Semantical and structural typology of the adjectives.

English as an analytical language, its typological characterization.

All languages can be either analytical or synthetic. The modern English language is analytical. Analytical language is the language in which the predicative line is expressed with the help of conjunctions, prepositions and word order. The old English was synthetic. It means that the predicative line was expressed with the help of changing the forms of the words in the sentence.

English is an analytical language, in which grammatical meaning in largely expressed through the use of additional words and by changes in word order. Russian is a synthetic language, in which the majority of grammatical forms are created through changes in the structure of words, by means of a developed system of prefixes, suffixes and ending.

Modern English is an analytic language, and non-inflected one, most of inflections died out within Middle English period. That means that word order is essential to the meaning of a sentence. The meaning of an utterance is rendered by its grammatical structure, while the shape of a word plays minor role.

If we want to emphasize something in a sentence, we use grammatical transformation to achieve this. Emphatic transformation is widely used to make new grammatical structures changing meaning of a sentence or to emphasize emotional color of an utterance. Being not native speakers of English, we can face misunderstanding in one or another grammatical transformation.

On the contrary, some grammatical structures can seem for us suitable, while they are wrong, because we study English on the background of our native language. To be aware of right word order and acceptable ways to change the structure is very important for English study. A wrong way to use structural transformation of a sentence can cause curiosity and misunderstanding.

The problem of structural transformation is very important in Modern English Language. Structure of the English sentence is basic for the English study. Modern grammars pay special attention to English word order as to the essential subject of the language. The approach to the problem, however, is very different. Russian school, for instance, defines two types of inversion which are grammatical inversion and stylistically inversion. Anglo-American school defines the inversion as reversed order of subject and predicate and does not refer here any other cases of changing the words’ positions.

Derivational typology of words in English.

The term word-building or derivational pattern is used to denote a meaningful combination of stems and affixes that occur regularly enough to indicate the part of speech, the lexico-semantic category and semantic peculiarities common to most words with this particular arrangement of morphemes. Every type of word-building as well as every part of speech has a characteristic set of patterns. According to their derivational structure words form into 2 large classes: simple non-derived words; derivatives complexes. Complexes are classified according to the type of the underline derivational pattern into: derived; compound words.

Derived words fall into: affixational words which in their term are classified into suffixational and prefixational derivatives and conversions. Each derivational type of words is unequally represented in different parts of speech.

Pattern 1: Derivatives: 1 Stem + suffix: beautiful;

2 prefix + stem: unlucky;

3 prefix + stem + suffix: ungenlemanly.

Pattern 2: Compound words: stem + stem: bedroom.

Pattern 3: Compound derivatives: stem + stem + suffix: shortsighted.

Pattern 4: Shortenings: mike = microphone; USSR etc. The largest class in the English vocabulary is derived words: 67% of nouns,86% of adjectives. Compounds: 15% of nouns,4% of adjectives. Simple stems: 18% of nouns,10% of adjectives. According to frequency counts about 60% of the total number of nouns and 62% of the total number of adjectives in current use — are simple words.

Lexical words as grammatical words. Their semasiological, formal and functional differentiation.

The differences between lexical and grammatical meanings can be summarized according to the following 5 points: the degree of abstraction, the degree of autonomy, the degree of openness, obligatory/non-obligatory character.

Generally grammatical meanings are more abstract than lexical meanings. (Ex. He fell down and broke his leg-yesterday, a year ago, 20 years ago-the lexical meaning is more concrete). The analysis of grammatical meaning reveals that they reflect not the fragments of reality which is done by lexical meaning, but rather the structure of such fragments. However there are cases in the language, when lexical meaning may be as wide as grammatical meaning. This is the case with words that we use to describe grammatical meanings. Such words are substance, action, number and so on are called “metalexical units”.

Grammatical and lexical meanings differ in their functions and consequently in their degree autonomy. Lexical meanings are more autonomous, and grammatical meanings are not and they find expression only in combination with lexical meaning. The lexicon of the language presents an open system. The number of lexical meanings is unlimited. Any concept can be expressed lexically. Whereas the number of concepts which find a grammatical expression is very limited. Such concepts as time and number find a grammatical expression in most languages. Such concepts as colour or size are expressed only lexically.

