1)The study of lang from : lexicology, phonetics, grammar

Every language contains thousands upon thousands of words. Different linguistic sciences study
language from three different points of view.
Lexicology deals with the vocabulary of a language, with the origin and development of words, with
their meaning and with wordbuilding. Phonetics is a science of speech sounds and other sound elements
of language, such as intonation. Grammar is a branch of linguistic science which deals with the
structure of language. This means that grammar deals with the forms of words and with the ways
according to which words are connected into word-groups, word-combinations and sentences. So
grammar defines the rules governing the modification of words and the combination of words into
sentences. Thus, grammar is divided into two parts: morphology and syntax.
Morphology is the part of grammar which deals with the forms of words, while syntax is the part of
grammar which studies the ways according to which words are grouped into word-combinations and
sentences, i.e. it deals with phrases and sentences.

2)Basic units of language and speech

In linguistic theory several levels of language and speech are discriminated. They are the phoneme, the
morpheme, the word, and the sentence. The phoneme is the smallest distinctive unit. The morpheme is
the smallest meaningful unit. The word is the smallest naming unit. The sentence is the smallest
communication unit. The phoneme, the morpheme, the word, and the sentence are units of different
levels of language structure.
The phoneme is a unit of the lowest level, the sentence - of the highest.
The units of each level can be analyzed as to their inner structure, the classes they belong to in the
language system (their paradigmatic relations), and the combinations they form in speech (their
syntagmatic relations).
We must also discriminate the terms language and speech. The structure of various units and the classes
they form (paradigmatic relations) are the domain of language, while the combinations they form in the
process of communication (syntagmatic relations) are the sphere of speech. Language and speech are
interdependent and interpenetrating.
The structure, classification and combinability of phonemes is studied by a branch of linguistics called
phonology.
The structure, classification and combinability of words is the object of morphology.
Syntax deals with the structure, classification and combinability of
sentences.
The 1st level is formed by phonemes, the smallest material lingual elements, or segments. They have
form, but they have no meaning. Phonemes differentiate the meanings of morphemes and words. E.g.:
man – men.
The 2nd level is composed of morphemes, the smallest meaningful elements built up by phonemes. The
shortest morpheme can consist of one phoneme, e.g.: step-s; -s renders the meaning of the 3rd person
singular form of the verb, or, the plural form of the noun. The meaning of the morpheme is abstract and
significative: it does not name the referent, but only signifies it.
The 3rd level consists of words, or lexemes, nominative lingual units, which express direct, nominative
meanings: they name, or nominate various referents. The words consist of morphemes, and the shortest
word can include only one morpheme, e.g.: cat. The difference is in the quality of the meaning.
The 4th level is formed by word-combinations, or phrasemes, the combinations of two or more notional
words, which represent complex nominations of various referents (things, actions, qualities, and even
situations) in a sentence, e.g.: a beautiful girl, their sudden departure. In a more advanced treatment,
phrases along with separate words can be seen as the constituents of sentences, notional parts of the
sentence, which make the fourth language level and can be called “denotemes”.
The 5th level is the level of sentences, or proposemes, lingual units which name certain situations, or
events, and at the same time express predication, i.e. they show the relations of the event named to reality
- whether the event is real or unreal, desirable or obligatory, stated as a fact or asked about, affirmed or
negated, etc., e.g.: Their departure was sudden (a real event, which took place in the past, stated as a fact,
etc.). Thus, the sentence is often defined as a predicative lingual unit. The minimal sentence can consist
of just one word, e.g.: Fire!
The 6th level is formed by sentences in a text or in actual speech. Textual units are traditionally called
supra-phrasal unities; we will call such supra-sentential constructions, which are produced in speech,
dictemes (from Latin ‘dicto’ ‘I speak’). Dictemes are characterized by a number of features, the main one
of which is the unity of topic. As with all lingual units, dictemes are reducible to one unit of the lower
level; e.g., the text of an advertisement slogan can consist of just one sentence: Just do it!; or, a paragraph
in a written text can be formed by a single independent sentence, being topically significant.

3)Parts of speech classification. Meaning, form, function

Classifications in general may be based either on one criterion (such classifications are called
homogeneous), or on a combination of several criteria (such classifications are called heterogeneous).
The traditional classification of parts of speech is heterogeneous; it is based on the combination of all the
three criteria mentioned above: ‘meaning – form – function’.
1. By meaning we understand not an individual meaning of each separate word which is its lexical
meaning but the meaning common to all the words of the given class and constituting the essence of this
meaning.
In the noun, for example, taken as a class of words its generalized meaning is that of substantivity, in the
verb as a part of speech its meaning is that of process or action. The adjective as a part of speech
expresses names of qualities or properties and so on.
2. Form is considered to be the morphological characteristics of a type of words, i.e. grammatical
categories which are typical of this or that part of speech. A grammatical category is a dialectical unity of
generalized grammatical meaning and certain grammatical forms serving to express this meaning. The
noun, for instance, possesses grammatical categories of case and number, plurality being expressed by
the inflexion -es, e.g. box - boxes, map - maps. etc.
By a grammatical form we understand the formal linguistic means with the help of which this or that
generalized grammatical meaning is expressed. Each grammatical category must be represented at least
by two grammatical forms. There are no languages in which there is only one grammatical person or a
grammatical case. It's necessary to take into consideration the fact that one and the same grammatical
form of the word may express different grammatical categories, for example, the form takes expresses
tense, mood, voice, aspect, number, and person.
At the same time it is impossible to have one and the same form for the expression of two cases or two
numbers or two persons. In this case we always deal with the opposition of forms. In any opposition all
the forms are divided into marked forms and non-marked forms.
Any part of speech is characterized either by a whole system of different grammatical categories (nouns,
verbs, adjectives) or by absence of grammatical categories (prepositions, conjunctions, articles).
3. By function we mean the syntactical characteristics of this or that part of speech. These characteristics
may be subdivided into two items:
1) the ability of a word to combine with other words of different types or of the same type and this ability
is termed as a combinability of a word.
2) the function in which this or that part of speech may be found in a sentence.
The noun, for example, combines with other nouns (a girl's book), with verbs (the sun shines), with
adjectives (a handsome boy), with prepositions and articles. As to the syntactical functions of a noun in a
sentence it is those of a subject, a predicative, an object, an attribute, and some adverbial modifiers.

