Grammatical meaning and grammatical form of a word
MORPHOLOGY AS A SECTION OF GRAMMAR
Subject of morphology
Morphology and syntax are two sections of grammar, the subject of study of which is grammatical meaning and forms of expression of this meaning. If at the level of syntax the forms of expression of grammatical meaning are phrases and sentences, then at the level of morphology - word forms, i.e. individual forms of a specific word (table, table, table etc.).
Morphology studies words in their grammatical forms and functions, the rules for changing words, and determines the range of correlative grammatical meanings that make up one or another grammatical category.
Morphology also includes the study of parts of speech - the largest grammatical classes of words.
Thus, the subject of morphology is the grammatical classes of words (parts of speech), their grammatical categories, systems of word forms and the rules of their inflection.
Grammatical meaning and grammatical form of a word
The grammatical meaning accompanies the lexical meaning of the word. If the lexical meaning correlates the sound shell of a word with reality (object, phenomenon, sign, action, etc.), then the grammatical meaning forms a specific form of the word (word form), necessary mainly to connect the given word with other words in the text.
The lexical meaning of a word is specific and individual, while the grammatical meaning is abstract and generalized. Yes, words mountain, wall, hole denote different objects and have different lexical meanings; but from the point of view of grammar, they are included in the same category of words that have the same set of grammatical meanings: objectivity, nominative case, singular, feminine, inanimate.
The indicator of the lexical meaning in a word is the stem of the word, and the grammatical meaning has special indicators: ending (window- O, beautiful- th, growth ut), formative suffix, prefix (a game- l, white- her, With-do), emphasis (neg e shut up- cut A t), phoneme alternation (sl. ah at- sl cool it), function word (will play, O coat) and etc.
Usually a particular word form has several grammatical meanings. Yes, word form strong has the meaning of the nominative case, singular, feminine, and I'm reading- the meaning of the first person, singular, imperfective, indicative, present tense, etc.
Grammatical meanings are divided into general and specific. General grammatical (categorical) meaning characterizes the largest grammatical classes of words - parts of speech (objectivity - in a noun, a feature of an object - in an adjective, action as a process - in a verb, etc.). Particular grammatical meaning is characteristic of individual forms of words (meanings of number, case, person, mood, tense, etc.).
The general grammatical meaning of a word consists of a set of particular grammatical meanings. For example, the meaning of the objectivity of a noun is made up of the particular grammatical meanings of gender, number and case. In other words, if a word has meanings of gender, number and case independent of the words combined with it, then it has the meaning of objectivity and, therefore, it belongs to the class of nouns.
The bearer of grammatical meaning at the word level is a single form of the word - word form. The set of all word forms of the same word is called paradigm. The paradigm of a word, depending on its grammatical characteristics, can consist of either one word form (adverb rashly), and from several word forms (noun paradigm house consists of 12 word forms).
Words are the building materials for any language. Sentences and phrases are built from them, with their help we convey thoughts and communicate. The ability of this unit to name or designate objects, actions, etc. called a function. The suitability of a word for communication and transmission of thoughts is called its
Thus, the word is the basic, main structural unit of language.
Every word in Russian has a lexical and grammatical meaning.
Lexical is the relationship between the sound (phonetic) design of a word, its sound, and phenomena of reality, images, objects, actions, etc. It can be said more simply: this is the meaning. From a lexical point of view, the words “barrel”, “bump”, “point” are different units because they denote different objects.
The grammatical meaning of a word is the meaning of its forms: gender or number, case or conjugation. If the words “barrel” and “dot” are considered grammatically, then they will be absolutely the same: creatures. feminine, standing in the nominative case and singular. number.
If you compare the lexical and grammatical meaning of a word, you can see that they are not the same, but are interconnected. The lexical meaning of each of them is universal, but the main one is fixed at the root. (For example: “son”, “sonny”, “sonny”, “sonny”).
The grammatical meaning of a word is conveyed using word-forming morphemes: endings and formative suffixes. So, “forest”, “forester”, “forester” will be quite close: their meaning is determined by the root “forest”. From a grammatical point of view, they are completely different: two nouns and an adjective.
On the contrary, the words “came”, “arrived”, “ran up”, “ran up”, “flew off”, “shot down” will be similar in grammatical orientation. These are verbs in the past tense form, which are formed using the suffix “l”.
