Теоретическая грамматика английского языка (Theoretical Grammar of the English language)
is modified by the other. To syntagmatic relations are opposed paradigmatic relations. They exist between elements of the system outside the strings in which they cooccur. The function of a grammatical paradigm is to express a categorial meaning (Blokh, 2000).
Plane of Content and Plane of Expression
This dichotomy was first studied by Louis Hjelmslev (1899-1965) – Danish linguist, the founder of the of linguistics. Together with he developed a theory of which he called . The main interest of glosssematics was describing the formal characteristics of the language. L. Hjelmslev’s is a development of F. de Saussure's sign model. considered a sign as having two sides, signifier and signified. Hjelmslev's famously renamed signifier and signified as respectively expression plane and content plane, and also distinguished between form and substance (URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Louis_Hjelmslev).
The plane of content comprises the semantic (meaningful) elements of the language; the plane of expression comprises the material (formal) units of the language. Each language sign has a form and a meaning. The two planes are inseparably connected. Grammatical elements of language present a unity of content and expression, a unity of form and meaning.
Levels of Language Units
Units of language are divided into segmental and suprasegmental. Segmental units consist of phonemes, they form phonemic strings of various status. Suprasegmental units do not exist by themselves, but are realized with segmental units and express different modificational meanings reflected on the strings of segmental units (Blokh, 2000).
The segmental units of language form a hierarchy of levels. Units of each higher level are formed of units of the immediately lower level.
Professor M.Ya.Blokh: the of lingual units is phonemic: it is formed by phonemes. The phoneme has no meaning, its function is purely differential. The level, located above the phonemic level, is morphemic. The morpheme is the elementary meaningful part of the word built up by phonemes. The morpheme expresses abstract, "significative", meaning. The level is lexemic. Its differential unit is the word. The word realizes the function of nomination. The level is denotemic, its constituent unit is denoteme (notional part of the sentence). The level is proposemic. It is built up by sentences. As a sign, the sentence simultaneously fulfils two functions – nominative and predicative. The level is the level of topicalization, its constituent element is the "dicteme" ("utterance"). The function of the dicteme is to build up a topical stretch of some text. Being an elementary topical unit of text, the dicteme fulfils four main signemic functions: the functions of nomination, predication, topicalization, and stylization (Blokh, 2000).
The main units of language are considered to be the word and the sentence. Words are studied by morphology, sentences are studied by syntax.
Morphemic Structure of the Word
The word is the nominative unit of language built up by morphemes and indivisible into smaller segments as regards its nominative function (Blokh, 2000). The morphological system of language reveals its properties through the morphemic structure of words. So, it is but natural that one of the essential tasks of morphology is to study the morphemic structure of the word.
In traditional grammar the study of the morphemic structure of the word is based upon two criteria – positional and semantic (functional). The positional criterion presupposes the analysis of the location of the marginal morphemes in relation to the central ones. The semantic criterion involves the study of the correlative contribution of the morpheme to the general meaning of the word. In accord with the traditional classification, morphemes at the upper level are divided into root morphemes and affixal morphemes (lexical and grammatical) (Blokh, 2000).
Synthetic and analytic languages
In , there are synthetic and analytic languages. Synthetic languages compose (synthesize) multiple concepts into each word, while analytic languages break up (analyze) concepts into separate words. The distinction is a matter of degree: the most analytic languages consistently have one morpheme per word while, at the other extreme, in polysynthetic languages, a single inflected verb may contain as much information as an entire English sentence (URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_language).
The English language refers to the languages of the analytic type. The modern forms of the English verb (are doing, has been studying) are formed analytically, because they consist of a part devoid of lexical meaning and transmitting the required grammatical categories, and a part conveying a semantic meaning (root morphemes: do, run).
The categorial structure of the word. The notions of grammatical meaning, grammatical form, grammatical category. Oppositional theory. Oppositional reduction.
Notional words possess some morphemic features expressing grammatical meaning. These features determine the grammatical form of the word. Grammatical meanings are very abstract, general meanings, therefore, the grammatical form unites a whole class of words, so that each word of the class expresses the corresponding grammatical meaning together with its individual concrete semantics. The most general meanings rendered by language units and expresses by systemic correlations of word forms, are interpreted in linguistics as categorial grammatical meanings. For example, previousness and simultaneousness of action is expressed by perfect and non-perfect forms, so they form the category of correlation (категория временной соотнесенности), or retrospective coordination (Blokh, 2000).
Some grammatical categories exist only in a certain class. They are closed within this word class. They are immanent categories (constant) – the verbal categories of tense, voice, mood. Other categories may transfer from one class to another and reflect in it. They are called reflective categories. They are: gender, number. The category of number of nouns is reflected in the verb: boy goes – boys go. In Russian the category of number is reflected in the verb and the adjective.
The grammatical category presents a unity of form and meaning. A set of grammatical forms expressing a categorial function constitutes a paradigm. The paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms in a category is exposed by the so-called grammatical opposition. See the example of aspect.
But sometimes a weak member of the opposition may turn onto a marked one. Example: He knocked, and knocked, and knocked. This is the stylistically marked member, as the idea of continuity is rendered, but by non-continuous forms.
The opposition may be defined as a generalized correlation of language forms, by means of which a certain function is expressed. The member of the opposition must possess two types of features: common features, and differentiating features. Because of common features they are included into one opposition. Example: in the category of aspect the common feature of the opposition of the continuous and non-continuous forms is to express the character of an action. One of the members of the opposition shows the action in progress; the other presents it as a fact – these are the differential features. They constitute the function of the whole opposition (as that of being able to distinguish between the character of an action).
The oppositional theory was originally formulated as a phonological theory by representatives of the Prague School. The method of oppositions has been successfully extended to grammar and semantics. Three main qualitative types of oppositions were established: privative (отрицательная); gradual (постепенная);