language.

The 3 subsystems in the structuralist model of language are phonological, lexical, grammatical.
The 6 levels of language in the structuralist model of language are phonemic, morphemic, lexemic, phrasemic,
proposemic, dictemic.

12. What is / are the basic function(s) of the phoneme / morpheme / word / phrase / sentence / dicteme?

The basic function of the phoneme is differential.

The basic function of the morpheme is constitutive (word-building).
The basic function of the word is mononomination (names simple referents (things and their relations)).
The basic function of the phrase is polynomination (denotes complex referents).
The basic functions of the sentence are nomination (names a situation) and predication (relates the denoted
event to reality).
The basic functions of the dicteme are nomination, predication, topicalisation (develops a topic) and stylization
(gives the text a certain stylistic colouring).

13. What are suprasegmental units? Provide examples.

The 6 levels mentioned above are formed by the so-called segmental units.
Segmental units consist of phonemes (morphemes, words, etc.)
Suprasegmental units do not exist by themselves and are realized together with segmental units. They are
intonation patterns, accents, pauses, word-order patterns.

Topic: MORPHOLOGY AND ITS BASIC NOTIONS (Lecture 2)

1. What does the term ‘morphology’ mean in Linguistics?

In Linguistics the term ‘morphology’ is defined as a branch of Grammar that studies the internal structure of
words.

2. What is a morpheme?

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language.

3. What morphemes are called a) derivational / inflexional? b) roots / affixes? c) suffixes and prefixes?
According to what criteria are these types of morphemes singled out?

a) Derivational morphemes are used to form new words. / Inflexional morphemes are used to express
grammatical meanings/categories. FUNCTIONALLY
b) Roots are morphemes with a more concrete meaning. / Affixes are morphemes with a more abstract meaning.
SEMANTICALLY (correlative semantic contribution to the general meaning of the word)
c) Suffixes are located after the roots. / Prefixes are located before the roots. POSITIONALLY

4. How does Descriptive Linguistics classify morphemes?

In Descriptive linguistics morphemes are classified as follows:

1. free - bound
2. overt - covert
3. additive - replacive
4 continuous - discontinuous

5. Define each type of morphemes singled out in Descriptive Linguistics.

Free morphemes can function as separate words, bound can't.

Overt morphemes are genuine explicit morphemes (проявлен, выдел их) building up words. A covert
morpheme is a contrastive meaningful absence of a morpheme expressing a certain function.
e.g. book=book- + -øsg (отсутствие что-то обозначение)
Additive morphemes are affixes. e.g. book- +-s, nice -+ -ly. Replacive morphemes are root morphemes of
grammatical interchange. e.g. give-gave, man-men
Continuous morphemes are expressed uninterruptedly. e.g. Tree/s, nice/ly, re/write. Discontinuous morphemes
are 2-element grammatical units which are found in analyticed grammatical forms and consist of an auxiliary
word and a grammatical suffix.
1. Be…-ing eg. Is reading
2. Have…-en eg.has played
3. Be…-en eg.are planned

6. What’s the difference between a morpheme, a morph, and an allomorph?

The morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language.

A morph is a surface form of a morpheme. in different environments. These morphs are called
An allomorph is a morph in different environment. Eg. Book/s-dat/a-box/es-проявлен морфемы мн ч

7. What is meant by ‘fused’ and ‘amalgamated’ morphs?

Morphs can be fused and amalgamated (сращение и слитные).

Fused morphs share 1 or more common phonemes. Eg.real/ly /rieli/ - /riel/+/ii/
Amalgamated morphs represent several morphemes simultaneously. Eg.girls’ (friends)

8. When are morphs in contrastive / non-contrastive / complementary distribution?

1. If 2 morphs occur in the same environment, but are different in form and meaning, they represent different
morphemes. Such morphs are in contrastive distribution. Eg. Speak/s-speak/ing, speak-the environment
2. If 2 morphs occur in the some environments, have different forms, but the same meaning, they represent the
same morpheme. Morphs are is non-contrastive distribution eg.lean/ed-learn/t
3. If 2 morphs occur in different environments, have different forms but the same meaning, they represent the
same morpheme. They are in complementary ( дополнит) distribution. Eg. Criteri/a-desk/s-child/ren

9. Why can’t we say that the word ‘thunder’ consists of 2 morphemes – ‘thund-’ and ‘-er’, by analogy with
‘teacher  teach- + -er’?

In order to see which ease it is necessary to establish systemic connections between the morph of the analysed
word and the same morph in other environment. Eg.teach/er (work/er, danc/er)
Thunder – thund/er – нельзя, т.к. thund – not exist, -er не имеет значения суффикса.

10. What’s the difference between a morpheme and a syllable?

A morpheme may coincide with a syllable, but a syllable has no meaning of its own. Eg.un/lady/like-морфемы,
un-la-dy-like слоги.

11. Define: a) a grammatical categorial meaning b) a grammatical paradigm c) a grammatical category

d) a grammatical opposition
A grammatical categorial meaning is an abstract generalized meaning of words, typical not of an individual
word but of a whole class of words (the idea of number/case/tense).
A set of correlated grammatical forms expressing a categorial meaning is called a paradigm. E.e. desk/desks;
cat/cat’s
A system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatically correlated
grammatical forms is called a grammatical category.
A grammatical opposition is a generalized correlation of lingual forms by means of which some function is
expressed.

12. Enumerate and define the 3 major types of oppositions.

A private binary opposition is formed by a contrasted pair of members one of which has a certain feature
called ‘the mark’ while the other – the unmarked member – is characterized by the absence of this feature. E.g.
+[b] – [p]-, -day – days+
A gradual opposition is formed by a contrasted group of members expressing the same feature but to a
different degree. E.g. big-bigger-the biggest
An equipollent opposition is formed by a group of members distinguished by different positive features.

13. What is ‘synthetic grammatical forms’? What are they based on?

Synthetic grammatical forms are realised by the inner morphemic composition of the word. They are based on:
- Inner inflexion – vowed interchange (woman – women; take – took)
- Suppletivity – grammatical interchange of word roots (go – went)
- Outer inflexion – affixation (think – thinks)

14. What is an analytical grammatical form?

An analytical grammatical form is a combination of an auxiliary word with a basic word.

15. What differential features of an analytical grammatical form do different linguists put forward?

Some linguists put forward differential features of an analytical grammatical form. They are:
- The meaning of each element of an analytical grammatical forms does not determine the meaning of the
whole form
- There aren’t any syntactic relations between the elements of an analytical form
- The elements of an analytical form can’t have independent syntactic relations with the other sentence
members
- Discontinuity of form

Topic: PARTS OF SPEECH (Seminar 1)

1. What parts of speech does the traditional polydifferential classification single out?

The traditional part-of-speech classification of words singles out 2 major classes – that of
notional words (the noun, the verb, the adjective, the adverb, the pronoun and the numeral) and that of
functional words (the article, the particle, the conjunction, the preposition, the interjection, the modal word).
2. How does the traditional classification of parts of speech define notional and functional words?

Notional words are words of complete nominative value and self-dependent syntactic functions. Functional
words are words of incomplete nominative value and non-self-dependent syntactic functions.

3. According to what criteria does the traditional classification of parts of speech further characterise notional
words? Exemplify your answer.

Notional words (otherwise called ‘content words’) are further grouped according to 3 criteria – semantic,
formal and functional. The semantic criterion considers the general (categorial) meaning of all the words
referring to the same grammatical class (e.g. the categorial mg of verbs is process). The formal criterion takes
into account inflexional and derivational features of the given class of words. The functional criterion concerns
the syntactic functions of the word in a sentence and parts of speech that can modify it.
Thus, according to the traditional classification, the Noun can be characterised as follows:
semantic criterion: categorial meaning of substance/thingness
formal criterion: morphological categories of number and case; typical derivational suffixes – er, -ness, -tion
etc.; inflexions –s/’s.
syntactic criterion: syntactic functions of the subject, object and predicative; can be modified by adjectives

4. How did H. Sweet classify parts of speech?

He singled out declinables and indeclinables depending on whether or not words can change their grammatical
forms. To the group of declinables he referred nouns, adjectives and verbs. At the same time, applying the
syntactic criterion, he singled out noun-words, adjective-words and verb-words, i.e. words which can function
like nouns, adjective or verbs (I – nouns, noun- pronouns, noun-numerals, the infinitive and the gerund; II –
adjectives, adjective-pronouns, adjective-numerals, participles; III – verbs, non-finite verbs).

5. Why is Ch. Fries’ classification of parts of speech called ‘syntactic’? What parts of speech did the scholar
single out?

It is based on the syntactic position of the word in a sentence. He singled out nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
Pronouns were distributed among the corresponding classes of Nouns and Adjectives, functional words.

6. What parts of speech does the functional-paradigmatic classification of parts of speech single out? How does
it interpret pronouns?

The class of notional words comprises nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Functional can be grouped as
follows: a) determiners of nouns, modal verbs, intensifiers of adjectives and adverbs, b) interpositional
elements (conjunctions and prepositions), c) words referring to the sentence as a whole (question-words, words
of affirmation and negation, sentence introducers it, there, inducement words let, please and some others.)