The following conclusion follows from the examples: the grammatical meaning of a word is its belonging to a part of speech, the general meaning of a number of similar units, not tied to their specific material (semantic) content. “Mom”, “Dad”, “Motherland” - creatures. 1 declension, in the form I.p., singular. numbers. "Owl", "mice", "youth" are feminine nouns. gender, 3 declensions, standing in R.p. The grammatical meaning of the words “red”, “huge”, “wooden” indicates that these are adjectives in the form husband. kind, singular numbers, I.p. It is clear that the lexical meaning of these words is different.
The grammatical meaning of a word is expressed in a certain form, corresponding to the position of words in a sentence (or phrase), expressed using Most often these are affixes, but often the grammatical form is formed using function words, stress, word order or intonation.
Its appearance (name) directly depends on how the form is formed.
Simple (they are also called synthetic) grammatical forms are formed within a unit (with the help of endings or formative suffixes). The case forms (not) of mother, daughter, son, Motherland are formed using endings. the verbs “wrote”, “jumped” - using the suffix and the verb “jumped” - using the suffix “l” and the ending “a”.
Some forms are formed outside the lexeme, and not inside it. In this case, there is a need for function words. For example, the verbs “I will sing” and “let us sing” are formed using function words (verbs). The words “will” and “let’s” in this case have no lexical meaning. They are needed to create, in the first case, the future tense, and in the second, the incentive mood. Such forms are called complex or analytical.
Grammatical meanings are defined into systems or clusters of gender, number, etc.
The basic unit of grammar is the grammatical category. The word category denotes a generic (general) concept in relation to specific (particular) concepts. For example, the name dog will be a category in relation to the names of specific breeds - shepherd, terrier, dachshund.
A grammatical category unites grammatical forms with a homogeneous grammatical meaning. A set of homogeneous and opposed grammatical forms of a particular language is called a paradigm. For example, the grammatical category (paradigm) of case in modern Russian consists of six forms with grammatical meanings: nominative, genitive, etc. cases; The grammatical category of case in English includes two forms - nominative and possessive (genitive with the meaning of belonging) cases.
Grammatical meaning is a generalized meaning inherent in a number of words or syntactic structures and expressed by regular (standard) means. Grammatical meanings, according to grammatical categories, are morphological and syntactic.
In a word, grammatical meanings are a mandatory addition to the lexical ones. The differences between them are as follows:
a) lexical meaning is inherent in a specific word, grammatical meaning is inherent in a number of words.
b) lexical meaning is associated with realities - objects, signs, processes, states, etc. The grammatical meaning indicates 1) the relationship between objects and phenomena (gender, number, case); 2) on the relationship of the content of the statement to reality (mood, tense, person); 3) on the speaker’s attitude to the statement (narration, question, motivation, as well as subjective assessments - confidence / uncertainty, categoricalness / conjecture).
c) lexical meaning is always meaningful. In a sense, the exception is words with a emptied lexical meaning. They are called desemantized. The word girl defines female representatives of the age of approximately 15-25 years, and as an address it is used in relation to much more mature saleswomen, conductors, cashiers, etc. In this case, the word girl does not denote age, but indicates the professional status of the addressee.
The grammatical meaning is purely formal, i.e. having no prototype in reality itself. For example, the gender of inanimate nouns is stream – river – lake; Spanish el mundo ‘peace’, fr. le choux ‘cabbage’ (m.r.); neuter gender of animate nouns – Russian. child, child; Bulgarian momche ‘boy’, momiche ‘girl’, kuche ‘dog’; German das Mädchen ‘girl’. An analogue of formal grammatical meanings are words with empty denotations (goblin, Atlantis, etc.).
Grammatical form is the external (formal) side of a linguistic sign, in which a certain grammatical meaning is expressed. Grammatical form is a representative of a grammatical paradigm. If a language has a certain grammatical category, then the name will always have one or another grammatical form. When describing linguistic facts, they usually say this: a noun in the genitive case, a verb in the indicative mood, etc. Grammatical form is the unity of grammatical meaning and the material means of its expression.
Grammatical meaning can be expressed in two ways: synthetically (within the word) and analytically (outside the word). Within each method, there are different means of expressing grammatical meanings.
Synthetic means of expressing grammatical meanings.
1. Affixation (inflection, suffix, prefix of a species pair): mother (ip.) – mothers (r.p.); run (infinitive) – ran (past tense); did (non-sov. kind) – did (owl. look).
2. Emphasis – hands (ip.p., plural) – handsu (p.p., singular).
3. Alternation at the root (internal inflection): collect (non-sov. view) - collect (owl. view); German lesen ‘read’ – las ‘read’.
4. Reduplication – doubling of the root. In Russian, it is not used as a grammatical device (in words like blue-blue, reduplication is a semantic device). In Malay, orang ‘person’ – oran-orang ‘people’ (complete reduplication); partial reduplication – Tagalog. mabuting ‘good’ mabuting-buting ‘very good’.
5. suppletivism - the formation of word forms from another base: I - to me; good - better; German gut ‘good’ – besser ‘better’ – beste ‘best’.
Grammatical meanings can be expressed in several ways. In the formation of the perfect form in ancient Greek. τέτροφα ‘fed’ from τρέφο ‘I feed’ four means are involved at once: incomplete repetition of the stem τέ-, inflection -α, stress and alternation in the root - τρέφ / τροφ.
Analytical means of expressing grammatical meanings.
1. Actually analytical means - special grammatical means for the formation of analytical forms: teach - I will read (weekend tense); fast (positive degree) – faster (comparative degree) – fastest (superlative degree).
2. Means of syntactic connections - the grammatical meanings of a word are determined by the grammatical meanings of another word. For indeclinable words of the Russian language, this is the only means of expressing their grammatical gender. Indeclinable animate nouns usually belong to the masculine gender: funny kangaroo, green cockatoo, cheerful chimpanzee. The gender of inanimate indeclinable nouns is usually determined by the generic word: harmful tsetse (fly), deep-sea Ontario (lake), sunny Sochi (city), unripe kiwi (fruit).
3. Function words - grammatical meanings are expressed through prepositions, particles or their significant absence: the highway shines (ip.) - stand by the highway (r.p.) - approach the highway (d.p.) - go onto the highway ( v.p.) – turn around on the highway (p.p.); found out (indicative mood) - would know (subjunctive mood).
4. Word order – grammatical meanings are determined by the position of a word in a sentence. In a construction with homonymous nominative and accusative cases, the first place of the word is recognized as its active role (subject), and the second - as its passive role (object): A horse sees a mouse (horse - sp., subject; mouse - v.p., object ) – The mouse sees a horse (mouse – i.p., subject horse – v.p., addition).
5. Intonation – expression of grammatical meanings with a certain intonation pattern. ↓Money went to the phone: 1) with logical emphasis on the word money and a pause after it; the verb went is used in the indicative mood; the meaning of the phrase “The money was spent on purchasing a telephone”; 2) with an unaccented intonation pattern, the verb went is used in the imperative mood; the meaning of the phrase “You need to put money on the phone.”
Questions and tasks for self-control:
1. What is grammar?
2. What is the difference between lexical and grammatical meaning?
3. What features does the reflection of reality in grammar have?
4. What means of expressing grammatical meanings do you know?
More on the topic § 2. Grammatical category. Grammatical meaning. Grammatical form:
- Basic concepts of morphology: grammatical category (GC), grammatical meaning (GZ), grammatical form (GF).
Words act as building material for the language. To convey thoughts, we use sentences that consist of combinations of words. In order to be combined into combinations and sentences, many words change their form.
The branch of linguistics that studies the forms of words, types of phrases and sentences is called grammar.
Grammar has two parts: morphology and syntax.
Morphology- a section of grammar that studies the word and its modification.
Syntax- a section of grammar that studies combinations of words and sentences.
Thus, word is object of study in lexicology and grammar. Lexicology is more interested in the lexical meaning of a word - its correlation with certain phenomena of reality, that is, when defining a concept, we try to find its distinctive feature.
Grammar studies a word from the point of view of generalizing its signs and properties. If the difference between words is important for vocabulary house And smoke, table And chair, then for grammar all these four words are absolutely the same: they form the same case forms and numbers, and have the same grammatical meanings.
Grammatical meaning e is a characteristic of a word from the point of view of belonging to a certain part of speech, the most general meaning inherent in a number of words, independent of their real material content.
For example, words smoke And house have different lexical meanings: house- this is a residential building, as well as (collective) people living in it; smoke– an aerosol formed by products of incomplete combustion of substances (materials). And the grammatical meanings of these words are the same: noun, common noun, inanimate, masculine, II declension, each of these words can be defined by an adjective, change according to cases and numbers, and act as a member of a sentence.
Grammatical meanings are characteristic not only of words, but also of larger grammatical units: phrases, components of a complex sentence.
Material expression of grammatical meaning is grammatical means. Most often, grammatical meaning is expressed in affixes. It can be expressed using function words, alternating sounds, changing the place of stress and word order, and intonation.
