Download The aims of the theoretical course of Grammar

The aims of the theoretical course of Grammar
The aims of the theoretical course of Grammar:
• to present a theoretical description of its grammatical
system,
• to analyze and determine its grammatical categories,
• to study the mechanisms of grammatical formation of
utterances out of words in the process of speech making ,
• to give an analysis of English Grammatical structure in
the light of general principles of linguistics.
The words of every language fall into classes which are called
parts of speech
In Modern English there is following system of parts of speech:
The Noun.
The Adjective.
The Pronoun.
The Adverb.
The Numeral.
The Verb.
The Preposition.
The Conjunction.
The Interjection.
The parts of speech differ from each other in meaning,
in form and function. In modern linguistics, parts of
speech are described according to three criteria:
semantic, formal and functional.
The semantic criterion regards the grammatical forms
of the whole class of words (general grammatical
meaning).
The formal criterion reveals paradigmatic properties:
relevant grammatical categories, the form of the
words, their specific inflectional and derivational
features.
The functional criterion concerns the syntactic function
of words in the sentences and their combinability.
All the words of the language can be divided into:
• notional words which denote things, objects, qualities,
notions;
• functionional or grammatical words having no
references of their own in the objective reality, most of
them are used only as grammatical means to form up
utterances.
It is commonly recognized that the notional parts of
speech are nouns, pronouns, numeral, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs.
The functional parts of speech are articles, particles,
prepositions, conjunctions.
In notional words the lexical meaning is predominant.
In function words the grammatical meaning
dominates over the lexical one.
In actual speech the border line between notional and
function words is not always clear. For example,
some verbs can function both as notional and function
words: the verb to have (I have a car) is a notional
verb; as a modal verb it is a function word: (I have to
do it). The verb to look (He looked at me) – notional
verb, (He looked tired) it is a function word – link
verb.
The word combines in its semantic structure two
meanings: lexical and grammatical.
Lexical meaning is the individual meaning of the word,
including everything as a thing or object (e.g. table,
peace, boy). Grammatical meaning is the meaning of
the whole class or a subclass.
The lexical meanings of such words as “a table”, “a pen”
are different but the grammatical meanings are the same
because both of them are nouns of the same number and
case. If we take such words as: table – tables, pen –
pens, friend – friends and try to compare them, it will be
clear enough that they have different forms.
Morphology and syntax - two parts of linguistic
description.
There are two main parts of grammar – morphology and syntax.
Morphology deals with the internal structure of words,
peculiarities of their grammatical categories and their semantics.
The morphological system of a language reveals its properties
through the morphemic structure of words.
Syntax deals with the structure, classification and combinability
of sentences.
The sentence is the immediate integral unit of speech built up of
words according to a definite syntactic pattern and distinguished
by a relevant communicative purpose.
The grammatical category is a system of expressing a
generalised grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatic
correlation of grammatical forms.
Any verb combines its individual lexical meaning with the
grammatical meaning of verbiality – the ability to denote
actions or states. The verb is characterized by the system of
grammatical categories: tense, aspect, mood, voice, person and
number.
An adjective combines its individual lexical meaning with the
grammatical meaning of the whole class of adjectives –
qualitativeness – the ability to denote qualities.
Adverbs possess the grammatical meaning of adverbiality – the
ability to denote quality of qualities. Some adverbs indicate
time or place of an action (yesterday, here, tomorrow).
Grammatical categories are made up by the unity of identical
grammatical meanings that have the same form (e.g. singular
– plural)
Grammatical categories as references can have:
• the objective category of time –grammatical category of tense;
• the objective category of quantity -the grammatical category of
number (singular and plural forms).
Realization of grammatical categories may be synthetic (near –
nearer) and analytic (beautiful – more beautiful).
THE NOUN
General characteristics.
The noun is the central lexical unit of language. The noun as a part of speech has the categorial meaning of
“substance or thingness”. It is the main nominative unit of speech. As any other part of speech, the
noun can be characterised by three criteria: semantic (the meaning), morphological (the form and
grammatical categories) and syntactical (functions, distribution).
Semantic features of the noun. The noun possesses the grammatical meaning of thingness, substantiality.
According to different principles of classification nouns fall into several subclasses:
• according to the type of nomination they may be proper and common;
• according to the form of existence they may be animate and inanimate where animate nouns in their
turn fall into human and non-human.
• according to their quantitative structure nouns can be countable and uncountable which are divided into
concrete and abstract. (See the scheme).
Mary
1. Proper
2. Animate
3. Countable
cattle
1. Common
2. Animate
3. Uncountable
The category of number.
The number category is realized through the opposition of two form-classes: the plural form, the
singular form. The category of number in English is restricted in its realization because of the
dependent implicit grammatical meaning of countableness/uncountableness.
The singular form may denote:
a) oneness (individual separate object – a cat);
b) generalization (the meaning of the whole class – The cat is a domestic animal);
c) indiscreteness (нерасчлененность or uncountableness ) - money, milk, cheese.
The plural form may denote:
a) the existence of several objects (cats);
b) the inner discreteness (внутренняя расчлененность), pluralia tantum, jeans.
