1) The theoretical course of grammar. Relationships between theoretical and normative grammar. Language and speech.

The purpose of the theoretical course of English grammar is to acquaint the students with many linguistic problems connected with the grammatical structure of the English language.

While practical grammar gives rules which help us to read, speak and write English correctly, the task of theoretical grammar is to give an analysis of the grammatical structure of the language as a system.

Language and speech. A language was first treated as a system by the grammarians of 17th century. Later this view of language structure was abandoned until the beginning of the 20th century when the Swiss scholar Ferdinand de Saussure acknowledged the study of a system of a given language in his book on general linguistics. The distinction between language and speech, which was first introduced by him, has since become one of the cornerstones of modern linguistic. Ferdinand de Saussure defined language as the system phonological, lexical and grammatical. It is the source which every speaker and writer has to draw upon if he is to be understood by other speakers of the language.

And speech is the manifestation of language or its use by various speakers and writers of the given language. a scholar can get at language only through its manifestation in the speech. Thus, the scholars task is to analyze speech facts so that to get through them to the language system without which they couldnt have been produced.

5) The transformational method and its application to the English grammar.

We should use the transformational method in order to distinguish the sentences of the following type: Monika is difficult to speak and Monika is eager to speak. The derivational tree, which is used in the method of Immediate Constituents, shows that these sentences have the same structure, but the sentences are quite different in meaning. In the 1st sentence Monika is the object of the action, while in the 2nd sentence Monika is the subject. Only the transformation of these sentences can show that the relations between the elements of these sentences are different.

The 1st sentence can be transformed into Its difficult to speak with Monika. This transformation shows that Monika is the object of the action. The 2nd sentence can be transformed into Monika eagerly speaks with people. So we see, that Monika is the subject of the action.

Thus, the transformational method is used for distinguishing syntactical homonyms. It shows how kernel sentences are transformed into other types of sentences.

2) Grammar and phonetics. Grammar and lexicology.

As language is a sound language, any element of its structure can exist only in its sound integument, but sometimes sound phenomena can play a special grammatical role. For example, the sound alternation (or interchange) can change the grammatical meaning of the word in following cases:

1. In irregular words (come came, meet- met, see- saw, build- built);

2. In the formation of the plural (woman women, foot feet, tooth- teeth).

3. In changing the stress. Unless we learn the right stress of the words, we cant refer them to a definite part of speech. The change of stress can bring about the change in the grammatical meaning of the word for example Export (noun) expOrt (verb), Import (noun) impOrt (verb);

4.The change of intonation can also play a certain grammatical role as it can change the type of the sentence.(for ex. He has nothing to say it is said with a falling tone, thats a statement; He has nothing to say it is said with a rising tone, thats why it expresses doubt. This type of sentences is called semi-interrogative.)

Grammar and lexicology. Language consists of words and all grammatical phenomena can exist only in words and word combinations. The grammatical meaning of a word to a certain degree depends on its lexical meaning.

Thus, transitive verbs, such as take, give require a direct object, because they are incomplete in their lexical meaning. They take a direct object so as to complete their meanings, for example Give a pen to me, give what? a pen. A pen is a direct object without preposition.

Thus, we see, that language is a system phonological, lexical and grammatical. There exist a certain kind of relationships between grammar and phonetics on the one hand, and grammar and lexicology on the other.

3. Methods of grammatical investigation. The distributional method and its application to the English language

To the main methods studying grammar we refer the distributional method, the method of immediate constituents and the transformational method. These methods have been worked out and introduced by the modern American structural linguist.

Distribution of an element is the sum of all environments in which it occurs. Its the sum of all the different positions of an element. By applying the distributional method the Modern American linguist Charles Fries who rejected the traditional classification of parts of speech, worked out his own system of different classes of words.

A distributional class, according to Charles Fries, is a class of elements that occur in the same position. His method helps to distinguish different classes of linguistic elements. For example, the book is interesting book is the 1st class, is the 2nd class, interesting the 3rd class4) The method of Immediate Constituents and its application to the English language

The method of Immediate Constituents helps to arrive at a complete structural meaning of a sentence. It shows us how the sentence is built up. In order to analyze the complete structural meaning of a sentence we must determine how the separate units of the sentence are grouped.

Charles Fries introduces in the analysis of a sentence the idea of a phrase, consisting of the 2 immediate constituents.

An immediate constituent is one of the 2 constituents of which the given linguistic form is directly built-up. The division of a construction begins with the longest elements and continues to the smallest. For example The girl hit the table. This sentence consists of the noun group (the girl) and the verb group (hit the table). The noun group consists of the article (the) and the noun (girl). The verb group consists of the verb (hit) and the noun group, which consists of the article (the) and the noun (table). Its called a derivational tree. The derivational tree shows how the sentence is generated from its constituents. The theory of immediate constituents is fit for generating sentences.

This is an exact theory, but the sphere of its application is limited to generating only kernel (simple) sentences.

The 2nd demerit is the following; the Immediate constituents model can not be used for the analysis of syntactical homonyms. That is structures of the same type, which greatly differ from each other in meaning. For example, Monika is difficult to speak and Monika is eager to speak. A sentence consists of noun group and the verb group. The verb group consists of verb and adjective group. Adjective group consists of adjective and infinitive. The derivational tree shows that these sentences have the same structure, but the sentences are quite different in meaning. In the 1st sentence Monika is the object of the action, while in the 2nd sentence Monika is the subject.