Pronouns form a third grammatical class of words, intermediate between notional and functional words. In the
broad sense of the word, a pronoun is a word that can perform the function of substitution. That’s why this class
consists not only of pronouns proper, but also of pro-names – i.e. words of broad semantics (широкозначные
слова): Npron (thing, problem, stuff) – Vpron (make, do, act) – Apron (similar, same) – Dpron (thus,
there, so)

7. What does the universal-typological theory of parts of speech single out instead of parts of speech proper?

The universal-typological theory of parts of speech claims that parts of speech are not grammatical categories
of particular languages but typological prototypes based on universal communicative functions. The three
universally recognised communicative functions shaping universal constructions in which words occur are:
1) reference (what the speaker is talking about)
2) predication (what the speaker is asserting about the referents in a particular utterance)
3) modification (additional information about the referent)

Topic: THE NOUN AND ITS CATEGORIES (Seminar 2)

1. The non-hierarchical (semantic) classification of English nouns.

The class of nouns is further subdivided into five groups on the basis of their formal and semantic peculiarities:
a) proper - common nouns (according to the type of nomination);
b) animate – inanimate nouns (according to the type of existence);
c) human – non-human (according to the form of existence);
d) countable – uncountable nouns (according to their quantitative structure);
e) concrete – abstract nouns (the latter denoting non-material objects).

2. Why is the category of gender in Modern English purely semantic?

This category is called purely semantic because it has no grammatical forms of expression (like –s marking the
plural form in the category of number or the discontinuous morpheme “be ...-en” marking the passive form in
the category of voice, etc.)

3. What opposition represents the category of gender in Modern English?

4. How is the Russian category of gender different from the category of gender in English?
In Russian, the category of gender is also hierarchical, but its nature is different:

As is seen from the pictures, in English the category of gender is meaningful, because it reflects the actual
gender distinctions of the named objects. In Russian it is only partially meaningful, because the subdivision of
the set of inanimate nouns into feminine, masculine and neuter is groundless.

5. Oppositional reduction in the category of gender.

Neutralisation
In the plural all gender distinctions are neutralised.
Transposition
The process of transposition takes place when non-person nouns are correlated with the personal pronouns “he”
and “she” (or possessive pronouns his/her correspondingly)
e.g. Nature generously shares her wealth with people.
This process is also called personification.

6. What opposition represents the English category of number?

7. What is the interpretation of the categorial meaning of the singular / plural in traditional and modern
Linguistics?

Traditionally, the meaning of the weak member of the opposition (the singular form) was interpreted as “one”,
whereas the meaning of the strong member of the opposition (the plural form) – “more than one”.
Yet, this definition doesn’t work in a number of cases. Thus, in the sentence Here you can buy the best teas
from all over the world the lexeme “teas” can’t mean “more than one tea”. That’s why in modern linguistics the
meaning conveyed by the plural form is interpreted as the denotation of the potentially dismembering reflection
of the referent structure. Correspondingly, the meaning of the singular – as the non-dismembering reflection of
the referent structure.

8. Semantic varieties of the plural.

There exist the following semantic varieties of the plural:

1) the standard plural (a class – classes)
2) the plural denoting a fixed set of objects (the eyes of a face, the hands of a clock)
3) the plural expressing various types of the referent (wine – wines)
4) the repetition plural, intensifying the idea expressed (miles and miles away, hundreds upon hundreds)
5) the descriptive plural, stressing the picturesqueness of the referent (the waters of the Atlantic)
6) the lexicalised plural, characterised by a notional difference in meaning (pain – боль, pains – усилия; a
colour – цвет, colours – флаг)
7) Pluralia Tantum1 nouns – or absolute plural nouns – nouns always used in the plural. Opposed to them are
Singularia Tantum nouns, or absolute singular nouns, i.e. nouns always used in the singular. To express the idea
of quantity with such nouns, the speaker should use the so-called partitives – countable nouns, showing the
amount/number of the given object(s).
e.g. advice – 2 pieces of advice, bread – a slice of bread, trousers – 3 pairs of trousers, etc.

9. Oppositional reduction in the category of number.

Neutralisation
1) takes place when countable nouns begin to function as absolute singular nouns.
e.g. She had 5 aquarium fish (countable). – Do they serve fish (uncountable, denoting a dish) here?
2) takes place when countable nouns begin to function as absolute plural nouns.
e.g. The committee (usually countable, in this sentence it functions as an absolute plural noun) were unanimous
in their decision.
3) takes place when a singular countable noun denotes the whole class of similar objects.
e.g. The tiger is a predator. (All tigers are predators)
Transposition
Here refer cases of using the descriptive and the repetition plural:
e.g. the sands of the desert (the descriptive uncountable plural is used as a countable noun in the plural form)
e.g. They searched house after house. (The repetition plural used here has 2 meanings: 1) more than one 2)
many, but 1 at a time)

10. The theory of positional cases.

According to this theory, the English noun, by analogy with Latin Grammar, has the inflexional Genitive case
and four non-inflexional, purely positional cases – Nominative (the case form of the noun performing the
function of the subject in the sentence), Accusative (the case form of the noun performing the function of the
direct or indirect prepositional object in the sentence), Dative (the case form of the noun performing the
function of the indirect object in the sentence) and Vocative (the case form of the noun performing the function
of the direct address in the sentence).
This theory is criticised because it mixes up the syntactic and the morphological characteristics of the noun.

11. The theory of prepositional cases.

In light of this theory, combinations of nouns with prepositions in certain object and attributive collocations are
understood as morphological case forms. In particular, it distinguishes the Dative case (to + N, for + N à to the
family, for the people) and the Genitive Case (of + N à of the book), which are said to co-exist with the
inflexional Genitive case and the 4 positional cases mentioned above.
The disadvantage of this theory is that it is inconsistent and limited in the scope of analysis, because it only
studies for-to-of + Noun phrases and doesn’t analyse other prepositional phrases which also express casal
meanings*

12. The limited case theory.

It is the most widely spread view on the category of case in English. It recognizes the existence in English of a
limited case system comprising the strong form - the Genitive case (which is treated as inflexional because ‘s is
considered to be a grammatical suffix) and the weak form – the Common case.

13. The postpositional case theory.

It is based on the assumption that in the course of its historical development the English noun lost the
morphological category of case* (certain inflexions are needed for its expression). That’s why the traditional
genitive case is treated as a combination of a noun with a postposition, i.e. as a grammatical form of the word
with a particle. The following arguments are put forward to prove that ‘s is not a grammatical suffix, but a
particle:
1) ‘s can be added not only to nouns, but also to phrases and even clauses
e.g. Eric’s child (noun + ‘s)
my elder brother Eric’s child (phrase + ‘s)
The blonde I have been dancing with’s name was Bernice something – Crabs or Krebs. (clause + ‘s)
2) ‘s is used not only with nouns, but also with adverbs and some pronouns
e.g. yesterday’s newspaper, somebody else’s answer
That’s why ‘s can’t be treated as a grammatical suffix marking the category of case in NOUNS.

14. Prof. Blokh’s interpretation of the category of case in Modern English.

Pr Blokh’s treatment of the category of case is based on the advantages of the limited case system and the
postpositional theory. According to it, in modern English there is a 2-case system of the noun: the Common
Case (which he terms the Direct Case) and the Genitive case (or the Oblique Case). Thus, unlike the supporters
of the postpositional theory, the scholar doesn’t deny the existence of the Genitive case in modern English. Yet,
he agrees that the expression of the Genitive case is based on a particle, i.e. that ‘s is not an inflexion but a
particle.
The Oblique Case is subsidiary to the syntactic system of prepositional phrases, as the Genitive case is mostly
used with nouns denoting human beings and animals, whereas of-phrase is not restricted in usage.
e.g. the child’s hand or the hand of the child, BUT the hand of the clock (NOT the clock’s hand)
Pr Blokh claims that the Genitive case renders the categorial meaning of appurtenance, which is broader than
the traditionally recognised meaning of possessiveness.

15. Semantic varieties of the genitive.

The categorial semantics of appurtenance is so wide in range that it is possible to single out several semantic
types of the Genitive Case:
1) the Genitive of possessor
e.g. my uncle’s house (= the house belongs to my uncle)
2) the Genitive of integer (or organic possession, i.e. a part organically belongs to a whole)
e.g. the hotel’s lobby (= the lobby belongs to the hotel as its part), Madonna’s voice
3) the Genitive of the agent (= the noun in the genitive case is the doer of the action implied)
e.g. the singer’s arrival (= the singer arrived), the child’s smile (= the child smiled)
4) the Genitive of the author
e.g. Pushkin’s poem (= Pushkin is the author of the poem), the committee’s report (=the committee has
compiled/prepared the report)
5) the Genitive of patient (the noun in the genitive case is the recipient of the action)
e.g. the Titanic’s tragedy (= the Titanic suffered a tragedy), the shop’s owner (the shop is owned by a person)
6) the Genitive of destination (the noun in the genitive case denotes the addressee/destination of the action)
e.g. women’s magazine (=a magazine published for women), children’s toys (= toys produced for children)
7) the Genitive of quantity
e.g. an hour’s delay (= a delay that lasted an hour), two months’ time (a period of 2 months)
8) the Genitive of adverbial
e.g. yesterday’s meeting ( = the meeting that took place yesterday)
and some others.

16. The meaning of the categories of definiteness and indefiniteness.

Definiteness is a universal language category concerned with the grammaticalisation of identifiability and non-
identifiability of referents on the part of a speaker. Definite identifiability indicates that a referent is in some
way identifiable to both speaker and addressee. The referent is identifiable because of a shared knowledge or
situation, including a previous mention of the referent.
Indefiniteness indicates that the referent(s) of an expression is not presumed to be identifiable. The referent is
not identifiable because of a lack of shared knowledge or situation, including no previous mention of the
referent.

17. What opposition represents the category of article determination in Modern English?
Topic: THE VERB AND ITS CATEGORIES (Seminar 3)
1. The category of finitude (its opposition and meaning)

The opposition of finite and non-finite verbs creates a special grammatical category – the category of finitude,
whose syntactic content is the expression of predication, i.e. relating the nominative content of a sentence to
reality through the verbal categories of tense and mood.
The finite verb has the categories of tense, mood, person/number, voice and aspect. Non-finite verbs express the
categories of aspect and voice only.

