Grammar as a Science

Theory of Grammar
 Language (1)

Definition?
Parts?

Practical Grammar 2
 Language (2)

The Phonological System

The Lexical System
The Grammatical System

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 Phonological System

• the subfoundation of language

• determines the material (phonetical)
appearance of its significative units

• studied by Phonology

Practical Grammar 4
 Lexical System

• a set of naming means of language

(words and stable word-groups)

• studied by Lexicology

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 Grammatical System

• a set of regularities determining the

combination of naming means in the
formation of utterances as the
embodiment of thinking process

• studied by Grammar

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 Practical Grammar Aim

to teach how to speak, read, write and

understand a language for practical
purposes

Practical Grammar 7
 Theoretical Grammar Aim
to present a theoretical description of the
grammatical system of a language, i.e.:
• to scientifically analyse and define its
grammatical categories
• To study the mechanisms of
grammatical formation of utterances
out of words in the process of speech
making
Practical Grammar 8
 Grammar Parts
• Morphology - forms of words and their
meanings, the ways these forms are
formed, the parts of speech and their
grammatical tendency
• Syntax - the ways words are combined
into sentences, parts of a sentence and
their meanings, syntactical word-
combinations
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 Grammar Notions

• Grammatical Meanings
• Grammatical Categories

A board
Lexical meaning - ?
Grammatical meaning - ?
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 Notional Parts of Speech
= Independent parts of speech:
• Noun
• Adjective
• Verb, etc.

Lexical meaning + Grammatical meaning

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 Structural Parts of Speech
= Formal words:
• Preposition
• Article, etc.

Lexical meaning + Grammatical meaning

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 Grammatical Meaning
general meanings abstracted from the lexical
meanings of the words and uniting words of a
certain class:
• abstractivity, substance (Noun)
• quality (Adjective)
• ??? (Verb)
• ??? (Adverb)
never named in words
expressed in grammatical forms
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 Grammatical Category
grammatical meaning + grammatical
forms = a grammatical category
Gr. Meaning Gr. Form Gr. Category
More than 1 -e/es, -ren Number (Nouns)
boy-boys

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 Grammatical Meaning, Form,
Category
Grammatical meanings are expressed in
grammatical forms (1) and grammatical
forms of one and the same word are its
varieties (2) which differ from each other
in their grammatical meanings (3)
(1) N+0 vs. N+-es
(2) (3) play vs. plays vs. played

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 The Planes of Language (1)
• The plane of content = semantic
elements (meaning)
• The plane of expression = material
(formal) units of language taken by
themselves, apart from the meanings
rendered by them (form)
Grammatical elements = content +
expression/meaning + form
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 The Planes of Language (2)
Polysemy/Homonymy: 2 or more units of
the plane of content = 1 unit of the plane
of expression (1 form = 2 or more
meanings)
Form (the plane of expression) Meaning (the plane of content)
-s/-es the third person singular of the verbal present
tense (he speaks)
the plural of the noun (cases)
the possessive form of the noun (Tom’s)
the absolute form of the pronouns (hers)

Practical Grammar 17
 The Planes of Language (3)
Synonymy: 2 or more units of the plane of
expression = 1 unit of the plane of content
(1 meaning = 2 or more forms)
Form (the plane of expression) Meaning (the plane of content)
the Future Indefinite (I’ll look out for him) Future Action
Future Continuous (.. you will be looking for…)
Present Indefinite (what time do we arrive)
expression with modal verbs (that ought to be
a beauty)
Present Continuous, etc.

Practical Grammar 18
 Task 1
Complete the chart (Worksheet 1)
Grammatic Grammatical meaning Grammatical form
al category
Number Its meaning reflects the existence of Singular – plural
(noun) individual objects and groups of 0 - -s,
objects in the material world -es, en,
inner flexion
Gender It reflects the sex of an object Male – female – neutral
(noun) 0 (he) - -ess (she) – 0 (it)

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 Word-Form Derivation
Synthetic Type
• Suffixation – e.g. suffixes of nouns –s (es)
• Sound interchange – interchange of consonants (have – has - had),
interchange of vowels (foot – feet, mouse - mice)
• Interchange of sound with suffixation – e.g. do – does, sell –sold.

Suppletive Type
• use of different roots which have one and the same meaning (I – me, we
– us, she – her, go – went, be – was, were, good – better – the best)

Analytical Type
• one or two elements, but in meaning they are one sense unit with two
meanings: lexical and grammatical (e.g. have written).
Practical Grammar 20