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Áèëåò ¹18

1. The category of Voice: its definition. The Active and the Passive voice.

Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb – that is, the person or thing that undergoes the action or has its state changed.[1] This contrasts with active voice, in which the subject has the agent role. For example, in the passive sentence "The tree was pulled down", the subject (the tree) denotes the patient rather than the agent of the action. In contrast, the sentences "Someone pulled down the tree" and "The tree is down" are active sentences.

Typically, in passive clauses, what would otherwise be expressed by the object (or sometimes another argument) of the verb comes to be expressed by the subject, while what would otherwise be expressed by the subject is either not expressed at all, or is indicated by some adjunct of the clause. Thus transforming an active verb into a passive verb is a valence-decreasing process ("detransitivizing process"), because it transforms transitive verbs into intransitive verbs.[2]

Many languages have both an active and a passive voice; this allows for greater flexibility in sentence construction, as either the semantic agent or patient may take the syntactic role of subject.[3] The use of passive voice allows speakers to organize stretches of discourse by placing figures other than the agent in subject position. This may be done to foreground the patient, recipient, or other thematic role;[3] it may also be useful when the semantic patient is the topic of on-going discussion.[4] The passive voice may also be used to avoid specifying the agent of an action.

The difference between Active and Passive Voice is as the terms are defined.

For example, in Active Voice the subject is performing or doing an action, thus the term doer. In Active Voice the subject is actively involved in the action.

On the other hand, in Passive Voice the doer is no longer the subject, and the subject is no longer participating in any action, but rather, the action is being done to the subject; thus, the subject is now the receiver. In this voice, the sentence wants to emphasize the action and NOT who is doing the action.

 

If you consider all of the skills involved in learning a language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, two are active and two are passive. Speaking and writing are skills that require action while listening and reading require little or no action, thus passive skills.

 

For example: The man is reading the newspaper. (Active Voice – The subject or the doer is reading.)

The newspaper is being read by the man. (Passive Voice – The subject in this sentence is not doing anything, but it is receiver of the action).

 

Can all sentences be written both in Active or Passive Voice?

The answer is No. Only those sentences that have a subject, a verb, and an OBJECT can be converted into Passive Voice.



There are many verbs that have no object. Some examples:

The woman is crying. (No object)

The students are going to the library. (No object)

The above sentences can ONLY be written in Active Voice. Verbs that do not have an object are called intransitive verbs. When you look a verb up in a dictionary, you will see an “i” after the verb.

 

On the other hand, if there is an object in the sentence, it can be written in Passive Voice. Some examples of sentences with an object are:

The man bought a newspaper. (Active Voice)

The newspaper was bought by the man. (Passive Voice)

The above sentences can be written in both Active and Passive Voice because there is an object in the Active Voice, in this case, the newspaper. Verbs that have an object are called transitive verbs. When you look a verb up in a dictionary to determine if a verb can be in either Active or Passive Voice or both, you will see a “t” after the verb.

 

Why use Passive Voice?

Active Voice is preferred voice in English, because it is shorter, shorter, and more direct. Passive Voice, however, uses longer sentences and is used frequently in formal writing. There are several reasons to use Passive Voice. Some of the more common reasons are:

1. When the subject or doer of the action is not known

Examples: The paper was left on my desk.

My wallet was stolen.

The alarm was rung.

 

2. When the focus has to be about the receiver and not the doer

Examples: The telephone was discovered by Alexander Graham Bell.

The bill was paid by the client.

 

3. When the subject or doer is obvious or represents a large group and doesn’t need to be stated.

The test was given.

The suspect was arrested.

Rice is grown in China.

English is spoken in the United States.

4. When the doer of the action is known but does not want to be mentioned because it might be something wrong.

Examples: The top of the deck was ruined.

The window was broken.

5. When are writing an essay or assignment and you want to vary the voice in your writing to avoid monotony

 

How is the Passive Voice Formed?

In statements The Passive Voice requires

The verb To Be + The Past Participle.

In Perfect Tenses in Passive Voice, the sentences require:

Some form of the verb HAVE (Have, Has, Had, Will Have) + BEEN + The Past Participle

In negative sentences, add the word NOT after the verb.

In questions follow the correct word order: Verb+ Verb + Subject in all questions EXCEPT when asking a question with WHO, use WHOM.

 

2. The brunch of lexicology, that is devoted to the study of meaning is known as Semasiology.

Semasiology (from Gr . semasia - "signification") deals not with every kind of linguistic meaning only. This does not mean that we need not pay attention to the grammatical meaning. On the contrary, grammatical meaning must be taken into consideration in so far as it bears a specific influence upon lexical meaning.

The main objects of semasiological study are as follows: semantic development of words,

its causes and classification, relevant distinctive features and types of lexical meaning, polysemy and semantic structure of word, semantic groupings and connections in the vocabulary system, i.e. synonyms, antonyms, etc.

Meaning is one of the most controversial terms in the theory of language. An exact definition of lexical meaning becomes especially difficult due to complexity of the process, by which language and human consequence serve to reflect outward reality. Since there is no universally accepted definition meaning we shall give a brief survey of the problem as it is viewed in modern linguistics. There are 2 approaches to the problem: 1) the referential approach, which formulates the essence of meaning as the interdependence between words and things or concepts they denote; 2) the functional approach, which studies the functions of a word in speech. This approach is (sometimes described as contextual) based on the analysis of various contexts.

The essential feature of the first approach is that in distinguishes between the three components, connected with meaning:

1) the sound form of the linguistic sign (sign or symbol);

2) the concept underlying this sound form (meaning; thought or reference).

3 ) the actual referent, i.e. the part or the aspect of reality to which the linguistic sign refers (thing meant).

 

 

Áèëåò ¹19

1.The existence of other voices in Modern English besides active and passive

 

Active voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. It is the unmarked voice for clauses featuring a transitive verb in nominative–accusative languages, including English and most other Indo-European languages.

 

Active voice is used in a clause whose subject expresses the agent of the main verb. That is, the subject does the action designated by the verb.[1] A sentence whose agent is marked as grammatical subject is called an active sentence. In contrast, a sentence in which the subject has the role of patient or theme is called a passive sentence, and its verb is expressed in passive voice. Many languages have both an active and a passive voice; this allows for greater flexibility in sentence construction, as either the semantic agent or patient may take the syntactic role of subject.

 

Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb – that is, the person or thing that undergoes the action or has its state changed.[1] This contrasts with active voice, in which the subject has the agent role. For example, in the passive sentence "The tree was pulled down", the subject (the tree) denotes the patient rather than the agent of the action. In contrast, the sentences "Someone pulled down the tree" and "The tree is down" are active sentences.

 

Typically, in passive clauses, what would otherwise be expressed by the object (or sometimes another argument) of the verb comes to be expressed by the subject, while what would otherwise be expressed by the subject is either not expressed at all, or is indicated by some adjunct of the clause. Thus transforming an active verb into a passive verb is a valence-decreasing process ("detransitivizing process"), because it transforms transitive verbs into intransitive verbs.[2]

 

Many languages have both an active and a passive voice; this allows for greater flexibility in sentence construction, as either the semantic agent or patient may take the syntactic role of subject.[3] The use of passive voice allows speakers to organize stretches of discourse by placing figures other than the agent in subject position. This may be done to foreground the patient, recipient, or other thematic role;[3] it may also be useful when the semantic patient is the topic of on-going discussion.[4] The passive voice may also be used to avoid specifying the agent of an action.

 

Middle

 

Further information: Deponent verb, Reflexive verb, Mediopassive voice and Unaccusative verb

 

Some languages (such as Albanian, Bengali, Fula, Tamil, Sanskrit, Icelandic, Swedish and Ancient Greek) have a middle voice. This is a set of inflections or constructions which is to some extent different from both the active and passive voices. The middle voice is said to be in the middle between the active and the passive voices because the subject often cannot be categorized as either agent or patient but may have elements of both. For example it may express what would be an intransitive verb in English. For example, in The casserole cooked in the oven, cooked is syntactically active but semantically passive. In Classical Greek, the middle voice often has a reflexive sense: the subject acts on or for itself, such as "The boy washes himself", or "The boy washes". It can be transitive or intransitive. It can occasionally be used in a causative sense, such as "The father causes his son to be set free", or "The father ransoms his son".

 

In English there is no longer a verb form for the middle voice, though some uses may be classified as middle voice, often resolved via a reflexive pronoun, as in "Fred shaved", which may be expanded to "Fred shaved himself" – contrast with active "Fred shaved John" or passive "John was shaved by Fred". This need not be reflexive, as in "my clothes soaked in detergent overnight". English used to have a distinct form, called the passival, which was displaced over the early 19th century by the passive progressive (progressive passive), and is no longer used in English.[2][3] In the passival, one would say "the house is building", which is today instead "the house is being built"; likewise "the meal is eating", which is now "the meal is being eaten". Note that the similar "Fred is shaving" and "the clothes are soaking" remain grammatical. It is suggested that the progressive passive was popularized by the Romantic poets, and is connected with Bristol usage.[2][4]

 

Many deponent verbs in Latin are survivals of the Proto-Indo-European middle voice.

 

2)Stylistic and Regional varieties of English

LOCAL VARIETIES OF ENGLISH ON THE BRITISH ISLES

 

On the British Isles there are some local varieties of English, which developed from Old English local dialects. There are six groups of them: Lowland /Scottish/, Northern, Western, Midland, Eastern, Southern. The local population uses these varieties in oral speech. Only the Scottish dialect has its own literature /R. Berns/.

 

One of the best-known dialects of British English is the dialect of London - Cockney. Some peculiarities of this dialect can be seen in the first act of «Pigmalion» by B. Shaw, such as : interchange of /v/ and /w/ e.g. wery vell; interchange of /f/ and /0/ , /v/ and / /, e. g/ fing /thing/ and fa:ve / father/; interchange of /h/ and /-/ , e.g. «’eart» for «heart» and «hart» for «art; substituting the diphthong /ai/ by /ei/ e.g. «day» is pronounced /dai/; substituting /au/ by /a:/ , e.g. «house» is pronounced /ha:s/,«now« /na:/ ; substituting /ou/ by /o:/ e.g. «don’t» is pronounced /do:nt/ or substituting it by / / in unstressed positions, e.g. «window» is pronounced /wind /.

 

Another feature of Cockney is rhyming slang: «hat» is «tit for tat», «wife» is «trouble and strife», «head» is «loaf of bread» etc. There are also such words as «tanner» /sixpence/, «peckish»/hungry/.

 

Peter Wain in the «Education Guardian» writes about accents spoken by University teachers: «It is a variety of Southern English RP which is different from Daniel Jones’s description. The English, public school leavers speak, is called «marked RP», it has some characteristic features: the vowels are more central than in English taught abroad, e.g. «bleck het»/for «black hat»/, some diphthongs are also different, e.g. «house» is pronounced /hais/. There is less aspiration in /p/, /b/, /t/ /d/.

 

The American English is practically uniform all over the country, because of the constant transfer of people from one part of the country to the other. However, some peculiarities in New York dialect can be pointed out, such as: there is no distinction between / / and /a: / in words: «ask», «dance» «sand» «bad», both phonemes are possible. The combination «ir» in the words: «bird», «girl» «ear» in the word «learn» is pronounced as /oi/ e.g. /boid/, /goil/, /loin/. In the words «duty’, «tune» /j/ is not pronounced /du:ti/, /tu:n/.

BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

 

British and American English are two main variants of English. Besides them there are: Canadian, Australian, Indian, New Zealand and other variants. They have some peculiarities in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, but they are easily used for communication between people living in these countries. As far as the American English is concerned, some scientists /H.N. Menken, for example/ tried to prove that there is a separate American language. In 1919 H.N. Menken published a book called «The American Language». But most scientists, American ones including, criticized his point of view because differences between the two variants are not systematic.

American English begins its history at the beginning of the 17-th century when first English-speaking settlers began to settle on the Atlantic coast of the American continent. The language which they brought from England was the language spoken in England during the reign of Elizabeth the First.

 

In the earliest period the task of Englishmen was to find names for places, animals, plants, customs that they came across on the American continent. They took some of names from languages spoken by the local population - Indians, such as: “chipmuck” /an American squirrel/, «igloo» /Eskimo dome-shaped hut/, «skunk» / a black and white striped animal with a bushy tail/, «squaw» / an Indian woman/, «wigwam» /an American Indian tent made of skins and bark/ etc.

 

Besides Englishmen, settlers from other countries came to America, and English-speaking settlers mixed with them and borrowed some words from their languages, e.g. from French the words «bureau»/a writing desk/, «cache» /a hiding place for treasure, provision/, «depot’/ a store-house/, «pumpkin»/a plant bearing large edible fruit/. From Spanish such words as: «adobe» / unburnt sun-dried brick/, «bananza» /prosperity/, «cockroach» /a beetle-like insect/, «lasso» / a noosed rope for catching cattle/ were borrowed.

 

Present-day New York stems from the Dutch colony New Amsterdam, and Dutch also influenced English. Such words as: «boss», «dope», «sleigh» were borrowed.

 

The second period of American English history begins in the 19-th century. Immigrants continued to come from Europe to America. When large groups of immigrants from the same country came to America some of their words were borrowed into English. Italians brought with them a style of cooking, which became widely spread and such words as: «pizza», «spaghetti» came into English. From the great number of German-speaking settlers the following words were borrowed into English: «delicatessen», «lager», «hamburger», «noodle», «schnitzel» and many others.

 

During the second period of American English history there appeared quite a number of words and word-groups which were formed in the language due to the new political system, liberation of America from the British colonialism, its independence. The following lexical units appeared due to these events: the United States of America, assembly, caucus, congress, Senate, congressman, President, senator, precinct, Vice-President and many others. Besides these political terms many other words were coined in American English in the 19-th century: to antagonize, to demoralize, influential, department store, telegram, telephone and many others.

 

There are some differences between British and American English in the usage of prepositions, such as prepositions with dates, days of the week BE requires «on» / I start my holiday on Friday/, in American English there is no preposition / I start my vacation Friday/. In BE we use «by day», «by night»/»at night», in AE the corresponding forms are «days» and «nights». In BE we say «at home», in AE - «home» is used. In BE we say «a quarter to five», in AE «a quarter of five». In BE we say «in the street», in AE - «on the street». In BE we say, «to chat to somebody», in AE «to chat with somebody». In BE we say «different to something», in AE - «different from something».

There are also units of vocabulary which are different while denoting the same notions, e.g. BE - «trousers», AE -«pants»; in BE «pants» are «òðóñû» which in AE is «shorts». While in BE «shorts» are outwear. This can lead to misunderstanding. There are some differences in names of places:

British English American English British English American English

passage hall cross-roads intersection

pillar box mail-box the cinema the movies

studio bed-sitter one-room apartment

flyover overpass zebra crossing Pxing

pavement sidewalk tube underground

 

 

Differences in the organization of education lead to different terms. BE «public school» is in fact a private school. It is a fee-paying school not controlled by the local education authorities. AE «public school» is a free local authority school. BE «elementary school» is AE «grade school» BE «secondary school» is AE «high school». In BE « a pupil leaves a secondary school», in AE «a student graduates from a high school» In BE you can graduate from a university or college of education, graduating entails getting a degree. A British university student takes three years known as the first, the second and the third years. An American student takes four years, known as freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years. While studying a British student takes a main and subsidiary subjects. An American student majors in a subject and also takes electives.

 

A British student specializes in one main subject, with one subsidiary to get his honors degree. An American student earns credits for successfully completing a number of courses in studies, and has to reach the total of 36 credits to receive a degree.

Differences of spelling.

 

The reform in the English spelling for American English was introduced by the famous American lexicographer Noah Webster who published his first dictionary in 1806.

 

Those of his proposals which were adopted in the English spelling are as follows:

a) the deletion of the letter «u» in words ending in «our», e.g. honor, favor;

b) the deletion of the second consonant in words with double consonants, e.g. traveler, wagon,

c) the replacement of «re» by «er» in words of French origin, e.g. theater, center,

d) the deletion of unpronounced endings in words of Romanic origin, e.g.

catalog, program,

e) the replacement of «ce» by «se» in words of Romanic origin, e.g. defense, offense,

d) deletion of unpronounced endings in native words, e.g. tho, thro.

Differences in pronunciation

 

In American English we have r-coloured fully articulated vowels, in the combinations: ar, er, ir, or, ur, our etc. In BE the sound / / corresponds to the AE /^/, e.g. «not». In BE before fricatives and combinations with fricatives «a» is pronounced as /a:/, in AE it is pronounced / / e.g. class, dance, answer, fast etc.

 

There are some differences in the position of the stress:

BE AE BE AE

add`ress adress la`boratory `laboratory

re`cess `recess re`search `research

in`quiry `inquiry ex`cess `excess

Some words in BE and AE have different pronunciation, e.g.

BE AE BE AE

/`fju:tail/ /`fju:t l/ /`dousail / /dos l/

/kla:k/ /kl rk/ /`fig / /figyer/

/ `le3 / / li:3 r/ /lef`ten nt/ /lu:tenant/

/ nai / /ni: r/ /shedju:l/ /skedyu:l/

 

But these differences in pronunciation do not prevent Englishmen and American from communicating with each other easily and cannot serve as a proof that British and American are different languages.

 

Words can be classified according to the period of their life in the language. The number of new words in a language is always larger than the number of words which come out of active usage. Accordingly we can have archaisms, that is words which have come out of active usage, and neologisms, that is words which have recently appeared in the language.

 

áèëåò¹20

1 The Category of Mood. The Indicative Mood. The Imperative Mood. The Subjunctive Mood.

In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical (and specifically, morphological) feature of verbs, used to signal modality.[1][2]:p.181; [3] That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying (for example, whether it is intended as a statement of fact, of desire, of command, etc.). Less commonly, the term is used more broadly to allow for the syntactic expression of modality — that is, the use of non-inflectional phrases.

 

Mood is distinct from grammatical tense or grammatical aspect, although the same word patterns are used to express more than one of these meanings at the same time in many languages, including English and most other modern Indo-European languages. (See tense–aspect–mood for a discussion of this.)

 

Some examples of moods are indicative, interrogatory, imperative, emphatic, subjunctive, progressive, injunctive, optative, potential. Infinitive is a category apart from all these finite forms, and so are gerunds and participles. Some Uralic Samoyedic languages have more than ten moods; Nenets has as many as sixteen. The original Indo-European inventory of moods consisted of indicative, subjunctive, optative, and imperative. Not every Indo-European language has each of these moods, but the most conservative ones such as Avestan, Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit have them all. English has the indicative, imperative, emphatic, progressive, and subjunctive moods; others, such as the conditional, do not appear as morphologically distinct forms.

 

Not all of the moods listed below are clearly conceptually distinct. Individual terminology varies from language to language, and the coverage of (e.g.) the "conditional" mood in one language may largely overlap with that of the "hypothetical" or "potential" mood in another. Even when two different moods exist in the same language, their respective usages may blur, or may be defined by syntactic rather than semantic criteria. For example, the subjunctive and optative moods in Ancient Greek alternate syntactically in many subordinate clauses, depending on the tense of the main verb. The usage of the indicative, subjunctive, and jussive moods in Classical Arabic is almost completely controlled by syntactic context. The only possible alternation in the same context is between indicative and jussive following the negative particle

 

 

Realis moods are a category of grammatical moods that indicate that something is actually the case or actually not the case. The most common realis mood is the indicative mood. Some languages have a distinct generic mood for expressing general truths. For other realis moods, see the main article.

Indicative [edit]

 

The indicative mood, or evidential mood, is used for factual statements and positive beliefs. All intentions that a particular language does not categorize as another mood are classified as indicative. In English, questions are considered interrogatory. It is the most commonly used mood and is found in all languages. Example: "Paul is eating an apple" or "John eats apples".

 

 

Imperative [edit]

Main article: Imperative mood

 

The imperative mood expresses direct commands, prohibitions, and requests. In many circumstances, using the imperative mood may sound blunt or even rude, so it is often used with care. Example: "Paul, do your homework now". An imperative is used to tell someone to do something without argument.

 

Many languages, including English, use the bare verb stem to form the imperative (such as "go", "run", "do"). Other languages, such as Seri and Latin, however, use special imperative forms.

 

In English, the second person is implied by the imperative except when first-person plural is specified, as in "Let's go" ("Let us go").

 

The prohibitive mood, the negative imperative may be grammatically or morphologically different from the imperative mood in some languages. It indicates that the action of the verb is not permitted, e.g. "Don't you go!"

 

In English, the imperative is sometimes used to form a conditional sentence: e.g. "go eastwards a mile, and you'll see it" means "if you go eastwards a mile, you will see it".

 

Subjunctive [edit]

Main article: Subjunctive mood

 

The subjunctive mood, sometimes called conjunctive mood, has several uses in dependent clauses. Examples include discussing imaginary or hypothetical events and situations, expressing opinions or emotions, or making polite requests (the exact scope is language-specific). A subjunctive mood exists in English, though it is used in English much less than in many other Indo-European languages. In English, this mood has, for some uses, become something of a linguistic fossil. An example of the subjunctive mood is "I suggest that Paul eat an apple". In this instance, Paul is not in fact eating an apple. The sentence merely presents the hypothetical (but unfulfilled) actions of Paul according to the speaker's suggestion. Contrast this with the indicative verb of the sentence "Paul eats an apple", in which the verb "to eat" is in the present tense and employs a mood that states an unambiguous fact. Another way of expressing the request is "I suggest that Paul should eat an apple", derived from "Paul should eat an apple."

 

Other uses of the subjunctive in English, as in "And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass..." (KJV Leviticus 5:7) are archaisms. Statements such as "I will ensure that he leave immediately" often sound archaic or overly formal, and have been almost completely supplanted by constructions with the indicative, like "I will ensure that he leaves immediately".

 

The subjunctive part of the conditional version of "John eats if he is hungry" is:

English: John would eat if he were hungry.

German: Johannes äße, wenn er Hunger hätte.

Spanish: Juan comería si tuviera hambre.

Italian: Giovanni mangerebbe se avesse fame.

 

The subjunctive mood figures prominently in the grammar of the Romance languages, which require this mood for certain types of dependent clauses. This point commonly causes difficulty for English speakers learning these languages.

 

In certain other languages, the dubitative or the conditional moods may be employed instead of the subjunctive in referring to doubtful or unlikely events (see the main article).

 

 

2 Productive and minor ways of word – formation in English

 

Types of word-formation means and their productivity.

 

Word-formation is the brunch of lexicology which studies the derivative structure of existing words and the patterns on which a language builds new words.

 

Word-formation is the system of derivative types of words and the process of creating new words from the material available in the language after certain structural and semantic formulae and patterns. For instance the noun driver is formed after the pattern: v + suffix er.

 

The structural patterns with the semantic relations that they signal give rise to regular new creations of derivatives. e.g.: sleeper, giver, smiler. There are different classes according to different principles: morphological; syntactic; lexico-semantic.

 

There exist 4 main ways of word building in modern English: derivation affixation; composition; conversion; shortening abbreviation.

 

There are also secondary ways of word-building: sound interchange; stress interchange; sound imitation; blending; back formation; reduplication.

 

The conformity with structural types of words the following 2 types of word-formation distinguished: word-derivation; word-compounding.

 

Words created by word derivation have 1 derivational base and 1 derivational affixation. e.g.: overestimate.