The category of number is expressed by the opposition of the plural form of the noun to the
singular form of the noun. The strong member of this binary opposition is the plural, its
productive formal mark being the suffix -(e)s [-z, -s, -iz ] as presented in the forms: dog —
dogs, clock — clocks, box — boxes. If the noun has the ending in letter f – fe, in plural form it
is changed into – ves. For example, leaf – leaves, wolf – wolves, wife – wives. There are
some exceptions: chiefs, handkerchiefs, roofs, safes.
Non-productive ways of expressing the number opposition are:
• vowel interchange in several relict forms, e.g. man — men, woman — women, tooth —
teeth, etc.;
• the archaic suffix -(e)n supported by phonemic interchange in a couple of other relict forms,
e.g. ox – oxen, child – children, cow – kine, brother – brethren;
• the correlation of individual singular and plural suffixes in a limited number of borrowed
nouns, e.g. formula – formulae, phenomenon – phenomena, alumnus – alumni, basis –
bases, crisis – crises etc.;
• in some cases the plural form of the noun is homonymous with the singular form, e.g. sheep,
deer, fish, swine, code, species, craft etc.
The category of case.
The category of case correlates with the objective category of possession. The case category in
English is realized through the opposition: The Common Case: The Possessive Case (sister:
sister’s). However, in modern linguistics the term “genitive case” is used instead of the
“possessive case” because the meanings rendered by the “`s” sign are not only those of
possession.
The inflexion – “s” is pronounced [z] after vowels and voiced consonants, e.g. boy’s, girl’s; [s]
after voiceless consonants, e.g. student’s, wife’s; [iz] after sibilants, e.g. price’s, judge’s. The
inflexion “s” is added to singular nouns and also to irregular plural nouns, e.g. men’s,
children’s, women’s, people’s.
A noun in the genitive case generally precedes another noun which is its head-word. This may
be called the dependent genitive. The relation between the noun in the genitive and its
headword may be of two kinds:
1. The noun in the genitive case may denote a particular person or thing, as my mother’s
room, the man’s voice. This kind of genitive case is called the specifying genitive which may
indicate the owner of a thing, the doer of action, the bearer of a state, e.g. my uncle’s car,
the minister’s speech, my sister’s illness. The specifying genitive may be replaced if necessary
by an of-phrase, e.g. the father of the boys.
2. The noun in the genitive case may refer to a whole class of similar objects. This kind of the
genitive case is called the classifying genitive, e.g. sheep’s eyes (which means eyes of a
certain kind but not the eyes of a particular sheep), a doctor’s degree, a soldier’s uniform, a
doll’s face, an hour’s walk, summer’s day, etc.
The Functions of Nouns in the Sentence.
The most characteristic substantive functions of the nouns are these of the subject and object in
the sentence. Other syntactic functions, i.e. attribute, adverbial, and even predicative are
not immediately characteristic of its substantive quality.
e.g. Life consists in accepting one’s duty – (subject).
You did such splendid work – (direct object).
He handed the man his medal – (indirect object).
She won’t listen to any advice – (prepositional object).
The place was in disorder – (prepositional predicative).
They elected him president of the club – (an objective predicative).
He was appointed squadron commander – (a subjective predicative).
The Article determination.
Article is a determining unit of specific nature accompanying the noun in communicative
collocation.
The definite article expresses the identification or individualisation of the referent of the noun:
the use of this article shows that the object denoted is taken in its concrete, individual
quality.
E.g.: But look at the apple-tree! – But look at this apple-tree! The town lay still in the Indian
summer sun. – That town lay still in the Indian summer sun. The water is horribly hot. – This
water is horribly hot. It's the girls who are to blame. – It's those girls who are to blame.
The indefinite article, as different from the definite article, is commonly interpreted as
referring the object denoted by the noun to a certain class of similar objects; in other words,
the indefinite article expresses a classifying generalisation of the noun referent, or takes it in
a relatively general sense.
THE VERB
The verb is a part of speech which denotes an action or state. English verbs may be used as
notional words and as structural words. Notional verbs always have a lexical meaning of their
own and can have an independent syntactic function in the sentence.
When verbs are used as structural words or as semi-notional verbs they are hardly isolatable.
They may preserve or lose its lexical meaning.
They are comparatively few in number but of very frequent occurrence, and include three
peculiar groups:
• modal verbs;
• link-verbs;
• auxiliary verbs.
Modal verbs are a special group of verbs which cannot be used without additional words,
though they have meaning of their own. Modals are used to express the speaker’s attitude
towards the action or state denoted by the infinitive with what they are grammatically
associated. According to the meaning modal verbs can be classified into several groups:
• verbs expressing obligation, necessity – must, have to, be to, shall, should, ought to;
• verbs denoting supposition, ability, possibility, certainty/uncertainty – may (might), can
(could), should, ought to, will;
• verbs expressing permission, requests, offers, invitations – may (might),will(would), can
(could);
• verbs denoting willingness – will, would.
