Realization of implicit lexical-grammatical categories of noun in the songs of English speaking group “Evanescence”

 

 

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF UKRAINE

NYZHYN MYKOLA GOGOL STATE UNIVERSITY

 

 

 

 

ENGLISH PHILOLOGY DEPARTMENT

 

 

KUSMINA Anastasia Olexandryvna

 

 

REALISATION OF GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES

OF NOUN IN THE SONGS OF MODERN ENGLISH-SPEAKING GROUP “EVANESCENCE”

 

 

Course Paper

 

 

 

 

 

Research Supervisor

Z.O.Igina

 

 

 

 

 

Nizhyn - 2010

 

 

Contents

Introduction						3
I.	The scope of nounal grammatical categories					4
	I.1.		Noun and its implicit lexico-grammatical categories			4
	I.2.		Explicit lexico-grammatical categories of noun			7
			I.2.1.	The Category of Case		7
			I.2.2.	The Category of Number of English Nouns		11
Conclusion to the first part						15
II.		Realization of implicit lexical-grammatical categories of noun in the songs of English speaking group “Evanescence”				16
	II.1.		Realization of implicit lexical-grammatical categories of noun in the songs of English speaking group “Evanescence”			116
	II.2.		Realization of explicit lexical-grammatical categories of noun in the songs of English speaking group “Evanescence”			17
			II.2.1.		Realization of category of case	17
			II.2.2.		Realization of category of number	18
Conclusion						21
Резюме						22
The list of literature						23
Appendixes						24
Appendix 1						24
Appendix 2						25
Appendix 3						27
Appendix 4						29
Appendix 5						30
Appendix 6						31
Appendix 7						33
Appendix 8						34
Appendix 9						36
Appendix 10						37

Introduction

The theme of my course paper is: «Realization of Grammatical Categories of noun in the songs of English speaking groups». To begin with some words should be said about the things, described in my work.

Grammatical category is the unity of two or more grammatical meanings. [Levickiy 10]. Each grammatical category is based on opposition.

The noun as a part of speech has the categorial meaning of "substance" or "thingness". It follows from this that the noun is the main nominative part of speech, effecting nomination of the fullest value within the framework of the notional division of the lexicon.[1;24].

The purpose of this work is to investigate the realization of nouns of different categories in the songs of English speaking group “Evanescence”.

The tasks and aims of this work are:

1. To give the definition to term “Noun” and “Grammatical category”.

2. To describe implicit and explicit lexico-grammatical categories that a noun possesses.

3. To investigate the realization of nouns of different categories in the songs of English speaking group “Evanescence”.

The present course paper consists of four parts: introduction, the theoretical part, practical part and conclusion.

The object of this research is noun, which are used in the songs of modern English-speaking band “Evanescence”. Texts of the songs are the material for my work. The subject is grammatical category of noun. Materials of this work can be used in teaching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I. THE SCOPE OF NOUNAL GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES

I.1.Noun and its implicit lexico-grammatical categories

Notional words, first of all verbs and nouns, possess some morphemic features expressing grammatical (morphological) meanings. These features determine the grammatical form of the word. [1; 14].

Grammatical meanings are very abstract, very general. Therefore the grammatical form is not confined to an individual word, but unites a whole class of words, so that each word of the class expresses the corresponding grammatical meaning together with its individual, concrete semantics [1; 14].

The term “category” is used in linguistics in two different cases. On the one hand, it is used to designate a class of elements conjoined together on the basis of their having common features, classificatory features. In grammar the “category” reveals its synonymity with “the part of speech”. On the other hand, the term “category” is used to refer to the general phenomenon which is ontologically lingual and which is lingual representation of some conceptual category. This approach to linguistic categories is in accord with the definition of grammatical categories which are usually defined as a unity of semblable grammatical meanings signified by appropriate grammatical formants. In such cases both the meanings and their markers are identified as categorical in status.[2; 106].

In the first meaning the category of the word is distinguished according to different criterion. But special attention should be paid to the second meaning. Scholars give various definitions to “grammatical category”. Ivanova, Burlacova, Pochepcov suggest that grammatical category is an association of two or more grammatical forms, contrasted or correlated by their grammatical meaning.[3; 11]. Grammatical categories are made up by the unity of identical grammatical meanings that have the same form [7; 4] Levickiy claims that grammatical category is the unity of two or more grammatical meanings[10;10]. This variant is considered to be the most general.