There are cases when the same concept is expressed both lexically and grammatically. In such cases the grammatical representation is always more general and lexical is more concrete. The grammatical category of number differentiates between singular and plural, whereas the concrete meaning is presented in numerals. Grammatical meanings have a regular and obligatory character in the language. Whereas the expression of lexical meanings is necessitated by the speaker’s means (Ex. It has been raining for hours.-present perfect continuos, number, person, indicative mood and voice). However grammatical meanings are not always explicity expressed. They may be implicit. (Ex. We have three more questions to discus).

There are 2 phenomena in the l-ge that are directly the results of interaction between grammatical & lexical meanings.

Lexicalization of the grammatical meaning – the process of acquiring a new lexical meaning by grammatical means. custom (звичай) - customs (таможня).
Grammaticalization – a process when word loses its lexical meaning & becomes auxiliary word that carries only a grammatical function. to be going to – loses the lexical meaning of intention & expresses pure futurity.

The Adjective. The category of intensity and comparison. Substantiation of adjectives. The noun. The category of case in Modern English. The category of number. Divergent views on different kinds of cases.

Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence. The Articles — a, an, and the — are adjectives. (the tall professor; a six-year-old child).

Adjectives are the third major class of words in English, after nouns and verbs. Adjectives are words expressing properties of objects e.g. large, blue, simple, clever, economic, progressive, productive, etc and, hence, qualifying nouns. Adjectives in English do not change for number or case. The only grammatical category they have is the degrees of comparison.

All the adjectives are traditionally divided into 2 large subclasses: qualitative and relative.

Relative adjectives express such properties of a substance as are determined by the direct relation of the substance to some other substance (e.g. wood – a wooden hut, history – a historical event).

E.g. a wooden hut – a hut made of wood; a historical event – an event referring to a certain period of history.

Qualitative adjectives, as different from relative ones, denote various qualities of substances which admit of a quantitative estimation, i.e. of establishing their correlative quantitative measure. The measure of a quality can be estimated as high or low, adequate or inadequate, sufficient or insufficient, optimal or excessive (e.g. a difficult task – a very difficult task).

!!! Substances can possess such qualities as are incompatible with the idea of degrees of comparison а adjectives denoting these qualities, while belonging to the qualitative subclasses, are in the ordinary use incapable of forming degrees of comparison (e.g. extinct, immobile, deaf, final, fixed).

The category of the degrees of comparison of adjectives is the system of opposemes (long – longer – longest) showing qualitative distinctions of qualities. More exactly it shows whether the adjective denotes the property of some substance absolutely, or relatively as a higher or the highest amount of the property in comparison with that of some other substances.

-> ‘positive’, ‘comparative’ and ‘superlative’ degrees.

Some authors treat more beautiful and the most beautiful not as analytical forms, but as free syntactical combinations of adverbs and adjectives. One of the arguments is that less and least form combinations with adjectives similar to those with more and most: e.g. more beautiful – less beautiful, the most beautiful – the least beautiful.

In order to prove that more beautiful is an analytical form of the comparative degree, we have to prove that more is a grammatical word-morpheme identical with the morpheme –er.

Those adjectives which have comparative opposites with suffix –er have usually no parallel opposites with more and vice versa.

e.g. beautiful – more beautiful (not beautifuller),nice – nicer (not more nice)

This is not the case with less:

Less and –er have different, even opposite meanings: prettier – less pretty, safer – less safe.

These facts show that more in more beautiful is a grammatical word-morpheme identical with the morpheme –er of the comparative degree, so а more beautiful is an analytical form.

The noun is expression that refer to a person, place, thing, event, substance, quality or idea. It serve as the subject or object of a verb, and the object of a preposition.

English has three genders for nouns and pronouns: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Examples: Masculine- man, father, uncle, boy, husband; Feminine- woman, mother, aunt, girl, wife.

Some nouns can be used for either a masculine or a feminine subject. Examples: teenager, teacher, doctor, student, parent, friend, partner, leader.

In some cases nouns describing things are given gender. Examples: love my car. She (the car) is my greatest passion.

Some nouns in English may have the singular and the plural forms (room-rooms, worker-workers). Other nouns are used either only in the singular (freedom, progress, milk) or only on the plural (spectacles, goods).

