- a narration (a 3rd person narration/a 1st person narration)
- a description
- a narration with the elements of description/a narration interlaced (interwoven, intermingled) with a dialogue/a description/the inner monologue of the leading (main) character, etc.
· The text is about = the extract under consideration tells us about = the present story tells the tragedy of…
· The basic theme of the text is traveling/education, etc.
· The main idea (gist, the main line of thought) of the text is …/the main idea can be formulated /stated as follows…
· introduce the main characters, say, where the action takes place, retell the text (if it is a dialogue, retell it in indirect speech).
II. Lexico-Grammatical Analysis of the Text
- read the passage, containing the words under analysis, translate the passage;
- read the sentence, containing the word under analysis, point out this word.
1. Grammatical Characteristics of Words
(define, what part of speech the word belongs to)
· If it is a verb, say whether it is:
- transitive/intransitive
- regular/irregular (enumerate its forms)
- in what tense form it is used in the sentence
· If it is a noun :
- countable/uncountable
- concrete/abstract
- comment on the use of articles and prepositions, if necessary.
· If it is an adjective :
- the structure (monosyllabic/disyllabic/ polysyllabic)
- the way of forming the degrees of comparison (analytically, synthetically, irregularly),
- enumerate the degrees of comparison of the word under analysis
- say in what degree of comparison it is used in the sentence.
2. Lexical Characteristics of Words
a) Lexico-semantic characteristics: the definitions of the meanings of a word (primary, secondary meanings)
b) Combinability of a word (semantic, lexical, syntactical)
Note: define a word, translate it into Russian if necessary, and give examples of the sentences/word combinations, including the word under analysis, used in this meaning. Give synonyms, antonyms, homonyms of the word under study.
3. Verb-adverb combinations (in case you analyze a verb)
e.g. the verb ‘to look’ enters a number of verb-adverb combinations, such as: look about = to examine one’s surroundings; look ahead = 1) look in various directions; 2) fig. think of the future, etc.
4. Traditional word-combinations and set-expressions (idiomatic expressions, phraseological units, sayings and proverbs with the word analyzed; pay special attention to the Russian equivalents)
5. Derivatives
Words and Expressions, Used to Analyze a Word
1. I’d like to draw your attention to the word ‘waiter’ / In this sentence the word ‘waiter’ is of interest for me.
2. The word under analysis is a verb, etc.
3. This is a polysemantic/monosemantic word
4. The primary meaning of the word is…
5. One of its secondary meanings is…
6. The word corresponds to the Russian/is translated into Russian as…/the Russian for ‘waiter’ is …
7. Pay attention to the use of the definite/indefinite article before the noun in the expression/set expression
8. Mind the use of the preposition … in the word combination/expression/set expression
9. The derivatives of the word are …
10. The corresponding verb/noun is…
11. The noun ‘waiter’ is derived from the verb ‘to wait’ by means of the suffix ‘er’.
12. In the sentence the word is used in its primary meaning/in the meaning of… So we can paraphrase the sentence as:…
13. In the sentence the verb is used transitively/intransitively.
‘breakfast’, n.
‘They are having breakfast.’ In this sentence the word ‘breakfast’ is of interest for me.
It is a countable concrete noun, it is monosemantic. It’s only meaning is ‘the first or morning meal’. So we can paraphrase the sentence ‘They are having breakfast’ as: ‘They are having a morning meal’.
I’d like to draw your attention to the expression ‘to have breakfast’ which means ‘to have a morning meal’ and corresponds to the Russian ‘çàâòðàêàòü’. Mind the use of the zero article in this expression and in the expressions ‘to have lunch/dinner/supper’.
I’d also like to say a few words about the use of prepositions with the words ‘breakfast’, ‘dinner’, ‘supper’: at breakfast/dinner/supper, they correspond to the Russian ‘çà çàâòðàêîì’, etc.; for breakfast/dinner/supper, they correspond to the Russian ‘íà çàâòðàê’; to breakfast/dinner/supper, they correspond to the Russian ‘ê çàâòðàêó,íà çàâòðàê’. We should mind the absence of articles in these prepositional phrases.
e.g. Please, come to dinner in time.
How to analyse the word combination or phrase?
I’d like to draw your attention to the expression ‘to be going to’.
1. It consists of the verb ‘to go’ in the Continuous Tense form, followed by the to-infinitive;
2. It is used to express a future intention, plan, or a future action which is about to happen. It is synonymous to the expressions ‘to be about to do smth’. ‘to be on the point of smth/doing smth’, ‘to intend’, ‘to have an intention to do smth’.