SYSTEMIC CONCEPTION OF LANGUAGE

1. SYSTEMIC CONCEPTION OF LANGUAGE

Language is as a system of units that have no value without each other. They depend on each other, they exist only in a system. Any language includes 3 parts: phonological, lexicological and grammatical. The grammatical system consists of morphology and syntax. Morphology deals with the internal structure of words. Syntax deals with the rules governing combination of words in sentences.

Language consists of 6 main structural levels:

· Phonological; it’s unit is a phoneme; the phoneme has distinctive function;

· Morphological; morpheme; morphemes are meaningful units, they can change the form of the word and can turn the word into a different part of speech;

· Lexemic; lexeme; the main function is nominative;

· Level of phrases (denominative); phrase; the phrase names a complex phenomenon or gives characteristics of an object;

· Level of sentences; sentence; the sentence performs 2 main functions: communicative and predicative;

· Level of texts; text; 2 functions: topicalization and stylisation;

A linguistic unit can enter into relations of two different kinds: paradigmatic relations and syntagmatic relations. Paradigmatic relations exist in the sphere of language between the units that can substitute one another. Paradigmatic relations are relations based on the principles of similarity. According to different principles of similarity paradigmatic relations can be of three types: semantic, formal and functional.

· Semantic paradigmatic relations are based on the similarity of meaning.

· Formal paradigmatic relations are based on the similarity of forms. Such relations exist between the members of a paradigm.

· Functional paradigmatic relations are based on the similarity of function. They are established between the elements that can occur in the same position.

Syntagmatic relations exist at every language level. They can be of three different types: coordinate, subordinate and predicative:

. Syntagmatic relations exist at every language level. They can be of three different types: coordinate, subordinate and predicative.

· Coordinate syntagmatic relations exist between the homogeneous linguistic units that are equal in rank, that is, they are the relations of independence.

· Subordinate syntagmatic relations exist are the relations of dependence when one linguistic unit depends on the other. 4 forms of subordination:

Agreement (this book-these books)

Government (to see him (not he))

Enjoinment (примыкание) (last summer)

Enclosure (вложение) (a student – a good student)

· Predicative syntagmatic relations are the relations of interdependence.

Primary predication is observed between the subject and the predicate of the sentence.

Secondary predication is observed on the phrase level between the nominal element and non-finite form of the verb in predicative construction

 

2. PARTS OF SPEECH THEORY

The parts of speech are classes of words. All the members of these classes have certain characteristics in common which distinguish them from the members of other classes. Parts of speech are differentiated either by a number of criteria, or by a single criterion. There are four approaches to the problem:

1. Classical (logical-inflectional)

2. Functional

3. Distributional

4. Complex or traditional

The classical parts of speech theory goes back to ancient times. It is based on Latin grammar. According to the Latin classification of the parts of speech all words were divided into declinable and indeclinable parts of speech. A new approach to the problem was introduced in the XIX century by Henry Sweet. This approach may be defined as functional. To nominative parts of speech belonged noun-words (noun, noun-pronoun, noun-numeral, infinitive, gerund), adjective-words (adjective, adjective-pronoun, adjective-numeral, participles), verb (finite verb, verbals – gerund, infinitive, participles), while adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection belonged to the group of particles. A distributional approach to the parts of speech classification can be illustrated by the classification introduced by Charles Fries. He wanted to avoid the traditional terminology and establish a classification of words based on distributive analysis, that is, the ability of words to combine with other words of different types. At the same time, the lexical meaning of words was not taken into account. He introduced four major classes of words and functional classes. All these approaches are one-sided, because parts of speech are differentiated on basis of 1 aspect of the word. In modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated according to three criteria: semantic, formal and functional. This approach may be defined as complex. The semantic criterion deals with the grammatical meaning of the whole class of words. The formal criterion deals with paradigmatic properties: relevant grammatical categories, the form of the words, their specific inflectional and derivational features. The functional criterion deals with the syntactic function of words in the sentence and their combinability. As a result of this classification English parts of speech are divided into notional and functional.

THE NOUN

According to the type of nomination they may be proper and common. According to the form of existence they may be animate and inanimate. Animate… According to their quantitative structure nouns can be countable, uncountable and collective.

THE VERB

On the basis of the subject-process relation all notional verbs are divided into the following sets: actional and statal, relational. Actional verbs… On the basis of implicit grammatical meaning of transitivity/intransitivity… The verb has 8 categories:

THE NON-FINITE FORMS OF THE VERB

THE INFINITIVE The infinitive serves as the verbal name of a process. It is considered as the… THE GERUND