Introduction Role of Grammar compared with other linguistic disciplines

Object of Grammar study, its main goals and links with other disciplines
The term “grammar” goes back to a Greek word that may be translated as the “art of writing”. But later this word acquired a much wider sense and came to embrace the whole study of language. Now it is often used as the synonym of linguistics. A question comes immediately to mind: what does this study involve?
Grammar may be practical and theoretical. The aim of practical grammar is the description of grammar rules that are necessary to understand and formulate sentences. The aim of theoretical grammar is to offer explanation for these rules. Generally speaking, theoretical grammar deals with the language as a functional system.
The standard framework of generative grammar is the transformational grammar model developed by Noam Chomsky and his followers from the 1950s to 1980s.
The formal study of grammar is an important part of education for children from a young age through advanced learning, though the rules taught in schools are not a "grammar" in the sense most linguists use the term, as they are often prescriptive rather than descriptive.
Constructed languages (also called planned languages or conlangs) are more common in the modern day. Many have been designed to aid human communication (for example, naturalistic Interlingua, schematic Esperanto, and the highly logic-compatible artificial language Lojban). Each of these languages has its own grammar.
Morphology is the field of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words. (Words as units in the lexicon are the subject matter of lexicology.) While words are generally accepted as being the smallest units of syntax, it is clear that in most (if not all) languages, words can be related to other words by rules. For example, English speakers recognize that the words dog, dogs, and dog-catcher are closely related. English speakers recognize these relations from their tacit knowledge of the rules of word-formation in English. They infer intuitively that dog is to dogs as cat is to cats; similarly, dog is to dog-catcher as dish is to dishwasher. The rules understood by the speaker reflect specific patterns (or regularities) in the way words are formed from smaller units and how those smaller units interact in speech. In this way, morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies patterns of word-formation within and across languages, and attempts to formulate rules that model the knowledge of the speakers of those languages.
In linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek συν- syn-, "together", and τάξις táxis, "arrangement") is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages. In addition to referring to the discipline, the term syntax is also used to refer directly to the rules and principles that govern the sentence structure of any individual language, as in "the syntax of Modern Irish". Modern research in syntax attempts to describe languages in terms of such rules. Many professionals in this discipline attempt to find general rules that apply to all natural languages.
Since humanity failed to create a single language (everybody knows the legend of the Tower of Babel, in which humanity, speaking a single language, came so close to reaching heaven that God himself felt threatened), a professional translator has to acquire knowledge of how grammar may vary cross-linguistically, i.e., of Contrastive Grammar. Based on comparative principles and approaches, contrastive grammar allows describing the main theoretical aspects of both languages. Contrastive grammar requires such researching methods that are able to reflect specific features of each part in a particular language system compared with the complexity of the phenomena observed in other languages. Thus, the course of Contrastive Grammar of Ukrainian and English allows identifying similarities and differences between both languages needed to correct interpretation. Here are some the most evident examples.
1) In comparison with Ukrainian and Russian, there are comparatively few grammatical inflections in English (plural forms of nouns, the third person ending of verbs, degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs) and they are more unified.
2) The lack of morphological distinctions between the classes is observed in English, which accounts for the fact that a great number of words may easily pass from one class to another, their status being determined mainly syntactically, by their function in the sentence (light/to light/ light metal; to water/ water/ water flowers/ water low).
3) The order of elements in the English sentence is fixed to a greater degree than in inflected languages (Russian).
4) A most peculiar feature of English is a special set of words employed as structural substitutes for a certain part of speech: noun substitutes (one, that), the verb substitute (do), the adverbs and adjective substitute (so). For instance: Say why you are interested in the position and relate your interests to those of the company. Look younger than you did in ’98.

Hence, contrastive grammar deals with:

1. 
   the specific traits of morphemes in languages under contrasted investigation;
   
2. 
   with classes of paradigms pertaining to a notional part of speech and reflecting its paradigmatic variety;
   
3. 
   the morphological categories and their manifestation in the contrasted languages;
   
4. 
   the parts of speech and their typological features.
   

It is worth emphasizing that the general implicit and dependent grammatical meanings of notional parts of speech in both languages coincide which considerably facilitates their contrastive investigation. Besides, in the process of such investigation only correlated units and phenomena can be contrasted.