 

Some derived words have no derivative affixes because derivation is achieved through conversion. e.g.: fall, n.; fall, v.

 

Word created by word composition have at least 2 bases. e.g.: ice-cold.

 

Word-formation may be studied from 2 angles: synchronically; diachronically.

 

Diachronically it is the chronological order of formation of 1 word from some other word that is relevant. Synchronically a derived word is regarded as having an even more complex structure that its correlated words regardless of the fact if it was derived from a synchro base or a more complex base.

 

Back-formation: e.g.: begger, n.-beg, v.

 

Sound and stress interchange may be regarded as ways of forming words only diachronically, because in middle English not a single word can be coined by changing the root vowel of q word or by shifting the place of the stress.

 

Sound and stress interchange in fact has turned into means distinguishing between words of different parts of speech. e.g.: sing, v.-song, n.

 

Sound interchange: vowel and consonant interchange. By means of vowel interchange we distinguish different parts of speech. e.g.: food, n.-to feed, v. In some cases vowel interchange is combined with affixation. e.g.: strong — strength; to sit — to set.

 

The type of consonant interchange typical of modern English is the interchange of a voiceless fricative consonant in a noun and the corresponding voice consonant in the verb. e.g.: use — to use.

 

There are some particular cases of consonants interchange. e.g.: speak — speech.

 

Consonant interchange may be combined with vowel interchange. e.g.: breath — to breathe.

 

Many English verbs of Latin French origin are distinguished from the correspondent noun by the position of stress. e.g.: export — to export. Some of the ways of forming words in present day English can be resorted to for the creation of new words whenever the occasion demands. These are called productive ways of forming words. Other ways cannot now produce new words and these are called non-productive. There are no absolutely productive means. Derivational patterns and affixes possess different degrees of productivity. All derivational patterns experience both structural and semantic constrains. The fewer are the constrains the higher the productivity is. The degrees of productivity: highly productive; semi-productive; non-productive.

 

MINOR MEANS OF WORD-FORMATION – NON-PRODUCTIVE MEANS OF WORD FORMATION IN PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH: SOUND INTERCHANGE, REDUPLICATION, BACK-FORMATION, BLENDING, DISTINCTIVE STRESS (Q.V.), ETC.

CLIPPING

 

Consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts.

Mathematics – maths

Laboratory – lab

Captain – cap

Gymnastics – gym

 

3 types:

 

1) The first part is left (the commonest type)

advertisement – ad

 

2) The second part is left

telephone – phone

airplane – plane

 

3) A middle part is left

influenza – flu

refrigerator – fridge

 

Accepted by the speakers of the language clipping can acquire grammatical categories (used in plural forms)

BLENDING

 

Is blending part of two words to form one word (merging into one word)

Smoke + fog = smog

Breakfast + lunch = brunch

Smoke + haze = smaze (äûìêà)

 

- addictive type: they are transformable into a phrase consisting of two words combined by a conjunction “and”

smog → smoke & fog

 

- blending of restrictive type: transformable into an attributive phrase, where the first element serves as modifier of a second.

Positron – positive electron

Medicare – medical care

WORD MANUFACTURING

 

A word or word combination that appears or especially coined by some author. But it doesn’t name a new object or doesn’t express a new concept

Sentence – sentenceness

 

“I am English & my Englishness is in my vision” (Lawrence)

Word manufacturing by children:

Âëþá÷èâûé – âüá÷èâûé

Áàðåëüåô – áàáà ðåëüåô

 

SOUND INTERCHANGE

 

Sound interchange is the way of word building when some sounds are changed to form a new word. It is non-productive in Modern English; it was productive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European languages.

 

The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result of Ancient Ablaut which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during the period of the language development known to scientists., e.g. to strike - stroke, to sing - song etc. It can be also the result of Ancient Umlaut or vowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing the root vowel because of the front vowel in the syllable coming after the root (regressive assimilation), e.g. hot - to heat (hotian), blood - to bleed (blodian) etc.

 

In many cases we have vowel and consonant interchange. In nouns we have voiceless consonants and in verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants because in Old English these consonants in nouns were at the end of the word and in verbs in the intervocal position, e.g. bath - to bathe, life - to live, breath - to breathe etc.

 

STRESS INTERCHANGE

 

Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin: nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last syllable, e.g. `accent - to ac`cent. This phenomenon is explained in the following way: French verbs and nouns had different structure when they were borrowed into English; verbs had one syllable more than the corresponding nouns. When these borrowings were assimilated in English the stress in them was shifted to the previous syllable (the second from the end) . Later on the last unstressed syllable in verbs borrowed from French was dropped (the same as in native verbs) and after that the stress in verbs was on the last syllable while in nouns it was on the first syllable. As a result of it we have such pairs in English as: to af`fix -`affix, to con`flict- `conflict, to ex`port -`export, to ex`tract - `extract etc. As a result of stress interchange we have also vowel interchange in such words because vowels are pronounced differently in stressed and unstressed positions.

 

SOUND IMITATION

 

It is the way of word building when imitating different sounds forms a word. There are some semantic groups of words formed by means of sound imitation

a) Sounds produced by human beings, such as: to whisper, to giggle, to mumble, to sneeze, to whistle etc.

b) Sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, such as: to hiss, to buzz, to bark, to moo, to twitter etc.

c) Sounds produced by nature and objects, such as: to splash, to rustle, to clatter, to bubble, to ding-dong, to tinkle etc.

 

The corresponding nouns are formed by means of conversion, e.g. clang (of a be

 

 

áèëåò¹ 21

1 Productive and minor ways of word – formation in English

 

Types of word-formation means and their productivity.

 

Word-formation is the brunch of lexicology which studies the derivative structure of existing words and the patterns on which a language builds new words.

 

Word-formation is the system of derivative types of words and the process of creating new words from the material available in the language after certain structural and semantic formulae and patterns. For instance the noun driver is formed after the pattern: v + suffix er.

