Features of the grammatical structure of the Russian language
Every language has been developing and is developing in accordance with its own internal laws and has built a specific grammatical structure with its own characteristic features.
There are various types of Languages’ grammatical structures. Talking about English and Russian, they belong to two different types. English has the analytical grammatical structure while Russian is of the synthetical structure . Let’s consider their differences and peculiarities.
| Synthetical languages (Russian) | Analytical languages (English) |
| 1. A widely spread system of affixes for manifestation of various grammatical meanings. · In Russian there is a good number of form-building suffixes and other means to express the plural of nouns: дом – дома; окно-окна; стол – столы; мяч – мячи; стул – стулья; дочь – дочери; сын – сыновья; учитель – учителя . | 1. A scarce system of affixation for expressing grammatical categories. · In English the main suffix to express plurality of nouns is the suffix –s / -es. There is also a small group of English nouns that form their plural by sound alteration or with the help of the old English suffix –en: man – men; woman – women; foot – feet; tooth – teeth; child – children; goose - geese; mouse – mice; louse – lice; ox – oxen; brother - brethren |
| 2. A larger number of grammatical categories in comparison with the other type of language. · The Russian adjective has not only the category of the degrees of comparison, but also the categories of number, gender and case. · Thanks to the category of gender the Russian verb when being conjugated has special suffixes to agree with the pronoun or noun in the position of the subject. So we have the following picture: In the present: Я пою. Ты поешь. Он, она, оно поет Мы поем Вы поете Они поют In the past: пел, пела, пели | 2. Lack of some grammatical categories that exist in the synthetical languages or some categories have a very scarce formal presentation. · The English adjective has only the category of the degrees of comparison. · In English the variety of verb forms in case of conjugation is very scarce. In the present: I sing. You sing. He, she, it sings. We sing. You sing. They sing. In the past: sang for all persons and numbers. |
| 3 Thanks to the abundance of various inflections / word-forming suffixes/ words in Russian are attached to each other withoutprepositions: · ножка стола · махнуть рукой · писать ручкой · писать карандашом The majority of Russian verb agree with the following words without prepositions either: Учитель объяснил правило студентам. Он любит слушать современную музыку Мы ждем его прихода. Though there are quite many verbs which are governed by prepositions. Sometimes the latter coincide with the English verbs of the same meaning, though it’s a rare case: Семья состоит из 5 человек. Все зависит от нас. Он придет к нам на обед. | 3. A sparing use of affixation leads in English to a wider use of prepositions to denote relations between words in order to connect them: · the leg of the table · to wave by the hand · to write with a pen · to write in pencil More often than not English verbs are governed by prepositions The teacher explained the rule to the students. He likes to listen to modern music. We are waiting for his arrival. The family consists of 5 people. All depends on us. He’ll come to us for dinner. |
| 4. The majority of grammatical forms in Russian are synthetic, which means that all the grammatical meanings are represented in one form due to the wide network of affixes: Приду (will come), ушел (has left), проработал 10 лет (has been working). When calling one language synthetical and another – analytical it should be noted that the statement doesn’t mean that the opposite forms don’t exist in each type of language. There are in Russian analytical forms as well: Мы будем выполнять этот заказ сообща. (the future tense form) Some Russian forms of degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs are analytical: сильный – более сильный – самый сильный; правильно – более правильно – наиболее правильно. | 4. The majority of grammatical forms are analytical, that is consisting of two components: the auxiliary part and the notional part inside one form. These are: 1) Most of verbal aspect tense forms of active voice; 2) All the forms of the passive voice of the English verb; 3) Some forms of the subjunctive mood of the verb; 4) The negative and interrogative forms of the verb 5) The forms of the degrees of comparison of multisyllabled adjectives and adverbs. Synthetical forms are found in English too. These are: 1) –s in the third person, singular in the simple present; 2) –s in the plural forms of the noun; 3) –‘s in the possessive case forms of nouns; 4) –ed in the verbal forms of the past simple; 5) –er / -est in the forms of the degrees of comparison in one-syllable adjectives and adverbs. |
