Topic 1

Vowels and consonants

Vowels and cons.are the 2 major types of sounds. There are 2 views on them-a phonetic and
phonological view. According to the phonetic view vowels are sounds in which there is no
obstrucuion to the flow of air from the lungs to the mouth; consonants are sounds in the
production of which it is difficult or impossible for the air to pass b/c there is an obstacle on its
way through the vocal tract. The phonological view is based not on the way they are produced but
on the position they occur.Vowels typically function as central elements in syllables while
consonants are marginal.
For every vowel its important to determine lip position spead lips, neutral, rounded lips. Vowels
in Engl. Differ in length( bid-bead/I/-/i:/). The length difference is accompanied by diff. In quality
which is of primary importance and is indicated by the different shape of I and i: . Another
possible way is by /i/and/ i:/ different vowel quantity. Both the qualitative and quantitative
difference in words like bid and bead are important and should be shown in the transcription. In
BG we do not have long or short vowels . Long or short vowel classification is more important in
BBC English , in GA-tense /lax vowel classification with the tense v. the muscles of the tongue
and lips are more tightened for lax v.- relaxed v. In BBC we can separate 20 diff. Vowel
phonemes which can be divided into 12 monophtongs and diphtongs. The monophtongs can be
further subdivided into 7 short and 5 long v. In BG we have 6 distinctive vowels in stressed
position. BG vowels are a little longer tham the EG short ones but shorter than the long. We have
no diphtongs but something like them./vowel+ a/ but these are not phonemes. In
phonetic terms th BG vowels on the horizontal axis- front and back; on the vertical close, midopen, for example : bulgarskoto a is much frontier than the EG back vowel a, so we better
transcribe it like bulgarskoto a. Low and mid-vowlel in BG are often reduced in an unstressd
position which is called reduction.
The frontest and closest of EG vowels is the long i: ( the front of the tongue is raised , tense and
the lips are spread; /I:/ can appear everywhere. Its often very noticeable as a glide from a more
central and mid position (esp. in a final position- see /Ii/ diphtongization; i : in front of fortis
voiceless consonants ( bead- beat/ i:/).With /I/ the lips are spread , the tongue is relaxed . Its
found very often in unstressed syllables. It can alternate with // which is a tendency to become
a norm. positive /pztv/. With e the tongue is involved , the lpis are loosely spread, a short
vowel. BG e is very close to the EG in terms of quality. With the front of the tongue is
raised just above the bottom position. In EG no word can have a syllable ending in short vowel
e, ,,,I, - when stressed must be followed by a consonant. EG has 4 distinct front vowels in
BG 2 and thats why we have problems pronouncing some of the EG vowels. The dots are the
centre of a space in which quality can vary. With u: (food, good) the tongue is tense, the lips are
moderately rounded. The relalation b/n /u:/ and / / is similar to the one b/n : /i:/ and /I/; (u)is
typical for a final position (shoe); can be in both stressed and unstressed position but not in
syllable initial position or in front the velar of the nasal //; /:/ (short, sport) isnt fully back but
with medium lip rounding . Compared with //it has much more rounding of lips. The most
open vowel of EG is /a:/ (part) . Its the least susceptible to duration changes in front of fortis
voiceless consonant. When / /is final its either half open or fully open. In non final position its
between half close and half open. In EG the whole of the vowel space has to be divided into two
regions while in BG only six-very much articulatory precision is needed. See handout 1, p.3

The way in which the air flow is obstructed is a type of classification of consonant-manner of
articulation. The first basic manner of articulation is closure. There are 2 possibilities the soft
palate raises and shuts the nasal cavity for example /p/ and /b/ at the beginning of a word or the
soft palate does not shut up the nasal cavity. But the lips are closed. The BG /r/ the tip of the
tongue touches the alveolar ridge; very short vibrations (a sound called thrill). Tap/ flap closure
isn not a series of brief closures but only one. Another way to obstruct the air flow is the
narrowing . Two organs of speech approximate each other to such an extent that the air flow
passing through the narrowing becomes turbulent- friction. Fricatives are nine distinctive
consonants: /f/-/v/ are labio-dentals; thing-this ( //-//), the tongue makes a narrowing with the
teeth (dental); /s/ and /z/ -alveolar; /j/ and // are post alveolar: the tip and the blade are involved
(ship and rouge); /h/ is a a glottal fricative (hot). In BG we have the labio-dental , not dentals; /s/
and/z/ are alveo-dental, pronounced b/n dental and alveolar. Our /h/ is quite different, not
articulated with the vocal folds out with the back of the tongue plus soft palate. BG /h/ is velar
fricative. In BG there are 7 fricatives. Another difference is the force of articulation. In EG the
fricatives are divided into strong ( fortis) and weak (lenis). Fortis are always voiceless / , f, , s/.
With the lenis /, , z, / a smaller amount of muscular energy is involved. They tend to be
voiced but in some positions they may become partially or fully devoiced. In BG there is not such
devision b/n fortis and lenis. The EG /h/ cant be compared with another consonant b/c it does not
pair with any other sound but it is voiceless.
/V/ is partially devoiced b/c it takes some time for the folds to start vibrating; /z/ is partially
devoiced b/c of the expectation of the pause after it; only // is fully voiced. In BG in final
position only voiceless consonants occur. The EG fortis consonants influence the duration of the
preceding sound (live, life) . The fortis voiceless fricatives tend to shorten a preceding sound
(rise/raiz/- rice/rais/).
EG has two affricates, both of which are post-alveolars. They are produced with the same organs
of speech homorganic sounds: /t/ tends to shorten the preceding vowel; /d/ tend to be devoiced
in final position. In plosives , fricatives, affricates, we need a certain destruction for the sound to
be articulated. The 3rd form for a group called obstruents.In terms of place of artucaltion plosives
can be divided into bilabial /p,b / alveolar /t, d/, velar /h,g/; p, t, and k are always voiceless, no
vocal fold vibration; b,d, and g are fully voiced when they occur b/n vowels in initial and final
position before a pause a part of b,d,g tend to be devoiced.
Resonants/ sonorants comprise the nasals , the laterals, the approximants. In BG we have 2 more
fricatives- , . In some older books tr.and dr are included in the group of EG fricatives.
In the articulation of nasals, theres not obstruction acoustically, perceptually there are very much
like vowels but functionally they belong to the consonants. Nasals resemble plosives in terms of
the full obstruction. Theyre produced with vocal fold-vibration. The nasals comprise distinctive
sounds in RP-m,n, ( only occurs after a vowel). In some parts of England ( midlands ) always
a gork sound after /sig/. In these accents // isnt considered a separate nasal. In BG
phonemically we distinguish only /m/ and /n/(Anka, Angel)- virtually the same as //. So in
BG // is an allophone of /n/, not a separate phoneme;- ing /In/ playin- it is thought that people at
the bottom of society would avoid using // while those at the top would use it regularly.
In certain positions /m/,/n/ can be syllabic without an accompanying vowel-e.g. rhythm /rIm/,
button /btn/. In BG we dont have syllabic consonants. In EG therere words such as bank
/bk/-/k/ is always pronounced but if /n/ is followed by a /g/ its not always pronounced.
Sing /si/, singer /si / route + suffix; singing /sii/ route +suffix; finger /fig/ route.If the -

ng is a final morpheme then the /g/ is not pronounced but if ng is in the middle of a
morpheme, /g/ is pronounced. But long /l /, longer /l g /. When you add er/-est they are
morpheme final but the /g/ is pronounced. The lateral /l/ has 2 major allophones-clear /l/ and
dark/l/. The clear /l/ always occurs in front of vowels. The dark /l/ -in final postion or before a
consonant (self). Clear l -/l/,dark l- . The devoiced /l / occurs after voiceless consonants, for ex.
play/plei/. Approximants resemble vowels to a large extent, no obstruction is needed for
articulating them. In the past they were called semi-vowels yet /jet/, wet /wet/. They function
like other consonants-occur marginally and they are not capable of making syllables. With /w/ the
lips are rounded- its bilabial and velar; /j/ is palatal approximant-the tip moves towards the hard
palate. In BG there is only one such sound- //. In GA we have retroflex /r/ -rhotic accent. In
BG /r/ is not different. It is not an approximant but a trill.
Topic 2
Principles of EG spelling
Transcription is a useful tool in the description of speech sounds. Its a method of writing down
speech sounds in systematic and consistant way. The name means re-write/Latin/. It represents
sounds visually by symbols. The International Phonetic Alphabet stands for the body of linguists
and it was put forward by the International Phonetic Association. There are different of
transcription. The most import. division depends on whether the motivation is primarilly
phonological or phonetic. Phnologically motivated way of transcription includes the so- called
phonemic and allophonic transcription. With the phonemic the attention is focused on the system
of phonemic contrast on the accents transcribed. The choice of symbols is limited for one symbol
per distinctive sound. A phonemic symbol can consist of one character /^ / and //. A symbol may
also consist of a diagraph - /t/ ( 2 written characters). The same symbol is used to represent the
given phoneme in all environments it occurs. In the case of all allophonic transcription the focus
is on the different realization of the phoneme in different environments. Example p,t and k
(aspirated). In phonemic transcription the focus is on the distinctice character of the p, i, n. /pIn/,
in the allophonic /p/ is realized as aspirated and its there where the focus is / p In/. They both
constitute generalizations of given accents and can be regarded as types of systematic
transcriptions of speech. The phonetically motivated transcription pays no attention to the
phonological value of the sound transcribed- not systematic. They are called impressionistic
transcriptions and try to register as much detail as we can detact impressionistically. With the
phonemic transcription little attention is being payed to the subtlities of pronunciation. It is
important to identify in the broader terms the distinctive sounds (not interested how /p/ or /i/ is
pronounced but it is impotrant to identify the number of the sounds)-broad transcription.
Allophonic and general phonetic transcription try to show more or less narrowly how sounds are
articulated in the flow of speech, for example titles phonemically /tItlz/, phonetic
ttz}- /t/dark fully voiced, // dark devoiced, // aspiration and affixation. Narrow
transcription is typically used in pathological speech and in the early stages of phonological
investigation (ex. new language). We also have qualitative and quantitative transcription bit is
different from beat (/I/ qualitative /i/; /i/ quantitative /i:/). Sometimes we have diactrics (on the
top of the Roman letters-small added marks t).

Another distinction is with the names. There is intralingual transcription. It is used for scientific
research in dictionaries. It is common for a particular language. The interlingual transcription is
when :ex.-the EG name has to be rendered into another one. There are 3 ways of rendering EG
names: translation-ex. Great Britain Velikobritania; transliteration graphemes from one
languade with the respective graphemes of another one /-sh (Engl), ch (France)/. The same sound
can be rendered for one or more graphemes /A, a, -allographs of the same grapheme/.The
guiding principle with transcription is that the BG rendition should reflect as closely as possible
the pronunciation of the name in EG. The source language is EG and the receptor/target language
BG. The phonetic criteria are not sufficient. The model consists of several components . It
comrises morephological, lexical and phonetical subcomponent which make the liguistic
component. There is also the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic component.
As transcription is the guiding principle for BG reandition of EG names we have to carry out
contrastive analysis of the 2 languages. We should look for phonetic similarity that is established
by working with the phonetic subcomponent. We should try to establish the number of
phonological oppositions and try to decide which oppositions in EG can be preserved in BG. The
pronunciation and spelling norms should be observed. Sound combinations which sound and look
unnatural in BG should be avoided. If there is an alternation it is better to go for it. Whenever
there is hesitation b/n 2 or more variants of a name in BG , the variant facilitating backtranscription should be preferred which is called the principle of easy retrieavl (for ex: CambellKembul- this transcription will lead us to the wrong name in EG Kemble). Therefore we should
use the alternative which will lead to the right name in EG. We should never forget tradition or
the established public usage. The principle of simplicity and economy when there are several
alternatives, choose the most simple and economical one.
/e/-e;Ellis-bg: Elis
/I/-u; Jim bg: Djim
//-o; fox-bg: foks
//-y; cook-bg:kuk
//-a, e, ; Jack-bg:Djak/Djek
Most common in proper names , the model , however, suggests to render //as /a/ in BG in order
to distinguish it from /e/; /^ / as // - for ex. Dublin- //-the model recommends it; butter a/;
pick up truck-bg:pikap.We have the long vowel /i:/ -u/u only in syllable final position in BG. It
is widely accepted in the construction consonants + /u/ +consonants though it is not to be met in
BG /for ex. Beach-buch/; Pete Pit- ut; it (u-between consonants). Such a rendition is not
to be found in polysylabic names (Greenburg-bg:Grinbarg). In short monosylabic words we
use /u/ and in longer words for simlicity and economy we use only the /u/.However, we have
renditions such as bg:Wolstrut, Springfuld-here the second component is morphologically
transparent and monosyllabic so the traditions render the preservation of /u/.
/u:/-y. Some forms with /yy/ are rarely to be met b/c of psycholinguistic reasons-in BG this
embarrasses the reader and seems to be considered unpleasant; /a:/-
bg:Armstrongeg:Armstrong; /:/- o Broadway-bg:Broduei. /oy/ is not to be recommended. Lawrence is
wrongly rendered as bg;Loyrens; /aI/-a Times-bg:Tams; /eI/-/e/ Jane bg:Djen. (cakebg:keks)-there is some established usage in words like Trainity, Shakespeare, cake in which
the rendition in BG is with /e/. But those are exceptions./ I/ -o Joyce-bg:Djos /a/-ay
(established usage) Downing street; //-one of the most problematic EG diphtongs-/oy/. GA /
/consistency is difficult to be achieved. In BG /o/ and /y/ are separated by a syllabic and
morphological boundaries-eg: bg:poyka. But the combination /y/ does not occur in BG at all.
The recommendation is in favour of the combination /oy/. Longer names are rendered only with

an // -Associated Press-bg:Acoshieitid prec- that is the established usage because of simplicity

and economy; /I/ -such combinations are not to be met in BG. But we have words like bg:
piaand peia which are close to this diphtong. Therefore the model recommends the rendition
of this diphtong as /u/; /e / -/e/-the same as /I /in terms of rendition; / / in shorter
names the model recommends the usage of /y/. In larger names we use only /y/ for example:
insurance-bg:inshuruns. In the case of the consonants whenever there is a sound which does not
occur in the receptor language this sound is replaced by accoustically similar one. //-// -m,g
Smith-bg:Cmit /Heather-bg:Xedur; /r/ is different from BG in terms of position and occurrence.
The principle is to keep the /r/ where we have it in the spelling of the original name-Charlesbg:Charlz; //-corresponds to the combination ng in the spelling. So the recommendation is to
render it as and . In BG we have respectively bg: Bukingam, Kipling; / d/-consistently
rendered as //; /t/-/ bg:Tatcher; but simplicity and economy will tell us that this is not the
preferable rendition; /ts/- / ,/ bg:Fitsdzjerald, Trifits (word finally); /t/ -/, / An,
Aun- morphologically transparent name;-er- unstressed suffix-in proper names its usually
rendered as p while in common nouns its rendered as ep Miller, bg Milur/ Leader, bg
lidur /Mixer, bg mikser.
Very often names containing generic geograpgical terms such as beach and bridge can be
translated-sunny beach- sluncgev brjag. The lexical component is also activated when a given
name in the source language aquires a funny connotation in the receptor language- Gus, Lina- bg
Gs Lina; some sounds have the same correspondence: e-e; a- - galata; o-o- oryahova.
The Yodised letters are rendered in this way: j,- , , ,( Yordan, Ljuba, Jana). The rendation of
some consonants is : zh-, dzh- , f-, ts- , x-kc /Alexander, Max, derived forms from BG
have /ks/- Maksimov; ch- / Chelopech/ bg Chelopech; sh- / Shishman, bg Shishman, sht- /
Peshtera, bg Peshtera.