The plural of most nouns is built up by means of the suffix -s or -es.

Nouns ending in -y preceded by a consonant change the -y into -ies (story-stories). But if a noun ends in -y preceded by a vowel, only -s is added (boy-boys,day-days)

The Category of Case

The category of case of nouns is the system of opposites (such as girl–girl's in English, кіт-кота-коту-кіт-котом- на котові in Ukr.) showing the relations of the noun to other words in speech. Case relations reflect the relations of the substances the nouns name to other substances, actions, states, etc.

In the sentence ‘I took John's hat by mistake’ the case of the noun ‘John's’ shows its relation to the noun hat, which is some reflection of the relations between John and his hat in reality.

Case is one of those categories which show the close connection:

(a) between language and speech,

(b) between morphology and syntax.

(a) A case opposite is, like any other opposite, a unit of the language system, but the essential difference between the members of a case opposite is in their combinability in speech. This is particularly clear in a language like Russian with a developed case system. Compare, for instance, the combinability of the nominative case and that of the oblique cases. See also the difference in the combinability of each oblique case: одобрять поступок, не одобрять поступка, удивляться поступку, восхищаться поступком, etc.

We can see here that the difference between the cases is not so much a matter of meaning as a matter of combinability.

(b) Though case is a morphological category it has a distinct syntactical significance. The common case grammemes fulfill a number of syntactical functions not typical of possessive case grammemes, among them the functions of subject and object. The possessive case noun is for the most part employed as an attribute.
All case opposites are identical in content: they contain two particular meanings, of 'common' case and 'possessive' case, united by the general meaning of the category, that of 'case'. There is not much variety in the form of case opposites either, which distinguishes English from Russian.

An English noun lexeme may contain two case opposites at most (man – man's, men – men's). Some lexemes have but one opposite (England – England's, cattle – cattle's). Many lexemes have no case opposites at all (book, news).
In the opposite dog – dog's, men – men's, the 'common' case is not marked, i.e. dog and men have zero morphemes of 'common case'. The 'possessive' case is marked by the suffix -'s /-s. In the opposite dogs – dogs.' the difference between the opposites is marked only in writing. Otherwise the two opposites do not differ in form. So with regard to each other they are-not marked.

Thus, -'s is the only positive case morpheme of English nouns. The whole category' depends on this morpheme.

As already mentioned, with regard to the category of case English nouns fall under two lexicon-grammatical subclasses: declinable, having case opposites, and indeclinable, having no case opposites.

The subclass of declinable is comparatively limited, including mostly nouns denoting living beings, also time and distance.

Indeclinable like book, iron, care have, as a norm, only the potential (or oblique, or lexicon-grammatical) meaning of the common case.

As usual, variants of one lexeme may belong to different subclasses. Youth meaning 'the state of being young' belongs to the indeclinable. Its variant youth meaning 'a young man' has a case opposite (The youth's candid smile - belongs to the declinable.

The system of the English verb. The category of mood. The number of moods in English Grammar.

Verb is a part of speech with grammatical meaning of process, action. Verb performs the central role of the predicative function of the sentence.

There are tree moods in English - the Indicative mood, the Imperative mood and the Subjunctive mood.

The Indicative mood represents an action as a fact, as something real. (America was discovered in 1492).

The Subjunctive Mood represents an action not as a real fact but as something that would take place under certain conditions, something desirable, necessary or unreal, unrealizable. There are 4 forms of the Subjunctive Mood in English: the Conditional Mood, the Suppositional Mood, Subjunctive1 and Subjunctive2.

The Conditional Mood has 2 tenses: the present and the past.

The Present Conditional is formed by means of the auxiliary verbs should and would and the Indefinite Infinitive of the main verb. The Present Conditional is used to express an action which would have taken place under certain conditions in the present and future.

The Past Conditional is formed by means of the auxiliary verbs should and would and the Perfect Infinitive of the main verb. The Past Conditional is used to express an action which would have taken place under certain conditions in the past.

Subjunctive2 has two tenses: the present and the past.

The Present Subjunctive2 coincides in form with the Past Indefinite Indicative. The only exception is the verb to be the Present Subjunctive2 of which has the form were both in the plural and in the singular.