 

The structural patterns with the semantic relations that they signal give rise to regular new creations of derivatives. e.g.: sleeper, giver, smiler. There are different classes according to different principles: morphological; syntactic; lexico-semantic.

 

There exist 4 main ways of word building in modern English: derivation affixation; composition; conversion; shortening abbreviation.

 

There are also secondary ways of word-building: sound interchange; stress interchange; sound imitation; blending; back formation; reduplication.

 

The conformity with structural types of words the following 2 types of word-formation distinguished: word-derivation; word-compounding.

 

Words created by word derivation have 1 derivational base and 1 derivational affixation. e.g.: overestimate.

 

Some derived words have no derivative affixes because derivation is achieved through conversion. e.g.: fall, n.; fall, v.

 

Word created by word composition have at least 2 bases. e.g.: ice-cold.

 

Word-formation may be studied from 2 angles: synchronically; diachronically.

 

Diachronically it is the chronological order of formation of 1 word from some other word that is relevant. Synchronically a derived word is regarded as having an even more complex structure that its correlated words regardless of the fact if it was derived from a synchro base or a more complex base.

 

Back-formation: e.g.: begger, n.-beg, v.

 

Sound and stress interchange may be regarded as ways of forming words only diachronically, because in middle English not a single word can be coined by changing the root vowel of q word or by shifting the place of the stress.

 

Sound and stress interchange in fact has turned into means distinguishing between words of different parts of speech. e.g.: sing, v.-song, n.

 

Sound interchange: vowel and consonant interchange. By means of vowel interchange we distinguish different parts of speech. e.g.: food, n.-to feed, v. In some cases vowel interchange is combined with affixation. e.g.: strong — strength; to sit — to set.

 

The type of consonant interchange typical of modern English is the interchange of a voiceless fricative consonant in a noun and the corresponding voice consonant in the verb. e.g.: use — to use.

 

There are some particular cases of consonants interchange. e.g.: speak — speech.

 

Consonant interchange may be combined with vowel interchange. e.g.: breath — to breathe.

 

Many English verbs of Latin French origin are distinguished from the correspondent noun by the position of stress. e.g.: export — to export. Some of the ways of forming words in present day English can be resorted to for the creation of new words whenever the occasion demands. These are called productive ways of forming words. Other ways cannot now produce new words and these are called non-productive. There are no absolutely productive means. Derivational patterns and affixes possess different degrees of productivity. All derivational patterns experience both structural and semantic constrains. The fewer are the constrains the higher the productivity is. The degrees of productivity: highly productive; semi-productive; non-productive.

 

MINOR MEANS OF WORD-FORMATION – NON-PRODUCTIVE MEANS OF WORD FORMATION IN PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH: SOUND INTERCHANGE, REDUPLICATION, BACK-FORMATION, BLENDING, DISTINCTIVE STRESS (Q.V.), ETC.

CLIPPING

 

Consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts.

Mathematics – maths

Laboratory – lab

Captain – cap

Gymnastics – gym

 

3 types:

 

1) The first part is left (the commonest type)

advertisement – ad

 

2) The second part is left

telephone – phone

airplane – plane

 

3) A middle part is left

influenza – flu

refrigerator – fridge

 

Accepted by the speakers of the language clipping can acquire grammatical categories (used in plural forms)

BLENDING

 

Is blending part of two words to form one word (merging into one word)

Smoke + fog = smog

Breakfast + lunch = brunch

Smoke + haze = smaze (äûìêà)

 

- addictive type: they are transformable into a phrase consisting of two words combined by a conjunction “and”

smog → smoke & fog

 

- blending of restrictive type: transformable into an attributive phrase, where the first element serves as modifier of a second.

Positron – positive electron

Medicare – medical care

WORD MANUFACTURING

 

A word or word combination that appears or especially coined by some author. But it doesn’t name a new object or doesn’t express a new concept

Sentence – sentenceness

 

“I am English & my Englishness is in my vision” (Lawrence)

Word manufacturing by children:

Âëþá÷èâûé – âüá÷èâûé

Áàðåëüåô – áàáà ðåëüåô

 

SOUND INTERCHANGE

 

Sound interchange is the way of word building when some sounds are changed to form a new word. It is non-productive in Modern English; it was productive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European languages.

 

The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result of Ancient Ablaut which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during the period of the language development known to scientists., e.g. to strike - stroke, to sing - song etc. It can be also the result of Ancient Umlaut or vowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing the root vowel because of the front vowel in the syllable coming after the root (regressive assimilation), e.g. hot - to heat (hotian), blood - to bleed (blodian) etc.

 

In many cases we have vowel and consonant interchange. In nouns we have voiceless consonants and in verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants because in Old English these consonants in nouns were at the end of the word and in verbs in the intervocal position, e.g. bath - to bathe, life - to live, breath - to breathe etc.

 

STRESS INTERCHANGE

 

Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin: nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last syllable, e.g. `accent - to ac`cent. This phenomenon is explained in the following way: French verbs and nouns had different structure when they were borrowed into English; verbs had one syllable more than the corresponding nouns. When these borrowings were assimilated in English the stress in them was shifted to the previous syllable (the second from the end) . Later on the last unstressed syllable in verbs borrowed from French was dropped (the same as in native verbs) and after that the stress in verbs was on the last syllable while in nouns it was on the first syllable. As a result of it we have such pairs in English as: to af`fix -`affix, to con`flict- `conflict, to ex`port -`export, to ex`tract - `extract etc. As a result of stress interchange we have also vowel interchange in such words because vowels are pronounced differently in stressed and unstressed positions.

 

SOUND IMITATION

 

It is the way of word building when imitating different sounds forms a word. There are some semantic groups of words formed by means of sound imitation

a) Sounds produced by human beings, such as: to whisper, to giggle, to mumble, to sneeze, to whistle etc.

b) Sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, such as: to hiss, to buzz, to bark, to moo, to twitter etc.

c) Sounds produced by nature and objects, such as: to splash, to rustle, to clatter, to bubble, to ding-dong, to tinkle etc.