Topic 3
Prosodic Charactristics of English stress, rhythm and intonation
EG is said to be a stress language-every leixal word a stressed syllable.There are words where
more than 1 syllable bears sress-1 of the stresses will be the main stress and the others
subordinate stressed syllables. There are 3 degrees of stress primary, secondary and unstressed.
The 2nd stress is weaker than the primary stress but stronger than that of an unstressed syllable.
Stressed syllables characterise with absence of reduced vowels.
EG is a stress-timed lanugage-stresses occur at equal timing intervals. Stress isochrony (equality
in time) is maintained by variation in the delivery rate of individual syllable. The segnment of an
utterance are organized into syllable and syllable into feet. The foot is a stretch of utterance leg
with a stressed syllable and including all the syllables following up to but including the next
stressed syllable. Stressed syllables must be heavy while unstressed syllables may be light. Any
stressed syllable must have a complex rhyme (this is a rhyme that contains at least 2 x-positions).
A term that is connected with stress is ambi-syllabicity-the association of a consonant with 2
syllables at the same time. It has the effect of making stressed syllables heavy that would
otherwise be light. There are no final-stressed words in EG that end in a light syllable. Nouns
with final stress are rare in EG only some loan words. Verbs and adjectives with final stress are

quite common. Some words have variable stress pattern which is possible where the first syllable
already has some degree of stress. Also some words may shift their stress from the secondaryprimary to the primary-secondary pattern in certain context for ex: EG hotelwhen said in
isolation has final stress but it shifts its stress onto the first syllable when another strongly
stressed syllable immediately follows it-/ho,tel management/. Stress can be shifted away from
the final syllable only onto such syllable that already have some stress.There are a number of
noun-verb pairs in EG that are distinguished by their stress patterns; the noun having non final
and the corresponding verb final stress: /di,gest (n.)-digest (v.)/.There are words whose final
syllable bears no stress despite the fact it may be heavy /discipline/. It is not compulsory for
heavy syllables to be stressed but stressed syllables must be heavy. The penultimate (the last b/o
the last syllable) syllable is stressed if it is heavy otherwise stress falls on the antipenultimate
syllable. But eg.words such as appledont have antipenultimate syllable. Therefore stress must
fall on the penultimate which is the last resort for the stress to go. There is second subclass where
the penultimate syllable takes stress if it is heavy and the antipenultimate does if the penultimate
is light-eg badmintonhas heavy penult. Syllable but the stress falls on the antipenultimate.
Syntax and morphology have influence on stress. Stress is only assigned in lexical words.
Function words such as articles, preposition, pronoun do not bear stress. Verbs and nouns bear
stress no different positions.
Morphemes consist of prefixes, roots, and suffixes. Suffixes may be divided into 2 classes: stressshifting and stress-neutral . Stress-neutral suffix never makes any difference to the stress pattern
of their base-of the word to which they are attached. Stress-neutral suffixes are always unstressed.
The behaviour of strees shifting suffix is different. The stress pattern of their base may differ
from that of the base word when it occurs without a suffix ( atom / atm/ - atomic / t mIk/).
Also the stress-shifting suffix can bear the main stress of the word. Inflectional suffix is always
stress-neutral, derevational-either stress-neutral or stress-shifting. Here the rule of Trisyllabic
Laxing is applied a tense vowle becomes lax when it is followed by 2 syllables where the 1st
syllable is not stressed (divine-divinity).
Stress is a relational property. Syllabicity is found when we have a segment that is more sonorous
than another one. Syllables are grouped into feet, and the 1st syllable of each foot is stressed. In
kangaroo there are 2 syllables but the 1st foot is subordinate to the 2nd. Here we need another
level-the word level. When we have one element that is stronger than another we need different
branches to show their relation. Unite consisting of more than 2 elements must then be broken up
into binary structures, where a prominence relationship is defined among any two sister nodes.
All these kinds of prominence phenomena in phonology is known as Metrical Phonology.
Metrical structures are strictly hierarchial-no level in the hierarchy can be skipped. There are
different rules-foot level and word level rules that depend on the level of metrical structure on
which they operate. Foot-level rules determine what syllable bear stress while word-level rules
provide the differentiation b/n primary and secondary stresses.
Stress falls on the final syllable in nouns when the vowel is tense + diphtong. If the final syllable
is not long the stress falls on the penultimate if it is heavy-aroma, horizon. We cant have both
the penultimate and the last syllable stressed-only if the penultimate s light (America) but it cant
go further. In this case if the penultimate si light it becomes heavy through ambisyllabicity. There
are also cyclic rules they broaden the domain of the cycle all the time-if one applies we stop
there but if it does not apply we go to the next one. Stress in Eg is partially predictable. There are
predictably phonological properties of words but the speaker does not learn them he just

acquires the rules that predict them and then assigns these properties to the words or sounds
occuring in his speech.
Intonation has important semantic functions and it is a crucial and very important part of the
prosody of Eg. Intonation makes it easier for a listener to understand what a speaker is trying to
convey and it has different functions. First of all, intonation enables us to express emotions and
attitudes as we speak. This is the attitudinal function of intonation and it adds a special kind of
meaning to spoken language. Another function is the accentual one. It helps to produce the
effect of prominence on syllables that need to be precieved as stressed. As a whole the placing of
tonic stress on a particular syllable marks out the word to which it belongs as the most important
in the tone unit.Intonation helps the listener to recognise the grammer and syntactic structure of
what is being said by things such as the placement ot boundaries, b/n phrases, sentences. This is
the grammatical function. It also indicates the difference b/n questions and statements. The use of
grmmatical subordination may be indicated. The last function of intonation is the discourse one.
It signals to the listener what is to be taken as new information and what is already given. It can
suggest when the speaker is indicating some sort of contrast or link with information in another
tone unit and during converations it can conevy to the listener what kind of a response is
expected.
One and the same sentence can be said in many different ways according to what we want to
express. It is necessary for a foreign learner to learn EG intonation b/c in a given situation there is
a risk that s/he may be misunderstood. Many times it is clear what the speaker wants to convey
by the lexical meaning of the words in the sentence. For ex. in a sentence such as Why dont
you leave me alone? there can be ambiguity while if we say She is going to buy it tomorrow.
the attitude of the speaker is not so clear.
Another point that should be made here is that an emotion may be expressed involuntarily or
voluntarily. For ex: I can say something in a happyway due to the fact that I feel happy or just
b/c I want to convey to someone the expression that I am happy. When we want to express
different attitudes towards something we use different voice qualities. We may use different pitch
range-narrow/wide or different keys-high key, mid key ot low key. We also use different
gestures ; facial expressions but these factors tend to be ignored.
Some components of intonation as pre-heads, heads, tonic syllables and tails, pauses, tone-unit
boundaries are found as elements in sequence of such elements that occur one after another
(never simultaiously, that is why they are called sequential). There are also prosodic
components of intonation. They are characteristics of speech-width ot pitch range, key, loudness,
voice quality, speed, and we can observe them while speech is going on. Ex: wider pitch range is
used in excited or enthusiastic speaking, a speaker who is tired or bored uses slower speed of
speech. Within tone we also express attitude: fall (eg. Finality, deffiniteness)-stop talking; rise-in
general questions (Can you help me?).
The accentual function of intonation is connected with the placement ot tonic stress. The location
of the tonic syllable is of great linguistic importance. Its most common position is on the last
lexical word but for contrastive perposes, however, any word may become the tonic syllable. We
may place the tonic stress in other positions for the purpose of emphasis: It was very boring. (no
emphasis), It was very boring .(emphasis).
The tonic syllables tend to occur on the last lexical word in the tone-unit, but it may placed earlier
in the tone unit if there is a word there with greater inmportance to what is being said. This is
often met especially when the last part of the tone-unit has already been given (Heres the book
you asked me to bring.) The grammatical function of intonation is illustrated when in written
sentences there is ambiguity which can be removed only by using different intonations. There is

a tendency for tone-unit boundaries to occur at boundaries b/n grammatical units of higher order
than words. Tone-unit boundaries placement can indicate grammatical structure to the listener
and we often meet pair as : The students who like the proposal/ are pleased; the students (who
like the proposal) are pleased. The 1st one implies that only some students like the proposal while
the 2nd means that all students like it.
A component of intonation that has grammatical significance is the choice of tone on the tonic
syllable. Many languages have the possibility of changing a statement into a question by
changing the tone from falling to rising. In EG a rising tone is always used for questions.It is also
usual to use a falling tone with wh-questions. The intonation of question tags can be different
either falling or rising depending on the implied meaning.When we have a falling tone , the
speaker is usually quite certain that the information is correct and s/he just expects from the
listener to confirm it; with a rising tone we have a less degree of certainty.
The discourse funtion of intonation identifies too main areas: the 1st one is to focus the listeners
attention aspects of the message that are most important and the 2nd is concerned with the
regulation of conversational behaviour. With the attention-focus we have placement of tonic
stress on the appropriate syllable on 1 particular word in the tone unit, eg: on the one that carries
the info content or that with higher impotrance. Sometomes, however, it is difficult tosee whether
the last lexical word is more important or the S. noun, eg.The cats on fire.
Usually the falling tone indicates new info while rising tones indicate already given info. Another
use of this type of intonation is called intonational subordination. Here we consider that a
particular tone unit is of comparatively importance and as a result we give greater importance to
adjacent tone-units. Intonation is also important in the conversational interaction of 2 or more
speakers (esp. in interaction of a rather restricted kind-eg. b/n doctor and patient. Here it is easy
to identify what each speaker is actually doing in speaking-questioning , advising, disapproaving.
Speakers use various prosodic components to indicate to others that they have finished speaking,
that another person is expected to speak about the type ot response that is required. Intonation
together with facial expressions, gestures, eye-contac is used also for establishing or confirming
the status of the participants in a conversation. Rhythm of speech is based on the idea of srong
beat or event occuring again and again at regular intervals of time. The duration of individual
sounds is too short. There are just noticeable differences of duration-0./sec. If the event is shorter
than that we cant perceive it.
Topic 4
Classification of nouns
The classification of nouns in EG and BG exhibit at one and the same time similat and dissimilar
features.
The class of nouns is divided into the following subclasses:nouns can be:proper-common,
countable-uncountable, concrete-abstract and mass. The catgories of numer, gender and case
determine the structural charactrestic features of the class of nouns.The nouns can be classified in
a different way from the point of view of their semantic structure.
In EG tha lack of morphological markers in all classes of words makes the semantic component
very flexible. This refers to the class of nouns as well.In BG the heavily marked adjective and
verb have great influence on the noun, no matter that the latter has markers only for gender and
number.

The syntactic functions of the noun are as follows : subject, predicative, object, adverbial
modifier (introduced by preposition) and head word in an ittributive phrase.
Nouns of one type can fluctuate into nouns of another type with a change in their meaning. This
applies in both BG and EG though it is more frequent in EG. This shift is achieved with greater
ease in EG.
The basic difference b/n common and proper nouns on the surface structure is that by rule the
article or any other determiner accompanies the common noun but never the proper noun. On the
other hand any common noun when not accompanied by the article undergoes changes in its
meaning tending towards the proper noun. Any proper noun in its term may be accompanied by
the article. In such cases it also undergoes changes in its meaning towards the common.
A common noun may be concrete or abstract but never both at one and the same time.A concrete
noun is always accompanied by the article or other determiner. However, it may appear without
the article. In such cases it will undergo a change in its meaning towards the abstract.
A common noun can be countable or uncountable but never both at one and the same time. A
countable noun is always accompanied by the article or another determiner. It may appear
without the article and then it undergoes changes in its meaning towards uncountability.
In other words there is interdependence b/n the aricle and the semantic features (-nominative)
(+ nominative), (+concrete)-(-concrete), (abstract),(+countable)-(-countable).The presence of the
article activates the 1st features in the oppositions: (-nominative), (+concrete), (+countable).The
absence of the article makes the 2nd members of the opposition active: (+nominative),
(+abstract),(+uncountable). The catergory of case stands basically for a syntactic category. It
refers to the specific relations of the words in the surface structure as well as to the means of
realisation of these relations. In BG there are no grounds to discuss case as a morphological
category. It is entirely within syntactic realtions.
In EG at 1st glance the cetegory of case seems to be grammatical since it has 2 structural
exponents:an unmarked one- for the common case , and a marked one for the genitive
case.However, a deeper look reveals the actula lexicalisation of this category in differenr degrees
reaching cases of complete degramaticalisation.
The forms of the genitive or possessive case play basically the role of an attribute.The attributive
relation is a phenomenon of the surface structures. The several types of dee structures underlying
the genitive have given rise to its characteristics (possessive, qualitative, partitive, subject, object,
pleonastic, group and independent).This classification is based on different criteria: semantic,
syntactic and morphological.
There is a stylistic difference b/n the genitive case and the of- form. The of- form is more formal.
When it comes to the category of gender the noun in EG has no markers for gender and that is
why it is not possible to guess the gender of the noun by its form. Every noun has a connotation
of sex or no sex in its meaning, although this is not explicit in the form.
There is a small number of common nouns in EG marked for gender-actor/actress and
tiger/tigress, duke/duchess. The semantic component of each noun plays an important role as
regards the category of gender. In EG the category of gender is semantico grammatical. While in
Bg the situation is more complicated due to the fact that it has markers for the sg. The nouns in
the masc. are unmarked while those in the feminine are
marked.The nature of the marker is lexico grammatical since it is also a word-formative suffix.
There is a group of nouns with both semantic features for sex. They, however, cannot function
simultaniously in one and the same context. When the noun is used in the sg. one of the features
is active , the other remains passive , eg:The teacher entered the room. He smiled. When in
plural both features may function together. There is a group of nouns , usually names of

occupations that form compound nouns with one of the roots semantically marked for
gender:man-servant, lady-doctor etc.
There is a group of nouns with one single semantic feature for sex either male or femalebull/cow, fox/vixen, stallion/mare, dog/bitch. However, there are nouns with 2 semantic features
for sex: bear, rabbit, wolf, etc.When both features (+male) and (+female) are not active those
nouns functions as neuters.
Common nouns with a semantic feature (-animate) dont have a feature for sex or rather they
have a feature (-sex). For this reason they appear as neuters.
Names of countries, tools and boats appear as neuters. However, when they are personified they
have the semantic feature (+female). Thus, under the influence of Greek mythology the words for
sun, love, ocean, time etc, are considered to be masc., while moon, night, earth-feminine.
Every BG noun in the sg. is morphologically marked for gender. The forms of the plural are not.
This applies both to proper and to common nouns.
Both in BG and EG the noun is in concord with the predicative in terms of number. O. Jesperson
gives the following definition of number:In EG only 2 numbers are distinguished, singular (to
denote oneness) and plural (to denote more than oneness).The nouns in EG and in BG , or at
least the majority of them, have grammatical marker of number. Nouns without such marker
reflect number in their semantic component. This becomes explicit in the form of the verb with
which the noun is in concord in terms of number:eg.The boy is in the room./Momcheto e v
staiata; plural:The boys are in the room./Momchetata sa v staiata.
There are several morphological patterns in the category of number that appear in Bg and Eg.
In English:1) nouns with 2 forms-one for plural and one for sg.2)nouns with only one form. In
this group there are 3 subgroups:a)nouns in concord with the verb always in the plural (pluralia
tantum)-people, kettle etc.b)nouns in concord with the verb always in the sg.(singularia tantum)news, money, furniture, linguistics.c)nouns in concord with the verb either in the sg.or in the pl.clergy, cabinet, board, family, etc.
In Bulgarian:1)nouns with 2 forms-one for the sg. and one for the pl.-bg:maca, kotka etc.2) nouns
with only one form. Here again there are subgroups:a)nouns in concord with the verb always in
the plural (pluralia tantum)-bg:xopa, kleshti, etc.b)nouns in concord with the verb always in sg.
(singularia tantum)-bg.:narod, mladej.c)few nouns behaving like the EG nouns of the same
subgroup-bg:klasa, semeistvo, brigada.
Both in Eg and in Bg the form for the sg. is unmarked while the form for the plural is marked.
The unmarked form may include the meaning of the marked form too.The opposite is not
possible.
There are different markers for plurality:-s; -n; the infix-r (brother/brethren), change of the root
vowel (tooth-teeth, foot-feet). There is also zero ending (sheep). The sheep is in the yard but
there are three sheep in the meadow.
Both the sg. and the pl. forms can be used with a generic connotation. Thus, we have:The horse
is a domestic animal and horses are domestic animals.Sometimes a form in the sg. is used with a
connotation of plurality. It has acquired the connotation of the so-called collective nouns.
There is a group of nouns in EG and in BG which have developed a secondary meaning but only
in the forms of the plural. These nouns are called differentiated plurals, eg:colour-colours
(flags); custom-customs (duties). Bg:kapka-kapki ( lekarstvo); drebolia-drebolii (vutreshnosti na
agne).
On the whole number is a grammatical category of the noun intimately related with its semantic
structure.

In BG , as in EG, abstract nouns on the whole appear only as singular tantum. But when they
acquire a more concrete connotation they distinguish numerical quantity and appear in the form
of plural as well.
Both in BG and in EG it is possible for personal names to appear in the plural.In BG, however,
the situation is different. One can easily recognise a personal name froma a surname b/c the latter
is usually marked.

Topic 5
The simple present and simple past. Futurity
In all the uses of the present tense theres a basic association with the present moment of time(the
moment of speech). This element of meaning doesnt exclude the possibility of its having the
actual being of a time other than the present. It can refer to past and to future time exclusive if
present time in the historic present it represents past events as if they were happening now; in
the future present it refers to future events regarded as already predetermined.
The unrestrictive use of the Simple Present is found with verbs expressing states.. Its so called
because it pleces no limitation on the extension of the state into past and future time( eg We live
in London).Limits to the duration of the state may be implied by an adverbial expression to
indicate a contrast with some other period At present we live in London.
The Present Simple is suitable for employment in the expression eternal truth and so is found in
scientific, mathematical, and other statements made for all time. Its also characteristic of
proverbs. Geographical statement are for practical purpose without time limit- Rome stands on
the river Tiber.
Yhe instantaneous use of Present Simple signifies an event simultaneous with the present
moment and it occurs with verbs expressing events, not states. It occurs in sports commentaries
and in the patter of conjurors and demonstrators. In exclamations like Here comes the train. The
theatrical quality of the instantaneous present is affirmed in the employment in old-fashioned
stage rhetoric- The bell tolls; Less dramatically , the instantaneous use is found in asseverations
such as I beg you pardon: here the event and the act of speech are simultaneous because theyre
identical. These performative verbs express formal acts of declaration in contrast to the
Prodressive forms. We re accepting your offer which merely report to speakers present activities
or future intentions. This usage is also chatacteristic of more ceremonial context, such as shiplaunching.I name the ship.The distinguishing marks of declarativeacts are that theyre almost
invariably in the 1st place 2nd that they permit insertion of hereby in front of the verb. There a
difference b/n state and event. A state is undifferentiated and lacking in defined limits. An
event has a beginning and an end, it can be viewed as a whole entity.State and event are
semantic rather than grammatical terms so we should talk of state/ event meanings or uses of
verbs. The 3rd use of present simple is the habitual use which is again confined to event verbs. It
represents a series of individual events which as a wholw make up a state stretching back into
the past and forward into the future. It combines aspects of the instantaneous and unrestrictive
uses. The habitual resembles the unrestrictive present in its suitability for eternal truths of a
scientific or ppiverbial nature. An adverbial expression of frequency can reinforce the notion of
repetition . The simple present may refer to future time:I start work next week. It may also refer

to the past- the so-called historic present. Its used in the story-telling when past happenings are
portrayed or imagined as if doing on at the present time. A diff kind of historic present is found
with verbs of communication. Verbs such as tell, write, say refer to the initiation of a message
in the past. The verbal meanings has been transferred from the initiating end to the receiving end
of the message;Joan tells me youre getting a new car
Free variation b/n Past and Present Tense occurs in cross-references from one part of book to
another: The problem was/is discussed in Ch 3 above. In newspaper headlines the Pr. Simple is
preferred for announcing recent events bec of its brevity. Pr. Simple is also used in photographic
captions and in historic summaries.
Therere 2 elements of meaning involved in the use of Past Simple . The 1st is that the happening
takes place before the present moment and the 2nd is that the speaker has a definite time in mind.
As the past simple tense applies completed happenings everything it refers to is in a sense an
event. Theres no clear distinction b/n event and state. A difference should be made b/n the
unitary past and the habitual past , describing a repeated event. Theres also a contrast b/n past
events happening simultaneously and past events happening in sequence. When the happenings
have only a brief duration its more natural to regard them as stages in sequence, esp. in narrative
contexts. Other temporal relations b/n two consecutive P.T. forms are possible if signalled by a
conjuction or adverbial expression.
P.T is used to express hypothetical meaning in dependent clauses.(eg If you loved me, you
wouldnt).The P.T. is the natural form of the verb to employ in narrative whether the events
narrated are true historical events of a novel. The P.T. is often used in narrativeeven when the
evnts portrayed are supposed to take place in the future, as in science fiction. A 2nd special
development of the normal past meaning is the use of P.T. in some contexts of everyday
conversation , to refer to the present , in particular , to the present feelings or thoughts of the
speaker or hearer. Often P.T has a polite connotation. The progressive past , howevwe, is
frequently preferred as, it adds a further overtone of politeness to that of the P.S.( I was
wondering).
The Past can also point a contrast with an unspoken present alternative (eg. I thought you were
leaving). The non-present element of P.T. meaning is emphasised , and the definite time element
is suppressed.
A distinction may be made b/n the historic use of the present , and its fictional use. Some writers
use the Pres. In imitation of the popular historic pres. of spoken narrative . For more serious
writing , transposition into the fictional present is a device of dramatic hightening it puts the
reader in the place of s.o actually witnessing the events as theyre described . In some narrative
contexts , its not the Past T., but the Pres. Tense. that is conventional eg. in stage directions.
Instalments of serial stories ( on the radio, on TV) used to begin with recapitulation of previous
instalments in the Pres. Tense. A special use of Pres.Tense is the one of the travelogue itinerary
and in instruction booklet. Therere a number of ways of future time in English. One of the most
important of them is the use of will and shall. They have the double function of modal aux.
and aux. of the future. One reason for the confusion of future and modal uses of will and shall
lies in the very nature of futurity. We cant be certain of future happenings as we are of events
past and present.The will/shall future is used in a wide range of contexts in which its appropriate
to make predictions.Shall expresses neutral predictive meaning only with a 1st p. pronoun as
subject. With a 2nd or 3rd p. subject it has a modal meaning. Will is used with all 3 persons to
express futurity. Will/ shall is particularly common in the main clause of conditional sent. The
will/ shall future is suitable for prophetic statements.( In 10 years time ,the people). Will/ shall
can refer to either an indefinite or definite time in the future . Frequently a sent. with will/shall is

incomplete without an adverbial of definite time(eg. Itll rain). Will/ shall can be used in
reference to an imaginary narrative future. Will/shall followed by the Perfect Infinitive is the
usual means of expressing past in the future in English. It refers to a state or event seen in the past
from a point of orientation in the future.( By next Friday , Ill have read). The time looked at
retrospectively can either precede or follow the present moment. Theres a similar construction
with the Perfect Progressive inf.
Another important way of expressing future time is the construction be going to+ inf. It expresses
future fulfilment of the present. The future of present intention is found chiefly with human
subjects and with doing or agentive verbs , which imply conscious exercise of the will. Be
going to brings with it a strong expectation that the intention will be carried out( Im going to
punish them is stronger than I intend to punish).The intention communicated by be going to
is usually ascribable to the subject of the sentence. In passive sent. , its often the intention and
the implied agent thats in question. The future of present cause is found with animate or
inanimate S. as well as with human S. With it factors giving rise to the future happening are
already present. as be going to is often used in reference to the immediate future.( That pile of
boxes is going to fall).When the clause with be going to contains no time adverbial ,
immediate future is almost certainly indicated ( We are going to live in the country). Be going to
is inappropriate in most future conditional sentences. Its suitable if present circumstances are
mentioned in the if-clause : Were going to find ourselves in difficulty if we carry on like this.
Will/shall can be replaced by be going to if the nearness of the event is signalled by an
adverb , or is made clear by the situation. Be going to doesnt guarantee that the anticipating
happening will actually come to pass which is illustrated by P. T. eg He was going to sue me but
I persuaded him it was pointless.
The Present Progressive refers to a future happening anticipated in the pres. , but its not a pres.
intention or cause but rather a present arrangement . Its a future event anticipated by virtue of a
pres. plan , programme or arrangement ( She is getting married this spring- it has been
fixed).The diffenrence b/n arrangement and intention is very slight one. But , still, an intention
is a part of ones present state of mind , while an arrangement is sth already predetermined in the
past , regardless of how the speaker feels now. The notion of fixed arrangement comes to be
associated with the near rather than the distant future. The possibility remains of referring to the
more remote future if its regarded as determined in advance (When I grow up, Im joining the
police force.) Without an adverbial , a time in the near future rather than remoter future is
generally intended. The Present Progressive is used with verbs of motion and some other verbs
signifying single events.. Transitional event verbs such as arrive , die, land have an anticipatory
element in their meaning when used in the Progressive aspect. The factor of plan and
arrangement in the future meaning of the Present Progressive restricts its use in the main to
doing verbs involving conscious human agency.(The sun is rising at 5 oclock tomorrow-it cant
be predicted). It also doesnt occur with verbs such as to be thatre normally incompatible with
the progressive aspect. In dependent clauses introduced by conditional and temporal conjunctions
if unless ,as soon as , the future is denoted by the ordinary Pres. Tense (Ill tell you if it hurts). In
the dependent clauses the happening referred to is not a prediction but a fact that is taken as given
so Present Simple represents future as a fact. It attributes to the future the same degree of
certainty that we normally accord to present or past events. Statements about the calendar are the
most straightforward illustrations (Tomorrow is Monday). The Present Simple may signify a plan
or arrangement regarded as unalterable (We start for London tonight.)In its future use the Present
Simple refers to a definite future occasion in the same way as the simple past refers to a definite

occasion in the past. So it must be accompanied by an adverbial referring to future time unless it
occurs in a narrative sequence.
The construction will/shall be making refers to temporary situations in the future (This time
next year I will be studying.) The action is typically associated with a future point of time round
which it forms a temporal frame. An indipendent use of will/shall + progressive is the one
which applies to a single event viewed in its entirety.(The train will be arriving at 8 oclock). This
is a future-as-a-matter-of-course and indicates that a predicted event will happen independently of
the will or intention of anyone concerned. This usage has grown up through the need ot have a
way of referring to the future uncontaminated by factors of volition, plan, and intention. The
matter-of-course meaning does not occur with state verbs. The will/shall+ progressive usage is
quite common in every day speech b/c it is more polite and tactful alternative to the nonprogressive form.This tense refers to the near, but not to immediate future. The progressive form
is restricted when describing sudden or violent events which could not be said to happen oin the
natural course of things.

Topic 6
The Progressive and the Perfect Status and Functions
The term progressive is used to designate those verb constructions in which the ing form of the
verb is preceeded by a form of the verb to be (is/will be working). The most imortnat function
of the progressive aspect is to refer to temporary situations or activities. The progressive present
refers to temporary situation which includes the present moment in its time-span, streteching for a
limited period into the past and into the future. The progressive form indicates duration which
distniguishes it form non-durative instantaneous present, limited duration which distinguishes it
from the unrestrictive present; indicates that the happening need not be completed which
distinguishes it from the instantaneous. The progressive strethces the time-span of an event
verb; but compresses the time-span of a state verbThe durative element of meaning is seen in
the contrast of I raise my arm/Im raising my arm. The 1st suggests a sudden movement and 2nd
a more gradual one. With the progressive tense, the event is no longer instantaneous:it stretches
into the past and into the future. In describing more leisurely sports ( golf, cricket) Progressive
present is preferred since in such sports it is more difficult to see the stages of the match or
contest as having no duration. The difference b/n unlimited and limited duration is evident from
these: I live in London(pemanent residence)/ Im living ni London (temporary residence). Along
with the temporary meaning of the progressive there is often the notion that the state is actual
and particular. Im enjoying the seaside would be spoken when the speaker is actually at the
seaside. Tha action expressed by progressive present is not necessarily completed best illustrated
by event verb which signal a transition form 1 state to another (become, get, stop). This use is
more noticeable in the past tense:The man was drowning/The man drowned. The second
implies that the man actually died. The progressive does not specify either the time of beginning
or the time of completeion of an activity. The progressive aspect has the effect of surrounding a
particular event or moment by a temporal frame.With the progressive present the point of
orientation is normally identical with now, the present moment of real time. But in the
progressive past some other definite point of reference must be assumed which is made explicit
by an adverbial phrase or clause. The relation b/n a progressive and a past simple form is one of

time-inclusion. When we arrived she made/was making some fresh coffee. The 1st example
shows that the coffee making followed the arrival, the 2nd that the arrival took place during the
coffee-making. When no event or point of time is in question, however, the framing effect does
not occur: They were watching a football match on Sunday afternoon. Another case when there is
no frame is when 2 progressive forms are put next to one another: While I was reading he was
watching TV.
The progressive aspect varies its effects according to the type of meaning conveyed by the verb.
Verbs such as kick, jump, nod, hit are called momentaryas they refer to the happenings so
momentary that it is difficult to think of them as having duration. When attributing duration to
them , one thinks of a series of events rather than of a single event (He nodded/was nodding.)
Transitional event verbs (die, fall, leave, arrive) used with progressive indicate an approach to the
transition, rather than the transiton itself. He died shows the actual moment of transition , the
completetion of the process , while He was dying indicates the process which ends in death.
Activity verbs (drink, eat, play) occur with the progressive as they refer to a continuing though
bounded activity. What the verb tells is that something is going on (Im writing a letter). Verbs
sush as grow, changeare progress verbs. They have duration but not indefinite duration. There
are some classes of verbs which are noramally incompatible with the progressive. The most
important of these verbs is the verb to be. We say :He is ill but not He is being ill.Verbs that
are not used with progressive tense are those of inert perception (feel, hear, see, smell): I could
feel something hard under my foot. The could form denotes a state whereas the past simple
form denotes an event. I could hear a door slamming indicates a continuing and repeated noise
while I hear a door slam indicates a single momentary percussion. The verbs of inert cognition
(believe, forget, hope, know) are passive in meaning like the verbs of perception. We say I think
that they are coming not Im thinking that .Feel can be both a verb of cognition and a verb
of perception. Verbs such as read, tell, find, refer to the result of communication and may also be
placed in this class- see and hear can be used in the cognitive sense I see you are having a
house built. Know is characteristically followed by the progressive in sentence like: I like a
man who knows what he is doing, where the state of knowledge and the activities of talking and
doing are concurrent . State verbs of having and being (be , belong, have, own) are not used with
the progressive. I own this house not Im owning.. There is , however, an activity where have
occurs freely with the progressive aspect Im having breakfast/a bath. Verbs of bodily
sensation can occur either with or without the progressive without change of meaning (ache, feel,
hurt).
The verbs feel, taste. Smell can be used to indicate not only inert perception but also active
perception. Then they belong to the activity cathegory and may freely take the progressive form.
I (can) smell the perfume/ Im smelling. The verbs see and hear are not used in the active
sense b/c they are separate verbs-look at and listen to that are available for that function. When
the type of perception expressed is inert rather than active, the progressive is exculded. This is
for the verbs for which the grammatical S is the O of perception That sounds like Toms
voice.
Verbs such as think, imagine can be used in the progressive when they function as activity
verbs: Im thinking about what you said-here we have thinking perceived as a kind of work or
mental exertion. The progressive is also more tentative, more polite method of expressing a
mental attitude so we may have Im hoping youll give us some advice. This is appropriate to a
request which will put the listener to a considerable risk of inconvenience. State verbs of having
and being can combine with the progressive if an activity meaning is supplied to them: She is
being kind ( she is acting kindly towards somenone). He is being sorry/ afraid/happy could

mean he is pretending to be sorry/afraid. Other verbs such as resemble,cost, matter may take the
progressive when accompanied by an expression like more and more:She is resembling her
mother more and more as the years go by. Apart from the major use of the progressive aspect to
refer to single temporary happenings, there are four other less important uses. 1st , there are 2
separate habitual uses of the progressive. When we say Im taking dancing lessons this winter
we have habit in existence over a limited period. With this use we usually have adverbial
expressions-this winter.The 2nd habitual meaning is repetition oif events of limited duration.
Whenever I visit him he is mowing his lawn. Here the notion of limited duration is applied to
the individual events of which the habit is composed. The progressive present may, like the
present simple, refer to anticipated happenings in the future: We are visiting grandmother
tomorrow. Happenings anticipated in the past may be expressed by the progressive past
tense.There is also a special ideomatic meaning of the progressive marked by the absence of the
temporary element of the normal progressive meaning:in Day by day we are getting nearer to
death we have the sense of persistent or continuous activity. Here the durational element of
meaning overrides the temopary element. The uninterrupted nature of the activity is usually
underlined by the presence of adverbs or adverbial phrases such as always, forever, constantly.
The perfect cannot be fitted into the simple series, b/c besides the purely temporal element it
contains the element of result. It represents the present state as the outcome of past events and
may be called retrospective variety of the present which can be seen by the fact that the adverb
now can stand with it:Now Ive eaten enough. Also Have you written the letter? is a question
about the present time. To express the perfect meaning compounds with have were formed:Ive
driven/ read. In quite recent times one of these combination has become a pure present: I have
got English does not allow the use of the perfect if a definite point in the past is meant , whether
this is expressly mentioned or not. Sentences containg words like yesterday or in 1980 require
past simple and also sentences about people who are dead. However, when something is stated as
the present effect of their doings we need the present perfect. Newton has explained the
movements of the moon. A retrospective past time, bearing the same relation to some period in
the past as the perfect does to the present is called past perfect- had written. Very often we need
to speak of something belonging at once to the past and to the present time. Then 2 tenses may be
combined : I was (then) and am (still) an admirer of Mozart/ Ive been and am . But if
an indication of duration is added we can combine the two into what might be called an inclusive
past-and-present.
There are some adverbials that are specifically associated with the perfect. These are the
adverbial clauses and phrases beginnig withsince- Since Monday, since we met.They indicate
the starting point of the period of time. Adverbials beginning with for are often used perfect
forms but they are not restricted to them. The perfect is used when the activity has results in the
present: Ive cut my finger. Here the action is observable at the present. The perfect indicates a
period of time preceding but continuing up to a later point of time (present or past).Ive seen
John this morning. The same could be reported by past tense as well which shows that the period
of time indicated by the present perfect or the past overlap, and that an action performed in the
past may be included in either of them. Present perfect is used when we have a period of time that
includes the present and there are features of the present that directly link it to the past activity.
The temporal situation that is envisaged by the speaker is one that includes the present: Ive
bought a new dress ( the new dress may be displayed at the time of speaking). Very often it is
only the choice of the adverbial that determines the choice b/n present perfect and past. There is
no question of current relevance but only whether the period of time being indicated includes the
present moment or not. So we may say Ive seen him 3 times today but I saw him 3 times

yesterday. The fundamental difficulty about current relevance is that it is not easy to define
what is and what is not relevant. It is unusual to use the perfect when talking about the death
Queen Victoria has visited Brighton but the perfect is all right- Brighton has been visited by
Queen V.
The use of the progressive prefect does not necessarily imply that the activity continues
throughout the relevant period of time, buy merely that it has duration within the period.
Someone has been moving my books shows a period of time that began in the past and
continued up to the present. This period of time rather than a wholly past period is chosen b/c the
present disorderly state of the books is linked to the past activity.
The perfect may express very recent activity which is indicated by just- Ive just seen her.
Just means a brief period of time preceding but up to the present moment. Just may function as
today. The perfect with accent on the auxiliary is used to refer to past experiences-I have read
pride and prejudice.Here past experiences ar shown as part of a persons present make up-this
book is among the experiences that make me what I am. With the perfect and followed by to the
verb to be has the meaning of having gone and returned. He has been to France but Hes gone
to France means he is still there.

Topic 7
Modality
There are some lexical ways of expressing modality in English. The 1st one is through nouns
such as chance, hope, intention, and determination. Also through adjectives such as likely,
obvious, sure; through adverbs (hardly, perhaps).Another way is through verbs, which can be
main verbs like think, doubt, permit and modals such as shall, should, will, would, can ,could,
may, might,must and ought. Modality does not only occur individually but can also be combined
in the same sentence in various ways. Example : through two more or less synonimous
expressions of modality (perhaps they might have built it). We can also have two modal elements
which are not equivalent in meaning (certainly he might have built it)-here the effect is
cumulative. These two types of combination have also been termed as modally harmonic and
modally non-harmonic respectively. Very often expressions of modality also combine with tense
forms in such a way that a new modal meaning results. This is the case with the past forms
should, would, could, and might when they appear in a non-past context (you should see a
doctor). This is called secondary modality which is often described in terms of tenativeness or
politeness. Certain interrogative sentence can also express different kind of modality to indicate
the expectations of the speaker. The term modality comrises expressions of volition, ability,
various degrees of likelihood, obligation, wishes and permission. They will therefore be refered
to as modalities. Their formal and syntactic characretistics differ from those of other verbs. We
can talk of modals as being subjunctive equivalents when a modal can be exchanged for a
subjunctive form in the same syntactic position and when the two express the same meaning. We
can talk of root and epistemic senses of modals. The roots are: Necessity, Permission, Volition,
and Ability; the epistemic : Certainty and Possibility. The syntactic environment favours the one
or the other interpretation and this makes clear what the sense is. The surface subject of a root
modal is normally animate. A root modal normally exculdes the presence of the perfect.
Interrogative structures favour a root interpretation. The root sense of a modal qualifies the

subject of the modal in the active sentence. It specifies what the S is obliged, permitted,
determined or able to do. The epistemic senses do well with the perfect (Possibility:He may have
gone outside to play) and takes the progressive. However, they are excluded in if-conditional
clauses and they characterise the truth value of the sentence generally. They represent it as certain
, predictable or possible. Adverbs may be used to express different degrees of likelihood (It may
possibly happen.) English modals may be said to express degrees of evidential modality. The
order from the uncertain to the certain is: might, may, could, can, should, ought to, would,
will,must. Modalities that are inherent in their surface S are called internal. When we have
something outside the S that decides what the S is obliged or permitted to do or be , we have
external modalities.
According to Von Wright there are four modes. The 1st in the Alethic modality but it has little
place in ordinary language. Epistemic modality refers to the use of the modal auxiliary may and
must. This mode relates to an inference by the speaker. Deontic modality is used to express what
is obligatory, permitted or forbidden. Like the epistemic modality it is usually subjective b/c the
speaker is the one who obliges, permits ot forbids. The existential mode is a matter of
quantificational logic and is more concerned in ordinary language with some, any, all, than the
expression of modality.
A distinction is made b/n mood and modality. Mood is a grammatical term while modalityis a
semantic term relating to the meanings that are usually associated with mood. Mood is usually
reserved for inflectional cathegories that exhibit modality-the subjunctive , the optative, as
opposed to indicative.
Lyons points out that it is possible to treat tense as a modality. The modal verbs will/shall are
used to indicate future time as well as modality. The modal verbs even in their present forms
often refer to future events. Could and would can be used for past time reference.
There are formal criteria that clearly distinguish will, shall, can, may, must, and ought to, and to a
lesser extent used to, dare, need, and is to, as modal verbs. They place the modals in the same
class as the primary auxiliaries
be , have, and do. They are:1) Invertion with the S (May I
come?); 2) Negative form with nt (cant); 3)code (he can swim and so can she); 4) Emphatic
affirmation (he will be there). There are further specifically modal criteria : no s form for 3rd
p.sg.; absence of non-finite forms; no cooccurrence (He may will come). Will, shall, may, can,
must and ought to fit all these criteria with the exception that may has no nt form in the
present. Must and ought to have no past form while ought to in the only one that requires to.
Dare, and need occur both as non modal (with do) and as modals with the 1st 2 of the nice
properies( Dare he go.He darent go but not He dare go.) Is to has the nice properties but
this is also true of the verb be when it is not an auxiliary.
The negative not of modals can mean two very different things b/c each sentence containing a
modal can be broken down into the modal statement itself and the statement on which the modal
statement comments. Sometimes the insertion of notafter the modal auxiliary negates the modal
statement which is external negation and in other cases (He may not be serious- it is possible [that
he is not serious]), the other statement is negated-internal negation. When the meaning of may
not is permission the stress normally falls on not;when the meaning is possibilty the stress
falls on may. Internal and external negations are combined in the case of double negation-I
cant not tell her about it.= It is impossible for me not to tell her about it.
As a whole can/could; may/might express possibility, ability and permission. Must has the
meaning of (logical) necessity ( You must be feeling tired.); obligation or compulsion ( You must
be back by ten.) where must implies self-obligation, have (got) to implies obligation by
external forces. Ought to and should express tentative inference (The sea should be visible from

here) and obligation (you should do as he says). Will/would have the meaning of prediction and
volition (intention , willingness, insistence). Shall expresses prediction and volition. The past
tense modals could, might, would, and should are used as past tense equivalents of can ,may,
will ,shall, but they can also be used in the hypothetical (or unreal) sense of the past tense in both
main and subordinate clauses. (If united could win this game, they might become league
champions). Often the past forms could, might, and would add a note of tentativeness or
politeness (tentative permission-Could I see your passport?, volition Would you lend me a
dollar?) The moods in EG are indicative, subjunctive, imperative. Moods express certain attitudes
of the mind of the speaker towards the conents of the sentence through a form of a verb. Mood is
a syntactic cathegory not a notional one. The imperative is a will-mood in so far as its chief use is
to express the will of the speaker and it is meant to influence the behaviour of the hearer.
Imperatives thus are requests which range from the strictest command to the humblest prayer.
They also can mean permission (Take that if you like). They also express condition and occur in
connection with a ?preterit? Some imperatives have become prepositions or conjunctionsimaginary imperative (Suppose he were to come, what then?) Moods denote cathegories of
meaning not of form. The indicative is used to represent something as a fact. It is frequently used
in conditional clauses (if he is ill) and after wish. The indicative is generally used in relative
clauses and clauses introduced by local and teporal conjunctions. (Where, when, while) the
subjunctive is non-committal mood.When something is mentioned with a certain hesitation or
doubt. Subject is most often required if impossibility is implied. The indicative is also required
when the two ideas are not really meant as conditioning and conditioned but as equally true (If he
was rich, he was open-handed too). Mood, like tense, is frequently realised by inflecting the verb
or by modifying it by means of auxiliaries. It is defined in relation to an unmarked class of
sentence which express simple statements of fact. The term for this unmarked mood is
indicative.
Two classes of sentences stand apart from all others by virtue of their modality and the
imperative sentences express commands or instructions. The central class of imperative sentences
are associated with the 2nd person. The interrogative sentences are associated with the
employment of various interrogative particles or pronouns, with a difference of word order or
with intonation. They are quite clearly modal and may be characterised by additional modalities
which indicate the expectation of the speaker. Three scales of modality are relevant here: the one
of wishand intention; of necessity and obligation; of wish and necessity.
The inresection of tense and mood should be mentioned. Sentence with will/shall dont
necessarily refer to the future. We may have the putativeuse of will (He will be quite a big boy
now.)There are sentences with would, should, which have no reference to the past time.Past
combines with mood to introduce a more tentative,remote or polite sense. Tense here is
converted to a secondary modality.
The S is the mood of subordination. It rarely occurs except in subordinate clauses, where its
occurrence is very largely determined by the type of sentence of which the clause is a
constituent , by the selection of a particular main verb, by negation. The indicative and the
subjunctive forms of the verb are in almost complementary distribution. The distribution of a set
of forms , A and a set of forms B may be partly complementary and partly overlapping and the
distinction b/n them , in the contexts in which they contrast may be modal. The occurrence of
either A or B in subordinate clauses may correlate with a difference of modality which is also
indicated elsewhere in the sentence. Also, there may be no correlation at all b/n the occurrence of
1 set of forms rahter than another and the modality of the context by which they are determined.

In this case the difference b/n A and B would not be described as modal. As a whole , the term
subjunctive carries no implication of modality.

Topic 8
Voice
The term voice is used to describe a major verb category that distinguishes an active verb phrase
(eg ate) from a passive one ( was eaten). The passive construction appears in final position in the
verb phrase and Voice is a category which concerns not only verb phrases but other constituents
in the clause.
Voice is a grammatical category which makes it possible to view the action of a sentence in either
of two ways without a change in the fact reported: The butler murderesd the detective( active);
The detective was murdered( passive). The activo-passive relation involves two gramm. levelsthe verb phrase and the clause. The construction obligatory consists of 3 structural elements .
The S in most cases is a noun having the semantic feature ( - Animate) but it can also be a noun
marked ( + Animate). Predicate is a verb in the active voice and in 1 of the simple tenses
present, past or future. An important feature is the intransitive use of trans. verb. The adverbial
modofies the verbal action with respect to measure (manner or degree).
Changing from the active to the passive involves rearrangement of of two clause elements , and
one addition. The active Subject becomes the passive Agent ; the active Obj becomes the passive
S; the preposition by is introduced before the agent . The prepositional phrase of passive
senteneces is generally an optional element.
Although the corresponding active and passive sent. appear to be radically different , the
relations of meaning b/n their elements remain the same eg. John helped Mary and Mary was
helped by John has the same truth value and in both cases J is the performer of the action , even
though structurally J has a very different position and function in each. The active voice gives
agents primary focus and themes secondary focus while the passive gives the theme primary
focus. In the verb phrase the difference b/n the two voice categories is that the passive adds a
form of the auxiliary be followed by the past participle of the main verb. Theres also inversion of
the nouns signifying the agent and the theme with respect to S and Obj position in the sentence.
Although rarely active and passive sentences may differ in meaning especially when they
contain numerals or quantifiers eg. Everyone in the room speaks 2 languages ( any 2 languages
per person)/ Two languages are spoken by everyone in the room( two specific languages that
everyboly speaks).
There are active voice sentences that dont have a passive equivalent since the verbs are not truly
transitive-eg Mike has a car / A car is had by Mike. Likewise, therere passive sentences in
English that have no active voice variant Tom was born in London someone born Tom in
London.
The passive auxiliary is normally be. Its only serious contender is get, which however is not ,
by most syntactic criteria , an auziliary at all. Moreover, get tends to be limited to constr.
without an expressed animate agent John got beaten last night. The get passive is avoided in
formal style and even in informal English its far less frequent than the be passive( The house is
getting rebuilt). Get is much more common as a resulting copula in sentence like My mother is

getting old and its met in sentences which look superficially like passives but which could not
be expanded by an agent-eg. I have to get dressed before 8. Get is a dynamic conclusive verb
and the participles in the sentencevis stative(dressed means in a state of wearing clothes, as in
Jane is already dressed). The get-passive often reflects an unfavourable attitude towards the
action: How did that window get opened?
Although its a general rule that transitive verb sentence can be either active or passive, there are
a number of exceptions where the active and passive sent. are not in systematic correspondence.
All the verbs that belong to the stative class of verbs of being and having dont occur in the
passive ( the example with have). With some constructions, however,only the passive is
possible( John was said/reputed to be a good teacher) and the example with be born. In
English , prepositional verbs can often occur in the passive but not so freely as in the active.
These prepositional verbs are verbal idioms consisting of a lexical verb followed by a preposition
such as look at: They eventually arrived at the splendid stadium./ The splendid stadium was
eventually arrived at, but They eventually arrived at the expected result/ The expected result was
eventually arrived at. In these sentences its clear that the difference in acceptability can be stated
in terms of concrete / abstract passive S. Its only in the abstract, figurative use that prepositional
verbs such as go into, arrive at, look into accept the passive.
Transitive verbs can be followed either by phrasal or by clausal objects. With clauses as Obj,
however , the passive transformation is to a greater or lesser degree restricted in use. John
thought that she was attractive/ That she was attractive was thought by John. The passive often
becomes acceptable , however, particularly when the Obj is a finite clause, if the clausal object is
extraposed and replaced by the anticipatory pronounit- It was thought that she was attractive ;
or if the S of the object clause is made the S of a passive superordinate clause She was thought
to be Correference b/n a S, and a noun phrase object blocks the passive correspondence. This
constraint occurs with reflexive pronouns , reciprocal pronouns and possessive pronouns when
coreferential to the S- John could see himself in the mirror/ Himself could be seen in ; The
woman shook her head/ Her head was shaken.
Unlike the active S , the agent-by-phrase is generally optional. This omission occurs especially
when the agent is irrelevant or unknown as in: The Prime Minister has often been criticized
recently . However, we dont omit the Agent if its a proper name designating an artist , inventor
, discoverer , whos too important to omit in the context. The Mona Lisa was painted by da
Vinci. We also dont omit the Agent when its a indefinite noun phrase, eg. new info, that is
retained to provide the listener or reader with the new info- While Jill was walking down the
street , her purse was snatched by a young man. The agent can also be an inanimate noun phrase
which is retained because its unexpected. Therere different kinds of passives. Sentences like
This violin was made by my father is called central or true passive. It has a personal agent.
Sentence like This difficulty can be avoided in several ways exemplifies the most common type
of passive, that which has no expressed agent (agentless passive) and so leaves the S of the active
counterpart undetermined. Sentence like We are encouraged to go on with the project and Ema
was interested in linguistics represent a mixed or semi-passive class whose members have both
verbal and adjectival properties. Their adjectival properties include the possibility of coordinating
the participle with an adjective , modifying the participle with quite , rather, more, etc. and
replacing be by a lexical copular verb such as feel or seem( We feel rather encouraged and
content.) In such adjectival uses of the past participle, its rare to have a by phrase expressing
the agent , but blends often occur: I feel rather let down by his indifference. Even ed Adj
which have no corresponding active infinitive or finite verb forms may occassionally have agent
by- phrases: We were impressed by his attempts.

Therere several prepositions which can introduce agent-like phrases: I was a bit surprised at her
behaviour/ Her behaviour surprised me a bit; You wont be bothered with me any more/ I wont
bother you any more. These agent-like phrases may sometimes cooccur with an active subject
and so be interpreted ambiguously when in the passive: Emma was interested in linguistics/(so)
interested Emma in linguistics. Sentences like: The building is already demolished. and The
modern world is getting more highly mechanized. Have neither an active transform nor a
possibility of a agent addition. Theyre called pseudo-passives since its chiefly only their
superficial form of verb+ ed part. that recommends them for consideration as passives. The
active sentence corresponding to the 1st example is: (So) has already demolished the building,
not (So) already demolishes the building.
Passive voice can be used with modals and perfect tenses as many other auxiliary elements can
precede the passive marker: More hospitals could be built ( for making suggestions)/ More
hospitals could have been built( for the past).
We should use the passive when the agent is redundant- Oranges are grown in California, when
the writer wants to emphasize the receiver or result of the action- Six people were killed by the
tornado ; when the writer wants to make a statement sound objective without revealing the
source of info-Its assumed that hell announce his candidacy soon; when the writer wants to be
tactful or evasive by not mentioning the agent: M. was given some bad advice about,
sometimes the passive is more appropriate than the active( esp. in complex sentences). We also
use it when the theme is given info and the agent is new info What a lovely dress./ Thank
you.It was given to me by Pam. Passive is also used when the writer wishes to retain the same
grammatical subject in successive clauses, even though the function of the noun-phrase changes
from agent to theme: Groreman beat Joe Frazier, but he was beaten by Muhammad Ali.
Topic 9
A model of the English sentence as a three-structure unity (Functional Grammar). Sentence
paradigm in English.
The functional description of the language involves identifying on the one hand all the various
functions that incorporated into the grammar , and on the other hand all the different
configurations by which these functions are defined- that is all the possible structures which serve
to express some meaning in the language. In nearly all instances a constituent has more than one
function at a time. For example in : The boys throw stones, boys is actor but the item has other
functions in the sentence besides this one. It is also Subject, for example. On the other hand its
theme as well.
In general items are multifunctional. Most of the constituents in any construction higher than a
word enter into more than one structural configurations. Thus, subject as a label is something
that is reserved for a grammatical function. There seems to be sth in common, as regards their
status in the sentence. But it is not easy to say exactly what this is. Instead, various interpretations
have grown up around the subject notation , which can be summarized as follows: a) that which
is the concern of the message; b) that of which sth is being predicated (on which rests the truth of
the argument); c) the doer of the action.

These three definitions , however, are defining different concepts. So ,we are faced with the
question whether its possible for the category of subject to embrace all these different meanings
at one and the same time.
For ex. in the sentence: The princess gave orders to the maid , the princess serves all three
functions, so there would be no problem in identifying and explaining the subject..We could use
the term to refer to the sum of these three definitions and assign the label subject to whichever
element which fulfils all the functions in question. But this means that in every sentence theres
just one element in which all three functions are combined. But this is not the case. Many
sentences dont contain such elements that embody all three functions at the same time.For
example in: The orders were given to the maid( by the princess). What has happened in this
sentence is that the different functions have been split up among the constituents of the clause.
The princess is still the doer of the action but but the message is now a message containing the
orders. When these different functions came to be recognized as distinct , they were at first
labelled as if they were three different kinds of subject. In the 19th century the terms were called
psychological subject , grammatical subject and logicals. In sentence like: The boys throw
stones the functions of psychological, grammatical and logical subject coincide. But we have to
take into account of natural living language , and of the different kinds of variation that occur in
it, in which the order of elements can vary, passive can occur as well as actives, and so on. Its
not possible to base an analysis on the assumption that these three concepts merely different
aspects of one and the same general notion. They have to be interpreted as three separate and
distinct functions. Theres no such thing as a general concept of subject of which these are
different varieties.
The psychological S is theme, the grammatical S is subject and the logical one is actor. Thus, in :
The princess gave orders to the maid., the roles of theme, actor and subject are all combined in
one element the princess. In The orders were given to the maid all 3 are separated.
The theme functions in the structure of the sentence as a message.A sentence has meaning as a
message , a piece of info. The theme is the point of departure for the message. It.s the element the
speaker selects for grounding what he is going to say. The subject functions in the structure of
the sentence as an exchange. A sentence has meaning as an exchange, a transaction b/n speaker
and listener. Its the element the speaker makes responsible for the validity of what hes saying.
The actor functions in the structure of the sentence as a representation. A sentence has a meaning
as a representation. The actor is the active participant in a process; the three headings-the
sentence as an exchange ,the sentence as a representation and the sentence as a message refer to
the 3 distinct kinds of meaning that are embodied in the structure of a sentence. Theme, subject,
and actor do not occur as isolates , each occurs in association with other functions from the same
strand of meaning.
The significance of any functional label lies in its relationship to the othr functions with which
its structurally associated. Its the structure as a whole, the total configuration of functions that
realizes the meaning. The function of Actor, for example, is interpreted only in its relation to the
othr functions of the same kind- other representational functions such as process and goal.
Similarly, the subject enters into configurations with other functional elements as realization of
the sentence as exchange and likewise the theme , in realizing the sentence as a message.
By separating the functions of Theme , Subject and Actor we saw that the sentence is a composite
unity. Its constituted not of one dimension of structure, but of three , and each of the three
construes a distinctive meaning. These m/s are the sentence as a message , as a representation and
as an exchange. In fact the threefold pattern of meaning is not simply characteristic of the
sentence , these three kinds of meaning run through the whole of language. Althouhg there sre

clearly these three motifs running side by side in every sentence, a sentence is still one sentenceit is not three. The sentence is a unit in which meanings of three different kinds are combined.
Three distinct structures , each expressing one kind of semantic organization are mopped on to
one another to produce a simple wording. The different labels , even for the same constituent
identify different functions that it is performing in the sentence. Typically, all constituents are
doing more than one thing at once they are all contributing in different ways to different kinds
of meaning being expressed in the sentence. Though theresre tendencies for certain functions to
be performed by the same constituents - for example Actor tends to be Subject and Subject tends
to be Theme; they can all be performed by different constituents. They reinforce the the need for
the three-dimensional analysis. In nay contexts there are a number of meanings that speakers
might expressand a number of wordings that they might use to express them. There are also
factors which make it more or less likely that specific kinds of m/s or wordings will be chosen.
Meaning emerges from a union of wording and context. Functional Grammar tries to face this
fact and to establish a unified model of language which in principle allows the links to be made
within the same description .
The sentence as a representation is realised through the transitivity structures whose functions
include: Agent, Recipient, Affected, Process, Attribute, and Circumstance.
The clause or the traditional simple sentence is the major grammatical unit used by speakers to
ask questions , make statements and issue directives. The exchange of info is typically carried out
by the indicative mood , as opposed to directives , which are typically expressed by the
imperative.
The speaker organizes the informational content of the clause so as to establish whatever point of
departure is desired for the message. This is called theme which in English coincides with the
initial element or elements of the clause.
When we come to describe the more detailed mechanisms of English, we also mark use of the
notion function to describe syntactic categories such as subjects and objects, semantic roles such
as agent and informational categories such as theme. These different types of function constitute
autonomous dimensions of analysis , so that theres one-to-one relationship b/n them. The choice
of one or other is determined by such factors as context, co-text, what has gone before in the
message and the relation b/n the speaker and the hearer.
Topic 10
The Noun Phrase and the Verb Phrase: structure and syntactic functions
In discussing vouns and verbs and their respective groups we deal with the fundamentals of each
sentence structure. Just like the sentence maybe indefinitely complex , so may the noun phrase.
In describing complex noun phrases we can distinguish 3 components: 1) the head- around which
the other components cluster and which dictates concord and other kinds of congruence with the
rest of the sentence outside the NP; 2) the premodifier- it comprises all the items placed before
the head- these are mainly determiners , adj and nouns. Thus we have : this tall girl, some very
expensive clothes, etc.; 3) the postmodifier comprises all the items pleced after the headprepositional phrases , non-finite clauses and relative clauses.