Link-verbs are verbs which to a smaller or greater extent have lost their meaning and are used in
the compound nominal predicate. The common specifying link-verbs fall into two main
groups: those that express perceptions and those that express non- perceptional, or
"factual" link-verb connection. The main perceptional link-verbs are seem, appear, look, feel,
taste; the main factual link-verbs are become, get, grow, remain, keep. E.g.: She felt
embarrassed when she saw him. He became a doctor.
Auxiliary verbs are used with other verbs to form questions, tenses, negative forms or passive
phrases: to be, to do, to have, shall, will, should, would.
E.g.: We have arranged to meet in the usual place. Do you take these books? She will go there.
They are reading a book.
According to their morphological structure verbs are divided into:
• simple verbs: write, known, love, live;
• derived verbs, having affixes: organize, rewrite, magnify, decompose;
• compound verbs, consisting of two items: to broadcast, to whitewash;
• composite verbs or phrasal verbs made up of a verb with a lexical grammatical word and
morpheme attached to it (give up, go away, look up, take off, put on.).
All English verbs fall into two groups:
transitive verbs require an object followed by a noun or pronoun. The object completes the
meaning of the verb and in most cases a transitive verb cannot be used without it, e.g. He
raised prices on some goods. She laid a book on the table.
intransitive verbs do not require any object, e.g. He lived in a small town.
But polysemantic verbs may be transitive in one meaning and intransitive in another.
e.g. He has changed his car – (transitive).
According to the way on which the Past Indefinite and Participle II are formed, verbs are divided
into 3 groups: regular verbs, irregular verbs and mixed verbs.
Regular verbs are those which form their past tense and past participle by means of the
inflection – d (- ed).
Love – loved – loved
End – ended – ended
Mixed verbs show a mixture of consonantal and vocalic inflexion. These verbs form the Past
indefinite according to regular type and the past participle – according to the irregular type:
to show – showed -shown; to sew – sewed – sewn.
The grammatical categories of the verbs.
English verbs are characterized by a great variety of forms which can be divided into two main
groups according to the function they perform in the sentence – the Finite forms and NonFinite forms. The Finite forms have the function of the predicate in the sentence and may
also be called the predicative forms (личные или предикативные формы).
The Non-Finite or non-predicative forms (неличные или непредикативные формы) can
have various functions. These forms are often called the Verbals or Verbids.
The Finite forms
The grammatical categories of the verbs.
1. Person and Number
2. Tense and Aspect
3. Voice
4. Mood
1.
2.
3.
Non-Finite forms
or Verbals:
The Infinitive
The Participle
The Gerund
The categories of person and number.
There are two numbers in the verb: singular & plural and three persons: first, second and third.
The second person singular is not used in Modern English.
The verb “to be” has three forms for person and number in the present indefinite: am/is/are;
and two forms of the past indefinite; singular “was” and plural “were”.
The categories of Tense and Aspect.
Tense is the form of the verb which indicates the time of the action. The main divisions of time present, past and future, are represented in English by the three primary tenses: present,
past and future. These three tenses are expressed in two aspect forms: the common and the
continuous.
The category of aspect shows whether the action is taken in its progress or development
("continuous" aspect) or it is simply stated ("non-continuous" or "common" aspect). The
common aspect: She speaks English fluently. He came an hour ago. I will call on you
tomorrow. The continuous aspect: He is working at his English. She was writing when I
came in. I will be preparing my lessons if you come at seven.
The problem of aspect is controversial in English grammar. One meets with different lines of
approach to English aspect, which can be briefly summarized as follows:
1. Aspect is interpreted as a category of semantics rather than that of grammar.
2. Aspect is not recognized at all as a category of Modern English grammar.
3. Aspect is blended with tense and regarded as an inalienable part of the tense-aspect system.
4. Aspect and tense are recognized as two distinct grammatical categories.
The category of Voice.
Voice is the grammatical category of the verb that shows the relation between the subject and
the predicate verb in the sentence. There are two voices in English: the Active and the
Passive.
The Active voice indicates that the subject of the sentence acts, that it is the doer (agent) of
an action: He is writing a letter. She gives English lessons.
The Passive voice indicates that the subject of the sentence is acted upon, that it is the
recipient of an action: The letter is being written. English lessons are given by her sister.
The Passive voice is an analytical form which is built up by means of the auxiliary verb to be in
the required tense-aspect form and the particle of the notional verb:
• the Present Indefinite – is (am, are) done;
• the Past Indefinite – was (were) done;
• the Future Indefinite – will (shall) be done;
• the Present Perfect – has (have) been done;
• the Past Perfect – had been done;
• the Future Perfect – will (shall) have been done;
• the Present Continuous – is (am, are) being done;
• the Past Continuous – was (were) being done.
The category of Mood.
Mood is the grammatical category of the verb reflecting the relation of the action denoted by
the verb to reality from the speaker's point of view. Thus the category of mood expresses
modality.
There are the following moods in English:
1. Direct moods: Indicative. Imperative.
2. Oblique moods (косвенные): Subjunctive I, Subjunctive II, Suppositional,
Conditional.
If the speaker considers the fulfillment of the action or state denoted by the predicate as
something real, if he makes a statement of an existing fact, the verb is in the indicative
mood: He speaks English.
If the speaker considers the fulfillment of the action only as something desirable, possible,
doubtful, depending on certain circumstances, but not as a matter of fact, the verb is in one
of the oblique moods.
If he were here he would help us (conditional mood).
I suggest that we should go (suppositional mood).
The imperative mood expresses commands or request; it urges the person addressed to fulfill
an action: Open the window, please!
PHRASAL VERBS.
Phrasal Verbs are made up of a verb and a particle. A particle can be: an adverb such as out or
away. For example, go away, go out, put away.
Go away – to move or travel away from a person or place, to leave home for a period of time.
E.g. If he’s bothering you, tell him to go away.
There are four main types of phrasal verbs:
Intransitive phrasal verbs have no object. The verb and particle always stay
together, e.g. I grew up in the village.
To check in – to arrive at a hotel and give your personal details to receptionist.
E.g. We were still standing at check in. (to register)
Have you checked in yet?
Transitive – separable phrasal verbs have an object and the verb and a particle
can split. Object can come in two positions: after the verb or after the particle. When the object
is a pronoun (me, it, this, them) it must go between the verb and the particle, and cannot go
after the particle.
E.g. We cut up all the vegetables into slices.
We cut them up into pieces.
They picked up all toys. He picked it up.
Transitive – inseparable phrasal verbs take an object and the verb and particle
cannot split, where the object must come after the particle.
E.g. The baby takes after his mother.
He got on the bus.
I bumped into your mother at the supermarket.
Prepositional phrasal verbs have two particles and cannot split. For example,
to look forward to, to get on with (someone) means to have a friendly relationship with
someone, to look up to (someone) means admire and respect someone.
Transitive and Intransitive phrasal verbs are always used together in passive form.
E.g. The place has been cleaned up.
The television had been turned off.
The book was laid out and illustrated.
Non-Finite Forms of the Verb or Verbals.
The verbals or non-finite forms of the verb have certain features of their own distinguishing
them from the finite forms.
• Their lexico-grammatical meaning is of dual nature. The verbal meaning of “action, process”
is presented as some kind of “substance” (gerund, infinitive) or “quality” (participle).
• They have peculiar morphemes: -ing (gerund and PI), -ed (-d), -en (-n) (P2), to (infinitive).
• There is duality in their combinability. They form connections with adverbs, nouns, pronouns
(denoting objects of action) like finite verbs, and with finite verbs, like nouns or adverbs.
There are also other combinative models typical of verbals.
• Their syntactical relations are quite different from those of the finite verb. They are very
rarely used as predicates but they are used in almost any other function in the sentence.
The Infinitive
The infinitive is a categorially changeable form. It distinguishes the three grammatical categories
sharing them with the finite verb, namely, the aspective category of development
(continuous in opposition), the aspective category of retrospective coordination (perfect in
opposition), the category of voice (passive in opposition). Consequently, the categorial
paradigm of the infinitive of the objective verb includes the following forms:
The Participle
The Participle is intermediate between the verb and the adjective (it is a verbal adjective) and
partially between verb and adverb (then it is a verbal adverb).
As an adjective the participle is connected with a noun-word in the sentence, either as an
attribute or as predicative.
A broken cup is lying on the floor (attribute).
The cup is broken (predicative).
In its attributive or predicative function, the English participle corresponds to the Russian
(причастие).
The rising sun - (восходящее солнце).
The participle has its own grammatical meaning which is closely connected with the lexical
character of the verb.
The participle is, in the main, formed from transitive verbs and has passive meaning. E.g.: He
had suits, coats, and shirts made to order. It was a question put down by one of the
correspondents.
The Gerund
The gerund is the non-finite form of the verb which, like the infinitive, combines the properties
of the verb with those of the noun. Similar to the infinitive, the gerund serves as the verbal
name of a process, but its substantive quality is more strongly pronounced than that of the
infinitive. Namely, as different from the infinitive, and similar to the noun, the gerund can be
modified by a noun in the possessive case or its pronominal equivalents (expressing the
subject of the verbal process), and it can be used with prepositions.
Noun-characteristics: in a sentence it is used as the subject or object (direct or prepositional), an
adverbial modifier, an attribute, a part of a compound verbal predicate and a predicative.
• Reading is my best occupation (subject).
• She intends leaving tomorrow (direct object).
• They spoke of organizing a library (prepositional object).
• In going down town I met my old friend (adv. mod. of time).
• It is the best way of doing it (attribute).
• Deciding is acting (predicative).
• She continued reading (a part of a compound verbal predicate).
THE ADJECTIVE
Relative and Qualitative adjectives.
All the adjectives are traditionally divided into two large subclasses: qualitative and relative.
Relative adjectives express such properties of a substance as are determined by the direct relation of
the substance to some other substance. E.g.: wood — a wooden hut; mathematics — mathematical
precision; history — a historical event; table — tabular presentation; colour — coloured postcards;
surgery — surgical treatment; the Middle Ages — mediaeval rites.
Qualitative adjectives, as different from relative ones, denote various qualities of substances which
admit of a quantitative estimation, i.e. of establishing their correlative quantitative measure. The
measure of a quality can be estimated as high or low, adequate or inadequate, sufficient or
insufficient, optimal or excessive. Cf.: an awkward situation — a very awkward situation; a difficult
task — too difficult a task; an enthusiastic reception — rather an enthusiastic reception; a hearty
welcome — not a very hearty welcome; etc.
The Structural Types of Adjectives.
Adjectives, according to the word-building structure, can be divided into: simple, derived and
compound.
Simple adjectives have only one stem, e.g. nice, good, small, big.
Derived adjectives are formed with the help of prefixes and suffixes, e.g. unknown, friendly, useful.
Compound adjectives may be subdivided into three groups: compound adjectives with two or more
stems and a hyphen between them, e.g. light-blue, well-known, first-class, red-hot.
Compound-derived adjectives are formed by adding the suffix – ed on the second adjectives, e.g.
blue-eyed, long-legged, bare-headed, bare-legged.
Compound adjectives with numbers are combined with number and noun. In the compound
adjective, the noun is singular even when number is two or more, e.g. a six-month-old baby – a baby
who is six months old, a two-week vacation – a vacation for two weeks.
Degrees of Comparison.
The category of adjectival comparison expresses the quantitative characteristic of the quality of a noun
referent, i.e. it gives a relative evaluation of the quantity of a quality.
There are two methods of forming the comparative and the superlative degrees.
The synthetical forms of comparison in -er and -(e)st coexist with the analytical forms of comparison
effected by the auxiliaries more and most. The synthetical forms of comparison are used for one-syllable
and two-syllable adjectives, e.g. large-larger - largest, heavy-heavier-heaviest, easy-easier-easiest.
The analytical forms of comparison are used for three or more syllables adjectives, e.g. careful - more careful
- most careful, difficult - more difficult - most difficult.
Some adjectives have two ways of comparison: clever, common, cruel, friendly, gentle, narrow, polite,
simple, stupid, quiet, pleasant are formed with – er/est or more/most. E.g.: gentle – gentler– the
gentlest also as: gentle – more gentle – most gentle.
There are some adjectives that, on account of their meaning, do not admit of
comparison at all, e.g. perfect, unique, full, empty, square, round, middle, wooden,
daily, upper, major, pregnant, junior, senior, medical, dead, left and some others.
Substantivization of Adjectives
Sometimes adjectives become substantivized. In this case they have the functions of nouns in
the sentence and are always preceded by the definite article.
Substantivized adjectives may have two meanings:
1). They can indicate a class of persons in a general sense, e.g. the poor = poor people, the dead
= dead people. Such adjectives are plural in meaning and take a verb in plural form,
e.g. The old receive pensions. The blind are taught in special schools. The young are always
romantic, aren’t they?
If we wish to denote a single person we must add a noun, e.g. The old man receives
a pension. If we wish to refer to a particular group of persons (not the whole class), it
is also necessary to add a noun, e.g.: The young are usually intolerant. The young
men are fishing. Some adjectives denoting nationalities (e.g. English, French, Chinese) are used
in the same way, e.g. The English are great lovers of tea. The Chinese like fishing.
2). Substantivized adjectives may also indicate an abstract notion. Then they are
singular in meaning and take a singular verb, e.g. The good in him overweighs the
bad. My mother never lost her taste for the extravagant.
Syntactic Functions of Adjectives.
Adjectives may serve in the sentence as an attribute, e.g. Do you see the small green boat? I have
bought a red pencil.
There are two main roles an adjective may take in a sentence, and with a few exceptions each
adjective is able to take either role just as easily. The first role is to act as a predicative adjective, in
which the adjective modifies a preceding noun as a predicate, linked by a verb.
1. a predicative, e.g. Her smile was almost professional. He looked mature, sober and calm.
2. an objective predicative, e.g. I thought him very intelligent. She wore her hair short.
3. a subjunctive predicative, e.g. The door was closed tight.
The second role an adjective may take as an attributive adjective in which it modifies a noun by
being linked directly to the noun as part of the noun phrase, e.g. I see the small green boat. It was a
cold autumn day.
It should be noted that most adjectives can be used both attributively and predicatively, but some,
among them those beginning with a-, can be used only as predicatives (e.g. afraid, asleep, along,
awake, ashamed and also content, sorry, well, ill, due etc.).
THE ADVERB
The Word-building Structure of Adverbs.
The adverb is usually defined as a word expressing either property of an action, or property of another
property, or circumstances in which an action occurs.
In accord with their word-building structure adverbs may be simple and derived.
Simple adverbs are rather few, and nearly all of them display functional semantics, mostly of pronominal
character: here, there, now, the, so, quite, how, why, where, when.
The typical adverbial affixes in affixal derivation are, the first and foremost, the basic and only productive
adverbial suffix – ly (slowly, tiredly, rightly, firstly), and then a couple of others of limited distribution, such
as: -ways (sideways, crossways), -wise (clockwise), -wards (homewards, seawards, afterwards).
The Classification of Adverbs.
Adverbs are commonly divided into qualitative, quantitative and circumstantial.
By qualitative adverbs are meant such adverbs which express immediate, inherently non-graded qualities of
actions and other qualities The typical adverbs of this kind are qualitative adverbs in -ly, e.g. The little boy
was crying bitterly. He was cruelly punished for it.
The adverbs interpreted as quantitative include words of degree. These are specific lexical units of semifunctional nature expressing quality measure, or gradational evaluation of qualities. They may be subdivided
into several groups:
• The first group is formed by adverbs of high degree.
These adverbs are sometimes classed as “intensifiers”: very, quite, utterly, highly, greatly, perfectly,
absolutely, strongly, pretty, much, etc.
• The second group includes adverbs of excessive degree (direct and reverse) also belonging to the broader
subclass of intensifiers: too, awfully, tremendously, dreadfully, terrifically.
• The third group is formed by adverbs of moderate degree: comparatively, fairly, relatively, rather.
• The fourth group is made up of adverbs of unexpected degree: surprisingly, amazingly, etc.
• The fifth group includes adverbs of low degree: slightly, a little, a bit.
• The sixth group is constituted by adverbs of approximate degree: almost, nearly.
Position of Adverbs
There are three main positions for adverbs which modify a verb:
• Front position = before the subject. Most types of adverb can go in front position: connecting adverbs –
as a result, similarly, finally; adverbs of time and place – tomorrow, yesterday; comment and view point
adverbs – presumably, financially.
• Mid position = between the subject and verb, or immediately after be as a main verb. The following types
of adverbs usually go in mid position: adverbs of indefinite frequency – always, never, hardly ever, often,
rarely, seldom, usually; degree adverbs – completely, quite, fairly, slightly, too, very much; focus adverbs –
just, even.
• End position = after the verb. Adverbs of time, which indicate a definite point
or period in time, or a definite frequency, usually go in front or end position. e.g. I went to Paris yesterday –
Yesterday I went to Paris.
The following adverbs daily, hourly, monthly, weekly etc. only go in end position. e.g. The train leaves Astana
station hourly.
The Degrees of Comparison
The degrees of comparison of adverbs are formed in the same way as those of
adjectives. Monosyllabic adverbs and the adverb early form the comparative and the superlative
degrees by adding the suffixes -er and –est. e.g. hard-harder-hardest.
The degrees of comparison of all other adverbs are formed by placing more and most before
them.
e.g. clearly – more clearly – most clearly.
The following adverbs often, quickly, slowly have two ways of comparison.
e.g. often –oftener (more often) – oftenest (most often)
quickly – quicker (more quickly) – quickest (most quickly)
slowly – slower (more slowly) – slowest (most slowly)
A few adverbs have irregular degrees of comparison.
e.g. well – better– best
badly – worse – worst
much, many – more – most
little – less – least
.
THE NUMERAL.
Cardinal and Ordinal Numerals.
Numerals include the categorical meaning of number: cardinal numerals and ordinal numerals.
Cardinal numerals indicate number: one, two, twelve, twenty, thirty-three, a hundred, a thousand, etc.
The numerals hundred, thousand and million are always preceded by the indefinite article a or the numeral
one.
The numerals hundred, thousand, million haven’t the ending “s”, if it is preceded by other numerals, e.g.
two hundred cars, four thousand workers, three million people. But these numerals can take the ending “s” if
they function as a noun and used with the preposition of. e.g. Hundreds of students were present at the
meeting.
Ordinal numerals indicate order, e.g. first, second, fifth, twelfth, eighteenth, two hundredth, three
thousandth they are formed by adding the ending -th.
Ordinal numerals are used with the definite article – the, e.g. the second month, the sixth door, the twentyseventh book.
Fractional Numerals.
Fractional numerals can be subdivided into Common Fractions and Decimal Fractions.
Common Fractions are read in the following way, if the numerals are more than one they take the
ending –“s”. E.g. ½ = a (one) half, ⅓ = a (one third), ¼ = a fourth (a quarter), ⅛ = one eighth
⅔ = two thirds, ⅜ = three eighths, ⅝ = five eighths.
In Decimal Fractions all numbers are read separately.
e.g. 0, 25 = nought point two five, 2.35 = two point three five.
THE PRONOUN.
Pronouns and their Classification.
Pronouns include a miscellaneous group of words which function in the sentence as noun pronouns or as
adjective pronouns.
Etymologically, the word “pronoun” means “a word used instead of a noun”.
A pronoun usually refers to something already mentioned in a sentence or piece of text. Pronouns are used
instead of nouns and function as simple noun phrases, they are used to prevent repetition of the noun to
which they refer.
Pronouns fall into the following categories:
• Personal: Generally refers to people or animate nouns
• Possessive: Shows ownership
• Reflexive: Refers back to a noun within the same sentence, often functions as an object
• Reciprocal: Shows a “mutuality of action”
• Demonstrative: Indicates specificity
• Indefinite: Does not refer to a specific referent
• Relative: Refers to an antecedent that was previously established. Can initiate a relative clause.
• Interrogative: Can be used to begin questions.
•
Various individual pronouns may have different grammatical categories.
The Personal pronouns.
The Personal pronouns of English can have various forms according to gender, number, person and case.
Personal pronouns fall into singular and plural groups. Singular personal pronouns refer to one person or
thing and plural personal pronouns refer to more than one person or thing.
The pronouns: I, we, you, he, she are mainly used for persons. The pronouns: I, we, you are indifferent to
gender, while he is masculine and she is feminine. The pronoun it is used for animals, concrete things and
abstract notions, i.e. it refers to neuter nouns. The pronoun they is used for persons, animals and things and
is indifferent to gender.
The personal pronouns have the category of case. There are two cases for personal pronouns: the
Nominative case and the Objective case.
The Possessive Pronouns.
The Possessive Adjectives and Possessive Pronouns in English are often confusing because most of them are
very similar in form and one has exactly the same form for both the adjective and the pronoun.
Possessive Adjectives serve to modify nouns in the sentence, i.e. they function as adjectives, e.g. The doctor
usually came to his office at three o’clock.
From my place I could watch the people eating their lunch.
The Possessive Pronouns may function as nouns as well. They are used in their absolute forms, e.g. She put
her arm through mine. Theirs is a very large family.
The Reflexive Pronouns.
The Reflexive Pronouns serve to show that the action performed by the person which is indicated by the
subject of the sentence and its object indicate the same person. In this case the reflexive pronouns are
weakly stressed. For example in the sentence, “Nick hit himself with a hammer”; “himself” refers back to
Nick. Therefore, “Nick hit Nick with a hammer.” Thus, the subject and object of the sentence have the same
referent.
The Reciprocal Pronouns.
There are two reciprocal pronouns in English: each other and one another. They show that something is
done mutually. Both pronouns are mainly used in the function of an object (direct, indirect or prepositional)
in the sentence.
e.g. My two aunts bitterly disliked each other.
The Demonstrative Pronouns.
There are four demonstrative pronouns in English: this, that such, same. They all may be used as noun
pronouns and as adjective pronouns.
The pronouns this and that have the category of number. Their corresponding
plural forms are: these and those. The pronouns this and these refer to what is near in space, time or
conception, that, those to what is farther off.
e.g. This young man is my brother. I usually work in this room.
The Indefinite Pronouns.
The Indefinite Pronouns express various degrees and various kinds of indefiniteness. Indefinite pronouns are
the opposite of demonstrative pronouns in that they do not have a specific referent.
We find the following subgroups among them:
• indefinite pronouns proper – a) some, any, no, none, one; b) somebody, anybody, nobody, someone,
anyone, no one, something, anything, nothing.
• distributive pronouns – a) all, every, each, other, either, neither, both; b) everybody, everyone, everything;
• quantitative pronouns – much, many, little, few, a few, a lot of, a great deal, a great many, etc.
The Relative Pronouns.
The Relative Pronouns in English tend to initiate relative clauses. These pronouns replace other nouns that
function as the subject of the relative clause. This subject is identical to that of the object in the first clause
as in “Bob hit himself with the hammer that was used to build the barn.”
Relative pronouns are that, who, whom, whose, which, where, when, and why. They are used to join clauses
to make a complex sentence. Relative pronouns are used at the beginning of the subordinate clause which
gives some specific information about the main clause.
e.g. This is the house that Jack built.
The Interrogative Pronouns.
The Interrogative Pronouns are who, whom, whose, what, which, how much, how many. They are all used in
forming questions.
The pronoun who asks about persons. It does not distinguish gender or number it may be singular or plural
in meaning. Who is the nominative case and it is mainly used as the subject of the sentence.
e.g. Who is coming with me?
The pronoun whose is a possessive interrogative pronoun. It is used as an adjective pronoun, mostly in the
function of an attribute, though occasionally it occurs as a predicative too.
e.g. Whose room is it going to be?
Whose is the room going to be?
The pronoun what may be used as a noun pronoun and as an adjective pronoun. When it serves as a noun,
it asks the things. It may be singular or plural in meaning.
e.g. What’s this? What are those strange objects in the distance?
The pronoun which can be used as a noun pronoun and as an adjective pronoun. It is used of persons and
things and is invariable in form. We use which, not who or what, in questions before one(s) and of.
e.g. Which one of us should tell Jean the news?.
SYNTAX
General Characteristics of Syntax.
The grammatical structure of language comprises two major parts: morphology and syntax. These two areas
are obviously interdependent and together they constitute a study of grammar.
Syntax deals with the way words are combined. It is concerned with the external functions of words and
their relationship to other words within the linearly ordered units – word-groups, sentences and texts.
Syntax studies the way in which the units and their meanings are combined. It also deals with peculiarities of
syntactic units, their behaviour in different contexts.
The Sentence and its Classification.
The sentence is a communication unit made up of words in conformity with their combinability and
structurally united by intonation and predicativity. It has its own features: it is a unit of speech, it is
intonationally marked, it is a predicative unit.
There are different types of sentences. According to the structure the sentences can be divided into: Simple
and Composite.
Simple sentences are subdivided into: unextended and extended sentences.
The unextended sentence can be one-member sentence, e.g. Fire! Come on! or two-member sentence
which consists of main parts: subject and predicate.
e.g. A month passed. The car stopped.
