GOSy

1. The position of grammar in the structure of the language.

Language is a complex many-sided and many functional phenomenon and it’s not easy to define. Lang-ge structure consists of 3 main domains: phonetics, lexicon, grammar. Grammar fulfills an organizing function. It arranges our thought according to the rules of the specific lan-ge. English has traveled a long way from being a primarily synthetic lan-ge to becoming a primarily analytical and a largely isolating lan-ge. This evolution and fundamental typological transformation of English has considerably changed its original design. The peculiarities of the gr. structure of English are:

1. The recent-day English is a very flexible lan-ge which is the result of a loss of a great number of inflections in the course of its historical development. Many words in English have a simple morphological structure and no special part-of-speech markers and therefore can be put to any variety of uses in the sentence.

Ex: Yesterday they have another round of talks.

Let’s round the conversation.

Due to the morphological simplicity of many words they are easily converted from one part of speech into another:

Ex: - Darling, - he began

- Don’t darling me please!

2. The English lan-ge abounds in polysemy and homonymy. These 2 features make the eng. lan-ge a very good tool for creating various paradoxes and puns:

Ex: - Order, children, order!

- Ok, a coke and a hamburger, please.

3. As the grammatical meaning of a word in English often manifests itself through its syntactic position in the sentence English is a fixed word-order lan-ge, it’s a subject predicate-object lan-ge:

Ex: “Thank you for the honey. It’s eating my whole family.”

4. English is a subject-prominent lan-ge, which means that all sentences must have a subject even if it’s a formal one:

Ex: It’s getting late.

5. English has a predominantly analytical character and a limited number of inflections, thus most of the tense aspect forms of the English verb are analytical formations.

6. English appears to have a marked tendency to nominalization – it has the so called “a noun disease”.

Ex: I’m late. – nominative predicate.

Я опоздал. – глагол.

7. English has an abandoned use of the non finite forms of the verb, therefore sentences in English are characterized by a greater degree of compression. (языковая компрессия)

Ex: A lot depends on your being diplomatic enough.

4.The noun and its grammatical categories.

PS which unites words with the general categorical meaning of substance or thingness.

The class of nouns embraces names of objects and persons (the centre) and also names of qualities, processes, states (periphery). The most productive means of noun building are suffixation(write-writer), compounding(a know-how) and conversion(to have a swim).

Gender distinctions in E. noun can be expressed in several ways. –by means of suffixes(a waite-waitress), by opposing lexemes (bull-cow), by compounding words in which one component is a gender marker (she-wolf). All these are lexical means.

There also exists a certain gender correlation between nouns denoting animate things and personal pronouns replacing them. E. animate nouns can be divided into 2 groups. 1. person(he-masculine, she- feminine)2. non-person (it). There are lots of n. that belong to so called Common Case(a person, a cousin). The choice of a personal pronoun to replace a N. in English is often a matter of tradition.(ship-she, death- he)In English the category of gender is semantic category.

The grammatical category of number presents a specific linguistic reflection of quantitative relations between homogeneous objects of reality. It’s constructed by the binary privative opposition of singular and plural. The formal marker is –s, its allomorphs(z, iz)

Nouns can be countable and uncountable. The feature of the noun determines the choice of the article and the form of the predicate.

Uncountable nouns are subdivided into 1.singulariatantum 2. pluraliatantum

1. includes names of abstract nouns (love, respect), names of mass material (sugar, bread), some collective inanimate objects(furniture), names of sciences, professional activities (math), nouns of heterogeneous semantics (advice, information) The occasional use of a plural of such a noun is stylistically marked.(moneys on education(huge sums))

2. includes N. denoting: objects consisting of 2 parts(jeans), results of repeated processes (belongings), n. of multitude. (police), n. of various semantics. (clothes)

In modern linguistics Case is understood as a semantic category. In the present day E. there is a theory of the positional and prepositional cases. The category of Case is constituted by the binary privative opposition of the Common and Possessive cases. The formal marker of the Pos. case is apostrophe-’s represented by a 3 phonetically conditioned variants (s, z, iz). It can be joined not only to N. but to phrases and even sentences. The most common syntagmatic meanings of The pos. case are: 1. pure possessivity (brother’s house) 2. agent of the action (the minister’s departure) 3. object of the action (criminal’s arrest) 4. authorship (Pushkin’s stories) 5. destination (sailor’s uniform) 5. measure (a day’s work) 6. location (baker’s street)

The use of P. case is now increasing at the expense of the of-phrase. The pos. case can be used not only with nouns denoting animate objects but often with names of inanimate objects. (the river’s bank)

6. The adjective and its grammatical categories.

1. The adjective is traditionally referred to one of the four cardinal parts of speech. The adjective represents the static, or permanent property of substance (quality or its relation to another substance).

The category of adjectival comparison is constituted by the opposition of the three forms known under the heading of degrees of comparison; the basic form (positive degree), having no features of comparison; the comparative degree form, having the feature of restricted superiority (which limits the comparison to two elements only); the superlative degree form, having the features of unrestricted superiority.

2. Adjectives in English constitute rather a large class of words and include both simple and derivative units. The most productive adjective-building suffixes are -able/ible (readable, drinkable, kissable, doable), - y (fishy, sketchy, iffy, stony, silvery), - ic (prolific, terrific), - ous (wondrous, numerous, famous), - ical (nautical, whimsical, theatrical), - ed (narrow-minded, blue-eyed).

The class of adjectives is composed of two unequal subclasses: qualitative and relative adjectives. Qualitative adjectives denote various qualities of substance that are gradable, e.g. a cold welcome - a very cold welcome, a strange behaviour - rather a strange behaviour.

Relative adjectives denote properties related to some substance. e.g. wooden - made of wood, historical -belonging to history, national - related to nation etc. Relative adjectives denote ungradable property and they do not combine with intensifiers and do not have degrees of comparison.

The subclass of adjectives which is closest to the verb are the so called statives (awake, asleep, afoot, afraid, ablaze, glad, ill, sorry etc.). They differ from the prototypical adjectives semantically as they denote not permanent qualities but temporary states, which, brings them very close to the verbs.

8. The structural and semantic aspects of the sentence.

The structural aspect of the sentence deals with the structural organization of the sentence. According to their structure sentences are classified into simple (monopredicative structures) & composite (polypredicative structures) which are further subdivided into complex (based on subordination) & compound (based on coordination). Clauses within the structure of a composite sentence may be connected with the help of formal markers (conjunctions & connectives: relative pronouns & relative adverbs – syndetically) & without any formal markers – asyndetically.

Besides the pure types there are also peripheral types: semicomplex & semicompound sentences which contain structures of secondary predication: infinitival, participial & gerundial constructions. Ex. There is so much work to be done. – There is so much work that has to be done. Ex. She saw her daughter sitting up in bed. – She saw that her daughter was sitting up in bed.

Thus, there is the structural classification of sentences:

Sentence: Simple, Semi-composite (they’re asyndetic) & Composite (Compound & Complex).

In the traditional grammatical theories the main instrument of syntactic analysis was the so-called simple unextended sentence, a structure that contains only two syntactic elements – the subject & the predicate. Some of simple unextended sentences appear to be ungrammatical because they are semantically incomplete & meaningless because the valency of the verbs is not realized.

Ex. He put. He took. He gave. Valency is the ability of the verb to combine with other parts of the sentence for the verb to realize its lexical meaning & thus become the semantic & structural centre of the sentence.

It is necessary to differentiate between the obligatory valency & obligatory parts of the sentence without which the sentence is ungrammatical & optional valency as well as optional parts of the sentence which gave the additional information about the event described in the sentence.

Ex. The little boy put his big bag on the dinner table. (boy, bag, on the table are obligatory because their deletion makes the sentences semantically empty & little, big, dinner are optional)

The most important processes of extending the elementary sentence are the following:

1. Extension. It consists in adding to a part of the sentence a unit of the same syntactic status. As the result of extension we have sentences with homogenous parts.Ex. I waited & waited.

2. Expansion. It consists in modifying one part of the sentence by another, subordinated to it. Expansion results in the formation of subject, predicate, object & adverbial modifier groups.

Ex. The train arrived at the station at 6. – The Moscow train arrived at the little station at 6 sharp.

3. Compounding consists in changing a part of the sentence (namely the predicate) from simple to compound.

Ex. They are friends. – They must be friends. They must have become friends.

Contamination results in the formation of the so-called double predicate in which the verb becomes syncretic & fulfils a double function: that of a

3.The definition of the phoneme.

Four main aspects of the phoneme. Conceptions of the phoneme. The principal and subsidiary variants of the phoneme. Let us consider the phoneme from the point of view of its three aspects. 1. the phoneme is a functional unit. Function is usually understood to mean discriminatory function, that is, the role of the various components of the phonetic system of the language in distinguishing one morpheme from another, one word from another or also one utterance from another. 2. the phoneme is material, real and objective. That means that it is realized in speech in the form of speech sounds, its allophones. The sets of speech sounds, that is the allophones belonging to the same phoneme are not identical in their articulatory content though there remains some phonetic similarity between them. Allophones are arranged into functionally similar groups, that is groups of sounds in which the members of each group are opposed to one another, but are opposable to members of any other group to distinguish meanings in otherwise similar sequences. Аllophones of the same phoneme, no matter how different their articulation may be, function as the same linguistic unit. The function of phonemes is to distinguish the meaning of morphemes and words. So the phoneme is an abstract linguistic unit, it is an abstraction from actual speech sounds, that is allophonic modifications.

On the one hand, the phoneme is objective real, because it is realized in speech in the material form of speech sounds, its allophones. On the other hand, it is an abstract language unit. That is why we can look upon the phoneme as a dialectical unity of the material and abstract aspects. Thus we may state that it exists in the material form of speech sounds, its allophones.

The articulatory features which form the invariant of the phoneme are called distinctive or relevant. If the opposed sounds differ in one articulatory feature and this difference brings about changes in the meaning of the words the contrasting features are called relevant - f.e. port and court Basic functions of the phoneme are: 1. Constitutive – phoneme constitutes words, word combinations etc. 2. Distinctive – phoneme helps to distinguish the meanings of words, morphemes 3. Recognitive – phoneme makes up grammatical forms of words, sentences, so the right use of allophones The Phoneme Theory was founded by Бодуэн да Куртэнэ, developed by Щерба – he separated Phonetics from Phonology. His thoughts were further developed by Васильев.

A phoneme is a dialectical unity of 3 aspects: material – real, objective, Abstract and generalized, functional.

These 3 aspects are concentrated in the definition of the phoneme by Васильев: “The phoneme is the smallest, further indivisible language unit or sound type that exist in the speech of all members of a given language community as such speech sounds which are capable of distinguishing one word from another word and one grammatical form from another grammatical form of the same word of the same language.

2.The sound matter of the language and its components.

The sound matter of the language perform 3 functions:Constitutive function manifests itself that these 5 components (of sound matter) form and constitute the material form of morphemes, words and sentences.Distinctive – they help to distinguish one word from another Recognitive - renders speech cognition. Thus incorrect variations in duration, intensity or pitch (высота)of speech sounds make speech recognition difficult or even impossible. All speech sounds have 4 aspects (mechanisms): Articulatoty – it is the way when the sound-producing mechanism is investigated, that is the way the speech sounds are pronounced Acoustic – speech sound exists in the form of sound waves which are pronounced by vibrations of the vocal cords. Thus each sound is characterized by frequency, certain duration. All these items represent acoustic aspect. Auditory – sound perception aspect. - Functional – every language unit performs a certain function in actual speech. Functional aspect deals with these functions. The classification of English consonant sounds. a) occlusive (глухие), in the production of which a complete obstruction is formed; b) constrictive (смычные), in the production of which an incomplete obstruction is formed. Each of two classes is subdivided into noise consonants and sonorants. The division is based on the factor of prevailing either noise or tone component in the auditory characteristic of a sound. In their turn noise consonants are divided into plosive consonants (or stops) and affricates. The place of articulation is determined by the active organ of speech against the point of articulation. According to this principle the English consonants are classed into: labial, lingual, glottal. The class of labial consonants is subdivided into: a) bilabial; b) labio-dental; and among the class of lingual consonants three subclasses are distinguished; they are. Another sound property is voiced — voiceless characteristic which depends on the work of the vocal cords. [p, b], [t, d], [k, g], [s, z], [f, v], [θ,ð], [tſ, dЗ]. All voiced consonants are weak (lenis) and all voiceless consonants are strong (fortis). The classification of English vowel sounds Vowels unlike consonants are produced with no obstruction to the stream of air, so on the perception level their integral characteristic is naturally tone, not noise. The most important characteristic of the quality of these vowels is that they are acoustically stable. The analysis of the articulatory constituents of the quality of vowels suggests the following criteria termed: stability of articulation; tongue position; lip position; character of the vowel end; length; tenseness. Stability of articulation specifies the actual position of the articulating organ in the process of the articulation of a vowel. There are two possible varieties: a) the tongue position is stable; b) it changes, that is the tongue moves from one position to another. So according to this principle the

1. Stylistics.

Functional stylistics deals with sets, paradigms of lang.units of all levels of lang. hierarchy, serving to accommodate the needs of certain communicative situations. This paradigms are known as functional styles of the lang. There are 5 of them.