With the exception of the predicator function, theres no one-to-one correspondence b/n class of
unit and syntactic function in English. So, whereas the predicator is always realized by a VG , the
other functions display a considerable range of possible realizations by different classes of group
and clause.
Most functions are prototypically realized by a certain class of unit( eg S and Obj by NGs) but
language is sucha that almost any group or clause can realize these functions.
Like words, phrases can be classified by their external function and by their internal forms.
Typically in a phrase composed of head and modifiers , premodifiers tend to be phrases or
clauses. The structure of the NP illustrates this tendency. In the clause NPs act as subject(S), as
object(O) or as complement(C) :
Det Head Pc
The house was
NP

C
(quite empty). NP=S

S
P
O
We have bought (a house). NP=O
S
P
NP
This must be (the house).
NP=C
Some NPs (some NPs of time) can act as adverbials
S P
A
A
We walked (four miles) (last month). NP=A
NP
NP
head
What is more, subordinate NPs can act as modifiers in other NPs: man ( the champion)
A construction in which one NP is is defined or modified by another is called apposition.
Eg . champion mountaineer- William Marx.
The structures of NPs are very diverse but the chief elements are : head; pre-modifier and postmodifier. The head of a NP can be: 1) a noun- the toy and 2) a pronoun- it, myself, everyone( in
the shop); 3) an adj- the absurd; 4) a genitive phrase- Marys ;5) an enumerator- all sixty.
The pre-modifiers of a NP may be: determiners- this morning; enumerators two cups, the
second girl; adjectives red shoes ; nouns- gold ring, London pubs; genitive phrases- Johns cup;
adverbs in initial position, like in: quite a noise; compound words of various kinds- brainstorming
game ; V-ed or V-ing forms of verbs smashed potatoes, sleeping child.
The post-modifier of a Np can be : prepositional phrases the worst day of my life; relative
clauses an actor that I admire; other types of modifier, including adverbs- the boy downstairs;
adj- sth horrible; noun phrases in apposition- Mary, a sensitive and beautiful girl, etc.
In postmodification theres in principle no limit to the length of NPs. The occurrence of
prepositional phrases as post-modifiers is very common:
1)
the girl( head) by the door(Pp) with the blue dress(Pp).
2)
the girl( head) by the door(Pp) with the bell on it(Pp).
In 2 one Pp modifiers girl, the other Pp postmodifies door. In 1 , however, both Pps postmodify
girl.
Preceeding from left to right , the structure of the NP is as follows: we begin with the immediate
context , the identification of the item in terms of the here-and-now: eg. these girls. From there

we go on to quantitative features : place, in order, and number. Next come the qualitative
features. Finally comes class membership.
So theres a progression in the NP from the element that has the greatest specifying potential to
that which has the least. This is the same principle that puts the Theme 1st in the clause. This
principle puts the deictic( the definite article) 1st in the NP.
A verbal phrase is the expansion of a verb , in the same way that a nominal group is the
expansion of a noun. If we consider has been waiting as a word sequence, it contains a
lexicalverb which comes last, a finite verb has which comes in between. No other ordering of
these three components is possible.
Finite verbal phrases range from short, one-word items such as ate, where theres no auxiliary ,
to long strings like couldnt have been doing to be being eaten. The verb phrase consists of
three elements in this order: the main verb, the complement, and an optional element called
adverbial. The main verb and the complement are closely interrelated. The traditional terms
transitive and intransitive are ways of talking about this relation. A transitive verb is a v. that
takes a noun phrase complement. For ex She sells books. Sell is the main verb and books is
the noun phrase complement. The verbsell , at least in its common usage , requires an object
noun phrase. All main verbs require a subject noun phrase but only transitive main verbs require
an object noun phrase: eg. Mary wept. In the case of a transitive verb, the complement that the
verb takes is a noun phrase. In the case of an intransitive verb the complement is the null set .
The VP can consist of different kinds of verbs that determine the structure of the phrase: thus we
can distinguish b/n trans , intrans, ditransitive ( verb+ indirect object + direct object) , complex
transitive verbs.
Its already mentioned apart from the main verb , there may be auxiliary verbs that help the main
verb to make up verb phrases. Therere 2 types of auxiliaries- primary auxiliary verbs and modal
auxiliary verbs. The primary are: do, have , be. Do helps to form the do-construction. Have
hepls to form the perfective aspect. Be helps to form the progressive aspect and the passive.
The modal auxiliary helps to express variety of meanings. When a verb phrase consists of more
than one verb , therere certain rules for how they can be combined: modal- a modal auxiliary
followed by a verb in the past participle form; progressive- a form of be followed by a verb in
the ing form ; passivea form of be followed by a verb in the past participle form.
These 4 combinations may also combine with each other to make up longer strings of verbs in 1
single VP.
A striking feature in the parallelism with the noun phrase. The verb phrase begins with the finite ,
which is the equivalent of the deictic , relating to the process of the now and here. The finite does
so by tense or modality whereas the deictic does so by person or proximity but each of them
provides the orientation of the group. The verbal phrase or group ends with the event , which may
be event or action., its equivalent to the thing of the NP. Both the event abd the thing, however,
represent the core of the lexical meaning.
This is not a coincidence. In both cases in NP and in VP the initial position is thematic , while
the final position is informative. The verb phrase always acts as predicator(P) in the clause. The
structure of the VP in terms of two kinds of elements is : the main verb and auxiliaries. The
auxiliaries are optimal and precede the main verb. When it comes to verb forms we have to
distinguish b/n finite and non-finite verbs. A finite verb phrase is a verb phrase in which the 1st or
only word is a finite verb, the rest of the verb phrase consisting of non-finite verb. Finite verb
phrase can occur as the VP of independent clause. They also have tense contrast , that is they
make distinction b/n tenses. Theres person and number concord b/n the subject of a clause and

the finite VP. With modal auxiliaries theres no overt concord- eg. I/ you/ he/ she/ they can play
the piano.
Finite verb phrases have need. On the other hand non-finite verb phrase is any phrase in which
one of the non-finite verb forms ( the ing participle; the ed paticiple and the infinitive) is the
1st or only word. Non- finite VPs do not normally occur as the verb phrases of an independent
clause.
The elements of the VP can only ossur in a strict order. For ex. could have eaten and had been
playing are grammatically acceptable , while have could eaten and been had playing are not.
Furthermore, each auxiliary determines the form of the verb which follows it- eg. has worked
occurs but has working does not.
In the finite verb phrase , the 1st word is always a finite verb form. The verbal group is also
structured logically. The logical structure of the verbal phrase realizes the system of tense. If we
consider has been eating there are 3 separate tense choices: 1) present- expressed by the s in
has ; 2) past- expressed by the verb have plus the en in been ; 3) present- expressed by
the verb be plus the -ing in eating.
When it comes to passive verb phrase the passive is expressed by be or get plus verb en
( past participle). There are cases when the lexical verb can be accompanied by an adverb or
preposition or by both of them at the same time. In these cases we talk about phrasal verb
phrases, eg..look at ( V + adv) ; look for (V + preposition); look out for ( V + adv + preposition)
Expressions of these kinds are trated as phrasal verbs. The NP and the VP are the expansions of
the noun and the verb respectively. Their length can vary greatly. Both NP and VP have pivotal
role in the clause.
Topic 12
The composite sentence- basic features and types. Types of clauses in the composite sentence.
Non-finite clauses
Traditional grammar classifies sentences as simple and composite. Composite sentences fall into
two types- complex and compound. While the simples sentence contains only one clause, a main
clause, a compound sentence contains two or more main clauses. A complex sentence on the
other hand, contains two or more ,contains two or more clauses, at least one of which is
subordinate. Since thers a considerable overlap b/n main and subordinate clauses, the clause of
compound or complex sentence are not mutually exclusive- ex like Mike prepared the food that
they had ordered and Ed bought the wine. Would belong to both. In the most central cases of
complex sentences, the subordinate clause is a constituent of the superordinate clause. In such
cases the superordinate clause is a main clause. The type of relationship b/n clauses in the
compound sentence is one of coordination while the relationship b/n clauses in the complex
sentence is one of subordination. In coordination the terms in the relationship are of equal
syntactic status, in subordination they are not- one is subordinate, the other superordinate. Thus
we may contrast coordinative- Mary was rude to his friends and this annoyed him immensely.
With subordinative- That Mary was rude to his friends annoyed him immensely. The clauses in
both complex and compund sentences are linked but the relation b/n the clauses is different.
Clausal coordination in compound sentences is achieved by means of coordinators such as: and,
or and but. And and or are the central coordinators from which but differs in some respectits well as linking two main clauses, and and or can link subordinate clauses- I wonder if you
should do so or if its better not to. Unlike but, and and or can link more than two clauses.

Subordinating conjunctions , on the other hand are as, because, since, before, so that,
while, when, as long as, etc. The equal syntactic status of the clauses related in coordination
may be reflected in the possibility of reversing their order like in: Ed is a lawyer and Tim is a
solicitor. This is the same as Tim is a solicitor and Ed is a lawyer. However, there are many
cases when the clauses cant be reversed in this way. The types of clauses that are linked within
the composite sentence are quite many. However, the main division is b/n finite and non-finite
clauses. From here finite clauses can be subdivided into: relative clauses; comparative clauses;
adverbial clauses; complement clauses. What is more, relative clauses are of 2 types: restrictive
and non-restrictive. The other main group of clauses- the non-finite clauses are further divided
into: -ing participle clauses, to-infinitive clauses and bare infinitive clauses. On the other hand
clauses can be divided into dependent (subordinate) and non-dependent. Relative clauses contain
one of the relative wh-words: who, whom, which, etc. There are a number of different kinds of
relative clause. The most central types are: restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses. The
restrictive clause is a type of subordinate clause (dependent) clause which is found in particular
place- inside a noun phrase following the head- and makes a particular contribution to the
meaning of the noun phrase which contains it. Restrictive relative clauses function only within
NP structure, as modifier, whereas non-restrictive occurs on a wider range of constructions. Nonrestrictive relative clauses differ from restrictive rel. ones in phonology, semantics and syntax. In
writing the non-restrictive clauses are typically separated from the other part of the sentence by
commas. In the non-restrictive relative clause the info is presented as separate and additional. The
relative clause may be introduced by that though that is not a relative pronoun. Comparative
clauses are another type of subordinate clauses. Example: He is as absent minded as I am.
Adverbial clauses suggest that they modify verbs, but actually they modify whole clauses.
Adverbial clauses are classical according to their meaning, for example adverbial clauses of
reason, time, manner- e.g. Because Mary loved John, she refused to believe that he had deserted
her.(adverbial clause of reason). When she returned, she found Tim very ill.( adverbial cl. Of
time). The complement clauses reflect the relationship b/n the clauses and the verb of the main
clause.E.g. Elizabeth regretted that she had met John. Here the complement clause occurs to the
right of the verb in the main clause, but complement clauses also occur to the left of verbs: That
Ann was in conversation with Mr Brown dismayed Captain Jack. As far as subordinate clauses
are concerned, they may not only function as a clause element of a superordinate clause but also
as a constituent of a phrase, for example as a relative clause postmodifying a noun phrase- The
school, which my children attend, is within walking distance. Apart from the first two main types
of clauses- the finite and non-finite, there are also clauses that are verbless- they miss the verb
element but are nevertheless capable of being analysed as clause elements e.g. Although always
helpful, she wasnt much liked. We recognize non- finite and verbless structures as clauses
because we can analyse their internal structure into the same functional elements that we
distinguish in finite clauses-e.g. Knowing (my temper), I didnt reply.
V
Od
The analysis depends on the analogy with corresponding finite clauses. E.g. I know my temper.
S V
Od
Similarly, the verbless clause although always helpful in : Although always helpful, she was not
much liked.
Conj.
Adv. Cs
Its analysed as in the corresponding finite clause:
Although she was always helpful, she wasnt much liked.
Conj.
S V Adv. Cs

Verbless clauses take syntactic compression and like non-finite clauses are commonly subjectless.
However, we can recover the S from the context. Verbless clauses can also sometimes be treated
as reduction of non-finite clauses. For example: Too nervous to reply, he stared at the floor. Being
too nervous to reply-. When the verbless clause is reduced to its minimum of a single
complement or adverbial, it may not be easy to distinguish it from an appositive construction or a
non- restrictive post modifier. The non- finite clause may be with or without a subject. Thus we
can have: The best thing would be to call sb. Or The best thing would be for you to call sb.
Both sentences are examples for to-infinitive clause structure, but the first is without a subject.
The infinitive clause with to plus a subject is found characteristically in constructions with
anticipatory It. The bare infinitive is found typically in pseudo cleft sentences where the to is
optional. E.g. What they did was (to) dig a channel. When the subject of ing clause is expressed,
its often introduced by a preposition- With the audience turning noisy, the chairman cut short his
long intro. Except for the ed clauses which are inherently passive, all other types of non-finite
clauses have both active and passive forms, for example: The parents having paid for the
damaged window- active voice.
The changed window having been paid for by the parents.-passive voice.
Non-finite clauses lack tense, markers and modal auxiliaries and frequently lack a subject and
subordinating conjunction. We recover meanings associated with tense, aspect and mood from the
context. Very often writers prefer non-finite structures because they are characterized with
compactness. But sometimes because of this compactness, non-finite clauses seem quite
ambiguous for the absence of a subject leaves doubt as to which nominal element is the subject:
e.g We met you leaving the room.
Here the doubt is to who leaves the room. Different types of clauses enter into different relations,
thus providing a great diversity of sentences. The combinations of clauses may be both
syntactically complex and less semantically explicit. The semantic relations are typically much
less explicit when realized by non-finite clauses.
Topic 13
Sentence types and communicative function of the sentence. Thematic and informational
function of the English sentence.
The major sentence types are :
He made a good deal- Declarative.
What a good deal he made?- Interrogative.
What a good deal he made!- Exclamative.
Make a good deal! Imperative.
A declarative sentence will typically be used to make a statement; an interrogative sentence will
typically be used to pose a question; an exclamatory sentence will be used to make an
exclamation and an imperative sentence will be used to issue what is called a directive- a term
covering requests, commands, prohibitions, instructions and the like. It is important , however, to
separate the concepts of statement , question and directive which are utterance categories, from
the syntactic categories of declarative, interrogative, imperative which realize them. Declarative ,
interrogative, imperative and exclamative are syntactic categories. Theyre distinguished from
each other by certain features of syntactic structure (the position of the subject, the form of the
VP, the presence or absence of the so-called wh-words, etc. ). Statements, questions,
exclamations and directive are, by contrast, semantic categories. Exclamation is in fact somewhat

