БИЛЕТ 1
The etymology of the words “grammar”, “morphology” and “syntax”. Language as a system
consisting of subsystems. The basic units of language, their definitions, their basic functions.
The etymology of the words “grammar”, “morphology” and “syntax”. Language as a
system consisting of subsystems. The basic units of language, their definitions, their basic
functions.
Grammar is a branch of linguistics which, if to put in the simplest way, studies language forms
and their meanings.
Traditionally there are distinguished two subdivisions of grammar as a branch of knowledge:
morphology and syntax.
Morphology studies forms of words and what meanings are expressed by word forms.
Syntax studies forms of phrases and sentences and what meanings are expressed by their
different patterns.
The term grammar comes from the Greek word grammatike, which, in its turn, comes from the
Greek word gramma, meaning a letter (буква).
It is traditional to regard language a system consisting of subsystems. Each subsystem is
composed of this or that set of language units.
The following subsystems are distinguished:
1) the phonological \ phonemic subsystem
2) the morphological \ morphemic subsystem
3) the lexical \ lexemic subsystem
4) the phrasemic \ syntagmemic subsystem
5) the syntactical \ proposemic subsystem.
The phonological \ phonemic subsystem consists of PHONEMES.
The phoneme is the smallest DISTINCTIVE language unit.
The morphological \ morphemic subsystem consists of MORPHEMES.
The morpheme is the smallest MEANINGFUL language unit.
The lexical \ lexemic subsystem consists of WORDS \ LEXEMES.
The word is the smallest NAMING unit. М.Y. Blokh defines the function of words as
MONONOMINATION.
The phrasemic \ syntagmemic subsystem consists of PHRASES.
Not all grammarians include phrases into the list of the basic units of the language. М.Y. Blokh
defines the function of words as POLYNOMINATION. It means that a phrase denotes a
COMBINATION of two or more entities.
For example:
1) a clever student: the object and its quality are denoted
2) to run quickly: the process and its quality are denoted
3) to buy a car: the process and its object are denoted.
The syntactical \ proposemic subsystem includes SENTENCES, their patterns.
The sentence is the smallest COMMUNICATIVE language unit. It means that the elementary
communication is done with the help of a sentence. Even if we give a one-word answer, we
produce a sentence. For example:
- Who did it?
- Henry.
The TEXT is the language of the UPPER language unit.
- The basic features of the text are:
- Semantic \ topical unity
- Semantic-syntactical cohesion
БИЛЕТ 2
Differentiation between language and speech (potential \ realization of the potential; invariant \
occasional; social \ individual; passive \ active; stable \ momentary; the relative character of
these features). Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations. Paradigm in morphology and syntax.
Differentiation into language and speech.
It goes without saying that language and speech are interdependent and interpenetrating. But linguists
separate them for the sake of linguistic study.
For example, М.Я. Блох writes that:
- LANGUAGE (in the narrow sense of the word) is a system of means of expression
and
- SPEECH (in the narrow sense of the word) is the manifestation of the system of
language in the process of intercourse.
The system of LANGUAGE includes:
- on the one hand, the body of material units – sounds, morphemes, words, word-
groups;
- on the other hand, the regularities or «rules» of the use of these units.
SPEECH comprises both the act of producing utterances, and the utterances themselves, i.e. the text.
The prominent German philosopher and linguist of the 19th century Wilhelm von Humboldt was
one of the first to speak of language and speech as SEPARATE phenomena (W. von Humboldt
Schriften zur Sprachphilosophie \\ Werke in fuenf Baenden. – Berlin, 1963).
Humboldt regarded language not only as the RESULT but also as PROCESS, ACTION, ACTIVITY.
In 1871 Бодуэн де Куртенэ separated:
- language as a complex of known components and categories
- from language as the repeating process which is based on the process of human
communication and on man’s
need to convert thoughts into words and to share them with others ( Избранные труды по общему
языкознанию. – М., 1963).
Much was done in this respect by Ferdinand de Saussure, a prominent Swiss linguist of the 19th
century. He wrote of:
- the human speaking activity in general, which he denoted with the French word
language,
- and its two aspects:
 langue (language, язык) and
 parole (speech, речь).
LANGUAGE, opposed to speech, is the grammatical SYSTEM (for example, form words,
morphemes, syntactical patterns, rules governing their usage) and the vocabulary. It is the
INVENTORY of means without mastering which communication is impossible.
SPEECH is the USAGE of language means for communication. It embraces individual acts of
speaking and listening.
Language (as the aspect of language in general) and speech are CLOSELY RELATED and cannot
exist without each other.
Language is necessary for speech to be understandable and effective. Speech is necessary for
language to appear and stabilize: NEW words and syntactical patterns, changes in pronunciation
FIRST APPEAR IN SPEECH of a limited number of people. Then these innovations spread,
penetrating the speech of the growing number of people.
Very often, such innovations are at first severely criticized by linguists (‘purists’), but later, spreading
over the whole community speaking the given language, these innovations become gradually
accepted as normal.
Differentiating between language and speech, F. de Saussure stresses that language differs from
speech as the SOCIAL differs from the INDIVIDUAL.
Language is a kind of ‘code’ IMPOSED by the whole society upon every its member as a mandatory
norm of communication. Language has been produced by the society in general and in this ready-
made form it is mastered by every member of the society.
Individuals do not create languages which are spoken by nations. Languages are created by nations.
Speech is always individual. Every speech act has its author, who converts thoughts into words and
syntactical patterns according to his own personal choice: one and the same thought is expressed
differently by different speakers. For example, they may use different synonyms, different word
order, the passive voice instead of the active voice, etc.
Language, according to F. de Saussure, may be characterized as PASSIVE and speech – as
ACTIVE. This differentiation is closely related to the above mentioned differentiation into social and
individual. The passivity of language is based on the fact that LANGUAGE IS NEITHER
CREATED NOR CHANGED BY AN INDIVIDUAL, i.e. an individual behaves passively towards
language: he or she passively acquires it as a ready-made product.
Speech is active because every speech utterance is actively produced by the person. People passively
cite somebody’s utterance only when he or she finds it worth quoting.
Language is opposed to speech as POTENTIAL is opposed to its REALIZATION.
Language exists as a system of phonological, prosodic, lexical and grammatical means which is
present in the mind of speakers. This system is a potential which can be used by speakers.
Speech is the realization, the usage of this system: when a person composes his or her utterance they
take what is needed from the available resources.
F. de Saussure characterizes language as PERMANENT and LONGTERM and speech as
UNSTABLE and MOMENTARY. The grammatical system and the vocabulary exist for ages; we
don’t have a new language every new day of our life. The pronounced utterance lives as long as it is
being pronounced. The sound dies and the utterance also dies.
And, finally, language differs from speech as the INVARIANT differs from the OCCASIONAL.
The invariant character of language can be explained from the two points of view.
Firstly, language, being essentially permanent and stable, does not vary within the limits of days,
months or years. It varies, but very slowly, ages are necessary for the changes to become dramatic.
Secondly, language, as the grammatical system and the inventory of lexical items, is essentially the
same in the minds of the members of the given community, which also contributes to its being
invariant.
С.Д. Кацнельсон points out that F. de Saussure’s views, described above, are correct only
RELATIVELY, they are not absolutely true.
Language is not one hundred per cent social, absolutely deprived of the individual. Saying that
language exists in the minds of individuals, we have to admit there is a shade of INDIVIDUAL in
this social phenomenon.
Individuality reveals itself also in the fact that there is no uniformity is the degree of different
people’s command of the language: different people have different command of the language.
Language is both social and individual. It is SOCIAL because it has been created by the society, it is
being shared by the society, it is used by the society for communication, it cannot be changed by an
individual. The INDIVIDUAL character of language reveals itself in the fact that different people use
language differently (compare the usage of language by a genius of literature and by a five-year
child). According to С.Д. Кацнельсон, the difference between the commands of the language by
different people concerns grammar of language in a lesser degree. The difference lies more in the
sphere of vocabulary: people differ in the number of words they know and use, in their knowledge of
dialects, slang, professional jargons, etc.
On the other hand, speech is not absolutely individual. If it were completely individual, people would
not understand each other. Producing speech, people use, as building elements, language means
which are “common property” of the whole society. Speech generates new phenomena (words,
syntactical patterns and innovations in pronunciation) which later may be adopted by the whole
society and become facts of language. Besides, language is learnt through speaking. All this
illustrates the social aspect of speech.
Stability of language and instability of speech are also relative. Language does change, but very slow.
New words appear, pronunciation patterns change, even grammar changes though in a much lesser
degree.
Speech cannot be presented as absolutely unstable and momentary. Texts produced while speaking
can be recorded with the help of traditional writing or modern audio and video means.
Presenting language as potential and speech as the realization of this potential, we must remember
that as speech is the source of everything new in language there must be a potential aspect in it.
LANGUAGE
What are the characteristic features of the language and speech?
Language is stable, long-lasting, social. It is a potential.
Speech is changing, momentary, individual. It is the realization of the potential.
БИЛЕТ 3
Language studies in Ancient Greece. The problem of the origin of names (natural and
conventional relations between the sound form of words and denoted objects). The problem of
the origin of language (given by nature \ created by
Philosophers of Ancient Greece considered the issue of the origin of NAMES. There were TWO
points of view:
1) the names of things and processes reflect the nature of these things and processes;
2) the names of things and processes do NOT reflect the nature of these things and processes.
As a matter of fact both points of view correspond to reality.
Some names REFLECT the nature of these things and processes which are denoted by these names.
These are such words the SOUND FORM of which consists of phonemes which IMITATE the
natural sounds. These are:
- the sounds which are produced by animals and birds : miaow [miː'au], bark, growl,
cuckoo, roar, twitter, chirp;
- the sounds which are produced by people: whisper, whistle, mumble, snore;
- the sounds which are produced by inanimate objects: grumble, trundle.
The sound forms of such words CAN BE EXPLAINED.
Such a connection between words and their denotata can be called the NATURAL connection.
The sound form of OTHER words cannot be explained. Such a connection between words and their
denotata can be
called the CONVENTIONAL connection. From the point of view of Greek philosophers it means
that people simply AGREED to give things and processes their names. And the reason for it is
unknown.
Philosophers of Ancient Greece also considered the issue of the origin of LANGUAGE. There were
TWO points of view:
1) the language was given to people by NATURE;
 2) the language was created by people THEMSELVES.
The SECOND point of view seems MORE TRUE TO LIFE.
If language had been given to people by nature, the information about it would be recorded in genes.
Genes carry
information from parent to child. So, the information about the language would be inherited by
children from their parents.
But languages are NOT inherited. If a child is adopted to a family of the nationality which is
different from the nationality of their parents, this child will NOT speak the language of his \ her
biological parents. This child will speak the language of his \ her adopted parents.
The phenomenon of Mowgli also proves that languages are created by people, that languages
do NOT exist outside people’s communities.
Children, who are called Mowgli, get lost in jungles and do not die there thanks to the care
given by animals, for example wolves. But as there are NO people around such kids CANNOT speak.
БИЛЕТ 4
Language studies in Ancient India (Panini, Vedic Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit, “Eight
Readings”, Indo-European family of languages).
Panini lived approximately in the FOURTH century BC. He is famous for creating
CLASSICAL SANSKRIT. Classical Sanskrit is upgraded \ modernized Vedic Sanskrit.
Vedic Sanskrit is the ancient language in which the Vedas were written TWO THOUSAND
before Panini. The Vedas
are the collection of Indian ancient religious hymns and other texts. When they were created, their
language was understandable for people of that time, because the Vedas were created in the same
language in which people communicated.
But with time the language of the Vedas was becoming less and less understandable because
there appeared a GAP between the spoken language and the language of the Vedas. This gap grew
larger and larger. The everyday language developed and became more and more different from the
language of the Vedas.
The language of the Vedas was ‘frozen’. The Vedas were learnt by heart by different
generations of people. These are sacred texts and that is why nobody was allowed to change any
word in such texts. As a result, many words and constructions in the Vedic texts became
incomprehensible. People recited these ancient hymns and prayers but they did not understand what
they were saying.
Linguists of Ancient India considered such a situation unacceptable. In the 6 th century BC
they began to write commentaries to the Vedic texts. In the 4 th century BC Panini did a lot for
modernizing the Vedic language. He replaced obsolete incomprehensible words and constructions
with words and constructions which were taken from the language of his contemporaries. These were
the words and constructions used by educated people (brahmins, poets, etc).
Thus Panini created a language which was not completely new but which was very nice and
was used in writing long after Panini. This language was called SANSKRIT by Panini.
Nowadays the language, which was created by Panini, is called CLASSICAL Sanskrit.
The ancient language of the Vedas, which was perfected by Panini, is called VEDIC Sanskrit.
CLASSICAL Sanskrit turned out to be such a nice language that it was used for writing
poetry and fiction long after Panini and it is still used now.
Panini described Classical Sanskrit in his book “Eight Readings”. This grammar of Classical
Sanskrit reached Europe about two thousand years after Panini’s death. European linguists were
greatly impressed by the high quality of this work.
European linguists were also impressed by the fact that Sanskrit has a lot in common with the
European languages. They even thought at first that Sanskrit was the protolanguage (= a
hypothetical lost parent language from which actual languages are derived).
Later they discarded \ gave up this idea. But still the fact that Sanskrit and European
languages have common features is reflected in the fact that nowadays linguists distinguish the Indo-
European family of languages.
БИЛЕТ 5
History of grammatical description. Middle ages and Renaissance. The theory of universal
grammar.
In the Middle Ages in Europe Latin became the universal language of Catholic Church, and also of
scholastic science.
Scholasticism [skə'lastɪˌsɪz(ə)m] is the system of theology and philosophy taught in medieval
European universities, based on Aristotelian logic and the writings of the early Christian Fathers and
emphasizing tradition and dogma.
The grammars of Donatus and Priscian (especially the former) and adaptations of them remained
in use throughout centuries up to the epoch of the Renaissance.
Donatus [də'neɪtəs] Aelius (4th century), Roman grammarian. The Ars Grammatica, containing his
treatises on Latin grammar, was the sole textbook used in schools in the Middle Ages.
Priscian ['prɪʃɪən] (6th century AD), Byzantine grammarian; full name Priscianus Caesariensis. His
Grammatical Institutions (Institutiones Grammaticae) became one of the standard Latin grammatical
works in the Middle Ages
As regards science, the Middle Ages are characterized as a time of stagnation, due to the
domination of Church. Linguistic theory was, in the main, confined to biblical dogmas.
The origin of language was ascribed to divine creation. Likewise, the fact of the diversity of
languages on the earth was explained by means of the biblical legend about the Tower of Babel
(Вавилонская башня): God ‘confused the languages of the peoples’ to prevent them from reaching
heaven.
In the Bible: a tower built in an attempt to reach heaven, which God frustrated by confusing the
languages of its builders so that they could not understand one another (Genesis 11:1 - 9)
Still, even at that time scholars made some further important observations about the Latin
grammar. They defined nouns and adjectives as different parts of speech within the class of names.
They also discovered syntactical categories of concord (согласование, also agreement),
government (управление), and apposition (примыкание).
The philosophers of the Middle Ages saw the structure of Latin as the only natural and logically
perfect form of speech. They proceeded from the assumption that all the languages had essentially the
same grammatical categories. The more the language is similar to the Latin language, the more
logical the language is.
This conception was developed throughout the epoch of the Renaissance (14-16th centuries). In
the 17th century it led to the theory of universal grammar. This theory stipulated that the structure of
different languages is based on the same logical principles, that languages share the same
fundamental categories.
The first and most famous work inspired by this theory was written by Lancelot and Arno at the
convent of Port Royal in the year 1660. It was entitled “Grammaire Generale et Raisonnée” –
“General and Rational Grammar”.
The authors of this grammar tried to demonstrate the identity of grammatical categories in all the
languages on the example of French, Latin, and Greek.
Many other grammars appeared in different European countries taking the grammar of Port
Royal as a model. This theory of logical grammar was subjected to severe criticism by
representatives of modern linguistics. It has been stressed that scientific linguistics must form the
system of general linguistic categories as a generalization of the study of various languages, and not Cоставные (composite) существительные – это географические названия с артиклем:
as pre-conceived formulas. the Volga.
БИЛЕТ 6 Класс существительных выражает категории:
The noun's category of GENDER. Correspondence between biological sex and linguistic - числа
gender. Components of nouns expressing gender. М.Я. Блох on the category of gender - падежа
(masculine, feminine, neuter, dual, common genders). Oppositions of nouns based on the - рода
meanings of gender. - детерминации (определенности \ неопределенности).
Не все грамматисты признают существование категории рода у английского В предложении существительные могут быть:
существительного, потому что у английских существительных НЕТ грамматической морфемы, - подлежащим
выражающей значение рода. Однако М.Я, Блох считает, что грамматическим показателями - дополнением
рода являются личные местоимения. Конечно, это не морфемы в традиционном понимании: - предикативным комплементом (после связочных глаголов)
морфемы – это части слова, а местоимения – это самостоятельные слова. Но М.Я. Блох - определением
выходит за пределы традиционного понимания ГРАММАТИЧЕСКОГО выражения рода. - обстоятельством (в сочетании с предлогами).
Таким образом, можно выделить такие значения рода: В роли определения существительное может находиться:
1) мужской род: его выражают существительные, которые в речи заменяются на местоимение - ПЕРЕД определяемым (modified) существительным = препозитивное определение,
he (man, king); - ПОСЛЕ определяемого (modified) существительного = постпозитивное определение.
2) женской род: его выражают существительные, которые в речи заменяются на местоимение В роли препозитивного определения существительное может выступать в ДВУХ
she (woman, queen); падежных формах:
3) средний род: его выражают существительные, которые в речи заменяются на местоимение - в форме общего падежа (Common Case): сity transport, window frame, door handle, shoe lace,
it (table); student exchange program.
4) двойной род: его выражают существительные, которые в речи заменяются на местоимения - в форме притяжательного / родительного падежа (Possessive \ Genitive Case): boy’s mother.
he, she (teacher, spouse); В роли постпозитивного определения существительное присоединяется к
5) общий род: его выражают существительные, которые в речи заменяются на местоимения определяемому слову с помощью ПРЕДЛОГА:
he, she, it (baby, dog). - mother of the boy
В природе одушевленные (animate) существа делятся на самцов (males) и самок - talk about the film
(females). Это биологическое деление на два пола (into two sexes). Существует корреляция - house on the hill
между биологическим родом и лингвистическим родом: - criminal among the residents
- самки обозначаются существительными женского рода (feminine gender), Cуть так называемой ‘stone wall problem’ состоит в том, что некоторые грамматисты
- самцы обозначаются существительными мужского рода (masculine gender). считают, что существительное в форме общего падежа (Common Case) НЕ МОЖЕТ быть
Существуют словообразовательные морфемы, которые выражают значения рода. препозитивным определением. Первый элемент сочетаний типа сity transport, window frame,
Например: door handle, shoe lace такие грамматисты считают прилагательным. Такое решение
- суффикс –ess, выражающий значение женского рода: actress, lioness, waitress; проблемы кажется сомнительным: получается, что в английском языке почти каждое
- первый корень в составе сложного существительного (compound noun): boyfriend :: girlfriend, существительное имеет омонимичное (homonymous) прилагательное. Однако это нетипично
he-goat :: she-goat; для языков: омонимы РЕДКИ в языках: они мешают коммуникации.
- второй корень в составе сложного существительного (compound noun): landlord :: landlady. Характеризуя сочетаемость существительных, можно отметить, что:
БИЛЕТ 7 - слева от существительных могут стоять:
The NOUN. What is the general lexico-grammatical meaning of the class of nouns? What are - артикли
the structural types of nouns (simple, derived, compound, composite)? What grammatical - прилагательные
categories characterize nouns? In what syntactical positions \ functions can nouns be used? The - существительные в форме общего падежа
'stone wall problem'. The right-hand and left-hand combinability of nouns. Subclasses of - существительные в форме родительного падежа
nouns. - глаголы
Существительное – это часть речи (part of speech), которая объединяет слова со значением - предлоги
вещественности (thingness = substance). - союзы
Простые существительные состоят из одного корня. - наречия (редко: the then president)
Производные (derived) существительные включают словообразовательные (derivational - слева от существительных могут стоять:
= word-building) морфемы. Типичными суффиксами существительных являются: - существительные в форме общего падежа
-ness (darkness) -dom (kingdom) -tion (function) - ment (movement) - глаголы
- er (reader) -ist (artist, pianist) -ture (lecture) - предлоги
Cложные (compound) существительные cостоят из двух корней: blackboard, - союзы
downtown, landlady, landlord, household, suitcase. - прилагательные
 - слова категории состояния (adlinks \ statives). - Mary came to London to know that her sister had died.
Cуществительные делятся на: - Ted is too young to understand such things.
- одушевленные (animate) \ неодушевленные (inanimate) - You are old enough to work.
- собственные (proper) \ нарицательные (common) Инфинитив в английском языке употребляется в двух формах:
- исчисляемые (countable) \ неисчисляемые (uncountable) 1) с частицей to (маркированная форма)
- изменяемые (declinable) \ неизменяемые (indeclinable) 2) без частицы to (немаркированная форма).
БИЛЕТ 8
The INFINITIVE. The syntactical functions of the infinitive. The marked and unmarked \ bare НЕМАРКИРОВАННАЯ форма употребляется после:
infinitive. The verbal features of the infinitive (the syntactical function of the secondary - модальных глаголов
predicate, combinability, the grammatical categories of voice, development and retrospective - выражений had better, would rather
coordination). Describe the infinitive’s forms expressing the three grammatical categories - глаголов let, make
(voice, development, retrospective coordination), explain this issue using the notions of the Инфинитив СОЧЕТАЕТ в себе глагольные и субстантивные (nounal) черты.
discontinuous morpheme and of the opposition. The nounal features of the infinitive (the Рассмотрим ГЛАГОЛЬНЫЕ черты инфинитива. Для этого сравним его с ЛИЧНЫМИ
syntactical functions of the subject, object, predicative complement, attribute, adverbial формами глагола.
modifiers of purpose, result, comparison). ГЛАГОЛЬНЫЕ черты инфинитива включают в себя:
Инфинитив – это НЕЛИЧНАЯ (non-finite) форма глагола. Это значит, что данная 1) способность выступать в роли СКАЗУЕМОГО
форма НЕ МОЖЕТ выступать в роли сказуемого в предложениях и клозах (= первично- 2) способность выражать ГРАММАТИЧЕСКИЕ КАТЕГОРИИ
предикативных конструкциях). 3) характерную СОЧЕТАЕМОСТЬ с определенными частями речи
Инфинитив может быть: Инфинитив может быть СКАЗУЕМЫМ во вторично-предикативных конструкциях
1) СКАЗУЕМЫМ во вторично-предикативных конструкциях (вторичное сказуемое \ (вторичное сказуемое \ secondary predicate):
secondary predicate): - конструкция «for плюс инфинитив»
- конструкция «for плюс инфинитив» - конструкция «сложное дополнение»
- конструкция «сложное дополнение» В этих конструкциях инфинитив выполняет роль ВТОРИЧНОГО СКАЗУЕМОГО, то
2) ПОДЛЕЖАЩИМ есть эта глагольная форма, в силу своего лексического значения, приписывает референту
3) КОМПОНЕНТОМ СОСТАВНОГО СКАЗУЕМОГО (compound predicate) подлежащего какое-то действие или состояние.
4 ДОПОЛНЕНИЕМ Примеры употребления конструкции «for плюс инфинитив»:
5) ОПРЕДЕЛЕНИЕМ - For Mary to say such things seems very strange and unexpected (инфинитивный оборот в
6) ОБСТОЯТЕЛЬСТВОМ функции подлежащего).
ПРИМЕРЫ: - We are waiting for you to say something (инфинитивный оборот в функции предложного
1) Инфинитив в роли ВТОРИЧНОГО СКАЗУЕМОГО (сказуемое внутри вторично- дополнения).
предикативной конструкции): - This text is for you to translate (инфинитивный оборот в функции предикативного
a) Конструкция «for плюс инфинитив»: комплемента).
- For me to go there will be something fantastic. - This is the text for you to translate (инфинитивный оборот в функции определения).
b) Конструкция «сложное дополнение»: - I did it for you to be happy (инфинитивный оборот в функции обстоятельства цели).
- I want you to go there right now. Примеры употребления конструкции «сложное дополнение»
2) Инфинитив в роли ПОДЛЕЖАЩЕГО: - I saw you take my money (инфинитив – немаркированный \ без частицы ‘to’
- To smoke is bad for health - He wants us to help (инфинитив – маркированный \ c частицей ‘to’)
3) Инфинитив в роли КОМПОНЕНТА СОСТАВНОГО СКАЗУЕМОГО: Второй чертой инфинитива, которая показывает его ГЛАГОЛЬНУЮ природу,
- She seems to know everything. является способность инфинитива выражать ГРАММАТИЧЕСКИЕ КАТЕГОРИИ.
