LECTURE 1

PLAN:

1. Grammar in the systematic conception of language

2. The history of English grammar
3. The subject of theoretical grammar
4. Stages of English theoretical grammar
TEXTBOOKS

• Blokh S.V.
• Kaushanskaya V.L.
• Valeika Laimutis, Buitkienė Janina
• Volkova L.M.
• Morokhovskaya E.
• D. J. Allerton, Essentials of Grammatical Theory A
Consensus View of Syntax and Morphology
Grammar in the systematic conception of language

• Language is an essential feature that distinguishes us from other living

beings. It certainly figures centrally in our lives. We discover our
identity as individuals and social beings when we acquire language
during childhood. Language is a means of cognition and
communication. It enables us to express our ideas and emotions, to
think for ourselves or set control over others. But language is first and
foremost a means of transmitting information which helps us
cooperate with other people in our community. Language is so
uniquely human, that our species might be more appropriately named
homo loquens than homo sapiens.
• When you know a language, you can speak and be understood by
others who know the same language. Knowledge of a language
enables you to combine words to form phrases, and phrases to form
sentences. But not every string of words constitutes a well-formed
sentence in a language. Therefore, in addition to knowing the words of
the language, linguistic knowledge includes rules for their
combination to form sentences and make your own judgments. These
rules must be limited (finite) in length and number so that they can be
stored in our brains. Yet, they must permit us to form and understand
an infinite set of new sentences.
• You cannot buy a dictionary of any language with all its sentences,
because no dictionary can list all the possible sentences. Knowing a
language means being able to produce new sentences never spoken before
and to understand sentences never heard before. The famous linguist
Noam Chomsky refers to this ability as a creative aspect of language use:
creativity is a universal property of human language. Not every speaker
of a language can create great literature, but all persons who know a
language, can and do create or understand an infinite set of new sentences
in the process of human discourse. Thus, creativity or creative aspect of
language implies a human ability to create and understand an infinite set
of new sentences in the process of human discourse.
• Language is a system of signs. It can function as a means of cognition and
communication due to the unity and interaction of its three constituent parts or
subsystems. These parts are the phonological system, the lexical system and the
grammatical system. Without any of them there is no human language. The
phonological system determines the material (phonetical) appearance of its
significative (i.e. meaningful) units. The lexical system is the whole set of naming
means of language, that is, the vocabulary of words and stable wordgroups. The
grammatical system is the whole set of regularities, i.e. the set of rules
determining the formation of utterances (i.e. actualized in speech sentences) in the
process of discourse. Each of these three constituent parts of language is studied
by a particular linguistic discipline. The sound system is studied by phonology,
the vocabulary of words is studied by lexicology and the regulating rules of word
and sentence formations are studied by grammar.
• What is grammar? The word “grammar” derives from Greek and
means “art of letters” (gramma = letter). The term “grammar” is used
in two meanings. On the one hand, the term refers to the explicit
theory constructed by the linguist to describe the speaker’s linguistic
competence. On the other hand, in its narrow sense, the term
“grammar” refers to the study of morphology (the rules of word
formation, parts of speech and their grammatical categories) and
syntax (the rules of sentence formation), often complemented by
phonology, lexicology, semantics and pragmatics.
THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR

• Until the 17th century the term “grammar” in English was

applied only to the study of Latin. Latin grammar was the
only grammar learned in schools (grammar schools). Until
the end of the 16th century there were no grammars of
English. One of the most popular Latin grammars was written
in English by William Lily. It was published in the first half
of the 16th century and went through many editions. This
book was very important for English grammar as it set a
standard for the arrangement of material.
• The history of English grammars may be divided into two
periods. The first is the age of prescientific grammar
beginning with the end of the 16th century and lasting till
about 1900. It includes two types of grammars which
succeeded each other. The first type of grammars in the
history of English grammar is represented by early
prenormative grammars of English (the first among them is
W. Bullokar’s “Bref Grammar for English”).
• By the middle of the 18th century, when many of the
grammatical phenomena of English had been described and
the English language norms established, the prenormative
grammars gave way to a new kind of grammar, a prescriptive
(normative) grammar. It stated strict rules of grammatical
usage and set up a certain standard of correctness to be
followed by learners. One of the most influential grammars
of that period was R. Lowth’s “Short Introduction to English
Grammar”, first published in 1762 in London.
• Approximately at the same time on the other side of the Atlantic, in
New York, Lindley Murray wrote a very successful work, “English
Grammar Adapted to the Different Classes of Learners”. It was first
published in 1795 and later underwent 50 editions in its original form
and more than 120 – in an abridged version. Some of the 19th-century
normative grammars were reprinted in the 20th century. For example,
W. Lennie’s “Principles of English Grammar” underwent numerous
editions, the 99th edition being published in 1905; J. C. Nesfield’s
grammar (“English Grammar Past and Present”, 1898) underwent
twenty five editions in different variants and was still on sale in the
1960s.
• Grammars are of different kinds. A fully explicit grammar
exhaustively describing the grammatical constructions of a
language is called a descriptive grammar. It does not teach
the rules of the language; it describes the rules that are
already known. In other words, a descriptive grammar of
language does not tell you how you should speak; it only
describes your unconscious linguistic knowledge. Such a
grammar is a model of the mental grammar every speaker of
the language knows.
The subject of theoretical grammar
• Our course of theoretical grammar serves to describe the
grammatical structure of the English language as a system
where all parts are interconnected. The difference between
theoretical and practical grammar lies in the fact that
practical grammar prescribes certain rules of usage and
teaches to speak (or write) correctly whereas theoretical
grammar presents facts of language, while analyzing them,
and gives no prescriptions.
• Practical grammar provides with a manual of practical mastery of the
grammatical rules.
• Theoretical grammar - description of the grammatical system, it
scientifically analyses and defines the grammatical categories, the
ways the words are combined.
• The "strict" rule: to see isn't used in the Continuous form, but: "For
the first time Bobby felt, he was really seeing the man" (A.Christie).
• In theoretical grammar we state some facts, analyze them from
different angles, and try to explain them. We deal with many theories,
many approaches to one and the same phenomenon.
• Interrelation of theoretical grammar to practical one is also
undisputable, but their purposes are different: the purpose of
practical (or prescriptive) grammar is to prescribe the rules
how to correct build sentences, or the Past Indefinite forms,
or the plural number forms, etc., while the main purpose of
theoretical (scientific, descriptive) grammar is to give a
scientific description and analysis of the structure of Modern
English and its grammatical categories along with the
purpose of a deeper insight into the mechanism, processes
and tendencies in the grammatical structure of English.
• Unlike school grammar, theoretical grammar does not always produce
a ready-made decision. In language there are a number of phenomena
interpreted differently by different linguists. To a great extent, these
differences are due to the fact that there exist various directions in
linguistics, each having its own method of analysis and, therefore, its
own approach to the matter. But sometimes these differences arise
because some facts of language are difficult to analyze, and in this
case the only thing to offer is a possible way to solve the problem,
instead of giving a final solution. It is due to this circumstance that
there are different theories of the same language phenomenon, which
is not the case with practical grammar.
• English theoretical grammar has naturally been developing in the
mainstream of world linguistics. Observing the fact that some
languages are very similar to one another in their forms, while others
are quite dissimilar, scholars still long ago expressed the idea that
languages revealing formal features of similarity have a common
origin. Attempts to establish groups of kindred languages were
repeatedly made from the 16th century on. Among the scholars who
developed the idea of language relationship and attempted to give the
first schemes of their genealogical groupings we find the name of J. J.
Scaliger (1540-1609).
• But a consistently scientific proof and study of the actual relationship between
languages became possible only when the historical comparative method of
language study was created – in the first quarter of the 19th century.
• The historical comparative method developed in connection with the comparative
observation of languages belonging to the Indo-European family, and its appearance
was stimulated by the discovery of Sanskrit.
• Sir William Jones (1746-1794), a prominent British orientalist and Sanskrit student,
was the first to point out in the form of rigorously grounded scientific hypothesis
that Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Gothic, and some other languages of India and Europe
had sprung from the same source which no longer existed. He put forward this
hypothesis in his famous report to the Calcutta Linguistic Society (1786), basing his
views on an observation of verbal roots and certain grammatical forms in the
languages compared.
• At the beginning of the 20th century the science of linguistics went
different ways and later formed into various trends or schools, each of
them contributing greatly to English theoretical grammar. The process
is still under way nowadays, and it is going to be considered in detail
further on.
• Thus, we may tentatively trace three main development stages of
English theoretical grammar: first (the 16 th century - the first quarter of
the 19th century), second (the first quarter of the 19 th century - the
1930s) and third (the 1930s - present day).
Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations between
language unit

• Crucial for the systemic description of language are the two

fundamental types of relations between lingual units:
syntagmatic and paradigmatic.
• Syntagmatic relations are immediate linear relations where lingual
units form various lingual strings, sequences, or constructions; in other
words, lingual units co-occur in the same actual sequences. E.g.: She
worked quickly. In this sentence we can point out syntagmatic, or
linear relations between the sounds.
S+h+e work+ed quick+ly
• the morphemes are also connected syntagmatically within words; the
combinations of words form syntagmas within phrases and sentences
• Besides, the sentence can be connected with other sentences by
syntagmatic relations in the process of communication, in speech.
• The combination of two words or word-groups in a segmental
sequence, one of which is modified by the other, forms a unit which is
referred to as a syntactic “syntagma.” There are four main types of
notional syntagmas:
• 1. predicative syntagma, which represents a combination of a subject
and a predicate.
• For instance: The real revolution in written communication came with
the invention of printing press in 1440 AD.
• 2. objective syntagma, which represents a combination of a verb and
its object. For instance: came with the invention.
• 3. attributive syntagma, which represents a combination of a noun and
its attribute.
• For instance: The real revolution; printing press .
• 4. adverbial syntagma, which represents a combination of a modified
notional word, such as a verb, adjective or adverb, with its adverbial
modifier.
• For instance: the invention in 1440 AD.
• The other type of relations, opposed to syntagmatic and
called paradigmatic, exists between elements of the system
outside the strings where they co-occur. Elements enter into
paradigmatic relations when they have the same potential to
appear in the same context and functionally substitute each
other. We have syntagmatic elements in a sequence along the
horizontal dimension, while along the vertical dimension we
have paradigmatic elements in substitution.
• Nick was offensive.
• The word on the wall was offensive.
• The politician’s speech was offensive.
• His manner was offensive.
• All these expressions, and infinitely many more, can combine with ‘…
was offensive’. So they all have the same syntagmatic relation with the
rest of the sentence, as they can all figure in the same position in its
structure, i.e. they all have the equivalent function that of a subject as
a constituent in sentence structure. In this respect they can all be
classed paradigmatically as noun phrases.
• Paradigmatic relations between lingual elements are
especially evident in classical paradigms of categorical forms
of parts of speech. The minimal paradigm consists of two
oppositional forms. This kind of paradigm we see, for
instance, in the expression of the category of number: boy –
boys. More numerous paradigms are observed in the
expression of grammatical categories of adjectives (big –
bigger – biggest) and verbs (play – plays – played – will
play; play – is playing – has been playing, etc.).
• The forms of language at any level are organized along these
two dimensions or axes. They combine into larger structures
along the horizontal (i.e. linear) or syntagmatic axis: sounds
or letters combine to form morphemes; morphemes combine
to form words; words combine to form phrases; phrases
combine to form sentences; sentences combine to form a text.
When different forms have the same potential to occur in the
same structural context and are therefore equivalent in
function, they are paradigmatically associated as members of
the same class of items.
• It is necessary to see that this two-dimensional mode
of organization provides the potential to generate
infinite expressions from a limited number of language
means. Besides this, these two interdependent
dimensions or relations between lingual elements
represent the basic principles for the linguistic analysis
at all levels.
TYPES OF GRAMMAR

Prescriptive Grammar
Descriptive grammar
Contrastive grammar
Historical grammar
Comparative grammar
General grammar
Functional grammar
Structural grammar
Transformational generative grammar
Universal grammar
THE AIM OF THEORETICAL GRAMMAR

• Any course of theoretical grammar today serves to describe the

grammatical structure of language as a system where all parts are
interconnected
• Three main branches of linguistics dealing with the main
linguistic units are phonetics (phonology), lexicology and
grammar. Grammar is the study of the grammatical structure
of language. It includes morphology and syntax. Morphology
is the part of grammar which treats of the forms of words.
Syntax is the part of grammar which treats of phrases and
sentences.
• The border-line between the two is conventional, and there
are cases of overlapping. While free phrases fall under
syntax, the formations like have been found, has been raining
are referred to as analytical word-forms and fall under
morphology. Set phrases make the subject of phraseology as
a branch of lexicology. Morphology deals with the
paradigmatic relations of morphemes and words, while
syntax deals with the syntagmatic relations in phrases and
sentences.
The basic units of language structure are:

•
the phoneme,
the morpheme,
the word,
the phrase, and
the sentence.
• The most elemental meaningful lingual unit is a morpheme.
The word is derived from the Greek word morphe, which
means “form.”
• Morphology is the study of internal structure of words and
the rules by which words are formed.
• Morphology is both the oldest and one of the youngest
subdisciplines of grammar. It is the oldest because, as far as
we know, the first linguists were primarily morphologists.
• The term morphology was invented in the second part of the
19th century and it means “the science of word forms”
(morphe = “form”, logy = “science of” or “branch of
knowledge of”). Earlier there was no need for a special term,
because the term grammar mostly implied word structure, i.e.
morphology. The terms phonology (for sound structure) and
syntax (for sentence structure) had existed for centuries when
the term morphology was introduced. Like most linguistic
knowledge, this is generally unconscious knowledge.
• The course of Modern English morphology consists of three
main parts: 1) essentials of morphology, 2) the system of
parts of speech, 3) the study of each part of speech in terms
of its grammatical categories and syntactic functions. The
chief notions of morphology include the grammatical
category, the word and the morpheme.
• The grammatical meaning is the essential part of a grammatical
category, which is defined as a unity of a grammatical meaning and a
morphological way of its expression. The peculiarities of the
grammatical meaning are especially evident in comparison with the
lexical meaning.
• Grammatical category is a system of expressing a generalized
grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of
grammatical forms (e. g. the category of number in nouns with the
singular and plural forms).
• Categorial grammatical meanings are the most general
meanings rendered by language and expressed by systematical
correlations of word-forms (e. g. tense, aspect, voice, mood in
the verb system).
• The paradigmatic correlations of grammatical forms in a
category are exposed by the grammatical oppositions of various
types (e. g. a binary privative opposition found in the category
of number; a gradual opposition — in the degrees of
comparison of adjectives, an equipotential opposition — in the
three tense system).
• A morpheme is a minimal meaningful lingual unit which may
be represented by a sequence of sounds or a single sound:
boy-s; buil-t, beauti-ful, etc. Thus a morpheme is an arbitrary
union of a form (i.e. sounds) and a meaning as the link
between them is a matter of convention. Every word in every
language is composed of one or more morphemes.
For seminar:

• What is the subject matter of grammar?

• What kind of relations exist between grammar and
lexicology?
• Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic relations between language
units.
• Interrelation of Theoretical Grammar with other branches of
linguistics.
For SIW:

• Learn the topic suggested and write a four-or-five page

report. Your report should have well-defined structure: an
introduction, the main body and a conclusion summarizing
the ideas described. A list of references is also a MUST (see
my list below for typography (оформление списка
литературы). The Internet is allowed but do not overuse it.

• The contemporary methods of linguistic analysis

Recommended literature

• 1. Блох М. Я. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка : учеб.

для ин-тов / М. Я. Блох. – 3-е изд, испр. – М. : Высшая школа,
2000. – 381 с. 92
• 2. Верба Л. Г. Грамматика современного английского языка:
справочник / Л. Г. Верба. – К. : Логос, 2001. – 368 с.
• 3. Иванова И. П. и др. Теоретическая грамматика современного
английского языка : учеб. для инст. и фак. иностр. яз. / И. П.
Иванова, В. В. Бурлакова, Г. Г. Почепцов. – М. : Высш. шк., 1981.
– 285 с.