different in kind from the other three in that it involves an emotive element of meaning that can
be overlaid on a statement a question or a directive. E.g. a)What a beauty she was!b) How on
Earth as she born so beautiful?c) Look at that beauty!. Syntactically only a)is exclamative, b)is
interrogative and c)- imperative. In performing the illocutionary act of stating, the speaker
expresses some proposition and commitshimself to its truth. Thus statement can be true or false
while a questions and directives are not. A directive identifies some future action orbehavior on
the part of the addressees including refraining from doing something and seeks to bring about that
action or behavior. Although we cant ask whether a directive is true or false, we can later ask if it
is complied with. The question defines the set of possible answers. Thus we may respond to a
question by giving answer or we may respond in some other way. If we sayWho broke the
window? the answer may be Peter broke it., or I dont know. Or Why ask me?. For the
majority of questions the answers are potential statements. But with certain kinds of questions,
the answers are potential directives: e.g. are interrogative sentences containing a first person
subject and one of the modal auxiliaries shall or will. In performing the illocutionary act of
questioning, we usually intend that the addressee(s) should respond by providing the right
answer. But we can also intend to go on to give the answer ourselves. Or the answer may be so
obvious that it would be unnecessary for us to give an answer- this is the so- called rhetorical
question as when we say Whos going to notice it? with the implication that no one is. The
illocutionary categories apply first to utterances, the uses of sentences rather than the sentences
themselves. Thats why they inevitably involve the intentions of the speaker. Declarative
sentences are unmarked type. Subordinate declarative clauses belong to the class of content
clauses with that marker of subordination. Therere many verbs( promise, order, request,
apologize) that are used performatively so as to bring about the performance of the illocutionary
act. Thus we can make a promise- I promise not to lie- which is a statement. But if not used
performatively, it can denote something different- e.g. Promise not to go there! which is a
directive. Intonation and punctuation are important factors since for example a declarative
sentence uttered with a raised intonation may have the force of a question-You are ready.
Meaning Are you ready?. The second type of sentence- the imperative can be subdivided into
imperative and non-imperative type. The imperative subgroup may be without a subject ( e.g. Be
careful!)or with ( Peter, be careful!). Another subtype of the imperative group is marked by the
presence of let as in Lets go to the beach!. Let cant take you as subject. The non-imperative
group of the imperative sentence is of the type ( You make a good job of it.) or (It is important
that you make good job of it.). The most obvious types of directive are perhaps requests and
commands. Instructions are another type of
directive when it comes to the 3rd type of sentences- the interrogative. Therere 2 major types a)
wh- interrogative and b)non-wh-interrogative. The 1st subtype is marked by the presence of whwords such as who, which, where, whose, whom. The non-wh interrogative sentences can be
yes/no questions Is is easy?- Yes, it is.. Most wh- interrogatives contain a single wh-phrase,
but we also have cases like: What did he give to whom?. What is typical of wh- interrogative
sentences is the fact that the wh- element occurs in initial position in the sentence. But its not
always the case: And you left the room at what time approximately?. In non- wh- interrogatives
in which the wh-word is moved to pre-subject position, the subject follows the tensed verb, which
is an operator- e.g.- Has he arrived?
Therere certain types of interrogatives such as How do you do? which is used as a greeting and
How dare you?(used as a reprimand) that one usually uses as non-questions. The 4th type of
sentences are the exclamative ones. They are marked by one or other of the wh- words how and

what. How is more characteristic of formal or careful style than what. Exclamative what
differs from interrogative what semantically in that it is concerned with degree not identity, and
syntactically in that it occupies determiner position-ex. What a wonderful day!. How generally
functions as a degree modifier to an adjective or adverb. As with interrogatives, the wh- word is
in initial position. The subject normally remains in its basic position. The English message is
organized into units of info, as signaled by intonation. Each tone unit represents a unification of
info and the place where the nucleus falls is the focus of info. Focus is related to the difference
b/n given and new info, that is b/n info already supplied by context and info which is not
recoverable. The focus indicates where the new info lies, and the unit carrying such info is in the
sentence final position. The new info could be , e.g., an entire clause or just a word. Three factors
contribute to the presentation of the content of a clause in one particular order rather than another.
One is the tendency to place new info (Rheme) towards the end of the clause- this is the principle
of end-focus. Another principle is the tendency to reserve the final position to the more complex
parts of the sentence- the principle of end-weight. Since, it is natural to express given info briefly,
these two principles work together.
A third factor is the limitation of possible clause structures- thus, for example an agent cant be
expressed by an object or complement, but by a subject, which is sentence initial position ( active
voice) and in final position (when the voice is passive). The theme or the initial position, is called
theme. Its characterized as the communicative point of departure for the rest of the clause. The
two communicatively prominent parts of the clause the theme and the rheme, are typically
distinct- one is the point of initiation, and the other the point of completion. The theme of a clause
is given info, yet the two can sometimes coincide- for example, when the focus of info falls on
the subject.
Who broke the window?- Peter did. In normal discourse its usual to start our message from what
we think our hearer knows and progress to what he doesnt know. The unmarked distribution
which follows the principle of communicative dynamism, starts with the given and progresses
towards the new. This is often called the principles end-focus. The normal position for info focus
is therefore towards the end of the info unit. This means that unmarked end-focus falls on the last
lexical item in the sentence. When the rheme is placed on the last lexical item, it keeps the
opinion open as to how much of the preceding part contains new info. the whole sentence may be
new or just one part of it
If the focus of info is placed on any other item than the last lexical unit, this is called marked
focus. The purpose of marked focus is often that of contrasting or correcting something which
had been said previously. Focus can fall on other, non- lexical items such as pronouns,
determiners, prepositions and auxiliaries again with an implied contrast. e.g. My sister washed
the floor.
Apart from highlighting new information, contrasting and correcting, marked focus can be used
for emotive purpose. English has devices for reordering the sentence so as to bring an element to
initial position. Such thematic fronting is the clefting which places the element to be focused near
the front. Similarly, the language provides resources for shifting info towards the end of the
sentence, where it acquires prominence. Such postponing device is the wh-cleft sentence e.g.
Where we hope to live is Canada.Other postponing devices include the active- passive
alternative, existential sentences (e.g. There is a lot of food in the fridge.) and extraposition (e.g.
It surprised everybody that he went there).

Topic 15
Word formation: compound words, affixation, conversion, backformation, shortening, blending
Word formation, that is the formation of a new word, deals with the basic structural factor in a
word which is its grammatical completeness. A word in English may consist of more that one root
morpheme or a root morpheme and a lexico-grammatical morpheme, ending in a grammatical
morpheme. In such cases we speak of word formation.
The word formative patterns are open structures, so a new word can be coined on the spur of the
moment for immediate use, following a word formative pattern. Productivity is a quantitative
feature of the word-formation pattern. The criterion for productivity is the N (quantity) of words
following the pattern. Activity is another quantitative feature of word formation pattern which
shows whether a pattern is active or not anymore for producing new words. Compounds are
combinations of two or more root morphemes forming grammatically complete morphological
unit. In English, there are two semi-affixes linking 2 root morphemes in compound nouns: -o, and
s. The pattern with the semi-morpheme - o is limited to forming compound nouns of root
morphemes of foreign origin and the result are words for technical appliances or other technical
terms (e.g. bibliography, chloroform). The pattern with the semi - affix -s is more productive and
more active because there we dont have compounds with morphemes of foreign origin to restrict
the activity of the pattern (e.g. beeswax, clothesline). Compounds without a linking element are
most numerous in English and they are classified on the basis of surface and deep structure. The
largest group is of the Noun morpheme. The interrelation of the root morpheme in a compound
depend on the semantic features of all of them ( ash-bin- a bin for ashes; churchyard- the yard of
the church). We may also have a cardboard- a board made of card and bag-pipe( a pipe like a
bag). The deep structure of the adjectival morpheme consists of an adjective and a noun. There is
a /:/ correspondence b/n the deep and the surface structure in this group. However, here the deep
structure is a syntactic pattern while the surface- morphological one(black-beetle, a black beetle).
With the gerundial morpheme we have compounds like bathing costume( a costume for bathing).
With the verbal morpheme we have a surface a surface structure (V+N) or (V+V): breakwater (X
breaks the water), eyelash, chairman (a man who chairs). The pronominal morpheme consists of
compounds like everybody, everyone. With the prepositional morpheme we have by-elections
and with the adverbial morpheme:afterthought, downpour. Affixation remains the basic means of
word formation. When a morpheme loses its specific lexical meaning and doesnt follow a given
paradigmatic pattern but becomes a means of coining new words in a language, it can be
considered to be an affix. Affixes have a lexical meaning with a comparatively wide volume and
narrow grammatical connotation which differs in the different languages. In English there is quite
a large number of affixes of Greek and Latin origin. The English prefixes have never played an
important role in word formation. They are identified as affixes since there are many words in the
language with these formatives but they are hardly productive. Prefixes in English hardly have
any grammar of their own. Some of them are:-a (quite rare and completely non-productive
today).; -ad and anti (found in nouns of foreign origin mainly, its still productive; it negates the
meaning of the root morpheme;arch (its polysemantic with basic meaning chief, principle, higharchbishop);auto (mostly used in technical terms; it means same-autobiography); be
(identifiable on account of the following morpheme-behalf); bi-monosemantic prefix with the
meaning of two-biped, biplane; co-variant of com-before a vowel, h d g n meaning complement
of (coexistence); com- a prefix meaning with, together(comparison); con- appears in words of
Latin origin, variant of com-; counter-has the meaning of against(counterpoint); de- used as a

prefix to indicate separation, removal; semi- means half; dis- has a negative meaning(disability,
disorder); ex- means formerly; fore- a native English prefix meaningbefore; its quite
productive(forefather, forehead); in meaning not occurs in words like inaccuracy, insanity; its
variants are il- and im-; mid- has the meaning of middle; re- means back, again(removal),
post-means after and pre- before.While prefixes take initial position in the word, suffixes
come after the root morpheme. Suffixes have a lexical meaning, but unlike prefixes they have
also a strong grammatical meaning. With suffixes synonymy is stronger because its supported by
the grammar. -acy is of Latin origin and was adopted in English through the numerous French
words with this suffix. There are several structural patterns of nouns here: adj. + -acy (accuracy),
N+ -acy (agency), V+ -acy (conspiracy); -age is a polysemantic suffix ( appendage, bondage); -al
is a monosemantic suffix, it forms nouns with a substantivized verbal meaning (approval,
arrival); -ance/ence- found in numerous French borrowings in English ( affluence, distance);
-ant/-ent are variants of one and the same suffix, they are not productive; their common meaning
is doer of the action; -ary is a barely productive suffix; it forms both animate and inanimate
nouns; -ate is productive with the meaning of office, institution- doctorate; the underlying
meaning of dom is state, statute (boredom); -er is a very productive suffix, its polysemantic
and has the meaning of doer of the action (dancer, dealer); another semantic group is a person
who is connected with N ( banner, customer); another semantic group has the meaning of a
person from N( burgher),. Inanimate nouns fall into 2 groups: (V+ -er) with the meaning of sth.
Connected with V: boiler and with the meaning of sth. Connected with :coaster. We may have
compounding and suffixation at the same time- caretaker, bartender. Variants of the suffix er are
ar and or (author, beggar). Nouns with a suffix ery have the meaning of place where the
action is performed, instrument and abstract noun (drudgery, bakery, bravery); -ing is a very
productive suffix, since it forms verbal nouns; -ism has the basic meaning of doctrine and its
quite productive in the narrow range of meanings; -ity is polysemantic and quite productive- it
forms numerous adjective bases, nouns and verbs (cordiality, celebrity); -ation is an extremely
productive suffix, it has several variants depending on the morphophonemic nature of the
underlying base (allusion, abduction, admission). Conversion as a model of word formation is
linked with some changes in the structure and nature of the morpheme in English as a whole. The
scope of conversion is based on the synchronic approach. The classification of conversion is
based on the deep structure reflected in the semantics of the surface structure. First are nouns
resulting from conversion of verbs: nouns meaning event or activity (advance, act); nouns
meaning state of mind or sensation (ache, delight); nouns in the object of the underlying verb
(account, answer); nouns in the subject of the underlying verb ( command, dress); nouns meaning
the product of the action (drop); nouns meaning the place of the verbal action- result of
conversion of verb of physical action (bend, break); There are also nouns resulting from
substantivization of adjectives which is the most controversial problem in contemporary English:
they have the structure of collective noun and dont have plural form. We may also have a
common noun turned into a proper noun: Bath, Angel; a proper noun turned into a common noun:
the underlying proper name may stand for the work- This is not a Picasso; like any other common
nouns we may have shifting in the form of singular-plural- All the Shakespeares here are paperbacks. Sometimes the name of the place may stand for the article produced there- china
(porcelain). We also have mass nouns into countable nouns- two teas and vice versa- countable
nouns into mass nouns- an inch of pencil. The term approximate conversion consists of voicingthe final phoneme of the verb is the voiced variant of the unvoiced consonant of the noun endingadvice- to advise; applause- to applaude. Stress can play a most important role in terms of word
formation. This is exemplified by pairs of verb-noun which apart from belonging to different

paradigmatic patterns and of having different semantics, can be considered homonyms if it

werent for the difference in stress- a`ccess- to acc`ess; d`igest- to dig`est.
A minor means of word formation is onomatopoeia which is determined by the phonological
system of the language. A variant of onomatopoeia is the result of reduplication of imitative
words ( typical of childs speech)-hoity-toity, rip-rap. Neologisms are formed by imitating the
sound patterns of already existing words of Greek and Latin origin- penicillin, nylon.
Contraction(clipping) is a process that nouns undergo. The first type of clipping is aphaeresiswhen the first phoneme or syllable is clipped out(venture-French-adventurer); in colloquial
speech very often words are clipped-van (caravan); with proper names its very common for
acquiring emotional connotation of familiarity-Bert(Herbert). Syncope is when a phoneme or
syllable in the middle of the word is dropped out : cant in colloquial speech, also some proper
names Bennet (from Benedict). Apocope is when the final phoneme or syllable is dropped out
which is the most frequent type of clipping in English. Slang and jargon use clipped forms (some
of them have been accepted in standard English-exam (examination); some proper names Al
(Alfred). Blending is another word formation process-smog (smoke+fog). Acronyms are the
result of blending of initial letters or initial syllables of a compound name or phraseRAAF(Royal Auxiliary Air-Force); also, we may have letters belonging to parts of the words or
of the compound-TV(television). Back formation is a seemingly root word formed out of its
seeming derivative. This is mostly the case with borrowings-many verbs are coined by back
formation, i.e. from borrowed nouns, but the reverse is an exception.
Topic 16 Semantic relations
The relation between meaning and form play a key role in semantic relations. Sem. Relations
constitute an info image that gives the link b/n lexemes within our mental workplace. The
semantic level studies the lexemes on the content plane and has as its unit the sememe. It
accounts for polysemy and synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy. The defining characteristics of
sem. Significant sense relations are the systematic recurrence (that they all will be sufficient not
for any arbitrary chosen set of lexical items but for many sets) and the general significance of the
abstract pattern observed in parallel series of lexical items. Besides, sense relations are of 2
fundamental types- paradigmatic and syntagmatic. Paradigmatic relations concern obligatory
choices we make whenever we communicate. Syntagmatic relations concern units larger than the
lexeme. They serve for the discourse cohesion and add necessary info redundancy to the message.
The relations which exist within the framework of the lexeme are incompatibility, hyponymy,
antonymy, synonymy, binary, non binary, polysemy. Synonymy and polysemy are most easily felt
intuitively. They are constituted on the basis of the relative autonomy of the elements in the
interdependent pai meaning. Polysemy concerns a single form associated with various meanings.
The separate meaning of the word mouth for example refers to a single plysemous lexeme
(mouth- a source of a river; organ of body, and entrance to a cave). Polysemy is defined as the
intuitively accepted by native speakers relatedness of meanings of a single lexeme which are due
to metaphorical and generalizing extensions of a single core of cognitive or conceptual meaning.
However, a relatedness of meaning is a matter of degrees as the intuitive judgements of native
speakers vary quite much. Polysemy is diachronic in nature in the sense that its in the historical
development of a language that lexemes may change their meanings. It describes etymologically
related identical forms. Polysemy analyses the ways of relating the meanings. Its also
traditionally defined as plurality of meanings. Polysemy is essential to the functioning of

languages as flexible and efficient semiotic systems and its concerned primarily with content.
Synonyms are lexical items with identical central semantic traits but different minor traits. It
describes the phenomenon in which a single notional position is matched up with various overt
forms, that is one meaning with many formal expressions. There are two major principles for
establishing synonymy b/n lexical items. One is based on the necessary resemblances and
permissible differences. The other is based on contextual by diagnostic frames of the type e.g.
rather, more precisely and or. Synonyms usually exhibit a significant degree of semantic
overlap, that is the common sem. traits. The best method for the delimitation of synonyms is the
substitution test recommended by Macaulay. It reveals to what extent synonyms are
interchangeable. It shows that if the difference is predominantly objective, there is always a
certain overlap in meaning: the terms involved maybe interchanged in some contexts but not in
others. For example, broad and wide are synonyms in some of their uses- thebroadest sense of
a word is the same thing as the widest sense of a word. But in other contexts, only one of the 2
terms can be used: we say five feet wide and broad(broad accent, not a wide one). When the
difference between synonyms is mainly emotive or stylistic, there maybe no overlap at all. Its
because no matter how close on obj. meaning, they belong to diff. registers or levels of style and
cannot normally be interchanged. There are 9 possible ways of identifying synonyms. The 1st is
concerned with revealing the fact that 1 term is more general than the other (refuse-reject); 2nd,
the one is more intensive than the other( accept-approve); 3rd-one term is more emotive than the
other( reject- decline). The next way is when one term is more neutral than the other, the other
implies moral approval(thrifty- economical). Furthermore, the one can be register neutral but the
other specific register ( person-human being). Besides, one of the terms may lack poetic
meaning, while the other is stylistically marked (death-passing). The one may be colloquial
whereas the other neutral or standard ( understand-take in). Next, one term can be more local
( flesher-butcher). Finally, the one is part of proto language( child-talk)- mummy, daddy.The
synonymic resources of a language form the consistent patterns, double scales, triple scales,
centre of attraction, synonymic relation and change. The double scale is very common for English
because of its historical development( Saxon- Latin/ Greek-brotherly:fraternal). Usually, the
foreign term has a learned or abstract character, it tends to be longer than the native word. The
triple scale accommodates a French neutral word in-between , while the native and the Graeco
Latin ones are stylistically marked ( kingly- royal-regal). Usually the native synonym is abstract
whereas the French one stands between the 2 extremes. Chains are a series of synonyms (pleased,
contented, happy, satisfied). The centres of attraction refer to periodically marked significant
clusters of synonyms. Synonymic radiation appears when two or more synonyms develop on
parallel lines. Since words with similar meaning are closely associated with each other, a change
in 1 of them may set off an analogous change in another or in several others. Both oversee and
overlook are used to mean deceive. There are 2 possibilities for the stylistic uses of the
combination of synonyms: variation and collocation. We make use of combinations of synonyms
to avoid repeating the same word for the same idea. But therere 2 changes one should be careful
about . The first one is that the use of another term may suggest that the meaning too is slightly
different which may lead to ambiguity and misunderstanding. Whenever theres such a risk, the ,
the good stylist would carefully weight the pros and cons of employing the same word, and , if
there is no suitable alternative , he would prefer to repeat it rather than to distort his thought. The
2nd risk is the so-called elegant variation. If it becomes obvious to the reader that the writer has
studiously tried to avoid repetition and to vary the expression of the same thought, then the
device will become completely useless as the style will have a false elegance and will be
artificial. Collocation is used to add a nuance of strong emotions. Its also used to make ones

