The Grammatical Category and the Meaning. The Theory of Oppositions in Grammar

Notional words, first of all verbs and nouns, possess some morphemic features expressing grammatical (morphological) meanings. These features determine the grammatical form of the word. Grammatical meanings are very abstract, very general. Therefore the grammatical form does not refer to a particular word, but unites a whole class of words. For instance, the meaning of the substantive plural is rendered by the regular plural suffix - (e)s, and in some cases by more specific means, such as phonemic interchange, and a few lexeme- bound suffixes.

In logic the most general notions reflecting the most general properties of phenomena are referred to as “categorial notions", or “categories”. That’s why grammatical meanings are referred in linguistics to as “categorial meanings” which express systemic correlations of word-forms in a language.

The categorial meaning (e.g. the grammatical number) unites the individual meanings of forms within a certain grammatical paradigm (e.g. singular-plural). In other words the grammatical category is a system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms. The ordered set of grammatical forms constitutes a paradigm. The paradigmatic correlations of grammatical forms in a category are exposed by the so-called “grammatical oppositions”.

The opposition (in the linguistic sense) may be defined as a generalized correlation of lingual forms by means of which a certain function is expressed. The correlated elements (members) of the opposition must possess two types of features:

common features (basis of contrast);

differential features (express the function in question)

The oppositional theory was originally formulated as a phonological theory but then it was successfully applied in the theoretical grammar.

Three main qualitative types of oppositions are distinguished: privative; gradual; equipollent.

By the number of members contrasted oppositions are divided into: binary (two members); ternary (three members); quaternary (four members).

The most important type of opposition in grammar is the binary privative opposition since all other types may be reduced to this one.

The binary privative opposition is formed by a contrastive pair of members in which one member is characterized by the presence of a certain differential feature (“marked”, “strong”, “positive” member +) while the other member is characterized by the absence of this feature (“unmarked”, “weak”, “negative” member -). For example, the opposition expressing the categorial meaning of plurality:

boy boys +

The gradual ternary opposition is formed by a contrastive group of members which are distinguished not by the presence of absence of a feature, but by the degree of it. For example, the opposition expressing the categorial meaning of comparison

big bigger biggest

The equipollent opposition in the system of English morphology constitutes a minor type and is mostly confined to formal relations only. An example can be seen in the correlation of the person forms of the verb “to be”:

am are - is

in various contextual conditions, one member of an opposition can be used in the position of the other. This phenomenon should be treated as “oppositional reduction” or “oppositional substitution”. For example: The tiger is

dangerous.T\\<i noun “tiger” is used in the singular, but it is quite clear that it stands for the whole class. In other words, this noun is used generically. Thus, in the light of the oppositional theory, the weak member of the categorial opposition of number has replaced the strong one.

Consider another example: Tonight we start for London.The verb in this sentence takes the form of the present, while its meaning in the context is the future. It means that the opposition “present-future” has been reduced, the weak member (the present) replacing the strong one (the future).

The oppositional reduction shown in the two cited cases is stylistically indifferent, in other words the meaning of the sentence remains unchanged. This kind of oppositional reduction is referred to as «neutralisation» of oppositions. So in case of neutralisation the weak member of the opposition replaces the strong one without any changes in the stylistic colouring of the sentence.

Another type of oppositional reduction is referred to as “transposition”. Transposition is a grammatical phenomenon when the strong member of the opposition replaces the weak one and the whole sentence acquires additional stylistic colouring. For example: that man is constantly complaining of something.The form of the present continuous in this example stands in sharp contradiction with its regular grammatical meaning “action in progress at the present time”. The contradiction is, of course, purposeful: by exaggeration, it intensifies the implied disapproval of the man's behaviour.

The study of the oppositional reduction has shown that it is effected by means of a complex and subtle mechanism which involves the inherent properties of lexemes, lexical and grammatical distribution of the replaced word-form and numerous situational factors, suchas the aim of communication, the speaker’s wish either toidentify or to characterize the denoted object, to reveal some facts or conceal them, to sound either flat or expressive, the speaker’s intention to evaluate the discussed objects, the interlolocutors' sharing or non-sharing of the needed information. Etc. AH these factors turn oppositional reduction into a very powerful means of text stylization.

The means employed for building up member-forms of categorial oppositions are traditionally divided into synthetical and analytical; accordingly, the grammatical forms themselves are classed into synthetical and analytical, too.

Synthetical grammatical forms are realised by the inner morphemic composition of words, while analytical grammatical forms are built up by a combination of at least two words one of which is a grammatical auxiliary (word- morpheme), and the other, a word of “substantial” meaning.

Synthetical grammatical forms are based on inner inflexion, outer inflexion and suppletivity.

Inner inflexion, or phonemic (vowel) interchange, is not productive in modem English, but is peculiarly employed in some basic lexemic elements: irregular verbs (the formation of the past simple and Past Participle), plural of the nouns.

Suppletivity is based on the correlation of different roots and is not productive either. Suppletivity is used in the forms of the verb “to be” and “to go”, in the irregular forms of the degrees of comparison, in some forms of personal pronouns.

The only productive way of form-building is the outer-inflexion, which is used to build up the number and case forms of the noun, the person-number, tense, participial and gerundial forms of the verb; the comparison forms of the adjective and adverb.

Lecture 4

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