- Peter can skate. Грамматические категории, выражаемые личными и неличными глагольными
- The student began to answer. формами:
4) Инфинитив в роли ДОПОЛНЕНИЯ: ЛИЧНЫЕ формы глагола выражают не три, а СЕМЬ грамматических категорий:
- The teacher offered to begin the lesson. 1) лицо (person)
5) Инфинитив в роли ПОСТПОЗИТИВНОГО ОПРЕДЕЛЕНИЯ: 2) число (number)
- This is the text to translate. 3) время (tense)
6) Инфинитив в роли ОБСТОЯТЕЛЬСТВА ЦЕЛИ: 4) наклонение (mood)
- Ted came to help us. 5) залог (voice)
7) Инфинитив в роли ОБСТОЯТЕЛЬСТВА СРАВНЕНИЯ: 6) развитие (продолженность) (development)
- He winked as if to say that he was kidding. 7) ретроспективная координация (retrospective coordination)
8) Инфинитив в роли ОБСТОЯТЕЛЬСТВА РЕЗУЛЬТАТА:
 Инфинитив имеет ПАРАДИГМУ (систему форм). Эти формы выражают значения глаголов-связок) The girl looks beautiful. You must look beautiful at the
ТРЕХ грамматических категорий: party.
1) категория ЗАЛОГА Если наречие поставить МЕЖДУ частицей to и основой глагола, получится
2) категория РАЗВИТИЯ (development) (значение продолженности) РАСЩЕПЛЕННЫЙ инфинитив (split infinitive). Например: Your task is to carefully check the
3) категория РЕТРОСПЕКТИВНОЙ КООРДИНАЦИИ (значение перфектности). results of the experiment.
Категория ЗАЛОГА представлена в английском языке двумя значениями: БИЛЕТ 9
1) значением АКТИВНОГО залога The notion of the linguistic sign, its two planes (form and meaning). Basic linguistic units as
2) значением ПАССИВНОГО залога. signs. Types of meanings and types of morphemes expressing these meanings (lexical, lexico-
Форма пассивного залога имеет в своем составе ПРЕРЫВИСТУЮ (discontinuous) grammatical, grammatical). Components of the lexical meaning: denotational (denotative,
морфему {be…en}. Именно эта морфема выражает значение пассивного залога. Грамматисты notional, logical, referential, extensional) and connotational (connotative). The emotional
утверждают, что формы активного и пассивного залога образуют БИНАРНУЮ charge and the emotive implication. The stylistic reference. Denotatum and referent.
ПРИВАТИВНУЮ ОППОЗИЦИЮ: takе :: be taken. В такой оппозиции есть маркированный и Языковой знак – это единица с формой (планом выражения \ plane of expression) и
немаркированный члены. Маркированный член – это форма пассивного залога. Маркер этой значением (планом содержания \ plane of content) . Это:
формы – прерывистая (discontinuous) морфема {be…en}. - морфема
Например: This lie seems to be taken for truth. – Кажется, это ложь принимается за правду. - слово
Категория РАЗВИТИЯ (development) представлена в английском языке двумя - предложение
значениями: - текст.
1) значением НЕДЛИТЕЛЬНОГО вида Фонема языковым знаком НЕ является, так как у фонемы НЕТ ЗНАЧЕНИЯ.
2) значением ДЛИТЕЛЬНОГО вида. ЗНАЧЕНИЕ – это информация, выражаемая знаком, понятная тому, кто имеет дело с
Форма длительного вида имеет в своем составе ПРЕРЫВИСТУЮ ( discontinuous) этим знаком.
морфему {be…ing}. Именно эта морфема выражает значение длительного вида: be taking – это Выделяются:
инфинитив в форме продолженного вида (Continuous Aspect). 1) ЛЕКСИЧЕСКОЕ значение
Грамматисты утверждают, что формы длительного и недлительного вида образуют 2) ГРАММАТИЧЕСКОЕ значение.
БИНАРНУЮ ПРИВАТИВНУЮ ОППОЗИЦИЮ: take :: be taking. В такой оппозиции есть ЛЕКСИЧЕСКОЕ значение – это информация о том, что данное слово обозначает
маркированный и немаркированный члены. Маркированный член – это форма длительного (предмет, действие, признак). Лексические значения слов мы находим в словарях.
вида. Маркер этой формы – прерывистая (discontinuous) морфема {be…ing}. Например:
Например: Ted must be sleeping now. – Должно быть, Тэд сейчас спит. - Table ‒ a piece of furniture with a flat top and one or more legs, providing a level surface for eating,
Категория РЕТРОСПЕКТИВНОЙ КООРДИНАЦИИ (retrospective coordination) writing, or working at.
представлена в английском языке двумя значениями: - Write ‒ mark (letters, words, or other symbols) on a surface, typically paper, with a pen, pencil, or
1) значением НЕПЕРФЕКТНОГО вида similar implement.
2) значением ПЕРФЕКТНОГО вида. - Pleasant ‒ giving a sense of happy satisfaction or enjoyment.
Форма перфектного вида имеет в своем составе ПРЕРЫВИСТУЮ (discontinuous) ГРАММАТИЧЕСКОЕ значение – это тоже информация, но, по сравнению с
морфему {have…en}. Именно эта морфема выражает значение перфектного вида. лексическим значением, эта
Грамматисты утверждают, что формы перфектного и неперфектного вида образуют информация более абстрактная.
БИНАРНУЮ ПРИВАТИВНУЮ ОППОЗИЦИЮ: take :: have taken. В такой оппозиции есть Грамматические значения относятся к грамматическим категориям. Например,
маркированный и немаркированный члены. Маркированный член – это форма пассивного личная форма глагола выражает СЕМЬ грамматических категорий:
залога. Маркер этой формы – прерывистая (discontinuous) морфема {have…en}. 1) категорию лица (person)
Например: Somebody must have taken my money. – Должно быть, кто-то взял мои деньги. 2) категорию числа (number)
Третьей чертой инфинитива, которая показывает его ГЛАГОЛЬНУЮ природу, 3) категорию времени (tense)
является сходство его СОЧЕТАЕМОСТИ с сочетаемостью ЛИЧНОЙ формы глагола. 4) категорию наклонения (mood)
Сочетаемость с… ЛИЧНАЯ форма НЕЛИЧНАЯ форма 5) категорию залога (voice)
Существительным в роли 6) категорию развития \ длительности (development)
подлежащего (слева от Fred took a book from the Nelly saw Fred take from the 7) категорию ретроспективной координации (retrospective coordination)
глагола) shelf. shelf. Соответственно выражаемым значениям МОРФЕМА, как мельчайшая значимая
Существительным в роли единица языка, может быть трех типов:
дополнения (справа от Fred took a book from the Nelly saw Fred take a book from 1) ЛЕКСИЧЕСКАЯ морфема
глагола) shelf. the shelf. 2) ГРАММАТИЧЕСКАЯ морфема
Наречием The boy ran quickly to his Nelly saw the boy run quickly to 3) ЛЕКСИКО-ГРАММАТИЧЕСКАЯ морфема.
mother. his mother. ЛЕКСИЧЕСКАЯ морфема – это корень слова. Эта часть слова несет информацию о
Прилагательным (после том, что обозначено данным словом. Эта информация называется лексическим значением.
Например, корень существительного ‘teacher’ – ‘teach’. Он несет информацию о том, чем
занимается лицо, обозначенное этим словом. Эта информация поясняется в словаре.
Например: teach – impart knowledge to or instruct (someone) as to how to do something.
ЛЕКСИКО-ГРАММАТИЧЕСКИЕ морфемы – это приставки, суффиксы, инфиксы.
Это словообразовательные (word-building = derivational) морфемы. При добавлении к корню
они меняют лексическое значение слова. Например:
- mis + take = mistake
- un+ known = unknown
- dis + please = displease
- re + write = rewrite
- move + ment = movement
- read + er = reader
- king + dom = kingdom
- friend + ship = friendship
- friend +ly = friendly
ГРАММАТИЧЕСКИЕ морфемы – это окончания (endings). При добавлении к основе
они НЕ меняют лексического значения слова, но меняют его грамматическое значение.
Например, алломорфы морфемы множественного числа существительных:
- [z]: boys, windows, bees, tables
- [s]: cats, maps
- [iz]: bridges, judges, watches, foxes, boxes, eye-lashes, houses, roses, noses
-en: children, oxen
-a: data, phenomena
Внутри лексического значения различают его компоненты:
- денотативное (denotational) значение
- коннотативное (connotational) значение.
ДЕНОТАТИВНОЕ (denotational) значение – это основной компонент лексического
значения. Именно это значение несет информацию о том, что обозначено данным словом.
КОННОТАТИВНОЕ (connotational) значение выражается не каждым словом.
Этот компонент лексического значения выражает отношение говорящих к тому, что
обозначено этим словом. Например, слово cute выражает положительноеотношение
говорящего, а слово moron выражает отрицательное отношение.
КОННОТАТИВНОЕ (connotational) значение существует в двух видах:
1) в виде эмоционального заряда (emotional charge)
2) в виде эмотивной импликации (emotive implication).
ЭМОЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ ЗАРЯД – это такое коннотативное значение, которое
закреплено за словом как единицей языка, оно выражается данной единицей ВНЕ контекста.
Например, слово cute выражает положительное отношение говорящего, а слово moron
выражает отрицательное отношение.
ЭМОТИВНАЯ ИМПЛИКАЦИЯ – это такое коннотативное значение, которое НЕ
закреплено за словом как единицей языка. Эта коннотация появляется у слова только в речи,
только в определенном высказывании. Например: That teacher never gave fair marks to
students. В этом предложении слово teacher приобретает негативный оттенок.
В значении слова также есть компонент, который несет информацию о стилевой
характеристике слова. Например, moron – это разговорное слово, слово ‘punctilious’
[pʌŋk'tɪlɪəs] (педантичный, скрупулёзный, щепетильный до мелочей) относится к формальному
стилю.
И денотат, и референт – это тот объект внеязыковой реальности, который обозначен
данным словом. Денотат – это КЛАСС объектов, референт – это конкретный объект.
Например:
- A table is a necessary thing. Здесь у слова table нет референта, но есть денотат, так как слово
table соотнесено с классом столов, но не с конкретным столом.
- I need this table. Здесь у слова table есть референт, так как слово table соотнесено с
конкретным столом.
БИЛЕТ 10
М.Я. Блох’s approach to the number of the degrees of comparison of the adjective. Different
points of view on the grammatical status of the combinations “more/ most + the stem of the
adjective” and of the elements more and most. Comparison of more and most with the suffixes
–er and –est; the usage of the notions of complementary distribution and allomorphs to prove
the status of more and most as free grammatical morphs (word-morphemes). Different points of
view on the grammatical status of the combinations “less/ least + the stem of the adjective” and
of the elements less and least.
М.Я. Блох выделяет ПЯТЬ форм степеней сравнения у прилагательных:
- white – whiter – whitest – less white – least white
- difficult – more difficult – most difficult – less difficult – least difficult
- good – better – best – less good – least good
Формы с элементами less и least М.Я. Блох называет формами обратного сравнения
(reverse comparison).
Б.С. Хаймович не согласен с тем, что сочетания типа less difficult и least difficult
являются аналитическими формами прилагательного типа difficult. Он считает такие сочетания
свободными словосочетаниями (free word-combinations) типа ‘very difficult’, ‘rather difficult’,
а не аналитическими формами сравнения. В этом случае less и least являются наречиями.
Что касается элементов more и most, то здесь Б.С. Хаймович считает, что эти
элементы являются морфемами, а не словами. Это свободные (free) грамматические морфемы,
части аналитических форм сравнения. Почему же Б.С. Хаймович считает less и least
самостоятельными словами, а more и most – грамматическими морфемами? Основанием этого
является то, что more и most являются АЛЛОМОРФАМИ суффиксов -er и –est, а у less и least
НЕТ таких парных алломорфов.
Здесь имеется в виду, что:
1) more и –er находятся в отношениях ДОПОЛНИТЕЛЬНОЙ ДИСТРИБУЦИИ (are
characterized by complementary distribution) и являются АЛЛОМОРФАМИ одной и той же
морфемы (морфемы со значением ограниченного превосходства \ restricted superiority);
2) most и –est находятся в отношениях ДОПОЛНИТЕЛЬНОЙ ДИСТРИБУЦИИ (are
characterized by complementary distribution) и являются АЛЛОМОРФАМИ одной и той же
морфемы (морфемы со значением неограниченного превосходства \ unrestricted
superiority).
Если пользоваться терминологией М.Я. Блоха, то:
- суффикс –er и элемент more выражают значение ограниченного превосходства (restricted
superiority);
- суффикс –est и элемент most выражают значение НЕограниченного превосходства
(unrestricted superiority)
Cуффикс –er и элемент more являются вариантами одной и той же морфемы. Эта
варианты называются АЛЛОМОРФАМИ.
Алломорфы:
1) имеют одинаковое значение
2) разную форму
3) находятся в отношении дополнительной дистрибуции, то есть не могут заменить друг друга
в данной форме.
Cуффикс –er и элемент more:
1) имеют одинаковое значение: выражают значение ограниченного превосходства (restricted
superiority);
2) разную форму: состоят из разных фонем;
3) находятся в отношении дополнительной дистрибуции, то есть не могут заменить друг друга
в данной форме: нельзя убрать элемент more из формы ‘more difficult’ и употребить вместо
него суффикс –er: *difficulter. И наоборот, нельзя в сравнительной форме убрать суффикс –er
и заменить его на морфему more.
Cуффикс –est и элемент most:
1) имеют одинаковое значение: выражают значение НЕограниченного превосходства
(unrestricted superiority);
2) разную форму: состоят из разных фонем;
3) находятся в отношении дополнительной дистрибуции, то есть не могут заменить друг друга
в данной форме: нельзя убрать элемент more из формы ‘most difficult’ и употребить вместо
него суффикс –est: *difficultest. И наоборот, нельзя в сравнительной форме убрать суффикс –
est и заменить его на морфему most.
В отношениях дополнительной дистрибуции могут быть единицы ОДНОГО И ТОГО
ЖЕ языкового уровня.
More и –er находятся в отношениях ДОПОЛНИТЕЛЬНОЙ ДИСТРИБУЦИИ, потому
что выполняют одну и ту же функцию: выражают одно и то же значение. Это значение
ограниченного превосходства. More и –er должны быть единицами одного и того же уровня.
Какого уровня ‒ уровня слова или уровня морфемы? Несомненно, что –er – это часть слова
(морф), а не самостоятельное слово. Значит, и more ‒ это часть слова (морф). More и –er – это
варианты одной и той же морфемы: алломорфы.
Most и –est тоже находятся в отношениях ДОПОЛНИТЕЛЬНОЙ ДИСТРИБУЦИИ, потому что
выполняют одну и ту же функцию: выражают одно и то же значение. Это значение
неограниченного превосходства. Most и –est должны быть единицами одного и того же
уровня. Какого уровня ‒ уровня слова или уровня морфемы? Несомненно, что –est – это часть
слова (морф), а не самостоятельное слово. Значит, и more ‒ это часть слова (морф). Most и –est
– это варианты одной и той же морфемы: алломорфы.
Таким образом:
1) морфемный статус (morphemic status) элемента more поддерживается его дополнительной
дистрибуцией с морфемой –er: они вместе выполняют одну и ту же функцию, только с
разными типами прилагательных;
2) морфемный статус элемента most поддерживается его дополнительной дистрибуцией с
морфемой –est: они вместе выполняют одну и ту же функцию, только с разными типами
прилагательных.
У less и least НЕТ таких алломорфов, которые бы поддерживали их статус частей
формы (морфем). Поэтому это не морфемы, а отдельные слова – наречия. Сочетания с ними –
это не формы прилагательных, а свободные словосочетания. Поэтому, по Б.С. Хаймовичу, у
английских прилагательных не пять, а три степени сравнения:
1) исходная форма
2) форма сравнительной степени
3) форма превосходной степени.
Эти три формы связаны в одну систему, которая называется градуальной
оппозицией (gradual opposition):
- white – whiter – whitest
- difficult – more difficult – most difficult
- good – better – best.
В грамматике есть также точка зрения, что сочетания типа more difficult и most
difficult ‒ это не АНАЛИТИЧЕСКИЕ (analytical) формы прилагательных, а
СЛОВОСОЧЕТАНИЯ (phrases \ word-combinations).
Дело в том, что в классической аналитической форме первый компонент должен
быть ЛИШЕН ЛЕКСИЧЕСКОГО ЗНАЧЕНИЯ. Это должна быть СВОБОДНАЯ
ГРАММАТИЧЕСКАЯ МОРФЕМА (free grammatical morpheme). Например:
1) в форме перфекта: have come (в отличие от ‘have money’)
2) в форме пассивного залога: is built (в отличие от ‘is in Moscow’)
3) в форме продолженного вида: is speaking (в отличие от ‘is in Moscow’)
Грамматисты говорят, что элементы more и most НЕ лишены своего лексического
значения, и поэтому они являются словами, а не грамматическими морфемами. В этом случае
сочетания прилагательных с more и most являются не аналитическими формами
прилагательных, а словосочетаниями. И тогда оказывается, что у многих английских
прилагательных вообще нет форм сравнения.
Грамматисты при этом сравнивают такие сочетания как more difficult и more money.
Они говорят, что нет разницы между more в первом и втором словосочетаниях: в обоих
случаях more выражают значение большего количества:
- more money: more выражает значение большего количества денег;
- more difficult: more выражает значение большего количества трудности.
Поскольку никто не думает, что more money – это форма слова money, поэтому не
надо и сочетание more difficult считать формой слова difficult.
Те же самые рассуждения касаются сочетаний типа most difficult. Грамматисты не
видят разницы между most difficult и most students (‘большинство студентов’). Они говорят, что
нет разницы между most в первом и втором словосочетаниях: в обоих случаях most выражают
значение наибольшего количества. То есть в обоих случаях most является не морфемой
(частью слова), а отдельным словом.
Поскольку никто не думает, что most students – это форма слова student, поэтому не
надо и сочетание most difficult считать формой слова difficult.
Получается, что most difficult – это словосочетание ‘наречие + прилагательное’, и у
прилагательного difficult вообще нет форм сравнения.
БИЛЕТ 11
The GERUND, its verbal and nounal features (combinability, syntactical functioning). Its
paradigm and grammatical categories (the categories of retrospective coordination,
development and voice). The oppositional approach to the description of the forms expressing
the grammatical categories.
Герундий – это неличная форма глагола. Он сочетает в себе ГЛАГОЛЬНЫЕ и
НЕГЛАГОЛЬНЫЕ черты.
ГЛАГОЛЬНЫЕ черты – это способность выступать в предикативной функции, то
есть приписывать (ascribe) референту подлежащего действие или состояние. В этом случае
герундий является ВТОРИЧНЫМ СКАЗУЕМЫМ (secondary predicate) во вторично-
предикативных конструкциях.
Ниже приведены примеры герундиальных оборотов, внутри которых есть свое
подлежащее и свое сказуемое, выраженное герундием.
Например:
- The boy’s lying seems definite (герундиальный оборот в позиции подлежащего).
- We must condemn the boy’s lying (герундиальный оборот в позиции дополнения).
- You can watch TV after the kidsё going to bed (герундиальный оборот в позиции обстоятельства
времени).
- Our biggest problem is your lying (герундиальный оборот в позиции предикативного
комплемента).
 Другой глагольной чертой герундия является его способность выражать ТРИ
категории глагола:
1) категорию ЗАЛОГА
2) категорию РАЗВИТИЯ (development) (значение продолженности)
3) категорию РЕТРОСПЕКТИВНОЙ КООРДИНАЦИИ (retrospective coordination) (значение
перфектности).
Категория ЗАЛОГА представлена в английском языке двумя значениями:
1) значением АКТИВНОГО залога
2) значением ПАССИВНОГО залога.
Форма пассивного залога имеет в своем составе ПРЕРЫВИСТУЮ (discontinuous)
морфему {be…en}. Именно эта морфема выражает значение пассивного залога: being taken –
это герундий в форме пассивного залога.
Формы активного и пассивного залога образуют БИНАРНУЮ ПРИВАТИВНУЮ
ОППОЗИЦИЮ: taking :: being taken. В такой оппозиции есть маркированный и
немаркированный члены. Маркированный член – это форма пассивного залога. Маркер этой
формы – прерывистая (discontinuous) морфема {be…en}.
Категория РАЗВИТИЯ представлена в английском языке двумя значениями:
1) значением НЕДЛИТЕЛЬНОГО вида
2) значением ДЛИТЕЛЬНОГО вида.
Форма длительного вида имеет в своем составе ПРЕРЫВИСТУЮ ( discontinuous)
морфему {be…ing}. Именно эта морфема выражает значение длительного вида: being taking –
это герундий в форме продолженного вида (Continuous Aspect).
Формы длительного и недлительного вида образуют БИНАРНУЮ ПРИВАТИВНУЮ
ОППОЗИЦИЮ: taking :: being taking. В такой оппозиции есть маркированный и
немаркированный члены. Маркированный член – это форма длительного вида. Маркер этой
формы – прерывистая (discontinuous) морфема {be…ing}.
Категория РЕТРОСПЕКТИВНОЙ КООРДИНАЦИИ представлена в английском
языке двумя значениями:
1) значением НЕПЕРФЕКТНОГО вида
2) значением ПЕРФЕКТНОГО вида.
Форма перфектного вида имеет в своем составе ПРЕРЫВИСТУЮ (discontinuous)
морфему {have…en}. Именно эта морфема выражает значение перфектного вида: having taken
– это герундий в форме перфектного вида.
Формы перфектного и неперфектного вида образуют БИНАРНУЮ ПРИВАТИВНУЮ
ОППОЗИЦИЮ: taking :: having taken. В такой оппозиции есть маркированный и
немаркированный члены. Маркированный член – это форма пассивного залога. Маркер этой
формы – прерывистая (discontinuous) морфема {have…en}.
Таким образом, мы можем составить ПАРАДИГМУ герундия:
1) Простой активный: taking
2) Простой пассивный: being taken
3) Перфектный активный: having taken
4) Перфектный пассивный: having been taken
Еще одним глагольным признаком глагола является его сочетаемость:
- с наречием
- с прямым дополнением
Например
- Your speaking loudly awakened the kids.
- We will have to interrupt discussing this topic.
НЕГЛАГОЛЬНЫЕ черты герундия проявляются в его синтаксическом
функционировании, которое аналогично функционированию существительного, а именно:
1) герундий может быть в предложении ПОДЛЕЖАЩИМ: Smoking is bad for health.
2) герундий может быть в предложении ДОПОЛНЕНИЕМ: I deny being there.
3) герундий может быть в предложении ПРЕДИКАТИВНЫМ КОМПЛЕМEНТОМ: My hobby
is reading.
4) герундий может быть в предложении ОБСТОЯТЕЛЬСТВОМ: You must look up the words in
the dictionary before starting translating.
5) герундий может быть в предложении ОПРЕДЕЛЕНИЕМ: I wish we knew their meeting place.
Еще одна неглагольная черта герундия – сочетаемость с прилагательным:
- his immediate coming;
- her beautiful singing.
БИЛЕТ 12
WORDS OF THE CATEGORY OF STATE (adlinks, statives), their semantic, morphological
and syntactical characteristics. What do statives denote? What prefix can be found within
statives? What can you say about the specific combinability of statives? What syntactical
positions can statives occupy in a sentence? Compare the two approaches to the status of the
statives verbs: (1) statives make up a separate part of speech; (2) statives do NOT make up a
separate part of speech (compare statives with adjectives from the point of view of the meaning,
form, grammatical category, combinability, syntactical functioning, describe differences and
similarities).
Слова категории состояния (adlinks \ statives) обозначают состояние объекта. Б.С.
Хаймович считает эти слова самостоятельной частью речи. М.Я. Блох считает эти слова
разновидностью прилагательных.
ЗНАЧЕНИЕ: Б.С. Хаймович считает, что adlinks отличаются по значению от
прилагательных. М.Я. Блох считает, что statives НЕ отличаются по значению от
прилагательных: и те, и другие могут обозначать состояние. Например:
- ajar – stative; open – прилагательное.
ФОРМА c точки зрения словообразовательных морфем: Б.С. Хаймович считает, что
adlinks отличаются по форме от прилагательных, потому что у них есть приставка а-: afraid,
ajar, ashore, ablaze. М.Я. Блох считает, что statives НЕ отличаются по форме от
прилагательных, что statives могут быть и БЕЗ приставки а-: ill, fond, glad.
