Grammatical meaning and grammatical categories

Экзаменационные вопросы

1. Grammar and its two meanings.

2. Practical grammar and theoretical grammar. The object of study in them.

3. The components parts of grammar.

4. Grammatical meaning and grammatical categories.

5. Word-form derivation.

6. The notion of language and speech.

7. Phrases and their types. Syntactical relations between the components of a phrase.

8. Types of morphemes.

9. The notions of morph and allomorphs.

10. Lexicalization of the plural “s” (with examples).

11. Classification of parts of speech (the view point of foreign and Russian scholars).

12. The principal on which the classification of parts of speech is based (Bain, 13. Ashton, H.Sweet, O. Jesperson, Zettlin).

14. A view point of foreign and Russian linguists on the article.

15. The category of number. Grammatical and lexical forms of number.

16. The formation of number in composite and compound noun.

17. Plural identical in form with the singular.

18. The nouns “foot” and “pound”.

19. Foreign plurals.

20. Nouns used only in the singular.

21. Noun used only in the plural.

22. The category of case within the noun.

23. The main meaning of the Possessive Case.

24. The three instances of the use of the Independent Genetive.

25. The view point of Ilyish and Vorontsova on the Possessive Case.

26. Frie’s classification of parts of speech.

27. The absence of the grammatical category of gender in English.

28. Means of expressing gender in English (lexical and grammatical)

29. Nouns that may be applied to both males and females (human beings and names of animal). What is used when it is desirable to restrict nouns to one sex.

30. Names of countries. (From view point of gender).

31. Traditional gender associations.

32. The adjective (Ilysh’s classification). The definite article with the superlative. Special meanings.

33. Substantivization of adjectives.

34. Adjectivization of nouns.

35. The pronoun (Ilysh’s classification). The category of case and number.

36. Distinction of types and pronouns.

37. Limits of the pronoun class.

38. The words of category of state.

39. The verb (Ilysh’s classification). The basic forms of the verb.

40. Classification of verbs according to their morphological structure and syntactical function.

41. Transitive and intransitive verbs. Classification of verbs according to their lexical meaning.

42. Verbal categories. The category of aspect.

43. The category of aspect. (Terminology, special uses and different interrelation)

44. The category of aspect. Different terms. Aspect and character of the verb.

45. The sentence. Classification of sentences and the main differences between phrase and sentence.

46. Basic qualities of the perfect tenses.

47. Uses of perfect tenses.

48. The Verb. The category of mood, the problems within the indicative mood.

49. The imperative mood.

50. Oblique moods.

51. The category of Voice. The meaning of the construction “to be +Participle II”

52. The verbals. Ing-forms.

53. The verbals. The grammatical categories within the verbals.

54. The second participle.

55. Functional sentence perspective. The notion of “theme” and “rheme” in the sentence.

56. Means of expressing the “theme” and “rheme” in the sentence.

57. Transition from simple sentence to composite.

58. Secondary predication.

59. Means of expressing modality.

60. The category of person and number in verbs.

 

Grammar and its two meanings.

It is thanks to grammar that language acquires the ability to invest man’s thoughts with the material linguistic envelope. It is called the first meaning of grammar. The second meaning of grammar is that it is the science about the grammatical structure of a given language. A static grammar system has public character. It serves the whole of society. It reflects the type of the language and its national originality. Class dialects and jargons have no grammar system of their own, they borrow them from the national language.

Practical grammar and theoretical grammar. The object of study in them.

In the science of grammar we distinguish between practical and theoretical grammar. Practical and theoretical grammar have one and the same object on the study: the grammatical structure of the given, living, spoken language. Practical and theoretical grammars are both based on scientific foundation. The aim of the practical grammar is to teach how to speak, read, write, understand a given language for practical purposes. Theoretical grammar while studying the peculiarities of the grammar of the language at the same time looks upon each grammatical phenomenon from a historical point of view. This grammar is called historical by many linguists, but the Theory of Grammar differs from the History of the Language. Theoretical grammar begins with what the language is now and what it had been in the past.

 

The components parts of grammar.

Morphology and Syntax. 

Morphology is that part of grammar that concerns itself with the forms of words and their meanings, with the ways these forms are formed. Morphology deals with parts of speech and their grammatical tendencies. Syntax concerns itself with the ways words are compiled into sentences, with the parts of a sentence and their meanings and syntactical word-combinations.Morphology and Syntax play an equal role in the given language and in the science of grammar. Some linguists considered Syntax to be the main part of grammar, and scholars who attended to Morphology were considered to be formalists.

Grammatical meaning and grammatical categories.

A word is a basic unit both in Lexicology and in Grammar. From the point of view of Lexicology a word is a name attached to a notion. From the point of view of Grammar a word is that unit to which all the rules and laws of the language are applied. From the point of view of Lexicology a word may have one or more lexical meanings. From the point of view of Grammar a word has no more than one grammatical meaning.

Grammatical meanings are never named in words, they are expressed in grammatical forms. The unity of grammatical meaning and grammatical form constitutes a grammatical category.

 Grammatical meaning plays a great role in the language.

1. With the help of grammatical meaning we take precise the understanding of words in connected speech;

2. We can distinguish the function of words in the sentence;

3. We express the relation between the words in a sentence;

4. We express our attitude towards reality.