Argued questions in English morphology.

The question of parts of speech is extremely difficult/ argued.

Noun.Some scholars expressed the thought that English nouns have analytical structures and they possess analytical cases (genitive case can be expressed by means of the of-case (dative in­to, instrumental - by, with).

And there are following questions: Can preposition be used as analytical forms for noun cases? Can the meanings of the meanings of the prepositions be universal (monosemantic). The answer is no. Because monosemantic meaning can not be outlined only within the context. (Of worker's family - only through context we can see the genitive case. So in English we can speak only about the possessive case. The meaning that all prepositions have additional meanings which are understood in the context.

From the beginning of 70s the linguists acknowledged the presence of zero morpheme. It means that existence of zero morpheme can be revealed in opposition structuralists called it marked - unmarked member. At present this theory is not widely used.

The question of case is also argued.

1^st approach :

There are 2 cases of English nouns:

Ø Common

Ø Possessive

Side by side with this view there are a number of other views, which can be roughly classified into 2 main groups:

1. the number of cases in English is more than two.

2. there are no cases at all in English nouns.

Case is the category of noun expressing relations between the thing denoted by the noun and other things, or properties, or actions, and manifested by some formal sign in the noun itself. This sign is almost always an inflexion (OE mann - menn - dative), and it may also be a "zero" sign, i.e. the absence of any sign may be significant as distinguishing one particular case from another.

The second member of case opposition for English noun has no morphological status and loosing morphological character it has got syntactical status and has approach in syntactical level. E.g. today's paper.

Such formations must be studied on the level of syntax. New term for possessive case (Muhin) - category of atributeness. If the possessive case enters the syntactical level, there is no common case.

Adjective, adverb.There are some argued questions connected with the degrees of comparison of adjectives.

1. The number of degrees:

Positive Comparative

Comparative or Superlative

Superlative

2. Some scholars consider that adjectives and adverbs have analytical forms I degrees of comparison (more/most+adj or adv). According to Ivanova such combinations are not analytical structures. The main principle of the analytical element is its full grammaticalization (no lexical meaning is preserving). But the lexical meaning of the words "more" and "most" is preserved moreover one of these elements can be doubled to achieve stronger expressiveness (more difficult). These words have antonyms which is typical of words having lexical meaning. So they are not analytical forms.

3. The definite article with Superlative (whether the article belongs to the noun defined by the adjective in the superlative degree or whether it makes part and parcel of the superlative degree).

Verb.The analytical character of voice and mood is dubious question.

Voice category.There are 2 voices: active and passive. Passive voice certainly has the analytical structure but in English there are verbal formations reflexive combinations, (to find oneself, to amuse oneself)

The question is: are they analytical forms or just simple phrases? This question remains disputable.

The majority of scholars suppose that they must be treated as a special form of a verb which must be studied as referring to the word building level. Ilish and Smirnitsky do not include reflective voice in voice system of English. They do not think that verb + reflexive pronoun form analytical paradigm.

Eg. She washed her child.

She washed herself.

No opposition to active voice. There are not two different voices but two different objects. Reflexive meaning can be established a defined only in a wider context.

The category of mood.One of the first scholars - Henry Sweet - put a question that in English there are practically no forms to express the category of mood. He tied to answer : there are two types of mood expressed by verbal forms:

1. Fact mood,(corresponds to indicative mood in general)

Thought mood.

> Subjunctive mood.

> Conditional mood.

> Permissive mood.

> Compulsive mood.

The majority of linguists both Russian and foreign think that analytical forms of mood do exist in English. Such as: should+inf, wouls+inf, may/might+inf.

But now all scholars agree with such a point of view. Some admitting the presence of the subjunctive mood divide it into smaller semantic categories single out conditionals as a separate mood or opdative mood.

Many scholars think that the combination of modal verb (word+inf) does not belong to morphology but to the word building or syntax.

Article.

I. There are two theories:

1. Article + noun is analytical form of a noun;

2. Article is a special functional part of speech and article + noun is a special combination
(phrase).

In the 1^st theory article will perform auxiliary function of analytical construction and it would be a morphological indication of a noun which does not possess any lexical meaning. This theory is not convincing because article + noun is not such an insupportable whole as other analytical constructions. Article is simply a determinator of a noun. That's why it is possible to substitute articles by pronouns while in analytical construction no substitutions are possible.