ФОРМА c точки зрения выражения грамматической категории: Б.С. Хаймович
считает, что adlinks не имеют степеней сравнения (degrees of comparison). М.Я. Блох считает,
что statives имеют степени сравнения: Ted is more afraid of dogs than his small sister.
СИНТАКСИЧЕСКАЯ ФУНКЦИЯ: Б.С. Хаймович считает, что adlinks отличаются от
прилагательных по своему синтаксическому функционированию. М.Я. Блох считает, что
statives НЕ отличаются от прилагательных по своему синтаксическому функционированию:
1) слова категории состояния и прилагательные одинаково могут использоваться в качестве
части составного именного сказуемого:
- The house is ablaze.
- The house is old.
2) слова категории состояния и прилагательные одинаково могут использоваться в качестве
определения. Только прилагательные могут быть и препозитивными, и постпозитивными
определениями, а слова категории состояния могут быть только постпозитивными
определениями. Например:
- The clever boy surprised us with his competence (прилагательное – препозитивное
определение).
- He is a boy clever enough to deceive the adults (прилагательное – постпозитивное
определение).
- I know one boy fond of green sour apples (stative – постпозитивное определение).
БИЛЕТ 13
The PAST PARTICIPLE. Different ways of the derivation of its forms. The past participle as 2) способность cочетаться с наречием: I heard your name mentioned loudly.
the qualifying-processual name, its verbal and adjective-adverbial features (combinability,
syntactical functioning). The categorial meaning of passivity. The meaning of activity expressed НЕГЛАГОЛЬНЫЕ черты – это способность занимать те позиции в предложении,
by non-objective (intransitive) verbs (faded, fallen, retired). Constructions of secondary которые характерны для ПРИЛАГАТЕЛЬНОГО и НАРЕЧИЯ.
predication with participle II (semi-predicative constructions). Participles II and adjectives. У прилагательного характерная функция – быть определением (attribute). Причастие
Причастие прошедшего времени не имеет парадигмы, то есть не имеет системы прошедшего времени тоже может быть определением:
форм. У глагола есть только одна форма причастия прошедшего времени. У модальных - препозитивным
глаголов формы причастия прошедшего времени НЕТ. - постпозитивным.
Причастие прошедшего времени является компонентом других форм: Например:
1) это компонент ПЕРФЕКТНЫХ форм: have come, has made, had painted - the broken engine (препозитивное определение)
2) это компонент форм ПАССИВНОГО залога: am offended, is made, are broken, was done, were - the novel translated by you (препозитивное определение)
hurt. У наречия характерная функция – быть обстоятельством (adverbial modifier).
Формы причастия прошедшего времени образуются по-разному: Причастие прошедшего времени тоже может быть обстоятельством. Например:
- с помощью алломорфов (фонетических вариантов одной и той же морфемы): - Tired, he decided to go to bed early.
- [d]: glued, called, stayed, received, believed - Bored, the family switched off the TV.
- [t]: taped, looked, missed, mixed Причастие прошедшего времени чаще выражает значение ПАССИВНОГО залога. В
- [id]: wanted, dented, scented, painted примерах, приведенных выше, причастие описывает состояние предмета как пассивного
- с помощью суффиксов: реципиента действия.
-en: given, taken, fallen Однако причастие прошедшего времени может выражать и значение АКТИВНОГО
- d: made, had залога. Это происходит с НЕПЕРЕХОДНЫМИ (intransitive \ non-objective) глаголами.
- с помощью суффиксов и изменения корневого гласного: Например:
- tell → told - faded – выцветший, увядший
- speak → spoken - fallen – упавший на землю
- forget → forgotten - retired – вышедший на пенсию, ушедший в отставку.
- break → broken Эти случаи можно трактовать как случаи АДЪЕКТИВАЦИИ причастия, то есть
- steal → stolen случаи превращения причастия в прилагательное.
- с помощью изменения корневого гласного: Как и другие НЕЛИЧНЫЕ (non-finite) формы глагола, причастие прошедшего
- get → got времени может быть вторичным сказуемым (secondary predicate) во вторично-предикативных
- read [i:] → read [e] конструкциях (constructions of secondary predication). Это:
- lead [i:] → lead [e] 1) конструкция сложного дополнения (Complex Object): I heard your name mentioned.
- meet [i:] → met [e] 2) абсолютные причастные обороты:
- с помощью нулевой аффиксации (zero affixation): My name not mentioned, I have no responsibility for the accident.
- cut → cut The car broken, we had to walk.
- put → put В этих конструкциях причастие прошедшего времени является вторичным сказуемым
- let → let (secondary predicate). Оно выражает действие или состояние предмета.
Причастие прошедшего времени сочетает в себе ГЛАГОЛЬНЫЕ и НЕГЛАГОЛЬНЫЕ БИЛЕТ 14
черты. The IMPERATIVE mood: what does it show? Describe the verbal form expressing the meaning
ГЛАГОЛЬНЫЕ черты – это: of the imperative mood. Some grammarians maintain that there is no difference between the
1) способность выступать в предикативной функции, то есть приписывать (ascribe) референту forms of the imperative mood and the forms of the present indefinite: how can you comment on
подлежащего действие или состояние – это происходит во вторично-предикативных it? Some grammarians maintain that there is no difference between the forms of the imperative
конструкциях. При этом причастие выполняет функцию ВТОРИЧНОГО СКАЗУЕМОГО mood and the forms of the infinitive: how can you comment on it? Л.С. Бархударов’s
(secondary predicate). expansion of the range of the imperative mood forms through the forms which are traditionally
Например: considered to be subjunctive. М.Я. Блох’s reference of the traditional imperative mood forms
- в конструкциях сложного дополнения (Complex Object): I heard your name to the forms of the subjunctive mood (the pure spective mood). The issue of the analytical forms
mentioned. of the imperative mood: remember the approach of Г.Н. Воронцова (the imperative mood
- в абсолютных причастных оборотах: (bare infinitive, may, let, will, shall) as a subdivision of the optative mood).
My name not mentioned, I have no responsibility for the accident. The Глагол в форме ПОВЕЛИТЕЛЬНОГО наклонения выражает ПОБУЖДЕНИЕ
car broken, we had to walk. (inducement). Внешне эта форма совпадает с немаркированным (unmarked \ bare)
В этих конструкциях причастие прошедшего времени является вторичным инфинитивом: Close the window. Однако это совпадение имеет место только в утвердительной
сказуемым (secondary predicate). форме. В отрицательной форме совпадения НЕТ:
1) Do not close the window!
2) She must not close the window.
Из этих примеров видно, что глагол в форме повелительного наклонения и
инфинитив ПО-РАЗНОМУ образуют формы прошедшего времени:
1) глаголу в форме повелительного наклонения требуется вспомогательный глагол do
плюс отрицательная частица not;
2) инфинитиву НЕ требуется вспомогательный глагол do, нужна ТОЛЬКО
отрицательная частица not.
У формы глагола в повелительном наклонении есть ТАКЖЕ сходство с формами глагола
в Present Indefinite. Например:
- I always open the window before going to bed.
- Open the window!
Поэтому некоторые лингвисты считают, что НЕ НАДО выделять повелительное
наклонение как отдельное наклонение. Они считают, что в обоих случаях глагол стоит в
форме ИЗЪЯВИТЕЛЬНОГО наклонения. Однако А.И. Смирницкий ВОЗРАЖАЕТ против
такого подхода. Он подчеркивает, что разница между изъявительным наклонением и
повелительным наклонением проявляется в формах глагола be. В изъявительном наклонении
форма be НЕ УПОТРЕБЛЯЕТСЯ, в повелительнoм наклонении – УПОТРЕБЛЯЕТСЯ.
Например:
1) Be my wife!
2) I am your wife. She is your wife.
Л.С. Бархударов РАСШИРЯЕТ набор форм повелительнoго наклонения. Он трактует
это наклонение ШИРЕ, чем это делается в традиционной грамматике, потому что он НЕ
ПРИЗНАЕТ существование сослагательного наклонения в английском языке. Те формы,
которые А.И. Смирницкий считает формами сослагательного наклонения, а именно
Subjunctive One, Л.С. Бархударов считает формами повелительнoго наклонения, потому что у
них ОДИНАКОВАЯ ФОРМА. Например:
(1) Open the window!
(2) I suggest that he open the window.
М.Я. Блох, подобно Л.С. Бархударову, тоже не признает существование одного
наклонения в английском языке, но у него это – повелительное наклонение. Он выделяет
ИЗЪЯВИТЕЛЬНОЕ и СОСЛАГАТЕЛЬНОЕ наклонения. Те формы, которые
традиционно считаются формами повелительного наклонения, М.Я. Блох относит к
формам СОСЛАГАТЕЛЬНОГО наклонения, а именно к наклонению, которое он называет “the
pure spective mood”.
Г.Н. Воронцова тоже расширяет традиционный набор форм повелительного
наклонения. В ее подходе эти формы не только омонимичны инфинитиву, они еще могут быть
АНАЛИТИЧЕСКИМИ, то есть состоящими из сочетания вспомогательного глагола со
смысловым глаголом. Например:
- May he open the door!
- Let him do it!
- Will you open the window?
- Ted shall do it by all means!
Г.Н. Воронцова считает эти формы повелительного наклонения подклассом
ОПТАТИВНОГО наклонения. Оптатив – это формы, выражающие ЖЕЛАНИЕ говорящего.
БИЛЕТ 15
The verbal category of ASPECT: what does it show? Aspectual meanings expressed lexically
(momentaneuos, durative, iteratives, incoative verbs). Limitive (terminative) and unlimitive
(non-terminative). Aspectual meanings expressed grammatically: the category of
DEVELOPMENT. The description of the structure of the category in terms of opposition.
What marks the marked member? The two elementary meanings composing the semantics of
the marked member of the opposition (continuity + concrete character) (Л.С. Бархударов).
The neutralization \ reduction of the opposition of the category of development (with unlimitive
\ non-terminative verbs). The expression of the category of development by non-finite forms
(verbids).
THE CATEGORY OF DEVELOPMENT
A GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY is a very broad, abstract, GENERALIZED
GRAMMATICAL MEANING which is expressed by every member of a part of speech.
The category of development is a generalized grammatical meaning which shows how the
action is presented by the speaker:
- either as an action developing in time = as a continuous, developing action;
- or as an action which is NOT presented as developing.
So, we see that this grammatical category is represented by TWO meanings:
1) by the meaning of CONTINUITY;
2) by the meaning of NON-CONTINUITY.
Each of these meanings is expressed by its own form. These two forms make up the BINARY
PRIVATIVE OPPOSITION.
For example:
walk :: am walking have walked :: have been walking walked :: was walking
walk :: are walking has walked :: has been walking walked ::
were walking
walks :: is walking had walked :: had been walking will walk :: will be walking
Such an opposition consists of TWO members, one of which is MARKED and the other
member is UNMARKED.
The marked member of the opposition is marked by the presence of the discontinuous
morpheme {be…ing} which expresses the meaning of continuity. This morpheme consists of two
elements. This discontinuous morpheme is added to the root of the verb and when it is added the
verbal form begins to express continuity.
The unmarked member of the opposition expresses NO meaning of continuity.
As we see from the examples above the FIRST element of the morpheme takes
DIFFERENT FORMS in speech: am, is, are, was, were, have been, has been, had been, will be.
The second element of the morpheme (-ing-) remains the same in any continuous form.
This verbal form, which expresses continuity, can be either finite or non-finite. The
examples above are the examples of the finite verbal forms.
NON-FINITE verbal forms can also take continuous forms:
The infinitive: to do :: to be doing
The gerund \ Participle One: walking :: being walking
As it is said above, the continuous form renders the meaning of continuity. According to
L.S. Barkhudarov, continuous forms of verbs render the meaning of continuity in combination with
the meaning of the concrete character of the action. The concrete character of the action means that
the described action is not indefinite (endless), such an action is confined to a definite, limited period
of time.
If we speak about a developing action but this action occupies an indefinite period of time,
we CANNOT use a verb in the continuous form.
For example, let us take the verb ‘live’ and compare two sentences with this verb:
1) Ted lives in Moscow.
2) Ted is living in Moscow.
In both sentences the verbal predicates (lives and is living) denote continuous, developing
actions
but only in the SECOND sentence the verb can take the continuous form.
 The FIRST sentence runs about Ted’s life in Moscow as a process occupying an indefinite Here there is NO DIFFERENCE IN MEANING between the forms ‘was sitting’ and ‘sat’. It
period of time because Moscow is the place of Ted’s permanent residence. That is why we means that in the case of the verb ‘sit’ the opposition between continuous and non-continuous forms
CANNOT use the verb in the continuous form here. is reduced.
From the SECOND sentence we understand that Moscow is NOT the place of Ted’s Other unlimitive (non-terminative) verbs can also denote actions in progress without taking
permanent residence. Ted is in Moscow only temporarily, for a definite, limited period of time, he continuous aspect forms. For example: It was cold. The stars shone with a fierce brilliancy. = The
may be on a business trip and he is just visiting. That is why we CAN use the verb in the continuous stars were shining with a fierce brilliancy.
form here. In the case of the limitive (terminative) verb ‘open’ the opposition between continuous and
Now let us take the verb ‘work’. non-continuous forms is NOT reduced. Let us compare two sentences:
1) Ted works hard on his novels. 1) At that moment Nell opened the window.
2) Ted is working on his new novel. 2) At that moment Nell was opening the window.
In BOTH sentences we read about continuous, developing actions but only in the SECOND In this case the forms ‘opened’ and ‘was opening’ express DIFFERENT meanings. The first
sentence the verb can take the continuous form. sentence describes a COMPLETED action: ‘закрыла’. The second sentence describes an action IN
In the FIRST sentence a continuous form is impossible because in this sentence the context PROGRESS action: ‘закрывала’.
does NOT convey the idea that the action is confined to some definite, limited period of time. From So, in the case of the limitive (terminative) verb ‘open’ we see NO reduction of the
this sentence we understand that Ted ALWAYS works hard. opposition.
In the SECONSD sentence the continuous form of the verb is necessary because this Not all the English verbs have the forms of the continuous aspect. It means that the
sentence runs about Ted’s work which is occupies some limited, definite period of time. neutralization of the aspect opposition is a grammatical rule with such verbs. These are STATAL
In Old English and in Middle English continuous verbal forms described actions in progress verbs, the verbs which are never used in the continuous. They are:
which were NOT restricted by any time limits. Later the usage of such forms became more limited: - verbs of sense perception (see, hear, feel, smell, taste);
continuous verbal forms began to be used only in such cases when they describe actions which last - verbs denoting subjective attitudes to something or somebody (love, hate, like, respect,
only for some definite, restricted period of time. believe);
Verbs denoting states CANNOT take continuous forms because the states which they - “perfective” verbs denoting the final stage of action (think, recognize, accept, result,
denote occupy an indefinite period of time. Such states are NOT confined to any limited stretch of persuade, forgive);
time. This is why it is IMPOSSIBLE to say: - verbs denoting properties and relations as permanent qualities of some object (belong,
- *The book is including four chapters. consist, contain, conflict, comprise, connect, possess, resemble, suffice, know, date,
- *The process is consisting of three stages. contribute).
- *The students were knowing what to do. Not all grammarians agree that the meaning of the continuous aspect together with its opposite
- *Ted is liking difficult assignments. non-continuous meaning constitute a separate verbal category. Such grammarians as Henry
- *I am hating talking about that. Sweet and Otto Jespersen considered continuous forms to be tense-forms expressing an action
- *I am understanding you. going on simultaneously with some other action.
As it is said above, the category of development is represented by TWO types of forms ‒ Russian grammarians do NOT share this point of view. They maintain that if we follow Henry
discontinuous and continuous: Sweet’s and Otto Jespersen’s point of view, we shall have to come to the conclusion that ONE verbal
walk :: am walking have walked :: have been walking walked :: was walking form expresses TWO meanings of the category of time. For example, the form ‘are reading’ will
walk :: are walking has walked :: has been walking walked :: express:
were walking 1) the meaning of the PRESENT tense;
walks :: is walking had walked :: had been walking will walk :: will be walking 2) the meaning of the CONTINUOUS tense.
The marked form expresses the grammatical meaning of continuity of the action limited in Such a conclusion does NOT seem logical. It is more logical to consider that each grammatical
time. category is expressed in each case only through ONE grammatical meaning.
The unmarked form expresses NO continuity. БИЛЕТ 16
But there are cases when we see the REDUCTION of such an opposition. The reduction of an Finite and non-finite verbal forms: what characteristics unite them (the lexico-grammatical
opposition occurs when the unmarked member expresses the meaning of the marked member. In this meaning; the predicative function)? What is a predicative construction? Constructions of
case the contrast between the marked and unmarked members disappears. primary and secondary predicativity (gerundial complexes, infinitive constructions, participial
Such a reduction of the opposition happens when we deal with unlimitive (non-terminative) absolute constructions). Finite and non-finite verbal forms: what characteristics differentiate
verbs which express the continuous action even when they have a non-continuous form. them (grammatical categories; syntactical functioning).
To illustrate this point let us take two verbs: sit and open. Глагольные формы делятся на ЛИЧНЫЕ (finite) и НЕЛИЧНЫЕ (non-finite).
The verb ‘sit’ is an unlimitive (non-terminative) verb. ЛИЧНЫЕ (finite) формы глагола – это формы Simple, Continuous, Perfect, Perfect
The verb ‘open’ is a limitive (terminative) verb. Continuous. Эти формы функционируют в предложении в качестве СКАЗУЕМОГО (predicate).
The verb ‘sit’ can describe a past action in progress in any form: both continuous and non- Они называются в русской грамматике личными, потому что они согласуются с подлежащим в
continuous. значениях лица и числа.
For example: At that moment Nell was sitting \ sat on the sofa. НЕЛИЧНЫЕ (non-finite) формы глагола:
 - герундий
- инфинитив
- причастие настоящего времени
- причастие прошедшего времени
ЛИЧНЫЕ и НЕЛИЧНЫЕ формы глагола имеют определенные сходные черты. Во-
первых, личные и неличные формы одного и того же глагола объединяет одинаковое
лексическое значение ДЕЙСТВИЯ или СОСТОЯНИЯ. Поэтому и личные, и неличные формы
способны выступать в роли СКАЗУЕМОГО, приписывая признак действия или состояния
референту подлежащего. В сочетании с подлежащим личные, и неличные формы глагола
образуют ПРЕДИКАТИВНЫЕ конструкции:
- предикативная конструкция с ЛИЧНОЙ формой глагола – это ПЕРВИЧНО-предикативная
конструкция (construction of PRIMARY predication).
- предикативная конструкция с НЕЛИЧНОЙ формой глагола – это ВТОРИЧНО-предикативная
конструкция (construction of SECONDARY predication).
ПЕРВИЧНО-предикативная конструкция – это основа предложений и клозов.
Пример – любое предложение
или любой клоз.
ВТОРИЧНО-предикативная конструкция – это основа неполного клоза \ полуклоза
(semi-clause).
ПРИМЕРЫ ВТОРИЧНО-предикативных конструкций:
1) Герундиальный оборот (gerundial construction \ complex):
- Ted’s taking part in the conference is doubtful.
2) Оборот «полу-герундий» (half-gerund)
- Ted taking part in the conference is doubtful.
3) Инфинитивный оборот “for + инфинитив”:
- We are waiting for you to say something (инфинитивный оборот в функции предложного
дополнения).
- For Mary to say such things seems very strange and unexpected (инфинитивный оборот в
функции подлежащего).
- This is the text for you to translate (инфинитивный оборот в функции определения).
- This text is for you to translate (инфинитивный оборот в функции предикативного
комплемента).
- I did it for you to be happy (инфинитивный оборот в функции обстоятельства цели).
4) Инфинитивная конструкция в роли сложного дополнения (Complex Object):
- I saw you take my money (инфинитив – немаркированный \ без частицы ‘to’
- He wants us to help (инфинитив – маркированный \ c частицей ‘to’)
5) Причастный оборот в роли сложного дополнения:
- I saw you taking my money (причастие настоящего времени).
- We heard your name mentioned by the speaker (причастие прошедшего времени).
6) Абсолютный причастный оборот в роли обстоятельства:
- The night being too cold, the host switched on the heating (беспредложный оборот).
- With the night being too cold, the host switched on the heating (предложный оборот).
7) Абсолютный номинативный (безглагольный) оборот в роли обстоятельства:
- All the vacant rooms upstairs, we needed somebody’s help with the suitcases (беспредложный
оборот).
- With all the vacant rooms upstairs, we needed somebody’s help with the suitcases (предложный
оборот).
В позиции ПОДЛЕЖАЩЕГО могут употребляться:
1) Герундиальные конструкции:
- Ted’s taking part in the conference is doubtful.
- Ted taking part in the conference is doubtful.
2) Инфинитивный оборот “for + инфинитив”:
- For Mary to say such things seems very strange and unexpected
В позиции ПРЕДИКАТИВНОГО КОМПЛЕМЕНТА (после глагола-связки) могут
употребляться:
1) Герундиальные конструкции:
- The main issue is Ted’s taking part in the conference.
- The main issue is Ted’s taking part in the conference.
2) Инфинитивный оборот “for + инфинитив”:
- This text is for you to translate.
В позиции ДОПОЛНЕНИЯ могут употребляться:
1) Герундиальные конструкции:
- Our success depends on Ted’s taking part in the conference.
- Our success depends on Ted taking part in the conference.
2) Инфинитивный оборот “for + инфинитив”:
- We are waiting for you to say something.
3) Инфинитивный оборот «сложное дополнение / Сomplex Object»:
- I saw you take my money (инфинитив – немаркированный \ без частицы ‘to’
- He wants us to help (инфинитив – маркированный \ c частицей ‘to’)
4) Причастные обороты в функции «сложное дополнение / Сomplex Object»:
- I saw you taking my money (причастие настоящего времени).
- We heard your name mentioned by the speaker (причастие прошедшего времени).
В функции ОПРЕДЕЛЕНИЯ могут употребляться:
1) Герундиальные конструкции:
- This is the problem of the medicine being too expensive for an average patient.
2) Инфинитивный оборот “for + инфинитив”:
- This is the text for you to translate (инфинитивный оборот в функции определения).
В функции ОБСТОЯТЕЛЬСТВА могут употребляться:
1) Абсолютный причастный оборот в роли обстоятельства причины (adverbial modifier of
cause):
- The night being too cold, the host switched on the heating (беспредложный оборот).
- With the night being too cold, the host switched on the heating (предложный оборот).
2) Абсолютный номинативный (безглагольный) оборот в роли обстоятельства причины:
- All the vacant rooms upstairs, we needed somebody’s help with the suitcases (беспредложный
оборот).
- With all the vacant rooms upstairs, we needed somebody’s help with the suitcases (предложный
оборот).
3) Герундиальные конструкции c предлогом:
- After the prisoner being asked the judge pronounced his verdict (обстоятельство времени).
- We went for a ride despite the day being rainy (обстоятельство уступки).
- We decided against buying the house because of its price being too high (обстоятельство
причины).
4) Инфинитивный оборот “for + инфинитив”:
- I did it for you to be happy (инфинитивный оборот в функции обстоятельства цели).
Грамматические категории, выражаемые личными и неличными глагольными
формами:
За исключением причастия прошедшего времени первые три неличные формы
(герундий, инфинитив, причастие настоящего времени) имеют ПАРАДИГМУ (систему форм).
Эти формы выражают значения ТРЕХ грамматических категорий:
1) категория ЗАЛОГА Как было указано выше, и личные, и неличные глагольные формы могут быть
2) категория РАЗВИТИЯ (development) (значение продолженности) СКАЗУЕМЫМ:
3) категория РЕТРОСПЕКТИВНОЙ КООРДИНАЦИИ (значение перфектности). - ЛИЧНЫЕ формы выступают в роли ПЕРВИЧНОГО сказуемого – в первично-предикативных
Категория ЗАЛОГА представлена в английском языке двумя значениями: конструкциях;
1) значением АКТИВНОГО залога - НЕЛИЧНЫЕ формы выступают в роли ВТОРИЧНОГО сказуемого – во вторично-
2) значением ПАССИВНОГО залога. предикативных конструкциях.
Форма пассивного залога имеет в своем составе ПРЕРЫВИСТУЮ (discontinuous) ЛИЧНЫЕ формы могут быть только сказуемым в предложении.
морфему {be…en}. Именно эта морфема выражает значение пассивного залога. Грамматисты НЕЛИЧНЫЕ формы могут выполнять и другие функции в предложении.
утверждают, что формы активного и пассивного залога образуют БИНАРНУЮ Инфинитив и герундий сходны по своему функционированию с
ПРИВАТИВНУЮ ОППОЗИЦИЮ: taking :: being taken. В такой оппозиции есть СУЩЕСТВИТЕЛЬНЫМ.