2. Why are the verbal categories of person and number called ‘reflective’?

The peculiarity of these categories is that they are reflective, i.e. they don’t convey verbal semantics (which is
process presented dynamically), but reflect in the verb the personal and numerical features of the subject
referent.

3. Absolutive and relative time denotation.

Lexical expression of time can be absolutive (present-oriented) and non-absolutive (non-present-oriented).

Absolutive time denotation characterises the action as referring to the past (if it precedes the present moment,
i.e. the moment of speech), to the present (if it includes the moment of speech) or to the future (if it follows the
moment of speech).
e.g. yesterday, now, in the future
Relative time denotation is not present-oriented. It means that it does not characterise an action depending on
its orientation towards the present moment (i.e. the moment of speech). Relative time denotation correlates 2 or
more events showing some of them as either preceding or following the others or happening at the same time
with them.
e.g. after that, before that, at one and the same time with, some time later
Relative time denotation can also be effected through astronomical time of an event or historical landmarks.
e.g. in 2020, during WWII, in the Bronze age

4. What is the traditional presentation of English tenses and what is wrong with it?
Yet this interpretation can’t explain the existence of the Future-in-the-Past. As the Future-in-the-Past is difficult
to interpret, it is often excluded from the analysis of English tenses.

5. How to prove that the shall/will + V combinations are not ‘free word-combinations with modal shades of
meaning’?

Some linguists recognise only 2 tense forms – the past and the present (e.g. Prof. Barkhudarov), thus making
the analysis of the Future-in-the-Past unnecessary. According to them, Future forms are not tense forms, but
free word-combinations with modal shades of meaning (will expresses volition, determination, shall – promise,
threat, warning). (Yet, not every shall/will+V combination has a modal meaning. Besides, will has a modal
meaning only when it is used with a 1st person subject, and shall – with the 2nd and 3rd person subjects.
Finally, shall and will as markers of future forms are often reduced to the contracted –‘ll-form.)

6. What tense categories are singled out by Prof. Blokh? What oppositions are they based on?

Prof. Blokh’s interpretation of the category of tense doesn’t deny the independent status of Future tenses and
explains the existence of the Future-in-the-Past.
According to the scholar, the category of tense in English is based on 2 categorial oppositions: 1) the category
of primary time and 2) the category of prospective time.

7. Oppositional reduction in the category of tense.

Transposition (primary time)

a) historic present (the speaker uses the present tense forms to describe a past event in order to make the
description more vivid)
e.g. I looked out the window and there I see a group of people.
b) the ‘preterite of modesty (the speaker uses the past tense forms instead of the present tense forms in order to
sound polite/less categorical).
e.g. I wondered if you remember me.
Neutralisation (prospect)
1) the use of the Present instead of the Future when one is speaking about plans, schedules, etc.
2) cases of obligatory neutralization in subordinate clauses of time and condition, when Future tense forms are
replaced by the Present

8. What is the meaning of the category of aspect?

Grammatical aspective meanings are expressed by special morphological forms referring to the category of
aspect. The category of aspect reflects the inherent mode of the realisation of the process irrespective of its
timing.

9. What is Prof. Smirnitsky’s interpretation of the Perfect / Simple forms?

cc. to Prof. Smirnitsky, the Perfect is neither a tense nor an aspect, and can’t be reduced to either of them. It
shows that an action denoted by a perfect form precedes some moment in time. The functioning of the category
of correlation in the system of the English verb was shown by Pr Smirnitsky as a three-dimensional
parallelepiped.

10. What aspective categories are singled out by Prof. Blokh? What oppositions are they based on?
According to Prof. Blokh, in Modern English there are 2 aspective categories – the category of Development
and the category of Retrospective coordination.

11. Why is the Perfect said to have a mixed categorial meaning?

The Perfect has a mixed categorial meaning: 1) it expresses priority and 2) it shows the connection of a prior
process with the time limit in a subsequent event.

12. Oppositional reduction in the category of aspect.

Neutralisation (development)
a) unlimitive verbs (that is, verbs presenting a process as incomplete) are neutralised when the continuity of
action is indicated by context.
e.g. The night was silent. The snow fell in soft flakes.
b) obligatory neutralisation of the verbs to be, to have, verbs of physical and mental perceptions (the so- called
“verbs never used in the Continuous”)
Transposition
a) the use of the Continuous to denote habitual actions
e.g. He is always losing his key.
b) the continuous use of verbs never used in the Continuous
Neutralisation (retrospect)
a) the use of the Past Simple instead of the Present Perfect
e.g. I never met such people. (Instead of: I have never met such people.)
b) the use of the Present Simple instead of the Present Perfect with the verbs of physical and mental
perceptions:
e.g. I hear you’re going abroad? (Instead of: I have heard you’re going abroad?)

13. What is the meaning of the category of voice? What opposition is it based on?
The category of voice shows the direction of the process as regards the participants of the situation reflected in
a sentence.

14. What medial voices are recognised in English by some linguists? Explain each term and say why it is wrong
to recognise their existence.

A vexed problem in connection with voice identification in English is the problem of the so-called “medial
voices”. The following medial voices are recognised:
1) the reflexive voice (the subject is the object of the action)
e.g. We got out of the pool and dried ourselves.
2) the reciprocal voice (the actions are performed by subject constituents reciprocally)
e.g. They found each other.
3) the middle voice (the action is going on as if of its own accord”)
e.g. The door opened.

As is seen from the examples, the problem arises from the discrepancy between the meaning of the verb
(passive) and its form (active).

15. What does the category of mood denote? What opposition is it based on, according to Prof. Blokh?

The category of mood expresses the character of connection between the process denoted by the verb and
reality, either presenting the process as a fact that really happened, happens or will happen or treating it as an
imaginary phenomenon which can be desirable/important/unbelievable, etc.

16. What does “tense-retrospect shift” in the group of Oblique mood forms mean?

The formal mark of the opposition is the tense-retrospect shift in the Subjunctive standing in opposition to the
integral form of the indicative. The shift consists in the perfect / imperfect aspect substituting for the past /
present tense of the indicative.
Topic: SENTENCE: STRUCTURAL ASPECT (Lecture 3)
1. What is a predicative line?

A predicative line is the immediate connection between the subject and the predicate.

2. Define the simple and the composite sentence depending on the number of predicative lines they contain.

The simple sentence has only one predicative line. The composite sentence has more than one predicative
lines.

3. What do the processes of substitution and representation have in common, and how are they different?

Representation and substitution embrace the cases when some element of the sentence is missing, and its
function is fulfilled by another element.
The means of representation are:
1. Auxiliary verbs of analytical predicates
E. g. She likes dancing, she always has (like dancing)
2. Modal verbs
E. g. He can’t swim, but I can (swim)
3. The particle ‘to’ as the mark of the missing infinitive.
E. g. I didn’t say it, though I wanted to (say it).
Substitution is the usage of some other word to hint at the meaning of the missing word. The two substitution
words in English are the verb to do; and the pronoun one;
E.g I don’t like winter, but she does.
E. g. Which pen will you take? - The black one.

4. What kind of sentences does Prof. Barkhudarov call “syntagmatically restored” and “paradigmatically
restored” elliptical sentences?

Syntagmatically restored elliptical sentences are sentences in which the zero element can be restored from the
context through its previous mention.
Paradigmatically restored elliptical sentences are sentences in which it can be restored in that way.

5. Why does Prof. Blokh suggest dividing simple sentences into 1-axis and 2-axis instead of into 2-member
elliptical and 1-member? What does the scholar mean by ‘axis’?

Most linguists argue that is the basic point of a difference between 1-member and elliptical sentenced is that the
missing elements of an elliptical sentence are restored from the context easily and an unambiguously, which is
not the case with 1-member sentences.
Yet it’s not always so. That’s why Professor Blokh suggests dividing simple sentences not into 1-member/ 2-
member but into 1-axis and 2-axis sentences (axis - the subject group or the predicate group).

6. How does the traditional scheme of sentence parsing present the hierarchy of sentence parts?
The scheme arranges sentence parts which are related to one another on an equal syntactic rank (i.e. when one
constituent does not dominate the other) horizontally. Sentence parts characterized by subordination are
connected by vertical lines.

7. What is the advantage of IC analysis over the traditional scheme of sentence parsing?

IC analysis manages to present the genuine linear order of the sentence parts.

8. What does IC analysis consist in and what does it reveal about sentence structure?
It consists in dividing a sentences into 2 groups – that of the subject and that of the predicate which in turn are
divided into their subgroup constituents.
IC analysis shows that sentences are not just linear sequences of elements. Instead, sentences are made up of
‘layers’ of immediate constituents, each lower level constituent being part of a higher level constituent.

Topic: SENTENCE IN PARADIGMATICS (Lecture 4)

1. What’s the difference between syntagmatic and paradigmatic Syntax?

Traditional Grammar studies the sentence syntagmatically, i. e. as a string of constituents performing some
semantico-syntactic functions. This approach characterises systemic connections between sentences in terms of
various classification (according to the number of predicative lines, their structural completeness etc)
Paradigmatic syntax treats the sentence not only as a unit of speech, but also as a meaningful lingual unit
existing in a pattern form.

2. What is syntactic derivation?

It’s paradigmatic production of more complex sentences out of kernel sentences.

3. What is a kernel sentence?

A kernel sentence is a syntactic unit which serves as a sentence-root for the production of new sentences.

4. What’s the difference between the kernel sentence and the elementary sentence?

The difference is that the elementary sentence is a unit of syntagmatic syntax, while the kernel sentence is a
unit of paradigmatic syntax, i.e. a base for producing more complex syntactic structures.

