Ministry of higher and secondary education of the republic of uzbekistan karakalpak state university

Theme:Grammatical meaning and Form


Problems for discussion:
1. A grammatical category
2. Members of an opposition
3. The structural meanings of the sentence (Ch.Friesis conception)
4. Synthetical forms in modern English grammar
5. Synthetical system includes: 1)Inflectional forms 2) Supplentive forms

The general notions of grammar which determine the structure of language and find their expression in inflection and other devices are generally called represented by,at least, two grammatical forms,otherwise it cannot exist. A simple case of oppositions in pairs of grammatical forms will be found between active and passive in verbs.

In dealing with grammar it is often useful to see some contracts in terms of “marked” and “unmarked” members. Ex: ”love” and “loved” are in contrast as “present” and “past” ,but only the latter is actually “marked” ,as such “love” is “ unmarked”. It is fairly common that of two members of an opposition one has a definite meaning or vague. In the sentence “penguins live in the “Antarctic”, the verb “live” is so to say “tenseless” . Since the statement is true not only for the present, but for the past and presumably for the future.
The problem of oppositions on the morphological level has not been completely solved as yet and remains a source of constant interest in modern language learning.
Words may express a semantic conception and one or more conceptions of a grammatical order. One the some form of the word may express different grammatical meaning (person, number, etc.)
In the sentence “The horses ran faster”, the “horses” not only evokes in our mind the idea of a certain animal, but idea of the doer of the action; it also evokes the conception of plurality. The word “ran” corresponds to the idea of motion but it is also evokes the idea of character off that motion and the idea of past time (pastness).The word “faster” suggests not only the manner of action, its speed, but it relative speed (relative quality).
In the sentence “The man give the boy an apple”, first of all, we can distinguish here as Ch.Fries does, at least two kinds of meaning in the total meaning of this utterance. There are the meanings of the separate words as the dictionary would record them. The lexical meanings we get from this sentence a whole range of meanings expressed in the lexical records of the words themselves. Grammar will always organize morphemic units into meaningful combinations larger than words. Ex: the man performed the actions, not the boys. The actions has already taken place, it is not something in progress, not something planned for the future. The information is given to us as a statement of fact, not something that the questioned, nor something that is requested. Such meanings constitute what Ch.Fries has aptly called the structural meaning in the sentence. According to Ch.Fries the total linguistic meaning of any utterance consists of the lexical meanings of the separate words plus such structural meanings. No utterance is intelligible without lexical meanings are not just vague matter of the context. Structural meanings are fundamental and necessary meanings in every utterance and are signaled by specific and definite devices.
In modern English grammatical forms may be made synthetically, analytically.
Synthetically system includes:1) inflection, ex: He works, he worked.2) suppletivilly, ex: go-went-gone. Suppletive forms are made y combining different roots; such is the paradigm of the verb “to be”: a) am, is, are; b) was, were; c) be, been, being. Formations of this type will be found in adjectives: good-better-the best; bad-worse-the worst; in pronouns: I-me, my, mine; we-us, our, ours.
Inflection is one of distinguishing characteristics a structural device of language is the change or variation in the forms of a word for the purpose of indicating corresponding variations in its meaning and use.
The definition implies that there is a certain root elements which remains constant, but which is given specific application and meaning by additions to this element. As commonly applied, the term refers to such distinctions as those of gender, number case, mood, tense ,voice and so on. So few are the inflections of modern English as compared with synthetic languages that it is sometimes characterized as “a grammatical tongue”.
In synthetic languages where the grammatical function of a word is implicit in the form of a word , inflection or accidence as it is sometimes called, does play a large part. But still we can hardly say that through the loss of inflection English has become ‘a grammatical tongue” in the true sense of the word “ grammar”.
English inflection has been gradually simplified in the course of time but the language has developed other devices to perform the same function.
It is known, English has become less synthetic and more analytic. Inflections still play an important part in English but there are few of them compared with the great inflections(system of old English).In old English prepositions played a much smaller part than they do in modern English.

2. 
   The number of inflectional morphemes still alive in modern English. They may be used with new words entering the language. They are: plural inflection-s, and the possessive case inflection in nouns; inflections –er , -est in adjectives; inflections -es,-s,-ed,-t in verbs; inflections –n,-en, in past participles; inflection -ing in the present participle and gerund.
   
3. 
   OE nouns had 9 different inflectional forms, ME nouns have only 2 inflectional forms. OE weak verbs had 10 different inflectional forms, ME weak verbs have only 4.OE adjectives hah 13 different inflectional forms, ME adjectives have only 2 and so on.
   
4. 
   It is also a matter of practical concern to distinguish between inflectional and constructional homonymy. Inflectional homonymy may be illustrated by such homonymic inflections in modern English as: 1) – (e) s ; a) the plural of nouns; student-students; book-books; hero-heroes; box-boxes.
   
5. 
   b) the possessive case: student-student’s
   
6. 
   possessive pronouns( absolute use): hers, ours, yours
   
7. 
   the present indefinite tense: he speaks, he teachers
   
8. 
   –ing a) gerund, b) participle
   
9. 
   –en, -ne,-n: a) the plural of nouns: ox-oxen, b) possessive pronouns (absolute use): my-mine, c) past participle: take-taken, see-seen.
   

Constractional homonymy be exemplified (illustrated) by numerous homonymic patterns on
the synthetic level such as V+N+N: a) he called his sister a heroine; b) he called his sister a taxi.
In example (a) “called” is a copula-verb. In example (b) “called” is a notional verb.
Some synthetical relationships are only partly expressed in modern English: case in nouns (only genetive left), person in verbs (only 3-rd person singular present indicative left), case in pronouns (dative and accusative have fallen together as “objective”).
Form-word and other grammatical devices were developed as alternatives to inflections. Word-order became “fixed” or grammatical, performing some of the functions of last inflections.
Inflectional morphemes may occur in any three places: at the beginning of the word, in the middle or at the end, by means, respectively of prefix, medial change or suffix. In traditional grammar these are three types of inflections: initial, internal and final ( or end ) inflection. Of these three modern English widely uses only end-inflections.

1. 
   In stages of the language development initial inflection was used to form the past tenses of certain verbs, known as reduplicating verbs. This is method of tense formation similar to the use of arguments in Greek. In OE prefixes were also used for aspect differentiation in verbs, example, writian - gewritian, singan-asingan. This formative element has now passed out of use completely.Modern English contains no genuine example of initial inflection.
   

In other languages things are different.In Russian example, prefix of this kind are most productive:писать-написать, читать-прочитать

2. 
   internal inflection (infexis) have never been known in English with the only exceptions of the verb to stand-stood, where the –n in “stand”does not belong to the body of the roots and seems to be an independent morpheme.
   

Vowel interchange may be found in all parts of speech but it is most common in the English verb. By vowel interchange we distinguish present and past of the most common non-standard verbs:meet-met,breed-bred,speak-spoke,lead-led,shoot-shot.
In nouns we find it in formation of plural: man-men, woman-women, foot-feet, goose-geese.
The variation of the vowel through a series of changes as in sing-sang-sung; ring-rang-rung, etc. In known as gradation or ablaut. On the other hand examples like goose-geese, man-men illustrate the process of mutation or ablaut that is the single change produced in a vowel.
Consonantal interchange in mod. English is less frequent than the variation of the root vowel. Ex: knife-knives, wife-wives, wolf-wolves, thief-thieves, loaf-loaves.
Consonant interchanges in verbs is analogues to that of nouns: leave-left-left, lose-lost-lost, most frequent are cases like the following: bring-brought-brought, catch-caught-caught, beseech-besought-besought.

3. 
   the thied type, final and end inflection, is too common to need particular illustration. The most common final inflections are: -s and –ed inflections.
   

And, finally, we come to the so-called zero-inflection which in traditional grammars seemed to escape the notice of grammarians, though its linguistic value and productivity in modern English are not open to doubt.
By zero-inflection we mean the absence of grammatical endings, which as opposed to the presence of such endings, which has a certain grammatical meaning. We understand the absence of inflection as performing a definite grammatical function analogues to an ordinary suffix.
In the paradigm I work, he works, he worked, working the verbal form work is distinguished by the absence of grammatical ending. The absence of inflection characterizes this form as having neither the meaning of the third person, nor that of the past and past participle.
In nouns zero-inflection characterizes the common case singular (boy, girl, cat, dog etc.) opposition to the corresponding plural forms: boy, girls, cats, dog. The possessive case boy’s, girl’s, cat’s, dog’s.
Zero-inflections may have their homonyms, as: (you) love and (to) love. These two forms are different in their meaning implied in the finite form “love” are|:time, person and number, and its homonym, the bare infinitive of the same verb, possesses none of these meanings.
Zero-iflection will be found in adjectives in the positive degree, as opposed to the –er and –est suffixes in the comparative and supperlative degree, exam., small-smaller-smallest.