маркированный и немаркированный члены. Маркированный член – это форма пассивного Причастия сходны по своему функционированию с ПРИЛАГАТЕЛЬНЫМ и
залога. Маркер этой формы – прерывистая (discontinuous) морфема {be…en}. НАРЕЧИЕМ.
ИНФИНИТИВ: take :: be taken Инфинитив и герундий сходны по своему функционированию с
ГЕРУНДИЙ: taking :: being taken СУЩЕСТВИТЕЛЬНЫМ. Это следующие функции:
ПРИЧАСТИЕ НАСТОЯЩЕГО ВРЕМЕНИ: taking :: being taken - подлежащее
Категория РАЗВИТИЯ представлена в английском языке двумя значениями: - дополнение
3) значением НЕДЛИТЕЛЬНОГО вида - предикативный комплемент (после глагола-связки)
4) значением ДЛИТЕЛЬНОГО вида. - определение
Форма длительного вида имеет в своем составе ПРЕРЫВИСТУЮ ( discontinuous) - обстоятельство
морфему {be…ing}. Именно эта морфема выражает значение длительного вида: being taking – Синтаксическая Существительное Инфинитив Герундий
это герундий в форме продолженного вида (Continuous Aspect). функция
Грамматисты утверждают, что формы длительного и недлительного вида образуют Подлежащее Truth is better than To tell lies is bad. Telling lies is bad.
БИНАРНУЮ ПРИВАТИВНУЮ ОППОЗИЦИЮ: taking :: being taking. В такой оппозиции lies.
есть маркированный и немаркированный члены. Маркированный член – это форма Дополнение Tell me the truth. She promised to come. Your car needs cleaning.
длительного вида. Маркер этой формы – прерывистая (discontinuous) морфема {be…ing}. Предикативный The best thing is the The best thing is to My hobby is reading.
ИНФИНИТИВ: take :: be taking комплемент truth. wait.
ГЕРУНДИЙ: taking :: being taking Препозитивное The city parks are - These are reading books.
ПРИЧАСТИЕ НАСТОЯЩЕГО ВРЕМЕНИ: taking :: being taking определение beautiful here.
Категория РЕТРОСПЕКТИВНОЙ КООРДИНАЦИИ представлена в английском The student’s answer
языке двумя значениями: was good.
1) значением НЕПЕРФЕКТНОГО вида Постпозитивное The answer of the This is the text to These are books for
2) значением ПЕРФЕКТНОГО вида. определение student was good. translate. reading.
Форма перфектного вида имеет в своем составе ПРЕРЫВИСТУЮ (discontinuous) We went for a walk in Ted has come to help We went for a walk in spite
морфему {have…en}. Именно эта морфема выражает значение перфектного вида. Обстоятельство spite of the rain (цель). of being tired (уступка).
Грамматисты утверждают, что формы перфектного и неперфектного вида образуют (concession). We arrived to learn We drank tea before going
БИНАРНУЮ ПРИВАТИВНУЮ ОППОЗИЦИЮ. В такой оппозиции есть маркированный и We met before the that the meeting had to bed (time).
немаркированный члены. Маркированный член – это форма пассивного залога. Маркер этой lesson (time). begun (результат). Ted failed his exam due to
формы – прерывистая (discontinuous) морфема {have…en}. We met in the park The problem is too knowing nothing
ИНФИНИТИВ: take :: have taken (place). difficult to understand (причина).
ГЕРУНДИЙ: taking :: having taken It happened because (результат).
ПРИЧАСТИЕ НАСТОЯЩЕГО ВРЕМЕНИ: taking :: having taken of the storm (сause). The problem is easy
ЛИЧНЫЕ формы глагола выражают не три, а СЕМЬ грамматических категорий: I cooked dinner for enough to understand
8) лицо (person) the kid (purpose). (результат).
9) число (number) She winced as if to
10) время (tense) show that she was lying
11) наклонение (mood) (сравнение).
12) залог (voice) БИЛЕТ 17
13) развитие (продолженность) (development) The classification of VERBS from the point of view of their semantics (of full nominative value\
14) ретроспективная координация (retrospective coordination) notional; of partial nominative value\ semi-notional; functional \ auxiliaries). Subtypes of the
verbs of partial nominative value (modal verbs, link-verbs, semi-notional verbid-introducers).
Three types of link-verbs (pure, semi-notional, notional). Actional and statal verbs. Отличить предельные глаголы от непредельных можно по их способности описывать
Terminative (limitive) and non-terminative (non-limitive \ unlimitive) verbs. продолжающееся \ незаконченное действие в форме Past Simple.
По типу своего значения глаголы делятся на: Непредельные глаголы в форме Past Simple описывают незаконченное действие: At
1) ПОЛНОЗНАЧНЫЕ (notional) глаголы that moment I stood near her gate. Или они описывают состояние: At that moment I knew nothing.
2) НЕПОЛНОЗНАЧНЫЕ (semi-notional) глаголы Предельные глаголы в форме Past Simple описывают законченное действие:
3) СЛУЖЕБНЫЕ (functional \ auxiliaries) глаголы. - The ball fell on the ground.
ПОЛНОЗНАЧНЫЕ (notional) глаголы: их значение полное, понятное и не требует - She opened the window and looked out.
комплемента (дополнительного уточняющего слова). Например: run, know, love. Чтобы описать незаконченное действие, предельные глаголы вынуждены принимать
НЕПОЛНОЗНАЧНЫЕ (semi-notional) глаголы: их значение неполное и требует форму продолженного вида (Continuous Aspect):
комплемента (дополнительного уточняющего слова). Это: - At that moment the ball was falling on the ground.
- модальные глаголы (can, may, must, should) - At that moment she was opening the window and looking out.
- глаголы-связки (be, seem, taste, smell) БИЛЕТ 18
- глаголы, обозначающие начало, конец, прерывание, возобновление действия и The classification of verbs from the point of view of their syntactic (syntagmatic) valency.
сочетающиеся с инфинитивом и\или герундием (begin, start, continue, stop, finish). М.Я. Блох Obligatory and optional syntactic valency of verbs. Obligatory adjuncts of verbs
называет их semi-notional verbid-introducers. (complements). Optional adjuncts of verbs (supplements). Complementive (predicative,
Отличительной чертой связочных глаголов является то, что они сочетаются с objective and adverbial) verbs. Monocomplementive objective verbs. Bicomplementive
прилагательным. Составные именные сказуемые состоят из связочного глагола (link-verb) и objective verbs. Uncomplementive (subjective) verbs: personal and impersonal verbs. Narrow
комплемента. and broad approaches to transitivity, comparison of objective verbs and transitive verbs.
Согласно В.Л. Каушанской, составное именное сказуемое делится на три вида: Грамматисты выделяют такой признак глагола, как ВАЛЕНТНОСТЬ. Валентность –
1) глагол-связка be (лишен лексического значения) это приблизительно то же самое, что СОЧЕТАЕМОСТЬ.
Валентность может быть ОБЯЗАТЕЛЬНОЙ (obligatory) или ФАКУЛЬТАТИВНОЙ /
2) со связками, у которых лексическое значение есть, но оно неполное (incomplete), НЕОБЯЗАТЕЛЬНОЙ (optional).
расплывчатое и поэтому требует дополнительного уточняющего элемента – комплемента: ОБЯЗАТЕЛЬНАЯ валентность – это сочетаемость глагола с такими членами
- seem - taste - become - change предложения, без которых он НЕ МОЖЕТ употребляться: без этих членов предложения
- look - smell - get - grow смысла нет. Например, глагол take не может употребляться без прямого дополнения: *The
- feel - sound - turn woman took. Это предложение непонятно.
Например: ФАКУЛЬТАТИВНАЯ / НЕОБЯЗАТЕЛЬНАЯ (optional) валентность это сочетаемость
- The traffic light changed red. глагола с такими членами предложения, без которых он МОЖЕТ употребляться. Например,
- The woman turned pale. глагол может сочетаться с ОБСТОЯТЕЛЬСТВОМ ОБРАЗА ДЕЙСТВИЯ, но очень часто это
- You will grow old. обстоятельство можно опустить без ущерба для структуры предложения. Например: The boy
- The apples taste sour. took the snake cautiously. → The boy took the snake.
- The meat smells awful. М.Я. Блох называет обязательные члены предложения КОМПЛЕМЕНТАМИ
(complements), а необязательные члены предложения - САПЛЕМЕНТАМИ (supplements). Он
3) со связками, у которых есть полное (complete) лексическое значение. Это полнозначные отмечает, что ПОДЛЕЖАЩЕЕ – это всегда комплемент, потому что в предложении глагол-
(notional) глаголы-связки, поэтому в отличие от предыдущих двух типов такие глаголы могут сказуемое обязательно сочетается с подлежащим.
употребляться и БЕЗ комплемента: устранение (removal) комплемента не лишает предложение М.Я. Блох называет такие глаголы КОМПЛЕМЕТНЫМИ (complementive), которые
смысла. НЕ МОГУТ употребляться БЕЗ КОМПЛЕМЕНТОВ. Соответственно,
Например: НЕКОМПЛЕМЕТНЫМИ (non-complementive) глаголами он называет глаголы, у которых НЕТ
- The children came home tired. → The children came home. обязательной сочетаемости с каким-либо членом предложения.
- The moon rose red. → The moon rose. Как же так, вы можете спросит, разве в английском языке есть такие глаголы, у
- My uncle died a bachelor. → My uncle died. которых нет обязательной сочетаемости с другим членом предложения? Ведь у всех
- They married young. → They married. английских глаголов есть обязательная сочетаемость с подлежащим.
- The boys stood still on the threshold. → The boys stood on the threshold. Да, это так: все английские глаголы обязательно сочетаются с подлежащим. Поэтому
Глаголы, которые называются ‘actional’ обозначают действия. Глаголы, которые говоря о комплементах, М.Я. Блох НЕ УЧИТЫВАЕТ ПОДЛЕЖАЩЕЕ: и так ясно, что он –
называются ‘statal’ обозначают состояния. обязательный член предложения. Учитывается сочетаемость с ДРУГИМИ членами
Выделяются также предельные (limitive) и непредельные (unlimitive) глаголы. предложения.
ПРЕДЕЛЬНЫЕ глаголы обозначают такое действие, которое не может продолжаться Поэтому глагол, который обязательно сочетается с подлежащим, но другой
бесконечно и стремится к своему пределу. обязательной сочетаемости у него НЕТ, М.Я. Блох считает НЕКОМПЛЕМЕТНЫМ (non-
НЕПРЕДЕЛЬНЫЕ глаголы обозначают такое действие или состояние, которое complementive). Например, таковыми являются глаголы rain, snow, drizzle, fall, drop, smile,
теоретически может продолжаться бесконечно и не стремится к своему пределу. laugh, nod:
- It is snowing. ДВУкомплементные объектные глаголы – это такие глаголы, у которых обязательно
- The girl nodded. должно быть ДВА комплемента. Например:
- The temperature dropped. - это могут быть два прямых дополнения: He asked the boy a question.
- The woman smiled. - это может быть косвенное дополнение плюс прямое дополнение: The woman gave the boy an
Глаголы rain, snow, drizzle называются БЕЗЛИЧНЫМИ (impersonal) apple.
НЕКОМПЛЕМЕНТНЫМИ глаголами, потому что у них подлежащее – безличное - это может быть прямое дополнение плюс обстоятельство места: The girl put the book
местоимение it. on the shelf.
Глаголы fall, drop, smile, laugh, nod называются ЛИЧНЫМИ (personal) БИЛЕТ 19
НЕКОМПЛЕМЕНТНЫМИ глаголами, потому что у них подлежащее – существительное или Adverbs built up by conversion = fluctuant conversives = "flat" adverbs. The issue of ly-
личное местоимение. adverbs, their two derivational types, their grammatical status (compare early, daily and sadly).
ОБЯЗАТЕЛЬНЫМ может быть сочетание глагола-сказуемого (кроме подлежащего): Adverbial substantives (= adverbids = substantivized adverbs) (М.Я. Блох).
1) с ДОПОЛНЕНИЕМ Наречия могут образовываться путем КОНВЕРСИИ из:
2) с ПРЕДИКАТИВНЫМ КОМПЛЕМЕНТОМ - прилагательных
3) с ОБСТОЯТЕЛЬСТВОМ. - предлогов
Исходя из этого, М.Я. Блох выделяет следующие виды комплементных глаголов: - союзов.
1) ПРЕДИКАТИВНЫЕ комплементные глаголы Например:
2) ОБЪЕКТНЫЕ комплементные глаголы 1) This a DAILY newspaper (прилагательное). → This newspaper is published DAILY (наречие).
3) АДВЕРБИАЛЬНЫЕ комплементные глаголы. 2) Let us meet BEFORE the lesson (предлог). → I have never seen him BEFORE (наречие).
ПРЕДИКАТИВНЫЕ комплементные глаголы – это, например, ГЛАГОЛЫ-СВЯЗКИ 3) We have been living here SINCE we moved to this place from London (союз).→ We have never
первого и второго типа. Такие глаголы являются частью составного именного сказуемого met SINCE (наречие).
(compound nominal predicate). После них обязательно должен быть употреблен предикативный Такие наречия М.Я. Блох назвал флуктуирующими конверсивами (fluctuant
комплемент. Например: conversives). Они также называются наречиями типа ‘flat’ (flat-adverbs).
- The day is rainy. - I feel better. - Michael became angry. У них могут однокоренные наречия с суффиксом -ly. Значения этих однокоренных
- The girl seems tired. - She looks beautiful. - The traffic light значений разные. Например:
changed green. - It was raining HARD. :: I can HARDLY stand. ‘Я едва могу стоять’.
- The apple tastes sour. - The woman turned pale. - You will grow older. - I saw an eagle HIGH in the sky. :: It must be HIGHLY amusing. ‘Это, должно быть, очень
ОБЪЕКТНЫЕ комплементные глаголы – это такие глаголы, которые не могут забавно’.
употребляться без ДОПОЛНЕНИЯ. Такие глаголы еще называются ПЕРЕХОДНЫМИ. - Still waters run DEEP. ‘В тихом омуте черти водятся’. :: He is DEEPLY in debt. ‘У него
В грамматике есть ДВА понимания переходности (transitivity): УЗКОЕ и ШИРОКОЕ. большие долги’.
При широком понимании нет разницы между объектными и переходными глаголами: это Наречия с суффиксом –ly могут быть различной природы:
глаголы, которые «не могут жить» без дополнения. И не важно, какое дополнение имеется в 1) наречия, образованные от прилагательных, причастий и числительных с помощью
виду: прямое, косвенное или предложное. суффикса –ly. Например:
Если понимать переходность УЗКО, тогда все глаголы, которые употребляются с - sad → sadly
дополнениями, являются ОБЪЕКТНЫМИ (objective). Но не все объектные глаголы – - happy → happily
переходные: только те объектные глаголы – переходные, которые соединяются с ПРЯМЫМИ - tired → tiredly
дополнениями. - inviting → invitingly
Например: - first → firstly
- take: этот глагол и переходный, и объектный. - second → secondly
- look at: этот глагол непереходный, но объектный: прямого (беспредложного) дополнения он - third → thirdly
не присоединяет, но присоединяет предложное дополнение. 2) наречия, образованные путем КОНВЕРСИИ от прилагательных, которые, в свою очередь,
АДВЕРБИАЛЬНЫЕ комплементные глаголы – это такие глаголы, которые не могут образовались от существительных с помощью суффикса –ly. Например:
употребляться без ОБСТОЯТЕЛЬСТВА. Например, глагол come: этот глагол не может - day + ly → daily ‘ежедневный’ → daily ‘ежедневно’
употребляться без обстоятельства места. Например: Ted came home. - month + ly → monthly ‘ежемесячный’ → monthly ‘ежемесячно’
М.Я. Блох делит ОБЪЕКТНЫЕ комплементные глаголы на МОНОкомплементные / 3) наречия, образованные путем КОНВЕРСИИ от прилагательных, которые имеют суффикс –
ОДНОкомплементные и ДВУкомплементные. ly с древних времен: early (прилагательное) → early (наречие)
МОНОкомплементные объектные глаголы – это такие глаголы, у которых
обязательно ОДНО дополнение: М.Я. Блох выделяет СУБСТАНТИВИРОВАННЫЕ (substantivised) НАРЕЧИЯ (по
- take - look a -find аналогии с субстантивироваными прилагательными). Он выделяет этот тип наречий в составе
- explain - look for -make сочетаний с предлогами:
- from behind ‘сзади’
- from above ‘сверху’
- up to now ‘до сих пор’
- till now ‘до сих пор’
- till then ‘до тех пор’
- since then ‘с тех пор’
Некоторые грамматисты считают такие сочетания составными наречиями (composite
adverbs), но М.Я. Блох отказывается это делать, поскольку в этих сочетаниях первый
компонент – ПРЕДЛОГ – употреблен в своем ПРЯМОМ, не переносном, значении.
Поскольку предлоги в норме НЕ сочетаются с наречиями (они стоят перед
существительными, местоимениям и герундием) М.Я. Блоху пришлось считать компоненты
then, now, behind, above cуществительными, образованными от наречий –
субстантивированными наречиями (substantivised adverbs \ adverbids).
БИЛЕТ 20
First grammars of English. William Lily’s “Paul’s Accidence” \ “Eaton Grammar” \ “Lyly’s
Grammar”. William Bullokar’s Bref Grammar for English (1585). The high prestige of the Latin
language in the Middle Ages and later. The description of the English language trough the
prism of the Latin language (the issue of the split infinitive, the preposition at the end of the
English sentence, etc.).
The first grammars of English were written in England in the late 1550s. Here we should
mention, for example, William Bullokar’s Bref Grammar for English (1585).
The first grammars of English were modelled on a widely used schoolroom grammar of Latin
which was written by William Lily [`laili], with the assistance of John Colet and Erasmus, in,
approximately, 1513.
William Lily (or William Lilly or Lilye; c. 1468 – 25 February 1522) was an English classical
grammarian and scholar. He was an author of the most widely used Latin grammar textbook in
England and was the first high master of St Paul's School, London.
W. Lily’s book was in English and it was the first grammar of the Latin language written in
English. This fact makes it clear why we can speak about W. Lyly’s great contribution into the
development of the English language, namely into its vocabulary. Being the first who described
grammatical issues in the English language he had to introduce into the language such grammatical
terms which did not exist before. Thus he enriched the vocabulary of the English language.
W. Lily’s book, in turn, was derived from a fourth-century Roman grammar by Aelius Donatus.
Aelius Donatus’s book was derived from a Greek grammar written in the second century BC by
Dionysius Thrax/ Thrux.
W. Lyly’s book had many names: “Paul’s Accidence”, “Eaton Grammar”, “Lyly’s Grammar”.
The title “Paul’s Accidence” comes from St. Paul’s school, where Lyly was the first headmaster.
Lily was born in c.1468 at Odiham, Hampshire and he entered the university of Oxford in 1486.
After graduating in arts he went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On his return journey he put in at
Rhodes, which was still occupied by the knights of St John, under whose protection many Greeks had
taken refuge after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. He then went on to Italy, where he
attended the lectures of Angelus Sabinus, Sulpitius Verulanus and Pomponius Laetus at Rome, and of
Egnatius at Venice.
After his return he settled in London — where he became friends with Thomas More — as a
private teacher of grammar, and is believed to have been the first who taught Greek in that city.
In 1510 John Colet, dean of St Paul's, who was then founding the school which afterwards
became famous, appointed Lily the first high master in 1512.
This book was has been called the most influential textbook ever to appear in England. For
example, in 1542 Henry VIII made it the standard text for school use: he authorised it as the sole
Latin grammar textbook to be used in education and schools.
Probably, William Shakespeare studied this Latin grammar. It was so widely used by
Elizabethan scholars that Shakespeare was able to refer to it in the second scene of Act IV of Titus
Andronicus, quote from it in the first scene of Act II of Henry IV, Part 1 ("Homo is a common name
to all men") and allude to it in the first scene of Act IV of The Merry Wives of Windsor and scene 1
of Act IV of Much Ado about Nothing.
With corrections and revisions, it was used for more than three hundred years: editions and
revisions of this book continued to appear until 1858, for over 350 years.
The prestige of Latin was enormous during the Middle Ages. Church Latin was the universal
language of religion, of diplomacy, and of all learning.
In the Renaissance and the following periods, classical Latin was the foundation for all secular
education. For instance, the term grammar school implies that teaching Latin grammar was the major
element of the school curriculum. Some grammarians write that until the 17th century the term
“grammar” in English was applied only to the study of Latin.
When scholars in the 16th and 17th centuries turned to describing English, they employed the
familiar terms and concepts of Latin grammar. English was seen through the filter \prism of Latin.
Thus, in W. Bullokar’s grammar there were 5 cases of nouns (6 cases in Latin).
The scholars described those features in English that most closely resembled Latin and ignored
those features of English that were very unlike Latin. They criticised English constructions which
were used in speech only because they were impossible in the Latin language. For example:
- split infinitive
- a preposition at the end of a sentence.
Still, this close following the Latin language was not universal.
Even Lyly (16th century) had to reflect the difference between Latin as a highly inflectional
language and English as rich in analytical forms. He had to translate some Latin inflectional forms
with the help of English analytical equivalents, i.e. forms including auxiliary words, which he called
“signs”. W. Bullokar made free use of the theory of “signs”, which he had found in Lyly’s grammar.
In the 18th century several grammarians, chief among them William Ward (Essay on Grammar,
1765) and the scientist Joseph Priestley (Rudiments of English Grammar, 1761), argued against using
Latin as a framework for describing English. Such an approach lead to ascribing the English language
such features which, though existing in the Latin language, were not characteristic of the English one.
Joseph Priestley, for example, rejected the appropriateness of Latin grammatical terms for English
and denied that there was a future tense inflection in English parallel to the future tense in Latin.
Even the conservative grammarian Bishop Robert Lowth rejected the validity of modeling the
verb system of English on the verb system of Latin.
The divergency of opinion among the grammarians of the 16-18th centuries was rather striking.
For example, W. Bullokar (1585) mentioned five cases. Th. Dilworth (A New Guide to the English
Tongue, 1749, reprinted as late as 1819) wrote of six cases. Ben Johnson and Ch. Butler (17th
century) ascribed two cases to the English noun. J. Wallis (Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae, 1653)
found no category of case in the English language. He defined s-forms as possessive adjectives.
Most English grammars were intended to be used in the classroom: not for the purpose of
teaching English grammar, but for preparing to teach Latin grammar. Children were supposed first to
master the basic concepts and terms of grammar for their own language. Then the process of learning
them for Latin would be easier.
БИЛЕТ 21
The verbal category of retrospective coordination. The expression of the perfect meaning by the
discontinuous morpheme (finite and non-finite verbal forms). The binary privative opposition
of non-perfect and perfect forms. The semantics of the perfect as the combination of the semes
‘priority’ and ‘coordination \ correlation (соотнесенность)’ (L.S. Barkhudarov). The
contextual meanings of result or contrast. The inclusive and exclusive meanings of perfect
forms. The neutralization of the category of retrospective coordination (Sorry, I left my book at
home. I hear the management has softened their stand.). The treatment of the perfect as a tense
meaning.
A grammatical category is a very broad, abstract, generalized grammatical meaning which
is expressed by every member of a part of speech.
The category of RETROSPECTIVE COORDINATION is a generalized grammatical meaning
which shows how the action is presented by the speaker:
- either as coordinated with any other action or any moment (PERFECT forms)
- or as NOT coordinated with any other action or any moment (NON-PERFECT forms).
For example:
1) Ted translated the article. (Past Simple)
2) Ted has translated the article. (Present Perfect)
3) Ted had translated the article [when I called him]. (Past Perfect)
4) Ted will have translated the article [by two o’clock]. (Future Perfect)
The first sentence describes some action performed in the past and NO coordination with any
other action or moment is expressed.
Sentences 2, 3 and 4 describe actions which are coordinated with either another action or
with some moment.
Sentence 2 describes an action which is coordinated with the moment of speaking.
Sentence 3 describes an action which is coordinated with some other action in the past. This
action is denoted by the words ‘when I called him’.
Sentence 4 describes an action which is coordinated with some moment in the future. This
moment is denoted by the words ‘by two o’clock’.
The category RETROSPECTIVE COORDINATION is called differently by different
grammarians.
G. Trager, H Smith, W. Fransis, L.S. Barkhudarov call this category the category of phase.
In the book by B.S. Khaimovich and B.I. Rogovskaya it is the category of order.
А.I. Smirnitsky calls the category the category of time relation.
B.А. Ilyish uses the term the category of correlation.
М.Y. Blоkh calls this category the category of retrospective coordination, or retrospect.
This category is represented by the opposition of non-perfect and perfect forms, such as:
asks – has asked,
asked – had asked,
is asking – has been asking,
was asking – had been asking,
is asked – has been asked,
was asked – had been asked,
to ask – to have asked,
to be asked – to have been asked,
to be asking – to have been asking,
asking – having asked.
These forms make up BINARY PRIVATIVE OPPOSITIONS.
In these oppositions the perfect form is the marked member. This member is marked by the
presence of the DISCONTINUOUS MORPHEME {have … en}. When this morpheme is added to
the root of a verb this verbal form begins to express an action which precedes some other action and
is coordinated with it.
The perfect form is an analytical one.
Most of the English verbs have both forms, non-perfect and perfect, the only exception
being modal verbs.
There are several points of view on the grammatical nature of the perfect in the English
language.
- Some Western grammarians believe that perfect forms give a secondary temporal
characteristic of the action. It means that the meaning of perfectness is considered to
belong to the category of TENSE.
The first point of view is supported by such grammarians as H. Sweet, G. Curme, M.
Bryant, J.R. Aiken.
Russian grammarians do NOT share this point of view. They support the second point of
view. They maintain that if we follow this point of view, we shall have to come to the conclusion that
ONE verbal form expresses TWO meanings of the category of time. For example, the form ‘have
translated’ will express:
3) the meaning of the PRESENT tense;
4) the meaning of the PERFECT tense.
Such a conclusion does NOT seem logical. It is more logical to consider that each
grammatical
category is expressed in each case only through ONE grammatical meaning.
As one and the same category cannot be represented twice by one and the same word-form,
the forms of the present perfect, past perfect, future perfect cannot be considered to express the
category of tense. They express a separate verbal category ‒ the category of retrospective
coordination.
Grammarians distinguish two varieties of the meaning of the t Perfect:
- the Perfect Exclusive
- the Perfect Inclusive.
The Perfect Exclusive denotes a completed action. At the moment of speaking this action is
not taking place. For example: The plane has taken off. ‒ Самолет взлетел.
The Perfect Inclusive is expressed by statal verbs. In this case the verbal form denotes a
state which is not over, which is still going on. For example: Mary has known it for a week already.
‒ Мэри знает об этом уже неделю.
Such sentences must contain an indication of the duration of this state (for two weeks, since
Friday, all his life).
According to L.S. Barkhudarov, the semantic content of the perfect form consists of two
elementary meanings (semes). The first elementary meaning is that of priority. The second
elementary meaning is that of coordination \ correlation (соотнесенность).
The context must allow the realization of BOTH meanings. If only priority is expressed
the use of the perfect form is impossible. For example, precedence is expressed in the following
sentence but coordination \ correlation is not: He entered the room and opened the window. The form
entered denotes an action which precedes the action of opening but still the past perfect form
CANNOT be used here because the actions are NOT CORRELATED and both actions are
represented as independent from each other.
The next context allows the realization of both semes and that is why the perfect form is
used here: He had finished his meal and Sally was clearing.
The form had finished does not only denote precedence (priority) of the action, the
coordination \ correlation between the two actions is also expressed. Their correlated character is
revealed in the fact that the second action is presented as the RESULT of the first one.
Perfect forms may express contextual meanings of result or contrast. L.S. Barkhudarov,
G.N. Vоrоntsоvа, М.Y. Blоkh stress that those grammarians are mistaken who treat the meanings of
result and contrast as inherent meanings of the perfect forms. According to L.S. Barkhudarov, the
meanings of result and contrast appear only in context as the result of interaction between the
inherent meaning of the perfect form and the actual lexical meaning of the concrete verb.
For example, RESULT is expressed in:
 - The wind has dropped, and the sun burns more fiercely than ever.
- He had finished his meal and Sally was clearing. EXAMPLE 1: EXAMPLE 2: EXAMPLE 3: EXAMPLE 4: EXAMPLE 5:
CONTRAST between the former state of things and the described one is expressed in: please [pli:z] sign [sain] knife [naif] child [t∫aild] wise [waiz]
- He had always been so spruce and smart; he was shabby and unwashed and wild-eyed. pleasant [plez] design [zain] knives [naiv] children [t∫ild] wisdom [wiz]
Neither result nor contrast is expressed in Have you really never been to a ball before? pleasure [pleʒ] significant [sign]
In keeping with the general tendency, the category of retrospective coordination can be signature [sign]
contextually neutralized. It happens when the weak member of the opposition, i.e. the member
expressing non-perfectness fulfills the semantic function of the strong (marked) member: it begins to
Must we consider these roots to be DIFFERENT morphemes basing our conclusion on the
express perfectness. It happens in certain contextual conditions.
fact that these roots are different in form? Evidently we must not do it because the roots [pli:z],
The function of the present perfect may be fulfilled by the past indefinite, i.e. the past
[plez], [pleʒ] have THE SAME lexical MEANING.
indefinite form begins to express the meaning of the action’s priority to the moment of speech and the
meaning of its correlation with this moment e.g.: We cannot say that these segments (please, pleasant, pleasure) are different morphemes
I always thought it was because of you. because these segments mean the same: something nice, sweet, attractive, satisfactory.
Sorry, I forgot your name – you are…? These segments represent ONE morpheme (= the root morpheme = the lexical morpheme).
Sorry, I left my book at home. So, it appears that the morpheme is as a CLASS of morphs. In the case of the words please, pleasant,
The function of the present perfect may be also fulfilled by the present indefinite, for pleasure we deal with ONE root (lexical) morpheme represented by THREE morphs: [pli:z], [plez],
example, it happens to verbs of physical and mental perceptions, e.g.: [pleʒ].
I forget what you’ve told me about Nick. Another example: the forms knife [naif] and knives [naiv]. It is evident that knife and knives
I hear the management has softened their stand. are not two different words. They are the forms of the same word. They are the forms of the same
The categorial opposition “perfect versus imperfect” is broadly represented in verbids word because both knife and knives denote the same type of object or objects: an object (or objects)
(NON-FINITE verbal forms), e.g.: with a sharp blade used for cutting. This information - “an object (or objects) for cutting with a sharp
Having arrived at their destination, the travelers started to look for an inn (the perfect participle I). blade” – is what we call the lexical meaning of the word. So, we see that knife and knives have the
The memory of having met the famous writer in his young days made him feel proud even now (the same lexical meaning (because they denote the same class of objects).
perfect gerund). So, we can say that the morpheme is an ABSTRACT unit, it is an abstraction from a set of
The children are sure to have been following our instructions (the perfect infinitive). morphs, that it is a CLASS of morphs.
I am glad to have met you (the perfect infinitive). The morphs are united into one morpheme by the COMMON meaning.
He seems to have understood everything (the perfect infinitive). For example, the abstract morpheme of the noun’s plurality is represented by the morphs
Mrs Brown is said to have been very beautiful in youth (the perfect infinitive). /s/, /z/, /iz/, -en, -a, ae (cats, dogs, watches, oxen, data, formulae).
You should have told me about that (the perfect infinitive). For the sake of convenience, the morpheme is given a name according to the name of the
Peter must have arrived already (the perfect infinitive). most frequent morph. For example, the morpheme of the noun’s plurality is represented by one of its
БИЛЕТ 22 morphs – the morph /s/.
Morphs can represent:
The notions of the morpheme and the morph. Contrastive distribution of morphs. Non- - DIFFERENT morphemes
contrastive distribution of morphs. Complementary distribution of morphs. Morphs belonging - THE SAME morpheme.
to different morphemes. Morphs belonging to the same morpheme. Free alternants. If morphs represent DIFFERENT morphemes they are characterized by CONTRASTIVE
Allomorphs. Phonologically conditioned allomorphs. Morphologically conditioned allomorphs. distribution.
The notion of the morpheme was suggested by the Russian linguist Beaudoin de Courtenay It means that when such morphs are used in the identical environment they produce
in the nineteenth century. different words. For example: let us take two morphs: -ly and -ship. Let us use them in the same
The MORPHEME is defined as the smallest meaningful part of the word. It means that the environment: after the root friend-. We will get such words as friendly and friendship. These words
language unit which is smaller than the morpheme has NO meaning. belong to different parts of speech: friendly is an adjective and friendship is a noun.
Such a meaningless unit is the PHONEME: it has NO meaning. It means that if you The morphs which represent ONE AND THE SAME morpheme are of TWO kinds:
pronounce, for example, the sound \b\, your listener will get NO idea what object, or process, or allomorphs and free alternants [`ɔ:].
quality is denoted by this sound – because this sound denotes NOTHING. ALLOMORPHS are such morphs which have the same meaning, different form and are in
For example: gentle-man; teach-er-s. COMPLEMENTARY distribution to each other.
The notion of the MORPH was developed in descriptive linguistics (USA) in the 20 th COMPLEMENTARY distribution means that morphs CANNOT replace each other in the
century. The notion of the morph is based on the notion of the morpheme and can be defined in the same environment.
same way as the morpheme: as the smallest meaningful part of the word. In this case the morpheme For example:
can be defined as a CLASS of morphs and the morph is an actual meaningful part of a CONCRETE - the morphs /`naif/ and /`naiv/ in the forms ‘knife’ and ‘knives’ are ALLOMORPHS of the same root
word. morpheme (= lexical morpheme) [naïf/naiv]: they have the same meaning, different form and their
For example: the roots of the following words have DIFFERENT sound-forms:
distribution is complementary: that is, these two morphs CANNOT replace each other: the morph
CANNOT be used before the ending –s.
- the morphs /рук-/ and /руч-/ in the Russian words ‘рук-а’ and ‘руч-к-а’ are allomorphs of the
same root morpheme (= lexical morpheme) [рук-\руч]: they have the same meaning, different form
and their distribution is complementary;
- the morphs /s/, /z/, /iz/, -en, -a, -ae are allomorphs of the same grammatical morpheme expressing
the meaning of the plural number of nouns: they have the same meaning, different form and their
distribution is complementary.
The morphs /s/, /z/, /iz/ are phonologically conditioned allomorphs. It means that their
choice depends upon the preceding phoneme. The morph /s/ is pronounced after voiceless
consonants. The morph /z/ is pronounced after voiced consonants and vowels. The morph /iz/ is
pronounced after sibilants [s], [z], [ʃ], affricates [tʃ].
The morphs -en, -a, -ae, -i are morphologically conditioned allomorphs. It means that
these morphs are used after some definite roots of English words and after roots of some borrowed
(loan) words:
child :: children
ox :: oxen
brother :: brethren
phenomenon :: phenomena
datum :: data
symposium :: symposia
bacterium :: bacteria
antenna :: antennae
formula :: formulae
cactus :: cacti
fungus :: fungi
FREE ALTERNANTS are such morphs which have the same meaning, different form and
are NOT in COMPLEMENTARY distribution to each other: their distribution is NON-
CONTRASTIVE.
NON-CONTRASTIVE distribution means that two morphs can replace each other and the
meaning of the word does NOT change.
For example:
- the morphs /t/ and /d/ in the forms ‘learned’ [`lə:nd] and ‘learnt’ [`lə:nt] are free alternants =
variants of the same morpheme: they have the same meaning, different form and their distribution is
NON-CONTRASTIVE.
What is the difference between the morph and the allomorph?
Allomorph is a type of morph. Not all morphs are allomorphs.
The notion of the morph was suggested in the descriptive grammar (USA). The morph is
the smallest meaningful part (= segment = component = constituent) of the actual word. The
‘smallest’ means that a morph cannot be divided into meaningful parts. The constituents of a morph
are phonemes: they are meaningless (though not all linguists think so). For example, the word
‘activize’ consists of three meaningful parts (=elements = segments): act-iv-ize. Act– is the root, -iv-
and –ize are morphs representing two derivational morphemes: -iv- and –ize.
The term ‘morph’ means practically the same as the morpheme in the understanding of
Beaudoin de Courtenay: the smallest meaningful part of the actual word. When one morpheme is
represented by one morph it is quite possible to use both terms. Thus, you can say that the word
‘activize’ consists of three morphs or of three morphemes.
But you should discriminate between ‘morph’ and ‘morpheme’ when one and the same
morpheme is represented by two or more morphs. It happens when one and the same meaning is
expressed by different morphs. For example:
- the morphs /`naif/ and /`naiv/ in the forms ‘knife’ and ‘knives’ express the same lexical meaning of
an object with a sharp blade used for cutting;
- the morphs /рук-/ and /руч-/ in the Russian words ‘рук-а’ and ‘руч-к-а’ express the same lexical
meaning of ‘hand’;
- the morphs /s/, /z/, /iz/, -en, -a, -ae express the same grammatical meaning of the plural number of
nouns (cats, dogs, bridges, children, phenomena, formulae).
Morphs are didvided into three classes (=types = kinds = varieties):
(a) morphs representing DIFFERENT morphemes (they are meaningful components of words with
contrastive distribution);
(b) allomorphs (they are meaningful components of words with the same meaning and
complementary distribution);
(c) free alternants (they are meaningful components of words with the same meaning and non-
contrastive distribution).
/`naif/ and /`naiv/; /рук-/ and /руч-/; /s/, /z/, /iz/, -en, -a, -ae are allomorphs.
Allomorphs represent one and the same morpheme. Allomorphs are united into one
morpheme by the same meaning and complementary distribution. They have the same meaning,
different forms and different distributions.
A distribution of the morph is the sum (=total) of the environments in which the given
morph is used. For example, the morph of the noun’s plurality /z/ is pronounced after /i:/ ‘knees’, /ei/
‘days’, /ou/ ‘shows’, /ai/ ‘ties’, /b/ ‘sobs’, /d/ ‘lads’, /g/ ‘bags’, /l/ ‘balls’, /n/ ‘tins’. So, the
environments of the morph /z/ are /i:/, /ei/, /ou/, /ai/, /b/, /d/, /g/, /l/, /n/. The distribution of the
morph /z/ is the abstraction from these concrete environments: it is vowels and voiced consonants
(with the exception of /z/, /ʤ/ - after them we pronounce /iz/: bridges, cages, marriages, noises,
noses, roses, houses).
Such morphs are allomorphs. Allomorphs are morphs which have (a) the same meaning, (b)
different form and (c) are characterized by complementary distribution. Complementary distribution
is characteristic only of allomorphs. ‘Complementary distribution’ means that allomorphs are not
used in the environments of each other. The distribution of the morph /z/ is voiced consonants (except
/z/, /ʤ/) and vowels. The distribution of the morph /s/ is voiceless consonants (except /s/, / ʃ/, /tʃ/).
For example, the morph of the noun’s plurality /z/ is not pronounced after voiceless consonants:
here /s/ is pronounced (with the exception of /s/, /ʃ/, /ʧ/). The notion of complementary distribution
allows grammarians not to speak of several morphemes if the meaning which is expressed by
different-in-form word segments is the same.
Not all morphs are allomorphs. Only those morphs are allomorphs which have (a) the same
meaning, (b) different form and (c) are characterized by complementary distribution.
Some morphs also represent the same morpheme but they are not allomorphs. They are free
alternants = variants of the morpheme. These are such morphs which have the same meaning,
different form but they are not characterized by complementary distribution. They are characterized
by non-contrastive distribution. It means that free alternants can replace each other and it will
make no contrast. For example: let us take ‘learned’ [`lə:nd] and ‘learnt’ [`lə:nt]. You may remove
/d/ from ‘learned’ [`lə:nd] and insert /t/ instead of /d/ and this substitution will make no contrast
because you will get ‘learnt’ [`lə:nt] and ‘learnt’ means the same as ‘learned’.
In other words, free alternants may be used in the environment of each other: they can
replace each other without creating a contrast between two forms. The verbal morphs /t/ and /d/ are
free alternants: they can replace each other in the forms ‘learned’ and ‘learnt’. The morphs /t/ and /d/
are used in the same environment – their environment is the root ‘learn’.
What is contrastive distribution?
‘Contrastive distribution’ is a notion necessary to understand whether we deal with morphs
representing different morphemes or we deal with morphs representing the same morpheme.
‘Contrastive distribution’ is the feature of morphs representing different morphemes. This notion is
used in descriptive linguistics (USA). ‘Distribution’ is a linguistic notion describing the sum (= total)
of environments in which the given morph is used. ‘Contrastive distribution’ means that if the given
two morphs are used in the distribution of each other the meaning of the word will change. In other
words, the replacement (=substitution) of one morph with another will make contrast (it resembles
the distinctive function of the phoneme: when you replace one phoneme with another the meaning of
the word changes). For example, chair-s and table-s. The distribution\ environment of the morphs
chair- and table- is the same: they combine with the morph /z/. Can we say that chair- and table-
represent the same morpheme? To answer this question we must define the type of their distribution.
If their distribution is complementary or non-contrastive they represent the same morpheme.
So, let us take the form chair-s. Let us substitute the morph chair- for the morph table-. We
get the form table-s. Now let us see whether the meaning of the resulting form has changed. Yes, the
lexical meaning has changed. The form chair-s denotes a piece of furniture for sitting. The form
table-s denotes a piece of furniture for writing, eating, etc. So, the conclusion is that we CANNOT
consider chair- and table- to be the morphs representing the same morpheme; they are neither
allomorphs nor free alternants. The morphs chair- and table- represent DIFFERENT morphemes.
Their distribution is contrastive – so, they have different meanings.
Allomorphs and free alternants have the same meaning (lexical or grammatical). They
represent one and the same morpheme.
Why did descriptivists introduce into the linguistic description the notion of ‘morph’?
Imagine that you are a descriptivist. You live in the beginning of the XXth century. Your task is to
describe the languages of Red Indians (=American Indians) which have no alphabets, no writing, no
texts. You want to make up a list of morphemes existing in this language. You don’t want to make up
a list of words because the word in the languages of Red Indians (=American Indians) is somewhat
strange: when Red Indians speak they insert new morphemes inside one initial word expanding its
limits – so, it’s hard to say whether it is a word or sentence.
So, you have to enumerate all the morphemes (=the smallest meaningful language units).
You don’t know the language, but you have an assistant – an American Indian who knows the
language of his own people and the English language too. You work in the following way. You
record a chunk of speech and begin to divide it into the smallest meaningful language units – into the
morphemes. Imagine, that the English language is a language of Red Indians. Imagine that you gave
recorded a sentence “He played tennis then”. You start from the beginning of the sentence. You take
the first phoneme /h/ and ask you informant whether it has any meaning. He says ‘no’. Then you add
he next phoneme - /i:/ - and ask whether /hi:/ ‘he’ has any meaning. The informant says ‘yes, it means
‘он’. So, you have recorded the first meaningful unit.
You work further. You ask whether the phoneme /p/ has any meaning. The informant says
‘no’. Then you add the next phoneme - /l/ - and ask whether /pl/ has any meaning. The informant says
‘no’. Then you add the next phoneme - /ei/ - and ask whether /plei/ has any meaning. The informant
says ‘yes, it means ‘играть’. So, you have recorded another meaningful unit.
You work further. You ask whether the phoneme /d/ has any meaning. The informant says
‘yes, it adds the meaning of the past tense to the verb ‘играть’. So, you have recorded a third
meaningful unit (morpheme).
Rather simple, isn’t it?
But it’s not always so. Imagine that the linguist has come across ‘knife’ and ‘knives’. The
informant tells him that the units /naïf/ and /naiv/ have the same lexical meaning. But the linguist
can’t ignore the difference in form between /naïf/ and /naiv/. He has to consider /naïf/ and /naiv/
either to be the same morpheme or to be two different morphemes. If he considers /naïf/ and /naiv/
to be the same morpheme, he will ignore their difference in form. If he considers /naïf/ and /naiv/ to
be two different morphemes, he will ignore their similarity in meaning.
Linguists consider the similarity in meaning to be of PRIMARY importance when we try
to define what is a morpheme and what is not a morpheme, because the morpheme is defined as the
smallest language unit which possesses meaning – the smallest meaningful unit of the language (or
of the word). Being meaningful is the primary feature of the morpheme. That is why meaning plays
the primary role when we try to define what is a morpheme and what is not a morpheme. If two
segments of two words have the same meaning and they can’t be divided further into meaningful
units, they represent one morpheme.
So, the linguist see that one and the same morpheme can be represented by two (or more)
segments of word which have partly [частично] different form but the same meaning. Such
segments were called morphs. For example:
- the morphs /`naif/ and /`naiv/ in the forms ‘knife’ and ‘knives’ express the same lexical meaning of
an object with a sharp blade used for cutting;
- the morphs /`waif/ and /`waiv/ in the forms ‘wife’ and ‘wives’ express the same lexical meaning of
a woman married to a man;
- the morphs /`ʃelf/ and /`ʃelv/ in the forms ‘shelf’ and ‘shelves’ express the same lexical meaning of
a piece of furniture;
- the morphs /рук-/ and /руч-/ in the Russian words ‘рук-а’ and ‘руч-к-а’ express the same lexical
meaning of ‘hand’;
- the morphs /s/, /z/, /iz/, -en, -a, -ae express the same grammatical meaning of the plural number of
nouns (cats, dogs, bridges, children, phenomena, formulae).
The notion of the morph was suggested in the descriptive grammar (USA). The morph is
the smallest meaningful part (= segment = component = constituent) of the actual word. The
morpheme is a class (=set) of morphs. The morpheme is an abstraction from the particular morphs.
The ‘smallest’ means that a morph cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts: the
constituents of a morph are phonemes: they are meaningless (though not all linguists think so). For
example, the word ‘activize’ consists of three meaningful parts (=elements = segments): act-iv-ize.
Act– is the root, -iv- and –ize are morphs representing two derivational morphemes: -iv- and –ize.
So, you see that sometimes two different morphs represent two morphemes, sometimes
they represent one morpheme. You analyse speech and you need a rule to distinguish morphs, which
represent two morphemes, from morphs, which represent one morpheme.
This rule is based on the notion of ‘distribution’. A distribution of the morph is the sum
(=total) of the environments in which the given morph is used.
For example, the morph of the noun’s plurality /z/ is pronounced after /i:/ ‘knees’, /ei/
‘days’, /ou/ ‘shows’, /ai/ ‘ties’, /b/ ‘sobs’, /d/ ‘lads’, /g/ ‘bags’, /l/ ‘balls’, /n/ ‘tins’. So, the
environments of the morph /z/ are /i:/, /ei/, /ou/, /ai/, /b/, /d/, /g/, /l/, /n/. The distribution of the
morph /z/ is the abstraction from these concrete environments: it is vowels and voiced consonants
(with the exception of /z/, /ʤ/ - after them we pronounce /iz/: bridges, cages, marriages, noises,
noses, roses, houses).
The distribution may be of three types: contrastive, non-contrastive and complementary.
Two morphs represent one morpheme if they are characterized either by the non-
contrastive or by complementary distribution.
Two morphs represent two morphemes if they are characterized either by the contrastive
distribution.
‘Contrastive distribution’ is the feature of morphs representing different morphemes.
‘Contrastive distribution’ means that if the given two morphs are used in the distribution of each
other, the meaning of the word will change. In other words, the replacement (=substitution) of one
morph with another will make contrast (it resembles the distinctive function of the phoneme: when
you replace one phoneme with another, the meaning of the word changes). For example, chair-s and
table-s. The distribution\ environment of the morphs chair- and table- is the same: they combine with
the morph /z/. Can we say that chair- and table- represent the same morpheme? To answer this
question we must define the type of their distribution. If their distribution is complementary or non-
contrastive they represent the same morpheme.
So, let us take the form chair-s. Let us substitute the morph chair- for the morph table-. We
get the form table-s. Now let us see whether the meaning of the resulting form has changed. Yes, the
lexical meaning has changed. The form chair-s denotes a piece of furniture for sitting. The form
table-s denotes a piece of furniture for writing, eating, etc. So, the conclusion is that we cannot
consider chair- and table- to be the morphs representing the same morpheme; they are neither
allomorphs nor free alternants. The morphs chair- and table- represent different morphemes. Their
distribution is contrastive – so, they have different meanings.
The morphs which belong to the same morpheme are either allomorphs or free alternants.
Allomorphs are characterized by complementary distribution.
Free alternants are characterized by non-contrastive distribution.
Allomorphs are morphs which have the same meaning, different forms and are
characterized by complementary distribution. Complementary distribution is characteristic only of
allomorphs. ‘Complementary distribution’ means that allomorphs are not used in the environments of
each other. The distribution of the morph /z/ is voiced consonants (except /z/, /ʤ/) and vowels. The
distribution of the morph /s/ is voiceless consonants (except /s/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/). For example, the morph of
the noun’s plurality /z/ is not pronounced after voiceless consonants: here /s/ is pronounced (with the
exception of /s/, /ʃ/, /ʧ/). The notion of complementary distribution allows grammarians not to speak
of several morphemes if the meaning which is expressed by different-in-form word segments is the
same.
Not all morphs are allomorphs. Only those morphs are allomorphs which have (a) the same
meaning, (b) different form and (c) are characterized by complementary distribution.
Some morphs also represent the same morpheme but they are not allomorphs. They are free
alternants = variants of the morpheme. These are such morphs which have the same meaning,
different form but they are not characterized by complementary distribution. They are characterized
by non-contrastive distribution. It means that free alternants can replace each other and it will
make no contrast. For example: let us take ‘learned’ [`lə:nd] and ‘learnt’ [`lə:nt]. You may remove
/d/ from ‘learned’ [`lə:nd] and insert /t/ instead of /d/ and this substitution will make no contrast
because you will get ‘learnt’ [`lə:nt] and ‘learnt’ means the same as ‘learned’.
In other words, free alternants may be used in the environment of each other: they can
replace each other without creating a contrast between two forms. The verbal morphs /t/ and /d/ are
free alternants: they can replace each other in the forms ‘learned’ and ‘learnt’. The morphs /t/ and /d/
are used in the same environment – their environment is the root ‘learn’.
When do two morphs represent the same morpheme?
Two morphs represent the same morpheme:
1) when the morphs are in complementary distribution to each other or
2) when the morphs are in non-contrastive distribution to each other.
Morphs, which are in complementary distribution to each other, are called allomorphs.
Morphs, which are in non-contrastive distribution to each other, are called free alternants.
Those morphs are in complementary distribution to each other which have the same
meaning, different forms and cannot replace each other in their positions. For example: cats [s] and
dogs [z] – you cannot substitute [s] for [z] or [z] for [s]. The morphs [s] and [z] are allomorphs
belonging to the same morpheme expressing plurality. The morphs [s] and [z] are phonologically
conditioned allomorphs.
Those morphs are in non-contrastive distribution to each other which have the same meaning,
different forms and can replace each other in their positions. For example: learned [d] and learnt [t].
You can substitute [d] for [t] or [t] for [d]: the meaning will not change - learned [d] and learnt [t]
mean the same. The distribution is called ‘non-contrastive’ because you can pronounce either [d] or
[t] in the given environment (‘learn’) – it does not matter what morph to choose, the substitution of
one morph for the other will make no difference (=no contrast): the grammatical meaning will remain
the same.
БИЛЕТ 23
The elative as the secondary meaning of the form of the superlative degree of adjectives. The
meaning of unrestricted superiority as the secondary meaning of the form of the comparative
degree of adjectives.
The COMPARATIVE and SUPERLATIVE degrees of adjectives have their primary meanings and
their secondary meanings.
The primary meaning of the COMPARATIVE degree is that of the RESTRICTED
SUPERIORITY.
The primary meaning of the SUPERLATIVE degree is that of the UNRESTRICTED
SUPERIORITY.
Let us start with the secondary meaning of the SUPERLATIVE degree. This is the meaning of the
ELATIVE.
The elative [`i:lətiv], [`elətiv] means the “adjective of superiority.” Such a meaning is expressed
by such adjectives as supreme, perfect, excellent, magnificent, gigantic, minimal.
The meaning of the elative makes it impossible for such adjectives to combine with the adverb of
high degree very.
According to М.Я. Блох the elative meaning can be expressed LEXICALLY and
GRAMMATICALLY.
The LEXICAL expression of the elative meaning is done through the lexical meanings of the
adverbs and adjectives which express an intensely high estimation, e.g.:
- an extremely important amendment;
- a matter of exceeding urgency;
- quite an unparalleled beauty.
The GRAMMATICAL expression of the elative meaning is done by the form of the
SUPERLATIVE degree when this form does NOT express the meaning of unrestricted superiority
and expresses the meaning of a high degree of a quality.
It happens, for example, when the form of the superlative degree is used with the INDEFINITE
ARTICLE.
For example:
1) She is THE most beautiful girl.
2) She is A most beautiful girl.
In the first case the form of the adjective expresses the meaning of unrestricted superiority. It means
that the speaker has COMPARED the appearance of the definite number of girls and came to the
conclusion that the girl in question exceeds all of them as far as their beauty is concerned.
In the second case the form of the adjective does NOT express the meaning of unrestricted
superiority.
Here the form of the adjective expresses the meaning of the HIGHT DEGREE of the quality, i.e. the
meaning of the elative.
This fact is proved when we use the adverbs ‘very’ \ ‘really’ instead of ‘most’:
She is A most beautiful girl. → She is a VERY beautiful girl.
In this case the speaker has done NO COMPARISON.
The elative meaning can be expressed by the superlative form both with the DEFINITE and
INDEFINITE articles.
For example:
I found myself in the most awkward situation, for I couldn’t give a satisfactory answer to any
question.
 Here the situation is described as “VERY AWKWARD”. When the aspective meaning is expressed LEXICALLY, it means that it is in-built in the
The elative can be expressed by both ANALYTICAL and SYNTHETICAL forms of comparison. semantic structure of the verb and is not expressed by a special morpheme.
In the sentences that follow the elative meaning is expressed by SYNTHETICAL forms of Thus, for example E. Kruisinga distinguishes the following types of verbs which express
comparison: aspective meanings LEXICALLY:
Unfortunately, our cooperation with Danny proved the worst experience for both of us. - momentaneuos verbs,
No doubt Mr. Snider will show you his collection of minerals with the greatest pleasure. - durative verbs,
It is with the greatest pleasure that we learn of your readiness to participate in this project. - iterative verbs (they denote repeated ations),
In Brown’s room was the greatest disorder. - incoative verbs (such verbs denote the beginning of the action).
The room was furnished in the most refined style. H. Poutsma classifies verbs into:
He painted her ingratitude in the blackest colours. = He painted her ingratitude in very black colours. - momentaneuos
The COMPARATIVE degree form can also express a secondary meaning. It is the meaning of - durative
UNRESTRICTED SUPERIORITY. Remember that this meaning is the primary one for the - iterative.
superlative degree form. These various lexical aspective meanings can be generalized in the division of verbs into
The COMPARATIVE degree form expresses the meaning of UNRESTRICTED SUPERIORITY in LIMITIVE (TERMINATIVE) and UNLIMITIVE (NON-TERMINATIVE) (предельные и
combination with the negative pronouns never, no one, nobody, nothing, no, nowhere. непредельные глаголы).
For example: LIMITIVE (TERMINATIVE) verbs denote actions or states which cannot develop
1) There is NOTHING more difficult than to try to convince him. → To convince him is THE indefinitely. There has to be a limit to such actions or states. For example:
MOST DIFFICULT task. - to drop
2) I know NO ONE cleverer than Jane. → Jane is THE CLEVEREST girl I know. - to fall
3) I have NEVER met a more exotic animal. → This is THE MOST EXOTIC animal I have ever met. - to close
4) NO man can be braver. → He is THE BRAVEST man. - to lock
5) NOWHERE can you find a more aggressive nation. → This is THE MOST AGGRESSIVE nation - to open
you can ever find. - to push
We have transformed the sentences with the negative pronouns into the sentences with the - to pull
superlative degree forms: the most difficult, the cleverest, the most exotic, the bravest, the most - to finish
aggressive. - to say.
These transformations prove that in the sentences, in which the negative pronouns combine with the UNLIMITIVE (NON-TERMINATIVE) verbs denote actions or states which, theoretically,
comparative forms, the comparative forms really express the meaning of UNRESTRICTED can develop indefinitely. For example:
SUPERIORITY. - to sit
БИЛЕТ 24 - to stand
The verbal category of DEVELOPMENT, its aspective character. Types of verbs according to - to lie
the lexical expression of aspect (momentaneuos, durative, iterative, incoative). The opposition - to live
of the forms expressing the category of development. The discontinuous morpheme as the - to work
mark of the strong member of the opposition. Finite and non-finite verbal forms as opposemes. - to shine
The semantics of the continuous form (continuity plus the concrete character of the action). - to stretch
Unlimitive (non-terminative) and limitive (non-terminative) verbs, their differentiation. Cases This division is loose, the demarcation line between the sets is easily trespassed both ways.
of reduction \ neutralization of the opposition ‘non-continuity :: continuity’ (for statal verbs). Though this division is, strictly speaking, lexical, it is grammatically relevant, because
Verbs without continuous forms. Criticism of the approach to continuous forms as tense forms. these lexical aspective characteristics influence the choice of the aspective grammatical forms of the
The verbal category of DEVELOPMENT verb. Such a choice concerns cases when we describe a prolonged \ continuous action in the PAST,
The category of DEVELOPMENT is another grammatical category ascribed to the English like:
verb. This category belongs to the broader category of ASPECT. В тот момент она стояла на берегу.
Grammarians define the nature of the aspective meaning: В тот момент он сидел у окна на берегу.
- either as indication of the WAY or MANNER in which an action is performed; В тот момент дети лежали на пляже.
- or as the reflection of the INHERENT MODE of the realization of the process В тот момент она открывала окно.
irrespective of its timing; В тот момент Джон запирал дверь.
- or as indication of the CHARACTER of the action, i.e.: В тот момент они заканчивали писать.
- whether the action is taken in its PROGRESS, in its DEVELOPMENT Thus, verbs which contain the meaning of duration in their semantic structure
- or it is SIMPLY STATED, its nature being unspecified. (UNLIMITIVE verbs) do not necessarily need to take the continuous aspect form to denote a
ASPECTIVE meanings can be expressed either lexically or grammatically. prolonged incomplete action. For example:
В тот момент она стояла на берегу. = She stood \ was standing on the bank.
 В тот момент он сидел у окна на берегу. = He sat \ was sitting at the window.
В тот момент дети лежали на пляже. = The kids lay \ were lying on the beach.
Other examples:
He lived in London from 1968 to 1989.
He worked there for many years.
LIMITIVE verbs
MUST take the form of the grammatical CONTINUOUS aspect to denote a prolonged
incomplete action.
E.g. He was taking his boots off when the phone rang. Compare it with He took his boots
off.
Other examples:
В тот момент она открывала окно. = He was opening the window at that moment.
В тот момент Джон запирал дверь. = John was locking the door at that moment.
В тот момент они заканчивали писать. = She was finishing writing at that moment.
In the NON-CONTINUOUS form (Past Simple) limitive verbs describe a COMPLETE
action. For example:
He opened the window. – Он ОТКРЫЛ окно.
She locked the door. – Она ЗАПЕРЛА дверь.
They finished writing. – Они ЗАКОНЧИЛИ писать.
The category of DEVELOPMENT is represented by the opposition of the meanings
‘CONTINUOUS’ – ‘NON-CONTINUOUS’. Either meaning is expressed by its own form. For
example:
- asks – is asking,
- asked – was asking,
- has asked – has been asking,
- is asked – is being asked,
- was asked – was being asked,
- to ask – to be asking,
- to have asked – to have been asking,
- having asked – having been asking.
These forms make up PRIVATIVE BINARY OPPOSITIONS in which:
- the form of NON-CONTINUOUS aspect is UNMARKED;
- the form of the CONTINUOUS aspect is MARKED.
The form of the CONTINUOUS aspect is MARKED by the discontinuous morpheme {be
… ing}. This discontinuous morpheme can be taken both by FINITE and NON-FINITE verbal forms.
The form of the continuous aspect is an analytical one.
The description of the semantic content of the forms of the non-continuous and continuous
aspects should be started, according to Л.С. Бархударов, with the MARKED member of the
opposition because the marked members are characterized by a less extensive range of meanings and
its semantic content can be more vigorously defined.
The unmarked member is used in a greater number of contexts and its semantic content is
represented by a greater number of meanings, thus becoming rather vague and not easy for
description.
Grammarians agree that a CONTINUOUS aspect form expresses the action IN
PROGRESS, the action which is taken at the definite moment of its development.
According to Л.С. Бархударов, its semantics of the CONTINUOUS form may be
presented as a set of TWO ELEMENTARY MEANINGS both of which must be expressed in the
context.  contribute ).
The first meaning is that of CONTINUITY of the action (длительность действия), which
means that the action has started but has not finished yet. In contexts which do not contain this
meaning of continuity the use of a continuous aspect form is impossible, e.g.: *Suddenly he was
asking a question, *After he was asking the question, he sat down.
The second meaning is that of the CONCRETE character of the action (конкретность
действия). Here, Л.С. Бархударов means that an action which can be described by a continuous
aspect form must be not only developing in time and unfinished, but it also must be confined to a
definite stretch of time, i.e. there must be time limits to its development.
If a context allows the expression of the meaning of continuity but does not convey the idea
of time limits the use of a continuous aspect form becomes impossible, e.g.: *The boy is resembling
his father,*The book is consisting of five chapters, *I am having a large family.
In the following sentence the context allows the expression of both the meaning of
continuity and the meaning of the time limit. That is why the continuous aspect form is used here:
When John came home, Mary was cooking dinner, but it was not done.
The context shows that the action is confined to a certain moment of time indicated by the
clause When John came home. The clause but it was not done testifies to its being unfinished.
Л.С. Бархударов defines the semantic content of the forms of the NON-CONTINUOUS
aspect as the indication of the fact that the action is not taken and described at the moment of its
development. In actual contexts this general semantics interreacts with the lexical meanings of
concrete verbs. This interreaction results in the following CONTEXTUAL MEANINGS of the non-
continuous forms:
(1) the action is represented as momentary, e.g.: He dropped his book;
(2) the action is represented as repeated, e.g.: I always go to office at 8 o’clock;
(3) the action is represented as lasting for a period time, e.g.: He lived in London from 1960 to
1980;
(4) the action is represented as having no time limits, e.g.: The earth revolves round the sun.
The opposition of the grammatical meanings representing the category of development
undergoes various REDUCTIONS \ NEUTRALIZATIONS.
The easiest and the most regular neutralization is observed in connection with the division
of verbs into limitive (terminative) and unlimitive (non-terminative).
UNLIMITIVE (non-terminative) verbs may denote actions in progress WITHOUT taking
continuous aspect forms.
For example:
It was cold. The stars shone with a fierce brilliancy;
Rodger saw Nancy. She sat on the couch and held a glass in her hand.
The neutralization described above is of optional character, cf.: The stars shone with a
fierce brilliancy. > The stars were shining with a fierce brilliancy.
Not all the English verbs have the forms of the continuous aspect in their paradigms though
all of them have the unmarked form of the non-continuous one. It means that the neutralization of the
aspect opposition is a grammatical rule with some verbs. These are STATAL verbs = the verbs
which are never used in the continuous.
STATAL verbs include:
- verbs of sense perception (see, hear, feel, smell, taste);
- verbs denoting subjective attitudes to something or somebody (love, hate, like, respect,
believe);
- “perfective” verbs denoting the final stage of action (think, recognize, accept, result,
persuade, forgive);
- verbs denoting properties and relations as permanent qualities of some object (belong,
consist, contain, conflict, comprise, connect, possess, resemble, suffice, know, date,
 The category of development, unlike the categories of person, number and time, has a -the present participle
VERBID REPRESENTATION. It means that the discontinuous morpheme {be … ing} can be taken -the past participle.
by NON-FINITE verbal forms (verbids \ verbals): FINITE verbal forms express the meaning of the SEVEN grammatical categories:
- by the INFINITIVE -the category of PERSON
- by the GERUND -the category of NUMBER
- by PARTICIPLE ONE. -the category of TENSE
Most often we can come across the CONTINUOUS form of the INFINITIVE. For -the category of MOOD
example: -the category of VOICE
She seems to be sleeping. -the category of RETROSPECTIVE COORDINATIOM
Is there really anything for you to be complaining about? -the category of DEVELOPMENT.
It was natural for Kezia and her grandmother to be taking their siesta together. The category of VOICE, in its traditional understanding,
The Gerund and Participle One take the discontinuous morpheme {be … ing} VERY is represented by TWO meanings:
RARELY. These two verbals coincide in the continuous form: being waiting. -the meaning of the ACTIVE voice
If we COMPARE the non-continuous and continuous forms of the Gerund and Participle -the meaning of the PASSIVE voice.
One (waiting :: being waiting), we will see that the continuous form emphasizes the continual The choice of the form of the voice depends on how the speaker describes the process \ situation:
character of the action: -either the speaker first mentions the AGENT (=doer of the action), then (s)he names the action, then
- Waiting for her I felt impatient. (s)he names the RECIPIENT (=object) of the action;
- I felt very impatient being waiting for her. -or the speaker first mentions the RECIPIENT (=object) of the action, then (s)he names the action,
- I don’t like waiting for other people. then (s)he names the AGENT (=doer of the action).
- I really hate being waiting for other people. In the first case the SUBJECT denotes the doer of the action and the speaker makes the predicate take
Not all grammarians agree that the meaning of the continuous aspect together with its the form of the ACTIVE form. For example: The student knows the rule.
opposite ‘non-continuous meaning’ constitute a SEPARATE verbal category. In the second case the SUBJECT denotes the RECIPIENT (=object) of the action and the speaker
Such grammarians as Henry Sweet and Otto Jespersen considered continuous forms to be makes the predicate take the form of the PASSIVE form. For example: The rule is known by the
TENSE-forms expressing an action going on simultaneously with some other action. student.
Russian anglicists, as a rule, do not think that continuous forms express the timing of an The forms of the active and the passive voices make up a BINARY PRIVATIVE opposition, which
action. According to them, a category, in normal use, CANNOT BE REPRESENTED TWICE by one consists of TWO members, one of which has NO grammatical morpheme expressing the meaning of
and the same word-form. the voice and the other HAS such a morpheme.
Thus, the forms of the present continuous, past continuous, future continuous cannot The member, which has NO grammatical morpheme, is called the UNMARKED member of the
express the category of tense twice, that is, in the meanings of present + continuous, past + opposition.
continuous, future + continuous. The member, which HAS such a morpheme, is called the MARKED member of the opposition.
It is more logical to believe that one of the meanings of the category of ASPECT The MARKED member is marked by the presence of the DISCONTONUOUS morpheme {be …
(continuous – non-continuous) is added to one the meanings of the category of TENSE (present, past, en}.
future). For example: to take :: to be taken.
И.П. Иванова finds it impossible to separate the meanings of tense and aspect due to the The meaning of the ACTIVE voice is expressed by the ABSENCE of the morpheme, that is by a
fact that, in her opinion, aspect is not universally expressed. It is a kind of secondary meaning which ZERO morpheme.
may or may not accompany the meaning of tense. According to И.П. Иванова, aspect is not Some grammarians distinguish THREE additional voices:
expressed by indefinite forms. - medial \ middle
БИЛЕТ 25 - reflexive
The verbal category of VOICE. The forms of the active and passive voices as a case of - reciprocal.
opposition. A discontinuous morpheme as the mark of the strong member of the opposition. М.Я. Блох does not consider these meanings to be separate voices. According to him, these are
The middle voice. The reflexive voice. The reciprocal voice. The treatment of the combination additional meanings of the ACTIVE voice.
“be + Participle Two” as an analytical form (a simple predicate) and as a phrase (a compound There can be FOUR kinds of sentences with a verbal predicate in the active voice:
predicate). 1) The ACTIVE voice meaning. The subject denotes the doer of the action and the object the
The verb is a part of speech which denotes a PROCESS. recipient of the action.
Verbal forms are divided into FINITE and NON-FINITE. For example:
FINITE verbal forms occupy in the sentence the position of the PREDICATE and agree with the - The teacher began the lesson.
subject in the meanings of PERSON and NUMBER. - Bob washed the dishes.
NON-FINITE verbal forms are: - The woman kissed her baby.
-the infinitive 2) The MIDDLE voice meaning.
-the gerund For example:
- The concert began on time. In order to demonstrate the fact that people exchange actions we can use RECIPROCAL
- The door opened. PRONOUNS.
- The book is selling well. For example:
- Such cigarettes smoke easily. - They kissed EACH OTHER \ ONE ANOTHER.
- This book reads like a detective story. - We embraced EACH OTHER \ ONE ANOTHER.
- The suggested procedure will hardly apply to all the instances. - They have quarreled with EACH OTHER \ ONE ANOTHER.
In these sentences the subject denotes the OBJECT \ RECIPIENT of the action: - The boys will fight with EACH OTHER \ ONE ANOTHER.
- the concert did not start by itself, it was started by somebody; - John and Pamela married EACH OTHER \ ONE ANOTHER.
- the book does not do any selling or reading: it is sold or read by somebody. - John and Pamela divorced EACH OTHER \ ONE ANOTHER.
It makes such sentences similar to sentences with the verbal predicate in the PASSIVE verb. Yet, we - The students usually meet EACH OTHER \ ONE ANOTHER there.
CANNOT consider such verbs to be forms of the passive of voice. The reasons are as follows: Let us consider these voices in more detail.
- the passive voice form consists of ‘be plus Participle Two’. In other words, the passive voice form The form of the MEDIAL \ MIDDLE voice coincide in form with the form of the active voice, but
is an ANALYTICAL verbal form containing the DISCONTINUOUS morpheme the meaning is different. A transitive verb in the form of the active voice denotes and action coming
{be…en}. In the sentences quoted above the form of the verb is NOT of this kind, it is quite different; from the agent and going on the recipient.
- in the sentences with the passive verbal predicate we can use the by-object which denotes the doer For example: The teacher began the lesson.
of the action. For example: The mistake was corrected by the teacher. In the sentences quoted above A verb expressing the medial \ middle voice is INTRANSITIVE. Such a verb denotes an action
the usage of the by-object is impossible. which is performed NOT by the referent of the subject, but by somebody else.
М.Я. Блох indicates that in the case of the MIDDLE voice the subject denotes NEITHER THE For example: The war began in 1939.
DOER OF THE ACTION NOR THE RECIPIENT \ OBJECT. To simplify the matter we can Explanation: The war began NOT by itself, SOMEBODY began it.
consider that in case of the MIDDLE voice the subject denotes the object of the action. Here the meaning of the verbal form is SIMILAR to the meaning of the PASSIVE voice, but the
The term ‘middle voice’ means that such a verbal form lies between the active and the passive form of this verbal form is SIMILAR to the form of the ACTIVE voice.
voices: Other examples:
- the subject of the sentence denotes the object \ recipient of the action (like in the case of the The book sells well.
PASSIVE voice); The door did not open.
- the predicate of the sentence has the form of the ACTIVE voice. The book sells well.
3) The REFLEXIVE voice. The cigarette smokes easily.
The subject of the sentence denotes BOTH the doer of the action and the recipient of the action. The meaning of the REFEXIVE voice is expressed by such verbs which denote an action, that is
For example: performed by the agent and is directed at the agent himself \ herself. In this case the same person is
- Bob washed. simultaneously the subject and the object of the action.
- Bob shaved. For example:
- Jane dressed as smartly as she could. John shaved. (=John shaved HIMSELF)
- The boys are preparing for the exam. Jane dressed. (= Jane dressed HERSELF)
In order to demonstrate the fact that the doer of the action is simultaneously it recipient we can use The children washed. (=The children washed THEMSELVES)
REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS: The meaning of the REСIPROCAL voice is expressed by such verbs which denote an action, that is
- Bob washed HIMSELF. performed by MORE than ONE person. The subject is a noun in the PLURAL form. It denotes
- Bob shaved HIMSELF. persons who are simultaneously the subject and the object of the action.
- Jane dressed HERSELF as smartly as she could. For example:
- The boys are preparing THEMSELVES for the exam. - John and Mary kissed. (=John and Mary kissed EACH OTHER).
4) The RECIPROCAL voice. - The students met in the park. (=The students met EACH OTHER in the park).
The subject of the sentence denotes a COUPLE or a GROUP of people. Either member of the couple - The children fought every day. (=The children fought with EACH OTHER every day).
or each member of the group performs one and the same action and they direct this action at one - We embraced. (=We embraced EACH OTHER).
another.
For example: The DIFFERENCE between the reflexive and reciprocal voices is that the reflexive voice means
- They kissed. that the action comes from the agent and is directed at the agent himself herself.
- We embraced. For example:
- They have quarreled. washed = washed himself;
- The boys will fight. dressed = dressed herself;
- John and Pamela married. shaved = shaved himself:
- John and Pamela divorced. prepared = prepared themselves.
- The students usually meet there.
 In case of the reciprocal voice the action comes from the person and is directed at the other \
another person. At the same time the person who generates an action is the object of the same action
coming from the other \ another member of the group.
There THREE approaches to the classification of the combinations ‘be + Participle Two’.
The FIRST point of view is that such a combination must be considered:
- either as a SIMPLE predicate;
- or as a COMPOUND predicate.
If ‘be + Participle Two’ is treated as the SIMPLE predicate, it means that it is the ANALYTICAL
form of the verb. Such a form expresses the meaning of the PASSIVE voice.
If ‘be + Participle Two’ is treated as the COMPOUND predicate, it means that it is a PHRASE \
WORD-COMBINATION. It is not a form of ONE word. It is a combination of TWO words (like ‘be
old’).
The combination ‘be + Participle Two’ is considered to be
a COMPOUND predicate (like ‘be old’) if the sentence describes NO ACTION. In this case the
sentence describes the STATE of the thing.
For example: The walls are painted blue here.
The combination ‘be + Participle Two’ is considered to be
a SIMPLE predicate if the sentence describes AN ACTION.