1. Official style. Represented in all kinds of official documents and papers.

2. Scientific style. In articles, brochures, monographs.

3. Publicist style. Essay, feature article, public speeches, etc.

4. Newspaper style. Observed in the majority of materials printed in newspapers.

5. Belles-lettres style embracing numerous and versatile genres of creative writing.

Each of the styles is exercised in two forms: written and oral.

Stylistic of artistic speech or it is also called belles-lettres style study deals with stylistic use of lang. resources with such lang. elements that enables them to carry additional info of various types.

The individual style study puts particular emphasis on the study of author’s style looking for the correlations between the creative concepts of the author and the lang. of his works. In terms of info. theory the author’s stylistics may be named the stylistics of encoder.

Decoding stylistics deals with the problems connected with adequate reception of the message without any informational deformations or looses, i.e. with adequate decoding.

Practical stylistics is the stylistics preceding from the norms of lang. usage at a given period and teaching these norms to lang. speakers, especially the ones dealing with the lang. professionally (editors, writers, teachers, journalists, etc)

The ability of a verbal element to obtain extra-significance to say more in a definite context was called Fore-grounding (актуализация).

5.Lexico-syntactical stylistic devices

Syntactical stylistic devices add logical, emotive, expressive information to the utterance regardless of lexical meanings of sentence components. Antithesis. Antithesis is a semantic opposition emphasized by its realization in similar structures. For example, Some people have much to live on and little to live for. Simile is an imaginary comparison of 2 unlike objects belonging to 2 different classes. The one which is compared is called the tenor, the one with which is compared is called the vehicle. The tenor and the vehicle form the 2 semantic poles of the simile which are connected by one of the following link words: like, as, as like, as though, such as and etc. For example, She is like a rose. (purpose of expressive evaluation, emotive explanation, highly individual description ). The last case of sustained expression of likeness is known as epic or Homeric simile. For example, He stood immovable like a rock in a torrent.

Litotes is a 2-component structure in which 2 negations are joined to give a positive evaluation. The 1^st component of a litotes is always (!!!) the negative particle not while the 2^nd component – always negative in semantics - varies in form from a negative by affixed word to a negative phrase. For example, Her face was not unpretty. She said it, but not impatiently.

Periphrasis is the very peculiar stylistic device; it basically consists of using a roundabout form of expression instead of a simple one that is of using a more or less complicated syntactic structure instead of a word. For example, the shame of American millionaires (meaning живот).

Climax. In climax each next word-combination is logically more important or emotionally stronger and more explicit. In climax we deal with streams of synonyms or at least semantically related words belonging to the same thematic group. The most widely spread model of climax is a 3-step construction in which intensification of logical importance of emotion or quantity is gradually rising from step to step. Climax suddenly interrupted by an unexpected turn of the thought which defeats expectations of the reader and ends in complete semantic reversal of the emphasized idea is called anticlimax. For example, Silence fell upon Closter. Place, peace, oblivion. Allusion. It is a brief reference to some literary or historic event commonly known. For example, in an allusion to "the city that never sleeps", New York will be recognized. Allusions are based on the accumulated experience and knowledge of the writer who presupposes a similar experience and knowledge in the reader. Allegory means expressing abstract ideas through concrete pictures. The term is mostly employed with reference to more or less complete texts, not to individual particular metaphors within a lengthy text.

4. Lexical stylistic devices

Each type of intended substitution results in a stylistic device (sd) called also a trope. The most frequently used is the metaphor, transference of names based on associated likeness between 2 objects.

For example, pancake, ball or volcano - speaking about sun.

If a metaphor involves likeness between inanimate and animate objects, we deal with personification (ex. the face of London, the pain of the ocean ).

When the speaker in his desire to present an elaborated image doesn’t limit his creation to a single metaphor but offers a group of them each supplying another feature of the described phenomenon, this cluster creates a sustained or prolonged metaphor.

E.g. His life was a tragedy written in the terms of knock-about farce. (Maugham)

Metonymy is based on contiguity, mereness of objects or phenomena. Transfers of names in metonymy proceeds from the fact that 2 objects have common grounds of existence in reality.

For example, Will you have another cup? (meaning Do you want more coffee?).

One type of metonymy, the one which is based on the relations between the part and the whole, is often viewed independently and called synecdoche. For example, when a part refers to the whole: “White hair” for elderly person or “A pair of hands” referring to a worker.

There are such sds as pun, zeugma, violation of phraseological units, semantically false chains and nonsense of non-sequence. Basically they perform the same stylistic function in speech and operate on the same linguistic mechanism. Namely one word form is deliberately used in 2 meanings: the effect of these sds is humorous.

Contextual conditions leading to the simultaneous realization of 2 meanings and to the formation of the pun may vary. It can be misinterpretation of one speaker’s utterance by the other which results in his remark dealing with the different meaning of the misinterpreted word or its homonym. For example, “Did you hit a woman with the child?” – “No, Sir, I hit her with a brick.”

Zeugma. In many cases polysemantic verbs that have a practically unlimited lexical valency and can become combined with nouns of most varying semantic groups are deliberately used with 2 or more homogeneous members which are connected semantically.

For example, He took his hat and his leave. All girls were in tears and white muslin.

Semantically false chains are a variation of zeugma. As a rule, it’s the last member of the chain that falls out of the thematic group defeating our expectancy and producing humorous effect.

Violation of phraseological units. The ties between the word, on the one hand, and each of the dependent members, on the other hand, are of different intensity and stability. In most cases one of them together with the verb form a phraseological unit or a cliché in which the verb loses some of its semantic independence and strength. So, violation of phraseological units restores the literal original meaning of the word. For example, “… it took a desperate, ungovernable, frantic hold of him.”

Nonsense of non-sequence rests on the extension of syntactic valency and results in joining to semantically disconnected clauses into one sentence.

6.Syntactical level. Syntactical stylistic devices

Unable to specify the upper limit of sentence length, we definitely know its lower mark to be one word. One-word sentences possess a very strong emphatic impact for their only word obtains both the word and the sentence stress. Short sentences may be structurally complicated while the long ones, on the contrary, may have only one Subject-Predicate pair. So, if the sentence opens with the main clause which is followed by depending units, such structure is called loose. It’s less emphatic and is highly characteristic of informal writing and conversation.

On the contrary, periodic sentences open with subordinate clauses, absolute and participial constructions, the main clause being withheld until the end. Similar structuring of the beginning of the sentence and its end produces balanced sentences known for stressing the logic and reasoning of the content and thus, preferred in publicist writing.

Punctuation also specifies the communicative type of the sentence. Peculiar interrogative constructions which semantically remains a statement is called a rhetorical question.

The rhetorical question doesn’t demand any information but serves to express the emotions of the speaker and also to call the attention of listeners. For example, Can anybody answer for all the grievances of the poor in this wicked world?

One of the most prominent places among the sds dealing with arrangement of members of the sentence belongs to repetition. As a syntactical sd, repetition is recurrence of the same word, word-combination, phrase of 2 and more times. According to the place which the repeated unit occupies in a sentence, repetition is classified into several types:

• Anaphora is the repetition of the beginning of some successive sentences. For example, a…, a…, a… The main stylistic function is to create the background of non-related unit which through its novelty becomes foregrounded.

• Epiphora is the repetition of the end of successive sentences. For example, …a, …a, …a. The main function of epiphora is to add stress to the final words of the sentence.

• Framing (the beginning of the sentence is repeated in the end, thus forming the frame for the non-related part of the sentence). For example, a…a.The function of framing is to elucidate (подчеркнуть) the notion mentioned in the beginning of the sentence.

Catch repetition (anadiplosis) – the end of one clause is repeated in the beginning of the following one (…a, a…).

• Chain repetition presents several successive anadiplosis (…a, a…b, b…c, c…). The effect is that of the smoothly developing logical reasoning.

• Ordinary repetition has no definite place in the sentence and the repeated unit occurs in various positions. Ordinary repetition emphasizes both the logical and the emotional meanings of the repeated word (…a, …a, …a).

• Successive repetition is a string of closely following each other reiterated (многократный, повторяющийся) units (…a, a, a…). This is the most emphatic type of repetition which signifies the peak of emotions of the speaker.

Repetition is a powerful means of emphasis, besides, repetition adds rhythm and balance to the utterance. The latter function is the major one in parallel constructions which may be viewed as a purely syntactic type of repetition. Reversed

5.Other means of word formation. Composition, shortening and abbreviation.

Composition - It is the production of new words by means of uniting 2 or more stemsAccording to the type of composition compounds are divided into: Neutral, Morphological, Syntactical.

Neutral compounds are formed by mere juxtaposition (stem-junction) without any linking element. They can be: a) simple; b) derived; c) contracted. Simple compounds contain simple stems (ex. Film star). Derived compounds contain at least one derived stem (ex. Music-lover). Contracted compounds must have a shortened stem in them (ex. V-day).

Morphological compounds are formed by uniting 2 stems with a linking element. Ex. Anglo-Saxon.Syntactical compounds are formed from the segments of speech by way of isolating speech syntagmas. Ex. Well-to-do).

According to their meaning compounds may be: Idiomatic (non-motivated). Ex. Lady-bird. Non-idiomatic (motivated).

ShorteningI - is a sort of substraction of a full word. It is represented by two types: Clipping, Abbreviation. Clipping may be of 3 types: a) final (ad, prof, photo); b) initial (phone, chute); c) medial (maths).

Ellipsis is the omission of a word or several words in a phrase or sentence. Ex. papernewspaper.

Abbreviations are words in which only initial letters are retained. Abbreviations in English differ in the way of reading: 1. Read like the letters of the alphabet (A.DAnna Domini, X-mas. 2. When abbreviations are like regular words (NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization).

Back formation. A verb is produced from a noun by substraction. Ex. to beg beggar (from nouns to verbs).Blending (telescoping), сращение. Ex. brunch (breakfast+lunch).

Reduplication. New words are formed by doubling a stem either without any phonetical changes, or with a variation of the root-vowels or consonants. Ex. boogy-woogy.

Sound imitation. Words are formed by imitating different kinds of sounds produced by animals, birds, humans, inanimate objects. Ex. cock-a-doodle-doo (ку-ка-ре-ку).

Sound interchange. Ex. food – feed, life – live.

Shift of stress. Ex. to ex’port – ‘export; to re’cord – ‘record; to ob’ject – ‘object.

7 Homonymy, synonymy, antonymy in English.

Homonyms – words which have identical sound form or/and spelling but are different in meaning. According to the 1^st classification homonyms fall into -perfect or proper homonyms (words identical both in sound form and spelling but different in meaning) (ball – мяч, бал) homophones are words identical in sound form, different in meaning and spelling (night - knight) homographs – identical in spelling but different in sound form and in meaning (row - row) 2^nd classification:- full homonyms (words which have identical paradigms and coincide in all their forms) (stroke – поглаживание; stroke - удар) partial homonyms which coincide only in some of their forms (found – нашел; to found) According to Smernickiy homonyms fall into:

lexical homonyms differ only in their lexical meaning but must belong to the same part of speech (seal – печать, тюлень) lexico-grammatical homonyms. They differ both in lexical and grammatical meaning of the word, they identical only in sound form (blue - blew)grammatical homonyms (laugh – to laugh) 4^th classification: simple and complex Simple are those which belong to the same part of speech Complex are those which belong to different parts of speech

When the intermediate links fall out, some of these new meanings lose all connections with the rest of the structure and start a separate existence. The phenomenon is known as disintegration or split of polysemy. Synonyms are words which have similar meaning and express similar ideas. Each synonymic group has a certain structure. In each there is a word which expresses the most general idea and holds a commanding position over other words, such words are called synonymic dominants. Types of synonymes: 1) ideographic refer to the same general concept but differ slightly in the denotational meaning 2)stylistic are words with the same denotational meaning used in different speech styles Antonyms are words expressing contrasting ideas.Types: - absolute (contrary) antonyms are words regularly contrasted as homogeneous sentence members connected by copulative, disjunctive or adversative conjunctions or identically used in parallel constructions (good and bad). The second group of antonyms is known as derivational (contradictory) antonyms. The affixes in them serve to deny the quality stated in the stem (known – unknown; appear – disappear; logical – illogical; useful -useless)

10. Peculiarities of American English.

We can’t call the American lan-ge a separate lan-ge as some American authors claimed, because it has neither grammar nor vocabulary of its own. From the lexical point of view we shall have to deal only with a heterogeneous set of Americanisms. An Americanism may be defined as a word or a set expression peculiar to the English lan-ge as spoken in the USA. Ex: cookie “a biscuit”, guess “think”, mail “post”, store “shop”. The difference between the American and British literary norm is not systematic. The American variant of the English lan-ge differs from British chiefly in vocabulary. It’s necessary to mention that American English is based on the lan-ge imported to the new continent at the time of the first settlements. The first colonies were founded in 1607 so that the first colonizers were contemporaries of W. Shakespeare, E. Spenser and J. Milton. Words which have died out in Britain or changed their meaning may survive in the USA. Thus, I guess, was used by G. Chaucer for I think.

