Теоретическая грамматика английского языка

Theoretical grammar gives scientific description of language system; two notions of that grammatical description should be pointed as central; the notion of the word and the notion of the sentence. The first is analyzed by Morphology, which is the grammatical teaching of the word. The second is analyzed by Syntax, which is the grammatical teaching of the sentence. The moфhological system of language reveals its properties through the тофЬет1с structure of words. It follows from this that Morphology as part of grammatical theory faces the morpheme and the word. Continual text can be divided into segments called "тофЬз". "Morph" is defined as the smallest succession of phonemes (it can be even one phoneme) which possesses some definite meaning, cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units and is recurrent in various utterances. e.g. clear, clearly, clearness, cleared, clears, unclear (we single out one and the same succession of phonemes 'clear', it has some defmite meaning) Morpheme represents multitude of moфhs, which possess the same meaning and stand in relation of complementary distribution. e .g. clear, clearly, clearness, clarity, clarify The first three words include the тофЬ 'clear', the last two contain the тофЬ 'clar'. These тофЬз are characterized by identical meaning and occur in mutually excluding contexts. The тофЬ "clear" is used independently and may be also followed by bound moфhs -ly, -ness, -ed, -s. The тофЬ 'clar' is always bound. It is associated with тофЬз -ity and -ify. In other words 'clear' and 'clar' stand in relation of complementary distribution or have mutually excluding contexts. If the meanings (functions) of the тофЬз are different, they constitute different тофЬетез. e.g. suffixes -(e)d and -ing in the verb forms 'retumed' and 'returning' have different functions, they are different moфhemes. If the meanings (functions) of тофЬз are the same, they are 'free variants' of the same тофЬете. e.g. suffixes -(e)d and -t in the verb forms "learned" and 'learnt' are formally different тофЬз which are united by the same function, they constitute the same тофЬете. МофЬз which constitute the same тофЬете are called а11отофЬз of this morpheme. Summing up we may point out that the тофЬете is an elementary meaningfiil segmental component of the word. The word is a nominative unit of language, it is formed by тофЬетез. It enters the lexicon of language as its elementary component, together with other nominative units the word is used for the formation of the sentence - a unit of information in the communicative process. Another important notion is grammatical category. According to modem approach going to Prague school of fimctional linguistics a grammatical category is viewed as an opposition of two or more elements having some basis of comparison. Within the moфhological system of language these elements are expressed by 7