Ministry of higher and secondary education of the republic of uzbekistan karakalpak state university

MINISTRY OF HIGHER AND SECONDARY EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
KARAKALPAK STATE UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Philology


Chair of English Philology
Lectures on THEORETICAL GRAMMAR OF
MODERN ENGLISH
Compiled by: G.Tleumuratov.

Nukus - 2012

The Theoretical English Grammar
Lecture 1
Theme: The subject and Aims of the Theoretical English grammar.
Problems for discussion:
1.Grammar as a science of the laws of linguistic usage.
2.The subject of the theoretical English grammar
3. The main purpose of the theoretical course on English grammar
4. Grammar as a consistent part of language
5. The phonological, the lexical and the grammatical systems of language
6. The Linear grammar theory
7. The Immediate consistuent grammar (IC grammar, phrase grammar)
8. The Transformational grammar is a new linguistic theory.
Grammar as a science treats of the laws of linguistic usage and gives the underlying principles of language. Grammar considers and examines language from its smallest parts up to its most complex Organization. Grammar classifies words into all sorts of categories and states the peculiarities of each category, it classifies the various ways in which words are used for conveyance of ideas.
The subject and aims of the theoretical English grammar.
The main purpose of the theoretical course on English grammar is to introduce the Student to the many linguistic problems connected with grammatical structures and to the modern methods applied in dealing with them. As there are many outstanding problems in modern linguistics one of these concerns the relations between morphology and syntax, on the one hand and paradigmatic and syntagmatic phenomena, on the other hand. Recent discussion of this problem has immediate connection with the treatment of the notion of "sentence"
The seminar hours of this course may include, besides analysis of the modern texts from the theoretical points of view, reports on the same problems and discussion of views held by various authors,
As we mentioned that the purpose of this course is to present a systematic study of the grammatical structure of the modern English.
In the course of the history of linguistics many different views of language and languages have been put forward. It is not our task to discuss them here. Suffice it to say that the treatment of a language as a system was characteristic of the grammarians of the 17^th Century, for instance, the French "grammaire generale de Port-Royal", a grammar published in 1660. though this grammar was not a linguistic work in any modern sense. This grammar was based on the assumption that the State of a language at a given period was a system and could be treated as such. This view of language structure was then abandoned in favour of a purely historical outlook until the early years of the 20^th Century. The Swiss scholar Ferdinand de Saussure (1857- 1913) laid the foundation of a new linguistic theory acknowledging the study of a system of a given language as such. De Saussure's views were then developed and modified by various schools of modern linguistic thinking. It is on the basis of this view that a theoretical investigation of the grammatical system of a language at a definite point of its history becomes possible and fruitful¹.
Modern linguistics lays a special stress on the systemic character of language and all its constituent parts. It accentuates the idea that language is a system of signs(meaningful units) which are closely interconnected and interdependent. Units of immediate interdependencies
(classes and subclasses of words, various subtypes of syntactic constructions) form different micro systems within the framework of the global macrosystem of the whole of language.
Each system is a structured set of elements related to one another by a common function. The common function of all the lingual signs is to give expression to human thoughts.
The nature of grammar as a consistituent part of language is better understood the two planes of language, namely, the plane of content and the plane of expression.
The plane of content comprises the purely semantic elements contained in language, while the plane of expression comprises the material units of language taken by themselves, apart from the meanings rendered by them. The two planes are connected, so that no meaning can be realised without some material means of expression.
The correspondence between the planes of content and expression is very complex and it is peculiar to each language. This complexity is clearly illustrated by the phenomena of polysemy, homonymy and synonymy.
The discrimination between two planes, taking it into consideration, you may say that the purpose of grammar as a linguistic discipline is to disclose and formulate the regularities of the correspondence between the planeof content and the plane of expression in the formulation of utterances out of the stocks of words as part of the process of speech production.(Blokh M.Y. A course in theoretical English grammar. M.., 1983.p.l 1)
Grammar and phonology. Grammar and lexicology.
Language incorporates the three constituent parts, each being inherent in it by virtue of its social nature. These parts are phonological system, the lexical system and the grammatical system only the unity of these three elements forms a language, without any one of them there is no human language.
The phonological system is the subfoundation of language, it determines the material(phonetic) appearance of its signifcative units. The lexical system is the whole set of naming means of language, that is, words and stable word-groups. The grammatical system is the whole set of regularities determining the combination of naming means in the formation of utterances as the embodiement of thinking process.
Each of the three constituent parts of language is studied by a particular linguistic discipline. These disciplines, presenting a series of approaches to heir particular objects of analysis, give the corresponding "descriptions" of language consisting in ordered expositions of the constituent parts in question.
In relations between word-building, grammar and lexicology have not yet been made quite clear. Large three views have been expressed:

1. 
   word-building is part of lexicology.
   
2. 
   word-building is partly at least a matter of grammar.
   
3. 
   Word-building is a special sphere intermediate between lexicology and grammar.
   

According as one or another of these views is endorsed word-building is either ignored in abook on grammar, as something lying beyond its sphere or it is treated of in grammar book to some extent at least.
The grammatical aspect of word-building, at least in English is rather unimportant. The main phenomena of word-building belong to the sphere of lexicology.
To sum up in brief, grammar is the heart of the language. Properly approached, studied of grammar will not only do practical good but carry each individual Student into advanced work on the subtler use of grammatical forms and direct his own natural interest in language intelligently and efficiently.

The Linear grammar Theory.
There were grammar theories which sought to teach how a sentence is generated. These are the Linear grammar and immediate constituent grammar(IC grammar, phrase grammar)
The Linear theory taught that a sentence is generated on a very simple model consisting of three elements: S+V+O, e.g. she wrote a letter. She waiter for him.
This model is quite familiar to the English teachers who begin their first lessons explaining that in the English sentence subject stands first, then it is followed by a verb (predicate) and then by an object.
The Linear theory(model) is rather trial as it has no power to generate different sentence structures but the simplest.
It cannot even do this properly as it does not indicate the groupings of the sentence. If a sentence is complex, the linear theory will fail to construct it although the sentence has but three elements: S-V-0 and their groups of the constituents.
Besides, passive constructions, exclamatory sentences, negative or interrogative, will all need other models.
The Immediate constituent grammar (IC grammar).
The IC grammar (phrase grammar) says that each linguistic forms is to be divided into two immediate constituents. The IC model is stronger than linear model because it shows rigid rules for the generating of the phrases and the order of sentence generating, including each phrase.
The set rules showing how a sentence is generated are called "rewrite rules". Each rule is numbered and the sign of the arrow means "rewrite": "The man hit the ball".

1. 
   sentence NP+VP
   
2. 
   NP T+N(T is a determiner)
   
3. 
   VP V+NP
   
4. 
   T the
   
5. 
   N man,ball,etc.
   
6. 
   verb hit,took,etc.
   

Given this set consisting of six rules, one can generate an English sentence or a number of sentences changing only "the N"and "the transitive V", in accord with the Situation he speaks about.
Ther is another representation of generation of a sentence on the basis of the IC grammar. This is the "derivation three" diagram:

T he derivation three diagram gives less information of how a sentence must be generated than the rewrite rules, because it does show explicitly the order of the generation.
The 1Сmodel is more powerful than the linear model. Because the 1Сmodel indicates the grouping of the 1Сand it shows the order in which the generating of a sentence must proceed.
The transformational grammar.
The Transformational grammar a new linguistic theory, appeared in the 50^й1of this Century.the first profounders of the T-grammar were Zelling S.Harris and Noam Chomsky. Both these grammarians belonged to the Descriptive linguistic trend. T-grammar has two fundamental problems:

1. 
   the establishment of the domain of the kernel sentences.
   
2. 
   the establishment of the set of transformation rules for deriving all the other sentences as their transforms.
   

A kernel sentence structure gives out a number, and an even much larger number of derived transforms.

S NP
The work of the machine The machine's work The machine work The working machine For the machine to work The machine's working The machine working
S S
The machine work does the machine work? what works?
the machine does not work the machine did not work
the machine works the machine works

Recmmended Literature

1. 
   Иванова И.П., Бурлакова В.В.,Поченцов Г.Г. Теоретическая грамматика современного английского языка. М., 1981
   
2. 
   Теоретическая грамматика английского языка. Ленинград, 1983 3.11yish В.А. The structure of modern English. Leningrad., 1971
   
   4. 
      Blokh M.Y. A course in Theoretical English grammar. M., 1983
      
   5. 
      RadevskaN. Modern English grammar. Part I. Kiev, 1967 ö.Khaimovich B.S., Logovskaya B.I. A course of English grammar. M.,1967 7.Jespersen Otto. The philosophy of grammar. London, 1954
      

8.1ntenyeva N.F., Shapkin A.P., Blokh M.Y. The structure of English sentence. M., 1989.

Lecture 2