Download Functional and Content Words

ЎЗБЕКИСТОН РЕСПУБЛИКАСИ ОЛИЙ ВА ЎРТА МАХСУС
ТАЪЛИМ ВАЗИРЛИГИ
ЎЗБЕКИСТОН ДАВЛАТ ЖАҲОН ТИЛЛАРИ УНИВЕРСИТЕТИ
ИНГЛИЗ ТИЛИ БИРИНЧИ ФАКУЛЬТЕТИ
ИНГЛИЗ ТИЛИ ФОНЕТИКА ВА ФОНОЛОГИЯСИ КАФЕДРАСИ
Раҳматов Бекзод Ўктам ўғли
Functional words in the English language and the methods of their teaching
5220100 – Филология ва тилларни ўқитиш (инглиз тили) таълим
йуналиши бўйича бакалавр даражасини олиш учун
БИТИРУВ МАЛАКАВИЙ ИШИ
“ҲИМОЯГА ТАВСИЯ ЭТИЛАДИ”
ИЛМИЙ РАХБАР:
“Инглиз тили фонетика ва фонологияси”
_________ Д. Аликулова
кафедраси мудири
“____”___________2014 йил
_________М.Чўтпўлатов
“____”___________2014 йил
Тошкент – 2014
2
THE MINISTRY OF HIGHER AND SECONDARY SPECIAL
EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN STATE UNIVERSITY OF WORLD LANGUAGES
THE FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE FACULTY
THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
Rakhmatov Bekzod Uktam o’g’li
Functional words in the English language and the methods of their teaching
5220100 – Philology and teaching languages (The English language) for
granting bachelor’s degree
QUALIFICATION PAPER
QUALIFICATION PAPER
Scientific advisor:
IS ADMITTED TO DEFENCE
D.Alikulova
The Head of the Department of
“
English Phonetics and Phonology
M. Chutpulatov
“
”
2014
Tashkent - 2014
3
”
2014
CONTENT
Introduction…………………………………………………………………..…3
1.0 Chapter I. Review of the linguistic literature on the problem
of classifying the words into parts of speech
1.1. The Problem of parts of speech…………………..………………………....6
1.2. The principle of grouping the words into grammatical classes…….……...18
1.3. The syntactic-distributional classification of words……………………….25
2.0 Chapter II. Contextual-semantics of grammatical classification of words
used in P.Abraham’s “The Path of Thunder”
2.1. Grammatical classes of words……………………..……………………....28
2.2. From building means of parts of speech……………………………….......35
2.3. Type of grammatical meaning used in P.Abraham’s
“The Path of Thunder”…………………………………………………….……40
3.0 CHAPTER III. Aspects of teaching grammatical structure
3.1 Problems of teaching grammar………………………………………….….51
3.2 Teaching of grammatical classification of words to the elementary
and intermediate level students…………………………………………………58
4.0 Conclusion…………………………………………………….…………...67
5.0 Bibliography………………………………………………………………71
4
Introduction
“The main objective of all our reforms in the field of education is
individual. Therefore the task of education, the task of national renaissance will
remain the prerogative of the state and constitute a majority. For this, the power of
foreign languages also must work in new generation mind.”1
Conditions of reforming of all education system the question of the world
assistance to improvement of quality of scientific-theoretical aspect, educational
process is especially actually put. Speaking about the 23rd anniversary of National
Independence the President I.A.Karimov has declared in the program speech
“Harmoniously development of generation a basis of progress of Uzbekistan”:”
…all of us realize, that achievement of the great purpose put today before us,
noble aspirations, it is necessary for updating a society.” The effect and destiny of
our reforms carried out in the name of progress and the future, results of our
intentions are connected with highly skilled, conscious staff, the experts who are
meeting the requirements of time.2
Nowadays we are trying to establish a strong democratic state, of course,
with the help of the new generation. I also consider myself as one of the members
of this innovative people. I dare to say, foreign languages, especially English is a
good source to take the advantage. So, in this very qualification paper I tried to
make a good research work on the theme “Functional words in the English
language and methods of their teaching”.
The present qualification paper deals with the study of Functional words in
English and which present a certain interest both for the theoretical investigation
and for the practical language use.
The actuality of the investigation is explained on one hand by the profound
interest to the functional of the grammatical classification of words in the literary
From the President I.A.Karimov’s report at the Oliy Majlis session of the first convocation,February, 1995.
И.А.Каримов. Гармонично-развитое поколение-основа прогресса Узбекистана. Ташкент. 1998. Стр 158168
1
2
5
text and in speech, on the other hand by the absence of widely approved analysis
of the grammatical classification of words from the semantic, stylistic, structural
and translational points of view.
The novelty of the qualification paper is defined by concrete results of the
investigation. Special emphasis is laid on several of rendering the structural, the
stylistic features of functional words in English.
The aim of the qualification paper is to define the specific features of words
in the literary text and in speech as one of the important and complicated
functional words in English.
According to this general aim the following concrete tasks are put forward:
1. To analyze the linguistic literature on the problem of lexical features of
words.
2. To analyze actual problems the functional words in English.
5. To analyze the structural –semantic and functional characteristic of words
in English.
The methods of investigation used in this qualification paper are as
follows: oppositional, semantic, stylistic, structural, distributional, transformation,
immediate observation as well as the translation.
The practical value of the research is that the material and the results of
the given qualification paper can serve as the material for theoretical courses of
grammar, comparative typology, translation theory as well as can be used for
practical classes in oral and written speech practice, oral and written translation,
home reading, current events, and others.
The material includes: text books, monographs, articles, written by the
leading scholars, like: L.S Barkhudarov, M.Y.Blokh, V.Ya.Plotkin and etc.,
6
novels, short stories written by the American and British writers of the XXth
century, internet websites with corresponding headings and data base.
Theoretical importance of the qualification paper is determined by the
necessity of detailed and comprehensive analyzes of functional words in English
and the means of expressing the which are very of ten used in literature fluffing
various stylistic or pragmatic functions.
The structure of the word the given qualification paper consists of an
introduction, two chapter, a conclusion and bibliography.
7
1.0. CHAPTER I. Review of the Linguistic literature on the problem of
classifying the words into parts of speech
1.1. Word- as a Subject of Study
The morphological system of language reveals its properties through the
morphemic structure of words. It follows from this that morphology as part of
grammatical theory faces the two segmental units: the morpheme and the word.
But, as we have already pointed out, the morpheme is not identified otherwise
than part of the word; the functions of the morpheme are effected only as the
corresponding constituent functions of the word as a whole.
For instance, the form of the verbal past tense is built up by means of the
dental grammatical suffix: train-ed [-d]; publish-ed [-t]; meditat-ed [-id].
However, the past tense as a definite type of grammatical meaning is expressed
not by the dental morpheme in isolation, but by the verb (i.e. word) taken in the
corresponding form (realised by its morphemic composition); the dental suffix is
immediately related to the stem of the verb and together with the stem constitutes
the temporal correlation in the paradigmatic system of verbal categories
Thus, in studying the morpheme we actual study the word in the necessary details
or us composition and functions.
It is very difficult to give a rigorous and at the same time universal
definition to the word, i.e. such a definition as would unambiguously apply to all
the different word-units of the lexicon. This difficulty is explained by the fact that
the word is an extremely complex and many-sided phenomenon. Within the
framework of different linguistic trends and theories the word is defined as the
minimal potential sentence, the minimal free linguistic form, the elementary
component of the sentence, the articulate sound-symbol, the grammatically
arranged combination of sound with meaning, the meaningfully integral and
immediately identifiable lingual unit, the uninterrupted string of morphemes, etc.,
etc. None of these definitions, which can be divided into formal, functional, and
mixed, has the power to precisely cover all the lexical segments of language
without a residue remaining outside the field of definition.
8
The said difficulties compel some linguists to refrain from accepting the
word as the basic element of language. In particular, American scholars —
representatives of Descriptive Linguistics founded by L. Bloomfield —
recognised not the word and the sentence, but the phoneme and the morpheme as
the basic categories of linguistic description, because these units are the easiest to
be isolated in the continual text due to their "physically" minimal, elementary
segmental character: the phoneme being the minimal formal segment of language,
the morpheme, the minimal meaningful segment. Accordingly, only two
segmental levels were originally identified in language by Descriptive scholars:
the phonemic level and the morphemic level; later on a third one was added to
these — the level of "constructions", i.e. the level of morphemic combinations.
In fact, if we take such notional words as, say, water, pass, yellow and the
like, as well as their simple derivatives, e.g. watery, passer, yellowness, we shall
easily see their definite nominative function and unambiguous segmental
delimitation, making them beyond all doubt into "separate words of language".
But if we compare with the given one-stem words the corresponding composite
formations, such as waterman, password, yellow back, we shall immediately note
that the identification of the latter as separate words is much complicated by the
fact that they themselves are decomposable into separate words. One could point
out that the peculiar property distinguishing composite words from phrases is their
linear indivisibility, i.e. the impossibility tor them to be divided by a third word.
But this would-be rigorous criterion is quite irrelevant for analytical word forms,
e.g.: has met - has never met; is coming —is not by any means or under any
circumstances coming.
As for the criterion according to which the word is identified as a minimal
sign capable of functioning alone (the word understood as the "smallest free
form", or interpreted as the "potential minimal sentence"), it is irrelevant for the
bulk of functional words which cannot be used "independently" even in elliptical
responses (to say nothing of the fact that the very notion of ellipsis is essentially
the opposite of self-dependence).
9
In spite of the shown difficulties, however, there remains the
unquestionable fact that each speaker has at his disposal a ready stock of naming
units (more precisely, units standing to one another in nominative correlation) by
which he can build up an infinite number of utterances reflecting the ever
changing situations of reality.
This circumstance urges us to seek the identification of the word as a
lingual unit-type on other lines than the "strictly operational definition". In fact,
we do find the clarification of the problem in taking into consideration the
difference between the two sets of lingual phenomena: on the one hand, "polar"
phenomena; on the other hand, "intermediary" phenomena.3
Within a complex system of interrelated elements, polar phenomena are the
most clearly identifiable; they stand to one another in an utterly unambiguous
opposition. Intermediary phenomena are located in the system in between the
polar phenomena, making up a gradation of transitions or the so-called
"continuum". By some of their properties intermediary phenomena are similar or
near to one of the corresponding poles, while by other properties they are similar
to the other, opposing pole. The analysis of the intermediary phenomena from the
point of view of their relation to the polar phenomena reveals their own status in
the system. At the same time this kind of analysis helps evaluate the definitions of
the polar phenomena between which a continuum is established.
In this connection, the notional one-stem word and the morpheme should be
described as the opposing polar phenomena among the meaningful segments of
language; it is these elements that can be defined by their formal and functional
features most precisely and unambiguously. As for functional words, they occupy
intermediary positions between these poles, and their very intermediary status is
gradational. In particular, the variability of their status is expressed in the fact that
some of them can be used in an isolated response position (for instance, words of
3
Arnold I.V., The English Word, M.,1973,379p.
10
affirmation and negation, interrogative words, demonstrative words, etc.), while
others cannot (such as prepositions or conjunctions).
The nature of the element of any system is revealed in the character of its
function. The function of words is realised in their nominative correlation with
one another. On the basis of this correlation a number of functional words are
distinguished by the "negative delimitation" (i.e. delimitation as a residue after the
identification of the co-positional textual elements), e.g.-. the/people; to/speak;
by/way/of.
The "negative delimitation'' immediately connects these functional words
with the directly nominative, notional words in the system. Thus, the correlation in
question (which is to be implied by the conventional term "nominative function")
unites functional words with notional words, or "half-words" (word-morphemes)
with "full words". On the other hand, nominative correlation reduces the
morpheme as a type of segmental signee to the role of an element in the
composition of the word.4
As we see, if the elementary character (indivisibility) of the morpheme (as a
significative unit) is established in the structure of words, the elementary character
of the word (as a nominative unit) is realized in the system of lexicon.
Summing up what has been said in this paragraph, we may point out some of the
properties of the morpheme and the word which are fundamental from the point of
view of their systemic status and therefore require detailed investigations and
descriptions.
The morpheme is a meaningful segmental component of the word; the
morpheme is formed by phonemes; as a meaningful component of the word it is
elementary (i.e. indivisible into smaller segments as regards its significative
function).
The word is a nominative unit of language; it is formed by morphemes; it enters
the lexicon of language as its elementary component (i.e. a component indivisible
4
Arbekova T.I "English lexicology" M, 1977 p.243
11
into smaller segments as regards its nominative function); together with other
nominative units the word is used for the formation of the sentence — a unit of
information in the communication process.
In traditional grammar the study of the morphemic structure of the word
was conducted in the light of the two basic criteria: positional (the location of the
marginal morphemes in relation to the central ones) and semantic or functional
(the correlative contribution of the morphemes to the general meaning of the
word). The combination of these two criteria in an integral description has led to
the rational classification of morphemes that is widely used both in research
linguistic work and in practical lingual tuition.
In accord with the traditional classification, morphemes on the upper level
are divided into root-morphemes (roots) and affixal morphemes (affixes). The
roots express the concrete, "material" part of the meaning of the word, while the
affixes express the specification part of the meaning of the word, the
specifications being of lexico-semantic and grammatical-semantic character.
The
roots
of
notional
words
are
classical
lexical
morphemes.
The affixal morphemes include prefixes, suffixes, and inflexions (in the tradition
of the English school grammatical inflexions are commonly referred to as
"suffixes"). Of these, prefixes and lexical suffixes have word-building functions,
together with the root they form the stem of the word; inflexions (grammatical
suffixes) express different morphological categories.
The root, according to the positional content of the term (i.e. the border-area
between prefixes and suffixes), is obligatory for any word, while affixes are not
obligatory. Therefore one and the same morphemic segment of functional (i.e.
non-notional) status, depending on various morphemic environments, can in
principle be used now as an affix (mostly, a prefix), now as a root.
Cf.: out — a root-word (preposition, adverb, verbal postposition, adjective,
noun, verb); throughout — a composite word, in which -out serves as one of the
roots (the categorial status of the meaning of both morphemes is the same); outing
— a two-morpheme word, in which out is a root, and -ing is a suffix; outlook,
12
outline, outrage, out-talk, etc. — words, in which out- serves as a prefix; look-out,
knock-out, shut-out, time-out, etc. — words (nouns), in which -out serves as a
suffix.
The morphemic composition of modern English words has a wide range of
varieties; in the lexicon of everyday speech the preferable morphemic types of
stems are root-stems (one-root stems or two-root stems) and one-affix stems. With
grammatically changeable words, these stems take one grammatical suffix {two
"open" grammatical suffixes are used only with some plural nouns in the
possessive
case,
cf.:
the
children's
toys,
the
oxen's
yokes).
Thus, the abstract complete morphemic model of the common English word is the
following: prefix + root + lexical suffix+grammatical suffix.
The syntagmatic connections of the morphemes within the model form two
types of hierarchical structure. The first is characterized by the original prefixal
stem (e.g. prefabricated), the second is characterized by the original suffixal stem
(e.g. inheritors). If we use the symbols St for stem, R for root, Pr for prefix, L for
lexical suffix, Gr for grammatical suffix, and, besides, employ three graphical
symbols of hierarchical grouping — braces, brackets, and parentheses, then the
two
morphemic
word-structures
can
be
presented
as
follows:
W1 = {[Pr + (R + L)] +Gr}; W2 = {[(Pr + R) +L] + Gr}
In the morphemic composition of more complicated words these modeltypes form different combinations.
Further insights into the correlation between the formal and functional
aspects of morphemes within the composition of the word may be gained in the
light of the so-called "allo-emic" theory put forward by Descriptive Linguistics
and broadly used in the current linguistic research.5
In accord with this theory, lingual units are described by means of two types
of terms: allo-terms and eme-terms. Eme-terms denote the generalized invariant
units of language characterized by a certain functional status: phonemes,
5
Arnold D. "The English word" M, 1973. p. 299
13
morphemes. Allo-terms denote the concrete manifestations, or variants of the
generalized units dependent on the regular co-location with other elements of
language: allophones, allomorphs. A set of iso-functional allo-units identified in
the text on the basis of their co-occurrence with other lingual units (distribution) is
considered as the corresponding eme-unit with its fixed systemic status.
The allo-emic identification of lingual elements is achieved by means of the
so-called "distributional analysis". The immediate aim of the distributional
analysis is to fix and study the units of language in relation to their textual
environments, i.e. the adjoining elements in the text.
The environment of a unit may be either "right" or "left", e.g.: un-pardonable. In this word the left environment of the root is the negative prefix un-, the
right environment of the root is the qualitative suffix -able. Respectively, the root pardon- is the right environment for the prefix, and the left environment for the
suffix. The distribution of a unit may be defined as the total of all its
environments; in other words, the distribution of a unit is its environment in
generalized terms of classes or categories.
In the distributional analysis on the morphemic level, phonemic distribution
of morphemes and morphemic distribution of morphemes are discriminated. The
study is conducted in two stages.
At the first stage, the analysed text (i.e. the collected lingual materials, or
"corpus") is divided into recurrent segments consisting of phonemes. These
segments
are
called
"morphs",
i.e.
morphemic
units
distributionally
uncharacterized, e.g.: the/boat/s/were/gain/ing/speed.
At the second stage, the environmental features of the morphs are
established
and
the
corresponding
identifications
are
effected.
Three main types of distribution are discriminated in the distributional analysis,
namely, contrastive distribution, non-contrastive distribution, and complementary
distribution.
Contrastive
and
non-contrastive
distributions
concern
identical
environments of different morphs. The morphs are said to be in contrastive
14
distribution if their meanings (functions) are different. Such morphs constitute
different morphemes. Cf. the suffixes -(e)d and -ing in the verb-forms returned,
returning. The morphs are said to be in non-contrastive distribution (or free
alternation) if their meaning (function) is the same. Such morphs constitute "free
alternants", or "free variants" of the same morpheme. Cf. the suffixes -(e)d and -t
in the verb-forms learned, learnt.
As different from the above, complementary distribution concerns different
environments of formally different morphs which are united by the same meaning
(function). If two or more morphs have the same meaning and the difference in
(heir form is explained by different environments, these morphs are said to be in
complementary distribution and considered the allomorphs of the same
morpheme. Cf. the allomorphs of the plural morpheme /-s/, /-z/, /-iz/ which stand
in phonemic complementary distribution; the plural allomorph -en in oxen,
children, which stands in morphemic complementary distribution with the other
allomorphs of the plural morpheme.
As we see, for analytical purposes the notion of complementary distribution
is the most important, because it helps establish the identity of outwardly
altogether different elements of language, in particular, its grammatical elements.
As a result of the application of distributional analysis to the morphemic level,
different types of morphemes have been discriminated which can be called the
"distributional morpheme types". It must be stressed that the distributional
classification of morphemes cannot abolish or in any way depreciate the
traditional morpheme types. Rather, it supplements the traditional classification,
showing some essential features of morphemes on the principles of environmental
study.
We shall survey the distributional morpheme types arranging them in pairs
of immediate correlation.
On the basis of the degree of self-dependence, "free" morphemes and
"bound" morphemes are distinguished. Bound morphemes cannot form words by
themselves, they are identified only as component segmental parts of words. As
15
different from this, free morphemes can build up words by themselves, i.e. can be
used "freely".6
For instance, in the word handful the root hand is a free morpheme, while
the suffix -ful is a bound morpheme.
There are very few productive bound morphemes in the morphological
system of English. Being extremely narrow, the list of them is complicated by the
relations of homonymy. These morphemes are the following:
1) the segments -(e)s [-z, -s, -iz]: the plural of nouns, the possessive case of
nouns, the third person singular present of verbs; the segments -(e)d [-d, -t, -id]:
the past and past participle of verbs; the segments -ing: the gerund and present
participle; the segments -er, -est: the comparative and superlative degrees of
adjectives and adverbs.
The auxiliary word-morphemes of various standings should be interpreted
in this connection as "semi-bound" morphemes, since, being used as separate
elements of speech strings, they form categorial unities with their notional stemwords.
On the basis of formal presentation, "overt" morphemes and "covert"
morphemes are distinguished. Overt morphemes are genuine, explicit morphemes
building up words; the covert morpheme is identified as a contrastive absence of
morpheme expressing a certain function. The notion of covert morpheme
coincides with the notion of zero morpheme in the oppositional description of
grammatical categories (see further).
For instance, the word-form clocks consists of two overt morphemes: one
lexical (root) and one grammatical expressing the plural. The outwardly onemorpheme word-form clock, since it expresses the singular, is also considered as
consisting of two morphemes, i.e. of the overt root and the co\ert (implicit)
grammatical suffix of the singular. The usual symbol for the covert morpheme
employed by linguists is the sign of the empty set:
6
Arnold D. "The English word" M, 1973. p. 299
16
On the basis of segmental relation, "segmental" morphemes and "suprasegmental" morphemes are distinguished. Interpreted as supra-segmental
morphemes in distributional terms are intonation contours, accents, pauses.
The said elements of language, as we have stated elsewhere, should beyond
dispute be considered signemic units of language, since they are functionally
bound. They form the secondary line of speech, accompanying its primary
phonemic line (phonemic complexes). On the other hand, from what has been
stated about the morpheme proper, it is not difficult to see that the morphemic
interpretation of suprasegmental units can hardly stand to reason. Indeed, these
units are functionally connected not with morphemes, but with larger elements of
language:
words,
word-groups,
sentences,
supra-sentential
constructions.
On the basis of grammatical alternation, "additive" morphemes and "replacive"
morphemes are distinguished.
Interpreted as additive morphemes are outer grammatical suffixes, since, as
a rule, they are opposed to the absence of morphemes in grammatical alternation.
Cf. look+ed; small+er, etc. In distinction to these, the root phonemes of
grammatical interchange are considered as replacive morphemes, since they
replace one another in the paradigmatic forms. Cf. dr-i-ve — dr-o-ve — dr-i-ven;
m-a-n — m-e-n; etc.
It should be remembered that the phonemic interchange is utterly
unproductive in English as in all the Indo-European languages. If it were
productive, it might rationally be interpreted as a sort of replacive "infixation"
(correlated with "exfixation" of the additive type). As it stands, however, this type
of grammatical means can be understood as a kind of suppletivity (i.e. partial
suppletivity).
On the basis of linear characteristic, "continuous" (or "linear") morphemes
and "discontinuous" morphemes are distinguished.
By the discontinuous morpheme, opposed to the common, i.e.
uninterruptedly expressed, continuous morpheme, a two-element grammatical unit
is meant which is identified in the analytical grammatical form comprising an
17
auxiliary word and a grammatical suffix7. These two elements, as it were, embed
the notional stem; hence, they are symbolically represented as follows: be ... ing
— for the continuous verb forms (e.g. is going); have ... en — for the perfect verb
forms (e.g. has gone); be ... en — for the passive verb forms (e.g. is taken).
It is easy to see that the notion of morpheme applied to the analytical form of the
word violates the principle of the identification of morpheme as an elementary
meaningful segment: the analytical "framing" consists of two meaningful
segments, i.e. of two different morphemes. On the other hand, the general notion
"discontinuous constituent", "discontinuous unit" is quite rational and can be
helpfully used in linguistic description in its proper place.
1.2. The problem of notional and formal words
In giving a list of parts of speech, we have not so far mentioned the
terms "notional" and "formal". It is time now to turn to this question.
According to the view held by some grammarians,
2
words should be divided
into two categories on the following principle: some words denote things,
actions, and other extralinguistic phenomena (these, then, would be notional
words), whereas other words denote relations and connections between the
notional words, and thus have no direct bearing on anything extralinguistic
(these, then, would be the formal words, or form words). Authors holding this
view define prepositions as words denoting relations between words (or
between parts of a sentence), and conjunctions as words connecting words or
sentences.
However, this view appears to be very shaky. Actually, the so-called
formal words also express something extralinguistic. For instance, prepositions
express relations between things. Cf., e. g., The letter is on the table and The
letter is in the table: two different relations between the two objects, the letter
7
D.Cryslal, The English Language, New York,1998,421p.
18
and the table, are denoted by the prepositions. In a similar way, conjunctions
denote connections between extralinguistic things and phenomena. Thus, in
the sentence The match was postponed because it was raining the conjunction
because denotes the causal connection between two processes, which of course
exists whether we choose to express it by words or not. In the sentence It
was raining but the match took place all the same the conjunction but
expresses a contradiction between two phenomena, the rain and the match,
which exists in reality whether we mention it or not. It follows that the
prepositions on and in, the conjunctions because and but express some relations
and connections existing independently of language, and thus have as close a
connection with the extralinguistic world as any noun or verb. They are, in
so far, no less notional than nouns or verbs.
Now, the term "formal word" would seem to imply that the word thus
denoted has some function in building up a phrase or a sentence. This function
is certainly performed by both prepositions and conjunctions and from this
point of view prepositions and conjunctions should indeed be singled out.
But this definition of a formal word cannot be applied to particles. A
particle does not do anything in the way of connecting words or building a
phrase or a sentence.
There does not therefore seem to be any reason for classing particles with
formal words. If this view is endorsed we shall only have two parts of speech
which are form words, viz. prepositions and conjunctions. 1
It should also be observed that some words belonging to a particular part
of speech may occasionally, or even permanently, perform a function
differing from that which characterises the part of speech as a whole.
Auxiliary verbs are a case in point. In the sentence I have some money left the
verb have performs the function of the predicate, which is the usual function
of a verb in a sentence, In this case, then, the function of the verb have is
precisely the one typical of verbs as a class. However, in the sentence I have
found my briefcase the verb have is an auxiliary: it is a means of forming a
19
certain analytical form of the verb find. It does not by itself perform the
function of a predicate. We need not assume on that account that there are
two verbs have, one notional and the other auxiliary. It is the same verb
have, but its functions in the two sentences are different. If we take the verb
shall, we see that its usual function is that of forming the future tense of
another verb, e. g. I shall know about it to-morrow. Shall is then said to be
an auxiliary verb, and its function differs from that of the verb as a part of
speech, but it is a verb all the same.
After this general survey of parts of speech we will now turn to a
systematic review of each part of speech separately.
1.3. The principle of grouping the words into grammatical classes
The words of language, depending on various formal and semantic features
are divided into grammatically relevant sets or classes. The traditional
grammatical classes of words are called “parts of speech” since the words are
distinguished not only by grammatical, but also by semantico-lexemic properties,
some scholars refer to parts of speech as “lexico-grammatical categories”.
It should be noted that the term “parts of speech” is purely traditional and
conventional, it can not be taken as in any way defining or explanatory. This name
was introduced in the grammatical teaching of Ancient Greece, where the concept
of the sentence was not yet explicity indentified in distinction to the general idea
of speech, and where, consequently, no strict differentiation was drawn between
the word as a vocabulary unit and the word as functional elements of the sentence.
In modern linguistic parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of the
three criteria: a”semantic”, “formal”, and “functional”.
20
The semantic criterion presupposes the evaluation of the generalized
meaning, which is characteristic of all the subsets of words constituting a given
part of speech. This meaning is understood as the “categorical meaning of the
parts of speech”. T he formal criterion provides for the exposition of the specific
inflextional and derivational (word building) features of all the lexemic subsets of
a part of speech. The functional criterion concerns the syntactic role of the words
in the sentences typical of a part of speech. The said three factors of categorical
characterization of words are conventionally referred to as respectively,”
meaning”, “form”, and “function”.
In accord with the described criteria, words on the upper level of
classification are divided into national and functional, which reflects their division
in the earlier grammatical tradition into changeable and unchangeable.
To the national parts of speech of the English language belong noun, the
adjective, the numeral, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb. The features of the noun
within the identification triad “meaning – form - function” are, correspondingly,
the following: 1) the categorical meaning of substance (“thinness”); 2) the
changeable forms of number and case; the specific suffixal forms of derivation
(prefixes in English do not discriminate parts of speech as such); 3) the
substantive functions in the sentence (subject, object, substantive predicative);
prepositional connections; modification by an adjective. The features of the
adjective: 1) the categorical meaning of property (qualitative and relative); 2) the
forms of the degrees comparison (for qualitative adjectives); the specific suffixal
forms of derivation; 3) adjectival functional in the sentence (attribute to a noun,
adjectival predicative). The features of the numeral: 1) the categorial meaning of
number (cardinal and ordinal); 2) the narrow set of simple numerals; the specific
forms of composition for compound numerals; the specific suffixal forms of
derivation for ordinal numerals; 3) the functions of numerical attribute and
numerical substantive. The features of the pronoun: 1) the categorical meaning of
indication (deixis); 2) the narrow sets of various status with the corresponding
21
formal properties of categorical changeability and word – building; 3) the
substantial and adjectival functions for in the sentence (attribute to a noun,
adjectival predicative). The features of the numeral: 1) the categorial meaning of
number (cardinal and ordinal); 2) the narrow set of simple numerals; the specific
forms of composition for compound numerals; the specific suffixal forms of
derivation for ordinal numerals; 3) the functions of numerical attribute and
numerical substantive. The features of the pronoun; 1) the categorial meaning of
indication (deixis); 2) the narrow sets of various status with the corresponding
formal properties of categorial changeability and word – building; 3) the
substantival and adjectival functions for different sets.
The features of the verb; 1) the categorial meaning of process (presented in
the two upper series of forms pespectively, as finite process and non – finite
process) 2) the forms of the verbal categories of person, number, tense, aspect,
voice, mood; the opposition of the finite and non finite forms; 3) the function of
the finite predicate for the finite verb; the mixed verbal – other than verbal
functions for the non finite verb. The features of the adverb: 1) the categorial
meaning of the secondary property, i.e. the property of process or an other
property; 2) the forms of the degrees of comparison for qualitative adverbs; the
specific suffixal forms of derivation; 3) the functions of various of adverbial
modifiers.
We have surveyed the indentifying properties of the national parts of speech
that unite the words of complete nominative meaning characterized by self –
dependent functions in the sentence. Contrasted against the national arts of speech
are words of incomplete nominative meaning and non – self – dependent,
mediatory functions in the sentence, these are functional parts of speech.
On the principle of “generalized form” only unchangeable words are
traditionally treated under the heading of functional parts of speech. As for their
individual forms as such, they are simply presented by the list, since the number
22
of these words is limited, so that they needn’t be identified on any general,
operational scheme. To the basing functional series of words in English belong the
article the preposition, the conjunction, the particle, the modal word, the
intexiection.
The article expresses the specific limitation of the substantive functions.
The preposition expresses the dependencies and interdependencies of
substantive referents. The conjunction expresses connections of phenomena.
The particle unites the functional words of specifying and limiting meaning. To
this series, alongside of other specifying words, should be referred verbal post
positions as functional modifiers of verb, etc. The modal word, occupying in the
sentence a more pronounced or less pronounced detached position, expresses the
attitude of the sparer to the reflected situation and its parts. Here belong the
functional words of probability (probably, perhaps, etc) of qualitative evaluation
(fortunately, unfortunately, luckily, etc), and also of affirmation and negation.
The interjection, occupying a detached position in the sentence, as a signal
of emotions.
Each part of speech after its identification is further subdivided into
subseries in accord with various particular semantico–functional and formal
features of the constituent words. This subdivision is some times called
“subcategorization “of parts of speech.
Thus, nouns are subcategorized into proper and common, animate and
inanimate, countable and uncountable, concrete and abstract, etc. Coin / coins ,
floor / floors , kind / kinds –news , growth ,water , furniture ; stone , grain , must ,
leaf –honesty , love , slavery , darkness.
Verbs are subcategorized into fully predicative and partially predicative,
transitive and intransitive, actional and statal, factive and evaluative etc. walk, put,
23
speak, listen, see, give-live, float, stay, ache, ripen, rain: sail, prepare, shine, blowcan, may, shall, be, become; write, play strike boil, receive, ride-exist, sleep, rest,
thrive, revel, suffex.
Adjectives are subcategorized into qualitative and relative, of contant
feature and temporary feature (the latter are referred to as “statives” and
indentified by some scholars as a separate part of speech under the heading of
“category of state”), factive and evaluative, etc.
Long, red, lovely, noble, comfortable-wooden, rural daily, subterranean,
orthographical; tall, heavy, smooth, mental, native-kind, brave, wonderful, wise,
stupid.
The adverb, the numeral, the pronoun are also subject, to the corresponding
subcategorizations.
We have drawn a general outline of the division of the lexicon into part of
speech classes developed by modern linguistic on the lines of traditional
morphology.
It is known that the distribution of words between different part of speech
may to a certain extent differ with different authors. This fact gives cause to come
linguists for calling in question the rational characteristic of the part of speech
classification as whole, gives theme cause for accusing it of being subjective or
“prescientific” in essence. Such nihilistic criticism, however, should be rejected as
utterly ungrounded. Indeed, considering the part of speech classification on its
merits, one must clearly realize that what is above all important about it is the
fundamental principles of word class identification, and not occasional
enlargementsor diminutions of the established groups, or re – distributions of
individual words due to re – considerations of their subcategorial features. The
very idea of subcategorization as the obligatory second stage of the undertaken
classification testifies to the objective nature of thus kind of analysis.
24
For instance propositions and conjunctions can be combined into one united series
of “connectives”, since the function of both is just to connect national components
of the sentence. In this case, on the second stage of classification, the enlarged
word – class of connectives will be subdivided into two main subclasses namely,
prepositional connectives and conjunctional connectives. Likewise, the articles
can be included as a subset into the more general set of particles-specifics. As is
known, noun and adjectives, as well as description under one common class-term
“names”: originally, in the Ancient Greek grammatical teaching they were not
different cited because they had the some forms of morphological change
(declension). On the other hand, in various descriptions of English grammar such
narrow lexemic sets as the two words yes and no, the pronominal determiners of
nouns, even the one anticipating pronoun it are given a separate class- items
status- though in no way challenging or distarting the functional character of the
treated units.
It should be remembered that modern principles of part of speech
identification have been formulated as a result of painstaking research conducted
on the vast materials of numerous languages: and it is in Soviet linguistic that the
three- criteria characterization of parts of speech has been developed and applied
to practice with the utmost consist ency. The three celebrated names are especially
notable for the elaboration of these criteria, namely, V.V.Vinogradov in
connection with his study of Russian grammar, A.I.Simirnitsky and B.A.Ilyish in
connection with their study of English grammar.
Alongside of the three-criteria principle of dividing the words into
grammatical (lexico-grammatical) classes modern linguistics has developed
another, narrower principle of word-class indentification based on syntactic
featuring of words only.
The fact is, that the three-children principle faces a special difficulty in
determining the part of speech status of such lexemes as have morphological
25
characteristics of national words, by their plating the role of grammatical
mediators in phrases and sentence. Here belong, for equivalents-suppletive fillers,
auxiliary verbs, aspect verbs, intensifying adverbs determiner pronouns. This
difficulty, consisting in the resection of heterogeneous properties in the
established word-classes, can evident is over come by recognizing only one
criterion of the three as decisive. Worthy of note is that in the original Ancient
Greek grammatical teaching which put forward the first outline of the part of
speech theory, the division of words into grammatical classes was also based on
one determining criterion only, namely, on the formal-morphological featuring. It
means that any given word under analysis was turned into a classified lexeme on
the principle of its relation to grammatical change. In conditional of the primary
acquisition of linguistic knowledge, and in connection with the study of a highly
inflexional language this characteristic proved quite efficient.
Still at the present stage of the development of linguistic science, syntactic
characterization of words that has been made possible after the exposition of their
fundamental morphological properties is far more important and universal from
the point of view of the general classification requirements.
This characterization is more important because is shows the distribution of
words between different sets in accord with their functional destination. The role
or morphological, by this presentation is not underrated, rather it is further
clarified from the point of view of exposing connection between the categoria
composition of the word and its sentence forming relevance.
This characterization is more universal, because it is not specially destined
for the inflexional aspect of language and hence is equally applicable to languages
of various morphological types.
26
1.3. The syntactic-distributional classification of words
The syntactic- distributional classification of words is based on the study of
their combinability by means of substitution testing. The testing results in
developing the standard model of four main “positions” of notional words in the
English sentence: those of the noun (N), verb(V), adjective(A), adverb(D).
Pronouns are include into the corresponding positional classes as their substitutes.
Words standing outside the “positions” in the sentence are treated as functional
words of various syntactic values.
Here is how CH.Fries presents his scheme of English word classes.
For his materials he chooses tape recorded spontaneous conversation
comprising about 250,000 word intries (50 hours of talk). The words isolated from
this corpus are tested on the three typical sentences (that are isolated from the
records, too) and used as substitution test frames:
A) the concert was good (always);
B) the clerk remembered the tax;
C) the team went there.
The parenthesized positions are optional from the point of view of the
structural completion of sentence.
As a result of successive substitution tests on the cited “frames” the
following lists of positional words (“form words”), or (“parts of speech”) are
established:
Class 1(A) concert, coffee, taste, container difference etc (B) clerk husband,
supervisor, etc; tax, food, coffee, etc.(C)team, husband, woman, etc.
27
Class 2(A) was, seemed, became, etc. (B) remembered, wanted, saw,
suggested, etc. (C) went, came, ran,… lived, worked, etc.
Class 3(A) good, large, necessary, foreign, new empty etc.
Class 4(A) there, here, always, then, sometimes etc (B) clearly, sufficiently,
especially, repeatedly, soon, etc. (C) the beck, out, etc.
All these words can fill in the positions of the frames without affecting their
general structural meaning (such as “thing and its quality ata given time” – their
first frame; actor- action- thing acted upon –characteristic of the action” the
second frame; “action- derection –of – the action”-the third frame). Repeated
interchanges in the substitution of the primarily identified positional (I, e,
notional) words in different collocation determine their morphological
characteristics I, e, characteristics offering, them to various subclasses of the
identified lexemic classes.
Functional words (function words) are exposed in the cited process of
testing as being unable to fill in the position of the frames without destroying their
structural meaning.
These words form limited groups totaling 154units.
The identified groups of functional words can be distributed among the
three main sets. The words of the most set as specifiers of notional words. Here
belong determiners of nouns, modal verbs serving as specifiers of notional verbs,
functional modifiers and intensifiers of adjectives and adverbs. The words of the
seconds set play the role of interpositional elements, determining the relation of
notional words to one another. Here belong prepositions and conjunctions. The
words of the third set refer to the sentence as a whole. Such are question- words
(what, how, etc), inducement words (lets, please, etc) attention- getting words,
28
words of affirmation and negation, sentence introducers (it, there) and some
others.
Comparing the syntactico-distributional classification words with the
traditional part of speech division of words, one cannot but see the similarity of
the general schemes of the twoo: the four absolutely cardinal classes of notional
words (since numerals and pronouns have no positional functions of their own and
serve as pronominal and pro-adjectival elements) the interpretation of functional
words as syntactic mediators and their formal representation by the list.
However, under these unquestionable traits of similarity are distinctly
revealed essential features of difference, the proper evaluation of which allows us
to make some important generalization about the structure of the lexemic system
of language.
29
2.0. CHAPTER II. Contextual-semantics of Functional words in the
English language
2.3 Type of grammatical meaning of parts of speech
used in P.Abraham’s “The path of thunder”
Every language contains thousands upon thousands of lexemes. When
describing them it is possible either to analyses every lexeme separately or to unite
theme into classes with more or less common features. Linguistic make use of
both approaches. A dictionary usually describes individual lexemes, a grammar
book mostly deals with classes of lexemes traditionally called parts of speech.
Though grammarians have been studying parts of speech for over two
thousands years, the criteria used for classifying lexemes are not yet agreed upon.
Hence there is a good deal of subjectivity in defining the classes of lexemes and
we consequently, find different classifications. Still parts of speech are not
altogether an invention of grammarians: what really lies at the bottom of this
division of material reality. The bulk of the class denoting substances is made up
of words denoting material objects such as table, window, milk etc. the vernal of
the class of lexemes meaning processes is constituted by lexemes denoting
concrete actions, such as those writing, reading, speaking, etc.
The lexemes of a part of speech are first of all united by their content, i, e,
by their meaning. Now, this general meaning of a part of speech cannot be
grammatical because the members of one lexeme have different grammatical
meanings: boy’s (singular number, possessive case) boys (plural common case).
Nevertheless, the meaning of a part of speech is closely connected with certain
typical grammatical meanings.
The general meaning of part of speech cannot be lexical. If all the words of
part of speech had the same lexical meaning, they would constitute one lexeme.
30
But the meaning of part of speech is closely connected with the lexical meanings
of its constituent lexemes. It is always an abstraction from those meanings.