5. Enumerate the major types of transformational procedures.

The major transformational procedures are:

1) Deletion, i.e. omission of some elements of the sentence (эллипсис)
E. g. I put the books on the desk, and the back beside the desk
2) Rearrangement - rearranging a word from its original place within the kernels.
E. g. The house is new - Is his house new?
3) Addition - changing the basic sentence pattern by adding some components to it
E. g. They leave here - Do they leave here? They do leave here.
4) Substitution - the use of various substitutes (pronouns)
E. g. The mother came in. - She came in.
5) Morphological arrangement, which doesn't produce a new s pattern, but generates transformations
within the same model.
E. g. The main works here. The man worked here. The man worked here.
6) Nominalization - changing a kernel sentence into a nominal phrase or a semi-predicative construction.
E. g The day was cold. - a cold day/ the day being cold
7) Clausalization, I. e changing a kernel sentence into a clause with the help of connectives.
E. g. They arrived. It was too late. - When they arrived, it was too late.

6. What is the essence of the predicative function of the sentence?

The predicative function of the sentence consists in relating its nominative content to reality.

7. Enumerate 12 syntactic oppositions expressing predicative meanings through which the sentence performs its
predicative function.

+ сильный - слабый

1) question statement

2) inducement statement

3) negation affirmation

4) unreality reality

5) probability fact
[probability is expressed by modal words]

6) modal subject-action relation fact

[modality is expressed by modal verbs]

7) modal identity fact

[ modality is expressed by the structure seem/prove to V]

8) specialised actual sentence division non-specialised actual sentence division

[ non-specialised ASD means the theme coincides
with the subject group and the rheme - with the predicate
group]

9) phrase of action (начало, конец, продолжение) fact

10) passive action active action

11) emphasis neutrality

12) specified subject-action relation fact

[specified subject-action relation shows
the success/ failure of an action or an attempt
to perform an action]

8. In what case is a sentence said to be predicatively loaded / to have a predicative load? What is a light / heavy
predicative load?

A sentence is predicatively loaded if it renders at least one of the strong meanings of the predicative paradigm.
The predicative load is light if the number of positive features is 1 or 2. If there are more, the load is described
as heavy.

Topic: SENTENCE: SEMANTIC ASPECT (Lecture 5)

1. How is the sentence related to the denoted situation?

The sentence is related to the denoted situation not immediately, but through a proposition.

2. What does a proposition consist of?

A proposition consists of a number of participants/ arguments/ semantic units centered around the relational
predicate.

3. What is a semantic role?

The underlying relationship that a participant of the situation has with the relational predicate in a sentence is
called a semantic role.

4. Enumerate the main semantic roles and translate their names into Russian.

The main semantic role are:

1. Agent (агенс) - the performer of the action
E. g. The Robber run off. He was chased by a policeman.
2. Experiencer (экспериенцер) experiences the event or state without having direct control over it. Аs
experience requires a nervous system, an experiencer must be animate.
e.g. The explosion was heard by everyone.
An experiencer is easily confused with an agent The difference is that an experiencer is not consciously behind
the experience; it just happens to the experiencer.
3. Causer (каузатив) instigates an event
E.g. Peter tripped John - подставил подножку (всегда успешное действие)
E.g. The water destroyed my computer
4. Patient (патиенс) is affected by the action of the verb
А patient can be animate or inanimate
E. g. The tree fell on the house
E. g. John died.
E. g. He drove the car skillfully
5. Theme (тема) - neither causes the state or event nor is directly affected by it.
E. g. Mary knows John.
It’s also defined as a participant whose properties, location, or involuntary movement is predicated.
E. g. The ball was white.
E.g. The ball was under the chair.
E.g. The ball flew into the window.
6. Posessor (обладатель) owns or controls another participant.
E.g. The sleeve of the coat was torn.
E.g. John has a dog.
E.g. John’s dog is black.
E.g. The dog is John’s.
7. Recipient (реципиент) - one who receives smth
E.g. I gave it to the girl
E.g. They sent me a postcard
E.g. I was sent a postcard
8. Instrument (инструмент) - is used by agent to achieve the process
E.g. I opened the door with a key.
E.g. I used a key to open the door.
9. Path (путь) - describes the spatial aspect of notion.
E.g. The baby crawled across the room.
10. Locative (локатив) - denotes the place of the action, but unlike the path, it doesn’t imply notion to, from or
across the location.
E.g. It rains a lot in Scotland.
E.g. Your bug is on the chair.
11. Goal (цель) - denotes the place to which an action is directed
E.g. Put the bag on the chair
E.g. He threw the book at me.
12. Source (источник) - denotes the place/ object from which and action originates.
E.g. He flew from Chicago to LA
E.g. John fell off the chair.
E.g. I got the idea from a magazine.
13. Factitive (фактитив/результат) - results from the action or state denoted by the verb
E.g. The workers dug a hole in the ground.
E.g. He drew a picture of his house.
14. Time (темпоратив/время) - situates the event in time.
E.g. It happened at midnight.
15. Beneficiary (бенефактив) - denotes a referent for whose benefit the action was performed.
E.g. This book is for you.
E.g. She made me a cup of coffee.
E.g. He helped Susan to fix her car.

5. What is the valency of the relational predicate?

The valency of the relational predicate, i. e. how many semantico-syntactic positions/arguments it can control.

6. What is the semantic configuration of the sentence?

The semantic configuration of the sentence is the minimal set of semantic roles necessary forth construction of
semantically adequate sentence.

7. What is meant by the theme and the rheme in a sentence?

Given information provides the sentence theme. It is the starting point of communication
New information provides the sentence rheme. The rheme expresses the basic informative part of the sentence.

8. What is the difference between the notional sentence division and the actual sentence division?

Unlike the notional sentence division which divides a sentence into notional parts represented by certain
sentence members, the actual sentence division shows that immediate semantic contribution sentence parts
make to the total information conveyed by the sentence.

9. Enumerate 3 types of English constructions with multiple rhemes.

1. a double-rheme constructions in which 2 verbal elements correlate with the same theme in such a way
that the second verbal element is connected with the 1st as its complement (=obligatory modifier)
E. g. He is likely to agree.
2. a double-rheme construction formed by verb in the passive voice.

E. g. They were asked to sit down.

3. a double-rheme constructions formed by modal verbs.
E. g. You mustn’t agree to it.

10. How are the theme and the rheme distributed a) in strictly declarative non-emphatic sentences isolated from
the context? b) in imperative sentences? c) in interrogative sentences?

In a strictly declarative non-emphatic sentence is isolated from the context. The theme is expressed by the
subject group, the rheme - by the predicate group
E. g. Kate is fond of music. (Kate - тема, остальное - рема)
The imperative sentence is rhematic, its thematic subject is usually zeroed
E. g Don’t do it
Sometimes the theme of an imperative sentence is explicitly expressed:
E. g. Let her speak / Let’s go
The theme of an interrogative sentence is expressed by its subject.
In special questions they rhematic peak is expressed by the interrogative pronoun.
E. g. Where(peak) do(RH) you(th) live(rh) ?
11. What are the 3 basic communicative sentence types? Dwell upon their structural, semantic and pragmatic
features.

According to the purpose of communication, 3 basic communicative sentence types are recognised
1) the declarative sentence
2) the imperative sentence
3) the interrogative sentence

Each type has its own structural, semantic, progmatic properties.

The declarative sentence expresses a statement and is correlated with the listener’s signals of attention or
appraisal. Structurally it’s distinguished by direct word order.

The imperative sentence expresses inducement and is correlated with the listener’s verbal/action response
showing that the inducement was either complied with or rejected. Structurally it’s distinguished by the
obligatory use of the verb in the imperative mood.

The interrogative sentence expresses a request for info and is situationally correlated with the listener’s answer,
forming a question-dialogue unity with it. Structurally the interrogative sentence is distinguished by inverted
word order.

12. Why isn’t the exclamatory sentence included into the set of basic communicative sentence types?

It doesn’t have any unique structural and semantic properties, which would characterize it as an independent
communicative type. That’s why it’s reasonable to consider the property of exclamation as an accompanying
feature of the 3 communicative s types.

13. What is a free utterance in Ch. Fries’ classification of communicative sentence types?

A free utterance is a continuous chunk of talk by 1 speaker in a dialogue.

14. What criterion did Ch. Fries use in his classification of communicative sentence types? What sentence types
did he single out?

The American scholar Ch. Fries worked out a communicative classification of sentence based not on the
purpose of communication, but on the kind of response they elicit.

At the first stage utterances collected from tape-recorded conversations were grouped into situation
utterances (eliciting a response) and response utterance.

Situation utterances were further subdivided into 3 groups.

1. Utterances regularly followed by oral responses only (greetings, calls, questions)
2. Utterances regularly eliciting action responses (requests, commands)
3. Utterances regularly eliciting conventional signals of attention to continuing discourse (statement)
Apart from these classes, the scholar singles out non- communicative utterances which are not directed to any
listener but are characteristic of situations such as surprise, anger, laughter etc.

15. Enumerate the 6 mixed communicative sentence types. What does the first / the second characteristic in the
name of each type mean? Exemplify each type.

The following mixed communicative types are identified:

1) declarative - interrogative
2) interrogative - declarative
3) declarative - imperative
4) imperative - declarative
5) imperative - interrogative
6) interrogative – imperative

The first characteristic means the form. The second characteristic means the meaning (content).

To declarative - interrogative sentences refers structures which are declarative in form but contain a question
E. g. I wonder if I got it right.
E.g. I hope I don’t disturb you.

Typical interrogative-declarative sentences are rhetorical questions. The purpose of the interrogative sentences
is asking for information. Yet, the rhetorical question expresses a statement because it contains the necessary
answer.
E. g Can a leopard change in sports?
E.g. Are you kidding me?
E.g. Are you stupid?

Declarative-imperative sentences are declarative in form but express inducement (побуждение), often with
the help of model verbs.
E. g. You should consider it
E. g. It’s time to go

Imperative-declarative sentences are mostly found in among proverbs and maxims:

E. g. Leave and learn
E. g. Scratch my back and I will scratch yours.
Imperative-interrogative sentences induce the listener not to act, but to speak, eliciting and answer.
E. g. Tell me about your previous job.
E.g. Tell me what I can do.

Interrogative - imperative sentences are interrogative constructions rendering the meaning of inducement.
E. g. Why don’t you do it tomorrow
E. g. Try to be more careful next time, will you?

Topic: MINOR SYNTAX (Seminar 4)

1. What is Syntax?
Syntax is the branch of Grammar that studies the rules by which words are combined to produce phrases and
utterances.

2. Provide the widest possible and narrow definitions of the phrase.

The widest possible interpretation of this term defines the phrase as a syntactically organised group of 2 or
more words (which is not an analytical form of a word) whose constituents can be any part of speech and can
be characterised by any kind of syntagmatic connections.
The narrow definition of the phrase treats it as a syntactic group consisting of at least 2 notional words related
to one another by means of subordination.

3. How is the phrase different from the word?

The phrase differs from the word in the following way:

1) in the function of nomination (mono- and polynomination)
2) the semantics of the phrase isn’t a simple sum of the meanings of its constituents (e.g. a green roof – a green
movement; a beach hotel [a hotel situated right by the sea] – a hotel beach [a beach belonging to a hotel])
3) unlike the word, the constituents of a phrase may have syntactic functions outside a sentence (e.g. to read a
book )

4. How is the phrase different from the sentence?

The phrase differs from the sentence in the following way:

1) unlike the sentence, the phrase is a non-communicative unit as it has no communicative purpose and
therefore no intonation of its own (Cf: the same phrase can be used in sentences with different communicative
purpose – Have you bought the flowers? I never buy flowers here. Do buy some flowers!)
2) the phrase always consists of at least 2 words, whereas the sentence can consist of only 1 word (Stop!)
3) unlike the phrase, the sentence reflects a fragment of reality and is related to it through the category of
modality

5. Enumerate types of syntactic relations. Define each type.

Coordination arranges units as units of equal syntactic rank (i.e. they have similar grammatical features and do
not depend on each other grammatically).
e.g. fruit and vegetables
Subordination arranges units as units of unequal syntactic rank, i.e. they don’t have similar syntactic functions,
and one constituent of such a phrase (the head word/the kernel) subordinates the other(s) (the adjunct(s)).
e.g. a good idea
Predication connects interdependent units. Predication can be of two kinds – primary and secondary. Primary
predication is observed between the subject and the predicate of the sentence. Secondary predication is
observed in predicative phrases formed by nominal elements (nouns or pronouns) and non-finite forms of the
verb – gerundial, infinitive and participial word-groups.
e.g. We’re waiting // the show being over // his asking us
6. Enumerate means of expressing syntactic relations. Explain each term.

In the case of agreement the head-word makes the adjunct (the subordinate word) take the same grammatical
form.
e.g. новый год (м.р., ед.ч.) – новая жизнь (ж.р., ед.ч.) – новые обещания (ср.р., мн.ч.)
e.g. this house – these houses
In the case of government the head-word makes the subordinate word take a certain grammatical form, but this
form doesn’t coincide with the grammatical form of the head-word itself.
e.g. she à to know her
e.g. the administration’s decision – the administration decision
Adjoining («примыкание») was originally identified in Russian linguistics as the absence of government and
agreement.
e.g. V+Adv (to sleep well) or Adv+Adv (too late) or Adv+Adj (rather bad) OR Adj+N (a nice place)
In the case of enclosure («замыкание») some elements are enclosed between 2 parts of a word-form.
e.g. a flower à a spring flower, to recommend
à to secretly admire (sb)
To other means of expressing syntactic connections refer:
- prepositions
- conjunctions
- word-order

7. Primary and secondary predication.

Predication can be of two kinds – primary and secondary. Primary predication is observed between the subject
and the predicate of the sentence. Secondary predication is observed in predicative phrases formed by nominal
elements (nouns or pronouns) and non-finite forms of the verb – gerundial, infinitive and participial word-
groups.

8. Define: coordinate / subordinate / predicative / exocentric / endocentric phrase.

Coordinate phrases are characterised by a syntactic equality of their components: boys and girls.
Subordinate phrases are based on the relation of dependence. Any subordinate phrase consists of a governing
element which is called the head and the dependent element which is called the adjunct (in noun-phrases) or the
complement (in verb-phrases). (in space, a true friend, to stop talking, adjective phrases. full of trouble)
Predicative word-groups based on interdependence consist of a nominal element (a noun or a pronoun) and a
finite or a non-finite verb.
e.g. they returned, their returning, for them to return
Endocentric constructions can function in the same way as at least one of their constituents. Exocentric
constructions can’t.
e.g. The little girl and her brother were in the garden. à the little girl, her brother, the girl and her brother are
endocentric phrases because their function is the same as that of girl, brother, girl/brother.
e.g. in the garden
à is an exocentric phrase, since none of the words can function in the same way as the whole phrase.

Topic: SENTENCE IN THE TEXT (Seminar 5)

1. What are the two differential features of the text?

So, the formation of a text implies two different notions:

1) it presupposes a succession of written or spoken utterances;
2) it implies a strictly topical stretch of talk which centers on a common informative purpose.

2. What do cumulemes and occursemes have in common, and how are they different?

According to their communicative direction, sentence-sequences in speech are divided into monologue- and
dialogue-sequences. Earlier within the text linguists identified only one- direction (monologue) sequences of
sentences which were known as “complex syntactic unities”, “super-phrasal unities” or “supra-sentential
constructions”. In Prof. Blokh’s terminology, they are called “cumulemes”.
Correspondingly, a two-direction textual stretch (i.e. a dialogue-sequence) in which sentences are positioned to
meet one another, is termed “occurseme”.
Hierarchically, the occurseme occupies the place above the cumuleme, as it can be built up by 2 or more
cumulemes, because the interlocutor’s utterances can be formed not only by separate sentences, but by
cumulemes as well. The cumuleme, in turn, is described as a universal language unit, because it is used in all
functional varieties of speech.
The functional characteristic of the cumuleme and occurseme is conditioned by the function of the text as a
whole. The function of a text is always exposed in its topic. The cumuleme and the occurseme should,
therefore, be considered topical elements.

3. What is a dicteme? What functions does it perform?

The dicteme is a textual topical unit built either by a cumuleme or a separate sentence. It performs 4 functions
– nomination (nominates the referent – a situational event or a series of events), predication (relates the denoted
event(s) to reality), stylisation (realises various functional styles, whose language marks function as their
stylistic indicators in the concrete topical stretch) and topicalisation (develops a certain topic).

4. What is the difference between a dicteme and a paragraph?

In written text the dicteme is represented by a paragraph, but the two units are not identical:
1) the paragraph refers to written literary speech only, whereas the dicteme is typical of all speech varieties;
2) apart from representing the dicteme, the paragraph is used to introduce utterances in a dialogue as well as
separate points in various enumerations;
3) a paragraph can contain more than one dicteme;
4) a paragraph can be subjected to the writer’s will (forced paragraph division).

5. Prospective and retrospective cumulation.

Cumulation is considered to be a universal semantico-syntactic means of textual cohesion. It can be prospective

and retrospective. Prospective cumulation is effected by connectives which relate the given sentence to the one
following it. In other words, prospective cumulation always indicates a continuation of speech.
e.g. The choice lies with you. à You can wait or you can act.
Retrospective cumulation is effected by connective elements relating the sentence to the one which precedes it
and which is semantically complete by itself.
e.g. It was unfair. ß Hope you won’t deny it.
Retrospective cumulation is the basic type of cumulation in ordinary speech.

6. Parcellation and the opposite process.

By way of transposition a sentence can be turned into a cumuleme (the process is called parcellation) and vice
versa. A parcellated construction presents 2 or more collocations (parcellas) separated by a sentence tone but
related to one another as parts of one and the same sentence. In writing these parts – the leading parcella and
the sequential parcella – are delimited by a full stop.
Opposed to parcellation is the process of transposing a cumuleme into a sentence. The cumuleme-sentence
construction is characteristic of careless and familiar speech and is used in fiction for the sake of vividness of
description. The transposition of a cumuleme into a sentence also occurs in literary passages dealing with
reasoning and mental perceptions. One of the means of transposing a cumuleme into a sentence is the use of the
semicolon

Topic: SENTENCE: GENERAL

1. Enumerate the 4 differential features of the sentence.

The differential features of the sentence:

1) intonation
2) predicativity
3) modality
4) form

2. The difference between the realisation of the nominative function by the word, the phrase and the sentence.

The word performs the function of mononomination (it denotes simple referents). The phrase performs the
function of polynomination as it denotes complex referents (e.g. an object and its quality, an action and its
object etc.) The referent of the sentence is a situational event, whose constituents are the subject, the action
itself, the qualities of the subject of the action and different kinds of circumstances of the action.

3. What is the difference between predication and modality?

Predicativity is realised through predication. The center of predication in a sentence of verbal type is a finite
verb expressing essential predicative meanings through the categories of tense and mood. With the help of these
categories the verb predicates or assigns the denoted property/state/action to the subject as corresponding or not
corresponding to reality together with certain temporal characteristics.
It’s necessary to draw a dividing line between predication and modality. The general semantic category of
modality is also defined as exposing the connection between the named objects and reality. Yet these notions
are not identical. Modality is a broader category relevant both to the grammatical elements of language and its
lexical, i.e. purely nominal elements. In this sense, every word expressing a definite correlation between the
object and reality is modal. To the means of expressing modality refer ‘modal’ words (e.g. necessary, vital),
semi-functional words and phrases of probability and evaluation (e.g. maybe, for sure), modal verbs, word-
particles of specifying modal semantics (quite, just, even).
Confined to the sentence, modality is a narrower notion. It embraces only syntactic modality (= predicativity)
as the fundamental distinguishing feature of the sentence. Though modality expressed on the level of words
adds to the general modality of the sentence.

