Grammatical Categories of Number, Case, and Gender in Modern English. A Field Approach
Grammatical
Categories of Number, Case, and Gender in Modern English. A Field Approach
Introduction1.
Grammatical Categories and Functional-Semantic Fields
.1Nature
of grammatical categories
.2Typology
of grammatical categories
.3The
theory of functional-semantic fields2. The Categories of Number, Case, and
Gender in Terms of Field Structure
.1
Functional-semantic field of number in Modern English
.2
Functional semantic field of case in Modern English
.3
Functional-semantic field of gender in Modern English
words of every language are divided into several
word classes, or parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs and adjectives etc. The
words of a given class exhibit two or more forms in somewhat different
grammatical circumstances. These forms are not interchangeable and each can be
used only in a given grammatical situation. This variation in form is required
by the existence of a grammatical category applying to that class of words.
Thus a grammatical category is "a linguistic category which has the effect
of modifying the forms of some class of words in a language" [53, 32]. For
example, English nouns have the grammatical category of number. Thus the
singular `dog' and the plural `dogs' exist but are not interchangeable in a
sentence. A noun can be used only in its singular or plural form as there is no
possibility of another form. English adjectives vary for degree; verbs for
tense; pronouns for case etc. grammarians divide the words of English into eight
classes or parts of speech- noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, preposition,
conjunction, adverb, etc.grammatical category is an analytical class within the
grammar of a language, whose members have the same syntactic distribution and
recur as structural unit throughout the language, and which share a common
property which can be semantic or syntactic. In traditional structural grammar,
grammatical categories are semantic distinctions; this is reflected in a
morphological or syntactic paradigm. But in generative grammar, which sees
meaning as separate from grammar, they are categories that define the
distribution of syntactic elements. For structuralists such as Roman Jakobson
grammatical categories were lexemes that were based on binary oppositions of "a
single feature of meaning that is equally present in all contexts of use"
[51, 37]. Another way to define a grammatical category is as a category that
expresses meanings from a single conceptual domain, contrasts with other such
categories, and is expressed through formally similar expressions. Another
definition distinguishes grammatical categories from lexical categories, such
that the elements in a grammatical category have a common grammatical meaning -
that is, they are part of the language's grammatical structure.topic of this
paper has been chosen to be “Grammatical Categories of Number, Case, and Gender
in Modern English. A Field Approach”.topicality of this work caused by several
important points. The concept of ‘semantic field’, like the concept of ‘semantic
frame’, opened up new domains of semantic research, first in Germany in the
1930s and then in the United States in the 1970s. Both concepts brought about
‘revolutions’ in semantics, and provided semanticists with new tools for the
study of semantic change and semantic structure. Although there have been
several historical accounts of the development of field semantics, there exists
no detailed study linking and comparing the development of field and frame
semantics. In this article we shall reconstruct the contexts in which the
concepts of ‘field’ and ‘frame’ appeared for the first time and highlight the
similarities as well as the differences between the semantic theories built on
them. One of the main differences between the older and the modern traditions
is that the latter no longer study how lexical fields carve up a relatively
amorphous conceptual mass, as most older traditions had done, but how lexical
fields are conceptually and pragmatically ‘framed’ by or grounded in our
bodily, social and cultural experiences and practices. In doing so they
establish forgotten links with certain communicational and functional
conceptions of semantic fields developed in the past.object of the
investigation - grammatical categories of number, case, and gender in Modern
English.subject of the investigation - field approach to the study of the
English language grammatical categories.based upon the actuality of the theme
we are able to formulate the general goal of our qualification work - to
investigate grammatical categories of number, case, and gender in Modern
English with the field approach of the topic investigation.tasks of the
investigation are the following:
to investigate the nature of
grammatical categories;
to consider typology of grammatical
categories;
to characterize the theory of
functional-semantic fields;
to analyze the categories of number,
case, and gender in terms of field structure.of the investigation - analysis of
theoretical and practical materials on the topic under investigation, comparative
analysis.of the investigation and its sources. Sentences, selected from the
business discourse, required for the analysis of grammatical
categories.practical significance of the work can be concluded in the following
items:work could serve as a good source of learning English by young teachers
at schools and colleges.lexicologists could find a lot of interesting
information for themselves.who would like to communicate with the
English-speaking people through the Internet will be able to use the up-to-date
words with the help of our qualification work.said about the linguists studied
the material before we can mention that our qualification work was based upon
the investigations made by a number of well known English and Russian
lexicologists as M.D. Stepanova, J.Trier, S. Atkins, Charles J. Fillmore and
some others.we say about the methods of scientific approaches used in our work
we can mention that the method of typological analysis was used.theoretical
significance of the investigation is predetermined by the summarization of the
theoretical material on English grammatical categories in accordance with the
field approach.novelty of the investigation in characterized by the analysis of
the English language grammatical categories with the field approach on the
basis of business discourse materials.practical value of the research lies in
the fact that it is impossible to reach high level of competence without
understanding the nature of the concept grammatical categories in Modern
English.volume of the investigation. The volume of the investigation includes
60 pages.structure of the investigation. The paper consists of the
introduction, two chapters, conclusion, bibliography and summary.
1. Grammatical Categories and
Functional-Semantic Fields
.1Nature of grammatical categories
grammatical signals have a meaning
of their own independent of the meaning of the notionalwords. This can be
illustrated by the following sentence with nonsensical words: Woggles ugged
diggles.to Ch. Fries [44] the morphological and the syntactic signals in the
given sentencemake us understand that “several actors acted upon some objects”.
This sentence which is a syntacticsignal, makes the listener understand it as a
declarative sentence whose grammatical meaning is actor -action - thing acted
upon. One can easily change (transform) the sentence into the singular (A
woggleugged a diggle.), negative (A woggle did not ugg a diggle.), or
interrogative (Did a woggle ugg adiggle?) All these operations are grammatical.
Then what are the main units of grammar - structure.us assume, for example, a
situation in which are involved a man, a boy, some money, an actof giving, the
man the giver, the boy the receiver, the time of the transaction -
yesterday...one of the units man, boy, money, giver, yesterday could appear in
the linguistic structure as subject.man gave the boy the money yesterday.boy
was given the money by the man yesterday.money was given the boy by the man
yesterday.giving of the money to the boy by the man occurred yesterday.was the
time of the giving of the money to the boy by the man.
"Subject" then is a formal
linguistic structural matter., the grammatical meaning of a syntactic
construction shows the relation between the words in it.have just mentioned
here "grammatical meaning", “grammatical utterance”. The whole
complex of linguisticmeans made use of grouping words into utterances is called
a grammatical structure of the language [43].the means which are used to group
words into the sentence exist as a certain system; they are interconnectedand
interdependent. They constitute the sentence structure.the words of a language
fall, as we stated above, under notional and functional words.grammatical
category is a property of items within the grammar of a language; it has a
number of possible values (sometimes called exponents, or grammemes), which are
normally mutually exclusive within a given category. Examples of frequently
encountered grammatical categories include tense (which may take values such as
present, past, etc.), number (with values such as singular, plural, and
sometimes dual), and gender (with values such as masculine, feminine and
neuter).terminology is not always consistent, a distinction should be made
between these grammatical categories (tense, number, etc.) and lexical
categories, which are closely synonymous with the traditional parts of speech
(noun, verb, adjective, etc.), or more generally syntactic categories.
Grammatical categories are also referred to as (grammatical) features.name
given to a grammatical category (as an uncountable noun) is generally also used
(as a countable noun) to denote any of the possible values for that category.
For example, the values available in a given language for the category
"tense" are called "tenses", the values available for the
category "gender" are called "genders", and so on.given
constituent of an expression can normally take only one value from a particular
category. For example, a noun or noun phrase cannot be both singular and
plural, since these are both values of the category of number. It can, however,
be both plural and feminine, since these represent different categories (number
and gender).may be described and named with regard to the type of meanings that
they are used to express. For example, the category of tense is considered to
serve to express time of occurrence (as in past, present or future). However,
purely grammatical features do not always correspond simply or consistently to
elements of meaning, and different authors may take significantly different approaches
in their terminology and analysis. For example, the meanings associated with
the categories of tense, aspect and mood are often bound in up verb conjugation
patterns that do not have separate grammatical elements corresponding to each
of the three categories; see Tense-aspect-mood.may be marked on words by means
of inflection. In English, for example, the number of a noun is usually marked
by leaving the noun uninflected if it is singular, and by adding the suffix -s
if it is plural (although some nouns have irregular plural forms). On other
occasions, a category may not be marked overtly on the item to which it
pertains, being manifested only through other grammatical features of the
sentence, often by way of grammatical agreement.example:bird can sing./The
birds can sing.the above sentences, the number of the noun is marked overtly by
the absence or presence of the ending -s.sheep is running./The sheep are
running.the above, the number of the noun is not marked on the noun itself
(sheep does not inflect according to the regular pattern), but it is reflected
in agreement between the noun and verb: singular number triggers is, and plural
number are.bird is singing./The birds are singing.this case the number is
marked overtly on the noun, and is also reflected by verb agreement.:sheep can
run.[36]this case the number of the noun (or of the verb) is not manifested at
all in the surface form of the sentence, and thus ambiguity is introduced (at
least, when the sentence is viewed in isolation).of grammatical categories
are often expressed in the same position or 'slot' in the word (such as prefix,
suffix or enclitic). An example of this is the Latin cases, which are all
suffixal: rosa, rosae, rosae, rosam, rosā ("rose", in
nominative, genitive, dative, accusative
and ablative).can also pertain to sentence constituents that are larger than a
single word (phrases, or sometimes clauses). A phrase often inherits category
values from its head word; for example, in the above sentences, the noun phrase
the birds inherits plural number from the noun birds. In other cases such
values are associated with the way in which the phrase is constructed; for
example, in the coordinated noun phrase Tom and Mary, the phrase has plural
number (it would take a plural verb), even though both the nouns from which it
is built up are singular.traditional structural grammar, grammatical categories
are semantic distinctions; this is reflected in a morphological or syntactic
paradigm. But in generative grammar, which sees meaning as separate from
grammar, they are categories that define the distribution of syntactic
elements.[1] For structuralists such as Roman Jakobson grammatical categories
were lexemes that were based on binary oppositions of "a single feature of
meaning that is equally present in all contexts of use". Another way to
define a grammatical category is as a category that expresses meanings from a
single conceptual domain, contrasts with other such categories, and is
expressed through formally similar expressions.[17] Another definition
distinguishes grammatical categories from lexical categories, such that the
elements in a grammatical category have a common grammatical meaning - that is,
they are part of the language's grammatical structure.
"Grammatical category is a linguistic
category which has the effect of modifying the forms of some class of words in
a language. The words of everyday language are divided up into several word
classes, or parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs and adjectives. It often
happens that the words in a given class exhibit two or more forms used in
somewhat different grammatical circumstances. In each such case, this variation
in form is required by the presence in the language of one or more grammatical
categories applying to that class of words.