The extended sentence consists of more than two parts including the subject, the predicate, the object, the
attribute, adverbial modifiers.
e.g. The blue car stopped at the gate (blue – the attribute, at the gate – adverbial modifier).
Sentences can be classified according to the purpose of the utterance/sentence. It shows whether the
sentence is presented as a statement or a question. They are:
• Declarative sentence. It states a fact in the affirmative or negative form.
e.g. She was waiting for her husband.
I still couldn’t think why I didn’t see her.
• Interrogative sentence. An interrogative sentence asks a question. It is formed
by means of inversion. There are four kinds of questions:
a). General questions requiring the answer “yes” or “no” and spoken with a rising intonation. (Do you like
art?)
b). Special questions beginning with an interrogative word spoken with a falling intonation. (Where do you
live?)
c). Alternative questions indicating choice and spoken with a rising intonation in the first part and a falling
intonation in the second part. (Do you live in town or in the country?)
d). Disjunctive questions requiring the answer “yes” or “no” and consisting of an affirmative statement
followed by a negative question, or a negative statement followed by an affirmative question. The first part
is spoken with falling intonation, the second – with rising. (You speak English, don’t you?)
• The imperative sentence serves to introduce a person to do something, or it
expresses a command, an order, a request or an invitation (Come to the blackboard, please).
• The exclamatory sentence expresses some kind of emotion or feeling. It often
begins with what, how and is spoken with a falling intonation (What a lovely day!).
The Principal Parts of the Sentence.
The subject is the principal part of the sentence, it is grammatically independent
on the other parts of the sentence and the predicate is usually dependent on it and agrees with the subject
in number, person. The subject denotes a living being, a lifeless thing or an idea.
The predicate is the second principal part of the sentence. It expresses an action, state, quality of person or
thing denoted by the subject. It is grammatically dependent on the subject. It usually contains a finite verb
which may express tense, mood, aspect and sometimes person and number.
There are two types of predicates according to the structure and meaning: the simple and the compound
predicate.
The simple predicate is expressed by a finite form of the verb. It generally denotes an action and sometimes
a state.
e.g. I have been looking for you.
He gave Mary the local anaesthesia, when she was brought to the hospital.
The compound predicate consists of two types: a finite verb and some other part of speech – a noun, an
adjective, a pronoun, a verbal.
The first component expresses the verbal categories of number, person, tense, aspect, voice, aspect. The
compound predicate may be nominal and verbal.
The compound nominal predicate (CNP). It denotes the state or quality of the person or thing expressed by
the subject or the class of persons or things to which this person or thing belongs, e.g. He is tired. He is a
student.
The CNP consists of a link verb and a predicative (the nominal part).
The link verb expresses grammatical categories and partly lost its original concrete meanings. The most
commonly used link verb is to be.
The Secondary Parts of the Sentence.
The object is the secondary part of the speech which completes or restricts the meaning of a verb or
sometimes an adjective, a word denoting a noun.
There are three kinds of objects in English:
• The direct object.
• The indirect object.
• The prepositional object.
The attribute qualifies a noun, a pronoun, or any other parts of speech that have nominal characteristics.
The attribute can be either in pre-position or in post-position to the word it modifies. It can be expressed in
the sentence by: the noun, the adjective, the participle, the numeral, the pronoun, the infinitive and the
gerund.
e.g. The town library is closed on Sunday – (noun).
He wrote an important article yesterday – (adjective).
The Adverbial modifier is the secondary part of the sentence which modifies a verb, an adjective or an
adverb. According to their meaning we distinguish the following kinds of adverbial modifier of:
• time – We shall come tomorrow.
• frequency – Though they had never bothered them.
• place and direction – I found him in the garden.
• manner – He spoke slowly.
• degree – He has greatly changed.
• cause – I came back because of the rain.
• consequence – She is fond of the child to leave it.
• purpose – They opened the way for her to come to him.
The Composite Sentence.
The composite sentence is formed by two or more predicative lines and expresses
a complicated act of thought.
There are two types of composite sentences: the compound sentence and the complex sentence. The basic
difference between these types of sentences would appear to be clear enough:
• in compound sentences, the clauses of which they consist have as it were equal
rights, that is none of them is below the other in rank, they are coordinated.
• in complex sentences, on the hand, the clauses are not on equal footing, the
complex sentence consisting of two clauses only, one of these is the main clause, and the other is a
subordinate clause, that is, it stands beneath the main clause in rank. There may be more than one clause
and more than one subordinate clause in a complex sentence.
The Compound sentence consists of clauses joined together by coordinating conjunctions or without it.
These are very few: and, but, or, for, yet, so etc.
e.g. He knew there were excuses for his father, yet he felt sick at heart.
The Complex Sentence is a poly predicative construction built up on the principle of subordination. The
complex sentence consists of a principal clause and one or more subordinate clauses which can be linked by
two ways:
Synthetically by means of variety conjunctions: when, after, before, while, till,
until; a number of phrases: as soon as, so long as, in order that etc.
Asyndetically without a conjunctions connective.
e.g. I wish you had come earlier.
I should like him to call me up.