4. Define: the dictum / modus / form of the sentence.

The dictum of the sentence (what is said) and the modus of the sentence (how it is said, i.e. the
speaker's attitude towards the dictum)
e.g. A sentence can have the dictum: It is a nice day. And the modi: I think that it is a nice day. I believe that it
is a nice day.
The form of the sentence consists in a set of constituents used in a certain order. It is thanks to
sentence form that we can identify the sequence “This is a house” as a sentence and “House a
this is” as a non-sentence.

PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENTS

1) describe the morphemic structure of the words on the lines of the traditional and distributional
classifications

Morphemes:
- roots
- affixes
o lexical (word-building)
▪ prefixes
▪ suffixes
o grammatical (express grammatical meaning)

● Free-bound. Free morphemes can function as separate word, bound can’t eg free root-book/s-inflex
● Overt-covert (open-close). Overt morphemes are genuine explicit morphemes (проявлен, выдел их) building
up words. A covert morpheme is a contrastive meaningful absence of a morpheme expressing a certain
function. Eg book=book-+ -øsg (отсутствие что-то обозначение)
● Additive -replacive. Additive morphemes are affixes. Eg book- +-s, nice -+ -ly. Replacive morphemes are
root morphemes of grammatical interchange. Eg give-gave, man-men
● Continuous-discontinuous. Continuous morphemes are expressed uninterruptedly. Eg. Tree/s, nice/ly, re/
write. Discontinuous morphemes are 2-element grammatical units which are found in analytical grammatical
forms and consist of an auxiliary word and a grammatical suffix.
1. Be…-ing eg. Is reading
2. Have…-en eg. has played
3. Be…-en eg. are planned

MODEL: firmly
According to the traditional classification, the word “firmly” is a two-morpheme word consisting of the root
“firm-“ and the lexical suffix “-ly”.
According to the distributional analysis, the root “firm-“ is a free morpheme. The lexical suffix “-ly“ is bound,
overt, additive, continuous.
 2) dwell upon the theme-rheme arrangement of the given sentences

Given information provides the sentence theme. It is the starting point of communication. New info provides
the sentence rheme.

Language means of expressing the theme:

1) The definite article
E. G. The answer was obvious.
2) definite pronominal determiners (pronouns)
E. G. The whole day was spent indoors.
3) loose parentheses, introduced by the phrases ‘as to’, ‘as far’, ‘regarding’
E. g. As for the passers-by, they didn’t notice anything.
4) the direct word-order pattern ( in non-emphatic speech the theme is found at the beginning of the
sentence)
5) fronting - moving to the beginning of the sentence an item which doesn’t usually belong there.
The item becomes the theme and carries extra prominence.
E. g. Across the road they run.

Language means of expressing the rheme:

1) the indefinite article
E. g. A man called out to us.
2) indefinite pronominal determines
E. g. Any day will be fine for the meeting
3) inversion (complete and partial. Partial inversion makes the subject thematic)
E. g. Only then did she confess.
E g. Down came the rain.
4) the emphatic construction with the pronoun ‘it’; (the so-called cheft sentences)
E. g. It’s they who are responsible for it.
5) contrastive complexes
E. g. Those words were meant not my friend, but for me
6) intensifying particles (even, only, just etc.)
E. g. Even they understood it.
7) existential constructions (there is/there are)
E. g. There are a number of unusual traditions in that country.
8) ellipsis, by means of which the rheme is isolated
E. g How old are you? - Twenty.
9) special graphical ways (italics, bold type, etc)

3) state the types of the oppositions below

A private binary opposition is formed by a contrasted pair of members one of which has a certain feature
called ‘the mark’ while the other – the unmarked member – is characterized by the absence of this feature. E.g.
+[b] – [p]-, -day – days+ (один c + другой с - )
A gradual opposition is formed by a contrasted group of members expressing the same feature but to a
different degree. E.g. big-bigger-the biggest (одинаковое значение, но разная степень)
An equipollent opposition is formed by a group of members distinguished by different positive features. (есть
сильные стороны у каждого)

MODEL:
It is a ..... opposition. The strong member is ......; its marker is ... .
 4) identify the semantic types of the genitive

The categorial semantics of appurtenance is so wide in range that it is possible to single out several semantic
types of the Genitive Case:
1) the Genitive of possessor
e.g. my uncle’s house (= the house belongs to my uncle)
2) the Genitive of integer (or organic possession, i.e. a part organically belongs to a whole)
e.g. the hotel’s lobby (= the lobby belongs to the hotel as its part), Madonna’s voice
3) the Genitive of the agent (= the noun in the genitive case is the doer of the action implied)
e.g. the singer’s arrival (= the singer arrived), the child’s smile (= the child smiled)
4) the Genitive of the author
e.g. Pushkin’s poem (= Pushkin is the author of the poem), the committee’s report (=the committee has
compiled/prepared the report)
5) the Genitive of patient (the noun in the genitive case is the recipient of the action)
e.g. the Titanic’s tragedy (= the Titanic suffered a tragedy), the shop’s owner (the shop is owned by a person)
6) the Genitive of destination (the noun in the genitive case denotes the addressee/destination of the action)
e.g. women’s magazine (=a magazine published for women), children’s toys (= toys produced for children)
7) the Genitive of quantity
e.g. an hour’s delay (= a delay that lasted an hour), two months’ time (a period of 2 months)
8) the Genitive of adverbial
e.g. yesterday’s meeting ( = the meeting that took place yesterday)
and some others.

5) dwell upon the cases of oppositional reduction in the given sentences

Oppositional reduction in the category of gender.

Neutralisation
In the plural all gender distinctions are neutralised.
Transposition
The process of transposition takes place when non-person nouns are correlated with the personal pronouns “he”
and “she” (or possessive pronouns his/her correspondingly)
e.g. Nature generously shares her wealth with people.
This process is also called personification.

Oppositional reduction in the category of number.

Neutralisation
1) takes place when countable nouns begin to function as absolute singular nouns.
e.g. She had 5 aquarium fish (countable). – Do they serve fish (uncountable, denoting a dish) here?
2) takes place when countable nouns begin to function as absolute plural nouns.
e.g. The committee (usually countable, in this sentence it functions as an absolute plural noun) were unanimous
in their decision.
3) takes place when a singular countable noun denotes the whole class of similar objects.
e.g. The tiger is a predator. (All tigers are predators)
Transposition
Here refer cases of using the descriptive and the repetition plural:
e.g. the sands of the desert (the descriptive uncountable plural is used as a countable noun in the plural form)
e.g. They searched house after house. (The repetition plural used here has 2 meanings: 1) more than one 2)
many, but 1 at a time)

A case of transposition in the category of article determination

Non-conventional use of articles with proper nouns is always transpositional.

e.g. It was not the Jane I used to know. à a case of transposition in the category of article determination

Oppositional reduction in the category of tense.

Transposition (primary time)

a) historic present (the speaker uses the present tense forms to describe a past event in order to make the
description more vivid)
e.g. I looked out the window and there I see a group of people.
b) the ‘preterite of modesty (the speaker uses the past tense forms instead of the present tense forms in order to
sound polite/less categorical).
e.g. I wondered if you remember me.
Neutralisation (prospect)
1) the use of the Present instead of the Future when one is speaking about plans, schedules, etc.
2) cases of obligatory neutralization in subordinate clauses of time and condition, when Future tense forms are
replaced by the Present

Oppositional reduction in the category of aspect.

Neutralisation (development)
a) unlimitive verbs (that is, verbs presenting a process as incomplete) are neutralised when the continuity of
action is indicated by context.
e.g. The night was silent. The snow fell in soft flakes.
b) obligatory neutralisation of the verbs to be, to have, verbs of physical and mental perceptions (the so- called
“verbs never used in the Continuous”)
Transposition
a) the use of the Continuous to denote habitual actions
e.g. He is always losing his key.
b) the continuous use of verbs never used in the Continuous
Neutralisation (retrospect)
a) the use of the Past Simple instead of the Present Perfect
e.g. I never met such people. (Instead of: I have never met such people.)
b) the use of the Present Simple instead of the Present Perfect with the verbs of physical and mental
perceptions:
e.g. I hear you’re going abroad? (Instead of: I have heard you’re going abroad?)

Oppositional reduction in the category of voice.

Neutralisation:
A vexed problem in connection with voice identification in English is the problem of the so-called “medial
voices”. The following medial voices are recognised:
1) the reflexive voice (the subject is the object of the action)
e.g. We got out of the pool and dried ourselves.
2) the reciprocal voice (the actions are performed by subject constituents reciprocally)
e.g. They found each other.
3) the middle voice (the action is going on as if of its own accord”)
e.g. The door opened.

6) state the communicative types of the given sentences

1) declarative - interrogative
2) interrogative - declarative
3) declarative - imperative
4) imperative - declarative
5) imperative - interrogative
6) interrogative – imperative

The first characteristic means the form. The second characteristic means the meaning (content).

To declarative - interrogative sentences refers structures which are declarative in form but contain a question
E. g. I wonder if I got it right.
E.g. I hope I don’t disturb you.

Typical interrogative-declarative sentences are rhetorical questions. The purpose of the interrogative sentences
is asking for information. Yet, the rhetorical question expresses a statement because it contains the necessary
answer.
E. g Can a leopard change in sports?
E.g. Are you kidding me?
E.g. Are you stupid?

Declarative-imperative sentences are declarative in form but express inducement (побуждение), often with the
help of model verbs.
E. g. You should consider it
E. g. It’s time to go

Imperative-declarative sentences are mostly found in among proverbs and maxims:

E. g. Leave and learn
E. g. Scratch my back and I will scratch yours.

Imperative-interrogative sentences induce the listener not to act, but to speak, eliciting and answer.
E. g. Tell me about your previous job.
E.g. Tell me what I can do.

