учебник_правка. Theoretical grammar as a brunch of linguistics
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Parts of speech  Nominative parts of speech Particles     noun-words adjective-words verb adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection  noun, noun-pronoun, noun-numeral, infinitive, gerund adjective, adjective-pronoun, adjective-numeral, participles finite verb, verbals: gerund, infinitive, participles Fig. 25 A distributional approach to the parts of speech classification can be illustrated by the classification introduced by Charles Fries. He wanted to avoid the traditional terminology and establish a classification of words based on distributive analysis, that is, the ability of words to combine with other words of different types. At the same time, the lexical meaning of words was not taken into account. He introduced four major classes of words and 15 form-classes. It turned out that his four classes of words were practically the same as traditional nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. What is really valuable in Charles Fries’ classification is his investigation of 15 groups of function words (form-classes) because he was the first linguist to pay attention to some of their peculiarities (Fig. 26). All the classifications mentioned above appear to be one-sided because parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of only one aspect of the word: either its meaning or its form, or its function. Word classes   4 major classes of words 15 form-classes noun verb adjective adverb Fig. 26 In modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated according to three criteria: semantic, formal and functional (Fig. 27). This approach may be defined as complex or traditional. The semantic criterion presupposes the grammatical meaning of the whole class of words. The formal criterion reveals paradigmatic properties: relevant grammatical categories, the form of the words, their specific inflectional and derivational features. The functional criterion concerns the syntactic function of words in the sentence and their combinability. Thus, when characterizing any part of speech we are to describe: a) its semantics; b) its morphological features; c) its syntactic peculiarities. Fig. 27 The linguistic evidence makes it possible to divide all the words of the language into:
NOUN AND ITS CATEGORIES SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE NOUN The noun is the central lexical unit of language. It is the main nominative unit of speech. It is the main nominative unit of speech. As any other part of speech, the noun can be characterised by three criteria: semantic (the meaning), morphological (the form and grammatical catrgories) and syntactical (functions, distribution). The noun denotes thingness ore substance in a general sense. Thus nouns name things, living beings, places, materials, processes, states, abstract notions and qualities. According to different principles of classification nouns fall into several subclasses:
     Fig. 28
      Fig. 29                  Fig. 30 MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE NOUN According to their morphological composition nouns can be divided into simple, derived, and compound (Fig. 31).  Fig. 31 Simple nouns consist of only one root-morpheme. Derived nouns (derivatives) are composed of one root-morpheme and one or more derivational morphemes (prefixes or suffixes). Compound nouns consist of at least two stems. The meaning of a compound is not a mere sum of its elements. The main types of compound nouns are:
Categories of the Noun Morphologically nouns are characterized by the grammatical categories of number and case. Some scholars admit the existence of the category of gender and the category of article determination (Fig. 32).  Fig. 32 Category of Number The grammatical category of number is the linguistic representation of the objective category of quantity. The category of number is expressed by the opposition of the plural form of the noun to its singular form (Fig. 33).      Fig. 33 The semantic difference of the oppositional members of the category of number in many linguistic works is treated traditionally: the meaning of the singular is interpreted as “one” and the meaning of the plural – as “many” (“more than one”). In modern linguistics the categorial meaning of the plural is interpreted as the denotation of “the potentially dismembering reflection of the structure of the referent’ (correspondingly, the categorial meaning of the singular is treated as “the non-dismembering reflection of the structure of the referent”). The grammatical meaning of number may not coincide with the notional quantity: the noun in the singular does not necessarily denote one object while the plural form may be used to denote one object consisting of several parts (Fig. 33). Nouns   The opposition of discreteness/ indiscreteness is explicitly expressed e.g. dog – dogs The opposition is revealed by syntactical and lexical correlation in the context Nouns with homogenous number forms. The opposition is not expressed formally e.g. sheep – sheep Pluralia Tantum Singularia Tantum  
Fig. 34 The category of number in English is restricted in its realization because of the dependent implicit grammatical meaning of countableness/uncountableness. The number category is realized only within subclass of countable nouns. The grammatical meaning of number may not coincide with the notional quantity: the noun in the singular does not necessarily denote one object while the plural form may be used to denote one object consisting of several parts. All English nouns may be subdivided into three groups (Fig. 34):
Types of Oppositional Reduction There are three types of oppositional reduction in the sphere of number category (Fig. 35). The first type of reduction consists in the use of the absolute plural with countable nouns in the singular form. It concerns collective nouns which are changed into “nouns of multitude”. The second type of the oppositional reduction consists in the use of the absolute plural with uncountable nouns in the plural form. It concerns cases of stylistic marking of nouns. The third type of oppositional reduction concerns common countable nouns used in repetition groups. This variety of the absolute plural may be called “repetition plural”. Reduction    Fig. 35 Category of Case Case is a grammatical category which shows relation of the noun with other words in a sentence. It expresses the relation of a word to another word in the word-group or sentence. The category of case correlates with the objective category of possession. It is expressed by the form of the noun. The case category in English is realized through the opposition: the Common Case and the Possessive or Genitive Case. There is no universal point of view as to the case system in English. Different scholars stick to a different number of cases (Table 4). Table 4 Case Theories
Ch. Fillmore introduced syntactic-semantic classification of cases. They show relations in the so-called deep structure of the sentence. According to him, verbs may stand to different relations to nouns. There are six cases: Agentive Case (A) John opened the door; Instrumental Case (I) The key opened the door; John used the key to open the door; Dative Case (D) John believed that he would win (the case of the animate being affected by the state of action identified by the verb); Factitive Case (F) The key was damaged ( the result of the action or state identified by the verb); Locative Case (L) Chicago is windy; Objective case (O) John stole the book. According to the “theory of positional cases” the unchangeable forms of the noun are differentiated as different cases by virtue of the functional positions occupied by the noun in the sentence. Thus, the English noun distinguishes the inflectional genitive case and four non-inflectional, purely positional, cases: Nominative Case John opened the door; Vocative Case John, open the door; Dative Case GiveJohn this book; Accusative Case I went with John there, Genitive Case This is John’s book. According to the “substitutional case theory” there are three cases: Nominative Case John opened the door; Genitive Case This is John’s book; Objective Case (due to the existence of objective pronouns me, him, whom) GiveJohn this book. The “theory of prepositional cases” regards nounal combinations with the prepositions in certain object and attributive collocations as morphological case forms: Dative Case Givethis book to John; Genitive Case She is a friendof my mother. The “limited case theory” recognizes the existence in English of a limited case system: Genitive Case This is John’s book; Common Case GiveJohn this book. The limited case theory differentiates the two case forms: the possessive or genitive form as the strong member of the categorial opposition and the common, or “non-genitive” form as the weak member of the categorial opposition. This theory is at present most broadly accepted among linguists both in this country and abroad. Another view of the problem of the English noun cases has been put forward which sharply counters the theories observed. The “postpositional theory” claims that the English noun in the course of its historical development has completely lost the morphological category of case. Thus, this theory states that there are no cases at all. The form ’s is optional because the same relations may be expressed by the ‘of-phrase’: the doctor’s arrival – the arrival of the doctor. So the lingual unit that is named the “genitive case” is a combination of a noun with a postposition. In modern linguistics the term “genitive case” is often used instead of the “possessive case” because the meanings rendered by the “’s ” sign are not only those of possession (Fig. 36).  Fig. 36 |
