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Seminar 1
SYSTEMIC CONCEPTION OF LANGUAGE
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1. The systemic conception of language. The approaches towards language
treatment. The notion of system. The communicative principle in the
consideration of language.
2. The definition of a sign. The specific nature of language signs. Types of signs.
3. Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of language units. The role of F. de
Saussure and I. A. Beaudoin de Courtenay in the development of linguistic
theory. The notion of synchrony and diachrony.
4. Language levels and language units. The correlation of word, phrase,
sentence, dicteme (utterance). The peculiar status of phoneme. Word and
sentence as basic units of language.

1. System as a Linguistic Notion

Human language is a verbal means of communication; its function consists in forming,
storing and exchanging ideas as reflections of reality. Being inseparably connected with
the people who create and use it, language is social and psychological by nature.
Language incorporates three constituent parts. They are the phonological system, the
lexical system, and the grammatical system. The phonological system determines the
material (phonetic) form of its significative units; the lexical system comprises the
whole set of nominative means of language (words and stable word-groups); the
grammatical system presents the whole set of regularities determining the combination
of nominative units in the formation of utterances.
The aim of theoretical grammar of language is to present a theoretical description of
its grammatical system. To achieve this aim it is necessary to scientifically analyze and
define its categories and study the mechanisms of grammatical formation of utterances
in the process of speech production.
 Modern linguistics is essentially based on the systemic conception of language.
System in general is defined as a structured set of elements related to one another by a
common function. The interpretation of language as a system develops a number of
notions, namely: the notions of language levels and language units, paradigmatic and
syntagmatic relations, the notions of form and meaning (function, of synchrony and
diachrony, of analysis and synthesis, and some others.
2. Language and Speech
The discrimination of language and speech is the fundamental principle of linguistics.
This principle has sustained throughout the whole history of the study of language. With
a special demonstrative force it was confirmed by I. A. Beaudoin de Courtenay (end of
the XIX c.) and F. de Saussure (beginning of the XX c.) who analyzed the language-
speech dichotomy in connection with the problem of identifying the subject of
linguistics. The two great scholars emphatically pointed out the difference between
synchrony and diachrony stressing the fact that at any stage of its historical evolution
language is a synchronic system of meaningful elements, i.e. a system of special signs.
Language in the narrow sense of the word is a system of means of expression, while
speech is a manifestation of the system of language in the process of communication.
The system of language includes the bodies of material units – sounds, morphemes,
words, word-groups, and a set of regularities or “rules” of the use of these units. Speech
comprises both the act of producing utterances and the utterances themselves, i.e. the
text made up of lingual units of various status.
From the functional point of view all the units of language should be classed into
those that are non-meaningful semantically, such as phonemes, and those that express a
certain semantic meaning, such as words. The non-meaningful units may be referred to
as “cortemes”, they provide a physical cover (acoustic, graphical) for meaningful units;
the meaningful units, in distinction to cortemes, may be referred to as “signemes”.
Signeme s a lingual sign. The introduction of a special name for it is called upon that
there is a profound difference between the lingual signs and non-lingual, common signs.
 Language and speech are inseparable, they form an organic unity. The stability of this
unity is ensured by grammar since it dynamically connects language with speech by
categorically determining the process of utterance production.
The signeme (lingual sign) in the system of language has only a potential meaning. In
speech the potential meaning of the lingual sign is “actualized”, in other words, it is
made situationally significant as part of the grammatically organized text.
The functional dynamics of lingual units in speech is efficiently demonstrated by the
branch of linguistics called “pragmalinguistics”. Among other things, pragmalinguistics
investigated the relevant contribution to the total communicative content of utterances
made by different unit types. In this connection, stretches of speech have been described
the role of which consists not in the expression of certain meanings, but in maintaining
the contact between the communicants, or sustaining the “phatic communion”. These
elements have received the name of “phatic”. (see: excerpt from “Papers in Linguistics”
by Firth J. R. ‘Semantics. A New Outline’)
3. Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic Relations
Lingual signs stand to one another in two fundamental types of relations: syntagmatic
and paradigmatic.
Syntagmatic relations are immediate linear relations between units in a segmental
sequence (string).
One of the basic notions in the syntagmatic analysis is the notion of syntactic
syntagma. A “syntactic syntagma” is the combination of two words or word-groups one
of which is modified by the other.
To syntagmatic relations are opposed paradigmatic relations. They exist between
elements of the system outside the strings in which they co-occur. These intrasystemic
relations find their expression in the fact that each lingual unit is included in a set or
series of connections based on different formal and functional properties.
Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations are not isolated from one another.
Paradigmatic relations co-exist with syntagmatic relations in such a way that some sort
of syntagmatic connection is necessary for the realization of any paradigmatic series.
This is revealed to the full in a classical grammatical paradigm. It presents a productive
series of forms. A paradigmatic form – a constituent of a paradigm – consists of a stem
and a specific element (inflexion, suffix, auxiliary word). The function of a grammatical
paradigm is to express a categorial meaning.
4. Language Units and Language Levels
Units of language are divided into segmental and suprasegmental. Segmental units
consist of phonemes, they form phonemic strings of various status. Suprasegmental
units do not exist by themselves, but are realized with segmental units and express
different modificational meanings reflected on the strings of segmental units.
The segmental units of language form a hierarchy of levels. Units of each higher level
are formed of units of the immediately lower level. But this hierarchical relation is not
reduced to the mechanical composition of larger units from smaller ones, as units of
each level are characterized by their own, specific, functional properties which provide
the basis for the very recognition of the corresponding language levels.
The lowest level of lingual units is phonemic: it is formed by phonemes. The
phoneme has no meaning, its function is purely differential.
The second level, located above the phonemic, is morphemic. The morpheme is the
elementary meaningful part of the word built up by phonemes. The morpheme
expresses abstract “significative”, meaning.
The third level is lexemic. Its differential unit is the word. The word realizes the
function of nomination.
The fourth level is denotemic, its constituent unit is denoteme (notional part of the
sentence).
The fifth level is proposemic. It is built up by sentences. As a sign, the sentence
simultaneously fulfils two functions – nominative and predicative.
The sixth level is the level of topicalization, its constituent element is the “dicteme”
(“utterance”). The function of the dicteme is to build up a topical stretch of some text.
Being an elementary topical unit of text, the dicteme fulfils four main signemic
functions: the function of nomination, predication, topicalization, and stylization.
 QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:
1. What are the determining features of a system? How do they apply to language?
2. What is the functional relevance of the language unit?
3. What conceptual correlation is the language-speech dichotomy based on?
4. What is the correlation of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations?
5. What is the difference between segmental and suprasegmental units?
6. What language levels are identified in the language system?
7. What conditions the non-overlapping of language levels?
8. What functions do the language units, representatives of the six language levels,
perform?
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Seminar 2
PART I:
MORPHEMIC STRUCTURE OF THE WORD
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1. The morphemic structure of the word. The notions of morph, morpheme,
allomorph.
2. The traditional classification of morphemes.
3. The allo-emic classification of morphemes.
4. The notion of distribution, types of distribution.
5. The principle of identifying free/bound, overt/covert, additive/replacive,
continuous/discontinuous morphemes.
6. The notion of zero morpheme.

1. Word as a Nominative Unit

The word is a basic nominative unit. Without words there cannot be any
communication even in thought, to say nothing about speech communication.
From the point of view of its nominative function, the word is an elementary
indivisible constituent part of the lexicon.
 It is not easy to identify the word because the words are heterogeneous from the point
of view of both content and form.
To find the criteria of word identification linguists resort to the notions of functional
correlation and continuum. Functional correlation connects the elements which have
similar and different properties. In fact, within a complex system of interrelated
elements there exist two types of phenomena — "polar" and "intermediary". Polar
phenomena stand to one another in an explicit opposition. Intermediary phenomena are
located in the system in between the polar phenomena, making up a gradation of
transitions. A total of these transitions make up a continuum. Thus, between proper
nouns and common nouns – polar phenomena – there exist different transitions of semi-
proper nouns, which make up a continuum.
Giving a definition to the word on these lines, it is necessary to describe the notional
one-stem word and the grammatical morpheme as the opposing polar phenomena. The
continuum existing between them is constituted by functional words. Functional words
are very limited in number and perform various grammatical functions. In distinction to
these, notional words are infinite in number and are nominative units proper.
Thus, the word is the nominative unit of language built up by morphemes and
indivisible into smaller segments as regards its nominative function.
2. Morphemic Structure of the Word
The morphological system of language reveals its properties through the morphemic
structure of words. So, it is but natural that one of the essential tasks of morphology is
to study the morphemic structure of the word.
In traditional grammar the study of the morphemic structure of the word is based upon
two criteria — positional and semantic (functional). morphemic composition The
morphemic composition of modern English words has a wide range of varieties but the
preferable morphemic model of the common English word is the following: prefix +
root + lexical suffix + grammatical suffix.
Further insights into the correlation between the formal and functional aspects of
morphemes may be gained in the light of the “allo-emic” theory put forward by
Descriptive Linguistics. In accord with this theory, lingual units are described by means
of two types of terms “allo-terms” and “eme-terms”. Eme-terms denote the generalized,
invariant units of language characterized by a certain functional status, e.g., phonemes,
morphemes, lexemes, phrasemes, etc., but in practical analysis this terminology is
applied only to the analysis of phonemes and morphemes. All-terms denote the concrete
manifestations of variants of the eme-units. Allo-units are distinguished by their regular
co-location with other elements of language. Typical examples of allo-units are
allophones and allomorphs.
The allo-emic identification of lingual elements forms the basis for the so-called
“distributional” analysis. The aim of the distributional analysis is to study the units of
language in relation to the adjoining elements in the text.
In the distributional analysis three main types of distribution are discriminated:
contrastive distribution, non-contrastive distribution, and complementary
distribution. Contrastive and non-contrastive distributions concern identical
environments of different morphs. The morphs are said to be in contrastive distribution
if their meanings (functions) are different; such morphs constitute different morphemes,
e.g., “returned // returning // returns”. The morphs are in non-contrastive distribution if
their meanings (functions) are identical; such morphs constitute “free alternants” (“free
variants”) of the same morpheme, e.g., the suffixes “-ed” and “-t” in the verb forms
“learned // learnt”, or the suffixes “-s” and “-i” in the noun forms “genies // genii”. As
for complementary distribution, it concerns different environments of formally different
morphs which fulfil one and the same function; such morphs are termed “allo-morphs”,
e.g., there exist a few allomorphs of the plural suffix of the noun: “-en” (children), “-s”
(toys), “-a” (data), “-es” (crises), “-i” (genii), the zero allomorph (trout // trout), etc.
The application of distributional analysis to the morphemic level results in the
classification of morphemes on distributional lines. In accord with this classification a
few “distributional morpheme types” are identified: free and bound morphemes, overt
and covert morphemes, additive and replacive morphemes, continuous and
discontinuous morphemes, segmental and suprasegmental morphemes.

QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:
 1. What is the basic difference between the morpheme and the word as language
units?
2. What is a morph?
3. What does the difference between a morpheme and an allomorph consist in?
4. What principles underlie the traditional study of the morphemic composition of
the word?
5. What principles is the distributional analysis of morphemes based on?
6. What are the determining features of the three types of distribution?

EXERCISES
I. Do the morphemic analysis of the words on the lines of the traditional and
distributional classifications.
MODEL: Do the morphemic analysis of the word “inseparable”.
On the lines of the traditional classification the word “inseparable” is
treated as a three-morpheme word consisting of the root morpheme “-
separ-”, the prefix “in-” and the lexical suffix “-able”.
On the lines of the distributional analysis the root “-separ-” is a bound,
overt, continuous, additive morpheme; the prefix “in-” is a bound, overt,
continuous, additive morpheme; the suffix “-able” is a bound, overt,
continuous, additive morpheme.

a) unmistakably, children’s (books), disfigured, underspecified, surroundings,

presume, kingdom, brotherhood, plentiful, imperishable, unprecedented, oxen,
embodiment, outlandish;
b) hammer, students’ (papers), sing–sang–singing–singer, really, proficient–
deficient–efficient, gooseberry, unreproved, incomparable;
c) quiet, perceptions, wheaterina, bell, unbelievably, glassy, uncommunicative,
inexplicable, infamy, strenuousness;
d) inconceivable, prefigurations, southernism, semidarkness, adventuresses,
insurmountable, susceptibility, ineptitude, unfathomable, insufficiency, to
prejudge, cranberry.

II. Define the type of the morphemic distribution according to which the given
words are grouped.
MODEL: insensible–incapable
The morphs “-ible” and “-able” are in complementary distribution, as they
have the same meaning but are different in their form which is explained by
their different environments.

a) impeccable, indelicate, illiterate, irrelevant;

b) undisputable, indisputable;
c) published, rimmed;
d) seams, seamless, seamy.
III. Group the words according to a particular type of morphemic distribution.
MODEL: worked–bells–tells–fells–telling–spells–spelled–spelt–felled–bell
spells–spelled: the allomorphs “-s” and “-ed” are in contrastive distribution
(=fells–felled);
bell–bells: the allomorph “-s” and zero allomorph are in contrastive
distribution;
spelt–spelled: the allomorphs “-t” and “-ed” are in non-contrastive
distribution;
worked–spelled: the allomorphs “-ed [t]” and “-ed [d]” are in
complementary distribution, etc.

a) burning–burns–burned–burnt;
b) dig–digs–digging–digged–dug–digger;
c) light–lit–lighted–lighting–lighter;
d) worked–working–worker–workable–workaholic.
IV. Group the word according to a particular type of morphemic distribution:

1. mice, leapt, appendices, kittens, cats, witches, leaping, children, leaped, leaps,
formulae, stimuli, matrices, sanatoria;
2. geese, dogs, chickens, deer, mats bade, bid, phenomena, formulae, formulas,
genii, geniuses, scissors;
3. genera, brethren, brothers, trout, gestures, blessed, blest, tins, pots, matches,
antennae, antennas;
4. anthems, classes, lice, handkerchiefs, handkerchieves, bereft, bereaved, grouse,
cleaved, cleft, clove.