meaning clearer and more emphatic. The collocation of synonyms is helpful for producing
a
contrast effect as well. The contrast may be either serious or humorous. Hyponymy has been
described by means of class inclusion. Its the relation which holds between a more specific, or
subordinate lexeme and a more general, or superordinate lexeme, as exemplified by such pairs as
cow/animal, rose/flower. In these cases cow is a hyponym of animal. Hyponymy is an
asymmetric, transitive relation. If a lexical item X is a hyponym of lexical item Y which on its
turn is a hyponym of a lex. Item Z, then X is a hyponym of Z (cow-mammal-animal). In many
cases a hyponym encapsulates the sense of the superordinate lexeme. This doesnt imply a
necessary relation of cognitive synonymy b/n a hyponym and its adjectivally modified
superordinate. Hyponymy is a paradigmatic relation of sense which rests upon the encapsulation
in the hyponym of some syntagmatic modification of the sense of the superordinate lexeme.
Hyponymy is definable in terms of unilateral implication. For example, crimson is established
as a hyponym of red-She was wearing a crimson/red dress. The definition of hyponymy in
terms of unilateral implication enables us to define synonymy as bilateral, or symmetrical
hyponymy.: if X is a hyponym of Y and Y is a hyponym of X, then X and Y are synonyms. In
English when the relation of hyponymy holds b/n nouns, its possible to insert syntactically
appropriate expressions containing them in place of X and Y in the formula X is a kind of Y
( where X is a hyponym of Y). Sometimes sort and type may be substituted for kind in
colloquial English: A cow is a sort of animal. There are many other more specific lexemes
(which are themselves hyponyms of kind) which may be employed for certain values of X and
Y- e.g. Crimson is a shade of red. Its important to note that one can learn that 1 lexeme is a
hyponym of another or that two lexemes are co-hyponyms without in principle knowing anything
more of their meaning. Indeed, our knowledge of the meaning of words in our native language
may be of this kind. We might know e. g. that banyan is a hyponym of tree and yet be unable to
say how it differs from other trees. Verbs, adjectives, and other parts of speech cant be inserted
into the formula X is a kind of Y without prior nominalization and even then the resultant
sentence is rather unnatural, if not absolutely unacceptable( Buying is a kind of getting). There
are other words and phrases which serve to structure the vocabulary in terms of hyponymy for
other parts of speech, as what kind of does for nouns. Co-hyponyms of the same superordinate
contrast in sense. In some cases, but not all, the contrast in sense can be associated with a contrast
b/n 2 syntagmatic modifiers of the superordinate lexeme-e.g. buy is in contrast with stealas a
hyponym of get and the contrast b/n the 2 co-hyponyms can be associated with the contrast b/n
the adverbial phrases-by purchase and by theft used as syntagmatic modification of get. The
reation of hyponymy imposes a hierarchical structure upon the vocabulary and upon particular
fields within the vocabulary. Each lower term of the branch is a hyponym of an upper one. The
starting point of this hierarchical structure may not be associated with a definite lexeme. For
example, day and night are not associated with any superordinate lexeme- then we speak of a
gap. We may have a gap both in subordinate (dead body-corpse, carcass) and superordinate terms
(no dead body of a plant).If synonymy categories identify meaning , the contrary set of relation is
oppositeness of meaning. The comprehensive, cognitive phenomenon underlying relation of
opposition is polarity. Several types of lex. Opposites are distinguished- antonyms, converses,
directionals and complementariesContrast is the most neutral and general term. It doesnt imply
anything about the number of elements in the set. Antonymy refers to the type of opposition
relation b/n gradable terms which are semantically opposed to each other. Incompatibility is the
cross-cutting relation b/n converses and some complementary terms. Complementaries are the
basic type of lexical opposition( e.g. the existential opposition dead-alive, open-shut). Besides,
since complementaries are nongradable, they are odd in comparative and superlative degrees and

they arent modified by intensifiers. A specific kind of oppositeness is antonymy. Antonyms are
fully gradable and give degrees of some variable property. It can be exemplified by long-short,
good-bad, hot-cold. An important fact is that the scale along which the values of the graded
property are situated is relative. It means that its dependent on the referent to which the term of a
pair is applied in communication. Most often, the reference point is some sort of average value
within a class. Therere 3 basic types of antonyms-polar, overlapping and equipollent. This
distinction is made according to the semantic behavior of the antonymous pairs, when used for
constructing how qustions ,the question is impartial(e.g. slow,high, low). Overlapping pairs
participate with both their members in how questions (cruel,kind). Besides, all overlapping
antonyms have an evaluative polarity as part of their meaning. Considering equipollent pairs,
their both terms take part in how questions. They are based on subjective evaluation and are the
smallest group in number (happy-sad, nice-nasty). Theres another type called privatively
contrasted pairs. Privative pairs refer to a contrastive relation in which one of the members has
some positive property, whereas the other names the absence of that property( correct- incorrect,
animate- inanimate). In an equipollent pair both lexemes are characterized as denoting a positive
property (man- woman). The converses are the 3rd major type of oppositeness. They are
relational in character. Besides, they usually denote social roles or specify participants in relations
(professor-student, doctor- patient). Moreover, converses may be conceived as analogical
extensions of spatial notions( ancestor-descendant). Indirect converses may be, e.g. teach-learn.
Antipodals are another type of opposites. They represent 2 extremes in 2 directions ( Start-finish,
up-down). Best examples can be found in English color terminology. Reversal of essential
defining directions is also given by counterparts (hill-valley). Then reversives denote motion in
opposite direction or designate activities resulting in reversed states( enter-leave, fill-empty).
Topic17-History of English- main periods
The historical development of a language is a continuous uninterrupted process without sudden
breaks or rapid transformations. The commonly accepted periodization divides English history
into three periods- Old Engl.(OE), Middle English(ME) and Topic17-History of English- main
periods
New Eng. Or Modern Engl.(MdE/NE). OE begins with the Germanic settlement of Britain(8th
century) or with the beginning of writing /7th c./ and ends with the Norman Conquest(1066). ME
begins with the Norman conquest and ends with the Introduction of printing(1475), which is the
beginning of Modern or New Engl. Period. The New period lasts to the present day. Although
language history is a slow uninterrupted chain of events, the changes arent evenly distributed in
time. Periods of intensive changes may be followed by a period of relative stability. The
difference in the rate of changes are conditioned by the linguistic situation, thats why both the
extra and intralinguistic factors are taken into account. The history of English is subdivided into
seven periods. The 1st ( pre-written, prehistoric) period is called Early Old English. At that time
the tribal dialects were used for oral communication, there was no written form of English. The
evolution of the language in this period is hypothetical. It has been reconstructed from the written
evidence/Gothic. The 2nd historical period extends from the 8th century till the end of the 11th
century. The English Language of that time is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon. Its also known
as Written Old English. The tribal dialects gradually changed into local or regional dialects.
Towards the end of the period, the differences between the dialects grew West. Saxon prevailed in
writing. The lang. of this period is described synchronically and is treated as relatively stable

system. OE is typical with a purely Germanic vocabulary and few foreign borrowings. In terms of
grammar, OE was inflected or synthetic language with a well-developed system of morphological
categories. The 3rd period known as Early Middle English, starts after 1066, the year of the
Norman Conquest and covers 12th, 13th and part of 14th century. At this time were the greatest
dialectal divergence caused by the feudal system and by foreign influences- French and
Scandinavian. Under Norman rule the official language in England was French or more precisely
Anglo-Norman. Dialectal divergence and lack of official English made a favorable environment
for intensive linguistic change. Early Middle E was a time of great changes at all levels of the
language esp. in grammar and lexis. Phonetic and grammatical changes took place at high rate.
Gramm. Alterations were so drastic that by the end of the period they had transformed English
from a highly inflected language into mainly analytical one. The 4th period which is from 14th c.
till the end of 15th c. embraces the age of Chaucer. This period is called Late or Classical Middle
English. It was time of the restoration of English to the position of the state and literary language
and the time of literary flourishing. The main dialect used in literature and writing was the mixed
dialect of London. Literary flourishing had the stabilizing effect on literature , so that the rate of
linguistic changes was slowed down. At the same time the written forms of the language
developed and improved. The English vocabulary increased greatly. Most of the inflections in the
nominal system had fallen together. The verb system was expanding, as new analytical forms and
verbal phrases were used together with old forms. The 5th period is called Early New English. It
lasted from the introduction of printing to the age of Shakespeare. This period is a transition
between two outstanding epochs of literary efflorescence- the age of Chaucer and the age of
Shakespeare. The growth of the English nation was accompanied by the formation of the national
English language. The Early NE period was a period of sweeping changes at all levels in the first
place lexical and phonetic. New words from internal and external sources enriched the
vocabulary. There were also great phonetic changes in the vowel system. The loss of most
inflectional endings in the 15th c. justifies the definition period of lost endings given to the NE
period. The 6th period extends from the mid 17th c. to the end of 18th century. Its called the age
of normalization and correctness or neo-classicalage. Norms and standards were established.
During this period the English language extended far beyond the borders of the British Isles. The
19th century is called the period of fixing the pronunciation. Word usage and grammatical
construction were subjected to restriction and normalization. The 7th period in the history of
English is called Late New English- Modern English. By the 19th c. English has achieved relative
stability. The classical language of literature was strictly distinguished from the local dialects. In
the 20th c. the standard, the received English is spread through new channels: the press, radio,
cinema and TV. The expansion of English overseas proceeded. The enriched vocabulary of the
English language in the 19th and 20th c. reflected the rapid progress in all spheres of mans
activities. Theres no definition of a type of language since languages dont tend to be consistent.
They can be predominantly analytical or predominantly synthetic. We can describe tendencies
rather than types. The direction of change in English language is from synthetic to analytical.
The evolution of historical development of a language is made up of diverse facts and processes.
In the first place it indicates the internal or structural development of the lang. system, its various
subsystems and component parts. The description of internal linguistic history usually is
presented in accordance with the division of lang. into linguistic levels. The evolution of a
language includes also many facts which pertain to the functioning of the language in the speech
community. These functional aspects constitute the external history of the language and embrace
a large number of diverse matters: the spread of the lang. in geographical and social space, the
differentiation of lang. into varieties, contacts with other languages. Behind change is variability;

its the key notion to development and change in lang. Linguistic change begins with synchronic
variation. Variation supplies material for linguistic change and also provides conditions for its
realization. Synchronic variation ensures gradual change. The most widely accepted classification
of factors that hast do with language history divides them into extra and intralinguistic factors.
The former have to do with diff. aspects of human life, for instance events in the history of people
such as the structure of society, expansion over new areas, migration, separation of tribes,
contacts with other people, the progress of culture and literature. All these aspects affect the
evolution of lang. Internal factors that are relevant to the lang. evolution are the tendencies that
improve the lang. technique. Another group of internal tendencies aims to preserve lang. as a
vehicle of communication. Lang. is based on similarity and contrast. They are the cause for
variability. Similarity is subjective- its different for every individual. The communicative
function of lang. is also a source of variability. Something that is used often and is repeated many
times loses its freshness. All the innovation takes place in the head of the individuals. Meaning
lies in similarity and contrast. Individuals look for new things and new ways to apply old forms.
Innovation has to be accepted by most speakers. If the speech community that uses it is limited,
innovation will not be a change. In order some innovation to be regarded as change, it has to be
sufficiently spread and recognized as a norm among the members of community. The individual
in society is an extralinguistic factor. The communicative function of lang. however presupposes
more than one individual. Usually the extralinguistic factors are external, social or economic.
Linguistic factors for change have to do with economy. People often tend to simplify and drop
sounds and clusters of sounds thus achieving ease of articulation- e.g. -. This is
natural and is due to the psychological factor of the individual. Analogy is an example of
economy. Another linguistic factor for change of the language is reanalysis:
Old Bulg. Md Bulg.
Reanalysis and analogy are based on our cognitive procedures. Logic is in our minds and we
often generalize or make analogies. The purely linguistic factors for change have to do with the
fact that lang. is a structure. Another linguistic factor is the pressure of the system, that is the
system has to keep the contrast to operate. Some extralinguistic factors are: 1) language contactit leads to simplification 2) language isolation-leads to elaborateness. Language in isolation has a
very complex structure. 3) adaptation of the extralinguistic world-it leads to expansion of
vocabulary. 4) first language acquisition-imperfect learning. Children tend to form for
example:Verbs (take-taked) after the regular pattern. This can lead to reanalysis.
The causes of many developments, however, are rather obscure or hypothetical.

Topic ?
Types of meaning. Motivation.
Meaning and sense are connected with issues of denotation and reference. They represent the 2
major functions of language- the categorizing and the communicative one. Concerning the sign,
theres potential meaning, invariant meaning, denotative vs connotative and actualized meaning.
Invariant meaning refers to the significative value which a linguistic element possesses due to its
position in the system. Its a theoretical construction we can see in dictionaries. Besides, its used
mainly in structural and pragmatic methods of analysis. Potential meaning refers to the possibility
of everything to become a sign and acquire all the other types of meanings. Denotative meaning

is connected with the members of the class that is subsumed under the particular linguistic
element. On the other hand, connotative meaning reflects what the sign or the linguistic
expression might imply when used. Actualized meaning describes the contextually activated
meaning radiating from a sign when used in an actual communicative effect. The notional
classification of meaning consists of seven types which are all present in a single semantic unit in
varying degree. They are conceptual, connotative, social, affective, reflected, collocative and
semantic meaning. Conceptual meaning is assumed to be the central factor in linguistic
communication. Its also known as cognitive, descriptive, propositional and logical. It is defined
as being objective and fully conceptualized. It provides a set of conceptual categories into which
aspects of experience may be sorted and is believed to constrain what the expression can be used
to refer to.
Conceptual meaning consists of several dimensions- quality-ontological types. These represent
fundamental modes of conception that the human mind is presumably innately predisposed to
adopt. Differences of quality can be observed on all levels of specificity. A typical set of
ontological types at the highest level of generality is: thing- quality- place- time- state- processrelation- manner. If we go down any of these we get a hierarchy of descending specificity: thinganimal- dog- colly. Conceptual meaning is an inextricable and essential part of what language is
and language can scarcely be defined without referring to it.
Connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to,
over and above its purely conceptual content. It embraces the attitude and viewpoint adopted by
users. Connotative meaning encompasses the culturally conditioned properties associated with a
linguistic expression. It can embrace the putative properties of the referent , due to the
viewpoint adopted by an individual, or a group of people or a whole society. Connotations are apt
to vary from age to age and from society to society. They also vary from individual to individual
within the same speech community. So, connotation is connected to the real world experience
one associates with an expression when one uses or hears it. Its not specific to language, but its
shared by other communicative systems, such as visual art and music. Connotations are for these
reasons unstable and easily vary with time. Connotative meaning is open-ended and dependent on
the shared beliefs and practices of the community.
Social/stylistic meaning is what is communicated of the social circumstances of language use. We
decode the stylistic meaning of a text through our recognition of different dimensions and levels
of usage within the same language. We recognize some words or pronunciations as being
dialectal, as telling us something of the geographical or social origin
of the speaker. Other features of language refer to the indication of the social relations b/n the
participants. We understand something about the social status of the speaker and hearer, and the
purposes of the communication act. Style has some relatively permanent features: individuality
(the language of the particular person); dialect ( the language of a geographical region or social
class); time (the language of the 20th c.). The discourse of style is the medium (speech, written)
and participation (dialogue, monologue). The relatively temporary features of style are: province
(language of law, science), status (polite, slang), modality (language of jokes, lectures),
singularity (the style of Dickens). This list indicates the range of style differentiation possible
within a single language. Words which have both the same conceptual meaning and the same
stylistic meaning are rarely found. Affective meaning is often explicitly conveyed through the
conceptual or the connotative content of the words used. It makes distinctions b/n a propositional
component and an expressive component. Linguistic expressions convey personal feelings of the

speaker, the attitude of the speaker towards the listener and towards what she/he is talking about.
Factors such as intonation and voice-timber are important here to express emotion and feelings.
The next type is the reflected meaning. It can be found in cases of multiple conceptual meanings
which influence each other on separate occasions of use. So, reflected meaning can be interpreted
on the basis of the other meanings. The Evening star and the Morning star are likely to have
different effect on the receiver although they share the same conceptual or descriptive meaning,
because its not typical for stars to be seen in the morning. The implications triggered by this fact
have an impact on the reactions of the receiver. The Comforter and the Holy Ghost exemplify the
same conditioning for different reasons the everyday non-religious meaning of the employed
lexemes. Also, the first expression has a pleasant meaning while the 2nd sounds awesome, more
negative. The case where reflected meaning intrudes is most strikingly illustrated by word which
have a taboo meaning. For example, it has become increasingly difficult to use terms like
intercourse, erection in innocent senses without conjuring up their sexual associations.
Collocative meaning consists of all possible contexts into which a linguistic expression can be
used. Pretty and handsome share common ground in the meaning good-looking, but may be
distinguished by the range of nouns with which theyre likely to co-occur or collocate. Pretty is
usually associated with girls, women, boys but not with men, houses etc. Thus, meaning is an
idiosyncratic property of individual words. Reflected meaning and collocative meaning; affective
and stylistic meaning all have more in common with connotative meaning than with conceptual
meaning. They all have the same open-ended, indeterminate character and lend themselves to
analysis in terms of scales or ranges. They can all be brought together under the heading of
associative meaning. They are contrasted with conceptual meaning because it seems to require
the postulation of intricate mental structures which are specific to language and to the human
species. The final category of meaning is the thematic meaning which is associated with
syntagmatic relations. It refers to what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer
organizes the message in terms of ordering , focus and emphasis. Thematic meaning is most
explicitly grammatical in nature. Its mainly a matter of choice b/n alternative grammatical
constructions. What is looked for is emphasis. The effect is to focus attention on a word that
contains the new info against a background of what is already assumed to be known. This kind of
emphasis is usually achieved in English by different syntactic constructions. To sum up, thematic
meaning is the extra meaning derived by the
way the elements of a complex expression are ordered and organized. Sense is the property of
meaning in abstract categories such as sentence, lexeme, morpheme. Denotation on its part is the
use of sense in speaking of some particular world. Utterance meaning is what the hearer
rationally determines the speaker intends to convey. A long expression combines form and
meaning. Its used to pick out a denotatum from the world spoken of. Therere 2 basic types of
meaning definitions- the referential and the conceptual. The referential definition analyzes
meaning in terms of the relation symbol- object or referent. The conceptual definition regards the
symbol- thought relation. The first narrows the scope of meaning to that of denotation, the 2ndto that of sense. An important issue is that of the sign, sign function and sign system. The
capacity is what makes up the signification of a sign. The sense is the interpretant. The object is
the denotation. The relation in the sign can be represented by the triangle: The 3 elements
involoved in any semiotic act are the sign, the contingent sense and signification. The content
side of the sign is two-fold denotation and signification. A semiotic system is a structural
hierarchy of a particular type of sign up to specific use.