The Past Subjunctive2 coincides in form with the Past Perfect Indicative.

Subjunctive2 represents an action as contrary to reality.

The Present subjunctive2 refers to the present and future.

The Past Subjunctive2 refers to the past.

Subjunctive1 coincides in form with the infinitive without the particle to. It has no tense distinctions- the same form may refer to the present, past and future.

Suppositional Mood is formed by means of the auxiliary verb should and the infinitive of the main verb without the particle to. The Suppositional Mood has two tenses: the present and the past.

Suppositional mood has two tenses: the present and the past.

The Present Suppositional is formed by means of the auxiliary verb should and the indefinite infinitive of the main verb.

The Past Suppositional is formed by means of the auxiliary verb should and the perfect infinitive of the main verb.

Both the Suppositional Mood and Subjunctive1 are used to represent an action not as real fact but as something necessary, important, ordered, suggested, etc, and not contrary to reality. But the Suppositional Mood is much more widely used than Subjunctive1 in British English where Subjunctive1 is used in literary lan-ge in general.

The Imperative mood expresses an order, a request, warning, invitation or a call to a joint action.

Let's have a break.

Note: The subject is sometimes used to make an order more emphatic.

You go to bad at once!

The Subjunctive mood represents an action not as a fact but as something imaginary or desired.

If I had money now, I would buy his Opel.

6.Modality and tense in Modem English. The meaning of the modal verbs such as: can, may, must, should.

Modality is expression of speaker’s attitude to what his utterance denotes.
The speaker’s judgment may be of different kinds, that is, the speaker may express various modal meanings. Modal verbs unlike other verbs, do not denote actions or states, but only show the attitude of the speaker towards the action expressed by the infinitive in combination with which they form compound modal predicates. These modal verbs may show that the action (or state, of process, or quality) is viewed by the speaker as possible, obligatory, doubtful, certain, permissible, advisable, requested, prohibited, ordered etc. Modal verbs occur only with the infinitive. This or that meaning is to a great degree determined by communicative type of the sentence and the form of the infinitive. That is a huge problem for foreign learners of English, who make a great deal of mistakes in this field. So, the aim of my work is to show how modal verbs can be used, in what case we need one or other verb and why.

English modality can be expressed not only by modal verbs. There are many ways to express it – generally Mood shows the relation between the action expressed by the predicate verb and reality. The speaker establishes this relation.
Modal Verbs

We find the following modal verbs in English: can, may, must, ought, shall, should, will, need and dare.

Modal verbs are defective verbs since they lack many forms characteristic of regular verbs: they have no –s in the third person singular in the present tense and no verbal, so they have no analytical forms; some of them lack the form of the past tense.
Modal verbs have the following peculiarities:

1) they are followed by the infinitive without the particle to (with the exception of ought, to have and to be);

2) their interrogative and negative forms are built up without the auxiliary do.
Most of the verbs have more than one meaning. Each of their meanings is characterized by a specific usage.

1) Some of the meanings may be found in all kinds of sentences; others occur only in affirmative of interrogative or negative sentences;

2) Different meanings may be associated with different forms of the infinitive – simple and perfect (both in the active and passive forms), continuous and perfect continuous;
3) If the modal verbs have more than one form (can – could, may – might, will – would, also the verbs to have and to be), their different meanings are not necessarily found in all those forms.

Can The modal verb can has the following forms: can – the present tense (e.g. He can speak English) and could – the past tense. The form could is used in two ways: a) in past-time contexts as a form of the Indicative Mood (e.g. He could speak English when he was a child), b) in present-time contexts to express unreality, or as a milder and more polite form of can, or as a form implying more uncertainty than can (e.g. He could speak English if necessary. Could I help you?). Compare with the Russian мог бы: Он мог бы сделать это, если бы у него было время (unreality). Не мог бы я Вам помочь? (politeness). Неужели он мог бы так сказать? (uncertainty).

Can has the following meanings:

1) ability, capability,

E.g. I can imagine how angry he is.

This meaning may also be expressed by to be able. The phrase can be used in all tense-forms if necessary.

In the meaning of ability and capability can occurs in all kinds of sentences.

The form could may be used in past-time contexts and in this case it is followed by a simple infinitive. The form could may also be used in present-time context in combination with the simple infinitive to express unreality with reference to the present or future.