7) Morphology and syntax. Their relationship and boundary lines between them

Grammar is a science, dealing with the grammatical structure of a language as a system. The grammatical structure of a language is a sum of regularities which defines inflections of words and the combination of words in sentences. Thus, grammar consists of 2 parts: morphology and syntax. They are very closely connected with each other, but each of them has an object of its own.

Morphology is the part of grammar which deals with the form of the words, classification of words and their combinability.

Syntax studies 2 levels phrases on the one hand and sentences on the other, secondly their classification and their combinability. Its difficult to draw a clear-cut line between 2 parts of grammar.

6) The notion of opposition in grammar (nouns, verbs, adjectives)

Ferdinand de Sausser suggested that the system of a language should be studied on the opposition of its concrete forms (units). Later on Trubetskoy and Jacobson developed his idea. The opposition is a pair of grammatical forms, opposed to each other both in meaning and in form. For example cat- cats, dog dogs; see saw, look looked; fast faster, weak weaker.

The first member of the opposition is called unmarked and the 2nd is called marked member.

8) The notions of grammatical meaning and grammatical forms as applied to the English language.

Every word has a lexical meaning and grammatical meaning. For example the verb tells has a lexical meaning . The grammatical meaning is the following: the 3rd person singular, common aspect, indicative mood, active voice, Present Tense, non-perfect, and it denotes action.

The lexical meaning of a word is the designation of some phenomena of objective reality. It is an outcome of abstraction, but its not too abstract to lose the concrete features to designate a thing.

Grammatical abstraction has gone much further than lexical abstractions. Grammatical meaning of a word is the meaning of a very general character which is common to a group of words.

For example, all the nouns irrespective of their lexical meaning are united by their grammatical meaning of substantivity. The meaning to action is common to verbs. The meaning of quality is common to adjectives.

The grammatical meaning may also reflect in a very general way the relations between the given thing and other objects, existing in reality (Marys cat is sitting in front of her).

The grammatical meaning may also reflect the forms of the existence of the given phenomena. Thus, the grammatical meaning of tense shows the relation of the action to the moment of speaking (spoke, speak, will speak). The grammatical meaning of action is to show the character of the development of the action (He speaks German well and He is speaking German now). The grammatical meaning of the category of mood is to express the relation of the action to reality from the speakers point of view (Its high time the children went to bed-subjunctive mood and Its high time for the children to go to bed indicative mood).

The grammatical meaning of the category of voice is to express the relations between an action and its subject or object (I gave him a pen and I was given a pen).

9) Grammatical categories in Modern English

A grammatical category is the unity of a grammatical meaning and a corresponding grammatical form. The grammatical categories may be more or less abstract. They may be general and particular. A general category should always consist of at least 2 particular categories.

Thus, the general category of tense consists of 3 particular categories Present, Past, Future. The general category of case consists of 2 particular categories common and possessive.

In the system of the English noun we distinguish the following categories the category of number (singular and plural) and the category of case (common and possessive). In the system of the modern English adjective we distinguish the category of degrees of comparison (positive, comparative and superlative). In the system of the English verb there are following categories: the category of tense (which consists of 3 particular categories Past, Present and Future), of aspect (common and continuous), of person (the 1st, 2nd and 3rd), of number (singular and plural), of voice (active and passive), of mood (imperative, indicative, subjunctive), of time relation (perfect and non-perfect).

11. Types of word-form derivation in English. Inflectional morphemes, sound alternation, zero morpheme.

1)In the system of the English noun we distinguish the following inflectional morphemes: a) es, s, en expressing the idea of plurality. b) apostrophe s expressing the idea of possession

In the sphere of the English adjective the suffixes er, est are the only inflectional morphemes, expressing the idea of the comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives. 2)The zero morpheme is characterized by the absence of the inflection, but this absence is meaningful as it presents the idea of singularity. Lets consider some examples girl girls, child children, woman women. The first column of opposition (girl, child, woman) is characterized by the zero morpheme, expressing the idea of singularity. 3) Sound alternation can change the grammatical meaning of the word in following cases: 1. In irregular words (come came, meet- met, see- saw, build- built); 2. In the formation of the plural (woman women, man men, foot feet, tooth- teeth, mouse mice, goose geese, louse lice. ). 3. In changing the stress. Unless we learn the right stress of the words, we cant refer them to a definite part of speech. The change of stress can bring about the change in the grammatical meaning of the word for example Export (noun) expOrt (verb), Import (noun) impOrt (verb);

4.The change of intonation can also play a certain grammatical role as it can change the type of the sentence.(for ex. He has nothing to say it is said with a falling tone, thats a statement; He has nothing to say it is said with a rising tone, thats why it expresses doubt. This type of sentences is called semi-interrogative.)

10) The basic morphological notions: word-morpheme, morph, allomorph.

The basic morphological notions are word and morpheme. Word is the smallest naming unit. Its a sequence of human sounds, conveying a certain notion. Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units, into which a word form can be divided.

The word-form workers can be divided into 3 morphemes: work expressing the basic lexical meaning of the word; er expressing the doer of the action; s is a morpheme, expressing the idea of plurality.

In order to understand what an allomorph is, we will form an opposition girl girls, child- children, woman women. Here morphemes s, en, e have the same grammatical meaning, because they express plurality. They are allomorphs, that is variants of a morpheme of plurality.

Allomorph is a variant of a morpheme which occurs in certain environments.

Thus, the morpheme is a group of one or more allomorphs. We can distinguish root morphemes and affixal morphemes.

13) Parts of speech. The notion of parts of speech. Difficulties of the problem. Criteria applied in discriminating parts of speech: meaning, form and function.

The meaning of the word, its form, the place in the sentence and its combinability can be of help in classifying words as belonging to a certain part of speech. Parts of speech are lexico-grammatical classes of words, which are united on the basis of a general meaning, common to the whole class (thingness, action, property) and on the basis of their morphological and syntactical character.

The representatives of traditional grammar distinguish 7 or 8 parts of speech. They didnt distinguish between notional and structural parts of speech. The majority of Soviet linguists point out 13 parts of speech. For example, Professor Smirnitsky, Ganshina and Vasilevskaya distinguish 3 classes of words: 1) Notional or significant words they have independent meaning and perform a certain function in the sentence. They are 6: noun, pronoun, adjective, numeral, verb and adverb. 2) Form words, which are subdivided into 2 groups connective form words (prepositions and conjunctions) and determinatives ( articles and particles). 3) It includes independent elements which do not enter into the structure of the sentence as its parts. They are 3 in number interjections, yes/no words, parenthetical words.

12. Analytical forms, suppletivity, grammatical homonymy.

We distinguish 3 means of deriving word-forms in Modern English:

1) The synthetical way that is the way of changing forms of the words by means of adding inflectional morphemes without any auxiliary words.

In the system of the English noun we distinguish the following inflectional morphemes: a) es, s, en expressing the idea of plurality. b) apostrophe s expressing the idea of possession

2) The analytical way is used for the formation of degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs (for example interesting more interesting the most interesting; more and the most are auxiliary words, ), continuous tense forms (I am reading, am is an auxiliary word), perfect tense forms (I have done it, have is an auxiliary word), future tenses (She will read this book, will is an auxiliary word) and also passive voice (This story is written by Pushkin, is is an auxiliary word).

3) Supplitive way implies the formation of words from different root morphemes. Its found in the sphere of the English verbs for example to be-was/were been. In the sphere of adjectives good better the best, bad worse the worst.

14) Controversy in Parts of speech. Classification of parts of speech.

The classification of parts of speech is the controversial problem in general linguistics. There exist different classifications.

When the first English grammar appeared, the English grammarians borrowed from Latin the traditional classification of parts of speech. But it couldnt be easily applied to modern English, because it was created for highly inflected languages, such as Greek and Latin, while English is highly analytical language, as there are not many inflections left in it.

George Curme distinguished nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. The drawback of his classification is that he didnt include numerals and particles.

As for Henry Sweet, he distinguishes declinable classes of words (nouns, adjectives, numerals, verbs) and indeclinable, which are called particles (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections). His classification is based on diclinability of words

Otto Jesperson names substantives (to which he refers: adjectives, verbs, nouns, pronouns, numerals and some adverbs) and particles, which include adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions and interjections. His classification is based on form, because he singles out particles.

Thus, we see that all English classical grammarians stick to the traditional number of parts of speech, but trying to give a more detailed description of the language, the had to subdivide classes into subclasses. Within the class of adverbs, they single out sentence- modifying adjectives, now we call them modal words (perhaps, certainly, surely, probably).15) Charles Fries classification of words and its character

Charles Fries is representative of an American structural school of linguists. His classification of words may be taken as a good example of how the problem of parts of speech is treated by modern linguists abroad. They avoid grouping words into parts of speech; their terminology differs greatly from the traditional approach. In his book the structure of English language Charles Fries gives a critical revision of the classical approach to the problem of parts of speech. So Charles Fries singled out the following classes of words: 1) Class N, denoting class 1 words, including all nouns and some pronouns. 2) Class B words in which he put all verbs with the exception of auxiliary 3) Class A words adjectives, pronouns and numerals. 4) Class D words adverbs and some phrases. Functional words are unable to fit the position without destroying the structural meaning of sentences. He united functional words into 3 sets: 1) Determines of nouns articles, some modal words, intensifiers of adjectives and adverbs (very, much, more). 2) Prepositions and conjunctions. 3) Question words (what, who), inducement words (let), attention getting words (listen! hear!), yeas and no words and sentence introducers (it, there).

Charles Fries criticizes the traditional definitions, given to parts of speech but refrains from giving definitions of his own.

16) The noun. Its definition, grammatical meaning, morphological characteristics, syntactical functions.

The noun is the word expressing the substantivity in the widest sense of the word. Nouns are names of objects, id est things, human beings, animals, materials and abstract notions (for example table, house, man, girl, snow, sugar, love).All grammarians agree that nouns have 2 grammatical categories: number and case. The singular number shows that one object is meant, and the plural shoes that more than one object is meant (for example girl girls, table - tables). Nouns have 2 case forms the common and possessive, for example the child the childs father, a woman a womans child. semantically all nouns can be divided into 2 main groups: proper names (John, Moscow, the Thames) and common nouns. Common nouns are divided into countable and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns denote objects that can be counted. They may be either concrete (book, student, car) or abstract (idea, word, effort). Uncountable nouns are names of objects that cannot be counted. They may be also concrete (water, grass, wood) and abstract (information, amazement, time).

