Theoretical grammar.

Пескова Наталья Анатольевна.

7.09.2010.

Lecture 1.

Блох. A course in theoretical grammar.

Ильиш. The structure of modern English.

Иванова. Теоретическая грамматика.

Худяков.

14 lectures, 13 seminars.

Grammar in the systemic conception of language.

1. Theoretical grammar & its object.
2. Development of grammar theory.
3. Language as a semiotic system.
4. Basic notions of structural linguistics.

a) Language & speech;

b) Sythagmatics & parpdygmathics;

c) Synchrony & diachrony.

Item 1.

The term grammar is of greek origin & it means the art of writing. Later the word got a wider sense & now it embraces the study of language in general. The practical grammar is to formulate grammar rules that help us use language. Theoretical – in fact it is to explain these rules. TG deals with L as a functional system. G includes morphology & syntax. Morphology studies the inner structure of words, their grammatical categories & parts of speech division, syntax deal with rules of combining rules into longer units. Linguistic units can go into 3 types of relations:

- between a language & an object in the world;

- between a unit & other units;

- between a unit & a person who uses it.

Item 2.

Evolution of grammar theory

1. classical grammar (ancient time 1840-1850)
2. historical-comparative grammar (1850 – beg. Of the 20^th c.)
3. structural linguistics(beg. Of the 20^th с – up to now)
4. generative-transformational grammar (since 50s)
5. semantic trends in grammar (since the 60s-70s)
6. textual grammar (since the 60s)
7. functional grammar (since the 70s-80s)

1. GR Theory goes back to ancient times & Aristotle is believed linguist. He was the 1^st to introduce the notions of subject & predicate & he initiated the 1^st classification of words into parts of speech. The classical period – accumulation of facts about language & these were 1^st disconnected attempts to describe it. It was useful, this approach was not devoid of limitation, the basic conception was wrong. They believed that GR is direct reflection of logic & thinking. These notions are connected, but not directly. The laws of thinking are universal, but grammar systems are different. Classical grammar treated Latin & Greek as model languages. Their structure was considered to be perfect, the closer some language to Latin – the more perfect it was considered to be.
2. In the 2^nd half of the 19^th – a new appeared. It was called so, because linguists compared genetically related languages & studied historical changes within them. It was the time of many discoverings, now this belongs to history of languages.now this approach is criticized for being atomistic.
3. At the beginning of 20^th century a new modern period started. The language was treated as a holistic system with its own laws & functions. The structure of language was in the center of attention, it was also called structural linguistics. Фортунатов, Бодуэн-де-Куртенэ.

Item 3.

Language is regarded as a system of elements that are called signs or units of language. These units have no value without each other, & they exist only in the system, but not in isolation. Language is a structural system. Structure means hierarchy.

The Language is of semiotic character, & its units are signs. Any sign has 2 sides: the plane of content & the plain of expression. The theory of linguistic signs belongs to Saussur, who described the basic features of the sign. He also comapare the system of language with other systems and he proved that the former is far more complicated than other systems. This phenomenon makes any language not only complicated, but at the same time economical & expressive. Language signs are characterized by the following specific features:

- replacement of language sign. LS does not lose its value in time. It can be replaced in time continuum.

- Reflexivity of a LS. It is the ability of the sign to investigate the system of language.

- Open-endedness of the sign. A) any LS is open to changes. B) it leads to open-endedness of the whole system of language.

- LS are arbitrary by nature. There are no direct relations between 2 sides (the planes).

- Predetermination of the sign by the system.

Before Saussur these notions were not differentiated, there are some specific qualities:

Language is a system of means of expression. It includes units of different levels. Language is hierarchical in structure. Language is the source that all speakers use in order to express what they need. It is one for all, so, it is social. Language exists in our mind as knowledge, so, it is ideal (abstract, not concrete).

Speech is individual. It is created by some definite speaker. It is material, because we can hear it, & structurally speech is organized like a chain, it’s linear by nature.

Sythagmatics & parpdygmathics

This antynomy is obviously related to the previous one. The sphere of application of these relations is different. Paradigmatic – within L system, whereas S ones are used in speech. Both types of these links can be found on all levels.

Paradigmatic relations are abstract associative relations, that can serve as a basis for all kinds of classification.

Relations between neighboring elements in speech are called syntagmatic.

On the morphemic level – bound morpheme.

Synchrony & diachrony

These are 2 approaches to language study. Before Saussur historical imperative grammar mainly investigated the development of language units. But the newly introduced notion of the language system made the synchronic approach more urgent, because it gives the opportunity to reveal the whole complexity of relations that exist within language & each step of its development.

Nowadays linguistics uses equally all the approaches & the choice of it depends on the object of investigation.

Basic schools of modern linguistics

1. tradition approach to grammar analysis & its limitations;
2. descriptive linguistics (descriptivism): the distributional method; the IC-method;
3. generative transformational method;
4. semantic trends in grammar: case grammar; contensive grammar; theory of semantic case;
5. text grammar.

Item 1.

