The door opened and the young man came in./The door opened and a young man came in.
In the 2nd case we can see that the central point of the sentence is a young man, which is new (à the person who came in proved to be a young man). While in the 1st sentence the central point is that he came in. The central point corresponds to the semantic predicate, or the RHEME.
à the indefinite article expresses what is new, and the definite article expresses what is known already, or at least what is not presented as new.
The adjective, the pronoun and the numeral.
Adjective is a part of speech characterized by the following typical features:
1.The lexico-grammatical meaning of “attributes (of substantives)”. By attributes we mean different properties of substantives, such as their size, colour, position in space, material, psychic state of persons, etc.
2.The morphological category of the degrees of comparison.
3.The characteristic combinability with nouns (a beautiful girl), link verbs (…is clever), adverbs, mostly those of degree (a very clever boy), the so-called “prop word” one (the grey one).
4.The stem-building affixes –ful, -less, -ish, -ous, -ive, -ic, un-, pre-, in-, etc.
5.Its functions of an attribute and a predicative complement.
Blokh:The adjective expresses the categorial semantics of property of a substance à each adjective used in text presupposes relation to some noun. Unlike nouns, adjectives do not possess a full nominative value.
Classification of adjectives.Хаймович и Роговская
Most qualitative adjectives build up opposemes of comparison, but some do not:
a.adjectives that in themselves express the highest degree of a quality: supreme, extreme
b.those having the suffix –ish which indicates the degree of quality: reddish, whitish
c.those denoting qualities which are not compatible with the idea of comparison.: deaf, dead, lame, perpendicular.
Blokh:All the adjectives are traditionally divided into 2 large subclasses: qualitative and relative.
Relative adjectives express such properties of a substance as are determined by the direct relation of the substance to some other substance (e.g. wood – a wooden hut, history – a historical event).
The category of the degrees of comparison of adjectives is the system of opposemes (long – longer – longest) showing qualitative distinctions of qualities. More exactly it shows whether the adjective denotes the property of some substance absolutely, or relatively as a higher or the highest amount of the property in comparison with that of some other substances. ‘positive’, ‘comparative’ and ‘superlative’ degrees.
Substantivization of adjectives. Adjectivization of nouns.
Blokh:Among the substantivized adjectives there is a set characterized by hybrid lexico-grammatical features. On analogy of verbids these words might be called “adjectivids”.
The adjectivids fall into 2 main grammatical subgroups:
1.pluralia tantum (the English, the rich, the unemployed)à sets of people
2.singularia tantum (the invisible, the abstract)à abstract ideas
Pronoun.
We usually find in grammars a classification of pronouns into personal, relative,
possessive, or interrogative. It is clear that some points in tht classification are not grammatial at all. Thus, if we say, that a pronoun is indefinite we do not sharscterize it from a grammatical but from a semantical point of view. Case: In dealing with the category of case in pronouns we must bear in mind that they need not in this respect be similar to nouns. Some of them may have peculiarities which no noun shares. Some pronouns distinguish b/w two cases which are best termed nominative and objective. These are the following: Nom: I he she it we you they who; Obj: me him her it us you them whom. A certain number of pronouns have a different case system.They distinguish b/w a common and a genitive case. These are somebody, anybody, one, another and others. All other pronouns have no category of case (something,anything, nothing, everything etc). It is very well known that the form me which is an objective case form, is not only used in the function of object direct or indirect) but also as predicative, in sent like It is me. The form me can occasionaly be found in the function of subject, provided it does not immediately precede the predicate verb, as in the sent: Tha’s the law of the state, Ham, and there’s nothing me or you can do about it. The form me could not have been used here if there had not been the second subject you in the sent. The nominative forms I, he etc are being gradually restricted to the function of subject, whereas the objective case forms me/ him etc are taking over all the 1st person singular pronoun than with the others. Number: The category of number has only a very restricted field in pronouns. It is found in the pronouns this/these, that/those, other/others (if not used before a noun).As to the pronouns I/we, he, she, it/they it must be stated that there is no gram category of number here. We is not a form of the pronoun I, but a separate word in its own right. In a similar way, they is not a form of he or she. There is no gram category of number either in the pronouns my/our, his, her, its/their and mine/ours.Her or their are different words, not different forms of one word. A peculiar difficulty arises here with reference to the pronouns myself/ourself,ourselves;yourself/yuorselvs etc If we compare the two pronouns myself an ourselves we shall see that the difference b/w the first element of two words is purely lexical, whereas the second elements differ from each other by the same suffix –s that is used to form the plural form of most nouns.So we are brought to the conclusion that oureselves is essentially a different word from myself. There are no other gram categories in the English pronoun:there is no category of gender.