| 5. A free word-order Мой брат уехал вчера в Москву. На улице пошел дождь. Однажды приехали к нам нежданные гости. | 5. A relatively fixed word-order: Subject + Predicate + Object + Adverbial modifiers: His dog has bitten the little boy in the leg. My brother went to Moscow yesterday. It started to rain outside. Once we had unexpected guests. / Once unexpected guests arrived at our place. The whole sense of a sentence depends on the word-order in English: The mother loves her children very much. The children love their mother very much. It is because every position of the word in a sentence is grammatically meaningful. |
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However, the English language used to belong to the synthetical type of languages. The old English period (700 – 1100) had a rather sophisticated and subtle system of synthetic forms. It used to have a similar to Russian system of cases (the nominative, the accusative, the dative, the genitive, the instrumental) . The case category covered the adjectives which were to agree with the modified nouns in number, case and gender. The verb had a variety of suffixes to express the categories of person and number. Towards the end of the old English period and through the middle English period (that lasted from the 11-th century up to the 15-th), the synthetical forms gradually were disappearing, the grammatical forms were losing their inflexions and hence their grammatical categories and the grammatical structure of the English language was gradually changing into an analytical type of structure.
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Grammar consists of two parts: morphology and syntax. Morphology deals with the forms of words and their grammatical categories; syntax deals with phrases and sentences and with rules of the words’ connections in the sentence.
Before we start discussing the items related to morphology we are to dwell upon a couple of issues concerning suffixes and other means of the grammatical word change.
First of all when using the term ‘suffix’ we must differentiate between word-building suffixes and form-building suffixes.
Word-building suffixes are related to the building of words which belong to different parts of speech: work – worker, translate – translation - translator, depend – dependence – dependent, possible – possibility, coward – cowardice and so on.
While discussing morphological forms we’ll deal mostly with form-building suffixes which manifest various grammatical meanings in accordance with the grammatical category. The latter expresses the realities reflected in the language via the process of generalization. For example, to express the idea of plurality of some objects, there is a special suffix in the English language: –s /-es, which is added to the root of the word. This suffix indicates that we are talking about a number of objects, not one. So the existence of such pairs of words as: a table –tables, a boy – boys, an idea – ideas speaks for the existence of the grammatical category of number for the group of words which are referred to as nouns.
Thus, grammatical category forms are represented by form-building suffixes.
Another productive means of form-building in English is vowel alteration: write – wrote – written, sing – sang – sung, man - men, woman – women, tooth – teeth, foot – feet.
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All the grammatical forms of one word constitute its paradigm. Every word has its own paradigm. Two words may belong to the same part of speech but they may have different paradigms according to their individual properties. Let’s take two nouns: a boy and advice.
An English noun has only two categories. One is that of number and the second is that of case. As for the first word, a boy, it has the following forms: boy, boys, boy’s, boys’ ( 4 grammatical forms which constitute its paradigm and manifest the existence of the two grammatical categories characteristic of the noun). As for the second, advice, it has only one form: advice.
Adjective: good, better, best
Verb: Work, worked, working, works, am working, is working, was working, have worked, has worked, will work, would work, ….
Seminar 2. Parts of speech
The classification of words into various parts of speech is based on the following three principles: meaning, form, function.
· By meaning we don’t mean the individual meaning of each separate word (its lexical meaning) but the generalized meaning common to all the words of the given class.
For example, the general meaning of the noun is that of “thingness” which includes
words denoting substances (individuals, objects), words naming qualities (kindness),
processes (conversation, translation), abstract notions (time, power, love, hatred).
The meaning of the verb as a type of word is that of “process, action”.
All adjectives express some sort of “quality”.
· By form we mean the morphological characteristics of a type of word, its paradigm. Thus, the noun is characterized by 2 categories: the category of number (a boy, boys) and the category of case (a boy’s, boys’).