"English nouns are affected by
only one grammatical category, that of number: we have singular dog but plural
dogs, and so on for most (but not all) of the nouns in the language. These
forms are not interchangeable, and each must be used always and only in
specified grammatical circumstances. And here is a key point: we must always
use a noun in either its singular form or its plural form, even when the choice
seems irrelevant; there is no possibility of avoiding the choice, and there is
no third form which is not marked one way or the other. This is typically the
case with grammatical categories."
"It is important to keep in
mind that a grammatical category is a linguistic, not a real-world, category,
and that there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between the two,
though they are usually closely related. For example 'tense' is a linguistic
category, while 'time' is a category of the world. While past tense usually
expresses past time (as in I saw a movie last night), the past-tense auxiliary
in the following expresses future time: I wish you would go. And the
present-tense verb of I leave tomorrow expresses future time."[21]
"Words are assigned to
grammatical categories in traditional grammar on the basis of their shared
semantic, morphological and syntactic properties. The kind of semantic criteria
(sometimes called 'notional' criteria) used to categorise words in traditional
grammar are illustrated in much-simplified form below:denote actions (go,
destroy, buy, eat etc.)denote entities (car, cat, hill, John etc.)denote states
(ill, happy, rich etc.)denote manner (badly, slowly, painfully, cynically
etc.)denote location (under, over, outside, in, on etc.), semantically based
criteria for identifying categories must be used with care: for example, assassination
denotes an action but is a noun, not a verb; illness denotes a state but is a
noun, not an adjective; . . . and Cambridge denotes a location but is a noun,
not a preposition."[41]research presupposes bringing into certain order
the material being studied. The issue underthe consideration is also an attempt
to generalize the grammatical means of language.are many conceptions on the
problem today. According to B. Golovin [21] “a grammatical category is a
reallinguistic unity of grammatical meaning and the means of its material
expression”. It means that in order to call a linguisticphenomenon a
grammatical category there must be a grammatical meaning and grammatical
means..Y. Blokh [37] explains it as follows: “As for the grammatical category
itself, it presents, thesame as the grammatical "form", a unity of
form (i.e. material factor), and meanings (i.e. ideal factor)and constitutes a
certain signemic system.specifically the grammatical category is a system of
expressing a generalized grammaticalmeaning by means of paradigmatic
correlation of grammatical forms.paradigmatic correlations of grammatical forms
in a category are exposed by the so - called
“grammaticaloppositions”.opposition (in the linguistic sense) may be defined as
a generalized correlation of lingualforms by means of which a certain function
is expressed. The correlated elements (members) of theopposition must possess
two types of features:common features and differential features. Common
features serve as the basis of contrast whiledifferential features immediately
express the function in question.grammatical categories are better to explain
by comparing them with logical categories. The grammaticalcategories are
opposed to logical ones. The logical categories are universal for all the
languages. Any meanings can beexpressed in any language. For instance there's a
logical category of possession. The meaning of possession can beexpressed in
all the languages, compare: My book (English) - Моя
книга
(Russian) - Менинг китобим
(Uzbek).it is seen from the examples the meaning of possession in English and
Russian is expressed, by the possessivepronouns (lexical means) while in Uzbek
it can be expressed either by the help of a discontinuous morpheme (...нинг
...им)or
by one overt morpheme (…им).
This category is grammatical in Uzbek but lexical in the other two languages.
Thus theuniversal logical categories can be expressed by grammatical and non -
grammatical (lexical, syntactic) means. Thegrammatical categories are those
logical ones that are expressed in languages by constant grammatical
means.doctrines mentioned above one - side approach to the problem. It is a
rather complicatedissue in the general linguistics. But unfortunately we don't
have universally acknowledged criteria tomeet the needs of individual
languages.of the most consistent theories of the grammatical categories is the
one that is suggested by L. Barkhudarov.to his opinion in order to call a
linguistic phenomenon a grammatical category there must be thefollowing
features:
general grammatical meaning;
this meaning must consist of at
least two particular meanings;
the particular meanings must be
opposed to each - other:
the particular meanings must have
constant grammatical means to express them [15]., any linguistic phenomenon that
meets these requirements is called a grammatical category.nouns have a
grammatical category of number. This category has all the requirements that are
necessary for a grammatical category:
. it has general grammatical meaning
of number;
. it consists of two particular
meanings; singular and plural;
. singular is opposed to plural,
they are antonymous;
. singular and plural have their own
constant grammatical means:is represented by a zero morpheme and plural has the
allomorphs like (s), (z), (iz). There are some other means toexpress singular
and plural in English but they make very small percentage compared with regular
means.example. In English adjectives there's one grammatical category - the
degrees ofcomparison. What features does it have?
. It has a general grammatical
meaning: degrees of comparison;
. The degrees of comparison consist
of three particular meanings: positive, comparative and superlative;
. They are opposed to each - other;
. They have their own grammatical
means depending on the number of syllables in the word.in the category of
number of nouns there are two particular meanings, in the grammaticalcategory
of degrees of comparison there are three.introductions to syntax or linguistics
in general even mention the grammatical categories of tense, aspect, mood,
case, number, gender and voice, or transitivity, to use the current term.
models of syntax are unenlightening on such topics and most undergraduate
courses in linguistics in the UK do not offer courses on grammatical
categories. Nonetheless the categories are studied by language typologists;
tense, aspect and mood have long attracted serious attention among cognitive
scientists, discourse analysts and philosophers; and two recent semantics
textbooks make room for tense, aspect, mood and case [31]. include grammatical
categories in an undergraduate linguistics programme? Grammatical categories
connect grammar and semantics. They are central to the syntactic structure of
clauses; in logic they are important for the analysis of propositions. Briefly,
case has to do with the relations between the verb in a given clause and the
nouns; aspect has to do with the type of situation and whether the speaker presents
a situation as on-going or completed; tense has to do with events being located
in past, present or future time by the speaker; mood has to do with whether the
speaker presents an event as a fact, a possibility or a necessity, with whether
the speaker witnessed a given event directly or has merely heard about it - in
short, with the attitudes and expectations of speakers regarding states of
affairs and propositions.grammars of particular languages devote much space to
grammatical categories but little or none to constituent structure. Constituent
structure does not cause major problems for the non-native learners of a given
language but its systems of case-marking, mood, tense and aspect do. All
reference grammars for non-native learners covertly use theories of tense,
aspect, etc. and a useful exercise for students of languages and linguistics is
to compare a given reference grammar with theoretical work on a given category.
[32]categories bear on various major issues. Logicians are concerned with truth
and falsity. The analysis of, e.g., tense, aspect and case must be anchored in
truth-conditions but detailed analysis of natural languages raises fundamental
questions about language, the extra-linguistic world, mental representations
and metaphor.currently salient topic of research is grammaticalisation. The
central idea is that constructions with abstract meanings develop historically
from constructions with concrete meanings. Grammaticalisation is relevant not
just to semantics and historical change but to language and cognition, first
language acquisition and the origin and evolution of language., a grammatical
category is a linguistic phenomenon that has a general grammatical meaning
consisting of atleast two particular meanings that are opposed to each - other
and that have constant grammatical means of their own toexpress them.
.2Typology of grammatical categories
grammatical category organizes
grammatical functions into different categories. The functions might affect
words in different ways due to their varied morphology, but they perform the
same basic grammatical function. There are a total of 20 grammatical functions
in linguistics; not all languages have all these functions, and they are often
manifested in different ways. Such functions include tense, plurality, time and
gender.is a term given to the structural rules governing a language. Such rules
are explained in textbooks and grammar books, and they are taught to new
language learners, however, they are understood instinctively by native
speakers. The use and importance of grammar came relatively late to the English
language. From 1066 until the 15th century, it was the language of the lower
classes, and grammatical theory was not applied to it until the 17th century.
English grammar has since been inspired chiefly by Latin grammar, leading to
problems such as the split infinitive.first grammatical category is animacy.
Animacy is used to indicate whether a noun is animate or inanimate. It often
affects the verb used with the noun. The aspect grammatical category adds a
specific or general sense of time and is related to, but distinct from,
tense.indicates whether a noun is the subject, object or possessor in a
sentence. Clusivity indicates whether a first-person pronoun such as ‘we’ is inclusive
or exclusive. For example, languages with clusivity can differentiate between
we meaning ‘all of us’ and we meaning ‘us, but not you.’ The definiteness
grammatical category tells the reader/listener how definite or not an action
is. For example, it differentiates between ‘I listened to a song’ and ‘I
listened to the song.’degree of comparison regulates the three main types of
adjectives and adverbs. These are divided into positive, comparative and
superlative like ‘big,’ ‘bigger’ and ‘biggest.’ Evidentiality indicates if the
sentence is based on evidence or not, and if so, to what degree. Focus relates
information in one sentence to information given previously [33].is used in
various languages to indicate the gender of the speaker, subject or object by
modifying nouns, adjectives and verbs. It used to be present in Old English,
but has disappeared from modern English. The grammatical category mirativity is
used in some languages to indicate surprise within a sentence by using suffices
or other indicators rather than exclamation marks and intonation.allows a
speaker or reader to analyze a sentence by the use of auxiliary verbs and
adverbs. Verbs signal moods created by modality using changes from the
grammatical category called mood. A noun class organizes nouns by either their
meaning or by their morphological aspects. Person defines the usage of pronouns
and, therefore, affects verb and noun forms.is a grammatical category that
distinguishes between positive and negative aspects. In English, the negative
is shown as ‘not,’ such as, ‘Dave does not play tennis.’ Topic defines what the
sentence is about and is usually linked to the subject of the sentence or
clause. Transivity demonstrates the difference between transitive and
intransitive verbs. The final grammatical category is voice, which structures
the relationship between the verb and the subject and object of a
sentence.there are relatively many English verb tenses, verbs in English come
in many forms that provide different shades of meaning. However, English verbs
comprise a much easier verb system than that of other languages that have
distinct inflectional verb endings for different persons and number, or even
change the verb stem with various tenses and aspects. In English only one verb
ending remained, for verbs in the third person singular in the Present Simple
tense.cooks dinner for us 3 times a week.
[3rd person, singular, present,
simple, indicative, active, meaning: habit in the present]we were cooking for
hours on end.
[1st person, plural, past,
progressive, indicative, active, meaning: action in the past that continued
over an extended period of time]would have cooked, if you had asked her to.
(but in reality you didn’t ask so
she didn’t cook)
[would have cooked: 3rd person,
singular, past, conditional, active,meaning: hypothetic outcome in the past,
contrary to fact]
[had asked: 2nd person, singular,
past, perfect, subjunctive, active,meaning: hypothetic assumption in the past,
contrary to fact]suggest that dinner be cooked no later than 20:00.