Each grammatical category is based on opposition. Without opposition grammatical category cannot exist. A great number of grammarians stick to this variant (Blokh, Ivanova, Burlacova, Pochepcov, Illish, Bochcareva, Levickiy and others).

The grammatical meaning may be explicit and implicit. The implicit grammatical meaning is not expressed formally (e.g. the word table does not contain any hints in its form as to it being inanimate). The explicit grammatical meaning is always marked morphologically – it has its marker. In the word cats the grammatical meaning of plurality is shown in the form of the noun; cat’s – here the grammatical meaning of possessiveness is shown by the form ‘s; is asked – shows the explicit grammatical meaning of passiveness.

The implicit grammatical meaning may be of two types – general and dependent. The general grammatical meaning is the meaning of the whole word-class, of a part of speech (e.g. nouns – the general grammatical meaning of thingness). The dependent grammatical meaning is the meaning of a subclass within the same part of speech. For instance, any verb possesses the dependent grammatical meaning of transitivity/intransitivity, terminativeness/non-terminativeness, stativeness/non-stativeness; nouns have the dependent grammatical meaning of contableness/uncountableness and animateness/inanimateness. The most important thing about the dependent grammatical meaning is that it influences the realization of grammatical categories restricting them to a subclass. Thus the dependent grammatical meaning of countableness/uncountableness influences the realization of the grammatical category of number as the number category is realized only within the subclass of countable nouns, the grammatical meaning of animateness/inanimateness influences the realization of the grammatical category of case, teminativeness/non-terminativeness - the category of tense, transitivity/intransitivity – the category of voice.[7;  4-5]

Speaking about grammatical category of noun the definition of noun should be mentioned.

The noun as a part of speech has the categorial meaning of "substance" or "thingness". It follows from this that the noun is the main nominative part of speech, effecting nomination of the fullest value within the framework of the notional division of the lexicon.[1;24]

Revealing the problem of grammatical categories of noun it can be mentioned that not all grammarians stick to the version of implicit and explicit grammatical categories. Volkova made her suggestions on the basis of ideas of Blokh[1;16], Ivanova, Burlacova, Pochepcov[3;21] and Morokhovskaya[2; 112].

Other scholars have different ideas. For example Illish speaks only about category of number, Oriskulov speaks about number and case, Streng supposes that noun possesses the category of gender as one of its implicit categories.

In general the majority of scholars agree that noun possesses both explicit and implicit categories.

The noun is classified into a separate word - group because:

1. they all have the same lexical - grammatical meaning :

substance / thing: eyes, head-parts of human body;

2. according to their form - they've two grammatical categories:

Number: lie-lies and case God-Gods’;

3. they all have typical stem-building elements:

- er, - ist, - ship, - merit, -hood ...:childhood;

4. typical combinability with other words:

most often left-hand combinability: every thought;

5. function - the most characteristic feature of nouns is - they can be observed in all syntactic functions but predicate. [12; 18].

  Nouns fall under two classes: proper nouns (proper names-Peter, Kate; geographical names- the Atlantic Ocean); common nouns (door, dreams). [10;27].

Common nouns are subdivided into countable (mask) and uncountable (nature). [10;27]

Thus there are different groups of common nouns: class nouns (human), collective nouns (family), nouns of material (coal) and abstract nouns (truth). [10; 28].

 

 

 

I.2. Explicit lexico-grammatical categories of noun

As it was mentioned above noun possesses two explicit lexico-grammatical categories, based on oppositions:

-the category of case. Case is the immanent morphological category of the noun manifested in the forms of noun declension and showing the relations of the nounal referent to other objects and phenomena [1;31], based on opposition of common and possessive case;

-the category of number. The grammatical category of number is the linguistic representation of the objective category of quantity. The number category is realized through the opposition of two form-classes: the plural form and the singular form. [7;8].

 

I.2.1.The Category of Case

Case is the immanent morphological category of the noun manifested in the forms of noun declension and showing the relations of the nounal referent to other objects and phenomena. Thus, the case form of the noun, or contractedly its "case" (in the narrow sense of the word), is a morphological-declensional form.

This category is expressed in English by the opposition of the form in -'s [-z, -s, -iz], usually called the "possessive" case, or more traditionally, the "genitive" case, to the unfeatured form of the noun, usually called the "common" case. The apostrophized -s serves to distinguish in writing the singular noun in the genitive case from the plural noun in the common case. E.g.: the man's duty, the President's decision, Max's letter; the boy's ball, the clerk's promotion, the Empress's jewels.[1;31]

Grammarians seem to be divided in their opinion as to the case-system of English nouns. Open to thought and questioning, this problem has always been much debated. The most common view on the subject is that nouns have only two cases: a common case and a genitive or possessive case . The common case is characterised by a zero suffix (child, boy, girl, student), the possessive case by the inflection [-z] and its phonetic variants [-s], [-iz], in spelling -'s. The uses of the genitive are known to be specific, those of the common case general. In terms of modern linguistics, we can therefore say that both formally and functionally, (he common case is unmarked and the genitive marked. [13; 78].

  Though case is a morphological category it has a distinct syntactical significance. The common case fulfills a number of syntactical functions not typical of possessive case, among them the functions of subject and object. The possessive case noun is for the most part employed as an attribute. [4; 30-31].

All case opposites are identical in content: they contain two particular meanings, of 'common' case and 'possessive' case, united by the general meaning of the category, that of 'case'. There is not much variety in the form of case opposites either, which distinguishes English from Russian. [4; 30-31].

Four special views advanced at various times by different scholars should be considered as successive stages in the analysis of this problem.

The first view may be called the "theory of positional cases". This theory is directly connected with the old grammatical tradition, and its traces can be seen in many contemporary text-books for school in the English-speaking countries. Linguistic formulations of the theory, with various individual variations (the number of cases recognized, the terms used, the reasoning cited), may be found in the works of J.C. Nesfield, M. Deutschbein, M. Bryant and other scholars. [1;31].

In accord with the theory of positional cases, the unchangeable forms of the noun are differentiated as different cases by virtue of the functional positions occupied by the noun in the sentence. Thus, the English noun, on the analogy of classical Latin grammar, would distinguish, besides the inflexional genitive case, also the non-inflexional, i.e. purely positional cases: nominative, vocative, dative, and accusative. The uninflexional cases of the noun are taken to be supported by the parallel inflexional cases of the personal pronouns. The would-be cases in question can be exemplified as follows. [4; 30].

 

An English noun lexeme may contain two case opposites at most (man – man's, men – men's). Some lexemes have but one opposite (England –  England's, cattle – cattle's). Many lexemes have no case opposites at all (book, news, foliage),

In the opposite dog – dog's, men – men's, the 'common' case is not marked, i.e. dog and men have zero morphemes of 'common case'. The 'possessive' case is marked by the suffix -'s /-s, – z, – iz/. In the opposite dogs – dogs.' the difference between the opposites is marked only in writing. Otherwise the two opposites do not differ in form. So with regard to each other they are-not marked.

Thus, -'s is the only positive case morpheme of English nouns. It would be no exaggeration to say that the whole category' depends on this morpheme.

As already mentioned, with regard to the category of case English nouns fall under two lexicon-grammatical subclasses: declinable, having case opposites, and indeclinable, having no case opposites.

The subclass of declinable is comparatively limited, including mostly nouns denoting living beings, also time and distance. [4; 30-31]

Since both cases and prepositions show 'relations of substances', some linguists speak of analytical cases in Modern English. To the student is said to be an analytical dative case (equivalent, for instance, to the Russian студенту), of the student is understood as an analytical genitive case (equivalent to студента), by the student as an analytical instrumental case (cf. студентом), etc.

The theory of analytical cases seems to be unconvincing for a number of reasons.

1. In order to treat the combinations of the student, to the student, by the student as analytical words (like shall come or has come) we must regard of, to, with as grammatical word-morphemes. [6; 14] But then they are to be devoid of lexical meaning, which they are not. Like most words a preposition is usually polysynaptic and each meaning is singled out in speech, in a sentence or a word-combination.

In each case of shows one of its lexical meanings. Therefore it cannot be regarded as a grammatical word-morpheme and the combination of the student cannot be treated as an analytical word.

2. A grammatical category, as known, is represented in opposites comprising a definite number of members. Combinations with different prepositions are too numerous to be interpreted as opposites representing the category of case. [6; 180].

The number of cases in English becomes practically unlimited.

3. Analytical words usually form opposites with synthetic ones [5; 49]. (comes – came – will come). With prepositional constructions it is different. They are often synonymous with synthetic words.
4. There is much subjectivity in the choice of prepositions supposed to form analytical cases. Grammarians usually point out those prepositions whose meanings approximate to the meanings of some cases in other languages or in Old English. But the analogy with other languages or with an older stage of the same language does not prove the existence of a given category in a modern language. [5;49].

The morpheme -'s, on which the category of case of English nouns depends, differs in some respects from other grammatical morphemes of the English language and from the case morphemes of other languages.

As emphasized by B.A. Ilyish [8; 99-100], -'s is no longer a case inflexion in the classical sense of the word. Unlike such classical inflexions, -'s may be attached

1. to adverbs (of substantial origin), as in yesterday's events,
2. to word-groups, as in Mary and John's apartment, our professor of literature's unexpected departure,
3. even to whole clauses, as in the well-worn example the man I saw yesterday's son.

В. A. Ilyish comes to-the conclusion that the -'s morpheme gradually develops into a «form-word», a kind of particle serving to convey the meaning of belonging, possession. [8; 100].

G.N. Vorontsova does not recognize –‘s as a case morpheme at all. [9; 81-83]. The reasons she puts forward to substantiate her point of view are as follows:

1. The use of -'s is optional (her brother's, of her brother).
2. It is used with a limited group of nouns outside which it occurs very seldom.
3. -'s is used both in the singular and in the plural (child's, children's), which is not incident – to case morphemes (cf. мальчик-а, мальчик-ов).
4. It occurs in very few plurals, only those with the irregular formation of the plural member (oxen's but cows').
5. -'s does not make an inseparable part of the structure of the word. It may be placed at some distance from the head-noun of an attributive group.

«Been reading that fellow what's his name's attacks in the 'Sunday Times'?» (Bennett).

Proceeding from these facts G.N. Vorontsova treats -'s as a 'postposition', a 'purely syntactical form-word resembling a preposition', used as a sign of syntactical dependence. [9;82].

 

I.2.2. The Category of Number of English Nouns

Unlike the category of case the category of number does not have problems with the number of opposems.

Modern English like most other languages distinguishes two numbers: singular and plural. The meaning of singular and plural seems to be self-explanatory, that is the opposition: one — more than one. With all this, expression of number in different classes of English nouns presents certain ! difficulties for a foreigner to master. [13; 72].

As already mentioned, plural and singular nouns stand in contrast as diametrically opposite. Instances are not few, however, when their opposition comes to be neutralised. And this is to say that there are cases when the numeric differentiation appears to be of no importance at all. Here belong many collective abstract and material nouns. If, for instance, we look at the meaning of collective nouns, we cannot fail to see that they denote at the same time a plurality and a unit. They may be said to be doubly countables and thus from a logical point of view form the exact contrast to mass nouns: they are, in fact, at the same time singular and plural, while mass words are logically neither. The double-sidedness of collective nouns weakens the opposition and leads to the development of either Pluralia tantum, as in: weeds (in a garden), ashes, embers, etc., or Singularia tantum, as in: wildfowl, clergy, foliage, etc. [13; 72].

The grammatical category of number is the linguistic representation of the objective category of quantity. The number category is realized through the opposition of two form-classes: the plural form :: the singular form. The category of number in English is restricted in its realization because of the dependent implicit grammatical meaning of countableness/uncountableness. The number category is realized only within subclass of countable nouns. [7; 8].

The grammatical meaning of number may not coincide with the notional quantity: the noun in the singular does not necessarily denote one object while the plural form may be used to denote one object consisting of several parts. The singular form may denote: