The theoretical grammar of the English language is the analysis of the state of modern problems, the principles of the methodological concept of modern English.
Each word in the English language has lexical and grammatical meanings. The lexical has an unambiguous concept, while the grammatical has an abstract.
This article will have an introductory character. And the main task that we will pursue when describing the fundamental problems of the theoretical grammar of modern English is to understand such things as the subject, methods and terminological apparatus of this section of the science of language as a whole.
Language to Speech Ratio
So. A key place in the problems of modern linguistics is the difference between such concepts as language and speech, this is a very important issue in the theoretical grammar of the English language. Russian and English, being one of the most common languages, did not bypass this problem. In fact, this is an obstacle among the concepts of “speech” and “language”, their similarity and their inconsistency - this, in fact, is the main problem of the science of language of the past century. Note. Language is observed in linguistics as a structure of means of expression, and speech as an embodiment of a statement in the process of communication. And this pair - language and speech - constitutes an inextricable integrity. But in no case should you put an equal sign between these concepts.
With a wide study of the language, a pool of available, that is, nominally prepared semantic units, such as those that are the raw material for constructing the statement, pops up. And this fund, if not to go into discussion of its heterogeneity, gets the name "vocabulary". This is what linguistics puts into the concept of a fund of nominally semantic objects.
Speaking and writing
Extensive knowledge of the language in its constituent part has the process of using the language, that is, we are talking about speaking and writing. This part of the language is revealed in a comprehensive definition as an instrument of communication.
The theoretical grammar of the English language and its broad concept, the fund of words and models give the form of a more summarized representation of the language.
Syntax, Semantics, and Information
The timeliness of consideration of these three concepts in modern grammar of the English language is dictated primarily by the need to trim or mark the boundaries of the narrowly disciplinary side of the specificity and structure of the language, as it is demonstrated by the linguist at the modern level of linguistics. In both logical and semantic interpretations, semantics are the antithesis of syntax, similar to the matter of exposition in the type of its construction.
Term identity
Since the topic touched on the specifics, the term identities is the main part. In the science of language, this degree asks for its own link with the level of generalization at which the studied objects are observed (here - the elements included in the system and structure of the language). The logic of identifying identities as an approved side of the variety of compiled objects lies in the fact that for all elements the degree of identity grows along with an increase in the level of generalization of the appropriate classification features, which account for the analysis. In this situation, we will conduct a deep and thorough analysis of the system and structure of the language.
Representation of language units
It turns out that language as an organ of functioning of mental forms and a system of means for exchanging thoughts during communication consists of enormous quantities of elements of various specifics. The latter constitute a kind of alliance, unite with each other in difficult functional cooperation, being part of the texts that emerge from the consumption of people's speech activity. In a linguistic term, this process is usually called a unit of language. Despite this, it is worth remembering that there is a fundamental difference between the iconic elements. In this regard, it is worth paying attention, for example, to the fundamental difference between phonemes on the one hand and the so-called iconic elements. Such a contrast is the most important part of the features of a natural language, which is radically different from artificial sign systems that are born directly on the foundation of a natural language. This difference reflects what is hidden in linguistics behind the rule of pairwise dividing a language (i.e., the totality of its properties) into sign and non-sign parts. Pay attention to sequentially disconnect this pair of genera of linguistic elements, or rather, symbolic and unsigned in terms of their functional content, it is most correct to describe the difference at the level of the material form of the language, and in this regard it is worth mentioning that there are additional or one-sided units . And also there are units that are already bilateral. Such coverage at a certain moment in the development of the science of language significantly reduced the work of linguists precisely in the sense that the material structure of the entire unit of language is subdivided and formed by phonemes, and revealed in the form of chains or segments. The same ones that combine segments in the form of concomitant methods of self-expression. The phoneme remains the smallest segment, while the morpheme subdivides segment-significant units, and all have their own set of functions. The means of expression parallel, which stand out as integral units with particular functions, include important models of intonation, stress, pause, and word order configurations.
Lower Baseline Segment: Deepening
It consists of many phonemes. Its specificity of units of the phonological degree consists in the fact that they reveal the body model above the lying segments. At the same time, they themselves are not symbolic units. The phoneme forms and distinguishes morphemes, but the linguistically relevant distinguishing features, such raw materials of sounds, on which their differentiation in a particular language are based, serve as their distinctive marketing options. The mentioned properties alone do not play the role of segments, and therefore it would be unjustified to discuss the tier of phonological distinguishing features.
Morphemic (grammatical) level
A morpheme exists in the form of an elementary significant part of a word that is formed by phonemes, and the simplest of them is just one phoneme:
- a-fize [ә-];
- speak [-s];
- mist-y [-i].
The functional specificity is that it strikes abstract meanings, which play the role of an object to determine the forms of more accurate nominative meanings of words. In other words, the semantics of a morpheme from the perspective of its functional purpose in a language can be regarded as a sublexem. And above the morphemic level of the language lies the level of words, or the leximatic level.
Word level
The word serves as the nominative unit of the language. And its option is to give names to objects, phenomena and relationships of life and the world outside. Since morphemes are the elemental points of a word, light words include only one morpheme. An example list:
You can pay attention to the fact that in the case of one-morphemic words, the fundamental rule of strict disjointness remains functional. This is by no means a morpheme acting as a word.
Tutorial
I would like to recommend a competent textbook for a more in-depth study of the theoretical grammar of the English language.
The books listed below are at the top of their topic.
- A.A. Khudyakov. "Theoretical grammar of the English language." Content: grammatical meaning and form; modality category; constructive syntax, etc.
- V.V. Gurevich. “Theoretical grammar of the English language. Comparative typology of English and Russian languages. ” The book presents the most basic theoretical problems that arise in the grammatical system. A comparison of grammar systems of English and Russian languages is also given.
Books contain not only updated types of syntactic connections, but also do not miss the study of the classification of phrases, grammatical categories of the verb, independent and dependent verb forms, and much more. These tutorials will help you understand many issues.