Lexemes united by the general lexicon-grammatical meaning of
“substance” are called nouns. Those having the general lexicon-grammatical
meaning of “action” are called verbs, etc., etc
The definition “substance”, “action”, “quality” are conventional. It is easy
to see the notion of “substance” in nouns like water or steel. But a certain stretch
of imagination is necessary to discern the “substance” in nouns like hatred silence,
(a) swim, or the “action” in the verbs belong, resemble, contain and the like.
The general lexicon-grammatical meaning is the intrinsic property of a part
of speech. Connected with it are some properties that find, so to say, outward
expression. Lexicon-grammatical morphemes are once of these properties. The
stems of nouns lexemes often include the morphemes –er, -ist, -ness, -ship, -ment
(worker, Marxist firmness, friendship, management). The stems of verb lexemes
includes the morphemes -ize, -iffy, -be, -en, -en (industrialize, electrify, becloud,
enrich, darken). Adjective stems stems often have the suffixes,-full, -ish, -oust, ive (careful, fearless, boyish, continuous, evasive) . Thus the presence of a certain
lexicon-grammatical morpheme in the stem of a lexeme- often stamps it as
belonging: to a definite part of speech. Many of these morphemes are regularly
used to from lexemes of one class from those all other class. For instance, the
suffix –ness often forms noun stems from adjective stems. Dark-darkness, sweetsweetness, thick-thickness, full-fullness, etc. the absence of the suffix in dark as
contrasted with –ness of darkness looks like a zero morpheme characterizing dark
as on adjective.
Other stem-building elements are of comparatively little significance as
distinctive features of parts of speech. For example: A slow steady movement that
seemed to be independent.
31
Stem structure is of little help too, because there are stems of various kinds
within almost every part of speech: simple (snow, know, now, down), derivative
(belief, believe below, before), compound (get up, at all, one hundred and twenty,
in order to).
Certainly English nouns have many more compound stems than other parts
of speech, and composite stems are most typical of the English verb. But this as a
case for statistics. As a classification criterion it is of little use.
A part of speech is characterized by its grammatical categories manifested
in the opossums and paradigms of its lexemes. Nouns have the categories of
number and case. Verbs possess the categories of tense, voice, mood, etc.
Adjectives have the category of the degrees of comparison. That is why then
paradigms of lexemes belonging to different parts of speech are different. The
paradigms of a verb lexemes is long: write, writes, wrote, shall write, will write,
am writing, is writing, was writing, were writing, etc. The paradigm of a noun
lexeme is much shorter: sister, sisters. The paradigm of an adjective lexeme is still
shorter: cold, colder, coldest. The paradigm of an adverb like always, is the
shortest as the lexeme consists of one word.
It must be borne in mind, however, that not all the lexemes of a part of
speech have the same paradigms.
Cf. 1. Student
book
information.
The first lexeme has opossums of two grammatical categories: number and
case. The second lexeme has only one oppose me – that of number. It has no case
opossum. In other words, it is outside the both categories: it has opossums at all.
We may say that the number oppose me with its opposite grammatical meanings
of “singularity” and “plurality” is neutralized.
32
In nouns like information, bread, milk, etc. owing to their lexical meanings
which can hardly be associated with the notions of “oneness” or “more- than
oneness” (cf. the uncommonness of “two milks” three information etc).
Sometimes only the form of an opossum is neutralized in certain
surroundings.
Ex: Lanny knew that all he had to do was to lower his eyes or look awayany gesture of defeat would have done-and the man would tell him to go.
We may define neutralization as the reduction of an oppose me to one of its
members under certain circumstances. This member may be called the member of
neutralization. Usually it is the unmarked member of oppose me. In number
opossums, for instance, the member of neutralization is mostly the unmarked
“singular”. However, sometimes the marked “plural” because the member of
neutralization, as in the case of trousers, tongs, sweets, etc The category of
number is by no means an exception as regards the neutralization of its opossums.
We may recognize the neutralization of the case opossums in nouns like book,
hand, thought, etc of the category of degrees of comparison in adjectives like deaf,
blind, wooden, etc. of the category of aspect in verbs like to believe, to resemble,
etc.
Ex: A spasm of trembling shot through his body and he became conscious
of the fact that he was breathing hard.
But three are no grounds to speak of the neutralization of the gender oppose
me in the adjective blind (cf.слоеной- слоеная -слоеной) because no adjective
lexemes have gender opossums in English.
The influence of the category of number is obliquely felt even in a case like
milk. The wood milk is closer to the “singular” member it has no positive than to
the “plural” one.
33
Ex: And here I am, Lanny thought, fighting the same battle in the twentieth
century.
Thus, the word milk can be said to have an oblique “singular” meaning. It is
oblique because it is acquired not as a result of direct opposition, but through
association and analogy with words having “plural” opposites. Similarly book can
be said to have an oblique common case meaning by analogy with words like boy,
cook which have an actually meaning of “common case” owing to the opossums
boy-boy’s, cook- cook’s.
Likewise the verbs creeps, comes have an oblique meaning of “active
voice” by analogy with the first members in such opossums as keeps –is kept,
makes-is made.Oblique grammatical meanings can also be regarded as potential
meanings that can be actualized if necessary. Ordinarily the word room, for
instance, has but an oblique meaning of common case with no possessive case
opposite, but Galsworthy uses the room’s atmosphere. We find the same
actualization of a potential number meaning in there was no room for the separate
bitterness.
The actualization of potential “voice” meaning is observed in a sentence
like the bed had not been slept.
Taking into consideration that oblique grammatical meanings unite numbers
of lexemes into more or less homogeneous groups, we may also treat them as
lexicon- grammatical meanings for example, nouns like, milk, water, steel, selfpossession are united by the oblique meaning of singular number into one lexicongrammatical group of uncountable.
Now coming back to the nouns student book information we can say that all
of them have the meanings of singular number and common case. Only in the
noun book the case meaning and in the noun information both of them are oblique
or potential, or lexica-grammatical ones.
34
Another important feature of a part of speech is its combinability i.e. the
ability to form certain combination of words. As stated, we distinguish lexical
grammatical and lexica- grammatical combinability.
When speaking of the combinability of parts of speech, lexica- grammatical
meanings are to be considered first. In this sense combinability is the power of a
lexica-grammatical class of words to form combinations of definite patterns with
words of certain classes irrespective of their lexical or grammatical meanings.
Owing to the lexica-grammatical meanings of nouns (“substance”) and
preposition (“relation (of substances)”) these two parts of speech often go together
in speech. The model to (from, at) school characterizes both nouns and
prepositions as distinct from adverbs which do not usually form combination of
the types “to loudly”, form loudly. The same is true about articles(a book, the
book but not a below the speak), adjectives (pleasant silence but not pleasant
silently), etc.
As already mentioned, a characteristic feature of articles is their unilateral
right-hand combinability with nouns .Unilateral right-hand connection, but with
different classes of words, are also typical of particles (even, john, even yesterday,
even beautiful). Bilateral connection is typical of conjunctions and prepositions.
The connection of nouns and verbs in speech are variable, but right-hand
connections are more numerous with verbs.
Ex: The train hooted shrilly and slowly jogged out of the siding. On its way
to Bloemfontein, and then Johanesburg, and then farther north.
Thus the combinability of a word, its connections in speech help to show to
what part of speech it belongs.
The impossibility of forming combinations with certain classes of lexemes
may serve as valuable negative criteria in the classification of lexemes. Thus the
35
fact that the adjective can form no combinations of the preposition + adjective
pattern or are verbs cannot attach an article help to distinguish them from other
parts of speech.
All this and the desire to avoid, as for as possible the confusion of the two
basic units of grammar the word and the sentence, must necessary reduce the role
of the sentence criterion in defining part of speech. This is why we play it last,
though some linguists. Give it the first place sentence. A noun is mostly used as a
subject or an object, a verb usually functions as a predicate, an adjective- as an
attribute, etc.
Thus a part of speech is a class of lexemes characterized by 1) its lexicagrammatical meaning, 2) its lexica-grammatical morphemes (stem-build
elements), 3) its grammatical categories or its paradigms, 4) its combinability and
5) its functions in a sentence.
All these features distinguish, for instance, the lexeme represented by the
word teacher from that represented by the word teacher and stamp the words of
the first lexeme is nouns, those of the other lexeme as verbs.
But very often or even parts of speech lack some of these features. The
noun lexeme information lacks feature3. The adjective lexeme deaf lacks both
feature 2 and feature 3. So do the adverbs back seldom, very, the prepositions with
of at, etc.
Feature 1, 4 and 5 are the most general properties of parts of speech.
Many linguistics point out the difference between such pars of speech as
say, nouns or verb, on the one hand, and preposition or conjunctions, on the other.
V.V.Vingradov thinks that only noun, the adjective, the pronoun, the
numeral, the verb, the adverb, and the category of site in the Russian language
may be considered parts of speech, as these words “can fulfill naming function or
36
be indicative equivalents of names”8.Besides parts of speech V.V.Vinagradov
distinguishes 4 particles of speech: 1) particles proper, 2)linking particles, 3)
preposition, 4) conjunctions.
Ex: Celia was pretty and a good companion.
One many infer that particles of speech are denied the naming function, to
which we object. There is certainly same difference between the nature of such
words as table and often. One names an object, the other – a relation. But both
“can fulfill the naming function”. Nouns like relation, attitude, verbs like belong,
refer name relation too, but in a always peculiar to these parts of speech.
Preposition and conjunctions name the relation of the word of reality in their own
way.
E. Nita makes no distinction between nouns and prepositions as to their
naming function when he writes that words such as boy, fish, ken, walk, and good,
bad, against and with are signal for various objects, qualities, processes, states and
relationships of natural and cultural phenomena9.
H. Sweet distinguishes full words and empty words. Producing the
sentence: The earth is round, he writes: “we call such words as the and is fromwords because they are words in from only”10
Our opinion is that both the and are words in content as well as in form. The
impossibility of substituting an for the in the sentence above is due to the content,
not the form of an. When replacing is by another link verb (seems, looks) we
change the content of the sentence.
Many authors speak of function words D. Brown, O. Baily11 call “auxiliarly
verbs prepositions and articles” function words. Vzhigadlo, I.Ivanoiva, L lofic12
B.B.BНаградов Русский язык. М. 1997,p.p41-44
B.B.BНаградов Русский язык. М. 1947 p.p4144
10
E.A Nita Morphology. Ann Arbor 1946 p 138
8
9
37
name prepositions conjunctions, particles and articles as functional parts of speech
distinct from notional parts of speech. C. Fries13 points out 4. classes of words
called part of speech and 15 groups of words called functional words.
The demarcation line between function words and all other words is not
words and all other words is not very clear. Now it passes between parts of
speech, now it is down inside a parts of speech.
Alongside of preposition , auxiliary verbs are mentioned. Alongside of
functional parts of speech, grammarians speak of the functional use of certain
classes of words for instance verbs14
The criteria for singling out function words are rather vague. After
enumerating some of separating the words of these 15 groups from the other and
for calling them function words is the fact that in order to res to certain structure
signals one must know these words as items. And again: There are no formal
contrasts by which we can ineptly the words of these lists. They must be
remembered as items15.
The difference between the function words and the other is not so much a
matter of form as of content. The lexical meanings of function words are not so
bright, distinct, tangible as these of other words. If most words of a language are
notional, function words may be called semi – notionally.
As to form, a semi - notional words may coincide with a notional one. Take,
for example the form grows in the two sentences: He grows in the two old. The
first grows expresses an action. What does he do? He grows roses. In the second
case the notion of action is very weak. He grows old can make but a facetious
answer to what does he do? The linking function of grows comes to the fore.
11
Form in Modern English NY,1958
Op cit.., p16
13
The structure of English. London 1961 p 160
14
B.Жигало and others, op cit.., p 89-90
15
E.U.Шендельс “Иностранные языки”
12
38
Grows links a world indicating a person (he) with a word denoting a property of
that person (old). In this function it resembles (and is often inter chainable with) a
few other verbs with faded lexical meanings and clear linking properties (become,
turn, get). The fading of the lexical meaning in grows is connected with changes
in its combinability. As a linking word it acquires obligatory connection, whereas
grows as a notional word has variable combinability. The semi-notional grows
forms connections with adjectives, ad links, with which the notional grows is not
combinable. The fading of the lexical meaning affects the isolatability of words.
Semi-notional words rarely or never became sentences.
A similar distinction can be drown between notional and semi-notional
lexemes within a part of speech and between notional parts of speech.
Preposition, conjunctions, articles and particles may be regarded as seminotional parts of speech when contrasted within the notional parts o f speech.
What unites the semi-notional parts of speech is as follow:
a) Their very general and comparatively weak lexical meanings meaning,
precluding the use of substitutes.
b) Their practically negative isolatability;
c) Their obligatory unilateral (articles, particles) or bilateral (prepositions,
conjunctions) combinability;
d) Their functions of linking (conjunctions, prepositions of specifying
(articles, particles) words.
Naturally, the system of English parts of speech presented above is not the
only some of the above-mentioned properties of parts of speech and neglect the
other we may obtain a different list. Thus if we regard the grammatical categories
of a part of speech as dominant feature and underestimate the lexica- grammatical
meaning, combinability and syntactical function, we are prone to unite adverbs,
39
prepositions, conjunctions, interjection and particles into one class as H. Sweet
and O. Jespersen do H. Sweet finds the following classes of words in Modern
English; nouns, adjectives, numerals, verbs and particles16. O. Jeepers names
substantives adjectives, adverbs, verbs, pronouns and particles17. In both cases the
particles denote the jumble of words of different classes that are united by the
absence of grammatical categories. In we classify notional words in accordance
with their distribution in speech (which is essentially the same as their
combinability) and neglect or underestimate the conclusion that there exist only
four classes of words; nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. In modern structural
linguistics these classes are usually denoted by the letters N.A.Vand D
respectively. Since the distribution of John and he is similar in many cases.
Ex; Yes, this was also the end of CAPE TOWN and its bustling and
exciting stream of life.
Both words are thought to belong to the same class N spit of the differences