[3rd person, singular, present,
subjunctive, passive,meaning: strong recommendation, which will not necessarily
be fulfilled]wrote the letters.wrote two letters.unbuttoned his shirt.reread
the chapter.the last section, we saw that morphemes can be divided into those
with relatively specific meanings and belonging to large, open-ended classes -
lexical morphemes - and those with very abstract meanings and belonging to
small, closed classes - grammatical morphemes. In this section and the next,
we'll look more closely at some of the meanings and functions that grammatical
morphemes have [27]. Grammatical morphemes are always associated with a
particular lexical morpheme. They may be combined with the lexical morpheme to
form a single word, as in apples or walked, or they may form a separate word
that belongs to the same phrase as the lexical morpheme, as in the apple or is
walking. morphemes have two basic kinds of functions distinguished from one
another in terms of how the morphemes relate to the lexical morpheme that they
combine with. One function, the subject of the next chapter, is the creation of
a new concept based on the meaning of the lexical morpheme. For example, in
shorten, the -en takes the meaning of the adjective short and turns it into a
change of state along the dimension of length. In the process -en makes a verb
out of the adjective. This function of grammatical morphemes is called
derivation. other function of grammatical morphemes, the subject of the rest of
this chapter, is similar to modification; the grammatical morpheme specifies
some very abstract feature of the category that is the meaning of the lexical
morpheme. In other words, its meaning is a very abstract grammatical category.
For example, in walked, the -ed specifies that the walking took place before
the time of speaking; it assigns the feature past to the event. In other words,
past, contrasting with present and future, is a grammatical category in
English. The combination of a grammatical morpheme with a lexical morpheme to form
a word, as in walked, is called inflection. As we'll see, though, grammatical
categories can also be defined by grammatical morphemes that are separate
words. differ quite strikingly in terms of which grammatical categories are
built into their morphology. In this section I'll describe a few of the kinds
of grammatical categories that play a role in noun phrases. In the next
section, I'll describe some grammatical categories that are marked on verbs.
not only have the capacity to recognize individual objects in their environment
and categorize them as apples, stones, people, etc. They have the ability to
recognize sets of objects that share a category, for example, sets of apples,
stones, or people. Though an individual and a set seem to be very different
things, the categorization process for the individual and for the elements of
the set must be similar. This is reflected in an apparently universal property
of human language: the same morpheme is used for individual objects belonging
to a category and for sets of objects whose members belong to that category. In
English, the morpheme apple is applied both to individual apples and to sets of
apples. have a further ability; they can assign a cardinality to a set, that
is, they can tell (or estimate) how many elements are in the set. And
apparently all languages have systems of numerals such as two and eight. Each
numeral is a label for a category of set, independent of what kinds of members
the set has. For example, eight labels the category of sets consisting of eight
elements. let's imagine two tribes of Grammies. One uses common nouns like
apple and tiger and numerals like two and eight, as well as adjectives like
many, to talk about individuals and sets and finds that these forms suffice.
They say things like give me apple whether they want one or several, and when
it matters, they say things like give me two apple or give me several apple.
another tribe, for one reason or another, a subgroup of members begins to
explicitly mention whenever they are talking about a set rather than an
individual. So they say things like give me apple, some whenever they want more
than one and give me apple when they want exactly one. But they leave out the
some when there is a numeral because the numeral makes it clear that more than
one is intended. This practice catches on, and eventually two things happen.
First, because the some doesn't convey very much information, it gets
pronounced more and more quickly and carelessly, and eventually all that's left
of it is the s at the beginning. This s is pronounced as if it were part of the
noun that it follows, and it even assimilates to the voicing of the last phone
in the noun, so it is pronounced /z/ in apples. Second, the members of the
tribe find it weird to say apple whenever they mean more than one, even when
the context makes it clear that they do. So now they say things like give me
two apples. [37]though this story is completely fictitious, it illustrates what
has apparently happened in two kinds of modern languages. English is a language
of the second type. It is ungrammatical in English to say apple when more than
one apple is referred to. It is of course equally ungrammatical to say apples
when only one apple is referred to. English grammar makes a two-way distinction
in the way objects are referred to: individual objects and sets of objects are
referred to differently. That is, English has the grammatical dimension number
with two values or grammatical categories, singular and plural. English nouns
are inflected for number, and number inflection is obligatory. Thus three apple
and lots of person are ungrammatical in English. grammar of a language may
"force" its speakers to use certain morphemes in certain contexts,
even when they seem to contribute nothing to the meaning. that in the case of
the phrase three apples, the plural morpheme, -s, doesn't really carry any
information; the numeral already makes it clear that more than apples is being
referred to. That is, the grammatical morpheme is redundant. Redundancy is a frequent
property of grammatical morphemes. Because they are obligatory, Speakers in a
sense do not ask themselves whether they are necessary when producing
sentences; they insert them in any case. It may seem odd that language would
allow redundancy, but it is probably helpful to Hearers. Redundancy permits
Hearers to understand the message even when they miss some part of it. appears
in English grammar in multiple places. a dimension such as number is part of
the grammar of a language, it often turns up in more than one place. This is
true for number in English. Consider the following sentences. apple is on the
table.apples are on the table.and apples are preceded by the words an and some.
These words are called indefinite articles; both function roughly to say that
the thing referred to is not already known to the hearer. But they differ in
another way: an (or a) is used only before singular nouns, while some is used
before plural nouns (and also before some singular nouns; more about this
below). That is, these words also distinguish singular from plural. The verbs
in the two sentences are also different. Is is appropriate only when the
subject is singular, whereas are is used when the subject is plural. Again, the
distinction between singular and plural matters somewhere in the grammar of the
language. English we can say lots of milk, lots of sand, and lots of salt, but
not normally lots of milks, lots of sands, and lots of salts. On the other
hand, we can say lots of girls, lots of trees, and lots of rivers, but not
normally lots of girl, lots of tree, and lots of river. is another grammatical
dimension with two values in English that is tied up with the use of plural and
the distinction between a(n) and some. Consider these sentences. rice is on the
table.piles of rice are on the table.that in sentence 5, rice is singular, and
the verb is also in the singular form is. However, instead of a, the noun is
preceded by some, the form used with a plural noun in sentence 4. In fact no
matter how much there is on the table, we still won't say some rices. If the
Speaker wants to mention the amount of rice, they have to use another noun such
as pile or bowl or cup, putting that noun in the plural, as in sentence 6. the
English lexicon, peas are like beans and potatoes; rice is like sugar and
vinegar. English has two kinds of nouns. One kind, count nouns, is used mainly
for objects (and for abstract things that are construed as object-like). In the
singular these nouns may be preceded by the article a(n), and they are always
pluralized when more than one of the objects is referred to. The other kind,
mass nouns, is used mainly for masses (and for abstract things that are
construed as mass-like). These nouns are always singular except in the special
sense of 'multiple kinds' (for example, wines referring to different brands or
varieties of wine), and they may be preceded by the article some. Of course
there is a gray area between clear cases of objects and clear cases of masses,
and in this area, a noun can go either way. Thus rice, as we have seen, is a
mass noun. But pea, which designates something that, like rice, consists of
small objects usually gathered together in a group, is a count noun. (In fact
pea, in the form pease, used to be a mass noun like rice.) English has the
dimension of countability built into its grammar. But note that it appears in
the language in two places, in the grammatical forms that go with one or the
other category (a(n) with singular, some with plural for count; some with
singular and no plural for mass) and in the lexicon, where most nouns belong to
one or the other type. That is, there is a strong tendency in English for the
count grammatical patterns to go with certain nouns (such as apple and house)
and the mass grammatical patterns to go with other nouns (such as rice and
milk). have seen three ways in which languages may divide the things that
speakers talk about into two very general categories, on the basis of whether
they are individuals or sets, on the basis of whether they are masses or
objects, and on the basis of a single conceptual property (biological gender)
that is extended more or less arbitrarily to cover all labeled categories of
things. Another possibility, found in many languages, is a somewhat
finer-grained grouping into a larger set of categories, each of which is still
more general than the kind of category represented by a noun such as apple,
baby, or paper. Each of these abstract categories is represented by a
grammatical morpheme called a classifier. The most common basis for the
classification of things appears to be shape, but it may also be based on
orientation, animacy, function, or cardinality (for sets) [34]. [38] argues for
a particular type of cross-linguistically valid grammatical categories, which
he calls generic categories. Generic categories are categories encompassing
conceptually related notions, e.g. present, past, and future, or epistemic and
deontic. These can be described in terms of some more abstract notion that is
used to define the category, such as tense or modality. categories are commonly
used in linguistic analysis, but a great deal of controversy exists about what
exact generic categories should be posited, for instance whether or not
evidentiality can be regarded as a category in its own right. Boye argues that
this is because proposals about generic categories are usually based on
arbitrary notional criteria. Instead, generic categories should correspond to
linguistically significant generalizations, that is, they should capture some
organizing principle in the grammar of individual languages. In fact, Boye
argues, generic categories are necessary in linguistic analysis precisely
because they appear to play a role in a number of grammatical phenomena
cross-linguistically. Claims about generic categories should be based on
semantic maps, because the fact that the notions encompassed by a generic
category cover a continuous region on a semantic map is evidence that the
category corresponds to a linguistically significant rather than a linguist's arbitrary
generalization. what follows, I will argue that Boye's proposal, along with
much of the current literature on grammatical categories, does not distinguish
between two possible senses of the notion of grammatical category, and that
this distinction is essential to a proper understanding of what evidence can
actually be used to posit individual categories, including evidence from
semantic maps. principle, grammatical categories can be conceived of either as
a linguist's classification device, or as components of the grammatical
organization of individual languages, as presumably specified at some level of
mental representation. In the first sense, individual categories, e.g. tense or
evidentiality, are labels indicating that a number of linguistic elements share
some selected property. This is a descriptive generalization over observed
grammatical patterns, which does not imply that the relevant elements form a
class in a speaker's mental representation. In the second sense, grammatical
categories are classes that have psychological reality, that is, they exist in
a speaker's mind independently of a linguist's description of observed
grammatical patterns. [38] claims that he regards generic categories as a
linguist's theoretical construct rather than cognitive entities with
ontological reality. This suggests that he is using the notion of generic
category in the descriptive sense, that is, to classify particular grammatical
patterns rather than to make hypotheses about a speaker's mental
representation. In this case, however, what generic categories (or grammatical
categories in general, for that matter) should be posited for a language is
basically a conventional issue which depends on what parameters are selectedto
define individual categories, and any parameter can be chosen provided that it
is applied consistently. 's claim that generic categories should correspond to
linguistically significant generalizations implies that positing particular
generic categories should not be a matter of convention, and that these
categories should rather play a role in the grammar of individual languages.
