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Structural and Transformational Grammars

Structural grammarians have abandoned many of the commonly held views of grammar. Structural grammatical studies deal primarily with the "grammar of structure", and offer an approach to the problems of "sentence analysis" that differs in point of view and in emphasis from the usual treatment of syntax.

According to Ch. Fries, the new approach — the application of two of the methods of structural linguistics, distributional analysis and substitution makes it possible to dispense with the usual eightparts of speech. He classifies words into four "form-classes", designated by numbers, and fifteen groups of "function words", designated by letters. The four major parts of speech (Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb) set up by the process of substitution in Ch. Fries recorded material are thus given no names except numbers: class 1, class 2, class 3, class 4. Then come fifteen groups of so-called function-words which have certain characteristics in common.

 

Parts of speech. Various approaches to the problem.

Some scholars consider the term “part of speech”not a very happy one. Part of speech is a type of word, different from other types in some grammatical point or points. All the three criteria (form, meaning, function), are too vague to define them.

Henry Sweet

Henry Sweet in his book A NEW ENGLISH GRAMMAR wrote that, as regards their function in the sentence, words fall under certain classes, called parts of speech, all the members of each of these classes having certain formal characteristics in common, which distinguish them from the members of other classes. Each of these classes has a name of its own: noun, adjective, verb, etc. If we compare nouns such as snow, tree, man with adjectives, such as green, big, wide and verbs, such as melt, grow, speak, we shall find, that all nouns agree in having plural inflexions, generally formed by adding -s, that adjectives in English have no plural inflexions, but have degrees of comparison, which nouns and verbs have not, etc. So they are also united by means of form.

If we examine the meanings of the words belonging to the different parts of speech, we shall find, that such words as tree, snow, man, are all substance words, while adjectives and verbs are both attributes, the adjectives expressing permanent attributes, and the verbs changing attributes and phenomena.

We can easily see, that there’s a natural connection between the functions and meanings of these parts of speech. Hentry Sweet also considered that parts of speech are divided into two main groups: declinable (capable of inflexion) and indeclinable (incapable of inflexion).

Declinable, according to him, are nouns, adjectives and verbs. He considers pronouns as a special class of nouns and adjectives, and therefore they are also distinguished as noun-pronouns (they, she, I) and adjective-pronouns (my, her, that). Numerals are another special class of nouns and adjectives, also divided into noun-numerals (three of us) and adjective-numerals (three people). Verbals are a class of words, intermediate between verbs on the one hand and nouns and adjectives on the other.



Indeclinable words comprise adverbs, prepositions, particles and interjections. The main function of adverbs, according to Sweet, is to serve as an adjunct word to verbs. Prepositions, such as of, are joined to nouns to make them into adjunct words (e.g. man of honor). Conjunctions, such as if, are usually used to show the connection between sentences. Interjections, such as ah, oh, alas, are sentence words, expressing various emotions.

 

Otto Jesperson [je:]

Otto Jesperson expressed his point of view on the problem of parts of speech, writing that it is customary to begin teaching grammar by dividing words into certain classes and by giving definitions to these classes. Some scholars, he writes, feeling the failure of such definitions, have been trying to solve the difficulty by the methods of examining the meaning of words, belonging to various classes, and coming to the conclusion that the only criterion should be the form of words. If form in the strictest sense were taken as the only test, we should arrive at the absurd result that must in English, being indeclinable, belonged to the same class as enough, for, then, the. Our only criterion justification for classing the verb must is that we recognize its usage in combinations like “I must go”, which is parralel to “I shall go” (in modern English it would be “will” of course), in other words, we take into consideration its meaning and function in the sentence.

He distinguishes the following parts of speech:

1. substances (including proper names),

2. adjectives (then he adds that these classes can perhaps be put under the definitions of nouns),

3. pronouns,

4. verbids (he doubts whether to include verbals or not, he calls them verbids),

5. particles (constituted of all those classes which haven’t been included in the first four).

 

THE THREE-RANK THEORY

In any composite denomination of a thing or person we always find that there is one word of supreme importance to which the others are joined as subordinates. This chief word is defined (qualified, modified) by another word, which in its turn may be defined (qualified, modified) by a third word, etc. Distinction is thus made between different "ranks" of words according to their mutual relations as defined or defining. In the combination extremely hot weather the last word weather, which is evidently the chief idea, may be called primary; hot, which defines weather, secondary, and extremely, which defines hot, tertiary. Though a tertiary word may be further defined by a (quarternary) word, and this again by a (quinary) word, and so forth, it is needless to distinguish more than three ranks, as there are no formal or other traits that distinguish words of these lower orders from tertiary words.

As regards terminology, the words primary, secondary, and tertiary are applicable to nexus as well as to junction, but it will be useful to have special names adjunctfor a secondary word in a junction, and adnex for a secondary word in a nexus. For tertiary we may use the term subjunct, and quarternary words, in the rare cases in which a special ' name is needed, may be termed sub-subjuncts.

 

Charles Fries [Fri:z]

Charles Fries wrote famous book STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH. He belonged to American structural school. For him the form and the function are the main criteria. He criticized the contemporary theories and claimed that unfortunately one could not use the traditional definitions of the parts of speech as the starting point. A noun is a name of person, place or thing, but blue is a name of colour, yet in the expression “a blue flower”, “a yellow rose” we don’t regard blue or yellow as nouns. We can call red a noun in the sentence “This red is the shade I want”. On the other hand, run is the name of an action, up is the name of a direction, but, despite the fact that these words are all names and thus fit the definition of a noun, they are not called nouns in such expression as “We ran home” or “They were looking up into the sky” or any other similar. Thus the definition “a noun is a name” does not furnish all the necessary criteria. Our problem, according to Fries, is to discover the criteria there are in the language to identify the various form classes.

E.g. we need to define the sentences:

1) Woggls ugged diggles.

2) Uggs woggled diggs.

3) Woggs diggled uggs.

We assume that these utterances are using the structural signals of English and we immediately understand a great deal of these sequences. We understand that *woggles, *uggs and *diggs are “thing-words” by the position they occupy in utterances and the forms they have, in contrast with other positions and forms. Then we know that *ugged, *woggled and *diggled are “action-words” by the form they have and the positions.

Fries concluded that a part of speech in English is a functioning pattern. All the instances of one part of speech are the same only in the sense that in the structural patterns of English each of them has the same functional significance. All the words that can occupy the same position in the patterns of English belong to the same part of speech.

Then Fries took minimum free utterances as test frames and put all the words of the real language into these frames. There are three frames:

A. The concert[1] was[2] good[3] (always[4]).

B. The clerk[1] remembered[2] the tax[3] (suddenly[4]).

C. The team[1] went[2] there[3].

He didn’t call these words subjects, objects, etc., just classes (class 1, class 2, etc.). These ideas of transformational grammar were extremely popular in the west in the 50s-60s of the 20th century. Later they were especially fruitful for the development of mathematical linguistics.

THE SYSTEM OF PARTS OF SPEECH

1. Noun,or substantive.

Meaning: thingness. Form. Nouns have the category of number (singular and plural), though some individual nouns may lack either a singular or a plural form. They also, in the accepted view, have the category of case (common and genitive). Function. (a) Combining with words to form phrases. A noun combines with a preceding adjective (large room), or occasionally with a following adjective (times immemorial), with a preceding noun in either the common case (iron bar) or the genitive case (father's room), with a verb following it (children play) or preceding it (play games). Occasionally a noun may combine with a following or a preceding adverb (the man there; the then president). It also combines with prepositions (in a house; house of rest). It is typical of a noun to be preceded by the definite or indefinite article (the room, a room). (b) Function in the sentence. A noun may be the subject or the predicative of a sentence, or an object, an attribute, and an adverbial modifier. It can also make part of each of these when preceded by a preposition.

Adjective.

Meaning. The adjective expresses property. Form. Adjectives in Modern English are invariable. Some adjectives form degrees of comparison (long, longer, longest). Function. (a) Adjectives combine with nouns both preceding and (occasionally) following them (large room, times immemorial). They also combine with a preceding adverb (very large). Adjectives can be followed by the phrase "preposition + noun" (free from danger). Occasionally they combine with a preceding verb (married young). (b) In the sentence, an adjective can be either an attribute (large room) or a predicative (is large). It can also be an objective predicative (painted the door green).

The pronoun.

The meaning is difficult to define: pronouns point to the things and properties without naming them. Form. Some have the category of number (singular and plural), e. g. this, while others have no such category, e. g. somebody. Again, some pronouns have the category of case (he him, somebody somebody's), while others have none (something). Function. (a) Some pronouns combine with verbs (he speaks, find him), while others can also combine with a following noun (this room). (b) In the sentence, some pronouns may be the subject (he, what) or the object, while others are the attribute (my). Pronouns can be predicatives.

4. Numerals. The treatment of numerals presents some difficulties, too. The so-called cardinal numerals (one, two) are somewhat different from the so-called ordinal numerals (first, second).