Traditionally, all parts of speech are subdivided on the upper level of classification into notional words
and functional words. Notional words, which traditionally include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
pronouns and numerals, have complete nominative meanings, are in most cases changeable and fulfill
self-dependent syntactic functions in the sentence. The noun, for example, as a part of speech, is
traditionally characterized by 1) the categorial meaning of substance (“thingness”), 2) a specific set of
word-building affixes, the grammatical categories of number, case and article determination,
prepositional connections and modification by an adjective, and 3) the substantive functions of subject,
object or predicative in the sentence. In the same way, all the other notional parts of speech are described.
Functional words, which include conjunctions, prepositions, articles, interjections, particles, and modal
words, have incomplete nominative value, are unchangeable and fulfill mediatory, constructional
syntactic functions.
4)Notional words, modal words, form words, the interjection, words of affirmation
and negation
According to the lexical meaning, syntactical functions and morphological categories all the words in
English may be divided into the following five classes.
1. Notional Words
a) Most of the words in English as well as in other languages belong to the notional words which denote
phenomena existing in reality. These words denote things, qualities, actions and so on. All the other
words play a secondary part. They may connect the notional words, underline the shades of meaning, etc.
The main idea is always expressed by notional words.
b) Their syntactical functions are very closely connected with their meaning. Since the notional words
express the main idea in the language, they form the parts of the sentence. So the parts of the sentence are
expressed only by notional words. The subject, the object, the predicate, etc. are always expressed by
notional words.
c) Morphologically the notional words form the class of words having morphological categories. All the
changeable words in English belong to notional words.
2. Modal Words
Modal words express modality in the sentence, that is the relation of what is said to reality. We have such
modal words in English as of course, certainly, surely, no doubt, naturally, perhaps, maybe, and others.
Modal words do not denote any phenomena existing in reality. Syntactically modal words cannot form
any part of a sentence. They are not connected syntactically with any other words. They may be used in
the function of a parenthesis or may form sentences themselves, e.g. Will you speak to him? - Certainly.
Morphologically modal words are invariable.
3. Form-Words
Form-words do not denote any phenomena existing in reality. They are used to determine notional words
or to connect them. They have no independent syntactical functions. Morphologically form-words are
invariable. According to the role they play in the sentence form-words are divided into two classes:
connective form-words (prepositions, conjunctions, etc.) and determinatives such as articles, particles
(only, merely, even, also, simply, just, too).
4. The Interjection
Interjections are words used to express different emotions such as joy, sadness, anger, etc., e.g. oh, bosh,
hallo, ha, alas, well, now, ah, etc. Interjections cannot be parts of the sentence. They are not connected
with any words of the sentence. They are always used as separate sentences in themselves.
Morphologically they are invariable.
5. The Words of Affirmation and Negation
Practically this class consists of two words "Yes" and its equivalents and "No" and its equivalents. They
are used to express affirmation or negation. They are not connected with other words in a sentence.
Morphologically they are invariable. They may form sentences themselves.
Thus we see that modal words, form-words, interjections and words of affirmation and negation have
several points in common: they do not denote any phenomena existing in reality, they are not used as
parts of a sentence and morphologically they are invariable.

5) The verb definition and its grammatical meaning

The verb as a notional part of speech has the categorial meaning of dynamic process, or process
developing in time, including not only actions as such (to work, to build), but also states, forms of
existence (to be, to become, to lie), various types of attitude, feelings (to love, to appreciate), etc.
The verb as a part of speech is characterized by the following features (as any part of speech): 1)
meaning, 2) form. 3) function.
From the lexical point of view (meaning) the verb serves to express actions or states and processes.
As to its form the verb is characterized by the following grammatical categories: the category of person,
number, tense, aspect, correlation (relativity), voice and mood. Thus it has the most developed
morphological system in modern English grammar.
The verb as a part of speech is characterized by some specific stem-building elements such as the
suffixes -ize, -en. -ifi- and some prefixes such as under-, out-, super-, un-.
As to its function the verb may combine with nouns preceding or following it, e.g. birds fly. play chess.
The verb may combine with adverbs, e.g. run fast, walk quickly. Sometimes it may be connected with an
adjective, for example, in a double predicate - The moon rose red.
In a sentence the verb may be used in the function of a simple verbal predicate or it may be a part of a
compound predicate.
The verb is characterized by its connection with an object and with an adverbial modifier.
6)Morphological classification of verbs. ( the basic form-Infinitive, Past Indefinite,
ParticipleII) (Weak, strong, mixed, unchangeable, defective, suppletive) ( simple,
derived, compound, composite) ( regular, irregular)
Morphologically all the verbs may be divided into several classes according to their forms. The basic
forms of the verb in modern English are the Infinitive, the Past Indefinite. Participle II. (speak – spoke –
spoken).
According to the way in which the Past Indefinite and Participle II arc formed verbs are divided into
several classes:
1. the so-called weak verbs which build their Past Indefinite and Past Participle by means of the dental
suffix -ed. These are subdivided into regular weak verbs and irregular weak verbs. The regular weak
verbs form their Past tense and Participle II with the help of the suffix -ed. The irregular weak verbs have
some phonetical changes in their forms, some of them have a change in the root vowel, e.g. to sell - sold -
sold to feel - felt - felt
2. The strong verbs in Past Indefinite and Participle II change the root vowel. Some of them have the
suffix -n in the Participle II, e.g. to write - wrote - written
3. The mixed verbs form Past tense like weak verbs and Participle II like strong ones,
e.g. to show - showed - shown
4. The unchangeable verbs having the same main forms, e.g. to put - put - put to let - let - let
5. Verbs changing the last consonant in Past Indefinite and Participle II, e.g. to spend - spent - spent
6. The defective verbs which have no non-finite and analytical forms, no ending -s in the 3rd person
singular, e.g. may, must, can, etc.
7. The suppletive verbs whose forms come from different roots. There are only two suppletive verbs in
English - lo be and to go.
According to their morphological structure verbs may be simple(,go, write, speak) derived(suffixes and
prefixes) (undo, discover, rewrite), compound (having more than one root) (day-dream, brain-beat ) and
composite (consisting of a verb and post-position), as( to give up, put up, sit down)
Henry Sweet was the first to suggest the classification of verbs into regular and irregular. This question
was further investigated by our grammarian, Professor A.I. Smirnitsky, who singled out one class of
regular verbs and 21 classes of irregular verbs.

7) Finite, Non-finite verbs

The Finite and Non-finite Forms of the English Verbs be found in finite forms and non-finite forms or
verbals of which there are three - the Infinitive, the Gerund, and the Participle. The finite and non-
finite forms of the English verb have a number of features in common, but at the same time they have a
number of differences.
Let us compare their lexical meaning, syntactical functions and morphological characteristics. The finite
forms express actions in themselves while the non-finite forms denote an action which is presented as a
thing or as a characteristic of a thing. So the Infinitive and the Gerund denote an action as a thing while
the Participle denotes an action as a characteristic of a thing.
Their syntactical characteristics have some differences. The main syntactical function of the finite form
is that of a predicate while the non-finite forms never perform such a function. They may be used in such
functions as a subject, an object, an attribute, an adverbial modifier or as parts of compound predicates,
e.g. Your answer is promising. (Participle I in the function of a predicative) What I hate is promising
things. (Gerund in the function of a predicative) What I mean you to do is to read the text. (Infinitive in
the function of a predicative) He is to go. (Part of a modal compound verbal predicate) We started
working. (Gerund, part of an aspective compound verbal predicate)
The differences are also found in their morphological characteristics. The finite forms possess such
morphological categories as the category of person, number, tense, relativity or correlation, aspect, voice,
and mood. Incidentally for this reason that these verbs are called finite, i.e. limited by person, number,
etc. Non-finite forms possess only such categories as relativity, aspect, and voice. Still these categories of
non-finite forms are nowhere to be found but in the verb. As a result of this, different opinions exist about
the place of the Infinitive, the Gerund, and the Participle in the system of parts of speech. Many authors
consider the function of a predicate to be the main property of a verb and therefore they insist that the
non-finite forms of the verb cannot belong to the verb as a part of speech because they never perform
such a function. Thus, Henry Sweet in his classification mentions the Infinitive and the Gerund as
belonging to the noun and the Participle to the adjective. However we should regard the non-finite forms
as belonging to the verb because the morphological categories which are found in their forms do not exist
in any part of speech but the verb.