Each grammatical meaning finds its expression in the corresponding grammatical form.
Grammatical forms words can be simple (synthetic) and complex (analytical).
Simple (synthetic) grammatical form involves the expression of lexical and grammatical meaning in the same word, within a word (consists of one word): read– verb in the past tense form.
When grammatical meaning is expressed outside the lexeme, it is formed complex (analytical) form(combination of a significant word with a service word): I will read, let's read! In the Russian language, the analytical forms include the form of the future tense from imperfective verbs: I will write.
Individual grammatical meanings are combined into systems. For example, singular and plural meanings are combined into a number meaning system. In such cases we talk about grammatical category numbers. Thus, we can talk about the grammatical category of tense, the grammatical category of gender, the grammatical category of mood, the grammatical category of aspect, etc.
Each grammatical category has a number of grammatical forms. The set of all possible forms of a given word is called the paradigm of the word. For example, the paradigm of nouns usually consists of 12 forms, and that of adjectives - of 24.
The paradigm happens:
universal– all forms (full);
incomplete– there are no forms;
private according to a certain grammatical category: declension paradigm, mood paradigm.
Lexical and grammatical meanings interact: a change in the lexical meaning of a word leads to a change in its grammatical meaning and form. For example, adjective voiced in a phrase ringing voice is qualitative (has forms of degrees of comparison: sonorous, more sonorous, most sonorous). This is the same adjective in the phrase media is a relative adjective (voiced, i.e. formed with the participation of the voice). In this case, this adjective has no degrees of comparison.
And vice versa grammatical meaning some words may directly depend on their lexical meaning. For example, verb run in the meaning of “to move quickly” is used only as an imperfective verb: He ran for quite a long time until he fell completely exhausted. The lexical meaning (“to escape”) also determines another grammatical meaning – the meaning of the perfect form: The prisoner escaped from prison.
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The word is one of the basic units of grammar. A word combines its sound matter and its meaning – lexical and grammatical.
Grammatical meaning -generalized, abstract linguistic meaning inherent in a number of words, word forms and syntactic structures, finding its regular (standard) expression in the language, for example, the meaning of the case of nouns, verb tense, etc.
The grammatical meaning is contrasted with the lexical meaning, which is devoid of regular (standard) expression and does not necessarily have an abstract character.
Criteria for distinguishing lexical and grammatical meanings:
2. LZ is individual for each word (is this always true?), and GZ is typical for a whole group of words with different LZ, for example, noun units.
3. LZ remains the same in all forms of the word, GZ changes in different forms of the word.
4. When the LZ changes, new words are formed, and when the GZ changes, new forms of words are formed.
A characteristic feature of grammatical meaning is also recognized standardity, regularity of way of expression. In most cases, meanings traditionally classified as grammatical are actually directly expressed using fairly regular and standard means of expression.
Grammatical forms and grammatical categories. Grammatical form– this is a form of a word in which the grammatical meaning finds its regular (standard) expression. Within the grammatical form, the means of expressing grammatical meanings are special grammatical indicators (formal indicators).
Grammatical category– a system of opposed series of grammatical forms with homogeneous meanings. A necessary feature of a grammatical category is the unity of meaning and its expression in the system of grammatical forms as two-way linguistic units.
The concept of a grammatical category is closely related to the concept of grammatical meaning. In this regard, any grammatical category is a combination of two or more grammatical meanings. On the other hand, it is known that each grammatical meaning has its own way of expression or grammatical form (or a series of forms).
a) inflectional – manifest themselves in the process of forming the forms of a given word (for example, case and number of Russian nouns, gender and number of French adjectives, mood and tense of the verb);
b) classification categories are inherent in a given word in all its forms and relate it to a class of similar words.
Members of classification categories are represented by different words, for example, the category of gender of nouns in Russian ‘table’ – masculine gender, ‘desk’ feminine gender, ‘window’ – neuter. genus.
33. Means of expressing grammatical meanings.
I. Synthetic products
1. Affixation consists of using affixes to express grammatical meaning: books; read-l-i; mәktәp-lәr. Affixes are service morphemes.
2. Suppletivism. By suppletivism we mean the expression of grammatical meaning by a word with a different stem: I go - walked (GZ past tense), person - people (GZ plural), we - us (GZ R. or V.p), I - me, good - best.
Words with different roots are combined into one grammatical pair. Their LZ is one and the same, and the difference serves to express the GZ.