· By function we mean the syntactical properties of the word which includes the behaviour of the word on the phrasal level, i.e. the word’s combining with other words ( a boy, the boy, some boy, a small boy, the boy’s hat, the boy is running, the boy over there, after the boy, at the boy) and the position of the word inside the sentence ( a boy: subject, object, attribute, part of the compound nominal predicate, adverbial modifier).
According to these principles words fall into certain classes called parts of speech.
We distinguish between notional (independent) parts of speech, which have their individual lexical meaning and formal parts of speech which serve to connect words in a phrase or a sentence, they also serve to specify or emphasize the meaning of words.
| The notional parts of speech: 1. The noun 2. The adjective 3. The pronoun 4. The numeral 5. The verb 6. The adverb / stative words (asleep, afraid) | The formal parts of speech: 1. The article 2. The preposition 3. The conjunction |
Though the formal parts of speech denote relations and connections between notional words we can’t ignore the fact that they also have general or individual meanings.
Let’s have a look at the article. The indefinite article originates from the old English numeral “an” (“one”), so this meaning of ‘oneness” is implied in every noun the article is used with. The noun with the indefinite article is always in the singular, and denotes one object or substance in number. Sometimes this meaning becomes very prominent: A stitch in time saves nine. Wait a minute. She didn’t say a word.
The definite article historically goes back to the old English demonstrative pronouns, hence the meaning of ‘indication’ (pointing at something) also gets sometimes quite prominent: The two brothers are very much alike. The man standing by the window is our teacher.
Prepositions in many cases have absolutely clear meanings: The bag is on the chair. The bag is under the chair. The bag is near the chair.
Conjunctions can also add some special meaning to the general sense expressed in the sentence:
The match was postponed because it was raining. It was raining but the match was not postponed. Because expresses the causative connection between the two actions, but expresses the adversative coordination between the actions.
The notional parts of speech
The noun
Semantically all English nouns are classified into the following classes:
A. Common nouns
1. Countables denoting
· objects (a table, a chair)
· living beings ( a man, a dog)
· natural phenomena (a storm, a snowfall)
· abstract notions (an idea, a month)
2. Uncountables denoting
· mass substances (bread, ice)
· abstract notions (courage, hatred)
3. Collective nouns denoting
· objects (furniture, machinery)
· living beings (family, police, cattle)
B. Proper nouns:
· people’s names
· names of places, geographical names: Africa, France, Bermuda, New York, Everest, the Urals, the UK, Trafalgar square, the Channel, the Thames, the City.
· names of months and days
· names of newspapers and magazines: The Washington Post, Economist, Time, the Times.
· Important buildings and institutions : Buckingham Palace, Cambridge University, the British Museum, the White House, the EU, the BBC.
The grammatical meaning of the noun is “thingness” which implies naming objects, living beings, places (forest, London), materials (iron, oil), processes (life, laughter), states (sleep, consciousness), feelings, emotions ( anger, happiness, joy,satisfaction), abstract notions (talent, peace), qualities (kindness, courage, beauty) and others.
The grammatical forms are determined by the morphological characteristics of the two grammatical categories: number and case.
As for gender, it doesn’t find regular morphological expression.
· The distinction of male, female and neuter may correspond to the lexical meaning of the noun ( man, woman, table).
· It may be expressed by word-building feminine suffixes: -ess (actress), -ine (heroine) or –ette (usherette).
· Gender may be indicated lexically in such compounds as a boy-friend, a woman- doctor, a he-wolf, a she-cousin.
· There are also some traditional associations of certain nouns with gender, for example:
1) Moon and earth are referred to as she,
2) Sun -- as he
3) Names of vessels (ship, boat, steamer, ice-breaker, cruiser, etc), vehicles (car, carriage, coach) and countries are referred to as she
The new ice-breaker has started on her maiden voyage.
She is a fine car.
England is proud of her poets.
The grammatical functions: subject, object, attribute, part of compound nominal predicate (predicative), adverbial modifier.