Nouns may have different functions in the sentence. They may serve as: 1) the subject (Life is a strange thing). 2) an object (He handed the man his medal). 3) a predicative (the place was in order) 4) Various adverbial modifiers (He spoke in a different tone ). 5) an attribute (his officers uniform was not good.)

17) The noun. Its grammatical categories. Problem of gender in Modern English

All grammarians agree that nouns have 2 grammatical categories: number and case. The existence of the category of gender is disputable. Some grammarians accept it, others reject, because there are only 2 suffixes to express it ion (hero - heroine), ess (steward - stewardess).

There are 4 different ways to distinguish between masculine and feminine:

1) By a change of word (cock hen, man woman, girl- boy, husband - wife)

2) By a change of ending (actor actress, god goodness, tiger - tigress)

3) Peculiar changes of ending (czar czarina, wizard witch, spinner - spinster)

4) By placing a word-morpheme before or after the word (he-goat, she-goat, man-doctor, woman-doctor, Tom-cat, Pussy-cat)

A noun that denotes a male gender is of the masculine gender (man, husband, boy); one, that denotes female is of the feminine gender (woman, girl, wife); one, that denotes either sex is of common gender (friend, cousin); one, that denotes neither sex is of the neuter gender (flower, rain, opinion).

We shouldnt confuse sex and gender. Sex is biological, gender is cultural. Gender describes an individuals personal, legal and social status without reference to genetic sex, gender is a subjective cultural attitude. Sex is an objective biological fact. gender varies according to the culture Sex is constant.

18) The noun. The category of number and its peculiarities in the English noun. Singularia tantum and pluralia tantum.

The singular number shows that one object is meant and the plural shows that more than one object is meant. But the category of number gives rise to several problems which claim special attention. In such cases as waters and snows we drift away from the original meaning of the plural number. No numeral could be used with nouns of this kind. We cant say three waters or 2 snows, moreover we cant say how many waters or snows we mean. The plural form of these words serves to denote a vast stretch of water (for example waters of the ocean) or of snow (snows of the Canada). Pluralia tantum include nouns of 2 types:

1) Nouns which denote material objects, consisting of 2 parts pajamas, trousers, scissors. 2) Nouns which denote a more or less indefinite plurality environs (which means areas surrounding some place on all sides); dregs (which means various small things, remaining at the bottom of a vessel after the liquid has been poured out of it.)

Singularia tantum include;1) Nouns, denoting material substance (milk, butter, ink, silver)2) Names of abstract notions, such as peace, usefulness, friendship. With singularia tantum nouns the predicate verb is always singular.

19) The noun. The category of number and its peculiarities in the English noun. collective nouns and nouns of multitude.

The singular number shows that one object is meant and the plural shows that more than one object is meant. But the category of number gives rise to several problems which claim special attention. In such cases as waters and snows we drift away from the original meaning of the plural number. No numeral could be used with nouns of this kind. We cant say three waters or 2 snows, moreover we cant say how many waters or snows we mean. The plural form of these words serves to denote a vast stretch of water (for example waters of the ocean) or of snow (snows of the Canada).

Plural form can sometimes develop a completely new meaning which the singular hasnt got at all. For example people () peoples (); custom () customs (); color () colors (); attention () attentions ().

Certain nouns, denoting groups of human beings (family, government, party, army) and also of animals (cattle, poultry) can be used in 2 different ways:

1)Either they denote the group as a whole than they are treated as singular and are called collective nouns

2) Either they denote the group as consisting of a certain number of individual human beings. Then they are called nouns of multitude.

For example, My family is small its a collective noun; My family are good speakers the noun of multitude.

The cattle were grazing in the field the noun of multitude ; My cattle is in the shed collective noun.

35. The Sentence. Classification of sentences according to their structure.

Sentences can be simple and composite. Simple sentences can be extended and unextended. Unextended sentence consists of the subject and predicate only, for example He is sleeping. Extended sentences have some other parts, for example He is sleeping on the sofa . Also simple sentences can be two member and one member sentences. Two member sentences can be complete (for example, where are you going?) and elliptical (Home). One member sentences can be nominal (Summer. Night. Music), imperative (Speak up!) and infinitival (to do such a thing!).

Composite sentences can be compound and complex. In compound sentences 2 or more equal sentences are joined together with the help of coordinate conjunctions and, but. For example, It was the beginning of July and the weather was fine. Complex sentences contain the principle clause and several subordinate clauses. For example, I dont know where he was gone.

20) The noun. The category of case. Different approaches to the category of case in Modern English. Mutual relations of number and case.

The problem of case is one of the most debatable problems in English grammar. The usual view is that the English nouns have 2 cases a common and possessive (or genitive), for example mother mothers. But there are other views which are contradictory to each other.

The 1st is that the number of cases is more that 2. The 2nd is that there are no cases at all on the sphere of English nouns.

Case is the category of a noun, expressing relations between the thing denoting by a noun and other things or properties or actions and manifested by some formal sign in the noun itself.

This sign is almost always an inflection and it may be a zero sign: the absence of any sign may be significant in distinguishing one particular case from another. The minimum number of cases in a give language system must be 2 because the existence of 2 correlated elements is needed to establish a category.

German linguists proposed that the case may be expressed by different prepositions, by word order they distinguish 4 cases nominative, genitive, dative (by preposition to and word order) and accusative. This point of view isnt right, because if we admit that the phrase of the pan is genitive case, to the pan is dative, then there would be no reason to deny that with the pan is an instrumental case, in the pan is the locative case.

Thus, the number of cases would become indefinitely large, because there are a lot of prepositions in English.

It seems obvious that the number of cases cant be more than 2 - common and possessive.

The possibility of forming possessive case is limited to a class of nouns, denoting living beings (my brothers wife) and those, denoting units of time (this years election) and also substantivized adverbs (todays newspaper).

40. The Predicate. Types of predicates. Simple and compound Nominal Predicates.

The predicate is the main part of speech, denoting an action, state or quality of the thing, expressed by the subject of the action. In a simple predicate both predication and the designation of the process are combined in one and the same verb which may be used, both in its synthetic and analytical form for example She studies English(synthetic form) and She has been studying English for 3 years analytical form.

The compound nominal predicate consists of a link verb and a predicative. For example, He grew more cheerful.

21) The non-finites. Their form, meaning and function. Double character of verbals

The verb has finite and non-finite forms. The verbals do not express person, number or mood. They cannot be used as the predicate of a sentence, but verbals have tense and voice distinctions. There are 3 verbals in English: the participle 1, participle 2 and the infinitive.

The participle is a non-finite form of the verb, which has characteristics of a verb, adjective or adverb. Participle 1 has for forms: Indefinite Active (doing), Indefinite passive (being done), Perfect active (having done), Perfect Passive (having been done). Participle 1 Indefinite Active and Passive usually denotes an action simultaneous with the action expressed by the finite verb. Depending on the tense form of the finite verb it may refer to the Present, past or Future. For example, When watching this film, she cant help crying (here the participle 1 watching is In the present tense, its indefinite active); When watching this film, she couldnt help crying (here the participle 1 watching is In the past tense); When watching this film, she will cry (here the participle 1 watching is In the future tense).

Participle 1 Perfect active and Passive denotes an action prior to the action, expressed by the finite verb. For example, Having seen her, he knew she was not at home. Having seen is in the perfect active form. But there is some exception, with some verbs of sense perception and motion, such as to see, hear, come, arrive, seize, look, turn, enter, etc, participle 1 indefinite is used even when priority is meant. For example, Coming back to her home town, she wanted to meet her friends.

condition (with the conjunction if) his diary, if discovered, could let her know many interesting things.

38. The main parts of the sentence. Their definition.

Every sentence has 2 types of parts of a sentence main and secondary. The main parts of any sentence are the subject and the predicate. They are contrasted with the secondary parts object, attribute, adverbial modifier. The main parts make up the predication, without them the sentence would not exist at all. The secondary sentences expands the sentence.

The subject is the independent part of sentence, denoting a thing, whose action or character is expressed by the predicate. The subject may be expressed by different parts of speech noun (Cat is my favorite kind of pet), possessive pronoun (Mine is a sorrowful fate), substantivised adjective (green is my favorite color).

The predicate denotes an action, state or quality of the thing. For example, He stayed at home, stayed is the predicate of a sentence, denoting an action.

22) The verb. Its definition, grammatical meaning and morphological classification of verbs,

The verb is a very important part of speech, because in English not a single sentence can be composed without the finite form of the verb, with the exception of one member nominal sentences (Night. Cold and dark. Music). A verb is a very stable category. It exist from the time immemorial on the one hand, and on the other hand it has undergone many changes during the development of the English language. In old English it had only synthetic forms and then it has developed a large number of analytical forms. A verb is a part of speech, expressing action or states, conceived as processes. A verb always expresses a state or an action, connected with the doer of the action. The verb is the only part of speech in present day English, that has a morphological system, based on series of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, mood and time relation.

From the morphological point of view in old English verbs were classified into strong and weak. In modern English verbs are divided into regular and irregular, which are distinguished by the formation of the past tense and the past participle.Regular verbs form their 2nd and 3rd forms by means of the suffix ed. It is pronounced d after vowels and voiced consonants (played, answered, opened), It s pronounced t after voiceless consonants (looked, passed) and id after verbs ending in t or d (wanted, ended, landed)

Irregular verbs dont obey this rule, they don/t preserve any uniform rule of building their 2nd and 3rd forms. Some of irregular verbs build up their forms without any affixation. For example, : to cut, cut, cut;; to cast, cast, cast; to hit, hit, hit.34. The Sentence. Classification of sentences according to communicative types. According to communicative types, sentences can be declarative, interrogative and imperative. 1) We communicate something in declarative sentences. As for their structure, the subject precedes the predicate. As for the intonation, they are always pronounced with a fall. For example, We have many books.2) In interrogative sentences we ask a person of something. There are several types of interrogative sentences special, general, disjunctive, alternative. Special questions are always pronounced with the falling tone, for example, What are you writing down?. General questions are pronounced with the rising tone and the word order is always inverted. For example, Is it snowing?. Disjunctive questions have a peculiar intonation pattern: the 1st part is pronounced with a fall, the 2nd part either with a fall or rise. When the 2nd part is pronounced with the fall, no answer is expected (Tom is absent, isnt he.). Alternative questions are pronounced with the rise in the 1st part and a fall in the 2nd part Is it black or white?. 3) In imperative sentences we induce a person to fulfill an action. For example, Take this book!

23) The verb. Semantic-syntactical classification of verbs.

