V. Identify the main functions of the Indefinite article (nominating, classifying, generalizing and numeric)

1. I am a school teacher.

2. A complex sentence has two or more clauses.

3. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

4. Of course, I won’t say a word.

5. I’ve read a novel and a detective story.

6. A tram runs on rails, a bus does not.

7. He was a man I would be glad to spend half my time in hell with.

8. The Indian summer returned for a day.

9. A man who looks after a library is called a librarian.

10. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

VI. Define the functions of the Definite article (specifying and generic).

1. The tiger is danger of becoming extinct.

2. Somebody moved in the room above.

3. The man standing by the window is my uncle.

4. The atom was known to the ancient Greeks.

5. We got into the wrong train.

Seminar 6,7

The Verb: Outward Structure, Grammatical Categories, Semantics and Lexico-Grammatical Features

1. A general outline of the verb as a part of speech.

2. Classification of verbs (notional verbs/semi-notional verbs/functional verbs)

3. Grammatical subcategorization of notional verbs (actional / statal / processual; limitive / unlimitive).

4. The valency of verbs (complementive / uncomplementive verbs; transitive / intransitive verbs).

5. The category of person.

6. The category of number.

7. The category of tense. Modern conceptions of English tenses.

8. The category of aspect.

9. The category of temporal correlation: traditional and modern approaches.

10. The category of voice.

Practice Assignment

I. Analyze the morphological structure of the following verbs.

To man, to give in, to belittle, to lip-read, to ill-treat, to darken, to put down, to towel, to bleed, to undermine, to transport.

II. Dwell upon the categorial features of verbs in the following sentences.

1. Months before, with an architect at their elbows, the three had worked over the detailed plans for each section which would have its home in the new wing.

2. “Doctors!” said James, coming down sharp on his words: “I’ve had all the doctors in London for one or another of us. There’s no satisfaction to be got out of them; they’ll tell you anything. There’s Swithin, now. What good have they done him? There he is; he’s bigger than ever; he’s enormous; they can’t get his weight down. Look at him!”

3. “So you’re going to Wales to-morrow to visit your young man’s aunts? You’ll have a lot of rain there. This isn’t real old Worcester.” He tapped the bowl. “Now, that set I gave your mother when she married was the genuine thing.”

4. All I know is that other girls not half so sweet and attractive get partners. Martha Carey, for instance, is stout and loud, and her mother is distinctly common. Roberta Dillon is so thin this year that she looks as though Arizona were the place for her. She’s dancing herself to death.

5. It so happened that the night before I had been present at a rather cheery little supper, and I was feeling pretty rocky.

6. “I’ve been using the same blade for six weeks,” he added untruthfully.

7. He recollected with satisfaction that he had bought that house over James’s head.

Seminar 8

A general outline of verbals: the categorial semantics, categories, syntactic functions

1. The category of finitude: finite and non-finite forms of the verb (finites and verbids). Problematic status of the non-finite forms of the verb in the classification of parts of speech.

2. Verbids as phenomena of mixed (hybrid, intermediary) nature; their verbal and non-verbal features.

3. The Infinitive as a verbal form of mixed processual-substantive nature and the basic form of verbal paradigms. Semi-predicative Infinitive constructions.

4. The Gerund as a verbal form of mixed processual-substantive nature.

5. The Infinitive, the Gerund and the Verbal noun: their correlation in expressing processual semantics (the lexico-grammatical category of processual representation).

6. The Participle as a verbal form of mixed processual-qualitative nature. The distinctions between two types of Participles: Participle I (present participle) and Participle II (past participle).

7. Semi-predicative Gerundial constructions. Semi-predicative Participial constructions.

8. Functional differences between participle I and the gerund.

Practice Assignment

I. Analyze the form of verbals in the following sentences:

1. But now, with the main planning completed, the focus of attention was on the practical matter of getting the money.

2. I will therefore briefly set down the circumstances which led to my being connected with the affair.

3. There are many questions before the older man admits having known her before the war.

4. Crippled forever, knowing he could never have any children, Clifford came home to the smoky Midlands to keep the Chatterley name alive while he could.

5. Having no near relations or friends, I was trying to make up my mind what to do, when I ran across John Cavendish.

6. She looks in on the English patient, whose sleeping body is probably miles away in the desert, being healed by a man who continues to dip his fingers into the bowl made with the joined soles of his feet, leaning forward, pressing the dark paste against the burned face. 7. He started pacing the floor.

II. State the functions of the non-finite forms in the following sentences:

1. O’Donnell considered suggesting that the chairman leave him some time for surgery, otherwise he might have trouble meeting his own quota.

2. I remember talking with his brother and telling him that the papers should be kept. I remember now, I wanted him to keep the filing cases intact.

3. Slim quiet Negroes passed up and down the street and stared at him with darting side glances. He was worth looking at.

4. He had no wife or family and he spent four or five evenings a week in his office, working until ten or eleven o'clock. But the modern idea of keeping track of time by the hour just never occurred to him.

5. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching.

6. Living alone and being independent grew on you after a while, and he doubted sometimes if he could adjust to anything else.

7. That too was a gesture belonging to the ancient time.

8. Having suffered so much, the capacity for suffering had to some extent left him.

9. Langdon had always considered the Tuileries to be sacred ground.

10. At that adoring look he felt his nerves quiver, just as if he had seen a moth scorching its wings.

11. George, on hearing the story, grinned.

Seminar 9,10

The Adjective. The Adverb

1. The adjective as a part of speech.

2. Classifications of adjectives.

3. The problem of the stative.