There is, however, only one possible sense in which a category can be assumed
to exist in the grammar of a language independently of a linguist's descriptive
convention, namely, the category must have some form of mental reality for the
speakers of the language. This may be either because the category is part of a
speaker's mental representation of individual constructions, or because it
plays a role in the diachronic processes that lead speakers to create
particular contructions, even if it is not part of a speaker's mental
representation of already attested constructions. , if generic categories are
assumed to capture linguistically significant generalizations, they must be
assumed to have some form of mental reality.'s first argument for generic
categories is that, in a number of languages, forms encoding notions within the
same generic category do indeed display the same distributional properties (for
example, Ngyambaa evidential clitics are characterized by specific ordering
restrictions). These properties single out the forms as a separate class within
the grammar of the language, which can be taken as evidence that the relevant
generic categories (e.g. evidentiality) play a role in that grammar [38]. fact
that elements within the same semantic domain have the same distributional
properties, however, does not mean that these properties are related to the
corresponding generic categories. For example, it is well known that different
forms within the domain of tense, aspect, or modality may all develop from
verbs [39]. As a result, these forms may all be subject to ordering
restrictions that reflect the position that verbs occupy or used to occupy in
the clause. These restrictions will be different from those pertaining to forms
that originated from sources other than verbs, and they will single out the
relevant forms as a distinct grammatical class in the language. This, however,
is due to the position of verbs in the clause, not any generic category of
tense, aspect, or modality that can be used to describe the semantics of the
forms. examples, which could easily be multiplied, do not exclude that
particular grammatical phenomena may actually be based on generic categories.
The point is, however, that the fact that forms within the same semantic domain
have the same distributional properties is not per se evidence for the
corresponding generic categories, because the properties may be independent of
these categories. Whether and in what ways generic categories play a role in
particular grammatical phenomena should rather be demonstrated on a
case-by-case basis. 's second argument for generic categories presents a
similar problem. The fact that particular semantic maps (e.g. those for
indefinite pronouns) encompass notions that can be described in terms of
generic categories, Boye argues, is evidence that these categories play a role
in the grammar of the relevant languages [38]. From this, he concludes that
semantic maps can be used to test claims about generic categories, because the
members of a generic category should always cover a continuous region on a
semantic map.
.3The theory of functional-semantic
fields
field principle conception of the
system organization of linguistic facts is fairly considered to be one of the
most significant achievements of the XX century linguistics. The concept of
“field” traces back to the definition of language as the system, representing
complex mechanism, which was theoretically explained by I.A. Boduen de Kurtene
and F. de Saussure. Field approach to the stock of words (lexis) is more than
half-century history of development. Researchers of different generations,
national schools and directions, interpret the term of “field” differently, which
points to different experience of the problem development, rather than the
differences of fundamental theoretical character [41].promoters of this
direction in the study of language were G.Ipsen and J. Trier, German
scientists. Originally the term “semantic field” was noticed on the pages of G.
Ipsen’s work “Der alte Orient und die Indogermanem”, in 1924, where it was
determined as the assembly of words, possessing the same meaning [45].. Trier’s
conception was of a great popularity abroad. After F. de Saussure, Trier
regards that the language of a certain period is a stable and relatively
completed system, where words possess meanings not independently, but because
other words, closely-spaced with former ones, possess them as well. Trier’s
merit is regarded to be the clearage of the terms of “lexical field”, divided
into elementary items - concepts. He also introduced these terms into
linguistic use. The fields of this kind are rightfully named paradigmatic
ones.is regarded to be rightful for some scientists to confirm the existence of
several types of fields. But there are also points of view, when preference is
given to those semantic fields, which elements possess common meaning. So, O.
Dukhachek considers that the word stock of any language represents a structural
entire, where each word lies in a proper place owing to its semantic structure
and attitude to other words. The linguist draws attention to generally
recognized thesis, that the unity of form and content is realized in the word,
owing to which words are connected to each other based on some collectivity of
form and certain affinity of meaning. Therewith meaning is regarded as complex
and determined as the realization of summation of national base and all
conceptual, emotional, expressive, grammar and stylistic secondary components.
It allows O. Dukhachek to postulate the two main types of linguistic fields:
verbal linguistic fields, a centre of which is a word, and conceptual
linguistic fields, where words are linked by the fact, that they contain one
common meaning (elementary fields) and some close meanings (complex fields) in
their semantics.fields are divided by O. Dukhachek into morphological,
syntactical (syntagmatic) and associative. In morphological fields their
separate elements are grouped around frame word (it represents the field
centre, shaping the whole unit based on relationship or similarity).
Homographs, homophones, paronyms, words, derived from single radical, words,
formed by dint of identical prefixes or suffixes or not having inflexions
common in form, belong to this [44]. Within syntagmatic fields words are linked
with central member with the help of associations, built upon formal or
semantic likeness, and sometimes upon both of these simultaneously.task of
synchronous research of fields is, in particular, the definition of the field
structure in question in certain language, except that special interest, in O.
Dukhachek’s opinion, is represented by the study of that, how the words, close
in meaning, influence each other, changing their semantic volume. The aim of
diachronic research, as O. Dukhachek regards, is the clearing up of the kind of
the role, which the appearance of some and disappearance of other lexical items
within this field play. Undoubtedly, positive aspect in O. Dukhachek’s
conception is the fact, that he places importance on the phenomenon of semantic
attraction, though it isn’t reflected in the field definition: “Linguistic
field is the assembly of words, which being connected to each other by certain
relationship, form a structural hierarchic unity”. Semantic attraction is
interpretated by O. Dukhachek as a phenomenon, determining the words meaning
change in consequence of its phonetic closeness to another word and influencing
the place of other lexical items in group.is worthwhile noting that the
foundations of the field theory building in grammatical language structure were
established by V.G. Admoni; the principles of field research were methodically
applied by V.G. Admoni in his works on the German language formation in its
historical development and modern condition. Admoni’s conception on the field’s
structure of grammatical facts is of great interest in native linguistics. In
“The Foundations of Grammar Theory” V.G. Admoni points that for the field structure
it is characteristically to have a centre balance, formed by optimal
concentration of all features, coincidental in this phenomenon, and periphery,
which consists of formations with incomplete number of these marks, along with
possible variation of their intensity [1].G.S. Shur’s opinion, field is “the
way of existence and grouping of linguistic elements, belonging to different
language levels, possessing general (invariant) qualities, alongside with the
features, differentiating these linguistic items from each other” [32, 68]..V.
Gulyga and E.I. Shendels, speaking of lexico-grammatical field, emphasize a
dominant as a field constituent in its structure a) the most speaking for this
meaning expression; b) showing it in the most univocal way; c) used systematically
[18, 10].Z.N. Verdieva writes, field in linguistics is represented as a
sum-total of the words of different parts of speech, united by the community of
one concept expression. It is the concept that acts as the base of words
integration in the field. The correlation of lexical items and concepts, lying
in the base of field integration, can be different. A word can express a
meaning and be associated with it indirectly through subordinative components
of its semantic structure. Word sign, in the semantic structure of which, a
feature occupies a dominant position, coincidental with the concept,
integrating the field, form its centre. Word signs, containing this feature in
a subordinative position, refer to the field periphery [15].view of the fact,
that the structure of the majority of lexical fields consist of rather great
amount of features, they can belong to a lot of conceptual fields, equal to the
amount of its semantic features, and the fields as the variety of word signs
intercross and don’t have well-managed borders. Wide amount of literature is
devoted to semantic fields; it deals with both the history of the problem
development and achieved results.theories, analyzed therein before, generally
interpret field as a single-level formation, including units of any level
(lexical, word-formative, syntactical). It made the first stage of the field
development. However, nowadays the tendency to consider the field as a combined
structure consisting of the units of different levels is becoming evident.
Mostly distinct this tendency developed in the approach to regard the field as
a split-level formation, which was in the picture in the theory of
functional-semantic fields and signalized the second stage in the field theory
development.advantage of functional-system approach is preeminently in the
fact, that it enables to research linguistic phenomena not only from the point
of their inner structure, but in the sphere of its functioning, connections
with the environment. Such approach gives the opportunity to study language in
its concrete realization, in action, research means of transporting
extralinguistic phenomena and situations. Functional-system approach suits
natural facilities of conversation as well, when different linguistic means are
used in their inextricable connection.
“Functional-semantic field is a
concrete linguistic two-side unity, which plane of content includes semantic
elements in this language interpretation” [12]. In the base of each
functional-semantic field, as A.V. Bondarko regards, there is some certain
semantic category, representing semantic invariant, uniting dissimilar language
means and stipulating their correlation. .M. Pavlov determines field as a
cognitive absorption of linguistic formations of “double” character in the
sphere of their fundamental qualities. “Doubleness” of these qualities, in the
eyes of V.M. Pavlov, is made up of their representing the unity of contrasts.
Thereby they act as the branches of linguistic system, through which the links
of other branches come. It follows that field covers not only strictly
delimited and contrasting formations, but passing places between these
formations, dissolving boundaries between them [26, 22].the above reasoning it
is clear that it’s rightfully to draw the following conclusions:
● the term of “linguistic
field”, firstly, contains the idea of grouping (of serially ordered set) of
dissimilar linguistic means;
● the features of elements
connection and interdependence are the most important inner qualities;
● field is of systematic
character and represents some place, where the centre (nucleus or frame),
basing on grammar category and characterizing with density and maximum features
concentration specific for this field, is separated, around which other
(peripheral) means are grouped, and the zones of interception (passages) of
other fields are marked., it can be said that grammatical categories play an
important role in the English language. It is important to keep in mind that a
grammatical category is a linguistic, not a real-world, category, and that
there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between the two, though they
are usually closely related. Number, gender and case are the most popular
grammatical categories in English; all three categories are conflated together
in paradigms of declension.Case agreement is not a significant feature of
English.
2. The Categories of Number, Case,
and Gender in Terms of Field Structure
.1 Functional-semantic field of
number in Modern English
linguistics, grammatical number is a
grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that
expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two", or
"three or more").[1] In many languages including English, the number
categories are singular and plural. Some languages also have a dual number or
other arrangements.count distinctions typically, but not always, correspond to
the actual count of the referents of the marked noun or pronoun.word
"number" is also used in linguistics to describe the distinction between
certain grammatical aspects that indicate the number of times an event occurs,
such as the semelfactive aspect, the iterative aspect, etc. For that use of the
term, see "Grammatical aspect".languages of the world have formal
means to express differences of number. One widespread distinction, found in
English and many other languages, involves a simple two-way number contrast
between singular and plural (car/cars, child/children, etc.). Discussion of
other more elaborate systems of number appears below.number is a morphological
category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or
agreement. As an example, consider the English sentences below:apple on the
table is fresh.two apples on the table are fresh.number of apples is marked on
the noun-"apple" singular number (one item) vs. "apples"
plural number (more than one item)-on the demonstrative,
"that/those", and on the verb, "is/are". Note that,
especially in the second sentence, all this information can seem redundant,
since quantity is already indicated by the numeral "two".language has
grammatical number when its nouns are subdivided into morphological classes
according to the quantity they express, such that:noun belongs to a unique
number class. (Nouns are partitioned into disjoint classes by number.)modifiers
(such as adjectives) and verbs have different forms for each number class and
must be inflected to match the number of the nouns to which they refer. (Number
is an agreement category.)is the case in English: every noun is either singular
or plural (a few, such as "fish", can be either, according to
context), and at least some modifiers of nouns-namely the demonstratives, the
personal pronouns, the articles, and verbs-are inflected to agree with the
number of the nouns to which they refer: "this car" and "these
cars" are correct, while "*this cars" or "*these car"
are ungrammatical and, therefore, incorrect. Only count nouns can be freely
used in the singular and in the plural. Mass nouns, like "wine",
"silverware", and "wisdom", are normally used in only the
singular.[2] Many languages distinguish between count nouns and mass nouns.all
languages have number as a grammatical category. In those that do not, quantity
must be expressed either directly, with numerals, or indirectly, through optional
quantifiers. However, many of these languages compensate for the lack of
grammatical number with an extensive system of measure words.is a hierarchy
among number categories: no language distinguishes a trial unless having a
dual, and no language has dual without a plural.category of number is expressed
by the paradigmatic opposition of two forms: the singular and the plural. The
strong member in this opposition, the plural, is marked by special formal
marks, the main of which is the productive suffix - (e) s which exists in three
allomorphs - [s], [z], [iz], eg: cats, boys, roses. The term
"productive" means that new nouns appearing in English form the
plural with the help of this suffix. Non-productive means of expressing the
plural are either historical relics of ancient number paradigms, or borrowed,
eg: the suppletive forms with interchange of vowels (man - men, tooth - teeth),
the archaic suffix-en (ox - oxen), a number of individual singular and plural
suffixes of borrowed nouns (antenna - antennae, stratum - strata, nucleus -
nuclei, etc.); in addition, a number of nouns have a plural form homonymous
with the singular (sheep, fish, deer, etc.). The singular is regularly unmarked
(possesses a "zero suffix"). grammatical meaning of the singular is
traditionally defined in a simplified way as "one", and the meaning
of the plural - as "many (more than one)". This is true for the bulk
of the nouns, namely those denoting simple countable objects (table - tables).
But the noun in the singular can denote not only "one discrete separate
object", but also substances (water), abstract notions (love), units of
measure (hour) and other referents. The same applies to the meaning of the
plural: plural forms do not always denote "more than one object", but
express some other meanings, such as feelings (horrors of war), sorts of
substances (wines), picturesqueness (sands, waters), etc. Thus, the broader
understanding of the grammatical meaning of the singular can be defined as the
non-dismembering reflection of the referent and the grammatical meaning of the
plural as potentially dismembering reflection of the referent; or, in other
words, the singular forms of nouns present their referents as indivisible, and
the plural forms - as divisible.
.A constant analysis (singular) of
the trends (plural) in the world and domestic retail trade markets led the
company’s managers(plural) to a decision to create and develop the network of
supermarkets to meet the highest world standards.
. According to business practice
shareholders (plural) of the Company have the right to allocate a part of
profit for employee benefits (plural), including payment of bonuses (plural)
and contributions to the Company’s social benefits funds (plural).
. According to market analysts
(plural), in 2007 the growth of foreign trade, especially import (singular),
will become faster.
. According to the explanation,
these are “commercial entities (plural) that conduct economic operations
(plural) based on contractual and accounting documents (plural) that conceal
their true goals (plural)and tasks(plural)”
. Accordingly, we assess all our
suppliers (plural) of products (plural) and services (plural) in terms of their
compliance with the established standards (plural)of quality, environmental
protection and health and safety at work.
.Accretion of the federal centre
power (singular) in the region as well as readiness of central bodies (plural)
of state power to invest financial resources (plural) for facilitation of the
investment activities (plural)in the region (singular).
.Additionally, enterprise activity
(singular) is on the rise, which is likely to influence operating revenues
(plural) in the corporate segment (singular).
. All these led to enhancement (singular)of
the information flow (singular), allowed us to clearly define the course of
action (singular) in many areas (plural) of the Company’s activities (plural)
through the development (singular)of procedures (plural), instructions (plural)
and other relevant documents (plural).
.An annual throughput of over 10
million tones (plural), a strong and stable position (singular) on the retail
market (market) and in other areas(plural) of trading - all these factors
(plural)will form a basis for a significantly higher valuation (singular)of the
Company (singular).
. An individual approach (singular)
to each customer(singular), high quality (singular), cost optimization
(singular) and the shortest terms of work (singular) performance (singular) are
the most important components (plural)of the image (singular) of the
company(singular).
. Analysts (plural) say the
acceleration (singular) in investment (singular) shows that the
company(singular) has entered a mature phase (singular) of the business cycle
(singular) and there is no indication (singular) that this positive trend
(singular) will end any time (singular) soon.
. And despite the relocation
(singular) of some production (singular) to lower-range countries (plural) to
the east, studies (plural) unanimously find that the opening of new markets
(plural) has, on the whole, benefited the country (singular) as a business
location(singular), rather than hurt it.
.Appropriate corporate supervision
(singular) forms (plural) an appropriate background for the Management Board
(singular) to pursue objectives (plural) that are to the best interest
(singular) of the company (singular) and its shareholders(plural); it also
ensures effective performance monitoring which further encourages the managers
to use the company’s resources (plural) and capabilities (plural) in a more
efficient manner(singular).
. As a result, bank services
(plural) have become more universal and apart from housing loans (plural),
banks(plural) also offer mortgage (singular) loans(plural), consolidation loans
(plural) and refinancing loans(plural).
.As at the date (singular) of these
financial statement (plural) s, the Group (singular) is in the process
(singular) of determining the effect (singular) of the changes (plural)
resulting from the first time application (singular) of the above standards
(plural) or interpretation (singular) on the consolidated financial
standards(plural).
. As the stock-exchange requirements
(plural) are very strict, our ability (singular) to comply with them demonstrates
our prowess (singular) in conducting business (singular) in a competitive
environment (singular), and is also one of the cornerstones(plural) on which
the Company (singular) value (singular) is built.
. At the beginning great effort
(singular) was spent on building proper working procedures (plural), setting up
mature software development (singular) methodology (singular), and establishing
effective communication (singular) with customers (plural) .
. Business manager (singular) of the
company (singular) told that a slight decline (singular) of the net financing
result (singular) was included to the factors (plural)driving the net
profit(singular) growth(singular).
. By purchasing shares (plural)in
investment funds(plural), every buyer (singular)indirectly becomes an investor
(singular)on the stock market(singular), but without having to spend long hours
analyzing companies(plural), markets (plural)and macroeconomic data(plural).
.Companies (plural)producing
permanent list (singular)of goods (plural)can obtain a General Certificate of
Origin from the Special Economic Zone for all the goods (plural)produced by
these enterprises (plural)for the period (singular)of up to one year(singular).
we can see that the in the sentences, given above, we observe the prevailing of
the plural form.semantic types of the singular and the plural, some of which
were shown above, are dependent on the lexico-semantic differences between
individual nouns, namely, the characteristics of their "quantitative
structure". For countable nouns the category of number is a variable
feature category, or relative, since countable English nouns have both singular
and plural correlative forms (table - tables). Uncountable nouns can be used
either only in the singular or only in the plural; for them the category of
number is absolute, or a constant feature category. The two groups of
uncountable nouns are respectively defined as singularia tantum, or, absolute
singular nouns and pluralia tantum, absolute plural nouns. absolute singular
nouns usually denote the following referents: abstract notions - love, hate,
despair, etc.; Names of substances and materials - snow, wine, sugar, etc.;
Branches of professional activity - politics, linguistics, mathematics; some
collective objects - fruit, machinery, foliage, etc. There are some other
singularia tantum nouns, that are difficult to classify, eg, advice, news and
others. As the examples above show, the nouns themselves do not possess any
formal marks of their singularia tantum status: their form may either coincide
with the regular singular - advice, or with the regular plural - news. Their
singularia tantum status is formally established in their combinability, being
reflected by the adjacent words: all singularia tantum nouns are used with the verbs
in the singular; they exclude the use of the numeral "one" or of the
indefinite article. Their quantity is expressed with the help of special
lexical quantifiers little, much, some, any, a piece, a bit, an item, eg: an
item of news, a piece of advice, a bit of joy, etc. As mentioned earlier, this
kind of rendering the grammatical meaning of number with uncountable nouns is
so regular that it can be regarded as a marginal case of suppletivity. absolute
plural nouns usually denote the following: objects consisting of two halves -
scissors, trousers, spectacles, etc.; Some diseases and abnormal states -
mumps, measles, creeps, hysterics, etc.; Indefinite plurality, collective
referents - earnings, police , cattle, etc. The nouns belonging to the pluralia
tantum group are used with verbs in the plural; they cannot be combined with
numerals, and their quantity is rendered by special lexical quantifiers a pair
of, a case of, etc., Eg: a pair of trousers, several cases of measles, etc.
terms of the oppositional theory one can say that in the formation of the two
subclasses of uncountable nouns, the number opposition is
"constantly" (lexically) reduced either to the weak member
(singularia tantum) or to the strong member (pluralia tantum). Absolute singular
nouns or absolute plural nouns are "lexicalized" as separate words or
as lexico-semantic variants of regular countable nouns. For example: a hair as
a countable noun denotes "a threadlike growth from the skin" as in I
found a woman's hair on my husband's jacket; hair as an uncountable noun
denotes a mass of hairs, as in Her hair was long and curly. Similar cases of
oppositional neutralization take place when countable nouns are used in the
absolute singular form to express the corresponding abstract ideas, eg: to
burst into song; or the material correlated with the countable referent, eg:
chicken soup; or to express generic meaning , eg: The rose is my favourite
flower (= Roses are my favourite flowers). The opposite process of the
restoration of the number category to its full oppositional force takes place
when uncountable nouns develop lexico-semantic variants denoting either various
sorts of materials (silks, wines), or manifestations of feelings (What a joy!),
Or the reasons of various feelings (pleasures of life - all the good things
that make life pleasant), etc. of the absolute plural form of the noun can be
illustrated with the following examples: colours as an absolute plural noun
denotes "a flag"; attentions denotes "wooing, act of love and
respect", etc. Oppositional neutralization also takes place when regular
countable collective nouns are used in the absolute plural to denote a certain
multitude as potentially divisible, eg: The jury were unanimous in their
verdict. Cases of expressive transposition are stylistically marked, when
singularia tantum nouns are used in the plural to emphasize the infinite
quantity of substances, eg: the waters of the ocean, the sands of the desert,
etc. This variety of the absolute plural may be called "descriptive uncountable
plural". A similar stylistically marked meaning of large quantities
intensely presented is rendered by countable nouns in repetition groups, eg:
cigarette after cigarette, thousand upon thousand, tons and tons, etc. This
variety of the absolute plural, "repetition plural" can be considered
a specific marginal analytical number form.
is a grammatical category whose
value reflects the grammatical function performed by a noun or pronoun in a
phrase, clause, or sentence. In some languages, nouns, pronouns and their
modifiers take different inflected forms depending on what case they are in.