II.How many articles in English?

1^st approach:

> Definite

> Indefinite

But there is an "omission of article" (when there is no article). This theory is obviously inadequate since there is not the slightest reason to believe that the article in such cases was ever "omitted".

2^nd approach:

> Definite

> Indefinite + "absence of the article".

3^rd approach:

> Definite

> Indefinite

> Zero

Only if we treat article not as the separate word but as a separate morpheme.

Вопрос № 6 Phrase

There is no unity among linguists concerning the definition of the term "phrase" According to Russian linguists the term "word combination" can only be applied to such groups of words which contain at least two notional words forming a grammatical unit, (fine weather, speak English fluently). Western scholars have a different view on the problem. They consider any combination of two or more words which constitutes a unit to be a phrase, (in the morning). Henry Sweet

A phrase is a combination of words, which don't form a full sentence. H. Whitehall

A phrase is a cluster of two or more words which is a grammatical unit, but is not an analytical form of some word. The constituent element of the phrase may belong to any part of speech. The difference between a phrase and a sentence is fundamental one. A phrase is means of naming some phenomena or processes, just as word is. Each component of a phrase can undergo grammatical changes in accordance with grammatical categories represented in it, without destroying the identity of the phrase, (writes a letter, wrote a letter, is writing letters -grammatical modifications of one phrase). In a sentence every unit has its definite form. Another important issue is that a phrase has no intonation, which is one of the most important features of a sentence. A classical word group is a non-predicative unit, because a word group doesn't carry predication. Only sentences have this function.CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASESProfessor Blokh

He distinguishes two types of phrases:

1. Notional phrases

a. equipotent connection (words related to one another on an equal rank -prose and poetry, quick but not careless)

b. dominational connection (one of the constituents of the phrase is principal which is called "kernel element" - a careful observer)

4. Formative phrases (at the table, with difficulty)

5. Functional phrases (from out of, so that) Barkhudarov

He classifies all phrases according to the way the headword is expressed. He distinguishes:

3. Coordinate phrases (you and me)

4. Subordinate - always has a head and an adjacent word, classified from the point of view
of how the head word is expressed:

a. nounal (mild weather)

b. adjectival (dark red)

c. verbal (to hear a noise)

d. adverbial (very well)

3. Predicative - a special kind of word group with predicative relations between the nominal
and the verbal part. Secondary predication is meant here (no such phrases in Russian):

a. complex object (I want you to go)

b. complex subject (He is known to be)

c. for-phrase (It is difficult for me to know)

d. gerundial complex

e. absolute nominative participial construction

Leonard Bloomfield

Distinguishes two main classes of phrases

1. Endocentric (headed)

a. subordination (peace movement, poor John)

b. coordination (men and women, Mary and Peter - two heads are inside the phrase)

2. Exocentric (non-headed)

a. syntactic predicative relations (John ran away)

b. morphological prepositional phrase (beside John)

Modern approach

1. Headed phrases (head word and adjunct)

a. according to the type of distribution

i. progressive (right-hand distribution of the adjunct - the list of names)

ii. regressive (left-hand distribution of the adjunct - a country doctor)

b. according to the way the head-word is expressed

i. substantival (a candidate for a prize)

ii. adjectival (pretty bad)

iii. verbal (to write a letter)

iv. adverbial (very suddenly)

2. Non-headed phrases

a. according to the degree of dependency

i. independent (Mary and John, he laughed)

ii. dependent (his own (dog))

b. according to the class

i. one-class (you and me)

ii. different class (she nodded)

SYNTACTIC RELATIONS OF WORDS IN A WORD GROUP Here one should distinguish the following types:Agreement (concord)

a method of expressing a syntactical relationship which consists in making a subordinate word take a form similar to that of the word to which it subordinates. In the modern English language this type refers only to the category of number. (These letters vs. This letter). But the word doesn't always have to follow the noun in its category of number (The UN is an organization).Government

The use of subordinate word form required by its head word. In English this type is not very significant. The only exception - objective case of personal pronouns and the pronoun who when they are subordinate to a verb or follow a preposition, (invite them)Enclosure (suggested by Elmslev)

Some element of a phrase enclosed between two parts of another element (the then government)Formunation

When a strict order is applied (these important decisions, but important these decisions)InterdependenceSubject-predicate relations (he goes)

Вопрос №7

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1691