PART II:
CATEGORIAL STRUCTURE OF THE WORD
1. The basic notions concerned with the analysis of the categorial structure of
the word: grammatical category, opposition, paradigm. Grammatical
meaning and means of its expression.
2. The Prague linguistic school and its role in the development of the systemic
conception of language. The theory of oppositions, types of oppositions:
privative, gradual, equipollent; binary, ternary, etc. Oppositions in
grammar.
3. Synthetical and analytical forms. The principle of identifying an analytical
form. The notion of suppletivity.
1. Notion of Opposition. Oppositions in Morphology
The most general meanings rendered by language and expressed by systemic
correlations of word-forms are interpreted in linguistics as categorial grammatical
meanings. The forms rendering these meanings are identified within definite
paradigmatic series.
The grammatical category is a system of expressing a generalized grammatical
meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms. The ordered set of
grammatical forms expressing a categorial function constitutes a paradigm. The
paradigmatic correlations of grammatical forms in a category are exposed by
grammatical oppositions which are generalized correlations of lingual forms by means
of which certain functions are expressed.
There exist three main types of qualitatively different oppositions: “privative”,
“gradual”, “equipollent”. By the number of members contrasted, oppositions are divided
into binary and more than binary. The privative binary opposition is formed by a
contrastive pair of members in which one member is characterized by the presence of a
certain feature called the “mark”, while the other member is characterized by the
absence of this differential feature. The gradual opposition is formed by the degree of
the presentation of one and the same feature of the opposition members. The equipollent
opposition is formed by a contrastive group of members which are distinguished not by
the presence or absence of a certain feature, but by a contrastive pair or group in which
the members are distinguished by different positive (differential) features.
The most important type of opposition in morphology is the binary privative
opposition. The privative morphological opposition is based on a morphological
differential feature which is present in its strong (marked) member and is absent in its
weak (unmarked) member. This featuring serves as the immediate means of expressing
a grammatical meaning, e.g. we distinguish the verbal present and past tenses with the
help of the privative oppositions whose differential feature is the dental suffix “-(e)d”:
“work // worked”: “non-past (-) // past (+)”.
Gradual oppositions in morphology are not generally recognized; they can be identified
as a minor type at the semantic level only, e.g. the category of comparison is expressed
through the gradual morphological opposition: “clean // cleaner // cleanest”.
Equipollent oppositions in English morphology constitute a minor type and are mostly
confined to formal relations. In context of a broader morphological interpretation one
can say that the basis of morphological equipollent oppositions is suppletivity, i.e. the
expression of the grammatical meaning by means of different roots united in one and
the same paradigm, e.g. the correlation of the case forms of personal pronouns (she //
her, he // him), the tense forms of the irregular verbs (go // went), etc.
As morphological gradual and equipollent oppositions can be reduced to privative
oppositions, a word-form can be characterized by a bundle of differential features
(strong features) exposing its categorial properties.

QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:
1. In what way are the two notions – “grammatical category” and “opposition” –
interconnected?
2. What grammatical elements constitute a paradigm?
3. What are the differential features of privative, gradual, and equipollent
oppositions?
4. What enables linguists to consider the privative binary opposition as the most
important type of oppositions?

EXERCISES
I. Define the type of oppositions and interpret the categorial properties or their
members in privative terms.
MODEL: play–played
The words “play–played” make up a binary privative opposition. The
strong member is “played”; its differential feature is the denotation of a
past action. The marker of this categorial meaning is the grammatical suffix
“-ed”

a. k – g, m – w, s – n, a: – ә – i:

b. he – she, he – they, he – it, we – they;

c. intelligent – more intelligent – the most intelligent;

d. I understand – I am understood

e. tooth – teeth, pincers – a pair of pincers;

f. am – is;

g. he listens – he is listening;

h. mother – room.
II. Build up the oppositions of the categorial forms and define the types of the
oppositions.
Efficient, have defined, they, information, he, more efficient, vessel, we,
define, the most efficient, are defined, I, vessels, will define, bits of
information, defined, less efficient, a most efficient.
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Seminar 3
NOUN AND ITS CATEGORIES
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1. The general characteristics of the noun as a part of speech. Classification of
nouns.
2. The category of gender.
3. The category of number. Singularia Tantum and Pluralia Tantum.
4. The category of case: different approaches to its interpretation. Case
distinctions in personal pronouns.

1. Noun as a Part of Speech

The noun as a part of speech has the categorial meaning of “substance”.
The semantic properties of the noun determine its categorial syntactic properties: the
primary substantive functions of the noun are those of the subject and the object. Its
other functions are predicative, attributive and adverbial.
The syntactic properties of the noun are also revealed in its special types of
combinability. In particular, the noun is characterized by the prepositional
combinability with another noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb; by the casal
combinability which co-exists with its prepositional combinability with another noun;
by the contact combinability with another noun.
As a part of speech the noun has also a set of formal features. Thus, it is characterized
by specific word-building patterns having typical suffixes, compound stem models,
conversion patterns.
 The noun discriminates four grammatical categories: the categories of gender, number,
case, and article determination.
2. Category of Gender
The problem of gender in English is being vigorously disputed. Linguistic scholars as a
rule deny the existence of gender in English as a grammatical category and stress its
purely semantic character. The actual gender distinctions of nouns are not denied by
anyone; what is disputable is the character of the gender classifications; whether it is
purely semantic or semantico-grammatical.
In fact, the category of gender in English is expressed with the help of the obligatory
correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the third person. The third person
pronouns being specific and obligatory classifiers of nouns, English gender distinctions
display their grammatical nature.
The category of gender is based on two hierarchically arranged oppositions: the upper
opposition is general, it functions in the whole set of nouns; the lower opposition is
partial, it functions in the subset of person nouns only. As a result of the double
oppositional correlation, in Modern English, a specific system of three genders arises:
the neuter, the masculine, and the feminine genders.
In English there are many person nouns capable of expressing both feminine and
masculine genders by way of the pronominal correlation. These nouns comprise a group
of the so-called “common gender” nouns, e.g.: “person”, “friend”, etc.
In the plural all the gender distinctions are neutralized but they are rendered obliquely
through the correlation with the singular.
Alongside of the grammatical (or lexico-grammatical) gender distinctions, English
nouns can show the sex of their referents also lexically with the help of special lexical
markers, e.g.: bull-calf / cow-calf, cock-sparrow / hen-sparrow, he-bear / she-bear, etc.
or through suffixal derivation: sultan / sultana, lion / lioness, etc.
The category of gender can undergo the process of oppositional reduction. It can be
easily neutralized (with the group of “common gender” nouns) and transponized (the
process of “personification”).
 The English gender differs much from the Russian gender: the English gender has a
semantic character (oppositionally, i.e. grammatically expressed), while the gender in
Russian is partially semantic (Russian animate nouns have semantic gender
distinctions), and partially formal.
3. Category of Number
The category of number is expressed by the opposition of the plural form of the noun
to its singular form. The semantic difference of the oppositional members of the
category of number in many linguistic works is treated traditionally: the meaning of the
singular is interpreted as “one” and the meaning of the plural – as “many” (“more than
one”).
As the traditional interpretation of the singular and the plural members does not work
in many cases, recently the categorial meaning of the plural has been reconsidered and
now it is interpreted as the denotation of “the potentially dismembering reflection of the
structure of the referent” (correspondingly, the categorial meaning of the singular is
treated as “the non-dismembering reflection of the structure of the referent”).
The categorial opposition of number is subjected to the process of oppositional
reduction. Neutralization takes place when countable nouns begin to function as
Singularia Tantum nouns, denoting in such cases either abstract ideas or some mass
material, e.g. On my birthday we always have goose; or when countable nouns are used
in the function of the Absolute Plural: The board are not unanimous on the question. A
stylistically marked transposition is achieved by the use of the descriptive uncountable
plural (The fruits of the toil are not always visible) and the “repetition plural” (Car after
car rushed past me)
4. Category of Case
The case meanings in English relate to one another in a peculiar, unknown in other
languages, way: the common case is quite indifferent from the semantic point of view,
while the genitive case functions as a subsidiary element in the morphological system of
English because its semantics is also rendered by the Common Case noun in
prepositional collocation and in contact.
 In the discussion of the case problem four main views advanced by different scholars
should be considered: the “theory of positional cases”, the "prepositional theory", the
“limited case theory”, and the “postpositional theory”.
According to the “theory of positional cases”, the English noun distinguishes the
inflectional genitive case and four non-inflectional, purely positional, cases –
Nominative, Vocative, Dative, Accusative. The cardinal week point of this theory lies in
the fact that it mixes up the functional (syntactical characteristics) of the sentence parts
and the morphological features of the noun.
The “theory pf prepositional cases” regards nounal combinations with the prepositions
in certain object and attributive collocations as morphological case forms: the Dative
Case (to+N, for+N), the Genitive Case (of+N).
The “limited case theory” recognizes the existence in English of a limited case system
whose members are the Genitive Case (a strong form) and the Common Case (a weak
form).
The “postpositional theory” claims that the English noun in the course of its historical
development has completely lost the morphological category of case; that is why the
traditional Genitive Case is treated by its advocates as a combination of a noun with a
particle.
Taking into account the advantages of the two theories – the “limited case theory” and
the “postpositional theory” opens new perspectives in the treatment of the category of
case. It stands to reason to regard the element -s / -es as a special case particle. Thus,
according to the “particle case theory” the two-case system of the noun is to be
recognized in English: the Common Case is a direct case, the Genitive Case is an
oblique case. As the case opposition does not work with all nouns, from the functional
point of view the Genitive Case is to be regarded as subsidiary to the syntactic system
of prepositional phrases.
5. Category of Article Determination
The problem of English articles has been the subject of hot discussions for many years.
Today the most disputable questions concerning the system of articles in English are the
following: the identification of the article status in the hierarchy of language units, the
number of articles, their categorial and pragmatic functions.
There exist two basic approaches to the problem of the article status: some scholars
consider the article a self-sufficient word which forms with the modified noun a
syntactic syntagma; others identify the article with the morpheme-like element which
builds up with the nounal stem a specific morph.
In recent works on the problem of article determination of English nouns, more often
that not an opinion is expressed that in the hierarchy of language units the articles
occupies a peculiar place – the place intermediary between the word and the morpheme.
In the light of the oppositional theory the category of article determination of the noun
is regarded as one which is based on two binary oppositions: one of them is upper, the
other is lower. The opposition of the higher level operates in the whole system of
articles and contrasts the definite article with the noun against the two other forms of
article determination of the noun – the indefinite article and the meaningful absence of
the article. The opposition of the lower level operates within the sphere of realizing the
categorial meaning of non-identification (the sphere of the weak member of the upper
opposition) and contrasts the two types of generalization. As a result, the system of
articles in English is described as one consisting of three articles – the definite article,
the indefinite article, and the zero article, which, correspondingly, express the categorial
functions (meanings) of identification, relative generalization, and absolute
generalization.
The article paradigm is generalized for the whole system of the common nouns in
English and is transpositionally outstretched into the subsystems of proper nouns and
Unica (unique nouns) as well as into the system of pronouns.

QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:
1. What are the “part of speech” properties of a noun?
2. Why don’t lexical gender markers annul the grammatical character of English
gender?
 3. Why is the interpretation of the categorial meaning of the nounal plural form as
“more than one” considered not well-grounded?
4. What makes the category of case in English disputable?
5. What are the strong and weak points of the “prepositional”, “positional”, and
“postpositional” case theories?
6. What ensures a peculiar status of “-s”?

EXERCISES
I. Define the casal semantics of the modifying component in the underlined
phrases and account for their determination.
a)
1. Two Negroes, dressed in glittering livery such as one sees in pictures of royal
processions in London, were standing at attention beside the car and as the two
young men dismounted from the buggy they greeted in some language which the
guest could not understand, but which seemed to be an extreme form of the Southern
Negro’s dialect (Fitzgerald).
2. Home was a fine high-ceiling apartment hewn from the palace of a Renaissance
cardinal in the Rue Monsieur – the sort of thing Henry could not have afforded in
America (Fitzgerald).
3. Wherefore it is better to be a guest of the law, which, though conducted by rules,
does not meddle unduly with a gentleman’s private affairs (O.Henry).
4. The two vivid years of his love for Caroline moved back around him like years in
Einstein’s physics (Fitzgerald).
5. “Isn’t Ida’s head a dead ringer for the lady’s head on the silver dollar?” (O. Henry)
6. He had been away from New York for more than eight months and most of the
dance music was unfamiliar to him, but at the first bars of the “Painted Doll”, to
which he and Caroline had moved through so much happiness and despair the
previous summer, he crossed to Caroline’s table and asked her to dance (Fitzgerald).
b)
1. And then followed the big city’s biggest shame, its most ancient and rotten surviving
canker…handed down from a long-ago century of the basest barbarity – the Hue and
Cry (O. Henry).
2. He mentioned what he had said to the aspiring young actress who had stopped him
in front of Sardi’s and asked quite bluntly if she should persist in her ambition to go
on the stage or give up and go home (Saroyan).
3. The policeman’s mind refused to accept Soapy even as a clue. Men who smash
windows do not remain to parley with the law’s minions (O.Henry).
4. I’ve heard you’re very fat these days, but I know it’s nothing serious, and anyhow I
don’t care what happens to people’s bodies, just so the rest of them is O. K.
(Saroyan)
5. “I dropped them flowers in a cracker-barrel, and let the news trickle in my ears and
down toward my upper left-hand shirt pocket until it got to my feet.” (O. Henry)
6. She turned and smiled at him unhappily in the dim dashboard light (Cheever).
c)
1. Andy agreed with me, but after we talked the scheme over with the hotel clerk we
gave that plan up. He told us that there was only one way to get an appointment in
Washington, and that was through a lady lobbyist (O.Henry)
2. Nobody lived in the old Parker mansion, and the driveway was used as a lover’s lane
(Cheever).
3. His eyes were the same blue shade as the china dog’s in the right-hand corner of
your Aunt Ellen’s mantelpiece (O. Henry)
4. Pandemonium broke loose in the courtroom. A woman’s scream rose above the
bedlam and suddenly a lovely, dark-haired girl was in Walter Mitty’s arms
(Thurber).
5. “A man?” said Sue, with a jew’s-harp twang in her voice (O. Henry)
6. Then he would spring onto the terrace, lift the steak lightly off the fire, and run away
with the Goslins’ dinner. Jupiter’s days were numbered. The Wrightson’s German
gardener or the Farquarson’s cook would soon poison him (Cheever).
d)
1. He was past sixty and had a Michael Angelo’s Moses beard curling down from the
head of a satyr along the body of an imp (O. Henry)
2. One day this man finds his wife putting on her overshoes and three months’ supply
of bird seed into the canary’s cage (O. Henry).
3. After leaving Pinky, Francis went to a jeweller’s and bought the girl a bracelet
(Cheever).
4. And Mr. Binkley looked imposing and dashing with the red face and grey
moustache, and his tight dress coat, that made the back of his neck roll up just like a
successful novelist’s (Cheever).
5. He broke up garden parties and tennis matches, and got mixed up in the processional
at Christ’s Church on Sunday, barking at the men in red dresses (Cheever).
6. I painted the portrait of a very beautiful and popular society dame (O.Henry)