In combination with the perfect infinitive could indicates that the action was not carried out in the past.

E.g. She could have explained the mystery. (Она могла бы объяснить эту тайну; но не объяснила).

2) possibility due to circumstances.

E.g. You can see the forest through the other window.

3) Permission
E.g. You can take my umbrella.

4) uncertainty, doubt
E.g. Can it be true?
In this meaning can is found only in interrogative sentences (in general questions).

5) Improbability
E.g. It can’t be true. (Это не может быть правдой. Вряд ли это так.)

May The modal verb may has the following forms: may – the Present tense (e.g. it may be true) and might – the Past tense. The form might is used in two ways: a) in past-time contexts, mainly in reported speech (e.g. He told me that it might be true) and b) in present-time contexts as a milder and more polite form of may, or as a form implying more uncertainty than may (e.g. It might be true), or to express unreality (e.g. He might have fallen ill if he hadn’t taken the pills).
May has the following meanings:

1) supposition implying uncertainty

E.g. He may be busy getting ready for his trip.

In Russian this meaning is generally rendered by means of the modal adverbs возможно and может быть.

In English this meaning may also be rendered by means of the attitudinal adverbs perhaps and maybe.

1) possibility due to circumstances
E.g. You may order a taxi by telephone.

2) permission
E.g. The director is alone now. So you may see him now.

3) disapproval or reproach
E.g. You might carry the parcel for me. You might have helped me.

Must The modal verb must has only one form it is used in present-time contexts with reference to the present of future and in combination with the Perfect infinitive it refers to the past. In past-time contexts this form is used only in reported speech, i.g. the rules of the sequence of tenses are not observed with must.
Must has the following meanings:

1) obligation (from the speaker’s point of view)

E.g. Any real body must have extension in four directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thickness, and – Duration.

2) Prohibition
E.g. He must not leave his room for a while. (Он не должен (ему нельзя) выходить из комнаты некоторое время).

3) emphatic advice
You must stop worrying about your son.

4) supposition implying strong probability

E.g. Watson, we must look upon you as a man of letters.

Should In modern English the modal verb should is used with reference to the

present or future. Should has the following meanings:

1)obligation, which in different contexts may acquire additional shades of

meaning, such as advisability and desirability,

E.g. It’s late. You should go to bed.

2) supposition implying strong probability,

E.g. The film should be very good as it is starring first-class actors.

The use of should in this case does not seem to be very common as this meaning is usually rendered by must.

Grammatical peculiarities of the non-finite forms of the English verb.

All English verbs have finite and non-finite forms. The finite verb invariably performs the function of the verb- predicate. Finite verbs are subdivided into regular and irregular depending on the way the participle II are formed.

Non-finite verbs perform different functions according to their intermediary nature (subject, object, adverbial modifier, attribute). They may be used as any member of the sentence but the predicate. Inside the sentence verbals make up complexes with other members of the sentence.

The English verbids include 4 forms: -the Infinitive; -the Gerund; -the Present Participle; -the Past Participle.

THE INFINITIVE

The infinitive is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun, serving as the verbal name of a process.

The infinitive is used in three fundamentally different types of functions:

as a notional, self-positional syntactic part of the sentence

as the notional constituent of a complex verbal predicate built up around a predicator verb

as the notional constituent of a finite conjugation of the verb

THE GERUND

The gerund is the non-finite form of the verb which, like the infinitive, combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun. Similar to the infinitive, the gerund serves as the verbal name of the process, but its substantive quality is more strongly pronounced than that of the infinitive. Namely, as different from the infinitive, and similar to the noun, the gerund can be modified by a noun in the possessive case or its pronominal equivalents (expressing the subject of the verbal process), and it can be used with prepositions.

The general combinability of the gerund, like that of the infinitive, is dual, sharing some features with the verb, and some features with the noun.