in their lexica-grammatical meanings and paradigms.
2.1 Grammatical classes of words
The words of language, depending on various formal and semantic
features, are divided into grammatically relevant sets or classes. The traditional
grammatical classes of words are called "parts of speech". Since the word is
distinguished not only by grammatical, but also by semantico-lexemic
properties, some scholars refer to parts of speech as "lexico-grammatical" series
of words, or as "lexico-grammatical categories".
It should be noted that the term "part of speech" is purely traditional and
conventional, it can't be taken as in any way defining or explanatory. This name
was introduced in the grammatical teaching of Ancient Greece, where the
16
17
H. Sweet, op cit.., y, l, p 56.
O. Jespersen Essentials of English Grammar p 16
40
concept of the sentence was not yet explicitly identified in distinction to the
general idea of speech, and where, consequently, no strict differentiation was
drawn between the word as a vocabulary unit and the word as a functional
element of the sentence.
In modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of
the three criteria: "semantic", "formal", and "functional". The semantic criterion
presupposes the evaluation of the generalised meaning, which is characteristic of
all the subsets of words constituting a given part of speech. This meaning is
understood as the "categorial meaning of the part of speech". The formal
criterion provides for the exposition of the specific inflexional and derivational
(word-building) features of all the lexemic subsets of a part of speech. The
functional criterion concerns the syntactic role of words in the sentence typical
of a part of speech. The said three factors of categorial characterisation of words
are conventionally referred to as, respectively, "meaning", "form", and
"function".
In accord with the described criteria, words on the upper level of
classification are divided into notional and functional, which reflects their
division in the earlier grammatical tradition into changeable and unchangeable.
To the notional parts of speech of the English language belong the noun, the
adjective, the numeral, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb.
The features of the noun within the identificational triad "meaning —
form — function" are, correspondingly, the following: 1) the categorial meaning
of substance ("thingness"); 2) the changeable forms of number and case; the
specific suffixal forms of derivation (prefixes in English do not discriminate
parts of speech as such); 3) the substantive functions in the sentence (subject,
object, substantival predicative); prepositional connections; modification by an
adjective.
The features of the adjective: 1) the categorial meaning of property
(qualitative and relative); 2) the forms of the degrees of comparison (for
qualitative adjectives); the specific suffixal forms of derivation; 3) adjectival
41
functions in the sentence (attribute to a noun, adjectival predicative).
The features of the numeral: 1) the categorial meaning of number (cardinal and
ordinal); 2) the narrow set of simple numerals; the specific forms of composition
for compound numerals; the specific suffixal forms of derivation for ordinal
numerals; 3) the functions of numerical attribute and numerical substantive.
The features of the pronoun: 1) the categorial meaning of indication
(deixis); 2) the narrow sets of various status with the corresponding formal
properties of categorial changeability and word-building; 3) the substantival and
adjectival functions for different sets.
The features of the verb: 1) the categorial meaning of process (presented
in the two upper series of forms, respectively, as finite process and non-finite
process); 2) the forms of the verbal categories of person, number, tense, aspect,
voice, mood; the opposition of the finite and non-finite forms; 3) the function of
the finite predicate for the finite verb; the mixed verbal — other than verbal
functions for the non-finite verb.
The features of the adverb: 1) the categorial meaning of the secondary
property, i.e. the property of process or another property; 2) the forms of the
degrees of comparison for qualitative adverbs; the specific suffixal forms of
derivation;
3)
the
functions
of
various
adverbial
modifiers.
We have surveyed the identifying properties of the notional parts of speech that
unite the words of complete nominative meaning characterised by selfdependent functions in the sentence.
Contrasted against the notional parts of speech are words of incomplete
nominative meaning and non-self-dependent, mediatory functions in the
sentence. These are functional parts of speech.
On the principle of "generalised form" only unchangeable words are
traditionally treated under the heading of functional parts of speech. As for their
individual forms as such, they are simply presented by the list, since the number
of these words is limited, so that they needn't be identified on any general,
operational scheme.
42
To the basic functional series of words in English belong the article, the
preposition, the conjunction, the particle, the modal word, the interjection.
The article expresses the specific limitation of the substantive functions.
The preposition expresses the dependencies and interdependences of substantive
referents.
The
conjunction
expresses
connections
of
phenomena.
The particle unites the functional words of specifying and limiting meaning. To
this series, alongside of other specifying words, should be referred verbal
postpositions as functional modifiers of verbs, etc.
The modal word, occupying in the sentence a more pronounced or less
pronounced detached position, expresses the attitude of the speaker to the
reflected situation and its parts. Here belong the functional words of probability
(probably, perhaps, etc.), of qualitative evaluation (fortunately, unfortunately,
luckily, etc.), and also of affirmation and negation.The interjection, occupying a
detached position in the sentence, is a signal of emotions.
Each part of speech after its identification is further subdivided into
subseries in accord with various particular semantico-functional and formal
features of the constituent words. This subdivision is sometimes called
"subcategorisation" of parts of speech.
Thus, nouns are subcategorised into proper and common, animate and
inanimate, countable and uncountable, concrete and abstract, etc. Cf.: Mary,
Robinson, London, the Mississippi, Lake Erie — girl, person, city, river, lake;
man,
scholar,
leopard,
butterfly
—
earth,
field,
rose,
machine;
coin/coins, floor/floors, kind/kinds — news, growth, water, furniture;
stone,
grain,
mist,
leaf
—
honesty,
love,
slavery,
darkness.
Verbs are subcategorised into fully predicative and partially predicative,
transitive and intransitive, actional and statal, factive and evaluative, etc. Cf.:
walk, sail, prepare, shine, blow — can, may, shall, be, become;
take, put, speak, listen, see, give — live, float, stay, ache, ripen, rain;
write, play, strike, boil, receive, ride — exist, sleep, rest, thrive, revel, suffer;
43
roll, tire, begin, ensnare, build, tremble — consider, approve, mind, desire, hate,
incline.
Adjectives are subcategorised into qualitative and relative, of constant
feature and temporary feature (the latter are referred to as "statives" and
identified by some scholars as a separate part of speech under the heading of
"category of state"), factive and evaluative, etc. Cf.: long, red, lovely, noble,
comfortable — wooden, rural, daily, subterranean, orthographical; healthy,
sickly, joyful, grievous, wry, blazing — well, ill, glad, sorry,awry,ablaze;tall,
heavy, smooth, mental, native — kind, brave, wonderful,wise,stupid.
The adverb, the numeral, the pronoun are also subject to the corresponding
subcategorisations.
We have drawn a general outline of the division of the lexicon into part
of speech classes developed by modern linguists on the lines of traditional
morphology.
It is known that the distribution of words between different parts of
speech may to a certain extent differ with different authors. This fact gives cause
to some linguists for calling in question the rational character of the part of
speech classification as a whole, gives them cause for accusing it of being
subjective or "prescientific" in essence. Such nihilistic criticism, however,
should be rejected as utterly ungrounded.
Indeed, considering the part of speech classification on its merits, one
must clearly realise that what is above all important about it is the fundamental
principles of word-class identification, and not occasional enlargements or
diminutions of the established groups, or re-distributions of individual words due
to re-considerations of their subcategorial features. The very idea of
subcategorisation as the obligatory second stage of the undertaken classification
testifies to the objective nature of this kind of analysis.
For instance, prepositions and conjunctions can be combined into one
united series of "connectives", since the function of both is just to connect
notional components of the sentence. In this case, on the second stage of
44
classification, the enlarged word-class of connectives will be subdivided into
two main subclasses, namely, prepositional connectives and conjunctional
connectives. Likewise, the articles can be included as a subset into the more
general set of particles-specifiers. As is known, nouns and adjectives, as well as
numerals, are treated in due contexts of description under one common classterm "names": originally, in the Ancient Greek grammatical teaching they were
not differentiated because they had the same forms of morphological change
(declension). On the other hand, in various descriptions of English grammar
such narrow lexemic sets as the two words yes and no, the pronominal
determiners of nouns, even the one anticipating pronoun it are given a separate
class-item status — though in no way challenging or distorting the functional
character of the treated units.
It should be remembered that modern principles of part of speech
identification have been formulated as a result of painstaking research conducted
on the vast materials of numerous languages; and it is in Soviet linguistics that
the three-criteria characterisation of parts of speech has been developed and
applied to practice with the utmost consistency. The three celebrated names are
especially notable for the elaboration of these criteria, namely, V. V. Vinogradov
in connection with his study of Russian grammar, A. I. Smirnitsky and B. A.
Ilyish in connection with their study of English grammar.
Alongside of the three-criteria principle of dividing the words into
grammatical (lexico-grammatical) classes modern linguistics has developed
another, narrower principle of word-class identification based on syntactic
featuring of words only.
The fact is, that the three-criteria principle faces a special difficulty in
determining the part of speech status of such lexemes as have morphological
characteristics of notional words, but are essentially distinguished from notional
words by their playing the role of grammatical mediators in phrases and
sentences. Here belong, for instance, modal verbs together with their equivalents
— suppletive fillers, auxiliary verbs, aspective verbs, intensifying adverbs,
45
determiner pronouns. This difficulty, consisting in the intersection of
heterogeneous properties in the established word-classes, can evidently be
overcome by recognising only one criterion of the three as decisive.
Worthy of note is that in the original Ancient Greek grammatical teaching which
put forward the first outline of the part of speech theory, the division of words
into grammatical classes was also based on one determining criterion only,
namely, on the formal-morphological featuring. It means that any given word
under analysis was turned into a classified lexeme on the principle of its relation
to grammatical change. In conditions of the primary acquisition of linguistic
knowledge, and in connection with the study of a highly inflexional language
this characteristic proved quite efficient.
Still, at the present stage of the development of linguistic science,
syntactic characterisation of words that has been made possible after the
exposition of their fundamental morphological properties, is far more important
and universal from the point of view of the general classificational requirements.
This characterisation is more important, because it shows the distribution of
words between different sets in accord with their functional destination. The role
of morphology by this presentation is not underrated, rather it is further clarified
from the point of view of exposing connections between the categorial
composition
of
the
word
and
its
sentence-forming
relevance.
This characterisation is more universal, because it is not specially destined for
the inflexional aspect of language and hence is equally applicable to languages
of various morphological types.
On the material of Russian, the principles of syntactic approach to the
classification of word stock were outlined in the works of A. M. Peshkovsky.
The principles of syntactic (syntactico-distributional) classification of English
words were worked out by L. Bloomfield and his followers Z. Harris and
especially Ch. Fries.
46
2.3. What are functional words in English
Function words (or grammatical words or synsemantic words or structureclass words) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous
meaning, but instead serve to express grammatical relationships with other words
within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. They signal the
structural relationships that words have to one another and are the glue that holds
sentences together. Thus, they serve as important elements to the structures of
sentences. Consider the following two sentences:
1.
The winfy prunkilmonger from the glidgement mominkled and
brangified all his levensers vederously.
2.
Glop angry investigator larm blonk government harassed gerfritz
infuriated sutbor pumrog listeners thoroughly.
In sentence (1) above, the content words have been changed into nonsense
syllables but it is not difficult for one to posit that winfy is an adjective,
prunkilmonger, glidgement, levensers as nouns, mominkled, brangified as verbs
and vederously as an adverb based on clues like the derivational and inflectional
morphemes. (The clue is in the suffixes: -y indicates adjectives such as "wintery";
-er, -ment and -ers indicates nouns such as "baker", "battlement" and
"messengers"; -led and -fied suggests verbs such as "mingled" and "clarified"; and
-ly is that of adverbs such as "vigorously"). Hence, even without lexical meaning,
the sentence can be said to be rather "meaningful". However, when the reverse is
done and the function words are being changed to nonsense syllables as in
sentence (2), the result is a totally incomprehensible sentence as the grammatical
meaning which is signaled by the structure words is not present. Hence, function
words provide the grammatical relationships between the open class words and
helps create meaning in sentences.
47
Words that are not function words are called content words (or open class
words or lexical words or autosemantic words): these include nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and most adverbs, although some adverbs are function words (e.g.,
then and why). Dictionaries define the specific meanings of content words, but can
only describe the general usages of function words. By contrast, grammars
describe the use of function words in detail, but treat lexical words in general
terms only.
Function words might be prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs,
conjunctions, grammatical articles or particles, all of which belong to the group of
closed-class words. Interjections are sometimes considered function words but
they belong to the group of open-class words. Function words might or might not
be inflected or might have affixes.
Function words belong to the closed class of words in grammar in that it is
very uncommon to have new function words created in the course of speech,
whereas in the open class of words (that is, nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs)
new words may be added readily (such as slang words, technical terms, and
adoptions and adaptations of foreign words). See neologism.
Each function word either gives some grammatical information on other
words in a sentence or clause, and cannot be isolated from other words, or it may
indicate the speaker's mental model as to what is being said.
Grammatical words, as a class, can have distinct phonological properties
from content words. Grammatical words sometimes do not make full use of all the
sounds in a language. For example, in some of the Khoisan languages, most
content words begin with clicks, but very few function words do. In English, very
few words other than function words begin with voiced th- [ð] (see Pronunciation
of English th).
The following is a list of the kind of words considered to be function words:
48