II. Open the brackets and account for the choice of the casal form of the noun:
a)
1. Vivian Schnlitzer-Murphy had rubies as big as (hen + eggs), and sapphires that were
like globes with lights inside them (Fitzgerald)
2. But as Soapy set foot inside the (restaurant + door) the (head + waiter + eye) fell
upon his frayed trousers and decadent shoes (O. Henry)
3. A miserable cat wanders into the garden, sunk in spiritual and physical discomfort.
Tied to its head is a small (straw + hat) – a (doll + hat) – and it is securely buttoned
into a (doll + dress), from the skirts of which protrudes its long, hairy tail (Cheever).
4. Soapy straightened the (lady + missionary + ready-made + tie), dragged his
shrinking cuffs into the open, set his hat at a killing cant and sidled towards the
young woman (O. Henry).
5. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to,” he said, after a (moment + hesitation) (Fitzgerald).
b)
1. Of women there were five in Yellowhammer. The (assayer + wife), the (proprietress
+ the Lucky Strike Hotel), and a laundress whose washtub panned out an (ounce +
dust) a day (O. Henry).
2. “The face,” said Reineman, “is the (face + one + God + own angels).” (O. Henry)
3. The people who had come in were rich and at home in their richness with one
another – a dark lovely girl with a hysterical little laugh he had met before; two
confident men whose jokes referred invariably to last (night + scandal) and (tonight
+ potentialities)… (Fitzgerald)
4. His face was a sickly white, covered almost to the eyes with a stubble the (shade + a
red Irish setter + coat) (O. Henry).
5. During the first intermission he suddenly remembered that he had not had a seat
removed from the theatre and placed in his dressing room, so he called the (stage +
manager) and told him to see that such a seat was instantly found somewhere and
placed in his dressing room (Saroyan).
c)
1. His eyes were full of hopeless, tricky defiance like that seen in a (cur) that is
cornered by his tormentors (O. Henry)
2. The scene for the miserere mei Deus was, like (the waiting room + so many doctors
+ offices), a crude (token + gesture) toward the sweets of domestic bliss: a place
arranged with antiques, (coffee + tables), potted plants, and (etching + snow-covered
bridges and geese in fight), although there were no children, no (marriage + bed), no
stove, even, in this (travesty + a house), where no one had ever spent the night and
where the curtained windows looked straight onto a dark (air + shaft) (Cheever)
3. Their eyes brushed past (each other), and the look he knew so well was staring out at
him from hers (Fitzgerald).
4. “Hello, Mitty,” he said. “We’re having the (devil + own time) with McMillan, the
millionaire banker and close personal friend of Roosevelt.” (Thurber)
5. “You know? Clayton, that (boy + hers), doesn’t seem to get a job…” (Cheever)
d)
1. He noticed that the (face + the + taxi + driver) in the photograph inside the cab
resembled, in many ways, the (painter + face) (Saroyan)
2. Here he was, proudly resigned to the loneliness which is (man + lot), ready and able
to write, and to say yes, with no strings attached (Saroyan).
3. He was tired from the (day + work) and tired with longing, and sitting on the (edge +
the bed) had the effect of deepening his weariness (Cheever).
4. The (voice + childhood) had never gladdened its flimsy structures; the (patter +
restless little feet) had never consecrated the one rugged highway between the two
(rows + tents + rough buildings) (O. Henry)
5. But now Yellowhammer was but a (mountain + camp), and nowhere in it were the
roguish, expectant eyes, opening wide at (dawn + the enchanting day); the eager,
small hands to reach for (Santa + bewildering hoard); the elated, childish voicings of
the (season + joy), such as the (coming good things + the warmhearted Cherokee)
deserved (O. Henry).

III. Translate the sentences into English and define the semantic type of the casal
phrase:
1. Никто не расслышал последние слова умирающего пациента.
2. Он купил новый офицерский китель.
3. Сестра подписалась на богато иллюстрированный дорогой женский журнал.
4. Утомительный десятимильный переход, казалось, вымотал всех, кроме
капрала.
5. Неожиданное двадцатипроцентное увеличение зарплаты удивило сотрудников
фирмы, поскольку они уже привыкли к скупости своего шефа.

IV. Analyze the categorial features of the underlined wordforms:

The boy was devouring cakes while the anxious-looking aunt tried to convince the
Grahams that her sister’s only son could do no mischief.

MODEL: We had just finished the cocktails when the door was flung open and the
Morstens’s girl came in, followed by a boy.

the cocktails – the nounal form is marked by the expression of the categorial meanings
of plurality and identification and is unmarked in the categories of gender and case;
the door – the nounal form is marked by the expression of the categorial meaning of
identification of the referent, and is unmarked in the expression of the categories of
case, number, and gender;
the Morstens’s – the nounal form is marked by the expression of the categorial
meanings of plurality, of identification of the referent, of appurtenance, and of
animateness (the strong member of the upper opposition of the category of gender);
the girl – the nounal form is marked by the expression of the categorial meanings of
identification of the referent and of the feminine gender. At the same time it is the
unmarked member of the oppositions in the categories of case and number;
a boy – the nounal form is marked by the expression of the categorial meaning of the
masculine gender, and is the unmarked member of the oppositions in the categories of
case, number and article determination.
______________________________________________________________________
Seminar 4
PART I
VERB: GENERAL. NON-FINITE VERBS
_________________________________________________
1. A general outline of the verb as a part of speech.
2. Classification of verbs (notional verbs / semi-notional verbs / functional
verbs).
3. Grammatical subcategorization of notional verbs (actional / statal /
processual; limitive / unlimitive).
4. The valency of verbs (complementive / uncomplementive verbs; transitive /
intransitive verbs).
5. A general outline of verbals: the categorial semantics, categories, syntactic
functions.
6. The infinitive and its properties. The categories of the infinitive. Modal
meanings of infinitival complexes.
7. The gerund and its properties. The categories of gerund. The notion of half-
gerund.
 8. The present participle, the past participle, and their properties.

1. Classification of Verbs
Grammatically the verb is the most complex part of speech. This is due to the central
role it performs in the expression of the predicative functions of the sentence, i.e. the
functions of establishing the connection between the situation (situational event) named
in the utterance and reality. The complexity of the verb is inherent not only in the
intricate structure of its grammatical categories, but also in its various subclass
divisions, as well as its falling into two sets of forms profoundly different from each
other: the finite set and the non-finite set (verbal, or verbids).
The categorial semantics of the verb is process presented dynamically. The general
processual meaning is embedded in the semantics of all the verbs. It is proved by the
verb valency and the syntactic function of the predicate.
The processual categorial meaning of the notional verb determines its characteristic
combination with a noun expressing both the doer of the action (its subject) and, in
cases of the objective verb, the recipient of the action (its object); it also determines its
combination with an adverb as the modifier of the action.
In the sentence the finite verb invariably performs the functions of the verb –predicate,
expressing the processual categorial features of predication, i.e. time, aspect, voice, and
mood.
From the point of view of their outward structure, verbs are characterized be specific
forms of word-building, as well as by the formal features expressing the corresponding
grammatical categories.
The grammatical categories which find formal expression in the outward structure of
the verb are, first, the category of finitude dividing the verb into finite and non-finite
forms (this category has a lexico-grammatical force); second, the categories of person,
number, tense, aspect, voice, and mood.
The class of verbs falls into a number of subclasses distinguished by different semantic
and lexico-grammatical features. On the upper level of this division two unequal sets
are identified: the set of verbs of full nominative value (notional verbs) which are
opposed to the set of verbs of partial nominative value (semi-notional and functional
verbs). The set of notional verbs is derivationally open. The second set is derivationally
closed, it includes limited subsets of verbs characterized by individual relational
properties. On the lower level of division each set can be subdivided into numerous
subsets according to their relevant features.
Notional verbs are classified on the basis of three main principles: the relation of the
subject of the verb to the process denoted by the verb, the aspective verbal semantics,
the verbal combinability with other language units.
According to the first criterion, all notional verbs are divided into two sets: actional
and statal. This division is grammatically relevant since it explains the difference
between the actional and statal verbs in their attitude towards the denotation of the
action in progress. Actional verbs express the action performed by the subject, i.e. they
present the subject as a active doer. Statal verbs, unlike their subclass counterparts,
denote the state of their subject, i.e. they either give the subject the characteristic of the
inactive recipient of some outward activity, or else express the mode of its existence.
Aspective verbal semantics (the second criterion) exposes the inner character of the
process denoted by the verb. It represents the process as durative (continual), iterative
(repeated), terminate (concluded), interminate (not concluded), instantaneous
(momentary), ingressive (starting), overcompleted (developed to the extent of
superfluity), undercompleted (not developed to its full extent), and the like. According
to the aspective verbal semantics, two major subclasses of notional verbs are singled
out: limitive and unlimitive. The verbs of the first order present the process as
potentially limited. The verbs of the second order present the process as not limited by
any border point. The demarcation line between the two aspective verbal subclasses is
not rigidly fixed, the actual differentiation between them being in fact rather loose. Still,
the opposition between limitive and unlimitive verbal sets does exist in English. This
division of verbs has an unquestionable grammatical relevance, which is expressed,
among other things, in peculiar correlation of these subclasses with the categorical
aspective forms of the verbs (indefinite, continuous, perfect). It also reveals the
difference in the expression of aspective distinctions in English and in Russian. The
English lexical aspect differs radically from the Russian aspect. In terms of semantic
properties, the English lexical aspect expresses a potentially limited or unlimited
process, whereas the Russian aspect expresses the actual conclusion (the perfective, or
terminative aspect) or non-conclusion (the imperfective, or non-terminative aspect) of
the process in question. In terms of systemic properties, the two English lexical aspect
varieties, unlike their Russian absolutely rigid counterparts, are but loosely
distinguished and easily reducible. In accord with these characteristics, both the English
limitive verbs and unlimitive verbs may correspond alternately either to the Russian
perfective verbs or imperfective verbs, depending on the contextual uses.
The syntactic valency of the verb falls into two cardinal types: obligatory and optional.
The obligatory valency is such as must necessarily be realized for the sake of the
grammatical completion of the syntactic construction. The subjective and the direct
objective valencies of the verb are obligatory. The optional valency is such as is not
necessarily realized in grammatically complete constructions: this type of valency may
or may not be realized depending on the concrete information conveyed by the
utterance. Most of the adverbial modifiers are optional parts of the sentence, so in terms
of valency the adverbial valency of the verb is mostly optional.
Thus, according to the third criterion – the valency of the verb – all notional verbs are
classified into two sets: complementive (taking obligatory adjuncts) and
supplementive (taking optional adjuncts). Complementive and supplementive verbs fall
into minor groups: complementive verbs are subdivided into predicative, objective,
and adverbial verbs; supplementive verbs are subdivided into personal and
impersonal verbs.
In connection with complementive and supplementive characteristics of verbs there
arises the question of clarifying the difference between the two notions – “objectivity”
and “transitivity”. Verbal objectivity is the ability of the verb to take any object,
irrespective of its type. Verbal transitivity is the ability of the verb to take a direct
object. The division of the verb into objective and non-objective is more relevant for
English than for Russian morphology because in English not only transitive but also
intransitive objective verbs can be used in passive forms.
 Semi-notional and functional verbs are united in the set of the verbs characterized by a
partial nominative value. To this set of verbs refer several subdivisions of verbs:
auxiliary verbs, modal verbs, link verbs, and semi-notional verbid introducer verbs. All
semi-functional and purely functional verbs function as markers of predication showing
the connection between the nominative content of the sentence and reality.
2. Non-Finite Forms of the Verb
Non-finite forms of the verb (verbids) are the forms of the verb which have features
intermediary between the verb and the non-processual parts of speech. Their mixed
features are revealed in their semantics, morphemic structural marking, combinability,
and syntactic functions. Verbids do not denote pure processes but present them as
peculiar kinds of substances and properties; they do not express the most specific finite
verb categories - the categories of tense and mood; they have a mixed, verbal and non-
verbal, valency; they perform mixed, verbal and non-verbal, syntactic functions.
The strict division of functions clearly shows that the opposition between the finite and
non-finite forms of the verb creates a special grammatical category. The differential
feature of the opposition is constituted by the expression of verbal time and mood:
while the time-mood grammatical signification characterizes the finite verb in a way
that it underlies its finite predicative function, the verbid has no immediate means of
expressing time-mood categorial semantics and therefore presents the weak member of
the opposition. The category expressed by this opposition is called the category of
"finitude". The syntactic content of the category of finitude is the expression of verbal
predication.
The peculiar feature of the verbid verbality consists in their expressing "secondary"
("potential") predication. They are not self-dependent in a predicative sense. The
verbids normally exist only as part of sentences built up by genuine, primary predicative
constructions that have a finite verb as their core. And it is through the reference to the
finite verb-predicate that these complexes set up the situation denoted by them in the
corresponding time and mood perspectives.
The English verbids include four forms distinctly differing from one another within the
general verbid system: the infinitive, the gerund, the present participle, and the past
participle. In compliance with this difference, the verbid semi-predicative complexes
are distinguished by the corresponding differential properties both in form and in
syntactic-contextual function.
The infinitive combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun, as a result it
serves as the verbal name of a process. By virtue of its general process-naming function,
the infinitive should be considered as the head-form of the whole paradigm of the verb.
The infinitive has a dual, verb-type and noun-type, valency. The infinitive has three
grammatical categories: the aspective category of development (the opposition of
Continuous and Non-Continuous forms), the aspective category of retrospective
coordination (the opposition of Perfect and Non-Perfect forms), the category of voice
(the opposition of Passive and Non-Passive forms). Consequently, the categorial
paradigm of the infinitive of the objective verb includes eight forms: the Indefinite
Active, the Continuous Active, the Perfect Active, the Perfect Continuous Active; the
Indefinite Passive, the Continuous Passive, the Perfect Passive, the Perfect Continuous
Passive. The infinitive paradigm of the non-objective verb, correspondingly, includes
four forms.
The gerund, like the infinitive, combines the properties of the verb with those of the
noun and gives the process the verbal name. In comparison with the infinitive the
gerund reveals stronger substantive properties. Namely, as different from the infinitive,
and similar to the noun, the gerund can be modified by a noun in the possessive case or
its pronominal equivalents (expressing the subject of the verbal process), and it can be
used with prepositions.
The combinability of the gerund is dual: it has a mixed, verb-type and noun-type,
valency. Like the infinitive, the gerund performs the syntactic functions of the subject,
the object, the predicative, the attribute, and the adverbial modifier. The gerund has two
grammatical categories: the aspective category of retrospective coordination and the
category of voice. Consequently, the categorial paradigm of the gerund of the objective
verb includes four forms: the Simple Active, the Perfect Active, the Simple Passive, the
Perfect Passive. The gerundial paradigm of the non-objective verb, correspondingly,
includes two forms.
 The present participle serves as a qualifying-processual name. It combines the
properties of the verb with those of the adjective and adverb.
The present participle has two categories: the category of retrospective coordination
and the category of voice. The triple nature of the present participle finds its expression
in its mixed (verb-type, adjective-type, adverb-type) valency and its syntactic functions
(those of the predicative, the attribute, and the adverbial modifier).
The present participle, similar to the infinitive, can build up semi-predicative
complexes of objective and subjective types.
The past participle combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective.
The categorial meaning of the past participle is qualifying: it gives some sort of
qualification to the denoted process. The past participle has no paradigmatic forms; by
way of paradigmatic correlation with the present participle, it conveys implicitly the
categorial meanings of the perfect and the passive. Its valency is not specific; its typical
syntactic functions are those of the attribute and the predicative.
Like the present participle, the past participle is capable of making up semi-predicative
constructions of complex object, complex subject, as well as absolute complexes.
The consideration of the English verbids in their mutual comparison, supported and
supplemented by comparing them with their nonverbal counterparts, reveals a peculiar
character of their correlation.
The correlation of the infinitive, the gerund, and the verbal noun, being of an
indisputably systemic nature and covering a vast proportion of the lexicon, makes up a
special lexico-grammatical category of processual representation. The three stages of
this category represent the referential processual entity of the lexemic series,
respectively, as dynamic (the infinitive and its phrase), semi-dynamic (the gerund and
its phrase), and static (the verbal noun and its phrase). The category of processual
representation underlies the predicative differences between various situation-naming
constructions in the sphere of syntactic nominalization.
Another category specifically identified within the framework of substantival verbids
and relevant for syntactic analysis is the category of modal representation. This
category, pointed out by L.S. Barkhudarov, marks the infinitive in contrast to the
gerund, and it is revealed in the infinitive having a modal force, in particular, in its
attributive uses, but also elsewhere.
In treating the ing-forms as constituting one integral verbid entity, opposed, on the one
hand, to the infinitive, on the other hand, to the past participle, appeal is naturally made
to the alternating use of the possessive and the common-objective nounal element in the
role of the subject of the ing-form, the latter construction is known in linguistics as
"half-gerund". The half-gerund is an intermediary form with double features whose
linguistic semi-status is reflected in the term itself. In fact, the verbid under examination
is rather to be interpreted as a transferred participle, or a gerundial participle, since
semantic accent in half-gerundial construction is made on the situational content of the
fact or event described, with the processual substance as its core (e.g.: I didn't mind the
children playing in the study).

QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:
1. What is the general categorial meaning of the verb?
2. What does the processual categorial meaning of the verb determine?
3. What grammatical categories find formal expression in the outward structure of
the verb?
4. What criteria underlie the subclassification of notional verbs?
5. What does aspective verbal semantics find its expression in?
6. What combinability characteristics does the verb have?
7. What are the mixed lexico-grammatical features of the verbids revealed in?
8. What is peculiar to the predication expressed by the verbids?
9. Which of the verbids is considered the head-form of the whole paradigm of the
verb?
10.What grammatical categories does the infinitive distinguish?
11.What grammatical categories does the gerund have?
12.What grammatical categories differentiate the present participle from the past
participle?
 13.What considerations are relevant for interpreting the half-gerund as gerundial
participle?

EXERCISES
I. Analyze the modal meanings actualized by the infinitive and the infinitival
complexes (possibility, necessity, desire, expression of an actual fact):
a)
1. There is a Mr. Anthony Rizzoli here to see you (Sheldon).
2. I have a regiment of guards to do my bidding (Haggard).
3. I’ll send a man to come with you (Lawrence).
4. I never saw anybody to touch him in looks (Haggard).
5. There is nothing in that picture to indicate that she was soon to be one of the most
famous persons in France (Christie)
6. It was a sound to remember (Lawrence).
b)
1. There were several benches in advantageous places to catch the sun... (Christie)
2. "Why don't you get married?" she said. "Get some nice capable woman to look after
you." (Christie)
3. It occurred to Tommy at this moment with some force that that would certainly be the
line to take with Aunt Ada, and indeed always had been (Christie).
4. With the choice of getting well or having brimstone and treacle to drink, you chose
getting well every time (Christie).
5. "I suppose there must be some people who are slightly batty here, as well as normal
elderly relatives with nothing but age to trouble them." (Christie)
6. "Pity she hadn't got a fortune to leave you," said Tuppence (Christie).
c)
1. I've got everything laid out tidily for you to look through (Christie).
2. There's really very little to tell (Christie).
3. Three sons were too much to burden yourself with (Christie).
4. "There's nothing to find out in this place - so forget about Mrs. Blenkinsop."
(Christie)
5. She must have been a tartar to look after, though (Christie).
6. But it's not the police she wants, it's a doctor to be called - she's that crazy about
doctors (Christie).

II. Rephrase the sentences so as to use a gerund as an object:

1. I insist on it that you should give up this job immediately.
2. They were surprised when they didn't find any one at home.
3. He went on speaking and was not listening to any objections.
4. When the boy was found he didn't show any signs of being alive.
5. Do you admit that you have made a mistake by divorcing her?
6. They suspect that he has been bribed.

III. Choose infinitive or gerund and give your reasons:

1. As some water had got in, the engine of the boat couldn't but.... working (to stop).
2. I'm afraid our camera wants… (to repair).
3. This is not the way… children (to treat).
4. I soon regretted… the doctor's recommendations (not to follow).
5. I regret…that I can't come to your wedding (to say).
6. Did they teach you… at school (to dance)?
7. Who has taught you… so well (to dance)?
8. She demanded… the whole truth (to tell).
9. On her way home she stopped… with her neighbour (to talk).
10. Remember… the gas-stove before leaving the flat (to turn off).

IV. Point out Participle I, gerund or verbal noun:

a)
1. Curtis Hartman came near dying from the effects of that night of waiting in the
church... (Anderson)
2. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no
doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication
(O.Henry).
3. The stewardess announced that they were going to make an emergency landing. All
but the child saw in their minds the spreading wings of the Angel of Death. The pilot
could be heard singing faintly... (Cheever)
4. Soapy, having decided to go to the Island, at once set about accomplishing his desire.
There were many easy ways of doing this (O.Henry).
b)
1. The loud groaning of the hydraulic valves swallowed up the pilot's song, and there
was a shrieking high in the air, like automobile brakes, and the plane hit flat on its belly
in a cornfield and shook them so violently that an old man up forward howled, "Me
kidneys! Me kidneys!" The stewardess flung open the door, and someone opened an
emergency door at the back, letting in the sweet noise of their continuing mortality - the
idle splash and smell of a heavy rain (Cheever).
2. "At that time me and Andy was doing a square, legitimate business of selling walking
canes. If you unscrewed the head of one and turned it up to your mouth a half pint of
good rye whiskey would go trickling down your throat to reward you for your act of
intelligence." (O.Henry)
3. Now the shadow of the town fell over the valley earlier, and she remembered herself
the beginnings of winter - the sudden hoarfrost lying on the grapes and wild flowers,
and the contadini coming in at dark on their asini, loaned down with roots and other
scraps of wood, for wood was hard to find in that country and one would ride ten
kilometri for a bundle of green olive cuttings, and she could remember the cold in her
bones and see the asini against the yellow light of evening and hear the lonely noise of
stones falling down the steep path, falling away from their hoofs (Cheever).
4. Johnsy lay, scarcely making a ripple under the bedclothes, with her face towards the
window. She stopped whistling, thinking she was asleep (O.Henry).
c)
1. "Can't you let a man die as comfortably as he can without calling him names? What's
the use of slanging me?" "You're not going to die." "Don't be silly. I'm dying now. Ask
those bastards." (Hemingway)
2. "There was a girl standing there - an imported girl with fixings on -philandering with
a croquet maul and amusing herself by watching my style of encouraging the fruit
canning industry." (O.Henry)
3. At the first cocktail, taken at the bar, there were many slight spillings from many
trembling hands, but later, with the champagne, there was a rising tide of laughter and
occasional bursts of song (Fitzgerald).
4. Cutting the last of the roses in her garden, Julia heard old Mr. Nixon shouting at the
squirrels in his bird-feeding station (Cheever).
d)
1. Old Behrman, with his red eyes plainly streaming, shouted his contempt and derision
for such idiotic imaginings (O.Henry).
2. He certainly could not remember ever having felt arrogant or ever having been
pleased that he had slighted or offended anyone. He had never felt that plain work, for
very little money, was beneath him, but he had always been eager to get back to his
writing. Every now and then when the going was tough he had even grown fearful that
he might never break through, and that he might find himself working steadily at a
common job, solely because he had to provide for his family (Saroyan).
3. He floundered in the water. It went into his nose and started a raw stinging; it blinded
him; it lingered afterward in his ears, rattling back and forth like pebbles for hours. The
sun discovered him, too, peeling long strips of parchment from his shoulders, blistering
his back so that he lay in a feverish agony for several nights (Fitzgerald).
4. And third, if he proved difficult in any way, as she knew he might, or if he went right
on leering at every girl he happened to see, who was to stop her from getting a divorce
and being none the worse for having been for a while Mrs. Andre Salamat? (Saroyan)

V. Translate the phrases into English finding a suitable place for Participle I or
Participle II.
1. переводимое сейчас письмо,
2. вдохновлённые сыгранной для них музыкой,
3. заброшенный сад,
4. непредвиденный результат,
5. последствия, непредвиденные заранее,
6. количество родившихся детей,
7. музыка, доносящаяся из соседнего дома,
8. раненный в голову офицер.

VI. Account for the use of Complex Subject and Complex Object Constructions:
1. He's talked about himself, making no sense at all, seeming to say only that it was a
lonely thing to be a writer, it was a painful thing to be no longer the writer you were...
(Saroyan)
2. Mrs. Wiley gathered her two rosy-cheeked youngsters close to her skirts and did not
smile until she had seen Wiley laugh and shake his head (O.Henry).
3. When Julia called him to come down, the abyss between his fantasy and the practical
world opened so wide that he felt it affect the muscles of his heart (Cheever).
4. The waiter poured something in another glass that seemed to be boiling, but when she
tasted it it was not hot (O.Henry).
5. This time there was no rush. It was a puff, as of wind that makes a candle flicker and
the flame go tall (Hemingway).
6. "Sit down on that stool, please. I didn't hear horse coming." (O.Henry)
7. Stunned with the horror of this revelation, John sat there open-mouthed, feeling the
nerves of his body twitter like so many sparrows perched upon his spinal column
(Fitzgerald).
8. Willie Robins and me happened to be in our - cloakroom, I believe we called it -
when Myra Allison skipped through the hall on her way downstairs from the girls' room
(O.Henry).
VII. Translate the sentences into English and comment on the structure of the
Complex Object or on the absence of this construction:
1. Затем мы услышали, как одна птица закричала, а другая ей ответила.
2. Извините, но я слышал, как вы разговариваете по телефону, потому и
осмелился войти.
3. Я слышал, что ты уже студент колледжа, не так ли?
4. Я удивился, когда услышал, как он спокойно говорит это.
5. Вы когда-нибудь видели, чтобы она покраснела?
6. Я часто замечал, что как англичане, так и немцы шутят, не получая от этого
никакого удовольствия.
7. Не так уж трудно было понять, что я вам не нравлюсь.
8. Если ты сейчас к нему зайдёшь, ты застанешь его за работой в саду.
9. Ему показалось сложным написать отцу о своих чувствах к ней.
10. Я считаю важным предупредить вас о возможной опасности.

PART II
VERB AND ITS CATEGORIES

1. The category of person and number: traditional and modern interpretations.

2. The category of tense: the basic notions connected with the category of tense.
3. The category of aspect:
a. the problems of the aspective characterization of the verb;
b. lexical aspective/grammatical aspective meanings;
c. treatment of aspect in Modern linguistics.
4. The category of voice.
5. Language means of expressing modality. The category of mood.

1. Categories of Person and Number

 The finite forms of the verb make up a very complex and intricate system; its intricacy
is caused by the fact that they are directly connected with the structure of the sentence,
the finite verb functioning as its predication centre.
The morphological study of the English finite verb includes the study of its categories,
those of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, and mood.
Person and number are treated by scholars as closely related categories. In their
treatment two approaches are contrasted: traditional and modern.
In accord with the traditional approach to these two categories, scholars point out to the
existence in English of three persons and two numbers.
In modern linguistic works on the problem it is also stressed that the categories of
person and number are closely interwoven in English and should be considered
together. At the same time it is particularly emphasized that these categories are specific
because they don't convey the inherently "verbal" semantics. It means that the
categories of person and number have a "reflective" character: the personal and
numerical semantics in the finite verb is the reflection in the verb lexeme of the personal
and numerical semantics of the subject referent.
The semantic and formal analysis of the person-number forms of the verb shows that in
the strictly categorial sense one should speak of personal pronouns set consisting of six
different forms of blended person-number nature - three in the singular and three in the
plural.
The intermixed character of the numerical and personal forms of the finite forms of the
verb finds its expression both at the formal and functional levels of analysis in different
subsystems of verbs. The peculiarity of expressing person-number distinctions in the
English verb lies in the deficiency of the finite regular verb for there exists the only
positive person-number mark of the finite regular verb - the morpheme of the third
person singular. This deficient system cannot and does not exist in the language by
itself: in fact, the verbal person-number system only backs up the person-number
system of the subject. Due to it the combination and strict correlation of the English
finite verb with the subject is obligatory not only syntactically but also categorially.
2. Category of Tense
 The category of tense is considered to be an immanent grammatical category which
means that the finite verb form always expresses time distinctions.
The category of tense finds different interpretations with different scholars. Thus, in
traditional linguistics grammatical time is often represented as a three-form category
consisting of the "linear" past, present, and future forms. The future-in-the-past does not
find its place in the scheme based on the linear principle, hence, this system is
considered to be deficient, not covering all lingual data.
At the same time linguists build up new systems of tenses in order to find a suitable
place in them for future-in-the past. Nevertheless, many of such schemes are open to
criticism for their inconsistency which finds its expression in the fact that some of them
deny the independent status of future tenses while others exclude from the analysis
future-in-the-past forms.
The said inconsistency can be overcome if we accept the idea that in English there
exist two tense categories.
The first category - the category of primary time - expresses a direct retrospective
evaluation of the time of the process denoted, due to which the process receives an
absolutive time characteristic. This category is based upon the opposition of "the past
tense" and "the present tense", the past tense being its strong member.
The second tense category is the category of "prospective time", it is based upon the
opposition of "after-action" and "non-after-action", the marked member being the future
tense. The category of prospect is relative by nature which means that it characterizes
the action from the point of view of its correlation with some other action. As the future
verbal form may be relative either to the present time, or to the past time included in
non-future, the English verb acquires two different future forms: the future of the
present and the future of the past. It means that the future of the past is doubly strong
expressing the strong members of the category of primary time and the category of
prospect.
The category of primary time is subjected to neutralization and transposition,
transposition being more typical. The vivid cases of transposition are the "historical
present" and the "Preterite of Modesty". As for the category of prospect, it is often
neutralized; neutralization can be of two types: syntactically optional and syntactically
obligatory.
3. Category of Aspect
Grammatical aspective meanings form a variable grammatical category which is
traditionally associated with the opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms of
the verb. Yet, one can find a great divergence of opinions on the problem of the English
aspect. The main difference lies in the interpretation of the categorial semantics of the
oppositional members - continuous and indefinite forms: the categorial meaning of the
continuous form is usually defined as the meaning of duration, while the interpretation
of the categorial semantics of the Indefinite form causes controversy (the indefinite
form may be interpreted as having no aspective meaning (I.P. Ivanova), as a form
having a vague content (G.N. Vorontsova), as a form stressing the fact of the
performance of the action (A.I. Smirnitsky). In Modern Linguistics A.I. Smirnitsky's
interpretation of the categorial semantics of the indefinite form is widely accepted.
In theoretical grammar the interpretation of perfect / non-perfect verb-forms also refers
to disputable questions. Some linguists interpret the opposition of perfect / non-perfect
forms as aspective (O. Jespersen, I.P. Ivanova, G.N. Vorontsova), others - as the
opposition of tense forms (H. Sweet, G.O. Curme, A. Korsakov). A.I. Smirnitsky was
the first to prove that perfect and non-perfect make up a special, self-sufficient, category
which he called the "category of time correlation"; this viewpoint is shared now by a
vast majority of linguists.
Developing A.I. Smirnitsky's views on the categorial semantics of perfect / non-perfect
forms, we can come to the conclusion that in English there exist two aspective
categories: the category of development (based on the opposition of continuous and
non-continuous forms) and the category of retrospective coordination (based on the
opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms).
The perfect form has a mixed categorial meaning: it expresses both retrospective time
coordination of the process and the connection of the prior action with a time-limit
reflected in a subsequent event. The recognition of the two aspect categories also
enables one to give a sound interpretation to the perfect continuous forms: they must be
treated as forms having marks in both the aspect categories.
The opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms can be neutralized and
transponized. Besides, in the category of development verbs which are usually not used
in continuous forms can be subjected to the process of reverse transposition, e.g.: Were
you wanting my help?
As for the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms, it can undergo only the process
of neutralization, transposition being alien to it.
4. Category of Voice
The category of voice occupies a peculiar place in the system of verbal categories
because it reflects the direction of the process as regards the participants in the situation
denoted by a syntactic construction. The passive form, being marked, expresses the
reception of the action by the subject of the syntactic construction; its weak counter-
member - the active form - has the meaning of "non-passivity".
In comparison with Russian, the category of voice in English has a much broader
representation as not only transitive but also intransitive objective verbs can be used in
the passive voice.
Another peculiarity of voice distinctions of English verbs consists in the fact that active
forms often convey passive meanings.
5. Category of Mood
A great divergence of opinions on the question of the category of mood is caused by
the fact that identical mood forms can express different meanings and different forms
can express similar meanings.
The category of mood shows the relation of the nominative content of the sentence
towards reality. By this category the action can be presented as real, non-real, desirable,
recommended, etc.
It is obvious that the opposition of the one integral form of the indicative and the one
integral form of the subjunctive underlies the unity of the whole system of English
moods. The formal mark of this opposition is the tense-retrospect shift in the
subjunctive, the latter being the strong member of the opposition. The shift consists in
the perfect aspect being opposed to the imperfect aspect, both turned into the relative
substitutes for the absolutive past and present tenses of the indicative.
The study of the English mood reveals a certain correlation of its formal and semantic
features. The subjunctive, the integral mood of unreality, presents the two sets of forms
according to the structural division of verbal tenses into the present and the past. These
form-sets constitute the two corresponding functional subsystems of the subjunctive,
namely, the spective, the mood of attitudes, and the conditional, the mood of appraising
causal-conditional relations of processes. Each of these, in its turn, falls into two
systemic subsets, so that at the immediately working level of presentation we have the
four subjunctive form-types identified on the basis of the strict correlation between their
structure and their function: the pure spective, the modal spective, the stipulative
conditional, the consective conditional:
Pure Spective Stipulative Conditional
(Subjunctive 1) (Subjunctive 2)
consideration
desideration unreal condition
inducement
Modal Spective Consective Conditional
(Subjunctive 4) (Subjunctive 3)
consideration
desideration unreal consequence
inducement
The elaborated scheme clearly shows that the so-called "imperative mood" has
historically coincided with Subjunctive 1.
The described system is not finished in terms of the historical development of
language; on the contrary, it is in the state of making and change. Its actual
manifestations are complicated by neutralizations of formal and semantic contrasts, by
fluctuating uses of the auxiliaries, of the finite "be" in the singular.
Today scholars discuss different classifications of moods in English revealing new
correlations of meaning and form in the process of; expressing mood distinctions but so
far a universally accepted system of moods has not been worked out. Hence our task in
the objective study of language, as well as in language teaching, is to accurately register
these phenomena, to explain their mechanism and systemic implications, to show the
relevant tendencies of usage in terms of varying syntactic environments, topical
contexts, stylistic preferences.

QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:
1. What is specific to the categories of person and number in English?
2. What enables scholars to identify six number-person forms of the verb in
English?
3. What does the immanent character of the category of tense imply?
4. What is the main weak point of the traditional “linear” interpretation of tenses?
5. What are the theoretical advantages of identifying in English two separate tense
categories?
6. What categorial meanings do continuous forms and non-continuous forms
express?
7. What categories do the perfect forms express?
8. What accounts for the peculiar place of the category of voice among the verbal
categories?
9. What makes the expression of voice distinctions in English specific?
10.What complicates the analysis of English mood forms?
11.What does the category of mood express?
12.What features of mood forms should be taken into account to give a full picture
of English moods?
13.What is the status of the so-called “imperative mood” in English?

EXERCISES
I. Dwell upon the categorial features of the verbs in the following sentences:
a)
1. “Well, I am an honest man, though not a very rich one. I only gave 15 shillings for
the bust, and I think you ought to know that before I take 18 pounds from you.”
(Doyle)
2. I thought you might be interested to meet Mr. Anstruther. He knows something of
Belgium. He has lately been hearing news of your convent (Christie).
3. “Oh She, as thou art great be merciful, for I am now as ever thy servant to obey.”
(Haggard)
4. “What is it?” she said confusedly. “What have I been saying?” “It is nothing,” said
Rose. “You are tired. You want to rest. We will leave you.” (Christie)
5. In one of my previously published narratives I mentioned that Sherlock Holmes had
acquired his violin from a pawnbroker in the Tottenham Court Road, for the sum of
55 shillings. To those who know the value of a Stradivarius, it will be obvious that I
was being less than candid about the matter (Hardwick).
6. Perhaps she wasn’t an actress at all. Perhaps the police were looking for her
(Christie).
b)
1. “I think, Mr. Holmes, it is time that we were leaving for Euston.” “I will order a
four-wheeler. In a quarter of an hour we shall be at your service.” (Doyle)
2. “What he will divulge I cannot tell, but I have no doubt that your Grace could make
him understand that it is to his interest to be silent. From the police point of view he
will have kidnapped the boy for the purpose of ransom.” (Doyle)
3. “Hast thou aught to ask me before thou goest, oh Holly?” she asked, after a few
moments’ reflection (Haggard).
4. “Mr. Holmes!” cried Mrs. Hudson indignantly. “How many times have I said that I
won’t tolerate your indoor shooting?” (Hardwick)
5. By the way, I shall be grateful if you will replace this needle. It is getting rather
blunt (Hardwick).
6. She wondered if any Warrenders kived here still. They’d left off being buried here
apparently (Christie).
c)
1. My future is settled. I am seeing my lawyer tomorrow as it is necessary that I should
make some provision for Mervyn if I should pre-decease him which is, of course, the
natural course of events (Christie).
2. “Yes, it was old Mrs. Carraway. She’s always swallowing things.” (Christie)
3. “Wouldn’t you like something? Some tea or some coffee perhaps?...” “No, no, not
even that. We shan’t be stopping very much longer.” (Christie)
4. “Oh, it’s lovely. It’s too good for me, though. You’ll be wanting it yourself– ”
(Christie)
5. “Somebody was being poisoned last time we were here, I remember,” said Tuppence
(Christie).
6. A lot of signposts are broken, you know, and the council don’t repair them as they
should (Christie)
d)
1. “A year and a half–” She paused. “But I’m leaving next month.” (Christie)
2. “Well, you see, Mrs. Beresford, one needs a change–” “But you’ll be doing the same
kind of work?” (Christie)
3. She picked up the fur stole. “I’m thanking you again very much – and I’m glad, too,
to have something to remember Miss Fanshawe by.” (Christie)
4. I wish you were coming with me (Christie)
5. Will you be wanting some sandwiches? (Christie)
6. It was a funny way to partition it (the house), I should have thought. I’d have
thought it would have been easier to do it the other way (Christie).
______________________________________________________________________
Seminar 5
ACTUAL DIVISION OF THE SENTENCE.
COMMUNICATIVE TYPES OF SENTENCES.
_______________________________________________________
1. The basic principles of sentence division. Actual division of the sentence. The
correlation of the “1” syntactic (“nominative”) division and actual division of
the sentence.
 2. Language means of expressing the theme.
3. Language means of expressing the rheme.
4. Classification of sentences according to the purpose of communication.
Modern classification of communicative sentence types. The problem of
exclamatory sentences. Actual division and communicative sentence types.
5. Constructions with mixed communicative features.

1. The Main Principles of Actual Division of the Sentence

The actual division of the sentence exposes its informative perspective showing what
immediate semantic contribution the sentence the sentence parts make to the total
information conveyed by the sentence.
From the point of view of the actual division the sentence can be divided into two
sections: thematic (theme) and rhematic (rheme). The theme expresses the starting point
of communication; it means that it denotes an object or a phenomenon about which
something is reported. The rheme expresses the basic informative part of the
communication, emphasizing its contextually relevant centre. Between the theme and
the rheme intermediary, transitional parts of the actual division can be placed, also
known under the term "transition". Transitional parts of the sentence are characterized
by different degrees of their informative value.
2. Language Means of Expressing the Theme and the Rheme
Language has special means to express the theme. They are the following: the definite
article and definite pronominal determiners, a loose parenthesis introduced by the
phrases "as to", "as for", and the direct word-order pattern.
In comparison with the language means used to express the theme, language has a
richer arsenal of means to express the rheme because the rheme marks the informative
focus of the sentence. To identify the rhematic elements in the utterance one can use a
particular word-order pattern together with a specific intonation contour, an emphatic
construction with the pronoun "it", a contrastive complex, intensifying particles, the so-
called "there-pattern", the indefinite article and indefinite pronominal determiners,
ellipsis, and also special graphical means.
 3. Actual Division and Communicative Sentence Types
The theory of actual division has proved fruitful in the study of the communicative
properties of sentences. In particular, it has been demonstrated that each communicative
type is distinguished by features which are revealed first and foremost in the nature of
the rheme.
As a declarative sentence immediately expresses a proposition, its actual division
pattern has a complete form, its rheme making up the centre of some statement.
As an imperative sentence does not directly express a proposition, its rheme represents
the informative nucleus not of an explicit proposition, but of an inducement in which
the thematic subject is usually zeroed. If the inducement is emphatically addressed to
the listener, or to the speaker himself, or to the third person, thematic subjects have an
explicit form.
The differential feature of the actual division pattern of an interrogative sentence is
determined by the fact that its rheme is informationally open because this type of
sentence expresses an inquiry about information which the speaker does not possess.
The function of the rheme in an interrogative sentence consists in marking the rhematic
position in a response sentence, thus programming its content. Different types of
questions are characterized by different types of rhemes.
The analysis of the actual division of communicative sentence types gives an
additional proof of the "non-communicative" nature of the so-called purely exclamatory
sentences (e.g. "Oh, I say!"): it shows that interjectional utterances of the type don't
make up grammatically predicated sentences with their own informative perspective; in
other words, they remain mere signals of emotions.
The actual division theory combined with the general theory of paradigmatic
oppositions can reveal the true nature of intermediary predicative constructions
distinguished by mixed communicative features. In particular, this kind of analysis
helps identify a set of intermediary communicative sentence types, namely, the
sentences which occupy an intermediary position between cardinal communicative
sentence types.
 QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:
1. What are the main principles of the actual division of the sentence?
2. What sentence elements can be called “thematic”?
3. What language means mark the theme of the sentence?
4. What is understood by the rheme of the sentence?
5. What language means are used to express the rheme of the sentence?
6. In what do you see the connection of the actual division and the communicative
sentence types?
7. What actual division pattern is typical of the declarative sentence?
8. What actual division pattern characterizes the imperative sentence?
9. What kind of rheme is peculiar to the interrogative sentence?
10.In what way does the actual division help reveal the differential features of
intermediary communicative sentence types?
EXERCISES

I. Dwell upon the actual division of the sentences and the language means used to
mark it.
MODEL: a) The time came for her to dance with Adams.