Semantically verbs are classified into notional and semi-notional. This is the difference not of the form, but of content. For example, She grew old, grew- is semi-notional or link verb. She grew beautiful flowers, grew is notional verb. So, we see, that notional and semi-notional verbs can have similar forms and the distinction between them can be reflected by the substitution. Notional verbs usually have the verbal substitute do with a more general meaning than the substituted verb. For example, She speaks French better than he does. The lexical meaning of semi-notional verbs is usually so weak, that they cant be substituted by verbal substitutes He is a better student, than she is.

The majority of English verbs are notional that is possessing full lexical meaning and connected with it. Its their ability to form a sentence alone (for example Go out!). Semi notional verbs have a very general lexical meaning, sometimes they even lose it and the meaning of the action is hardly felt is such verbs.

Semi-notional verbs can be divided into: Link verbs, Modal verbs, Auxiliary verbs.

a)Link verbs. A number of verbs are partly devoid of their lexical meaning and they have become links. To them we refer: to go, to be, to turn, to become, to get. For example, She turned over a page notional verb; She turned pale semi-notional verb. b)Modal verbs are characterized by their peculiar modal meaning, physical ability, permission, obligation, necessity to perform an action, denoted by some other verb. For example, I cant swim(physical ability).

c) Auxiliaries. Some linguists speak of the 3rd group that is auxiliary verbs. They are verbs completely devoid of their lexical meaning. Did you like it? Have you done your homework? do and have are auxiliary verbs.

29. The Verb. The category of Voice, its definition. Different views on the problem. Relationship of voice and transitivity and intransitivity of verbs.

Voice is the form of the verb which serves to show whether the subject of the sentence is the agent or the object of the action expressed by the predicate verb. There are 2 voices in English the Active and the Passive voice. The active voice shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject of the sentence is the doer of the action expressed by the predicate verb, that it acts. For example, I dont agree with her. The passive voice serves to show that the person or thing denoted by the subject of the sentence is not the doer of the action expressed by the predicative verb but the object of the action. The subject of a passive verb doesnt act but is acted upon, it undergoes an action. For example, I was given a present by him.

Relationship of voice and transitivity and intransitivity of verbs. Lets consider some examples, He will shave and wash I havent dressed up yet. The verbs in these sentences are objective, transitive and used absolutively in the form of the active voice. But the real voice meaning is not active, because the actions expressed are not passed from the subject to any outer object, on the contrary these actions are confined to no other participant of the situation than the subject, the latter constituting its own object of the action performance. This kind of verbal meaning of the action performed by the subject upon itself is called as reflexive

37. The Sentence. Types of complex sentences and their structure.

A complex sentence consists of a main clause and several subordinate clauses. Clauses in a complex sentence may be linked in 2 ways: syndetically (by means of subordinating conjunctions or connectives, for example I think, that she is right) and asyndetically (without a conjunction or connective, for example I think she is right). The subordinate clauses are divided into subject, predicative, attributive, object clauses and adverbial modifier of time, condition, cause, concession, manner, purpose, attendant circumstances. For example, what he should do is uncertain subject clause. The trouble is that I have lost my book predicative clause. He asked us what we should do object clause. The man who was her is my brother attributive clause. I left home, because I was tired adverbial clause of cause.

24. The Verb. The problem of aspect. Definition of this category. English and Russian aspects compared.

The category of aspect shows the character of the development of the action. For almost all English words there exist 2 sets of aspectual forms, for example Now I am doing my homework continuous aspect, Usually he does his homework alone common aspect. Both forms belong to the same verb, but theres some grammatical difference between them. The 1st form am doing denotes an action going on continuously at the moment of speaking, thus having certain time limits. The second form does expresses a habitual action, occurring repeatedly, thus not limited. The English common aspect usually corresponds to the Russian perfective aspect and the English continuous aspect to imperfective aspect. But we observe some difference between them. the English common aspect is less concrete and much broader than the Russian perfective aspect. The Russian perfective aspect represents an action in its entirety. It implies some meaning. The English common aspect only registers the fact. It states that the action took place in the past or present or future, but it doesnt imply the idea of any meaning. She wrote a book in Russian its translated and its perfective. But the sentence She wrote from morning till night is translated , its imperfective in Russian. The English common aspect correspond to both perfective and imperfective aspect in Russian. the difference is determined by the context only. Therefore, professor Ivanova calls common aspect the zero aspect. The continuous aspect in English in general is narrower and more concrete than the Russian imperfective aspect. The English aspect is limited by the given moment at which the action is developing.

30. The Verb. The category of Voice, its definition. Different views on the problem. The question of the reflexive voice.

Voice is the form of the verb which serves to show whether the subject of the sentence is the agent or the object of the action expressed by the predicate verb. There are 2 voices in English the Active and the Passive voice. The active voice shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject of the sentence is the doer of the action expressed by the predicate verb, that it acts. For example, I dont agree with her. The passive voice serves to show that the person or thing denoted by the subject of the sentence is not the doer of the action expressed by the predicative verb but the object of the action. The subject of a passive verb doesnt act but is acted upon, it undergoes an action. For example, I was given a present by him.

Relationship of voice and transitivity and intransitivity of verbs. Lets consider some examples, He will shave and wash I havent dressed up yet. The verbs in these sentences are objective, transitive and used absolutively in the form of the active voice. But the real voice meaning is not active, because the actions expressed are not passed from the subject to any outer object, on the contrary these actions are confined to no other participant of the situation than the subject, the latter constituting its own object of the action performance. This kind of verbal meaning of the action performed by the subject upon itself is called as reflexive

28. The Verb. The category of Mood. Definition, different conceptions of the mood system in English and objective reasons for the existing controversy.