The category of number
1. With countable nouns the category is presented regularly by the opposition of two forms: singular, plural.
· The plural form is marked by the suffix –s/-es [ ], [ ], [ ], so it is called the marked form, singular form is unmarked.
· There is a small group of nouns (7) which form their plurals by vowel alteration: man-men, woman - women, foot - feet, tooth - teeth, goose - geese, mouse - mice, louse – lice.
· A few nouns have the obsolete suffix -en for the plural: child – children, ox – oxen, brother – brethren.
2. Compound nouns have their own specific ways of forming the plural:
· If both the components are nouns the plural suffix is added to the second one: fellow-workers, school-mates, air-raids, lady-birds.
· If the second component is expressed by a preposition or an adverb or an adjective the plural suffix is added to the noun: passers-by, lookers-on, courts-marshal, attorneys-general.
· If all the components are non-nouns, the suffix is added to the last one: forget-me-nots, merry-go-rounds, overalls, stand-bys, go-betweens, grown-ups, breakdowns.
· If between the two components there is a preposition, the suffix is added to the first component: editors-in-chief, brothers-in-law, commanders-in-chief, men-of-war.
· If the first component is man- or woman-, the plural forms mark both the components:
men-doctors, women-drivers.
· Compounds ending in –man change it into –men: policemen, gentlemen, Englishmen, postmen. Note the plurals of the nouns German, Roman, Norman that have regular plural: Germans, Romans, Normans.
3. There are foreign (mostly Latin and Greek) words in English which retain their original plural ending: datum – data, stratum – strata, memorandum – memoranda ( memos), phenomenon – phenomena, criterion – criteria, crisis – crises, analysis – analyses, stimulus – stimuli, nucleus – nuclei, formula – formulae ( formulas) , index – indices (indexes).
4/ Some English nouns have one form for both singular and plural meanings: A sheep –
sheep, a swine – swine, a deer – deer, a Japanese – Japanese, a Chinese – Chinese, a species – species, a series – series, a means - means.
A sheep is grazing in the meadow. / Some sheep are grazing in the meadow.
The deer has run away. / Some deer have come out of the forest.
He’s caught only one fish. / He’s caught a lot of fish.
Language is a perfect means of communication.
There are many means of travelling.
5. Some nouns have only the singular form (Singularia Tantum), others only the plural form
(Pluralia Tantum).
Singularia Tantum:
· The mass or material nouns: sugar, coffee, tea, glue, honey, snow, butter, cream, water, milk, money (is).
Some nouns of this group can take plural forms but in this case they either change their stylistic colouring ( water – waters, sky – skies, snow – snows), or their meaning (work – works, wine – wines, tea – 2 teas).
· Abstract nouns: peace, happiness, anger, jealousy, fluency, advice, luck, information.
Pluralia Tantum:
· Nouns denoting objects consisting of two equal parts: trousers, scissors, spectacles / glasses, scales,
· Nouns denoting scientific subjects: mathematics, physics, phonetics, optics, politics
· Nouns denoting names of diseases: measles, mumps, (AIDS)
· Miscellaneous nouns: goods, clothes, contents, news (is), arms, customs, minutes, surroundings, outskirts, headquarters.
6. Collective nouns which denote a number or a collection of similar individuals or things
regarded as a single unit. They may present some difficulties in the way of agreement with the predicate. They fall under the following groups:
· Nouns used only in the singular: foliage, machinery, equipment, furniture, hair;
· Nouns which are singular in form (unmarked) though plural in meaning: police, people, clergy, gentry, cattle, poultry:
The cattle are walking in the field.
The police wear blue uniforms.
· Nouns that may be both singular and plural. It depends on the way we look upon the group as a whole or as a group of separate people: a family, a government, a crew, a company, a crowd, a team, a group, a party.
My family is small. / My family are early risers.
The crew consists of 20 sailors. / The crew were all asleep.
7. Some uncountable nouns can be used as countables with the change of their meaning:
iron – an iron, beauty – a beauty, youth – a youth, people – a people
8. Some countable nouns used in the plural acquire a different meaning and become
uncountables: colours ( flag), customs ( таможня, пошлины).