Interrogative - imperative sentences are interrogative constructions rendering the meaning of inducement.
E. g. Why don’t you do it tomorrow
E. g. Try to be more careful next time, will you?

7) build the IC-model of the given sentence

 8) state the type of morphemic distribution

1. If 2 morphs occur in the same environment, but are different in form and meaning, they represent different
morphemes. Such morphs are in contrastive distribution. Eg. Speak/s-speak/ing, speak-the environment
2. If 2 morphs occur in the some environments, have different forms, but the same meaning, they represent the
same morpheme. Morphs are is non-contrastive distribution eg.lean/ed-learn/t
3. If 2 morphs occur in different environments, have different forms but the same meaning, they represent the
same morpheme. They are in complementary ( дополнит) distribution. Eg. Criteri/a-desk/s-child/ren

MODEL: collect/ible – break/able

The morphs “-ible” and “-able” are in complementary distribution as they have the same meaning (“capable
of, fit for”)but are different in form and have different environments.

9) provide part-of-speech characteristics of the underlined words acc. to polydifferential (traditional, H.

Sweet’s, O. Jespersen’s), syntactic (Ch. Fries), functional-paradigmatic and universal-typological
classifications.

The traditional part-of-speech classification of words singles out 2 major classes – that of notional words and
that of functional words. According to the traditional classification, in modern English there are 6 classes of
notional parts of speech: the noun, the verb, the adjective, the adverb, the pronoun and the numeral.
Notional words (otherwise called ‘content words’) are further grouped according to 3 criteria – semantic,
formal and functional. The semantic criterion considers the general (categorial) meaning of all the words
referring to the same grammatical class (e.g. the categorial mg of verbs is process). The formal criterion takes
into account inflexional and derivational features of the given class of words. The functional criterion concerns
the syntactic functions of the word in a sentence and parts of speech that can modify it.
Thus, according to the traditional classification, the Noun can be characterised as follows:
semantic criterion: categorial meaning of substance/thingness
formal criterion: morphological categories of number and case; typical derivational suffixes – er, -ness, -tion
etc.; inflexions –s/’s.
syntactic criterion: syntactic functions of the subject, object and predicative; can be modified by adjectives
Most linguists identify 6 functional parts of speech in Modern English:
1) the article (modifies the meaning of the noun in the category of article determination)
2) the particle (modifies and specifies the meaning of the words and helps convey the
attitude of the speaker)
3) the conjunction (connects words, phrases, or clauses; unlike the preposition, it doesn’t
entail any changes in the grammatical form of the words it connects)
4) the preposition (relates its object to another word in the sentence)
5) the interjection (a signal of the speaker’s emotions)
6) the modal word (expresses the speaker’s attitude)

Another polydifferential classification was worked out by Henry Sweet. He singled out declinables and
indeclinables depending on whether or not words can change their grammatical forms. To the group of
declinables he referred nouns, adjectives and verbs. At the same time, applying the syntactic criterion, he
singled out noun-words, adjective-words and verb-words, i.e. words which can function like nouns, adjective or
verbs (I – nouns, noun- pronouns, noun-numerals, the infinitive and the gerund; II – adjectives, adjective-
pronouns, adjective-numerals, participles; III – verbs, non-finite verbs).

Otto Jespersen’s theory of three ranks also combines the morphological and syntactic criteria and classifies
words of the traditional classes into primary, secondary and tertiary, depending on their syntactic role in a
phrase. e.g. a previously mentioned idea – idea is primary, because it is the head-word, mentioned is secondary
because it modifies the primary word, and previously is tertiary because it modifies the secondary word.

The syntactic classification of words

It is based on the syntactic position of the word in a sentence.
Frame A. ‘thing – its quality at a given time’ e.g. The concert was good (always)
Frame B. ‘actor – action – thing acted upon – characteristic of the action’ e.g. The clerk remembered the tax
(suddenly).
Frame C. ‘actor – action – direction of the action’ e.g. The team went there.
Thus, all the words which can fill in the positions of the words concert, clerk, team, tax without destroying the
structural meaning of the frames were referred to as nouns. All the words which can fill in the positions of the
words was, remembered, went were referred to as verbs. All the words which can fill in the positions of the
word good were referred to as adjectives. All the words which can fill in the positions of the words always,
suddenly, there were referred to as adverbs. Pronouns were distributed among the corresponding classes of
Nouns and Adjectives.
All the words which can’t fill in the positions of the notional words in the frames without destroying their
structural meaning were referred to as functional. They were organised into 15 groups. E.g. determiners –
articles and all the words which can fill in their positions, prepositions, interjections, “not”etc.

The main points of the functional-paradigmatic classification are:

1) like the classifications mentioned above, it recognises the subdivision of words into notional and functional.
It characterises the class of notional words as open, because new items appear in it through derivation,
borrowing, becoming obsolete, etc. Function words are a closed word class. It contains a relatively small
number of items, which do not change or change very slowly.
2) the class of notional words comprises nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs as words denoting definite
concepts, reflecting the main aspects of our perception of the surrounding world – objects, processes,
properties, non-substantive properties. The unity of notional words is manifested in the existence of the lexical
paradigm of nomination – the paradigmatic series which distributes any given word root among 4 classes
corresponding to the logic of mental perception of reality: objects, their actions, properties of objects and
properties of actions: e.g. colour – to colour – colourful – colourfully
3) functional words are viewed not only as words expressing grammatical connections between notional words,
but also as means of expressing syntactic categories in phrases and sentences (negation, interrogation, emphasis
etc.). They can be grouped as follows:
a) determiners of nouns, modal verbs, intensifiers of adjectives and adverbs
b) interpositional elements (conjunctions and prepositions)
c) words referring to the sentence as a whole (question-words, words of affirmation and negation, sentence
introducers it, there, inducement words let, please and some others.
4) pronouns and numerals aren’t included into the class of notional words because they don’t have positional
functions of their own and function like nouns and adjectives
5) pronouns form a third grammatical class of words, intermediate between notional and functional words. In
the broad sense of the word, a pronoun is a word that can perform the function of substitution. That’s why this
class consists not only of pronouns proper, but also of pro-names – i.e. words of broad semantics
(широкозначные слова): Npron (thing, problem, stuff) – Vpron (make, do, act) – Apron (similar, same) –
Dpron (thus, there, so)

The universal-typological theory of parts of speech

The three universally recognised communicative functions shaping universal constructions in which words
occur are:
1) reference (what the speaker is talking about)
2) predication (what the speaker is asserting about the referents in a particular utterance)
3) modification (additional information about the referent)
e.g. I wrote a long letter. (à “I” and “letter” perform the function of reference, “wrote” – that of predication
and “long” performs the function of modification, adding information about the referent ‘letter’.)

10) classify the given phrases (acc. to the type of the head word, acc. to the type of syntactic connections
between the constituents of a phrase, acc. to Leonard Bloomfield’s classification, acc. to according to
the part-of-speech characteristics of the phrase constituents and acc. to Pr. Blokh’s classification)

According to the types of syntactic relations phrases can be coordinate, subordinate and predicative. Coordinate
phrases are characterised by a syntactic equality of their components: boys and girls. Subordinate phrases are
based on the relation of dependence. Predicative word-groups based on interdependence consist of a nominal
element (a noun or a pronoun) and a finite or a non-finite verb. e.g. they returned, their returning, for them to
return

According to the type of the head word, subordinate phrases fall into prepositional phrases (in space), noun
phrases (a true friend), verb phrases (to stop talking), adjective phrases (full of trouble) adverbial phrases (very
carefully) and pronoun phrases (something new).

Leonard Bloomfield divided phrases into endocentric and exocentric. Endocentric constructions can function in
the same way as at least one of their constituents. Exocentric constructions can’t.
e.g. The little girl and her brother were in the garden. à the little girl, her brother, the girl and her brother are
endocentric phrases because their function is the same as that of girl, brother, girl/brother.
e.g. in the garden à is an exocentric phrase, since none of the words can function in the same way as the whole
phrase.

Another well-known structural classification of phrases is based on the part-of-speech

characteristics of their constituents. It singles out the following types of phrases:
1) N+N
Depending on the case form of the 1st noun it’s subdivided into 2 types:
a) N+N: the common case noun + N (speech sound)
b) N’s +N: the genitive case noun +N (the child’s parents)
Subtype A denotes one idea as modified by another in the broadest sense. Subtype B is restricted both in
meaning and usage, its head word having the semantics of appurtenance.
2) Adj + N (a nice day)
This pattern denotes all possible kinds of things with their properties.
3) V+N
This type can express 2 different types of relations between an action and a thing:
a) action + object of the action (to study a language)
b) action + some measure of the action (to walk a mile)
4) N+V (the so-called ‘predicative’ phrase)
Some linguists recognise its existence, arguing that it should be studied like any other phrasal type (Prof.
Ilyish). Others argue that the combination of a noun with a verb always forms a sentence (Prof. Vinogradov).
In modern Linguistics this phrasal type is analysed both on the phrase and on the sentence level.
e.g. they refused – they refuse
Studied on the phrase level, it is a word-combination whose components undergo grammatical changes. Taken
on the sentence level, “they agree and “They agreed” are different sentences, because they nominate different
situations.
5) V+Adj (to smell good)
6) V+Adv (to sit quietly)
7) Adv + Adj (terribly difficult)
8) Adv+Adv (very well)
9) N+prep+N (the quality of life)
10) Adj+prep+N (deep in thought)
A different classification based on the criterion of the nominative value of the phrase constituents was put
forward by Pr. Blokh.
On the upper level all the phrases are subdivided into notional, formative and functional.
Notional phrases consist of notional words only. Their nominative value is equivalent to that of a notional word
à a big window, to read a newspaper. Formative phrases are made up of notional and functional words and are
so called because their nominative value is equivalent to that of a word-form à with joy, in class.
Functional phrases consist of functional words alone or are equivalent to functional elements à out of, up to, so
that.
Notional phrases fall into 2 groups according to the syntactic rank of their constituents: equipotent (=
coordinate, i.e. the phrase constituents are of equal rank à brothers and sisters; smiles, flowers, greetings) and
dominational (= subordinate, i.e. the syntactic rank is not equal à a good sign; to read a book). Dominational
phrases fall into minor groupings according to the specific features of dominational connection: predicative and
completive.
Predicative phrases can be fully predicative (subject-predicate phrases) and semi-predicative (phrases with
verbids): he is working ; for you to understand; a student answering questions).
Completive phrases are so called because their subordinate elements complete the meaning of the head-word.
Completive phrases fall into completive objective and completive qualifying. Completive objective phrases
denote the relation of the object to the process/state: make notes, full of joy.
Completive qualifying phrases denote the relation of the object / process to its property: a large city; terribly
interesting).

