1.

Grammatical Categories of the verb

The verb is part of the speech denoting action, process or state. The meaning of the verb is
combination between its semantic and grammatical structure. Compared to the other parts of the
speech the verb has the largest number of grammatical categories: person, number, tense, aspect,
voice, mood and modality.
Person and number:
There is only s for third person singular in present simple tense. All others have zero morphemes.
Ex.: I, You, We, They play

He, She, It plays

Tense:
This is grammatical term with which we denote time. Tense and time are different. Tense bears the
morphological and grammatical concept and time- real time, astrological.
Past tense

Future tense

----------------------------------------------------Now (real time)

ATP
Every tense may have different time reference. There are two tenses- present and past. We dont
speak about future tense but only about the way of expressing futurity.
present Simple- work (works- 3rd sg)
past Simple- worked
Continuous- is/are working
Continuous- was/were working
Perfect- have/has worked
Perfect- had worked
Perfect continuous- have/has been working
Perfect continuous- had been working
Futurity Simple- will work
Continuous- will be working
Perfect- will have worked
Perfect continuous- will have been working

The clear tenses are present simple and past simple. All other tenses have aspects.
Aspect:
It refers to the manner in which the verb action is regarded or experienced. The choice of aspect is
matter of a particular view of the doer. There are two aspects- perfective and imperfective. They are
opposed to verbs that are not marked for aspect. Present simple and past simple are not marked for
aspect.
Ex.: At the beginning I was really surprised to see her and I dropped my glasses.
The choice of aspect depends on the semantics of the verb and basically verbs are divided into
stative and dynamic verbs.
Stative verbs: that present or mean existence- go, become, get, come
related to mental process- know, remember, think
emotional states- love, like, hate
( have, be- they can be used as stative or dynamic)
The basic difference is that stative verbs do not present process and cannot take progressive aspect
while dynamic verbs can take both. Verbs which present a process of development have progressive
aspect and have continuous tenses.
Ex.: John loves Mary.
She is playing basketball at the moment.
There are exclusions of this rule. There is possibility for stative verbs to be used in continuous
tenses but in such case they bear different meaning.

Voice:
Voice is grammatical category of the verb which makes it possible to view the action in a sentence
in two different ways (regarding the participant in the situation) without changing the reported facts.
English has two voices- active and passive.
Ex.: He wrote a letter. (active)
A letter was written (by him). (passive)
Passive voice expresses the point of view of the speaker (to rearrange the information in the
sentence). When we are talking about passive voice we should distinguish transitive and intransitive
verbs. Intransitive verbs do not need an object and they dont have passive aspect.
Ex.: He jumped.
Transitive verbs need object and they form passive.
Ex.:
John built
these houses. (active)
subj.

predicate

These houses
subj.

direct object

were built by John. (passive)

predicate

prep. Object

Bitransitive verbs have two objects and they can form two sentences in passive.
Ex: John gave Mary a kiss.
Mary was given a kiss (by John).
A kiss was given to Mary (by John).
What is important for active and passive verb sentences is that in passive we are changing only the
surface structure but the deep structure remains the same, we change the syntactic roles but there is
no change in the semantic roles.
agent

theme

John wrote a letter.

subj. pred.

d. object

theme

agent

A letter was written by John.

subj.

pred.

prep. object

In these sentences we have one and the same prop. content. With the sentences in passive voice we
show our interest towards the result and that is why we often omit the by-phrase. We use the passive
voice in order to sound impersonal.
There are three characteristics in passive voice:
1. noun-phrase movement ( subject ->object and object->subject)
2. verb movement (active->passive)
3. topicalization (new information->old information)
Middle verbs- they appear to be transitive as the basic structure is the same but they cannot form
passive.
Ex: This suit suits you well.
Pseudo passive- clauses that look like passive but they are not.
Ex: The door was opened.
The door was open.
Ergative constructions: active form but passive meaning
Ex: The cheese cuts easily.
Get passive: in spoken language when something is not all right, it shows irritation.
Ex: They were awarded a Nobel prize./They got awarded a Nobel prize.
Mood:
It shows the attitude of the speaker/writer to the action or state described by the verb. It is the way
in which verb forms are used to show whether the clause is a statement, a command, a request or
if clause. There are four types of mood:
- indicative
- imperative
- subjunctive

- conditional
Indicative mood represent the verbal situation reported by the speaker as part of reality. They are
used to make a statement or a question.
Ex: John often visits the pool.
Has Marry given you the book?
Imperative mood forms represent the verbal situation as imposed by the speaker upon the
extralinguistic reality. These forms may express command or request.
Ex: Close the door, please!
Get out of my sight!
Imperative mood has only one form for 2nd person, plural. The subject is covered.
Ex: Open the door!
(You) Open the door!
The subjunctive is not an important category in contemporary English and it is normally replaced
by other constructions. Subj. mood is optional and stylistically marked by other constructions.
Ex: God bless you!
Long live the king! - clich words
Conditional mood- present conditional (for present and future) and perfect conditional (for past).
Conditional sentences: 0-zero, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, mix1, mix2:
- 0-zero- If I have time I walk in the park. (it is true all the time)
- 1st- When/If I have money, I will buy a car. (real condition for future moment)
- 2nd- If I had money, I would buy a car. (unreal condition for the present)
- 3rd- If I had had money, I would have bought a car. (unreal condition for the past)
- Mix1- If she had married the French, she would be happy now.
- Mix2- If I didnt have classes today, I would have met my friend.
Modality:
It shows the attitude of the speaker towards the hearer, the situation or the content of the utterance
(mind of attitude- possibility, probability, obligation, necessity, permission). There are two types of
modality- deontic (action modality) and epistemic (belief modality).
Ex: I can swim. (action m.)- physical ability
He may be a teacher. (belief m.)- possibility
The two types of modality are connected with tense system. Only the verb from deontic modality
exists in present and past tenses. Epistemic modality exists in present tense; it is embodied in the
features of intention, possibility, probability or necessity. Deontic modality deals with features of
permission, obligation and requirement. The same modal can have both epistemic and deonic
interpretation.
Ex: I can swim.
I could swim.
He can come.
He was able to come.
Modal verbs are:
- core modal- must, can/could, may/might, will/would, dare, need
- periphrastic- must -> have to
can -> be able to
may -> be allowed to
All modal verbs can be used to express degrees of certainty or probability.
Ex: Certainty will
mast
Possibility could
may
be at home.
might
Certainty would
cant
wont
Obligation and advice:
Must- strong obligation, the opinion of the speaker
Have to- general obligation, rules