articles — the and a. In some inflected languages, the articles may take on
the case of the declension of the following noun.

pronouns — inflected in English, as he — him, she — her, etc.

adpositions — uninflected in English

conjunctions — uninflected in English

auxiliary verbs — forming part of the conjugation (pattern of the tenses of
main verbs), always inflected

interjections — sometimes called "filled pauses", uninflected

particles — convey the attitude of the speaker and are uninflected, as if,
then, well, however, thus, etc.

expletives — take the place of sentences, among other functions.

pro-sentences — yes, okay, etc.
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A word that expresses a grammatical or structural relationship with other
words in a sentence.
In contrast to a content word, a function word has little or no meaningful
content. Function words are also known as grammatical words.
Function words include determiners (for example, the, that), conjunctions
(and, but), prepositions (in, of), pronouns (she, they), auxiliary verbs (be, have),
modals (may, could), and quantifers (some, both).
49

"In contrast to content words, function words, such as determiners and
auxiliary verbs, do not have 'contentful' meanings; rather, they are defined in
terms of their use, or function. For example, the meaning of the auxiliary verb is
in Leo is running is difficult to define, but we can say that the function of the
auxiliary verb is in this case is to express present tense (to see this, compare Leo
was running). Function words are closed class words. Though we freely add new
members to open classes of words, we don't coin new determiners or conjunctions,
nor do we come up with new pronouns, modal verbs, or auxiliary verbs (have, be,
and
do)."
(Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck, Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction.
Wadsworth, 2010)

"Function words are like thumbtacks. We don't notice thumbtacks; we look
at the calendar or the poster they are holding up. If we were to take the tacks
away, the calendar and the poster would fall down. Likewise, if we took the
function words out of speech, it would be hard to figure out what was going on:
took function words speech hard figure going on.
That is what the previous sentence would look like if we took out all of the
function words."
Note that go(ing) on is a phrasal verb.
Function Words in Speech
"Most monosyllabic function words, unlike content words, are unstressed . .
.. Prepositions, conjunctions, and articles are regularly unstressed, and auxiliary
verbs and adverbs are usually unstressed--though note that auxiliaries are often
used for emphasis, in which case they are stressed: "I did pay the bills."
(Derek Attridge, Poetic Rhythm. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995)
50
2.4. The differences between functional and content words
Each word in English belongs to one of the eight parts of speech. Each
word in English is also either a content words or a function word. Let's think about
what these two types mean:
Content = information, meaning
Function = necessary words for grammar
In other words, content words give us the most important information while
function words are used to stitch those words together.
Content words are usually nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. A noun
tells us which object, a verb tells us about the action happening, or the state.
Adjectives give us details about objects and people and adverbs tell us how, when
or where something is done. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs give us
important information required for understanding.
Noun = person, place or thing
Verb = action, state
Adjective = describes an object, person, place or thing
Adverb = tells us how, where or when something happens
Linguists usually draw a distinction between content words, those words
whose meaning is best described in a dictionary and which belong in open sets so
that new ones can freely be added to the language, and function words, words
with little inherent meaning but with important roles in the grammar of a
language. Typically the content words are nouns, verbs, adjectives and some
adverbs, while function words are pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, auxiliary
verbs, and some adverbs.
51
Some of these function words are homonyms of content words, so that only
the context can tell you which meaning is intended. Among the adverbs these
include BACK, JUST and STILL. Among the auxiliary verbs are CAN, DOES,
MAY MIGHT and MUST. Among the prepositions/conjunctions are DOWN,
ROUND and TILL, and among the determiners is MINE. There will be more of
these overlaps if you use software which standardizes input by stripping
punctuation, in which cases items like CAN'T, I'LL, SHE'D and SHE'LL will turn
into CANT, ILL, SHED and SHELL.
So coming from above mentioned information there arises a question: Why
can’t we draw a sharp line between content words and function words?
Criteria for Word Classes we use a combination of three criteria for
determining the word class of a word: The meaning of the word, the form or
`shape' of the word, the position or environment of the word in a sentence.
What is a function word? Little semantic content of its own Indicates a
grammatical relationship. No identifiable meaning closed-class word such as
preposition, conjunction or article
Different names for function words: Function words Grammatical words
auto semantic words little lexical meaning.
Have ambiguous meaning.
For example: This is a boy.
This boy is running.
Serve to express grammatical relationships with other words within a
sentence specify the attitude or mood of the speaker.
Function words: The following is a list considered to be function words:
articles: the, a., pronouns: he, him, she, her, etc., conjunctions: and, that, when,
while, although, or., interjections: sometimes called filled uninflected modal verbs
: can, must, will, should, ought, need, used to., auxiliary verbs: be (is, am, are),
have, got, do., particles: if, then, well, however, thus, no, not, nor, as etc.,
expletives: take the place of sentences, among other functions., pro-sentences: yes,
52
okay, etc., prepositions: of, at, in, without, between., pronouns: he, they, anybody,
it, one., determiners: the, a, that, my, more, much, either, neither.
All grammatical morphology is “functional”.
What is a content word?
1)
Not function word;
2)
open class word;
3)
lexical word.
Uninflected stems are content “words”.
Content words are:
1) Nouns: John, room, answer;
2) Full verbs: search, grow, hold, have;
3) Adjectives: happy, new, large, grey;
4) Adverbs: really, completely, very, also, enough;
5) Numerals: one, thousand, first;
6) Interjections: eh, ugh, phew, well;
7) Yes/No answers: yes, no (as answers).
Differences between content and function words.
1) The class of function words is closed.
2) Do not easily add new words to this set.
3) English has 300 closed class words.
4) The class of content words is open.
5) New words are being added in every language.
6) Content words obey the minimal word constraint but function words do
not.
7) Little function words: I, the, a, it, of, etc…
8) No open class words are this little.
9) Function words are acquired later than content words.
Coming from above mentioned information about differences between
content and functional words arises another question: Can we draw a sharp line
between content words and function words? Answer is: NO. Because, the same
53
lexical word can function either content or function word depending on its
function in an utterance.
For example: 1) “I have come to see you”.
“have” - is a function word (auxiliary verb).
“I have three apples”.
“have” is a content word (full verb).
2) “One has one's principles”.
“one”- is a function word (pronoun).
“I have one apple”.
“one”- is a content word (numeral).
3) “I have no more money”.
“no”- is a function word (a negative particle).
“No. I am not coming”.
“no”- is a content word (Yes/No answer).
Numerals are a subclass of nouns: like nouns, they can take determiners the
two of us, the first of many. They can even have numerals as determiners before
them.
Example: “five twos are ten” “twos” is a plural noun, it has the determiner
five before it.
Considerable overlap between the determiner class and the subclass of
pronouns . Many words can be both.
Example: Pronoun. “This is a very boring book”.
“That's an excellent film”.
Determiner “That film is excellent”.
“This book is very boring”.
Determiners function in much the same way as nouns and they can be
replaced by nouns.
Examples: “This is a very boring book”.
“Ivanhoe is a very boring book”.
54
“That's an excellent film”.
“Witness is an excellent film”.
On the other hand, when these words are determiners, they cannot be
replaced by nouns, examples: “This book is very boring”. “Ivanhoe book is very
boring”. “That film is excellent”. “Witness film is excellent”.
Personal pronouns (I, you, he, etc) cannot be determiners. This is also true
for possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his/hers, ours, and theirs). These pronouns
do have corresponding forms which are determiners.
Examples: 1) “The white car is mine”. “My car is white”.
2) “Yours is the blue coat”. “Your coat is blue”.
3) “The car in the garage is his/hers”. “His/her car is in the garage”.
4) “David's house is big but ours is bigger”.
5) “Our house is bigger than David's”.
6) “Theirs is the house on the left”.
7) “Their house is on the left”.
Stressed words carry the meaning or the sense behind the sentence. For this
reason they are called “Content Words”. They carry the content of the sentence.
Unstressed words tend to be smaller words, have more of a grammatical
significance. They help the sentence “function” syntactically. For this reason they
are called “Function Words”. Sometimes “Function Words” are referred to as
“Structure Words”.
For example: “I am talking to the clever students”.
“You’re sitting on the desk but you aren’t listening to me”.
Example 2: “No!” screamed David angrily as he wiped away the tears from
his face and ran into his bedroom. “What’s your name and how are you today?”
55
3.0. CHAPTER III. Aspects of teaching grammatical structure
3.1. Problems of teaching Grammar
Language is the chief means by which the human personality expresses itself
and fulfills its basic need for social interaction with other persons.
Robert Lado wrote that language functions owing to the language skills. A
person who knows a language perfectly uses a thousand and one grammar lexical,
phonetic rules when he is speaking. Language skills help us to choose different
words and models in our speech.
It is clear that the term “grammar” has meant various things at various times
and sometimes several things at one time. This plurality of meaning is
characteristic of the present time and is the source of confusions in the discussion
of grammar as part of the education of children. There have been taking place
violent disputes on the subject of teaching grammar at school.
The ability to talk about the grammar of a language, to recite its rules, is also
very different from ability to speak and understand a language or to read and write
it. Those who can use a language are often unable to recite its rules, and those who
can recite its rules can be unable to use it.
Grammar organizes the vocabulary and as a result we have sense units.
There is a system of stereotypes, which organizes words into sentences. But what
skill does grammar develop?
First of all it gives the ability to make up sentences correctly, to reproduce
the text adequately. (The development of practical skills and habits)
The knowledge of the specific grammar structure helps pupils point out the
differences between the mother tongue and the target language.
The knowledge of grammar develops abilities to abstract systematize plural
facts.
The name of my work is “Teaching Grammar”. And the main aim is to
clearly recognize how to teach grammar right.
To judge by the way some people speak, there is no place for grammar in the
language course nowadays; yet it is, in reality, as important as it ever was exercise
56
of correct grammar, if he is to attain any skill of effective use of the language, but
he need not know consciously formulated rules to account to him for that he does
unconsciously correctly.
In order to understand a language and to express oneself correctly one must
assimilate the grammar mechanism of the language studied. Indeed, one may know
all the words in a sentence and yet fail to understand it, if one does not see the
relation between the words in the given sentence. And vice versa, a sentence may
contain one, two, and more unknown words but if one has a good knowledge of the
structure of the language one can easily guess the meaning of these words or at
least find them in a dictionary.
No speaking is possible without the knowledge of grammar, without the
forming of a grammar mechanism.
If learner has acquired such a mechanism, he can produce correct sentences
in a foreign language. Paul Roberts writes: “Grammar is something that produces
the sentences of a language. By something we mean a speaker of English. If you
speak English natively, you have built into you rules of English grammar. In a
sense, you are an English grammar. You possess, as an essential part of your being,
a very complicated apparatus which enables you to produce infinitely many
sentences, all English ones, including many that you have never specifically
learned. Furthermore by applying you rule you can easily tell whether a sentence
that you hear a grammatical English sentence or not.”
A command of English as is envisaged by the school syllabus cannot be
ensured without the study of grammar. Pupils need grammar to be able to aud,
speak, read, and write in the target language.
To develop one’s speech means to acquire essential patterns of speech and
grammar patterns in particular. Children must use these items automatically during
speech-practice. The automatic use of grammar items in our speech (oral and
written) supposes mastering some particular skills – the skills of using grammar
items to express one’s own thoughts, in other words to make up your sentences.
We must get so-called reproductive or active grammar skills.
57
A skill is treated as an automatic part of awareness. Automatization of the
action is the main feature of a skill.
The nature of Automatization is characterized by that psychological
structure of the action which adopts to the conditions of performing the action
owing frequent experience. The action becomes more frequent, correct and
accurate and the number of the operations is shortened while forming the skill the
character of awareness of the action is changing, i.e. fullness of understanding is
paid to the conditions and quality of performing to the control over it and
regulation.
To form some skills is necessary to know that the process of the forming
skills has some steps:

Only some definite elements of the action are automatic.