Many of the foreign elements borrowed into American English from the Indian languages or from Spanish penetrated very soon not only into British English but also into several other lan-ges and so became international/ they are: canoe, moccasin, tomahawk. The Spanish borrowings like cafeteria, mustang, sombrero. Another big group of peculiarities as compared with the English of Great Britain is caused by some specific features of pronunciation stress or spelling standards, such as [ ae ] for [a: ] in ask, dance, path. The personal visits of British writers and scholars to the USA and all forms of other personal contacts bring back Americanisms. The existing cases of difference between the two variants are conveniently classified into: Cases where there are no equivalents in British English: drive-in “a cinema where you can see the film without getting out of your car” or “a shop where motorists buy things staying in the car”. Cases where different words are used for the same denotatum, such as can, candy, mailbox in the USA and tin, sweets, pillar-box (or letter-box) in England. Cases where the semantic structure of a partially equivalent word is different. The word pavement, for ex., means in the first place “covering of the street or the floor”. In England the derived meaning is “the footway at the side of the road”. The Americans use the noun sidewalk for this, while pavement with them means “the road way”.Cases where otherwise equivalent words are different in distribution. The verb ride in Standard English is mostly combined with such nouns as a horse, a bicycle. In Am. English combinations a ride on the train, ride in a boat are quite usual. It sometimes happens that the same word is used in American English with some difference in emotional and stylistic coloring. Nasty, for ex., is a much milder expression of disapproval in England than in the States. And, for ex., balance in its lexico-semantic variant “the remainder of anything” is substandard in British English and quite literary in America.

Last but not least, there may be a marked difference in frequency characteristics. Thus, time-table which occurs in American English very rarely yielded its place to schedule.

2.Phonetic changes of OE vowels and consonants: qualitative and quantitative.

Throughout history beginning with Proto-Germanic vowels displayed a strong tendency to change. They underwent different kinds of alterations: qualitative and quantitative, dependent and independent. Qualitative changes affect the quality of the sound: [o>a], [p>f]. Quantitative changes make long sounds short or short sounds long: [i>i:], [ll>l]. Dependent changes (positional/combinative) are restricted to certain positions or phonetic conditions. Independent changes (spontaneous/regular) take place irrespective of phonetic conditions. They affect a certain sound in all positions. Vowel gradation, or ablaut is an independent vowel interchange unconnected with any phonetic conditions. The principal gradation series used in the IE languages [e-o] can be shown in Russian examples – нести, ноша. Under the influence of succeeding and preceding consonants some Early OE monophthongs developed into diphthongs. Diphthongization of vowels could be caused by preceding consonants.The front vowels [i], [e] and the newly developed [æ] changed into diphthongs with a back glide when they stood before [h], [ll], [l] + another consonant, [r] + another consonant. This change is known as breaking, or fracture. “i-umlaut”, or “palatal mutation” is the fronting and raising of vowels through the influence of [i] or [j] in the immediately following syllable. The vowel was fronted and made narrower so as to approach the articulation of [i]. Whereas in stressed position the number of vowels had grown, the number of vowels in unstressed position had been reduced. In unaccented syllables, especially final, long vowels were shortened, and thus the opposition of vowels – long to short – was neutralized. Some short vowels in final unaccented syllables were dropped. After long syllables the vowels [i] and [u] were lost.

The changes of consonants in PG were first formulated in terms of a phonetic law by Jacob Grimm in the 19^th century and are often called Grimm’s Law, or the First/PG consonant shift. By the terms of Grimm’s Law voiceless plosives developed in PG in voiceless fricatives (Act 1): p – f; t – θ; k – h.

IE voiced plosives were shifted to voiceless plosives (Act 2): b – p; d – t; g – k.

IE voiced aspirated plosives were reflected either as voiced fricatives or as pure voiced plosives (Act 3): bh – b; dh – ð – d; gh – γ – g.

Another important series of consonant changes in PG was discovered in the late 19^th c. by a Danish scholar Carl Verner. They are known as Verner’s Law. According to Verner’s Law all the early PG voiceless fricatives [f, θ, x] also [s] inherited from PIE became voiced between vowels if the preceding vowel was unstressed. In the absence of these conditions they remained voiceless.

f – v; θ – ð – d; x – γ – g; s – z – r (rhotacism).

PG voiced fricatives tended to be hardened to be corresponding plosives while voiceless fricatives developed new voiced allophones:

[ð]>[d]

PG gōðr > OE ōd (good)

The two other fricatives [v] and [γ] were hardened to [b] and [g] initially and after nasals, otherwise they remained fricatives. PG [z] underwent a phonetic modification through the stage of [] into [r] and thus became a sonorant, e.g. Gothic wasjan > OE werian (wear). This process is called rhotacism. In the meantime or somewhat later the

2 2.The grammatical form, the grammatical meaning, the grammatical category.

Gram. Meaning is a general abstract meaning which unites classes of forms or words and finds its expression through formal markers; it places a linguistic unit in a gram. category. Gram. Meanings are more general and abstract than lexical ones which are more concrete and specific. Gram. meanings reflect not the fragment of reality but rather the structure of such fragments. Gr. meanings are dependent and find their expression in combination with lex. meanings only. Being limited in the number gram. meanings have an obligatory character in the language. Lex. And gram. meanings come into contact in the process of language function. There are two phenomenon in the language that are the results of interaction between the grammatical and lexical meanings.1. lexicalization of the gram. form (arms(pl), arms(оружие)) 2. grammaticalization of a word (to have (possess) – have (auxiliary verb)

The grammatical meaning finds its expression in a gram. form. The main types of form building are: 1. synthetic 2. analytical. 1. A gram. meaning is expressed within a word by suffixes, prefixes, infixes. These types include: affixation (the only productive one) reads, books; sound interchange (foot-feet), supplitivity(use of different stems) be-was.2. a gram. meaning is expressed with the help of auxiliary word and a suffix(do it in a different way)

Grammatical category is a system of expressing a generalized gram. meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of gram. forms. The forms united into a gram. category possess a common general meaning which gives a name to a category. Gram. categories reflect certain relations that exist in objective reality and in the human mind. All gram. categories are based on oppositions. Oppositions may differ according to 1. the number of their members – binary(number), ternary (tense), guarternary(case in German), polynomial (case in Russian) 2. the character of relation between the members – privative (presence\ absence of a feature) – equipollent (different features – рассмотрение на разных признаках), gradual(degree of comparison). On the syntagmatic level opposition undergo 2 important processes: 1. neutralization- in certain context opposition is reduced to one member (weak) when the meaning of the strong member is expressed by some other elements (she was very happy while the fortnight lasted; Past simple instead of Past Cont.) 2. Transposition – use of the strong member of a privative opposition or any of equipollent – gram. metaphor (“dramatic present” use Pr. Instead of Past)

Functional semantic categories(FSC)- systems of heterogeneous means of the language constituted on the basis of common semantic contents. They have a field structure- the center is taken by a gram. category. The other components occupy the periphery. The relations between the central and peripheral components can be two kinds: 1. peripheral elements can specify or modify the meanings expressed by central components. They may be synonymous to center which means they may replace the central components. (he was my friend- he is my former friend)

The choice of the most adequate meanings is determined by various structural, cognitive and pragmatic factors. (she is very beautiful, as pretty as a picture, heart stopping beautiful )

5. The verb and its grammatical categories.

1. Grammatically the verb is the most complex part of speech (PS). This is due to the central role it performs in the expression of the predicative function of the sentence: the function establishing the connection between the situation named in the utterance and reality. The verb is falling into 2 sets of forms profoundly different from each other: the finite set and the non-finite set.

Verbs are classified according to 3 main aspects: form, function, grammatical semantics.

According to the form verbs are divided into 2 classes: regular and irregular.

According to the function verbs are subdivided into notional(to name actions) and functional. In between these two subclasses there are the so-called semi-notional verbs. Here belong modal (can, may, must, etc), modalized (seem, appear, happen, etc

Functional verbs are further subdivided into auxiliaries (do, have), links (be), substitutes (do) and intensifiers (do).

According to grammatical semantics verbs are subdivided into:1) dynamic-static;2) transitive-intransitive;3) durative-terminative.

2. The grammatically category of tense is a category which expresses the relation between the time of the action and the moment of speech (now) or any other point of reference taken for the basis of temporal relations (then).

Due to its complexity the problem of grammatical tense has always been in the focus of linguistic discussions. Linguists differ in the questions related to the number of tenses in English. this difference of opinions is related to 2 main factors: 1) the relations between tense and 2 other verbal categories in which the concept of time is represented (time correlation and aspect) and 2) the status of shall/will + Infinitive, i.e. the problem of Future tense. That’s why the number of tenses varies from 2 to 12 in various interpretations.

The English system of tenses is subdivided into 2 subsystems: absolute tenses and relative tenses. Absolute tenses are correlated to the moment of speech whereas the relative tenses are correlated to some moments in the past taken for the reference points of temporal relations.

E.g. He is married. He said he was married.

3. Another grammatical category of the verb, also related to the concept of time, is aspect. Aspect is a general name given to verb forms and it is used to denote certain ways in which an event placed in time is viewed or experienced. So aspect may be defined as a grammatical category that expresses the speaker’s interpretation of the internal character of the action in its relation to such features as internal limit, result, duration, interaction, etc.

The grammatical category of aspect in English is constituted on the basis of the opposition of Indefinite and Continuous forms of the verb. The opposition embraces the whole class of English verbs both the finite forms and the forms of the Infinitive.

The formal marker of the Continuous is the discontinuous morpheme be ------ ing. The semantic marker, i.e. the meaning of the Continuous form is limited duration, or process.

The Indefinite forms are used to denote actions/events/states which may not be directly perceived but rather known to the speaker, i.e. the information about the action is based not the direct perception, but on knowledge.

4. There is one more category in the English verb in which the concept of time finds its grammatical expression. It is the category of time. The grammatical category of time correlation is constituted by the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms.

The marked member of the opposition ‘Perfect::Non-perfect' is built with the help of the discontinuous morpheme ''have----ed' in which the second element has a lot of variants. The semantic marker, i.e. the meaning of the Perfect form, includes two interrelated components:

7. The sentence is a many-sided phenomenon and can be studied from several aspects. Its main aspects are: -form which deals with the problem how the sentence is built; -meaning which tells us what the sentence is about; -function which is correlated with the question what for the sentence is pronounced.

So, the most exhausted definition would be the one that would embrace all 3 aspects.

Sentence is a group of words based on predicative relations which express a complete thought about an event of reality and is used with a certain communicative aim.

2. The main categories of the sentence are predicativity, modality, negation.

Predicativity is a category which refers the nominative content of the sentence to reality (Blokh). Scholars differentiate between primary and secondary predication and also between explicit and implicit types of predication.Primary predication establishes subject-predicate relations and makes the backbone of the sentence. E.g. I watched the children. The children were playing. Secondary predication is contained in gerundial, infinitival, participial constructions detached parts of the sentence. E.g. I watched (prim. pred-ion) the children playing (sec. pred-ion). Predication expressed by the finite form of the verb and by the structures of secondary predication is explicitly presented in the sentence. Implicit predication is contained in sentences which are structurally simple but they name not one but two (or more) events of reality. E.g. I was late because of the rain.

