Microsoft Word Theoretical Course of English Grammar

Nino Kirvalidze
19
while differential features immediately express the function in question, i.e. a grammatical 
meaning. By the number of members contrasted, oppositions are divided into 
binary
(i.e. two 
members) and more than binary (
ternary
, quaternary, etc.).
The most important type of opposition is the binary opposition. It is formed by a contras-
tive pair of members one of which is characterized by the presence of a certain differential 
feature (
mark
), while the other member is characterized by the absence of this feature. The 
member in which the feature is present is called the 
marked
, or 
strong
, or 
positive
member, and 
is commonly designated by the symbol + (plus); the member in which the feature is absent is 
called the unmarked, or weak, or negative member, and is commonly designated by the symbol 
– (minus). Thus, 
the strong member of the grammatical opposition is always marked as it 
contains a certain differential feature, while the weak member is unmarked as it is characte-
rized by the absence of this feature.
For example: 
boy – boys
(the plural form 
boys
is a strong 
member of the opposition as it is marked by the inflection –s, while the singular form 
boy 
is a 
weak, unmarked member). 
For instance, the expression of the verbal present and past tenses is based on the opposi-
tion the differential feature of which is the inflectional suffix -
(e)d
. This inflection, expressing 
the meaning of the past tense, marks the past form of the verb positively (E.g.: 
We worked
), 
while the present form is marked negatively (
We work
). If we take the noun forms 
cats
and 
cat
, 
we can say that these two forms constitute a binary opposition in which the plural is the 
marked or strong member, while the singular is unmarked, weak member of the opposition. 
The meanings differentiated by the oppositions of signemic units (signemic oppositions) are 
referred to as “semantic features”, or “semes”.