Topic18 Varieties of English-Regional, National, Social

While most people do speak English, its wrong to assume that they all speak it alike. Theres
actually a great deal of variation in the way in which diff. people speak and use English. Much of
the linguistic variation to be found in the English language has a regional basis. Often this is
simply a matter of pronunciation, but it can be also a matter of grammar and vocabulary. Theres
also, however, some variation which is not regional. Even in a single locality such as London or
Liverpool we find that people from diff. social backgrounds speak diff. kinds of English regional
varieties. Even within the English of individual speakers, considerable variation occurs,
regardless of their social background. This variation is often due to the diff. social contexts in
which a person may have to speak. Pronunciation can also change, for many speakers, from
situation to situation- a telephone voice is a good example. Class and the socio-economic factors
are also important for the variation of the English lang. Generally, the higher the individual is on
the social ladder, the more likely he is to use correct lang. But of course its not always the case.
Britain is by no means linguistically uniform. The Engl. Lang. is subject to considerable regional,
social and stylistic varieties. All societies, even the smallest, are internally differentiated in
various ways, all lang. are variable. Lang. is a dynamic kind of phenomenon. Lang. are always
changing and Engl. Is just as much subject to linguistic change as any other language. As any
other language, English changes in different ways in different places. No one who speaks a
particular language can remain in close contact with all the other speakers of that language.
Social and geographical barriers to communication as well as sheer distance mean that a change
that starts among speakers in one particular locality will probably spread only to other areas with
which these speakers are in close contact. This is what has happened over the centuries. American
and British English have been geographically separated and diverging linguistically but the
divergence is not very great because of the density of the communication between the two speech
communities. Within Britain then, diff. regional and social variants of English have developed
because diff. linguistic changes have taken place in diff. parts of the country and in diff. sections
of the community. All of us who speak English are dialect speakers, we all speak at least one
dialect of English. The term dialect, in other words, is not reserved for old-fashioned or rustic
forms of speech. Differences in pronunciation alone are not sufficient to make for differences in
dialect. Pronunciation differences make merely for a difference of accent. One of the most
important varieties of English is that dialect which is widely known as Standard English.
Standard E. is the dialect used by most speakers who would consider themselves to be educated.
Its normally used in writing and on the radio and TV. Its the form of English normally taught to
foreign learners. Standard E., like all other dialects, is subject to internal variation. It has, first of
all, regional variants. American standard Engl. Is not identical with English Standard English ,
and Scottish Standard Engl. May be different again. British and American versions of Standard
English in fact are treated as diff. dialects. But such differences exist between the various national
forms of Standard English( American, Australian, British, Canadian, etc.), too. Since Standard
English is by definition a dialect, unlike other dialects only in its unusually wide geographical
scope, it follows that Standard English can be spoken to with a variety of accents. Accents always
mark the geographical origin of the speaker. Some accents mark regional origin very locally, and
some mark only the fact that the speaker is an American or is Australian, Canadian, English,

Irish, Scots, Welsh, etc. A given speaker may be able to speak with two or more accents, with one
accent often being broader than the other. Furthermore, a given speaker may well be able to use
more than one dialect. A speaker native to Scotland will normally speak either the standard
English dialect with a regional Scottish accent, or a Scottish dialect of English with either the
same or broader Scottish accent. Dialect diversity begins with the individual, no two of us speak
exactly the same language. This is so whatever language we claim to speak: each one of us has
his own personal dialect. Regional diversity takes over from the individual diversity. The two are
not different in essence but in degree. Regional diversity thus, merely multiplies individual
diversity. What we have in a continuum of variation, starting from the individual and gradually
extending throughout the entire population of those who speak the language. Differences in the
English that is used in diff. parts of the country or in diff. countries vary. There differences can be
in terms of vocabulary, intonation, speech, melody, pronunciation. In terms of vocabularytea is
an afternoon meal in England, but it may be the early morning meal in Jamaica; English
cookies differ both in shape and taste from the American cookies. Thus in terms of sound quality
, Scottish accents have a smaller vowel inventory than any other accents of English. The Scottish
accents often fail to recognize a contrast between cot and caught, pool and pull. Similarly
some American accents do not distinguish bomb from balm, and a Cockney speaker
pronounces thin like fin. Sounding Scottish or American, or Irish is not merely a matter of
superficial differences of sound quality but more fundamentally of diff. in the phoneme inventory
with which each operates. Moreover, even where the same phoneme does occur in diff. dialects, it
may be distributed differently in each. Thus, e.g /r/ occurs in all English accents, though therere
qualitative differences in its realization from region to region. For instance, many accents of
English do have some kind of /r/ in bird, farm, her, but in the East and South East of England
this sound doesnt occur in such words, i.e. before a consonant, or finally in the word. In general
with all other accents of English, however, these accents do have /r/ between vowels and initially
in the word, e.g. in marry, red, berry. The attitudes towards the diff. English dialects and
variants vary. Some people consider the RP or the so called received pronunciation as the real or
proper English. Others argue that the non-standard English is more vigorous or livelier than
Standard English. RP has altered over just a few decades. Like any other accent, its not
immune to change. In addition, RP in no longer as widely used as it was even fifty years ago. A
small percent of British people speak it in a pure form nowadays. Most often educated people
have developed an accent which is a mixture of RP, various regional characteristics- some people
call it modified RP. A lot of people nowadays express hostility towards RP, , both within and
outside Britain because of its traditional association with conservative values. Being primarily
written, Standard English is not associated with any particular accent. Like any other accent, RP
is subject to some degree of variation. However, its important to realize that RP is not a standard
pronunciation. Theres in fact, no such standard. Nor is this accent linguistically superior to other
accents. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, it doesnt vary among speakers. But RP does have
social prestige. It developed during the 19th century in the so called public schools in older
Universities and , hence among the British ruling class. The members of that class enjoyed great
prestige in Victorian times and their accent became associated with that prestige.
Another example of non regional accent is the one that is often called General American.
This is a convenient name for the range of US accents. The General American shows few
regional peculiarities. An example of a morphological difference between dialects can be found
from a composition of American and British English versions of Standard English. Where Br.
English has only one past participle of the verb to get- got, American English has two as in
Ive got vs Ive gotten. American example of semantic differences between dialects can be

found in British and American versions of Standard English where the form of the word is the
same but the meaning is different. A lexical example is momentarily, which means for a
moments duration in Br. English and in a moment, any minute now in some dialects of
American English. For example, a backward child in Northern Ireland is merely shy, whereas the
same word elsewhere means that the child is retarded. In any case, when we talk about the
English language, we are discussing something that is rather blurred and internally diverse.
Theres really no such thing as the English language , therere a lot of varieties- regional,
national, as well as social ones.
English today is a world-wide international language. Its spoken as a mother tongue by
about 400 million people in the British isles, Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. Its
also a second language for many other, for example India and in some African states where it is
used as an official language in government and education. In Britain there are many regional and
social dialects, but theres one variety which is not confined to any geographical region.
Topic 19
Translation as a decision making process
The main focus of translation theory is the target text. The dynamic approach of translation
focuses on the activity of translating. The activity involves diff. kinds of procedures. From the
point of view of communication, translation is seen as an act of bilingual communication(Otto
Kade). Translation is an interaction, communic. between two participants- the receiver of the text
and the sender of the message/source. This communicative act is possible through and only by
means of a channel code and message. Therere 3 stages in this process.
The source produces the message, the receiver receives the message /becomes the source
for the receiver. The second stage takes place after decoding the source message a
analyzing it. This second stage performed by the translator is called recoding- thetranslator
conveys the message by means of the signs of the other code. Stages 1 and 2 are removed
in time. Stages 2 and 3 on the other hand coincide. The 3rd stage in translational process is
the stage of synthesis of the final message, finding a translation that corresponds to the
source message and communicating it to the addressee. The source selects a set of signs to
make a text. The code reflects reality. Two very important factors are the situation in which
the message is produced and the previous linguistic/non-linguistic experience. The
translator is at the end of the translation in the source language and at the beginning of the
process in the second language. There are two communicative situations: of the original
and of the translation. The situation in which the original was created is influenced by the
concrete situation as well as by the previous experience of the people of the two languages.
While translation is an act of communication (conveys the message of the original), from
the point of view of the working experience of the translator, its a process of decisionmaking. Components of the decision making process are the situation and the paradigm.
The definitional and the selectional instructions are instructions that help the translators
when making a choice. The decision process is such that every decision we make as
translators is influenced by our knowledge of previous decisions. The outcome of two
different decisions are two different translation variants/of semantic, stylistic, rhythmic and

prosodic nature/. These instructions can be unconscious or conscious ones, objective or

subjective. The interpretation of meanings is in the form of a move- from the most general
to the most specific. Each decision predetermines the next and is influenced by previous
ones..The decisions depend on language and translations own approach. The situation (one
of the components of decision problem) is an abstraction of reality, which would be
expressed by means of a model. The paradigm, the other component, is a class of possible
solutions. The choice that has to be made is at random, its context-bound. Every
interpretation has the structure of problem-solving- the interpreter has to choose from the
class of possible meanings of the word or motif. The choice is more limited if the number
of possible alternatives is smaller or if its restricted by the context. Once the translator has
decided in favor of one of the alternatives, he has predetermined his decision related to
grammatical forms, e.g. The process of translation has the form of a game in which every
succeeding move is influenced by the knowledge of previous decision and by the situation
which resulted from them. A paradigm is not a set of completely equivalent elements but a
set ordered according to diff. criteria( stylistic levels, diff. connotations,etc.) The
interpretation by readers of the meanings contained in a text also has the form of a series of
moves . The choice of one of the several possible interpretations of a semantic unit may be
represented as a series of decisions from the most general to more specific meaning. The
translators decision may be necessary or unnecessary, motivated or unmotivated. The
decision is motivated and it is prescribed by the context( linguist. or extralinguistic). Its
also worth mentioning that languages differ in the density of lexical segmentation of a given
semantic field. The broader the segmentation in the source language when compared to that of
the target language, the greater the number of translation variants. On the contrary, the smaller
the lexical segmentation of the source language in comparison to that of the target language, the
more limited is the number of variations.
Diverging and converging tendencies in choosing lexical units. They are responsible for the
ultimate relation between the source and the target texts. In other cases, however, where the
source and the target paradigms are rich in expressions of not very clearly defined outlines,
translators tend to choose new solutions. Thus a gradual semantic shift takes place. Generally, the
type of semantic segmentation is dependent not only on the linguistic code. But on the
characteristic code of the particular type of literature as well. Translation is interpretation and at
the same time creation. The decision process in translation has the structure of a semiotic system.
As all semiotic processes, translation has its pragmatic dimensions as well. Translation theory
tends to be normative, to instruct translators in the optional solutions. Actual translation,
however, is pragmatic. The translator resolves for that one of the possible solutions which
promises a maximum of effect with a minimum effort. He intuitively resolves for the so-called
MINIMAX strategy.
Translation as a process can be said to be a multi-spectral phenomenon- it is a
communicative act, a decision-making process and interlingual transformation. Its a
process in which two diff. cultures meet and are compared at the same time.
Topic 20 - The notion of translation equivalence

There are two approaches in translation theory. The 1st one constitutes the source text oriented
studies which focus on the relationship b/n the source text and the target text . The 2nd approach
deals with the target language oriented studies which focus on the functions which a text
performs in the target language. Theres no symmetry b/n the two l-guages/texts. The way we
segment reality is different. The equivalence debate is caused by the meaning of the word
equivalence because the use of this word isnt productive. If equivalence is taken to mean
identity, then clearly its an untenable notion. If, however, its interpreted in its other meaninglikeness, then its valid notion. Acc. To Mary Snell- Hornby translation equivalence is an
illusion for two reasons. First of all, the purely linguistic approaches, which see equivalence as
identity assume wrongly symmetry b/n languages and 2nd, the approaches which see it as
similarity are too vague to be of any use. Hornbys sceptical approach levels to the pragmatic
approach, which aims at qualifying what we mean by equivalence. It determines the nature of
equivalence as translation equvalence and the aspect of source language text and its recepient,
which can remain equvalent. The pragmatic approach places translation in front of equivalence,
thus analyzing the phenomenon and answers the question equivalence of what?. One of the
tasks of translation theory is to establish the conditions under which equivalence can occur in
translation, we dont transfer meaning b/n languages but replace the meaning of the source text
by the meaning of the target text (meaning as a property of language). Catfords linguistic basis
developed in the 1960 can be compared to Hallidays category grammar. Acc. To Catfords
definition, a textual equivalence is any target language text or proportion of text that is observed
on a particular occasion to be the equivalent of given source language text. A formal
correspondence as opposed to textual equivalent, is any target language category acc. To Catford
which can be said to occupy the same place in the economy of the target language as the given
source language occupies in the source language. As every language is sui generis, its
categories are defined in terms of relations within the language itself. Then formal
correspondence is almost always approximate. A textual translation equivalent is any target
language form which is observed as the equivalent of a given source language form. Textual
equivalents are discovered on the authority of a competent informant or translator. A source text
has a source text meaning and a target text has a target meaning. The target menaing can be
described as the total network of relations entered into by any unit. The replacement meaning is
achieved through either formal correspondence where the target language occupies the same
place in a language as the respective unit in the source language or textual equivalence which is
achieved through translation shifts- departures from formal correspondence. In an original text
production, a writer begins with a goal, choosing a portion of reality and describing it. He uses
messages to describe the situation. The message is expressed in an utterance (it'smade up of
words 'signs'). The translator moves from the sign then the utterance, the meaning of the message
and then he identifies the goal. Equivalence at each of the levels depends on equivalence of
higher levels.
Komissarov:
GOAL
SITUAT.
MESS.
UTTER.
SIGN
SIGN
UTTER.
MESS.
SITUAT.

GOAL
Acc. To Nida the scope of translation equivalence is very broad. In some instances, translation
focuses on cognitive content or emotive response, which is an instant of dynamically equivalent
texts. The emphasis is laid on culture, lang. And society. In determining the adequacy of a
translation, what matters is the response of those who are not familiar with the original. Nidas
pragmatically oriented approach is based on the universalist assumption that there is nothing
which is described in one language that cannot be described in another lang. Dynamic
equivalence is Nidas model of translation. It refers to the set of procedures used so that the
message of the original becomes such that the response of the receptor is essentially the same as
the response to the original. The Lamb of God-for Eskimos,
The Seal of God-for diff. Cultures. A distinction should be made b/n dynamic and formal
equivalence. In formal equivalence the emphasis is on the form and content of the message as
such, whereas in dynamic equivalence the emphasis is on the response of the receptors. The
response of the receptor of the translated text must be substantially similar to the response of the
receptors of the original text. Response is measured through inquieries and close tests. Procedures
and adjustments are applied to ensure acceptability of the translated text and to ensure that
communicative channel is not blocked. A translator within the formal equivalence tries to relate
the reader to a certain response. Dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence arent absolute
notions. There can be no absolute correspondence b/n languages, the responses may be similar
but never identical. We dont translate a ling. Device by means of a ling. Device. We preserve the
function, which a device performs in the original. The working situation of the translator is
important. A translator works in segments, the word, the phraze, the sentence, etc. determines at
the analysis level a functiona device plays in the original. Acc. To Ludskanovs functionalist
approach, a text which functions in the same way in the target language as the text in the source
lang. Is its functional equivalent. This is functional equivalence.
Two texts can be defined as translationally equivalent if the functional content of the source text
is rendered in the target text in such a way as to fit the cognitive and experiential models typical
of the target lang. Usage. Cognitive linguistics is capable of explaining on the basis of the
linguistic data. Acc. To Dressler translation equivalence can be equivalence in the experience of
the participants. This experiential equivalence should also include experience of pre-text
perception. When two texts are equivalent, theres equivalence of two conceptualizations. The
capacity to conceptualize results from experience, so ther must be equivalence of experience
which is impossible. Cognitive linguistics view, experience as a continuum, conceptual systems
differ, the capacity to conceptualize is universal. There are no limits to understanding. Theres
internal conceptualization which rfers to a person and it has to do with the ability to match the
concept to the expressions of the new language. The difference b/n conceptual and linguistic
ability is a great obstacle. The linguistic systems are barriers to translation. Non-equivalent
translation results from lack of understanding by the translator or from an objective impossibility
to bridge the gap b/n two conceptual systems. Cognitive linguistics provides a systematic
explanation of intuitions, it can say why translation is easy with basic level categories, why
meanings which are at the centre of a category are easy to translate. It explains why translation at
the basic level category is inadequate. The preservation of an image may require verbalisation of
a word which is different from the original. Difficulty in translation is explainable be the fact that
language is a reflection of universal cognitive models and by the way the different communities
apply the different cognitive and experiential models.