The Infinitive is the most generalized, the most abstract form of the verb, serving as the verbal name of a process; it is used as
the derivation base for all the other verbal forms. That is why the infinitive is traditionally used as the head word for the
lexicographic entry of the verb in dictionaries.
The infinitive combines verbal features with features of the noun; it is a phenomenon of hybrid processual-substantive nature,
intermediary between the verb and the noun. It has voice and aspect forms, e.g.: to write, to be writing, to have written, to be
written, to have been written;. The non-verbal properties of the infinitive are displayed in its syntactic functions and its
combinability. The infinitive performs all the functions characteristic of the noun
The gerund is another verbid that serves as the verbal name of a process and combines verbal features with those of a noun;
the gerund, like the infinitive, can be characterized as a phenomenon of hybrid processual-substantive nature, intermediary
between the verb and the noun. It is even closer to the noun, because besides performing the substantive functions in a
sentence like the infinitive, it can also be modified by an attribute and can be used with a preposition, which the infinitive can
not do, e.g.: Thank you for listening to me; Your careful listening to me is very much appreciated
Participle I (present participle) is fully homonymous with the gerund: it is also an ‘ing-form’ (or, rather, four ‘ing-forms’,
cf.: writing, being written, having written, having been written). But its semantics is different: it denotes processual quality,
combining verbal features with features of the adjective and the adverb; participle I can be characterized as a phenomenon of
hybrid processual-qualifying nature, intermediary between the verb and the adjective/adverb
Participle II, like participle I, denotes processual quality and can be characterized as a phenomenon of hybrid processual-
qualifying nature. It has only one form, traditionally treated in practical grammar as the verbal “third form”, used to build the
analytical forms of the passive and the perfect of finites, e.g.: is taken; has taken.

8)The lexical(semantic) class: Terminative(non)

In accordance with aspective character of their meaning verbs may be divided into terminative and
non-terminative. Terminative verbs denote actions which cannot develop beyond a certain limit of time:
finish, bring, stand up. etc. Non-terminative verbs express the action which has no limit in time. e.g.
continue, stand, work, and some others. But sometimes there may be intermediate cases and the verbs
may be both terminative and non-terminative under different circumstances and in different context, e.g.
He stood at the fence and looked at the garden, (looked here is a non-terminative verb)
He came up to the fence and looked at the garden, (looked in this sentence is a terminative verb)
Sometimes the verbs which are non-terminative if taken separately are terminative if taken in certain
context, e.g. He read many books last year, (terminative)
But in all these cases we deal with the lexical meaning of the verb and not with the grammatical category
of aspect. The question about terminative and non-terminative verbs was discussed by G.N. Vorontsova.

(Limitive verbs present a process as potentially limited, directed towards reaching a certain border point, beyond
which the process denoted by the verb is stopped or ceases to exist, e.g.: to come, to sit down, to bring, to drop,
etc. Unlimitive verbs present the process as potentially not limited by any border point, e.g.: to go, to sit, to carry,
to exist, etc. Some limitive and unlimitive verbs form semantically opposed pairs, denoting roughly the same
actual process presented as either potentially limited or unlimited, cf.: to come – to go, to sit down – to sit, to bring
– to carry; other verbs have no aspective counterparts, e.g.: to be, to exist (unlimitive), to drop (limitive). But the
bulk of English verbs can present the action as either limitive or unlimitive in different contexts, e.g.: to build, to
walk, to turn, to laugh, etc. Traditionally such verbs are treated as verbs of double, or mixed aspective nature .)

9)Lexico-syntactical clas. (notional), (semi-notional : link, modal, auxiliary, verbs-

substitutes)
This classification is based upon the lexical meaning of the verb and its syntactical function in a
sentence.
1. Notional verbs possess full lexical meaning of their own and may be used in the function of a simple
verbal predicate as they have such morphological characteristics as person, number, tense, aspect,
correlation, voice, mood. Therefore these verbs are called verbs of full predication.
2. Semi-notional verbs are the verbs that preserve their lexical meaning but this meaning is very general
and abstract. Therefore these verbs are used only to connect words in a sentence without naming actions
or processes. They are subdivided into:
a) Link verbs which to a smaller or greater degree have lost their lexical meaning. Usually they are used
as the first part of the compound nominal predicate. Their function is to connect the subject with the
predicative and to express grammatical categories of number, person, mood, aspect, and voice. Link
verbs occupy the intermediate position between auxiliary and notional verbs. That is why sometimes they
are called semi-auxiliary or semi-notional verbs.
Link verbs may be divided into four groups:
1) of being (to be, to feel, to look, to smell, to taste, etc.);
2) of becoming (to become)
3) of remaining (to remain, to continue, to keep, to stay);
4) of seeming or appearing (to seem, to appear),
b) Modal verbs are characterized by their modal meaning and by their use as the first part of the modal
compound verbal predicate. They do not denote any action, but express modality of an action, i.e. ability,
assurance, obligation, possibility, etc. To this class belong such verbs such as: can, must, ought, shall,
will, should, would, may, to have to, to be to, and, partly, need and dare. These verbs combined with the
Infinitive of a notional verb show that the action or state expressed by the Infinitive is considered as
possible, desirable, necessary, etc. The Infinitive which follows a modal verb is used without the particle
to (except the verb ought, have to, and be to) which stresses the close connection of the modal verb with
the Infinitive.
c) Auxiliary verbs as distinct from semi-notional verbs are completely devoid of any lexical meaning
and serve only to build up analytical forms of notional verbs, i.e. morphological categories of aspect,
mood, tense, voice. Cf. / have to go there (modal meaning) and He has come (an analytical form). To this
group belong such verbs as: to do, to be, to have, shall, will.
d) The verbs-substitutes do not name any action or state but point to an action already named. They are
used to replace a notional verb to avoid they replace. e.g. I saw him yesterday, so did he.
If we compare morphological and lexico-syntactical classification of English verbs we shall see that these
classifications divide all the English verbs into a number of classes according to different principles. One
and the same verb may belong to different classes, e.g.
I have a book.
I have got a book.
I have to buy a book.
In all the three cases the verb to have belongs to the same morphological class and at the same time it
belongs to three different lexico-syntactical classes: In the first sentence it is a notional verb, in the
second sentence it is an auxiliary verb, in the third sentence it is a modal verb.

10) syntactical clas. (subjective, objective, transitive, intransitive)

Depending on their combinability with nouns or noun-equivalents serving to express the subject or the
object of an action verbs may be classified into subjective and objective. Objective verbs are associated
both with the subject and the object, e.g.
He kissed the child.(subject — object)
Subjective verbs are associated only with the subject, e.g. She smiled, (subject)
Objective verbs may be connected with their objects either directly or with the help of prepositions. Cf.
1. He reads many books. 2. She depends on him.
Objective verbs which are connected with their object directly are called transitive. All other verbs both
subjective and objective are intransitive.
- transitive which can take:
a) a direct object
b)direct and indirect object.
c) prepositional object
intransitive verbs can’t take a direct object
In traditional grammar studies, on the basis of combinability, verbs are divided into transitive and
intransitive: transitive verbs denote an action directed toward a certain object; in a sentence they are
obligatorily used with a direct object. Constructions with transitive verbs are easily transformed from
active into passive, e.g.: He wrote a letter. – The letter was written by him. This subdivision is
grammatically relevant for such languages as Russian, because in Russian only transitive verbs can be
used in the passive. In English the use of passive forms is much wider; almost every verb can be
passivized, e.g.: to walk is an intransitive verb, but it is possible to say She was walked out of the room.
In English, transitive or intransitive uses of verbs are distinguished rather than separate groups of
transitive and intransitive verbs.
11)The categories of the verbs The verb is usually characterized as the most complex part of
speech, because it has more word-changing categories than any other notional part of speech. It is
changed according to the categories of person and number, tense, aspect, voice and mood
Number - count verbs have singular and plural forms. The plural form is marked by the inflexion -(e)s.
Correlation - an action expressed by a perfect form, proceeds some moment in time. /perfect, non-perf/
Aspect - shows the way or manner in which an action is performed, that is whether the action is:
perfective, imperfective, momentary (однократное), durative. /common, continuous/
Voice - denoting the relationship between the action expressed by the verb and the person or non-person
denoted by the subject of the sentence. /active, passive/
Mood - expresses the relation of the action denoted by the verb to reality from the speaker’s point of
view. /indicat, imperat, oblique moods (Subj I,II; Suppositional)/
Tense - expresses the relationship between the time of the action and the time of speaking. /past, pres,
future/
Person - expresses the relation of the action and its doer to the speaker, showing whether the action is
performed by the speaker (the 1st person), someone addressed by the speaker (the 2nd person) or
someone/something other than the speaker or the person addressed (the 3rd person).

12)The category of person

This category has very few forms of expression in the modem English verb. These forms arc: the -s
ending in the 3rd person singular of the Present Indefinite tense. The ending differentiates the 3rd person
from the 1st and the 2nd. Besides there are different forms of the verb to be (is, am). The third way of
expressing the category of person is the use of auxiliary verbs for different persons (shall, will, should,
would- Future, Future in the Past, conditional mood). Though the category of person has very few
forms of expression it is not disappearing and is widely used.

13) The category of number

The category of number shows whether the process is associated with one doer or with more than one doer, e.g. He
eats three times a day. The sentence indicates a single eater. The category of number is a two-member opposition:
singular and plural. An interesting feature of this category is the fact that it is blended with person: number and
person make use of the same morpheme. As person is a feature of the present tense, number is also restricted to the
present tense John goes to college. vs. John went to college.
This category has the following forms of expression:
a) The verb to be in the present indefinite tense has for the plural the form are, and for the past indefinite
tense plural were.
b) The verb to have for the plural in the present indefinite tense has the form have.
All English verbs with the exception of defective ones have the-.s ending in the 3rd person singular of the
present indefinite tense and have no ending in the 3rd person plural of the same tense.
The ending -s- in the 3rd person singular expresses two grammatics categories: The category of person
and number and as they are used with the verbs to he and to have which are widely used as notional,
semi-notion, auxiliaries, etc. these categories are found in modern English nearly in a: sentence.
Some verbs - modals - do not distinguish number at all.
The analysis of the examples demonstrates the weakness of the English verb as concerns the expression
of person and number and its heavy reliance on the subject: it is the subject that is generally responsible
for the expression of person and number in English.

14) The category of tense. Six tense-aspect forms

The Category of Tense - is a grammatical category which in the system of grammatical forms expresses
the relation of an action to real time i.e. tense is grammatical expression of time. In other words tense as a
grammatical category serves to express the time of an action in reference to moment of speech..
Therefore the grammatical category of tense is also of objective character. Thus the grammatical category
of tense reflects time relation and an action expressed by a verb may erine-coincide with the moment of
speech or it may precede it, or it may follow.
Accordingly there are three grammatical tenses: Present, Past, and Futur
The difference between the lexical and grammatical expression of time lies in the following facts:
1) Lexically it is possible to name any definite moment of the period time. The grammatical meaning of
tense is an abstraction from all the tr particular tenses: Present, Past, and Future.
2) Lexically any period of time is named directly (today, tomorrow, yesterday) whereas the grammatical
indication of time is of an indirect character; That means that it is not time which is indicated by a verb,
but an action the may either coincide with the moment of speech or precede it or follow it.
Some doubts have been expressed about the existence of the Future In definite tense in English. Otto
Jespersen denies the existence of the Future tense in English on account of the fact that the verbs shall
and will, which are said to be used to build up an analytical form of the Future tense, preserve in his
opinion their lexical meaning: the verb shall expresses obligation and the verb will expresses volition.
Professor B. Ilyish managed to prove that the reasons which were put forward by 0. Jespersen were not
quite convincing. Thus Professor Ilyish shows that very often the context serves to stress the fact that the
verbs shall and will may express only grammatical futurity and no modal meaning may be carried, e.g. I
am afraid he will have to go there.
The very existence of the combination have to go excludes any possibility of expression of volition
because this combination serves to express obligation and therefore the verb will may express only the
grammatical meaning of the Future Tense. So the three main divisions of time are represented in the
English verbal system by the three tenses and each of them may appear either in the common aspect or
in the continuous aspect. Accordingly we have six tense-aspect forms
Present, Past, and Future Tenses of the Common Aspect
The Common aspect represents an action as simply occurring without 'concretising it. actions of a more
general, more abstract character referring to the present, past or future time (hence the term indefinite is
not quite
happy in connection with past indefinite and future indefinite).
M.A.Ganshina and N.M.Vasilevskaya luckily call these tenses present (or past or future) tense of the
common aspect.
Present, Past, and Future Tenses of the Continuous Aspect
The continuous aspect shows a concrete action in its development at a given moment, i.e. it expresses an
action going on (continuing) at a given moment present, past, or future or regularly repeated within a
given period of time present, past or future.

15) The category of aspect. The continuous and the common aspect. Semantic view of
this phenomenon. (Kennedy, Curma). Verbs which are not used in the continuous
aspect (5 groups)
The problem of the category of aspect is connected with such forms as to write - to be writing or writes
- is writing, etc.
The category of aspect in English Grammar presents a very complicated question. There exists a great
variety of opinions in connection with this problem. Some linguists mostly foreign such as Kennedy,
Curme and some others consider that aspect is rather a semantic category. Some other linguists such as
H. Sweet, O. Jespersen, N.F. Irtenyeva do not recognize the existence of this category in Modern English.
They treat such forms as is writing, was writing, etc. as type frames to some other actions or situation.
Still other grammarians (Ivanova) though recognizing the existence of the category of aspect do not
separate it from the category of tense. Thus they classify all the forms of the verb into two groups: Pure
temporal forms such as Past Indefinite. Present Indefinite. Future Indefinite, and temperern aspective
forms: Present Continuous. Past Continuous, and Future Continuous. But if we come to analyze such
forms as wrote - was writing we see that these forms express one and the same time of an action, i.e. past.
And it is the character of an action that is different in these pairs of forms. The forms was writing, was
reading serve to express an action which is taken in its progress while the forms wrote and read indicate
the mere statement of the fact of the action. Therefore, we may say that these forms differ in the
expression of the character of an action. That is why such grammarians as Ilyish. Barhudarov. Yartseva.
and some others recognize the existence of a special category which grammatically expresses the
character of an action. They call this category of aspect. The grammatical category of aspect serves to
express the way in which the action is shown to proceed. The category of aspect is the system of two
opposimes. that is the forms of the type writes - wrote and the forms of the type is writing -was writing.
The forms of the type is writing serve to express an action in its progress and are called the Continuous
Aspect whereas the forms of the type writes express that the action is simply stated or that its nature is
not specified and these forms are called the Common Aspect. Thus the continuous aspect is a marked
member of the opposition both in its meaning and in its form as it is built up by means of the auxiliary
verb to be -Participle I. The common aspect is an unmarked member of the opposition. Note should be
made that the continuous aspect is not used with all the verbs of the English language. There are five
groups of verbs that are usually not used in the continuous aspect:
1. Verbs expressing some relations as actions: to contain, to consist, to possess:
2.such as: to ucconic, to appear, to prove;
3. Verbs of physical perception: to see, to hear, to smell, to feel;
4. Verbs of mental perception: to dislike, to hate, to trust:
5. Verbs denoting actions of a very short duration: to jump, to break, to drop.
All these verbs are terminative by their nature. Ilyish calls this phenomenon as the neutralization of
aspect relations.
Sometimes, however, even these verbs may be used in the continuous aspect to show the progress of an
action at a given moment and stressing its temporary nature, e.g. I was hating her more and more while
she spoke.
There is no strict correspondence between the continuous and the common aspects in English.