Traditional G analysis focuses on functional aspect mainly because first of all we distinguish sentence parts to a principle subject & predicate, & object etc. After that the morphological nature of each word is described.

Traditional analysis can hardly be called perfect, it is not scientific enough. The reason for it lies in rather vague indefinite definitions of terminology. Sometimes it is difficult to see the border between 2 members. Difference between secondary parts of sentence is not determined.

Item 2.

Descriptivism

Limitations of traditional G were eliminated by descriptivism & later G trends. DL appeared in the USA at the beginning of the 20^th century & it was called so, because it wanted to describe American Indian languages using structural methods. That is why later it developed into American structuralism.

The languages of American Indian belong to encooperaing type where sentence formally looks like indivisible unit & they were some regularities of word order. Tradition methods of analysis were not helpful at all. It was more convenient to describe linguistic forms in aspect of their distribituion. This notion was introduces in Leo Blummfield and his Harris & Charles Friies.

The basic notions – environmrnt & distribution. Environment – is the set neighbory elements of some unit. The notion of distribution is wider. It’s the total number of all potential environment where this element can occur. Distribution can be of 3 types:

1. contrastive – it is difference between 2 language units that occur in the same environment & it creates difference in meaning;
2. non-contrastive – difference between 2 language units that occur in the environment without difference in meaning. To wake - woke – woken or waked – waked. We can choose either this or that variant.
3. complimentary отношения дополнительной дистрибуции. 2 units are in complimentic В if only one of them occurs in some environment & the other one should be used only in some other type of distribution.

The theory itself was worked out by Ch. Fries. The whole word-stock was divided into classes only on the basis of distribution. According to him, if 2 language elements occur in the same distribution without change of meaning, they belong to the same class. Practically, the analysis was carried out on the basis of 2,000 real telephone conversations. Fries divided all grammar structures into minimal sentences, even clauses. He found out that all structures whatever different thy seemed were actually reduced to 7 elementary patterns. These patterns correspond to universal logical structures that can be found in any language (with some slight modifications).

NV – John came.

NV prep N John looked at Mary.

NVN – John saw Mary.

N is N – John is a teacher.

N is prep N – John is in bed.

N is В – John is out.

N is A – John is angry.

Ch. Fries analyzed environment of all elements in these 7 patterns. As a result he singled out 4 classes of notional words & 15 groups of functional words.

1. noun-like words f – prepositions, conjunctions.
2. verb-like words
3. adjective-like words t – determiners (articles, demonstrative pronouns).
4. adverb-like words.

Class-one words include not only nouns but also personal, indefinite, negative pronouns, numerals.

Class-three words include not only adjectives, but also participles, ordinal numerals.

The 4^th class includes adverbs & prepositions that are used post positively.

t 3a 1a/he 2-d +- t 3b 1b/it 4

The old man saw a black dog there.

The distributional model shows the sentences objectively, because it represents objective distributional & it isn’t influenced by the subjectivity of meaning interpretation.

At the same time a holistic neglect of meaning can sometimes be misleading, because real semantic relations between words are not seen in this pattern, which is linear.

3 +1 f 1b а 3 +1 f 1b

English verbs and adverbs and old men and children.

In real speech there are a lot of grammatical constructions which correspond to the same distribuional pattern & essential differences between them are beyond this model.

The IC-method.

To some extend the above mentioned limitations were overcome by another method also introduced by descriptivists. A constituent is a linguistic element which is a part of a longer unit. An immediate C is one of the 2 Cs which build up some language unit.

This method consists in division of a G structure into 2 parts & each part should be meaningful.

“cutting”: beauti || ful | ly

IC1 IC2

IC1 IC2

Bracketing: ( (beauti) (ful) ) (ly)

IC1 IC2

IC1 IC2

Эта модель изображает предложение не как линейную последовательность, а как иерархию уровней членения. Предполагается, что членение предложения производится таким образом, что на каждом этапе членения выделяются максимальной длины (имеющие значения), то есть такие, которые в свою очередь, допускают максимальное число дальнейших членений. Так как длина НС должна быть максимальной, то их число на каждом этапе должно быть минимальным. И как правило деление осуществляется на бинарном принципе.

The next step is to represent relations between words in a grammatical structure. The scheme of the sentence-tree was introduced.

English | verbs || and adverbs.

IC1 IC2

S

A NP(noun phrase)

N1 fN2

f N2

English verbs and adverbs

This method focuses on the structure but at the same time it takes meaning into consideration. It is more detailed than distributional model, because its structure reflects the real order of uniting elements of the sentence. But not all sentences can be analyzed like that. One-member sentences & extremely complicated structures theoretically can be analyzed but the schemes are extremely complicated. Sometimes sentences can be syntactically ambiguous & this method is of of no use here either.

John is easy to please.

John is eager to please.

3a 3b 1a 2-s(+) 1b f t 3c 1d

My best friend meets me at the University every day.

At the same time in every L there are syntactically ambiguous sentences. Their formal structure coincides, but meaning is quite different. IC method fails to show this difference.

3a 3b 1a(he, she) 2-s+ 1b f t 1c (it) 3c 1d (it)

My || best

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