English has largely lost its case system, although case distinctions can still
be seen with the personal pronouns: forms such as I, he and we are used in the
role of subject ("I kicked the ball"), while forms such as me, him
and us are used in the role of object ("John kicked me").such as
Ancient Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Russian and Finnish have extensive case
systems, with nouns, pronouns, adjectives and determiners all inflecting
(usually by means of different suffixes) to indicate their case. A language may
have a number of different cases (Latin and Russian each have at least six;
Finnish has 15). Commonly encountered cases include nominative, accusative,
dative and genitive. A role that one of these languages marks by case will
often be marked in English using a preposition. For example, the English
prepositional phrase with (his) foot (as in "John kicked the ball with his
foot") might be rendered in Russian using a single noun in the
instrumental case, or in Ancient Greek as τῷ
ποδί
tōi podi, meaning "the foot" with both words (the definite
article, and the noun πούς
pous, "foot") changing to dative form.a language evolves, cases can
merge (for instance in Ancient Greek genitive and ablative have merged as
genitive), a phenomenon formally called syncretism.[1]formally, case has been
defined as "a system of marking dependent nouns for the type of
relationship they bear to their heads."[2]:p.1 Cases should be
distinguished from thematic roles such as agent and patient. They are often
closely related, and in languages such as Latin several thematic roles have an
associated case, but cases are a morphological notion, while thematic roles are
a semantic one. Languages having cases often exhibit free word order, since
thematic roles are not required to be marked by position in the sentence.is the
grammatical function of a noun or pronoun. There are only three cases in modern
English, they are subjective (he), objective (him) and possessive (his). They
may seem more familiar in their old English form - nominative, accusative and
genitive. There is no dative case in modern English. Yippee!more good news. You
cannot really go wrong here, we got rid of most of our cases and as a result
English is easier than many other languages because nouns and some indefinite
pronouns (anyone, someone, everyone, and so on) only have a distinctive case
form for the possessive. There are a few remnants of old English though, and
pronouns have distinctive forms in all three cases and should be used with a
bit more care.pronoun cases are simple though. There are only three:-
. Subjective case: pronouns used as
subject.
. Objective case: pronouns used as
objects of verbs or prepositions.
. Possessive case: pronouns which
express ownership.
pronouns, and who and its compounds,
are the only words that are inflected in all three cases (subjective,
objective, possessive). In nouns the first two cases (subjective and objective)
are indistinguishable, and are called the common case. One result of this
simplicity is that, the sense of case being almost lost, the few mistakes that
can be made are made often, even by native speakers, some of them so often that
they are now almost right by prescription.is that form of a noun (or pronoun)
which tells us about its grammatical function in a sentence.there are forms and
functions.Case Formsyou notice the different forms of the first person pronoun
I and the noun poet in the two sets of sentences below?1saw the boy.boss called
me.book is mine....2poet came here.called the poet.book is the poet's., me, and
mine are different forms of the first person pronoun I and poet, and poet's are
different forms of the noun poet.different forms illustrated above are
associated with different functions in sentences.is used for the subject and me
for the object.cannot say...
*Me saw the boy. (* means
grammatically incorrect)
*The boss called I., me, mine and
poet, poet's are called Case forms. These forms signal to us the functions
performed by nouns and pronouns in sentences.what you have to do boils down
to...the forms and their associated functions.of English Case formsEnglish,
there is no one-to-one correspondence between forms and functions. See the word
poet performing two functions in the sentences we have seen above.are five
cases in English...but all of them do not have unique sets of forms
today.case.case. (for the nouns you have the same form for both nominative and
accusative)casecase (In modern English, the dative is identical to the
accusative)Case (this case has the same form as the nominative)modern
Englishdative case has the same form as that of the accusative.vocative case
form is identical to the nominative.in a sentence E-learning Personal Loan
Learn Spanishwe consider grammatical case functions.Nominative Case is used for
the following functions:of a verbcomplement (predicate nominative)Accusative
Casefor these functions:of a transitive verbof a prepositionof a non-finite
verbcomplementGenitive Case is used for showing:Dative Case is used for the
indirect object of a ditransitive verb.Vocative Case is used when we address
someone.is important in grammar is to learn first the different forms and then
the functions associated with those forms.Case is expecially important because
it relates to the noun's syntax, i.e. its relationship with other words in a
sentence.
.Convenient location (nominative) of
central office (genitive) of the company (genitive) provides the clients
(accusative) with an opportunity to hold negotiations(accusative),
meetings(accusative), presentations(accusative), and conferences(accusative).
. Corporate governance (nominative)
aims at ensuring effective development (accusative) of the company (genitive)
and preserving the balance (accusative) between all stakeholders in the
company, including investors, employees and suppliers.
. Creation (nominative) of
favourable environment (accusative) for entrepreneurship, development,
stimulation of business initiatives, strengthening of positions (possessive) of
small and medium businesses (possessive)are considered as one of primary tasks.
.Currently representatives
(nominative) of industrial enterprises (possessive) are very interested in the
activities of vocational schools (possessive), because these schools supply
skilled workers.
. Domestic demand (nominative) is
expected to be the main driving force behind the growth and this particularly
applies to investment, whose growth is expected to exceed 16 percent in the
second quarter of 2007.
.Due to skillfully developed
marketing program the enterprise has managed to completely pay off state taxes
(namely a VAT and a land tax) and arrears of wages (possessive) of enterprise
employees (possessive).
.During periods of hyperinflation,
assets (nominative) and liabilities (nominative) are restated to reflect the
changes (accusative) in the general price index.
. Expenditures (nominative) for
modernization of machinery grew rapidly and, in 2001, more than 13 billion
dollars were invested into machine inventory, resulting in approximately 40% of
the total investment in the industry.
. Finally, fictitious firms
(nominative) are practically irreplaceable when underground cash conversation
centers are set up, as well as schemes to reimburse VAT from the state budget
or customs clearance (or transit processing) of goods (possessive).
.Financing from the European
Regional Development Fund (nominative) and other structural funds is unrepaid
support; financial support is allocated through development programs which
consist of collections of fundable measures(possessive).
. Fiscal regulations (nominative)
are subject to numerous changes (accusative) which quite often result in ambiguities
in interpretation of tax legislation and difference in opinions between
entrepreneurs and tax authorities.
.Following implementation of its
strategy, the LOTOS Group (nominative) will become an important element of the
government policy aimed at increasing energy security of the country
(possessive).
.Following implementation of the key
strategic programs(possessive), if the adopted market assumptions prove
correct, the Group (nominative) will generate high revenues.
. Foreign investors (nominative)
also participate in the operation of the company: two Leipzig energy companies
(nominative) are shareholders of the company(possessive), the value of their
shares increased by 5 per cent in 2003.
. From the floatation of the Company
shares in June 2005 to the year’s end, the share price (nominative) skyrocketed
by 52% which was one of the strongest rises (possessive)over to be recorded by
large-capitalization companies.
. Furthermore, there is a
significant range (nominative) of the value of the provisions(possessive) for
the reclamation of the land, as assessed by the environmental expert.
. GDP growth (nominative) should
continue to run at 5 percent thanks to internal investments supported by
structural funds, foreign direct investments and exports.
.Goods (nominative) imported to the
territory of the Special Economic Zone (possessive) from other countries are
exempt from import customs duties and other payments applied at customs
clearance (except for customs tax).
.Higher economic efficiency (nominative)
of the LOTOS Group (possessive), stronger position (nominative) among European
refineries, and creation (nominative) of a technological platform
(possessive)are necessary to satisfy the quality requirements prevailing on the
domestic and European markets.