Mustnt- negative obligation

Dont have to- absence of obligation
Should, ought- mild obligation, advice
Permission- may, can, could, be able
Ability- can, could
Request- can, could, will, would
Refusal, willingness- will, wont
2.
Grammatical Categories of the Noun
The noun is part of speech which denotes things, objects and phenomena, concepts and abstracts. In
English we can distinguish the nouns as:
1. Proper nouns- they have one referent and are the nouns of unique entities.
2. Common nouns- they have a group of referents:
- countable- they are common nouns that can take a plural and can combine with numerals or
quantifiers (one, two, several) and can take an indefinite article (a, an). They may be divided
into:
individual- a book -> books
collective- a family -> families (The family is there./The family are there.);
a class->classes
- uncountable- they can take plural or combine with number words or quantifiers; they are:
concrete- wool, milk, water (refers to definite objects)
abstract- beauty, work, history (refers to ideas and concepts)
Countable and uncountable- according to the meaning of the sentence;
Shift: (ex.) a cup of coffee
two coffees
There are words with dual characteristics:
Ex: A glass is made of glass./Glasses are made of glass.
Number:
As a grammatical category number reflects the extralinguistic fact of numerical quantity. In English
it is based on the functional opposition between two types of forms- singular and plural, which
express two variants (respectively one and more than one) of the invariant meaning (numeral
quantity). There are different means of plural formation. The basic pattern of plurality of English
noun is affixation (horse-> horses).
Ex: maps [s]; ribs [z]; classes [is]
The morpheme -en is synonymous with it. (ox-> oxen)
Plural is formed also through umlaut, i.e. change of the root vowel (zero ending plus umlaut).
Ex: foot feet; goose geese; man men
There is a mixed type of plural formation- umlaut plus affixation (ex: child children). Voicing of
the final consonant is the other way of plural (ex: wolf wolves; wife wives, but roof roofs;
chief chiefs).
By zero morphemes- the same form is for the plural and for the singular (sheep sheep; deer
deer)
Ex: There is a sheep on the field.
There are sheep on the field.
Suppletion is also a mean of forming the plural and it means a total change of the root as in man
people.
Fruit, fish have s when they mean different kinds.
Ex. I like fruit.
Apples and pears are different fruits.
Pluralia tantum (jeans, trousers, spectacles).
Ex: the trousers are on the shelf.
Singularia tantum money, information, education, furniture, accommodation.

Collective nouns- family, team, class (singular and plural).

Ex: Their family is very rich. (as one whole)
Their family are very rich. (different members of the family)
People, cattle, police are singular but the verb is in plural.
Sciences are always in plural but the verb is in singular.
Ex: Phonetics is a branch of linguistics.
What is the news?
The words from Latin and Greek origin form plural in different ways:
Latin
Greek
sg.
pl.
sg.
pl.
formula
formulae, formulas
crisis
crises
datum
data
basis
bases
erratum
errata
thesis
theses
radius
radii
phenomenon phenomena
Compound nouns
Ex: classrooms, fathers-in-law
The main word in compound nouns takes s.
Gender is the grammatical term of the extralinguistic fact of sex or no-sex and how it is reflected in
the language. The linguistic exponent of sex has the meaning of masculine, feminine and neuter.
Masculine reflects male, feminine- female and neuter- no sex. The English noun has no marks
for gender and that is why it is not possible to guess the gender of a noun by its form. Gender is a
semantic category. In English it is natural marked. It is not grammatical category.
- Most of the nouns are not marked for gender (teacher, desk, window)
- Lexically marked words (suppletion)- people, animals
wife husband
son daughter
boy girl
man woman
- A small group of animals has morphological suffixes definition for marking gender.
tiger tigress
lion lioness
but hero - heroine
actor actress
Usually when we want to mark gender we add other words- he, she, girl, boy, woman, lady, maid,
male:
a boy friend
a girl friend
a doctor
a lady (woman) doctor
a male elephant
a female elephant
a he cat
a she cat
a Billy goat
a Nanny goat
In some cases there are different words semantically marked for gender: father, mother, husband,
wife, bull, cow, fox, calf, filly.
Child and baby- feminine, masculine and neuter.
Some inanimate nouns in poetry are:
Sun- he; moon- she; death- he; ship/boat/steamer- she
Ex: After the rain the sun came out with all his glory.
The names of the countries have dual:
- as geographical place- neuter
- as political notion- she
Ex: Bulgaria is a small country. It is situated on the Balkans.
Bulgaria sent her representatives to the conference.
Things that are worshipped by people- she.
Ex: My boat is called Cristina. She is an excellent boat.
Case:

Case is a grammatical category which marks the functions of nouns in sentences and in noun
phrases. The case which relates a noun to another noun and denotes possessing, belonging or origin
is called genitive. It is signaled by an apostrophe () plus s or only the apostrophe alone.
The (s) sign is selected by singular nouns and irregular plurals not ending in s.
Ex: Kates book.
Johns sister.
If the word ends in s and it is in plural, we add only apostrophe (students books).
If we have a proper noun which ends in s or ch/sh, we add apostrophe and s (St. Jamess [iz]
Park , Fishs [iz] house).
To more uncommon and ancient names which end in s we add only apostrophe (Archimedes law,
Keats poems).
When the noun is compound we add (s) [z] at the end (my mother-in-laws house).
There are different ways of expressing genitive:
1. synthetical: N1s N2 Marys book
2. analytical: N2 of N1 book of Mary
3. double: (the) N2 of N1s a friend of Johns (meaning )
Types of Genitive Case:
1. Possessive: My sons wife. (my son has a wife)
2. Subjective: The boys application arrived. (the boy applies for smth.)
3. Objective: The boys release from the prison. (the boy was released by sb.)
4. Descriptive: a womens college (a college for women)
5. Locative (place): go to the grocers/chemists
6. Time: in two weeks time= in two week time
7. Double: a friend of mine
8. Group: my mother and my fathers house
9. Partitive: a cats tail (part of a whole)
10. Genitive of origin: a generals letter (he is a receiver or a sender)

3.
Word Order in Modern English
Traditionally the word has been defined as a unit covering a single meaning or expressing a single
thought. Single meaning however can be conveyed not only by single words but also by word
sequences. For example phrasal verbs and idioms:
Mary winds him around her little finger.
Each word can cover two or more bits of meaning. Words are certainly the largest units which
resist rearrangement, interruption and insertion of additional material between their constituent
parts.
Words have different combinatory power. From syntactic point of view they fall into:
- open clauses- lexical items that are the head of phrases- N, V, A, Adv.
- closed clauses- prepositions (P), comp., conj., etc.
- unique function clauses- interjunctions
All words have fixed position in the sentences and they have different combinatory power. Word
order plays an important role in English. The analytic character of the language has contributed for
some fixed syntactic patterns some of which have not only grammatical but also emotional
meaning. The position of any element is of primary importance because of the lack of many
morphological marks. The usual word order in English is S-V-O which is the skeleton of the simple
sentence. In such structure the most important rule is that the subject should stand in front of the
verb.
Ex: Peter beats John.
S
V
O

Each element determines in a way the next one and this is called linear structure. Sentences are
produced and received in linear sequence. The sequence of the elements carries the meaning of the
sentence. The directionality is from left to right. This reflects the basic word order which is S-V-O.
Ex: John killed Bill.
Bill killed John. (the rearrangement causes ill-formedness)
English is a subject constrained language. The subject is always an obligatory overt constituent. It
doesnt leave its position. If omitted the sentence turns to be ungrammatical. As the basic word
order is SVO the subject is always in the initial position which means it functions as topic. Every
sentence possesses:
- syntactic form: word classes- head, lexical categories, phrasal categories
Ex: John ordered a cup of tea.
S
NP
VP
John
V
NP
ordered
a cup of tea
- syntactic function: subject, predicate, operator
S
Subj.
Predicate
John
Predication
Verb
Object.
ordered
a cup of tea
John will bring a cup of tea.
S
NP
VP
John
Oper. V
VP
will
bring a cup of tea
Distribution is the set of possible appearance for an element. The two basic procedures used in
syntactic test are substitution and combination. Basic test operation is substitution. If an element can
be substituted by another one in the sentence structure then both elements belong to one and the
same word class. If an element can be combined with another one then each of them belongs to a
different word class as they take different syntactic position, which reflects the syntagmatic relation
between the elements in the syntactic structure (I saw Jim./I saw him.).
Every sentence presents a multilevel structure in which each individual element at the lowest level
belongs to either on its own or together adjacent element at the next higher level and further to the
highest level, which in syntax is the category sentence. The elements are referred to as constituents.
Constituent is a linguistic unit which is an element of a larger construction.
Ex: The police expelled [the teachers [from Sofia]].
According to their formal feature sentences are:
1. Minor- not S-P structure, allow substitution of elements, cannot be transformed into passive
(Happy Christmas!, Down with John!)
2. Major- fully developed S-P structure, substituted by other elements turn into passive, can
expand by addition of other elements. Major sentences fall into four sub types according to
their function:
Declaratives SVO
In the declarative word order the subject of the sentence appears first followed by the predicate.
Ex: I saw your dog in the park.
Sometimes some elements of the complete predicate may be placed at the beginning of the sentence
in front of the subject. Fronting shifts emphasis from the subject to the fronted element.
Ex: At the beach I always feel content.
The sentence begins with the adverbial at the beach. Though the phrase precedes the subject I it
is still part of the complete predicate. The adverbial at the beach modifies the verb to feel.
Diagrams of declarative sentences are very straight forward.
Ex: Those four small dogs dug the holes.