The automatization occurs under more difficult conditions, when the
child can’t concentrate his attention on one element of the action.

The whole structure of the action is improved and the automatization
of its separate components is completed.
What features do the productive grammar skills have?
During our speech the reproductive grammar skills are formed together with
lexis and intonation, they must express the speaker’s intentions.
The actions in the structural setting of the lexis must be learnt.
The characteristic feature of the reproductive grammar skills is their
flexibility. It doesn’t depend on the level of Automatization, i.e. on perfection of
skill here mean the original action: both the structure of sentence, and forms of the
words are reproduced by the speaker using different lexical material. If the child
reproduces sentences and different words, which have been learnt by him as “a
ready-made thing” he can say that there is no grammar skill. Learning the readymade forms, word combinations and sentences occurs in the same way as learning
lexis.
The grammar skill is based on the general conclusion. The grammar action
can and must occur only in the definite lexical limits, on the definite lexical
58
material. If the pupil can make up his sentence frequently, accurately and correctly
from the grammatical point of view, he has got the grammar skill.
Teaching grammar at school using the theoretical knowledge brought some
critical and led to confusion. All the grammatical rules were considered to be evil
and there were some steps to avoid using them at school.
But when we learn grammatical items in models we use substitution and
such a type of training gets rid of grammar or “neutralizes” it. By the way, teaching
the skills to make up sentences by analogy is a step on the way of forming
grammar skills. It isn’t the lexical approach to grammar and it isn’t neutralization
of grammar, but using basic sentences in order to use exercises by analogy and to
reduce number of grammar rules when forming the reproductive grammar skills.
To form the reproductive grammar skills we must follow such steps:

Selection the model of sentence.

Selection the form of the word and formation of word forms.

Selection the auxiliary words-preposition, articles, and etc. and their
combination with principle words.
The main difficulty of the reproductive (active) grammar skills is to
correspond the purposes of the statement, communicative approach (a question an
answer and so on), words, meanings, expressed by the grammatical patterns. In
that case we use basic sentences, in order to answer the definite situation. The main
factor of the forming of the reproductive grammar skill is that pupils need to learn
the lexis of the language. They need to learn the meanings of the words and how
they are used. We must be sure that our pupils are aware of the vocabulary they
need at their level and they can use the words in order to form their own sentence.
Each sentence contains a grammar structure. The mastering the grammar skill lets
pupils save time and strength, energy, which can give opportunity to create.
Learning a number of sentences containing the same grammatical structure and a
lot of words containing the same grammatical form isn’t rational. But the
generalization of the grammar item can relieve the work of the mental activity and
let the teacher speed up the work and the children realize creative activities.
59
The process of creation is connected with the mastering of some speech
stereotypes the grammatical substrate is hidden in basic sentences. Grammar is
presented as itself. Such a presentation of grammar has its advantage: the grammar
patterns of the basic sentences are connected with each other. But this approach
gives pupils the opportunity to realize the grammar item better. The teaching must
be based on grammar explanations and grammar rules. Grammar rules are to be
understood as a special way of expressing communicative activity. The
reproductive grammar skills suppose to master the grammar actions which are
necessary for expressing thoughts in oral and written forms.
The automatic perception of the text supposes the reader to identify the
grammar form according to the formal features of words, word combinations,
sentences which must be combined with the definite meaning. One must learn the
rules in order to identify different grammatical forms. Pupils should get to know
their features, the ways of expressing them in the language. We teach children to
read and by means of grammar. It reveals the relation between words in the
sentence. Grammar is of great important when one teaches reading and auding.
The forming of the perceptive grammar and reproductive skills is quite
different. The steps of the work is mastering the reproductive skills differ from the
steps in mastering the perceptive skills. To master the reproductive grammar skills
one should study the basic sentences or models. To master the perceptive grammar
skills one should identify and analyze the grammar item. Though training is of
great importance to realize the grammar item.
Before speaking about the selection of grammar material it is necessary to
consider the concept “grammar”, i.e., what it meant by “grammar”.
By grammar one can mean adequate comprehension and correct usage of
words in the act of communication, that is, intuitive knowledge of the grammar of
the language. It is a set of reflexes enabling a person to communicate with his
associates. Such knowledge is acquired by a child in the mother tongue before he
goes to schools.
60
This “grammar” functions without the individual’s awareness of technical
nomenclature; in other words, he has no idea of the system of the language, and to
use all the word-endings for singular and plural, for tense, and all the other
grammar rules without special grammar lessons only due to the abundance of
auding and speaking. His young mind grasps the facts and “makes simple grammar
rules” for arranging the words to express carious thoughts and feelings. This is true
because sometimes little children make mistakes by using a common rule for
words to which that rule cannot be applied. For example, a little English child
might be heard to say Two mans comed instead of Two men come, because the
child is using the plural “s” rule for man to which the rule does not apply, and the
past tense ed rule for come which does not obey the ordinary rule for the past tense
formation. A little Russian child can say ножов instead of ножей using the caseending “ов” for ножи to which it does not apply. Such mistakes are corrected as
the child grows older and learns more of his language.
By “grammar” we also mean the system of the language, the discovery and
description of the nature of language itself. It is not a natural grammar, but a
constructed one. There are several constructed grammars: traditional, structural,
and transformational grammars. Traditional grammar studies the forms of words
(morphology) and how they are put together in sentences (syntax); structural
grammar studies structures of various levels of the language (morpheme level) and
syntactic
level;
transformational
grammar
studies
basic
structures
and
transformation rules.
What we need is simplest and shortest grammar that meets the requirements
of the school syllabus in foreign languages. This grammar must be simple enough
to be grasped and held by any pupil. We cannot say that this problem has been
solved.
Since graduates are expected to acquire language proficiency in aural
comprehension, speaking and reading grammar material should be selected for the
purpose. There exist principles of selecting grammar material both for teaching
speaking knowledge (active minimum) and for teaching reading knowledge
61
(passive minimum), the main one is the principle of frequency, i.e., how frequently
this or that grammar item occurs. For example, the Present Simple (Indefinite) is
frequently used both in conversation and in various texts. Therefore it should be
included in the grammar minimum.
For selecting grammar material for reading the principle of polysemia, for
instance, is of great importance.
Pupils should be taught to distinguish such grammar items which serve to
express different meanings.
For example,
-s (es) Plurals of nouns
The 3d person singular of Present Simple (Indefinite)
The selection of grammar material involves choosing the appropriate kind of
linguistic description, i.e., the grammar which constitutes the best base for
developing speech habits. Thus the school syllabus reflect a traditional approach to
determining grammar material for foreign language teaching, pupils are given
sentences patterns or structures, and through these structures they assimilate the
English language, acquire grammar mechanisms of speech
The content of grammar teaching is disputable among teachers and
methodologists, and there are various approaches to the problem, pupils should,
whatever the content of the course, assimilate the ways of fitting words together to
form sentences and be able to easily recognize grammar forms and structures while
hearing and reading, to reproduce phrases and sentences stored up in their memory
and say or write sentences of their own, using grammar items appropriate to the
situation.
62
3.2 Teaching pronominal components to the elementary and
intermediate level students
English is an analytical language, in which grammatical meaning in largely
expressed through the use of additional words and by changes in word order.
Russian is a synthetic language, in which the majority of grammatical forms are
created through changes in the structure of words, by means of a developed system
of prefixes, suffixes and ending. (p. 121, Brown C. and Jule “Teaching the spoken
language”, Cambridge, 1983)
No one knows exactly how people learn languages although a great deal of
research has been done into the subject.
Many methods have been proposed for the teaching of foreign language.
And they have met with varying degrees of success and failure.
We should know that the method by which children are taught must have
some effect on their motivation. If they find it deadly boring they will probably
become de-motivated, whereas if they have confidence in the method they will find
it motivating. Child learners differ from adult learners in many ways. Children are
curious, their attention is of a shorter duration, they are quite differently motivated
in, and their interests are less specialized. They need frequent of activity; they need
activities which are exciting and stimulating their curiosity; they need to be
involved in something active.
We shall examine such methods as “The Grammar – Translation Method”,
”The Direct Method”, “The Audio-lingual Method”. And we pay attention to the
teaching grammar of the foreign language. We shall comment those methods,
which have had a long history.
This method was widely used in teaching the classics, namely Latin, and it
was transferred to the teaching of modern languages when they were introduced
into schools.
In the grammar-translation mode, the books begin with definitions of the
parts of speech, declensions, conjugations, rules to be memorized, examples
illustrating the rules, and exceptions. Often each unit has a paragraph to be
63
translated into the target language and one to be translated into native one. These
paragraphs illustrate the grammar rules studied in the unit. The student is expected
to apply the rules on his own. This involves a complicated mental manipulation of
the conjugations and declensions in the order memorized, down to the form that
might fit the translation. As a result, students are unable to use the language, and
they sometimes develop an inferiority complex about languages in general.
Exceptionally bright and diligent students do learn languages by this method, or in
spite of it, but they would learn with any method. (R. Lado)
We list the major characteristics of Grammar Translation.
 Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target
language.
 Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words.
 Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given.
 Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction
often focuses on the form and inflection of word.
 Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early.
 Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises
in grammatical analysis.
 Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences
from the target language into the mother tongue.
 Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.
18
The grammar-translation method is largely discredited today. With greater
interest in modern languages for communication the inadequacy of grammartranslation methods became evident.
The Direct Method appeared as a reaction against the grammar-translation
method.
There was a movement in Europe that emphasized language learning by
direct contact with the foreign language in meaningful situations. This movement
18
Brown H., Douglas ‘Principles of language teaching’, N.Y., 1987
64
resulted in various individual methods with various names, such as new method,
natural method, and even oral method, but they can all be referred to as direct
methods or the direct method. In addition to emphasizing direct contact with the
foreign language, the direct method usually deemphasized or eliminated translation
and the memorization of conjugations, declensions, and rules, and in some cases it
introduced phonetics and phonetic transcription.
The direct method assumed that learning a foreign language is the same as
learning the mother tongue, that is, that exposing the student directly to the foreign
language impresses it perfectly upon his mind. This is true only up to a point, since
the psychology of learning a second language differs from that of learning the first.
The child is forced to learn the first language because he has no other effective way
to express his wants. In learning a second language this compulsion is largely
missing, since the student knows that he can communicate through his native
language when necessary.
The basic premise of Direct Method was that second language learning
should be more like first language learning: lots of active oral interaction,
spontaneous use of the language, no translation between first and second
languages, and little or no analysis of grammatical rules. We can summarize the
principles of the Direct
Method:

Classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target
language.

Only everyday vocabulary and sentences were taught.

Oral communication skills were built up in a carefully graded
progression organized around question-and-answer exchanges between teachers
and student in small, intensive classes.

Grammar was taught inductively, i.e. the learner may discover the
rules of grammar for himself after he has become acquainted with many examples.

New teaching points were introduced orally.
65

Concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstration, objects, and
pictures; abstract vocabulary was taught by association of ideas.

Both speech and listening comprehension were taught.

Correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized.
The Audiolingual Method (It is also called Mimicry-memorization method)
was the method developed in the Intensive Language Program. It was successful
because of high motivation, intensive practice, small classes, and good models, in
addition to linguistically sophisticated descriptions of the foreign language and its
grammar.
Grammar is taught essentially as follows: Some basic sentences are
memorized by imitation. Their meaning is given in normal expressions in the
native language, and the students are not expected to translate word for word.
When the basic sentences have been overlearned (completely memorized so that
the student can rattle them off without effort), the student reads fairly extensive
descriptive grammar statements in his native language, with examples in the target
language and native language equivalents. He then listens to further conversational
sentences for practice in listening. Finally, practices the dialogues using the basic
sentences and combinations of their parts. When he can, he varies the dialogues
within the material hr has already learned. The characteristics of ALM may be
summed up in the following list:
 New material is presented in dialog form.
 There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases and
overlearning.
 Structures are sequenced by means of contrastive analysis and taught one
at a time.
 Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.
 There is a little or no grammatical explanation: grammar is taught by
inductive analogy rather than deductive explanation.
 Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.
66
 There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids.
 Great importance is attached to pronunciation.
 very little use of the mother tongue by teachers is permitted.
 Successful responses are immediately reinforced.
 There is a great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances.
 There is a tendency to manipulate language and disregard content.
We shall briefly review the treatment of grammatical explanations by some
of the major methods. This is not meant to be an exhaustive study of all available
methods; rather it is an attempt to show the variety of ways in which different
methods deal with grammar explanations and may help teachers in evaluating
available materials.
Grammar translation is associated with formal rule statement. Learning
proceeds, deductively, and the rule is generally stated by the teacher, in a textbook,
or both. Traditional abstract grammatical terminology is used. Drills include
translation into native language.
The direct method is characterized by meaningful practice and exclusion of
the mother tongue. This method has had many interpretations, some of which
include an analysis of structure, but generally without the use of abstract
grammatical terminology.19
The audio-lingual method stresses an inductive presentation with extensive
pattern practice. Writing is discouraged in the early stages of learning a structure.
Here again, there has been considerable variation in the realization of this
approach. In some cases, no grammatical explanation of any kind is offered. In
other, the teacher might focus on a particular structure by isolating an example on
the board, or through contrast. When grammatical explanation is offered it is
usually done at the end of the lesson as a summary of behavior (Politzer, 1965), or
19
Rogova, G.V., “Methods of teaching English”; М.,1970
67
in later versions of this method the rule might be stated in the middle of the lesson
and followed by additional drills.
Each method is realized in techniques. By a technique we mean an
individual way in doing something, in gaining a certain goal in teaching learning
process. The method and techniques the teacher should use in teaching children of
the primary school is the direct method, and various techniques which can develop
pupils` listening comprehension and speaking. Pupils are given various exercises,
connected with the situational use of words and sentence patterns.
This means that in sentence patterns teaching points are determined so that
pupils can concentrate their attention on some elements of the pattern to be able to
use them as orienting points when speaking or writing the target language. For
example, I can see a book. I can see many books.
The teacher draws pupils’ attention to the new element in the form of a rule,
a very short one. It is usually done in the mother tongue. For example: Помни, что
во множественном числе к существительному прибавляется окончание –s
[s,z] или –es [IZ]. Or: Помни, что в отрицательных предложениях ставится
вспомогательный глагол “do not” (“does not”).The rule helps the learner to
understand and to assimilate the structural meaning of the elements. It ensures a
conscious approach to learning. This approach provides favourable conditions for
the speedy development of correct and more flexible language use. However it
does not mean that the teacher should ask pupils to say this or that rule, Rules do
not ensure the mastery of the language. They only help to attain the practical goal.
If a pupil can recognize and employ correctly the forms that are appropriate, that is
sufficient. When the learner can give ample proof of these abilities we may say that
he has fulfilled the syllabus requirements.
Conscious learning is also ensured when a grammar item is contrasted with
another grammar item which is usually confused. The contrast is brought out
through oppositions. For example:
I get up at 7 o’clock.

