Theoretical Grammar Seminar
The Course of Theoretical Grammar
Seminar 1. Theoretical Grammar and its Subject. General Principles of the Grammar Analysis
1. The subject of theoretical grammar. The scope of linguistics.
2. The grammatical structure of the English language. Morphology and syntax as two main parts of grammar.
3. Language as a system and structure. The dichotomy of language and speech. Different approaches to the language study.
4. Characteristics of the language levels and their units.
5. Systemic relations in language.
6. Practical assignments.
Practical assignment 1
1. Choose the type of system relations the following units represent: he must have gone; a smart student; plays/is playing/played/will play; Mary was listening; writing and reading; a friend / the friend / father’s friend; you should have listened; tired but happy; he must be studying / He ought to be studying / He should be studying; seeing is believing.
2. In the following fragment indicate all possible syntagmatic relations and define their types. Comment on the possible paradigmatic relations and their types of the underlined units.
My mother did nothing except stay beautiful; at thirty she still acted like the sixteen-year-old girl my father had eloped with. She listened to the Victrola, visited her girlfriends and went to the city, to the fancy department stores, to try on clothes. So my grandmother got down on her arthritic knees and scrubbed the floors. She did laundry, she cooked. Naturally, I worked alongside her. I guess I figured housework was something that skipped a generation. But once I finished high school and went to business, I wasn’t much of a help. My grandmother was really the housewife in her son’s home – which I guess made my mother. (Susan Isaacs. Shining Through)
3. Read the definitions of language cited below, think over the principles they are based on:
a) Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates (B.Bloch);
b)
Seminar 1. Theoretical Grammar and its Subject. General Principles of the Grammar Analysis
1. The subject of theoretical grammar. The scope of linguistics.
2. The grammatical structure of the English language. Morphology and syntax as two main parts of grammar.
3. Language as a system and structure. The dichotomy of language and speech. Different approaches to the language study.
4. Characteristics of the language levels and their units.
5. Systemic relations in language.
6. Practical assignments.
Practical assignment 1
1. Choose the type of system relations the following units represent: he must have gone; a smart student; plays/is playing/played/will play; Mary was listening; writing and reading; a friend / the friend / father’s friend; you should have listened; tired but happy; he must be studying / He ought to be studying / He should be studying; seeing is believing.
2. In the following fragment indicate all possible syntagmatic relations and define their types. Comment on the possible paradigmatic relations and their types of the underlined units.
My mother did nothing except stay beautiful; at thirty she still acted like the sixteen-year-old girl my father had eloped with. She listened to the Victrola, visited her girlfriends and went to the city, to the fancy department stores, to try on clothes. So my grandmother got down on her arthritic knees and scrubbed the floors. She did laundry, she cooked. Naturally, I worked alongside her. I guess I figured housework was something that skipped a generation. But once I finished high school and went to business, I wasn’t much of a help. My grandmother was really the housewife in her son’s home – which I guess made my mother. (Susan Isaacs. Shining Through)
3. Read the definitions of language cited below, think over the principles they are based on:
a) Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates (B.Bloch);
b)