S
V
O
dogs
dug
holes
those four small
Interrogative Operator SVO
There is no inversion. They ask questions. They are divided into three types: general questions (yesno questions), special questions (wh-) and tag questions.
Ex: He is crazy. (declarative)
Is he crazy? (general)
What is he? (special)
He is crazy, isnt he? (tag question)
The difference between declaratives and interrogatives is in the surface structure and it is a result of
a movement called operator fronting. The operator is the only element of the compl. predicate
which can move, the subject never leaves its position.
He is playing football./?
V0
V1 V2 V3 V4
operator aux. aux. aux. verb
General questions- Yes-No questions
The formation is a one-step-operation- operator fronting. The operator leaves its position and goes
in compl. slot, leaving a trace in the deep structure.
S
Q
Comp.

S
NP

VP
Op.
NP
is reading a book.

He
Special questions (Wh- questions)
They begin with an interrogative word. There are several steps in forming:
- replacement of part of the preposition in declarative sentence with wh-word (substitution)
- movement of wh-word
- movement of the operator
There are two traces in the deep structure because there are two movements.
S
Q
Comp.
S
NP
VP
Op.
NP
He
is reading a book.
what?
What
is he reading?
Inverted questions (reported)
Ex: She asked if she is reading a book.
If is in compl. slot and that is why there is no operator fronting. When the compl. slot is
occupied by complementizer the fronting cannot take place.
Negative questions
The contracted nt becomes part of the operator and then it is fronted.
Ex: Isnt a famous actor?
Tag questions
They are final position- operator fronting. They do not contain NP.
Ex: You speak English, dont you?
You dont speak English, do you?
Exclamatory sentences (How/what + NP)
Ex: What a lovely day it is!
They are frequently reduced to the single exclamatory element (no verb).
Ex: How wonderful!

Imperative sentences (VO)

The subject is not spoken or written but it doesnt mean that it is absent. It is indirect. As a
command or request the imperative sentence is always in second person. Therefore we are
allowed to assume the subject of the imperative sentence to be you.
Ex: [You] Shut the door!
All simple sentences are independent clauses. Ind. clauses can be transitive, intransitive,
ditransitive and copular depending on how many argument NPs or clauses the verb requires and
there are seven basic clauses in English:
- SV: He died.
- SVO: John loves Mary.
- SVOA: I put the book on the table.
- SVC: She is a beautiful girl.
- SVA: John is in the building.
- SVOC: They painted the house blue.
- SVOO: She gave me a kiss.
4.
The Temporal System of Modern English
First we must explain some terms as time, tense and aspect.
Tense is a grammatical term with which we denote time (reference). Tense and time are different:
tense-morphological, grammatical category; time: real time, astrological. Every tense may have
different time reference. All tenses are oriented to ATP, except two (present simple and present
perfect). There are two tenses- Present and Past.
Past
Future
Now
(ATP)- real time
We dont speak about future tense but only about the ways of expressing futurity.
present Simple- work (works- 3rd sg)
past Simple- worked
Continuous- is/are working
Continuous- was/were working
Perfect- have/has worked
Perfect- had worked
Perfect continuous- have/has been working
Perfect continuous- had been working
Futurity Simple- will work
Continuous- will be working
Perfect- will have worked
Perfect continuous- will have been working
The operator is marked for tense.
Aspect:

Aspect refers to the manner in which the verb action is regarded or experienced. The choice of
aspect is a matter of the particular view of the doer. There are two aspects in English: perfective and
imperfective. The choice of aspect depends on the semantics of the verb and basically verbs are
divided into stative and dynamic. Stative verbs do net present progress (do not take progressive
aspect- love, hate). Dynamic verbs can take both.
Present Simple:
It expresses an activity in general or a rule, regular or habitual. The only morpheme that makes
Present simple is s in 3rd person, singular.
x x x x I x x x x - no time reference; there is no question when
Now
Ex: I go to work by car. (habitual action)
The Earth belongs to the Solar System. (universal truth)
Do- operator. It is covered, it appears in negative forms and questions.
Ex: I dont go to work by car.

How do you go to work?

Usage: general present; timetables, calendars, schedules; truth; actions, characterized by the verb (I
do go to bed at 10 oclock.)
Ex: The train arrives at 5 oclock.
He arrives tomorrow. (future)
Present Continuous
It presents uncompleted activity that takes place now, but not only now, it includes past and future.
Past
Future
Now
Present continuous has imperfective aspect. It is formed with the present form of the auxiliary be
+ present participle + ing of the notional verb. The operator is be and it is overt.
Ex: They are working. (now) Are they working?
This month I am going to school by bus.
- We use present continuous to express futurity as the most real certain future tense.
Ex: I am having lunch with my parents. (now/tomorrow)
- Every action which is happening at the moment of speaking (He is watching TV now.)
- An action or a statement in a short time including the moment of speaking (What is your father
doing now?- He is working in a factory.)
- Future action with verbs which express a move (The train is leaving in half an hour.)
- An activity that is happening for a limited period at or near the present but it is not necessarily
happening at the moment (I ma reading a lot these days.)
Present Perfect:
It is formed with the present tense of the auxiliary have + past participle of the main verb.
-----------------------------
since
now
It expresses something happened in indefinite moment in the past, no time reference. It is the point
of view, the relation between the past and the future. We dont talk about results.
Ex: Ive lost my key.
There is no question when, we talk about life experience. The period is since (beginning) for. For
unfinished action (I have read twenty pages today.)
Ex: I worked for them for two years. (past simple)- finished
I have worked for them for two years. (present perfect)- unfinished
Present Perfect Continuous
It is formed with the present perfect of the auxiliary be and the present participle of the notional
verb + ing: have been + verb + ing.
for
-----------------------------
have- operator
since
now
It presents a result of past action or duration and activity in progress (since and for are typical fro
this tense).
- the result of finished action in the past which we see now.
Ex: I have been cleaning the house. (it is clean now)
- unfinished action- we mention its duration
Ex: I have been cleaning the house. (it isnt finished yet)
Past Simple
It expresses completed action in the past. It is the most unmarked tense in English. There is time
reference (when).
did operator
--------------------------------------
Now

