22. Status of future tense in English.

The future tense forms:

• Express relative time – posteriority in relation to either the present or the past:

• 1) as an after-event in relation to the present: He will work tomorrow (not right now)

• 2) as an after-event in relation to the past: He said he would work the next day.

Status of shall / will, should / would:

O. Jespersen and L.S. Barkhudarov, state that shall/will, should/ would are modals denoting intention, command, request, promise, etc. in a weakened form, e.g.: I’ll go there by train. = I intend (want, plan) to go there by train. On this basis they deny the existence of the verbal future tense in English.

Etymology of shall / will

• Etymologically they are the verbs of obligation (shall) and volition (will).

• shall/will and should/would are in their immediate etymology modal verbs.

Abraham Lincoln: ‘I will never be old enough to speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to say’ .

23. Syntagmatic / paradigmatic relations. Types of paradigmatic relations.

Paradigmatic::Syntagmatic relations

PR comprise all the units that can also occur in the same environment. PR are relations based on the principles of similarity. PR exist between the units that can substitute one another PR are identified with ‘language’ are referred to as relations ‘in absentia’ = in the absence.

SR are intermediate linear relations between units in a segmental sequence. SR may be observed in utterances SR are identified with ‘speech’ are described by the Latin ‘in praesentia’ (= in the presence)

PARADIGMATIC RELATIONS

can be of three types: semantic, formal and functional.

Semantic PR are based on the similarity of meaning:

Goods to be delivered = goods for delivering.

The days are getting longer and longer – The days are growing longer and longer.

Formal PR are based on the similarity of forms (exist between the members of a paradigm): mouse – mice; ask – asked – will ask – is asking.

Functional PR are based on the similarity of function. (established between the elements occuring in the same position).

Det: a, the, this, his, Ann’s, some, each, etc.

Syntagmatic (horizontal) axis Unlike the paradigmatic relationships, the syntagmatic relationships of a word are not about meaning. They are about the lexical company the word keeps (collocation) and grammatical patterns in which it occurs (colligation).

• Main types of syntagms

types of notional syntagms:

- Predicative (the combination of subject and predicate) SV: We live, The sun is shining

- Objective (VO): Buy clothes; meet friends

- Attributive (AttributeN): old houses; nice thought

- Adverbial (notional word (V,Adj, Adv) + Adv. modifier): very well (Adv+Adv); simply the best (Adv+Adj)

24. Oppositions in grammar. Binary privative opposition.

Grammatical opposition:

The opposition (in the linguistic sense) may be defined as a generalised correlation of lingual forms by means of which a certain function is expressed.

The correlated elements (members) of the opposition must possess two types of features: common features and differential features.

Common features serve as the basis of contrast, while differential features immediately express the function in question. The oppositional theory was originally formulated as a phonological theory.

Theory of oppositions:

N. S. Trubetskoy, a member of the Prague Linguistic Circle, developed it at the turn of the 20^th century for the purposes of phonological research; later it became widely employed in the analysis of grammatical categories.

MEMBERS OF OPPOSITION

• “Marked”, “strong”, or “positive” (symbol +) member of the opposition is characterized by the presence of the differential feature. Eg: girls

• “Unmarked”, “weak”, or “negative” (symbol -). member of the opposition is characterized by the absence of the differential feature. Eg: girl .

Types of oppositions

• Privative

• gradual

• equipollent

• Binary (2 members)

• Ternary (3 members)

• Quaternary (4 members)

Privative opposition

members of the opposition are characterized by the presence/absence of a certain differential feature, which serves as the formal mark of one of its members

Gradual opposition

is formed by a series of members which are distinguished not by the presence or absence of a differential feature, but by the degree of it, cf.: big – bigger - biggest

Equipollent opposition

is formed by members, which are distinguished by a number of their own features, eg suppletive forms: one - first, go – went; correlation of the person and number forms of the verb be: am – are – is (was – were).

In various contextual conditions, one member of an opposition can be used in the position of the other, counter-member ("oppositional reduction" or "oppositional substitution“).