It means that it is the ANALYTICAL form of the verb. Such a form expresses the meaning of the
PASSIVE voice.
The DYNAMIC character of the action is revealed in the following ways:
- through the indication of the DOER of the action;
- through the indication of the FREQUENCY of the action;
- by the usage of the PERFECT form;
- by the usage of the CONTINUOUS form.
For example:
- The walls are REGULARLY painted blue here.
- The walls are OFTEN painted blue here.
- The walls are painted blue here TWICE A YEAR.
- The walls are painted blue BY THOSE WHO CAN DO IT WELL.
- The walls HAVE BEEN painted blue here.
- The walls ARE BEING painted blue here.
The SECOND point of view is that the combination ‘be + Participle Two’ is ALWAYS a PHRASE
(in the function of a compound predicate).
In such a case we will have to come to the conclusion that the English verb has NO form of the
passive voice.
And the following conclusion is that the English verb is NOT characterized by the category of
VOICE.
This point of view is not widely accepted.
The THIRD point of view is that the combination ‘be + Participle Two’ is ALWAYS the
ANALYTICAL form of the PASSIVE voice of the verb.
This point of view is widely accepted.
БИЛЕТ 26
The opposition as the set of contrasted forms expressing different meanings of the same
grammatical category. The opposition in morphology (gradual, equipollent, privative
oppositions). The reduction \ neutralization of opposition. The opposition in syntax.
The paradigmatic correlations of grammatical forms are also 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 (the
members of the opposition) must possess two types of features: common features and differential
features. Common features serve as the basis of contrast (основание для сравнения).
The oppositional theory was originally formulated in PHONOLOGY. There were
established THREE MAIN TYPES OF OPPOSITIONS:
1) privative
2) gradual
3) equipollent (‘равноценная’).
By the NUMBER of members contrasted, oppositions were divided into:
- binary (two members),
- ternary (three members),
- quaternary (four members), etc.
The GRADUAL opposition is formed by a contrastive group of members which are
distinguished not by the presence or absence of a feature, but by the degree of it. For instance, the
front vowels [i:-i-e-æ] form a quaternary gradual opposition. The feature in question – the openness –
is characteristic of each of the vowels, but they differ in the degree of openness.
Gradual oppositions in morphology are not generally recognized. In principle, they can
be identified as a minor type on the semantic level only.
An example of the GRADUAL morphological opposition can bee seen in the category of
comparison:
strong – stronger – the strongest
difficult – more difficult – the most difficult
good – better – the best.
These forms show the gradual increase of the quantity of the quality:
- stronger denotes a greater amount of strength;
- the strongest denotes the greatest amount of strength.
Each of the members of this ternary opposition conveys the meaning of being strong,
difficult or good, but each of the members renders A DIFFERENT DEGREE of this quality.
The EQUIPOLLENT opposition is formed by a contrastive pair or group in which the
members are distinguished by different positive features. For instance, the phonemes [m] and [b] are
both bilabial (губно-губные) consonants. Each of them has one feature which is lacked by the other:
[m] is sonorous nazalized, [b] is plosive.
Equipollent oppositions in the system of English morphology constitute a minor type.
They are mostly confined to formal relations, e.g.: am – is – are.
The members of this ternary opposition differ in the grammatical meanings of person/
number. Each meaning is associated with its own specific form: am – the first person singular; is –
the third person singular; are – the plural number of any person.
The PRIVATIVE (привативная) binary opposition is the most important.
It is formed by a contrastive pair of members in which one member is characterized by the
presence of a certain differential feature (“mark”), the other member is characterized by the absence
of this feature.
The member in which the feature is present is called the “marked”, or “strong”, or
“positive” member.
The other member is called the “unmarked”, or “weak”, or “negative” member.
In phonology, the voiced and devoiced consonants form a privative opposition [b, d, g – p,
t, k]. [B, d, g], on the one hand, and [p, t, k], on the other hand, have all features in common but one.
This differential feature is “voice”. This feature is present in the voiced consonants and is
absent in the devoiced consonants. The voiced consonants make the marked member of the
opposition. The devoiced consonants make the marked member of the opposition.
 In MORPHOLOGY, the differential feature, which is present in the marked member of The first component (‘have’) CHANGES in speech: it takes different forms of tense,
the privative opposition and is absent in the unmarked member, is a GRAMMATICAL number, person:
MORPHEME. - have - has - had - will have
For example, in the opposition representing the nounal category of number, like boy – The second component (‘en’) shows that the verb after the component ‘have’ takes the
boys, this is the morpheme of plurality –(e)s. form of the PAST PARTICIPLE. Grammarians chose this symbol because in Old English the past
In the opposition of the non-pa participle of strong verbs ended in -en. For example:
st to the past, like work – worked, the dental suffix – (e)d is the DIFFERENTIAL - findan – fǎnd – fŭndon – fŭnden
FEATURE of the marked member. The symbol ‘en’ does NOT mean that the verb in the form Past Participle must necessarily
This suffix, rendering the meaning of the past tense marks: have the ending -en. Modern English verbs have different forms of the Past Participle:
- the past form of the verb positively (we worked), - give → given
- and the present form negatively (we work). - take → taken
Grammarians who believe that the category of the verbal tense is represented by THREE - paint → painted
tenses, that is, by the past, present and future, build up a THREE-member opposeme, like: - cut → cut
work – worked – shall / will work. In the opposition of the active voice form/meaning to the passive voice form/meaning, like
Here, the two members are MARKED: worked – shall / will work. The third member, work, to take – to be taken, breaking – being broken, breaks - is broken, give – am/are given, have
is UNMARKED. promised – have been promised, locked – was/were locked, are beating - are being beaten, was
The form of the past indefinite tense is marked by the presence of the bound morpheme reading – was being read, etc. the passive form is marked by the presence of the discontinuous
-ed. The form of the future indefinite tense is marked by the presence of the free grammatical morpheme {be … en}.
morpheme (the word-morpheme) shall or will. Grammarians prefer to designate the unmarked member of the opposition by the “non“-
terms, e.g.: non-continuous aspect, non-past tense. It is connected with the fact that the meaning of
In the opposition of the NON-CONTINUOUS form/meaning to the CONTINUOUS the weak member of the privative opposition is more general and more abstract as compared with the
form/meaning, like: meaning of the strong member which is more particular and concrete.
to go – to be going, Л.С. Бархударов remarks, that due to this fact, one should start describing the semantics of
read – am reading, the members of a privative opposition with the strong (marked) member because it is easier to be
takes – is taking, described.
played – was/were playing, The semantics of the unmarked member may be even left without detailization: one may
have run – have been running etc. simply state that the range of the categorial meanings, which are left after the “extraction” of the
The continuous form is marked by the presence of the DISCONTINUOUS morpheme {be strictly defined meanings of the marked member, refer to the sphere of the unmarked member. Due
… ing}. to this difference in meaning, the weak (unmarked) member is used in a wider range of contexts than
We see that in speech the first component CHANGES: it takes different forms of tense, the stronger member.
number, person: For instance, the present tense form of the verb is used to render meanings much broader
- am - was - have been - will than the meanings which are related to “now”.
be Cf.:
- is - were - has been - shall The sun rises in the East (strictly speaking, this action does not happen in the present, but
be during a broader and indefinite period of time).
- are - had been If / When John calls tomorrow… (the action refers to the future).
- would be Ann is arriving on Sunday (the action refers to the future).
- should be The museum opens on Friday (the action refers to the future).
In the opposition of the NON-PERFECT form/meaning to the PERFECT form/meaning, In various contextual conditions, one member of an opposition can be used IN THE
like: POSITION OF THE OTHER. It means that the meaning, which is usually rendered by one member
to take – to have taken, of the opposition, in certain contexts appears to be expressed by the other member.
coming – having come, For example, a future action is usually described in English by shall/will – forms, the
read – have read, present continuous (progressive) form describes an action taking place at the moment of speaking.
reads – has read, But it is not always so: Ann is arriving on Sunday (the present continuous (progressive) form
got – had got, describes a future action). Man conquers nature (the word man though used in the singular form
are walking – have been walking, denotes people in general). In these sentences the weak member of the categorial opposition has
was/were playing – had been playing, etc. replaced the strong member. This phenomenon is called “oppositional reduction”, or “oppositional
The MARKED (perfect) member is marked by the presence of the discontinuous substitution”, or “neutralization of opposition”.
morpheme {have … en}.
This type of the grammatical morpheme consists of TWO components.
 В некоторых случаях форма НАСТОЯЩЕГО времени выражает значение Henry Sweet defines tense as the GRAMMATICAL EXPRESSION OF DISTINCTIONS OF
БУДУЩЕГО времени. Это значит, что оппозиция (то есть контраст) между формами TIME.
настоящего и будущего времени исчезает, то есть нейтрализуется. Generally we perceive [воспринимаем, ощущаем] time as PRESENT, PAST or FUTURE.
Это происходит в следующих случаях: The stretch of time which INCLUDES the moment of speaking is called the PRESENT.
1) Запланированное на будущее действие может выражаться формой Present Simple, если The stretch of time which PRECEDES the moment of speaking is called the PAST.
подлежащее выражено неодушевленным существительным. The stretch of time which FOLLOWS the moment of speaking is called the FUTURE.
Например: On the analogy with this division grammarians distinguish the verbal forms which denote:
The museum opens tomorrow. - the PRESENT tense
The symposium starts working next Friday. - the PAST tense
2) Запланированное на будущее действие может выражаться формой Present Continuous, если - the FUTURE tense.
подлежащее выражено одушевленным существительным. The expression of the grammatical time, or “tense” (from Latin “tempus”), is one of the typical
Например: functions of the finite verb (non-finite verbal forms do not express the category of tense).
Ted is arriving tomorrow. It is typical because the verb denotes expresses a process, and the meaning of process finds its
We are leaving for Moscow next Friday. complete realization only if presented in certain time conditions.
3) Глагол-сказуемое употреблен в придаточном предложении УСЛОВИЯ: When speaking of the expression of time, one must distinguish between the general notion of time,
If Ted calls tomorrow… the lexical denotation of time, and the grammatical time.
4) Глагол-сказуемое употреблен в придаточном предложении ВРЕМЕНИ: THE LEXICAL EXPESSION OF TIME
When our son grows older… The LEXICAL expression of time is done through the lexical meaning(s) of words and word
SYNTACTICAL categories can also be presented as oppositions of grammatical (syntactical) combinations.
meanings. If we speak about the LEXICAL expression of time we mean words and word combinations which
According to М.Я. Блох, they are: refer an action\ a situation event to the present, past or future:
1. question :: statement - tomorrow
2. inducement :: statement - yesterday
3. negation :: affirmation - today
4. unreality :: reality - now
5. probability :: fact - last Friday
6. modal indentity :: fact (modal indentity is expressed by seem to do, happen to do, prove to - in 1998.
do, etc.) М.Я. Блох divides the LEXICAL expressions of time into:
7. modal subject-action relation :: fact (modal subject-action relation is expressed by can do, - “PRESENT-ORIENTED” (or “ABSOLUTIVE”) expressions of time
may do, etc.) - and “NON-PRESENT-ORIENTED” (or “NON-ABSOLUTIVE”: “relative” or “factual”)
8. specified actual subject-action relation :: fact expressions of time.
9. phase of action :: fact (phase of action is shown by begin, stop, continue) The ABSOLUTIVE (PRESENT-ORIENTED) time denotation is done by such phrases as:
10. passive action :: active action - now,
11. specialized actual division (specialized perspective) :: non-specialized actual division (non- - last week,
specialized perspective) - next week,
emphasis (emotiveness) :: emotional neutrality (unemotiveness). - in our century,
БИЛЕТ 27 - in the past,
The verbal category of TENSE. Differentiation between present, past and future in their - in the future,
relation to the moment of speaking. The lexical expression of time: present-oriented \ absolutive - in the years to come,
and non-present-oriented \ non-absolutive expressions of time. Two types of non-present- - very soon,
oriented \ non-absolutive expressions of time: relative and factual. The description of the - yesterday,
system of tense forms in terms of the ternary opposition. The description of the system of tense - tomorrow,
forms in terms of the binary opposition: Л.С. Бaрхударов’s binary opposition ‘non-past :: - today,
past’. Л.С. Бaрхударов’s arguments against the usage of the term ‘present’. Л.С. - in a couple of days.
Бaрхударов’s treatment of the semantics of the Past Simple forms as the combination of two Such denotations are oriented at the moment of speaking. The indication of time is done in
elementary meanings ‘priority + no correlation with the moment of speaking’. Ways of building relation to the moment of speaking.
Past Simple forms. The NON-ABSOLUTIVE (NON-PRESENT-ORIENTED) time denotation does not characterize an
The category of TENSE is a generalized grammatical meaning which shows the TIME of the event in terms of orientation towards the present.
action denoted by the finite verbal form. This kind of denotation may be either “RELATIVE” or “FACTUAL”.
The RELATIVE (NON-FACTUAL) expression of time correlates two or more events showing some The term ‘past’ he uses as a general term to include other varieties of past time besides the preterite
of them: (H. Sweet. A New English Grammar, 1892-1898).
- either as preceding the others The present tense forms he defines as forms having no preterite inflection (I call, I see).
- or following the others. Л. С. Бархударов does not accept the existence of the future tense.
In such a case the indication of the time of the action is NOT CONCRETE (before… According to him, the grammatical category of English tense is represented by the oppositions of
after…). TWO forms:
Here belong such words and phrases as: 1) past
- after that, 2) non-past.
- before that, E.g.:
- at one and the same time with, - play – played,
- some time later, - send – sent,
- at an interval of a day or two, - tell – told,
- at different times, - am asked – was asked,
- etc. - are invited – were invited,
The FACTUAL expression of time: - has done – had done,
- either directly states the astronomical time of an event, - is asking – was asking,
- or it conveys this meaning in terms of historical landmarks. - are singing - were singing,
E.g.: - etc.
- in the year 1066, These oppositions are BINARY PRIVATIVE OPPOSITIONS in which the non-past tense
- during the time of the First World War, member is the unmarked member.
- at the epoch of Napoleon, In the opposition of the non-past to the past, the non-past form is the unmarked member with its
- at the early period of civilization, extensive meaning.
- etc. The grammatical meaning of the unmarked member, i.e. the meaning of the non-past, is expressed
In the context of real speech the above types are used in combination with one another. Thus, the by the zero allomorph.
denoted events receive a many sided and very exact characterization. Л.С. Бархударов is AGAINST using the traditional term the “PRESENT” tense. He uses the
THE GRAMMATICAL EXPESSION OF TIME term “NON-PAST” tense. He believes that the word ‘present’ must be used ONLY if we speak about
If we speak about the GRAMMATICAL expression of time we mean specific MORPHS \ the period of time which UNCLUDES THE MOMENT OF SPEAKING.
MORPHEMES which express the meanings of the PAST tense or FUTURE tense. Many forms which are traditionally termed as “present” describe actions which do not occur at
The forms of verbs make up a TERNARY PRIVATIVE opposition. E.g.: the moment of speech. For example: In autumn birds migrate to the south.
– painted (is marked by the allomorph [id]) : PAST The form ‘migrate’ is traditionally called the present simple form but the action which is
– paint (unmarked) : PRESENT described by this form is not going on at the moment of speaking. Such a form describes a regular,
– will paint (is marked by the morph ‘will’) : FUTURE. common action which does not necessarily include the moment of speaking.
The allomorphs of the PAST tense are: Л.С. Бархударов defines the semantic content of the NON-PAST (PRESENT) tense forms as
- [d] the indication of the fact the action does not refer to the sphere of the past.
- [t] According to him, the indication of the moment of speaking is ONLY ONE of the meanings of the
- [id]. non-past forms, e.g.: I see a man in the street.
The free grammatical morphemes expressing the FUTURE tense are: The OTHER meanings of the non-past forms show no relation with the moment of speaking.
- shall For example:
- will. 1) NON-PAST forms can describe an action, process or state which is presented as having no
Grammarians differ in regard of the NUMBER OF TENSES. time limits and not confined to any definite time period. They may be either repeated, habitual
H. Sweet, for instance, suggests a three-member system of tenses: actions or universal truths, e.g.:
1) the present, I work at the Institute of Foreign Languages.
2) the preterite I like folk music.
3) the future. He always goes to the cinema on Saturdays.
“Every occurrence, considered from the point of view of time, must be: The sun rises in the East and sets in the West.
- either past (I was here yesterday), Paris is the capital of France.
- or present (He is here now), Birds fly.
- or future (He will be here tomorrow)”. 2) the PRESENT PERFECT forms also can denote actions which are NOT associated with the
Henry Sweet calls the the preterite the only tense which is expressed by inflection (I called). moment of speaking but are related with an indefinite moment.
 Such actions can occur at any time or always, e.g.: A plane that has lost control cannot land Other allomorphs with the meaning of the past tense are MORPHOLOGICALLY CONDITIONED
safely. and, consequently, unproductive and they are as follows:
3) CONTINUOUS forms usually relate actions to a definite moment of time or a definite period of - SOUND (VOWEL) INTERCHANGE like in:
time. take /teik/- took /tuk/
Yet, in some cases the present continuous associates the action NOT with the moment of speaking bleed /bli:d/ - bled /bled/
but with some indefinite moment. Such an action is presented as REPEATED, HABITUAL, e.g.: find /faind/ - found /faund/
Whenever I see him, he is always smiling. fly /flai/ - flew /flu:/
He is now working as a teacher. blow /blou/ - blew /blu:/
The Government is taking steps to increase agricultural production. rise /raiz/ - rose /rouz/
The people of the world are fighting for peace. give /giv/ - gave /geiv/
4) Non-past tense forms can also denote FUTURE actions, that is, actions which follow the moment - SOUND (VOWEL) INTERCHANGE in combination with AFFIXATION (suffixation),
of speaking, e.g.: that is, the allomorphs /d/ or /t/, like in:
Tomorrow we give a public concert. tell /tel/ - told /tould/,
The train is leaving in ten minutes. flee /fli:/ - fled /fled/,
М.Я. Блох sees NO CONTRADICTION between the term the “present tense” and the fact that an sleep /sli:p/ - slept /slept/,
action denoted by the present tense form does not always take place at the moment of speaking. may /mei/ - might /mait/,
According to him, verbs hardly ever denote actions which are developing exactly at the moment of buy /bai/ - bought /bo:t/;
speaking. М.Я. Блох believes that the present will still be the present if it is related to such vast - ZERO allomorph (zero affixation), like in put, set, let, cut, spread, burst, shut.
periods of time as this month, this year, in our epoch, in the present millenium, etc. SUPPLETIVE way of the formation of past tense forms is evident in:
In the utterances of GENERAL TRUTH, like Two plus two makes four, The sun is a star, - am/is – was,
Handsome is that handsome does the idea of time is almost suppressed because in such sentences the - are – were,
idea of constancy, unchangeability is made prominent. - go – went.
THE PAST TENSE FORMS БИЛЕТ 28
The semantic content of the PAST tense forms, and, consequently, the grammatical meaning of The issue of the FUTURE tense. Л.С. Бaрхударов’s arguments against treating shall \ will -
the morpheme of the past tense, is defined by grammarians as the indication of the action’s relation forms as analytical verbal forms. А.И. Смирницкий’s arguments against treating shall \ will as
with the past, that is, with the stretch of time PRECEDING the moment of speaking; this stretch of modal verbs in all cases. Shall and will as modal verbs and as free grammatical morphemes.
time being in no way connected with the present moment. М.Я. Блох’s category of voluntary and non-voluntary future. Cases of neutralization of the
Л.С. Бархударов CRITICIZES this traditional definition of the meaning of the PAST which opposition ‘voluntary and non-voluntary future’ through ‘–ll’. Cases of neutralization of the
includes only the mentioning of priority. opposition ‘non-future :: future’.
He remarks that the present perfect form also expresses priority to the moment of speaking, but the Grammarians distinguish different numbers of tenses.
present perfect is not a past tense, it is present. The PRESENT PERFECT form, unlike the past tense Many Western grammarians do NOT consider combinations with shall and will to be
forms, expresses priority and correlation with the moment of speaking. ANALYTICAL verbal forms. They think that the English verb has only TWO types of verbs:
PAST tense forms express priority and no correlation with the moment of speaking. 1) PRESENT tense forms
The past tense member is the marked member of the BINARY PRIVATIVE OPPOSITION “NON- 2) PAST tense forms.
PAST – PAST” and it is marked by the presence of one of the allomorphs which represent the This point of view is shared by Л. С. Бархударов. According to him combinations with shall and
morpheme of the past tense. will are PHRASES. He considers shall and will to be MODAL VERBS.
Three of the allomorphs are phonologically conditioned: Л. С. Бархударов does NOT consider combinations with shall and will to be ANALYTICAL forms
/d/ (played, raised), because in this case the meaning of FUTURITY is NOT expressed by a discontinuous morpheme.
/t/ (passed, asked) THE FUTURE TENSE FORMS
/id/ (added, wanted). The rules for the formation of the FUTURE tense were formulated in the 19th century. The rule
These phonologically conditioned allomorphs are PRODUCTIVE. It means that any new verb, was first stated by J. Wallis (1653), and since that time it has been repeated by all grammarians, at
were it invented by somebody, would form its past tense with the help of the morpheme –ed, first in its archaic form, as formulated by J. Wallis.
represented by the allomorphs /d/, /t/ or /id/, and not in any other fashion. The rule ran that in declarative (повествовательные) sentences FUTURITY should be expressed:
According to Л. С. Бархударов, the allomorph /d/ is the principal of the three allomorphs because - by shall in the first person,
it has the maximum freedom of usage. Of the three allomorphs /d/, /t/ and /id/, the allomorph /d/ is - by will in the second and third.
less phonologically conditioned. The usages of /t/ and /id/ are more strictly conditioned:
/t/ is pronounced after voiceless consonants, In the second half of the 18th century these rules were supplemented by the rules for questions and
/id/ is pronounced after the forelingual plosives (переднеязычных взрывных) [d] and [t] (counted, subordinate clauses.
acted, graded, sounded). The FULL SET of prescription drawn up by R. Lowth (1762) and his contemporaries at that time
underlies the rules found in modern books.
 Most Western grammarians REJECT the existence of the FUTURE tense in the English language.
The first who adopted this point of view was Otto Jespersen.
Л.С. Бархударов shares this approach.
According to him, the combinations of shall + infinitive and will + infinitive are NOT
ANALYTICAL FORMS expressing the grammatical meaning of the future but FREE WORD-
COMBINATIONS of modal verbs with infinitives of notional words.
Л.С. Бархударов points out that analytical forms are based on the employment of discontinuous
morphemes, like:
- {be…en} for the expression of the passive voice,
- {be…ing} for the expression of the continuous aspect,
- {have…en} for the expression of perfectness.
The meanings of the passive voice, of the continuous aspect or of perfectness are expressed not only
by the auxiliary verb (word-morpheme) be or have, but by the whole construction.
The meaning of futurity is associated only with the first component of the combinations shall +
infinitive and will + infinitive, i.e. with the MODAL verb. That is why such combinations are not
considered by Л.С. Бархударов to be analytical forms.
According to Л.С. Бархударов, shall + infinitive and will + infinitive DO NOT DIFFER FROM
COMBINATIONS OF OTHER MODAL VERBS WITH INFINITIVES, such as may + infinitive or
can + infinitive, either in form or in meaning.
In Л.С. Бархударов’s opinion, the verbs shall and will RETAIN their modal meanings in all cases of
their usage:
1) sometimes the modal meaning prevails over the meaning of future, sometimes the modal meaning
excludes the future meaning;
2) sometimes the meaning of future prevails over the modal meaning;
3) but the modal meaning is always present.
Л.С. Бархударов stresses the fact the meaning of FUTURE cannot be separated from a MODAL
meaning because future is never real but possible, proposed, planned, etc.
А.И. Смирницкий does not agree with the point of view of Л.С. Бархударов. А.И. Смирницкий
quotes such an example: It will rain tomorrow.
According to Л.С. Бархударов ‘will rain’ is a combination of the modal verb with the notional
verb. But А.И. Смирницкий asks a question: if ‘will’ always expresses volition, WHOSE volition is
expressed in this case? In this sentence there is NO doer of the action whose desire \ will \ volition
could be understood.
М.Я Блох does NOT agree with Л.С. Бархударов that the verbs SHALL and WILL retain their
modal meanings in all cases of their usage.
М.Я Блох distinguishes:
- cases when SHALL and WILL are purely MODAL verbs (clear-cut modal uses);
- cases when SHALL and WILL are not purely modal verbs.
THE CATEGORY
OF THE VOLUNTARY/ NON-VOLUNTARY FUTURE
М.Я Блох distinguishes the category of the voluntary / non-voluntary future within the system of
the English future tense. It affects only the forms of the FIRST person.