 

The corresponding nouns are formed by means of conversion, e.g. clang (of a be

 

 

2The problem of the word. Types of morphemes. Principles of morphemic and derivational analysis.

The term word problem has several meanings:

· word problem (mathematics education) is a type of textbook problem designed to help students apply abstract mathematical concepts to "real-world" situations

· word problem (mathematics) is a decision problem for algebraic identities in mathematics and computer science

· word problem for groups is the problem of recognizing the identity element in a finitely presented group

· word problem (computability) is a decision problem concerning formal languages

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word, by definition, is freestanding. Every word comprises one or more morphemes.

Principles of morphemic analysis.

In most cases the morphemic structure of words is transparent enough and individual morphemes clearly stand out within the word. The segmentation of words is generally carried out according to the method of Immediate and Ultimate Constituents.

This method is based on the binary principle, i.e. each stage of the procedure involves two components the word immediately breaks into. At each stage these two components are referred to as the Immediate Constituents. Each Immediate Constituent at the next stage of analysis is in turn broken into smaller meaningful elements. The analysis is completed when we arrive at constituents incapable of further division, i.e. morphemes. These are referred to Ultimate Constituents. A synchronic morphological analysis is most effectively accomplished by the procedure known as the analysis into Immediate Constituents. ICs are the two meaningful parts forming a large linguistic unity. The method is based on the fact that a word characterized by morphological divisibility is involved in certain structural correlations. To sum up: as we break the word we obtain at any level only ICs one of which is the stem of the given word. All the time the analysis is based on the patterns characteristic of the English vocabulary. As a pattern showing the interdependence of all the constituents segregated at various stages, we obtain the following formula: un+ { [ ( gent- + -le ) + -man ] + -ly} Breaking a word into its Immediate Constituents we observe in each cut the structural order of the constituents.A diagram presenting the four cuts described looks as follows: 1. un- / gentlemanly2. un- / gentleman / - ly3. un- / gentle / - man / - ly4. un- / gentl / - e / - man / - ly A similar analysis on the word-formation level showing not only the morphemic constituents of the word but also the structural pattern on which it is built.The analysis of word-structure at the morphemic level must proceed to the stage of Ultimate Constituents. For example, the noun friendliness is first segmented into the ICs: [frendlı-] recurring in the adjectives friendly-looking and friendly and [-nıs] found in a countless number of nouns, such as unhappiness, blackness, sameness, etc. the IC [-nıs] is at the same time an UC of the word, as it cannot be broken into any smaller elements possessing both sound-form and meaning. Any further division of –ness would give individual speech-sounds which denote nothing by themselves. The IC [frendlı-] is next broken into the ICs [-lı] and [frend-] which are both UCs of the word. Morphemic analysis under the method of Ultimate Constituents may be carried out on the basis of two principles: the so-called root-principle and affix principle.

According to the affix principle the splitting of the word into its constituent morphemes is based on the identification of the affix within a set of words, e.g. the identification of the suffix –er leads to the segmentation of words singer, teacher, swimmer into the derivational morpheme – er and the roots teach- , sing-, drive-.According to the root-principle, the segmentation of the word is based on the identification of the root-morpheme in a word-cluster, for example the identification of the root-morpheme agree- in the words agreeable, agreement, disagree.

As a rule, the application of these principles is sufficient for the morphemic segmentation of words.However, the morphemic structure of words in a number of cases defies such analysis, as it is not always so transparent and simple as in the cases mentioned above. Sometimes not only the segmentation of words into morphemes, but the recognition of certain sound-clusters as morphemes become doubtful which naturally affects the classification of words. In words like retain, detain, contain or receive, deceive, conceive, perceive the sound-clusters [rı-], [dı-] seem to be singled quite easily, on the other hand, they undoubtedly have nothing in common with the phonetically identical prefixes re-, de- as found in words re-write, re-organize, de-organize, de-code. Moreover, neither the sound-cluster [rı-] or [dı-], nor the [-teın] or [-sı:v] possess any lexical or functional meaning of their own. Yet, these sound-clusters are felt as having a certain meaning because [rı-] distinguishes retain from detain and [-teın] distinguishes retain from receive.It follows that all these sound-clusters have a differential and a certain distributional meaning as their order arrangement point to the affixal status of re-, de-, con-, per-and makes one understand -tain and –ceive as roots.

The differential and distributional meanings seem to give sufficient ground to recognize these sound-clusters as morphemes, but as they lack lexical meaning of their own, they are set apart from all other types of morphemes and are known in linguistic literature as pseudo- morphemes. Pseudo- morphemes of the same kind are also encountered in words like rusty-fusty.

IV. Derivational level of analysis. Stems. Types of Stems. Derivational types of word.

The morphemic analysis of words only defines the constituent morphemes, determining their types and their meaning but does not reveal the hierarchy of the morphemes comprising the word. Words are no mere sum totals of morpheme, the latter reveal a definite, sometimes very complex interrelation. Morphemes are arranged according to certain rules, the arrangement differing in various types of words and particular groups within the same types. The pattern of morpheme arrangement underlies the classification of words into different types and enables one to understand how new words appear in the language. These relations within the word and the interrelations between different types and classes of words are known as derivative or word- formation relations.

The analysis of derivative relations aims at establishing a correlation between different types and the structural patterns words are built on. The basic unit at the derivational level is the stem.The stem is defined as that part of the word which remains unchanged throughout its paradigm, thus the stem which appears in the paradigm (to) ask ( ), asks, asked, asking is ask-;thestem of the word singer ( ), singer’s, singers, singers’ is singer-. It is the stem of the word that takes the inflections which shape the word grammatically as one or another part of speech. The structure of stems should be described in terms of IC’s analysis, which at this level aims at establishing the patterns of typical derivative relations within the stem and the derivative correlation between stems of different types. There are three types of stems: simple, derived and compound.