It’s 7 o’clock. I am getting up.  The Present Simple is contrasted

with the Present Progressive.
68



He has come.
The Present Perfect is contrasted
with the Past Simple.
Give me a book (to read into the train).  The indefinite article is contrasted

Give me the book (you have promised),  with the definite article.

I like soup (more than any other food). The zero article is contrasted with

the definite article.
I like the soup ( you have cooked). 
He came an hour ago.
Rule for the teacher:
The teacher should realize difficulties the sentence pattern presents for his
pupils. Comparative analysis of the grammar item in English and in Russian or
within the English language may be helpful. He should think of the shortest and
simplest way for presentation of the new grammar item. The teacher should
remember the more he speaks about the language the less time is left to practice.
The more the teacher explains the less his pupils understand what he is trying to
explain, this leads to the teacher giving more information than is necessary, which
does not help the pupils in the usage of this particular grammar item, only hinders
them.
It means that pupils learn those grammar items which they need for
immediate use either in oral or written language. For example, from the first steps
of language learning pupils need the Possessive Case for objects which belong to
different people, namely, Mike’s textbook, Ann’s mother, the girl’s doll, the boys’
room, etc. The teacher masters grammar through performing various exercises in
using a given grammar item.
Grammar items are introduced and drilled in structures or sentence patterns.
It has been proved and accepted by the majority of teachers and
methodologists that whenever the aim to teach pupils the command of the
language, and speaking in particular, the structural approach meets the
requirements.
Pupils are taught to understand English when spoken to and to speak it from
the very beginning. This is possible provided they have learned sentence patterns
69
and words as a pattern and they know how to adjust them to them to the situations
they are given.
In our country the structural approach to the teaching of grammar attracted
the attention of many teachers. As a result structural approach to grammar teaching
has been adopted by our schools since it allows the pupil to make up sentences by
analogy, to use the same pattern for various situations. Pupils learn sentence
patterns and how to use them in oral and written language.
Rule for the teacher:
The teacher should furnish pupils with words to change the lexical
(semantic) meaning of the sentence pattern so that pupils will be able to use it in
different situations. He should assimilate the grammar mechanism involved in
sentence pattern and not the sentence itself.
Pupils learn a grammar item used in situations. For example, the Possessive
Case may be effectively introduced in classroom situations. The teacher takes or
simply touches various things and says This is Nina’s pen; That is Sasha’s
exercise-book, and so on.
Rule for the teacher:
The teacher should select the situations for the particular grammar item he is
going to present. He should look through the textbook and other teaching materials
and find those situations which can ensure comprehension and the usage of the
item.
Grammar items pupils need for conversation are taught by the oral approach,
i.e., pupils aud them, perform various oral exercises, finally see them printed, and
write sentences using them.
For example, pupils need the Present Progressive for conversation. They
listen to sentences with the verbs in the Present Progressive spoken by the teacher
or the speaker (when a tape recorder is used) and relate them to the situations
suggested. Then pupils use the verbs in the Present Progressive in various oral
sentences in which the Present Progressive is used. Grammar items necessary for
reading are taught through reading.
70
Rule for the teachers:
If the grammar item the teacher is going to present belongs to those pupils
need for conversation, he should select the oral approach method for teaching.
If pupils need the grammar item for reading, the teacher should start with
reading and writing sentences in which the grammar item occurs.
While preparing for the lesson at which a new grammar item should be
introduced, the teacher must realize the difficulties pupils will meet in assimilating
this new element of the English grammar. They may be of three kinds: difficulties
in form, meaning, and usage. The teacher thinks of the ways to overcome these
difficulties: how to convey the meaning of the grammar item either through
situations or with the help of the mother tongue; what rule should be used; what
exercises should be done; their types and number. Then he thinks of the sequence
in which pupils should work to overcome these difficulties, i.e., , from observation
and comprehension through conscious imitation to usage in conversation
(communicative exercises). Then the teacher considers the form in which he
presents the grammar item – orally, in writing, or in reading. And, finally, the
teacher plans pupils’ activity while they are learning this grammar item (point):
their individual work, mass work, work in unison, and work in pairs, always
bearing in mind that for assimilation pupils need examples of the sentence pattern
in which this grammar item occurs.
4.0 CONCLUSION.
The question of contextual-semantics of grammatical classification of
words in English language was mentioned in many works. But this problem
was studied in that or other foreshortened. The purpose of the given work is
71
to systematize the data about contextual-semantics of grammatical classification
of words and their main parts of speech.
The basic results of research can be generalized as follows; the words of
language, depending on various formal and semantic features, are divided into
grammatically relevant sets or classes. The traditional grammatical classes of
words are called "parts of speech". Since the word is distinguished not only by
grammatical, but also by semantico-lexemic properties, some scholars refer to
parts of speech as "lexico-grammatical" series of words, or as "lexico-grammatical
categories"
[Смирницкий,
(1),
33;
(2),
100].
It should be noted that the term "part of speech" is purely traditional and
conventional, it can't be taken as in any way defining or explanatory. This name
was introduced in the grammatical teaching of Ancient Greece, where the concept
of the sentence was not yet explicitly identified in distinction to the general idea of
speech, and where, consequently, no strict differentiation was drawn between the
word as a vocabulary unit and the word as a functional element of the sentence. In
modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of the three
criteria:
"semantic",
"formal",
and
"functional".
In accord with the described criteria, words on the upper level of classification are
divided into notional and functional, which reflects their division in the earlier
grammatical
tradition
into
changeable
and
unchangeable.
To the notional parts of speech of the English language belong the noun, the
adjective,
the
numeral,
the
pronoun,
the
verb,
the
adverb.
Each part of speech after its identification is further subdivided into subseries in
accord with various particular semantico-functional and formal features of the
constituent words. This subdivision is sometimes called "subcategorisation" of
parts
of
speech.
Though grammarians have been studying parts of speech for over two thousands
years, the criteria used for classifying lexemes are not yet agreed upon. Hence
there is a good deal of subjectivity in defining the classes of lexemes and we
consequently, find different classifications. Still parts of speech are not altogether
72
an invention of grammarians: what really lies at the bottom of this division of
material reality. The bulk of the class denoting substances is made up of words
denoting material objects such as table, window, milk etc. the vernal of the class
of lexemes meaning processes is constituted by lexemes denoting concrete
actions, such as those writing, reading, speaking, etc.
The lexemes of a part of speech are first of all united by their content, i, e,
by their meaning. Now, this general meaning of a part of speech cannot be
grammatical because the members of one lexeme have different grammatical
meanings: boy’s (singular number, possessive case) boys (plural common case).
Nevertheless, the meaning of a part of speech is closely connected with certain
typical grammatical meanings.
The general meaning of part of speech cannot be lexical. If all the words
of part of speech had the same lexical meaning, they would constitute one lexeme.
But the meaning of part of speech is closely connected with the lexical meanings
of its constituent lexemes. It is always an abstraction from those meanings.
Lexemes united by the general lexicon-grammatical meaning of
“substance” are called nouns. Those having the general lexicon-grammatical
meaning of “action” are called verbs, etc., etc
The general lexicon-grammatical meaning is the intrinsic property of a part
of speech. Connected with it are some properties that find, so to say, outward
expression. Lexicon-grammatical morphemes are once of these properties. The
stems of nouns lexemes often include the morphemes –er, -ist, -ness, -ship, -ment
(worker, Marxist firmness, friendship, management). The stems of verb lexemes
includes the morphemes -ize, -iffy, -be, -en, -en (industrialize, electrify, becloud,
enrich, darken). Adjective stems stems often have the suffixes,-full, -ish, -oust, ive (careful, fearless, boyish, continuous, evasive) . Thus the presence of a certain
lexicon-grammatical morpheme in the stem of a lexeme- often stamps it as
73
belonging: to a definite part of speech. Many of these morphemes are regularly
used to from lexemes of one class from those all other class. For instance, the
suffix –ness often forms noun stems from adjective stems. Dark-darkness, sweetsweetness, thick-thickness, full-fullness, etc. the absence of the suffix in dark as
contrasted with –ness of darkness looks like a zero morpheme characterizing dark
as on adjective.
A part of speech is characterized by its grammatical categories
manifested in the opossums and paradigms of its lexemes. Nouns have the
categories of number and case. Verbs possess the categories of tense, voice, mood,
etc. Adjectives have the category of the degrees of comparison. That is why then
paradigms of lexemes belonging to different parts of speech are different. The
paradigms of a verb lexemes is long: write, writes, wrote, shall write, will write,
am writing, is writing, was writing, were writing, etc. The paradigm of a noun
lexeme is much shorter: sister, sisters. The paradigm of an adjective lexeme is still
shorter: cold, colder, coldest. The paradigm of an adverb like always, is the
shortest as the lexeme consists of one word.
It must be borne in mind, however, that not all the lexemes of a part of speech
have the same paradigms.
Cf. 1. Student
book
information.
In conclusion I can say that naturally, the system of English parts of speech
presented above is not the only some of the above-mentioned properties of parts of
speech and neglect the other we may obtain a different list. Thus if we regard the
grammatical categories of a part of speech as dominant feature and underestimate
the lexica- grammatical meaning, combinability and syntactical function, we are
prone to unite adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjection and particles into
one class as H. Sweet and O. Jespersen do H. Sweet finds the following classes of
words in Modern English; nouns, adjectives, numerals, verbs and particles. O.
74
Jeepers names substantives adjectives, adverbs, verbs, pronouns and particles. In
both cases the particles denote the jumble of words of different classes that are
united by the absence of grammatical categories. In we classify notional words in
accordance with their distribution in speech (which is essentially the same as their
combinability) and neglect or underestimate the conclusion that there exist only
four classes of words; nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs
5.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
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first convocation,February, 1995,стр.185
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3.
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75
4.
Akhmanova O. et.al. Syntax: Theory and Method. Moscow, 1972,256p.
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6.
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Holman M. Translation or Transliteration? Sofia, 1985,235p.
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Ilyish B. The Structure of Modern English. Leningrad, 1972,315p.
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“Prosvesheniye”, 1982,268p.
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Morokhovskaya M. Fundamentals of Theoretical Grammar. Moscow,
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Strang B. Modern English Structure. London, 1974,299p.
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Schibsbye Knud. A Modern English Grammar. Oxford,1970,346p.
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Toury G. In Search of a Theory of Translation. Tel Aviv,1980,289p.
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28.
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Zandvoort R.W. A Handbook of English Grammar. Longman,1958,345p.
30.Rogova, G.V., “Methods of teaching English”; М.,1970,306p.
31.Harmer, Jeremy, “the practice English language teaching”; London-New York;
Longman,1991,285p.
32.Handschin, Charles H., “Methods of teaching modern languages.”; N.Y.,World
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33.BennettA, William Arthur., ”Aspects of Language and language teaching.”;
London-New York., Cambridge univ. press, 1968,412p.
34http://www.indiana.edu/resources/
35http://www.google.com/
36http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/predicate and their use
37http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/literary-theory
Adapted from Teach Yourself Linguistics by Jean Aitchison (McGraw-Hill,
2003)
Full-Text Online Librarywww.questia.com/Online_LibraryOnline library of
books, journals, articles. Research online.
Spoken English Lessonswww.alison.com/English-SpeakingVideo/Audio
English Class w Cert Completely Free -Start Course Now!
Summer Instituteced.berkeley.eduEnvironmental Design Summer Programs
Immerse yourself in design culture
(Mark Aronoff and Kirsten Anne Fudeman, What Is Morphology? WileyBlackwell, 2005)
77
Functional and Content Words
1. Resource Person: Sir Khalil Ahmad Presented by:- Maqsood Ahmad
ID# 090418002 (MSc AL) University of Management and Technology Johar
Town. Lahore.
78