By modality we understand the linguistic expression of the relation of our utterance to reality as viewed by the speaker. Mood is a grammatical means of expressing modality. By mood we understand the relation of the action to reality from the speakers point of view. The majority of linguists distinguish 3 moods 2 direct moods (indicative and imperative) and 1 oblique mood (subjunctive).

The indicative mood is the form of the verb which expresses an action as real fact. Morphologically its the most developed system because its expressed by all verbal categories. For example, I have done my homework. The boy went away. The girl is crying, etc.

The imperative mood is the form of the verb which expresses a command or request of a speaker, addressed to the 2nd person. It doesnt express any action. The speaker only urges the person addressed to fulfill an action. For example, Go out please! Do it right now! Take this book! Sometimes we use the personal pronoun you only for the sake of emphasis. For example, You do it please! Its a colloquial form.

The subjunctive mood expresses an action as non- fact, something imaginary, desirable, obligatory or contrary to reality.

25. Controversy concerning the category of aspect. Assessments of different approaches to continious forms.

The category of aspect has always been and remain one of the debatable problems of English grammar. some scholars interpret aspect as a category of semantics, rather than that of aspect. George Cerm distinguishes the following aspects: 1) Durative aspect (representing the action as continuing) She is eating 2) Point action aspect. It calls attention to 1 point either to the beginning of the action, than its ingressive action or inchoative action She always watches TV, or it calls attention to the final point of the action and calls it effective aspect. She dropped a pencil. 3) Terminative aspect, indicating an action as a whole The child understood me. 4) Iterative action, showing the repetition of the like acts She banged against the wall, The cat mewed

The view of G. Cerm is shared by Max Deutschbein. We cant but object to this classification because its based upon semantic principles. They confuse the grammatical category of the aspect and lexical meaning of the verb.

Another group of grammarians Henry Sweet, Otto Jesperson believe that the English verb does not express any aspect distinctions at all. They dont recognize aspect as a grammatical category. They treat the continuous forms as tense forms, expressing simultaneous with some other actions. They give such category different names, such as progressive, expanded, long, durative, etc.27. The verb. The perfect. Controversy concerning the essence of perfect forms. assessments of different views on the problem. the category of time correlation.There is no unity of opinions concerning the essence of the perfect forms. there exist 4 different lines of approach to perfect forms: 1) Some linguists (Sweet, Jesperson, Gantshina) regard perfect forms as tense forms. some other scholars consider them to be aspect forms. Professor Ilyish calls perfect forms forms of the resultative aspect. Deutschbein, West and Vorontsova call perfect forms transmissive aspect. professor Ivanova refers perfect forms to tense-aspect system. The 3 named points of view seemed to be erroneous. The 4th line of approach is represented by Professor Smirnitsky who arrived at the conclusion that this category is neither one of tense nor that of aspect. He proves his point of view into following way: He takes the form has spoken and says if the perfect forms were a tense category, than the present perfect would be a union of 2 different tenses the present and perfect. This is clearly impossible, because if a form already belongs to a tense category (Present for example), it cannot simultaneously belong to another tense category. Otherwise, 2 particular tense categories in 1 form would collide. Thus, it follows that the category of perfect forms cant be a tense category.

26. The Verb. The category of tense, its definition. system of tenses in the English Verb.

The category of tense is a verbal category which reflects the objective category of time and expresses on this background the relation between the time of the action and the time of the utterance. Thus, the category of tense reflects the category of objective time. Time exists independently of our consciousness. The main divisions of objective time are 3 in number Past, Present and Future. By the past we mean the period of time which is prior to the moment of speaking. By the Future we understand the period of time following the period of speaking. The present is endless. t/s a borderline between past and future.

Therefore, by the present we understand such a period of time which can be broad or narrow but which must necessarily include the moment of speaking.

Barhudarov and Stelling consider that the system of tenses in English includes 16 tense forms, which correspond to the 3 divisions of objective time:

Present Indefinite:speaks. Present Continuous:is speaking. Present perfect:has spoken. Present Perfect Continuous:has been peaking. Past Indefinitespoke. Past Continuous:was speaking. Past Perfect:had spoken. Past Perfect Continuous:had been speaking.

Future Indefinite:will speak.Future Continuous:will be speaking. Future Perfect:will have spoken. Future Perfect Continuous:will have been speaking

Future in the Past, indefinite:would speak. Continuous:would be speaking. Perfect: would have spoken. Perfect Continuous:would have been speaking.

41.The Predicate. Types of predicates. Compound Verbal Predicates. Mixed types.

The majority of grammarians distinguish 2 types of the compound verbal predicate: 1) the compound verbal modal predicate 2) compound verbal aspect predicate. These 2 types are distinguished according to the meaning of their 1st component in the compound verbal modal predicate the 1st component expresses either the beginning, repetition or ending of the action.

Mixed predicates are 1) compound modal verbal predicate Dont think I mean to be unkind. 2) The compound aspect verbal nominal predicate - for ex It began to grow dark. 3) the compound modal aspect verbal predicate for ex You must stop doing nothing.