Meaning. Numerals denote either number or place in a series. Form. Numerals are invariable. Function. (a) As far as phrases go, both cardinal and ordinal numerals combine with a following noun (three rooms, third room); occasionally a numeral follows a noun (soldiers three, George the Third). (b) In a sentence, a numeral most usually is an attribute (three rooms, the third room), but it can also be subject, predicative, and object: Three of them came in time; "We Are Seven" (the title of a poem by Wordsworth); I found only four.

5. The stative. Such words as asleep, ablaze, afraid, etc. have been often named adjectives, though they cannot (apart from a few special cases) be attributes in a sentence, and though their meaning does not seem to be that of property. Meaning. The meaning of the words of this type is that of a passing state a person or thing happens to be in. Form. Statives are invariable. Function. (a) Statives most usually follow a link verb (was asleep, fell asleep). Occasionally they can follow a noun (man olive). They can also sometimes be preceded by an adverb (fast asleep). (b) In the sentence, a stative is most usually a predicative (he fell asleep). They can also be objective predicatives (I found him asleep) and attributes, almost always following the noun they modify (a man asleep in his chair).

The verb.

Meaning. The verb as a part of speech expresses a process. Form: tense, aspect, mood, voice, person, and number. Function. (a) Verbs are connected with a preceding noun (children play) and with a following noun (play games). They are also connected with adverbs (write quickly). Occasionally a verb may combine with an adjective (married young). (b) In a sentence a verb (in its finite forms) is always the predicate or part of it (link verb). The functions of the verbals (infinitive, participle, and gerund) must be dealt with separately.

The adverb.

The meaning, some adverbs indicate time or place of an action (yesterday, here), while others indicate its property (quickly) and others again the degree of a property (very). "property of an action or of a property".Form. Adverbs are invariable. Some of them, however, have degrees of comparison (fast, faster, fastest). Function. (a) An adverb combines with a verb (run quickly), with an adjective (very long), occasionally with a noun (the then president) and with a phrase (so out of things). (b) An adverb can sometimes follow a preposition (from there). (c) In a sentence an adverb is almost always an adverbial modifier, or part of it (from there), but it may occasionally be an attribute.

Prepositions.

The meaning of prepositions is obviously that of relations between things and phenomena. Form. Prepositions are invariable. Function. (a) Prepositions enter into phrases in which they are preceded by a noun, adjective, numeral, stative, verb or adverb, and followed by a noun, adjective, numeral or pronoun. (b) In a sentence a preposition never is a separate part of it. It goes together with the following word to form an object, adverbial modifier, predicative or attribute, and in extremely rare cases a subject (There were about a hundred people in the hall).

9. Conjunctions.

Meaning. Conjunctions express connections between things and phenomena. Form. Conjunctions are invariable. Function. (a) They connect any two words, phrases or clauses. (b) In a sentence, conjunctions are never a special part of it. They either connect homogeneous parts of a sentence or homogeneous clauses (the so-called co-ordinating conjunctions), or they join a subordinate clause to its head clause (the so-called subordinating conjunctions).

Particles.

Meaning. The meaning of particles is very hard to define. We might say, approximately, that they denote subjective shades of meaning introduced by the speaker or writer and serving to emphasise or limit some point in what he says. Form. Particles are invariable. Function. (a) Particles may combine with practically every part of speech, more usually preceding it (only three), but occasionally following it (for advanced students only). (b) Particles never are a separate part of a sentence. They enter the part of the sentence formed by the word (or phrase) to which they refer. (It might also be argued that particles do not belong to any part of a sentence.)

11. Modal words, such as perhaps, possibly, certainly.

Meaning. Modal words express the speaker's evaluation of the relation between an action and reality. Form. Modal words are invariable. Function. (a) Modal words usually do not enter any phrases but stand outside them. In a few cases, however, they may enter into a phrase with a noun, adjective, etc. (he will arrive soon, possibly to-night). (b) The function of modal words in a sentence is a matter of controversy. We will discuss this question at some length in Chapter XXI and meanwhile we will assume that modal words perform the function of a parenthesis. Modal words may also be a sentence in themselves.

Interjections.

Meaning. Interjections express feelings (ah, alas). They are not names of feelings but the immediate expression of them. Some interjections represent noises, etc., with a strong emotional colouring (bang!).

Form. Interjections are invariable.Function. (a) Interjections usually do not enter into phrases. Only in a few cases do they combine with a preposition and noun or pronoun, e.g. alas for him! (b) In a sentence an interjection forms a kind of parenthesis. An interjection may also be a sentence in itself, e. g. Alas! as an answer to a question.

Classes of nouns.


 


Date: 2016-03-03; view: 2455


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