Frame A
The concert was good (always)
Frame B
The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly)
Frame C
The team went there
Fries started with his first test frame and set out to find in his material all the words that could be
substituted for the word concert with no change of structural meaning (The materials were some fifty
hours of tape-recorded conversations by some three hundred different speakers in which the participants
were entirely unaware that their speech was being recorded):
The concert was good
food
coffee
taste.....
The words of this list he called class I words.
The word “was” and all the words that can be used in this position he called class 2 words.
In such a way he revealed 4 classes of notional words and 15 classes of functional words.
These four classes of notional words contain approximately 67 per cent of the total instances of
the vocabulary items. In other words our utterances consist primarily of arrangements of these four parts
of speech.
Functional words are identified by letters
Class
A
Words
the
concert was good
the
a/an
every
no
my
our
one
all
both
that
some
John’s
All the words appearing in this position (Group A) serve as markers of Class 1 words. Sometimes
they are called "determiners".
The author enumerates fourteen more groups of function words among which we find, according
to the traditional terminology
1
Compare: «the difference between nouns and verbs lies not in what kinds of things they stand for, but in what kinds of
frames they stand in: I saw Robert kill Mary. I witnessed the killing of Mary by Robert”
“Language processes” Vivien Tartter. N.Y., 1986, p.89
16
Group B - modal verbs
Group I - interrogative pr-ns and adverbs
Group C - n.p.not
Group J - subordinating conj-s
Group D - adverbs of degree
Group K- interjections
Group E - coordinating conj-s.
Group L- the words yes and no
Group F - prepositions
Group M - attention giving signals look, say, listen
Group G - the aux-v. do
Group N - the word please
Group H - introductory there
Group O - let us, let in request sentences.
The difference between the four classes of words and function words are as follows:
1. The four classes are large in number while the total number of function words amounts to 154.
2. In the four classes the lexical meanings of the separate words are rather clearly separable from
the structural meanings of the arrangements in which these words appear. In the fifteen groups it is
usually difficult if not impossible to indicate a lexical meaning apart from the structural meanings which
these words signal.
3. Function words must be treated as items since they signal different structural meanings:
The boys were given the money.
The boys have given the money. (32)
Russian grammarians in classifying words into parts of speech keep to different concepts;
A.I. Smirnitsky identifies three criteria. The most important of them is the syntactic function next
comes meaning and then morphological forms of words. In his opinion stem-building elements are of no
use. His word-groups are:
Notional words
Function words
1. Nouns
link - verbs
2. Adjectives
prepositions
conjunctions
3. Numerals
modifying function words
4. Pronouns
(article, particle)
5. Adverbs
only, even, not
6. Verbs
R. Khaimovich and Rogovskaya identify five criteria
1. Lexico - grammatical meaning of words
2. Lexico - grammatical morphemes (stem - building elements)
3. Grammatical categories of words.
4. Their combinability (unilateral, bilateral)
5. Their function in a sentence.
Their Classification
1. Nouns
2. Adjectives
3. Pronouns
4. Numerals
5. Verbs
6. Adverbs
7. Adlinks (the cat. of state)
8. Modal words
9. Prepositions
10. Conjunctions
11. Particles (just, yet, else, alone)
12. Interjections
13. Articles
14. Response words (yes, no)
asleep, alive
As authors state the parts of speech lack some of those five criteria. The most general properties of parts of
speech are features 1, 4 and 5. B. A. Ilyish (15) distinguishes three criteria:
1. meaning; 2. form, 3. function. The third criteria is subdivided into two:
a) the method of combining the word with other ones
b) the function in the sentence.
a) has to deal with phrases; b) with sentence structure. B. A. Ilyish considers the theory of parts of
speech as essentially a part of morphology, involving, however, some syntactical points.
1. Nouns
7. Adverbs
2. Adjective
8. Prepositions
3. Pronoun
9. Conjunctions
4. Numerals
10. Particles
17
5 . Statives (asleep, afraid) 11. Modal words
6. Verbs
12. Interjections
L. Barkhudarov, D. Steling (4). Their classification of words are based on four principles. But the
important and characteristic feature of their classification is that they do not make use of syntactic function of words
in sentences: meaning, grammatical forms, combinability with other words and the types of word - building (which
are studied not by grammar, but by lexicology).
1. Nouns
2. Articles
3. Pronouns
4. Adjectives
5. Adverbs
6. Numerals
7. Verbs
8. Prepositions
9. Conjunctions
10. Particles
11. Modal words
12. Interjections
We find another approach of those authors to the words of English.
