Лекции по теоретической грамматике английского языка. Тивьяева И.В. - 6 стр.

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English, for example, in nouns, as when the root vowel [au] of mouse is

changed into [aı] in mice, etc.

This method is much more extensively used in verbs, such as write —

wrote — written, sing — sang — sung, meet — met — met, etc. On the whole,

vowel alternation does play some part among the means of expressing

grammatical categories, though its part in Modern English has been much

reduced as compared to Old English.

Analytical Types

These consist in using a word (devoid of any lexical meaning of its

own) to express some grammatical category of another word.

There can be no doubt in Modern English about the analytical character of

such formations as, e. g., has invited or is invited, or is inviting, or does not

invite. The verbs have, be, and do have no lexical meaning of their own in

these cases. The lexical meaning of the formation resides in the participle or

infinitive following the verb have, be or do. Some doubt has been expressed

about the formations shall invite and will invite. There is a view that shall

and will have a lexical meaning.

While the existence of analytical forms of the English verb cannot be

disputed, the existence of such forms in adjectives and adverbs is not

nowadays universally recognised. The question whether such formations as

more vivid, the most vivid, or, again, more vividly and most vividly are or

are not analytical forms of degrees of comparison of vivid and vividly, is

controversial. We can only say here that if these formations are recognised as

analytical forms of degrees of comparison, the words more and most have to

be numbered among the analytical means of morphology.

Suppletive Formations

Besides the synthetical and analytical means of building word forms in

Modern English, there is yet another way of building them which stands quite

apart and is found in a very limited number of cases only. By a suppletive

formation we mean building a form of a word from an altogether different