This category is constituted by the opposition of the forms will + infinitive and shall + infinitive.
Will + infinitive expresses the VOLUNTARY future.
Shall + infinitive expresses the NON-VOLUNTARY future.
The future in the second and third persons, formed by will, does NOT express this category.
The FIRST person will-future describes an action which is to be performed by the speaker for
choice, OF HIS OWN ACCORD.
This meaning, according to М.Я Блох, IS NOT THE MEANING OF VOLITION, intention, desire
traditionally ascribed to the first person will-future (see above). The meaning of desire and intention
means that the speaker actually wishes to perform the action, that he is determined to do it, possibly
in defiance of some contrary force.
What is meant by М.Я Блох is not this traditional meaning of intention. He means that the first
person will-future shows that the action is not bound by any circumstances or by any special
influence except the SPEAKER’S OPTION (выбор).
For example:
- Your arrival cannot have been announced to his majesty. I will see about it.
The first person SHALL-future expresses a future process that will be realized WITHOUT THE
WILL of the speaker, irrespective of his choice.
For example:
- I’m very sorry, madam, but I’m going to faint. I shall go off, madam, if I don’t have something.
THE CATEGORY OF THE VOLUNTARY/NON-VOLUNTARY FUTURE is neutralized in the
contracted form –‘ll.
Traditional grammar states that –‘ll stands for will, not for shall. It is known from the evidence
afforded by the historical studies of the language: the English contracted form –‘ll of the future has
actually originated from the auxiliary will. But in Modern English the form –‘ll stands both for shall
and will. It is confirmed by textual data.
THE NEUTRALIZATION OF THE OPPOSITION «NON-FUTURE :: FUTURE»
The opposition representing the category of prospective time (NON-FUTURE :: FUTURE) is
NEUTRALIZED in certain cases.
One of the typical cases of neutralization consists in using a NON-FUTURE temporal form to
express a FUTURE action which is to take place according to some plan or arrangement.
For example:
The government meets in emergency session today.
I hear you sister is soon arriving from Paris?
Another type of neutralization of the prospective time opposition is observed in modal verbs, e.g.:
There’s no saying what may happen next.
You have to present the report before Sunday.
Neutralization of the prospective time opposition is OBLIGATORY in clauses of time and condition,
e.g.:
If he calls tomorrow…;
When the session is over next Tuesday… .
БИЛЕТ 29
The issue of the FUTURE-in-the-PAST tense. Л.С. Бархударов’s arguments against treating
such forms as analytical verbal forms. А.И. Смирницкий’s treatment of such forms as forms
of the subjunctive mood. М.Я. Блох’s theory of the primary \ absolutive time and prospective \
relative time: the two-stage evaluation of the time of the action. The meanings of the category of
the primary \ absolutive time (non-past and past). The meanings of the category of the
prospective \ relative time (non-future and future). The description of the semantics of the
present, past, future and future-in-the-past forms as combinations of two elementary meanings.
THE ISSUE OF THE FUTURE-IN-THE-PAST TENSE
There are different points of view on the verbal form which is called ‘the future-in-the past’.
Л.С. Бархударов considers should and would, which are traditionally related with the expression
of the so-called FUTURE-IN-THE PAST, to be the past-tense forms of the modal verbs shall and
will.
Л.С. Бархударов does not consider should to be a verb independent from shall, and would a verb
independent from will. According to him, the fact that shall and will can take the past inflexion
(should and would) proves that they cannot be considered the morphemes of futurity.
Л.С. Бархударов believes that should and would cannot express the meaning of future because
they already express past. According to him ONE AND THE SAME form cannot represent the same
category in TWO meanings SIMULTANEOUSLY: the category of tense cannot be simultaneously
expressed both in the meanings of the past and future.
According to Л.С. Бархударов, should and would express ONLY PAST and they are past tense
forms of the modal verbs shall and will.
So, for Л.С. Бархударов the tense form ‘future-in-the-past’ does NOT exist.
А.И. Смирницкий, like Л.С. Бархударов, denies the existence of the ‘future-in-the-past’ tense.
He considers such forms to always be the forms of the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.
Other grammarians do acknowledge the existence of the ‘future-in-the-past’ tense.
But there is one PROBLEM connected with the ‘future-in-the-past’. This problem is connected
with the CLASSIFICATION of tenses.
When we classify grammatical forms we must base our classifications upon ONE AND THE SAME
point of reference (точка отсчета).
When we classify tense forms we take the MOMENT OF SPEAKING as such a point of reference.
So, we get a system of THREE tenses all of which appear to be related to the MOMENT OF
SPEAKING:
1) the PRESENT tense forms denote the stretch of time which INCLUDES the moment of speaking;
2) the PAST tense forms denote the stretch of time which PRECEDES the moment of speaking;
3) the FUTURE tense forms denote the stretch of time which FOLLOWS the moment of speaking.
But grammarians also distinguish the FOURTH type of verbal tense forms – the FUTURE-IN-THE-
PAST forms. But how to include this fourth type into the system of tenses?
The problem is that unlike the THREE forms described above, the FUTURE-IN-THE-PAST is not
related to the moment of speaking. This is why this tense does NOT fit into this system of three
tenses.
М.Я. Блох does include the FUTURE-IN-THE-PAST tense into the sphere of the temporal
meanings of the English verb. In order to do it, he has to suggest the existence of TWO TEMPORAL
CATEGORIES:
1) the category of “PRIMARY time” \ ABSOLUTIVE time characteristic: NON-PAST :: PAST
2) the category of “PROSPECTIVE time”: NON-FUTURE action :: FUTURE action \ NON-
AFTER-action – AFTER-action.
Both of them answer the question: “What is the timing of the process?”
According to М.Я. Блох, both categories are represented by TWO grammatical tense-meanings
which make up privative binary oppositions:
1) NON-PAST :: PAST
2) NON-FUTURE action :: FUTURE action \ NON-AFTER-action :: AFTER-action
Each finite verbal form in a sentence expresses TWO of these meanings in combination: one
meaning from the first opposition plus one meaning from the second opposition:
I know. - NON-PAST plus NON-FUTURE
I shall \ will know. – NON-PAST plus FUTURE
I knew. - PAST plus NON-FUTURE
I should \ would know. - PAST plus FUTURE
With the help of these categories the speaker gives a double, TWO-STAGE, evaluation of the time
of the process.
In the traditional definition of a process as past, present or future, the action is characterized in
ONE STAGE, being referred either to the present, past or future.
In М.Я. Блох presentation, the process is given a double characteristic, done at TWO STAGES.
At each of the stages, the process is characterized by TWO elementary features which combine and
result in the complex grammatical tense-meaning of the given form.
At the FIRST stage, the process receives a PRIMARY \ ABSOLUTIVE time characteristic, that is,
the process is evaluated in reference to the moment of speech. At this stage the process is
characterized as either NON-PAST or PAST.
The meanings of past and non-past make up a privative binary opposition. The past-tense member
is marked.
Thus, all the tense forms of the English verb are divided into two temporal planes:
1) the plane of the present (= non-past)
2) the plane of the past.
This division is similar to the division made by Л.С. Бархударов.
At the SECOND stage of the evaluation, the same process is characterized form the point of view
of the “PROSPECTIVE time”. It is done in terms of “FUTURE – NON-FUTURE” \ or “AFTER-
ACTION – NON-AFTER-ACTION”. This is a non-absolutive (relative) time characteristic. This
characteristic is ADDED to the feature of non-past/ past.
The resulting grammatical tense-meanings of verbal forms may include FOUR elementary
meanings in different combinations:
1) the first elementary meaning – the meaning of “NON-PAST” (the action is characterized as
not belonging to the past)
2) the second elementary meaning – the meaning of PAST” (the action is characterized as
belonging to the past)
3) the third elementary meaning – the meaning of “NON-AFTER \ NON-FUTURE” (the
action is characterized as not belonging to the future)
4) the fourth elementary meaning – the meaning of “AFTER \ FUTURE” (the action is
characterized as not belonging to the past).
These FOUR elementary meanings can be expressed in sentences in different combinations:
1) “NON-PAST” + “NON-AFTER \ NON-FUTURE”: verbal forms of the Present Tense
group (Present Simple, Present Perfect, Present Continuous, Present Perfect Continuous) (play, plays,
is reading, are opening, are invited, has done, has been working, have been painted)
2) “PAST” + “NON-AFTER \ NON-FUTURE”: verbal forms of the Past Tense group (Past
Simple, Past Perfect, Past Continuous, Past Perfect Continuous) (played, was working, were carried,
had said)
3) “NON-PAST” + “AFTER \ FUTURE”: verbal forms of the Future Tense group (Future
Simple, Future Perfect, Future Continuous, Future Perfect Continuous) (shall ask, will play, will be
sitting, will be examined, will have done, will be broken)
4) “PAST” + “AFTER \ FUTURE”: verbal forms of the Future Tense group (Future-in-the-
Past Simple, Future-in-the-Past Perfect, Future-in-the-Past Continuous, Future-in-the-Past Perfect
Continuous) (should ask, would play, would be sitting, would be examined, would have done, would
be broken)
MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE CATEGORY OF THE PROSPECTIVE TIME
So:
- the PRIMARY time is present-oriented: PAST:: NON-PAST
- the PROSPECTIVE time is not present-oriented: “FUTURE :: NON-FUTURE” \
“AFTER-ACTION :: NON-AFTER-ACTION”
The PROSPECTIVE time is purely relative. It means that the future form of the verb shows that the
process is prospected as an after-action relative to some other action. As a result, the expression of
the future receives the TWO mutually complementary manifestations:
1) one manifestation for the present time-plane of the verb (shall go, will read),
2) the other manifestation for the past time-plane of the verb (should go, would read).
The manifestation of FUTURE for the present time-plane of the verb is traditionally called
FUTURE (indefinite, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous).
The manifestation of FUTURE for the past time-plane of the verb is traditionally called FUTURE-
IN-THE-PAST (indefinite, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous).
The meanings of “future (after-action) – non-future (non-after-action)” make up a privative binary
opposition in which the future-tense member is marked.
 So, the meanings of the category of prospect are ADDED to the meanings of the category of SEMI-COMPOUND sentences are sentences with COORDINATED: 1) subjects 2) predicates 3)
primary time. parts of predicates 4) adverbial modifiers of place \ direction
The approach suggested by М.Я. Блох makes it possible to settle the problem of the FUTURE-IN- According to М.Y. Blokh, NOT ALL sentences with COORDINATED SUBJECTS can be
THE-PAST. considered semi-compound. The fact is that in such a sentence there must be ONE PREDICATE and
minimum TWO SUBJECTS. Each of the subjects must make up its own predicative relation with the
predicate.
М.Y. Blokh writes that such subjects must be discontinuously positioned, i.e. there must be other
words between them. He writes that if the first subject STARTS the utterance and the second subject
CONCLUDES it their SEPARATE relation to the predicate is more “live” [более ощутима]. Е.g.
The entrance door stood open, and also the door of the living-room. Alongside with this the subjects
can express some kind of OPPOSITION. М.Y. Blokh writes that if two subject-groups are connected
adversatively or antithetically their SEPARATE relation to the predicate is more “live” [более
ощутима]. E.g. There was nothing else, only her face in front of me.
In traditional grammar the sentences described above are thought to be SIMPLE.
М.Y. Blokh considers such sentences to be SEMI-COMPOSITE, namely SEMI-COMPOUND.
According to him, such sentences are NOT SIMPLE because they are derived from TWO BASE
SENTENCES.
For example, the sentence ‘The entrance door stood open, and also the door of the living-room’ is
derived from TWO base sentences:
1) The entrance door stood open.
2) The door of the living-room stood open.
According to М.Y. Blokh, the sentence ‘The entrance door stood open, and also the door of the
living-room’ contains TWO predicative lines which are FUSED with each other.
The FIRST predicative line is COMPLETE: The entrance door stood open. It is a CLAUSE.
The SECOND predicative line is INCOMPLETE (it has lost its predicate): and also the door of the
living-room. It is a SEMI-CLAUSE.
By the number of bases joined (and predicate phrases representing them), semi-compound sentences
may be:
- two-base (minimal) or
- multi-base (more than minimal two-base).
According to М.Я. Блох coordinated subjects connected asyndetically in an enumerative sequence
can HARDLY be taken as constituting so MANY separately identified predicative lines with the
verbal constituent of the sentence.
In this case the SEPARATE relation of the subjects to the predicate is less “live”.
For example: Geese, hens, turkeys, cats, dogs rushed to have a look at the ugly duckling.
М.Я. Блох is inclined to believe that here the enumerative sequence ‘Geese, hens, turkeys, cats,
dogs’ makes up one closely connected unity which occupies the position of the subject and makes
up ONE subject, not five coordinated ones. This single subject is related to the predicate as a whole,
thus forming only ONE predicative line.
Thus, we cannot say that EACH of the nouns individually forms its separate relation with the
predicate: we cannot see here FIVE FUSED predicative lines.
Consequently, we cannot restore this sentence to FIVE BASE SENTENCES. Such a sentence must
not be considered a semi-compound one: it is a SIMPLE sentence.
According to М.Я. Блох coordinated subjects forming a plain copulative syndetic string can
HARDLY be taken as constituting so MANY separately identified predicative lines with the verbal
constituent of the sentence.
SYNTAX In this case the SEPARATE relation of the subjects to the predicate is less “live”.
E.g. Students and their parents attended the concert.
SEMI-COMPOUND SENTENCES WITH COORDINATED SUBJECTS М.Я. Блох is inclined to believe that here the copulative syndetic string ‘Students and their
parents’ makes up one closely connected unity which occupies the position of the subject and makes
up ONE subject, not five coordinated ones. This single subject is related to the predicate as a whole, Now let us consider SEMI-COMPOUND sentences with coordinated PARTS of compound
thus forming only ONE predicative line. nominal predicates.
Thus, we cannot say that EACH of the nouns individually forms its separate relation with the According to М.Y. Blokh such sentences are NOT SIMPLE.
predicate: we cannot see here TWO FUSED predicative lines. Consequently, we cannot restore this According to him, such sentences are derived from minimum TWO bases (base sentences).
sentence to TWO BASE SENTENCES. And this sentence must not be considered a semi-compound For example, the semi-compound sentence ‘The man is asleep or tired’ is derived from TWO
one: it is a SIMPLE sentence. simple sentences:
1) The man is asleep.
SEMI-COMPOUND SENTENCES WITH COORDINATED SIMPLE VERBAL 2) The man is tired.
PREDICATES First, the speaker makes a COMPOUND sentence out of these two base sentences. Such a process is
Now let us consider SEMI-COMPOUND sentences with COORDINATED PREDICATES. called COMPOUNDING. The sentences become CLAUSES: The man is asleep or he is tired.
According to М.Y. Blokh such sentences are NOT SIMPLE. The coordinated clauses are connected by the coordinative disjunctive conjunction ‘or’.
According to him, such sentences are derived from minimum TWO bases (base sentences). In the second clause the subject ‘the man’ is replaced with the personal pronoun ‘he’.
For example, the semi-compound sentence ‘The soldier was badly wounded, but stayed in the ranks’ Next, we do SEMI-COMPOUNDING. We convert the COMPOUND sentence into the SEMI-
is derived from TWO simple sentences: COMPOUND one:
1) The soldier was badly wounded. The man is asleep or he is tired. → The man is asleep or tired.
2) The soldier stayed in the ranks. We have REMOVED the subject ‘he’ and the link-verb ‘is’ from the second clause. And the clause
First, the speaker mentally combines these simple sentence into one COMPOUND sentence: has be become a SEMI-clause: tired.
The soldier was badly wounded. + The soldier stayed in the ranks. —> The soldier was badly
wounded, but HE stayed in the ranks. SEMI-COMPOUND SENTENCES WITH COORDINATED ADVERBIAL MODIFIERS OF
The sentences become CLAUSES. Such a process is called COMPOUNDING. PLACE \ DIRECTION
The coordinated clauses are connected by the coordinative adversative conjunction ‘but’. Now let us consider SEMI-COMPOUND sentences with coordinated ADVERBIAL MODIFIERS
In the second clause we replace the subject ‘the soldier’ with the personal pronoun ‘he’. OF PLACE \ DIRECTION.
At the next stage we do SEMI-COMPOUNDING. We convert the COMPOUND sentence into the According to М.Y. Blokh such sentences are NOT SIMPLE.
SEMI-COMPOUND one: According to him, such sentences are derived from minimum TWO bases (base sentences).
The soldier was badly wounded, but HE stayed in the ranks. —> The soldier was badly wounded, but For example, the semi-compound sentence ‘The tourists went down the hill, and then along the
stayed in the ranks. bank of the river, and then across the corn field’ is derived from THREE simple sentences:
We have converted the second clause into the SEMI-CLAUSE. To do this, we have REMOVED 1) The tourists went down the hill, and then along the bank of the river, and then across the corn
the subject from the second clause. field.
So, this sentence consists of TWO predicative lines, which are FUSED. 2) The tourists went along the bank of the river.
The FIRST predicative line is COMPLETE: The soldier was badly wounded. It is a CLAUSE. 3) The tourists went across the corn field.
The SECOND predicative line is INCOMPLETE: but stayed in the ranks. It is a SEMI-CLAUSE. First, the speaker makes a COMPOUND sentence out of these three base sentences. Such a process
Еще пример: is called COMPOUNDING.
ЭТАП 1. The sentences become CLAUSES (pleni-clauses): The tourists went down the hill. + The tourists
1) He tore the photograph in half. went along the bank of the river. + The tourists went across the corn field. →
2) He threw the photograph in the fire. THE TOURISTS WENT down the hill, and then THEY WENT along the bank of the river, and then
ЭТАП 2. THEY WENT across the corn field.
He tore the photograph in half. + He threw the photograph in the fire. —> He tore the photograph in The coordinated clauses are connected by the coordinative copulative conjunction ‘and’ which is
half and HE threw it in the fire. combined with the particle ‘then’.
ЭТАП 3. In the second and third clauses we replace the subject ‘the tourists’ with the personal pronoun
He tore the photograph in half and HE threw it in the fire. —> He tore the photograph in half and ‘they’.
threw it in the fire. Next, we do SEMI-COMPOUNDING. We convert the COMPOUND sentence into the SEMI-
COMPOUND one: THE TOURISTS WENT down the hill, and then THEY WENT along the bank of
the river, and then THEY WENT across the corn field. → The tourists went down the hill, and then
along the bank of the river, and then across the corn field.
We have REMOVED the subjects ‘they’ from the second and the third clauses. And the second and
third clauses become SEMI-clauses:
1) and then along the bank of the river;
2) and then across the corn field.
SEMI-COMPOUND SENTENCES WITH COORDINATED PARTS OF COMPOUND These semi-clauses LACK the subject and the predicate.
NOMINAL PREDICATES (COORDINATED PREDICATIVE COMPLEMENTS) Thus, we have received a SEMI-COMPOUND sentence in which THREE predicative lines are fused.
HOMOSYNDETIC. HETEROSYNDETIC, ASYNDETIC. MIXED SYNDETIC-ASYNDETIC
CONNECTIONS OF PREDICATES IN SEMI-COMPOUND SENTENCES
HOMOSYNDETIC semi-compounding is done by one and the same conjunction.
ENUMERATION: E.g.: A harmless young man going nowhere in particular was knocked down
and trodden on AND rose to fight back AND was punched in the head by a policeman in mistake for
someone else AND hit the policeman back AND ended in more trouble than if he had been on the
party himself (M. Dickens).
A SERIES OF SUCCESSIVE EVENTS is intensely rendered by a homosyndetic construction
formed with the help of the conjunctive then. E.g.: You saw the flash, THEN heard the crack, THEN
saw the smoke ball distort and thin in the wind (E. Hemingway).
Another conjunctive pattern used in homosyndetic semi-compounding is the ‘or’-type in its
different variants. E.g.:
(1) After dinner we sat in the yard of the inn on hard chairs, OR paced about the platform OR
stumbled between the steel sleepers of the permanent way (E. Waugh).
(2) Babies never cried OR got the wind OR were sick when Nurse Morrison fed them (M. Dickens).
HETEROSYNDETIC semi-compounding is done by DIFFERENT conjunctions.
p. 389: By heterosyndetic semi-compounding the parts of the sentence are divided into groups
according to the meanings of the conjunctives. Cf:
(1) A native woman in a sarong came AND looked at them, BUT vanished when the doctor addressed
her (S. Maugham).
(2) Ugly sat in the bow AND barked arrogantly at passing boats, OR stood rockily peering in the
river (M. Dickens).
The ASYNDETIC connections in semi-compound sentences, within their range of functions, are
very expressive, especially when making up long enumerations-gradations.
E.g.: He had enjoyed a sharp little practice in Split, had meddled before the war in anti-Serbian
politics, had found himself in an Italian prison, had been let out when the partisans briefly
"liberated" the coast, had been swept up with them in the retreat (E. Waugh).
The asyndetic formation of the semi-compound sentence stands by its functional features close to the
syndetic and-formation in so far as it does not give a rigorous characterization (semantic mark) to
the introduced expansion.
At the same time its functional range is incomparably narrower than that of the and-formation.
The CENTRAL connective meaning of the asyndetic connection of predicative parts in semi-
compound sentences is ENUMERATION of events, either parallel or consecutive.
In accord with the enumerative function, asyndetic semi-compounding more often than not is
applied to a larger set of base sentences than the minimal two.
E.g.:
(1) He closed the door behind him with a shaking hand, found the old car in its parking place, drove
along with the drifting lights.
(2) They talked, laughed, were perfectly happy late into the night.
Asyndetic semi-compound sentences are often used to express gradation of intensity + a general
emphasis.
E.g.: (1) He would in truth give up the shop, follow her to Paris, follow her also to the chateau in the
country (D. du Maurier).
(2) He never took the schoolbag again, had refused to touch it (J. Updike).
Characteristic of enumerative and gradational semi-compound sentences is the construction
where the first two parts are joined asyndetically, and the third part syndetically, by means of the
conjunction ‘and’.
E.g.:
(1) He knows his influence, struts about AND considers himself a great duellist.
(2) They can do it, have the will to do it, AND are actually doing it.
In such three-base constructions the syndetic expansion finalizes the sentence both structurally and
semantically, making it into an intensely complete utterance.
p. 388: Of the meanings other than enumerative rendered by the construction in question, the most
prominent is elucidation [разъяснение] combined with various connotations, such as:
- consequence,
- purpose,
- additional characteristics of the basic event.
Cf.:
(1) The sight of him made me feel young again: took me back to the beaches, the Ardennes, the
Reichswald, AND the Rhine.
(2) I put an arm round her, tried to tease her into resting.
In the MIXED syndetic-asyndetic semi-compound sentence, various groupings of coordinated parts
are effected.
E.g.: He spun completely round, THEN fell forward on his knees, rose again AND limped slowly on
(E. Waugh).
GRAMATICAL TEACHING IN ANCIANT GREECE.
The grammatical teaching of Ancient Greece was completed in Alexandria (which is now in Egypt, at
that time this region was part of Ancient Greece) between the 2nd century B.C. and the 2 nd century
A.D. The development of grammar in Alexandria was stimulated by the interpretation of Homer’s
poems that were extremely popular, but the language of which had become antiquated.
The best-known scholars of that period were:
- Aristarchus (217-145 B.C.),
- Dionysius Thrux (170-90 B.C.)
- Apollonius Dyscolus (the 2nd century A.D.).
In the works of the Alexandrian scholars many features of grammar were shaped into the form that
the linguists of the 19th century called ‘traditional’ grammar.
Aristotle’s doctrine of ‘names’ and their ‘cases’ was reformed. The words of the language were
grouped
into eight parts of speech:
- inflected (name, verb, participle, article, pronoun) and
- uninflected (preposition, adverb, conjunction).
The grammarians of the Alexandrian school described the chief grammatical categories of the
inflected part of speech. For the nominal parts of speech, i.e. for names (nouns, adjectives and
participles), they were genders, numbers, cases. For the verbs the categories were numbers, persons,
tenses, moods, voices.
The sentence and the word were considered the main elements of connected speech. The sentence
was defined as ‘a combination of words expressing a complete thought’ (Dionysius Thrux).
The word was defined as ‘an articulate (членораздельно произнесенный) sound with a certain
meaning out of which the sentence is composed, and into which it is decomposed’ (Diomedes, the
Roman grammarian of the 4th century A.D., a follower of the Alexandrian school). Speech sounds
were classified into: - vowels, - semi-vowels, and - non-vowels. This classification was based on the
syllable-forming function of the sounds. The Alexandrian scholars described the word accents, some
phonetic changes in the process of speaking, the difference between long and short vowels.
Observations of the phonetic phenomena were made chiefly in connection with the study of metrics
(стихотворный размер) and prosody (the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry; the patterns
of stress and intonation in a language).