. The pronouns he,she,it his,her etc are all separate words.
Types of pronouns.
There are many examples of the same phonetic unit used to express different meanings in different contexts. We may state the following cases in point: that demonstrative and that relative; who interrogative and who relative. That which remains unchanged in the plural can’t be the same word as that which has the plural form those. So we arrive at the conclusion that there are two different pronouns: that- relative and that / those- demonstrative, parallel to this. We shall have to rely on meaning and syntactical function. It is not hard to distinguish b/w the interrogative and the relative meaning in the pronouns who, what, which. It is also evident that the relative who, what, which can introduce subordinate clauses. However, it is not easy to say whether the pronoun what is interrogative or relative in a sentence like this: I know what you mean. On the one hand the meaning of the pronoun what seems to be the same as in the sent: I know what has happened. It is a so-called indirect question where it is obviously interrogative. On the other hand it can hardly be defined that what may be taken as equivalent to which and as connecting the subordinate clause with the main clause. Limits of the pronoun class. The limits of the pronoun class are somewhat difficult to define.That is there are words which have som pronominal features, without being full pronoun or even ither features which are not pronominal at all.We may take the word many as a case in point. Many is in several respects similar in meaningand function to the pronouns some or several. Compare some children, some of the children, some of them. In this respect many differs from adjectives which can’t be followed by the group “of+noun or pronoun’. That would favour the view that many belong to the pronoun class. On the other hand many has an important characteristic which separates it fro pronouns and brings it tigether with adjectives.Another case in point is the word certain. When used as a predicate it is an adjective.E.g. We were quite certain of the fact.. Things are different when certain is used as an attribute standing before a noun and has a meaning much the same as some. E.g. There are certain indications that this is true. Certain as in the first sent is one of the peculiarities of the word, it can be preceded by the indefinite article which generaly is not the case with pronouns. Certain can be followed by the group “of+noun or pronoun”. If no such examples are met with, we shall have to conclude that there are no sufficient reasons to class certain with the pronouns, in spite of the peculiar meaning it has in such sentences.
The numeral.
With numerals it is difficult to keep the strictly gram approach and not to let oneself be diverted into lexicological consideration. Pr. Jespersen has quite rightly remarked that numerals have been treated by grammarians in a different way from other parts of speech. There are no gram categories to be discussed in numerals. There is no category of number, nor of case, nor any other morpholigical category. The numerals, are to all intents and purposes, invariable. So there is only the function of numerals to be considered and also possibilities of their substantivization. The most characteristic function of numerals is that of an attribute preceding its noun.However a numeral can also perfom other functions in the sent(it can be subject, predicate or object) if the context makes it clear what ibjects are meant.E.g. We are seven, Of the seven people I was looking for I found only three. An ordinal numeral can also be modufied by an infinitive denoting the action in which the object mentioned occupies a definite place: He was the first to come. The numerals both cardinal and ordinal share certain peculiarities of syntactic construction with pronouns. Compare:five children, five of the children, five of them. This, however, does not seem a sufficient reason for uniting pronouns and numerals into one part of speech and such a union has not so far been proposed.
