Theoretical Grammar of English 2014-2015 a.y.
Seminar 4
The Theme: Inherent categories of Nouns.
The problem of the Inherent Category of Gender of the English noun.
The issues to be discussed:
1) General notion of a Noun. Category of Number.
2) Category of case. Two case system. More than 2 case system. No case system.
3) Quirk`s Gender System explanation with examples.
4) Gender. Actuality of Gender-exclusive Language (Gender Neutral) of today. Glossary of Gender-exclusive Language in English.(examples) (GOOD ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION GIVES YOU ADDITIONAL POINTS!!!!!)
II. Practical Task:
The gender system of Quirk.
Put the right noun into the right slot according to the Gender in the table below: woman, dog, teacher, cat, student, England, the sun, the moon, ship, peace, love, husband, king, family, bull, cow, wife, horse, actor, actress, mother, officer, infant, baby, child, aristocrat, crew, car, amateur, snake, ant, house.
NB! You may add some of your own examples.
2. Quirk`s Gender System
| Gender classes in Modern English | |||||
| Gender class | Examples | RP | P.P | ||
| animate | Personal | a) Male | boy | who | he |
| b) Female | mother | who | she | ||
| c) dual | student | who | He/she | ||
| Generic | d) common | baby | Which/who | He/she/it | |
| e) collective | family | Which/who | It/they | ||
| Impersonal | f) higher male animal | bull | Which/who | He/it/he | |
| g) higher female animal | cow | Which/who | She/it/she | ||
| h) lower animal | ant | which | it | ||
| Inanimate | i) inanimate | table, book | which | it |
Notes: R.P. relative pronoun
P.P. personal pronoun
Slash/ - used equally
Blokh distinguishes the category of gender as strictly oppositional.
Gender system according to M.Yo.Blokh.
Gender
+ -
Person noun Non-person noun
Feminine nouns Masculine nouns
Arrange the following nouns according to Blokh`s gender system:
Writer, speaker, actor, plant, earth, country, brother, sister, cousin, friend, sheep, car.
Give to the following gender bias nouns their gender-neutral counterparts.
1. Businessman/businesswoman-
2. Chairman/chairwoman-
3. Newspaperman/newspaperwoman-
4. Seaman-
5. Servant/maid-
6. Schoolboy/schoolgirl-
7. Cabman-
8. Mailman/mailwoman-
9. Fireman-
10. Salesman/saleswoman-
References:
I. Absolute must:
1. Smirnitsky A.E. Morphology of the English. Language (in Russian). M, 1959.,p.p 139-148
2. R.A. Close A Reference Grammar for Students of English M.1979, p.352
3. George O. Curme (1962) English Grammar New York
NB 4. The material presented by the chair and accessible in the reading-hall.
II. Further reading:
1. Internet sources.
2. Learn the glossary of gender-neutral language
3. Make reports on the material you`ve got from Internet
Reading to brush uo the back-ground knowledge of English Grammar:
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III. R.V. Reznik, T.S. Sorokina, T.A. Kazaritskaya A Grammar of Modern English Usage M. 1998, p.680
Worked out by Tuyakaeva D.Sh. dotcent
Theoretical Grammar of English 2014-2015 a.y.
Seminar 6
The Theme: Mood and modality in English
I. The issues to be discussed:
1. Basic concepts of mood and modality in English.
2. Realis and Irrealis.
3. Grammatical Markers of Modality.
4. Removing Terminological Ambiguities.
5. The problem of the Imperative and Iussive.
II Practical Tasks
Ex.1. English uses a modal verb to distinguish, a judgment about a proposition. Compare the first example, with no modal verb, with the other two and pass your own judgment.
a) He found it without much difficulty.
b) He might have found it without much difficulty.
c) He must have found it without much difficulty.
Ex.2. Deonic and Dynamic are the two main types of Event Modality. In the simplest terms is that with deonic modality the conditioning factore are external to the relevant individual, whereas with dynamic modality they are internal.
State the difference between the Deonic and Dynamic Event Modalities in the following examples.
a) He could hardly unbutton his waistcoat.
b) A bomb came down under my feet. I might have been injured then.
c) Do you think do you think they would hang me for that?
d) The animals were to go in four by four, vive la compagnie!
e) A camel can go for days without speeches, Lady Shale had to be there because, without her, the Christmas arrangements could not have been carried through.
Ex.3.
Imperative and jussive are noted as the two types of commands and are often distinguished grammatically. Those that are directed at the addressee or addressee alone are usually treated as imperatives. All others are treated as jussives. These are usually introduced in English by Let and are either first or third person.
State the difference between the Imperative and the Jussive in the following examples.
A. Don`t make a row if you can help it.
B. If they do charge you, go quietly and say nothing.
C. Alice! Get up, my dear, and welcome an old admirer of yours. Come along. You will both enjoy it. Get up!
D. Let the Nature play sad tricks upon us.
E. Don`t let them tell anyone that we`ve found this pin or that we`ve discovered anything.
References:
I. Absolute must:
1. Block M.Y. A Course in Theoretical English Grammar Moscow, 1994.
2. IIyish B.A. The Structure of Modern English.L.,1971.
3. Smirnitsky A.E. Morphology of the English. Language (in Russian). M, 1959.
4. .., .., .. , 1981.
II Further reading:
1. Quirk R. Greenbaum S. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language London N.Y. 1993.
2. Matthews P.H. Morphology Cambridge University Press 1991.
Worked out by Tuyakaeva D.Sh. dotcent.
