Лекция по "Теоретической грамматике английского языка"

1. Before the 19th century grammar was considered to be prescriptive. It reffered to the whole body of writing (classical writing in Latin and Greek). So it was the name for the way a language worked.

THE CONCEPT OF UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR

Since G. had come from God it was everywhere the same, at least fundamental principles. The main issues were how to use a foreign language correctly and how to avoid using it incorrectly.

Basic notions: Grammatical (good l) and Ungrammatical (bad l)

Use of the L becomes the L itself. L got started by use and it grew by use. There’re phrases, structures for which there’re no such agreement in use. (It’s me/it’s I)

Usage - concerns the questions of appropriateness and inappropriateness.

TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR

1. Sentence structure (from Aristotel to Plato)
2. Ideas about parts of speech (from Stoic grammarians)
3. Ideas about nature of meaning (Middle ages)
4. Ideas about relationships betw. L. and mind (from the 17th century philosophical controversies)

Latin L became the medium of communication throughout Europe. The emphasis in the L study was on the description of Latin L in the context of L teaching. Great attention to pronunciation. The concept of correctness was more dominant.

THE MIDDLE AGES GRAMMAR

“the art of speaking and writing well”

Latin grammar was used to explain the grammar of all L.

IN THE 18TH CENTURY

“Normative/Prescriptive G” the rules were derived from latin l. Scholars were concerned in establishing philosophical explanation for the rules of G. There was one universal grammar, underlined the structures of all L. Focused on the written L rules were not meaningful in the context of spoken L.

WILLIAM LILY

English grammarian, the 1st headmaster of St.Paul’s school. Presented eng.forms using the terminology of latin grammar. His book was the earliest English grammar book.

ROBERT LOWTH

His aim was to reduce the English L rules and set up standards of correct usage.

2. HISTORICAL COMPARATIVE METHOD
1. To analyse and discover the relationships of dif.L and groups of L
2. Reconstruct pre-historic lingual elements
3. Reveal the course of historical development to lingual elements in their complex irrelations

Scholars collected materials for studying laws of Eng. Development. They thought that all the languages were developed from one L. The division of 1L into 2/more L is caused by the division of English speaking community due to political and economic factors. Since L is changing the isolation of Ls can lead to growing differences in L, to the rise of dialects which can develop into dif.Ls.

They observed relations of the Ls in the indo-european group: Franz Bopp, Rasmus Rusk, Jacob Grimm, Востоков, Буслаев, Фортунатов.

Drawbacks: The research was limited to the i-e group; It was mainly the historical changes of phonological and morphological units that were studies

3. 20th CENTURY IDEAS

A new theory was developed on the ground of previous theories. BdC, Fortunatov, FdS.

1. L – is a system of signals, interconnected and interdependent.
2. L as a system of signals may be compared the other system of signals. Thus L may be considered as an object of more general signs. – SEMASIOLOGY
3. 2 aspects: 1) system of L 2)manifestation in social intercourse (speech)
4. The linguistic sign is bilateral (form+meaning) the meaning reflects the elements: objects, situation of the outside world
5. L has to be studied as a system in the synchronic plan (at a given moment of its existence) and the diachronic plan (in the historical development)

 

4. 20th CENTURY SCHOOLS
1. The Prague School – Functional Linguistic – ideas by FdS (representatives: William Mathesius,Трубетской, Якобсон) The technique for determining the units of phonological structure of Ls (method of opposition, which change the meaning of words) 
2. The Copenhagen School – Glossematics – founder Louis Hjelmslev. Ideas by FdS. Signs have form and substance. 2 planes: plane of content; plane of expression.

The form in the plane of content is the segmentation of the picture of the world. (рука – hand/arm)

3. The American School – Descriptive linguistic – necessity of studying the L in the indian tribes. They gave up analyzing sentences in term of traditional parts of speech. They analysed: according to the position and occurrence. Edward Sapir – representative. L – set of signals, Grammar – meaningful arrangement of linguistic forms from morphemes to sentences. UTTERANCE – IS A LINGUISTIC UNIT.

Later Charles Carpenter Fries developed these ideas. For a long period of language study people relied on mathematic system and logic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. MODERN APPROACH TO GRAMMAR

Role of G: used for clear communication, deals with the etiquette. It is based on usage. Grammar rules are not smth fixed. Real L is important.