Все predicative phrases – exocentric

11) identify the semantic roles of the underlined units in the given sentences
The main semantic role are:

1. Agent (агенс) - the performer of the action

E. g. The Robber run off. He was chased by a policeman.
2. Experiencer (экспериенцер) experiences the event or state without having direct control over it. Аs
experience requires a nervous system, an experiencer must be animate.
e.g. The explosion was heard by everyone.
An experiencer is easily confused with an agent The difference is that an experiencer is not consciously behind
the experience; it just happens to the experiencer.
3. Causer (каузатив) instigates an event
E.g. Peter tripped John - подставил подножку (всегда успешное действие)
E.g. The water destroyed my computer
4. Patient (патиенс) is affected by the action of the verb
А patient can be animate or inanimate
E. g. The tree fell on the house
E. g. John died.
E. g. He drove the car skillfully
5. Theme (тема) - neither causes the state or event nor is directly affected by it.
E. g. Mary knows John.
It’s also defined as a participant whose properties, location, or involuntary movement is predicated.
E. g. The ball was white.
E.g. The ball was under the chair.
E.g. The ball flew into the window.
6. Posessor (обладатель) owns or controls another participant.
E.g. The sleeve of the coat was torn.
E.g. John has a dog.
E.g. John’s dog is black.
E.g. The dog is John’s.
7. Recipient (реципиент) - one who receives smth
E.g. I gave it to the girl
E.g. They sent me a postcard
E.g. I was sent a postcard
8. Instrument (инструмент) - is used by agent to achieve the process
E.g. I opened the door with a key.
E.g. I used a key to open the door.
9. Path (путь) - describes the spatial aspect of notion.
E.g. The baby crawled across the room.
10. Locative (локатив) - denotes the place of the action, but unlike the path, it doesn’t imply notion to, from or
across the location.
E.g. It rains a lot in Scotland.
E.g. Your bug is on the chair.
11. Goal (цель) - denotes the place to which an action is directed
E.g. Put the bag on the chair
E.g. He threw the book at me.
12. Source (источник) - denotes the place/ object from which and action originates.
E.g. He flew from Chicago to LA
E.g. John fell off the chair.
E.g. I got the idea from a magazine.
13. Factitive (фактитив/результат) - results from the action or state denoted by the verb
E.g. The workers dug a hole in the ground.
E.g. He drew a picture of his house.
14. Time (темпоратив/время) - situates the event in time.
E.g. It happened at midnight.
15. Beneficiary (бенефактив) - denotes a referent for whose benefit the action was performed.
E.g. This book is for you.
E.g. She made me a cup of coffee.
E.g. He helped Susan to fix her car.

12) determine the predicative load of the given sentences

+ сильный - слабый

1) question statement

2) inducement statement

3) negation affirmation

4) unreality reality

5) probability fact
[probability is expressed by modal words]

6) modal subject-action relation fact

[modality is expressed by modal verbs]

7) modal identity fact

[ modality is expressed by the structure seem/prove to V]

8) specialised actual sentence division non-specialised actual sentence division

[ non-specialised ASD means the theme coincides
with the subject group and the rheme - with the predicate
group]

9) phrase of action (начало, конец, продолжение) fact

10) passive action active action

11) emphasis neutrality

12) specified subject-action relation fact

[specified subject-action relation shows
the success/ failure of an action or an attempt
to perform an action]

MODEL: It’s not so. – The predicative load of this sentence is “1” as it expresses one strong predicative
meaning – negation.

13) identify transformational procedures applied to the kernel sentences in the production of the given
transformations
The major transformational procedures are:
1) Deletion, i. e. omission of some elements of the sentence (эллипсис)
E. g. I put the books on the desk, and the back beside the desk
2) Rearrangement - rearranging a word from its original place within the kernels.
E. g. The house is new - Is his house new?
3) Addition - changing the basic sentence pattern by adding some components to it
E. g. They leave here - Do they leave here? They do leave here.
4) Substitution - the use of various substitutes (pronouns)
E. g. The mother came in. - She came in.
5) Morphological arrangement, which doesn’t produce a new senyence pattern, but generates transformations
within the same model.
E. g. The main works here. The man worked here. The man worked here.
6) Nominalization - changing a kernel sentence into a nominal phrase or a semi-predicative construction.
E. g The day was cold. - a cold day/ the day being cold
7) Clausalization, I. e changing a kernel sentence into a clause with the help of connectives.
E. g. They arrived. It was too late. - When they arrived, it was too late.

Transformations derived from one kernel sentence are single-base transformations, whereas sentences derived
from two kernels are double-base transformations.

14) characterise the given Grammar rules as prescriptive / descriptive. Explain your choice.

Prescriptive character – prescribing certain forms as correct and others as ungrammatical. (строгое)
A variety of traditional grammar – descriptive grammar.
It describes, explains the patterns of usage found in all varieties of language and recognizes variation in usage.
(нестрогое)

15) dwell on the means of textual cohesion in the given excerpt

Language means of textual cohesion can be grouped as follows:

1) lexical means
- repetition of one and the same word
- repetition of lexical equivalents (synonyms, near synonyms or words with a more general (hypernyms) or a
more specific (hyponyms) meaning) e.g. flowers (hypernym) – roses, carnations (hyponyms)
- the use of words of the same root or words belonging to the same thematic grouping
- space and time adverbials (e.g. We left Paris on Monday morning. By the same evening we were in Rome.)
2) grammatical means
- the use of connectives
- correlation of articles (e.g. A Mercedes was parked in the street. The car looked new.)
- unity of tenses
- sequence of tenses and unity of mood forms
- comparison (e.g. Six children took part in the sack race. Jill was easily the fastest.)
3) lexico-grammatical means
- pronouns and other pro-forms (e.g. The children were back in time for dinner. They were very tired.)
- correlative words (which, that, who, where, when etc.)
- parentheses
- the order of clauses and sentences
4) stylistic means
- parallelism
- ellipsis
- gradation
- rhetorical questions
5) prosodic means
- variations in pitch, loudness, speed, rhythm and pause combine to provide the spoken equivalent of the visual
organisation of a written text

16) state the structural type of the sentences (according to the traditional classification / Prof. Ilyish’s / Prof.
Barkhudarov’s / Prof. Blokh’s classifications where possible)
On structural lines, sentences divided into simple and composite.
The simple sentence has only one predicative line (I.e. the immediate connection between the subject and the
predicate).
According to their structure, simple sentences are further classified into 1-member and 2-member.
Sentence with the grammatical subject denoting the doer of the action and with the grammatical predicate
denoting the action are called 2 member sentences. If a sentence has only one of these parts, it is described as 1-
member.

Simple 2-m sentences are classified into complete and elliptical.

There are different views on the notion of ellipsis.
Pr. B. A. Ilyish argues that any sentence with 1 or more parts left out but easily restored from the context is
elliptical. He directly links elliptical sentences to the processes of representation and substitution.
Representation and substitution embrace the cases when some element of the S is missing, and its function is
fulfilled by another element.

According to the way over restoring zeroed element, Professor Barkhudarov classifies the elliptical sentences in
the syntagmatically and paradigmatically restored, i. e. sentences in which the zero element can be restored
from the context through its previous mention and sentences in which it can’t be restored in that way.
To Paradigmatically restored elliptical sentences this scholar refers:
1. Imperative sentences with the zeroed subject
e.g. (You) Start working!
2. declarative sentences of the type
E.g. (it’s) 3 o’clock
3. interrogative sentences
E.g. (Are you) Going home?
4. A specific subtype of elliptical sentences with a zeroed link verb and exclamatory intonation of the kind
E. g. You (are) here!
5. infinitive sentences
E. g Well, what to do?

Most linguists argue that is the basic point of a difference between one member and elliptical sentenced is that
the missing elements of an elliptical sentence are restored from the context easily and an unambiguously, which
is not the case with one member sentences.
Yet it’s not always so.
That’s why Professor Blokh suggests dividing simple sentences not into one member/ two member but into 1-
axis and 2-axis sentences (axis - the subject group or the predicate group) In a two-axis sentence the subject and
the predicate are explicitly expressed. In a one-axis sentence only one axis is explicit. One-axis sentences can
be free and fixed. Free 1-axis sentences are restored from the context easily and unambiguously.
E. g. Recognize me? - Do you recognize me?
Fixed one-exis sentences can’t be restored from the context as easily and unambiguously as free ones.
Their subtypes include:
1. nominal constructions
E. g. Winter morning.
2. greeting formulas
E. g Hi!
3. affirmation and negation
E. g Yes/No
4. formulas of introduction
E. g. Meet my friend Jack
5. excuses
E. g. Sorry