Regular verbs: -ed = played

Irregular verbs: 2nd form = write- wrote
Past tense is not marked for aspect. It expresses:
- an action which happened at a specific time in the past that has nothing in common with the
present moment (I went to the cinema yesterday.)
- past events in a chronicle order (I got up and had breakfast.)
- habitual action in the past- would, used to + infinitive (When I was young I used to play
football.)
- in narrative sentences (Once there was a girl)
Used to can be used with all verbs and would only with dynamic verbs.
Past Progressive
It is formed by the past form of be + verb-ing (present participle). It expresses an action as a
background of another completed action in the past. It is in imperfective aspect. It can be used only
in combination with past progressive or past simple. It is used to express:
- while, when: She was cooking, while I was listening to music; I was reading a book when
the telephone rang. (interrupted action)
- to express an activity happening in a particular time in the past: Yesterday at 5 oclock I was
reading a book.
- for descriptions: The birds were singing, the sun was shining.
Past Perfect
It is formed by had + verb in past participle form. It expresses an action which happened before
another action in the past. There is no connection wit now.
------------------------------------------
1
2
Now
- by: She had finished her work by 10 oclock in the morning.
- when: When I reached the station, I realized that I had forgotten the documents.
- because (chronologically): I didnt have dinner, because I had eaten.
Past Perfect Continuous
It expresses an action in progress that takes place before another action in the past.
-------------------------------------------
RTP
Now
Imperfective aspect
Ex: By 10 oclock last night Ive been working for eight hours.
Futurity
There is no future tense, only means of expressing futurity.
?
will + verb ------------------------------ future simple
now
Future simple -------------------------- future continuous
now
-------------------------- future perfect
now
by-phase
All future expresses modality.
will- modal verb, the action will happen
- will- prediction
- decision at the moment/ in this situation, it is the opposite of going to(for intention)
Ex: The supermarket is open, I will go and buy something.

going to- intention: I am going to visit my grandparents.

going to- by life experience: Look! The child is going to fall.; It is going to rain.
He is going to buy a car next year.- carefully planned
going to- for an action in the near future we are certain about

Future Continuous
It is about an event which will take place at a definite moment in the future (imperative aspect)
will be + verb + ing
when?- there is limit in the time
Ex: At 5 oclock I will be watching the film on the TV.
This time next Sunday I will be playing tennis. (because I play tennis every
Sunday at definite time)
In this situation will is opposite to going to.
Future Perfect will have done
It is expressing a finished action by the definite time in the future.
Ex: We will have finished by 6 oclock.
Future Perfect Continuous will have been doing
It expresses an action which will continue by the deadline in the future.
Ex: By 6 oclock we will have been working for 8 hours.
Present Simple with future reference
- about regular action which continue to happen in the future
Ex: The school year starts on 15th of September.
- schedules
Ex: The train starts .
Present Continuous with future reference
- for arrangements
Ex: I am seeing the doctor on May 5th.
Modal ways of expressing futurity
- to be about to (for near future)
Ex: I am about to watch the football match.
- to be to (obligation)
Ex: I am to go to Sofia.

5.
The Category of Voice in Modern English
Voice is a grammatical category which makes it possible to view the action of a sentence in either of
the ways without allowing in the reported facts. These two ways are called active and passive voice.
They are characterized with different relations correspondences, constraints and classifications. The
active-passive relation involves two grammatical levels: the verbal phrase and the clause.
The voice is a way of organizing the information in the sentences:
Ex: He writes a letter. (active)
The letter is written by him. (passive)

Passive expresses the point of view of the speaker (to rearrange the information in the text,
sentence). When we are talking about passive voice we should distinguish between transitive and
intransitive verbs.
Intransitive verbs can function on their own, they do not need an object (He jumped). Transitive
verbs need an object (direct, indirect).
Ex: John
built
this house. (active voice)
subj. predicate direct object
This house was built
by John.
subj.
predicate
prepos. object
Ditransitive verbs have two objects and they form sentences in passive.
Ex: John gave Mary a kiss.
Mary was given a kiss. (by John)
A kiss was given to Mary. (by John)
In passive voice the object from the active sentence becomes subject in the passive sentence. We
form passive voice using the verb be + past participle of the notional verb in the active voice
sentence (in spoken language we can use get in stead of be). Passive has one function to put the
thing we are going to speak about. We use the preposition by to point the doer of the action. What
is important with the active and passive voice sentences is that in passive sentences there is a
change on the surface structure but nothing changes in the deep structure. We preserve one and the
same propositional content (core meaning).
Ex: doer
sufferer
sufferer
doer
John
built
these houses.
These houses were built by John.
subj.
predicate
direct obj.
subj.
predicate prep. obj.
Here we have a change in the syntactic roles but there is no change in the semantic roles (in the
deep structure). The prepositional object can be a subject in passive too.
Ex: They sent for the doctor.
The doctor was sent for.
With the passive voice sentences we are interested in the result and that is why very often we omit
the by-phrase. We use the passive voice in order to sound impersonal:
- when we dont know the doer of the action (Some people were injured during the strike.)
- when we are interested in the result, not the doer of the action (Many plants have built
recently.)
Characteristic features of passive voice:
- NP movement: active object passive subject
- verb movement: active passive
- topicalization: new information old information
Middle verbs: they appear to be transitive as the basic structure is the same but cannot form passive.
Ex: John resembles his mother.
This suit suits you well.
Ergative verbs (constructions)- active form but passive meaning. There is no passive syntax as they
do not allow the by-phrase to be attached.
Ex: Cheese cuts easily.
Pseudo passive: clauses that look like passive but they are not.
Ex: The door was opened./ The door was open. (the third form of the verb and the
adjective)
The door was shut. (ambiguous)
Get passive:
They were awarded a Nobel prize./ They got awarded a Nobel prize. (negative connotation)

Get passive is used in spoken English. Get is much more common as a resulting copular verb in
sentences like My mother is getting old. Also with get bored, get excited, get lost, etc. The
get-passive often reflects an unfavourable attitude towards the active.
Ex: How did that door get opened? (meaning that it should have been left shut)
6.
Types of Clauses and Sentences
According to their formal features sentences are divided into minor (which do not have a wellformed/developed subject-predicate structure) and major (which have fully-developed subjectpredicate structure). According to their basic function the major sentences fall into four subtypes:
declarative, interrogative, exclamatory and imperatives. According to the number of predicates we
distinguish two subdivisions: simple (one predication) and multiple (more than one predication).
The clause has only one predication. According to the type of relation between the multiple
sentences they are divided into complex and compound. All simple sentences are independent
clauses.
Generally there are two types of clauses- main (independent) and dependent clauses. The dependent
clauses fall into two groups: embedded (finite and non-finite) and subordinate. Main clauses can be
copular, intransitive, transitive and ditransitive depending on how many argument NP or clauses the
verb requires. The division of sentences to major and minor is based on their subject-predicate
structure. Minor sentences do not have a well-developed S-P structure, they are more or less like
utterances, like set-phrases, clichs. They do do not allow substitution of elements, nor any kind of
movement (Merry Christmas!, Happy New Year!). They cant be transformed into passive voice.
They are not object of syntactic description.
Major sentences have fully-developed S-P structure and allow substitution of elements as well as
insertion and extraction of elements and they can also be turned into passive voice.
According to their basic function they are:
Declarative sentences- SVO
It offers information, it expresses a statement which can be positive or negative.
Ex: I played tennis last night.
I didnt play tennis.
Interrogative sentences- Operator-S-V-O
They ask about missing information to be provided. They are divided into three types: general
questions (yes-no questions), special questions (wh-questions) and tag questions. The Tag questions
and general questions form one and the same group (the expected answer is yes or no).
Ex: He is an actor. (declarative)
Is he an actor? (general question)
What is he? (special question)
The difference between declaratives and interrogatives is in the surface structure and it is a result a
result of a movement called operator fronting. There is no inversion. The operator is the only
element of the complex predicate which can move, the subject never leaves its position.
General questions
They require the answer Yes or No. They have a rising intonation. Their formation is a one-step
operation- operator fronting.
Ex: John will call Mary tonight. Will John call Mary tonight?
The operator will get into complemetizer slot leaving a trace in the deep structure.
Special questions (Wh-)
They begin with an interrogative word. They have falling intonation. There are several steps in
forming them: replacing of part of the preposition in the declarative sentence with a whword (substitution), movement of the wh-word, movement of the operator.
Ex: John will call Billy tonight.
Who will John call tonight?
who
In wh-questions there are two movements so there are two traces in the deep structure.