______ _______ ____________________________

T1 → R 1 T2 → R 2

This sentence represents a case of double theme-rheme construction:

T1 → R 1
↓
T2 → R 2

b) As for la Falterona, she had a natural and healthy contempt for the arts.
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ _____ ______________________________________________________________
The antetheme "la Falterona" is introduced with the help of the phrase "as for"; the
theme of the sentence is "she", the rheme is "had a natural and healthy contempt for the
arts".
a)
1. I must take some definite actions tonight (Doyle).
2. I cannot allow the examination to be held if one of the papers has been tampered with
(Doyle).
3. The situation must be faced (Doyle).
4. "In that case, your Grace, since you have yourself stated that any unhappiness in your
married life was caused by his presence, I would suggest that you make such amends as
you can do to the Duchess, and that you try to resume those relations which have been
so unhappily interrupted." "That also I have arranged." (Doyle)
5. He heard her singing in her snatchy fashion (Lawrence).
6. "Teddilinks, light a fire, quick." (Lawrence)
7. Why don't you sew your sleeve up? (Lawrence)
8. With a little flash of triumph, she lifted a pair of pearl earrings from the small box
(Lawrence)..
9. The exterior of the building was a masterpiece of architecture, elegant and graceful
(Sheldon).
b)
1. It was Mr. Eccles I particularly wanted to see (Christie).
2. Somebody ought to be getting rich. Somebody ought to be seen to be getting rich
(Christie).
3. Baxter Dowes he knew and disliked (Lawrence).
4. For me to get up early was something like a deed.
5. I have never been told to come there to retype the papers.
6. "How long have you lived in Hollowquay?" "Barely a month."
7. "Well, that's all right. No need to give me a whole account of your literary triumphs
in early youth." (Christie)
8. She remained clinging round his neck (Lawrence).
9. Sunday was a holiday for Dad, not for Mum (Leacock).
с)
1. Triumphant, that's what she was at the prospect (Christie).
2. Aunt Ada was silent until Tuppence had gone out of the door with Miss Packard and
Tommy followed her. "Come back, you" said Aunt Ada, raising her voice. "I know you
perfectly. You're Thomas." (Christie)
3. "Red-haired you used to be. Carrots, that's the colour your hair was." (Christie)
4. Desperately you want something to do to amuse yourself so you try on some public
character and see what it feels like when you are it (Christie).
5. "You'd be surprised the way she got to know things. Sharp as a needle, she was."
(Christie)
6. "Miss Fanshawe was never dull. Grand stories she'd tell you of the old days."
(Christie)
7. That was when he saw Ginelli wasn't in the car (King).
8. The pie sat on the seat beside him, pulsing, warm (King).
9. It's the people who aren't scared who die young (King).
d)
1. It was then that Constantin Demiris entered Melina Labrou's life (Sheldon).
2. Modern hotels and office buildings were everywhere amid the timeless ruins, an
exotic mixture of the past and present (Sheldon).
3. In the beginning, she had asked questions (Sheldon).
4. The Blue House was opened to special patrols only (Sheldon).
5. Again he wasn't sure - rather vague, the whole thing (Christie):
6. "Isn't it a long time after to be looking for her?" (Christie)
7. Apparently he only heard there was a child quite recently (Christie).
8. "She's a striking looking woman, isn't she? Interesting, I always think. Very
interesting." (Christie)
9. Who does it actually belong to now? (Christie)
II. Define the communicative sentence type, dwell on the actual division of the
following sentences. Define the speech-act features of these sentences.
MODEL: What have you got?" "His book. "

The first sentence is interrogative and its rheme "what have ... got" is
informationally open. As it is a special question, the nucleus of inquiry is
marked by the interrogative pronoun which is the rhematic peal. The theme
of the sentence is "you". The second sentence is elliptical and rhematic.
The rhematic peak of the answer ("His book") is the reverse substitute of
the interrogative pronoun. As the two sentences make up a thematic unity,
the theme in the answer is zeroed.

a)
1. "I'd like to know what you think of her. Go and see Dr. Rose first." (Christie)
2. Why not walk down to the village after tea? (Christie)
3. "I would strongly advise you, Mr. Worthing, to try and acquire some relations as
soon as possible, and to make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of
either sex, before season is quite over." (Wilde)
4. Suppose you fetch your bricks and build a nice house, or an engine (Christie).
5. "The Duke is greatly agitated - and as to me, you have seen yourself the state of
nervous prostration to which the suspense and the responsibility have reduced me."
(Doyle)
6. "Mr. Holmes, if ever you put forward your full powers, I implore you to do so now."
(Doyle)
7. "I beg you, Mr. Holmes, to do what you can." (Doyle)
8. "You will kindly close the door," said Holmes. "Now, Banister, will you please tell us
the truth about yesterday's incident?" (Doyle)
9. "Would you please remain in the room? Stand over there near the bedroom door.
Now, Soames, I am going to ask you to have the great kindness to go up to the room of
young Gilchrist, and to ask him to step down into yours." (Doyle)
10. Can the leopard change his spots?
b)
1. "I wonder why you never answered her letter." (Maugham)
2. Over the breakfast she grew serious (Lawrence).
3. "We can be perfectly frank with each other. We want to know, Mr. Gilchrist, how
you, an honorable man, ever came to commit such an action as that of yesterday?"
(Doyle)
4. "You will show these gentlemen out, Mrs. Hudson, and kindly send the boy with this
telegram. He is to pay a five-shilling reply." (Doyle)
5. "I wish you, Mr. Holmes, to come to Mackleton with me by the next train." (Doyle)
6. "You will kindly sign that paper, Mr. Sandefond, in the presence of these witnesses."
(Doyle)
7. "I suppose you haven't such a thing as a carriage in your stables?" (Doyle)
8. "Tell us about your last talk with Dr. Wilbour." (Schrieber)
9. Paul felt as if his eyes were coming very wide open. Wasn't he to take Clara's
fulminations so seriously, after all? (Lawrence)
10. "I hope you won't let him keep the stocking." "You are not going to tell me
everything I shall do, and everything I shan't." (Lawrence)
c)
1. Oh, Mr. Holmes, you must save him - you must save him! I tell you that you must
save him! (Doyle)
2. "Mrs. Hudson," I said, going out to her, "I want you to pack my bags, please."
(Hardwick)
3. I suppose you were in a convent? (Hemingway)
4. "Listen," George said to Nick. "You better go see Ole Anderson." (Hemingway)
5. Thanks for coming to tell me about it (Hemingway).
6. Don't you want me to go and see the police? (Hemingway)
7. "Why don't you try to go to sleep?" (Hemingway)
8. "Don't be melodramatic, Harry, please," she said (Hemingway).
9. "How do you feel?" she said. "All right." (Hemingway)
10. "Who likes to be abused?" (Sheldon)
d)
1. "You don't want to go mixing yourself up in things that are no business of yours—"
"There's nothing to be mixed up in according to you," said Tuppence. "So you needn't
worry at all." (Christie)
2. "And there are people who are terribly unhappy, who can't help being unhappy. But
what else is one to do, Tommy?" "What can anyone do except be as careful as
possible." (Christie)
3. "No, I don't want you to go. After all, the last time, remember how frightfully rude
she was to you?" (Christie)
4. Would you like to come up now? (Christie)
5. "I'll put them (roses) in a vase for you," said Miss Packard. "You won't do anything
of the kind." (Christie)
6. "You go away," added Aunt Ada as a kind of postscript, waving her hand towards
Tuppence who was hesitating in the doorway (Christie).
7. "I hope they brought you some coffee?" (Christie)
8. "The old lady I was talking to," said Tuppence. "Mrs. Lancaster, I think she said her
name was?" (Christie)
9. “Can you tell me a little more about her, who her relations were, and how she came to
come here?” (Christie)
10. “God help the home of the aged that you go to. You’ll be Cleopatra most of the
time, I expect.” (Christie)
______________________________________________________________________
Seminar 6
SIMPLE SENTENCE: CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE
____________________________________________________________
1. The notion of sentence. The sentence as a language unit. The two aspects of
the sentence. The notions of predication and modality.
2. Structural classifications of simple sentences:
 a) one-member and two-member sentences; different approaches to the
interpretation of one-member sentences; the notion of a predicative line;
b) complete and elliptical sentences;
c) structural classification of simple sentences: according to the number of
predicative lines, according to the type of the subject; the notions of an
elementary sentence and of an extended sentence.
3. Sentence parts classification:
a) the traditional scheme of sentence parsing; the main sentence parts (the
subject and the predicate, their types); secondary sentence parts
(attribute, object, adverbial modifier, parenthetical enclosure, addressing
enclosure, interjectional enclosure);
b) the model of immediate constituents (the IC-model).

1. Structural Classification of Simple Sentences

In traditional linguistics sentences, according to their structure, are divided into simple
and composite, the latter consisting of two or more clauses. The typical English simple
sentence is built up by one "predicative line" realized as the immediate connection
between the subject and the predicate of the sentence.
Simple sentences are usually classified into one-member and two-member sentences.
This distinction is based on the representation of the main parts of the sentence:
sentences having the grammatical subject and the grammatical predicate are termed
"two-member" sentences; if sentences have only one of these main parts they are termed
"one-member" sentences.
Another Structural classification of simple sentences is their classification into
complete and elliptical. The language status of the elliptical sentence is a disputable
question; many linguists connect the functioning of elliptical sentences with the
phenomena of representation and substitution.
2. Analysis of Sentence Parts
The study of the constituent structure of the sentence presupposes the analysis of its
parts. Traditionally, scholars distinguish between the main and secondary parts of the
sentence. Besides, they single out those parts which stand outside the sentence structure.
The two generally recognized main parts of the sentence are the subject and the
predicate. To the secondary sentence parts performing modifying functions linguists
usually refer object, adverbial modifier, attribute, apposition, predicative, parenthetical
enclosure, and addressing enclosure.
The description of sentence parts is usually based upon semantic and syntactic criteria
and is supplemented by the correlation of sentence parts and parts of speech.
3. IC-Model of the Sentence
Building up the "model of immediate constituents" is a particular kind of analysis
which consists in dividing the sentence into two groups: the subject group and the
predicate group, which, in their turn, are divided into their subgroup constituents
according to their successive subordinative order of the constituents. The main
advantage of the IC-model is that it exposes the binary hierarchical principle of
subordinative connection. The widely used version of the IC-model is the "IC-
derivation tree". It shows the groupings of sentence constituents by means of branching
nodes: the nodes symbolize phrase-categories as unities, while the branches mark their
division into constituents.

QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:
1. What do the structural classifications of simple sentences reveal?
2. What does the difference between the one-member and the two-member sentence
consist in?
3. What makes up the basis for identifying the elliptical sentence?
4. What sentence parts are usually identified?
5. What does the IC-model of the sentence show?

EXERCISES
I. State the structural type of the sentences.
MODEL: Who is poor in love? No one”
 The first sentence is a complete two-member (two-axis) sentence, the
second sentence is elliptical (one-axis).

a)
1. If you wish to destroy yourself, pray do so. Don’t expect me to sit by and watch you
doing so (Hardwick).
2. “Don’t they look nice?” she said. “One from last year and one from this. They just
do. Save you buying a pair.” (Lawrence)
3. She intended to come on Sunday. But never did (Lawrence).
4. “They came as valentines,” she replied, still not subjugated, even if beaten. “When,
to-day?” “The pearl ear-rings to-day – the amethyst brooch last year.” (Lawrence)
5. Waves. Small sounds as of soft complaint. Cedars. Deep-blue sky. He was suddenly
aware of a faint but all-penetrating sense of loss (Fitzgerald).
6. Scene I. A room in Harley Street furnished as the Superintendent’s office in a
Nursing Home (Christie).
7. “How on earth did she do a thing like that?” “Does it for fun. Always doing it.”
(Christie)
8. “Don’t get rattles, Peter.” (Chesterton)
b)
1. Do you know Opperton Heath? You do? (Priestley)
2. Not a soul in sight. Very quiet (Priestley)
3. “Well, what does she feel for me?” “Indifference, I should say.” (Maugham)
4. "You swine. Don't you see what a position I'm in?" (Maugham)
5. "You put the detectives on. I want to know the truth." "I won't, George." (Maugham)
6. "The world moves so quickly and people's memories are so short. They'll forget." "I
shan't forget." (Maugham)
7. "Now, help yourself, Mr. Holohan!" (Joyce)
8. Something was stirring in the depths of her subconscious. A happy anticipation - a
recognition. Measles. Yes, measles. Something to do with measles (Christie).
c)
1. "Who sat for you?" "Well, no one." (Saroyan)
2. "I couldn't start by telling him what he could and couldn't do." "Why not?"
(Fitzgerald)
3. "Tell me about your plans, Michael." (Fitzgerald)
4. "Do you live in Paris?" "For the moment." (Fitzgerald)
5. "What is the name of your book?" "'Yes'." "An excellent title." (Saroyan)
6. "Your damned money was my armor. My Swift and my Armor." "Don't."
(Hemingway)
7. "Let's not quarrel any more. No matter how nervous we get." (Hemingway)
8. Anthea was Tuppence's god-daughter - and Anthea's daughter Jane was at school -
her first term - and it was Prize Giving and Anthea had rung up - her two younger
children had come out in a measle rash and she had nobody in the house to help and
Jane would be terribly disappointed if nobody came. Could Tuppence possibly? -
(Christie)
d)
1. "We have to do everything we can." "You do it," he said. "I'm tired." (Hemingway)
2. "Where did we stay in Paris?" "At the Crillon. You know that." (Hemingway)
3. "I'm full of poetry now. Rot and poetry." (Hemingway)
4. What was in this? A catalogue of old books? (Hemingway)
5. You spoiled everything. But perhaps he wouldn't (Hemingway).
6. "Well, aren't you glad?" "About his sister? Of course." (Saroyan)
7. "My father will help." "I'd rather he didn't." (Saroyan)
8. That was the house she had seen from the train three years ago. The house she had
promised to look for someday - (Christie)

II. Define the type of the subject and the predicate of the following sentences.
MODEL: It was a cold autumn weather
The subject of this sentence "it" is impersonal factual. The predicate "was
cold autumn weather" is compound nominal.
 a)
1. Car's right outside. You might want to button your coat up, though, it's freezing out
there (Baldacci).
2. Good gracious, Mr. Holmes, you are surely not going to leave me in this abrupt
fashion! (Doyle)
3. Tomorrow is the examination (Doyle).
4. She began to cry again, but he took no notice (Lawrence).
5. A great flash of anguish went over his body (Lawrence).
6. She walked away from the wall towards the fire, dizzy, white to the lips,
mechanically wiping her small, bleeding mouth (Lawrence).
7. He sat motionless (Lawrence).
8. Then, gradually, her breath began to hiss, she shook, and was sobbing silently, in
grief for herself. Without looking, he saw. It made his mad desire to destroy her come
back (Lawrence).
b)
1. They got back rather late. Miriam, walking home with Geoffrey, watched the moon
rise big and red and misty (Lawrence).
2. It felt to her as if she could hear him (Lawrence).
3. The insult went deep into her, right home (Lawrence).
4. There was a pause (Lawrence).
5. At any instant the blow might crash into her (Lawrence).
6. Suddenly a thud was heard at the door down the passage (Lawrence).
7. It's a valentine (Lawrence).
8. "I should like to have a peep at each of them," said Holmes. "Is it possible?" "No
difficulty in the world," Soames answered (Doyle).
c)
1. I'm going to take some railway journeys (Christie).
2. There's a tin of pate in the larder (Christie).
3. The question was really purely rhetorical (Christie).
4. The train began to slow down (Christie).
5. It's the kind of house I'd like to live in (Christie).
6. The house must be lived in, but now, at this moment, it was empty (Christie).
7. It was the time when things were beginning to happen to railways (Christie).
8. Someday had come. Someday was tomorrow (Christie).
9. The actual land, of course, might always prove valuable in the future - the repair of
derelict houses is seldom profitable (Christie).
d)
1. The angle of approach would be quite different (Christie).
2. There seemed to be a certain cunning about this part of the road system of England
(Christie).
3. This must be presumably the front door, though it didn't look like a front door
(Christie).
4. The house looked quite different from this side (Christie).
5. One hardly has to imagine anything to explain oneself (Christie).
6. She might be able to do spells (Christie).
7. It was rather dark inside (Christie).
8. I suppose someone must have known all about her (Christie).
9. Their front door had recently been repainted a rather bilious shade of green, if that
was accounted to be a merit (Christie).

