17.01.2025

1. Morphology and Syntax as Parts of Grammar

• Grammar: Subsystem of language alongside phonetics and lexicon; encompasses means of word-changing and sentence formation.

• Morphology: Study of morphemes (smallest meaningful units) and words.

• Syntax: Study of phrases and sentences (free word groups).

• Key Units:

  • Morpheme: Smallest meaningful unit; includes lexicological and grammatical studies.

  • Word: Central naming unit studied in grammar and lexicology.

  • Phrases and Sentences: Represent more complex linguistic structures.

• Relations:

  • Paradigmatic Relations: Choice relations between units of similar types in language.

  • Syntagmatic Relations: Chain relations joining units at the same level to form higher units.

2. Main Grammatical Notions

• Grammatical Meaning: Abstract meaning that characterizes grammatical classes; distinguishable from lexical meanings.

  • Types: Individual, categorial, and part-of-speech meanings.

• Grammatical Form: The structure of a grammatical unit that expresses its meaning.

• Opposition Method: Base for identifying grammatical meaning and grammatical categories through contrasting forms.

  • Example: Singular vs. plural (boy vs. boys).

3. Structure of Words

• Root and Affixes: Words are composed of roots and various types of morphemes.

• Types of Morphemes:

  • Word-building morphemes (affixes) and Form-building morphemes (inflections).

  • Free, Bound, Semi-bound, and Discontinuous morphemes: Classified based on dependency and positional characteristics.

4. Means of Form-Building: Analytical and Synthetic Forms

• Synthetic Forms: Changes in the word itself using affixation, sound interchange, and suppletivity.

• Analytical Forms: Combinations of auxiliary elements with notional parts (e.g., has come).

• Affixation: Attaching grammatical morphemes to roots to form various grammatical constructs.

5. Parts of Speech and Classification Principles

• Grammatical and Semantic Principles: Parts of speech classified based on their meanings and syntactic functions.

• Morphological vs. Syntactic Classification: Examines both the morphology of words and their roles within sentences.

6. Notional and Functional Classes of Words

• Notional Words: Content words that denote actions, participants, and properties; can function as parts of sentences.

• Functional Words: Specific grammatical functions (e.g., conjunctions, prepositions, articles) but lacking concrete lexical meaning.

7. Nouns and the Category of Number

• Noun Characteristics: Includes meaning of substance, morphological categories (number, case), and typical word-building patterns.

• Number: Expressed through singular and plural forms derived via affixation and internal alterations.

8. Nouns and the Category of Case

• Case: Inflectional variation in nouns indicating relationships between nouns and other words in a sentence.

• Common vs. Possessive Cases: E.g., boy vs. boy's; Genitive marked typically by -'s.

9. Nouns and Article Determination

• Articles in English: Function to denote definiteness or indefiniteness; categorized based on given and new information in context.

10. Adjectives and Degrees of Comparison

• Adjective Properties: Qualities of substances; includes derivational patterns and degrees of comparison.

11. The Category of Tense

• Tense: Expresses time across actions (present, past, future); incorporates complexity in understanding relative time.

12. The Category of Voice

• Voice: Reflects semantic roles of the grammatical subject and object; expressed through Active and Passive forms.

13. The Category of Mood

• Mood: Expresses modality; includes indicative, imperative, and subjunctive forms; debated among linguists regarding its existence in English.

14. Verbals and Representation

• Verbals: Non-finite forms of verbs (infinitive, gerund, participle) that exhibit characteristics of both verbs and other parts of speech.

15. The Phrase: Classification and Relations

• Phrase Structure: The phrase serves as a naming unit while the sentence serves both naming and communicative functions.

16. Sentence as the Main Unit of Syntax

• Sentence Characteristics: Naming and communicative unit with structure defined by subject-predicate relations.

17. Predicativity

• Predicativity: Correlation of the sentence with the speech situation; involves temporal, modal, and personal components.

18. Principles of Classification of Sentences

• Sentence Types: Classified based on predication, structure, and completeness.

19. Syntactic Structure of Simple Sentences

• Syntactic Relations: Focuses on the subject and predicate, identifying objects and complements within sentence structures.

20. Structural Models of Sentence Analysis

• IC Model and Distributional Model: Approaches to analyzing sentence structures based on their constituents and relations.

21. The Transformational Model

• Transformational Grammar: Analyzes the relations between kernel sentences and complex sentences through transformations.

22. Semantic Structure of the Sentence

• Semantic Analysis: Considers the relationship between predicates and their arguments in situational contexts.

23. Compound Sentences

• Compound Structure: Independent clauses connected by coordination reflecting equivalence in relationships.

24. Complex Sentences

• Complex Structure: Incorporation of dependent clauses and their relationships to the main clause.

25. Communicative Structure of the Sentence

• Theme and Rheme: Analysis of sentence elements based on their roles in conveying information.