16) The category of correlation(Perfect Forms). The Perfect as a : tense, aspect

category, as a way of expressing the category of « time relation»
The existence of the perfect forms in the system of the English verb presents a very complicated
problem.
All the views on the essence of the Perfect form in English may be divided into three groups:
1. The first point of view is that the perfect forms present a peculiar tense category which should be
classed alongside with such tenses as present, past, and future. This point of view is held by 0. Jespersen.
H. Sweet.
2. The second point of view is held by G.N. Vorontsova and I.P. Ivanova who consider the category of
perfect as a peculiar aspect category together with continuous and common aspects.
3. The third point of view was expressed by Professor A. Smirnitsky who was the first to speak of the
perfect forms as the forms serving to indicate a peculiar category different from the category of tense and
aspect. He called this category the category of time relation.
The existence of such a variety of opinions may be explained by the fact that scientists are trying to
define the basic character of the perfect forms without paying attention to the system of forms already
established in English. Thus if we admit that the perfect forms present the category of tense then they
would be a union of two different tenses:
a) Present Perfect - the present and the perfect;
b) Past Perfect - the past and the perfect;
c) Future Perfect - the future and the perfect.
This is clearly impossible because two different terises in one and the same form will destroy each other.
Hence it follows that the category of perfect cannot be a tense category.
The same may be said in reference to the category of aspect. The common and the continuous aspects are
firmly established in English grammar. Thus it is impossible to admit that in the form Present Perfect
Continuous (has been writing) we have a continuous aspect and the perfect aspect at one and the same
time. Hence the conclusion is that the perfect form is not aspect.
The essence of the grammatical category expressed by the perfect form differs both from tense and
aspect. Therefore, Professor A. Smirnitsky has proved that the perfect forms present an independent
specific grammatical category which is a system of two member opposimes. This category was called in
English the category of correlation or relativity.
This category is represented by the system of forms of the type: writes - has written, wrote - had written,
will write - will have written.
The forms of the type has written serve to express that the action is prior to some moment in time and
were called the Perfect Correlation.
The forms of the type writes - wrote do not imply the idea of priority and were called the Non-Perfect
Correlation. So accepting the existence of the category of correlation we may say that the system of the
verb's category is based on the forms of the categories of tense, aspect, and correlation. Therefore in the
form had been plaving we deal with the past tense, the continuous aspect and the perfect correlation. And
in the form played we deal with the past tense as well but with the common aspect and the non-perfect
correlation.

17) The category of voice

Voice is the grammatical category of the verb which expresses an action from the subject or to it. e.g.
1. The teacher asked the pupil.
2. The teacher was asked by the pupil.
All the words in the second sentence are the same, the difference is only in the voice of the verb. In the
first sentence the action is directed from the subject to the object, while in the second sentence the action
is directed to the subject. Therefore, the category of voice shows the direction of an action from the
subject or to the subject.
In Modern English there are two grammatical voices: the active voice and the passive voice. The active
voice shows that the action is directed from the subject to the object and the subject itself is the doer of an
action. The passive voice is used to show that the action is directed to the subject and not from it. The
subject itself is not the doer of an action but is acted upon. The passive voice is not simply a parallel
construction of the active voice. Very often we do not find the doer of an action in the passive
constructions. This is because sometimes we do not know the doer of an action or we are not interested in
it or sometimes we do not want to mention it for some reason or other.
E.g. This folk song was composed many years ago.
This machine is operated by hand, (we are not interested by whom the action is done, we are interested in
the fact that the machine is operated by hand).
The category of voice is a grammatical category, i.e. it is expressed by means of grammatical forms and
not by lexical means.
Some grammarians hold that the number of voices is more than two. Some of them count even five
voices in Modern English, namely: the Active voice, the Passive voice, the Reflexive voice, the Middle
voice, and the Reciprocal voice.
If we take the sentence: He shaved himself and left the house earlv. can we say that the verb shaved and
the reflexive pronoun himself comprise the Reflexive voice? Evidently not. because in such sentences we
deal with the lexical word combination in which reflexive pronouns are used in the function of a direct
object to some transitive verbs imparting to them reflexive meaning.
The same case is observed in the so-called Reciprocal voice which is perceived by some grammarians in
such sentences as: They saw each other onlv for a moment. The action here is reciprocal because of the
meaning of a direct object, expressed by a reciprocal pronoun whereas the grammatical form of the verb
does not show it. In fact, we deal here with an Active voice but not with the reciprocal one.
In the sentences like The paper burned, the door opened, etc. some grammarians find the so-called
Middle voice. But hardly have we any ground to consider it as a special Middle voice, i.e. a grammatical
category different from the active voice. The special meaning of the verb is expressed by lexical means
and not by a special form of the verb.

18) The problem of other voices ( reflexive, reciprocal, middle)

Some grammarians hold that the number of voices is more than two. Some of them count even five
voices in Modern English, namely: the Active voice, the Passive voice, the Reflexive voice, the Middle
voice, and the Reciprocal voice.
If we take the sentence: He shaved himself and left the house earlv. can we say that the verb shaved and
the reflexive pronoun himself comprise the Reflexive voice? Evidently not. because in such sentences we
deal with the lexical word combination in which reflexive pronouns are used in the function of a direct
object to some transitive verbs imparting to them reflexive meaning.
The same case is observed in the so-called Reciprocal voice which is perceived by some grammarians in
such sentences as: They saw each other onlv for a moment. The action here is reciprocal because of the
meaning of a direct object, expressed by a reciprocal pronoun whereas the grammatical form of the verb
does not show it. In fact, we deal here with an Active voice but not with the reciprocal one.
In the sentences like The paper burned, the door opened, etc. some grammarians find the so-called
Middle voice. But hardly have we any ground to consider it as a special Middle voice, i.e. a grammatical
category different from the active voice. The special meaning of the verb is expressed by lexical means
and not by a special form of the verb.

19) The category of Mood. Definition. Ways of expressing modality. Conceptions of

the mood systems
Mood is a verbal grammatical category which serves to express the modality of an action. By modality
we mean the relation of what is said to reality. That means whether we speak about real actions or actions
which are possible, necessary, probable, desirable, or unreal. Modality may be expressed in different
ways:
a) by means of mood-forms of the verb, e.g He was here yesterday. I wish he were here;
b) by modal verbs which may express modality both lexically and grammatically at the same time. e.g.
I couldn't speak to him tomorrow even if I wished.
The form couldn ? expresses modality twice: on the one hand by its lexical meaning of possibility, and on
the other by its mood-form.
c) by parenthetic words, i.e. lexically: certainly, perhaps, to be sure, I believe, etc.
d) by phonetical ways. i.e. by means of intonation, e.g. He is a | good man.
All the four ways of expression of modality may be found in one and the same sentence, e.g. Certainly
you could come to see me tomorrow.
The number of grammatical moods very depending on the viewpoint of a scientist and his way of
approaching the problem. Moods are usually divided into direct or indirect or oblique.
The indicative and the imperative moods are considered to be direct because they directly denote the fact
of an action or that another person is directly addressed and useed to fulfill a certain action.
So the indicative mood expresses real actions from the speakers point of view.
The imperative mood is the form of a verb used to express commands or requests. If the indicative
mood has the greatest number of forms, the imperative mood has the fewest. Since it expresses requests
or commands it has no tense forms, because there is no sense, for example, in requests or commands
directed to the past. Commands or requests may be only in two forms: in the affirmative and in the
negative.
The most popular in Grammar has become the system of moods put forward By Prof. Smirnitsky. He
speaks of 6 mood forms:
The Indicative Mood; The Imperative Mood; Subjunctive I; Subjunctive II; The Conditional Mood; The
Suppositional Mood.

20)The Indicative Mood

The number of grammatical moods very depending on the viewpoint of a scientist and his way of
approaching the problem. Moods are usually divided into direct or indirect or oblique.
The indicative and the imperative moods are considered to be direct because they directly denote the fact
of an action or that another person is directly addressed and useed to fulfill a certain action.
So the indicative mood expresses real actions from the speakers point of view.
The imperative mood is the form of a verb used to express commands or requests. If the indicative
mood has the greatest number of forms, the imperative mood has the fewest. Since it expresses requests
or commands it has no tense forms, because there is no sense, for example, in requests or commands
directed to the past. Commands or requests may be only in two forms: in the affirmative and in the
negative.

21)The Imperative. Its morphological peculiarities. Non-recognition of the

imperative mood. The problem of the «let us go» type
Almost all grammarians recognize the existence of the imperative mood but its existence is open to
discussion. At any rate this mood has such peculiarities which set it apart from all the other moods. Its
main peculiarities are:
1. It has no tense forms while all the other moods have;
2. The imperative mood does not express the category of person;
3. It is not correlative with the interrogative sentence while the forms of all the other moods may be used
both in declarative and interrogative sentences.
These peculiarities make it very doubtful whether it is necessary to recognize the imperative
constructions as a mood. Perhaps it is more correct to point out that the imperative construction is a
special communicative type of a sentence but not a mood. Besides it expresses modality of a whole
sentence but not modality of the verb predicate. This means that the modality of such imperative
constructions is expressed by intonation and sentence structure and it is not expressed by the form of
mood.
Some grammarians find the analytical imperative mood in Let+Infmitive. e.g. Let us go, etc. in which
let is an auxiliary word.
It is hardly possible to share this point of view, because the verb to let here is not deprived of its lexical
meaning hence it is not an auxiliary verb and we have no ground to speak of an analytical form of the
Imperative mood. In the sentences Let me have that book or Let him go there, etc. we shall find different
shades of meaning in the verb to let, so it cannot be the auxiliary verb to form the analytical imperative
mood.
However Professor Vorontsova in support of her point of view adduces an example: Let's let him go. She
proves easily that in this case the first verb let is devoid of any lexical meaning and therefore the whole
combination may be taken as an analytical form. But very often let preserves its meaning and in the
sentence Let him go, let may be substituted for the verb allow. Allow him to go. Hence here there is no
analytical form.
Let + Infinitive presents something intermediate between the analytical form of the imperative mood and
a phrase and is perhaps on its way to become an auxiliary word especially with the first person plural.

22)Oblique moods. Different points of view.

The most disputable question in the category of mood is the problem of number and types of Obligue
Moods. Obligue Moods denote unreal or problematic actions so they can't be modified by the category of
tense proper. They denote only relative time, that is simultaneousness or priority. Due to the variety of
forms it's impossible to make up regular paradigms of Obligue Moods and so classify them.
Very often the speaker does not however express an action as a matter of fact, neither does he urge
another person to perform an action. The speaker expresses an action as possible, desirable, obligatory,
necessary, supposed or simply contrary to fact. In this case the verb serving to denote this action is used
in the Oblique mood. The forms of the verb used in the Oblique mood are quite various in Modern
English and the problem connected with it seems extremely complicated. Some linguists speak of only
one oblique mood, some of more than one. Foreign grammarians consider that the number of oblique
moods in English may be established in accordance with the practical use of this or that verb expressing
either a problematic action or an unreal one. Thus, 0. Jespersen takes into consideration only the usage of
synthetical forms. Curme refers the oblique mood to different cases of usage of the Indicative mood. H.
Sweet speaks both of the usages of the synthetical forms and of the analytical forms. Max Deutschbein
finds sixteen moods in Modern English.
Our grammarians also solve this problem differently. Khlebnikova thinks that in Modern English there
exists the Conjunctive mood which is subdivided into the Subjunctive and the Conditional Moods. A.
Smirnitsky and some other grammarians suggested an interesting classification of Oblique Moods. They
divided all the forms of the verb into four moods:
1. Subjunctive I which serves to express a problematic action and the form of which coincides with the
form of the Infinitive without the particle to in all cases. It has no tense distinction.
E.g. I suggest that he arrive at once.
One form is used for all the persons Singular and Plural. Subjunctive I is a very old mood and is rapidly
falling into disuse. It is found in poetry, in elevated prose and in documents of official language.
2. Subjunctive II expresses unreal actions and formally coincides with the forms of the Past Indefinite
tense when the action refers to Present and Future and with the Past tense of the Perfect Correlation when
the action refers to the Past, e.g. I wish you were present (now. tomorrow). I wish you had been present
(yesterday).
Subjunctive I and partly Subjunctive II (Present Subjunctive II) are synthetic forms. Two other forms the
Suppositional Mood and the Conditional Mood are analytical forms.
3. The Suppositional Mood which is a grammatical synonym to Subjunctive I. expresses a problematic
action and is built up by means of the auxiliary verb should + Infinitive Indefinite or Perfect, e.g.
I suggest that he should take part in the conference. It is impossible that he should have said it.
4. The Conditional Mood expresses the greatest degree of unreality. The unreality of an action here
depends on some unreal condition or circumstances.
E.g. If I knew him I should speak to him. If he had been here he would have called on me.

This classification should be discussed from the point of view of the scientific principle which it is based
on. If we suppose that the given classification of four Oblique Moods is based on the structural principal
then the question arises why we should distinguish between such forms as Subjunctive I and Present
Subjunctive II. From the structural point of view these two forms do not differ because they both are
synthetical forms. Again why we should distinguish between the Conditional and the Suppositional
Moods and Past Subjunctive II - they are analytical.
If we take into consideration the semantic principle then it is impossible to distinguish between
Subjunctive I and the Suppositional Mood because they both serve to express a problematic action.
As to the Conditional Mood and Subjunctive II they both express an unreal action. Thus, we may see that
both principles structural and semantic won't do in connection with the classification suggested by
Professor A.I. Smirnitsky.
Hence to be more precise it is more correct to consider that there is only one oblique mood in Modern
English - The Subjunctive Mood as all the forms both synthetical and analytical serve to express different
shades of one and the same meaning. In support of this point of view it is necessary to mention the fact
that the analytical forms which developed much later than synthetical forms very often render the same
shade of meaning as the corresponding synthetical forms. The so-called Suppositional Mood in our days
is freely used instead of the so-called Subjunctive I.

23) The Verbals. The double character of the infinitive, the gerund, participle
The verbals (the Infinitive, the Gerund, the Participle) form the system of non-finite forms of the
English verb. They do not express predication and lack some grammatical forms characterizing the verb.
These forms have no categories of mood, person, number. They name the action but it is presented as a
thing or as characteristic of a thing. This accounts for the fact that the verbals combine the characteristics
of a verb on the one hand and a noun, an adjective, and an adverb on the other. Their syntactical
functions also differ from the finite forms. The Infinitive and the Gerund, for example, can be used as a
Subject, an Object, and a Predicative in the sentence. The Participle may be used as an attribute and as a
predicative. In these functions the participle acquires the same syntactical characteristics as the adjective
and the adverb. The double nature of the verbals makes some grammarians think that they should not be
regarded as the forms of the verb. They think that the verbals must be included into other parts of speech
(Infinitive and Gerund into nouns and Participle into adjectives).
These opinions are based on the syntactical functions of the verbals. But the features of the finite and
non-finite forms of the verb having much in common leave this point of view to be groundless. The
general meaning of the finite and the non-finite forms coincides. Though the non-finite forms lack some
verbal categories, the categories possessed by the verbals (relativity, voice and aspect) are purely verbal
and they are not to be found in any part of speech but the verb.
The Infinitive is the most generalized, the most abstract form of the verb, serving as the verbal name of a process; it is used as
the derivation base for all the other verbal forms. That is why the infinitive is traditionally used as the head word for the
lexicographic entry of the verb in dictionaries.
The infinitive combines verbal features with features of the noun; it is a phenomenon of hybrid processual-substantive nature,
intermediary between the verb and the noun. It has voice and aspect forms, e.g.: to write, to be writing, to have written, to be
written, to have been written;. The non-verbal properties of the infinitive are displayed in its syntactic functions and its
combinability. The infinitive performs all the functions characteristic of the noun
The gerund is another verbid that serves as the verbal name of a process and combines verbal features with those of a noun;
the gerund, like the infinitive, can be characterized as a phenomenon of hybrid processual-substantive nature, intermediary
between the verb and the noun. It is even closer to the noun, because besides performing the substantive functions in a
sentence like the infinitive, it can also be modified by an attribute and can be used with a preposition, which the infinitive can
not do, e.g.: Thank you for listening to me; Your careful listening to me is very much appreciated
Participle I (present participle) is fully homonymous with the gerund: it is also an ‘ing-form’ (or, rather, four ‘ing-forms’,
cf.: writing, being written, having written, having been written). But its semantics is different: it denotes processual quality,
combining verbal features with features of the adjective and the adverb; participle I can be characterized as a phenomenon of
hybrid processual-qualifying nature, intermediary between the verb and the adjective/adverb
Participle II, like participle I, denotes processual quality and can be characterized as a phenomenon of hybrid processual-
qualifying nature. It has only one form, traditionally treated in practical grammar as the verbal “third form”, used to build the
analytical forms of the passive and the perfect of finites, e.g.: is taken; has taken.

24)Secondary predication and predicative constructions with the verbals

If we take the sentence He studies hard we shall see that it contains the subject and the predicate. The
relations between the subject and the predicate are usually expressed grammatically and first of all it is
expressed in grammatical agreement: He studies but they study. In the sentence He studies hard we
observe the whole complex of relations between the subject and the predicate (person, number, tense,
mood, voice, correlation!. So the whole complex of relations between the subject and the predicate
expressed grammatically in a sentence is called predication.
Predication is found in any sentence. But sometimes we may find sentences which contain not only
grammatical predication but the phenomenon which is called secondary predication. e.g. He expects
her to study hard.
The relation between the subject he and the predicate expects is that of the relation of grammatical or
primary predication. But in the sentence there is another construction her to study in which the relations
between the components are very much similar to the relations between the subject and the predicate
because the nominal purther is the doer of the action expressed by the Infinitive to study. But the
relations between these pans are not expressed grammatically. That is why we may speak here only of
logical predication and therefore the nominal part of this construction may be called only the secondary
subject while the verbal part - the secondary predicate and the relations between them are called the
relations of secondary predication. The constructions which are based on the relations of the secondary
predication are called predicative constructions.
Predicative constructions are usually built up with the help of verbals and they are used in different
syntactical functions. Their peculiarities consist in the fact that they serve to express not simple parts of a
sentence but complex ones.
There are the following predicative constructions with the verbals in Modern English:
1) The Accusative with the Infinitive (or Participle). Some grammarians call it the Objective with the
Infinitive (or Participle) Construction. The syntactical function of this construction is that of a complex
object. E.g. I want you to do it. I heard him speaking something.
2) The Nominative with the Infinitive (or Participle) or the Subjective with the Infinitive (or Participle)
Construction. E.g. The plane was reported to have been shot down. The girl was seen entering the hall.
Some grammarians think that this construction performs the function of a complex subject,
3)An Infinitive construction introduced by the preposition -to Infinitive Construction. Some grammarians
call it the for-phrase. This construction may be used in different syntactical functions in the sentence: as
the subject, object, predicative, attribute, adverbial modifier, e.g. It is for you to decide.
4) The Nominative Absolute Participial Construction expressing adverbial relations.
My eyes being very heavy. I lay down again and slept. Dinner over, they went to the college. - Nominal
absolute construction.
5) The Prepositional Absolute Participle Construction introduced by the preposition with (or without).
Usually this is a complex adverbial modifier of attending circumstances. E.g. He fell asleep with a
candle lit.

25)The Noun. Definition, gram.categories, kinds (proper, common)

The noun is one of the oldest parts of speech used to denote substances. it expresses the idea of
substantivity. As any part of speech it is characterized from three sides: lexical, morphological, and
syntactical.
The lexical meaning of the noun is that of a thing. This is the general meaning of the class. Most nouns
denote concrete things: a book, a table, an elephant. Here belong also nouns denoting abstract ideas:
love, pleasure: actions: laughter, qualities: kindness.
Thus, the lexical meaning of a noun is that of a thing or of an abstract idea, action, quality, presented as a
thing.
- names applied to any individual of a class to distinguish them from other individuals of the same class
or a group of individuals: John, Moscow, the Alps.
a) class-nouns (a man, a book)
b) names of materials expressing the whole mass of matter (iron, snow, air, water)
c) abstract nouns turned into concrete (a beauty, a youth)
- names of actions, states or qualities (conversation, reading, love, kindness, strength, time, summer,
thunder, day)
regarded as a single object
a) having both numbers (a family, a crew, families. crews; a people, peoples)
b) names of multitude (cattle, poultry, police) -the}' are always plural
c) used always in singular (foliage, leafage, linen, money, crockery, youth)
d) used only in the plural (goods, belongings, clothes, sweepings, tidings)
The syntactical characteristics of a noun are the following: it may be a subject, an object, a predicative
in a sentence. It may also be used in some other functions but they are not characteristic of a noun.
As to its combinability nouns may combine with verbs, adjectives, pronouns. The noun may be
associated with articles and governed by prepositions.
The morphological characteristics of a noun is limited to two categories: the category of number and the
category of case.
Number - count nouns have singular and plural forms. In Modern English the singular form of a noun is
unmarked (zero). The plural form is marked by the inflexion -(e)s. Irregular plurals: man, tooth,
mouse… Invariable nouns: tea, sugar, gold, news, proper nouns.
Case - shows relation of the noun with other words in a sentence. It is expressed by the form of the noun.
English nouns have two cases: the common case (unmarked, it has no inflexion (zero inflexion) and its
meaning is very general) and the genitive case (is marked by ‘s).=possessive
Gender does not find regular morphological expression. The distinction of male, female, and neuter may
correspond to the lexical meaning of the noun: boy, girl, table.