III. Build up the IC-model of the sentences.

MODEL: The exhausted boy greeted his father rather unwillingly.
b) The exhausted boy greeted his father rather unwillingly.

a)
1. The pearl ear-rings dangled under her rosy ears (Lawrence).
2. The Whistons' kitchen was of fair size (Lawrence).
3. She slowly, abstractedly closed the door in his face (Lawrence).
b)
1. The concert on Thursday night was better attended (Joyce).
2. Soon the name of Kearney began to be heard often on people's lips (Joyce).
3. My good man is packing us off to Skerries for a few weeks (Joyce).
c)
1. The pocketknife's worn bone handle fitted comfortably into his hand (King).
2. His brother-in-law was anathema to him (Sheldon).
3. This large, shambling, good-natured man suddenly frightened her (Christie).
d)
1. The key turned rustily in the lock (Christie).
2. For a moment his mind seemed to separate from his physical self (King).
3. The limousine passed a large park in the center of the city, with sparking, dancing
fountains in the middle (Sheldon).

IV. Analyze the semantic structure of the following sentences, defining the
semantic roles (deep cases) of the underlined constituents.
MODEL: I am the one to hear it.
The semantic structure of the given sentence includes the following
semantic roles: the agent (the one), the nominative (I), and the object (it).
 a)
1. I am not the man to stop behind after serving you for 20 years (Haggard).
2. Thereon let him build and stand erect, and not cast himself before the image of some
unknown God, modeled like his poor self, but with a bigger brain to think the evil thing,
and a longer arm to do it (Haggard).
3. There was a bit of a battle to be fought between the two women (Lawrence).
4. There is nothing to be alarmed about (Christie).
______________________________________________________________________
Seminar 7
COMPOSITE SENTENCE
____________________________________
1. Classification of sentences according to the number of predicative lines:
simple sentence, composite sentence, semi-composite sentence.
2. Compound sentence. Semantico-syntactic relations rendered by
coordination.
3. Complex sentence. The notions of matrix sentence and insert sentence. The
main principles of classifying subordinate clauses. Monolithic and
segregative sentences. Parallel and consecutive subordination.
4. Semi-composite sentence: semantico-syntactic types.
5. The notions of linking and binding. Types of logical relations between
clauses: elaboration, extension, enhancement.

QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:
1. What is the main principle of differentiating between the simple sentence and the
composite sentence?
2. What are the two main syntactic types of clause connection?
3. What are the differential features of the compound sentence?
4. What semantic relations underlie coordinative clauses?
5. What are the differential features of the complex sentence?
6. What principles are used for classifying subordinate clauses?
 7. What sentence is termed as “semi-composite”?
8. What is the nature intermediary syntactic character of the semi-composite
sentence?
9. What types of semi-composite sentences are singled out?
10.What are the differential features of the semi-complex sentence?
11.What is peculiar to the semi-compound sentence?

EXERCISES
I. Define the relations between the clauses of the compound sentences:
a)
1. One's mode of life might be high and scrupulous, but there was always an
undercurrent of greediness, a hankering, and sense of waste (Galsworthy).
2. She was outlined against the sky, carrying a basket, and you could see that sky
through the crook of her arm (Galsworthy).
3. You see my dilemma. Either I must find the man or else the examination must be
postponed until fresh papers are prepared, and since this cannot be done without
explanation there will ensue a hideous scandal, which will throw a cloud not only on the
college, but on the university (Doyle).
4. It was Saturday, so they were early home from school: quick, shy, dark little rascals
of seven and six, soon talkative, for Ashurst had a way with children (Galsworthy).
b)
1. "You've got to come, or else I'll pull your hair!" (Galsworthy)
2. You were equipped with good insides so that you did not go to pieces that way, the
way most of them had, and you made an attitude that you cared nothing for the work
you used to do, now that you could no longer do it (Hemingway).
3. His heart, too sore and discomfited, shrank from this encounter, yet wanted its
friendly solace - bore a grudge against this influence, yet craved its cool innocence, and
the pleasure of watching Stella's face (Galsworthy).
4. She remained faithful to the Elegy, and the Sonnet claimed much of her attention; but
her chief distinction was to revive the Ode, a form of poetry that the poets of the present
day somewhat neglect (Maugham).
c)
1. The newcomer was pleasant in his manners and exceedingly well dressed even for St.
Midas', but for some reason he kept aloof from the other boys (Fitzgerald).
2. She had gone to kill a piece of meat and, knowing how he liked to watch the game,
she had gone well away so she would not disturb this little pocket of the plain that he
could see (Hemingway).
3. And - strange! - he did not know whether he was a scoundrel, if he meant to go back
to Megan, or if he did not mean to go back to her (Galsworthy).
4. Africa was where he had been happiest in the good time of his life, so he had come
out here to start again (Hemingway).
d)
1. There was no hardship; but there was no luxury and he had thought he could get back
into training that way (Hemingway).
2. She had been married to a man who never bored her and these people bored her very
much (Hemingway).
3. It was very pleasant and we were all great friends. The next year came the inflation
and the money he had made the year before was not enough to buy supplies to open the
hotel and he hanged himself (Hemingway).
4. But that night he was caught in the wire, with a flare lighting him up and his bowels
spilled out into the wire, so when they brought him in, alive, they had to cut him loose
(Hemingway).

II. Define the types of clauses constituting the following sentences:

a)
1. She was looking for a place where they might lunch, for Ashurst never looked for
anything (Galsworthy).
2. They were fleeting as one of the glimmering or golden visions one had of the soul in
nature, glimpses of its remote and brooding spirit (Galsworthy).
3. Life no doubt had moments with that quality of beauty, of unbidden flying rapture,
but the trouble was, they lasted no longer than the span of a cloud's flight over the sun:
impossible to keep them with you, as Art caught beauty and held it fast (Galsworthy).
4. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts
these two were the wisest (O.Henry).
5. While they were driving he had not been taking notice... (Galsworthy).
6. And a sudden ache beset his heart: he had stumbled on just one of those past
moments in his life, whose beauty and rapture he had failed to arrest, whose wings had
fluttered away into the unknown... (Galsworthy)
7. "Can you tell us if there's a farm near here where we could stay the night?"
(Galsworthy)
8. "It is a pity your leg is hurting you." (Galsworthy)
9. That he was wealthy went without saying, but beyond a few such deductions John
knew little of his friend, so it promised rich confectionery for his curiosity when Percy
invited him to spend the summer at his home "in the West" (Fitzgerald).
b)
1. "A further knowledge of facts is necessary before I would venture to give a final and
definite opinion." (Doyle)
2. "Can you ask me, then, whether I am ready to look into any new problem, however
trivial it may prove?" (Doyle)
3. "I know it looks as if I've got you here on false pretences but we really ought to be
thinking about the possible dates." (James)
4. "I am about to write your cheque, however unwelcome the information which you
have gained may be to me." (Doyle)
5. Did it matter where he went, what he did, or when he did it? (Galsworthy)
6. The flying glamour which had clothed the earth all day had not gone now that night
had fallen, but only changed into this new form (Galsworthy).
7. "It's I who am not good enough for you." (Galsworthy)
8. And he uttered a groan which made a nursemaid turn and stare (Galsworthy).
9." If he were drowned they would find his clothes (Galsworthy)
c)
1. If she was what most American girls were, he was quite confident that this would not
be too difficult, although he had once or twice been giggled at by young ladies when
they had finally found a moment in which to be alone with him at a party and he had
spoken to them tenderly (Saroyan).
2. She could not understand why, instead of smiling at such good news, Miss Elizabeth
covered her eyes with her hands and groaned (Forster).
3. There are two very good reasons why she should under no circumstances be his wife
(Doyle).
4. On the face of it the case is not a very complex one, though it certainly presents some
novel and interesting features (Doyle).
5. He did not speak intimately again that night to Laura Slade, for he knew her aunt
would send her back to Philadelphia immediately if she knew their secret, but when he
came on stage at Monday night's performance and acknowledged the applause that
greeted him he saw that she was in the seat he'd had the management put aside for her
and he was able quite unobtrusively, as he bowed very low, to look her straight in the
eye, and to throw her a kiss, as if to the entire audience (Saroyan).
6. All he wanted to do was help her (Saroyan).
7. She was terrified and she was rapt, as if the sight of the wolves moving over the snow
was the spirit of the dead or some other part of the mystery that she knew to lie close to
the heart of life, and when they had passed she would not have believed she had seen
them if they had not left their tracks in the snow (Cheever).
8. Jud was a monologist by nature, whom destiny, with customary blundering, had set in
a profession wherein he was bereaved, for the greater portion of his time, of an audience
(O.Henry).
9. I never noticed anything in what she said that sounded particularly destructive to a
man's ideas of self-consciousness; but he was set back to an extent you could scarcely
imagine (O.Henry).
 d)
1. If I drew from a photograph my drawing showed up characteristics and expressions
that you couldn't find in the photo, but I guess they were in the original, all right
(O.Henry).
2. At that adoring look he felt his nerves quiver, just as if he had seen a moth scorching
its wings (Galsworthy).
3. In the bewildering, still, scentless beauty of that moment he almost lost memory of
why he had come to the orchard.
4. He was the only son of a late professor of chemistry, but people found a certain
lordliness in one who was often so sublimely unconscious of them (Galsworthy).
5. "There's trout there, if you can tickle them." (Galsworthy)
6. It was about the period of the Celtic awakening, and the discovery that there was
Celtic blood about this family had excited one who believed that he was a Celt himself
(Galsworthy).
7. Salamat, still chatting with Mrs. Boake-Rehan Adams, was about to ask who the
young lady was who looked like a Renoir girl and gave one the feeling of having been
created out of rose petals and champagne when the girl herself came leaping and
laughing through the excited people to her aunt to ask whether she might not stay with
her an extra day before going home to Philadelphia (Saroyan).
8. Jud laid down his sixshooter, with which he was preparing to pound an antelope
steak, and stood over me in what I felt to be a menacing attitude (O. Henry).
9. He put his hands on the dry, almost warm tree trunk, whose rough mossy surface
gave forth a peaty scent at his touch (Galsworthy).

TESTS

Test 1
The Morphemic Structure of the Word

I. Define the following notions:

system, paradigm, signeme, morpheme, complementary distribution, eme-term.

II. Do the morphemic analysis of the words on the lines of the distributional
classification:
condense, grouse, formalizer, manliness, she-goat, cranberry, gentlemanly,
agreeablenesses, exclude, resist.

III. Pair off the words which stand to one another in non-contrastive distribution:
burned, spelled, go, intelligible, spelt, went, discussing, spelling, discussed, profitable,
gullible, formulae, discussion, non-advisable, burner, profited, gullable, burnt, formulas.

IV. Build up allomorphic sets:

fifty, spiteful, brethren, trout, pins, ability, goose, nuclei, pailful, tempi, foxes, paths,
able, full, phenomena, fits, fifteen, mice, pathfinder, five, bought, geese, age, buys,
brother.

Test 2
Grammatical Categories of the Noun

I. Dwell on the numerical features of the nouns:

1. The board of advisers have been discussing the agenda of the next meeting for an
hour already.
2. Sonata is not played by an orchestra.
3. It was a tragedy that he died before he could enjoy the fruits of all his hard work.
4. The measles is infectious.
5. Sea-wasp is poisonous.
6. He bought another pair of scales.
7. The tropics are not pleasant to live in.
8. They produced a number of steels.
9. The machinery was due to arrive in March.
10. She dropped tear after tear but he didn't raise his head.
11. This was more like home. Yet the strangenesses were unaccountable.

II. Define the language means used to mark the gender distinctions of the nouns:
1. The tom-cat was sleeping on the window-sill.
2. Australia and her people invoke everyone's interest.
3. Next week we are going to speak about the continent of Australia: its climate and
nature.
4. The tale says that the Mouse was courageous, he never let down his friends when
they were in danger.
5. Something is wrong with my car, I can't start her.
6. I saw a car left on the beach; its windows were broken.
7. They have got five cows and a bull, two cocks and three dozen hens, a drake and ten
ducks.
8. His new yacht is very expensive; he paid about a million dollars for her.
9. A woman-doctor was to operate on the patient.
10. A he-goat is more difficult to tame than a she-goat.

III. Arrange the phrases into two columns according to the type of their casal
semantics (on the principle of differentiating between possession and qualification)
and use the proper articles with them:
officer's cap, young man's thesis, tomorrow's important press-conference, mile's
distance, Wilde's last epigram, yesterday's unexpected storm, hour's walk, last poem of
Shelley, new children's shop, two weeks' journey, day's work, in ... two months' period,
nice children's caps, new women's magazine, boys who played yesterday in the yard's
toys, three hours' walk.

IV. Open the brackets and account for the choice of the casal form of the noun:
1. [The plane + safety] was not proved.
2. [For + convenience + sake] he decided to travel light.
3. [Birds + killing] is barbarous.
4. [Delegation + arrival] was unexpected.
5. No one managed to swim [five miles + distance] in such nasty weather.
6. [Bride + bridegroom + their relatives] luggage was so bulky that they had to hire
another car.
7. [Boy + Smith] broke a leg.
8. You'd better go to [nearest + greengrocer].

