Theoretical Course of English Grammar

Lecture 2

Dimensions and levels of linguistic analysis:

syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations between lingual
units.
Hierarchical structuring of language system.
 Lingual units have capacity to enter into relations of two different kinds with
one another in a certain context.
For Example : “A very beautiful girl is talking to my brother in the yard.”
In this sentence the words and word-groups are connected in a horizontal
dimension:
a girl
a beautiful girl
is talking
a beautiful girl is talking
is talking to my brother
is talking in the yard
Morphemes within words are also connected in a horizontal dimension:
E.g.: beauti/ful, talk/ing.
 Phonemes and graphemes are connected in a horizontal dimension within
morphemes and words.
When elements combine with others along a horizontal
dimension, they enter into syntagmatic relations.
Syntagmatic relations are immediate linear relations
between lingual units of the same level.

Syntagmatic Relations 4 main types of notional

Syntagma
 “A very beautiful girl is talking to my brother in the yard.”

 1. A very beautiful girl is talking A girl is talking

Subject predicate Subject predicate
Predicative Syntagma
 2. is talking to my brother
predicate object
Objective Syntagma
 3. a beautiful girl; my brother
attribute noun/ subject attribute noun/object
Attributive Syntagma
 4. is talking in the yard very beautiful
adverbial modifier of place adverbial modifier of degree
Adverbial Syntagma
Syntagmatic relations

 Nick was offensive.

 The word on the wall was offensive.

 The politician’s speech was offensive.

 His manner was offensive.

Lingual units enter into paradigmatic relations when they have

the same potential to appear in the same context and functionally
substitute each other.
Paradigmatic relations between lingual elements are
especially evident in classical paradigms of categorical
forms of parts of speech.

 The minimal paradigm consists of two oppositional forms.

boy – boys (category of number)
 Grammatical categories of comparison of adjectives
big – bigger – biggest
 Grammatical categories of verbs
play – plays – played – will play;
play – is playing – has been playing, etc
 Hierarchical structuring of language system.

 Language is a system of signs which is organized by the principle of

hierarchy of levels of lingual units.

Phonemes morphemes words sentences

Phonemic level Morphemic Level Lexemic Level Syntactic Level
Morphological Level
bad [bæd] bed [bed] ros-y; come-s the smallest naming A full sign which
(nominative) unit of language names extralinguistic
situation, transmits
information and
performs a communicative
The highest level in the hierarchical system is a
textual level.
 From the structural viewpoint, text can be defined as a sequence
of thematically interrelated well-formed sentences

 From the functionalist viewpoint, a lingual unit of any length, be

it a sequence of thematically interrelated well-formed sentences,
one simple sentence or even a word, can be defined as a text if it
performs a communicative function. This definition explains the
existence of such one-word texts as: “Fire!”; “Help!” and many
others, which are restricted by the setting of the given speech act.