Modality is a wide semantic category which expresses: 1. the relation of the contents of the sentence to reality as stated by the speaker; 2. the relation between the action and its doer;

3. the attitude of the speaker to the information presented in the sentence. Scholars differentiate between 2 types of modality: primary (objective) and secondary (subjective).

Primary modality expresses the relation of the content of the sentence to reality as stated by the speaker. It shows whether the speaker presents the action as real/unreal/desirable. E.g. She is my wife (real). Be my wife (desirable). I wish you were my wife (unreal).Secondary modality includes 2 layers. It expresses:1. relations between the action/predicate and the subject(doer). It shows whether the action is considered necessary, obligatory or unnecessary. E.g. We can be friends now. Children must be seen but not heard. 2. the attitude of the speaker to the information presented in the sentence. (perhaps, hopefully, certainly, likely, unlikely and so on).

Negation is a sententious category which shows that the relations established between the components of the sentence do not exist in reality from the speaker’s point of view or that the speaker denies the truth of the proposition.

According to its scope negation may be: 1. complete (sentential), when the whole proposition is negated. E.g. No one understood his joke. 2. partial, when a part of the proposition is negated.

E.g. You didn’t tell me everything.

3. Traditionally the parts of the sentence are divided into principal (Subject and Predicate) and secondary (Object, Attribute and Adverbial Modifier). The Subject. The subject in the English sentence carries out a triple function: structural, semantic and communicative. Its structural function is manifested in the fact that in English it is the obligatory part of the sentence, the English sentence must have a subject even if it is semantically empty. For this reason English is referred to as a subject dominant language. According to the semantics of the subject sentences can be classified into personal (At supper he was silent and ill at ease), general-personal (We are foolish and sentimental and melodramatic at twenty-five), indefinite-personal (No one can tell what it may lead to) and impersonal (It rained heavily at night). From the point of view of its communicative function, i.e. its function in the utterance, or discourse the subject of the sentence is usually associated with the theme, or the topic of discourse. The Predicate. It is the part of the sentence which expresses a predicate feature attributed to the subject of the sentence. Like the subject, the

notional verb & that of a link verb, or of an auxiliary & a link.

Ex. He stood invisible. She was fat & quietly smiling.

4. Detachment consists in accentuating a part of a sentence & is achieved by a pause in oral speech & by commas or dashes in writing.

Ex. She offended him – solid, matter-of-fact, quick, clear – F r e n c h.

The ultimate degree of detachment results in parcelation. The parcellated part usually occurs in the end of the sentence, but occasionally it may occur at the beginning of the sentence.

Ex. I’ve got a letter, Charles. From your mother. So, she is coming. Tomorrow.

The processes of compressing the elementary sentence are less numerous & include substitution, representation & ellipsis.

1. Substitution consists in replacing a part of a sentence or a whole sentence by a word-substitute. The most frequent substitutes are: it, this, one, so, do etc.

Ex. I’m very happy. – You look it.

2. Representation is a use of a part of a syntactic unit or a part of a grammatical form to represent the whole form.

Ex. I left Soames. – You always wanted to.

3. Ellipsis is a process of deleting from a sentence one or more parts which are redundant from the informative point of view. Ex. Water, please. (=Bring some water please. – paradigmatically)

The semantic classification of sentences worked out by N.D.Arutyunova has at its basis the logical types of situations reflected in the sentence. In accordance with these types she points out four semantic types of sentences:

1) sentences of nomination - The inevitable happened;

2) sentences of existence - Once upon a time there lived a blind poet;

3) sentences of characterization - He was a real gentleman;

4) sentences of identification - So you are the Holmes.

9. The communicative aspect of the sentence and its actual division.

From the point of view of its role in discourse the sentence is defined as a minimum unit of communication. Every sentence is uttered with a certain communicative aim: either to share information with the listener, or to ask for information, or to induce the listener to some action.

According to their communicative aim sentences are divided into three types: declarative, interrogative and imperative. The declarative sentence expresses a statement, either affirmative or negative. Declarative sentences are characterized by a direct word order, a falling tone. Ex. You look well, Dad.

The interrogative sentence presents a request for information wanted by the speaker from the listener. It is characterized by an inverted word order. Ex. Are there any letters for me? The imperative sentence expresses inducement, either affirmative or negative (prohibition). Its communicative function is to induce the listener to perform or not to perform an action. (Ex. Come back, Irene!) In some grammar books the authors point out one more communicative type - exclamatory sentences (but it’s not a fourth com-ve type!). The function of exclamatory sentences is just to express the speaker’s emotions. (ex. It was a silly mistake. - What a silly mistake it was! (excl-ry))

The main components of the actual division of the sentence are the theme & the rheme. The theme is the part of the utterance that contains familiar information which serves as the starting point of the communication. The rheme is the part of the utterance that presents new information. The theme may or may not coincide with the subject of the sentence. The rheme may or may not coincide with the predicate of the sentence. (ex. Charlie (T) is being too clever (R)) Among the formal means of expressing the distinction between the theme & the rheme: word-order patterns, constructions with introducers, syntactic patterns of contrastive complexes, constructions with articles & other determiners, constructions with intensifying particles, intonation contours.

1) Word-order patterns. The difference between the actual division of the sentence signaled by the difference in the word-order patterns can be evidently illustrated by transformation.

Ex. Helen should be the 1^st to receive her diploma (R). => The 1^st to receive the diploma should be Helen (R).

2) Constructions with introducers. Among the constructions with introducers the “there” pattern provides for the rhematic identification of the subject without emotive connotations.

Ex. Tall birches (T) surrounded the lake (R). => There were (T) tall birches surrounding the lake (R).

3) Syntactic patterns of contrastive complexes are used to expose the rheme of the utterance when special accuracy of distinction is needed.Ex. The costume is meant not for your cousin but for you(R). => The costume, not the frock(R), is meant for you, my dear.

4) Constructions with articles & other determiners. The articles - the definite determiners (theme); the indefinite determiners (rheme).

5) Constructions with intensifying particles (rheme). Ex. Even Mr. Stores (R) had a part…

6) Intonation contours. The logical accent (Rhematic accent) Ex. – I can’t bring along someone who isn’t invited. – But I am invited.

There are syntactic means of expressing the rheme. They are: repetition (Ex. You & only you can make me happy; Ellipsis, when the thematic part is deleted thus making the rheme or the peak of the rheme very prominent: (Ex. – What is your want? – The truth; parcelation (a secondary rheme) Ex. – Sam, could I have a word with you? Privately. Outside.

The actual division enters the predicative aspect of the sentence. The actual division is an active means of expressing functional meanings.

We may conclude that the actual division of the sentence is always context-bound & it carries out a very important text-forming function.

English vowels are subdivided into: monophthongs, diphthongs, diphthongoids. Another principle of classification is the position of the tongue. The position of the tongue in the mouth cavity (впадина) is characterized from two aspects, that is the horizontal and vertical movement. According to the horizontal movement there are five classes of English vowels. They are: front: [i:], [e], [ei], [a], [æ]; central: [ə], [æ]; back: [u], [u:], [a:], [o:], [o] Vertical movement of the tongue: close [i:] [u:]; [i], [u]; mid [e], [3;], [e(i)], [3(u)]; open [æ] [o:], [o(i)]; [a:], [o]; Another principle of classification is lip rounding. Three lip positions are distinguished: spread, neutral and rounded. Another articulatory characteristic of English vowels is their length or quantity. The monophthongs are divided into two varieties according to their length: short vowels: [i], [e], [o], [u], [۸], [æ], [ə] and long vowels: [i:], [a:], [o:], [ε:], [u:]. There is one more articulatory characteristic - tenseness. It characterizes the state of the organs of speech at the moment of production of a vowel. Historically long vowels are tense while historically short vowels are lax (вялый).

5.Intonation groups

Tone group 1 (coolness) – low prehead + low head + low fall + tailStatement sounds definite, complete, and final. (Whose book is this? It’s mine). Tone group 2 (final, categoric) – low pre head + stepping head + low fall + tailStatements – categoric, final, considered (I think it’s going to rain). Tone group 3 (protesting) – low pre head + low head+ high fall + tail Statements – protesting (I didn’t think it was important). Tone group 4 (concern, surprise) – low pre head + stepping head + high fall + tailStatements – light, warm, the speaker expresses his personal concern & surprise (It’s not as far as you think). Tone group 5 (rise-fall) - low pre head + stepping head + rise-fall + tail Statements – self-satisfied (Can you see? Perfectly!) or challenging (I don’t like the men. You’ve never ever spoken to him!) or disclaiming responsibility (It’s up to you!) Tone group 6 (disapproval and skepticism) - low pre head + low head + low rise + tail Statements – critical & appeal to the listener to change his attitude. (Are you really sorry?) Tone group 7 (non final) - low pre head + + stepping head + low rise + tail Statements – not categoric, non final (I don’t think I’ll ever do it. It’s just a matter of practice). Tone group 8 (effect of question & echoing) - low pre head + stepping head + high rise + tailStatements – effect of a question, calling for the repetition or additional information (He’s not a bad person. You like him.) Tone group 9 - low pre head + sliding head + fall rise + tailStatements express: Grudging admission (I’d like to do it as soon as possible. You could have it by dinner time). Definite objection (I’d like it by tomorrow. I doubt whether I can do it by then). Concern, hard feelings (I don’t know how to do with it. Ask Barbara). Tentative suggestion (John won’t be here tomorrow. I think he will). Contradiction (What do you suggest? We may start at once). Correction (-Do you say 17? -70!)Warning (Don’t be in a hurry! But we’ll miss a train!) Assimilation – a process when 2 adjacent consonants influence each other in such a way that articulation becomes similar or identical to the articulation of the other one. Assimilated consonants – whose articulation is modified by the assimilating consonants. Affecting the point of articulation:Takes place when phonemes (t d n l s z) are replaced by their dental variants and they are adjacent to dental phonemes (th - с, th - з). Ex.: tenth, in them, read this. Affecting the active speech organ and the point of articulation: The prefix con- is followed by (k g) – the sound (n) then is replaced by the back-lingual (n - носовой). Ex.: congress, concrete. But when the prefix con- is not stressed, the sound (n) is not replaced. Ex.: congratulations. Affecting the manner of the production of noise: Fricative (v) occurs before nasal (m). Ex.: Give me = gimmi. Affecting the lip position: Labialized (k g t s) are used under the influence of the bilabial (w). Ex.: quick, twenty swim. Affecting the position of soft palate: Nasal consonants influence oral ones. Ex.: sandwich, grandmother. Affecting the work of the vocal cords: When a voiceless consonant may be replaced by a voiced one under the influence of the adjacent voiced consonant. Ex.: gooseberry (s > z) When a voiced consonant may be replaced by a voiceless one under its influence. Ex.: used (s > z) When (m n r l j w) are partially devoiced. Ex.: small. Degrees of Assimilation: Complete assimilation – articulation of the assimilated consonant coincides with that of the assimilating one. Ex.: horse-shoe. Partial – the assimilated consonant retains its main phonetic features & becomes partly similar to the assimilating sound. Ex.: tenth, sixth, wealth, in them. + Twice, please, try – (w r l) are replaced by their partly devoiced variants, but their main phonetic functions are retained. Intermediate – the assimilated sound changes into a different sound but doesn’t co-inside with the assimilating one. Ex.: gooseberry. Accommodation: Is a modification of the articulation of a vowel under the influence of the adjacent consonant/of a consonant under the influence of adjacent vowel.

3.Paradigmatic phonetics

The phoneme helps to differentiate meaningful lexemes but has no meaning of its own. Well known are numerous cases of onomatopia ( the use of words whose sounds imitate those of a signified object or action – for example: hiss, bow-wow, murmur).

Poetry abounds in some specific types of sound instrumenting. The leading role belonging to alliteration and assonance. They both can produce the effect of euphony (a sense of ease and comfort in pronouncing or hearing) or cacophony (a sense of discomfort in pronouncing or hearing). The intentive violation of the graphical shape of a word or a word-combination used to reflect its authentic pronunciation is called graphon. Graphon is effective means of supplying information about the speaker’s origin, social and educational background, physical or emotional condition, etc. Graphical changes are also used to convey the intensity of the stress emphasizing and foregrounding the stressed words. To such graphical means we should refer all changes of the type: italics, capitalization, spacing of graphemes and of lines, hyphenation, multipl. Alliteration denotes recurrence of an initial consonant in 2 or more words which either follow one another or appear close enough to be noticeable. For example: “Pride and Prejudice”, now or never. Assonance – this term is employed to signify recurrence of stressed vowels. Arnold mentions the term “vocalic alliteration”.