31. The problem of the subject matter of Syntax. Basic syntactical notions. The phrase and the sentence.

The definition of the sentence still remains one of the most difficult problems of general linguistics. It remains unsolved up to this date. Professor Ilyish avoids giving the definition of the sentence, he gives the following characteristic futures of the sentence: 1) It must state the relation of the sentence as a unit of language to the thought. 2) It must take into account the specific structure of the language. 3) It must leave room, as for many variants as its possible, Though the definition of the sentence has a long system, it still remains one of the most debatable theoretical problems and it still remains unsolved to this day.

But syntax deals not only with the sentence, but also with the word group, the word combination or the phrase. What is the difference between the sentence and the phrase? To answer this question professor Smirnitsky compares 2 word combinations: The doctors arrival and the doctor arrived. The 1st word combination doesnt communicate anything. Its not a unit of communication. In the 2nd word combination the same phenomenon of objective reality is represented as connected with reality. The indication of the connection of our communication with reality is called predication. Thus, predication expresses the reference of the contents of speech to reality. Therefore, the sentence is the shortest unit of communication , which is characterized by predication, modality, relative completeness of its meaning and intonation.

The phrase or word group is a grammatically organized unit of speech, consisting of 2 or more words, denoting a certain notion.

39.The Subject. Types of the subject.

The subject is the independent part of sentence, denoting a thing, whose action or character is expressed by the predicate. The subject can be personal and impersonal. In the classification of Professor Smirnitsky there are 5 classes of personal subject^ 1) The personal subject proper (for ex. The students are writing now). this type of subject may be expressed by the noun or pronoun. 2) Indefinite personal subject It denotes a person but in a very general sense, for ex - when you have a fever you should stay at home. It can be expressed by the pronouns we, you they, he. 3) the demonstrative subject - for example that is a window; this is my book. 4) negative subject expressed by the negative pronoun nobody, nothing. For example, No one has spoken to her. 5) The interrogative subject it occurs in interrogative sentences what has happened; who has done it?

The impersonal subject neither denotes nor points a definite thing. Its usually expressed by the pronoun it, Its frosty today. Its wonderful to speak English well.

32. Syntax. The phrase definition, types of phrases.

The term phrase was 1st used to denote a word group in the 18th century. This term was again accepted in the 19th century by the grammarians but then it was again rejected by several scholars. Henry Sweet rejected this term, because of its popular meaning, in stead of it he used the term a word group. Otto Jesperson doesnt use any special term to denote this syntactic unit. As for American structural linguists they recognize and widely use the term phrase. The phrase of a words group is a grammatically organized unit of speech, consisting of 2 or more words, denoting a certain notion. We distinguish word combinations of 2 kinds: Coordinate combinations and subordinate combinations. In coordinate combinations grammatically equal words are combined with the help of form words, that is coordinate conjunctions, such as and and but and also by word order and intonation, that is asyndetic coordination. For example, a cat and a dog coordinate conjunctions, cats, dogs, pigs asyndetic coordination. The phrase only designates the phenomenon of objective reality, its not a unit of communication and it doesnt have the intonation of its own. Within the phrase words are connected in different ways: in subordinate word combinations there is a word which is dominating over another word or words which are called adjuncts. Syntactical relations in subordinate word combinations can be of several types. The main types are agreement, government, adjoinment and enclosure.

36. The Sentence. Types of coordination within the compound sentence.

A compound sentence is a sentence which consists of 2 or more clauses coordinated with each other. The clauses can be connected syndetically (by means of coordinating conjunctions and, or else and conjunctive adverbs however, yet, still), for example It was dark and the room was empty. And asyndetically (without a conjunction or connective adverb), for example The rain felt: the house was empty.

We can distinguish the following types of coordination: 1) copulative expressed by the conjunctions and, nor, neither nor. For example, It was summer and she was at home. 2) Disjunctive expressed by the conjunctions or, else, either or, for example He knew it was her or he was wrong. 3) Causative-consecutive expressed by for, so, therefore. For example It was cold, therefore she stayed at home. 4) Adversative expressed by but, while. still, yet. for example, the room was dark, but she was not afraid.

33. The Phrase. Ways of expressing syntactical relations within a phrase (agreement, government, adjoinment, enclosure)

Within the phrase words are connected in different ways: in subordinate word combinations there is a word which is dominating over another word or words which are called adjuncts. Syntactical relations in subordinate word combinations can be of several types. The main types are agreement, government, adjoinment and enclosure.1) Agreement is the type of syntactical relations in which the dominant word requires the same form of a subordinate clause word. Agreement as a type of syntactical relation can be referred only to the category of number of the demonstrative pronouns this cat these cats, that dog those dogs.

2) Government is such a type of syntactical relations in which the head word requires a certain form of the subordinate word. Transitive verbs in English require the object expressed by personal pronouns in the objective case. For example, She often sees him alone. see is a dominant word, the pronoun him is in the objective case. Only personal pronouns have the objective case form and therefore prepositions play a great role in English while in Russian the case system is of great importance in government. In modern English word order, prepositions, post-positions substitute case relations.

3) Adjoinment is characterized by the absence of both agreement and government. Its such a type of syntactical relations in which the subordinate word is unchangeable and just adjoins the head word. The most usual type of this kind of connection is the relation between the adverb and its head word. For example, to come early, to do well, to work hard.

4) Enclosure plays a very important role in modern English. It can be defined like this: some word or a group of words inserted between parts of an analytical form or between a notional word and a form word. The most commonly used case of enclosure is putting a word between an article and the noun which it determines. For example, a fine weather. Not only adjectives but also some other words (present and past participles, phrases) can be enclosured between a noun and an article.