The language grammar is a unity of a few systems including grammatical means similar on character of their formal arrangement, on their functions in the language, as well as on the type of their relations with each other and to the units of the other grammar subsystems. These subsystems are word-building, morphology and syntax.

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  Peculiarities of a word structure, ability of a word to form new lexical units and construction of the motivated words according to the certain patterns are in the focus of the word-building system.
  
• 
  A word as a bearer of morphological categories and system of forms, regulations of the parts of speech changing pertain to morphology (the study of forms).
  
• 
  Syntax also deals with the word links and includes the rules of simple and complex sentences construction, as well as their functioning within a context.
  

The morphological system of the English and Ukrainian languages is characterized by considerable number of isomorphic (similar) as well as of several allomorphic (different) features. The isomorphic features are due to the common Indo-European origin of the two languages, while allomorphism has been acquired by both languages in the course of their historical development and functioning as independent national languages.

The main typological constants that make the object of contrasting at the morphological level of English and Ukrainian (and other languages) are three:

1. 
   The morpheme;
   
2. 
   The parts of speech;
   
3. 
   Their morphological categories
   

The English language has hundreds of thousands of words (about 2 mln.). Fortunately, though,

these words can all be grouped into a few different categories. “It is impossible to speak about the life of language without knowing anything about the parts of speech, i.e., certain groups of words arranged according to the law of their changes” (Propp). Once you group them, you can more easily learn their characteristics. You can learn what makes the words in one group different from the words in another group. You can learn which group or subgroup gives you trouble when you write or speak or translate. You can learn how the words in one group can connect with words in another group. Some of the groups (such as nouns) are themselves huge and can grow. Other groups (such as conjunctions) are much smaller and, generally speaking, do not grow.
Different parts of speech have different lexical meanings. For example, verbs are words denoting processes (to work, to live) and activity (to play, to study), etc; nouns are mostly names of objects (a table, a boy); adjectives are words expressing properties (good, bad).


Some parts of speech have different grammatical categories.
The paradigmatic correlation of two or more grammatical forms makes up a grammatical category.

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  Verbs have the category of mood, tense, aspect, voice, person and number;
  

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  Nouns have the category of number and case;
  
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  Adjectives and adverbs have degrees of comparison, etc.
  

There is an underlying structure made of fundamental units beneath all phenomena of variation. The underlying structure of speech (parole) is a systematic set of oppositions, differences and rules or codes language (langue). The fundamental unit of language is the sign. The fundamental structure of language is the binary opposition (including that between signifier and signified). Meaning is what emerges out of differential and arbitrary (i.e. social and cultural) relations between different signs.

Lexical and grammatical meaning of verb, its morphological structure.
Verbs in English and Ukrainian have the largest number of features in common. They include the general implicit meaning of the verb which serves to convey verbalization, i.e. different kinds of actions (go, skate, read, cook). In other words, a verb expresses action (organize, sing) or state of being (seem or be). Due to these lexical and grammatical properties the verb generally functions in a sentence as predicate going into some combinations:
1) With notional parts of speech which perform the function of the subject or the object of a sentence: (The sun shines; The trees grow; He typically avoids clichés; The student passed his exams).
2) With other verbs (to want to know, decided to dance) or with adverbs (The chief normally expresses formally; to cook properly, to read quickly);
3) With prepositions (to depend on sth / smb; to get on well with smb, put out the fire) and also with conjunctions (neither read, nor write; both to work and to relax).
Allomorphic is the combinability of English verbs with adverb particles, so-called phrasal verbs (to look for, to calm down, to put off / out; think over, to read through, to keep on).

According to their morphological structure, verbs can be divided into simple, derivative, compound and phrasal.

1. 
   Simple verbs consist of only one root morpheme: to add, to use, to ask, to form, to learn.
   
2. 
   Derivative verbs are composed of one root morpheme and one or more derivational morphemes (suffixes and prefixes: decorate, summarize, exemplify).
   
3. 
   Compound verbs consist of at least two stems: to overflow, understand, overlap, contradict supervise.
   
4. 
   Phrasal verbs consist of a verbal stem and adverbial particle, which is sometimes referred to as postposition: to give up, to bring up.
   

The verbs in the contrasted languages have its characteristic stem-building suffixes or postfixes: