PREPOSITIONS vs. CONJUNCTIONS

 

The Preposition	The Conjunction
o Function (form) words, not ‘parts of speech’ proper Linking words that connect
two notional words	notional words, or phrases, or clauses
o Semantics: don’t name, only indicate different types of grammatical or semantic relations Do they have any lexical meaning? → a lot of controversy
o Have no formal morphological markers (= are unchangeable)

 

o Syntactically: they are not sentence constituents Are used:

1) in a phrase: - they indicate a relation between two words the first of which governs the second (→ which are at different levels of the syntactic hierarchy).   The choice of the preposition is determined by - the Verb / Noun / Adjective which precedes it, or - the Noun/ ProN which follows it

1) in a phrase: - Coordinating Conjunctions (Coordinators) join two≤ words of equal status   2) in a simple sentence: - Coordinating Conjunctions join two≤ homogeneous sentence constituents (of equal status)   3) in a composite sentence: - Coordinating Conjunctions join two≤ clauses of equal status - Subordinating Conjunctions (Subordinators) join a subordinate clause to the main clause (→ which are at different levels of the syntactic hierarchy).

 

 

THE ARTICLE

 

o How many articles are there in English? → 2 points of view :

1) the combination ‘article + noun’ is seen as an analytical noun form → there are 3 articles: ‘a’, ‘the’, and the zero article;

2) an article is seen as a separate function word → there are 2 articles: ‘a’ and ‘the’. ↓

 

o Function words

 

o Formal function: realise the Category of Definiteness / Indefiniteness and serve as noun determiners.

 

o Semantics: have lexical meaning; only the grammatical meaning of Definiteness / Indefiniteness.

 

o Their semantic function is to specify the kind of reference a noun has; to establish a relation between the referent of a noun and the actual communicative situation (актуализация понятия)

 

o → means of contextual information: the indefinite article introduces new info; the definite article identifies previously mentioned/ known info. + other uses of the articles.

PART 2. TASKS FOR PRACTICAL CLASSES

 

TASK 1. Write each word, putting a hyphen between its morphemes. Identify and characterize the morphemes:

- segment morphemes: the root morpheme, derivational affixes, inflexional affixes;

- non-segment morphemes: the zero morpheme, vowel interchange, stress shift.

 

Example: disagreed: dis – agree – d

↓ ↓ ↓

deriv. root infl.

Aff. Morp. Aff.

Overcarefulness, activities, news, reviewed, unfortunately, stuck, unreliability, risen.

 

TASK 2. How many lexemes are there in each line? How many word forms of each lexeme?

a. a building build built builder be building

b. jump has jumped will be jumping

c. fortunately unfortunately fortunate

 

TASK 3. Fill the table below with information about the defining characteristics of the three major groups of vocabulary.

 

	‘Parts of speech proper’ / Lexical words	Function words	Words outside the sentence structure / Inserts
General semantics
Formal morphological properties
Functional syntactic properties

 

TASK 4. Use the examples below to illustrate the consequences of sticking to only one principle when classifying words into classes. What conclusions can you make?

 

A. The general semantic principle only:

(A) running (boy), running (shoes), (The boy is) running;

Red, redness, to redden;

(To) jump, (a) jump.

B. The formal morphological principle only:

Desk(s), gardener(s/ -‘s/ -s’), milk, honesty, police; wooden, quick(er);

work(ed/ -ing/ -s), hit(-ting/ -s); yesterday, sometimes; in, before, yet.

C. The Functional syntactic principle only:

Subject	Predicate	Object	Adverbial
I Someone The bike Yours Nick Who	saw has bought is new. is a nice car. had to go said	him this book. it?	there yesterday. to the library.

TASK 5. In the passage below, identify the class each word belongs to:

o lexical words (parts of speech proper) – a noun, a lexical verb, an adjective, an adverb, a pronoun or a numeral;

o function words – a preposition, a conjunction etc.; or

o words outside the sentence structure/ inserts, e.g. parenthetical elements.

 

A: Um can you get me a screw driver?

B: Where?

A: Uh well just bring my tool box.

B: Oh okay. Wow. Be careful. We’re gonna have to take off the light fixture… Do circuits run back there?

A: Yep.

B: Okay. Move this. You want me to take off this? Ouch!

A: you okay?

B: Yeah. I guess I should put on shoes.

TASK 6. The following passage contains several nonsense words, which are underlined. Identify the word class of each made-up word. Briefly state what evidence you used to determine the word class.

 

Other reports have remanstroted an even chranger positive bitegration with plasma charestarob, which is the main cholesterol-carrying wisotrotein.

TASK 7.Identify the type of the genitive in the sentences below.

 

1. This follows his company’s successful outdoor production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Saltburn’s* Valley Gardens last summer.

* Saltburn = a place in Scotland

2. Bank’s net loss

Europe’s richest indoor women’s tennis tournament in Brighton is in danger of collapsing after Midland Bank yesterday withdrew their sponsorship.

 

TASK 8. A.Do the genitive constructions below sound natural and correct? If they don’t, why not?

B. Can you rephrase them using prepositional constructions?

1. his parents’ home

2. the demonstrators’ crowd

3. Spain’s inflation

4. a grapes’ bunch

5. the government’s denial of the need

6. a paper’s sheet

7. a book’s page

8. This was a good idea of Johnny’s.

9. It’s not my handwriting. It’s Celina’s.

10. the brutal child’s murder

11. the bread’s basket

12. two hours’ sleep

13. socialism’s future

14. the car’s make

15. out of harm’s way

16. these questions’ kinds

TASK 9.Classify the following nouns as central or peripheral. Briefly state what evidence you used to do so.

 

energy, desk, living, person, rubbish, cake, friend, cow, Jane, honesty, jogging.

 

TASK 10. 1) Underline each verb phrase in the sentences below.

2) What kind of verbs is it composed of?

- Determine whether each verb is finite or non-finite

- Identify the type of the predicate

- Is the main verb transitive, intransitive, or copular (linking)?

- Which verbal categories are formally marked in each verb?

1. They had a nice chat.

2. Did you have to do it or were you given a choice?

3. I needn’t have watered the plants. It rained soon after I did.

4. He turned on the light.

5. You look lovely.

6. People thought he might have been joking.

7. She started working for the company a year ago.

8. His knuckles go pale as he grips the door frame.

9. The moon rose red.

10. We shall be meeting with all parties in the near future.

TASK 11. Identify and characterize different kinds of verbs. Which categories do they realize?

1. Varieties of crops should be cultivated which do not readily shatter.

2. She insisted that she pay her way.

3. I’d certainly tell you if I knew anything, but I don’t.

4. I am not attempting to be evasive.

TASK 12.Classify the following –ed forms as part of a Passive Voice verb form or a predicative adjective. Briefly state what evidence you used to do so.

 

1. We are delighted with the result.

2. I ought to be excited.

3. The silence was broken by the village crier.

4. The wire is always broken.

5. The problem was dealt with my developing a reference test.

6. He is well educated.

7. Those people got left behind in Vietnam.

8. She got terribly frightened.

9. Doherty was arrested in New York in June.

10. In two minutes, he was surrounded by a ring of men.

TASK 13.Classify the following adjectives as central or peripheral. Briefly state what evidence you used to do so.

 

Narrow, wrong, the rich, good, aware, residential, Scottish, alive, elect, charming, external, ethnic, the (very) young, insensitive, lone, awful, long, afraid, blue, unique, square, glass, impossible, big, mere, the unforgivable.

TASK 14.The words below are syncretic elements. Which of their characteristics are adjectival, which are verbal and which are nominal ones?

The Japanese, the wounded, the beautiful, running (kids), selected (stories)

TASK 15.Identify the semantic category of each of the adverbs in these sentences.

1. Don’t worry, he can’t have gone far.

2. I almost believed it.

3. We should be extremely cautious.

4. He is dead serious all the time.

5. It’s quite interesting.

6. She always eats the onion.

7. Automatically she backed away.

8. …her tears dropping hotly among the quietly flowing dead leaves.

TASK 16. Classify the underlined words as Adverbs, Prepositions or Conjunctions. Briefly state what evidence you used to do so.

1. He walked past.

2. He walked past the house.

3. He took the dog in.

4. He took the dog in the house.

5. They’ve lived happily (ever) since.

6. They’ve lived happily since that day.

7. They’ve lived happily since they got married.

 

TASK 17.Identify the class of each pronoun below.

1. What did he say?

2. Somebody tricked me.

3. I won’t tell you how it ended.

4. Is this yours, or mine?

5. His house got broken into.

6. I taught myself.

7. I like those.

8. That’s all I know.

9. He’s the guy who told me about this.

10. They know each other pretty well.

 

TASK 18.Classify the underlined words as Numerals (Cardinal or Ordinal) or Nouns with numerical meaning. Briefly state what evidence you used to do so.

1. I was doing my third week as a reporter.

2. I’ve read two thirds of the article.

3. Five is more than three.

4. They bought their little son a three-wheeler.

5. Damage is estimated at hundreds of millions of pounds.

6. Over two hundred people have been arrested.

7. Henry the 8^th is said to have killed all his wives, isn’t he?

8. You want bus 44.

 

TASK 19.Identify the lexical word class (part of speech) of the underlined words below. Briefly state what evidence you used to determine the word class.

1a. I was flat on my back.

1b. I already told him to back off.

2a. It’s pretty hard to do that.

2b. I felt like I was pretty.

3a. Actually, it’s fun to horse around with danger.

3b. He is quite handy on a horse.

4a. The price was coming down all the time.

4b. The coming weekend is relatively quiet.

TASK 20.Each of the orthographic words below can belong to at least three different word classes. Use each word below in a sentence of your own to illustrate how it is used in different word classes, and indicate the class.

before early inside this like

 

PART 3. TOPICS FOR SELF-STUDY AND PROJECT WORK

 

1) Taking into account the semantic, morphological and syntactic criteria, classify the following groups of verbs as central or peripheral in the class:

- lexical / content verbs

- auxiliary verbs

- link / copular verbs

- modal verbs.

2) What are the non-finite verb forms in English? What are the defining characteristics of each of them in terms of (a) their semantics, (b) realization of morphological verbal categories, (c) syntactic functions? Give examples.

3) Why are English non-finite verb forms classified as syncretic elements in the overlapping zones between the class of verbs and other word classes? Give examples.

4) How fully is the Category of Degrees of Comparison realized by English adjectives?

5) The field structure of the class of Adjectives. Which groups of adjectives are central and which are peripheral? Give examples.

6) Why are substantivised adjectives classified as syncretic elements?

7) What are the defining semantic, morphological and syntactic characteristics of the English Adverb?

8) What are the defining semantic, morphological and syntactic characteristics of the English Numeral?

9) Which groups of English word are classed as Function Words? How are they different from Content words?

10) What are the specific defining characteristics of the English Article? Does the Russian language have its counterpart as a grammatical means in the Category of Definiteness/ Indefiniteness?

11) Prepositions and Conjunction: similarities and differences.

12) What are the major distinctive characteristics of the morphological system of English? Does the Russian language have any similar characteristics?

 

 

THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE COURSE. MORPHOLOGY

1. Morphology: its objectives, subdivisions within Morphology, types of language unit(s) studied.

2. The problem of classifying words into parts of speech. The Field structure of a part pf speech.

3. Notional parts of speech vs. Function words.

4. The Noun: Defining characteristics of the class. The Field Structure of the class of Nouns.

5. The category of Number of the Noun in the functional semantic field of Quantity.

6. The Noun. The problem of the category of Case.

7. The Verb: Defining characteristics of the class. Classifications of verbs.

8. The Verb. The category of Tense in the functional semantic field of Temporality. Neutralisation of the opposition within the category.

9. The Verb. The category of Correlation. Neutralisation of the opposition within the category.

10. The Verb. The category of Aspect in the functional semantic field of Aspectuality. Neutralisation of the opposition within the category.

11. The Verb. The category of Voice in the functional semantic field of Directionality.

12. The Verb. The category of Mood in the functional semantic field of Modality.

13. Non-finite verb forms.

14. The Adjective: Defining characteristics of the class. The field structure of the class of Adjectives.

15. The Adjective. The category of Degrees of Comparison.

16. The Adverb. Defining characteristics of the class.

17. The Numeral. Defining characteristics of the class

18. The Pronoun. Defining characteristics of the class

19. Function words: prepositions and conjunctions.

20. Function words: articles and particles.

REFERENCES

 

1. Блох М.Я. Теоретическая грамматика современного английского языка / М.Я. Блох - М. : Высш. шк., 2000. – 380 с.

2. Иванова И.П. Теоретическая грамматика современного английского языка / И.П. Иванова, В.В. Бурлакова, Г.Г. Почепцов. - М. : Высш. шк., 1981. – 285 с.