Министерство образования и науки РФ

Сочинский государственный университет

туризма и курортного дела

Социально-педагогический институт

Кафедра английского языка

Concise Theoretical Grammar (краткий курс лекций и практических заданий по теоретической грамматике английского языка)

Учебное пособие

Сочи, 2006

Рекомендовано кафедрой английского языка Социально-педагогического института Сочинского государственного университета туризма и курортного дела

Рецензенты:

Костиникова О.А., кандидат психологических наук, доцент

Чекулаева Н.Я., кандидат педагогических наук, доцент

Головачева А.Н. Concise Theoretical Grammar (краткий курс лекций и практических заданий по теоретической грамматике английского языка). – Сочи, 2006.

Учебное пособие “Concise Theoretical Grammar (краткий курс лекций и практических заданий по теоретической грамматике английского языка)” предназначено для студентов 4 курса факультета иностранных языков. Представленное пособие полностью соответствует требованиям государственного образовательного стандарта и программе по курсу «Теоретическая грамматика английского языка» и может быть рекомендовано в качестве базового пособия для преподавателей и студентов.

Пособие представляет собой обобщенное изложение основных аспектов теоретической грамматики английского языка. Материалы сборника могут быть использованы для знакомства студентов с основными аспектами по курсу теоретической грамматики, для контроля качества усвоения информации по предмету, а также как руководство при работе с дополнительным материалом по программе курса.

Lecture 1. The Grammatical System of Language

Language is a means of forming and storing ideas as reflections of reality and exchanging them in the process of human intercourse. Language incorporates the three constituent sides: phonological, lexical and grammatical systems.

The grammatical system is the whole set of rules or regularities, determining the combination of naming means in the formation of utterances as the embodiment of thinking process.

The aim of theoretical grammar of the language is to scientifically analyze and define its grammatical categories. It studies the mechanism of grammatical formation of utterances out of words in the process in the speech making.

The grammatical system of a language helps to arrange lexical units into a coherent utterance (членораздельное высказывание): a structure which expresses a certain complete thought and is marked at all the lingual levels: at the phonetic level, at the lexical level, at the level of combinability and at the grammatical level. The grammatical system is a set of devices (grammatical affixes or grammatical morphemes; form words (служебные слова); word order) and their application rules which are employed to produce a coherent utterance.

The main unit of the grammatical system is the grammatical category. The grammatical category is an opposition of at least two forms of one and the same lexical unit based on a certain general meaning which is more abstract than the meaning of the members of the opposition. The grammatical category is a system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms. The set of grammatical forms expressing a categorical function constitutes a paradigm.

Opposition is a generalized correlation of lingual forms by means of which a certain function is expressed. The correlated elements of the opposition must possess two types of features: common features and differential features. Common serve as the basis of contrast, differential features express the function in question. The oppositional theory was originally formulated as a phonological theory: tree main qualitative types of opposition: privative, gradual, equipollent.

The binary opposition is formed by contrastive pair of members in which one member is characterize by the presence of a certain differential feature, while the other member is characterize by the absence of this feature. The member in which the feature is present is called the marked or strong or positive member. The member in which the feature is absent is called the unmarked or weak or negative member.

The gradual opposition is formed by a contrastive group of members which are distinguished not by the presence or absence of a feature, but by the degree of it.

The equipollent opposition is formed by a contrastive pair or group in which the members are distinguished by different positive features.

The private morphological opposition is based on morphological differential feature which is present in its strong member and absent in its weak member: worked (positive)-work (negative).

Equipollent oppositions in the system of English morphology constitute a minor type and are mostly confined to formal relations only: am – is – are

Gradual oppositions are not generally recognized and can be identified as a minor type at the semantic level only: strong-stronger-strongest. In various contextual conditions, one member of an opposition can be used in the position of the other. This phenomenon should be treated under the heading of oppositional reduction or substitution: Tonight we start for London (the weak member, present, replaces the strong one, future). Sometimes reductional use of the opposition is stylistically marked: That man is constantly complaining of something.

The functioning of the grammatical category. When we describe the functioning of a grammatical category we should distinguish between the main meaning of the category (its general meaning) and the instances which are to be explained through the main meaning and on the other hand additional, metaphoric or transposed meaning. To get at the main meaning of the category we should study its forms in isolation; as to the additional meanings they are understood through the context. As a rule transposed forms like metaphorically used words have some expressive charge. However sometimes transposition is caused by redundency (избыточность).