V. Account for the use of the articles:

1. The dog was tamed by man a long time ago.
2. He felt pity as he knew that living with him didn't give her pleasure. It would have
been a surprise to hear that she felt attached to him.
3. A group of boys were playing volleyball.
4. The woman who teaches us Italian now is not a teacher.
5. The theatre showed us a new Oscar Wilde, not the great Wilde, but a man in despair,
full of doubts.
6. It was better to have a sulky Arthur than no Arthur at all.
7. She was no woman, she was servant.
8. Hollowquay was a has-been if there ever was. Developed first as a fishing village and
then further developed as an English Riviera - and now
a mere summer resort, crowded in August.

Test 3
Verbals

I. Define the modal meanings of the infinitive in the following sentences:

1. There's no reason why it should have anything to do with her personally (Christie).
2. She looked at Tommy. "And I wonder why?" Tommy had no solution to offer
(Christie).
3. If you are puzzled over the cause of a patient's death there is only one sure way to tell
(Christie).
4. "I gather that in the last war you had rather a delicate assignment." "Oh, I wouldn't
put it quite as seriously as that," said Tommy, in his most non-committal manner. "Oh
no, I quite realize that it's not a thing to be talked about." (Christie)
5. "First I'm going to have lunch at my club with Dr. Murray who rang me up last night,
and who's got something to say to me about my late deceased aunt's affairs..." (Christie)

II. Point out participle I, gerund and verbal noun in the following sentences:
1. In the soul of the minister a struggle awoke. From wanting to reach the ears of Kate
Swift, and through his sermons to delve into her soul, he began to want also to look
again at the figure lying white and quiet in the bed (Anderson).
2. That was where our fishing began (Hemingway).
3. But she didn't hear him for the beating of her heart (Hemingway).
4. Henry Marston's trembling became a shaking; it would be pleasant if this were the
end and nothing more need be done, he thought, and with a certain hope he sat down on
a stool. But it is seldom really the end, and after a while, as he became too exhausted to
care, the shaking stopped and he was better (Fitzgerald).
5. Going downstairs, looking as alert and self-possessed as any other officer of the bank,
he spoke to two clients he knew, and set his face grimly toward noon (Fitzgerald).
6. He was not by any means an imbecile: he was devoted to the theatre; he read old and
new plays all the time; and he had a flair for confessingearnestly that he was a religious
man, and frequently found peace by kneeling in prayer (Saroyan).
7. She was delighted with his having performed for her alone, with his having had her
seat removed from the gallery and placed in his dressing room, with the roses he had
bought for her, and with being so near to him (Saroyan).
8. Something essential had been absent from his voice when he had made the remark,
for the girl replied by saying she wished she had taken home-making and cooking at
Briarcliff instead of English, math, and zoology (Saroyan).
9. I just wondered how a painter makes a living (Saroyan).
10. I've been painting seriously, as the saying is, since I was fifteen or so (Saroyan).

III. Account for the use of the Complex Subject and Complex Object
constructions:
1. He heard a woman say in French that it would not astonish her if that commenced to
let fall the bombs (Fitzgerald).
2. Over her shoulder, Michael saw a man come toward them to cut in (Fitzgerald).
3. It did the trick for Thomas Wolfe as long as he lived, and for a lot of others, too, but
exuberance seems to stop when a matt gets past his middle thirties, or the man himself
stops (Saroyan).
4. He had expected the man to look like a giant, and to act something like one, but the
old writer had looked like a bewildered child... (Saroyan).
5. All cocktail parties are alike in that the idea is to drink and talk, but every party is
made special and unique by the combinations of people who happen to be at them
(Saroyan).

Test 4
Syntagmatic Connections of Words

I. Define the classificational properties of the following word-groupings:

1. the eyes flashed,
2. a long row,
3. was a fool,
4. absolutely ruthless,
5. frank, loyal, and disinterested,
6. can't call,
7. out of,
8. I suppose,
9. reference being made, 10. considerably damaged.
II. Define the types of syntactical relations between the constituents of the
following word combinations:
1. saw him,
2. these pearls,
3. insanely jealous.

III. Paraphrase the following circumlocutions using word combinations of the

pattern Adj + N
1. insects with four wings,
2. youths with long hair,
3. a substance that sticks easily,
4. a colour that is slightly red,
5. manners typical of apes,
6. a chain covered with gold leaf,
7. publications that appear regularly every year,
8. relations like those between brothers,
9. behaviour typical of men,
10. a colour like that of a human body.

Test 5
Constituent Structure of Simple Sentence

I. State the structural type of the sentences:

1. "And what is your opinion of me?" "Hard as nails, absolutely ruthless, a born
intriguer, and as self-centered as they make 'em." (Maugham)
2. "A woman like me is ageless." (Maugham)
3. "Glaser, play the accompaniment." (Maugham)
4. What a strange woman! (Maugham)
5. "You've rung the wrong bell. Second floor." (Maugham)
6. "How are you, my dear? Keeping well, I hope." (Maugham)
7. "I should have preferred to see you alone, Albert." (Maugham)
8. "We get on very well together, don't we, old girl?" "Not so bad." (Maugham)
9. "You're not serious?" "Quite." (Maugham)
10. "I think you must be out of your mind." "Do you, my dear? Fancy
that." (Maugham)

II. Define the type of the subject and the predicate of the following sentences:
1. The door was opened by a scraggy girl of fifteen with long legs and a tousled head
(Maugham).
2. "We've been married for 35 years, my dear. It's too long." (Maugham)
3. I should merely have sent for the doctor (Maugham).
4. Mrs. Albert Forrester began to be discouraged (Maugham).
5. "Who is Corrinne?" "It's my name. My mother was half French." "That explains a
great deal." (Maugham)
6. I could never hope to please the masses (Maugham).
7. The coincidence was extraordinary (Maugham).
8. Why should the devil have all the best tunes? (Maugham)
9. No one yet has explored its potentialities (Maugham). 10. I'm fearfully late
(Maugham).

III. Build the IC-model of the sentences:

1. The hand of fate was beckoning to her (Maugham).
2. The little houses held about them the feeling of a bygone age (Maugham).

Test 6
Actual Division of the Sentence.
Communicative Sentence Types

I. Analyze the actual division of the following sentences and the means used to
mark it:
1. "Albert, there's Mrs. Forrester to see you." (Maugham)
2. "Both in prose and verse you are absolutely first class." (Maugham)
3. On the wizened face of Oscar Charles was a whimsical look (Maugham).
4. She must leave no stones unturned (Maugham).
5. It was latish in the afternoon next day when Albert Forrester... set out from her flat in
order to get a bus from the Marble Arch... (Maugham).
6. "I've always taken care to make you share in all my interests." (Maugham)
7. "Well, my dear, what have you to say to me?" (Maugham)
8. And a very nice cosy place it is (Maugham).
9. "Often at your parties I've had an almost irresistible impulse to take off all my clothes
just to see what would happen." (Maugham)
10. "What I say is, Albert's worked long enough." (Maugham)

II. Define the communicative sentence type and speech-act characteristics of the
given sentences, dwell on the actual division patterns used in them:
1. "You'd better put on your coat, Albert." (Maugham)
2. "What on earth do you mean by that?" (Maugham)
3. Why don't you write a good thrilling detective story? (Maugham)
4. "But you must play fair with your reader, my dear." (Maugham)
5. "I will submit to your decision. But you think over the detective story." (Maugham)
6. "I suppose I was asked?" he barked. "Well, in point of fact you weren't." (Maugham)
7. "Were you bored, dear?" "Stiff." (Maugham)

Test 7
Paradigmatic Aspect of the Sentence

I. Define the predicative load of the sentences:

1. I can't describe it properly (Priestley).
2. You might have noticed it earlier (Chesterton).
3. Shouldn't she have thought about it then? (Chesterton)
4. I can't begin to understand it now (Chesterton).
5. I hadn't met a soul all afternoon (Priestley)

II. Build up the constructional paradigm based on the two primary sentences:
1. The man stopped. He dropped something.
2. They stopped. They were talking in whisper.
3. She was cross. I broke the window.
4. He knew. They were in Rome.
5. They passed the exams. Mother heard it. She was glad.

III. Form sentences with greater predicative load taking as the basis the following
kernel sentences:
1. He wrote a poem.
2. I saw him at once.
3. He made a mistake.
4. They described the man in detail.
5. He saw them off.

Test 8
Composite Sentence

Define the types of clauses and semi-clauses in the following sentences:

1. When he gained the crest of the Magazine Hill he halted and looked along the river
towards Dublin, the lights of which burned redly and hospitably in the cold night
(Joyce).
2. He remembered her outburst of that night and interpreted it in a harsher sense than he
had ever done (Joyce).
3. It was a long white stocking, but there was a little weight in the toe (Lawrence).
4. Whiston had made the fire burn, so he came to look for her (Lawrence).
5. She slowly, abstractedly, as if she did not know anyone was there, closed the door in
his face, continuing to look at the addresses on her letters (Lawrence).
6. She hung her arms round his neck as he crouched there, and clung to him (Lawrence).
7. She remained clinging round his neck, so that she was lifted off her feet (Lawrence).
8. He would be miserable all the day if he went without (a kiss) (Lawrence),
9. She was self-conscious, and quite brilliantly winsome, when the baker came,
wondering if he would notice (Lawrence).
10. Thinking that to be known as La Falterona was grander than any title, she did not
use his name (to which indeed she had no right, since after divorcing him she had
married somebody else); but her silver, her cutlery, and her dinner-service were heavily
decorated with a coat of arms and a crown, and her servants invariably addressed her as
madame la princesse (Maugham).

Test 9
Syntax: Revision

I. Define the classificational features of the following word-groupings:

1. husband and wife, 6. in order to,
2. oddly affected, 7. to intentionally interrupt,
3. seemed fitting, 8. green larches,
4. outskirts of the moor, 9. towards the valley,
5. stopped the car, 10. rather gruesome.

II. State the structural type of the sentences, define the type of the subject and the
predicate in them:
1. "How about a little more houseorgan oratory about money being power?" (Fitzgerald)
2. It's a fine time (Fitzgerald).
3. "Don't try to whip yourself up into a temper." (Fitzgerald)
4. "But there's something wanting, isn't there?" Ashurst nodded. Wanting? The apple
tree, the singing, and the gold! (Galsworthy)
5. "I say, what d'you suppose happens to us?" "Go out like flames." (Galsworthy)
6. "Well, you ought to sleep, you know." "Yes, I ought to, but I can't." (Hemingway)
7. "Sit down a bit." (Galsworthy)
8. Her quick, straight handshake tightened suddenly (Galsworthy).
9. The whole thing was like a pleasurable dream (Galsworthy).
10. His arms were seized (Galsworthy).

III. Build up the IC-model of the sentences:

1. Mile's own room was simply furnished.
2. His dark eyes deliberately avoided my face.

IV. Analyze the actual division pattern of the sentences and the language means
used to mark the theme and the rheme:
1. And in this manner did Wee Willie Winkie enter into his manhood (Kipling).
2. There's something happened to the Colonel's son! (Kipling)
3. "What mischief have you been getting into now?" (Kipling)
4. He lost his good-conduct badge for christening the Commissioner's wife "Pobs"
(Kipling).
5. These long-forgotten years - how precious did they now seem to Tom (Lawrence).
6. There was no other way of managing the child (Kipling).
7. "How do you find the Brangwens?" "A peculiar couple." (Lawrence)
8. Coppy had permitted him to witness the miraculous operation of shaving (Kipling).
9. Sudden and swift was the punishment - deprivation of the good-conduct badge and,
most sorrowful of all, two days' confinement of barracks (Kipling).
10. Maria was delighted to see the children so merry (Joyce).

V. Define the communicative sentence type, speech act characteristics and the
actual division pattern of the following sentences:
1. "Aren't you going to play whist?" (Lawrence)
2. "Tell me what's a-matter, Elsie," he said (Lawrence).
3. "Don't be cruel to me." (Lawrence)
4. "I don't want you to say anything about it." (Lawrence)
5. "Then I'm not stopping here," he said. "Are you coming with me?" (Lawrence)
6. "I wonder where they did dig her up," said Kathleen to Miss Healy (Joyce).
7. "Would you like to come and spend a few days with us?" "Willingly." (Maugham)
8. "I think you'd better meet a prima donna" I said at last (Maugham).
9. "Do you think I have the time to acknowledge all the books twopenny-halfpenny
authors send me?" (Maugham)

VI. Define the predicative load of the sentences:

1. It wouldn't have hurt to give it him (Maugham).
2. Why didn't you remind me? (Maugham)
3. I was just being made use of (Maugham).
4. Have I ever told you about Benjy Riesenbaum and the pearls? (Maugham)

VII. Give the constructional paradigm based on the two primary sentences:
1. He was furious. They kept him waiting.
2. Mary crossed the street. She saw her creditor.

VIII. Form sentences with greater predicative load taking as the basis the
following kernel sentences:
1. I tore the string of pearls off my neck (Maugham)
2. I drew myself up to my full height (Maugham).
3. We had a row on the boat (Maugham).

IX. Define the types of the clauses making up the following sentences:
1. As her invitation was so pressing, and observing that Carrie wished to go, we
promised we would visit her the next Saturday week (Grossmith, Grossmith).
2. Lupin, whose back was towards me, did not hear me come in. (Grossmith,
Grossmith).
3. I rather disapprove of his wearing a check suit on a Sunday, and I think he ought to
have gone to church this morning (Grossmith, Grossmith).
4. It irritated the youth that his elder brother should be made something of a hero by the
women, just because he didn't live at home and was a lace-designer and almost a
gentleman (Lawrence).
5. But Alfred was something of a Prometheus Bound, so the women loved him
(Lawrence).
6. She hated him in a despair that shattered her and broke her down, so that she suffered
sheer dissolution like a corpse, and was unconscious of everything save the horrible
sickness of dissolution that was taking place within her, body and soul (Lawrence).
7. Strange as my circumstances were, the terms of this debate are as old and
commonplace as man (Stevenson).
8. Then, as the endless moment was broken by the maid's terrified little cry, he pushed
through the portieres into the next room (Fitzgerald).
9. La Falterona watched him scornfully as he groveled on the floor (Maugham).
10. In fact it is he who had bought her the luxurious little villa in which we were now
sitting (Maugham).