The category of case
Case indicates the relation of the noun to the other words in the sentence. There are two case forms in English: the Common case: table, sister and the Possessive ( genitive) case: the sister’s room, the sisters’ room.
The common case has a very general meaning while the possessive case usually denotes
· possession, ownership: Mary’s bag
· close association: Dick’s father, the students’ teacher
· source, authorship: the uncle’s decision, the manager’s information, Byron’s poem
· the doer of the action: My brother’s arrival, Ann’s sorrow
· the object of the action: the murderer’s arrest, the hostages’ release
· quality: a wife’s duties, women’s clothes, a man’s hat (compare: the man’s hat), children’s toys (the children’s toys), an idiot’s smile
· measure: an hour’s trip, a mile’s distance.
The usage of the possessive case is restricted to
· Proper names and to nouns denoting human beings: Peter’s car.
· Nouns denoting time: yesterday’s newspaper, a month’s holiday.
· Nouns denoting distance: a mile’s distance, a 15- minutes’ walk.
· Names of countries, cities: London’s transport system. America’s population
· Nouns: world, earth, sun, moon: The world’s resources. The earth’s rotation.
The country’s beauty. The sun’s rays.
· With nouns denoting some inanimate thing: to my heart’s content, at the death’s door, at an arm’s length, at a stone’s throw, at the water’s edge.
Usually nouns in the possessive case answer the question whose? and function as an attribute to another noun.The English possessive case corresponds to the Russian genitive case.
My brother’s room -- комната моего брата.
In English the attributive part precedes the head word, in Russian the word order is the reverse.
In English it is not good to use several possessive forms before the modified word while in Russian it’s feasible: Это сын брата моего друга. -- This is the son of my friend’s brother.
The relations of the genitive case between two nouns denoting inanimate things in English are rendered by means of the preposition of : The cover of the book – обложка книги (книжная обложка). The center of the city – центр города (the city's centre).
Nouns in the singular build the possessive case forms by means of the inflexion (form-building suffix) –‘s, which is pronounced in the same way as the plural suffix of nouns:
1) after vowels and voiced consonants [ z ]: My sister’s dress. Sam ’ s desk .
2) after voiceless consonants [ s ]: Alec’s family, Kate’s room.
3) after the fricative consonants –s , -z, -x [ iz ]: Liz’s parents, Marx’s departure,
A nurse ’ s overall .
In some world-known names the normal spelling of the case is with the apostrophe only:
Dickens’(Dickens’s) novels, Burns’ (Burns’s)poems.
In the plural the possessive case is formed by the apostrophe (‘), so, as we can see, the plural forms in the common and possessive cases coincide in oral speech:
Workers – Workers’ caps; Cats – Cats’ paws; Nurses – Nurses’ overalls.
The possessive case of the nouns men, women, children –is formed by means of –‘s: men’s coats, women’s handbags, children’s toys.
A specific feature of the possessive case in English is the so-called Group Possessive: John and Mary’s children; Ilf and Petrov’s novel; when one thing belongs to two people.
See the difference in the sense of these sentences:
Dick’s and Sam’s parents have always been very good friends.
Dick and Sam’s parents love their sons equally.
The suffix of the possessive case can refer to an extended noun phrase: Aunt Julia’s face, The Duke of Norfolk’s palace, the secretary of state’s office.
Compound nouns have ‘s joined to the final component: the sister-in-law’s bag, the brothers-in-law’s friendship.
There are some cases when the noun in the possessive case is not followed by the head noun. This is the so-called absolute possessive. It is used:
1) To avoid repetition: Our house is older than Mary’s.
2) After the preposition of: an old friend of my mother’s (double possessive)
3) To denote places: the butcher’s, the baker’s, the chemist’s, St Paul’s (Cathedral), at Timothy’s, at my uncle’s.
She is at her grandmother’s. He is at the baker’s round the corner.
I usually go to the hair-dresser’s to have my hair cut.
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