. Highly qualified experienced
personnel (nominative) of the enterprise (possessive)constantly looks for new
solutions, applies up-to-date technologies and collaborates with leading
scientific organizations and specialists(possessive). Modern English the
problem of case is reduced to the dispute whether the case category exists as
such. Open to thought and questioning, this problem has always been much
debated. The solution of the problem depends mainly on grammarians’
interpretation of the term “case”. As we will see below, some scholars consider
it to be possible to speak only of case as a paradigm of a word formed by
synthetic markers, i.e. by endings. Other scientists believe that the term
“analytical case” is justified: analytical cases are formed by prepositions
introducing a noun.category is expressed in English by the opposition of the
form -’s, usually called the possessive case, or more traditionally, the
genitive case, to the unfeatured form of the noun, usually called the common
case. The apostrophized -s serves to distinguish in writing the singular noun
in the possessive case from the plural noun in the common case: the man s duty,
the President’s decision. The possessive of the bulk of plural nouns remains
phonetically unexpressed: the few exceptions concern only some of the irregular
plurals: the actresses ‘dresses, the mates ‘help, the children s room., the
forms of the English nouns designated as “case forms” relate to one another in
an extremely peculiar way. The peculiarity is that the common form is
absolutely indefinite from the semantic point of view, whereas the possessive
form is restricted to the functions which have a parallel expression by
prepositional constructions. Thus, the common form, as appears from the
presentation, is also capable of rendering the possessive semantics, which
makes the whole of the possessive case into a kind of subsidiary element in
the grammatical system of the English noun. This feature stamps English noun
declension as something utterly different from every conceivable declension in
principle. In fact, the inflectional oblique case forms as normally and
imperatively expressing the immediate functional parts of the ordinary sentence
in “noun-declensional” languages do not exist in English at all.there is no
wonder that in the course of linguistic investigation the category of case in
English has become one of the vexed problems of theoretical discussion.special
views advanced at various times by different scholars should be considered as
successive stages in the analysis of this problem.first view may be called the
“theory of positional cases”. This theory is directly connected with the old
grammatical tradition, and its traces can be seen in many contemporary school
textbooks in the English-speaking countries. Linguistic formulations of this
theory may be found in the works of Nesfield, Deutschbein, Bryant and
others.accord with the theory of positional cases, the unchangeable forms of
the noun are differentiated as different cases by virtue of the functional
positions occupied by the noun in the sentence. Thus, the English noun, on the
analogy of classical Latin grammar, would distinguish, besides the inflectional
possessive case, also the non-infiectional, i.e. purely positional cases: nominative,
vocative, dative and accusative. The uninflectional cases of the noun are taken
to be supported by the parallel inflectional cases of the personal
pronouns:(subject) Rainfalls(address) Will you be there, Ann?(indirect object)
I gave Anna book.(direct object) They killed a bear.prepositional object They
broke the window with a stone.blunder of this theory is that it substitutes the
functional characteristics of the part of the sentence for the morphological
features of the word class, whereas the case form, by definition, is a variable
morphological form of the noun. What this theory does prove is that the
functional meanings rendered by cases can be expressed in language by other
grammatical means, in particular, by word-order.second view may be called the
“theory of prepositional cases”. It is also connected with the old school
grammar teaching, and was advanced as a logical supplement to the positional
view of the case.accord with the prepositional theory, combinations of nouns
with prepositions in certain object and attributive collocations should be
understood as morphological case forms. To these belong first of all the
“dative” case (to + N, for + N) and the possessive case (of + N). These
prepositions are inflectional prepositions, i.e. grammatical elements
equivalent to case forms. The would-be prepositional cases are generally taken
as coexisting with positional cases, together with the classical inflectional
genitive completing the case system of the English noun. The prepositional
theory, though somewhat better grounded than the positional theory,
nevertheless can hardly pass a serious linguistic trial. In other languages all
prepositions do require definite cases of nouns (prepositional
case-government). It should follow from this that not only the of, to and fог-phrases
but also all other prepositional phrases in English must be regarded as
“analytical” cases. As a result of this approach, illogical redundancy in
terminology would arise: each prepositional phrase would bear then another, additional
name of “prepositional case”, the total number of the “said” cases running into
dozens upon dozens without any gain either to theory or practice., prepositions
may have various meanings depending on the context, which makes it possible
for a preposition to correlate with several cases. For example, in English the
preposition by, formerly a purely local form (He stood by the window) came to
acquire a sense of means or instrument. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests
that this preposition acquired its instrumental sense via expressions such as
She read by candlelight where the йу-phrase,
originally a locative (Where did she read?), was reinterpreted as instrumental
(How did she read it?). It is not hard to find situations that allow a locative
or instrumental interpretation and which could facilitate a locative or
instrumental form adopting both functions. Here are some examples: wash the
cloth in/with water, cook meat on/in/with fire, come on/by horse.third view of
the English noun case recognizes a limited inflectional system of two cases in
English, one of them featured and the other one un-featured. This view may be
called the “limited case theory”. This theory is at present most broadly
accepted among linguists both in this country and abroad. It was formulated by
such scholars as Sweet, Jespersen, and has since been radically developed by
Smirnitsky, Barkhudarov and others.limited case theory is based on the explicit
oppositional approach to the recognition of grammatical categories. In the system
of the English case the functional mark is defined, which differentiates the
two case forms: the possessive or genitive form as the strong member of the
categorical opposition and the common, or “non-genitive” form as the weak
member of the categorical opposition. The opposition is shown as being effected
in full with animate nouns, though a restricted use with inanimate nouns is
also taken into account.there are grammatical instruments such as a case
system. Maybe in most cases it really isn't much of a problem when you don't
immediately recognize the part of speech a word belongs to. But at times a case
system might come in handy.that change verbs and nouns's not claim that because
Icelandic and German still have more or less strong verbal paradigms,
grammatical gender and a case system, and because English once had it all as
well, we should reintroduce these things into modern English.let's say there's
a radio program called Grammar Matters. Is matters a noun in the plural or a
verb in the "third person singular present tense, indicative mode, active
voice" -- Wait a minute -- Present tense "it matters" as opposed
to, say, past tense "it mattered". So, there still are a few endings
like -s and -ed after all, called inflections that give a word a twist in its
meaning.quickly: Indicative mode "it matters" as opposed to
subjunctive mode "it may matter" which used to be recognizable by the
ending of the verb, here: matter or its equivalent, as opposed to needing an
auxiliary verb, here: may -- active voice "she is taking a photo" as
opposed to passive voice "a photo is being taken".Shapes of Verbs and
Nouns, the as yet fictitious radio program Grammar Matters could mean that it
is about grammar things-- matters, subjects, issues to do with grammar. Here, in
these constructions, it becomes clear that matters is a noun in the plural. Or
Grammar Matters could mean: "Grammar is important". You cannot tell
without more background information or before hearing it being pronounced by
the program's host.good example why a case system can be a useful thing to
have, instead of just "providing the learner with a set of mistakes to
make" as it was once put, can be seen in a sentence like this: "He
called his neighbor a doctor."sentence is ambiguous because there are no
case markers at the end of neighbor and doctor to tell us who is actually
called what, or who is called for whom, or who is involved in what's happening.
Here are a few remnants, however, that made it into modern English, or PDE,
Present-Day English: who as opposed to whom, "he" as opposed to his
or him. What we are dealing with here are the subjects, and the direct and
indirect objects of a sentence.sentence "Could you give me the key,
please." isn't any trickier than "Could you give the key to me,
please," though the second sentence could be understood as stressing the
"to me" object. The "key" is the thing given, and the
"me" is the part of the sentence that is involved in the giving and
that probably benefits from receiving the key., the Case of Involvementlearners
of Latin the term dative of advantage would be used but, depending on the
circumstances, however, there are many further datives, but they all basically
boil down to the case of involvement, one way or another., the indirect object,
"me" in this case, is involved. It is not the thing being given;
because that's the key, which is therefore the direct object (in the
accusative), even though one cannot conclude this from its mere shape any
longer, but one can from its position in the sentence.doctor example would be
less ambiguous if the words had case markers, let's say:neighbor is reading.is
*thes neighbores* newspaper.give it to *them neighbore*.can see *thone
neighbor*.we have here in these four sample sentences with a *funky new
grammar* are the cases called nominative (1), genitive (2), dative (3) and
accusative (4).might call the nominative the who case, the agent of an action,
as the neighbor who is doing something. We might call the genitive the
possessive case, the whose case, whose is it. The dative case, also called the
indirect object, is the to-whom case, that's the part of the sentence that is
involved in the action.accusative case, also called the direct object, is the
part of the sentence that is immediately affected. Here, it's the newspaper,
it's the one that is being given, changes ownership, or is being read to
pieces.is perfectly normal for a Germanic language to have words that in this
fourth case have a shape like the one in the first case, the nominative. But
don't despair. For one, this isn't the whole story yet, anyway, for another, we
have the newspaper's article to help us.Specify Nouns and their Functionsfrom
being what's written on any of the paper's pages, the noun's definite articles
instead are: the, *thes, them, thone*. If we see something like this: "The
neighbor sees me." then we know that "the neighbor" is the one
doing something. But if we see: "I can see *thone neighbor*." then we
know that it is "I" doing something and "thone neighbor" is
the object., a change in word order used to not change the meaning, but simply
give some stress to the object. Look here: "*Thone* neighbor I see."
This would be much like: "It is the neighbor whom I see." or even
"...who I see." or just "... I see." We would, however,
these days feel a little uneasy about "The neighbor I see", wouldn't
we.there are some more examples.
.However, the balance sheet
structure(nominative) outlined above seems to be only temporary, as it is bound
to undergo considerable changes in the immediate future related to the
execution of projects (possessive)critical to the Group’s further development
(accusative).
. If to talk about the company's
strategy, this is, no doubt the breaking of old stereotypes (possessive)and
introducing of new progressive technologies (possessive)into the building.
.Imports are expected to grow at a
slightly slower rate than exports (accusative), and foreign trade is expected
to continue to favourably impact GDP growth, through far less markedly than in
previous years.
. In addition to banks, an
increasing role (nominative) in the development of the financial market
(possessive)is being played by other intermediary institutions such as
brokerage houses or leasing firms.
.In fact, what we are talking about
is a sphere (nominative) of illegal financial services (possessive)meant to
reimburse VAT at the expense of state budget, to convert capital into cash, to
carry out schemes with securities (possessive) and insurance (possessive) (more
accurately, export money, using reinsurance (accusative)), etc.
.In follows from the observation of
the investment and construction market(possessive) that, despite fluctuations
in the construction volume, the crisis (nominative)in the construction sector
has been overcome and that the upturn will continue in the coming months.
.In order to make full use of these
types of resources (accusative), it will be necessary to have a customs or
export expert provide the firm with a reliable view and opinion as to the
Harmonized System classification numbers applicable to the firm’s products.
. In recent years, an initiative
(nominative) emerged to set up investors' clubs to bring individual investors
together, help them learn more about investing in the capital markets and then
aid them in putting their knowledge to use.
.In September, the current account
(nominative) showed a 195-million-euro surplus (accusative) even though most
economists had expected a deficit.
.3 Functional-semantic field of
gender in Modern English
English, grammatical gender is a
property of only nouns and pronouns. It is one of the simplest parts of English
grammar for the concept is clear and consistent.is because gender in English is
based on natural gender (i.e. maleness and femaleness) rather than grammar
(i.e. morphology).is not so in many other languages, where the concept of
grammatical gender is based on morphology and may apply not only to nouns and
pronouns but also to other parts of speech such as adjectives and verbs.is
Gender in English?English, the idea is simple.male person or male animal
belongs to one gender-class; a female person or female animal belongs to
another. Simple, isn't it?English had grammatical gender then nouns, pronouns,
even other parts of speech would have belonged to different gender groups
depending upon their word-endings-and even these would have had exceptions!,
English is much simpler than those languages.at these sentences...gets upset.
She remains calm.lioness stays with the cubs. The lion goes out to hunt.man is
an actor. The woman is an actress.pronoun he and the nouns lion, man, actor
refer to male persons or animals. They belong to one class of gender. The
pronoun she and the nouns lioness, woman, and actress refer to female persons
or animals. Hence these belong to another class of gender.this mean that English
has only two gender-classes?. English has four.fact makes it easy for us to
have clear divisions. The simplicity of this part of grammar in English comes
from having four classes. I will explain this to you in a moment.is of Four
Kinds in English.divides nouns and pronouns into four genders in this
way::males (and only males) are said to belong to the masculine gender.
(examples: boy, man, landlord, god, tiger, horse, rooster, stag, he,
etc):females (and only females) belong to this gender category. (examples:
girl, woman, goddess, landlady, tigress, mare, hen, doe, hind, she, etc):and
pronouns that belong to this gender are either male or female, but we are not
concerned about it. (examples: teacher, child, worker, baby, infant, human
being, person, etc):nouns and pronouns to which maleness or femaleness doesn't
apply belong to this gender category. (Material things: stone, table, gold,
book; all abstract nouns: e.g. childhood, independence, intelligence,
chairmanship, etc.)some words in the Masculine Gender are used as Common
Gender. Everybody doesn't do it, but if you follow this trend, you will be
considered modern!wish to give a few examples:- Used for both male and
female-traditionally, actor and actress; poet for both poet and poetess. The
purpose is to avoid gender bias about which people are very conscious today.-
for both male and female. This is perhaps because the woman ruler of a province
would not like the word 'governess' to be used for her lest people
misunderstand that she is someone employed in a rich family to teach its
children.- for both male and female. A modern ordained clergywoman would not
like to be called a 'priestess.' I think, the word reminds people of temple
prostitution in ancient cultures.Problem.at this example.teacher should not say
lies. ________ should always speak the truth.you put a he or a she in the blank
space? English uses the pronoun 'he' for masculine, 'she' for feminine, and
'it' for neuter. These words are all singulars.has no pronoun to use for common
gender, singular, and third person .nature of this problem and the various
solutions offered, even strange ones such as the 'singular they' (the use of
which has now become respectable) is another story.the linguistic realization
of gender differences is one of the burning matters in social spheres, being at
the same time the issue of constant misunderstandings. Therefore, the aim of
this paper is to view the present-day status of the grammatical category of
gender in Modern English as a result of language historical development as well
as due to the pragmatic distinguishing of certain gender forms in different
communicative situations.is known, English gender is realized as masculine,
feminine and neuter forms in order to explain the relations between the animate
noun and its external referent. In different languages including English there
are two basic types of gender systems: strict semantic system, or semantic
gender, where the meaning of the noun determines its gender, and formal system,
or grammatical gender, when the noun assignments depend on formal criteria -
either word-structure or sound-structure.is important to state that the
grammatical gender was widely used in the structure of Old English but it
started disappearing between the Periods of Middle and Modern English. In
Modern English the linguistic notion of grammatical gender is distinguished
from the biological and social notionsof natural gender, although they interact
closely in many languages, affecting their linguistic systems.English the
category ofgender has a binary hierarchical classification presented by upper
(person: non-person) and lower (masculine::feminine) oppositions. The members
of the oppositions are differentiated in some languages (e.g. German,
Ukrainian) by means of formal markers, e.g. inflections and articles. In Modern
English there are no formal markers to distinguish the strong and the weak
members of gender oppositions. They can be distinguished semantically: nouns of
the neuter gender in the upper level of the opposition are more abstract if
compared to the nouns of masculine and feminine genders; they are the weak
member of the opposition and are naturally used in the position of
neutralization.follows that gender in Modern English exists as the semantic
category preserving some features of the grammatical gender that existed in Old
English. Due to this, it is also termed the pronominal category since personal
pronouns qualify the gender of its noun-referent in the certain context.The
pronouns he/she/who are used in order to denote personal nouns while the
pronouns it/which denote non-personal nouns.pronominal gender is greatly
influenced by extralinguistic factors, such as context, time conditions and the
speaker.Gender in the language reflects the social constructions of gender learned,
maintained and perpetuated by speakers. Social constructions of gender
represent combinations of features inherent in reality and of society’s
attitudes toward those features. There is no clear correlation of gender with
sex: the choice of the pronoun that is used to denote the certain gender form
depends not on characteristics of the noun or of its referent, but depends
instead entirely on speaker-dependent factors, which are variable and
unpredictable., the forms of gender indication are lexico-semantic (change of
words: man -woman, bull-cow, etc.) and morphological (inflections: host -
hostess, hero -heroine; addition of a word: male cat - female cat, he cat - she
cat,etc.).
.In the guidelines (neuter) for the
2007 budget bill, presented in June, the government (common) proposed a gradual
reduction in the budget deficit after 2006.
.In the third quarter, the company
(neuter) launched yet another cost cutting program (neuter), but this has yet
to translate into a tangible improvement in the company’s financial
performance.
. Instead of issuing stock
certificates for each individual (common) share issued to a shareholder, a
stock company can issue a single document (neuter) representing the aggregate
number of shares owned by the individual shareholder.
. It is hoped that the improved
geopolitical situation (neuter), advantageous financial conditions (neuter),
flexible macroeconomic policy (neuter), structural reforms (neuter) will
condition (neuter) faster EU development (neuter) in the nearest years
(neuter).
. It (neuter) maintains relations
(neuter) with similar national and foreign organizations (neuter) and embassies
(neuter) and helps its members (common) to find partners (common), organizes
trips (neuter) to exhibitions (neuter) and trade missions (neuter).
. It should be noted that almost 50%
of products (neuter) are bought by individuals (common) and small building
firms (neuter), i.e. those who build “for themselves” and that is why carefor
the quality (neuter) of future buildings (neuter) very mach.
.It turns out that the generally
favourable assessment (neuter) of both domestic and foreign demands (neuter)
promotes decisions (neuter) to expand one’s business (neuter).
. Keeping the budget (neuter)
balanced means keeping tight control (neuter) of all expenses (neuter) and
delaying investment (neuter) in the infrastructure (neuter) end social sector
(neuter).
.Local authorities (common) may also
collect revenue (neuter) from a number of local taxes (neuter), such as
advertisement tax (neuter), community development tax (neuter), hotel tax
(neuter), parking tax (neuter), recreation tax (neuter), and other taxes
(neuter).
.Many indicators (neuter)
influencing investment attractiveness (neuter) were considered in the ranking,
including access (neuter), transportation (neuter), human resources (neuter),
labour costs,(neuter) the size (neuter) of the market (neuter), business
infrastructure(neuter), the condition (neuter)of the environment (neuter) and
the activity (neuter) of provincial authorities (common) in attracting
investors (common).
.Moreover, the values (neuter) of
the acquired companies’ (neuter) liabilities (neuter) and contingent
liabilities (neuter) which had not been disclosed in the financial statements
(neuter) of the companies (neuter) or were disclosed in lower amounts (neuter)
was also increased as a result (neuter) of the valuation (neuter).
.Most favoured regime (neuter) means
that foreign subjects (neuter) of economic activities have the same volume of
rights (neuter) , preferences(neuter) and privileges (neuter) concerning taxes
(neuter)and duties(neuter), which will be used or are already used by a foreign
subject of international activities (neuter) who was given the above mentioned
regime(neuter)..
.Movables (neuter) were valued using
the multiples method (neuter),taking into account (neuter) the adjusted initial
value (neuter) of tangible assets(neuter), the technical condition (neuter),
the technical and economic wear and tear(neuter), and the effect (neuter)of macroeconomic
factors(neuter).
. On the first half of December
(neuter) 2006, the company (neuter)will transport its one-million passenger
(common) for the current year(neuter); this is a record (neuter)not only for
this company (neuter) itself, but also for the whole airline industry (neuter).
.Once the decision (neuter) is made
to re-issue a license (neuter) due to informational changes (neuter), the
licensing body (neuter) will annul the original license (neuter) and introduce
the corresponding entry (neuter) into the unified license register (neuter) by
the next workday (neuter).
. One of key objectives (neuter) is
to find an optimal and constructive balance (neuter) between the needs (neuter)
of businesses (neuter) and the interests (neuter) of employees (common), as
well as to create conditions (neuter) that allow domestic enterprises (neuter)
to be as successful and competitive as possible.
. Our product (neuter) is a range of
high-quality services (neuter) aimed at meeting of the interests (neuter) of
investors (common) and subjects (neuter) of investments (neuter) in
implementation (neuter) of prospective investments projects (neuter).
. Packaging (neuter) and logistics
(neuter) are becoming more important with rapid market changes (neuter) and
customers (common) now demand a package (neuter) of goods (neuter) and services
(neuter) consisting of projection (neuter) , delivery (neuter), installation
(neuter) and after-sales-service (neuter) with financing also becoming a
decisive factor (neuter).
. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ service
(neuter) includes a full line of legal and tax services (neuter); audit,
advisory services (neuter); corporate finance and human resources advisory
services (neuter).
. Probably the growth (neuter) of
real wages (neuter) in the first two quarters (neuter) of next year (neuter)
will also be slightly slower, at around 3.2 percent (neuter).
.Proceeds (neuter) from the
investment (neuter)were used to modernize the plant’s second production
line(neuter), allowing the company (neuter)to double its production capacity
(neuter).
. Regional representative offices
(common) allow within the short terms (neuter) and as fast as possible to solve
different technical, legal and organizational questions (neuter) in the course
of project implementation (neuter) at all levels (neuter) of state and regional
administration bodies (neuter). stated above proves that the category of gender
in Modern English is realized as semantic category, represented by means of
lexico-semantic and morphological gender forms as well as pronouns used
according to extralinguistic factors.
set of grammatical categories
includes, among others, tense, aspect, mood, case. They connect grammar and
semantics and play an essential role in the syntactic analysis of clauses and
the semantic analysis of clauses and propositions. Their study leads to general
issues such as the source of grammatical categories, the evolution of language,
language and cognition, metaphor and first language acquisition.meaning in
English--and in any other language--starts with a noun. The noun working
syntactically as subject is always present, although that can happen
explicitly, indirectly--via pronouns--or implicitly.are presented in this page
according to the following simplified structure:
. Categories of Nouns
. The Number of the Noun
. The Gender of the Noun
. The Case of the Nounare principal
sentence elements, while articles, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals, are
secondary sentence elements. Studying the noun cluster facilitates
understanding a few, very important, grammatical notions:
. grammatical category of
"number"
. grammatical category of
"gender"
. grammatical category of
"case"category of gender of the noun is expressed in English through
two oppositions: the first presupposes dividing the nouns into human and
nonhuman. The non-human nouns represent the neuter gender. The lower division
of the nouns is into nouns of masculine a feminine genders. The peculiar
feature of English gender is its semantic character while the peculiar feature
of gender in Russian is its formal feature. category of Number is compressed by
the opposition of the plural form ofthe noun to the singular form. The problem
is simple with the countable nouns when the plural forms by odding “s” to the
singular form of the noun. the category of number has some pecularities. Just
there exist besides common singular and plural so called singularia tantum and
pluralia tantum expressing generally the ability of this or that noun to be
used only in singular or only in plural. There are also rather many cases when
one and the same noun can be used in common singular and/or plural and as
absolute singular and/or absolute plural., we can see that English categories
of case, number and gender are closely interconnected. That is why they must be
considered together in order to produce the most efficient results in the
course of linguistic material analysis.
Theoretical
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У магістерській
роботі
ми
ґрунтовно
дослідили
граматичні
категорії
числа,
відмінка,
і
роду
в
сучасній
англійській
мові
із
застосуванням
польового
підходу.
У сучасному мовознавстві намітилася тенденція до
висвітлення порівняння у функціонально-семантичному напрямку. Запорукою успіху
на шляху до систематизації всіх наявних у мові засобів вираження порівняння
вважаємо розроблену О.В.Бондарком ідею функціонально-семантичного поля,
оскільки вона уможливлює функціональне об’єднання всіх різнорівневих засобів із
погляду мовця. В сучасній лінгвістиці польовий підхід до вивчення мовних явищ
набув значного поширення саме завдяки здатності до виявлення системної
організації мови.
Отже, ми прийшли до висновку, що
функціонально-семантичне поле граматичних категорій числа, відмінка, і роду в
сучасній англійській мові займає вагоме місце як у теоретичній, так і в
практичній граматиці. Даний підхід дозволяє комплексно досліджувати окремі
граматичні категорії з урахуванням окремих контекстних ситуацій та типів
тексту.
Практичний аналіз граматичних категорій англійської
мови нами був проведений на прикладі матеріалів ділового дискурсу.
Робота складається з двох розділів. У першому
розділі розглядаються теоретичні аспекти функціонування граматичних категорій в
англійській мові. У другому розділі проводиться аналіз функціонування категорій
числа, роду та відмінку на прикладі окремо взятих речень.