Paronomasia – paronymes are words similar though not identical in sound but different in meaning. Co-occurrence of paronyms is called paronomasia.

The flow of speech presents an alteration of stressed and unstressed elements – syllables. The pattern of interchange of strong and weak segments is called rhythm.

Rhymes are typical but not indispensable. The smallest recurrent segment of the line consisting of one stressed syllable and 1 or 2 unstressed ones is called the foot. The structure of the foot determines the meter (the type of poetic rhythm of the line). Disyllabic meters are trochee [‘trauki:] and iambus [ai’ambas], trisyllabic are dactyl, amphibrich and anapest.

Trochee – the foot consists of 2 syllables, the 1^st is stressed. Example: duty, honey Iambus – the 1^st syllable is unstressed (ex.: mistake, enjoy). Dactyl – the stress is upon the 1^st syllable, 2 subsequent are unstressed (Ex.: wonderful). Amphibrich – the stress falls on the second syllable; the 1^st and the last are unstressed.(ex: umbrella, continue). Anapest - the last syllable is stressed. (Ex.: understand, disagree).

The rhyme denotes coincidence of acoustic impressions produced by stressed syllables. Types of rhyme: rhymes in words ending with a stressed syllable are called male/single rhymes (dreams – streams); rhymes in words with the last syllable stressed are female/double rhymes (duty – beauty) rhymes in which the stressed syllable is followed by unstressed syllables are dactylic/ triple thymes.

According to the position of the rhyme lines adjacent rhymes, crossing and ring rhymes are distinguished. There are also eye-rhymes (the endings are pronounced differently but the spelling is identical or similar). Rhymeless verse is called blank verse. The stanza – 2 or more verse lines make a stanza or a strophy. Stanza is a verse segment composed of a number of lines having a definite measure and rhyming system which is repeated throughout the poem. Morphemic repetition: Both root and affix morphemes can be emphasized through repetition. The two more effective ways of using a morpheme for the creation of additional information is extension of its nominative valency which results in the form of new words. They are created for special communicative situations only and are not used beyond this occasion. This is why they are called occasional words.

So, irony is a sd in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary meaning. For example, “Perhaps you had a grand passion”. Soames looked at her intently. “Yes – if you want to know – and much good it did me.

In the sd of irony it’s always possible to indicate the exact word whose contextual meaning diametrically opposes its dictionary meaning. This is why this type of irony is called verbal irony. The effect of irony in such cases is created by the number of statements, by the whole of the text. This type is called sustained irony.

Antonomasia is a lexical sd in which a proper name is used instead of a common noun or vice versa. For example, Mr Smith (occupation - кузнец) and Mr Brown (colour)

Epithet expresses a characteristic of an object both existing and imaginary. There are several groups of epithets: the 1^st type are those which were 1^st found in Homer’s poetry and have been repeated then are known as Homeric epithets. For example, swift-footed Achilles

The next group is called affective or emotive proper. They serve to convey the emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker.

Figurative (transferred) epithets are formed of metaphors, metonimies and similes expressed by adjectives. For example, the smiling sun or the sleeping pillow

According to the structure there are also several groups of epithets. Epithets can be used singly, in pairs, in chains (streams), in 2-step structures (the process of qualifying paces 2 stages: the qualifying of the object and the qualifying itself, for example, unnaturally mild day) and in inverted constructions. Pairs are represented by 2 epithets joined by a conjunction or asyndetically: wonderful and incomparable beauty or tired old town.

Phrase epithets always produce an original impression.For example, the sunshine-in-the-breakfast-room-smell. Inverted epithets are based on the contradictory between the logical and the syntactical; logically defining becomes syntactically defined and vice versa. For example, this devil of a woman.

Hyperbole is a sd in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration.For example, I have told you that a thousands times.

Understatement. We deal with understatement when the size, shape-characteristic features of the object are not overrated but intentionally underrated. For example, “The little woman, for she was of pocket size, crossed her hands solemnly on her middle.”

Oxymoron is a sd, the syntactic and semantic structures of which come to clashes. Each oxymoron is a combination of 2 semantically contradictory notions that help to emphasize contradictory qualities as a dialectical unity simultaneously existing in the described phenomena. The most widely known structure of oxymoron is attributive. For example, cold fire or sick health.

parallelism is called chiasmus. The 2^nd part of a chiasmus is in fact inversion of the 1^st construction (SPO-OPS). For example, He rose up and down sat she.

Inversion is often used as an independent sd in which the direct word order is changed. For example, Then he said: “You think it’s so? She was mixed up in this lousy business?”

Another sd dealing with the arrangement of members of the sentence is suspense. A deliberate postponement of the completion of the sentence is called suspense. Technically suspense is organized with the help of embedded clauses or homogeneous members separating the predicate from the subject and introducing less important facts and details first while the expected information of major importance is reserved till the end of the sentence. For example, I have been accused of bad taste. This has disturbed me, not so much for my own sake as for the sake of criticism in general.

A specific arrangement of sentence members is observed in detachment, a sd based on singling out a secondary member of the sentence with the help of punctuation. Secondary members obtain their own stress and intonation. For example, I have to beg you for money. Daily!

In the attachment the 2^nd part of the utterance is separated from the 1^st one by a full stop, though their semantic and grammatical ties remain very strong.

Ellipsis is a deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence. For example, A dark gentleman… A very bad manner. In the last degree constrained, reserved, diffident, troubled.

Apocope constructions. In such constructions the omission of the pronominal connective creates a blend of the main and the subordinate clauses so that the predicative or the object of the 1^st one is simultaneously used as the subject of the 2^nd one. For example, There was no breeze came through the door.

Repeated use of conjunctions is called polysyndeton - to strengthen the idea of equal logical importance of connected sentences ( for example, He put on his coat and found his mug and plate and knife and went outside.), deliberate omission of conjunctions is called asyndeton - helps to create the effect of terse energetic active prose (for example, She watched them go; she said nothing; it was not to begin then.).

2.Etymological characteristics of the English vocabulary.

Etymology is a branch of linguistics studying the origin of words, their change and development, the linguistic and extralinguistic causes modifying their structure, meaning and usage. The English vocabulary is divided into 2 uneven groups of words: native words, and borrowings. Native words are the words which belong to the original English wordstock. Borrowings are the words borrowed from other languages. Native words occur in any spoken or written speech (conjunctions, numerals, prepositions, pronouns (except “they”, which is a Scandinavian borrowing), articles, many verbs, etc.). Ex. Water waterfall. According to their origin, native words fall into 3 groups: 1. Indo-European – the oldest ones.For example, to stand, to sit, quick, slow, red. 2. Common Germanic words. (German, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch). Ex. Hand, season, ice. English proper words. Ex. Boy, girl, woman, bird. The main languages which contributed to English were Latin, Scandinavian, French. The other languages: Celtic, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic. Latin borrowings came into English in 3 groups: - ancient Latin borrowings. butter, cheese, wine, cherry, plum, pear, pepper, kitchen. - related terms. Ex. Alter, angel, bishop. -Renaissance. Ex. Major, junior. Scandinavian borrowings belong to the basic wordstock in English. Ex. Law, husband, sky, fellow, ski. One can recognize sc. borrowings by initial ”sk-” and “g-” (get, gift, give). French borrowings may be subdivided into: Old (Norman) French borrowings, New (Parisien) French borrowings. Old (Norman) : Ex. Soldier, army. Parisien – 17^th century and later. Ex. garage, ballet. Celtic dialects. Ex. Bannock (булка домашнего хлеба).Greek borrowings –school, bishop. Italian –Allegro, aria. Spanish –Cigar, embargo. Russian borrowings:samovar, izba, rouble.Translation loans (кальки) are the words & expressions formed according to the pattern taken from another language by way of literal or morpheme, or word-for-word translation. Ex. World outlook  G. weltanshaung.Semantic borrowing is the case when an English word receives a new meaning. Ex. Pioneer (a ground-breaker). It acquired the new meaning under the influence of R. “пионер”. A new item in the vocabulary of the language undergoes a certain process of assimilation. Assimilation is the process of adjusting the word to the phonetic and lexical-grammatical norms of the language (ex. Datum-data; analysis-analyses). Folk etymology. Sometimes an unfamiliar borrowed word may be wrongly associated with a native word resembling it only in sound. This fancied analogy is called false, or folk etymology. Ex. Cutlet (from French cotelette) was associated with the verb “to cut”.According to the degree of assimilation loan words can be subdivided into: Completely, or fully assimilated; Partially assimilated; Unassimilated (barbarisms). Completely assimilated words correspond to all phonetic, morphological, and semantic laws of English (cheese, pepper). Partially assimilated words retain either their foreign pronunciation (restaurant), and morphological characteristics (datum). Barbarisms are foreign words used by English people in oral speech and/or writing but not assimilated in any way. Ex. Chao (It).International words express notions belonging to: science, technology, culture, politics, everyday life. Ex. Motor, tragedy. Etymological doublets are 2 or more words of the same language derived originally from the same root but entering the vocabulary at different periods of time, pr from different sources. Ex. OFr pris price, prize, praise. Some etymological doublets concern different languages, for example English and Scandinavian (skirt - shirt).Morphological borrowings are derivatives which consist of morphemes originating from different languages. Ex. Unmistakable Un- (native Eng), mis- (native Eng), take- (Sc), able- (French).

9.Stylistic characteristics of the English word-stock.

Just as there is formal and informal dress, so there is formal and informal speech. The suitability or unsuitability of a word for each particular situation depends on its stylistic characteristics or, in other words, on the functional style it represents. Functional styles are classified into two types: formal (a lecture, a speech in court, an official letter, professional communication) and informal (an informal talk, an intimate letter), with further sub-divisions depending on different situations. Informal vocabulary is used in one's immediate circle: family, relatives or friends. One uses informal words when at home or when feeling at home. Informal style is relaxed, free-and-easy, familiar and unpretentious. Informal words and word-groups are traditionally divided into three types: colloquial, slang and dialect words and word-groups. Among other informal words, colloquialisms are the least exclusive: they are used by everybody, and their sphere of communication is comparatively wide, at least of literary colloquial words. These are informal words that are used in everyday conversational speech both by cultivated and uneducated people of all age groups. Here are some examples of literary colloquial words. Pal and chum are colloquial equivalents of friend; girl; bite and snack stand for meal; hi, hello are informal greetings; to have a crush on somebody is a colloquial equivalent of to be in love. The Oxford English Dictionary defines slang as "language of a highly colloquial style, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense." examples: mug (for face), saucers, blinkers (for eyes). All or most slang words are current words whose meanings have been metaphorically shifted. Dialects are regional forms of English. They can be transferred into the common stock, i. e. words which are not stylistically marked and a few of them even into formal speech and into the literary language. Car, trolley, tram began as dialect words. In general, formal words fall into two main groups: words associated with professional communication and a less exclusive group of so-called learned words. These words are mainly associated with the printed page. We find here numerous words that are used in scientific prose and can be identified by their dry, matter-of-fact flavor (e. g. comprise, compile). To this group also belongs so-called "officialese" (канцеляризмы). These are the words of the official, bureaucratic language. The most interesting subdivision of learned words is represented by the words found in descriptive passages of fiction. These words can be called "literary". ex: solitude, sentiment. Archaic and Obsolete Words . These words are moribund, already partly or fully out of circulation, rejected by the living language. examples of archaisms are: morn (for morning), eve (for evening), moon (for month). Professional Terminology . Hundreds of thousands of words belong to special scientific, professional or trade terminological systems and are not used or even understood by people outside the particular speciality. Term is a word or a word-group which is specifically employed by a particular branch of science, technology, trade or the arts to convey a concept peculiar to this particular activity. So, bilingual, interdental are terms of theoretical phonetics. Basic Vocabulary. These words are stylistically neutral. Their stylistic neutrality makes it possible to use them in all kinds of situations, both formal and informal, in verbal and written communication. They denote objects and phenomena of everyday importance (e. g. house, bread, summer, winter, child, mother, green, difficult, to go, to stand, etc.).

1.Chronological divisions in the History of English.

The historical development of a language is a continuous uninterrupted process without sudden breaks or rapid transformations.

The commonly accepted, traditional periodisation divides English history into three periods: Old English (OE), Middle English (ME) and New English (NE). OE begins with the Germanic settlement of Britain (5^th c.) or with the beginning of writing (7^th c.) and ends with the Norman Conquest (1066); ME begins with the Norman Conquest and ends on the introduction of printing (1475), which is the start of the Modern or New English period (Mod E or NE); the New period lasts to the present day. The first – pre-written or pre-historical – period, which may be termed Early Old English, lasts from the West Germanic invasion of Britain till the beginning of writing, that is from the 5^th to the close of the 7^th c. It is the stage of tribal dialects of the West Germanic invaders (Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians). The tribal dialects were used for oral communication, there being no written form of English. The second historical period extends from the 8^th c. till the end of the 11^th. The English language of that time is referred to as Old English or Anglo-Saxon; it can be called Written OE as compared with the pre-written Early OE period. The tribal dialects gradually changed into local or regional dialects. OE was an inflected or “synthetic” language with a well-developed system of morphological categories, especially in the noun and adjective. H. Sweet, a prominent English scholar of the late 19^th c., called OE the “period of full endings, full grammatical forms”.

The third period, known as Early Middle English, starts after 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest, and covers the 12^th, 13^th and half of the 14^th c. Early ME was a time of great changes at all the levels of the language, especially in lexis and grammar. Phonetic and grammatical changes proceeded at a high rate. Grammatical alterations were so drastic that by the end of the period they had transformed English from a highly inflected language into a mainly analytical one. The fourth period – from the later 14^th c. till the end of the 15^th – embraces the age of Chaucer, the greatest English medieval writer and forerunner of the English Renaissance. We may call it Late or Classical Middle English. It was the time of the restoration of English to the position of the state and literary language and the time of literary flourishing. H. Sweet called Middle English the period of “levelled endings, weakened grammatical forms”. The fifth period – Early New English – lasted from the introduction of printing to the age of Shakespeare, that is from 1475 to 1660. The Early NE period was a time of sweeping changes at all levels, in the first place lexical and phonetic. New words enriched the vocabulary. Extensive phonetic changes were transforming the vowel system. It was the “period of lost endings”. The sixth period extends from the mid-17^th c. to the close of the 18^th c. In the history of the language it is often called “the age of normalization and correctness”, in the history of literature – the “neo-classical” age. It was the period of “fixing the pronunciation”. The great sound shifts were over and pronunciation was being stabilized. The seventh period in the history of English is called Late New English or Modern English. By the 19^th c. English had acquired all the properties of a national language.

There was an expansion of English overseas.

PG set of voiceless fricatives [f], [θ], [x], [s] and also those of the voiced fricatives which hadn’t turned into plosives, that is [v] and [γ] were subjected to a new process of voicing and devoicing. In Early OE they became or remained voiced intervocally and between vowels, sonorants and voiced consonants. They became or remained voiceless in other environments, namely initially, finally and next to other voiceless consonants. In all West Germanic languages at an early stage of their independent history most consonants were lengthened after a short vowel before [j], this process is known as “west Gemination”, or “doubling” of consonants, e.g. *fuljan → fullan (NE fill). In Early OE velar consonants split into two distinct sets of sounds which eventually led to the growth of new phonemes. The velar consonants [k], [g], [x], [γ] were palatalized before a front vowel and sometimes also after a front vowel, unless followed by a back vowel. e.g. cild [k’ild] (NE child)

Nasal consonants were regularly lost before fricative consonants. Fricative consonants could be dropped between vowels and before some plosives. (OE slēan → sean (NE slay)) All the consonants fell into plosives and fricatives. Plosives and fricatives were further differentiated as voiced and voiceless, the difference being phonemic. During the entire OE period long consonants are believed to have been opposed to short ones on a phonemic level.

3. Morphological classes of OE nouns: weak, strong, root declensions.

The OE noun had two grammatical (morphological) categories: number and case. In addition, nouns distinguished 3 genders but this distinction was not a grammatical category. It was merely a classifying feature accounting for the division of noun into morphological classes.

The category of number consisted of 2 members: singular and plural. They were well distinguished formally in all the declensions. The noun had 4 cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative and Accusative. The Nominative case can be loosely defined as the case of the active agent (падеж деятеля), for it was the case of the subject mainly used with verbs denoting activity. The Nominative could also indicate the subject characterized by a certain quality or state. It could serve as a predicative (именная часть сказуемого) and as the case of address, there being no special Vocative case, e.g. Sunu mīn, hlyste mīnre lāre – My son, listen to my teaching. The Genitive case was primarily the case of nouns and pronouns serving as attributes to other nouns. The meaning of the Genitive case was very complex and can roughly being grouped under the headings “Subjective” and “Objective” Genitive. Subjective Genitive is associated with the possessive meaning and the meaning of origin. e.g. rendles dda – Grendel’s deeds. Objective Genitive is associated with what is termed “partitive meaning”. e.g. sum hund scipa – a hundred of ships. The Dative case was the chief case used with prepositions. e.g. on mor enne – in the morning. The Accusative case was the form that indicated a relationship to a verb. Being a direct object it denoted the recipient of the action, the result of the action and other meanings. The most remarkable feature of OE nouns was their elaborate system of declensions which was a sort of morphological classification. Historically, the OE system of declensions was based on a number of distinctions: the stem-suffix, the gender of nouns, the phonetic structure of the word, phonetic changes in the final syllables. In the first place the morphological classification of OE nouns rested upon the most ancient (IE) grouping of nouns according to the stem-suffixes. Stem-suffixes could consist of vowels (vocalic stems, e.g. a-stems, i-stems), of consonants (consonantal stems, e.g. n-stems), of sound sequences (-ja-stems, -nd-stems). Some groups of nouns had no stem-forming suffixes; they are usually termed “root-stems” and are grouped together with consonantal stems, as their roots ended in consonants (e.g. bōc – book). Another reason which accounts for the division of nouns into numerous declensions is their grouping according to gender. OE nouns distinguished three genders: Masculine, Feminine and Neutral. Gender in OE was not always associated with the meaning of nouns. Other reasons accounting for the division into declensions were structural and phonetic: monosyllables with a long root-syllable (that is, containing a long vowel plus a consonant or a short vowel plus two consonants – also called “long-stemmed” nouns) differed in some forms from nouns with a short syllable (short-stemmed nouns). Vocalic stems are also called the “strong” declension; one of the consonantal stems – the n-stems – are termed the “weak” declension. The majority of OE nouns belonged to the a-stems, ō-stems and n-stems. a-stems included Masc. and Neut. nouns. About one third of OE nouns were Masc. a-stems, e.g. cniht (NE knight), hām (NE home); examples of Neutral nouns are lim (NE limb), hūs (NE house). ō-stems were all Fem., so there was no further subdivision according to gender. The other vocalic stems, i-stems and u-stems, include nouns of different genders. The most numerous group of the consonantal stems were n-stems, or the weak declension. n-stems included many Masc. nouns, such as steorra (NE star), many Fem. nouns, e.g., heorte (NE, heart) and only a few Neut. nouns: ēaa (NE eye). The other consonantal declensions are called minor consonantal stems as they include small groups of nouns. The most important type are the root-stems, which had never had any stem-forming suffix.

5. The development of the English vocabulary (the 12^th – 19^th centuries).

There were three main layers in the Native OE words: 1) common IE words; 2) common Germanic words; 3) specifically OE words.

From OE to ModE – the English vocabulary multiplied tenfold.

The changes of voc:

1. Losses of words and meanings

• due to obsolescence of concepts and customs

• loss of OE poetic voc with the genre of OE poetry

• losses of some meanings

2. Replacement ‘one-to-one’

• the result of coexistence and rivalry of synonyms, the ultimate selection of one

• plane of content: the word retained but the meaning was changed, replaced by new (dre(ˉ)am – ‘joy’)

3. Additions – one items replaced by 2 or more, one meaning differentiated into several.

• pure innovations (created to name new things, ideas) (ME cite – town with a cathedral)

• differentiation of synonyms – both or several survived with certain differences in meanings (NE hard, firm, solid, severe)

Growth of polysemy and homonymy.

Sources of changes:

1. Internal – word-formation and semantic changes – productive in all periods

2. External – borrowings – considerable role

!If a word contains a foreign morpheme but was built in English, it’s not a borrowing. (root pass – from French passer, but pass away, pass the ball – native)

The linguistic situation of Middle English was favorable for foreign influence – Scan, French.

Scandinavian influence

A large number of Scan components in place names: thorp – village (Wood thorp), ness – cape (Inverness).

In many districts people become bilingual.

Scan were much like native words and were easily assimilated.

French influence (the largest number of borrowings).

Fr. borrowings are described according to semantic spheres: government and administration (country, court), titles and ranks (baron, prince), military terms (army, navy), law (judge, jury), Church (abbey, Bible, save), architecture (palace, design), art (image, colour), entertainment (chase), forms of address (sir, madam), names of meals and dishes (dinner, mutton, pork), etc.

Borrowings from classical language.

Latin borrowings: OE and ME: religion, legal documents, science, philosophy.

The Renaissance opened the gates to Latin and Greek borrowing (some Greek from Latin)

History of word-formation (internal source)

-word-derivation

-word composition

1. Sound interchanges – not productive; an accompanying feature with other derivational means in OE, ME; means of word differentiation

Growth of its role due to the loss of many suffixes and endings --- it became the only means of distinction between some pairs of words (OE sonЗ – sinЗan ME song – singen NE song-sing)

2.Prefixation – productive in OE

The decline of prefixation in ME. 3. Suffixation – the most productive through all periods.

4. Conversion - the word is transformed into another PS (part of speech) with an identical initial form.

In ME after the loss of endings and suffixes many Eng verbs and nouns became identical in form (OE lufu (n) – lufian(v) ME love(n) – love(n) (v) NE love n,v)

3.The problem of parts of speech and their interaction.

The system of PS reflects the process of categorizing linguistic units into classes. It’s possible to classify words either on the basis of one criterion or on several ones. The most adequate classification should take into consideration 3 aspects: meaning, form and function. 1.words belonging to one part of speech possess a common categorical meaning-generalized abstract meaning.(For instance: substance for nouns, action for verbs, property for adjectives, property of property for adverbs) Human mind can present as substance not only object but other phenomena-actions, properties, relations(fight - action).2. words belonging to one part of speech possess common derivative affixes and grammatical categories. Sometimes these formal markers help us to identify a part of speech even if we don’t know the meaning of a word.(We greyhounded from NY to LA) 3. Words of one PS are characterized by common syntactic functions.(nouns-subject, object; verb-predicate)

Words are divided into two subclasses: functional(articles, particles, prepositions, interjections, modal words ) and notional(nouns, verbs, adjectives, numerals, pronouns).

1. The semantic difference between these words is the following: notional words have a full nominative value. They name objects, actions, properties. They present an open class. Functional words name relations between objects, actions and attitudes. They have a partial nominative value. They present a close class.

2. Notional and functional words differ morphologically. Notional words have grammatical categories, functional ones don’t have any.

3. The functional difference: Functional words have no syntactical position of their own. Notional are used as parts of the system.

This is traditional classification. But there is no synonymous opinion about some of the classes. Bloch refers pronouns to functional words. Pronouns point to something already named. In their categorical semantics they are closer to functional words.

The most common way of interaction is the syntactic transposition. It’s a syntagmatic process which consists in the use of a word of 1 class in the syntactic position of another part of speech. Its functions:1. compensatory. Nouns are often used attributively to make up for the absence of the adj.(shadow cabinet) 2.expressive (tulip ears)

priority (or precedence) and correlation to another action or point of time in the present, past or future.

The general paradigmatic meaning of priority and correlation to another action or point of time can be modified in various contextual conditions and presented by several syntagmatic meanings. These syntagmatic meanings are the following:

1) Result. e.g. Summer had died, autumn was.

2) Experience. the Present Perfect form denotes a past action which has a present time relevance for the speaker, e.g. "I realize being President of France is an ultimate aim for you. But I've been a President's wife before".

3) Continuation of a past action into the present. E.g. I feel as if I'd been here for months.

4) An unfulfilled action. (after the modal verbs be, might, should, ought and after the verbs of hope and expectation (hope, expect, mean, intend etc.) used in the past tense. E.g. ... he ought never to have married a woman eighteen years younger than himself.

5) Intensity, absolute completion, irrevocability of the actionE.g. The earth floor shook a little as they passed, and they had gone.

5. Mood is traditionally defined as a grammatical category which expresses the relation of the action to reality as stated by the speaker. As follows from the definition mood seems to be the only morphological category which includes the category of the speaker in its definition. It means that it is one of the most speaker-oriented categories. The forms of the moods serve the needs of the speaker to present the action as real, unreal or hypothetical.

The Indicative mood presents the action as real from the speaker's point of view.

The Imperative mood is used to express inducement to action, which means that the speaker considers the action as desirable.

The Subjunctive II and Conditional present the action as contradicting reality and Subjunctive I and the Suppositional present the action as hypothetical, desirable or possible.

6. The category of Voice is a grammatical category which involves the relations between the action, its doer and its object – semantic level; and between the predicate, the subject of the sentence – syntactic level. Voice is defined as a regular indication of relations between the syntactic and the semantic levels of the sentence by the form of the verb.

Passive transforms are possible only from transitive verbs but not all transitive verbs can passivize. Some verbs of sense perception do passivize and some do not. (E.g. Noone saw the accident. The accident wasn’t seen by anyone. Noone smelled the smoke (no transform is possible). Verbs of wanting and desire usually resist passivization. E.g. I want this coat (no change is possible). Many of the passive sentences are agentless. E.g. He was killed in his sleep.

E.g. The devil isn’t so black as he is painted.

predicate also carries out a triple function in the sentence: structural, semantic and communicative. According to the form of expression predicates are divided into verbal and nominal: The moon rose. The moon was pale. The two formal types of the predicate correspond to the two main semantic types: process predicate which expresses the action, the state or the existence of the subject and qualification predicate which expresses the quality (property) of the subject. Structurally the predicate may be divided into simple and compound. E.g.: We said good- bye - a simple verbal predicate; We started saying good-bye - a compound verbal predicate; It must be a lovely place - a compound nominal predicate. The Object. The object is a very important part of the sentence if only because the English verb is characterized by a high degree of transitivity. Objects can be classified according to three criteria: form, meaning and structure. According to the form objects are divided into prepositional (rely on. depend on) and non-prepositional (She gave me a book).According to their semantics objects are classified into direct (The policemen removed the glass), indirect (I sent him a telegram), agentive/instrumental (The team was captained by the great man; She could silence us with her look), cognate (to smile a smile, to live a life) and adverbial objects constitute the peripheral zone in the class of objects which is close to the adverbial modifier (to climb a mountain, to tour Europe).The Adverbial modifier is a part of the sentence which is syntactically related to the predicate and which modifies the action or state expressed by the predicate. Adverbial modifiers can be divided into two main groups: 1) The first group of adverbial modifiers expresses the inner characteristics of the action, such as manner and degree. e.g. to stalk - to walk with a stiff or haughty gait. 2) The second group of adverbial modifiers express the outward characteristic of the action in its relation to other objects or processes. E.g.: Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. The attribute is a part of the sentence which modifies nouns in the sentence. The attribute is noun-oriented, i.e. it modifies a noun that can be used in any position in the sentence: subject, object, predicative or adverbial modifier. The primary semantic function of the attributes is to express either a qualitative or a relative property of the substance named by the noun, and like adjectives the attributes can be classified into qualitative and relative. A qualitative attribute expresses a quality of the substance (a large room, a yellow pencil), or the speaker's personal evaluation of the substance (a great man, a wonderful present). A relative attribute expresses the relation of the substance to other substances or actions (a silver case, the Presidents statement). There are also quantitative attributes mostly expressed by numerals and adjectives like last, previous etc.

10. Textual linguistics.

1. Text as an object of research.

The highest lingual unit, which was approached by traditional grammar as liable to syntactic study, was the sentence.

Bloomfield: “The sentence is the largest grammatically arranged linguistic form”.

But sentences in speech come under broad grammatical arrangements. They are combined with one another on strictly syntactic lines in the formation of larger stretches of both oral talk & written text.

Veichman: A text is a predicatively independent suprasentencial or sentencial syntactic unit, not included in any other syntactic unit of the communication act.

If the text is the product of speech activity, the discourse is the process of speech activity, it is the text taken in the process of its production.

The authors of the 1^st period – Harris, Waterhouse – described some special types of sentences found in different styles of speech. They put forward the idea of the dependency of the text type on the types of sentences making up this particular text.

The authors of the 2^nd period – Vandijk, Hendrick – explore the text as a whole unit & try to discover the lower units which constitute a given text.

2. Textual units: cumuleme & occurseme.

Different types of textual stretches can be singled out:

• thematic, inf. pragmatic blocks (Veichman)

• single microtheme (Rudolf Zimik)

• a complex syntactic unity (Pospelov) (сложное синтаксическое целое)

• a supraphrasal unity (Булаковский)

All these textual units are united by their common function – they represent the text as a whole integrally expressing the textual topic.

The corresponding English term is the suprasentencial construction. Sentences in these units are joined by means of syntactic cumulation & all such sentence sequences can be called cumulemes.

The suprasentencial construction of one-direction communicative type is called cumuleme. The suprasentencial construction of two-direction sequence is called occurseme.

3. Textual categories.

Usually scholars name such textual categories as: cohesion (связ-ть), informativeness, retrospection, modality, causality, implication, the author’s image, etc.

But scholars agree: the basic textual categories are semantic/topical unity and semantico-syntactic cohesion.

The text can be interpreted as a lingual entity with 2 distinguished features – unity & cohesion.

Dicteme is a sequence of sentences characterized by the structural, semantic & communicative cohesion, which presents one microtheme. It can be expressed either by a cumuleme or by a single sentence placed on the topically significant position. The dicteme is polyfunctional. In the text it performs the function of: nomination, predication, topicalization and stylization.

In written text the dicteme is represented by a paragraph, but these 2 units are not identical.

1. Phonetics as a branch of linguistics.

Phonetics as a branch of linguistics. The definition of phonetics, its branches. Connection of phonetics with grammar, lexicology and stylistics.

Phonetics is concerned with the human noises by which the thought is actualized or given audible shape: the nature of these noises, their combinations, and their functions in relation to the meaning.

Phonetics studies the sound system of the language, that is segmental units (phonemes, allophones), suprasegmental units (word stress, syllabic structure, rhythmic organization, intonation). Phonetics is closely connected with general linguistics but has its own subject matter (Investigation).

Phonetics study the sound matter of language – speech sounds and intonation.

Linguistic branches of phonetics:

Special Phonetics studies the phonetical structure of language of particular period synchronically and diachronically. Deals with phonetical peculiarities of certain language.

General Phonetics in different stages of its historical development finds out what types of speech sounds exist, what role they play in forming and expressing thoughts. Studies general laws, formulates general theories (theoy of intonation, syllable, formation, phoneme)

Segmental Phonetics studies segmental units – speech sounds.

Suprasegmental Phonetics studies suprasegmental units – intonation, syllables, etc.

Non-linguistic branches of Phonetics:

Articulatory Phonetics – study and descript speech sounds.

Acoustic Phonetics/Phonoacoustic studies purely physical properties of speech sounds: frequency of vibration, duration, intensity of sound.

Auditory Phonetics deals with the level of sound perception by the human ear.

Theoretical Phonetics is mainly concerned with the functioning of phonetic units in language.

Practical Phonetics studies the material form of phonetic phenomena.

Phonology – branch of Phonetics which studies phoneme and its functions.

Phonetics is a basic branch of linguistics, no linguistic theory or practice can do without phonetics, no language description is complete without Phonetics. No linguistic study can be made without constant consideration of the material on the expression level.

4.Intonation.

Intonation is a language universal. Intonation is a complex of variations in pitch, stress and tempo (i.e. the rate of speech and pausation) closely related.

Some linguists regard timber as the 4^th component of intonation.

Acoustic level: Pitch/melody – correlates with the frequency of the vibration of the vocal cords - голосовые связки; Stress/accent – greater prominence(выступ) of 1 or more words among other words in the s-ce; Tempo – time during which a speech unit lasts Timber – special colouring of voice which shows the speaker’s emotions – pleasure, sorrow, displeasure.

Intonation serves to form a s-ce and intonation groups, to define their communicative type, to express speaker’s thoughts and attitude, to convey the meaning. One and the same grammatical structure and lexical composition of a s-ce may express different meanings when pronounced with different intonation. Ex.: Isn’t it ridiculous? (General question) and Isn’t it ridiculous! (Exclamation).

Pitch movements are inseparably connected with the stress. Together with the tempo of speech they form an intonation pattern – the basic unit of intonation. Intonation patterns: serve to actualize syntagms in oral speech (a group of words which is semantically and syntactically complete). Actualized syntagmas are called intonation groups; their number depends on the length of the phrase and the degree of semantic importance given to various parts of it. Intonation pattern consists of: pre-head, head, nucleus, tail. Nucleus is of greater prominence, a strongly stressed syllable, generally the last strongly accented syllable which marks a significant change of pitch direction that is where the pitch goes distinctly up or down. Prehead – includes unstressed and half stressed syllables preceding the 1^st stressed syllable. Head – stressed + unstressed syllables beginning with the 1^st stressed up to the last stressed. Tail – unstressed and half stressed syllables that follow nucleus.

The most important nuclear tones in English:

Low fall + high fall – they express certainty, completeness;

Low rise + high rise – express uncertainty, incompleteness;

Fall rise – combines rise and fall.

Tail is the rest of the intonation pattern following nucleus (after a falling tone tail is at a low pitch).

Pre-head and head (pre-nuclear part) – don’t usually affect grammatical meaning of utterance but convey meaning associated with attitude and phonetic styles.

Types of pre-nuclear parts: descending (“steps”), ascending, a level type.

Pitch parameters: Direction of pitch (rise, fall) Pitch level (high, medium, low) Pitch range (normal, wide, narrow) It’s not possible to separate pitch and loudness in creating the effect of accentuation – pitch – and –> stress structure of the intonation pattern. The tempo of speech – the rate of the utterance and a pausation: normal, slow (important parts), fast (unimportant).

Pause is a complete stop of phonation. Short – to separate intonation groups within a phrase Longer – the end of a phrase Very long – to separate phonetic wholes Syntactic – to separate phrases, intonation groups, etc. Emphatic and Hesitation pause.

2. Lexical level in stylistics. Word and its semantic structure. Meaning by L. Vygotsky.

The most essential feature of a word is that it expresses the concept of a theme process phenomena denoting them. Concept is a logical category, its linguistic counterpart is meaning. Meaning (by Vygotsky) is the unity of generalization, communication and thinking. Semantic structure of a word is constituted of various types of lexical meanings, the major one is denotational, which informs of the subject of communication and includes connotation which informs about the participants and conditions of communication.

Specification of connotational meanings includes such entries as pragmatic directed at the perlocutionary effect of utterance, associative connected through individual, psychological or linguistic associations with related and non-related notions, ideological/conceptual revealing political, social, ideological preferences of the user, evaluative stating the value og indicating notion, emotive revealing the emotional value of cognition or perception, expressive aiming at creating the image of the object of question, stylistic indicating the register or the situation of the communication. The word stock of any language can be roughly divided into three groups : the biggest group is made up of neutral words possessing no stylistic connotation and suitable for any communicative situation. Two smaller ones are literary and colloquial strata respectively. Literary words serve to satisfy communicative demands of official, scientific, political messages while the colloquial ones are employed in non-official everyday communication.

1.Characteristic features of the English vocabulary.

The total number of English words is immense (about 500,000 words and phrases). The choice of words in the individual vocabulary depends on occupation, age, the cultural background, sex, etc. The language as a product of human activity changes with a society. It is in constant state of evolution. The changes can be caused by various reasons (2 types):extralinguistic, linguistic causes, sometimes by the combination of both. The main changes in the vocabulary of English: 1. New words may be formed: word-formation (word-building).Ex. conversion. 2. New words may be borrowed from other languages. A recent acquisition in English from Russian is: sputnik (the 1950s), glasnost, perestroika (1980s). 3. Some words may grow obsolete and drop out of language.Ex. Hauberk – кольчуга. Some words may drop out of language because they are ousted by the synonyms borrowed from other language or created in English itself.Ex. Fall– autumn. 4.Some words may develop their semantic structure and become polysemantic. Ex. Earth (at first - soil)  Earth (a planet) the earth (in contrast to the heaven) earth (all the people on the planet). 5.While the semantic structure of other words may split and as a result more homonyms may appear. This process is called split polysemy.

Ex. Box: a) A container ; b)A separate compartment in the theatre (ложа)

Borrowing is adoption of words from foreign languages.Borrowed words can be also called loan words. Borrowings from Latin new way of formation of the plural (phenomenon – phenomena). Stylistic synonyms: to ask(Eng) – to question(Fr) – to interrogate(Latin).

According to the semantic structure all English words fall into 2 groups: Monosemantic, Polysemantic. Ex. Worklabour, travail; Job, employment, occupation. When two or more unrelated meanings are associated with the same phonetic form the words are called homonyms. Ex. Knight – night. The linguistic relations among words in any language can be of 2 types: Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic. Syntagmatic relations define the meaning if the word when it is used in combination with other words in the flow of speech. Syntagmatic relations are linear relations.Ex. He got a letter. He got tired. He got fired. He got to London. Paradigmatic relations define the word meaning through its interrelation with other members of the subgroup it belongs to within the vocabulary system. Different semantic groups: Lexical semantic groups: one part of speech, common concept. Ex. Weak, powerless, feable. Semantic fields: unite words which may belong to different parts of speech.Thematic grouping: widely used in foreign language teaching, for example family, education, etc., including words and expressions.

3. The morphological structure of English words. Morphological analysis.

Words as the basic units of the language fall into smaller units – morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest indivisible meaningful unit of the language. Like a word, a morpheme is a two-facet unit: the sound shape and the meaning. But unlike words they are not autonomous. Morphemes occur in speech only as constituent parts of a word. According to the role morphemes play in constructing words and according to their meaning, morphemes fall into: Root morphemes (=root) and Affixational morphemes (=affix). The root-morpheme is the lexical nucleus of the word, the semantic centre of it. It has a concrete lexical meaning and is a common part of a word family. According to their position affixes are classified into: Prefixes, Suffixes and Infixes (to sta(n)d). According to their meanings and functions affixes are subdivided into: Grammatical (suffixes) and Derivational (prefixes & suffixes both). Structurally morphemes fall into: Free and Bound. Free morphemes are root-morphemes which coincide with separate words (ex. Work, boy, drink). Thus affixes cannot be free. Affixes are bound morphemes – all derivational affixes, inflections, and root-morphemes which do not coincide with separate words. Ex. Horr-or, horr-ible, horr-ified. There is a group of semi-free, or semi-bound morphemes. They can function as free roots and derivational affixes. Ex. Man, man-servant, man-made but gentleman..The morphological analysis serves to study the word structure. There are two levels of morphological analysis: Morphemic and Derivational. The morphemic analysis aims at breaking the word into constituent morphemes determining their number and type. Ex. Un|reason|able – 3 morphemes- root, prefix, suffix. The derivational analysis aims at stating the derivational stem, the derivational elements, the derivational patterns, the derivational structure by which a new word is built. The method of immediate and ultimate constituents (метод непосредственных и окончательных составляющих)by Leonard Bloomfield. Unreasonable ->Reasonable -> Reason The stem is the basic unit in the process of derivational analysis. It is the grammatically unchanged part of the word, it carries a definite part-of-speech meaning Stems may be: Simple, Derived and Compound.

Ex. Girl|y (girl|ie) – a root + derivational suffix=a simple stem. Girl|ish|ly – “girlish”, a derivational stem. Week-end – a compound stem Stems, like morphemes can be free, bound. A free stem is capable of forming a word without adding other morphemes. Ex. Handy. A bound stem. Ex. Philosopher, philosophy. According to their morphological structure words in English fall into 4 classes: Root-words (one morpheme) – most native words (eye, leg, foot) Derivatives (two, or more morphemes) – unreasonable, government, happiness. Compounds (two or more stems) – week-end, feedback, blackboard, blackmail, strawberry Compound derivatives are words consisting of 2 or more stems with derivational morpheme added at the end. Long-nosed, honeymooner, double-decker.

4. Main types of word building in English. Affixation and conversion.

Word building is the process of creating new words in a language with the help of its inner resources. Two main types: Word derivation and Word composition. Word derivation – when one stem undergoes different changes. Word composition – when two or more stems are put together. Means of word derivation: affixation and conversion. Affixation, conversion and composition are the most productive, or major, means of word formation. Shortening occupies and intermediate position between major and minor means of word formation. Minor means are back-formation (reversion), blending (telescoping), reduplication, sound imitation, sound interchange, shift of stress Affixation is one of the most productive means of word building in English. It is the formation of new words by adding a derivational affix to a stem. It is divided into: Prefixation and Suffixation. Prefixes do not change the category a word belongs to, they only modify the lexical meaning of it. Suffixes do not only modify the lexical meaning of the word, but also change the category the word belongs to. Suffixes are classified according to the part of speech they form: Noun-forming suffixes. –ion, -ment, -ness, -ty. Adjective-forming suffixes. –ful, -able, -ive, -ous, -less, -al Verb-forming suffixes. –ize(ise), -ate, -y. Adverb-forming suffixes. –ly. Prefixes are usually classified according to their meaning: Negative. ­Un-, in-, il-, ir-, im-, dis-, non-, a-, ab-. Reversative. Ex. To connect – to disconnect; to tie – to untie. The same prefixes but different meaning. Of time and order. Ex. To foretell, to preview, postwar, ex-president.Of repetition. Re- Locative. Superstructure, subsuperstructure, subway, intercontinental, transatlantic. Affixes may be classified according to 2 more criteria. These are origin and productivity. According to their origin affixes are subdivided into: native (-ness, -dom) & borrowed (-able, -ment). According to productivity: productive (-ment, -able) & non-productive (-dom, -some). Prefixation is more typical of adjectives and verbs. Suffixation is approximately evenly used in all parts of speech. There are 2 main types of semantic relations among affixes: homonymy & synonymy. Ex. Inactive – negative meaning, inherit – “into smth” homonymous prefixes. Hopeful – adjective-forming, spoonful – noun-forming homonymous suffixes. Lovely & quickly, etc. Conversion is one of the most productive means of word building in Modern English. Words built by conversion have identical phonetical and graphical forms but belong to different parts of speech. Converted pairs: Doctor – to doctor; yellow – to yellow; better – to better; up – to up. Conversion is a semantic, morphological, syntactical process. English vocabulary abounds in verbs converted from nouns (such verbs are called denominal verbs) and in nouns converted from verbs – deverbal substantives. Ex. To fall a fall, to move – a move, to help – a help.

6 The semantic structure of English words. Semasiology – is a part of linguistics which studies the linguistic units. Each word in speech has its own grammatical meaning – it is the component of the meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words. The G.M. is abstract and general. In English grammatical meaning is expressed by word forms (ex: chairs)and word order. The lexical meaning is the component of meaning recurrent in all forms of the same word. The lex. meaning is individual and different for each separate word.

The lexical meaning is made up by: denotational meaning (what the word means)and connotational meaning (meaning is optional; it conveys the speaker’s attitude to what he is speaking about) There are 4 types of connotations: 1.When the social circumstances, the social relationships b/n the interlocutors, the type and purpose of communication are taken into consideration the connotation is stylistic (dad – father – parent - sire); 2. An emotional or affective connotation is acquired by the word as a result of its frequent use in contexts corresponding to emotional situations (glorious, lovely); 3. Evaluative connotation expresses approval or disapproval (spy – agent); 4. Expressive or intensifying connotation adds emphasis to the meaning (splendid, magnificent). Polysemy is an ability of the word to have more than one meaning. Polysemantic words usually have from 5 to 100 meanings. Types of semantic change: specialization or narrowing (the reduction of scope); generalization or widening (the process reverse to specialization. In that case the scope of the new notion is wider than that of the original one); degeneration, regration, degradation of meaning; elevation of meaning

Metaphor is a figure of speech which is based on perceived similarity b/n objects, actions, phenomena.The metaphorical change practically always involves a word with a concrete meaning taken on an abstract one.The meanings of many English words have been extended through metaphor. Many metaphors are based on the parts of human body (a foot of a bed; a leg of a chair; the tongue of the shoe)We create metaphors to make our speech fresher and more colourful and creative. Metaphors are found in everyday speech; moreover human conceptual system is metaphorical in nature and it influences our thoughts and actions.

8.Main problems of English phraseology.

Phraseology is a branch of linguistics dealing with the phraseological subsystem of the language. It deals with all types of set expressions. The key term of phraseology is phraseological unit - is a stable word group characterized by completely or partially transferred meaning. Phraseology studies 3 types of units: 1) phraseological units (idioms) 2) phraseomatic units (ex: to hold an office; to win a victory Words are used in its literal meaning) 3) border line cases The ability of a word to appear in various combinations with other words is termed the lexical valency. The lexical valency in dif-t languages is not identical (to live in harmony – жить дружно. The optness of the word to appear in specific grammatical structures is termed grammatical valency. (to offer smth(noun); to suggest – doing smth, that smth (the noun clause), should be done=that smb should do smth, smth (noun)) There are different ways of classifying phraseological units in English: Semantic, structural, contextual, etymological (or genetic). The semantic classification given by V.V. Vinogradov is based on the relations b/n the meaning of the whole unit and the meanings of its components. In phraseological fusions the meaning of the whole unit can in no way be deduced from the meaning of the components. (as mad as a hatter «utterly mad»)Phraseological unities are clearly motivated. The emotional quality is based upon the metaphorical image created by the whole. (to know the way the wind blows; to break the ice) Phraeological combinations are not only motivated but contain one component used in its direct meaning while the other is used metaphorically: ex: to meet the requirements; to meet the necessity, demand; расквасить нос.

Professor A.I. Smirnitsky suggests 3 classes of stereotyped phrases:

• traditional phrases whose meaning does not correspond to one notion and can be derived from the meaning of the component parts (nice distinction, to shrug one’s shoulders)

• phraseological combinations whose metaphorical motivation is faded, and which are emotionally and stylistically neutral (get up, fall in love)

• idioms are stylistically coloured, always having some neutral synonym (to take the bull by the horns, to wash one’s dirty linen in public)

According to Koonin’s classification phraseological units are divided:

• nominative units 1) substantive (a snake in the grass – змея подколодная) 2)verbal (hand smb a lemon – обмануть кого-нибудь; dance on the volcano – играть с огнем) 3)adverbal (rain or shine – при любых обстоятельствах; for once in a way – один раз, в виде исключения)

• nominative-communicative units admit passive transformations (to cross the Rubikon; to break the ice)

• interjectional units (Dog my cats! Вот те на, ей Богу! By Jove! Господи!)

• communicative units include proverbs and says (hungry bellies have no ears – голодное брюхо к ученью глухо)

4. Syntax of Old and Middle English.

OE was a synthetic language; it possessed a system of gram. forms indicating connection between words. OE was a spoken language, written forms resembled oral speech. OE possessed: 1) simple syntax; 2) coordination of clauses prevailed over subordination; 3) rare complicated syntactical constructions. Level of Phrase. In OE texts we find a variety of word-phrases also called word group or pattern. Noun pattern: noun as a head word + pronoun, adjective, numerals, other nouns. Most noun modifiers agreed with the noun in gender, number and case. Adj pattern: adj + adv, noun, pronoun in oblique cases (косвенные падежи), with/without preposition, infinitives. Verb pattern: verb + noun, pronoun in oblique case w/without preposition, adverb, infinitive, participle. Level of Sentence A Sentence consisted of principal and secondary parts. But attribute groups were short. Principal parts: Subject; Predicative: simple or compound (modal, verbal, nominal)

Secondary parts: direct, indirect object, prepositional object, adverbial modifier, apposition (приложение). The place of the words was relatively free. Multiple negation: ne (negative particle) + verb + negative word (naht, noht; ‘I can’t sing nothing’). Particle ‘ne’ could be attached to some verbs, pronouns, adverbs to form single words.Compound and Complex Sentences were clumsy, disorderly, loosely connected. In OE there was a number of subordinate clauses, subject, object, attributive and verbal clauses.Coordinated clauses joined by ‘and’. There was also a great number of clauses or s-ses all beginning with ‘and’. Repetition of connectives at the head of each clause was common in Complex Sent. It was called ‘correlation’.Word Order was relatively free.Inversion was used for gram purposes in questions; full inversion with Simple predicates, partial inversion – with compound predicates (containing link-verbs and modal verbs). Objects were often placed before the Predicate or between two parts of the Predicate.Inverted word order if begin with an adverbial modifier. ME - decline of inflectional system. Word order became more strict, fixed and direct; use of prepositions - more extensive. The structure of Sent and Phrase – more complicated, standardized. The Subject became more varied in meaning - Passive SubjecRemarkable growth of link verbs: about 80 verbs. The structure of the predicative became more complex, included prepositional phrases and attributes !Gradually double negation went out of use (18^th century) as illogical. But continued throughout the ME period (Ne bring nat every man into thyn hous). Direct WO even with initial adverbial modifier.