 

áèëåò¹22

 

1 Stylistic and Regional varieties of English

LOCAL VARIETIES OF ENGLISH ON THE BRITISH ISLES

 

On the British Isles there are some local varieties of English, which developed from Old English local dialects. There are six groups of them: Lowland /Scottish/, Northern, Western, Midland, Eastern, Southern. The local population uses these varieties in oral speech. Only the Scottish dialect has its own literature /R. Berns/.

 

One of the best-known dialects of British English is the dialect of London - Cockney. Some peculiarities of this dialect can be seen in the first act of «Pigmalion» by B. Shaw, such as : interchange of /v/ and /w/ e.g. wery vell; interchange of /f/ and /0/ , /v/ and / /, e. g/ fing /thing/ and fa:ve / father/; interchange of /h/ and /-/ , e.g. «’eart» for «heart» and «hart» for «art; substituting the diphthong /ai/ by /ei/ e.g. «day» is pronounced /dai/; substituting /au/ by /a:/ , e.g. «house» is pronounced /ha:s/,«now« /na:/ ; substituting /ou/ by /o:/ e.g. «don’t» is pronounced /do:nt/ or substituting it by / / in unstressed positions, e.g. «window» is pronounced /wind /.

 

Another feature of Cockney is rhyming slang: «hat» is «tit for tat», «wife» is «trouble and strife», «head» is «loaf of bread» etc. There are also such words as «tanner» /sixpence/, «peckish»/hungry/.

 

Peter Wain in the «Education Guardian» writes about accents spoken by University teachers: «It is a variety of Southern English RP which is different from Daniel Jones’s description. The English, public school leavers speak, is called «marked RP», it has some characteristic features: the vowels are more central than in English taught abroad, e.g. «bleck het»/for «black hat»/, some diphthongs are also different, e.g. «house» is pronounced /hais/. There is less aspiration in /p/, /b/, /t/ /d/.

 

The American English is practically uniform all over the country, because of the constant transfer of people from one part of the country to the other. However, some peculiarities in New York dialect can be pointed out, such as: there is no distinction between / / and /a: / in words: «ask», «dance» «sand» «bad», both phonemes are possible. The combination «ir» in the words: «bird», «girl» «ear» in the word «learn» is pronounced as /oi/ e.g. /boid/, /goil/, /loin/. In the words «duty’, «tune» /j/ is not pronounced /du:ti/, /tu:n/.

BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

 

British and American English are two main variants of English. Besides them there are: Canadian, Australian, Indian, New Zealand and other variants. They have some peculiarities in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, but they are easily used for communication between people living in these countries. As far as the American English is concerned, some scientists /H.N. Menken, for example/ tried to prove that there is a separate American language. In 1919 H.N. Menken published a book called «The American Language». But most scientists, American ones including, criticized his point of view because differences between the two variants are not systematic.

American English begins its history at the beginning of the 17-th century when first English-speaking settlers began to settle on the Atlantic coast of the American continent. The language which they brought from England was the language spoken in England during the reign of Elizabeth the First.

 

In the earliest period the task of Englishmen was to find names for places, animals, plants, customs that they came across on the American continent. They took some of names from languages spoken by the local population - Indians, such as: “chipmuck” /an American squirrel/, «igloo» /Eskimo dome-shaped hut/, «skunk» / a black and white striped animal with a bushy tail/, «squaw» / an Indian woman/, «wigwam» /an American Indian tent made of skins and bark/ etc.

 

Besides Englishmen, settlers from other countries came to America, and English-speaking settlers mixed with them and borrowed some words from their languages, e.g. from French the words «bureau»/a writing desk/, «cache» /a hiding place for treasure, provision/, «depot’/ a store-house/, «pumpkin»/a plant bearing large edible fruit/. From Spanish such words as: «adobe» / unburnt sun-dried brick/, «bananza» /prosperity/, «cockroach» /a beetle-like insect/, «lasso» / a noosed rope for catching cattle/ were borrowed.

 

Present-day New York stems from the Dutch colony New Amsterdam, and Dutch also influenced English. Such words as: «boss», «dope», «sleigh» were borrowed.

 

The second period of American English history begins in the 19-th century. Immigrants continued to come from Europe to America. When large groups of immigrants from the same country came to America some of their words were borrowed into English. Italians brought with them a style of cooking, which became widely spread and such words as: «pizza», «spaghetti» came into English. From the great number of German-speaking settlers the following words were borrowed into English: «delicatessen», «lager», «hamburger», «noodle», «schnitzel» and many others.

 

During the second period of American English history there appeared quite a number of words and word-groups which were formed in the language due to the new political system, liberation of America from the British colonialism, its independence. The following lexical units appeared due to these events: the United States of America, assembly, caucus, congress, Senate, congressman, President, senator, precinct, Vice-President and many others. Besides these political terms many other words were coined in American English in the 19-th century: to antagonize, to demoralize, influential, department store, telegram, telephone and many others.

 

There are some differences between British and American English in the usage of prepositions, such as prepositions with dates, days of the week BE requires «on» / I start my holiday on Friday/, in American English there is no preposition / I start my vacation Friday/. In BE we use «by day», «by night»/»at night», in AE the corresponding forms are «days» and «nights». In BE we say «at home», in AE - «home» is used. In BE we say «a quarter to five», in AE «a quarter of five». In BE we say «in the street», in AE - «on the street». In BE we say, «to chat to somebody», in AE «to chat with somebody». In BE we say «different to something», in AE - «different from something».

There are also units of vocabulary which are different while denoting the same notions, e.g. BE - «trousers», AE -«pants»; in BE «pants» are «òðóñû» which in AE is «shorts». While in BE «shorts» are outwear. This can lead to misunderstanding. There are some differences in names of places:

British English American English British English American English

passage hall cross-roads intersection

pillar box mail-box the cinema the movies

studio bed-sitter one-room apartment

flyover overpass zebra crossing Pxing

pavement sidewalk tube underground

 

 

etc.

 

Differences in the organization of education lead to different terms. BE «public school» is in fact a private school. It is a fee-paying school not controlled


Date: 2015-01-29; view: 938


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