All the words are divided into two main classes:
notional words and function - words: connectives, determinatives
Function words are those which do not have full lexical meaning and cannot be used as an
independent part of sentences. According to their function these words, as has been mentioned, are
subdivided into connectives and determinatives:
1. connectives form phrases as to believe in something or as in the hall. To connectives
authors refer: prepositions, conjunctions, modal and link verbs;
2. determinatives are words which define the lexical meaning of notional words (they
either limit them, or make them more concrete). These words include articles and particles.
The consideration of conceptions of different grammarians shows that the problem of parts
of speech is not yet solved. There's one point which is generally accepted: in M-n English there are
two classes of words-notional and functional - which are rather distinct.
18
Lecture 6
The Noun
Problems to be discussed:
- nouns as a part of speech
- the grammatical categories of nouns
a) number
b) case
- the meaning of gender in Modern English
-
gender and sex.
In most cases in treating parts of speech in English we shall keep to the conception of
scientists that we refer to post-structural tendency. It's because they combine the ideas of
traditional and structural grammarians.
The noun is classified into a separate word - group because:
1. they all have the same lexical - grammatical meaning :
substance / thing
2. according to their form - they've two grammatical categories:
number and case
3. they all have typical stem-building elements:
- er, - ist, - ship, - merit, -hood ...
4. typical combinability with other words:
most often left-hand combinability
5. function - the most characteristic feature of nouns is - they can be observed in all syntactic functions
but predicate.
Some words about the distribution of nouns. Because of the fact that nouns express or
denote substance / thing, their distribution is bound with the words which express the quality of
substance, their number, their actions and their relation to the other words /nouns/ in English.
When the quality of nouns are described we make use of adjectives:
big, red apple
energetic crisis
a long, dusty track and others.
When the quantity and order of nouns are described the numerals are to be used:
the six continents
25
th
anniversary
12 students....
When we denote the action of substances we make use of the verbs:
An apple-tree grows in the garden
Russia assisted India in Mounting Bokaro Steal Plant
When the relation of nouns to other words are described we make wide use of prepositions
a window of the school
to the park
at the construction of the bridge
In all these cases with the exception of verbs the noun is characterized with left-hand
combinability / in overwhelming majority/. So far as to the verbs are concerned they may both
precede and follow them.
The Number and Case in Modern
English Nouns
Number is a grammatical category of nouns which denotes the number of objects,
expressed by a word.
In English there are two numbers: singular and plural. The formal signal of the singular
number is a zero morpheme, while the usual signal of plurality -/e/s. The formation of plural by
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means -/e/s is considered to be productive, but in Modern English there are some non-productive
types of plural number, as for instance:
a) suffix - en : ox - oxen
b) variation of vowels in the root of a word:
tooth-teeth; goose-geese; mouse-mice; man-men,
c) variation of vowels of the root + suffix- "ren" children;
d) homonymous forms for both sing and plural:
sheep – sheep
deer – deer
swine – swine
This type of formation of plurality was a norm for the whole group of words in Old
English, but in Modern English only some words have been preserved.
Non-productive type of number we find in some borrowed words from Latin and Greek, such as:
datum – data
basis – bases /si:z/
memorandum – memoranda
crisis – crises /si:z/
formula – formulae /i: /
analysis – analyses /si:z/
These words form their plural as per the norms of Latin and Greek languages, though some
of them form their plural according to English: formulas, memorandums.
With regard to the category of number English nouns fall under two subclasses: countable
and uncountable. The latter is again subdivided into those having no plural form and those having
no singular. The former type is called Pluralia tantum: clothes, goods, the latter - singularia tantum:
milk, water.
The lexical and grammatical morphemes of a word linked together so closely that sometimes it seems
impossible to separate them. The relation between foot and feet, goose and geese, man and men is similar to the
relation between.
bag – bags; desk – desks
The examples above remind us the facts of the Arabic language. In this language lexical
morphemes are usually consist of consonants. They are united with vocalic morphemes
grammatical in character and occurring between consonants, e.g.,
Ktb
ktaab - a book
kutub - books
katab - he wrote
kaatib - clerk
kattab - he dictated.
In these examples consonants Ktb are lexical morphemes as well as English f...t, g...s, m...n and so on. But
there are two different things here to be distinguished. Arabic is a Semitic synthetic language while English is an
Indo-European analytical one. If a discontinuous lexical morpheme is characteristic to the system of Arabic, for
English it is an exception. English forms its plural forms by - /e/ s.
Some linguists consider the case as above as internal inflection inserted into a lexical one / -u- / and / - i : - /
/ as it is in Arabic / and others think of vowel change / u > i: /.
To be consistent we'll regard nouns above as follows:
sing. Man - pl /man + s/ = men
The group of pluralia tantum is mostly composed on nouns which express things as objects
consisting of two or more parts, e.g. trousers, scissors. Nouns like clothes, sweets must also be
referred to pluralia tantum since they denote collective meaning. The - s, here is lexicalized and
developed into an inseparable part of the stem. The suffix here is no longer a grammatical
morpheme.
In compound nouns both the 1
st
and 2
nd
components may be pluralized:
father-in-law / 1
st
/, suitcase / 2
nd
/, Manservant—menservants etc.
The Category of Case in Nouns
The problem of the number of cases in English has given rise to different theories which
were based on the different ways of approaching the description of English grammatical structure.
Case is an indication of a relation in which the noun stands to some other word.
H. Sweet's (42) conception of the number of cases in English doubtful. He is not sure
whether in English there are five or two cases. He writes: “English has only one inflected case, the
genitive /man’s, men’s/, the uninflected base constituting the common case / man, men /, which is
equivalent to the nominative, vocative, accusative and dative of such a language as Latin”.
20
As we see he is under a certain influence of the Latin grammar. If we treat the English
language out of the facts of Latin, then we'll really have to acknowledge the existence of five
cases. But the facts of English made Sweet identify only two.
O. Curme (26) considers that of many case endings once used English has preserved only one, - 1
st
of the
genitive. Apart from the genitive relation, these grammatical relations are now indicated by the position of the noun
with regard to the verb or prepositions which have taken the place of the old inflectional endings / He distinguishes
four cases:
1. Nominative-performs 3 functions:
subject, predicate and direct object
2. Accusative - performs 3 functions: object, adverbial modifier, predicate.
The dog bit my brother /obj./
He stayed an hour /adverbial acc/
I believed to be him /predicate/
3. Dative: When an action directed toward smb:
He makes coat for John.
4. Genitive: girl's ...
O. Jespersen (33), (34) distinguishes two cases: common and genitive.
M. Bryant (24) is of the same opinion:
H. Whitehall (43) distinguishes two cases in nouns on analogy with the pronouns which can substitute for
them: nominative and objective.
He says: "The so-called possessive case is best thought of as a method of transforming a noun into a
modifier" ...
Among the Russian grammarians we find different views on the problem of case system in Modern English
nouns.
B.A. Ilyish (15) considers that – ‘s is no longer a case inflexion in the classical sense of a word. Unlike
such classical inflections, -‘s may be attached:
a) to adverbs: yesterday's events
b) to a word group: Mary and John's apartment
c) to a whole clause: the man I saw yesterday’s son.
Ilyish concludes that the – ‘s morpheme gradually develops into a "form-word", a kind of
particle serving to convey the meanings of belonging, possession”.
G.U. Vorontsova (11) does not recognize -'s as case morpheme. She treats it as a
"postposition", "a purely syntactical form - word resembling a preposition", used as a sign of
syntactical dependence". Her arguments are as follows:
1. The use of-'s is optional /her brother's, of her brother/.
2. It is used with a limited group of nouns outside which it occurs very seldom.
3. -'s is used both in the singular and in the plural which is not incident to case morphemes.
e.g. мальчик – а – мальчиков
4. It occurs in very few plurals, only those with the irregular formation of the plural
member: oxen's, but cows
5. -'s does not make an inseparable part of the structure of word. It may be placed at some
distance from the head-word of an attributive group.
To Khaimovich and Rogovskaya (22) -' s still function as a case morpheme, because:
1. The-'s morpheme is mostly attached to individual nouns, not noun groups /in 96 %/.
2. It's general meaning – “the relation of a noun to another word” - is a typical case
meaning.
3. The fact that -‘s occurs, as a rule, with a more or less limited group of words bears
testimony to its not being a "preposition like form word". The use of the preposition is determined,
chiefly by the noun it introduces: on /in/ under the table ...
4. oxen’s - cows' /z/, /θ/ and /of/ alternants: identical meanings and in complementary distribution.
5. –‘s not a “preposition like word” since it has no vowel as it is found in other prepositions in English.
Gender in Modern English
The term “gender” is opposed to the term “sex” (пол). The first term (gender) is a pure grammatical term
which deals with the grammatical expression of grammatical gender, i.e. the expression of masculine, feminine and
neuter genders. The second word (sex) is used as a common word for both male and female. Thus, it is often used to
denote biological notions.
Speaking about the Modern English language we can say that the English nouns do not have a grammatical
category of gender. It is because that the nouns do not have constant grammatical means to express the gender
21
distinctions. Such a grammatical category is found in Russian which is one the most important grammatical
phenomenon in this language “категория рода существительного – это несловоизменительная
синтагматически выявленная морфологическая категория, выражающаяся в способности существительного
в формах единственного числа относиться избирательно к родовым формам согласуемой (в сказуемом -
координируемой) с ним словоформы: письменный стол, большое дерево; Вечер наступил; Девочка гуляла
бы; Окно открыто; Ночь холодная. Морфологическая категория рода выявляется в формах единственного
числа, однако она принадлежит существительному как слову в целом, во всей системе его форм. Категорию
рода образуют три незамкнутых ряда морфологических форм, в каждый такой ряд входят формы разных
слов, объединённых общим для них морфологическим значением рода – мужского, женского или среднего”.
Морфологическое значение рода существительного – это такое значение, которое обуславливает
собою: 1) способность существительных определяться прилагательными со следующими флексиями в
форме именительного падежа единственного числа: - ой, -ий, ый - мужской род (большой стол, синий свет,
добрый человек), -ая, -яя – женский род (большая книга, синяя тетрадь); -ое, -ее – средний род (большое
окно, синее небо)…” (19)
It becomes clear that in Russian we find three grammatical genders -masculine, feminine and neuter as well
as in the personal pronouns in the 3
rd
person singular – он, она, оно. These pronouns, as a rule, replace nouns in
accordance with their gender. Nouns denoting persons may be either masculine or feminine - according to the sex of
the person usually denoted by them. Nouns denoting inanimate objects may be of masculine, feminine and neuter.
If nouns in the nominative case (им. падеж) singular form have no special ending, and no soft sign
(мягкий знак) at the end, they are included into the masculine gender: дом, семья.
If in the same case and form they have the endings -a or -я (ручка, станция), they are included into the
feminine gender.
If nouns have the endings -o or -e (радио, замечание) they are in neutral gender.
Nouns ending in "ь" (soft sign – мягкий знак) are either masculine (портфель - он) or feminine (тетрадь -
она).
In the English language we do not find such phenomenon. Because of this fact the Russian and the most
other foreign grammarians think that English does not have the grammatical category of gender. “English has no
gender: the nouns of English cannot be classified in terms of agreement with articles, adjectives (or verbs)” (38),
(20)
In old English there were three genders with their own markers. B.A.Ilyish writes the following in this
respect: "Three grammatical categories are represented in the OE nouns, just as in many other Germanic and Indo-
European languages: gender, number and case. Of these three gender is a lexical-grammatical category, that is,
every noun with all its forms belong to gender (masculine, feminine or neuter).
But in Modern English the meaning of gender may be expressed by the help of different other means:
1. gender may be indicated by a change of words that is, by the help of lexic-semantic means: man –
woman, cock (rooster) – hen, bull-cow, Arthur, Ann, Edgar, Helen and so on.
2. gender may be indicated by the addition of a word that is, by syntactic means examples: Grandfather –
grandmother, manservant – maidservant, male cat – female cat or he cat – she cat and so on.
3. gender may be expressed by the use of suffixes, examples, host – hostess (хозяин – хозяйка), hero –
heroine (герой - героиня), tiger – tigress (тигр - тигрица). There are opinions according to which these suffixes are
morphological means, thus they are grammatical means and because of this fact one may consider that English has
the grammatical category of gender. But it can hardly be accepted.
A.I. Smirnitsky (20) gives convincible counter-arguments on this question. Here it is: “Однако на самом
деле и здесь выражение «рода» относится не к грамматике, а к лексике. Слово actor – «мужского рода», а
actress – «женского рода» потому, что это соответствует реальным внеязыковым фактам, а не вследствие
особенностей склонения или каких-либо других формальных грамматических особенностей данных слов.
Слово actress по сравнению с actor обозначает реально иное живое существо женского пола, и соотношение
actor – actress является по существу таким же, как соотношение слов father отец – mother мать … этот
суффикс является не грамматическим, а лексическим, словообразующим. (его можно сопоставить,
например, с уменьшительным суффиксом – у в doggy и т.п.). Следовательно, в соотношении actor – actress
нет ничего противостоящего общим закономерностям выражения «родовых» различий в системе
английских существительных”
There is a regular correspondence between English nouns and the personal pronouns in the third person
singular he, she, it. But this correspondence is not equal with the one which is found in Russian. In the Russian
language this correspondence is based on both the lexical-semantic and the grammatical aspects but in English it is
based on only the lexical-semantic aspect, that is "he" is usually used to indicate real biological male sex, "she"
indicates real biological female sex and “It” is used to indicate inanimate objects. It is important to remember that
the pronouns he, she, may also be used with regard to inanimate nouns. Such a use of these pronouns is explained by
the cultural and historical backgrounds and it has nothing to do with the grammatical expression of the meaning of
gender. Examples: moon - she, ship - she, love - he and so on.
Summing up the problem of gender in Modern English, it is important to say that:
1. gender is the grammatical distinction between; masculine, feminine and neuter;
2. the lexical - grammatical category of gender existed only in the OE period but in ME (middle English)
this category has been lost;
22
3. in Modern English we find only lexical-semantic meanings of gender, that is, the gender distinction is
based on the semantic principle;
4. English has certain lexical and syntactic means to express a real biological sex.
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