Modern G – PRAGMATICS. It’s concerned with a study of meaning as communicated by the speaker and interpreted by the listener. The analyses by what people mean by their utterances rather that what words and phrases may mean by themselves. INTERPRETATION OF MEANING IN THE PARTICUAR CONTEXT

George Yule “Pragmatics” All human concepts are difficult to analyse in an objective way. Pragmatics is about how people make sense of what they have in mind.

Functions of L

1. Physiological – to release our physical energy, nerves.
2. Emphatic – special force and attention is given to smth to show that it’s particularly important
3. Communicative.

Interaction is applied to a large number of different social encounters – basic pattern – I speak-you speak.

Various types of com.acts

-making statements

-asking questions

-making offers

Any happening or state in real life can be expressed through language.

Situation doesn’t refer to extra linguistic reality, existing in the world, but rather to the speaker’s presentation or understanding. The major grammatical unit – UTTERANCE

Discourse – written/spoken communication or debate. There’s a great deal of interest to the structure: what makes a well-formed text. The focus is on the connection between sentences with the help of linking words. It creates cohesion (well-formed text)

Pragmatics focuses on what’s unsaid/unwritten. In order to do the pragmatics of discourse we have to pay attention to physiological concepts: background knowledge, belief. 

Background knowledge – schema – ability to interpret what is unsaid, based on our experience. 2 types:

1. Frame – fixed/static pattern. It’s shared by everyone within a social group.

EX: adverts. We can understand a lot even it’s unwritten. The reader uses preexisting knowledge to create an interpretation of what isn’t stated in the text.

2. Script – more dynamic type of schema. It’s a preexisting knowledge structure. Which involves event sequences. We use scripts to build interpretations of what will happen. The concept is the way of recognizing expected sequences of actions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. PARTS OF SPEECH

HISTORICAL APPROACH

PoS – type of word, different from other types in grammatical forms.

Henry Sweet. “A new English Grammar. Logical and Historical. ” As regards their function, words fall under certain classes called PoS. They share certain formal characteristics.

• Noun has plural inflexion.
• Adj has a degree of comparison.
• V – has inflections on their own.
• Each PoS has a definite position in a sentence.
• V are predicative words, they say smth about the subject
• Nouns are substance words
• Adj (express permanent attributes) and adv (express changing attributes) – attributive words

 All parts of speech can be declinable (have inflection) and indeclinable. D: nouns, adj, verbs; IND: adv, prepos, conjunctions, interjections.

PRONOUN – is a special class of nouns and adj. Noun-pronouns(they, he, she), adjective-pronoun(my, that)

VERBALS  - characteristics of verbs+nouns+adj. Noun-verbals – infinitive, gerund; adjective-verbals – participles

NUMERALS – characteristics of nouns+adjectives. Noun-numerals – three of us; Adjective-numerals – three men

So, declinable parts:

• Noun words (noun, noun-pronoun, noun-numeral, infinitive, gerund)
• Adjective words (adj, adj-pronoun, adj-numeral, participles)
• Verbs (finite v, verbals (infinitive, gerund))

Indeclinable (particles)

Adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections

HE TAKES INTO ACCOUNT ONLY THE FORM OF THE WORD.

OTTO JEPERSON

3. criteria to distinguish parts of speech: Form, Meaning, Function

TRADITIONAL APPROACH

1) Meaning (semantic principle) – evaluation of the generalized meaning: categorical meaning of the part of speech

2) Form (formal principle) – Specific inflexions/wordbuilding

3) Function (functional principle) – concerns the syntactic role of words in the sentence.

PoS – “lexico-grammatical” series of words, categories

PoS are:

NOTIONAL (unite words of complete nominative meaning, characterized by self-dependent function in the sentence) – noun, adj, adv, pronoun, numeral, stative v

FUNCTIONAL (unite words of incomplete nominative meaning and non-self dependent function in the sentence) – article, prepos, conjunctions, particle, modal words, interjections

 

7. NOUN

Traditional approach

1. Meaning (semantic f).

Nouns have the categorical meaning of substance/thingness. N are characterized by changeable forms (number and case) and specific suffix forms of derivation (wordbuilding)

2. Functional

(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. SYNTACTIC AND COMBINABILITY  

        3) Formal

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).

Nouns are divided into subclasses:

• Proper – common (собственные-нариц) – “type of nomination”
• Animate – inanimate – “form of existence”
• Human – non-human – “personal quality”
• Countable – uncountable – “quantitative”
• Concrete – abstract

One noun can belong to different subclasses. The division of N into subclasses has grammatical relevance.