3. Reduplication(repetition) consists of complete or partial repetition of parts of a word to express grammatical meaning. Yes, in Malay orang – ‘ Human' , orang-orang –'People' .
4. Alternation(internal inflection) is a use. changes in sounds. root composition to express grammatical meaning: ‘avoid – avoid’; ‘collect – collect’; ‘sing – sang’.
II. Analytical tools –
GZs receive their expression outside the main word, often in other words.
1. Function words can be used for express.GZ: I will read (weekend time), I would read (conventional mood).
We went to the cafe (V.p.). – We were leaving the cafe (R.p.).
2. Word order.The house (I.p.) obscured the forest (V.p.). – The forest (I.p.) obscured the house (V.p.).
Particularly important, for example, for isolating languages.
The material means of expressing grammatical meaning is not always segmental, i.e. consisting of a chain (linear sequence) of phonemes. It can be supersegmental, i.e. can be superimposed on the segment chain.
3. Accent: hands (I. and V. p. plural) – hands (R. p. singular).
4. Intonation:You will go! - You will go?
Thus, in Russian adjectives we distinguish three forms: ‘ big-big-big’. They express masculine, feminine and neuter meanings. This gives us grounds to assert that the adjectives of the Russian language are characterized by the grammatical category of gender.
The grammatical meaning (plan of content) and the formal indicator of this meaning (plan of expression) form a grammatical sign - a grammatical form, a gramme. Grammema– a component of a grammatical category, which in its meaning represents a specific concept in relation to the grammatical category as a generic concept.
A grammeme can have multiple meanings.
The plural gramme of nouns in Russian has the meaning: set ‘ tables’, ‘trees’; varieties ‘ oils’, ‘wine’; a large number of ' snow', 'sand'.
The languages of the world differ in the number and composition of grammatical categories. Each language is characterized by its own set of grammatical categories, grammes and grammatical ways of expressing grammatical meaning. When comparing the grammatical structure of languages, one should take into account
the following criteria:
Presence/absence of a corresponding grammatical category;
Number of grammes of a grammatical category;
Ways of expressing grammatical meanings of a given grammatical category;
Word categories with which this grammatical category is associated
34. Methods of linguistics
General scientific methods.
Humanity is accumulating research techniques that help identify the hidden specifics of an object. Methods of scientific research are being formed.
Method– the path and method of cognition of an object, depending on the properties of the object, aspect and purpose of the study.
In linguistics there are:
general methods– generalized sets of theoretical principles, language research methods associated with a specific linguistic theory and methodology,
private– individual techniques, techniques, operations – technical means of studying a certain aspect of language.
Each method is based on the knowledge of objects and phenomena of objective reality, based on the properties of realities, but nevertheless it is a mental formation, one of the most important categories of subjective dialectics.
General scientific methods include observation, experiment, induction, analysis, synthesis.
Observation carried out in natural conditions on the basis of sensory perception of the objects of study. Observation concerns only the external side of phenomena; its results may be random and not reliable enough.
Experiment makes it possible to repeatedly reproduce observations in the process of deliberate and strictly controlled influences of the researcher on the object being studied.
Induction and deduction refer to intellectual ways of knowing. Induction is a generalization of the results of individual private observations. The data obtained as a result of experience is systematized, and a certain empirical law is derived.
Under analysis refers to the mental or experimental division of an object into its component parts or the isolation of the properties of an object for studying them separately. This is the basis for understanding the general through the individual. Synthesis- mental or experimental connection of the component parts of an object and its properties and the study of it as a whole. Analysis and synthesis are connected and mutually determined.
Particular methods of linguistics.
Comparative historical method– a scientific method, with the help of which, through comparison, the general and special in historical phenomena are revealed, knowledge of the various historical stages of development of the same phenomenon or two different coexisting phenomena is achieved;
The comparative historical method is a set of techniques that allows one to prove the kinship of certain languages and restore the most ancient facts of their history. The method was created in the 19th century, its founders were F. Bopp, J. Grimm, R. Rask, A. Kh. Vostokov.
Descriptive method– a system of research techniques used to characterize language phenomena at a given stage of its development; This is a synchronous analysis method.
Comparative method– research and description of a language through its systematic comparison with another language in order to clarify its specificity. The method is aimed primarily at identifying differences between the two languages being compared and is therefore also called contrastive. Underlies contrastive linguistics.
In modern linguistics, considerable attention is given to the study of linguistic phenomena statistical methods of mathematics.