= 161. 2*362 (075. 8) К211 ббк [81. 2-2 Англ + 81. 2-2 Укр] я 73

part of speech is characterized by its grammatical categories manifested in the opposemes (the elements of the opposi­tion - оппозема, член опозицп) and paradigms of its lexemes. Nouns have the categories of number and case. Verbs possess the categories of tense, voice, mood etc. That is why paradigms belonging to different parts of speech are different. The paradigm of a verb lexeme is long: write, writes, wrote, will write, is writing etc. The paradigm of n noun lexeme is much shorter: sister, sister's, sisters, sisters'. The paradigm of an adjective lexeme is still shorter: cold, colder, coldest. The paradigm of an adverb always consists only of one word.
Thus, the paradigm of a lexeme shows what part of speech the lexeme belongs to.
It must be borne in mind, however, that not all the lexemes of a pari of speech have the same paradigms. Compare:
sister book information
sister's books -
sisters — —
sisters' — —
The first lexeme has opposemes of two grammatical categories: number and case. The second lexeme has only one opposeme - that of number. It has no case opposemes. The third lexeme is outside both I'iilegories: it has no opposemes at all. We may say that the number (■pposeme with its opposite grammatical meanings of "singularity" iind "plurality" is neutralized in nouns like information, bread, milk etc. owing to their lexical meaning which can hardly be associated wilh "oneness" or "more-than-oneness".
We may define neutralization as the reduction of an opposeme to one of its members under certain circumstances. This member may be tailed the member of neutralization. Usually it is the unmarked member of an opposeme.
The term grammatical category implies that: I) there exist different morphological forms in the words of a pari of speech possessing different referential meanings;

7Л
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2) the oppositions of different forms possessing referential meanings are systematic that is they cover the whole class of words of that part of speech.
In other words a grammatical category is a systematic opposition of different morphological forms possessing different referential meanings. Each grammatical category is composed of at least two contrasting forms. Otherwise category would stop existing.
In general, an opposeme of any grammatical category consists of as many members (or opposites) as there are particular manifestations of the general meaning. Thus, a morphological opposeme is a minimum set of words revealing (by the difference in their forms) only (and all) the particular manifestations of some general grammatical meaning. Any morphological category is the system of such opposemes whose members differ in form to express only (and all) the particular manifestations of the general meaning of the category [24; 23-24].