26)The problem of Gender (generic notion)

Gender cannot be regarded as a grammatical category in Modern English because there are no special
grammatical means of expressing the category of gender. In English the form of the noun does not show
any relations that may be admitted as gender relations.
In Modern English there is no grammatical agreement between nouns and adjectives, e.g. a clever boy, a
clever girl, a clever remark, while in Russian we have this grammatical agreement, e.g. умный мальчик,
умная девочка, умное замечание. Thus, we may say that in Modern English there are no grammatical
indications of the category of gender. But we can speak of the so-called generic notion, which may be
expressed in three ways:
1) By means of the lexical meaning of some words: such nouns as man, husband, boy. It goes without
saying that these nouns or rather substances expressed by these nouns refer to the male sex and
historically these nouns are referred to the group of nouns of the masculine gender.
2) In Modern English there are some pairs of words, such as waiter -waitress, god - goddess, lion -
lioness, host — hostess, heir - heiress, tiger - tigress. The suffix -ess serves to express substances of the
female sex. However this suffix cannot be treated as a form building suffix. This means that the suffix
-ess serves for the formation of new words but not forms of one and the same word. This statement may
be proved by the fact that the suffix -ess is typical of very few nouns in Modern English. The same may
be said about such pairs of words as widow-widower, bride-bride-groom. In these words we also deal
with the word-building suffixes.
3) Among the words denoting living beings we find a number of words which do not indicate sex: enemv,
neighbour, cousin, teacher, etc. Nearly all the nouns derived from words denoting agents (doers of an
action) also belong here: reader, professor, engineer, doctor. On account of social tradition many words
which may denote at present both male and female beings are practically always used of men only. e.g.
shoemaker, baker, lawyer.
When a special indication of sex is wanted with the word which does not express any sex, we use such
words as: boy, girl, man, woman, male, female, he, she or some proper nouns, e.g. she-wolf, lady-bird,
male-elephant, cock-sparrow, hen-sparrow, jack-ass, jenny-ass, billy-goat, nanny-goat, tomcat, girl-
cousin, maid-servant.
When abstract notions are personified, the masculine gender is given to nouns suggesting such ideas as
strength, fierceness, etc. while the feminine is associated with the idea of gentleness, beauty, etc.:
Masculine: anger, death, fear. war. hail.
Feminine: spring, peace, kindness, dawn.

27) The category of number

Number is a grammatical category of the English noun, which shows whether we speak of one substance
or more than one. This grammatical meaning of the category of number is expressed by the opposition of
two grammatical number forms: the singular form and the plural form. This opposition is true of many
nouns: table - tables, man — men, etc. But if we compare such two phrases as four tables and four
minutes we may see that in the first case we really deal with four separate substances. Thus, the
opposition one table and four tables is that of the opposition of one and more than one. But in the case of
four minutes it is rather a certain duration of time that we deal with but not four separate substances as in
the case of tables.
If we take such nouns as colour and colours or custom and customs the difference in lexical meaning
develops to such a degree that it overshadows the grammatical meaning of the category of number. That
is why we may say that in such cases we deal with the lexicalization of the grammatical meaning of the
plural form, the result of which is the existence of two homonymous words.
As for the grammatical opposition of the singular and the plural forms in English the form of the singular
is a bare stem with the zero inflection whereas the plural number is built up by means of the inflection -s
for the majority of cases.
Compound nouns usually present difficulties in building up the plural form. A compound noun consists of
two or more stems (root-morphemes).
There are several ways of forming the plural number in compound nouns:
1. In compound nouns usually the head-noun takes the plural form (fellow-workers, school-mates, air-
raids, editors-in-chief, brothers-in-law).
2. In compound nouns expressing generic notions the plural inflexion as a rule is added to the second
element which is usually a noun (she-wolves, lady-birds, tom-cats, billy-goats, cock-sparrows).
3. In a compound noun consisting of a verb and a noun the plural inflection is added to a noun (pick-
pockets).
4. a compound noun does not contain any noun, the plural is formed by adding the inflexion -s to the last
word (forget-me-nots, merry-go-rounds, hold-alls, overalls).
5. If the first part of compound nouns is the word man or woman both stems are changed (men-servants,
women-journalists).
While speaking about the category of number we may also consider the nouns which have no usual two
numbered forms, but mav be found in one of them. The nouns which have only the plural form are
termed Pluralia Tantum, while the nouns which have only the singular form are called Singularia
Tantum.
Among the pluralia tantum there are nouns of two types:
1. Nouns denoting material objects consisting of two similar halves: scissors, trousers, spectacles, scales,
eye-glasses, tongs.
2. Nouns which have collective meaning: concrete or abstract.
a) Concrete: stairs, goods, eaves, slums, outskirts, tropics, memoirs, victuals, supplies, clothes,
sweepings, slops, presents, parings, sweets, lodgings, suburbs.
b) Abstract: holidays, tidings, goings-on, earnings, contents, wages (also wage), surroundings, doings,
politics, tactics, gymnastics, athletics.
The nouns of singular number (Singularia Tantum) are usually called uncountable or mass-nouns. Here
belong:
a) Concrete nouns:
1. Names of materials: water, milk, wine, snow, bread, beer, honey, paper, an; butter.
2. Some collective nouns -.foliage, leafage, shrubbery, brushwood, linen, machineiy, furniture, timber.
b) Abstract nouns: friendship, joy, patriotism, love, kindness, weather, courage, information, progress,
advice, confusion, noise, laughter, pleasure, beauty.

28) The category of case. Different approaces.

Case is a grammatical category of the noun which serves to express relations between a substance
denoted by a noun and other words in a sentence and which is manifested in some formal sign in a noun
itself. In accordance with this definition there is a classification of cases: the Common case and the
Genitive.
But the points of view connected with the problem of the category of case may be roughly divided into
two extreme and contrary assertions:
1) that there are more than two cases in Modern English nouns;
2) that there is no category of case at all in Modern English nouns.
The first point of view was expressed by Max Deutschbein and was supported by some foreign
grammarians. He thinks that in Modern English there are four cases: the Nominative, the Genitive, the
Accusative, and the Dative. He distinguishes between the Nominative and the Accusative cases with the
help of the order of words and syntactical functions in which this or that noun may be found in a
sentence. In his point of view if a noun precedes a predicate verb it is a subject and accordingly is used in
the Nominative case. If a noun follows a predicate verb it is an object and is used in the Accusative case.
E.g. The boy reads many books. ( The boy here is the subject used in the Nominative case while books is
an object used in the Accusative case)
This consideration may be hardly accepted on account of the fact that in Modern English there are many
sentences in which the word-order may be an inverted one. Cf. Я читал книгу. Я читал всю ночь.
According to Deutschbein the Dative case is expressed by the form the preposition to - noun.
If we accept the possibility of expressing cases with the help of prepositions then we may say that in
Modem English there are many more than four cases, for example, the Instrumental case which may be
expressed by a noun with the preposition by or with.
The point is that this consideration cannot be accepted because prepositions present quite an independent
part of speech in a sentence having its own lexico-grammatical meaning. That is why it is impossible to
use one preposition instead of another.. Therefore there are not any analytical forms which may express
case relations in Modern English.
The English grammarian Briant doubts strongly that the category of case exists in Modern English as
she considers that the structure with - 's should be taken rather as an adjective in the function of an
attribute. e.g. A bov's hat in which boy's should be taken as an adjective.
The majority of our grammarians and a number of foreign grammarians hold to the point of view that
there are two cases in Modern English: the common case which is expressed by the zero inflection and
the genitive or possessive case expressed by the -'s inflexion. These two forms serve to express
grammatically the relation of a substance denoted by a noun to other words in a sentence which is the
grammatical meaning of the category of case. The common case is an unmarked member of the
opposition of the category of case whereas the genitive case is a marked member, both in form and
function.