The gerund, in the corresponding positional patterns, performs the functions of all the types of notional sentence-parts:

the subject

the predicative

the object

the attribute

the adverbial modifier

Like the infinitive, the gerund is categorically changeable. It distinguishes the two grammatical categories, sharing them with the finite verb and the present participle:

the category of retrospective coordination (perfect in opposition)

the category of voice (passive in opposition)

Consequently, the categorical paradigm of the gerund of the objective verb includes four forms:

the simple active (taking)

the perfect active (having taken)

the simple passive (being taken)

the perfect passive (having been taken)

The gerundial paradigm of the non-objective verbs, correspondingly, includes two forms:

the simple active (going)

the perfect active (having gone)

THE PRESENT PARTICIPLE

The present participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective and adverb, serving as the qualifying-processual name. In its outer form the present participle distinguishes the same grammatical categories with gerund as retrospective coordination and voice.

The verb-type combinability of the present participle is revealed:

in its being combined with nouns expressing the object of the action

with nouns expressing the subject of the action

with modifying adverbs

with auxiliary finite verbs (word-morphemes) in the analytical form of the verb.

The adjective-type combinability of the present participle is revealed in its association with the modified nouns as well as with some modifying adverbs such as adverbs of degree.

The adverb-type combinability of the present participle is revealed in its association with the modified verbs

The self-positional present participle, in the proper syntactic arrangements, performs the functions:

the predicative (occasional use, and not with the pure link BE)

the attribute

the adverbial modifier of various types.

THE PAST PARTICIPLE

The past participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective, serving as the qualifying processual name. It is a single form, having no paradigm of its own. It conveys implicitly the categorial meaning of the perfect and the passive. The main functions in the sentence are those of the attribute and the predicative.

Semantical and structural typology of the adjectives.

Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence. The Articles — a, an, and the — are adjectives. (the tall professor; a six-year-old child).

Adjectives are the third major class of words in English, after nouns and verbs. Adjectives are words expressing properties of objects e.g. large, blue, simple, clever, economic, progressive, productive, etc and, hence, qualifying nouns. Adjectives in English do not change for number or case. The only grammatical category they have is the degrees of comparison.

In the sentence the adjective performs the functions of an attribute and a predicative. Of the two, the more specific function of the adjective is that of an attribute, since the function of a predicative can be performed by the noun as well.

They are also characterized by functions in the sentence. Degrees of Comparison. There are three degrees of comparison positive, comparative and superlative. The positive form is the plain stem of an adjective e.g. heavy, slow, straight, etc. The comparative states that one thing has more of the quality named by the adjective than some other thing e.g. Henry is taller than John. The superlative states that the thing has the greatest degree of the quality among the things being considered e.g. Henry is the tallest boy in the class Most one-syllable adjectives, and most two-syllable adjectives ending in -y, -ow,-er, or consonant -le, with loud stress on the first syllable and weak stress on the second, form their comparative and superlative by the addition of the suffixes -er and -est. Positive Comparative Superlative clever- cleverer- cleverest; narrow- narrower- narrowest;

All the adjectives are traditionally divided into two large subclasses: qualitative and relative.

Relative adjectives express such properties of a substance as are determined by the direct relation of the substance to some other substance.

E.g.: wood -- a wooden hut; mathematics -- mathematical precision; history a historical event;

Cf: a wooden hut -- a hut made of wood; a historical event -- an event referring to a certain period of history; etc.

Qualitative adjectives, as different from relative ones, denote various qualities of substances which admit of a quantitative estimation, i.e. of establishing their correlative quantitative measure. The measure of a quality can be estimated as high or low, adequate or inadequate, sufficient or insufficient, optimal or excessive. Cf.: an awkward situation -- a very awkward situation; a difficult task -- too difficult a task; an enthusiastic reception -- rather an enthusiastic reception; a hearty welcome -- not a very hearty welcome; etc.

In this connection, the ability of an adjective to form degrees of comparison is usually taken as a formal sign of its qualitative character, in opposition to a relative adjective which is understood as incapable of forming degrees of comparison by definition. Cf: a pretty girl?a prettier girl; a quick look -- a quicker look; a hearty welcome the heartiest of welcomes; a bombastic speech? the most bombastic speech.

The adjectivids fall into two main grammatical subgroups, namely, the subgroup pluralia tantum {the English. the rich, the unemployed, the uninitiated. etc.), and the subgroup singularia tantum (the invisible, the abstract, the tangible, etc.). Semantically, the words of the first subgroup express sets of people (personal multitudes), while the words of the second group express abstract ideas of various types and connotations.

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