There is also a type of questions that resemble the general and the special questions. They are called
alternative questions. They indicate choice, the expected answer is mentioned in the question
(Would you like vodka or beer?).
Tag questions
They consist of a statement and a question. If the statement is positive, the question part is negative
and if the statement is negative, the question part is positive.
Ex: You speak English, dont you?
You dont speak English, do you?
Two factors imply different interpretation of the tag questions- grammar and intonation.
Exclamatory questions
They are questions in their form but functionally are exclamations (ex: Isnt it wonderful?). The
form is negative but the meaning is positive.
Inverted questions (reported)
Ex: She asked if I was reading a book.
There is no operator-fronting because if is in the complementizer slot.
Exclamatory sentences (How, What + NP)
Ex: What a lovely day it is!
Exclamatory sentences are often reduced to a single exclamatory element (there is no verb).
Ex: How wonderful!
Imperative sentences (VO)
They are used to urge the hearer to action. They may be done in the form of a request or command.
The verbs are in imperative mood and the tone is falling. The usual type of command has no overt
subject (Stop talking!). There is a type of command in which th subject is overt (You, close the
door!- this usually expresses irritation).
According to the number of predications the sentences fall into simple and multiple (composite).
Simple sentences contain only one S-P unit and the composite sentences more than one.
Ex: He painted the house red. (one predicate)
You can tell what you want but we all know the truth. (3 S-P)
The multiple sentences are divided into compound and complex ones. The compound sentences are
based on the syntactic relation of coordination and the complex sentences are based on relation of
subordination.
A compound sentence consists of two or more clauses which have equal rights. There is a paratactic
relation between them, they are coordinated which means that these clauses can be used as
independent sentences. Morphologically the relation of parataxis is usually presented by and,
but, or. In a compound sentence the clauses may be connected syndetically or asyndetically.
Syndetically- the clauses are connected by means of coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but, else,
etc.), conjunctive adverbs (otherwise, however, yet, still, etc.) or fixed prepositional phrases. There
are also correlative pairs (either-or, neither-nor). Asyndetical coordination- the coordinators are
lacking entirely.
Ex: The weather was bad and the rain was falling.
The weather was bad, the rain was falling.
Complex sentences are based on the syntactic relation of subordination. The clauses in complex
sentences are not syntactically equal. One of the clauses has the primary meaning and the other is
dependent.
Ex: John likes Bill because he has remarkable qualities.
Clauses in a complex sentence may be linked syndetically- by means of subordinating conjunctions
or connectives.
Ex: After all, she knew that someone had visited the house.
Conjunction
All that had taken seemed useless.
Connective
Asyndetically- ex: I wish you had gone earlier.
There are two general types of clauses: main and dependent. Main clauses are also known as
container clauses or independent clauses because they can stand alone as sentence (John went to a

party). All simple sentences are independent clauses. Independent clauses can be transitive,
intransitive, ditransitive and copular depending on how many argument NPs or clauses the verb
requires and there are seven basic clauses patterns in English:
1. SV- He died.
2. SVO: John loves Mary.
3. SVOA: I put the book on the table.
4. SVC: She is a beautiful girl.
5. SVA: John is in the building.
6. SVOC: They painted the house blue.
7. SVOO: She gave me a kiss.
Depending clauses are clauses that cannot stand alone and need an introduction word called a
complementizer. In order to have a dependent clause the verbs should have at least two valences
(John told me). Dependent clauses fall into two groups: embedded and subordinate. Embedded
are divided into finite and non-finite clauses. Embedded clauses are arguments of the verb in the
container clause. They are either subjects or objects of the verb in the container (matrix) clause.
Finite clauses are introduced by the complementizer that, non-finite by for.
Ex: That Sharons car broke down was evident.
For Sharons car to break down was evident.
Finite clauses always contain either a model verb or a verb in present or past. They have overt
subject. The complementizer that may be omitted. Non-finite clauses have covert subjects. They
are introduced by the complementizer for the omission of which doesnt allow their functioning as
independent clauses. The second type of dependent clauses is subordinate. They do not depend on
the verb valency and thus are optional. They have complementizer slot filled by subordinators
which are always overt category. These subordinators can express different perspectives (such as
time, reason, location, manner, etc.). Therefore subordinate clauses are called adverbial clauses as
they usually add additional information to the verbal predicate in the matrix clause- they function as
modifier to the content of the verb in the matrix clause.
The semantic relation between the superordinate and subordinate clause is known as modal
perspective of the sentence.
Ex: I had breakfast so I am not hungry. I am not hungry because I had breakfast.

7.
The System of Pronouns in English
Pronouns constitute a closed system of items with nominal function, i.e. they function like noun
phrases. Pronouns may substitute some noun or phrase, they may refer to something which is given
or known within the linguistic general concept. Syntactically most pronouns function like noun
phrases rather than nouns and combine only in a limit way with determiners and modifiers.
In English the pronouns are classified as personal, reflexive, possessive, relative, interrogative,
demonstrative and indefinite. They have certain morphological characteristics. Some of them have
case contrast (for subjective or nominative case), personal distinction, overt gender contrast and
morphologically unrelated number forms.
From syntactic and logical point of view there are two basic groups of pronouns- pronominals and
anaphors.

Personal, possessive and reflexive pronouns may be called central pronouns since they share the
features that are particularly characteristic of pronoun, in particular they manifest person and gender
contrast. Most of them also have the distinction of case.
Personal pronouns usually have definite meaning and may have situational, anaphoric or cataphoric
reference, the first and the second person pronouns are used to refer to those directly involved in the
discourse situation: the speaker or writer and the addressee. The third person pronouns may also be
used situationally to refer to persons or things whose identity could be inferred from the
extralinguistic context.
Ex: Are they asleep.(nodding towards the childrens room)
But much more often the identity is supplied by the linguistic context- according to the position of
the element with which it confers, we may have cataphoric or anaphoric reference. If the use of the
pronoun is ambiguous or confusing, an antecedent or a lexical equivalent could be used.
The neuter or non personal it is used to refer to any antecedent for which he or she is
inappropriate, hence it may refer not only to inanimate objects but also to non-countable substances,
whole clauses or sentences.
Ex: Who said that John was stupid? I said it.
It is the most neutral and semantically unmarked form and it is used as empty or prop. subject
in expressions denoting time, distance or atmospheric condition (It is raining.). It also occurs as an
anticipatory subject in cleft sentences or in clauses with extraposition.
Ex: It must have been here that I first met you.
In modern English pronouns may be modified by a few determiners and modifiers:
- adjectives (silly me)
- opposition (we doctors are)
- relative clauses (we who promised to)
- adverbs (you there)
- prepositional phrases (we of modern age)
- emphatic reflexive pronouns (he himself said it)
Possessive pronouns may be two types- determinative- the have determinative function (my, your,
their) and independent- they have an independent function as a noun phrase (mine, yours, theirs).
The independent possessive pronouns may occur in any of the following function: subject, object,
complement, prepositional complement.
Ex: Look at those cars. Theirs is really ugly, ours is very beautiful.
Possessive pronouns cannot be accompanied by any modifiers or determiners.
Reflexive pronouns end in -self (sg.) and -selves (pl.) which are added to the determinative
possessive forms for the first and second person and to the objective form for the 3rd person. Refl.
pronouns always reflect another nominal element or clause which usually functions as subject and
with which they are co-referential. They have two uses: basic and emphatic. The basic refl. pronoun
has the functions of a noun phrase- an object, a complement or prepositional complement.
Ex: They helped themselves. (DO)
She allowed herself a rest. (IO)
He isnt himself today. (subj. complement)
The cage plays for herself. (subj. complement)
Sometimes the use of reflexive pronouns is obligatory.
- with refl. verbs (to provide onself, etc.)
- with semi-reflexive verbs (to have onself)
- after some prepositional phrases (ex: Do you have a photo of yourself?)
Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses. They function as post modifiers to an antecedent
which may have different functions in the sentence. According to the way they modify the
antecedent they may be restrictive and non-restrict. Relative pronouns include two series:
- wh-pronouns: who, whom, whose
- that and zero
Neither series has member of person contrast but the wh-series has gender contrast between
personal who and non-personal which and case contrast between subjective who, objective

whom and genitive whose. If the relative pronoun is a prepositional complement there are two
possibilities:
Ex: - the person to whom you spoke to
- the person who/that zero you spoke to.
The expanded forms of the relative pronoun (whoever, whomever, whatever) are known indefinite
relative pronouns.
Ex: The coach will select whoever he pleases.
Whoever crosses the line first will win the race.
What is often used as an indefinite relative pronoun (She will tell you what you need to know.)
There are five interrogative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, what. The first three are
subjective, objective and genitive case respectively they have personal gender. The other two
interrogatives do not distinguish case or gender. The interrogatives which and what can be
personal or non-personal. When it refers to a person what is limited to questions about profession,
role, status, etc.
Ex: What is he? A movie star.
Besides introducing question (What is that?; Who will help me?; Which do you prefer?)
interrogative pronouns also set as determiners (It doesnt matter which knife you buy.)
The demonstrative pronouns are this and that with their respective plural forms these, those.
They have number contrast and contrast between near and distant reference. They have definite
meaning their reference depends on the context shared by the speaker or writer and the listener or
reader. They can be met either as pronouns or as determiners. As pronouns they identify or point to
nouns:
Ex: That is incredible. (referring to smth. We just saw)
I will never forget this. (referring to a recent experience)
As determiners the demonstratives adjectively modify a noun (This book [in my hands] is well
written.)
Indefinite pronouns are characterized as a whole by having functions directly involved in
expressing quantity. Indefinite pronouns can combine with elements of definite meaning such as the
definite article (the other). According to their morphology they can be divided into compound
indefinites and of-pronouns. Compound indef. pronouns are compoused of two morphemes: a
determiner morpheme (every-, some-, no-, any-) and a nominal morpheme
(-one, -body, -thing). Of-pronouns are called so because they can be followed by a partitive ofphrase (some of).
Pronouns are specialized nouns. They are used to point back (or occasionally forward) in a
discourse to another noun phrase. There are nominative and objective pronouns and independent
possessive pronouns which can stand alone as noun phrase. There are also internal possessive
pronouns which occur inside other noun phrase in the slot of the determiner. All these are generally
referred to as pronominals.
Anaphors like pronominals indicate reference. The traditional reflexive pronouns are anaphors.
Anaphors and pronominals are called referents and the full phrases to which they refer- antecedents.
The pronominal and its antecedent cannot appear in the same local domain (ex: the smallest clause
or noun phrase) while the anaphor and its antecedent may appear in one and the same domain.
Ex: John saw him
in the mirror. (non-referential)
antecedent pronominal
John saw himself in the mirror. (co-referential)
anaphor
8.
Semantic Fields and Relations
Words may be classified according to the concept underlying their meaning. This classification is
closely connected with the theory of conceptual or semantic fields.

Semantic field may be defined as a set of lexical items in which the meaning of each word is
determined by the co-presence of the others (for example the words blue, red, black, etc. may be
described as making up the semantic field of colors). The members of a semantic field are not
synonymous but all of them are joined together by (some) common semantic component. This
component is described as the common determiner o meaning. All members of the field are
semantically interdependent as each member helps to delimit and determine the meaning of its
nighbours and is semantically delimited and determined by them.
We cannot possibly know the exact meaning of the word if we dont know the structure of the
semantic field the word belongs to (ex: captain- army or navy). The meaning of the word captain is
determined by the place it occupies among the terms of the relevant rank system- first officer,
lieutenant, etc.
Different meaning of a polysemantic word may belong to different semantic fields- make. Each
word is a group of semes (seme- the abstract component of meaning).
Ex: boy
girl
+ animated
+ animated
integral seme
+ human
+ human
integral seme
+male
- male
deferential seme
Deferential semes make the word unique. Semantic field is consisted of words united by one
integral seme.
Ex: kinship- father, mother, sister, brother, etc.
color terms- blue, red, etc.
Semantic relations
There are two hierarchies:
1. Branching hierarchy:
- taxonomy- the relation of dominance
- meronymy- the relation of a part to a whole
Non-branching hierarchies- chains, helices, cycles. A hierarchy is s et of elements related to one
another in a characteristic way.
Taxonomy is the relation of dominance. A test for taxonomy is:
An X is a kind of Z. (A father is a kind of parent.)
An Y is a kind of Z. (A mother is a kind of parent.)
X, Y are a kind of Z.
Te taxonyms of a lexical item are subset of its typonyms.
Taxonomic hierarchy:
Feature
Animal
Bird
Fish
Insect
Bear
Elephant
Robin Eagle
Cod
Trout
Fly Ant
Polar bear Panda
The second major type of branching hierarchy is the part-whole type which is called meronymy.
Ex:
Hand
Forearm
Arm Elbow
Wrist
Hand
Palm
Fingers
An elbow is a part of the hand.
2. Non-branching hierarchies- in which parts are strung out in linear sequence on either a spatial or
a temporal axis. There are two principal modes of organization of such sequences: they may exhibit
pure linear ordering- in which case they will be termed chains, or they may have a hybrid
linear/cyclical ordering which we shall call helical.
Ex: birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age, death- chain
Red
Green
White
cycle
Blue
Orange
This set does not constitute a hierarchy. There is no top and no bottom.
The combination of linearity and cyclicity may be taken as the defining characteristics of a helix.
The links of a helical chain typically refer to:

a period of time:
Spring
Winter
days of the week
months of the year.

Summer
Autumn

9.
Word Formation Patterns in English
Word formation is a way of forming new words by using the linguistic building material that is at
hand in a given language. Word formation is studied by lexicology. It treats only composites which
are analyzable both formally and semantically which excludes the simple word.
Derivation/Affixation
Affixation has always been one of the most productive mean of WF in English. From a purely
theoretical point of view there exist three types of affixes depending mainly on the place of addition
but also on their function: prefixes- morphemes added before the root, infixes- inside the root and
suffixes- after the root. Infixes were never productive in English so we will not deal with them now.
Some of the affixes are of native, others of foreign origin (mainly Latin through French).
Prefixation- affixes added to the beginning of a word are called prefixes. Only one prefix is
possible. The function of prefixes in English is purely semantical. They are used to give some
nuance to the meaning of the word and could be attached to various parts of speech (verbs,
adjectives- dislike, unpleasant).
Ex: some of the prefixes in Modern English are fore-, out-, over-, un-, up-, under-, miss(overestimate, unknown, upright, etc.)
Of Latin origin but very productive in Modern English: para-, intra-, inter-, extra-, semi-,
hyper-, neo-, ex-, macro-, micro, poly-, super-, etc.
Sometimes the prefix is left to be one and the same for several words but the spelling and the
pronunciation are different. This is the case with some pref. denoting negation in ME (ex: illegal,
impossible, indirect- practically this is the same prefix but the changes are due to the initial
consonant of the root).
Suffixation- affixes added to the end of a word are called suffixes (useful, happiness) - nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs. Suffixes differ from prefixes in that they have double role to perform: they add
something in the meaning of the word and at the same time they have a grammatical function. That
is why different grammatical categories have different suffixes. The suffixes performing purely
grammatical functions are called endings (functional morphemes, not derivations) and they are dealt
with by morphology (-ed, -ing, -s)
- Nominal suffixes
a) adjective + suffix: -ness, -dom, -th, -ship (happiness, freedom)
b) noun + suffix: -ship, -hood, -ism, -ate (friendship, childhood)
c) verb + suffix: -ing, -er, -age, -ance, -ence (listener, resistance)
- Verbal suffixes: -ate, -fy, -ise, -ize
- Adjectival suffixes: V+suf. ent, -ed, -y, -able
N+suf. ons, -ful, -less, -ish, -ly, -some
Adj.+suf. y, -ful, -ish, -some
- Adverbial: -ly, -ward(s)
Prefixation- suffixation:
Ex: endangered, enlarged
Zero affixation- conversion- with or without change of stress: import (v), import (n)
Infixation- an infix incorporated inside another word (not normaly to be found in English but fairly
common in some other languages: emotionally- hallebloodylujah)
Non-affixational

Vowel gradation- it used to be very productive in Old English and it is still very productive in many
Indo-European languages but not in English any more. There are traces of vowel gradation in the
so-called irregular verbs in ME (ride rode ridden).
Contraction (clipping) is shortening of a word by omitted element. This is an expression of the
tendency for linguistic economy. The result of contraction is a shorter form which may preserve
fully or partly the meaning of the original one or may acquire a new meaning (ex: adadvertisement, fan- fantastic, phone- telephone). There are three types of contraction according to
the place of the omitted element:
- x _ _ - aphaeresis- when the first sound or syllable is dropped out at the beginning of a word
(telephone- phone; arabella- bella)
- _ x _ - syncope- when a sound or a syllable is dropped out in the middle of a word (fantasyfancy)
- _ _ x- apocope- when a final sound or syllable is dropped out (math, lab, zoo, ad, Fred)
Blending- combining by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other
word.
Ex: smoke
channel
breakfast
motor
fog
tunnel
lunch
hotel
smog
channel
brunch
motel
Backformation- a word from one type is reduced to form another word of a different type.
Ex: television- televise
burglar- burgle
editor- edit
Conversion- a change in the function of a word, for example, when a noun comes to be used as a
verb (without any reduction)- work, bottle, butter (Have you buttered the toast?). The conversion
can involve verbs becoming nouns (guess, must, spy- a guess, a must, a spy). Adjectives (dirty,
empty, total, crazy) can become verbs (to dirty, to empty, to total).
Acronyms- new words formed from initial letters of a set of other words (NATO, NASA,
UNESCO)
Coinage- one of the least common processes of word formation in English. It is the invention of
totally new terms. Aspirin, nylon, Xerox began as invented trade names and have quickly become
every day word in the language.
Borrowing- one of the most common sources of new words in English. That is the taking over of
words from other languages. Throughout its history the English language has adopted a vast number
of loan-words from other languages including alcohol (Arabic), boss (Dutch), croissant (French),
lilae (Persian), piano (Italian), etc.
Compounding- a joining of two separate words to produce a single form. This process is very
common in German and English (bookcase, fingerprint, sunburn, wallpaper, textbook, waterbed).

10.
Types of Meaning
From the point of view of the structure of language, there are two basic types of meaning:
grammatical and lexical. The grammatical meaning occurs repeatingly unidentical sets of individual
form of different words. These sets are all the plurality marks, -ed forms, possessives, past forms,
etc (bag-bags, child-children, forgotten, done). On the other hand the lexical meaning is the
meaning which is proper to a linguistic unit in all its forms and distribution. It is repeated in all of
the word forms, ex: do-does, doing, done, did- different grammatical meaning but the lexical
meaning is the same. Both these meanings belong to two different levels of the structure of the
language but none of them can function independently in the process of communication.
There are words that have only grammatical meaning. They form the so called closed grammatical
classes- conjunctions, articles, prepositions, pronouns and auxiliary verbs. The open grammatical
classes are called notional words and they have lexical meaning (nouns, verbs, adj., adverbs).

According to Geoffrey Leech there seven (1 + 5 +1) types of meaning: conceptual meaning
(denotative, referential), connotative, stylistic, affective, reflective, collocative and thematic. Five of
them (connotative, stylistic, affective, reflective and collocative) constitute the so called general
category of associative meaning.
Conceptual meaning- it is about the neutral lexis, sometimes called cognitive or denotativeassumed to be the central factor in linguistic communications. It can be interpreted as a bundle of
distinctive features. It is based on two structural principles:
- the principle of contrastiveness:
Ex: boy +human, -adult, -female
Girl +human, -adult, +female
- the second principle is mainly concerned in syntax; it is called constituent structure- larger
syntactic units are built of small ones:
Ex:

sentence
subj.

predicate
determiner
noun
verb
complement
The
boy
is
tall.
The colourless green
ideas
sleep
furiously.
The second example presents a sentence that is acceptable form grammatical point of view but it is
unacceptable from semantic point of view (meaningless).
Connotative meaning presents the relation between the linguistic sign and its user. It includes the
semantic features of the referent and also the socio-cultural specific of the users of different
languages and the particular period of time. It varies according to culture, historical periods and the
experience of the individual (ex: marksist- Bulgarian before and after 1989).
Stylistic meaning refers to the situation in which the communicative act takes place. The stylistic
variations depend on the dialect (time from a historical point of view, participation- field
communication) social status, individuality. The most general distinction is between spoken and
written language )domicile- very formal, residence- formal, home- general, abode- poetic).
Affective meaning reflects the speakers attitude and feelings. It has something in common with
politeness and rudeness.
Ex: I am terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to open the
window, please!
Open the window right now!
Reflective meaning deals with words which have more than one conceptual meanings and one of
the meanings influence ones understanding of another meaning. It is usually met with polysemantic
words that have taboo meanings.
Ex: gay- 1. joyful, 2. homosexual
cock- rooster
Collocative meaning regards the association which a word requires depending on the other words
that appear in its immediate environment.
Ex: pretty- girl, woman, flower
handsome- boy, man, car
Thematic meaning deals with the focus and emphasis of the message. It is mainly a matter of choice
between alternative grammatical constructions. One and the same propositional content can be
given different prominence by different lexico-grammatical and international means.
Ex: His father owns this car.
It is this car that is owned by his father.
This car belongs to his father.
This is his fathers car.
11.
Polysemy and Homonymy
Polysemy

The bulk of English words are polysemantic, that is to say possess more than one meaning
(polysemy). Polysemy has language economy effect. The various additional meaning of one and the
same word are also called connotations (head- part of the body, chief, the highest part). Those
connotations have different abilities to combine with other words semantically but not
grammatically. The grammatical forms of the various meanings are the same. The context gives the
clue to which connotation of a given word functions at the moment. Some words preserve all their
old meaning and may meanwhile acquire new ones, while others may lose some of the older
meanings (connotations).
Diachronic approach- polysemy implies that a word may retain its previous meaning or meanings
and at the same time acquire one or several new ones.
Ex: table- the primary meaning is a flat slot of stone or wood (in OE tabule from Latine
tabula); all other meanings are secondary as they are derived from the primary meaning and
appeared later.
Synchronic approach- polysemy as the co-existence of various meanings of the same word at a
certain historical period of the development of the English language. Some of the meanings are
more central, others- peripherical. A criterion of the comparative value of individual meaning seems
to be the frequency of their occurrence in speech.
However as the semantic structure is never static, the relationship between the diachronic and
synchronic evaluation of individual meaning may be different in different period of the historical
development of the language.
Sources of Polysemy
1. Shift of application. This is the main source of polysemy (green- color, unripe, young,
tender; wear- one wears a dress and from a long use it wears out).
2. Specialization- technical terms (parts of the body- hand, finger, foot). The opposite tendency
may also be observed in everyday speech (to gear- to put into gear).
3. Figurative expression (He combed the streets.; Mountains of language.).
4. Borrowing- in English a word of foreign origin may have a different meaning from what it
has in other language. In some cases the old meaning is preserved (actual).
Mechanisms of shifting of the meaning
1. Radiation- the basic meaning is at the center and all other connotations are directly
connected with it.
2. Concetenation- union by linking together (one meaning develops from the basic one though
it gives rise to yet another one and so no)
Ex: heart: - set of emotion; - set of love; - set of courage
3. Polysemy and context- the meaning or meaning of polysemantic words observed only in
certain contexts may be view as determined either by linguistic contexts or extra-linguistic
contexts. The two types of linguistic contexts which serve to determine individual meaning
of words are the lexical context and the grammatical context.
Ex: lexical context: heavy- heavy load, heavy rain, heavy industry
grammatical context: to make- make tea, make good friend
Homonymy
Homonyms are words identical in form but different in meaning.
Classification of homonyms
1. Complete homonyms- only words belonging to one and the same grammatical category
(words are homonyms all through their grammatical paradigms)
Ex: box: 1. I put my shoes in the box. ; 2. Every Sunday I play box with my friend.
club: 1. They go to disco clubs. ; 2. I broke my club.
2. Partial- includes words homonymous in some of their grammatical forms
Ex: lie- lied- lied-
lie- lay- lain-
lay- laid- laid- ,
- words belonging to different grammatical categories may become partial homonyms (ex:
provided- adj., past tense of to provide)

another case of partial homonymy is due to conversion where usually the infinitive of the
verb and the singular form of the noun are exactly the same but the rest forms are different
(ex: fires- pl. of fire and 3rd p. sg. of to fire)
Formal classification
1. Homophones- homonyms which coincide in sound but differ in spelling ( know/no; pair/
pear; hair/hare).
2. Homographs- homonyms which coincide in spelling but differ in sound and meaning (bow
[bou]/[bau]; lead [li:d]/[led]; tear [ti]/[t]).
3. Perfect homonyms- identical both in spelling and sound but different in meaning (graven./adj., long- adj./v.)
Sources of homonymy
1. Historical reasons- some words which were not homonyms in Old and Middle English
became homonymous due to certain changes either in their written form or in their
pronunciation (right- write; May- may; by- buy; meat-met; sea-see).
2. Borrowings- the borrowed word may preserve its original spelling and /or pronunciation or
may undergo some changes (form French quai- key, rein-rain; from Greek scene- seen)
3. Semantic reasons- in some cases it is difficult to distinguish homonymy from polysemy.
Ex: [flau:] flower/flour
from French fleur
In contemporary English the two words are felt to be homonymous rather than forms of a
pysemantic words.
4. Contractions: flu- flew
5. Dialecticism, jargonism and childrens speech are also sources of homonymy (Mummymummy); in cockney dialects [ei] is pronounced as [ai]- day-die, may-my
6. Paradigmatic homonyms- girls- girls- girls- ways of avoiding misunderstanding.
7. Stress:
_ _ _- noun (export, object, refuse) _ __ _- verb (export, object, refuse)
8. Spelling- sun- son, right- write
9. Substitution: mean- interior; mean- intermediate, meantime, meanwhile
10. Addition- by adding something (the sole of her foot, instead of her sole, which can be
mistaken for soul).
12.
Synonymy and Oppositeness
Synonyms are words different in their sound-form but similar in their denotational meaning and
interchangeable at least in some contexts. They belong to one and the same part of speech
(beautiful, pretty, handsome- adj.). Synonyms refer the same extralinguistic phenomena and they
have the same denotative meaning. However, every meaning may have different nuances. Thus
different words may stress one feature or another, or other words, they have different connotations.
From paradigmatic point of view in a given group of synonyms the separate word may belong to
different style, register or genre- some of them may be more colloquial, more formal, slang, others
may be technical or vulgar, etc. (goodbye, farewell, adieu). In every cluster of synonyms there is
usually one word which is stylistically neuter and stands for the basic general concept. This word is
called the synonym dominant.
Sources of synonymy
1. Reference to the emotions is a productive source of synonyms and this is especially true for
phrases (a big fish, to drink like a fish).
2. Affected speech also gives rise to synonyms
3. Archaism and borrowings (ex: cowardice (Fr.)- fear, answer- reply, buy- purchase).
4. Everyday speech, jargon, dialects (man-fellow, guy, chap)
Classification of synonymy

1. Absolute synonyms- words identical in meaning without any difference whatever. They can
be always substituted for one another in any kind of context without changing the meaning
of the text. They are very rare. Usually this is the case with some scientific terms grouped
around one invention ( z- spirant, fricative)
2. Relative synonyms are words standing for the same notion but varying in the shade of
meaning; they may differ in the degree, emotional colors and range of usage. This is actually
the largest group of synonyms.
Ex: to do and to make- I do my homework, she makes a cake.
to shine, to glare, to glitter, to sparkle, to flash
kill, assassinate, murder, slaughter
The choice of one or another word from a group of synonyms depends on the semantic
context. Synonyms can also be dialectal and regional (flesher- butcher, glen- valley, autumnfall). Register varies along three dimensions: field, mode, style. Field refers to the topic or
field of discourse: legal, political. Mode is concerned with the manner of transmission of a
linguistic message- whether it is spoken, written, phone-call, etc.
3. Stylistic synonyms- they often differ not so much in meaning as in their emotional
connotations (poetry, for instance, makes use of such words: maid for girl, eve for
evening, vale for valley).
4. Phraseological synonyms are words synonymous only in phrases. That is a wod has to have
several connotations which become clear from the context/phrase.
Oppositeness
Basic types of opposites:
Oppositeness
Complementarity
single-married
x>y
y > -x

Autonomy
good-bad
y > -x
compatibility

Converseness
husbad-wife
passive, case

incompatibility
Complementariness is a special is a special use of incompatibility (dead-alive, male-female, singlemarried). Syntactic test: question/logical relation
-x > y
He is dead.
He is alive.
y > -x
He is not alive.
He is not dead.
Denial of x implies y not single married
Assertion of y implies x married not single
Denial of both is impossible The door is neither open nor shut.
Non-gradable slightly pregnant, very dead
Color terms are specific case of complementaries as the Y is a range of possibilities.
Antonyms
Basic characteristics:
- they are fully gradable
- both elements denote degrees of a particular property
- allow preceding intensifiers as a result of their attachment the final phrases denote more
distant relation than the original words (very good- very bad)
- present different stages of approximation to 0 but never reach 0 value
- there is neuter area between the extremes, negation test allows: John neither likes nor
dislikes Mary.
Test: negation, syntactic transformations Y > -X
Assertion of Y implies the denial of X.
Ex: John is good. John is bad.
John is bad. John is not good.
John is not good. ? John is bad.

John is not bad. ? John is good.

Converses- use of incompatibility (ex: husband-wife, take-bring, buy- sell, lend- borrow). There
are two tests- syntactic and pasivization:
- Syntactic: NP1 is X of NP2 = NP2 is Y of NP1.
John is Marys husband. = Mary is Johns wife.
Peter is Helens brother. = Helen is Peters sister.
NP1 X NP2 from NP3 = NP3 Y NP2 to NP1
John bought a book from Sam. = Sam sold a book John.
- Passivization
NP2 was Xen by NP1 = A book was bought by John.
NP2 was Yen by NP3 = A book was sold by Sam.